Bouncebackabilty

Had a slow start last night at the tables.Only played for 1/2hr as my friend Mark was up for our weekly go at blasting aliens on the Play station.
I sat down,tried to clear my mind of all cat thoughts and then hit the tables and played pussy poker for 10 mins...

I say that because I got QQ after about 5 hands and instead of raising the guy that bet $4 I called and when the flop came K 7 5 rags I folded to his $5 bet.Ok he could have had AK/KK but a) I should have reraised to see where I was b) I should probably have also reraised his $5 bet on flop.I'm all for great laydowns but he could easily have had a pp say 88 - JJ or AQ,AJ etc.Didn't help that I didn't have any idea of the villans betting style but possibly a missed chance.

Confidence is such a strange beast when it comes to poker.Too much and cocky play will see your bankroll vanish.Too little and you start playing pussy poker like I did above.Pussy poker is probably less dangerous but being too weak and passive is just a slower road to ruin.

Mark turns up and I switch on the ps2 and tell him I'll be leaving the poker as soon as I'm one postion off the BB.I always wait for the BB when I join a new table and I always leave ( unless doing a runner ) before my BB is due.Waiting before joining usually gives me full table orbit to watch the action ( or more likely roll a doob) as most players at $1nl tend to leave just before the BB hits them.

Anyway I get my last hand before the BB and its 33.Not very exciting but I love trips so much I will call most raises Preflop up to about 6 * BB. I know trips only hit aprox 1 in 8 but they are such a well disguised money winner even if I call 8 raises at $6 if I hit my set once I can usually hope for a larger pot than that.

On a need to know basis nobody needed to know that because I was allowed to limp in and 5 of us saw the flop of A 10 10.Not the ideal flop for 33 and with 5 players in I was ready to fold to any bet.Checked all the way round and a 4 on the turn.Ok someones going to take a stab at it this time.....check check check check again.River comes a lovely 3 and its checked round to me.I have a full house but I'm fairly sure nobody has anything so I bet out $5 hoping it would look like a steal and someone might call but all folded round to Mr Fishier than a fishy thing full of fish who reraised me all in for his last $60.

After the other night I'm thinking he's got A 10 or 44 but he could also quite easily have had just j 10 etc for trip 10's. Decided my hand was good and called.I was delighted to see the chips come my way and desparate to check the hand history to see what he had........ A9.What was he thinking? What kind of hand did he put me on? What kind of hand did he think I would call that bet with? Was he on tilt?

I don't know but I left the table $45 richer thanks to him which was very welcome after my downswing.

I've cut the hand histories out of the blog from now on.Hand stories maybe but no histories.Also please feel free to question and criticise any hand stories or any suggested strategies I post.When I started this blog I wasn't keen on posting any strategy ideas because quite frankly with 8 months real money experience it just didn't seem right.
I do still feel that to some extent but hey its my blog and if I want spout forth on what works for me then I will.Oh yes.

So watch out for a deeply intuitive piece ( or a load of guff) on river bets coming soon.....

Hopefully will get some poker played later tonight.Watching Ipswich V Rangers on RTv tonight at 7.45.Only a friendly but looking forward to seeing the new players in action again.

Watched a bit of Pokernight live late last night ( ch 226 on sky) which I love.They show internet poker and you get to see the hole cards.They had a great $2-$4 table on last night.The commentators mentioned a recent survey which shows 48% of internet players are female.Well I know my Mum loves playing with play money but 48% does seem quite high to me.No point to posting that stat.I just found it interesting.Ok starting to ramble even more than usual so I'll leave you with...

Another fine blogger added to my link list http://www.financialcharting.com/poker/blog/.