Day 2, hello Variance, we meet again.

So day two is in the bag. Didn't get as many hands in as I wanted today. I spent most of the morning taking care of some errands and working out (laundry, haircut, running, etc). I also got some books in the mail today, including: Professional No Limit Hold'em (for if I ever go to the darkside), Turning your Poker Playing into a Business (how to register as a business and file as a pro gambler), and The Gamblers Guide to Taxes (which I browsed through and almost fell asleep ugh). The latter two of which I think will be required reading over the next month. I've already started keeping receipts. Planning on getting a business checking account, credit card, printer/fax, and maybe even business cards. I want to be as legit as possible in the IRS's eyes.

After running errands and browsing my books I made the mistake of trying to beat rush hour traffic at 4:15pm to go do some pitching. I hit the traffic, and a normally 20 minute drive took an hour.

Despite that it felt great to get back to throwing. I haven't thrown much since the season wrapped up in mid august, and all I can say is that the world feels right when I have a baseball in my hand.

Came back from pitching at about 6pm and grabbed some dinner. Watched a little TV while I was datamining some tables, and then I sat down for a session. Right away I could tell it was going to be a rough one. I got 2-3 outed a few times, and then I definitely caught myself making some really bad bluffs and call downs in spots where I shouldn't ever win the pot. Finally I realized that I was playing like crap, and not running much better so I took a break. Normally I would stay and work through it, but honestly I had bad spots at all of my tables so I really wasn't giving much up. I was down about $500 at one point, but I made back about $250 before getting up.

So then about 2 hours ago I hopped back on and found a couple of better games, and finally some decent seats. I had the LAGs to my right, and was able to play my game. I felt like I played much better the second session, and despite a couple of rough beats I was able to make back all of my losses from earlier. This was more of an accomplishment because I started out pretty bad during my second session, and got down another $500 (-$750 for those keeping track) before clawing my way back. So I finally wrapped it up +$120 (not counting rakeback) so I was really pleased with the session.

Along with yesterdays +$1300, that makes for a nice start to the pro career.

here's an interesting hand from today:

Full Tilt Poker $10/$20 Limit Hold'em - 6 playersHand Converter Tool from http://www.deucescracked.com/
Preflop: Hero is SB with 5c, Ac, UTG folds, MP folds, CO raises, Button folds, Hero 3bets, BB folds, CO calls.
Flop: (7.00 SB) 7s, 5h, Th (2 players)Hero bets, CO calls.
Turn: (4.50 BB) 4d (2 players)Hero bets, CO raises, Hero 3-bets, CO calls.
River: (10.50 BB) Ad (2 players)Hero bets, CO raises, Hero 3-bets, CO folds.
Final Pot: 14.50 BB

so the CO has been very laggy, and is playing about 35/25 preflop. I know he could be stealing with a huge range of his hands, and I also have some notes that make me think he plays poorly postflop (IMO). I 3-bet out of the SB because a) I think I have the best hand b) I want to get the BB out and play HU with the CO. On the flop I hit a pair which is obviously good, and the c-bet is totally standard.

Now on the turn he raises on a very draw heavy board. Against this type of player I'm almost never folding in this spot, because he could be raising anything trying to get me to lay down a small pair or A-high. This could be KQo, 97s, or practically anything. Now the board is obviously not good for my hand, but we've played pots together, and he knows that if I call the turn I'm almost certainly going to call the river. Thus if he is semi-bluffing he gets to play his hand perfectly. Check-behind all draws, and bet all made hands. So I take a line that is not usual for me, and 3-bet the turn from OOP with a weak made hand. This is typically a bad play, but against this player I think I am ahead of his range, since he would tend to call down instead of raising the turn with weak made hands.

The river presents another interesting spot. Obviously if I think he is on a missed draw or a weak hand I want to get him to call or bluff. But against this particular player I expect him to check behind on the river most of the time, and if he bets he is very unlikely to call a c/r. My line looks so suspicious if I 3-bet the turn and check on the river that I think he'll probably give up or fold to a c/r. So in order to maximize I try to take advantage of his laggy tendencies by giving him a chance to bluff-raise another potential scare card. By leading the river I guarantee that he has to pay 1 bet to see a SD with all weak made hands, and if he wants to bluff (which this player loves to do) he's going to bluff raise so i can put in the third bet. If the river hadn't improved my hand I probably would have c/c'd and hoped to catch him with hearts or a straight draw. But with the river improvement I had a great chance to pick up at least 1 or maybe 2 bets.

I think my turn play is very questionable, but I felt like I needed to mix it up versus this very laggy player that had been trying to run me over. However despite my so-so turn play, my decision to bet and three-bet the river I thought was very solid.

later

jim