Short Session

I played a quick session last night. Only about 600 hands, but put together a +1 buyin session. I need to start putting in at least 10-12 hours per week. The rakeback is a great bonus, especially because I am trying to get to my goal of jumping levels. So I 6 tabled for about an hour and a half. Early on, didn't get much, and just folded. I was trying to just grind a profit, then open up the game a little. So I pick up QQ in the second orbit and raise. I get no action. I was running pretty TAG at most of the tables, and noticed that a couple of the tables were pretty squeaky tight and played a little more LAG. I showed a profit on every table except for 1. Of course it was because my AA ran into a set, but I did lose the min and not my stack. Pretty dangerous board and just check called OOP to lose the min. No biggy.

A few orbits later, I pick up some blinds with nothing, then raise with AK off in late. I get called, then donk bet into on a 9 high board. Most donk bets don't mean great strength, but I decided to just let it go. Then I pick up JJ in the BB and flat a very loose player. Queen hits the flop, and I check raise his CBET and take down a little pot. Against a tight player, I might have respected the CBET but when you're playing 45% of the hands, you will miss more than you hit. Throughout my session, I made some really silly CBETs that cost me some money. When playing low stakes, you have to throttle back your CBETs and look to value bet more. Because you will run into a lot more loose calling stations, just value bet more and bluff less.

The first big hand came up with a short stacker limping in late. There were already two other limpers, so I bump it up to 7X with AA in the BB. SS'er calls and the flop comes Q105 with two hearts. He had less than the pot, so I decided to open shove, to make it look like a bluff. I figured if he had a 10 he might call, but would definitely call with a Queen. Sure enough, he calls off his stack with 910 SOOTED....lol. After that it was pretty uneventful for a few orbits. Raise IP and CBET to take down small pots, and get some big hands that give some decent ones.

The first 100 BB pot I won was with QQ. A guy playing 57/35 raised 4X, so you know he's getting re-raised opens. I 3 bet and the SB flats, the raiser folds. Flop comes Queen high and SB check raises all in. Top set, gee what should I do? He has AQ SOOTED, and gets stacked and then bitches about what a "cooler" it was. HAHAHAHA. What the hell were you doing calling a 3 bet with AQ OOP?

Other than that, it was pretty uneventful. I stacked another guy later on with QQ again when he tried to slowplay AK on the flop with a king. I raised, he flat called IP and flopped top pair. I CBET, he flatted again. I was ready to shutdown and fold to his bet on the turn, when presto a two outer. So I bet the turn like I was trying to push him out with a draw, he flatted again. Blank on the river, I shoved for a little more than the pot. At this point, I knew he probably had top pair because there weren't any draws but a flush draw and his numbers were pretty tight. I knew he probably wasn't chasing a flush draw and thought I might get paid off. Sure enough, he paid off the shove with top pair.

Finally, to finish the session, I made a really stupid 3 barrel bluff into a calling station. It was really ridiculous. I lost a little, but was still able to book a win. So all went well, and now I just need to get ready for my next session. Hopefully I can keep the ball rolling and get to the next level soon enough. On a different note, I'm reading T.J. Cloutier's book on Omaha. I'm really interested in that game, and will probably test the waters out soon enough. I'm not a noob, I've played it quite a bit, but want to learn the proper strategies. It's been a good book so far, especially because it covers all forms of Omaha.

Our puppy is doing well, she's already up to 15 lbs. She was a whopping 5 lbs when we got her 6 weeks ago. Such a cute dog, but a little firecracker to say the least. Hopefully when the puppy energy runs out she will calm down. Right now she is a little barker and rogue. Still love her though. Married life is great as well. I try to take care of the house a lot more often because she gets so busy with work. I don't like her coming home and being stressed out, so poker might have to take a backseat this weekend, we'll see. She is the best wife I could ever ask for.

So my list of things for February:
1. Play at least 3 sessions per week, hopefully more so I can get my ironman status back. I haven't qualified for ironman since July.
2. Get to the next level by March.
3. Lower the number of bluffs I make and stay out of marginal positions OOP.
4. Write at least 1 blog post per week, and upload some hands and graphs.
5. Finish reading Championship Omaha, Bill Chen's book on poker math, and Owning the Dragon.
6. Play more than 20,000 hands in February.