Good week for free poker

Last night was my trainee's 3rd and final week of training so he needed to run the whole thing by himself. That meant I got to play both sessions and just help where I was needed. I had two good sessions.

Made the final table in the first game and busted around 7th place or 8th place. Then I actually won the 2nd session, but man did I have to work for it!

My first table was actually really tough. I had some smart agressive players on my left. I got bluffed several times and was shown just about everytime. That didn't bother me too much though because they weren't huge bluffs by any means, none of the pots that they won were worth crying over. I just kept chipping away wherever I could and worried about winning the big pots instead of trying to win a bazillion small ones. Naturally the bluffs caught up with Solomon and he didn't make it.

I made a really good laydown against Travis on the river. I had 77 and had raised it up in ep and Travis was in the bb I think. The flop came A Q x with two spades. He checked and I checked. It's hard not to put him on two overs in that spot and I know Travis like to check raise nowadays and slowplay. So the turn comes a blank and he checks again so I check again. Maybe I'll call a river bet and snap off a bluff but I'll have to decide then. The river is a 7 of spades. Travis checks again, I bet out 7000 leaving myself 25-27k left. Well then travis goes all in. So I thought about it, and I said out loud "I let you get there for free didn't I?" and he pretty much nodded his head and I could tell he had the goods. So I counted my chips out, decided that I still had enough to come back from and folded my set face up. Travis showed J9s for the flush.

We actually sparred multiple times. Another hand I had A3o in ep and had raised it up and got two callers including Travis. I flopped the wheel 2 4 5. Travis checked and i bet out 10k and he goes over the top of me with AJo. I call of course, and he rivers the 3 on me for a split.

I got him back with my big hand of the night. We were both sitting around 70k with the blinds at 3/6k. He raised my bb from the cutoff to 20k, and I looked down at 88 and immediately shoved. I felt good about it because he had been showing down some very marginal hands like Q8 and A8. I had 50k more to him and he had me covered just barely. He thought about it and finally called showing AQo. The flop came A Q 8!!! My set held and I took that pot down for 145k.

This is the 3rd time in the last couple of months I've made it to the final table with a big stack and I must say, it's SO much nicer than going in with 3 blinds. So far my results with a chip lead going in are 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Anyways, I'm playing Clicks again tonight to qualify for the TOC. Hopefully I'll have some good luck and play well and make a high finish to get in to that sumbitch. Oh and my laptop is back already from HP so I'll be back online again this weekend sometime I'm sure. Got a cash game coming up on Sunday, we'll see if I can get further in the black as I'm just about even for the year in live play so far.

Holla!