And this is coming from someone who's ahead well over $2K on this site. I just see the most ridiculous hands time and time again. I see people calling with cards they have no business being in with and hitting over and over again. Every time I see 2 'All Ins' with something like A-Q v A-10 I immediately look for a 10 to hit the board and it seems like 85% of the time it does. Then of course I get run down all the time. Just this morning I played a $12 Buy In 90 Person Sit & Go and got A-A the very first hand. I ended up getting 'All In' pre-flop with 2 other players. One had 8-8 the other 9-9. Of course a 9 hit on the flop and an 8 hit on the turn. So not only did I get booted the first hand with A-A but I got run down by BOTH of the others in the hand. Good times.

Well as some of you all are aware, I have been on a pretty bad streak of late. 8 Months give or take a few minor wins. The cards have turned and I can't win a race, buy a pot or have a 90% favorite hold up to save my life it seems. It's been bad. And Full Tilt just magnifies the whole thing with their ridiculous 'Random Card Generator'. After I was knocked out of the TNC (First I might add) last night I decided to try my hand once more to break this evil streak and capture that elusive 'Cash'. It's been a double digit drought since I've cashed and I was looking for a great place to land when I leaped from the window by this point. So I joined a $3 MTT. Almost 600 players, the Top 66 get paid and top prize is almost $400. Eyeing a deep finish and a cure to my ills I put my money down and promptly folded the first 8 horrendous hands. Now to make a long story short I will zoom ahead. I finally starting catching some cards and even won a couple of big races. Craziness, I know. Low and behold we are sitting around with less than 40 people in the tourney and I have $250,000 in chips and in 2nd position over all. Who would have thunk it? Now obviously I've cashed at this point but a cash out would net me maybe $5 and that just didn't cut it for these long hard months of anguish. I continued my aggressive, yet controlled play.

Now shortly there after these '3 Magic Hands' came my way and changed everything. Let me allow you to relive these thrilling moments with me:

Magic hand #1:
This kind of speaks for itself so enjoy the read.

Seat 1: m3mn0ch (82,244)
Seat 2: maxiblaster (39,139)
Seat 3: enigmarick (211,978)
Seat 5: jdeliganis (66,879)
Seat 6: papanicks (108,872)
m3mn0ch antes 400
maxiblaster antes 400
enigmarick antes 400
jdeliganis antes 400
papanicks antes 400
m3mn0ch posts the small blind of 1,500
maxiblaster posts the big blind of 3,000
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to enigmarick [Ks Ad]
enigmarick raises to 12,500
jdeliganis calls 12,500
papanicks folds
m3mn0ch folds
maxiblaster folds
*** FLOP *** [Ac Jc 5d]
enigmarick bets 3,000
jdeliganis calls 3,000
*** TURN *** [Ac Jc 5d] [3h]
enigmarick bets 37,500
jdeliganis calls 37,500
*** RIVER *** [Ac Jc 5d 3h] [Kh]
enigmarick has 15 seconds left to act
enigmarick bets 13,479
jdeliganis calls 13,479, and is all in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
enigmarick shows [Ks Ad] two pair, Aces and Kings
jdeliganis shows [Qc Tc] a straight, Ace high
jdeliganis wins the pot (139,458) with a straight, Ace high


So needless to say I am steaming at this point and probably should have gotten up, kicked the dog and got a beer. But oh no, I continued playing and the very next hand was....

Magic Hand #2:
Looking back I should have folded pre-flop, but I was the BB and he only Min Raised. I was trying to continue my aggression and hopefully win back some of my money so I made the call to see what the flop would bring. Now I really felt when I called the All In it was probably a bad call. But I was steaming, I had top Pair and a gut shot. I mean what could this guy possibly have anyway?

Seat 1: m3mn0ch (80,344)
Seat 2: maxiblaster (35,739)
Seat 3: enigmarick (145,099)
Seat 5: jdeliganis (139,458)
Seat 6: papanicks (108,472)
m3mn0ch antes 400
maxiblaster antes 400
enigmarick antes 400
jdeliganis antes 400
papanicks antes 400
maxiblaster posts the small blind of 1,500
enigmarick posts the big blind of 3,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to enigmarick [9s 8d]
jdeliganis folds
papanicks raises to 6,000
enigmarick: lol
m3mn0ch folds
maxiblaster folds
enigmarick calls 3,000
*** FLOP *** [9c 6s 4c]
enigmarick checks
papanicks bets 3,000
enigmarick raises to 15,000
papanicks calls 12,000
*** TURN *** [9c 6s 4c] [5s]
enigmarick bets 30,000
papanicks raises to 87,072, and is all in
enigmarick has 15 seconds left to act
enigmarick calls 57,072
papanicks shows [7h 8h]
enigmarick shows [9s 8d]
*** RIVER *** [9c 6s 4c 5s] [5c]
papanicks shows a straight, Nine high
enigmarick shows two pair, Nines and Fives
papanicks wins the pot (219,644) with a straight, Nine high

Magic Hand #3:
At this point I am totally blown away. Back to Back killers like that and I go from $211,000 to $30,000. So much for my big 'Get Back' score and so much for my change of luck. Now another blunder of mine was having read the, 'Every hand Revealed' from my FORMER favorite Poker Player, Gus Hansen. Through out that book Gus talks percentages. And one of the biggest things he talks about is the percentage of someone hitting the flop. Now he says that percentage is very low. Now wait one minute my friend. During these past few very dark months I would beg to differ. I'm figuring if I hit the flop then my opponent is at least 80% or higher to hit and or hit better. Case in point is below.

Seat 1: m3mn0ch (73,944)
Seat 2: maxiblaster (68,951)
Seat 3: enigmarick (79,154)
Seat 5: jdeliganis (68,219)
Seat 6: papanicks (220,044)
m3mn0ch antes 400
maxiblaster antes 400
enigmarick antes 400
jdeliganis antes 400
papanicks antes 400
enigmarick posts the small blind of 1,500
jdeliganis posts the big blind of 3,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to enigmarick [8s 8h]
papanicks calls 3,000
m3mn0ch folds
maxiblaster folds
enigmarick raises to 14,000
jdeliganis folds
papanicks calls 11,000
*** FLOP *** [4s 2c Kh]
enigmarick bets 64,754, and is all in
papanicks calls 64,754
enigmarick shows [8s 8h]
papanicks shows [Ks Ts]
*** TURN *** [4s 2c Kh] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [4s 2c Kh Ad] [Ah]
enigmarick shows two pair, Aces and Eights
papanicks shows two pair, Aces and Kings
papanicks wins the pot (162,508) with two pair, Aces and Kings


Now I bet out 4 & 1/2 times the BB pre-flop. When the flop hit 4-2-K the first thing I thought about was Gus' book. I guess there was a chance he had a higher pocket pair but the way he had been playing I think he would have attempted to put me All In pre-flop so that was out. The only scare card on the board was the King and that's just one of 52 cards he could be holding. I don't want to see any more overs hit the board so I felt an All In would take it down right there. I mean what are the chances he's holding the only card to hit that board that had me beat? About 120%. Thanks Gus.