Recent Classics

I've been playing through Final Fantasy X lately, for no reason in particular besides that it's a very good game. A few days back, upon glancing at the TV and noticing what I was playing, my best friend referred to it as a "classic". I was a bit surprised by this assessment, simply because it hadn't occurred to me that the game was that old, after all - it's a PS2 title. Given that it was released in 2001 however, 9 years of aging has got to be enough in the video game world for the term to apply. I immediately started to feel old after realizing this. Anyway, this will be my third time through the title, which in terms of replays puts it only behind FF6 and FF4 in terms of Final Fantasy titles for me (not including FF Tactics, as it's not a numbered FF - I've definitely played through it more than three times). Three playthroughs in nine years speaks volumes about the quality of the game. I really do wish they'd remake FF7, so I could give it a replay without having to grimace at the first generation PS1 3D graphics. They seemed so ground breaking at the time, but now I look back and still find SNES 2D attractive (PS1 2D games look fine too), but the bulk of PS1 3D games seem so visually handicapped.

At any rate, after my rather successful Friday session, I ended up running over $1k below AIEV on Saturday, and over $500 below AIEV on Sunday. Any hope I had for a month out less than twenty buyins of AIEV has faded. On the positive though, I did manage to bink a gin turn and stack a reg at 600NL on Sunday to save my session, and ran decently on Monday to ship a solid 3k hands.

I do have a hand from my Saturday session to post, in which I actually hold up because the money goes in with villain drawing dead! The villain in this hand is a reg who 3bets like a monkey and is overall quite spewy. I decide to 4b as a bluff preflop. I'm obviously not thrilled when he flats OOP (which seems pretty awful for him to be doing with just about any hand period) until I see the flop, and then having him spazz out drawing dead topped it all off nicely.

It's worth noting that a fish had posted a BB in MP1, which explains my open size as well as why SB is more likely to be 3-betting lighter than normal (as I'm presumably opening wider than normal due to the post).

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (9 handed)
MP1 ($272.60)
MP2 ($318.15)
Hero (MP3) ($201.75)
CO ($173)
Button ($207.20)
SB ($200)
BB ($100.30)
UTG ($269)
UTG+1 ($224.25)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with J♣, A♥
4 folds, Hero bets $9, 2 folds, SB raises to $26, 1 fold, Hero raises to $56, SB calls $30

Flop: ($114) 7♣, J♥, J♦ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $35, SB raises to $144 (All-In), Hero calls $109

Turn: ($402) 3♣ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($402) 8♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $402 | Rake: $3

Results:
SB had A♠, 5♠ (one pair, Jacks).
Hero had J♣, A♥ (three of a kind, Jacks).
Outcome: Hero won $402