Notes to self

• If you are ever card dead, write a blog about it, and your luck will change immeaditely. I won a tournament today and won $40 in a ring game last night, which is a pretty nice night in a .25 NL game (I was pleased), mostly because three pocket pairs hit their sets on the flop.
Ironically, I won with K,K, 5,5 and 10,10 but lost with A,A when a fish called me down and hit her inside straight on the river.
• Thank you, Poker Gods.
• I have cut down on poker a bit since I was playing it basically all the time after Jayden and Mrs. Pokerpeaker went to bed, and last night's successful session, an hour-long, focused sit-down, was probably the result.
I need to pay more attention when I'm a little tired of the grind and do something else. There's lots of books to read, for instance. Stephen King's new one is fun.
• I also re-read Harrington, and he's not advocating that you sit back and wait for good starting hands the whole tournament. He's saying to play it smart and play the Gap Concept but steal when you can in the later rounds. I acted accordingly and won the tournament. I had gotten away from being more aggressive and I hope this is a return to form.
• A,7, for instance, is a great hand to raise on the button when there's only one caller.
• Or 8,5, for that matter.
• One hand was interesting: I had K,K, one guy raised 4x, so I pushed all in with my stack lead, either thinking I had him beat or I would just steal his raise. I was fine with either result. Short stack called, 2nd place calls, the original raiser calls.
Short stack had K,8, 2nd place had A,8 and original raiser had Q,10.
Teh?
Flop comes A,A,3, two diamonds, but I hit diamond, diamond to get my flush (ha, I had best hand anyway) and I ride the big stack to first place.
• Harrington advocates aggression a bit. He does not advocate stupidity.