Running hot

This weekend was far and away my best ever, results wise. I know I'm not supposed to be "results oriented", and I get that in regards to specific hands - you shouldn't fret about busting with aces when your opponent catches a two outer on the river, since you got your money in with the best hand and that's the result you want to see - but I have to think that overall, results do matter in the sense that, if I'm getting better, I should be seeing better results. Right?

I ran completely cold Friday night, not a single cash in any of the tournaments I entered, down about $70 on the evening. Then Saturday I started off in spectacular fashion, cashing in 6 of my first 12 tournaments, including three first places and a fifth place at a 20 table event. I ended on a relatively sour note (0-7, I think), but I was still up significantly on the day. That held over into Sunday, and while I didn't get any first place finishes, I did finish 2nd three times with a couple of other cashes and ended up pushing my total winnings on the weekend to about $260.

How do I think I played? Overall pretty well, especially on Sunday when I started to run a little card dead and was still able to push deep in some of the tourneys. I only made one or two bone headed plays - overvaluing top pair (again!) and donking for trips on the river against a pair of queens, and not respecting a tight opponents aggression and giving them credit for a much better hand than mine aces with a weakish kicker, allowing them to double up at my expense - but overall I thought I was making some good plays. I consciously adjusted my play for the first time against a player I correctly deduced was playing a weak-passive style, busting him when I flopped two pair and value bet him all in by the river.

I am a little concerned that, in my effort to become more aggressive, I may be crossing over that fine line occasionally into loose aggressive play. I'm certainly not raising/calling/betting with any two cards, and I'm still not really capable of making that huge river bluff, but I felt almost wild at one point, especially in the last tournament I played on Sunday when I went to final 9 with almost triple the stack of anyone else. Was my fourth place finish in that tournament (rather than the 1st or 2nd I had already mentally assigned myself when the table started) a warning? Other than my misread of my head to head in the blinds match-up against a tight player I should have given credit for a better hand, I thought that my relatively poor finish was the result of lucky breaks for my opponents (a short stack pushing with K/5 and catching his three outer five when I called with K/Qs, for instance), but maybe I loosened up too much. I'll keep an eye on this and see what I can learn.

I won't have as much time to play this weekend, but I'm hopeful I may be able to double my deposits by the end of the month and start preparing to play on nothing but money I've won. Ultimately, I think I'd like to at least be able to play well enough to make some extra money I can use to rebuild my retirement funds. I'd like to think maybe I can go even further than that, but I'm trying to be realistic in my goals.

Good luck to all, and I'll see you at the tables.