What's this? A poker blog?

Summer is kicking my ass. Man, I remember, as a kid, thinking this summer thing was just one long day to play after the next. Its July already and I have no idea what happened to June.

And then came Poker Tracker and it all came rushing back to me...I broke even.

I finally got off my scared little a$$ and moved up the sng ladder just a little bit. When I started this blog, I was a regular at the $5 games but then I found out how to lose and did some serious damage to my bankroll. At the worst of it, I was actually playing my money again...yikes! I' back to playing the $5 sngs and even won me a Tier One token. Watch your backs boys and girls!

Remember my post on fear? I'm still practicing anti-fear. Since that post, my live poker at poker league has seen a dramatic improvement. The 6 weeks prior to the post saw no points for OhCaptain. Nada. Since that post, I'm 4 of 6 weeks in the points with one 1st place finish and 2 2nd place finishes. This week was one of the second place finishes.

In particular this week, I found my gambool. I really felt like I was reading well and making the poor people of this league suffer for the short comings. Large value betting was normal for me, I was continuation betting flops that I knew they missed and even some that if thought looked like something I hit. In this league, we start with 2000 chips. At first break (4 X 20 min blind levels) I had about 10,000. I really wish this was a knock out tournament...I'd be rich. I had 5 knock outs in the first hour and 20 minutes.

The hand of the night went like this.

Grant, a player that I know to be very aggressive and loves to steal pots from the weak is directly to my right. He raises it one bet to 800, the blinds are 200/400. To me, this was just his SOP, so I put him on ATC. The flop came 242 with two spades. He's first to act and makes it 2500. It just seemed like a bet to chase me away. Again, this would be SOP for him. He gets you in the pot and then steals it away when he thinks you missed. If he has hit this flop, he would want me to call, and the bet would be smaller. I figured my cards would still be a good draw against his range, so I shove over the top making it about 9000 to go. He calls and turns over KTo and says, "I don't think you have anything." It's not often you will hear me laugh at the table, but this time I did. "Nope, I don't have anything, but my nothing is better then your nothing." KJo would be a big favorite now. A jack on the turn would seal his fate and make me the tournament chip leader.

I continued my aggressive play right to the final table. There, the competition does get very challenging. Say what you will about free bar poker, but there seems to be a lot of final tables with the same people at them. These people weren't the ones to just lie back and take abuse, they reraise your steals and remind you that they know whats going on. I tried picking better spots to get chips, and kept alive. Grant, was making a huge comeback and getting great cards. My cards sucked so I just stayed out of the way.

In the end, I ran ATd into AKh and AKd into 99 and successfully redistributed my chips back to the table. Staying a live long enough to have 2000 chips left when the blinds were 1000/2000. So when the BB hit me...you know the rest.

I'm not sure how much poker time I will get in the next 2 weeks. We will be taking the kids to visit friends in Wisconsin this weekend and on Wednesday morning, we will taking them on their first airplane vacation to the Virginia/Maryland area. Any bloggers want to get together out there...let me know. We have no definite plans right now other then a wedding. Of course my laptop will be with, cause I'm a degenerate that way...and every hotel I've booked so far has Internet access.

I will admit it right now, I wish I was going to Okie Vegas. Maybe the next one.

Until next time, may you only be reading about drama, not livin' it!