I forgot to add...

I exited out of the last blog post short because I had to head out. I meant to say that what I'm going to try and do is mix the $2 with the $5 games. When I'm running hot, basically try to double the bet and play the $5 games.

I won a $2 last night and lost a $5. The difference of play between the two tables was absolutely staggering. I did get lucky in the $2, but only a little bit. Once play got HU, I had about a 5-1 chiplead on the guy, we got it all in, I had 77, he had AA, and a 7 flopped, and it was over. I don't think I'm getting away from that hand either way.

In the $5, the guy two to my right had a profitable record in OPR, but also had an ironman icon on his avatar. I tried not to play pots with him. I went out, I think with QQ vs. A-rag on an A high flop. I could have folded and played with a 800 chip stack at 1-200 blinds, but the baby was crying, and it was time for bed, and I shoved. I could have played it better. Either way, the play was far, far better at that table.

I feel like I am getting a little better at identifying the "fold" spots in games. I'm still not doing a good enough job of extracting chips and making people stack off when I have a big hand. There were a few spots in the last few games where I made a big hand on the river and there was little or no aggression on any street. The bet on the river is tough to figure out at that point. I usually opt to bet for value, and pick a number that is likely to get called, usually less than half the pot. They usually call. The problem is, that they end up turning over a hand that is much stronger than I would have anticipated, which is not as good as mine, but probably would have called more. The situation usually occurs when blinds are relatively high and we're at the bubble or close to it. These are usually situations where people opt to call with a wide range of hands and try to hit, and pick up pots on the flop.

An example: I hold A6 os, Ac. Flop comes blanks, two clubs. Check check. Turn rag club, check check. I check here because I have nothing but A high, and he's calling with any pair. I can't bet too strong because he could also have a made flush, or some funky two pair. River is a club.

I have the nuts. Pot is about 800 or so, we are deep stacked ant it's 3 handed. I could just make some ridiculous all in bet hoping he was strong, OR, I could bet about 500-600 hoping for a call, or 200, getting an almost guaranteed call. I opted for about 550 and got called by the Kc.

Not sure how I can extract more money out of this guy without either betting at the pot when I don't have it, or making that funky all in on the end, when he can just lay it down if he has nothing. In retrospect, all in would have been the better play, but I can't know that.