ITM is a bitch

During the long weekend, I managed to place ITM in a couple of tournaments that I played. But pretty small scale. $5,000 guaranteed over at Cake netted me $75. Next day, $4000 guaranteed, ITM again but for a measly profit of $60.

Last night, I played the 3K guaranteed at Full Tilt. Finished 7th for $150.

It's like I'm playing well enough to get paid, but I cannot seem to breach Top 3 where the good money is. Its not like I'm playing too passive. I fully understand the top heavy nature of MTTs and I really go aggressive once I hit ITM, but I can't seem to win the 50/50 races.

In fact, my feeling is I'm maybe playing too aggressive. Case in point is last night's FTP tourney, I had about medium stack down to about 12 players. And I was willing to race with A-10 twice against low stack pushers. One showed 8-8 and I lost. The other showed 4-4 and I lost again. This totally devastated my stack and probably cost me top 5.

Of course, rivering a flush and getting beat by a bigger flush was the kicker. But that's poker.

I am thinking whether I should tone down the aggressiveness a bit to place higher. But my mantra is Top 3 or nothing and the only way to do this especially in low buy in donkaments is to be willing to race. Hopefully my luck picks up in the succeeding tourneys and I finally take down one of these suckers. =)