I’ve been playing a fair amount of HU SNGs lately. It all started when I saw a thread here about someone’s HU challenge where he would start with a $5 HU and go on up. I decided to try it out because I was bored and it looked interesting. I began it, played a $5, won it. I moved to $10, won it.

Now I had $20 won, so I could go to the $20, but the next would be $50, so I would need another $10 win. I played the other $10 first, won, but then lost the $20. That was it for me for that one night, and the challenge so to say. But I’ve continued playing these HU SNGs. Currently, I’ve won 10 and lost 3, for a 77% winning percentage.

Until about 10 minutes ago, I had been shut out in $20 matches, which is the highest limit I have played. I had played two, and lost both of them. I had one $5 win, and had won 6 straight $10 matches, until I split 1-1 today. Then I tried a $20 for the 3rd time and won it in my longest match so far, with 127 hands played. I came back from being down to 450 chips to win the match.

I’ve made $55 (not including the rakes, which would knock the total down about $7). I really enjoy playing these HU matches. Also, I’ve been getting quite bored with both ring tables and MTTs. I hope my enthusiasm for ring tables gets rejuvenated, but right now, I’m not having fun there. I’ve been feeling a little uneasy, and again, bored. Maybe a nice winning session will get me back into them, but I will probably only give ring tables a limited amount of playing time.

I played a $5 MTT today, but couldn’t get anything going. I could never get a good hand to play, so I had to start trying to steal and bluff a little. Those didn’t fare well and I was eliminated.

I also had a short session at $1/$2 limit. When I sat at the table, it seemed like a perfect fit for me. The players per flop percentage was under 20% and with a pot average of $5 (when it’s usually at least $10). My plan was to steal the blinds often, but that plan went askew. The player to my left was one that I had noted previously as being very aggressive in the blinds and a blind defender, so I didn’t want to attempt to steal from him.

Three seats from me (which would put me in a good steal position when he was the big blind) was another player I had previously noted as being a terrible player that rarely folds preflop. So again, another steal opportunity that I couldn’t really take. Then, about halfway through, a player came in to sit to my right that tried to steal every chance he got. So overall, I had little to no chance to steal the blinds, and I never attempted it.

On top of everything else, I couldn’t get a good hand to save my life. The only times I lost money, I was in the blinds. I believe I only voluntarily put money into the pot preflop twice, once when I completed my SB and another when I defended my SB with A8o by reraising the player to my right that had raised.

I knew he had nothing and I was able to take down the pot on a flop that came QJX. Altogether, I lost $0.25. I usually won’t leave a table when I’m down by such a small amount like that where it is easy to overcome, but I just wasn’t feeling comfortable plus I was very bored since I couldn’t get a hand to play.

Not sure if I’ll be playing anymore poker tonight. I’ll probably just get caught up in watching the NCAAs. My brackets did alright in the first round, though not that great. I was 24-8 with only one team that was eliminated in the first round that I had winning in the second round.

So I could have won at most 15 out of 16 second round games, but I’ve done pretty poorly today. I had Illinois over Washington and Tennessee over Wichita St. Both lost, but had very good opportunities to win and basically threw it away at the end of the game. I’ll have to see how the rest of my brackets fair through the rest of the second round.

Wow is all I can say. Before tonight, my best MTT finish was 16th place. The most money I had made was like $54 in a $5 R. Well, tonight was fantastic. I played four MTTs. I made two final tables.

My first was a $3.30 with 1946 entrants. Well, I won it. Most of it is just a big blur to me. It just seems surreal. This was my first final table and of course, first win. I must admit, I got incredibly lucky many many times, especially at the final table. Really, up until the final table, I had not sucked out the entire tourney, even though I was sucked out on.

At the final table, just everything clicked. Whenever I entered a hand all-in and I had the lead, I kept it and won the hand. When I was all-in and trailing, I hit my lucky card, usually on the river. There were big hands and big plays, but never really any big losses on my part. I almost always made the correct fold in potentially big hands.

Well, I got down to heads-up for roughly $500. My opponent was a good one. Aggressive, but not reckless. I started with the advantage, about 2:1. I quickly lost it with a few consecutive horrible plays on my part. But I worked back, got a huge break when I slow-played AA. My opponent raised preflop, I just called. He bet the flop, and I forget exactly how it went down, but he had caught a king on the flop, but lost to my aces.

I finished it off when I limped with 22 on the button. He checked. Flop came 2AA. He went all-in, I called. He had Q8o or something like that, and I took it down for $1065.44. Man, it felt amazing to win one. Absolutely amazing. Thanks to everyone for their support. It really meant a lot. I think Fink is my lucky charm. Every time he would call for ‘HOLD’ it would happen.

Well, I missed the money in my $5.50 and $2.20 MTTs, but I made my second final table in the $1.10 tournament. There were 1155 entrants in this one. To be honest, I barely payed any attention to this tournament. I was so caught up in my final table, that that took up all of my attention. Well, some how, I did well in it. With about 40 players left, right after I had won the $3, I felt like just giving up because I could not focus at all and I was very tired. Well, I made a few semi-loose plays, but nothing horrible.

I ended up winning some decent pots and got up there in the standings. I stayed as one of the higher stacks the entire time. I felt very comfortable with 2 tables left and at the final table. I was stealing blinds left and right. Everything seemed to be going well. I didn’t win every pot I played, but I did and still do feel comfortable. In the first final table, I was very nervous the entire time. Maybe that was because it was my first ever. Maybe because there was more money at risk. I’m not sure, but I was nervous there, but not here.

I finished in 3rd. With three left, I had the lead off and on. Nearer to the time I got knocked out, I really didn’t play that well. I was making some silly raises and some silly calls. But the main reason I lost was because the guy who won it was ulta-aggressive. Almost every single hand, he would raise preflop. If he didn’t, I usually did, and with pretty good hands for 3-handed mind you, like QJ, KT, Ace Rag.

He would call almost every single one of these raises. Then I pretty much missed every flop. If he was first to act, he would bet too big for me to be able to call. If he was second, he would raise my bet. He just never got off my back. But you know what, it worked for him. He played better than I did. But, I am plently happy with 3rd place. Really, for making a final table, 3rd place would be the spot where I would have no regrets, no matter what the prize, because it’s like making the money in a single table SNG.

I took $82.01 (first was $228.12). I didn’t make anywhere near as much as the first tourney, and I definitely missed out on making $50-$145 more, but I’m very happy on how it all went down.

Well, needless to say, tonight was my best night of poker ever. Hopefully I can keep this up.