To begin with, back in UPF days, Roy Cooke kept talking about "table strategies," and I really never fully understood what he meant. It seemed to me like you just have your starting hands and then make correct plays, with a few calls being based on reads. Now, I think I'm starting to understand this "table strategy" thing, as well as "shifting gears," a little bit better, so I thought I'd start posting how the game goes, how I adjust, etc. Perhaps some here will learn what I feel like I'm beginning to understand, and perhaps some others will have some suggestions for adjustments I haven't thought of.

The Friday table was rather similar to that of Wednesday night: pretty cally, mainly unfamiliar faces. So, I decide a continuation bet against isn't doable to begin with, hence down to raising JJ-AA (not AK, in line with my post of a few days ago).

It doesn't matter much, though, as I didn't get very many of these.

The short version of this session is simply: I win a lot on TP-type hands against players chasing draws and missing. So, I'm up about $350 after 8 hours of play. No huge pots, really.

Now some details: First, a drunk ex-football coach who shows up once in a while sits down and is raising a lot frivolously. Hence, I decide to start limping on AA and KK when he is to act ahead.

I get an AA and no raise. I can bet the flop of Q9X, as I do. Then, the turn comes K. I bet again, and this highway patrol guy who sat down to my left (and was actually overly cautious a few hands before) raises me all-in for his short stack of $130. I just lay it down, figuring he has either the straight or KQ (he denied this).

Anyhow, I do stack him later when he makes a similar raise against a QJ top pair of mine, and he's outkicked, so maybe my aces were good after all.

KK limped turns into a good pot, but unfortunately also doesn't get raised by the drunk coach. My opponent there just lays down on the turn on a raggedy board.

The result of all this is the "up $350." Now, after 8 hours, some of the fish start to get up, and a regular who is pretty decent but likes to slowplay a lot sits down as well as this Asian guy who is pretty aggressive. Still a few fish at the table, however.

But the main thing here is that I started this whole session pretty tired, but felt like I played quite well for the first 8 hours. I just had it in mind that I wanted to break $400 for the session, and I also am trying to work up to 12 hour sessions (more on that in a separate post).

With this late night configuration, I'm still thinking that continuation bets aren't a good idea, so I stick with my strategy on that but run into two bad hands in fairly big pots (also separate post), one against an unknown, one against the slowplayer.

Actually, I think the correct strategy there would have been to get up from the table. After the big hands, I'm down $300 for the night, although it gets shorthanded, and I make progress.

Then, I get really lucky: As the table breaks, I get this guy who's not bad but doesn't know how to play HU into a HU battle. I stack him and end up up $254 for the night after 12 hours of play.

I think the main moral of the story is actually getting up when incapable of playing difficult hands optimally.

Thoughts?

I'm curious as to what limits and what buyins you are playing.

It's 2/5 NL, and I buy in for $600. A few buy in for more, but I feel like that's a plenty good starting stack.