Booked a NL25 win

Booked a win at my first night back at NL25. It was only 220 hands, but I felt like table selecting was quite tough, and both tables I found were the fishiest, but didn't have me in great position against the fish. I'd guess table selecting at this level will need some extra work, but I'm glad I'm doing it rather than not doing it. I saw a 94/5/2 player on a table with a 220BB stack, and tried to join up, but it flashed up on screen, #6 in waiting list... wow. Others are table selecting too obv. In all honesty I know at least one very solid player playing this level, so there will be plenty of strong players, but I'd guess the average NL25 player is a bit tight weak, and follows the best line given his hand in all spots, which is both easy to read and to get off hands. Still it leads me to believe I should probably be table selecting to the point where I only join a NL25 table when it seems fishy and otherwise grind NL10.

So the hands, one table was getting all the hands, the other was getting sucked out on. I called 3 bets in two spots and hit sets and got paid off. Once by an overly aggro player, who 3 bet me 3 hands earlier, and someone the orbit before, so I didn't think he was running into big hands. I decided just to call with TT, not wanting to spew off too much PF at this level, flop is QTx, ship it, he does too with KK, I take down a nice pot. Not much more than 3 or 4 orbits later the fish on the table min 3 bet my UTG raise from the BB, giving me huge odds to hit a set. These guys are so ofter TT+, that you know there is real value calling for set mining with 88, otherwise folding to pressure postflop. Well, I flopped a full house of 855 of course, and yes indeed he stacked off as expected with QQ. Other than that I ran into suckouts twice getting money in good pre flop, on the flop and turn, and then paying a guy off once on the river (small pot, but probably bad call), and folding another river when it was obvious he'd hit a big draw he was going for. Also got in a couple of horrible flops, like the classic 3 bet "squeeze" KK strong for 2 callers Axx flop!!! Hate that one, and in this case I actually check folded, which is a first for me, as I'd almost always bet at it, and hope for folds. Playing much tighter than I every have post flop, with next to 0 bluffs.

Other than that, as I said I just couldn't find really juicy tables, so I decided to quit serious play and have a couple of drinks. I decided to muck about on NL5, but ended up accidentally joining an NL2 table, so made it two of those. I have to say, I remember those days well. Players are crazy bad, ranging from calling with 75% of hands, and then 3 streets with 3rd pair, to just bagging you when they minraise AA and don't get people to fold and eventually hit with their low PP's. In fact, I ran up $15 profit with so little risk, that it's almost better for me to run my bankroll up here, and move back to FTP when I get a serious bankroll going. I'm pretty sure I could 6 table NL5 (which has $10 BI anyway) for huge profits. I'd estimate about 1 month of grinding NL5 would bring my BR right up to serious NL25 BR, and it would be with so little risk. Decisions?

Unfortunately, last night was the end of my Iron Man promotions too. I didn't qualify in the 220 hands, and realistically have to play for above 50 points for all but 2 nights this month, and I just don't feel like that's a goal I need right now. I want to be able to select my games better than that, and quit when I feel like quitting. So without Iron Man, it looks like I'm back to not needing to stick around Full Tilt if I don't want to, so I might muck around on PS to see how it plays out.

As I've always felt, NL25+ on Full Tilt is probably a little too tight to be massively profitable, so it does leave me wondering about which sites I want to play on. One thing is for sure, I need to get out of the culture of chasing the best rakeback plan, so maybe grinding PS would be good to get right away from rakeback and bonuses for a while, and really focus on crushing the poker game.