In a Good Mood

I'm in a very good mood at the moment. Nothing monumental, but I do feel solid confidence in my game right now which is very good. I played 7 hours of 6/12 last night, got on a table around 9:45 and the game broke around 4:45. I cashed out for $163, so I guess 13.5 BB winner on the night. Not huge like last time, but I felt really good about this one because I felt like I was really grinding most of the way. I was an up and down session and I was stuck a couple of times and came back. I did miss some bets here and there, which I something I want to work on. Mostly it involves having the courage to bet marginal hands for value on the river (and sometimes the turn) when no one has shown any real strength up til that point. I sometimes have trouble pulling the trigger because I give people credit for better hands than they have.

For instance, I had a hand late in my session where the game was shorthanded and I raised with QQ. Nearly everyone called and the flop came A9x, I bet it and the only caller was the biggest donkey at the table. The turn was a deuce and he was first to act and reached for chips like he wanted to bet, then checked...I read this as strength and checked behind thinking he might have an Ace or 2 pair, the river was a 9 putting two 9's on board and once again he fingered his chips, then checked...I figured that the 9 was one of the possible hands he could have had on the flop and didn't want to get check/raised so I checked behind and I think he showed something like 62o for a pair of ducks. So, I realized that his "strength tell" that I picked up on the turn probably did mean strength, he was just so bad that he thought one pair was strong enough to call down with...of course, he called the flop with no pair no draw so it shouldn't be surprising. The thing is that I knew he was a donkey and should have known that he didn't have to have the Ace to be calling, in fact he was aggressive enough that he probably would have raised with the Ace...so I missed a couple of bets there. I think that's the main thing that I have to work on in live games. I need to get better at picking the right spots to value bet marginal hands on the later streets. I play pre-flop and the flop very well, but I'm weaker on the turn and river.

All that said, it's good to know what needs to be worked on, but the bottom line is that I still have a ton of confidence in my game after tonight. I'm not afraid of anyone that I play with at the these live tables, I'm better than all of them and I'm proving it. I intend to continue to play as much 6/12 as I can for the next several months, then maybe move up to 10/20...which by the way looks like a pretty juicy game at the Argosy. My biggest goal right now though is to put together enough cash to go to the WSOP Circuit Event in Louisville in October and take a shot at the 10/20 game there and maybe play a couple of Sats or a $500 tourney if I put together some winnings.