My eventual goal with playing poker online, is to get to the point where I can maintain a bankroll and add to it occasionally with a good session. In learning how to best accomplish this, I'm prepared to drop a few hundred... you just can't learn without real money at stake.

Although for unknown reasons I am drawn towards the low-limit tables (perhaps it's just the idea of winning back my money the same way that I lost it), my record at the "sit and go" single-table NL tournaments would suggest that I should spend my money and time in that direction.

So far I've sat in 5 of these sit-and-go tournaments with the following results:

• $10+1 (that's $10 per person into the prize pool, and a $1 entry fee. prizes: 1st = 50%, 2nd = 30%, and 3rd = 20%): I finished above 5th place somewhere... I don't remember.
• $10+1: Again I don't remember, but I know I didn't win anything.
• $5+1: 1st place ($25 prize).
• $5+1: 1st place ($25 prize).
• $10+1: 3rd place ($20 prize).

If you're keeping score that's $45 in buy-ins and entry fees, $70 in prizes, and I'm confident I could have done a lot better. Those first two $10 games, I was pretty naive about what pots to get involved in, and simply got run over by better play and better cards. Since then, I've realized just how easy it is to wait out your opponents, playing only premium hands in early or middle position, and stealing some blinds when you can. It just isn't that difficult to make it into the final 3, and the money.

The last tournament listed above ended with a somewhat interesting hand (and certainly one that I thought I had won until the river). Here's the history:

***** Hand History for Game 815347887 *****
400/800 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (NL) (Tournament 5071514) - Thu Aug 05 02:33:21 EDT 2004
Table Table 11060 (Real Money) -- Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 3
Seat 6: acegetter85 (3665)
Seat 7: ME (1600)
Seat 10: DonnysGerbil (2735)
DonnysGerbil posts small blind (200)
acegetter85 posts big blind (400)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ME [ Tc, Kd ]
ME calls (400)
DonnysGerbil calls (200)
acegetter85 raises (1200) to 1600
ME calls (1200)
ME is all-In.
DonnysGerbil folds.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 5s, Js, Th ]
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Kc ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 8h ]
Creating Main Pot with $3600 with ME
** Summary **
Main Pot: 3600 |
Board: [ 5s Js Th Kc 8h ]
acegetter85 balance 5665, bet 1600, collected 3600, net +2000 [ 8c 8s ] [ three of a kind, eights -- Kc,Js,8c,8s,8h ]
ME balance 0, lost 1600 [ Tc Kd ] [ two pairs, kings and tens -- Kd,Kc,Js,Tc,Th ]
DonnysGerbil balance 2335, lost 400 (folded)

I'm not at all certain that I should have played this any differently. When "acegetter85" raised me all-in, I could have folded. However, he had been playing loosely and buying a lot of blinds pre-flop (or so it seemed... I suppose he could have just been on an amazing run of cards). This is one of those hands that I would much rather have not had to play for my entire stack (which was the shortest at the table at the time).