Return of the King

Last blog entry I talked about our story of the year “Paul” but really it was the tale of the first quarter of our poker season. He was the surprise upstart and Jim was in my opinion our best player during that period. Since then all 3 frontrunners have struggled and failed to maintain their momentum. Who is playing the best poker now?

Last week pulled this previous “King” of our table out of the shadows. In the past his very aggressive play style that had worked in our earlier games had become something we could anticipate and take advantage of; at times he would pay the price of his full stack for rash bluffs and raises. While always being a very tough opponent with the best reading skills at our table he was no longer the undisputed best player as he had been earlier. 2010 saw him win the title of “Most Buy-ins”, a testament to his gambling nature.

This week’s game really highlighted how much his game has changed. I was on his right in a perfect position to take advantage of overplayed hands, position has been a huge factor between John, Jim, and I in predicting the outcome of the night between us.

Not once did I catch him, he never over-committed to a pot where I could take advantage and he evaded traps at every turn. His bluffs were precise and in proportion to the pot. In spite of being card dead and taking some tough hits early he never wavered from a very aggressive game tempered with caution or gave in to wild betting as he had done in the past.

When it came down to John, Dean, and myself I automatically assumed it would be Dean or I who would play John heads up. That speaks for itself, he had played the strongest game, was being very careful with his stack and very selective of the hands he played. The heads up between John and I was very tight, neither of us were able to steal pots and it was much like the Canucks and Bruins last night, excellent goal tending and nobody was giving anything away. There was lots of tension while we circled each other looking for weakness unsuccessfully. I’m sure if the cards had been reversed John would have taken the win.

So in my opinion, John is back at the top! Always an excellent player but now he is even better. In Poker “speak” he has plugged his “leaks”.

Observation: Dean is getting more dangerous every week, he is one to watch.