Harry Potter and Running Well

I haven't really played any poker over the past couple of days because of one reason: Harry Potter. I am avid reader of these books for those of you who don't know. Every year the newest one is released, I go on a binge and basically lock myself away for a day or two and I don't come out until 700 to 800 page book is finished. Over the course of yesterday and most of today, I did precisely that. The book continued to live up to its reputation as always, and this one contained a darker theme then the others, so I found it even more enrapturing. I did manage to finish the book off around 10:30 tonight. It is the last of the series, at least for now, so I most likely won't be doing something like that again.

As for poker, I decided I wanted to play a session before going to bed after I was all finished with the book. I can honestly say, for the first time in a long time, I ran extremely well. I only played around 70 hands because I got a headache from all of the reading, but they were most enjoyable 70 hands I think I have ever played. Here are my three biggest hands, with only one of them actually being considerably "large":

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290376
This hand is a good example of implied odds. When I reraised the min-raiser with my TT and then got 4 bet for only 2.5x, I knew my opponent was on a big pair. Even more astonishing, the player to his immediate left cold calls a 4 bet! If I am in this player's position fold everything but KK or AA, but I figured he was a nit and most likely had a hand like AK or JJ. So when it got back to me, there was $87 in the pot and only $20 more for me to call, which is 4.4:1 on my money. This may seem like poor odds to be given when it's 7.5:1 to flop a set, but I know that if I flop my set, I will be able to stack off my opponent virtually every time with his overpair because he will make a continuation bet into a pot of this size large enough to commit himself to my all in raise. Therefore, taking this into consideration, our $20 call is no longer an attempt to win $87 but rather $87 + the remainder of my stack (200-34), or $166, which equals $256. So now our odds of flopping a set is still 7.5:1 but our pot odds are $256/20, or 12.8:1. These odds are clearly compelling enough to make this type of call profitable over the long run. I was fortunate enough to hit my set this time my opponent predictably stacked off with his Aces.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290382
This hand is pretty easy and straight forward. I managed to sneak into a cheap pot with a nice connecting hand like 89. I flopped the bottom end of a Queen high straight, but didn't slow play it for several reasons. The first is that it is an action flop and there is a good chance it hit someone, so there was no need to slow play and let people catch up or bluff. The second reason is that there are so many bad cards that can fall off the deck if I let it check around. Any Ace,King, 9, or 8, and my hand is a lot less strong than it was previously. So I decided to bet out and got one caller, which doesn't tell me much more than that he has either a decent pair or a decent draw, or maybe both. The turn pairing the Jack is a pretty awful card, but my opponent only started with 1/4 stack, so I was willing to go all the way with the hand knowing I couldn't lose much. He called my turn bet and I felt he really was limited to a Queen or a draw, even though he wasn't getting the right odds. The river blanked and I bet most of his remaining stack and he raised the rest, which I obviously called. He had J9 for trips and and open ended straight draw on the turn, and this was pretty surprising because he should know that his push on the turn has to be called by me.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290388
I'm not even going to go over this hand as it is so simple. Just flop the nuts and let people bet for you, simple as that.

Overall, I ended up +$245, making this my second profitable session in a row. Hopefully the streak will continue...