And here is a graph:
The $100 max session I played decently but I ran pretty bad. People kept rivering two pair in pots where I played for pot control, but I like that style with marginal made hands. Then I had one sort of cooler with AK on an AsJs5x board where the under the gun raiser had 55. If not for that hand, I still would have made money at .5/1. I had a test at 8:15 tonight and then hung out at Lauren's for a little before I came back and played my second session. I decided to give 1/2 a shot because my bankroll now has 20 buy-ins for that level, games are typically softer at night, and I know I'm good enough to play at that level. I used to play only 1/2 on Stars (and sometimes 2/4 until I reached my pain threshold) and I was beating the game pretty good, and I am confident Full Tilt is a little bit softer. The game plan is to now keep playing these days of mixed levels to phase myself into 1/2 where I hopefully can make some nice money and prepare for 2/4. I played really well at 1/2 today so that goes a long way for the confidence. Here are some hands:
Hand from above
This hand is actually kind of interesting and I'm really not sure if I played it correctly. If I had a deeper stack, it is a clear fold, but with my stack and now getting 2:1 with his shove, I didn't think I could fold. I figured hands that would do this were set, AJ, AQ, AK,KsQs, QsTs, and maybe a suited connector flush draw but that is unlikely because he has to know he doesn't really have fold equity. I don't like squeezing with AK against UTG raisers and callers because when you miss, you are out of position and often get floated/shoved on dry flops. Flat calling does disguise my hand and may get a guy to stack of with AQ or AJ on an Ace high board.
Discipline Fold
My river bet here is bad but it was a nice discipline fold, which I have gotten a lot better at lately. A bet on the river is bad here because my hand is sort of transparent when I bet the river because there is no way I have a boat with with that scary flop and I definitely would've bet a King or Queen on the flop. It's also bad because I don't get any value from an Ace as we will chop and he certainly isn't laying down an Ace for only $25. I really think he had TJ, but if he didn't, then it was a nice bluff by him.
Nice read
I was almost positive this guy was squeezing based on my reads of the table, and I'm glad I actually had the nerve to follow my read and pull the trigger. Next time though, I think making a pot committing bet like $110 looks stronger whereas the all in bet looks a lot like AK.
Another Nice Read
I liked this hand a lot. I normally wouldn't play as big of pot in most situations, but this guy was a major donk. I had seen him make a few big raises with weak made hands or draws, so I had no intention of folding on this under flop unless some really bad cards came. He hesitated calling my turn check raise, and him not shoving made me put him on a draw. This guy's stats were something like 60/25, and he was the type that would raise any pair as he raised a lot and limped with suited cards, so I wasn't too worried about a set. The river was perfect and put me ahead of a hand like 86 suited and I snap called pretty confidently. His hand was right around what I thought, so that was a nice pat on the back along with the 260bb pot.
This post is running kind of long, but I haven't posted in awhile so I feel the need to make up for it. My friend just started a blog and I must admit, it is one of the most intelligently written piece of writing that I have read in a long time. He certainly has a gift for writing and I truly believe he should pursue something in that field (he does intend to). What really caught my eye was the level of reflection involved. Reflection of oneself is something I have done before and something I plan to do more of in the near future. It is one of the best ways to analyze yourself and assess how you truly are feeling at a certain period of time, and it often leads to eye opening revelations. Reflection is very dandy indeed, but for it to truly be effective, you have to go somewhere with those realizations and take the proper actions to maximize your benefit from them. I have a very wonderful and happy life right now, so my reflections may be more focused on smaller things, but I really need to work on following through on those reflections...
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