slight move in the right direction

well i put in a few more hands last nite of cash and decided to play the 8pm $24 mtt.

the small session did not start well. about 8 hands in to the mtt i had chipped up to 1.7k when i ran KK into AA for the gazillionth time. that left me w/ about 185 chips and although i battled proudly my 44 for was no match for QsTs on a all spade flop.

from there i concentrated on my 4 tables of cash.

immediately i dropped half a buy-in to a shorter stack when i was c/r AI on a Jx7d2d5x board holding AdKd and villains TT held up.

simultaneously i lost another half buy-in on a different table when i 3-bet an ep short stack w/ JJ in the sb. the flop came Kxx and i led out pretty much putting him AI and he called w/ AK.

thinking back on this hand i think i might be able to make a smaller bet (this player was not very good) and get away from it when he pushes. the pot on the flop was about $27 and if i just put out a smaller probe bet like $10 or $12 i think it would acheive the same result against this type of player.

so stuck a buy-in quick i was little worried. then i dropped another one.

i raised pre from the hijak w/ KQs and got one caller on the button. he had solid aggressive stats and didn't appear to get out of line. the flop came Q63 rainbow, i led out my standard 3/4 pot and he called. the river was a beautiful K (im not sure if it made 4 different suits or if it put a backdoor flush draw on the board, i don't have the hh w/ me) i led out on the turn again for another 3/4 pot size bet and now the button min-raised me, i shoved and he called and showed me 33 and i bricked the river.

thinking back on this hand this morning i really think i should be able to fold this. i guess its dependant on whether the turn put a backdoor flush draw up but even then i think he would shove w/ a pair and a fd. (something like 67s that he floated the flop with) a very large portion of the time that i get min-raised on the turn after getting smooth called on the flop, im shown a monster. villains hand range pre-flop argues more for a fold as well. he's 3-betting AQ+ and JJ+ and the only real hands i see him cold calling with are small to med pairs (22-99) and maybe a smaller suited broadway hand to a lesser degree. Basically in this hand my thinking went, "i have top 2 and im just not folding it" which i now think is wrong. he is never showing up with a hand im beating here. i think he either has to have a set or KQ and i'm playing for a chop. so not to be results orientated but i'd say its a fold.

so after 15 mins im down 2 buy-ins and knocked out of my tournament. i was about to smash my mouse when i decided to buckle down like a champ and play my ass off. i concentrated harder, i focused more, i put thought into every decision and i hit a few hands :)

88 on a T8T board when villain held JTo and a couple other beauties i can't seem to remember and i ended up getting unstuck for the session and made a little over a buy-in. this puts my total loss in cash games for the day at about 1/2 a buy-in.

a small success but i'll take it.

the blog is actually helping me to review some key hands and im picking up on plays im making that are not quite optimal. im going to start paying more attention to my bet sizing on the turn as i think this may be where im leaking a little bit.

looking forward to another session tonite.