I've been meaning to start a blog on here for awhile. Over the past year, I've gotten much more serious about my game as I got laid off from my job and I need the extra income. I've been playing between 5-7x a week and sometimes for 14+ hours a day. I've come to the conclusion that you can read, study, whatever, but there is nothing that is as important as experience. I feel like the last year has been the greatest jump I've ever had in skill as a poker player.

A couple of recent stories:

1. On Wednesday night my normal home cash game got cancelled. I had to decide what to do with my time. I briefly pondered going to another cash game down the street. It's a 1.2 game but it's about as crazy as you'll ever find. Buyin for $500, ship with Aces pre flop and get called by 2 random hands type of crazy. It's a hell of a moneymaker but I really shouldn't be playing in it for the most part as I don't have the roll to handle the variance.

So my buddy who is the dealer at the original cash game said to me, "let's go over to the Rock (local card room) and have a little fun for once. Let's play 2/4 limit, buyin for 100 bucks, have a little fun." I haven't played 2/4 limit for years, but I thought about it for awhile and agreed. It's good to take a break from the seriousness of poker and have fun once in awhile. So 3 of us drove up there and we all sat down.

First hand, UTG straddles and I'm next to act, I have JJ. I 3 bet, everyone at the table calls, the straddle 4 bets, I cap. A large older lady to my left gives me a scowl and says to me "what do you have?" She was obviously pissed off that I was raising. Flop comes AT5 all spades I cf without a spade. Bets, raises, calls, etc…it gets to the river and of course the Jc comes. The pot was close to $200 and I would have won it.

Over the next 10 hands I woke up with AK twice, AQ twice, and 77. I raised pf every single time and every time I raised the old lady gave me a scowl. Of course I lost every hand. So at this point I'm only down like 30 bucks or so, which is nothing, but my competitive juices are starting to flow. It's actually kind of funny as I usually play in $90-250 tourneys and/or 1.2 games that play like 2.5 games. Thirty bucks is nothing, but I hate to lose and I love to win.

Next hand I look down at Q9s on the button. Six players limped in front of me, I called, sb called, bb checked. Flop A95 rainbow. Check around to me, I bet, 3 callers including older lady that has been scowling at me all night. Turn A. Check around to me, I bet, older lady calls, everyone else folds. River, 9. Lady checks, I bet, she tank calls. I say "boat" and turn over my Q9. Lady shakes her head, upset. Doesn't turn over her cards for the longest time. Finally after prompting from the dealer, she turns over her cards, 97, and says "Nines with the seven." Which, as we all know, is the same hand that I have, a made fh 9s full of Aces.

So laughably, now I'm pissed. I muttered "slow roll" under my breath, a couple players who knew what was up laughed and the lady was visibly upset. She left shortly thereafter.

Bottom line: here I am preaching about how we need to keep the fish in the game http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...l#post43774867 and I was being a hypocrite when I lost a measly 10 bucks! If I see that lady again, I'm going to apologize to her for sure.

Next day (yesterday) I have my bible study at 7pm. I'm a Christian, btw. Usually I don't play Thursdays or if I do I play late after my study. But I figured why not go down to The Rock and make $100 before my game as the 2/4 and 4/4 limit games are soft as they come? Of course I miss every draw and every time I have a made hand I get drawn on and pretty soon I was down 30 bucks. Now I realize why I never play limit. So I figured I would take a shot at the $50 tourney which I used to play everyday. Nowadays I have moved up to minimum $90 tourneys but usually $150-250.

A lot of the old regs are still there and still playing. The interesting thing is that I realized how much my game has changed in a year. I am so much more aggressive than I used to be. An older lady that I used to play with all the time called me "a dangerous player", she never called me that before. A friend of mine said to me "wow you are playing aggressive." I told him that's my game these days. I busted out AK vs. 44 when the guy made his set draw and I made my TPTK. It's a short stacked tourney and no way could I get away from that hand with that stack. But that's not the point. The point is that I'm going in the right direction.

Normally I play in a $90 tourney today and tomorrow, but I've taken today off to study and relax. I may play in tomorrow, I may go down to Foxwoods and play in the $300 25k guarantee, or I may not.