Ride the Poker Rush

After last night's Friday Night Poker, I feel like I might be back in my zone.  Last week, I got 1st place in a 90-person full tilt poker tournament and then last night, I played 3 games and got 1st, 2nd, 1st.  Last Friday night I won the 3rd game too.  In the last 4 tournament games I played in, I got 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st.

Prior to last Friday night, I took a week off from playing poker and very nearly lost my poker "mojo".  I showed up and donated the 1st 2 games I played, but finally I got back on track and won game #3.  This was a very important lesson - don't jack with a poker rush.  When you're on fire, don't put it out by taking time off.  Respect the rush.

Once you're on it, the other players at the table will often recognize it as well and that will push you through pots that you have no business winning.  You start betting bottom pairs like their top pairs and watching other players fold.  The river all of a sudden gets very kind to you like last night when I unintentionally rivered a straight.  Getting bad cards doesn't hurt so bad when you're on a rush and neither does getting down to a very low chip count.

Last night was a different kind of rush though.  I successfully played pocket jacks 4 times.  Who even gets pocket jacks 4 times in one night?  I also won with pocket 9's, pocket 8's and very nearly pocket 7's.  I won with pocket A's and pocket K's as well.  An inexperienced or unconfident player could mis-play these hands, but I was feeling it and that's the big lesson here.  Recognize when you're on a rush and respect it.  Play the rush.  Play the momentum.

One of the other players last night (once we were down to the final 3) started to build some momentum of his own and he was chipping away at me, but I was in the middle of this thing and I just kept looking for a place to take advantage of his momentum and I did.  You can't hit every time.  Busting his momentum was a game changer.  I ended up edging him out and winning by a single $100 chip.

But he gave away his momentum by not recognizing where he was.  Don't do that.  When you have it, keep it.  Recognize where you are in the game and keep your mojo going.  Ride the poker rush.