Lost another $20 in PL games today, but came in first in a 2-table 8+.80 SNG on Pacific. Pretty lucky for me, since I entered the final table as one of the low stacks.

Here’s where it turned around: I had big slick and only about 4 times the big blind. I pushed and got one caller: AQ. Neither of us improved and I won our bets plus the blinds. From there on out, I hit big or scared people out of pots while one or two of the big stacks started taking out small and medium stacks.

By the time I made the money, two of us were the small stacks, but my run of good cards, luck, and decent plays continued. By the time big stack knocked off the #5 finisher, my stack was much more respectable. My favorite thing to do is to make my bet exactly equal to the number of chips the short stack has left. When things got desperate for them, they started to push back against my pre-flop raises and flop bets. Fortunately, my good hands usually stayed good, and the short stacks went out one after the other.

I was psyched to be heads up with big stack since I had entered the final table and the money at a disadvantage. In fact, big stack now only had a 20% advantage. After trying to make some moves and finding himself dominated by my hands, he soon switched tactics and started folding hands and blinds. Then he’d try to make a move or sniff me out, but fold to a good-sized turn bet. We switched leads perhaps twice, but once I took it the second time, I outchipped him 6:1 or more. It didn’t last much longer after that. First pays $56, netting me $47.

As for PL, I really don’t know what’s going on. Maybe it’s the other side of that variance coin finally kicking in. Maybe it’s punishment for my hubris. Maybe it’s me not playing at optimal times with enough time and energy to commit to a good session and trying instead to suck out a quick hit and run with 2-6 suited. Oh, hey. That could be a problem.