I had 5 straight winning sessions in the cash games to win back over $900 of my previous week's loss. I played five tournaments and cashed in three of them; and making the final table in one.

Tuesday (09/26/06)
This first tournament cash came in a meesely $2 event with 468 players. In this tournament, the payouts were so small; I only cared about making it to the money -- then going to play in a higher stakes cash game. The top 45 places paid. So I only had to work my way past 413 players before I would get any return on my $2 investment. And that's exactly what I did. I played until I made the money, and then essentially took myself out so I could go concentrate on the higher stakes cash games.

Wednesday (09/27/06)
The following night I got real close, but no cigar. In the nightly PokerStars 10:15 PM (PST) tournament, I busted just 5 away from the money. Late in the tournament, I had a great chip stack; in fact I was even chip leader with only 16 players left. But as fate would have it, two successive bad beats, and I was on the ropes -- and out a few hands later.

Thursday (09/28/06)
Thursday's tournament went a little better. We started with 108 players and the top 18 places paid. I was in the top 5-8 players nearly the entire tournament. There was only one catch: I didn’t play the middle 1-1/2 hours of the tournament. Instead, my trusty squire "KY" (Sportznut100) was playing in my stead. My wife had other plans for my time (watching Barry Manilow together!). Before I went upstairs to watch Barry, I gave KY some very important instructions: "Remember, PencilGeek talks a lot of trash -- you are expected to do the same." After my wife was nearly asleep, I went back downstairs to finish the tournament myself -- and continue right where I left off (back to becoming a chip leader).

With only 21 players left, I took two successive bad beats (didn't catch my hand after committed a lot of chips), and was left with only 638 chips when the blinds were 600/1200. I managed to survive in spite of it, even working my way back up to 38000 chips and making it into the money (top 18 paid) before going out in 12th place.

Friday (09/29/06)
My week ended in the $5+Rebuy tournament. Re-buy tournaments are always fun in a limit game because you can play completely crazy to bring a lot of chips to your table. This gives the others at your table the false impression that you're a horrible player; then after the rebuys are over, you turn on your regular game and work your way past them.

So that's exactly what I did. I played crazy for the first hour, and rebought twice. At the end of the rebuy period, I did the obligatory add-on, and then played my normal game.

The tournament started with 306 players. The number of payers are dependant upon the number of rebuys and addons. When all was said and done, the tournament paid to 45 places -- with over $1000 going to first place (in a $5 tournament!).

I played my best, as I always do. However, this time I was sipping a few glasses of wine while playing -- all while the clock was running late. This didn't prove to be a very good combo, as I found myself getting very tired. By 3:00 AM (PST), I made it to the final table, maybe a little shorter stacked than I would have liked -- but the final table none-the-less. From there, I worked my way into a very large stack; but it didn't hold long. I ended up going out in 6th place and collecting $187 for my $25 total buy-in.

Saturday (09/30/06)
Sometimes you just get those instincts -- whether it's about a hand you should have played, a hand you shouldn't have played, or a session you should or shouldn't have played. In this case, my instincts told me not to play today. But like I always do when I get one of "those instincts" -- I ignore them.

So instead of following my instincts, I sat down at the cash games and proceeded to lose $225. I couldn't even catch a cold at the table. Playing stud hi/lo for example, first four cards are A235, and the next three straight cards are bricks -- no low, no straight, only a pair of threes at the river. So this was the story of the night -- one of those nights I should have listened to my instincts.

Summary
In the end, it was a pretty good week, and the results were very gratifying. I came up $900 in the cash games in the first five sessions, only to give back $225 in a session I should have skipped; I played 5 tournaments; cashed in three; and made the final table in one. All-in-all, not a bad week.