Got home from work last night and decided to try my hand at the Pearl tourney on Paradise. My game has been horrible lately, so I have been reading and rereading some of my notes and a few books to get myself back on track.

The Pearl tournament is usually a good one because it includes some of the best players. I played really solid poker, not taking too many risks. I really mixed up my game whenever I became involved in a pot and induced bluffs from the aggressive players, and pushed around the tighter players. I was able to lay down top pair several times when I knew I was beat, and I was also able to lay down some hands pre flop that I normally would get involved with. For the first time in a month I was seeing things clearly. Playing my position and avoiding coin flips that would put my tournament life at stake.

I ended up heads up against the top ranked player on www.PocketFives.com . I've played against him before and I knew he was a tough opponent but I also knew I could beat him. He had me out chipped going into heads up. His stack was 110K and mine was 35K. Right off the bat he started pushing me around by going all in after I raised pre flop. After that I knew I could trap him if I got a decent hand. A few hands later he limped in from the small blind. Normally, heads up against a weaker opponent, I would see this as weakness and would reraise, but against him I felt it was a trap, so I checked. I flopped trips and checked the flop. When he bet out, I reraised and he came over the top. I doubled up on that hand and that put a stop to his aggressiveness. I then worked my way up to over 80k in chips when the following hand happened. He raised pre flop, I thought about it and reraised him all in with A 9 off suit. He called with A 7 off suit. He spiked his 3 outer 7 on the turn raking in a huge pot. The next hand the rest of my chips went in the middle with KJ suited and he called with AQ. This time the better hand held up and I finished 2nd.

While I was disappointed in the fact I didn't win, I knew that I played excellent and just ran into a touch of bad luck. Feeling very good about my game right now. Hopefully I can keep it up.