Back Over the Century Mark

Since I can't *view* my blog at the moment (I heart Blogger Beta), I guess I'll try and post to it.

I was able to play one SNG last night, and once again I came back from the brink of elimination to put up a pretty good performance. Early on I was disgustingly card dead, but I killed some time by chatting. I eventually picked up AJd on the button with about 800 chips left and blinds at 50/100. UTG goes all-in for about 350, and I called. I immediately had a feeling I should have gone over the top and isolated myself with the all-in, cuz the big blind had decent odds to call with a lot of hands. Right now I just needed chips, and didn't need to take any chances. Naturally, the big blind called, and naturally the big blind won with his 10 8, when an 8 hit the flop. Its not a terrible call there for the big blind, but I can't see him justifying a call of my all-in, and I had the UTG player dominated, as it were. Lesson learned.

Anyway, after that I pushed and scooped a couple of times. I then made what I felt like was a pretty solid play with a hand I usually avoid like the plague. I picked up JJ in EP 6-handed. I thought about raising it, but then realized there were 2 smaller stacks yet to act behind me, and thought this would be a good calling hand for a short stack push, so I limped. Sure enough, the SB pushed all-in, the big blind folded, I called, and the SB rolled 10s. I held up, and emerged with my stack officially off life support. So it was nice to get a little creative with a hand I generally despise, and come out with things going according to plan. A short time later, I slow played aces down once and probably should have paid for it with a straight and flush draw on the board by the turn, but my turn push took the pot down. I think this was a fairly creative play for me at the time, because lately when I've been raising about 5-handed with KK and AA, I haven't been getting action. I *really* needed a few more chips than just the blinds to be back solidly in the hunt, so I decided to give the slow-play a chance one time, because I just didn't feel like I was going to get action on the raise.

I eventually found myself in that scary and familiar 4th out of 4 position, but at this point, my earlier chatting benefitted me when the guy I was chatting with was in the chip lead and openly folded some small blinds to me when I really needed them. Collusion, or good use of my good guy charm?? You be the judge. Then, ironically, when this guy lost lost most of his chips to the guy in 3rd and then went out on the next hand, it secured my cash. After that, I was fortunate to pick up some KILLER small blind cards, and pushed on the big blind 4 times in a row. When he finally put his foot down, I had kings down, and he was history. I think I was a better heads up player than my opponent, but a GIANT swing hand occured when I called a raise w/A9, the flop came K9K, we got it all-in, and I doubled him up with his AK. I *almost* pulled even, but then he called my bluffish all-in from the small blind w/J7 with his 77, and I couldn't improve.

So that's two SNGs in a row where I have rebounded from where most people probably would have given up, and I'm feeling pretty good about that. After I played that SNG last night, I got to thinking about how different of a player I am than what I used to be, and I felt pretty proud.
- I used to be the guy cowering and folding to all-ins, wondering to myself how people can put all their chips on the line so often. Now I'm the guy pushing and calling all-ins, knowing that a lot of the time, you're not gonna get called, or A-high is good enough to double up or beat a short stack all-in, and sometimes you've just gotta race.
- I used to be the guy blinding myself to death, afraid that if I go all-in it won't be good enough, and then settling for Q9 and wondering why I always bubble. Now I'm the guy chuckling at that player blinding themselves to death and calling their little baby all-in with my A or K and finding I'm in good shape. And I'm also the guy that gets disgusted with myself if I fall below 7xBB, because it may not be enough clout to claw myself back into things.
- I used to play only *my* cards, overvaluing them, refusing to accept the fact that they're beat, and not giving a thought to why my opponent might be playing the hand the way they are. Now its just second nature to try and figure out why my opponents are still in the hand, what I need to do to get them out, or laying down strong hands because it makes perfect sense that I'm beat.
- I used to get down early and give up, and now getting down early just means if I hang that much tougher, I can be that much more proud when I'm there in the end.
- I used to admire the plays and consistency of my opponents and try to steer clear of any action against certain ones that seemed strongest, now I kind of feel like people are steering clear of me because I show down winners and make strong plays.

I'm not proclaiming myself to be anywhere near a premier poker player or anything like that, but I'd venture to guess that my game has improved almost 100% from a year ago. And that gives me a lot of pride, and a lot of confidence that I can continue to move forward according to my plan.

Thanks to a tip from Pauly, I signed up for SiteMeter yesterday and came to realize that I've got readers! I'm gonna keep working on that, but its good to see the seeds I'm planting have a few people coming and checking me out. Also, a huge thanks to Hoy for stopping by yesterday and giving me some hand analysis on that real burner from the MTT the other night. And I can only assume my visit from AnguilA was due to my request at Hoy's blog for a little help, so that's awesome. I couldn't have made this improvement in my game with out Jorgen's help, and without him introducing me to the wide world of poker blogging, and all of the great wisdom from the 50+ poker blogs I now subscribe to. It just sucks I missed this boat by who knows how many years, but with any luck maybe I can work myself into the mix.

Ok, time to hit Google Reader and see what went down in last night's Mookie, among other things.