Winning at the Loafing Leprechaun

My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out.

--Ronald Regan

Last night was a great night at the tables. I managed to win the tournament at the Loafing Leprechaun! There were more than 44 people in the tourney. [There were 46. -JS] I'm happy more about the way I played than the fact that I won.

I can honestly say that last night I made no mistakes. I played every hand the way it should be played, and as a result, I came out on top.

There's really not a pivotal hand on which the entire tournament turned, but the closest hand was at the 1000/2000 blind level. Final table, 7 left and I'm in the small blind with AJ of diamonds. UTG goes all-in for 6000, and a drunk guy at the end of the table (who called me down on a K-J-8 board with 10-3 earlier) made it 10000 to go. I had 1000 in the blind and 9000 left. I called. UTG turned over pocket 7's, and the drunk turned over pocket 2's. The flop came A-A-10, the turn and river were blanks, and I had almost tripled up. It put me in very good position for the rest of the tourney, as it made me the chip leader. I never looked back.

I'm just happy with the way I played. I didn't get tired, I didn't make bad decisions. That's most of the battle of a poker tourney right there. The whole point of playing poker (for me, at least) is that I become the best player that I can. I want to know that i can play an entire tournament and not make a fatal mistake. If I make the correct decision, it doesn't matter to me whether the other guy draws out on me and puts me out. I just want to know that I didn't beat myself. Last night I didn't beat myself, and in the process I beat everyone else.