Of course, he re-buys, this time from my stack (again). He wins a pot, loses a pot, and plays pretty much every flop. With about $18 in chips he comes into the following hand (my stack was well in excess of $50 at this point, with $20 behind in the wallet). I look down in EP and find the black KK, and quickly make it 4x the BB to go. A few folds, raise from Slot Demo to 6x, I call, and we're heads up to the flop, which is Q36 rainbow. I bet $3, and he moves all in. I don't have a clue what he's thinking, but AA and QQ are a longshot possibility given his play pre-flop. I banter about AA and QQ, basically advertising to the world that I have KK. I push my stack in for a re-raise, and he calls. I was worried about AQ at least when he did this... only to find that he has A4o. Nice. Turn is a 7, and I notice he has a gutshot plus the ace draw for 7 outs. Of course, the river brings a 5 to give him the runner-runner straight. I pay him off and actually feel ok about it, knowing that if the game keeps going, I'd have a crack at getting those chips back.
A few hands go by, and we drop down to 4 handed, with one player busting. Bust guy moves in on a 995x board with KK, and JJ calls. River brings a J, and the place erupts momentarily. Gambooler wins a fortunate two pair vs. higher two pair hand, giving him a healthy stack of $40 or so, and we get to the final hand of the night. This was announced as the final hand before it was dealt, and I was going to see the flop for just about any prize, particularly since the hand before I had folded 74o pre-flop for $1, only to see 568 come down. The implied odds on most hands were huge given the game texture, etc.
Final hand, I get QcJd UTG, and call. One extra bet around, and all 4 see the flop, which is 5c9cAc. I call a modest bet from Gambooler, as does the host. Turn is the 2 of something, and I call another smallish bet looking to make my flush or hit a Q or J. I do not give Gambooler credit for the Ace. Heads up at the river, the Tc comes down. I got what I asked for, and amazingly enough, Gambooler starts counting off a bet, at first $3, then $5, then $9, and I say "just tell me what it is when you figure it out," he asks how much we can do, and I say "we're about equal, so you can move all in if you want." He complies, and I'm left with a binary decision: does he have the Kc? Its the only card in the deck that can beat me. I conclude that I got what I wanted, and I'd be a fool not to push/call (stacks were close to even, but it wasn't clear who was bigger), so I did.
He announces "I've got the flush," and rolls the JcTh. I erupt with joy, and let out a loud "YES" with fist pump that was a bit inappropriate for an apartment complex at 1:30AM. Turn over my QcJd, and those left in the room go nuts. Gambooler is gracious in defeat, and says it was fun playing with us -- out probably $100 or so, $60+ of which went to me. Had I lost that pot, my evening would have been slightly in the red, rather than seriously in the black. So consider this post my "Ode to the Queen of Clubs."
I ended up with $40 in cash (people buying my chips), and $66 in chips for a total of $106, or a $76 profit. Not bad for 5 and 1/2 hours of poker. It was an AMAZING feeling to finish the night on a big all-in victory. After reading HDouble's soul-searching post about running bad despite solid play, I couldn't help but think that its these moments -- the ones I'm experiencing right now -- that make it all worthwhile. I know I'm a better poker player than I was a few months (weeks!) ago, and I'm doing my best to store these memories away in the hope that they might save me when inevitably the reaper that is variance comes my way for a while.
Add to the mix my satellite success yesterday, and my confidence/enjoyment associated with poker is going through the roof. I only hope I can sustain the good side of this equation while avoiding the hubris and fall that come with unrealistic expectations and notions of invincibility.
VA home game: 2 nights, +$156, or 78BB's per visit. If I can maintain even 50% of this rate in the future, I'll be on cloud nine.
Content and reports on fellow bloggers later in the week. Its way past my bedtime.
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