Good ain't quite great but it's good enough for me

Yep I am running good right now. Not so good that I'm winning everything in sight but I do have 3 different second place finishes this week. One in the Sunday night Donkey Island, one on Monday night and then in the Dank last night. Unlike the past 3 weeks or so, some of my draws are actually hitting, some big hands are holding up or coming back to win, and I'm getting people to make the wrong plays at the right time. Here are some examples.

Got into a hand with HeffMike last night. Flop was AQ5 with one spade. I was sitting on a 3-4 of spades. I decided to bet out like I had an ace or 2 pair but not bet too big as it was pretty early and I didn't want to put too much on the line this early. HeffMike calls me. Next card is a 6 giving me an up and down straight draw. I decide to bet a bit more to try to keep control of the hand and the pot size and still represent an Ace. HeffMike calls again. River was a sweet little deuce. I bet about half the pot and Mike makes a big reraise. I looked again to make sure no other hands could beat me then push all in. Now Mike only has 850 or so left with about 4500 in the pot but he does manage to lay it down. He didn't believe me when I told him I had 3-4 but Mike, it's true. Mike did a masterful job staying in the game and ended up final tabling and going out about 7th. Terrific comeback. He also knocked out the one and only VeryJosie when he rivered a flush to beat her 2 pair.

Another hand I get AA. Make a raise to 4x and get one caller. Flop is 983 rainbow and I make a continuation bet. I keep it just over half the pot and low enough so that my opponent has enough chips to try and push me out of the pot. Which he does. Guy reraises me all in as I hoped and I call. He had 10-9 and didn't improve. Good night to him. We were close to the final table and same thing happens when I get KK. Last night I did a pretty good job of bet sizing in most situations and managed to convince people they could play back at me when they couldn't. I made a few good laydowns (I think) but made a couple of really bad plays that cost me. Both against Hoy who played very well and won it all. First time I could have take Hoy out. We both called a player's (Turtle maybe?) all in push for a little over 2x the big blind. I was sitting on AJ. Flop was 99J. I led out for about 1200 (blinds are 200-400 so there is about 2800 in the pot) and Hoy pushed all in for about 6K. I thought long and hard and then tossed it. Hoy flips over J-10. He doesn't improve but wins the pot and takes the guy out but if I call his push I take them both out. Then I don't lose to Hoy at the end. Probably to someone else. Later on I am leading when we're down to 3 peeps. I raise with A5 and Hoy pushes with A10. He's pushed a couple of other times so I think there's a good chance he has something like KQ or KJ. I got about twice his stack so I think I can gamble there. I was wrong as he had A10 and he takes a big chunk out of me.

Later on he luckboxes me to win. He has about a 4-1 lead after taking out XKM. I raise preflop with A6 and he calls. FLop is 8-6-5. I jam and he calls and flips over A5. So I have him to 2 outs but he turns another 5 and its second place again for me. Damn I wanted to win that hand. If I win that hand we're both about even and lets see what happens. But I had enough luck (Sorry Juliusgoat, that 4 flush had to hurt) myself so no kicks there. Hoy played very well to win and probably deserved it. Besides, his info on his blog about key hands and pocket pairs really has helped my game a lot. For that I tip my cap to him and say Well Done sir.

Thanks for the support Josie and not trashing me when I lost by the way. It's early to bed for me tonight as I was dragging ass all day at work and I'm planning on working late tomorrow night. Yes I know it's a Friday night but I got nothing going on, the PQ is going to Orlando tomorrow with her sister and our nephew to hit up Universal Studios this weekend. So I'm by myself this weekend. I may go play in this poker tourney Saturday night, I will probably go go shoot some paper silhouettes at some point as well. I'm also thinking about going to bed early on either Friday night right after work or Saturday night and then getting up very early the next morning and take cash off the drunks at the poker tables at the Hard Rock casino in Tampa. Haven't done that in a while and I would love to tilt a few drunks who've been out partying all night. Anyway, until I see you guys again, stay lucky you nuts.