2009 begins with a plus night

2 tourneys tonight - the first was a $10 in which I took second. My bankroll allows for $20 tourneys - I use Sharkscope tourney locator to look for "fishy" tourneys in both the $10 and $20 levels, and this $10 came up first.

My headsup opponent was very inexperienced but also very aggressive. My favorite play against him - he raised me, I reraised with TT, and he called. Flop came J 3 4, rainbow suits. I checked knowing he would bet any two cards, then checkraised him with my tens and got a fold. I won a few more pots raising his leadout bets, sometimes with air, but his aggression eventually wore me down to shove/fold mode. I shoved with QT and got a call from Ax (5 or 6) and his hand held up.

The second tourney was a $10 matrix-dealie. I got Kings cracked by eights early when the 8s filled a gutshot straight, then bubbled in the second when I took a stand against a way-too-often-all-in donk. I figured he was shoving hands that were hard to play preflop, like small pairs. I had TT and decided I might be way ahead and called his shove. He had AJ (another hard hand to play preflop) and beat me in a race. Probably could have waited for a better spot.

In the last 2, I took third and first, and placed third overall in the matrix (actually I tied for third), netting me $14.40 on my $11 investment. 2009 is off to a positive start.