Today was a good night ... I just went through the third round of interviews for a job [!!!!!!], I got to catch up with some old friends at Alice's birthday dinner, and I played good poker.

Avoid this poker stories!!!!!

My brain is completely fried. I just finished an 18-player live tournament that I finally placed first place in. Here's the funny thing: This is only the 2nd money finish during this WHOLE semester. But it was a huge take, so I'm probably even for the semester in these live tournaments.

I have to probably thank the HORSE game I played in with Terrence and a few people for getting my Hold 'Em A-game back. When we played HORSE, I seriously thought that Hold 'em was my strong suit, but it turned out that I was playing much better at Razz and Stud than Hold 'Em, so I was immediately made aware of the glaring holes in my games, although Terrence had been telling me the same thing for weeks. Sometimes you just gotta learn by yourself.

I decided today to avoid marginal situations at all cost. Before I was playing too much of an emphasis on my "reading skills" and putting myself in marginal situations, thinking I could figure my way out of them. So today was a much more straightforward game of playing position, waiting for good hands, and executing well-time bluffs.

The table I drew was with Terrence and Joe, the only two players I even have to remotely worry about. The other players I figure I can walk away without losing too much ... but Joe plays to a lot of draws, and Terrence... well he'll pounce on a deadmoney pot like Pete on a willing woman. ZZZIIINNNNG!

The first table was uneventful, with the only notable thing worth watching was the frequency in which Jesse [to my right] picked up pocket Aces. Three times during the first 3 levels. I kid you not. And poor Terrence was always on the receiving end of that stick. First time, Terrence made a loose preflop call on a re-raise with AQ and moved when he saw an ace on the flop. Jesse had AA. Ouch. Terrence then ran into AA with KK a little while longer, and my mentor/enemy was out. Joe also got knocked out, and I was really happy.

The players left were all pretty tight players. I didn't overextend preflop hands and ran away when they missed. I got paid off big from Jesse [kind of a newb] with AJ against his J2 [top pair] and he missed his flush draw. I also got him to pay me off quite nicely when my Q9 filled in the nut straight against his two pair [i'm guessing].

Eventually we got down to the final table where I had a sizable stack. I got placed in the glorious of all positions: between two incredibly tight players. I was picking up on average a profit of a BB per round just on blind steals.

I got short-stacked later on when I made a poor play against Jesse.. I only had about 5000 left with blinds at 600/1200. Tightass Will to my right limped in, leaving close to 3000 in the pot ... and a 49o staring at my on the button.

Normally I would fold this hand in a split second, but I had seen Terrence pull the positional all-in to pick up deadmoney pots. I didn't think two tight players to my left in the blinds would call [Stephen and Andrew] since Will limped in. And I could sense Will was real weak, so I felt almost 100% confident this pot would be mine. And guess what? Everyone folded, and I was up to 8000. I stole the next pot [Andrew and Gibby in the blinds, again two tight players] and pretty much doubled up on the blinds. Thanks to Terrence for teaching me this trick!

After that, I picked up 77 in MP against Gibby. When he called, I figured he had some ace [not AK, maybe AQ? AJ?]. When the flop came 6-high, I value-bet the pot without putting too much in there... and he simply called. I remarked "Calling with your ace high, huh?" Lo and behold, an ace hit the turn. He checked, and I just knew I was in trouble. I checked behind him, and picked up a river 7 to double up.

It seemed the gods were good to me tonight... I later doubled up on Jesse when I caught a set of 4s on the flop and Jesse called my all-in because he was getting tired of me "bullying people around."

Well, eventually it down to just me and Andrew, and I ended up taking him out to win first place.

I didn't catch any monster hands [AK once, AA KK QQ never], but I was only exposing my marginal hands when I felt I had a good edge, and I played position like a real bitch. Actually, given my seating and the complexion of the final table [this was probably the weakest final table in the history of Tuesday games], it would of been dissappointing to myself had I not won [no offense to any of the players at the final table!]

It was a good night.