running good

I'm now working on more aggressive play at .05/.10, and if tonight is any indication, it's going well. I decided that instead of just limping into pots with medium cards (or junk), I'm going to raise with them. By "medium" I mean middle suited connectors and gappers, and even unsuited connectors and gappers.

In position, I was raising with suited gappers, suited connectors; I was calling raises in position with a fairly wide range, with plans of taking down pots by raising or betting out if checked to. This worked perfectly. Maybe I just lucked out and found two super-soft tables. Eh, who am I kdding - these tables are soft.

Here's the flop of the night:

Folds to me in the cut off minus 1 with 45o, so I pop it to $0.30; button raises to $0.60, folds to me - what the heck, he's playing position or has big cards, I'm live and connected - I call.


If he's got a big pair, I'm gold. No need to slow-play, as if he doesn't have anything OR if he does have a big pair, he'll probably raise here, or smooth call: I want money in the pot NOW, so I hope he can raise! I bet pot, he min-raises, I re-raise, he shoves... and, of course, I call :)

I don't fault the guy, except that if he put in a larger raise preflop he could have won it preflop. I'm not sure, if I were him, I don't get felted there either. Correction: at this level, I know I lose a lot of money here. Granted, I may have not shoved the flop, but tried to wait until the turn to get it all in, but maybe not.

Here's another hand I floated preflop: MP raises to $0.30, one caller before me. 64o on the button, I call, and the BB calls. He bet, I raised the flop; he bet, I raised the turn; he checked, I put him all-in on the river:



This next player was the ultimate calling station. After tangling in four hands, I knew there was no way a bluff would work if they had connected at all, so I needed to wait until I had a monster. They were in practically every hand anyway, so it was almost certain we'd tangle again. AKo UTG. I hate being OOP with AK, but I'm raising. Standard $0.30, calling station does what calling stations do: calls.

In previous hands, I had made smaller bets (1/2 pot, 1/3 pot, 3/4 pot), but now with TPTK, I'm building the pot for myself. SO, I bet the pot on the flop. And, of course, calling station calls. I am slightly worried about K9 or A9, but not too much (I couldn't put them on a range for anything) - I'm pretty sure I'm way ahead here. The turn is my money card, and I bet just under pot, insta-called. On the river, I bet enough to put them all-in, INSTA-call.

Not sure when 44 is good on this board; however they'd already won two hands against me when I bet throughout the hand with nothing and they'd hit bottom pair on the flop and called me down.. they'd also won a hand or two where I raised pre, I bet the flop, and checked the turn and river once they called me (I'd decided to not try to bluff them anymore), so there's a good chance that they remembered me showing down losing hands to them 4 times. That, or they just can't lay down a pair for anything.

Besides these hands where I connected, there were plenty that I just won by firing: raise preflop with something like a 79s, fire at a ragged flop (or a scary flop!), and take it down... played much more aggressively , and much more "poker" than "cards."

Here was a fun one: I raised pre, I got called on the flop, turn was check / check; and I pot-bet the river:

When the river was dealt, I was checked-to, and I almost gave up, but then saw that if they had a Q, they'd have bet the turn; if they had an ace, they'd probably bet the river (a small bet, since they probably don't have a flush). So I just fired, and they went away. :)

A few weeks of this as I tweak my selection and aggression, and if all goes well I'll move up to $0.10 / $0.25.