So, Friday night an interesting course of events transpired... my buddy and me were drinking (I don't drink at the casino, just when playing with friends) and playing heads up NLHE and PLO (10c/20c), just something we do for fun. He's been playing poker for 12 years and I've been playing for 1 year so I regularly make "donations" to him (lose) in order to practice my game. I've actually started to hold my own against him more and more. He plays purely based on the numbers. I enjoy the psychology of poker, and based on the advice here focused a lot more on his body language, etc. One thing led to another, and two hours later we are on our way to the local casino. He basically staked me a buy-in because he felt that if I played a tight, patient game and focused on the body language of the players that I could be successful.

I managed to run his 200 dollar buy in up to 680 playing 1/3 NLHE. A large part of that was from reading the table, minimizing my limping (in the past I get drawn into limping way too much because the rest of the table does), and c-betting. I do think I got lucky, and am not sitting here with my head in the clouds thinking I am better than I am. A hand I made a lot of money on was probably really stupid on my part:

UTG folds
Hero (UTG+1) looks down at JdJc, makes it 15 (stack size 400)
UTG+2 folds
Villain in MP (stack size 1500, brought stack over from a table that folded, seemed to bluff a lot, caught showing down with weak hands) calls
the rest fold.

Flop: Ks7s4c (pot 31 after rake)

Hero bets 25, Villain calls.

Turn: Qh (pot 55 after rake and drop)

Hero checks, villain bets 45.

I called, which I think was stupid in retrospect.

River: 5s (pot 135)

Hero checks. Villain bets 110.

I tanked. I figured I had to fold, I had already been stupid to call the turn. I watched the guy a little bit while riffling my chips. He was staring directly at the board. That kept me from folding...I kept thinking.

Still not satisfied that he was bluffing, figuring with a stack of 1500 bucks (5x the max BI) he could be throwing out reverse tells, I start counting out my chips to call. Once I've counted them out, I sort of watch him out of the corner of my eye. He gave it away when he looked at me. I could see it in his face. I instantly called and he sheepishly said "Good call," and mucked his cards.

Was I a spewing donk here who just got lucky? Or should I continue to study and trust my instincts? I've always felt like I was good at reading people... I've made some pretty huge lay downs in the past, but after some initial success I started to get impatient and not listen to my instincts, and I went on a huge cold streak. I'm saving my profits from this to try and build up a little bit of a roll. I know it's not much but I have to start somewhere.

Also going to throw some cash on carbon or bovada and start getting some practice in. I still prefer live but I understand that my volume live will pale in comparison to my online volume.