PS 9 SNG $3 + .40 End 1st 103 Hands

Mixed play with periods of good play. HU I thought went well. When our guru/poker moses says to practice our HU daily, he is right on. I try to start my day with a HU to help get my mind into playing poker. I think it also helped last night when I came in 1st in that tournament.

There was one player who played a lot and not always the best of cards. He made it to the last 3 and at the point he exited in 3rd his VP was 62. He would bet 3-4 times the BB which made it hard to challenge him and even when you did, say with the best cards, such as KK, to his nothing, he often lucked out in the turn or river. I got lucky with him his last two hands. The 1st I had pocket 3's to his Q4s and the 2nd I had pocket 6's to his K9o. Both hands my small pocket pairs held up.

 I lost a few chips on this hand. I'm UTG w/Ah 10s. I open raise 95, a little over 3 BB. All fold to the BB who calls me. Flop 7c 7s Jd. No real help to me. Both of us check. Turn Jc. Still no help to me but with the board double paired my A might be good enough to win and/or chips the pot. BB bets 90 into the 205 and I call. River Jh. Even more interesting. Unless he has a pair bigger than a 7 we'll chop the pot! BB bets 800 into the 385 pot and I call. I was correct about his not having a pair bigger than a 7, but that, as it turns out didn't matter. What he had was Qs Js, hitting quad J's on the River. I lose instead of chop!

My low chip count was 690 with five of us left, and with a hand where I had A3o as cutoff w/765 chips and four of us left, I decide to try and steal the blinds and go all-in. The BB called me and showed Ad Qc. It looked like I would go out 5th but the board played out so we got a chopped pot:  5d 5c 7s Jc 7c. Saved on the River!

Next hand was similar; blinds were 75/150 and after I posted the BB I had 652 chips left. The BTN who is this very loose player open raises 2 BB (300), SB & I call. Flop Ks Ts 8c. I pair my 5's. SB checks and I go all-in w/my last 502 chips; BTN calls & SB folds. BTN shows 9To, two overcards. The Turn is nice to me. Turn 5d; I now have trip 5's and it turns out I needed that. River 9d, pairing the BTN's 9. I win and have 1904 chips and am 2nd high stack to the BTN's 9318 chips.

Those are basically the highlight hands that got me to the HU.