Still Da Man?

The Poker League that I play in recently held a best player tournament for the top 80 players in the league. Despite a long run of dismal cards I was able to stick around and make the final table. Soon after I made the final table I started catching some reasonable starting hands and hitting some flops. At around the same time I changed gears and became significantly more aggressive. This caught a number of players off guard as I had been playing pretty tight earlier that day. Within about 30 minutes I managed to knock five players out and eventually went heads up.

My opponent knocked out the short stack in third place calling his all in with a 7 4 off suit, because she was, 'tired of him going all in.' Despite being dominated she caught a lucky flop and eliminated him, which was just as well because he is quite a formidable player who has already qualified to go to the WSOP main event this year through an online tournament.

So I got heads up and she called a decent raise pre-flop with 10 7 offsuit. She bet out on the flop and I check raised all in with pocket aces. She called with an open ended straight draw and despite being a 2-1 underdog hit her hand on the river and knocked me out.

But the good news is first and second place paid the same prize and I am off on an all expenses paid trip to Indiana in June to play a tournament at Caesars. Should be good fun. It would have been nice to win two back to back, but not being American I see no shame in second place, especially when the prize is the same and I moved all in with the best hand.

Soon after this I was invited to a cash tournament at a friends house. They are all great players but I managed to come back from a 10-1 chip deficit to win the whole thing. That was a nice surprise and added to my spending money for the trip.