Another Exciting Sunday

I went deep in the Sunday Million again today. After getting a lucky double-up early on with AK vs QQ, I went on a nice tear through the soft field to accumulate a really nice stack. I stayed consistently in the top 10 or 20 on the leaderboard from about the first hour until the 4th hour; here's the sick hand that knocked me down quite a bit: AQ owns me (that's me getting it in as a 70/30 favorite for a MASSIVE chiplead). Shortly after that, I lost another 200k coinflip and was basically shortstacked the rest of the time until I busted. My bust out hand was pretty standard, and I would have been in great shape for the late stages of the tourney had I won the coinflip. I finished 280th or so for a small profit of ~$550, but it definitely sucks getting so deep two weeks in a row and missing out on the really big $$ :(

The ring games were unusually soft this afternoon too. I was 5-tabling 5/10NL during the early stages of the Million and the games were just awesome. There were at least 2 very loose-passive donkeys at each of my five tables who were playing >=40vpip (!), but unfortunately I was running pretty bad and they were killing me. I never really lost any big pots, just lots of small- to medium-sized pots. Some hands:

I honestly wanted to fold this on the turn
Value tooooowwwwwnnnnnnn
Don't try to bluff me you donkey
I run so bad :(
It's always nice when you have aces and someone 4-bets you
HU: Bluff or value shove? (this was against some other guy who sat with me while I was playing the spewtard I describe below)

I finished down about $3k in my first session, but I came back after the tourney and flipped my results to +$3k on the day. So I watched some CR videos, browsed the internet for awhile, then decided to play some HU before bed. I saw this guy at 3/6NL HU sitting with about $6k (10 buyins), which is an extraordinary amount of money to be sitting with at a heads-up table -- the most you can sit down with is $600, so he was probably a pretty good player. I've been working on my HU game a lot recently, so I decided to sit and see just how good he was. Turns out he was actually terrible at poker, and in less than an hour he lost everything he was sitting with to me. This guy was really bad. Here are some highlights from our little HU session:

Soooooo he doesn't like to fold -- this was very early in the match, and I didn't realize how light his calling range was. Made a quick adjustment after this hand :)
He calls down very light -- this would turn out to be the theme of our match
I'm a bluffer -- first time I'd 3-bet all match and I was pretty sure he didn't have much. Good luck calling me with like 66 here...
Such a sick beat...did I mention he doesn't like to fold? It was after this hand that I realized just how bad he was and that there was no way in hell I could leave the table until I had all of his chips.
I mentioned he calls down light, right?
My first preflop 4-bet -- he was 3-betting pretty light, so I tried a 4-bet and was met with insta-calls preflop and on the flop. I put him on a small to mid pair and actually should have shoved the river here, but this guy never, ever folds.
Nuts on the river -- I was planning to bluff the river regardless, but hitting the nuts helps. I guess this guy folds on the river, but he definitely doesn't fold preflop or on the flop. Ever.
He really doesn't like folding -- if he's calling with A4o on this flop, you know his calling range might as well be any two.
Remember: he never folds! I was really hoping (and expecting) for him to call the river, but I guess he realized that T6 probably wasn't good by the river :(
Tried for a river check/raise (but failed)

Here's our first really big pot -- our stacks were starting to get pretty deep, so this was a pretty tough call for me since I hadn't seen him do anything like this yet. I called because 1) I didn't think he'd take this line with a boat; 2) I felt like he'd make this play with an A9-type hand; 3) I was pretty sure he had me on an overpair, so the actual strength of my hand was greatly underrepresented; and 4) I knew that if I was wrong I could easily rebuy and build my stack back up.

After that hand, he started going kinda crazy -- he started 3-betting like a maniac, but he also (correctly) adjusted his 3-bet sizes for our now super-deep stacks, which surprised me since basically everything else he was doing was wrong. On with the hand histories!

Pretty sure I missed out on a ton of G-bucks here (if you don't know what G-Bucks are, you really need to read this article). I def shoulda bet the turn again, and I really wanted to raise the river for value, but I was being cautious playing so deepstacked because I obviously couldn't call if he re-raised allin.
He started going nuts, and I knew that a happy ending to this story was eminent.
Some loose calls from me, but my implied odds were enormous, and I honestly felt like Ks and Qs were outs too. Also, checking the river here was a huge mistake.

...and so it ends (with a 1200bb pot!) -- I just called on the flop because he doesn't like to fold and would probably call down with something retarded like ace high. My gin card hit on the turn, and I kept betting knowing he would call super light. I also knew that when I bet the river that there was a chance he would shove over my bet, so I made the bet fully intending to call a shove allin. I actually instantly called his $2300 raise on the river because I was 100% certain I had the best hand. I won't lie though: I was pretty nervous to play a 1300bb pot!

I wrote all of this having just finished off a $10k session, which puts me at +$22k for the month already...huzzah! I had a great night, and I'm wondering once again why I have a day job that pays 25% of the amount of money I made tonight per month. I'm really enjoying Chicago and most of the guys I'm hanging out with here are smart, solid people, but work just isn't doing it for me at all. Everyone always says to follow your passions in life, and mine are poker, music, and extreme sports. IMO, there's nothing wrong with leaving the company and still living in Wrigleyville to pursue other opportunities -- especially considering how favorable these opportunities are right now. Bleh, I'm starting to ramble now...this is a lot to think about, and I need sleep so I can be at my desk in 4 hours.