I know I haven't blogged much recently, mostly because I haven't been playing much (not at all online), and I'm furiously working on several papers, one or two of which I may try and get published, so it's been busy.

The last few live sessions, I've been on something of a hot streak, but I'm happy with how I've been playing. Not that it's hard to beat up the donkeys in these live games, but I have definitely felt calm and under control. I've avoided doing stupid things I have sometimes done in the past that have cost me a bunch of chips.

Today, I had a good spot of luck thanks to an insane player. Let me set the stage, because it makes for a fun story. The guy on my immediate right, let's call him Tony, had been playing crazy and had built up to about $800. A guy across the table, a sick Asian gambler (SAG) had about $900. The two were heads-up in a pot after a raise to maybe $20 preflop, so there was about $40 in there on a flop of T-T-3. The SAG checked, and Tony nonchalantly declares, "all in" for $800 into a $40 pot! SAG snap calls with JT, and Tony turns up KQ??? The turn was a J, and it was especially funny because neither of them realized that Tony was drawing dead... the SAG was saying, "no, don't do it to me," and Tony was screaming, "one time!" The T on the river gave the SAG quads and it was a moot point anyway, and he scooped the $1600 pot... in a frickin $1/$3 game. Craziest thing I've seen.

So, after busting once to Tony getting all-in with AQ against his KT, I picked up [Ah Ad] UTG+1. Tony had limped, I raised to $20, and three people called before it got back to Tony, who made it $60. I shipped for the $190 in front of me, which prompted a lot of cursing and folding behind me. Tony again decides to snap call with [Kc Qh]. Board runs out and I double up. The SAG told me he folded 33, and there had been a 3 on the flop. Thank God Tony wanted to go berserk and limp-reraise with KQ, or I would have been busted for sure.

Overall, I cashed out +$388 today, my best session in awhile (since I think my last blog a month or so ago when I had a +$350 session). Anyway, I've told myself no more Poker until my work is finished, which means about 40 pages of writing and editing to do. For now, that means I'm off to bed with some serious work to do tomorrow.