I'm up for the week!!!

Yes!!

The week started out so horrible (see the terrible plays under "when I go on tilt.") (Following Bet-the-Pot conventions, my weeks are Monday through Sunday.)

Today I started out good. Posted a nice $10 win in the first hour. Switch tables, take a deep breath, plunge back in.

Big hand #1. I limp in with QTs. 5 players see the flop of QJT. Two pair is very good. First player in overbets the pot slightly. What is up with that? Not sure. Call to me, I re-raise, and get 3 calls. Wow pot is big now. Turn is a blank. Original better bets again. This is where I should have laid it down, but the bet wasn't that big and the pot was huge. Call, call, call. Pot is 30 bucks or so. River is also a blank. Better is all-in but he only has 3 bucks left, a call to me, I have to call although I know I'm beat and I am: first better had K9 for the straight and takes it down.

Big hand #2. I raise preflop with AK to $1.00. 2 callers. Flop is T96. I bet about $1.50. 1 caller. Uh-oh. $5 in the pot, turn is a beautiful A. Bet $5, get re-raised all-in. Now I have notes on this guy. He has been playing very strangely, making bets of the wrong size at the wrong time. Doesn't seem to have much of a clue. I call. He has 88! Yes!!! River is an 8! No!!!!!!!!! He drags a $31 pot on a 6-outer.

At this point I have reloaded a total of 37 bucks -- almost two full buy-ins. I keep focused, though, which is wonderful. I don't start playing dumb cards or anything. One table I get up to $35. The big stack is a pretty good but very aggressive player who I've seen before. I have seen him raise to 6x the BB with AJo, KQo, even A4o. I'm in the BB with KK. He comes in with his standard $1.20 raise. I re-raise him to $4. He calls, everybody else folds. Pot is $8.50 or so. Flop is Qxx all hearts -- I have the K of hearts. I have seen enough posts on the Bet the Pot forum about this type of situation. I overbet the pot -- about $10 -- as I likely have the best hand and I have outs in any case. He re-raises all in! It's another $21 to me. I call, he has QJ for top pair decent kicker -- and NO hearts!! Obviously a bluff on his part, or guessing that I was bluffing at that 3-flush board. Not sure which. But he's way behind. A heart comes on the river to wrap it up. Yay!!!

I stick around for a few more hands, get some cards & take some small pots. But I'm too nervous with that much $$ at the table, so I quit.

From down $35 to up $19 in that session. Session was about 90 minutes, which is a pretty long session for me. With the $10 session earlier, I'm now up for the week (barely). Big smile.