Lydias, 4/16

Got there on the second hand, started out down 25 chips, no big deal. Got a quick read on essentially the entire table. I knew almost exactly where they were every hand. Straight draw on board, Gary won it with a bet, they all asked if he had the straight, I said, "Nope, he had Aces and Jacks." He was so shocked I had him read he flipped them up. I folded to his Kings a couple times, to the guy to my right's kings a couple times. When I caught cards I raised and played them well.

However, I also raised on draws and a couple times people called me down with like...a pair of 5s. So that hurt. Note to self; when people will call 4 times the blinds with a pair of 5s and a 9 kicker...don't raise your draws.

Finally I played a K/9 and when I hit trips on the flop got all my money in, crippling one person and about tripping up. Pretty quick we were down to 4 players. I had solid reads on them all. Got into a blinds battle with Jedi-toy to my right. I had 9/J. Flop gave me trips. He checked and I bet the minimum. He folded, I flipped them up and said, "Tried to make it look like I was trying to buy the pot with that." I was small blind next hand, he called, flop brought 9/10/9. He raised the minimum, I folded. Everyone else called. He ended up raking a nice pot. At the end he had a full boat, 9's over 10's, and flipped up the 9/J he had. "Thanks for the advice on how to play that" he told me. It was good for a laugh.

A couple hands later on a flop of K/9/6 he bet and I figured he had two pair. At the showdown I thought he had K/9 but it was the King/6...still good enough to beat me. But a solid read.

A bit later, 500/1000 blinds, I had about 10K at that point. I called with A/2. Flop brought A/Queen/rag. I raised to 4K. Guy to my left folded, guy to his left, normally a very tight player, called all-in with about 3800. I was a little surprised when he did not flip up an Ace...just a Q/9 of clubs. He had middle pair, only three to the flush. I was way ahead. Turn was almost a blank...but it was a club. And the river was a 3....of clubs. He hit runner-runner to hurt me pretty bad.

Next hand I was in the big blind and had 10/5 suited. Flop had one over (a king) and 2 spades. Jedi-toy raised it a thousand. I had a solid, solid read on him and figured him for about K-8, K-9 or K-10. I had 4 to the flush. I thought about it a bit and since I only had 2300 more than the raise I went all-in on the draw. He indeed had the King and a flush hit...unfortunately, I had a Spade flush draw and he hit runner-runner diamonds to put me away. I finished 4th on the night out of about 15.

Review: my reads were dead on. Due to some reading I have been doing, I also want to point out I more than doubled up for the night, at one point having close to 12K so I am meeting my goal of at least doubling up. Also, I felt like I did a good job of blind stealing, getting a good read on the limpers and taking down one pot where everyone limped to me in the big blind, I had A/10 suited, went all-in and they all folded so I picked up about 3K without a fight. I need to do that more.