Overall, I was happy with my play. Made one call on the flop that I shouldn’t have; knew the opponent had an over pair to the flop. I flopped top pair with a weak kicker. Not a wise call. But that was the only one I can honestly say that I shouldn’t have called.

Just one of those sessions where I couldn’t get the momentum going. Next!

Funny — I opened CarbonPoker this afternoon and noticed I had a few dollars in the account, so I decided to play a little. Got called light (knew it). Opponent had JT when I had A6. Typical CP board came: KQKA6. Opponent made straight on turn and the river gave me a second pair.

I’m now broke there — thank goodness. It’s a really weird place to play. Not at all the boards one sees in live games.

To help keep me out of the ever convenient online games, I’ve self-excluded myself from those sites that offer the service. The ones that don’t aren’t really worth playing at, so I don’t think I’ll have a problem staying away from those. To help encourage, and remind me to stay out of online games, I’m moving my online stats chart to the top of the display and shuffling some other data around to place a stronger focus on live cash game results.

My schedule for the next 3 months limits the opportunities to drive to the casino only to weekends. I can get away Thursday afternoon through Sunday, but will probably limit my play to 3 sessions a week. This should work to my advantage actually. Being able to play 3, back-to-back sessions allows me to focus on my game and the time off will allow me to analyze my play. My goal for each session is $200-$400 per session, something I think I should be able to do.

I like to take smaller wins as I think it keeps me under the radar of players who might not otherwise want to play with an opponent who appears to crush the game. Example: There is one fellow at the casino I play at who has been doing extremely well over the past couple months. Playing $1-$3 NL, it is not unusual for him to take away $1500 - $2000 each session — and he plays 3 to 5 days a week. I’ve been avoiding sitting at a table with him, as I know several others have also.

If I can take an average of $200 to $400 away 3 sessions a week, that will put me well within my target. Of course, I’ll be looking for opportunities to take bigger wins, but my strategy is to be a consistent winner and not draw attention.

I’m feeling very good about my cash game play. I’ve seem the advantage of not drawing in the wrong circumstances and in making appropriate value bets against opponents that can’t lay down.

There’s still much I have to learn.

The outcome from the trip was that I am enjoying poker again.

There’s nothing wrong in folding when you know (or strongly feel) that you hold the best hand but have been put into a position where there may be a strong possibility that your opponent can improve.

Example:

Today, I held QQ against a fellow who was relatively short stacked and who had been moving all-in a lot. He raised $20 ($1-3 NL) pre-flop in early position. I was in the small blind and decided to just call. It was just he and I to see the flop of J♥8♥4♣.

I checked and he moved all-in for $130 ($43 in the pot). (Perhaps a bet from me would have gotten him to fold on the flop, but I really doubted it, so chose to check.)

I felt I had the best hand, but looked at the number of possibilities where I could be beat. First, he could have raised with JJ — a $20 raise is a fairly typical early position raise with this hand. He could also have a set, although I doubted he would raise with either a 8 or a 4. A heart flush draw would be possible as a lot of players like to move in with four to the flush. He could also have AK and catch one of those to beat me.

So, $130 to win $170 didn’t seem like a good deal and I folded. He turned over A♦K♦.

I kept my stack in tact and used it later on to double up. IMO, a wise trade off.

The first few days saw me more than doubling the bankroll I took with me. Loose (extremely) cash games at the Luxor and three small tourney wins (Planet Hollywood, Caesars and TI) accounted for the bonus.

So, I decided to stay and play. And it was well worth it.

I didn’t bring back much more than that initial double-up plus, but I paid for the entire trip and incidentals with winnings. Most importantly, I got a great amount of time playing and watching/studying a lot of different players. Good and bad players.

And, I learned a lot about my own game. I learned that I play pretty well compared to the majority of opponents. My reads are accurate. I can normally get players to call a value bet.

I also learned that I can play poorly when the table/game is not optimal. If I stay too long in a “bad” game, I can end up making bad plays. This happened twice during this trip and I know exactly why. The first was after a 3-4 hour stay at a bad game. The second was after moving to a different casino after taking a beat (full house beat by quads).

I’m going to use what I learned during this trip in my local games.

It’s too bad, too. 5,000 jobs would be created in mid-Ohio, something sorely needed. The AFL-CIO is behind the proposed casino resort, and no one from the State of Ohio government has come out negative on it.

But the ads Berman and Lakes have put together are horrible. And we all know how idiotic voters are. The other ads have effectively delivered their case. Period.

Argh… guess I’ll continue to have to drive 150 miles round trip to play live poker instead of 35.

Playing online is so convenient; I wish I was a more consistent winner online. But that is not the case. And, while I do want to enjoy the game of poker and, at this point, not turn it into a job, I am playing to win. I actually enjoy the live play more than online also.

Currently, I’m able to go to the casino three and sometimes four times a week. That’s really enough to keep a good balance of things in my life.

I don’t need to play online, and as many are finding out, it’s just not very profitable.

First table, no cards and when I did make a hand, it was second best. Getting stuck at the first table seems to be a standard for my sessions of late.

Moved to another table and didn’t start there much better. As I watched the play though, I recognized there were 3 players who were playing extremely poorly. They were firing 3 bullets with any pair, staying in hands way too long and calling bets and raises where they were no longer getting odds for any type of draw.

I ended up busting out, but decided to buy back in to see if I could take advantage of the bad play. Within about an hour, I had tripled up. All coming from those 3 players.

My plan worked just as I had hoped. I raised and was called with poor hands. Called to the river with TPWK when I felt I was good — on this hand, the fellow bet off his entire stack on a pair of 5’s… 4th pair.

Later, I ended up busting AA with KK. The fellow was dealt AA the previous hand, and I just didn’t think he could be dealt it back-to-back. I ended up moving in on the flop after he bet out (I raised pre-flop and he re-raised… I called). I thought he might have QQ, but not AA. I turned a K and he didn’t improve. Big pot. I got lucky.

Results were great today. I played fairly well; one bad call and then a misread with the AA vs. KK hand.

Still, I’d like to be able to play a session where I didn’t have to fight back from a 2 or 3 buy-in loss.

I’ll keep trying…

I made a couple calls that I shouldn’t have. One was against a retiree who always checks the turn and bets the river when he has something. I had JJ against set flopped trip Q’s turned full house. Lost too much on that one. But, it worked out as I ended up stacking him later when he kept firing at a busted flush draw and finally went all in on the river with zip. I had a pair and was on the same flush draw as he was. Lucky for me the flush didn’t come as I was notched.

The other bad call was pre-flop against a young short-stack squeezer. He re-raised my button raise where I held A♣Q♣. I should have folded there because I was committed after that. Again, lost a bit.

I made a couple bluffs which worked out; unusual for this game. Usually, they’ll call with single pairs. I also was bluffed once. I knew I should make the call, but only had top pair and remembered that the chips you save are worth something.

Results were fine, but I need to quit making calls when I know I’m beat.