Well, another SnG down and another good finish. I know making a post for one SnG is lame and maybe not interesting, but I've been busy lately :)

Anyway, stuck my cash in another $5 SnG on Stars this afternoon and it was a pretty frustrating game to be honest, but I did catch some breaks when I needed them.

It started out with Everyone being SUPER tight, it took like 20 min for the first person to get knocked out - it's just too bad my cards were horrible, I couldn't take advantage of the tight play. I did get Kings early, but when I re-raised an UTG raiser (my raise was pretty small) he still folded. Sigh.

Anyway, it was basically a battle to stay around as the blinds were getting up there and people just weren't getting knocked out. Finally started to happen though and I started playing a little more aggressively, trying to make sure I stay at a decent stack. The only decent profit hand I had was when we were 6-handed, I was dealt AKs in BB - it's raised 3xBB from button, I raise 2x his raise and we see a 10 high flop. I represent PP and take it down.

After that, it was basically just sitting and hoping for cards or a break. My cards were so bad I didn't even steal much, didn't want to risk it with a huge stack to my left. Anyway, I got some luck on two hands to double up when we were 5-handed and 4-handed.

1) KJs from SB, I push preflop hoping for blinds (3 callers) and the big stack makes the call with A4, we both make our bottom pair and I take the pot.

2) Still in need of chips, badly after a tough hand, I pushed with ATo from BB hoping for blinds but okay with a call - big stack calls again, this time with KT and my hand holds up.

The guy that finished in 4th hit the nut straight on the turn, pushed all-in and big stack called with a set; made quads on the river. Ouch.

Start of 3-handed it was CL at 8000, me at 2500 and SS at 1500. I started to open up and play Very aggressive, especially when SS was in the BB and eventually he went out on a hand where I could have made a massive profit. Basically, the SS pushed but after the CL had called the blind, I was certain he'd at least call and holding KQ I figured an Ace was out there; decided to step aside and let them battle it out rather than risk it there. CL had A7, SS has K7 and my KQ would've made a Full House. Perhaps I made a mistake here, but I didn't feel this was an ideal position.

Got down to heads up again, but again the CL had 10000 chips to my 3000. I did what I could, building up to 4700 quickly but then my cards completely died. I ended up having 74, 72, 85, 84, 64, 95 all in a row and basically could do nothing to stop the bleeding. I finally saw a facecard and had to push with QTs, CL flipped over KJo and I lost the race.

I'm okay with 2nd, my play in this tournament wasn't perfect but certainly okay, I just suffered from bad cards most of it but I was pleased that I stayed calm, even wittled down to 675, and waited for the right times to make my moves rather than taking unwarranted risks. I also continued to feel strong in HU play, just simply didn't get cards near the end. Either way, I've now played five of these $5 SnGs and have placed ITM in 4, grabbing another $8 in profit today. I'll be playing more soon and will be able to report a few more games at a time, for now I'm merely posting due to the progress in my game rather than the results alone.

Take care.