Nice for a Change

Well after a particularly abysmal month, things have turned around for me, at least for now. I’ve managed to make four final tables of my last five tourneys, and even had a first place finish! Nice to see the slump finally giving way, now if I can just keep it going for tonight’s WWdN Up4Poker Invitational on Stars tonight, trust me, my bankroll there could use the boost!

Anyways, last nite started out rather brutal, found myself out kicked three hands in a row, which led to pretty large dents in my stack. Just before the break, David sucked out on my Hammer while holding top two pair. I kept pounding away at it, 5x BB preflop, ½ the pot on the turn, then, instead of my normal ½ to full pot bet on the river, I made a ¼ pot bet. That pretty much stopped him in his tracks and really made him wonder what I had. He went through the hands that would beat him based on the board and really though I was trying to lure him into the pot to make sure I would get more chips. Eventually he did end up calling so I had to stand up, take my cards and slam them down with the traditional call of “Hammer!!” and then told him that I could not believe that he sucked-out on me like that. Oh well, das pokah.

Right after break I found myself moved to a new table with a paltry 3,000 in chips and the mega short stack at the table, the next shortest had me out stacked 4:1. Fortunately, the table was a wonderful semi-lose passive table and it didn’t take me too long to double up and get myself back in the game. It was ye olde JJ in mid-position that did me in. Made it 4x BB and got folds to the BB who called. Flop was 876r so I bet the pot, the BB thought about it and push in the rest of his chips, which was basically 2x my bet. I called and he flipped over ATh. The turn was a T as was the river and that left me with just enough to cover the Blind when it got to me one hand later and off to the rail I was sent.

All in all, it was interesting play. I don’t think I had to call more than a couple raises all nite, as most people were limping/min-betting/calling. Been a long time since I’ve seen that much weak/passive play at our tables. It was fun to be able to play looser than I normally do, but obviously I still need to put a bit of polish on that so I don’t loose too many pots in the future.