5th Street Forum Weekly Game

Well after my poor showing in the BPT and being somewhat irritated at the way I had gone out I entered the 5th Street game feeling somewhat aggressive. I wouldn`t say I was tilting, just fired up. From the very beginning I played hard, if I scented weakness I pounced and I got off to a great start. These are players I play against week in, week out and as I normally play very tight agressive I think my usual table image helped a lot when I adopted a looser style for much of the game. I pretty much led from start to finish in this game, something I`ve never done before. These games have only a small number of runners, 13 this week I think and yet it was 95 hands before we lost a player, as Hacksaw put it, "it`s like a SNG on steroids".

Once we were down to 10 players I tightened up a little but I used my large stack very well, bullying and stealing but backing off when I met resistance. With five players left I had pocket eights on the button and made a significant raise to try to take the blinds. Wade in the SB had different ideas and pushed his remaining chips in, Hacksaw in the BB did the same, making it another 1,000 or so to call. I called with little hesitation and found I was up against A-J and A-Q respectively. The board brought no help for either of them and I regained the chip lead briefly held by Neo, and eliminated 2 players.

Just a few hands later I found myself with pocket jacks in the BB. I made a small raise and was called by Cerberi, the flop brought two rags and a jack, I was expecting a check from Cerberi but he raised so I re-raised and he called. Unfortunately for him he had the other jack. End of game for him and it left me heads-up with a massive 6-1 chip lead against Neo. For a while it seemed as if the poker gods would allow me to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as I was dealt rag hand after rag hand and saw my margin drop to 2-1 chip advantage. Finally though I was dealt Q-5 and the flop brought me a Q, Neo raised, I re-raised and he pushed all-in. After a few moments thought I decided to call and he turned over A-2 of spades giving him a nut flush draw. The turn and river were no help though and I took down my first weekly game victory.

It was quite simply the best I`ve played for a long time, maybe the best I`ve ever played. It just proves that your mental state can have a serious effect on your game, sometimes positive sometimes negative. It`s a fine line to walk though for sure.