Don't You Love Holiday Poker

Blog Watchers,

Thank G-d for the holidays. As I told you all before my online bankroll has been rather...depressed since my last deposit and I have been playing real micro-tournaments just trying to make something grow. However micro-tourneys are crap shoots and I was having very very very slow progress. Luckily enough, the holiday season have just ended and thanks to generous family and grandparents I was able to deposit $100 more into my account. Of course this came with the condition that I deposit 50 into my fathers account...and I did with pleasure.

Now that I had more money in my account I decided to celebrate by playing in a $5 tourney on Pokerstars. First place was $1700 and I have been feeling really good about my play. I started off playing rather fast and picking up some nice small pots. I wasn't stealing per say, but the first hand I showed down was QQ so I was getting a ton of respect. I was playing perfectly up to about 2200 from the original 1800 and again I caught QQ in MP (Middle Position). The blinds were 50/100 The person UTG (Under The Gun) + 1, had about 1400 and limped in for 100. Then it was folded to me and I raised it to 350. I wanted to make sure I isolated the limper while still giving him pot odds to call. He was a solid player and so I had to put him on a marginal hand he wanted to see a flop with JT, Q9. I couldn't put him on a big pair because he would most likely raised UTG+1. It folded back around the the original limper so my isolation worked perfectly. He thought for about two seconds and then went all-in! It surprised me because I didn't see it coming but I have QQ and I insta-called him. I was right on my read and he had 98off for a bluff. I don't know why he did it, but you encounter those type of muscle plays in low-limit tournaments. I was feeling great and I was about to get my hands on about 4k when you guessed it...Q-J-T comes on the flop for the flopped straight. I had a chance to redraw for a full house but it was no good and I was crippled.

I was able to fight back to 1k but then my KK came in contact with a big stacks 99. Guess what came on the river...

I love holiday poker!
Dave