people wonder why I'm a nit...

Played in a 9 man SNG tonight. Haven't really played them in awhile, but I had played my 500 cash hands for the day, and felt like my luck was slipping.

I remember now why SNGs are so maddening. I played so tight you couldn't stick a crowbar into my game. A nitty 11/7. But my hands dried up and I got to my 11 BB. I'm way out of practice in push/fold mode, but I think I remember that it's always profitable to shove a decent ace from the button, so I did, with ace-nine. Right away, the small blind re-shoves. Great. I figure I'm dead to AK or QQ but I see the best possible hand I could hope for - 77. We're racing, and somehow I hit a nine to win the race. Still alive.

I try one blind steal in the next orbit, someone reraises over me. I fold. Ok, buddies, that's it - back to nit-ville.

I think that's why I like the cash game better. No desperation mode forcing you to push allin with ace-nine. Sure, if a blind has a better hand, that's kind of a cooler - but in the cash game you raise, they reraise, and you fold. Net loss three blinds, not "buh-bye".

I fold my crap for a couple orbits and it pays off. The big stack knocks off 4 and 3, and we're heads up.

He seems pretty good, but my cards are better in this one. I take the lead, then induce a bluff for half his chips, then finish him off with QQ. First place for me.

I check SNG Wizard to see how badly I messed up my endgame - it says I did ok. My A9 was a solid push. There were some close ones while heads up where it wanted me to push 52o and 83o because I was outchipped 9-1, but I went against the math on those, hoping I could hit a real hand and outplay him. It paid off this time.