THANKSGIVING

I ran into my usual "end-of-the-month" bad luck and drained away a good portion of my early month pay but tonight I got it back. Marci took the day off work and worked on email as I worked on the $100 Rebuy tourney at Stars. I built a big stack, though it cost me $400, and I made it to the money. Things were going great until I got too big for my britches with 33 and I gave a ton of chips to Shaniac. I was in third place of 14 at the time and there was no reason to even play the stupid small pair, but I was convinced that Shane would fold to a reraise so I made the overbet. If I had raised less and then offered a continuation bet when the ace flopped, I would have won the hand, but I thought my big stack would scare him away so I pushed. He went on to place second and made $12k. I was eliminated soon after and was paid $700.

It was good that Marci was there to see that meltdown because it was like an alcoholic being caught taking a drink. I had to confess that I sometimes do really stupid moves late in tourneys and I had to admit that it is the sole reason I don't make more money at poker than I do.

Well, the Jacksons came over and we got to drinking tequila in the hot tub, but when I spied their kids getting sleepy, I switched to water and when they went home, I was back on PokerStars to avenge my stupidity. I realized that I do know how to play this game and if I can just lay off the stupid stuff, I should be making money hand over fist.

I entered a $100 with 244 players. I got no cards early on but I was determined not to press since that routinely precipitates my exit. I got down to under $900 and then it was time to press. I kept going after the blinds to keep me afloat until I picked up a hand. I stole the blinds a few times and then once I was recognized as a thief, I actually picked up AK, which doubled me up. Soon after it was queens and I was up over $6k.

There was one interesting hand right around the bubble. I raised with AQ and was called from late position. The flop came AT6 and I bet out. He raised me and since there were two spades on board, I called. He's either got spades or AK. The turn was the king of clubs which was enough to convince me he didn't have AK so I pushed all in. He insta-called and showed two random spades. I was so pleased with the way I played it and I was pissed when the queen of spades hit the river. He played foolishly and was rewarded with nearly all my chips.

I had like $600 left and I just got all in the next hand from the big blind with 86. I doubled up by beating AK and I kept pushing and either stealing blinds or doubling up until one orbit later, my stack was exactly where it was before the suckout.

Yada, yada, yada, I went on to win the tournament. I had the chip lead the whole way at the final table and I avoided the implosion. I know how to play, I really do, but I have to really play that way if I want to win and tonight I did. I got close to losing my chip lead three-way. There was me and another guy with six-digit stacks and then a third guy with about $30k. I finally picked up a hand, QQ on the button. The other big stack raised 3x and I raised that bet 3x. He pushed his whole stack in and I called. He had AK and it was the classic race. He missed the flop and the turn gave me trips. It was a $203k race. From there it was academic - $6710 payday.