Local tournaments are fun when you win

I realized yesterday (Saturday) I hadn't played live poker for more than one month. What's the advantage of living near the Tunica casinos if I don't take advantage, right?

The Gold Strike tournament had 56 runners and we started with 10K in chips. I was up early, then dribbled down to 6K. Two players limped for 800 and I moved in with ♦K ♦J. Both limpers called me! That can't be good news, but the flop had a jack and the river was a king. One of the limpers proudly turned over K-10, haha.

After that, I had a series of medium pocket pairs and bet them hard with continuation bets to build my stack. Then this: A guy with a big stack limped in. He normally came in for a raise, so I decided he didn't have much. I made a big reraise with ♦K ♦10 -- he called! The flop was 10-x-x and the limper moved in. I called and he turned over ♠J ♣10. My hand held and I was a big stack now.

Seven players got paid. When we got down to four of us, three had big stacks and one guy a small (but playable) stack. We did a chop where we got eight times the buyin and he got 5 times. Nicely done, MOJO, nicely done.

I saw a guy do this twice. A short stack moved all in and he held K-K. Instead of reraising, he just called. Because it didn't cost that much more, the big blind came along for the ride. The flop had an ace and the big blind won a nice pot with ace-rag. If the guy had reraised, he would have won a nice pot.

When we were down to two tables, again a shot stack moved all in and again the same guy had pocket kings. Again he just called so another player called and ended up winning the pot when the board came with four spades. The K-K guy didn't have a spade, but the other caller did. A reraise would have driven him out and allowed the K-K to win.

"I could have raised," the guy said, "but it's more important to knock somebody out."

Wrong. It's more important to build your stack, A-L-W-A-Y-S.

I saw one other huge error. When there were six of us left, a guy moved all in. Another guy with a similar stack called with ♠A ♣10. The first guy had a bigger ace and took out the A-10.

"I knew I shouldn't call, but I was tired of folding," he said.

I call this tournament fatigue. When the blinds and antes get so high, there is stress on every hand and you just want it to get over with, but you can't give in to those feelings. I'm more patient than most, but I find I have to fight that myself.