It's a win!

It took just shy of 2 hours to finely take one of these 180 man SnG's down. I was pretty damn happy about it too. I've been on the wrong side of some awful beats, and it's amazing I stay sane. Regardless, this one felt great. I feel like i played well, but there were some pretty terrible players as well.

Firstly, I had a guy on my right for the first hour go absolutely nuts with King high multiple times. I mean, calling all-ins with KQs like it was a pair of aces...snap calls. There was one hand where I deliberated in UTG whether to even play KQ of clubs, finally electing to just fold and wait, sure enough two players fold after me and this guy ships for just over than 7x bb, and my man to my right snap calls w/ KQ of spades...and at this point it wasn't like he was short or anything, he probably called off about 3/4's of his stack. Of course he ended up winning that one with a flush. Later I saw him call a late position pusher with K5s. At that point he was way over the chip lead or close to it, and he finally lost that one to an A6. By the end of the first hour he was out though, and I didn't get much of anything from him.

That's not to say that I didn't get lucky. But, I had some spots where I was pretty cold decked. They're the worst. Hands like this: It's right around the 5th level or so in the tournament, blinds are 75/150, and I've climbed my way up to about 2300. I'm in the BB with AJs, so now I have 2150 behind. Folds around to the sb who jams for 600...how can you fold? Then i'm up against KK. That's a perfect example of what happens, but the trick is to remain patient, and to actually have the chips to let those not hurt you. I was able to do that today.

What might have been the most frustrating part of playing this tournament, was my decision to simultaneously play a 5.50 triple draw sng. That thing lasted FOREVER...but, yeah....i took that one down too!

I can tell that I am out of my funk at the triple draw tables. It was a really brutal month of February, but with this win, and the small winning sessions at the ring games, March is shaping up to be a very profitable month.

I Love you Mo :)

Almost

It was a rough month of February. And after all of that whining about the bad beats i've taken in SnG's, I came out ahead and it made up for the beating I took on the triple draw tables. Hopefully March won't be so painful. Unfortunately, today, the first day of the month I took a nasty couple of beats that just don't happen that often. Yesterday, I had two ties in some big pots where I had the best hand way early in the drawing rounds, and after my opponents draw 2 both times, they hit my exact hand. The first was with a #5 and the second with #1. Then, tonight it happens one more time with a wheel. It's painful to have to split up even the blinds and limpers small change.

Since I was running so bad at the TD tables, I decided to play some other other games, and still didn't do well at all. In the Razz and Stud High games I played pretty poorly and a little too long. Since I don't play those games that often, I am extremely rusty, and way out of experience. But, I played a nice session of NLH that was extremely profitable. It was a 6 max table and I had pretty good reads on my opponents, well, one in particular. I would've been dusted off about mid-way through the session when I got trapped in a huge all-in hand. It went something like this. I am in the bb with JJ. Button raises 3-4x, which was pretty standard for him to do fairly light. I re-raise to 11x and he smooth calls. I then put him on a range of two big cards, most likely a suited ace - AK -> AT/A9, KQs, and possibly some smaller pairs up to TT. The flop came T high with 2 spades. I bet out 2/3rds the pot, and he min-raises me. I for some reason did not put him on a set maybe because I thought the raise would be higher, and the first thing that came to my mind was the suited ace which I put him on to begin the hand. So I pushed, and he called, the turn came my third J and the river was a blank, the pot was pushed to me and I look and sure enough he had QQ. I get trapped with JJ all the time and if I'm in his position, I push harder pre-flop. But I got outplayed regardless, and was lucky to double up.

At that point I had a nice size stack and considered calling it a night. But, after a couple of hands that had me going up and down like a yo-yo, I decided to stay since I liked my reads on everyone else, especially the player immediately to my left. In one hand early before the big JJ hand he got me to lay down AA on a KK9 flop. It was an awful laydown, but I was actually quite content with it in the end, and didn't really tilt about it at all. I just figured the way I played it afforded me the ability to get it in at a better time. Sure enough, that time came later in the session when we both had the biggest stacks at the table. I am utg+1 w/ KhJh and make a standard 3x/bb raise, my opponent than makes it 6x more to go, and since he had been crushing me with these re-raises over and over again, I decided to stand up to his what seemed like bullying, and at least call and see a flop. Plus, I was getting about 2-1 on the call. The flop brought out the beautiful Qd Th 9d. Bingo! I decide to see if I can get a nice bet out of him, and maybe check raise him or slow play the nut-straight. He bets out 2/3rds the pot, and I check-raise him making it 3x more. Then he goes and min. raises me, I move all in for just a bit less than he has in front of himm and he calls, the turn bricks, and the river hits an A. The pot moves to my seat and I look to see his AQo. I can't understand how he can't lay this down. We were so deep, that I am pretty sure I could do it, or at the very least slow down.

Anyway, the session of NLH inspired me to play better despite my obvious wins. I got pretty lucky on both hands, and played bad when I had good hands, if that makes any sense...

I made silver star on Pokerstars, so that's pretty cool. I can't decide if I want to use it for anything or not. I might go for the bonus $$, since I think it's fairly easy to clear, plus since the month was so awful, it can't really hurt.