So you think you can.....raise?

up almost 1 buy in last night and i'm disappointed with that? with how hot i've been running, up 3/4 of a buy in seems like a let down. i was up 1.5 buyins earlier in the night last night, but slid down a bit before i left.

i caught several premium pairs early on and won medium sized pots with most of them. i check raised a small stack with QQ on a 10 high flop and he shoved. i felted. he must have had A-10.

no enormous pots to speak of really. i called a raise on the button with 10hJh. the flop was J high and the BB lead out, the PrF raiser called and i made a nice raise. they both folded. i thought there was a good chance i was ahead, and if not, i thought the BB would laydown J-10 and maybe even QJ. the preflop raiser said he just had AQ high. and i think the BB had an under pocket pair like 9s.

in one decent pot i lost before leaving, i called a raise in middle position with 8s9s. the flop was 8 high and i bet when checked to. i got 3 callers! (?) a nice pot was building here. there was a flush draw and a straight draw, so i could easily put the others on draws and/or overcards. the turn was an 8 giving me trips with a 9 kicker. it checked to me, so i thought i'd take it down with a $100 bet. the short stack tanked and then called all in for $55 and 1 other player thought before folding his flush draw. the short stack held Jc8c for a better trips [he was trying to get the flush draw to call by acting weak]. oh well. kind of a cooler in that i thought i hit my money card. i didn't really want to make 2 pair either, cuz that would have put a straight possibility out there.

anyway, i still logged a winning session (i think that makes it 7 out of 8), but more importantly i think i played relatively well. i played aggressively -- i didn't just call when i could raise, and i made a couple of good laydowns. those saved losing calls definitely add up.

i will try to play one of the pechanga tournaments, possibly friday, and hope to qualify for saturday's $1000 tourney. also looking forward to syndicate event #3 on sunday.