Well things have gone well for me lately, to say the least. Since the 23rd of september, which was when I started playing frequently again at Titan, my bankroll has ballooned from $100 or $200 to $1300. $750 of those profits can be credited to my first-ever MTT win last night; $15 freezout, 134 entrants, and a very nice overlay. The rest has been from both wins in CC events, and the rest to SnGs. Needless to say, I’m very pleased.

Titan’s recent decision to deny their US customers access to their site with the passing of the new bill has left the tournaments with a fraction of the entrants they used to have, and thus with very nice overlaying prize pools aswell. The freezout I played in usually has around 200-300 entrants; playing against only 130 of them made winning much easier. To any non-US players at Titan who are successful with MTTs: now is the time to play. The overlays won’t last long as Titan will surely lower the prizepools, and even if they don’t I’m sure that word will get around, and people will flood in to play aswell as ruin the overlays.

After ‘donking’ myself out of several MTTs in which I was doing well, I decided my spontaneous plays (like coming over the top with marginal hands if I sensed weakness) were finished. Of course my hands don’t always obey me, and I nearly busted with an over-the-top raise with KQ vs my opponent’s AJ, but the poker gods decided to pair my queen on the river and give me the winning hand as if to say “You’ve played well this tourney, you deserva a break this once”. “Easier said than done” still applies to me; I recognize and know how to win a tournament, but my impatience sometimes gets the best of me and I, like everyone else, still make mistakes.

Anyways, I owe some money for room and board so I’ll have to withdraw around $300 or $400 leaving me with roughly $1000 in the bankroll. That’ll be enough to properly back me for up to $50 games, and hopefully now I’ll start making some real money - my job certainly isn’t doing it for me. The problem with Titan and it’s SnGs is that the most frequented level is $10 and below. People rarely play the $20 and above level, and it’s really a pain when I have time for a game but can’t get one going. I was thinking about multitabling the $10s but I’ve got a very one-track mind, so I would need PAHud to help me out, and they currently don’t support iPoker yet.

On a side note, I’m not sure if you, the reader, remember what my original goal was: to build my bankroll to a size that I could take out enough to visit a friend in Thailand while still leaving around 2K to play with. That goal has been rethought - my friend is thinking about traveling elsewhere - possibly Australia, and he’s invited me. I’m also trying to get my career in trades going at the same time, so I’m not sure if I can go to Australia, even if I save enough money. My goal has been ‘cancelled’, and for now my only objective is to play as well as I can, and hopefully make as much money as possible doing so.

My sympathy goes out to the US players who have been shafted by cowardly TitanPoker. It’s unfortunate they’re being so overly cautious about the bill, and it’s too bad that the CC events have taken a hit because of it too. Hopefully we can get some good games going on FullTilt or another site and continue to have fun like we always do