When I got home from work I saddled up for some online play. With three tables of $0.50/1 going I played pretty well. I managed to get in just over 460 hands and take down almost $40. What’s more important than the win is the fact that I’ve played good poker for my last two sessions, dating back to last week.

Early on I was flopping sets left and right. Of course I lost 3 of them to 2 flushes and a gut-shot straight. I didn’t waste extra bets though, which is a good sign. I saw it coming and just called the river bet. I got sucked out on a few times, but I make a few suckouts myself when I originally thought I was ahead, only to spike my long-shot on the river for the winning hand. Some days it just all evens out. This was one of those days and I took advantage of it.

I’m getting better at laying down a hand when it’s clear I’m behind. A few weeks ago I was playing all of my monsters to showdown and it was costing me precious bets. I still caught myself doing it a few times, but I’ve improved 200% in this area already.

I can’t say enough good things about the Poker Tracker Guide though. Before purchasing the book I had no clue what to look at when evaluating my play. Now I simply spend a few minutes after a session reviewing some key hands. It’s really helping my game. Today I only cold-called a raise twice pre-flop, with 44 once and 99 the other time when several players had already called the raise. I ended up flopping a set of 4s, which paid off nicely. It’s simply amazing how well the concept of odds works in limit poker. Let keep it our secret though…don’t tell the fish!