The session started out really well.  I won my first hand I got involved in and didn't look back.  I was able to build my stack right from the start to around $200 from a starting stack of $100.  The table was playing really passive and I took advantage of this by raising a lot preflop if I was going into a pot, especially in position.  Sometimes I raised with hands I had no business raising with but there were limpers behind and if I felt like I could outplay the opposition post flop, I went ahead and raise anyway because I would have position after the flop.  One example:  I raised to $6.50 behind 2 limpers with K9s and only the big blind calls going into the flop.  Flop comes down A rag rag with 2 suited cards.  BB bets $5 and I immediately raise to to $18.  He thinks for a minute before deciding to call.  At this point, I had him on a flush draw or possibly a weak ace.  Turn 10 and the bb checks to me.  I felt fairly confident he didn't like his hand.  I now had to bet enough to get him off his flush draw (if he had one) and also enough for him to make a call if he was weak.  Basically, I wanted to force him to think about his hand and see how much he like it.  I bet $30 and with a digusted look, he folded.  Whew!

The night went along with me making plays and laying down some pretty big hands which turned out to be the right choices.  I'm still unable to flop monsters.  It just doesn't happen to me, I don't know what it is.  At least not at Eric's house.  I swear I don't even know what flopping a set means. 

I have a good situation from this session where I played the exact same hand back to back where one result was great and the other not so great.  I raised from middle position behind 2 limpers with KQo to $5.50 and the BB calls as does one limper.  Flop brings K Q 6 rainbow and its checked to me.  I lead out for $8 and only the big blind calls.  Turn K and its checked to me again.  At this point, I felt the BB had a pretty decent hand because he's just not the type of person that makes a lot of moves and calls people with nothing.  His flop call indicated to me that he had something and my bet looked like a typical TK continuation bet (which was what I was hoping for).  I checked the turn because now my hand is made and very strong and in case he is on some sort of draw (even though unlikely) I want him to get there and I'm also in position so I want it to come off like I missed the flop.  River fell 10 and he checks to me again.  I felt his check meant he had something but if I didn't have anything, I couldn't call his bet if he elected to do that.  By checking the river, it gives me a chance to bluff (since he knows I'm very capable of betting with absolute air).  To make it look like a buy, I bet $30 in which I was immediately called.  Of course I tabled the winner and take down a decent sized pot which took my stack to right around $200. 

The very next hand, I get KQo again and this time I elected to limp in behind 1 limper.  BB raises to $7 and both the limper and I call.  Flop brings Q 4 2 rainbow.  BB leads out for $7 and only I call.  Turn 4, BB bets $18 and again I smooth call.  Here's my thinking thus far in the hand.  More times than not, I raise that flop given my hand.  I elected to call because if it was a continuation bet, I wanted him to continue to bluff into the pot since I have position on him.  My turn play, I'm still questioning.  My call looked weak, which it was.  Instead of being the agressor, I played timid and weak.  Given the pot size, I could have raised and defined my hand because I put myself in a bad situation on the river.  River fell 4 ( Q 2 4 4 4 board) and bb bets $38.  Thats the bad situation I put myself in.  The way he played the hand, he's representing a big hand, most likely AA, KK, QQ, and slight possibility of JJ 1010 or a smaller pocket pair.  Because of my weak play thus far in the hand, if he does have AA - QQ (which has me dominated) its a perfect river bet for him and what I would have done in his situation.  Given that board, theres nothing I could really have here but a Q.  I felt about 80% sure I was beat.  I didn't call immediately but thought it out in my head and concluded I had to be beat.  But of course, I had that thought in my head that he could be betting with JJ or less.  I called and he tabled AA.  An example of how I maximized with KQ in the previous hand and then how I played KQ so poorly in this last hand.  After that, I proceeded to lose hand after hand and my stack dwindled to $77.50 in 20 mins and at cash out for a loss of 22.50.  I was very happy with my play up to that point.  Then I so upset with myself of how I played that hand and then called (when I knew I was losing) that I just played bad.  Oh well, all I can do is learn from it and don't do it again.

Until next time, See you at the felt!

TK