As you may have noticed, there’s been a slight pause in my posts and although most readers might already be in the know I feel obliged to brief the rest of my audience.. I’m just an open and honest man like that

I’ve had few complications with a long standing disability related to my leg.. and specifically venous malfunction. To avoid deep medical discussion, in simple terms this disease could be classified as a benign venous cancer. As a result, the only safe way out of this is to have a complete hip/leg amputation. The good news is I’m heading into this with pocket aces versus ducks on a disconnected board. Huge chance to win all the way to the river! Ya baby!

Thanks to my friends at TELUS, I was outfitted with a free TELUS air card. This gives me a solid internet connection straight from my hospital room. Needless to say, this is my lifeline to the outside world in these ‘exciting’ days

Today is also the day I went back online to play some poker! I’ve finished three single table full ring $10 buyin SNGs. I lost the first one but came in 2nd and 1st in the last two. So overall, I feel like I haven’t lost my poker edge

Let me share a few hands with you that I felt I’d played particularly well..

Disguising AA as a strong flush draw

Here.. I basically play my AA as if I flopped a strong flush draw.. I think this forced my opponent to shove all in on the turn as a defensive move.

Playing KK strong to trap “monster” hand

Basically.. I play top pair strong like this to force strong hands that are actually big dogs to my hand to play against me. E.g. I know my opponent would easily overreact preflop with hands like AJs+. Or 88+.

HU playing opponent

This is really just playing the opponent now. I limp behind the button. I flop flush draw and HU there’s greater equity in just pressing the gas pedal to open more ways to win. As well, the bet will go towards building a bigger pot should I hit my flush. And when I do hit my flush, it’ll be very well concealed as he wouldn’t think I would push flush draw like that on the flop. On the turn, K is a great card to bluff at. If he called me with any Q he basically has to give up and fold. I doubt he just flat called with an A on that flop.. so I don’t really think that’s a possible card for him to have.

Perfect board texture for a bluff

In position I do a standard raise 90% of the time. The T4 hand is usually one hand I would just muck even in position. But versus this weak opponent, I felt I could pick up a lot of pots on missed flops. When the flop came down, It was a slam dunk I had to bet to take it down. I can’t see him calling my raise preflop with a hand that would have connected with that flop. Think about it.. J8? 99+? I doubt it. Any hand that beats that flop would reraise me preflop.