Just Like Keanu Reeves

What does Keanu Reeves have to do with poker? Nothing! But I did feel like I did a little Matrix Style bullet dodging today. My morning session was tough and it seemed like I kept going broke in spots where I was fully expecting to win. After lunch it wasn't much better. 2600 hands into the day I was down a little over $700 and doing my best to remind myself that I'd just won about the same amount yesterday. I accepted the fact that my streak of winning days would be coming to an end and even though I didn't really feel like it I decided to play to 3,000 hands before calling it a day.

Then I went on a nice rush. I picked up Aces, got three way action and won a huge pot. I flopped a straight against a player who had aces and doubled up. I picked up a few other modest pots and before I knew it I was about $100 short of even! All I needed was one more big pot to make it happen. Then I lost a big pot and found myself stuck $250. Crap!

I still had a few hands to go and I kept thinking if I could make a couple of nice hands I could keep the streak alive. I managed to win a few mid size pots in a row and when I checked my balance I saw that I was about $50 away from even. I kept thinking "Come on you bastards, just give me one decent pot!" When I crossed over the 3,000 hand mark I decided to keep playing until I lost all of my chips in one game or until I was ahead for the day.

300 hands later I was still about $50 from even and starting to get impatient when I picked up AQ in the small blind. "Ah ha!" I thought for the 50th time in the past half hour "This could be the one that does it for me!" Everyone folded to me, I raised and the big blind called. The flop came down AQ9. Ah ha! I bet and my opponent called. Ah ha again!The turn was a 10 which seemed like a good card. If my opponent had one pair he easily could have made two pair worse than my own or picked up a draw that would encourage him to pay me off. I bet and my opponent made a big raise. Uh Oh. Even though that's exactly what I wanted him to do, I couldn't help but think that he might have KJ and made a straight. It didn't really matter what I thought he had because there was no way I was folding. I put in the rest of my chips and thought "Don't have KJ, Don't have KJ, Don't have KJ" like I was the little engine that could. And then the river came out...BING! Q on the river! Full House! SEND IT! It turned out that my opponent did have KJ, but obviously I still won the pot.

I picked up a few other small pots as I played to my blinds in all of my games and ended up winning just under $200 today. The streak is still alive!