Today was a nice easy sunday that i reserved for a 1-table SnG at JG's place, 500 buy-in deep stack game. 3000 stacks, 10-20 starting blinds with 30 minute levels. Good for some "socializing" poker, nice and relaxed. LItlle did we know that about 3 hours into the game, nobody would bust out yet, and there was only ONE rebuy! The small stacks just kept doubling up. Had a good game, got Kings thrice, won some big pots with some nice plays, but ended up busting out i think 5th when i had about a 3K stack on the 300-600 level, and went all in with A-8 after the small blinds limped in. He calls and shows 10-10, and that was it for me. I just got impatient hehe.

I actually enjoyed the game a lot. There was one particular play i made which gave me a rush that i havent felt in a long time. I raised 200 on 30-60 (not sure) on the cut-off with 9d-8d after not playing a hand for a while. Got 4 callers, yikes! Flop comes Q-2-3 rainbow. Everyone checks to me, so i bet 500 on pocket balls! Everyone folds except the last guy, who has been chasing draws a lot, doing the hwole check-call-check-call-fold thing. I was really wondering what he could be flat calling me with on a flop like that, and when the turn came J, he checked again! I thought for about 10 seconds, then pushed all-in for 1800 more with nothing but a gutshot prayer for outs hehe! He thinks for a while and asks for a count of my chips before finally folding. (whew!) It just shows i havent been playing for quite some time now since i really got a rush from playing that hand. Sometimes, it feels good to trust your judgement, and even though you could be wrong sometimes, it pays off when you are right.

Later that night, i remembered that my friend had a game in the Fort, and i decided i wanted to at leat just hang out and have a few drinks at his place, maybe play some poker too. Ok, if you dont like bad beat stories, stop reading now hehe.

Lets just say there was a player, european guy, who was raising almost P500 on almost every hand in the 20-40 game, and would call all-in on bottom pair or ace high. And he didnt care about the money too, since he owned a whole floor on the condo/building we were playing in! So i waited patiently and managed to double my stack to around 2K after a few hands. I was already contemplating cashing out since he was really raising 4 out of 5 hands to 500 even if the pot had less than 100., and we were already 4-handed in the table. Then it came. AQ suited i raised 200, he calls. Flop Q-5-10. HE bets 1000, which is about 60% of my stack. By the turn, which was a J, i was all-in. He show 5-3 offsuit, and promptly spikes the 3 on he river. ouch ouch ouch. He eventually lost a lot of money and gave it all away to the other players. One guy sat down and had a 10K stack after 3 hands because of him! wow. I'd play that game all day and night if i had a bankroll that can take the beats hehe. Later pushed with QQ, for about 1K, he calls with Q-3, but the other caller had AK and hit the K on the flop. Not my night. hehe.

Had a nice little glimpse of what i've been missing the past month or so i havent been playing. The rush of the big bluff, the sick beats, ahhh... that's why Poker really is a love-hate relationship. Sometimes the cards love you, sometimes they dont. We live to play another day!

Gotta keep playing.