HEADS UP

I have been focusing on tournaments lately, but even though I am playing well, I am not making the money. I had a particularly rough outing a few nights ago when I was amongst the chip leaders nearing the bubble and I experienced meltdown. I had been playing a lot of pots and was very aggressively taking pots and sucking out on all-ins versus smaller stacks. There was one player at the table who could hurt me, so I should have avoided him like the plague. Instead, when he made an early position raise, I called with AJd. I envisioned taking the pot from him later in the hand with my beneficial position.

The flop came JT8 and he made a big bet into a field of four. I put in the minimal raise, which still was several thousand dollars, and he responded by going all in. Duh, he's got jacks beat. I folded. I should never had gotten involved. I am an AJ folding machine, but they were suited and I was steamrolling the table, so I thought I could pull something off. Instead, I lost more than half my chips. Soon after, I got huge with AJ again and was smooth called by the AA, who let me lead at the pot after a 944 flop and then I went all in when a 9 turned, hoping to scare him off his overpair. But since his overpair was rockets, he was willing to die with them. This decimated me even further, and then I got frustrated and went all in with a baby pair, and I was out of the tourney without cashing. Oh, to have just folded that AJ!

Last night, I was playing great and nearing the bubble, when I got involved with 66. I called a raise from a guy who had me covered. I just knew the guy had AK. The flop came JT4 and he bet into me. I called, hoping we could check it down. The turn was a blank and he put me all in. I called. Sure enough he had AK as expected, but an A came on the river and I was out. Looking back, I probably should have not gotten involved, but I was looking to double up, not just make the money, and I had a good read on him, so I knew where I stood in the hand, and my money went in with the best of it. I suppose I'm happier that I played to win the tourney, rather than simply having laid down to his continuation bet.

I spent several hours today playing heads up matches at PokerStars. I played a series of $100 and $200 winner take all matches. I felt I outplayed every single opponent, though I did not win every event. My money consistenly went in with good odds, but I took some tough beats. The ugliest beat I took was when my opponent raised preflop into my QQ. I made a big reraise, which he called. The flop came three baby diamonds. I had no diamond, so I went all in to discourage a call. If he had a made flush, then he's the winner, but if he has only a diamond draw, then he would be making a mistake to call. He called of course with his 62 and took down the event with his flopped two pair. I eagerly got into another match with this guy, and this time the better player won.

There was one tourney in which I check-raised all in after hitting top pair and the other guy called with his open-ended straight draw. The board was KT9 and he held 87 and I held K6. He was in with a draw and I held one of his outs. It was a nice situation to be in. Unfortunately, he hit a 6 on the river to end it. Why is it you always seem to hit that two pair when it can kill you?

I was playing so well, I joined a $500 heads up match, and it was over in four minutes, before I could even tell how good my opponent was. I assume he is good if he is putting up that much dough, but I woke up with AA relatively early on and limped in. He raised, and I reraised, and he went all in with QQ. Very fortuitous situation and my aces held up. It left him with $100 which went into the middle when he held 54 to a 776 flop. So sad for him that I held 76. He even got an 8 on the river just to make it sting a little. All told, I made $606 profit on the day.