3:19am: It was easy. That is, until the final two matches of the night. I decided to push my 3-0 record a little harder to see what happened, and if I did not win the next two matches, I committed myself to grinding some heavy volume through the wee hours of the morning. On the other hand, if I won the next two matches I would reward myself with some much needed sleep.

For my nightcap, I found myself playing two of the top $100 heads up sng players. One of them ranked (top 20 in the world) with a Star, and the other with stats hidden, but has had success at this level and stakes even higher than this. I knew I was going to have to be either (a) creative or (b) lucky to even split the series, much less win both of them.

I took a page from my article on Monday on well timed aggression and bluffing, and picked some pretty sweet spots to represent hands that my opponents had no choice but to put me on. After being a little bit lucky combined with some well timed aggression, I grinded the player with the star down to 400 chips (twice), eventually winning the match by getting lucky and hitting trips on the river (after the player let me catch up by catching and checking two pair on the turn).

The other player was significantly more aggressive than the ranked player, but it was more wreckless than controlled. He would usually fold if you applied any pressure back to him, with or without a hand. His demise was simply calling me too light in the hand below:

PokerStars Game #18856868722: Tournament #95950951, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level III (25/50) - 2008/07/16 - 04:13:01 (ET)
Table ‘95950951 1′ 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: trujm (1775 in chips)
Seat 2: Rocky2184 (1225 in chips)
Rocky2184: posts small blind 25
trujm: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Ad Jh]
Rocky2184: raises 100 to 150
trujm: raises 1625 to 1775 and is all-in
Rocky2184: calls 1075 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (550) returned to trujm
*** FLOP *** [4h 5c 2d]
*** TURN *** [4h 5c 2d] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [4h 5c 2d 6s] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [Ad Jh] (high card Ace)
Rocky2184: shows [Jd Kd] (high card King)
trujm collected 2450 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2450 | Rake 0
Board [4h 5c 2d 6s 8c]
Seat 1: trujm (big blind) showed [Ad Jh] and won (2450) with high card Ace
Seat 2: Rocky2184 (button) (small blind) showed [Jd Kd] and lost with high card King

The blank on the river sealed the deal, and the perfect day for me. Nearly $500 profit for an hour and a half of work? Not bad.

And just in case you were wondering, here’s an update on my statistics going into tommorrows session:

• $50 hu sng record: 1,324-846 (61.01%)
• $100 hu sng record: 77-36 (68.14%)

I’m well aware of the fact that this cannot possibly hold as well in the long run. That being said, I have to feel pretty comfortable about where it will likely level out at. Not quite as low of a dropoff in win % from the $50s as I envisioned, if any at all.

More later… Good luck today guys.

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process