A welcome Christmas gift.

I've been kind of under the weather the last few weeks, running bad, playing bad and dealing with issues whether I should give up playing and move back to Sweden or what I should do. I can't get a job here at the moment so I was contemplating what to do, my brother sent me a couple hundred on Stars and I started trying to run it up to build it into something. I had a good cashgame session yesterday, won about $1800 and then took down a tournament today which paid $8841.

It was a $55 rebuy tournament and it felt great. I played very well and I don't think I made any major mistakes throughout the tournament. I had a key hand in the middle stage when the button raised me, I shoved with K-J of spades and he called with A-8 and I won that one. It wasn't for my tournament life but it was damn close. Then around the money bubble I started playing fast and I picked up a lot of chips. We were down to 14 before I knew it and one guy was raising a ton of hands, I started reraising and started moving in on him a lot and it was working quite well. In one spot he had me covered and he raised, I moved in with KK, he called with AJ and he flopped an ace. The flop came Ace, spade spade... turn spade, river spade... and I had the king of spades which saved my ass.

Charbarj41: raises 8000 to 12000
babeac82: folds
Gowon: raises 24000 to 36000
aceyss: folds
madmanben: folds
funngun: folds
Charbarj41: raises 213979 to 249979 and is all-in
Gowon: calls 74116 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [7s As 4d]
*** TURN *** [7s As 4d] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [7s As 4d 8s] [3s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Charbarj41: shows [Jd Ad] (a pair of Aces)
Gowon: shows [Kh Ks] (a flush, Ace high)
Gowon collected 227432 from pot

I kind of sat back just plucked at blinds here and there, wasn't getting out of control. I had a big chiplead going into the final table and I busted a guy small blind vs big blind when he moved in with 99 vs my 10-10 in the big blind and I was at a real healthy stack. I later picked up KK again and had somebody with AJ move in and it held up, and we were down to four. We played fourhanded a while, I finally lost the chiplead but recovered it later with this hand:

Dealt to Gowon [Jh Kh]
Skeeter420: raises 16000 to 24000
madmanben: folds
Bubbagump22: folds
Gowon: calls 16000
*** FLOP *** [Qc Kc 9s]
Gowon: checks
Skeeter420: bets 32000
Gowon: calls 32000
*** TURN *** [Qc Kc 9s] [7s]
Gowon: checks
Skeeter420: bets 48000
Gowon: calls 48000
*** RIVER *** [Qc Kc 9s 7s] [8d]
Gowon: checks
Skeeter420: bets 64000
Gowon: calls 64000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Skeeter420: shows [6d Ah] (high card Ace)
Gowon: shows [Jh Kh] (a pair of Kings)
Gowon collected 341600 from pot

I opted to check-call instead of checkraise as I didn't see any way I'd get called by a worse hand, and just incase he missed a draw I wanted to let him fire at it. I am not sure if it was optimal play (without being results oriented and looking at what he had) but I think that is a correct line of play against that type of LAG opponent.

We finally came down to headsup and we played a totally grueling match at over 160 hands. It is the longest headup I've ever played in a tournament and I thought it'd never end. I really thought I was a superior player and he suggested a chop a couple of times but I turned it down, I kept chipping away and then he'd win one big hand (first time it was 66 vs my K8s) then I'd chop away some more, then we get it in again when he's short my 22 vs his T4... again a flip he wins. We kept going back and forth, I had 3:1 chiplead, he turns it around and takes the lead, he at one point has 4:1 chiplead on me, I battle back and take the lead and FINALLY after what seemed like forever the final two hands ended up being:

Dealt to Gowon [Jc 2s]
Gowon: raises 60000 to 90000
madmanben: calls 60000
*** FLOP *** [Jh 9d 8s]
madmanben: checks
Gowon: bets 90000
madmanben: raises 395756 to 485756 and is all-in
Gowon: calls 280744 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [Jh 9d 8s] [7h]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 9d 8s 7h] [2d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
madmanben: shows [Qs 8h] (a pair of Eights)
Gowon: shows [Jc 2s] (two pair, Jacks and Deuces)
Gowon collected 924488 from pot

Seat 2: Gowon (767476 in chips)
Seat 5: madmanben (272024 in chips)
Gowon: posts the ante 2000
madmanben: posts the ante 2000
madmanben: posts small blind 20000
Gowon: posts big blind 40000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Gowon [Qh 7h]
madmanben: calls 20000
Gowon: checks
*** FLOP *** [7s 9h 4s]
Gowon: checks
madmanben: bets 230024 and is all-in
Gowon: calls 230024
*** TURN *** [7s 9h 4s] [Ks]
*** RIVER *** [7s 9h 4s Ks] [Td]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Gowon: shows [Qh 7h] (a pair of Sevens)
madmanben: shows [Ah Jh] (high card Ace)
Gowon collected 544048 from pot

It felt totally amazing to get to win the tournament, as always winning is a great feeling. Now hopefully I can take this momentum into January and turn this into something. I'm feeling good about my game, now I finally have some money to play with... lets make this into something.