Seventh consecutive winning session...

...even though I was playing rather weak and I didn't hit anything the first hour and a half, I managed to book another winning session last night. I'm probably jinxing myself but there it is: a new record streak of 7 winning sessions in a row.

I have tightened up even more the last few weeks, stats are usually around 17/8/2.5.
Yesterday I saw a particular fish at the table: he was minbetting every made hand (and folding the others). And when I say minbetting I mean betting 1BB on the flop, on the turn, and on the river with a flopped nut flush. In the one hand we played, he outdrew my second pair on the river (I should have made a bigger raise). Of course, a few hands later he got felted. This guy was so trying NOT to win any money, it was funny.

For the most part, I played ok, again picking up a lot of uncontested pots while waiting for a big one. One straight paid off max, but then I had to slowplay a set into oblivion:
I raise 4 BB in LP with TT and get called by an EP limper.
Flop comes a nice AT6 rainbow, villain checks and I check behind, because often he will not have anything to call with here. Turn brings a king and villain bets, I raise and he calls. We get it in on the river and he shows QJ for a straight.
Because I'd almost never call a raise with QJ OOP, it didn't cross my mind some do...
Good thing my opponent wasn't full stacked.

Another thing I often see (and occasionally, I make the same mistake) is that people tend to forget what happened on earlier streets. If you flop QT5 and check your queen, people assume you don't have a queen most of the time, and you can get paid off some (like in a limped pot). Yesterday, I even saw a couple of times where the turn fills a possible flushdraw, it gets checked around and then people call big bets on the river.

Until next time...

All is well

The last few weeks, I have been running pretty good. I started the month with a loosing session, but the last 5 sesssions I have been up and, so far, I'm ahead $25 in 2.5k hands. Yesterday was a lot of fun: I definately played my A game: selective but aggressive and when the cards are falling right as well... People were folding when I was (semi-)bluffing and calling when I had the goods.

I was also able to pick up on bluffs by villains. The river bluff seems very popular amongst a lot of players at my tables. Check/calling every street and then betting the river often indicates a bluff. I'm trying to play a bit more aggressive post flop and that really pays off.

After clearing my reload bonus ($10) at Part Poker, I got a mail from Pokerstars about their 25billionth hand promotions, including a nice 25% reload bonus. So, I deposited $80 in my account and will have to accumulate 400 base FPP's to clear that $20 bonus. Because I didn't have a clue how many hands that is at the 5NL, I played a short session of 80 hands and got... 1 FPP. So that's going take a while.

One hand kinda bugged me:

I pick up AA UTG+1 and I make it $0.20 (4BB) to go.
It gets folded to the button, who calls.
The big blind calls as well, and the pot is $0.67

Now the flop comes 8c 7h 5c and the big blind makes a potsize donkbet,
and I go into the tank...

I figure there's 4 possibilities:

he has a straight/set and wants to protect his hand: possible, but I'm very likely to make a cbet, that might be called by the button, so check/raising seems more profitable.

he has a big draw: as flush and/or straight draw. again, possible, but why bet the pot? surely, check/call or check/raise is more likely.

he has some other hand like an over pair: unlikely, why would you bet a hand like that with two people left to act?

he knows this is a bad flop for a big pair or AK/AQ kinda hands and decides to bluff. Possible, but he is OOP.

I just didn't know here and because I had the button behind me, I decided to fold.
I'm sure reraising big here can often be the right play and if it were heads up, I probably would have done just that.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see my opponents cards, because the button shoved and after a while the big blind folded. In the end, I guess folding might have been the right decision this time. These kind of hands do reveal a lot of info about a players style, so this would have been a big note if the cards had been shown.

Be cool.

January recap

January sure was a bleh month: up $20 and all the way down again to - $1.
I played almost 6k hands and started off well, but three loosing sessions in a row (in one I lost 3 buyins) later I was just hoping to break even. Last Saturday, I was a bit tired so I decided to play a short session on 10NL at Titan. I quickly picked up $7.50 which was nice. Because I picked up $20 in bonusses, I ended up adding about $24 to my bankroll.

I did have my first live game, having a homegame with my collegues at my place. Most of them have little to none experience and with the low stakes ($0.02-$0.05) the play was extremely loose and passive. I decided to play tight and just valuebet my big hands and I doubled up this way. One of the players hit a real nice run of cards, hitting 3 boats and a couple of straights/flushes. Even though it wasn't great poker, we did have a good time.

I have started marking hands I don't play well, so I can replay them with Holdem Manager. I plan on reviewing these hands in detail, both loosing hands (obviously) and winning hands (did I make maximum value?).

Be well and play well!