The renaissance continues...

When things start to go your way, my advice is to try and mine as much out of that vein of good luck as humanly possible. Work is still crazy, but even though the recent changes there weren't entirely to my liking, things are calming down and I'm getting some projects that I can sink my teeth into. Soccer was going so badly at one point that I was about ready to quit in frustration of my complete incompetence. But, I had three good efforts in a losing cause before this Friday, where I got a shutout and two very creditable 2-2 draws. Tonight, I went to my friend's house in Chelsea and won a tournament against six players...all of whom are strong except for one (but Conn knows this, though!).

I've talked here in this space before about how the first couple of hands will usually serve as a barometer for how my night is going to go (it works that way for me in soccer, too...if I don't stop the first couple of shots in the warm-up before we start, I usually get frustrated and play poorly). The reason I keep mentioning soccer is because it isn't all that different for me than poker, especially with the mental aspect of it. Last night at the soccer field, I just kind of let my instincts take over and the effects were amazing. My body did everything I asked it to...shit, I saved one shot that I didn't even consciously know was coming. My brain just basically told my left leg to shoot out, and sure enough a shot deflected off it harmlessly wide. I never saw it, but I let my muscle memory do its thing. Tonight, I pretty much just played my normal game, but I made some strong laydowns and stuck to my guns with my continuation bets. Everything fell into place tonight.

Right from the first hand, I picked up 10-10. A bunch of people all limped, but I raised it on up and the rest went right into the muck. From there, I was off and running. I don't remember most of the hands, but I was definitely the early chip leader. Conn went out first, and I was content to sit on my lead. I wasn't getting tons of good hands, and I was never so far ahead where I could start really swinging the Bully Stick. Between the blinds and some speculative limps with suited connectors and Ace or King-high flush draws, I found myself down towards the middle of the pack again. I kept at that level though pretty much on nothing but continuation bets...I made sure not to do it so much where people would start figuring me out, but it was enough to maintain the health of my chip stack.

Finally, our gracious host Morgan was blinded down, and had to go all-in. Greg (I think) called her, and with J-5 in my hand and my blind already in, I figured I'd speculate and call as well. I don't remember what she had (it was a legit hand though...maybe A-10 or something?), and I think Greg had K-Q or something like that. Anyway, a Jack came off on the river, and I fairly sheepishly took down the pot and sent Morgan to the rail.

From there, I kind of sat out again for a while...most of the entertainment at that stage was some fierce battles between Greg and his wife Tami. Tami eventually had to go all-in and Greg was the one to bust her, so now we were one away from the money. Greg had built up a huge chip lead at this time, and I believe it was Heath who was way down. My biggest laydown of the night came here, with Greg re-raising big. I had A-10 and the flop was 10-high, but I put Greg on a big hand (he played fairly tight all evening) and with Jon still to act, it was a pretty easy fold.

I don't remember the exact order, but Heath and Jon were both on life support at one time or another, but they kept doubling up against each other - then Heath rivered me on what I think was a 5-outer. After that, Heath was in great shape, and then doubled up again when Greg went all-in and his hand didn't get there. As for me, I still was winning pretty much on continuation bets, though I did make a set once with 5-5 (actually, I think that's why Tami was on life support), and I rivered a flush somewhere in there. That put Greg in the red zone, and Heath was the one to finish him off.

Long story short, we're in the money...yay! Heath then busted Jon, so he must have had a 7-to-1 or 8-to-1 chip lead on me going into heads-up play. By now, the blinds were 50/100, and there were only something like 2500 chips in play. In the past, I have been very passive in heads-up situations and have had an abysmal track record because of it. However, my good friend Action Al was dead-on when he pointed me in the direction of Harrington on Hold 'Em, and it really did the trick here. Any time I had paint in my hand, even just one card, I went all-in. Heath caught a run of abysmal cards (8-2, 9-4, etc) and couldn't really call me. Soon enough, I doubled up when I think it was K-10 that held up (King-high won, we both whiffed), and took the chip lead.

Maybe 8-10 hands later, I woke up with Q-Q in the BB. Heath called, and I checked. The flop was 7-x-x with two diamonds, so he went all-in. I called, and he showed 7-2, both diamonds (not sure of the exact suit, he had a pair and a flush draw). My hand held-up, and thus A WINNAR IS ME! I know this was just a friendly home game where my opponents were playing for fun and I was playing to win, but it was nice to actually play well and win the thing. I'll take any win where I can get it right now, and to beat a pretty good field to do it was satisfying.

Again, I don't know if I could have done this online. I had time to think, and I was able to exploit a tell to win a bunch of hands off of Jon (he's a friend, so I did tell him what he was doing afterwards - staring hard at a missed flop as if willing the cards to change denominations, suits or both). I'm almost at a point where I want to say "fuck you" to online poker until I can afford to play at higher limits...especially because what I do depends so much on having opponents who are actually willing to fold. We'll see. Anyway, a win is in the bank, $30 profit for 3 hours' worth, and now I'm off to hit up my DVR...Canadiens-Ducks, baby!