That's how you do it

It would appear that something in my brain has clicked into place and I've finally realised that it is possible to win in July. Have had a very good night/morning (it's now 4.15am) and I think I'm up just under 4k for the day. This ranks as one of my best ever days and hopefully puts pay to the slump I've been in where winning seems very difficult. I probably should have gone to bed earlier but have played on as I have been in the zone making some solid plays and feeling confident.

General rule with me is that if that happens I don't leave the table until I pretty much have to due to tiredness stopping my brain from functioning. It's been a while since I've felt so positive at the table and although I haven't had any massive pots - biggest about 1.3k I've chipped away and taken small stacks out at regular intervals.

I hope to continue this form into a late night session tomorrow and put up some really good figures for the weekend but we shall have to see if I manage that - probably depends largely on how well I sleep and also what Nat wants to do during the day.

One hand history, I failed miserably to save many just because I was focussed on my game but this one is a good read by me and I successfully got the lad to commit his stack which was nice.


***** Hand History for Game 6149566146 *****
$1,000 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, July 13, 22:24:29 ET 2007
Table Table 126894 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 5: Tiesto99 ( $1,118.75 USD )
Seat 8: M_Nomura ( $525.76 USD )
Seat 9: elgamble753 ( $1,060.75 USD )
Seat 10: seiuchi ( $892.50 USD )
Seat 6: roberto26333 ( $3,325.98 USD )
Seat 3: TiltyMonkey ( $1,405 USD )
Seat 7: BollstaKid ( $589.75 USD )
Seat 1: oxionoixo ( $1,000 USD )
Seat 2: Raoh_ ( $200 USD )
Seat 4: g_unit3491 ( $657 USD )
BollstaKid posts small blind [$5 USD].
M_Nomura posts big blind [$10 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to TiltyMonkey [ Ad As ]
elgamble753 folds
seiuchi folds
oxionoixo raises [$35 USD]
TiltyMonkey calls [$35 USD]
g_unit3491 calls [$35 USD]
Tiesto99 folds
roberto26333 folds
BollstaKid folds
M_Nomura calls [$25 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8h, 8c, Qs ]
M_Nomura checks
oxionoixo checks
TiltyMonkey bets [$90 USD]
g_unit3491 calls [$90 USD]
M_Nomura folds
oxionoixo folds
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9c ]
TiltyMonkey checks
g_unit3491 bets [$120 USD]
TiltyMonkey raises [$340 USD]
g_unit3491 is all-In [$412 USD]
TiltyMonkey calls [$192 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 6h ]
TiltyMonkey shows [ Ad, As ]two pairs, Aces and Eights.
g_unit3491 doesn't show [ Qc, Kh ]two pairs, Queens and Eights.
TiltyMonkey wins $1,386 USD from the main pot with two pairs, Aces and Eights.
seiuchi has left the table.

Pocket A's are by far my most profitable hand an I think I play them extremely well, mixing my play up and being able to drop them on suitable occasions. In this pot I decided to just call the raise pre flop and make my real decisions after. This has the fine effect of making my hand very well disguised but has the flip side of letting more people in who may hit cards to hurt me. This is why AA is such a tricky hand to play well, once the flop comes with inoccuous low cards it can be very very difficult to drop and if you've let many people in a lot of the time when you ace a reraise post flop someone has hit a set.

Anyway back to this hand, I bet about half the pot on the flop to get an idea of where I was and was flat called by the one player with position on me. He was the one I was least worried of having an 8 and started to narrow the range of hands he might have at this point. I check the turn to him to try to induce a bet where I could put him to a decision for all his chips. He bet $120 which felt weak to me, at this stage I was virtually certain I was facing AQ (he actually had KQ) and raised enough to make his next decision one where realistically he had to go all in if he was staying with the hand. If he flat calls my reraise there are very few scare cards he can fold to on the river when I bet. He goes all in as I'd hoped and I win a nice pot.

AA is tricky and I'd recommend trying various ways of playing it to add to it's disguise from other players and increasing your opportunities to get away from it if you are beat.

Right my eyes are struggling to stay open now so bed is calling and I sign off in a very tired but cheerful mood. Amazing what a good win can do for you

Steve

July Profit - $5250