Double or Nothing Challenge

About two months ago I discovered the "Double or Nothing" one table tournaments ('Sit & Go') on pokerstars.com. There are a variety of entry fees for these tournaments...$1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100. Ten people enter and after 5 people are eliminated, the 5 survivors get double their entry fee back. Makes sense, no?

So, I started playing some of the $1 tournaments. What can I say? I'm thrifty! Anyway, I started out pretty cautiously in my first few games. Playing pretty solidly. Trying to get a feel for how people played them, etc. And I started winning! Not a lot. But, probably 4 or 5 in a row. Then the wheels started to fall off. I found myself thinking they were easy and stopped playing the optimal game, y'know? I also started getting in situations where there were some iffy calls in front of me and my mindset switched to 'what the hell...it's only $1'! Wrong attitude for any poker tournament! ...if you want to win that is. So, eventually I lost 3 or 4 in a row and was pretty much back where I started.

Solution? Move up to the $5 entry fee tournaments. Still not a huge chunk of change, but enough to make me think about playing properly again. I also set up a couple of personal rules for myself to help keep me in line:

1. Start with $20 total (told ya I was thrifty)
2. If I should lose and get down to $10, I switch back to the $1 tournaments until I am back up to $20 (or broke, I guess) :-)

Tonight was my fifth game of the $5 Sit & Gos. Here's the record so far...

Starting Money: $20
Games Played: 5
Record: 4-1
Current Money: $35

Hopefully, I can keep this up. There are going to be ups and downs, I know, but a nice consistent/reasonable record of 3-2 (or better) out of every 5 games overall will keep me ahead of the game. I'm not sure how long I will keep this up. I'll have to see how it goes, of course, but if things go really well, I've been thinking of trying to run my 'bank' up to $100, then giving the $10 games a shot.

Steady as she goes!