The Poker Gods, They DO Smile

I went to Hall's place again last night, only on the condition that the same person who was there the previous time, would not be there. In a nutshell, the guy there was very abrasive and when I commented on his decision to tell people to just throw their money in the middle, he told me that "while you were swimmin, I was dealin'..." He then proceeded to call my all in of AK with an A on the board with A4 after checking to me. He hit a 4 on the river and proclaimed his hand to be great and this that and the other thing. Also their blind structure was a joke and I ended up paying $60 for 3 hands and leaving.

So....

I go back last night and he has a 16 person freezeout tournament. Some reason, we only started wtih 1500 in chips so I decided my strategy was to gamble early on and build up a stack. My first few hands were 92c, turned a flush, 64h missed, but I was showing some random hands that people didn't expect me to. Also, the game was tight as can be, and at this structure, if you waited for a hand, you'd be blinded to death. No one else picked up on this, so off we went.

About 10 min into the game, there was a raise before me to 200 at the 25/25 level. The whole game and before I was reading Supersystem 2 about Omaha 8/b to get ready for Thursday, and not really paying attention to the players. I look at my cards to see KK, and reraise to 450. The BB reraises to 700, orginal raiser calls, and I figure with that much in there already, we're gonna get it in on the flop, so let's do it now, and make it another 1900 to go. BB folds after a while and the original raiser calls and I tell him nice hand cause I know he has AA. I start to put my coat on when we see a 1092 flop. But a K on the turn more than doubles me up, and the coat goes off.

6 hands later, there's a raise to 250 and I get KK again! I reraise this time and the SB goes all in for 650 and the raiser calls. Flop comes 10 high and she goes all in, I call instantly and she has a set of 10's. I say nice hand again, and the SB flips over QQ. Turn comes a Q! Oh man...and the river? A King!!! We all had sets, unbelievable, and I eliminated 2 more players.

I ran well until the final table and lost some pots here and there. But people started getting knocked out left and right. Finally 5 handed, I had QQ and with blinds of 100/200, I raised to 900 into a player with alot of chips who ONLY calls, and usually with marginal hands, nothing great. He calls and we see a flop of AJQ. I think he might have an A so I go all in for 3200 and he calls after thinking about it for a while with KJ. The damn 10 comes off on the turn and I get my coat. But the river is another 10! I swear to god, I couldn't believe how lucky I was getting.

3 handed, I was shortstacked, and a player who has improved made a crucial mistake by going all in on a flush draw when Hall flopped 2 pair and basically gave me 2nd place. He didn't really have to gamble as I was running low, but he did it anyway. I went all in dark 1st hand heads up with 104s. Hall woke up with AK and it was over. +80 for the night, not bad. But seriously, the gods did smile upon me last night.