Posts have been shit, sorry

I haven't really been interested in posted for the blog in the last month or so for some reason, so the quality of posts have been poor and rushed, just because I didn't wanna let it die, I posted here and there little updates and very little else, I'll try a lot harder from now I think.

So this month has been okay, I put in a serious lack of volume in for the early few weeks of October when FIFA '10 came out, but I've improved, and have done about 8k hands at 50NL. I dropped 3.5BI yesterday which kinda hurt me a little, losing $175 in two hours isn't something I'm used to, but I think it was worth it, as it got my focus back. I moved to 50NL expecting to get stuffed, but I've done reasonably well so far, and although haven't got a winrate at the moment, feel like I've just got to make some minor adjustments.

I've noticed some differences between 25NL and 50NL, notably the aggression. I feel as though I have to valuebet a lot thinner to make more money, and also focus more on hand ranges instead of thinking 'well, he's called a bet, it's not very draw heavy, I think c/f is the best play on the turn', I've started thinking along the lines of 'how does he have a K in his range', and putting them on certain hands I think they'd play this way. For example:

Not a big pot by any means, but I felt my thought process was good. I use the HUD for basic things like determining what kind of player the villain is, whether they could be 3betting me light ect ect, just the standard things, but I don't really use to to help me determined ranges and stuff, not as much as I should anyway. My thought for the hand were as follows:

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $38.60
CO: $27.25
Hero (BTN): $55.80
SB: $50.50
BB: $51.80

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with 5 6
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, 1 fold, BB calls $1

I open ATC on the BTN if the blinds will let me, as they have been, so I do and I get a call. Villain is a 20/17 w/10% 3bet and 79% fold to steal.

Flop: ($3.25) 2 3 K (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2, BB calls $2

I flop a gutshot so I fire a cbet, the board is kinda dry so figure I don't really need to make it $2.50, he's calling mid-pairs for the same price, calling a K for the same, so no need to put in extra money if it achieves the same thing.

Turn: ($7.25) Q (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $5, BB folds

He calls, and this is where the HUD came into use. He's got a 10% 3bet over a decent 3k sample, so he's 3betting hands like 99+, AK, KJ+ and possibly KT, he's not bad enough to be flatting hands like K7o, so I don't see how he has any K's in his range here, and if he does, it's weak. So primarily, I put him on a small-medium pair, or a hand like A4s/A5s, or something like 54s, which I think he'll probably pitch anyway, but he's not very strong generally and can't take another barrell, so I fire and he folds.

Generally I'm looking to c/f here, but I've learnt that at 50NL I need to focus more on ranges, something which wasn't really 100% necessary at 25NL, or at least not as much so. The hand itself wasn't anything special, but I felt like I need to start putting more stuff in the blog to make it more read worthy, other than "omg I moved up, I've found it tough, I'm gonna work harder from now, here goes nothing."

Will play some tonight and post up sopme interesting hands, maybe I'll use this to review some hands I played like a fish aswell, I need to start looking over my sessions and I guess this is a good a place as any to do so.