Sometimes, Persistence Does Pay

Cool. After who knows how many attempts at this mini-donkerama, and two 2nd place finishes, I was finally able to take one down. My first win in a PokerStars $4/180 20-table sit-and-go. It feels good, and doubly so in that I came into final table as chipleader, and only once had to truly luckbox a hand. When we were down to final three, I was 3rd in chips, picked up AT soooted in the BB, and re-shoved all in to an AJ, Jack on the flop, and caught the runner runner flush on the river. Obviously, HAWKAHOLIC99 hadn't read this guy's views on playing Jackace. Heads-up went back and forth until about 20 hands in or so, at which point I picked up a couple monsters to crush.

I love what this has done to my Sharkscope:

What really made this special was that it was my first victory in any online tournament greater than five tables. I've had several higher cashes, but those were all 2nd and 3rd place finishes in larger tournaments -- this was my first flat out victory other than freerolls.

Anyway, there was really only one notably unusual sequence during the tournament, and I didn't get histories, because the table closed as soon as the 2nd hand in the sequence occurred. At a point during final three tables, I picked up AA in mid position, and put in a standard 3.5x raise (at that point, I had a lowish mid-size chipstack). Player at cutoff or button called, and blinds folded. Flop came Txx, and I checked to caller who made a roughly pot-size bet, and I let the timer come on before I re-raised all in. Players calls and shows ATo, and my AA holds for a double up. Only two hands later, I pick up AA under the gun, and make the same size raise. I am called by the very same player, and again, everyone else folds. Flop comes 9xx, and I check. Player makes roughly pot-size bet, and I again let the timer come on before I re-raised enough to put him all in. You guessed it -- he turns over A9o, and my AA holds up to knock him out, and put me up to about 3rd in chips.

Along the way, I did significantly misplay a hand, which I posted over here without showing results. If you have any thoughts on how this hand was played, please let me know. I did not post the results. Needless to say, I lost the pot, but not in the way you'd think.

Anyway, given the amount of time I spent playing yesterday, I got the "you're not playing any more poker for a while" from the Good Doctor Mondo, so I will likely not be making my Bodonkey debut tomorrow night, after all. To those who are playing bloggerments this week, I wish you all high cards and no suckouts, unless you can rant about them as entertainingly as he can, in which case, may a 72o crack your AA on the bubble (strictly for comedic purposes, of course).

Speaking of which, I would be highly remiss if I did not extend my sincere appreciate for Waffles' having distilled the latest Brandi drama into a version I could actually finish reading on my lunch hour. Oh, the insanity! Good thing the Brit doesn't play cards, I suppose.

As Douglas Adams wrote, "So Long, and Thanks [PokerStars] For All the Fish"