Went through about a 3-4 week rut recently where I played some shitty poker at various venues for World Tavern. Got away from my general TAG-style, played too many hands, didn't play hands strong enough when I needed to, overplayed top pairs...in other words, played like a total donkey. As a result of this, lost some confidence in my game, which caused a general unwillingness to trust my reads and pull the triggers on moves when I should have been making moves...a vicious cycle.
Changed venues for a couple of weeks, and concentrated on playing more deliberately, trusting with my first instinct and general reads, and then working on tournament endgames. Out of 4 games at Clancy's Pub, had 3 top-3 finishes (including a win), and got in a pretty nice groove over there. Traveled to Overtyme for the late game last Tuesday, and had a solid 3rd place showing in the last game of the regular season.
Gave me confidence to go to Four Aces this week, and while I did not cash (16th out of 84 players - out on a 1-outer, ouch!), felt very confident about my game after leaving, and had a good feeling going into our Tavern Championship last night.
Only 10 of us in the championship, and started at 2 tables. Got my butt kicked around pretty good for one level at 5-handed, but then we get an elimination, and merged to one table of 9. Seemed to work wonders, and built my stack up to 13K (From 10K starting, and 8K at merge), when my first big hand of the night happened.
Raised under the gun (6-handed - 500/1000) with A-A, and snap-called when Wayne 3-bets me with 9-9 - Aces held, and a big double-up for me. After losing about 40% of my stack, was 3-bet all-in again with 10-10, but my K-K held.
Back and forth the chips went between 4 of us, and in my only time where I was all-in with my tourney on the line and behind, my A-9 outflopped 5-5, and after this point I never really looked back...and after this point played pretty much mistake-free poker.
Crippled Rob when his semi-bluff on the turn was met with a check-raise from me...and after watching me play big-stack poker for a couple of orbits too many 3-handed, George made his stand with Q-J...but couldn't catch up after my K-J flopped a king to get down to heads-up. George deserved better - had Aces, kings, and queens cracked after getting the chips in the middle as a heavy favorite.
Luckily for me, none of my big hands got cracked, and after flopping 2-pair with the monster J-6, Wayne's all-in push with J-9 put him on the brink...and with no help on the turn or river, I survive to win the Tavern Championship!
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