Longer than expected session

First and foremost, PT3 has died on me. Probably not it's fault, but the Postgresql won't start up. This is annoying as not only have I spent a lot of time getting PT3 up properly, I've also written some programs recently that access the PT3 DB to help along with table selecting and player reading. With that gone I'm not so happy. So it was back to firing up PT2 and losing all my recent FTP history of players. However, one thing can be said about PT2, it's stable, which I still haven't seen with PT3.

I had the most interesting session last night. I had short spurts of tables, all being up a few dollars, mostly due to changing table dynamics leaving me without friends after they left :) I was mostly tired so I was prepared to call it quits quite early up around 1BI overall, when I said the inevitable "1 more orbit." I got sucked out on by a short stack of course. But I looked around and saw near perfect table dynamics, so because I felt I was playing well I'd stay. Well I stayed another 130 hands, just one tabling, and broke about even, including getting a full stack in as 80% favourite and losing, flopping two pair and having to fold, and also turning a low flush and not being able to stop a donk chasing and hitting a better 1 card better flush.

But it's really got me thinking about the difference between running well and playing well. One guy was up just chasing 6-8 outs, often not to the nutz, and he was hitting and was good a lot. His poor style means he'll be having nights where he's losing half a BI every 15 hands, and other nights like last night where he hits often enough to return a small win. In fact, I actually think he lost overall, even after sucking out at least 5 times, and I mean sucking out, as 10-20% favourite and hitting on the river against me and others. You don't get a lot of these situations when playing good poker, but what you do get is much more control over your destiny.

I mean if you have a player on a range on the flop, you can clearly see the board texture, and you know your hand, you really have only a couple of questions left. How do I get the most money out of this situation?

So while I returned just a small profit last night, I felt like I mostly played above average, and I'm really feeling in control of my game and my opponents. I've started focusing a lot more on position again, and factor it into most decisions I make now, as it is the easiest read free tool you can use, even better than your hand. If you are feeling lost early in a hand, look at whether you have position. If you don't, let it go. Why battle a tough pot OOP when you are telegraphing your hand to your opponent and have no idea what he has? If you have position, you can really plan your lines perfectly, and get instant feedback about where you are at if moves don't work.

So I'm still treading water a bit with the results, but I'm really happy with how much more thought I'm putting into pots, and even if I have the wrong ideas a lot, I'm certain my thoughts are moving closer to being +EV ones most of the time. I look forward to what this week brings.