Woooooooooot!!! 11/11/2005

Finally a little swing my way. After a pretty bad read by me at the dime/quarter NLHE, I was down about $16. Then last night I hit the ring games for a while again and lost another $21. Things were looking bad. Until I entered a few more MTTs on Full Tilt. The first was the public 9pm $10 buy-in NLHE. I was up and down all night, but ended up ITM with a 24th place finish out of 348 for a $19.14 payout, a $8.14 profit. The complete Hand History is HERE.

The better game was a private tourney with 21 people. I finished here first after a few huge hands. When we got to the final table I had over half the chips in play, and there wasn't anyone else close. I had a few lucky suckouts along the way. When we got down to the final four it got pretty hairy. I donked off a few chips in some plays, by moving into a tighter mode than I probably should have with the huge stack that I was playing.

There was one particular hand that, to me was the key to my winning this thing. I finally have a hand that I am pretty proud of, so here it is with my thoughts at the time. Lefty may be ticked off here, since I still don't know if I was beat or not. Lefty, if you read this, let me know?

FullTiltPoker Game #288037093: Freaky Friday (1793759), Table 1 - 200/400 Ante 50 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:30:10 ET - 2005/11/11
Seat 1: lyndon (5,677)
Seat 2: IlliniFan (9,255) Notice, I have donked off a lot of chips. I had been as high as T20,000.
Seat 4: Wisconsin Lefty (8,882)
Seat 9: CailtyssRulien (7,686)
lyndon antes 50
IlliniFan antes 50
Wisconsin Lefty antes 50
CailtyssRulien antes 50
lyndon posts the small blind of 200
IlliniFan posts the big blind of 400
khanwoman (Observer): go CAT
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to IlliniFan [Ks 9s]
Wisconsin Lefty raises to 1,600
CailtyssRulien folds
lyndon folds
IlliniFan calls 1,200 Okay, here's what I was thinking. I've been donking a lot of chips off with bet-get raised-fold action after the flop. Let's see if I can use that image to take some control back.
*** FLOP *** [Qc 7c Ts] Complete miss. Let's see if I can use the image and come over the top on a reraise and win it here.
IlliniFan bets 1,600
Wisconsin Lefty calls 1,600 Nope, no reraise. I'll have to push on the turn. Only way I'm going to win this hand and get back control.
*** TURN *** [Qc 7c Ts] [2d]
IlliniFan bets 6,005, and is all in Push and pray time. I'm sweating this one big time. Lefty thought about the call for a bit and I thought I was going to Donk out in 4th.
Wisconsin Lefty folds Whew.
Uncalled bet of 6,005 returned to IlliniFan
IlliniFan mucks
IlliniFan wins the pot (6,800)
CailtyssRulien: jesus
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6,800 | Rake 0
Board: [Qc 7c Ts 2d]
Seat 1: lyndon (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: IlliniFan (big blind) collected (6,800), mucked
Seat 4: Wisconsin Lefty folded on the Turn
Seat 9: CailtyssRulien (button) folded before the Flop

I think that my image of being tight is what won me this hand. No idea if Lefty had an A, or had any pair that could have beat me. So, at times, it is good to play your image. Worked for me here, and is the one hand that I can point to that got me to win this thing. This wasn't an AA vs XX, which I had a few of and survived. Anyone can push with aces. I was proud to win this on a total, complete bluff.........sorry Lefty : )

Complete Hand History: HERE