snowed in

Well, we've had some pretty nasty weather here on the east coast. The government announced a 2 hour late opening. On top of that, I work from home on Wednesdays. So I usually turn off my alarm the night before and sleep in a bit, workout and fire up my vpn. But since I don't have to really get started until 11 this morning, I decided to play some stars.
This first $30 sng I won. Here are the highlights of the win. By the way, right now I'm on an "up" trend. I definitely have my winning and losing streaks.
1. I'm under the gun with AsKs. Blinds are $10/$20. I do my standard raise to $60. Got two callers. Flop comes with T33. I check in early position, the next guy checks and the last position bets $80 into the $180 pot. I figure he's playing his position and I'm fairly confident he missed the flop as well. I call as well as the middle guy. I spike an A on the turn. I come out firing. $250 is the bet. The middle guy calls and the late position person folds, as I thought he probably would. I probably put him on a KQ or KJ kind of a hand. River: 7h. A nothing card for the most part. I come out with another bet: $350. He calls and I win the pot. I figure he had a weaker A.
Here's the breakdown:

Seat 1: nino4141 (1660 in chips)
Seat 2: Supa4real (1470 in chips)
Seat 3: alkaatch (1170 in chips)
Seat 4: My B&B (1450 in chips)
Seat 5: elkim (1850 in chips)
Seat 6: benpaulb (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: tl (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: MelbourneJoe (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: lapensee182 (1400 in chips)
elkim: posts small blind 10
benpaulb: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to tl [As Ks]
tl: raises 40 to 60
MelbourneJoe: folds
lapensee182: calls 60
nino4141: folds
Supa4real: folds
alkaatch: folds
My B&B: calls 60
elkim: folds
benpaulb: folds
*** FLOP *** [Tc 3d 3s]

tl: checks
lapensee182: checks
My B&B: bets 80
tl: calls 80
lapensee182: calls 80
*** TURN *** [Tc 3d 3s] [Ah]

tl: bets 250
lapensee182: calls 250
My B&B: folds
*** RIVER *** [Tc 3d 3s Ah] [7h]

tl: bets 350
lapensee182: calls 350

*** SHOW DOWN ***
tl: shows [As Ks] (two pair, Aces and Threes)
lapensee182: mucks hand tl collected 1650 from pot


2. My pocket 9s vs. AcKc: The SB had the AK in this situation. I limped in with 9s. I don't particularly think 9s are strong enough to raise with in early position with the blinds at $25/$50. But the AK did raise it up to $250 total to go when it got to him. I called. I usually call non-raising pairs up to 5X the BB (a la Phil Gordon's Green book - great read...I recommend it highly). Flop comes out: Q8Q - rainbow flop. The small blind comes out betting $450. So at this point, a bunch of things go through my head. I find it highly unlikely he'd bet that much if he made trips. So that ruled out hands like AQ and KQ. I doubt he had Aces or Kings. So the only hands that could make sense would be JJ or TT. Those would be the two hands that currently would beat me. Any other hand is an attempt to take down the pot...which is what I thought he was doing. So I re-raised him another $450...which put him all in. I think he was committed at that point and he called. He didn't hit on the turn or river and I took down a very nice sized pot. Here's the breakdown:

Seat 1: nino4141 (2225 in chips)
Seat 3: alkaatch (1630 in chips)
Seat 4: My B&B (1185 in chips)
Seat 5: elkim (2770 in chips)
Seat 6: benpaulb (1150 in chips)
Seat 7: tl (1985 in chips)
Seat 8: MelbourneJoe (1350 in chips)
Seat 9: lapensee182 (1205 in chips)
benpaulb: posts small blind 25
tl: posts big blind 50

*** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to tl [9h 9d]

MelbourneJoe: folds
lapensee182: calls 50
nino4141: folds alkaatch: calls 50
My B&B: folds
elkim: folds
benpaulb: raises 200 to 250
tl: calls 200
lapensee182: calls 200
alkaatch: folds

*** FLOP *** [Qh 8c Qd]
benpaulb: bets 450
tl: raises 450 to 900
lapensee182: folds
benpaulb: calls 450 and is all-in

*** TURN *** [Qh 8c Qd] [Jd]

*** RIVER *** [Qh 8c Qd Jd] [6d]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

benpaulb: shows [Ac Kc] (a pair of Queens)
tl: shows [9h 9d] (two pair, Queens and Nines) tl collected 2600 from pot


3. This hand isn't so pivotal but worth putting in because I don't want to show only hands I win but also hands I lose; big and small. I was chip leader but not by a lot and was on the button with Kd9d. Everyone folds and I decide to limp in. Flop: 2hAc6c. It gets checked around and I bet the size of the pot. The SB folds and the BB calls. Turn: Ad. I check, he checks. River: Ah. I check, he bets $100. At this point my only options are to fold or raise the right amount to represent a boat or the quads. After thinking about this hand, it's possible he was on a flush draw. Won't be real sure what he had. My gut says he had an Ace.
Here's the hand hx:

