Workin' my way back

I've played a couple short sessions over the past few nights. I've had no desire to sit down to a sit n go or mtt (and haven't been able to get to any of the Blogger / RPT games to try to win my way to Australia); however I've had fun at the mini-micro-limits. In the past I think I was over-calling at these limits because it's....well.... it's cheap. I mean I can go all in on my first hand, lose, and only be down ten bucks.

Approached it from a different perspective, though, and it's just like the $3 / $5 game at the Tulalip, only less money. Well kind of. The players may be better at the $0.5 / $0.10 game, though. *grin*

I only had one hand this session (~ 30 minutes) that I won with cards; the rest I either picked-off bluffs, or just fired at the pot against weak players. I only had 2 showdowns; one where I lost a small pot to a flopped flush vs my 2 pair, and then this one:

Setup: this guy had been playin' fairly standard poker, when all the sudden I noticed that he had won the last 5 pots, and only saw 2 flops. It was a soooooper-tight table, which I was taking advantage of post-flop (and he was pre-flop). Finally, when he raised from UTG to $0.35, I decided to smooth call from UTG+2 with my MONSTER 56o. Why 56o? Simple: 1) I was probably live, b) with 2 EP players in the pot it may coax others in, building a nice pot which I may be able to take down with either skill or luck.

Didn't quite happen that way - only one caller, in MP, the rest folded.

Flop: 5Q6 rainbow. Gin! UTG fires $0.9, I pop it to $3 (hoping he's got AQ); MP folds, UTG shoves for a buck and a half more. Of course I call. :)


2nd pair? Nice move dude, nice move.

I do love this game. And I am also glad that I have slowed down my playing. When I play it feels much more exciting; I feel like I'm much more on top of my game, too. I know, I'm practically playing with play-chips, but still - if I can't be a winning player at this limit, then I have no business even thinking about playing the $3 / $5 game.