Finding my groove in $5 MTT's

I think UB's $5 buy-in, $2.5K-$3K guaranteed tournaments are the place for me. I had a cool final table finish four weeks ago when I played a few hands during the tourney like a complete fool. I hit the final table, checkraised on a semi-bluff like a donkey, and busted out in 7th out of 650.

The bustout in this tourney wasn't as dumb as the one a month ago, but it still was a bad decision on my part. I had been getting cold-decked at the final table, so that AQ offsuit looked really nice. I raised it up, got reraised by a stack almost equal to mine, and I didn't throw my hand away. I would've gone to short-stacked status had I folded, but I ignored that little poker voice that said "You're beat. Fold." and saw his AK-suited. I went out on the next hand, again in 7th place (out of 561 this time) to pocket $91. With a bankroll like mine, it's a nice prize, but I should've stuck around longer.

Oddly, the guy that crippled me with Big Slick was named "GiantHead", which reminded me way too much of the first poker blogger I ever read.

The highlight of my tourney was dropping the Hammer with 17 players remaining.

I had a slightly better than average stack of 65K with the blinds at 800/1600/150 ante. A black 72 offsuit in middle position - let's raise it up to 4K. The small blind called, and we saw a rainbow flop, 9c-8s-3d. Ok, I figure that might be a good flop for me if he's got face cards.

He min-bet at me. 1600. What? I wield the Hammer! Don't bring that weak stuff in here!! I raised it up to 6K total, figuring he'll fold. Or reraise me if he's got an overpair to the board. He called. Almost 23K in the pot. Hammer don't fail me now!

The turn was the 6c. Two clubs on board, and now I'm openended. Mister Min-Bet checked to me this time, and I was puzzled. What's the proper Hammer play here? I can bet again, and see if he'll fold, but I'm running out of chips to push with if I need to bet again on the river. Or, I can check to try and hit my straight. I decided to check.

(Bloggers, let me know if this is an egregious misplay of the Hammer. I'm fairly new to wielding it.)

The river was the 4c, three clubs on board. Mr Min-Bet checked to me. With 23K in the pot, I knew 7-high wasn't going to take it. I bet 15K and hoped.

He folded and I vaulted to #3 in chips. I showed my 7-high, and nobody said a word. Perhaps they were underwhelmed. But, oooooh, it felt nice!!

UB Update: $728.05 real, $257.43 bonus, 4664.9 points

That update was made before I transferred $33 to April's UB account, trading her for PokerStars money. I got my Sunday shift covered, and I'm in the WBPT WSOP satellite! I'm the 60th entrant... maybe there's a last minute rush and we generate two seats? Either way, it'll be my first blogger tourney, and I'm excited to play with so many of the folks that I've read for so long (and learned so much from).