More progress

cliffs notes: 50 NL is awesome.

I'm at 457 hands, up $73. So running a bit hot, but whatever. Slammed KK into a shortstack's AA (I actually almost folded; I raised to $2 UTG, he minraised from the BB, I raised to $12, he minraised again, and I pushed. Full stacks, two minraises, four bets, smells fishy enough that I either fold or go for set value, but half a stack...eh he could have QQ, AK, maybe JJ.)

Another shortstack raise pushed my $2 from MP with JJ for $16 more, which I ultimately decided to lay down. I think he has AT+ a lot there, but he also has QQ+.

Interesting hands: The dangers of slowplaying:

POKERSTARS GAME #7221419536: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.25/$0.50) - 2006/11/29 - 01:13:52 (ET)
Table 'Polaris' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Eclipse51 ($49.75 in chips)
Seat 2: Fil123 ($50.10 in chips)
Seat 3: DotNetBoyz ($23.70 in chips)
Seat 4: cconnard ($48.55 in chips)
Seat 5: WolfOnTheFol ($64.60 in chips)
cconnard: posts small blind $0.25
WolfOnTheFol: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to WolfOnTheFol [8h Td]
Eclipse51: folds
Fil123: folds
DotNetBoyz: raises $0.50 to $1
cconnard: folds
WolfOnTheFol: calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [2c 9s Tc]
WolfOnTheFol: checks
DotNetBoyz: bets $1
WolfOnTheFol: raises $3.50 to $4.50
DotNetBoyz: calls $3.50
*** TURN *** [2c 9s Tc] [8s]
WolfOnTheFol: bets $7.50
DotNetBoyz: calls $7.50
*** RIVER *** [2c 9s Tc 8s] [Ts]
WolfOnTheFol: bets $11
DotNetBoyz: calls $10.70 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
WolfOnTheFol: shows [8h Td] (a full house, Tens full of Eights)
DotNetBoyz: mucks hand (2d 2s)
WolfOnTheFol collected $45.65 from pot

He minraised and was generally being an idiot; super short for most of the time but still playing fairly tight; I planned to just take it away with a checkraise. To be entirely fair, if he raises the turn I go broke with top two, but instead he let me draw out and crush him. I dig the flop call, but hate not raising the turn. Like, if he's afraid of the straight, he's going to be just as crushed on the river unless he fills up, and if he's that scared I'm just going to make him see nightmares on every flop.

(this hand is also indicative of how willing I am to get shanked with top pair. If he raises the flop I can probably get away with the preflop minraise making me think JJ+ if he raises a c/r, but if he'd made a normal raise and had something like kings I'd probably have gotten it right in the ass. I think I'm too eager to assume people are raising Ax or whatever and that they're bluffing the raise or third bet. They're usually not. Complicating things, some people actually are.)

The more I play 50 NL the more it feels like 25. I was at four tables at the end of my session and was doing fine. Time issues when I had the JJ facing a push while playing a boat on another table, but that happens. I'm playing a fairly high variance style and really going out there with coinflips (I'd probably have sex with folding equity if I could) and it's working pretty well. I'm still having trouble with TP vs overpair or pocket pair vs higher pocket pair. I think I'm too eager to think people are playing back at me when I hold mediocre holdings. Maybe I'm looking too hard to get involved.