Well, that was nice

I won the rd 3 on Bugsy's. So, I get a 10K seat to anywhere of my choosing. As of now, I'm leaning towards the LA Poker Classic, but we'll see. I'll talk it over with Debbie, we'll figure out where she might like to go, and where I might like to go, and all that.

It was fun. Damn fun. I was the best player at the final table, in my exceptionally humble opinion, and I only throw that qualifier in there because it'd be cocky to extend it to the whole tourney. I was playing very well. And I got lucky. My favorites held, and on the rare occasions that I needed to come from behind, I was able to.

I am exceptionally proud, because twice I could have let the tourney away from me. I bluffed off about 8K about 90 minutes in, and misread 5K shortly after that, but I tightened up, played a little more disciplined as I knew I would need to, and righted myself. Then, after I took the chiplead to 2 tables at 200K, nothing went right. I was getting reraised right and left (by legitimate hands, for hte most part), was failing to hit any draws, wasn't connecting in the least. Despite this, I never once felt as if I lost control. At the time, the player who I ultimately beat heads up was destroying the other table, getting big hands v. not quite as big hands, big hands v. bigger hands and drawing out, that sort of thing. He knocked out my brother as a 2-1 dog. I knew that this rush of his could not continue, I also played with him earlier and had a solid read on him. I figured the key for me was to get to the final table with a reasonable stack, and I could then work from there. I was able to do so, bringing about 80K of hte 1.65 million chips in play to the final table. The other player had about 700K.

Again, I followed a plan. I had a good seat, three to the left of the big stack. I was only planning on accumulating chips at a reasonable rate - if a big pot came my way, I would take it, but I would play a little tighter than normal, but playing aggressively when I got involved. This strategy worked out particularly well, as I was able to slowly pick up chips, winning a big one with KK v. AK. I continued along this line, getting myself in position to win. When we were four handed, I was about equal with the another player in 3rd position, the big stack was still way out there, and another player was between us. The key hand of the tourney occured the first hand back from break.

I raised from the SB with Q9 of hearts, as you'd expect from me with Q9s. The other player called from the BB. The flop came Kd 8h Jh. I led with a bet, as this was a very good flop for me. The other player moved in for 180K, leaving me a choice to call 180K to win 289K. With such a strong draw, potential outs to the queen depending on his holding, I made the call. I was in fact a dog to his KT, 43 to 57, but I was getting the proper odds for the call. The King of hearts fell on the turn, and the board did not pair the river.

The response from the railbirds was entertaining though. When playing to win, a call of this magnitude is clear. I needed about 38.5% equity to make it a correct call, and against the hand he actually had, I had 42.7% or so equity. Clear call. Against his range of hands, I would say I had about 45-48% equity. It was an easy call. It was the right call. And, I won't lie. The fact that it was Queen Nine suited played just a bit of a role.

I lost some of the momentum 3 handed, but I brought my focus back to where it needed to be. Tight and aggressive. No loose calls, make sure my bets were intelligent. I doubled through the 2nd stack with AK against his AQ when he decided to play preflop poker when we both had 40 big blinds. Two hands later, my 99 beat his KT, and I was heads up for a seat. It was essentially winner take all - 2nd got an attaboy and $200. He had 899K, i had 750K going heads up.

As I said earlier, I had played with this guy before. I felt I had a solid read on him, but I don't think he had a read on me. My focus heads up was to mix up my play. I didn't want my opponent to know whether I had the hand or not. I wanted to show enough good hands playing in many different ways (aggressive, passive, leading out, letting him hang himself) that he never would be able to get a read on me. Also, he would follow a particular line of betting when he generally did not have the hand. I encouraged this by calling the first bet, then folding to the next one. I would sacrifice a couple of small bets in order to pick up a very big one when I would pick off his bluff. I couldn't do this all the time, as he would pick up on it and knock it off. But I did it enough to make it profitable for me in the long run. Eventually, I did this with a hand, and he got mad and made a loose call on the end when I had it. Essentially, I had a read on him, he didn't have one on me, and he never adjusted.

Again, I don't mean to sound overly cocky, but unless I got unlucky, I didn't see how I would lose the heads up battle. The end came as it seemed he stopped hitting, and I was hitting very hard. I made trip jacks, and he paid me off with a small pocket pair. This is the hand I mentioned above, I had come over the top of this betting pattern of his a couple of times, and he got sick of it. The next hand, he limped with aces, I checked my K9, the flop came KT9 rainbow, and we got it in. The K9 held, and I get to go play poker somewhere.


I'm also very tired. And very happy. I recognize that I very much got lucky, as my favorites held, and I did come from behind twice. I know that in poker you HAVE to get lucky to win. I've embraced this fact, that's why I no longer get too upset when I lose with the best hand, nor get terribly giddy when I draw out. Having said that, I also played very well, I made a plan, stuck to it, and it worked out tremendously for me.

And I'm going to bed now.