Good Sessions:

Been playing much better as of late. Actually had my best invididual session moneywise last night. Mostly this was because I had monster after monster, but poker is not just about hands and flops, but also about extraction. When I sit down at the table there is a very loose aggressive player who is raising 4 out of 5 pots. to my immediate right is a very loose passive player who is calling 6 out of 10 pots with anything suited in any position. Though she (I say she becuase her icon is a cute kitty, and in my mind, its a she) has a short stack. Everyone else at the table is filled with short stacks, and seems to play pretty standard. I have everyone at the table covered except for the big raiser, so I immediatly start to think how I can get his chips.

I fold a few rounds trying to really study the players and hope I can pick up something before the raiser and the flopper give there chips to someone else. Speaking if which, I pick up QQ -- on the button.. and guess who my Big Blind is. The aggressive raiser. I raise 4x the big blind as only our limper has come in before me. Big Blind calls - and the flop seeker has folded.

Heads up - Flop -- Q88 -- What more could I ask for? I make three pretty nice sized bets, and he calls me all the way down to the river -- and I take a really nice pot as i've won half my buy in-- He writes in chat that he had a 8-- which pokertracker confirms that he had A8. I am not wondering how I didn't felt this guy. I replay the hand 3 different times, wondering how I could have played it differently to get more money. Should I have let him take the lead? Bet bigger. This bugs me. I left chips on the table. Chips he was going to give to someone, might as well be me.

As i'm folding and replaying my QQ -- some interesting developments happen. Our Flop seeker has gone on a massive heater. Dealing bad beat after bad beat. she has increased her stack size 5x in the past little bit. Including calling all of her chips on a flop of KQ4 - with 99. She was up against a set of Q's, only to hit runner runner for a back door flush. Flop Seeker now almost has as many chips as I do -- Also in these last couple of rounds -- The aggressive player has gone broke and left the table and I sulk at wondering how I could have gotten those chips. (Its easier when you know the player has trips. Good play by him)

Two more people buy-in to the table and I see that no one beside flop-seeker even has 20% of the chips that we have. I consider leaving the table with all the short stacks, but Flop seekers large chip stack convinces me to stay.

We end up battling a few times, where I usually came out ahead, including getting a few extra bets in when I flopped quads. It all came to a head when I got KK, and isolated-- I flopped top set-- figured Flop seeker was on a flush draw and took 75% of her chips overbetting the pot. Free Money.

Good Time.

Aggresion

I have been struggling recently no doubt. So I have been spending a lot of my time studying my hands and trying to figure out some holes in my game. The biggest one I found was my utter lack of aggression. Especially post flop, where I find that I check far too after and am often willing to just call down to the river. Normally at the micro limits, ABC poker is quite effective and I understand that my reason run is due some bad timing. I've had the nut flush run into a full house, Nut Straight run into a full house, Blind Battle where I had QQ vs KK against a short stack. Throw in a few actual bad beats and it has been a rough couple of weeks, but again my main issue is getting the money in with the worst hand which I did on all of these hands. Now I didn't get stacked on all of these, but I still lost a good bit of BB.

I am to the point where my level the buy in is relatively unimportant to me. It is less then 2% of my bankroll. I need to use this to my advantage and to be aggressive. In cash games I have no problems with bad beats. A bad beat means I did something right. Last night I ended up playing some good aggressive poker. I finished down almost half a buy-in for the session, but I took a beat when a flopped a flush and a player went all-in with a nut-flush semi bluff and hit.

I still feel I was too passive post flop though. I am going to go thru and review these hands as I feel I missed a pretty big opp. to continue to bet on the flop. At these levels you get a lot of multiway pots which normally I like to wait and get more information. I still feel that I should have been more aggressive post flop against 1 or 2 oppt. I felt a stole a few post-flop pots that I didn't have the best hand. My post flop aggression needs a LOT of work though.

Pre-flop on the other hand I think I played rather well. Maybe a little too loose with my calls of some aggressive players. When the table started I was table captain, coming in early and often. Then two players came and sat down to my immediate right. Both of these players were very aggressive, Popping pots with consistency. I struggle against players like this, especially two of them. I just feel like I commit too much money pre-flop with marginal hands. Yeah, its great to look down and find two bullets against an aggressive player, but more often then not you'll end up being run over.

Fortunately I was able to call a continuation bet, and a river bluff with middle pair. I called with 76s pre-flop and hit a 7 with an inside straight draw. I know calling goes against what I said about pre-flop aggression, but calling accomplishes a few things here. One, It shows that I am not going to blow over to continuation bets, two, it shows that when I feel I have the best hand. I could call or raise. So he can't just continuation bet, and if he gets re-raised drop out. Lastly, what it confirms is information, that he is indeed raising with trash. (K4o) was the hand he raised in middle position.

Overall I felt a played rather well, even though I finished down. When the money went into the pot, I usually had the best hand. I have a 4 day weekend I should be able to really try out my aggressive theory.