Play less hands

First up: more RNG weirdness. First hand after opening the second table:


The human mind is known for imposing patterns where there are none in order to "understand" or even "create meaning." I guess I'm doing just that, or just happen to be in the midst of a string of coincidental occurrences. I mean, there are 1,326 starting hand combinations (OK, 169 if you get rid of suits), so I guess it's bound to happen once ever... uh - 169 times or so.

My % of flops seen was 22%, with only 4 hands won preflop. Less swingy, less chaotic; not as much action of course (preflop raises seemed to gain lotsa respect). I like the tighter approach, as well as the loose approach I've been using. I'll be trying to incorporate both of these into my sessions from here on out.

What I'm working on:
- hand selection
- hand reading
- adjusting to my opponents

Only two hands of note:
Raise from the cut-off with QJs after it folds to me; BB calls. BB check/calls the flop, check-calls the turn, and shoves the river. I momentarily hesitate, but even on a board like this (possible boat, bigger straight), this is a must-call, especially at this level:


He was playing the double-gutter, I just don't understand the river-shove. Check/calling while planning on shoving me off my hand no matter what hit the river? What did he put me on? I had him on a jack with a weaker kicker, and was (obviously) most worried about J8. That would probably have been a check/raise on the flop though. Again, this is, IMHO, an insta-call at this level (and probably also at the Tulalip $3 / 5 game, and only occasionally at the MSFT game)


Next hand was 8-way action, limped, so of course with all those limpers I'll jump aboard in late position with Q9s. The sb led out on the flop. He was aggressive on his draws. He bet about 2/3 pot on the flop ($0.50), I popped it to $1.50 (only one card beats me, and b/c he plays his draws aggressively I wanted to get more money in while I was fairly certain to have the best of it), and he just called. "Hmmm" I'm saying to myself. Turn check/ check. River check / check. Did I miss a bet?

His call of my raise made me think he had the Kd. Why didn't I bet the turn? I didn't want to get check/raised. Why didn't I bet the river? He'd probably call with a lesser flush, but would certainly raise with the Kd or a boat. I'll take a showdown and avoid the check/raise when I'm not super-confident.

What would you have done here if the 7d fell on the river and he shoved? The pot is just over 3 bucks, and your stack is around $12.