Hit my roll, sort of

Well I surpassed the $100 mark today, meaning I have 20 full buy ins for $5, and just enough to be considered an actual bankroll for the smallest of games. In celebration, I'm going to destroy these limits, as well as move up to .02/.05 again as long as there's enough games going to 9 table.



I made a solid breakthrough and I think a lot of it came from having a sort of sweat session. What I realized is this: You must treat top pair top kicker like a red-headed step child, it's not something you really want to get involved in, and you shouldn't really care about it. Pouring over my stats in PokerEV, I found a disturbing thing. With pairs I'm a winner, and a solid one, however the pairs I really profit with are overpairs, top pair weak kicker, and middle/weak pairs. That's right, I'm +EV with all single pairs that AREN'T top pair top kicker. I'm falling victim to playing a single pair wayyyyyyyyyy too aggressively and my buddy saw into why. I see these idiots playing Ax and Kx so I want to extract value from them with my tptk, but what ends up happening is I trap myself in a big pot because I'm trying to squeeze value out of a spot where there really isn't any.



Watching some of the top pros play, they're very delicate with one pair holdings, and I took this "newfound" (Quotes cuz I used to know this but a layoff kinda killed me) knowledge to the tables, feeling like a new player. Here's what happened for a short session.

















So I did very well at 46.45bb/100, but I should've been better. I had one hand, ONE HAND that I played -EV, and I should've gotten away. And wouldn't you know, Top Pair Top Kicker was it. AK raised it up got one caller behind me. Flop comes [Ac Qh 8c] Now I know I don't want to play these one pair hands for big pots so I check, and villain checks behind, so far so good.

Turn [Ac Qh 8c] [7d]


Okay, club didn't hit, likely to be ahead and only one card to come so I'll put a bet in, if I'm called I'm going to check the river and call a reasonable sized bet. I bet about 1/3 of the pot, and get min-raised! These usually scare me, and I instantly was like, is this AQ? No he probably would've bet the flop, did he hit a set and slowplay? Did he really hit the 7? I wasn't sure at this point, and I think a fold would've been okay. Instead I called, hoping that we might check the river through and see who wins.


River [Ac Qh 8c] [7d] [2s]


Well that doesn't change anything. Let's check and hope he checks behind. I check, and he bets 3/4 pot. After a min-raise followed by a solid bet, I have to know that one pair isn't gonna do it, but for some reason I make the call anyway and throw away some money, maybe just to see it I don't know. Anyway he shows A7 for a turned 2 pair. I don't mind most of the play up untill the calling on the river, I don't know what I was thinking there really. Horrible play. If I hadn't made that call, I would've been up 51.7bb/100 a difference of 5bb/100!!!! That difference is what many consider a solid winrate, so I simply can't be making these plays anymore.

I'm planning on an intense night tonight. It's Friday, I'm going to rest up, and in a couple of hours I'm going to be logging some serious time. I can smell the .10/.25 and I want to take it down.