We're almost at the middle of the month so I figured I'd update my progress.  Overall things are going ok, like I mentioned in my last blog I still haven't played enough hands.  The last couple days I was able to get in some long sessions which will help my hand total.  Yesterday I got smacked around though, it was the first time this month I had a big losing day.  I think I lost somewhere around 4.5 buy-ins.  Ill have to go look at the hands I lost but if I remember correctly I lost a couple big pots where I should of folded, and one point where my I had a ridiculous draw which bricked out.  I did play today and was able to win a bit of it back, I even went down to 100nl chasing a fish that became profitable when I was able to stack him.

All and all I feel like I'm playing pretty good, still making mistakes here and there... but nothing too crazy.

Ok here is my updated stats:

Limit: 200nl
Hands: 13889 < see what I mean, pretty low.
Buy-ins: +11.5 (and +1 @ 100nl)

At the half way point I'm below expectation if I want to reach my goals.  Just to give you guys an understanding of how many hands I play, its usually around 600/per hour.  So I need to log in some serious hours if I want to hit 50k.

Ok, here are some hands I played in the last week or so:

Winners:




^ This hand I let the guy hang himself.  Its nice to squeeze out of the big blind and actually have Aces. The flop is pretty safe for me unless he has pocket 10's.  I checked the turn b/c I felt like he was going to fold if I bet, so I wanted to give him a chance to bluff and get pot committed.  If he had me beat on the flop then I was going broke no matter what, so I think checking that turn was best.




^ I liked this hand because I was really frustrating that player by 3 betting him non-stop and thats why he played this hand like he did.  On my end, the hand is pretty standard.. 3 betting KK preflop, betting that flop... and on the turn I only called because I was hoping he had a flush draw and would catch up on the river or bluff like he did.



^ Its nice to run good once in a while!



^ Now this hand is just Christmas.. Against a good player I would of folded on the turn.  The board is really scary for my hand and hits a lot of my opponents range who calls a 3 bet.  But this guy was a donk and I knew that from watching him for 5 mins before this hand.  If a king came on the river I wouldn't be writing this blog right now because I probably would of smashed everything I own.

Losers:



^ This hand was kinda tricky.  I 3 bet preflop with 8,7s, I like to 3 bet with hands like this to balance my range from big hand to low suited junk.  If I only 3 bet preflop with hands like AA, KK, QQ, JJ it would be pretty easy for my opponents to put me on a hand.  Anyways I get a dream flop for my hand, and was actually hoping he check/raised me on the flop so we could get it all in.  But he just calls and leads out on my on the turn which I hate.  Because now if I raise all-in I've pretty much got no fold equity and I can't just call because the pot is too big.  I thought about it for a while and decided to get it in.. there was a minimal chance he would fold and if he didn't I did have a shit load of outs.  On the turn I had almost 50% equity.  To tell you the truth I don't know if this play is +EV, I'll have to check the math.. but folding is probably be best.




^ This is hand where my opponent was just bad for many reasons.  First, is calling my 3 bet preflop with 8,8 is not a good play at all.  Then on the flop, getting it in with 8,8 on that flop is just terrible.  When I 4 bet all in on the flop, the absolute worst hand I could have there is the hand I have.  And I'm winning on that flop.  Most of the times I'll have him dominated with an over pair or even a set.  When he called I was happy to see his hand, but I brick out and lose the pot.

Aside from poker all I've been doing it watching the Olympics.  They have been pretty awesome and even watching the gymnastics has been pretty sick.  But the worst part about it, and I hate to even say it... but I find myself cheering for the Americans.  Its not because I'm a USA fan, but its because they are SOO good at certain things its hard not to cheer for greatness.  I've mentioned before I love seeing an athlete absolutely dominate a sport.. ie Tiger Woods, Roger Federer etc etc.  So when I'm watching Michael Phelps crush everyone in swimming, its hard not to cheer for him.  This guy is an absolute machine and definitely one of the most dominant athletes of all time.  And there's also the USA basketball team who are unbelievable.. anyone is betting against them not to win because they haven't won since year 2000.. they are forgetting one important thing.. they didn't have KOBE BYRANT, the best basketball player in the world and one of the best of all time.  So there's another example of when I'm watching them play I have to cheer for them because they are so good.

I'm about to go see if Phelps wins another gold..

Later