Since getting back from a summer trip, I've made some decent cash at nl200 with a BR that is a little too small for me to feel comfortable at nl400 (I'm a huge BR nit).

Over the past few days, however, I feel like I've been playing a little spewy and unfocussed so I've decided to take a 6 buy-in shot at nl400. If I bust, oh well ; I'll still be comfortably rolled for nl200.

If, on the other hand, I go robusto, then the sky's the limit. I feel like I've had the hand-reading skills and meta-game awareness necessary for bigger games for a while now but a mixture of not playing enough, running like shit for my past 50k hands or so and general fear of making and losing big sums of $ has kept me away from playing a bunch and moving up.

So this thread will be resurrected for a little while. I'm hesitant to do this because when I get this kind of thing going I usually spend too much time posting stuff and not enough time playing. Hopefully I can avoid avoiding the tables and put in a lot of hands with a few updates here and there.

Instead of chronicling all of my big hands, I'll be using this simply to illustrate some basic concepts through spots where I play "unstandard" or simply think through tough situations.

Any comments or questions are cool.

Here are a few hands from my first session :

1: Fold your draw, I have a big pair!

Seat 5: HERO ( $400 USD )
Seat 4: draglio ( $202.43 USD )
Seat 6: yerlikaya ( $390 USD )
Seat 3: josef61 ( $392 USD )
Seat 1: GrevBolle ( $400 USD )
yerlikaya posts small blind [$2 USD].
GrevBolle posts big blind [$4 USD].
** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to HERO

josef61 calls [$4 USD]
draglio calls [$4 USD]
HERO raises [$22 USD]
yerlikaya folds.
GrevBolle calls [$18 USD]
josef61 folds.
draglio folds.

** Dealing Flop **

GrevBolle checks.
HERO bets [$45 USD]
GrevBolle calls [$45 USD]

** Dealing Turn **

GrevBolle checks.
HERO bets [$126 USD]
GrevBolle folds.
HERO does not show cards.
HERO wins $268 USD

2: Using position vs a super-tight opener

-Villain is about 11/5
-Reasons for the flop call : huge implied odds if villain has a big pair, bluffing scare cards on turn/river, villain will likely just check-fold if he has AK so plan is to bet river if villain checks twice on turn/river

Seat 6: Furlong16 ( $664.30 USD )
Seat 1: HERO ( $445.60 USD )
Seat 3: Puksar ( $204.53 USD )
Seat 2: yerlikaya ( $380 USD )
Seat 4: upskirtfun ( $457 USD )
Seat 5: Kruger188 ( $70 USD )
Puksar posts small blind [$2 USD].
upskirtfun posts big blind [$4 USD].

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to HERO
Kruger188 folds.
Furlong16 raises [$15 USD]
HERO calls [$15 USD]
yerlikaya calls [$15 USD]
Puksar folds.
upskirtfun folds.

** Dealing Flop **

Furlong16 bets [$25 USD]
HERO calls [$25 USD]
yerlikaya folds.

** Dealing Turn **

Furlong16 checks.
HERO checks.

** Dealing River **

Furlong16 checks.
HERO bets [$65 USD]
Furlong16 folds.
HERO does not show cards.
HERO wins $163 USD


3: Crying call. Well played by villain. Flop check to not get bet off my gutter (villain runs around 21/12, flop connected pretty big with his range) and possibly pick up a back-door draw.

Seat 6: Furlong16 ( $294.50 USD )
Seat 1: HERO ( $445.80 USD )
Seat 3: Puksar ( $274.60 USD )
Seat 2: yerlikaya ( $418 USD )
Seat 4: upskirtfun ( $406 USD )
Seat 5: Kruger188 ( $88 USD )
Puksar posts small blind [$2 USD].
upskirtfun posts big blind [$4 USD].

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to HERO
Kruger188 folds.
Furlong16 folds.
HERO raises [$14 USD]
yerlikaya folds.
Puksar calls [$12 USD]
upskirtfun folds.

** Dealing Flop **

Puksar checks.
HERO checks.

** Dealing Turn **

Puksar checks.
HERO bets [$22 USD]
Puksar calls [$22 USD]

** Dealing River **

Puksar bets [$73 USD]
HERO calls [$73 USD]
Puksar shows [ Td, Th ]a straight Six to Ten.
HERO doesn't show [ 5d, 4d ]a straight Five to Nine.
Puksar wins $219 USD from the main pot with a straight, Six to Ten.


4: Playing weak.

Villain is very aggro 32/30 preflop. Cold-calling from the blinds makes me think that his range is almost 100% PP's (lots of ppl who reraise light love doing it with SC's). By checking behind on the flop, I feel that I'm letting him draw to two outs. 99 is almost certainly a 3-bet pre, so the only big hand that I'm making a mistake checking behind to is 55. If he has 22-44 then I can almost definitely get him to call 1 bet, sometimes two since he'll have a tough time putting me on a big pair when I check behind on this flop. As played river is bleh. He doesn't have J-x in his range usually so he either has a small pair turned into a strange bluff or a boat.

Table Table 130473 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 6: Furlong16 ( $427.40 USD )
Seat 1: HERO ( $537.60 USD )
Seat 3: Puksar ( $377.10 USD )
Seat 2: yerlikaya ( $406 USD )
Seat 4: upskirtfun ( $358 USD )
Seat 5: Kruger188 ( $82 USD )
upskirtfun posts small blind [$2 USD].
Kruger188 posts big blind [$4 USD].

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to HERO
Furlong16 folds.
HERO raises [$14 USD]
yerlikaya folds.
Puksar folds.
upskirtfun calls [$12 USD]
Kruger188 folds.

** Dealing Flop **

upskirtfun checks.
HERO checks.

** Dealing Turn **

upskirtfun bets [$28 USD]
HERO calls [$28 USD]

** Dealing River **

upskirtfun bets [$50 USD]
HERO calls [$50 USD]
upskirtfun shows a full house, Sevens full of Jacks.
HERO doesn't show two pairs, Kings and Jacks.
upskirtfun wins $185 USD from the main pot with a full house, Sevens full of Jacks.

5 : Bringing out the heavy lumber.

For the first few sessions of my shot-taking, I'm planning on playing pretty nitty preflop. I much prefer a laggy style, but I'll be doing some things with my nitty image that I would never do when playing lagg. Like repping a set :


Seat 6: Furlong16 ( $396 USD )
Seat 1: HERO ( $412.60 USD )
Seat 3: Puksar ( $378.60 USD )
Seat 2: yerlikaya ( $394 USD )
Seat 4: upskirtfun ( $426 USD )
Seat 5: Kruger188 ( $88 USD )
Furlong16 posts small blind [$2 USD].
HERO posts big blind [$4 USD].

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to HERO
yerlikaya folds.
Puksar calls [$4 USD]
upskirtfun raises [$18 USD]
Kruger188 folds.
Furlong16 folds.
HERO calls [$14 USD]
Puksar calls [$14 USD]

** Dealing Flop **

HERO checks.
Puksar bets [$24 USD]
upskirtfun raises [$82 USD]
HERO raises [$256 USD]
Puksar folds.
upskirtfun folds.
HERO does not show cards.
HERO wins $415 USD