Finally

I remember what it feels like to play good poker and run ok. I have not played much lately as you can tell from my somewhat infrequent posts so I went down to the Muck last night without any expectations. I just wanted to play again. I sat in the $30/60 game for about two hours before the tourn. Started and played what I felt was a pretty good game. I was actually getting some cards to play, which has been a rarity the last few month(like 6. I forgot what it was like to play with an average run of cards. I built up a table image, people could not put me on hands, and I even made a few draws, and cracked some big hands with pot odds calls. What a great feeling. I cashed out in two hours with a profit of $1,292, and a big freeroll into the tournament.

The tournament was a $110 buy-in with a $100 rebuy. It looked ugly early as I raised in early position with AQd, and got a cold call behind me. The flop came down 6 high and I bet out at the pot. He called me. The turn brought a 9 or 10, and I bet out again. This time he raised me a little amount and I called. The river brought nothing significant, I checked he bet and I called. He turned over Pocket KK, and I lost with my A high. I know, weak play, doomed to exit early. I rebought to get my stack size up to pay again and then started to play great. Getting some hands, making some good bluffs, and catching some cards when I needed to. Before I knew it I was down to the final two tables out, of 5 to start, and the blinds and antes were coming fast. I needed to make a hand as I had only about 4000 in chips and we were playing like 100/200 with 50 antes. As fate would have it the chip leader makes a standard raise from early position. The button sensing some weakness, as I did, we all in, I look down in the small blind to see AK off. Killer. This is as good as it will get. I called all in the chip leader folded and I took of the flop with AK vs. A4 off. I held up and tripled up my chips. I stayed in control until the final table, where I kept playing well. My big hand was 57 spades on the button. The chip leader once again, who was pushing the table around, raised from one off the button. I felt he did not have much of a hand and he did not raise a ton, maybe double the blinds. I called and took the flop heads up, thinking either one I could hit my hand, or two I had position and could take the flop. The flop came down Q,4,6 one spade. Cool an open ended draw with a backdoor flush draw. Then to my surprise he checked. I thought about betting to win right there, but I felt why not take the free card and see if I can hit the turn cheaply as I can not call a raise here if I bet. The turn brought a beautiful 3. GIN. He then bet into me about 4,500, I only had about 12,000 so I thought about it a while trying to induce a call and then moved in. He did not call but I won a nice pot nonetheless. That gave me the juice to make it to the final three, and I played great three handed. I got pocket QQ vs 99 for a huge pot, then busted the other player with KJh, vs. A3 when a K,3,6 flop came down and I checked and he moved in on me. I called as this bet looked very fishy, and I help up to win. It took me two hands to bust the other player and I won the tourn. as well.

Finally a good day. Puts me well into the black for the year as I won a little over $4000 between the cash game and the tourn win. Talk to you soon. SJ