EASY MONEY

I had a disasterous couple of hours at PL Omaha/8 last night so I tried to make up for it today in NLHE tournaments. I won a single table $100 at PokerRoom which paid $500. I nearly won another at PokerStars. I was heads up as the chip leader and my opponent was stealing blinds by going all in every hand. I finally called him before I lost the chip lead. I had K2 but I thought it might be good. Sure enough he had QT. It was the '86 World Series all over again, I was down to the final card but a Q came on the river, doing its best Mookie Wilson impersonation. I felt like Buckner even though I didn't really control the cards that fell. The next hand I went all in with my short stack to try for a double up. I had T8 to his 54 but he hit two pair and it was over with me as runner-up.

The easy money came just after when I went into a $50 heads-up tourney:

On Friday, September 16, 2005, at 01:31 PM, PokerStars Support wrote:

PokerStars Tournament #12641141, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $50.00/$2.50
2 players
Total Prize Pool: $100.00
Tournament started - 2005/09/16 - 16:31:14 (ET)

Dear Dude Seeger,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $100.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

This tournament was decided in half a minute. On the first hand, I raised to $60 with a pair of fives. He reraised to $300 which is big money this early in the game. I took my pair all in and he eagerly called with A2d. Wow, I figured I would at least be up against two overcards for a coin flip for the $100, but he so loved his ace, he took it the distance with a naked kicker. My fives held up and I doubled my money just like that. How fun.