When it's going for you...

Account: $392 Profit: $8

I was sat in 10 person SNG just now and enjoyed what you might call some nice luck. Well, not luck exactly just some nice cards.

For the first 25 hands or so I didn't get a thing, folded everything. The table itself was very tight. But then I got KK, raised it up before the flop and caught two callers. Naturally an Ace came on the flop but I made a pot six bet anyway just in case they were making a move with drawing hands. One guy called which caused me to shut down from the hand. Another Ace came on the turn and so I shut down from the hand. Fortunately so did he and we checked to the showdown where he showed something silly like Q 10. He called on a gutshot I think. Weird.

So the game continued, I got KKs again and raised with no callers this time. My tight image was well and truly established.

With my healthy chip stack, gained from a single hand, I decided to wait for some people to bust out and for the blinds to go up. They duly did and then I started playing and the cards came.

I love limping in with low pocket pairs (especially with generous pot odds) and I did so with 44s. My trips arrived and I cashed in.

Then top pairs, and two pairs started flopping and I made some bullying moves to improve my stack. The influential hand came when I had KJ and decided to push the short stack in for his last 500, thinking he would fold unless he had a monster. He called with AK and I busted him out with a straight. Usually I would apologise for that but three things occurred to me:

1. That always happens to me.
2. He'd played so few hands and was so unwilling to gamble he deserved it.
3. He'd been trash talking everyone else.

Pretty much the next hand I got AJ and raised aggressively. One caller again with a flop of 8AJ (all the same suit). My two pair was great but I was worried about the flush so I put in a heavy bet. He called. Nuts. An ace came on the river. Brilliant!

From there I didn't look back and dominated. With four people left and more than half the chips I felt I had a duty to make the others decide on whether to risk all their chips, even when I had stuff like 93os and 35s. People complained that I was sucking out, but on the tables I play (i.e. very low stakes) people think that just because they have AK they should be 78 every time. Still, it's all to my benefit isn't it.

My game was summed up with the final hand, went in with 69 and the flop came 78Q. He bet, I called. He bet again on the turn and I put him all in. I hit a 5 on the river to win the game. I was a bit lucky but I still made the right moves at the right times and never got myself into positions where I didn't have outs.

Wait 'till the next log I bet you're thinking. Poker is that sort of game.