I won a fairly big tournament on Sunday. I played their freeroll on Saturday and went out early, but my fortunes changed soon after. That night (Saturday night) a bunch of us played a "Last Player Standing" game where we put $1 into a pool and whoever finished best in a 90-player S&G kept the pool. Not only did I win the pool, but I won the tournament.
Then, of course, I won the GGE money-added game.
I just floated along at first, taking opportunities as they arose. I IM'd with a buddy who was playing another table and he told me that a good player we know was doing well, so I kept tabs on that guy.
Then I had Q/Q on a K/K/Q flop and stacked a guy who had K/T, which put me in the top 10% of players.
When we were down to 5-6 players the other people were really tight. I stole a lot of pots because nobody wanted to fight back. I became chip leader, with only one guy on my right having enough chips to really hurt me. He was smart too, so I was glad to have position on him.
Position there won me the game. Had he been on my left at that point it would have been a different game. But as it was I could stay out of his way and bully the rest of the table. (Most people don't think about this sort of stuff when talking about wins, but who-sits-where is a big part of the game.)
Eventually it came down the smart guy and I.
I'm goo heads up, but this guy was pretty good as well. There wasn't much for me to exploit.
I was HU forever. 50 minutes! I KO'd the 3'rd place finished at 19:42:56 to put me heads up. Then HU ended at 20:33:39
The game started at 15:00 (but I couldn't get on until 15:14) so that's a 5:34 game where.... what... 15% of the game was heads up. Wow! Patience patience patience.
I had good and bad luck HU. I had two pair a couple times, when the guy turned a flush. But both times the river put the 4-flush on the board to scare us both.
In the final hand *he* had the two pair, but I rivered a set. I shoved, he called, and my tiny chip lead was just enough to end it there.
Good times! I'm playing really well and making some really good reads.
Check out this video I made of me talking to myself last Friday.And check out this hand history. I typed out a comment, and hit send the second it was called, before the hands were revealed.
I highlighted the important part in red:
PokerStars Home Game #58015845187: {Iggysdady's Weekly Game} Tournament #366486361, $5.00+$0.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level II (20/40) - 2011/02/20 20:51:23 ET
Table '366486361 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 5: kozlo6pack (1755 in chips)
Seat 6: sachpas3 (960 in chips)
Seat 7: DSOReilly (2405 in chips)
Seat 8: Iggysdady (1875 in chips)
Seat 9: SvgePenguin (1135 in chips)
kozlo6pack: posts small blind 20
sachpas3: posts big blind 40
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SvgePenguin [Qd Qc]
DSOReilly: calls 40
Iggysdady: folds
SvgePenguin: raises 80 to 120
kozlo6pack: calls 100
sachpas3: raises 120 to 240
DSOReilly: folds
SvgePenguin: calls 120
kozlo6pack: calls 120
*** FLOP *** [Ad Ah 9s]
kozlo6pack: checks
sachpas3: checks
SvgePenguin: bets 100
kozlo6pack: calls 100
sachpas3: calls 100
*** TURN *** [Ad Ah 9s]
J♣kozlo6pack: bets 560
sachpas3: calls 560
SvgePenguin: folds
*** RIVER *** [Ad Ah 9s Jc] 4♠
kozlo6pack: bets 160
sachpas3: calls 60 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (100) returned to kozlo6pack
SvgePenguin said, "I have to fold. I think JJ for Koz, and KK for Sach. Let's see if Im right"*** SHOW DOWN ***
kozlo6pack: shows [Jd Js] (a full house, Jacks full of Aces)
sachpas3: shows [Kd Kh] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
kozlo6pack collected 2300 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2300 | Rake 0
Board [Ad Ah 9s Jc 4s]
Seat 5: kozlo6pack (small blind) showed [Jd Js] and won (2300) with a full house, Jacks full of Aces
Seat 6: sachpas3 (big blind) showed [Kd Kh] and lost with two pair, Aces and Kings
Seat 7: DSOReilly folded before Flop
Seat 8: Iggysdady folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: SvgePenguin (button) folded on the Turn
I'm just on my game recently.
Granted, there is a ton of luck and I know I'm on a hot streak, but it feels good.
Poker-wise, I'm in a bit of a funk. This week, 3 times I was getting short and shoved an unchallenged pot in late position with a drawing hand (Q/Js and such) and ran into vowels (A/A). On Sunday I had the day free, so I blew $15.50 in a $5.50 rebuy, then $11 in a CC by-in. Then I played a $5.50 CC game and won $35 (I think). But I played a few tiny games, cashing in one and failing in two, and basially finishing the day about even. Non-Poker: Intersting stuff going on. Work is going okay. More hours would be good. I had a promising first date with someone on Saturday. She's really witty, intelligent and seems really stable, but lives farther away than I'd prefer. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. I'm cautiously optimistic. In poker jargon, this person has really good stats on many levels. I have not been doing my push ups as I'm still hurt. I think it's a tendon thing, not a muscle thing. I think I've been sitting weird, and using the mouse with a crooked arm, so it's straining the tendon by my elbow. The pain has been dissipating, but I've decided not to start push ups again until after my backpacking trip this June. The Trip: I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I'll be going on a backpacking trip to Machu Picchu this summer. I'm excited! 
The backpacking trip is 4 days, 3 nights. We'll visit other ruins along the way. We'll have guides and porters so it won't be roughing it too much. On Day 4 we arrive at the ruins early, a guide will give us a tour of the ruins, and then we hike down to a bus which takes us to a train which takes us on a loooong train ride back to civilization. The next day we fly back to L.A., and the next day I fly back to KY in the AM. So I'll be traveling a lot. When booking tickets, a trip to Peru from KY had a travel time of 22 hours, and cost a lot. Tickets from L.A. to Peru cost quite a bit less, and had an 11 hour travel time. Tickets from KY to L.A. were *less* than that difference, and had a 6.5 hour trip time. Yeah... do the math. I can travel alone for longer and for more money, or I can travel with my loved ones for less time and for cheaper. I'll fly into L.A. a few days early so I can visit my Mom. Then my brother, father, and I will fly to Peru a few days early so we can adjust to the altitude.
