I played in a $1-2 NLH game I had never been to before on Tuesday. The players were very good. I usually like at least 1 or 2 bad players at the table, but none at this game. A very aggressive guy was to my left which made things a little more difficult. I managed to build up my $200 buyin up to about $350 mostly from this hand:

I have TJ with a flop of QKx. I check, the aggressive guy to my left bets. I call. Turn blank, check bet call. River 9. I bet big hoping it looks like a possible bluff. He thinks for a long time, then calls and annouces that I have TJ. I was impressed with his read of my hand (not his play) and said nice call, meaning nice call of my hand. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I realized that it could be taken as a nice call of my bet, so I quickly showed my cards and explained what I meant by nice call. He was not happy and muttered some words I could not hear. I felt bad about what I said, but knew I did not intentionally mean it to be misinterpreted.

Later I ran into this hand.

The guy to my left straddled for $5, 3 limpers, then a raise to $15. I look down at AK of clubs. I make it $35, hoping I get 1 or 2 callers to see the flop with me. The straddler folds, one of the limpers call, and the raiser calls. Three way with a pot of about $120. The flop comes 247 with 2 clubs. I cbet $70 figuring no one hit this flop. The first player raises all-in for about another $150, the other guy folds. I have to call $150 to win a pot of about $340. I call with my nut flush draw, and she turns over 67 of clubs. I have 2 overs and a better flush draw. Noting comes, and I am down. I leave the game shortly afterwards down $120, my first losing session in quite a while.

Last night I go back to my Wednesday game. I only had 2 significant hands all night. Here is the first.

I am dealt KK in late position. Seat 7 raises to $8. I am in the 10 seat and make it $17, hoping the raiser will call or reraise. The 1 seat calls as well as the 7 seat. The flop comes ATx all hearts. I have the K of hearts. I cbet $25 to see where I am at. Seat 1 calls, 7 folds. The turn brings another A. Now I do not think seat 7 has an A, but maybe a T or maybe jacks. They check and I bet $40 mostly as a blocker bet, hoping another Ace, King, or heart comes. The river blanks and seat 7 bet $50. I get the sense that I am beat, and he is trying to price me in to call. He looks very confident. I was very hard, but I laid down my kings. He showed pocket tens for a boat. I feel lucky I got way with not losing too much.

The other hand that was memorable was when I was dealt 55. Seat 6 raises to $6, seat 7 calls, and I call. With a pot of $18, we see a flop of Q95 rainbow. Seat 6 bets $16, seat 7 folds, I raise to $35, seat 6 calls. He tells me that he is very strong and says it in a very nice way. Then he shows me a Q. I think he has pocket queens, but then I remember a hand from a week ago against this same player, who acted all friendly and told he that he had a good kicker with an A high flop. I also had an Ace and believed him and folded, when he showed me A4. Remembering this hand quickly changed my mind. I put him on a Q only. Probably AQ. The turn was a blank, and seat 6 says he will bet $80 into the $88 pot and I move $80 into the pot before he does. I did this to get a read off of his river action. If he bets again, he probably does have a big hand and was hoping I would remember last weeks hand. If he doesn't then I know I have him. The river brings a blank, and he takes his foot off of the pedal and checks. I bet $80, pricing him in to call with top pair. He folded and I scooped a nice pot. It pays to know your opponent.

I ended up cashing out for $530 after buying in for $300. $230 profit for about 4 hours of playing, so almost $60 an hour. This is a little less than I have been making in this game, but it only brings my rate down to just over $65/hour. I am still very happy with that profit rate.

If I get my profit up enough, I may put half of it toward a WSOP event. I am taking the day off from poker to catch up on some sleep, but will be playing the following 3 days. Wish me luck.