Back in Action....

BT came through with a 3.5GB broadband line, so I finally got back online playing. Felt a bit rusty for the first hour, losing $200 on some bad "moves", but managed to hold my own after that on the $2/4 and then $5/10 NLHE cash games. Played a bunch of heads-up SnG's which proved to be slightly negative on the P&L. I was tuning up on the $30 and $50 SnG's, having some success, but got a bad beat when I stepped up to $100. Got a bad opponent to commit all his chips against my QQ with A3, but he flopped the A. Slow start, but a necessary step back to get into the groove.

One observation on HU action: played "repomann7" deep into the 7th level of blinds. It was a really good match, but in the end, he was easy to beat because of one thing: PREDICTABILITY. Repo played very tight and capitalized on his strong hands as I donked off some chips on re-raises when he was strong. Basically, after about 50 hands I realized he would fold to any bet if he didn't have anything and would bet the pot if he had something. So, it was pretty easy to pick him off, re-raise his small bets, and generally wear him down for an eventual win. But, the point is that predictability is the absolute worst quality to have as a poker player. You have to switch gears and keep 'em guessing or you're dead.

Just as I write this entry, I was involved in a very interesting hand: The action on this table was very loose and I was playing Dan Negreanu (keep the pot small pre-flop) style. UTG I find AcKc on a $2/4 table and LIMP. Mid position small stack pushed all-in for $51 and the BB flat called (with $350 behind). With the pot at $115, I decided to push all-in for $675 ( I was basically free-rolling as I was up $275) as I thought 80% sure the BB would fold facing my all-in. Instead, BB calls with TT and small stack had 44 (no clubs for either). I failed to improve the AcKc after 5 low cards came and lost $400 on that pot. Welcome any comments on this one.

Again, just now I had two consecutive pots of $350-400 with AK and 9T suited. I just called pre-flop raises both times and made the flush on the turn after calling pot bets on the flop. Each time, the same guy "browerkid" (a very good, tight player I see often) called my $100-150 river bet, paying me off. A fair bit of luck, but I did maximize the hands.

Bankroll: $4,056