Hello, My Name is Luckbox

Yesterday was a marathon poker day for me. I left home at 8:00 a.m., drove 2 hours to Spirit Mountain casino, played 6 hours for a small loss, drove 2 hours home then played in the Friday night Legion tournament. I experienced a run of incredible luck that has eluded me for a very long time. Let me tell you about a few hands. First of all, I was hitting my hands very hard most of the time, if in an unraised blind, I would inevitable hit 2 pair or top pair. I won quite a few hands and was in very good chip shape.

Memorable hand #1 was my isolation raise on the big blind, who was very short-stacked with my A/8 offsuit. The button wakes up with AA, but can only call with $200 less in chips than my bet. The flop comes 7/9/10 for an open-ended straight draw. The turn is the 6 and I crack the aces. Hand #2 I have moved to another table and am seated in the worst possible spot, to the left of two young hot shot internet players, and to the right of the two best players in the tournament, including someone who runs a poker game in Portland. She is very aggressive, and has position on me, so when she raises from the big blind with two limpers, plus me completing from the SB, I am concerned, but think she may just be trying to pick up some weak limps. True to form, they all fold, and I decide to call with my A/7 offsuit. The flop: 7/7/K! Excellent! I check to her, she fires a half pot bet and I call. The turn, rut-row, another king. I check, she bets again, and I call. I had her well covered and the turn is an ace, giving me 7s full of aces. I bet into her, and she folds, saying "if you had bet more, I would have pushed", and shows her pocket queens.

A few plays later, the other dreaded player on my left limps under the gun with A/9. I complete the SB with K/8, and the flop comes king high, so I fire a pot sized bet. Mike calls, and turn is an ace. I bet again, pot size, and he comes over the top all-in, but it is less than 300 more to call, so I reluctantly throw my chips in, but the river is another King!! Whew, bye Mike.

Anyway, my night sort of went that way until the end, and heads up with a 4 to 1 chip advantage. I totally donked off a bunch of chips on a steal attempt with 4/7 only to run into JJ. The tables turned and our final hand he pushed with J4 suited, I called all-in with A/6 offsuit, and he caught a 4 on the river. Second place paid $215, so it was a profitable day even with offsetting buy-ins, dealer tip, and earlier loss. I will have to admit that I was a major luckbox the entire tournament (except for of course the last hand), and if I experienced just 1/2 the luck of last night I would do very well in tournaments.