Phat Tuesday

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 88 hands and saw flop:
- 3 out of 10 times while in big blind (30%)
- 2 out of 9 times while in small blind (22%)
- 20 out of 69 times in other positions (28%)
- a total of 25 out of 88 (28%)
Pots won at showdown - 6 of 6 (100%)
Pots won without showdown - 6

Two .02-.04 limit tables
Playing time: 1 hr.
Total winnings: $2.69 67.25BB/hr.

I was messing around for an hour prior to going to a World Tavern Poker Tour event, trying to burn off some nervous energy. I had low expectations, was ready to lose a bit. Instead, I hit the best rush of my short career. I was flopping full houses, drawing to the best hand, even bluffing people off pots. It didn't hurt that I was playing some very generous people. I even pulled off a trick to get a free card for my flush draw-missed the draw but hit a winning two pair.

A session like that points out the good and bad of my game. The good is that I'm doing well with reading boards and calculating outs and I'm very disciplined pre-flop. I kept to my strategy even though everything I touched seem to turn to gold and the temptation was there to play many marginal hands. On the other hand, I was flying by the seat of my pants some of the time- playing draws even though I didn't necessarily have good pot odds, acting on instinct instead of trying to place my opponents on a range of hands (which is a skill I really need to work on.)

I did okay at the live event later on. I think I only won three or four hands all night. I played tight early on and made some tough calls that paid off. Got complimented on slow-playing a pair of aces and getting my opponent to call me down with king high.

Still, I was pretty short stacked by the time we reached twenty people. I should have been more aggressive at this point, but this is tough for me to do, especially since the bonus points go up with every place after 20th. Also, I had really nothing to push with- my cards were pretty weak on the whole all night. I finally went all-in when I was down to 2.5XBB with pocket deuces. Unfortunately, this was the best hand I'd had for about an hour. As you might expect, someone made a better pair and I was history.

Still, I earned more points-I'm "in the points" two out of two times so far. I also learned that the rankings are based not on total points, but the average of my three best finishes. This is great for me, because there's no way I'm going to be able to play more than once a week. Another gratifying thing was that I got the impression that the table I was playing at took me seriously, which is the first time that's happened.

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In other news, Chimeraworld 3, edited by Michael Philbin, has been released. It contains my story "Key Man." Go buy it at amazon.com- I get paid by the copy! I think this will be the last hurrah for my writing career for the time being and I can't wait to order a copy for myself.