Slow Cards in a Fast Life

I've only played 2 SnGs since last time I wrote. I haven't had a whole lot of time this week to play because I found a new hobby in hanging out with a special someone who is visiting from......Alaska. Yeah kinda weird, I know. She's the sister of one of Joe's co-workers, and Joe and the two of them and I have been hanging out like crazy this past week. She goes home on Wednesday, and that sucks cuz she's a badass, but that's life. It's alright though, Joe and I are driving up to Alaska this summer to hang with them both. That should be interesting. I have a lot to say about this person in particular, but I don't think I'll do that on here...yet.

As for poker, the Chumash tourney is coming up this Saturday, and I couldn't be more excited. I'm very hopeful that the cards will not be mean to me, and I know that I will be playing my A-game, cuz that's all I've been doing lately. Darsky and Kirk are most likely comin up here on Friday night, and that'll be fun. Those two guys are great fun and we all have a good time cuz the four of us understand the game on a level above average. Kirk's already in for it, so I'm sure the beers will be flowing and the cards will be flying if Dar's up for it also.

In SnG news I played my first one since a couple days last night and came up fast early on. With 2 people out, I had 4500 in chips, triple what I started with. I maintained chip lead the entire time as others knocked each other out, and I went into the cash zone of the final three still chip leader at 6000, while the other two "playas" (as Matusow calls them) had 5000 and 4000. I got check raised on the turn in a pretty big pot against No. 2 and was down to 3000 with the blinds at 100/200. I quickly jumped back to chip lead the very next hand when I got paid off in the easiest of ways by the No. 3. He was quickly knocked out by No. 2 and we were HU with practically even stacks.

I took a few pots of him early and had a small chip lead, but took down a decent pot on this hand. With the blinds at 100/200 and both of us hovering at around 7000-8000 in chips, the opponent (deemed herein as Playa) raised on the button to 650 and I called with the Ah5c. The flop came Qs-Ac-6h. I checked and Playa bet out 700. I flat called with the intention of most likely check raising the turn, because I was almost positive I could get him to bet the turn, as he was playing really aggressively at this point. The turn was a blank and I checked, sure enough he bet 1300 and I raised all-in. He folded almost instantaneously and he was left with about 5000 to my 10000.

The stacks remained almost the same through to the 200-400 level, and we were both doing our fair share of pre-flop raising and folding. With the stacks at 6000-9000, my favor, Playa came in with a raise to 1000 and I called with the QcJc. The board came up Qh-10s-9c. Sweet. I bet 1200 into him and he pushes in with his remaing stack. I called after a second and he had AA. CRAP. I thought I made the right call, and here's the reasoning.

When he pushed in I thought about it for a second. I had been letting him push me around a decent amount so as to keep a tighter image and to maintain the big stack. So as much as he might have done this with KQ or AQ, I hadn't called him down more than twice since we had started playing HU, and I was letting him get away with a lot of pushes. His frequent raising meant that he didn't have to have KQ or AQ, he might have had A10 and been trying to push me out. In the end I had to call another 3800 into a 4400 pot, and I called getting more than 2 to 1 on my money with TP/OESD. I would most likely do the same thing again if I could, I think it was the right move. I would like it if you guys leave some criticism on my play in my comments, cuz I'd like to know what you all think.

After that hand the roles were reversed and he had the 2 to 1 chip lead. I raised on the button to 1000 with KJo, leaving myself with 2200 and basically committing myself to this hand, but with the blinds at 200-400 if I had to get awy from the hand for some reason I still had one more push left if I needed it. He calls from the BB and the board comes up J high. He checks, I push, and he insta-calls with QQ. Blank blank and I'm done in second. Oh well. He got AA and QQ back to back, I flop TP with a good kicker both times and that's the way it goes sometimes. I still got $60, with a profit of $38. Again, leave feedback in the comments.

As for the second one, I got crippled pretty early when I got in a tussle with QQ. I raised from the button with 3 limpers and got called from all 3 plus the SB. The board came up J high, the SB bet, I raised, he reraised, I thought about it for a second and put him on a J, maybe AJ, and pushed in. He called with KJ, turned a K, and knocked me down to about 400 with the blinds at 30-60. I failed to improve my A5 against the BB's A8 and I was done. All told I profited a wopping $16 on the day.

I'm still kinda upset that I'm not playing much, as I really feel like I could be making some money if I could just devote some time to playing, but that's definitely not gonna happen this week. Mystery Alaska woman leaves on Wednesday, so Joe and I will be busy tonight. Then we have to go sign up for Kirk tomorrow night (don't worry Kirk, i think we were only like 150 last week), Thursday night I plan on sleeping like a mother since I've been up until 4, 3, 4, and 530 since Friday because of this chick. I'm not saying I didn't want to be, cuz I loved every second of it. But still I want some sleep so we can hang with Big D and Kirk on Friday night, and I'll be set for Saturday.

If you guys would be so kind I'd like to get a few different opinions on these hands from you guys in my comments. PEACE

Bankroll: $740