Got the blessing to play some live cards locally, and played a single table tourney with bounties. One guy (Johnny) got all of the bounties but one, and oddly enough, he won the tourney as well. I started cold, heated up to a healthy stack, then made an ill-advised blind steal w/AJo four-handed and got burned by AKo and then pushed two hands later in SB w/K9s only to find AQ looking me up and winning with no pair. Feh. I've decided I dislike this blind structure, which is 30 minutes starting at 3500 chips and 25/50 with doubling for the first five levels, since it doesn't really leave much room at all for creativity. In the second hand I successfully put my foe on a weak pair, and felt I could buy the pot, and he called me down with his weak pair, and all of a sudden I'm crippled. After one bad hand, you're in double-up or die territory.
Then I was off to the cash table, where I had a very good evening indeed.
* I made a nice read on the very first hand and pushed in against the preflop raiser, who mumbled about how I probably had him outkicked and then he folded his top pair, unidentified kicker.
* One hand later I raise preflop w/As Qs and the flop comes two spades with many straight possibilities and my lead bet gets min-raised, and called, and I've clearly got odds to see one more card, and I hit my nut flush and manage to get some decent action from one of the two bluffies in the hand.
* Another hand and Bluffy raises pre-flop and I isolate raise w/AKo, and end up with the exact same two bluffies as the AQs hand, and I flop top pair of kings on a one-suit board. Bluffy #2 semi-bluffs both the flop and turn and the fourth spade doesn't come, so I simply call down the bets and check the river to win. Easy peasy.
* Right when I was getting ready to leave, I flat called a raise late position w/ 6c 8c and I'm in the pot with the same two bluffies. I flop two pair on a ragged rainbow board A-6-8. Bluffy 1 bets 1/3 of pot, B2 raises to a pot-sized, and I come over the top to double the reraise. I'm very surprised to see B1 call, and not at all surprised to see B2 fold. The turn is a low card, and I push all-in (with paper money it's not as dramatic, but still just as much a rush) and B1 calls. He's got easily 15 outs with a pair and an outside straight draw, but he fails to river me, and I breath a sigh of relief as I grab a big hunk of cash.
I won a couple of other decent pots, I think, and had a dry spell for 45 minutes, but it was a very good night.
The one that got away? I limp QTs and the BB raises 6bb and gets 5 callers including me. I flop a flush draw with two overs on a 477 board, and one of the bluffies bets 1/3 of the pot, and I call as do two others. Turn doesn't appear to help anybody, and bluffy bets LESS on the turn, so it's an insta-call, and the two others also call. The river brings a Qs ,and there are now three spades and a pair on the board, and bluffy bets a much bigger bet, and I look at the two players on my left, and the other bluffy is already counting his money. I feel I've got the better beat with a pair of Queens, but I felt there was a reasonably good chance that there was at least trip 7s behind me, so I fold, and the next player folds, and much to my chagrin, the player counting his money asks how much he has behind, and when he doesn't like the answer, folds his busted draw. Sure enough, the guy I knew that I had beat happily exposed his K4 for 7744 with a K kicker. Glad I wasn't on a losing streak, or I might have steamed over that one.
