I've been hitting the tables a decent amount the last few days and things are going real good.  My game is solid and I'm running         fairly well.  I went back and looked at some of my losing sessions in December and was able to find some leaks in these capped games.  I was able to make some minor adjustments and it boosted my win rate significantly.  The games have been really juicy too.  Usually during the day the games are pretty dry with regulars, but this new year brought in a load of new players. 

One thing I'm still working on is trying not to quit just because I'm ahead.  Its something I've always struggled with and its definitely tough to overcome.  Poker isn't like blackjack or any other casino game, that famous quote 'quit while you're ahead' doesn't always hold true in poker.  If you ask a lot of the top pros, they will basically say the same thing.... play as long as you're feeling good and the games are good, regardless if you're up or down.  Like most poker players, I tend to play too long when I'm losing and not enough when I'm winning.  Here's the dilemma for me, just say I start a session and things go well right from the get go.  If I happen to see that I'm up a lot, right away I'll have the feeling like I want to quit.  I don't mean like a half hour or anything, but like 2-3 hours in.  In my head I'll be thinking, 'well I've made enough today, lets protect the winnings and quit'.  Its weird to, because way back in the day when I used to play primarily live cash games, you couldn't drag me away from the table whether I was winning or losing.  Trust me I've had some loooong sick sessions ranging over 24 hours.  So I guess I just need to really focus on determining if the games are still good while I'm playing, and have to the willl power to keep playing if they are and quit if they aren't.

Alright I'll post some hands below from the last few days:


Lets start off with the winners...


^ This was kind of an interesting hand.  I had a fairly tough decision to make on the turn.  I was leaning to fold, but I've absolutely been owning this guy the last couple days.  Its been pretty sick, I just catch fire every time I'm in a pot with him.  Luckily my decision was right.



^ This is just a cooler for the other guy.  See to me this is one of the differences from running bad or good... when you're running good, you always have the nuts in this spot like me.. when you're running like garbage you're good hands always seem to run into something better.



^ It looks like I got pretty lucky in this pot, but I was that my opponent misplayed his hand.  I call with A,10o in a blind battle and make a standard float on the flop with second pair.  The turn is a 9 which definetly looks like it hits my flop calling range, I bet a little more than half pot planning to fold to a check/raise.  When he just calls my turn bet I was sure I was beat putting on a hand like K,J or Q,J taking a pot control line.  The river is gin for me and I ship the chips in, he tanks for a while and calls.  His obvious mistake here was taking the pot control line on the turn and checking it to me.  A line like that isn't terrible in normal holdem situations or deep stacked tables, but in these cap games you just have to ram and jam when you have a big hand like he had.



^ Here's a hand with our favorite fish, mesteven.  To be honest I wasn't even paying attention in this pot while it was happening because it was a limped pot and I was in a bunch of other pots on other tables.  When I turn the nuts I quickly bet hoping to get some value from a pair, on the river I didn't know what the hell he was doing.  Againgst most opponents I would raise to like $40-50 for value, but against him I know he can't fold anything, so I ship it in knowing I'm going to get called by anything.



^ I made an isolation raise on the limper which I'll often do with any medium to strong hand, or even with junk some times if I have position.  A,8s suited is way ahead of his limping range and more often then not I'll be able to win the pot post flop purely by being in position and outplaying him postflop.  He donk bets (leads into raiser) the flop and I decide to just call and re-evaluate the turn.  On the turn I get a pretty good card giving me a flush draw a long with second pair, I decide to call and would probably fold to any brick river if he shoved.  I hit one of my many outs and get a suprising call by just a 4 on the river which is always nice.


Ok lets look at some losers:



^ Pretty standard stuff in this hand.  Neither of us are going to fold on this flop, I'd have to double check but I think its virtually a coinflip once we get it all-in.



^ This hand just sucked.. I knew I was value towning him on the flop and turn, then I get a disgusting river and he shoves for his remaining $45.  I'm getting 4,42-1 on the call, but I know I'm beating absoltely nothing, but with those odds I don't think I can fold, a small percentage of the time he'll be shoving worse or maybe a missed draw.  Oh well.


^ Blah.. I have him almost drawing dead and he hits one of his few outs.



^ I don't mind my shove here to be honest.  I feel like his 3 bet calling range is fairly wide here, and more often then not I get a lot of folds.  And even if he does call me with a junk hand like 4,4 I have around 36% equity or something like that,



I'm going to continue to play as much as  I can while things are going good.  Till next time,


Jay