2 done, 2 won

Played so horribly yesterday (except the 2 HU games, which I won) - 2 sit n go's, both played horribly (though one I busted on one of those "bad beat" things). I played the 2 HU games at the same stake as my 2 stt's (2 & 5), so I won my buy-ins back (less a few cents of course), but I was supremely disappointed in my tourny play. I'm becoming MUCH more comfortable heads up, that's for sure -- I need to track my HU stats, but I'm pretty sure I'm around 70% or so.

Tonight, I thought I'd play a quick $2.25 turbo before bed. And, of course, as soon as one started I figured "what the hell, I'll just start another one too." And yea, I took 'em both down :) Both completely differently, though.

The first, I dominated from early on: wasn't superior play, I was a major-league card rack! Q5 in the bb, only sb calls; flop 55x, sb bets, I call; turn a 5 (I'm ready to slow play here); sb shoves with...A9. No pair, no draw. Thnx, gg. Aces twice (though cracked once); queens flopping a set; AKs, AQs, 99, JJ... I was chip leader until 3-way when my AA got cracked by a rivered set of 6's. I battled back to 2nd in chips, and found AKs in the BB; sb raises (was super-aggressive, raising most hands); I shoved.... hesitate, then....calls with presto. Rivered an ace, thnx gg. HU I had a major chip lead, lost it to a suck out, battled back to about even, stole a bunch of pots to get a nice lead again, then finished him off with a suckout: Ad5d, raised from the sb, he re-raised, I called. Flop: 8s 8d Qd. I shoved. INSTACALL by... AcQc. Turned a 9d for the win.

The other one, I looked at the hand history at around 20 hands, and I had only won one. About 10 hands later, I had won one more... was super-duper-patience on this one. Then I noticed that, while the other game was 3-way, this one was still 7-WAY! Way too tight, so I started raising from position with middle connectors, middle gappers, K2 - anything... and just stole a bunch of pots. Enough raising and eventually someone's gonna look you up... which is nice when you have aces when they happen to look you up! Catapulted to the chip lead with now 6 to go. Took out a couple more players; down to 3-way took out #3 with AQ v QJ (AQ held); HU lasted about 4 hands as I had 12,300 vs 1,200 chips. Last hand was 10 3 s vs A 4 s (hey! I couldn't fold for 400 chips!), hit a 10 on the flop.

Played well; in the uber-tight one I waited 'till the pots were large enough preflop to matter and started attacking them. Hard to say the first one was much skill (I mean, I did nothing fancy - even when I planned on slow playing my opponents led out for me!).

OH, just for kicks - in the last one, when 3-way I was shortstack for a bit. I needed chips desperately (and had just won the other one so was already happy!), and I shoved with:

...no callers :)

Feel a little better after 2 wins in a row, though I'm honestly still hung-up on that horrible, awful, horrendous call I made Saturday night at Tulalip. At least I learned; and an after-analysis made me realize I just got blinded and didn't perform well under pressure. Must focus more next time.