A Quick Update

I just got back from Raleigh. It was good to see an old friend and we had a lot of fun, however Raleigh is not a place I want to call home. So for the 1-2 people that read this blog, please give me some suggestions about cool cities to live in. I'm going a bit nuts living here at home, its just time to move on. On the poker front, I ran good for a few days and took some 2k shots again. The first match I played was versus another pro at Cake who I thought I was better than. I ended up winning and sitting on 5.5k stack after 90 minutes. The next day I got some sick good action at Ultimate Bet, unfortunately that match did not go my way. I value shoved top pair in too thin of a spot. My opponent was more passive post flop and he check raised a KJ8 flop, check called a completely blank turn, and the river was a T (KJ86T). The flush draw had missed too. He checked the river and I thought for a very long time then shoved AK for 1.9k into a pot of 1.6k. He called with 8T. I don't like my shove and this is a mistake I make quite often. Well its sort of a mistake, I just go for thin value a lot, and ultra thin too. Betting for value too thin in quite a few spots is a break even play for me. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I would not say I'm spewing money in these spots, but in a lot of them, I could refrain from going for such thin value which would add a little more profit to my game. In the last case I would have been 1.6k richer had I not shoved the river, but oh well you live and learn. Someday I hope to make a nice little run at 10 20.

Poker has been lazy as of late due to vacation followed by apartment hunting. My 3 attempts to breakthrough at the 10 20 games have been disappointing. After my most recent shot, I also ran horribly at 5 10 and dropped around 7k in 2 days. That sucks! This blog has gotten too emo and its time to cut that shit out. I need to focus more on my play and study the game off the felt. I'm going to try and use this blog as a medium for studying and get back to posting more hands. Lastly, in reference to thin value plays again, here is a hand from my first 2k match where I make another ultra thin shove but it worked out in my favor. Also the timing of the play and dynamic in the match was much different so I like this thin value shove more, but its still really damn thin. The stacks were 3k effective and I flat 89s from the small blind to the buttons open. The weird thing in this match is that he had been betting a lot of flops then giving up completely. Instead of check raising a ton like I usually do, I was just floating all my hands out of position to stab the river if he checked back the turn. I felt like this was a lower variance play than check raising and the check raise seem sort of unnecessary versus this guy since he was so honest post flop. Also in the last few hands I made this play where I would check call the flop and check raise the turn with a draw, and it seemed that he was becoming suspicious of this play since I was abusing the move by doing it too frequently. And now this hand comes up:

he raises the button i flat 89s and the flop is K95----I check call his bet and the turn is a 9. He bets again and after some deliberation, given the recent history in the match I decide to check raise my middle two here and stack it since I feel that he might play back to this line light by now. He thinks genuinely and calls the turn, the river is the 2c, completing the flush from the flop. The post is 1.7k and we each have exactly that left in our stacks. I was sort of lost as to how to play this river, which since this is the case, it makes my turn raise a bad idea. You really shouldn't take an action if you don't know how to proceed after that action. I think for 45 seconds and decide to shove it in. It was odd, with the way the match had been going I expected him to get frisky with the draw on the turn and shove over me, so I don't expect him to have the flush here a whole lot, although it is definitely in his range. The other end of his range is all the top pairs he peeled the turn with, and since he can't really put me on the flush given the way I played, I shoved the river and he called with KQ. 5.5k shipped in my direction. Let me know what you guys think of this play.

I really am looking forward to gridning out some weeks of poker again, hopefully with some better results. I have a lesson with my coach on Wednesday so that should be good. Lately I've been focusing on playing good solid tight aggressive poker. The games are so volatile today, that I want to do everything I can to lower my variance. I decided I should play a tighter games at 5 10 since the opponents are better. It is tough to play a loose style versus good players and it really just makes my life hell when it doesn't need to be. 5 10 is a hard game and has been a challenge, but I welcome it. Hopefully the next few weeks will include a decent little run at 5 10 up through 10 20.