KJ off suit is the NUTZ in the South...

Hey readers. It has been awhile since I blogged. Today, I am feeling very ill so this will be a short post. After examining my stats from last year, I arrived at the following conclusions:

1. I cashed 7 out of 31 live tournaments, which is slightly below where I need to be;

2. The last 90 hours of live tournament poker went without a cash, however out of the last 4 tournaments, all were bubbles and/or ended with day 2 appearances;

3. My tournament game has stepped up immensely in the last six months but the areas I still need improvement on most is: a. aggression in the middle stages of tournaments, and b. executing my moves based on my reads more often (i'm getting there though), and c. more HU practice bc i am not nearly as aggressive as I need to be hu; and
4. lastly, I <3 tournaments so much!!!!!!!!!!

That being said, I have traveled much since my last blog. Jon and I were at Borgata for some of the winter open events- I only played two tournaments without a cash. I traveled to Tunica MS with my mother and grandmother for four days. I had a great time. I met up with two online players, yngmanin4quiki and Tim Burt, two extremely talented players who were super hospitable to me. It was lots o fun. As for tournaments in MS, I bubbled two of three events (one within 15 players, and one within 8 players), and I played soo soo sooo well. The third tourney, I busted w 9x bb, 10s v. jj. Oh well. I have never seen people play KJ os so strongly as they do in the South. It has become a popular hand in Atlantic City also. I will post hands from the tournaments later on, but i was so on my game. You will see in the hands I post how KJ os was overplayed. Overall the players were super nice and polite.

Jon and I were also in Foxwoods for two days, we got back last night. I played the weekly $340 on Fri and teh $560 on Saturday. Both had small fields, less than 100 players. I final tabled both, for a small profit on Fri of $700 and a profit yesterday of $1500. It was a good trip in all. Jon and I also both did well in cash. Its nice to be the one sucking out. The only time I got my money in behind in the Saturday tourney was with 12 players left, I r Aj ss out of sb with 15-17 bbs total, and the bb reraised 1/2 my stack. Normally I would fold, but this player reraised me twice before. I believe he had legitimate hands, these players were generally tight, but by the same token, I was so tired of folding, I was like, I can't keep folding so I stuck it in. He snap called and flipped KK. I flop AJx likeit was poker stars and doubled up for the final table. I am not proud of that play, but it shows that sometimes getting lucky at the right time is key for cashing. My other thought was, only 6 players at final table got paid, so even though there were 12 left, 1/2 the field still had to get knocked out to make money. This was also a factor in my decision making. It is awesome to cash two tournaments in a row.

I have some very funny commentary from the poker tables. One in particular. Tight player to my left at foxwoods witnessed the folllowing hand with me. folded to button who raised 3x bb. SB who was aggro player, reraised pretty big (i thought he was on a move). button called. Flop is A 2 4. check check. Now I thought set of aa or kk. turn is 9. Sb bets 1/2 the pot and button folds and he shows set of aa. He then says, I know that ace on the flop kills my action. Which is a logical and reasonable comment. The guy on my left goes, why? you should be happy you got the ace, you know you can't get sucked out by two pair, or any other hand. You have to play the "odds". I looked at him and said,by that logic, if you are playing the "odds" AA is way ahead of any hand heads up, so why would you want an ace hi flop, you aren't going to get much action, unless u happen to be against ak or aq. He turns to me and says, you always have to worry about getting sucked out on, and you can't play the way you said. I want that ace on the flop every time with pkt aa. LMAO. And that's why I know what hand you had every time you bet sir, well played. Thank you for that conversation. It was stellar. That is another thing I want to get into. Verbal and non verbal tells. But I will save that for my next blog, I need to rest. I feel like my head is going to explode.

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace.