Dr. Feelgood's, 3/19/07

Going in to tonight I was in 5th place overall despite never finishing higher than 4th. Dr. Feelgood's has not been a help as it has been the site of my most spectacular flameouts. I never play well there.

It did not help I was stressed from work. Was a pretty rough work day and was a little off center with the Goose. Talked to her a bit and randomly decided to go play anyway specifically BECAUSE I was on tilt. I need to play through that.

Fold. Fold. Fold. Tempted to call when they raised my blinds...but I had nothing. Fold. Fold. Fold. Started with 3300 and by the time the blinds had raised twice I had a little over 2K and had yet to see 2 flops or even a single turn. FInally won a small hand to get to about 4200. Whee.

Got to the final table when 3 people at the other table simultaneously caught hands...and the BB had the biggest hand. About 3 hands into the final table picked up pocket 9s....and got 2 callers. Oops. And even worse....the King hit on the turn. But I spiked my nine on the river to triple up.

A couple hands later I doubled up again to get a respectable 8 or 9 thousand, although still pretty much short stack. Got heads up with the real short stack, took him out. Twice picked up hands and raised only to have the big stacks come over the top all-in, folded...and both times good folds.

Meanwhile the big stacks kept hitting at each other. Fold, fold, fold, top 3, the highest I had been...but still short stacked. All-in against the chip lead with A/J...he had A/5. Doubled again. Next hand I had A/K clubs...and doubled through again when he had A/Q. As he said...he had to play both of those. I just got lucky.

Irish finished him when he spiked a Jack on the river despite being dominated and it was heads up.

I kept raising when I hit a pair and he kept folding. Finally I picked up the Doyle Brunson; 10/2 of hearts. The flop came with 10 and 2 rags, 2 hearts. I raised it 2K, he came over the top all-in for 7 more, I called. We flipped them up...he had 9s. He had a straight draw, I had the flush draw...and when the turn and river came blank, I had my first ever win in a tournament.

I won! My First tournament win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am very proud of having succeeded despite sort of starting on tilt and being at a venue I have played quite poorly at. I had very few cards all night until I needed them and had the patience to stick it out and had good reads on the peeps I was playing with to get my chips in the middle at the correct times when I had the lead.