This is my 2^nd blog and a follow-up to the May 2012 summary of my first ever cash in a major tournament, which was followed shortly after by another major cash.  Just for the record, I define a "Major" as any tournament with an entry fee of $100 or more.

In early June I was able to reach my first major final table in the “Weekly 7” Friday Night Short-Handed NLH on Carbon Poker.  I did bow out quickly at the final table however, finishing in 6^th place out of 90 entries for $525 USD.

Then a few weeks ago in mid-August I hit another personal tournament milestone when I scored a 4-figure cash in a major.  This was in the Sunday Carbon $125K Guaranteed tourney ($109 entry) where I was fortunate enough to finish in 17^th place out of 1,046 entries to take home $1,063. 

So far I’ve been pretty lucky to not really bubble any of the majors or even have minimum cashes.  I seem to either go out reasonably early, after 2 or 3 hours, or go fairly deep into the money.  At least this is good from the points of view of both frustration containment and time management.  However, since I’ve now brought this to their attention, I’m sure the poker gods will even the score with a bubble or two in the near future!

Since I’ve somehow managed to attain 3 of my tournament goals already I need to raise the bar quite a bit higher for the next three objectives as listed below:

Win a major

The best chance for this would be most likely be in one of the smaller fields of the week night $100 entry tourneys, which normally have something in the range of 50-100 entries.    

Score a 5-figure win of $10,000 or more

This would almost have to be in a big Sunday tourney, since those are the only tournaments with large enough purses to support a prize this large. 

Earn a seat at a major live tournament

I would like to work through a series of online satellites and win a trip.  This would be a nice reward for my wife, who has been very supportive about my poker hobby.  I would prefer an exotic location such as Punta Cana, Nassau or Melbourne but certainly wouldn’t turn down a seat in Vegas!  This would also give me a fun family goal to focus on during my poker studies.  Also, since I have almost no live poker experience I’m sure that we would have a great deal of time for sight-seeing once I’ve busted out…

These are obviously all very ambitious goals and I would be thrilled to achieve just one of them in the next couple of years.  I will be sure to keep all of you updated with any progress that I may have.  I would also like to thank Tim and the rest of the pro staff at Outstanding Poker once again for such a great start with my poker training.  I hope that the U.S. members had a great Labor Day today and for all OP members – may you hit all of your flops!