Today was better than yesterday

If yesterday was one of my worst sessions I can remember, today wasn't spectacular, but pretty damn good.

I sat down at around 2:00 while my wife was in the shower. We were going to my cousins birthday party and just hanging around the house until we had to go. I was still disgusted by the horrible session I had the night before and I was confident I could be a winner at the $1/2 NL level. So I hopped on Full Tilt and starting looking for a table. I was kind shocked at the number of tables going and had a good selection. I wanted one with a mix of short and full stacks. I like the shorter stacks because you can get them committed with a less than premium hand. The only thing that is dangerous with short stacks is that they can jam without the reservations that a full stack might have because of the decrease in investment.

Anyway, I find a pretty good table and right away I see that I have an opportunity to make up for last night. There is a maniac 2 to my left and a couple of tight/passives to my immediate right. There a guy on the opposite side of the table who has a bigger stack (>$400), but he seems to be a standard TAG. The maniac is just crazy. Constantly reraising, jamming, showing bluffs and mid pairs. I realize that I might have an opportunity to snag a nice pot if we tangle.

About 15 hands in, I get AJ s on the button (maniac is BB). There 1s 1 limper to me, so I pop is to $8. Maniac instacalls. A 3 6 flop, a good one for me. Check to me, I bet out $15, maniac calls. Turn is a 9. Maniac bets out $5 (which totally mindfucks me), so I raise to $25 to see where I'm at, he smooth calls which gets me worried that he could have something like A 3 or A 6. Q on the river. He checks and I check behind. He shows 3 10. That's right, 3 10.

Now I'm dreaming of a overpair vs. pair situation........

20 minutes pass and I've some some amazing shit out of this guy. Calls an all in from UTG with 33 vs. AK. Calls a pot bet on the river with 4 to a flush with none of that suit (neither did the other guy, but what a call).

Then we tangle again.

I get KK on the button. Maniac and MP limp. I don't want my boys up against a bunch of players, so I pop it to $10. Maniac pops it to $30. Wonderful. He's not scaring me, so I jam, pretty much expecting a call. If he's got AA. Congratulations. As expected, he calls with

88

Wow.

KK holds up and I drag a very nice $400 pot and I'm right back where I started before I sat down last night.

Party gave me $30 to screw around with. I played some shorthanded .10/.25, which totally bored me. I then donked off $10 in a 5 table SnG....don't ask me why. I went over to FT to try and little $1/2 NL again, but after about 20 hands I could tell this wasn't a good table for income, so I got up. Something I'm doing with more regularity. As you move up, it becomes more and more about table selection. I'm starting to realize that you need to identify money pits early and get out with minimal losses. Which, I can proudly say, I did.

After that, I went over to Start and played about 50 hands of $50NL, nothing big, just killing time. Made about $10, got tired, and now I'm typing this thing up.

I will sleep better tonight since I picked up what I lost. I realize I now have the funds to just reload.......but why? I got what I've got now by playing and learning, so why should I lose it and not be a bit bothered. The money I now have online is kind of like a trophy. I brought it up from basically nothing while I've really worked on learning how to play this game and I'm going to lose it without a fight.

Heck, I'd like to not have ever touch any of my bad beat money and just turn this into a nice roll.

It might just happen.