Seat 1: nino4141 (3205 in chips)
Seat 3: alkaatch (1730 in chips)
Seat 4: My B&B (1235 in chips)
Seat 5: elkim (2670 in chips)
Seat 7: tl (3435 in chips)
Seat 8: MelbourneJoe (1225 in chips)
MelbourneJoe: posts small blind 50
nino4141: posts big blind 100

*** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to tl [Kd 9d]

alkaatch: folds
My B&B: folds
elkim: calls 100
tl: calls 100
MelbourneJoe: calls 50
nino4141: checks

*** FLOP *** [2h Ac 6c]

MelbourneJoe: checks
nino4141: checks
elkim: checks
tl: bets 300
MelbourneJoe: folds
nino4141: calls 300
elkim: folds

*** TURN *** [2h Ac 6c] [Ad]

nino4141: checks
tl: checks

*** RIVER *** [2h Ac 6c Ad] [Ah]

nino4141: bets 100
tl: folds nino4141 collected 1000 from pot

The rest of the tournament was pretty academic because the blinds were getting real high $200/$400 and I had over half the chips in play. We were 4 handed for quite a while and the other three were trying to knock each other out while I held onto my chips. There were two situations where I knocked out people where I had them dominated like AK vs A7. However, they would flop their kicker and then I'd turn or river my kicker. I was beginning to think I wasn't destined to win having them suck out on me but in the end they held up. I personally don't like the roller-coaster finish but a win's a win.

My second sng for the day was around 8PM. The weather got pretty bad and I cancelled my training session with my client. So I fired up stars again and got into another $30 sng.

Overall, I did well and played my usual game. I was close to on my way to another first place finish but only took down 3rd. However, earlier in the game, I made a great play which really illustrates the power of position. Take a look:

Seat 1: TrueOrange (2840 in chips)
Seat 2: adawg87 (965 in chips)
Seat 3: Morrocca (1440 in chips)
Seat 4: buddha33 (1685 in chips)
Seat 5: slaps825 (2015 in chips)
Seat 7: tl (1610 in chips)
Seat 8: JDH8668 (1775 in chips)
Seat 9: yotekiller (1170 in chips)
buddha33: posts small blind
25slaps825: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to tl [6d 6h]
tl: calls 50
JDH8668: folds
yotekiller: folds
TrueOrange: folds
adawg87: folds
Morrocca: folds
buddha33: raises 150 to 200
slaps825: folds
tl: calls 150
*** FLOP *** [2c Tc 8c]
buddha33: bets 250
tl: calls 250
*** TURN *** [2c Tc 8c] [Kh]
buddha33: checks
tl: checks *** RIVER ***
[2c Tc 8c Kh] [8d]
buddha33: bets 150
tl: raises 350 to 500
buddha33: folds
tl collected 1250 from pot
tl: doesn't show hand

Now, buddha raises 4X the BB as the SB. I initially limped with pocket 6s. The raise in early position indicates a pretty strong hand. And I haven't seen this guy play enough to get a read on him. So I assume he's got a above average hand. However, when 3 clubs show up on the flop, I'm guessing he didn't like that flop. I think he wanted to take down the pot right then and there which probably means he doesn't have a club in his hand. Maybe AK, AQ, AJ, AT or even JJ, QQ. In any case, I call. Kh comes out. He checks, I check. Since I checked the turn and had called such a big bet on the flop, I either made the flush or I'm waiting for another club on the river. So the 8d comes on the river. My supposed club didn't come. I really wasn't worried since I was pretty sure he didn't have a club. He fired $150 into that pot, which wasn't too much. He's hoping I missed. Now I realize the only way to win is to represent either a made flush or the Kh helped me. So I have to put in a reasonable amount to represent that so he can't call. So I raise it up another $350 which represents about 1/4 of the pot. So it's totally believable that I'm value betting my made flush. So he folded.

While that helped my stack, I still came in third. As usual, it's pretty straightforward on my losses. Coinflips - as usual, I'm the favorite going in:

Seat 1: TrueOrange (3400 in chips)
Seat 5: slaps825 (8470 in chips)
Seat 7: TL Inc. (1630 in chips)
TrueOrange: posts the ante 25
slaps825: posts the ante 25
TL Inc.: posts the ante 25
TrueOrange: posts small blind 100
slaps825: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TL Inc. [6d 6c]
TL Inc.: raises 400 to 600
TrueOrange: folds
slaps825: raises 1200 to 1800
TL Inc.: calls 1005 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [2d Qs 8d]
*** TURN *** [2d Qs 8d] [3h]
*** RIVER *** [2d Qs 8d 3h] [Jc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
slaps825: shows [Ah Js] (a pair of Jacks)
TL Inc.: shows [6d 6c] (a pair of Sixes)
slaps825 collected 3385 from pot

Oh well...time for 'Lost'