feels good!

The last few sessions, although I've felt I'm improving in my play style, I've either been making a loss or just a small profit, so today it feels pretty good to leave with a nice profit which I feel like I earned!

In general I was happy with my play, though I noticed I've started over-using the shove, misjudging the committment of other players, which means I've lost more chips than I needed to when holding a weak hand.

The wins came from two big hands, one of which allowed me to do my first hero call and take the stack of someone trying to buy their way out of the hand.

#Game No : 6167951572
***** Hand History for Game 6167951572 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, July 20, 14:01:35 ET 2007
Table Table 126376 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: umpi1166 ( $5.60 USD )
Seat 7: NoRegretLife ( $5 USD )
Seat 9: Sciter ( $4.47 USD )
Seat 4: markusb0815 ( $2.76 USD )
Seat 2: snappyman ( $1.70 USD )
Seat 3: e_r_c ( $4.39 USD )
Seat 6: xsardas ( $7.17 USD )
Seat 5: Pokerlady701 ( $4.76 USD )
Seat 10: Vlim_Zarnas ( $4.88 USD )
Seat 8: Raistlin1976 ( $5 USD )
Vlim_Zarnas posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
umpi1166 posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to e_r_c [ Kc Kd ]
snappyman folds
e_r_c raises [$0.12 USD]
markusb0815 calls [$0.12 USD]
Pokerlady701 folds
xsardas folds
NoRegretLife folds
Raistlin1976 folds
Sciter calls [$0.12 USD]
Vlim_Zarnas folds
umpi1166 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4h, 7d, 6c ]
e_r_c bets [$0.20 USD]
markusb0815 calls [$0.20 USD]
Sciter folds
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8h ]
e_r_c bets [$0.78 USD]
markusb0815 is all-In [$2.44 USD]
e_r_c calls [$1.66 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 2d ]
e_r_c shows [ Kc, Kd ]a pair of Kings.
markusb0815 doesn't show [ Qd, Ah ]high card Ace.
e_r_c wins $5.42 USD from the main pot with a pair of Kings.

As you can see, markusb0815 has a paltry three outs with an Ace after the turn (so that's roughly a 6 - 7% chance of winning the hand) So, he tries to scare me off. I had a moment's pause because I'm always overly cautious when there's any chance of a straight, but I bet on him not have weathered the betting this far if he was holding a low card like a 5 and took it to the showdown. It was a nice feeling!

#Game No : 6167954828
***** Hand History for Game 6167954828 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, July 20, 14:03:05 ET 2007
Table Table 126376 (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: umpi1166 ( $5.54 USD )
Seat 7: NoRegretLife ( $5 USD )
Seat 9: Sciter ( $4.27 USD )
Seat 2: snappyman ( $1.70 USD )
Seat 3: e_r_c ( $7.22 USD )
Seat 6: xsardas ( $7.17 USD )
Seat 5: Pokerlady701 ( $4.68 USD )
Seat 10: Vlim_Zarnas ( $4.86 USD )
Seat 8: Raistlin1976 ( $5 USD )
Seat 4: Neidomu ( $5 USD )
e_r_c posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
Neidomu posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to e_r_c [ 9c 9d ]
Pokerlady701 raises [$0.08 USD]
xsardas folds
NoRegretLife folds
Raistlin1976 folds
Sciter folds
Vlim_Zarnas raises [$0.16 USD]
umpi1166 calls [$0.16 USD]
e_r_c calls [$0.14 USD]
Neidomu folds
Pokerlady701 calls [$0.08 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ts, 9s, Ad ]
e_r_c bets [$0.40 USD]
Pokerlady701 calls [$0.40 USD]
Vlim_Zarnas folds
umpi1166 calls [$0.40 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2h ]
e_r_c bets [$1 USD]
Pokerlady701 folds
umpi1166 calls [$1 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 3c ]
e_r_c checks
umpi1166 bets [$1.08 USD]
e_r_c calls [$1.08 USD]
umpi1166 shows [ Kh, As ]a pair of Aces.
e_r_c shows [ 9c, 9d ]three of a kind, Nines.
e_r_c wins $5.74 USD from the main pot with three of a kind, Nines.

This hand I was quite lucky to get a fair bit of action, with some pre-flop raising and four of us seeing the flop which turned out really nicely for me. Not only did I hit my set, but the Ace there meant people most likely misjudged what I was holding and thought themselves to have a strong hand. To be honest, I was less concerned with the Ace than I was with the ten, because I was fairly sure no-one had pocket Aces, but a pair of Tens in the hole could have been possible. My check on the turn was again down to my irrational fear of straights, as if someone would have called those bets holding 4,5! When he bet I was THIS close to pushing all-in, but I just wasn't quite sure enough.

So, a really satisfying session, which ended doubled up at $10 and has pushed me back up into profit. Vindication! I'm not a terrible poker player after all!

This month's profit: $2.15