There's an old saying that goes, "I'd rather be lucky than good". Well last friday night, I was lucky and it was good! I played in a local live 60$ Freezeout NL Holdem tournament. The field was about 18 guys and I could not miss a hand.

I got short-stacked early on and with the blinds climbing I found myself in the "push zone". Luckily I caught AK in early position and shoved the chips in the middle only to run into a low stack in late position who called me with pocket Kings. The flop brought my Aceball and he never improved. Ship the cookies! Oh, and ship an extra 20$ because the player who called me and I had a "last longer bet" and I had just crippled him, so he was sure to be gone soon .

Even though that win did bring some relief to my stack I was still pretty short and a few orbits later I found myself all in again, this time with pocket 7s. I get one caller on the button and we turn over our cards to reveal that I am a huge dog as he has pocket 9s. I hit my 7 on the flop and in my head I'm sainging "who let the dogs out!".

Now I have a reasonable stack when the CO makes a standard raise, the button moves all in and I look down to find AA in the SB. I push over top. The original raiser folds and the button shows KK. My Aces hold and I'm the tournament chip leader as we move to the final table.

One or two players get knocked out and I decided to raise it up from mid-position with KQ off. It folds around to a late position player who pushes for not much more than my raise and I am forced to call. I wince as he turns over AK and he does a little more than wince when the flop comes T-J-A giving me the straight. Just to add insult to injury another Ace came on the turn giving my opponent hope, only to have a brick land on the river. Disgusting beat. I really like and respect the player I was up against here, sorry my friend, c'est la poker.

I stay quiet for a while and when we get down to three handed, my good buddy "RikyRicardo" goes into high gear with the short stack. He's moving in almost every hand and I know I'll have to take a stand sooner or later.

The blinds increase again and "RikyRicardo" makes the push from SB, I am in the BB and it is not too much more to call. I look down at T3 and tell myself that I have odds with two live cards. He flips over his hand and shows me QT, so much for my two live ones. Of course, flop comes with the 3 I needed and "I got some splainin' to do". Sorry Riky.

The head's up battle was a familiar one. The player who was my opponent is affectionately known as "Pecker" and he and I had played head's up in a tournament before, where I took him in three hands, by letting him bluff into my monsters (of course I was lucky to get the monsters to begin with).

Now came the rematch and he was playing his usual aggressive style, raising and re-raising me every chance he got. He quickly took the chip lead even though at the start of our battle I had him dominated 2:1. He raised from his button one more time and I decided to take a stand with Q6. He inta-called me and turned over QJ. Things looked bad as a Q hit the flop, and then on the river (you guessed it!) a 6!! Follow the leada, leada, follow the leada Oooay!

Short-stacked and frustrated our friend Pecker pushed his stack with J7 off, I called with J8. An 8 on the flop sealed his fate and gave me the tournament.

Some people have taken to calling me "Dr. Sparks" of late, but after that tourney, I think they'll start referring to me as "Dr. Luckbox". Either way , it doesn't take a PhD to enoy a win, no matter how you got it.