Late Night Session

I played a little over 1,000 hands tonight. I knew I was going to play for about 2-3 hours, so for the first 10-15 minutes, I was trying to set up an image contrary to how I normally play. I was playing anywhere from 18/15 on one table to 25/19 on another. I then geared down and waited to get PAID. And did I. On the table that I was playing the most LAG, I pick up KK in late position. There were 3 limpers and I raised it up the pot plus 2 BB's. Pretty standard raise, just trying to get rid of some junk aces and narrow the field, while having position. Sure enough, two people OOP call. The flop came J-8-4 rainbow. It checks to me, and I bet out 2/3 the pot and get check raised all in. Pretty easy call, he's probably sitting on a decent jack like AJ, KJ, or J10. Sure enough, J10 and he gets stacked. From there I was playing really well and was up 3 buyins in no time.

The thing that sucked about the games tonight was that there were so many limpers in every hand. Not only that, but some of the players were playing ultra tight. There were a couple of players playing between a 3/3 and 5/5. If they were interested in the pot, just let it go, unless I flopped a monster. If they were raising, I was folding, I even folded 9's, 7's, and AQ, pretty easy folds when you're facing a player playing 3 to 5% of their hands. Honestly, what could they have? Their range is pretty simple: QQ+ and AK, maybe AQ suited, but that's about all they are playing.

So things were going great, until the LAGTARD in me just had to keep pushing later on. I was still up about 3 buyins and lost with AA to KJ, AJ to AK (stupid push pre), QQ to K4 suited, and JJ to A8 off. I reviewed my session and couldn't believe how many times I had a big pocket pair and of course an over came out and they connected with a junk hand. I also noticed that players were calling down super light, with junk hands like K5 suited from UTG, Q7 off from middle and a bunch of other crap. So I just need to idle it back a little and wait for some good opportunities. I did make a great play against an opponent I had some notes on. He loves to raise when he thinks everyone is weak and when it's blind versus blind. So I'm in the BB with J10 off, and he raises me again. I flat call and see a flop. The flop came 9-4-2 with two hearts. He bets 2/3 the pot, and I decide to make it look like a draw, even though I have nothing and quickly call. The turn brings a queen of hearts, and he bets out again. Now I have a legitimate draw and have some bluff outs. The river brings the 3 of hearts, a perfect card, and he bets it one more time. One thing I noticed was that on the turn and river, his bets got much smaller in comparison to the pot. I read it as a blocking bet, and decided that since I played the hand like a draw, I would push on him now. I raised him 4 times his bet and he went to the tank. I was praying to myself, "Fold, fold, fold, dear god please fold." Sure enough he uses his timebank and eventually folds. WHEW!!

There were a couple of players who were playing incredibly loose passive. They were playing 45 and 89% of their hands. I caught some great betting tells on the super loose one, and the other one just overvalued top pair hands and would call down. So I took some notes on them and can't wait to get them on my table again.

I'm reading Harrington on Cash Games right now, and I do have to say that it's a great book so far. I finished volume I, which is mostly about preflop play and flop play. Volume II covers post flop play and reading players. So I have taken a lot of great info from them so far. I just need to apply small ball and look to play my hands in position much better. I made a little over a buyin after all the dust settled, which is pretty frustrating. Especially since I am getting close moving up to the next level. I just have to keep putting some good sessions together and let the rest take care of itself. So far I have had 3 out of 4 winning sessions.

My rakeback site gives me my rakeback every week, so that is a great bonus. I've only played one session a week so far, but if I put together a couple of days a week, I should get a couple of buyins back just from rakeback. At that rate, I would be at the next level within a couple of months. It's time to get some sleep. In summation, I need to focus on playing in position better and look to exploit players tendencies and patterns more. I've been three betting and isolating really well. Now I just need to put the rest together and get some sessions together.