Change up

Okay, last night I make a departure from Limit Hold 'em. I definitely needed a change up. Maybe, it'll force me to tighten up a bit. The No Limit Game is not the place to dabble, and I know it. It was my playing ground at lower levels, but this time, I'm opting instead for the $.50/$1.00 NL tables. I crawled, yes crawled...no running allowed. I actually made it back up to my initial deposit amount! REALLY! That wasn't a lot, but it was on the PLUS side this time, instead of the eternal spiral that I've been feeling lately. NOW, I didn't play GREAT, there were a few minor bumps. But there was one hand I was proud of. I had A-K preflop and raised, was called, bet standard post flop, when I missed, and was reraised. There was crap on the board. I'd been paying attention to the guys play. He was also a big stack, but the whole table was betting huge, when they actually had it. One guy even pushed all-in preflop for over $150, when he held Pocket Kings, solely out of fear of the suckout. So, back to my hand. This other guy has hit...I know it, feel it...I made him for a solid upper/mid range pair, and I'm confident that no matter what I did I wouldn't have shaken him. It is even possible that he held a set, but I decided not to draw against a made hand. It stings to lose, but I remembered the goal in playing here was discipline. I therefore...won, but not losing big. The only dumb hand of the night, was with pocket 9's. I call a preflop pot bet of $3.50, from a guy who is in late position. Flop comes up 10-10-5, w/two diamonds. He bets small, very small, so I call. Turn is another 5. He checks I check behind. River fills in the flush possibility. But now I'm wondering if he's been sitting on Big Slick from the get go, and is confident with his 10s and 5s Ace kicker, in which case I can take this down. He again bets small, and I walk in. He flips over his Cowboys. Okay, I lost...and it was stupid. I went too far and completely misread it. But it was a good, not TOO costly excursion into Wishful Thinking! Don't ever friggin' do it AGAIN! IDIOT!!! I also looked back through my stats for the night. I showed a small profit while winning a VERY SMALL percentage of the hands. So, I do believe I was playing TIGHT, legitimately TIGHT! I was agressive when the circumstances called for it. So, I hope to use this as a learning experience. Re-introduce the possibility of loss of it all to myself, to perhaps train the brain.

Tune in next time kids...and until then, stay away from the Tilt-A-Whirl!

Regards,

cheer_dad