Lydias

Only played once last week and my last couple sessions have been...well, to be brutally blunt, I have played brutally bad. I have played passively, cautiously, and scared...and the results have been equally bad. So I determined to play it correctly...no limping, if I am in a hand I A) have a premium hand and B) raised it up.

Playing 6 handed to start. First hand I played I had A/J, brought it in for a raise, chased nobody out. Hit my Ace, raised, one guy came over the top, one called. I folded. Would have lost to 2 pair. Lots of folding, lost most of the hands I was in. Finally went all-in with pocket 9s, one caller, the nines held up and I doubled through. A few hands later, down to 5, fold to the small blind who completed the bet, I had pocket aces, raised the minimum...he folded. To an A/J everyone called a raise up 3 times the blinds from under the gun...then a min-raise from the big blind saw no caller. Whatever.

I stold a couple blinds, somehow lasted until the final table despite never having gotten over 4000 (I started with 3000).

About the fourth hand, they were all playing very conservative, blinds and 2 and 400 I raised it to 1700 (all-in). FIVE callers. I had K/J suited. Flop came K/Q/10. I liked my hand a lot. Heavy betting saw 2 more people get all-in. Turn was a blank. River was a 10. More heavy betting. One guy hit trip 10s to take us all out. Had the river not been a 10 I would have won the hand, nobody could have touched mine. Oh, well, out in 8th.

Was leaving, still displeased with my play when they lured me into playing the consolation table. They were a pretty annoying group but I just played my game...bring it in for a raise, make them pay to draw out. I doubled up. Built my stack a bit more. People faded out. I put out one guy, ironically the coolest guy at the table. Got down to 4 players. Then 3. I put one out. I was outchipped about 4 - 1 by annoying woman.

Heads up I suddenly got hyper aggressive. If I hit bottom pair...I pushed. If I hit top pair...I pushed. If she checked...I pushed. Slowly I built my stack while shrinking hers. At least twice I pushed her off higher pairs as she could not deal with the aggression. I also showed a couple naked bluffs.

Finally I had a significant lead and raised an A/4. She called. Flop gave me trips. I bumped it 400. She called. Turn did not help me, I asked how much she had, put her all-in...she called. It was over and I had my 2nd consolation win. Uh...yay?