Close Call

Yesterday started off like any normal work day for me. My phone alarm jarred me awake and I quickly shut it off. Normally my alarm across the room will start playing a CD about a minute and a half later, in case I don't get up when the phone goes off or I turn it off without even waking up. After turning off my phone, stretching in bed, and closing my eyes again I started to fall back to sleep. No big deal. I've got a good song coming on soon to wake me up. Or do I?

1

Just when I realized I was falling asleep again, I nearly jumped out of bed with the thought that the few seconds I believed I was asleep after the alarm could have been a couple hours because no matter what, the other alarm should have gone off by now. I would have loved to take the day off yesterday, but since that wasn't possible, I must have just given my alarm clock the day off instead as I didn't set it before I went to bed.

2

It was an inauspicious start to the day, which didn't get much better at all to tell the truth. Work was marginally busier than normal, but the big lunch meeting we hosted was quite the pain for nearly a full hour. After work, I knew a nap would be in order if I expected to survive a night of my math class and still be alert enough to play round two of my heads-up tourney shortly thereafter. I crawled in bed almost immediately after I got home.

3

As tired as I was, the thought of not being able to fall asleep for a nap wasn't even in my head, but that's exactly what happened. I tossed and turned, hearing every little noise inside and outside of the house. Even hearing Guinness breathing shallowly as he slept on the floor next to my bed, normally something very soothing, bothered me as much as someone pounding on my roof with a hammer would have.

4

To make matters worse, I fell into a deep, coma-like sleep right before my alarm went off so I could make it to class on time. I probably should have gotten up and gone to class, but I couldn't drag myself out of my room. I set the alarm for a couple hours later and jumped back into bed. Guinness didn't seem to mind that he wasn't going to be forced out of my room just yet, and may have been back to sleep himself before I even got the covers back over me.

5

Once I finally got up, I had this crazy craving for Wendy's. Not great diet food, but I gave in to my craving. Oddly enough, the food itself wasn't fulfilling once I got home. It filled me up and all, but I didn't really enjoy it like I normally do when I scarf down something I had been craving. It was strange, then actually made me feel bad for not enjoying a cheat meal.

6

After that I played my second round match against Paigow Pete. I got down 0-2 in the match pretty quickly, but stayed alive by winning the next two and forced a deciding 5th game. I ended up losing the final game, and almost putting my right hand through my computer desk when he flipped over ANOTHER 3 of a kind in a big pot. That was the story of our match though.

7

I'd rate our play in the matches as about on par with each other, but most of the big hands played out in his favor. I don't want to take anything away from Pete, I mean saying I thought his play was on par with mine is a compliment I don't give many people in heads-up games, because he earned the victory for sure. I was just frustrated that the hands played out the way they did. We both had a number of big hands throughout the match, but he was able to get away from hands when I made my big ones, and I usually had something worth looking up when he had his.

8

For the small amount of hands we played in this heads-up match, I had some pretty great cards. Lots of big pocket pairs that I'd win just the blinds with, and a lot of my straight and flush draws got there but didn't get paid off. At one point I made a straight flush and won the absolute minimum I could have in the pot.

9

Alright, enough whining about the tournament. Now it's time to whine about the heads-up matches I played afterward. I came out on the losing end (5-6) of an 11 HUSnG session on Full Tilt. I started off in the lower buy-ins to get reacclimated with the structure on FT after playing on Stars for the tourney, and the play money games on Stars at that. My first 6 games were at $5, and I went 3-3. After that I was ready to play for real and played a $50 game which I lost.

10

Just after that I noticed an unfamiliar name sitting in the lobby for a $100 game. Unfamiliar names there are good. The only people that can sustain playing those levels long enough to get familiar are the ones who are consistent winners. If you are a good player and can break even at those levels, the rake is still gonna kill ya. So I sit down with the unfamiliar player, and become familiar with him pretty quickly. He is a very solid player, but his strategy was easy for me to adjust to and exploit.

11

He was a little too passive early and let me get a decent chip lead in each of our games. Playing against me heads-up when I have you outchipped is not easy. Like I said though, he was solid and was able to trap me in one hand late in our first game by just calling from the button then calling my raise from the big blind when I bumped it up 3x with a suited AJ. I flop two pair and lead out, he raised a little more than the minimum, and I reraised him enough to commit him. I insta-call when he shoves and he tables pocket aces.

12

Nice play, but you can only use it once against me....and to be honest, it was kind of wasted here because I was going to put him all in one way or another after that flop anyway. Had he gotten any piece of that flop, he was going to be committed by turn as I had him outchipped 2-1 at the start of the hand. So it worked there when he didn't need to use it, and also alerted me to that being part of his arsenal.

13

He used that move three more times over the course of our 4 games. The second and third time were also successful, but very limited in their success. I got away from my hands very easily and noticed his distinct betting pattern with big hands like that. The fourth time nearly busted him, and put him out of that game for all intents and purposes when he slow played the aces and I flopped two pair. I gave him just enough rope to hang himself then raised him enough on the river to commit his entire stack to the pot, but still look like a value bet. Oddly, with a very disjointed board, he just called. After that he had a couple hundred left and was done for.

14

Overall we played to a 2-2 tie in our games, which would have been a 3-1 margin of victory for me had he not hit a one outer on the river to make quads versus my boat after the money went in on the turn. Like I said, the day didn't go so great after my alarm snafu. I was more than happy to go to bed after taking that sick beat for a $200 swing. This time, I set my alarm.