Good night at the poker tourney......

I played in our monthly poker tourney last night. Really did quite well. I played some pots well early to increase my chip stack by about 50%. I slowed down my play at that point a bit.

I eventually got AA and raised it up a bit. Got one call, but then they folded, so I didn't make too much off my monster hand. Next hand, I looked down and found..........AA. Are you kidding? Best hand possible two hands in a row? Unfortunately, I raised and got no callers. Pretty disappointing to get a monster hand two hands in a row and not make much off them. But, it's always better to get a small win rather than lose big.

Several hands later, I got KK. I raised it up and got one caller. Flop was K73. Trips! I checked hoping to induce a bet out of the other person. He checked as well. Next card was a 5. At that point, there's a possibility for a straight out there, so I need to make a decent bet. I did bet and he folded. Think I got as much as I could out of that hand.

I slowed down and didn't get a lot of hands for awhile. My chip stack was starting to get low and I looked down at QQ. I went all in and got called by QT. Got to love that. I doubled up. Soon after, we moved to the final table.

I picked up AA early in the table and managed to pick up a big pot early on. I made a great read on another player a bit later. I had 53 and just called a bet. The flop came 643, giving me bottom pair and an open-ended draw (i.e. I could get a 7 or a 2 and get a straight). The pot was 4,000 and the other guy bet 2,000. He was leaning forward and bet quickly, two signs that he might be weak for most players. I thought it was a pretty good read and so I raised 8,000 more. I heard him audibly sigh and knew it was a good move. He asked me a couple of questions, trying to get information, but I knew he was in a bad spot. He folded and I now had a good stack.

I eventually got into the final two against the hostess of the event. Played pretty well and controlled the heads-up match for the most part. I made a bad move late that really cost me dearly. I made a bluff bet on the river with basically nothing. That move would have been a good one earlier in the hand, but on the river, she didn't have many chips left so she was forced to call with almost anything. It was my only major misstep and it probably cost me a win, but I beat out 16 other players, so I can't complain.