Second feels like first!

Finished second last night in my online league, and I have to say beating out 15 other players felt damn good.

Finally, all of my hands held-up. I only got my money in bad a couple of times, and those times, thankfully the damage wasn't too bad. Most every time I did push or call - I was ahead pre-flop, or even ahead after the flop. It was really cool that I didn't get hit with the Gawd awful flush draw suckouts or middle pair turning into trips on the turn.

I did get into trouble a couple of times, with the resident league calling stations. Snow White is probably one of the easiest players to deal with in the league; she only leads out with premium hands, overbets her top pairs, and refuses to let go of pocket pairs in the face of overcards. Should be simple right? Well, she is. My only problem is that I still find it hard to believe that she will keep calling with a pair of nines when a King and Ace are on board. Well, I need to believe it - and next time when I have one of those overcards, I'll get paid.

Thankfully, other players propensity to call me down worked heavily in my favor last night. I was even able to go all in on the river with a full house - and get called by two pair! Awesome.

I think I finally realized this, that my reputation as a super aggressive semi-donkey, can be used to great advantage to make my made monster hands hugely profitable.

The second part of my success then - with big pots coming my way, was to hold on to my chip stack and not push, push, push on every hand. In an ocean of calling stations, who think that 2 to 1 pot odds is a GREAT price for a 4 to 1 flush draw - I've finally learned not to bother applying leverage, or giving the wrong price. In marginal situations - I just fold. Then two hands later, when I push, they get spanked.

The second half of this season is looking pretty dang good so far.