Last night was a great night for my bankroll. I made 17.79 BB/100 and played 312 hands while 3 tabling (In English, that’s $11.10.) That may not seem like much, but combined with the $5 bonus that Full Tilt released into my account, I had a net increase of 25.5% in my bankroll last night. For the night I ran 16/ 7/ 4 and won 54% of my showdowns. To me, that seems like the ideal numbers combination and is what I seek to achieve on a long-term basis.

The bankroll stands at $79.20, which is a pretty good increase from the $12 that Two Rags gave me two weeks ago.

I had two hands last night where I utilized the check-behind. The check-behind is when you have the initiative and are in position, you bet the flop when it is checked to you and check behind your opponent on the turn. The check-behind is used for two main reasons. First, you effectively control the size of the pot when your hand is not a big pot type of hand. Pot control is very important, and you never want to break the cardinal rule of not playing a big pot w/o a big hand. Lots of people go broke w/ top pair because they can’t control the size of the pot. Second, the check-behind is used to induce bluffs and calls on the river. When you show weakness on the turn, many LAGs will fire out on the river and many players with weaker kickers with their top pair or even 2nd pair will call you down on the river. Checking behind also avoids the check-raise on the turn that many players do with flopped trips or two pair, and some also attempt a check-raise bluff on the turn representing the same trips or two pair. When your opponent leads off into you on the river, you have to decide if they are genuinely strong or if they are playing off your feigned weakness on the turn.

Anyway, the 1st hand that I checked-behind on was w/ A-Ko when I flopped TPTK. It was a rainbow board and I didn’t feel that there were any draws out against me. I checked behind on the turn and bet out hard on the river and got called by A-10. Whether the villain would have called 3 streets is a mystery, but I knew that most will call 2 streets when they sniff weakness. The 2nd was w/ A-Jo from the button. After the table folded to me I bumped it from my superior position. I got smooth-called by what turned out to be K-K. The flop fell J-J-x. Most people bet small or just check this flop, I lead for a pot-sized bet, which should look like I missed and was trying to buy the pot. The kings bit and called the big bet. This time when I checked-behind I was looking to get a worse hand to pay me off. By betting hard on the flop and checking the turn the trap was set. The river was another innocuous card and I blasted another big bet into the villain after he checked. He sure enough called and I won a nice pot versus a superior starting hand.

In my opinion, smooth calling w/ KK from the SB is a really bad play. KK needs to be protected with a big reraise preflop. He elected to play a vulnerable hand out of position against a slippery player like myself, and he lost a big pot. If he would have repopped it for a large amount, I definitely cannot call that with my A-Jo.

The third hand I want to review from last night was when I had As-Js in the SB. A middle position player limped in and a late middle position player min raised and got called by the button. I am still adjusting my play of AQ and AJ in the blinds, but this is definitely a spot where I want to defend my blinds. I have a biggish suited ace in the blinds against a very small preflop raise. I’m not going to war when I flop TPGK in this spot, but if I flop a big draw to the nuts, I’m in a good spot to win a big pot. With AQ or AJ off-suit, I’m probably not going to defend as much, but to a minimum raise, I’m probably calling regardless of my hands suitedness. The flop is a favorable one bringing the Qs-6s-x. I decide to play this nut draw fast and elect to check-raise. The table checks around to the button who bets 3/4 of the pot. I raise his $0.60 bet to $2.10 and hope for an immediate fold. The table brings me hope of the immediate fold, and then the button calls and my hopes are dashed! The turn is a total blank and I tried to lead out for $3 but I mis-typed my bet and instead bet $0.30 into the $5+ pot. The button obliges and raises it to $2.40 for me and I have a decision to make. The pot stands around $7.70 and it only costs me $2.10 to see the river. I only need 4 to 1 to make this an easy call or the strong hope of $0.70 more on the river to make it a safe call. I figure if the villain has come this far with his hand, he’s definitely calling $0.70 more in this big pot. I call and the beautiful 9s floats out onto the river. I slide the bet bar to the far right and press the eject button to release my load. To my astonishment, the button calls my $5.75 all in bet. Score one for the home team!!!

For the night, 2 of my 3 tables that I played gave me a profit and my cards ran very goot! I played a big draw very fast and got lucky on the river. That’s poker at its finest and if every night played like last night, I’d be a wealthy man in a very short period of time! Here’s to running goot!!

Well, my night started abismally and thought I was in for a bad run. The third hand of the night I'm dealt AA on the button. I've got the nutz and the best possible position, I'm ready to rock this pot. 3 players limp ahead of me and I hit the pot button and make it $0.55 to go. Both the blinds fold and the original limper calls and the other two limpers fold. The flop comes a semi-safe 6-8-6. I figure that I'm good and that a CB should take this one down. The villain checks and bet out a luring 1/2 pot bet. He takes forever and finally calls, I'm hoping that he has AK or something. The turn is another blank, he checks and bet out another 1/2 to 2/3 of the pot. He pulls the same ruitine and eventually calls. The river is a Jack, and he checks again. Now, the intelligent side of me was saying to check this and go to the showdown, but the gambler in me said, "He may just call another bet, swing it out there and see if he'll bite." Sure enough I did and sure enough I get min raised which effectively commits my stack that was close to 100 BBs when we started this hand. The idiot turns over 6-2o and says, "Sry man!" I puke and reload hoping to clean his clock. Well, he takes the money and runs after I take a small pot from him on a CB.

Anyway, enough of the bad beat story. My night started off down one buyin. I caught AA 2 more times in the night that helped catch me up because there was no fluke hand to suck out on me after that. QQ made a big winner for me and my favorite hand came through for me once again. (I'll keep the favorite hand a secret for now. A magician doesn't reveal his tricks.) I did flop the nuts with it and stacked an opponent. Most of my tables were LP and I was able to run over them pretty consistently. In fact, I did a little scouting based on a LPP player that was sitting at my table. I found her at 3 other tables and proceeded to sit down at 2 more of them. When I had doubled up on one of my tables I pulled some money off the table and moved over to another table that she was sitting at. Every table that she was at was around 18 VP$IP and 3 PFR%. I used position and aggression to make my buyin back and eventually ended the night up $6.10 over 350 or so hands.

When I review my PT records, mostly I notice that big losses happen because of one hand played badly and then to a smaller degree to calling too many pfr's throughout the night. I don't even think that I call too many pfr's but the few that I do call really add up. I really don't see how some players can keep playing when they are calling another player's raises. Having the initiative is such a powerful weapon. I think one of the biggest improvements to my game will be the recent adjustment of laying down AJo and AQo to pfr's. I haven't won many big pots with those hands, but I have sure lost some big pots with them.

The bankroll stands at $63.10 and I am right on the brink of getting another $5 bonus from FTP.

I should be playing tonight and hopefully the BR will be over $75 come morning.