Massive Satisfaction!

I had a very satisfying set of hands come up at the beginning of the $215 Mixed Hold'em Second Chance. After playing 10 minutes of limit poker, we switched to no limit and I got dealt AQ suited in the big blind. Everyone folded to the small blind who made the minimum raise to 40. I made it 120 to go and he quickly made it 420. This seemed a little goofy to me and I decided to just call. The flop came down KQ5. This put me in a tough spot with second pair, and I decided to just call when my opponent bet out 500. The turn was a 7 and now my opponent moved all in for 3,500. We started the hand about even and this would have put me all in as well. Something seemed off, but since I really didn't have a good read on my opponent I decided to fold and look for a better spot to get my money in.

Three hands later the same guy open raised to 60 and I just called him with AT. The flop came down JT6 and my opponent bet 80. My hand figured to be the best so I raised to 240. After a little though my opponent moved all in. CRAP! This time I felt more confident that I had the best hand. There were two spades on board and it just felt like my he had something like KQ or a flush draw. I also thought there was a chance that he was just trying to exploit what he perceived as my weak play. After some thought I again figured I could find a better spot to get my money in and folded. I was getting a little irritated, but I told myself that if I just hung in there and stayed patient I'd eventually nail this guy.

On the very next hand I got dealt JJ, was the first one to act and made it 60 to go. The villain was in the big blind and I was praying he'd call and make a second best hand or try a big bluff. He called and the flop came J 7 2. WOW! Now all I needed was a repeat of the previous hands. He checked and I bet out 80, to my EXTREME delight he moved all in! I had the total nuts and stopped for a count of 2 to just enjoy the moment. I called and he showed 72! He'd called my raise with the worst possible hand and flopped two pair! Adding to the goodness the turn was the 4th jack!

On the VERY NEXT hand another player made it 80, the villain made it 240 and I made a bold move (translation: a bad play that worked out) by going all in with 77. I figured the villain was on tilt, could have just about anything and I'd pick up a few hundred chips without a fight. I thought he might even call me with a smaller pair. Instead he called me with AQ, missed, and was done! HA! Take that sucker! It was so satisfying.

Anyway we started with 226 players and with 179 left I'm in 11th place with 9,600 chips. 36th is the edge of the money and pays $316.