I haven't posted a blog article in like.... forever, so here is a new one.

I quit playing poker back in december for some reason. I got sick of the game and wasn't running good or having fun playing.

Anyway, I came back last month and started playing again and moved over to NL ring. I never felt good playing NL ring before. Never knew what to bet, where I was in a hand, didn't respect aggression when I should. I sucked and didn't ever make an effort to figure out why. It's different this time around. I love looking over NL ring hands. I've played a lot better in SNGs. I still pretty much suck postflop, but I have a much better feeling for when I'm beat and can get away from hands instead of playing massive pots with weak hands.

I'm almost rolled again for $25NL and I'm looking forward to putting a roll together.

Just a quick update since last post. I haven't been playing as much LHE as the beginning of the month since I cashed out a big chunk to buy my family some nice stuff for Christmas.

I took the rest of the roll and set aside some to play Party SNGs. I played these alot about a year ago before I found LHE. I felt pretty good about getting back into the $11s on Party. I took some time to browse the SNG forums and chat with some of the SNG gurus (thanks Gabe and VQC) and then got started. I wasn't prepared for the variance and didn't particularly care for the roller coaster that comes with repeated exploitation of small edges (read: crapshoot). I quickly went down 20 buyins over the first 50 or so I played and decided that my roll would be more productive back at the LHE tables.

So I'm back to the old grind and having fun again. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

Got a couple hundred hands in tonite and things are going well.

MTD Nov 05 2/4 stats
Hands 776
VP$IP 14.95
PFR 7.60
BB/100 3.91

Net won $121.25

The number of hands I'm playing is way off, but it's a miniscule sample and I sat for about a hundred hands tonite and played 9%.

I played some 4 way hands this afternoon with three other donks and made out OK considering my lack of shorthanded play. Agg levels really go up when the tables wipe out, but it's pretty easy to capitalize on other's mistakes.

One hand in particular from today that I was a little confused in happened shortly after we got down to 4-handed.

Villain had been playing pretty passive pre and post flop, but had gone pretty crazy the previous several hands since the table got short.

Hero is BB with KTd
UTG folds, Button raises, SB folds, Hero 3-bets, Button caps, Hero calls.

Flop 8.50SB Ks 5c 3d
Hero checks, Button bets, hero raises, Button 3-bets, hero caps, button calls.

Dunno how good my K is with T kicker, but the pot is pretty ripe now. Looking back, I hate the flop cap.

Turn 8.25BB [Ks 5c 3d] Ad
Hero bets, Button raises, Hero calls.

I probably should have just check/called here. Although that card isn't the worst for me.

River 12.25BB [Ks 5c 3d Ad] 2d
Bingo! Hero checks (doh), button bets, hero raises... blah blah capped.

Final Pot: 20.25 BB

Looking back I think I played this hand pretty badly on all streets, but it worked out. I find myself getting way to caught up in the action in shorthanded games and not thinking through where I might be in the hand. I tend to play the cards only and it probably has alot to do with my lack of hands at 6-max and less tables.

Comments appreciated in the blog forum.

Not much time for poker this weekend. Got a couple hundred hands in on Friday afternoon before beer:30 and won back the 25 or so BB that was dumped on Thursday night.

Played a measly 125 hands tonight and was down a couple BB.

2/4 stats for NOV 05
472 hands
13.77 VP$IP
7.42 PFR

Net (20.00)

I really need to work on table selection. I know what I need to look for, but I end up just sitting down at the first available table and notice its pretty TAggy after a few orbits and pick another one at random.

Not sure what the playing time will be looking like for the immediate future as our contract at work was just moved onto a local Air Force base and they tend to keep funky hours at the gate. Gonna try to start working 4 ten hour shifts and take Fridays off as long as the boss lady says it's cool. Hope I can get a couple evening sessions in during the week and marathon the better part of the day on Friday.

OT: I watched Batman Begins last nite. I had heard mixed reviews about it, but was overall impressed with the pic. Also watch L4y3r Cake which was directed by the same guy who did Snatch and Lock, Stock,... Decent flick, not nearly as funny as the other two and it was kinda hard to follow wtf was going on. Also, even though British people speak English, I can't understand wtf they are saying =\


Until next time...

I've just returned from a bit of an extended break from the world of poker and started playing on a regular basis. Feels good to be back, but alot went down in the online poker world while I was away.....

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