Stuff I learned with a couple hand histories as examples...

1) I suck when I 4-table. Yep. Because I just don't have the mental faculties to manage 4 tables. I'm OK at 3. I feel like I'm pretty good at 2.

2) I read people fairly well... but I need to follow-up. When I'm playing fewer tables, I tend to be able to combine the PT information with the way I see players play to put them on a hand a lot of the time. Not always, never always. But probably enough of the time. However, I don't always believe myself, which is bad...

3) I'm either too tight or in a horrible bad card funk. For the last several sessions, I've been well under 20% VP$IP. At my tables today, PAHUD reported me at between 7 and 16% VI$IP, depending on table. I tend to follow most advice found here regarding opening hands / positions / bet amounts, so I think it's a bad run of cards. We'll see.

4) More NL$25 and NL$50 players than I thought are aware of table image. When I raise pre-flop or BTP post-flop, sooo many fold. This makes table selection key. If I'm going to play tight, I need to do so at a table that has at least a few people who are blind to others' table images... preferable anything but their own holdings.


OK, on to the hands...


1) It's the Read

Playing 2 tables at this point. Normally I don't raise this hand, but my VP$IP had crawled down to around 15% for the table, there were plenty of rocks, and I figured they'd fold by my flop continuation bet if they didn't hit the flop hard. Anyway...


NL$25

Phish has $28
SB has $12

Phish in CO with [Th] UTG posted bring-in bet and checks, 2 folds, MP1 calls, Phish raises to 1.00, Button calls, SB calls, BB calls, UTG calls, MP1 calls (not feeling so good about my raise at this point...)

Flop (6.00) [8h][3d] SB bets 3.00...

Now a word about SB. He's a huge LAG. Spewing chips worse than Tightwad at a brothel. He bets, bets, bets, bets. I've been watching him since he came to the table and, unfortunately, I just haven't had the chance to get up against him yet.

He's also the prototypical LAG I like to target. He's super-aggressive when he's weak, but he tightens right up and checks when he's got a strong hand. Since he bet, he's weak. So... let's see what the rest of the table does...

BB folds, UTG folds, MP1 folds, Phish thinks about the above and bets another $9, enough to put SB in and dissuade Button unless he's got a set, Button folds, SB thinks for a while and finally calls.

The turn and river bring the [Qh] and I scoop against SB's [Tc]


2) Dammit, LISTEN to Yourself!

This one's a shining example of a good read, or maybe just a "feeling" that would have saved me. Unfortunately, I was playing too many tables at the time (4) and didn't bother to listen to myself...

Another at NL$25

Phish has $50
UTG has $39 and is a calling station. I don't know why calling stations win at NL$25, but they do.
CO is a rock with $42

Phish in the SB with [Kh], UTG calls, 3 folds, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, CO calls, Button folds, Phish calls (Bonehead move #1, should have raised to 1.50 or so), BB checks

Flop (1.50) [8s][Ks] Phish bets 1.50, BB folds, UTG calls, 2 folds, CO calls

Turn (6.00) (Ok, when that 10 falls something screams at me that I'm beat. Get out. Check...) Phish bets 5.00, UTG calls, CO calls

River (21.00) (You're beat, you're beat, you're BEAT!) Phish bets 9.00, UTG calls, CO calls

Both had me beat, one with the straight and the other with 2 pair.