Heartland Night

Last night was my bar game with the top 10 playing for a $350 Hearland Poker Tour seat. I started 4th in chips. Everyone was very tight to start. In an early hand I had A-J suited and raised and was called by as I found out later A-K. Flop brought an ace, but I was thinking I was behind. Turn paired the board mayking my feel a little better about a chop. We both checked after the river and I lost about 1/3 of my chip stack. Even though I was a little short, I continued to play very solid poker and won many smaller pots to keep my stack growing a little. By two hours in we had lost 3 of ten players, but no one had yet to take control of the table. I was now big blind and person that was behind me in small blind likes to make plays with his big and small blind. I had q-10 and decided if he raised my BB I would come over the top. He just called instead, so I decided to check and see the flop. Flop came 4-10-A. I am now sure that I am ahead as he didn't raise preflop. He checks and I make a pot size bet and he calls. Turn is another ten. He bets, I rerasie all in he insta calls. He has A-5. My hands hold up and I double up. I now have a chip stack that I can play with. We are now down to five. I have been stealing blinds against the tighter players for about the last hour. I look down and have a-4 suited with the small & big blind tight players. It is folded to me, blinds are now 1000-2000. I raise to 6000. Everyone folds to big blind that has a little under 10,000. He thinks for a lond time and reluctantly pushes in. It isn't that much more for me to call so I do figuring I am way behind. He turns over 10-J unsuited. So he plays tight the whole tournament and then risks it all with that hand. It is hard to figure some people out!.I flop a flush draw and he is drawing to six outs on the river and catches a ten to take the pot. I am know short stacked, but not out yet. I end up going out in 4th place, but I am happy with my play for the evening. I didn't feel like had made any mistakes. In the end even though there was a big prize, it was still a group of bar poker players. Phil Helmouth says that if poker were only a game of skill that he would win everytime. It seems like an egotistical statement, but I understand where it comes from. Even if you play every hand perfectly, you still don't always win. I feel that I played very well last night and should have wom, but only managed a 4th place finish. I suppose there are 9 others that played last night that feel the same way! Online from yesterday. My son played and won a $10 sit and go and then won on a NL table to bring the AP bankroll to $319. Thanks Kyle! I played a $10 S & G and lost out on a very tight table. I played some 1-2 limit and managed to win my S & G money back, so bankroll unchanged. Hoping to go to casino tonight, but it isn't looking good. Having a bathroom remodeled and may have to work on that. On a side note. If you haven't joined twitter yet, you need to. www.twitter.com. It is fun to get live updates from big tournaments on how the pros that you follow are doing. You get there thoughts and feelings about how they are playing. Something you can't get from TV.