quick session

A very quick session to start the month, I was only on for about 45 minutes. In that time I was trying to play pretty tight and so I don't think I saw more than 2 showdowns, one of which I won. Of course the hand I won on I probably should have folded if I was playing super-tight, but hey...

#Game No : 6124375788
***** Hand History for Game 6124375788 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, July 05, 15:11:21 ET 2007
Table Table 125972 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: Lekos111 ( $1.58 USD )
Seat 8: polhokustaa ( $4.16 USD )
Seat 9: e_r_c ( $2.08 USD )
Seat 4: rimviss99 ( $1.84 USD )
Seat 6: vinc80vega ( $5.24 USD )
Seat 3: RAYBODIE ( $1.68 USD )
Seat 10: ruffyMR ( $5.06 USD )
Seat 2: confy_pp ( $4.35 USD )
Seat 5: realDStrange ( $1.48 USD )
Seat 7: natalka3333 ( $1.72 USD )
rimviss99 posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
realDStrange posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to e_r_c [ Kh Tc ]
vinc80vega folds
natalka3333 folds
polhokustaa folds
e_r_c calls [$0.04 USD]
ruffyMR could not respond in time.(disconnected)
ruffyMR folds
Lekos111 folds
confy_pp calls [$0.04 USD]
RAYBODIE folds
rimviss99 folds
realDStrange checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qh, Jc, Ah ]
realDStrange checks
e_r_c checks
confy_pp checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8c ]
realDStrange bets [$0.16 USD]
e_r_c raises [$0.40 USD]
confy_pp folds
realDStrange raises [$0.48 USD]
e_r_c calls [$0.24 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 2s ]
realDStrange is all-In [$0.80 USD]
e_r_c calls [$0.80 USD]
realDStrange shows [ Ad, Js ]two pairs, Aces and Jacks.
e_r_c shows [ Kh, Tc ]a straight Ten to Ace.
e_r_c wins $2.87 USD from the main pot with a straight, Ten to Ace.

So, as you can see I wasn't dealt a total killer hand [K,T offsuit] and I did consider dropping it. At the lower stakes tables though, play tends to be less aggressive and so you've got a lot more chance of seeing the flop without any raises. When I hit the straight on the flop, I was pretty sure I'd got the nuts. I've been trying to try different betting strategies to get an idea of what works and what doesn't, so I decided to check and see how others thought they were doing. No-one wanted to chance a bet and we went to the turn.
On the turn we get an 8c, which doesn't give me anything to worry about, and realDStrange puts in a fairly conservative bet, and then re-raises my raise. Come the river and I'm certain I'm ahead - he saves me the problem of working out how much I can extract from him and goes All-in, and I'm happy to call and take all his money.

I'm not really sure what his betting pattern was really about - I can only think is that my check at the flop totally threw out of his head the idea of a straight. Even then, the obvious thought on my re-raise would be that I'd hit a set of 8s. That might just show my lack of sophistication still at reading hands, of course. I guess he could have thought I was on a Heart or Clubs flush draw and thought he could shove me off when neither hit, or had two lower pairs like Aces and 8s and wanted to get his money's worth.

The fact all these thoughts don't turn up until a good while after the hand is probably why I still have a good way to go before I'm a decent player. Similarly, my first attempts at working out outs and pot odds are so far hampered by it just taking me a bit too long to think about it. (not that I had that many hands post-flop to try it out on this session)

So, stuff to think about even from that short a session, and I kick off July with a (teeny) profit.

This month's profit: $0.33