Been playing some NL cash on Stars....

Lately I've been finding very little time for poker, so I'm playing mostly cash games when I do play. I usually only play for about 30 minutes to an hour at a time. I started with $50 in Stars and have played a few tourneys, but mostly .50/1.00 cash. I'm sitting around $300 in my account right now. I FT'd a limit tourney the other day, but it was just a $15 buyin with 80 or so players, so 6th didn't pay a whole lot. I've discovered that my best tourney game is by far limit holdem. It just seems to fit my tournament style perfectly. I've probably played less than 5% the amount of limit tourneys as I have NL tourneys, but I probably have close to the same amount of FT's in each kind. I know much of this is due to the fact that the fields are much smaller, but I still wish stars would host more limit tourneys on a daily basis.

I just got finished playing some .50/1.00 NL cash and made out fairly well. This was a fun hand...

PokerStars Game #7593184767: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2006/12/24 - 22:34:10 (ET)
Table 'Alkeste IV' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: BrandonAU ($164.35 in chips)
Seat 2: ur_suspect ($131.80 in chips)
Seat 3: thelonious x ($73.95 in chips)
Seat 4: ott67s ($113.95 in chips)
Seat 5: Jwise99 ($44.90 in chips)
Seat 6: edsters ($50.45 in chips)
Seat 8: Coox ($98.05 in chips)
Seat 9: fisherman T ($15.50 in chips)
Jwise99: posts small blind $0.50
edsters: posts big blind $1
BillyTormont: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to BrandonAU [9h 9d]
Coox: folds
fisherman T: folds
BrandonAU: raises $2 to $3
ur_suspect: folds
thelonious x: calls $3
ott67s: folds
Jwise99: folds
edsters: calls $2
*** FLOP *** [3d 9s 2d]
edsters: checks
BrandonAU: bets $4
thelonious x: calls $4
edsters: raises $14 to $18
BrandonAU: raises $14 to $32
thelonious x: calls $28
edsters: raises $15.45 to $47.45 and is all-in
BrandonAU: raises $113.90 to $161.35 and is all-in
thelonious x: calls $38.95 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [3d 9s 2d] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [3d 9s 2d Ts] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BrandonAU: shows [9h 9d] (three of a kind, Nines)
thelonious x: mucks hand
BrandonAU collected $47 from side pot
edsters: mucks hand
BrandonAU collected $148.85 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $198.85 Main pot $148.85. Side pot $47. | Rake $3
Board [3d 9s 2d Ts 6c]
Seat 1: BrandonAU showed [9h 9d] and won ($195.85) with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 2: ur_suspect folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: thelonious x mucked [8d Ad]
Seat 4: ott67s (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Jwise99 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: edsters (big blind) mucked [2s 2h]
Seat 8: Coox folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: fisherman T folded before Flop (didn't bet)



Pretty standard E/MP raise with 99 here, nothing special. I get 2 callers, so I'm hoping for all unders, a set, or obviously nothing too scary so I can make a continuation bet to try to take it down. Flopping top set, well that was just what I wanted to see. So I make a smallish $4 bet, knowing that they probably didn't think this flop helped me, and I get called by LP and checkraised by the bb. I'm now thinking he's got an overpair, A9, K9, maaaaybe something like 77 or 88, or of course a lower set. I decided that I would probably lose the first caller anyway and putting in a minimum raise would be best. I know I could just call here, but I want his money in when I have the nuts. When the other guy cold calls 2 raises, I automatically put him on a flush draw. I'm hoping the other guy pushes over the top, which he does, and by now I'm 90% sure he has a lower set. Of course the heehaw comes along for the ride with his diamonds, and amazingly I dodge a diamond and the case 2, lol. I'm glad I bet this flop instead of checking, because otherwise I wouldn't have gotten check-raised, and the guy on the flush draw could have gotten away from it on the turn, or just called the turn and folded on the river. There's really nothing you can do when its set vs set on the flop... I'm just fortunate that I had the bigger one.

Well Merry Christmas to everyone!! I'm going to bed now. I'd like to thank pocket 9's for my early Christmas present too.... Phil likes those things for a reason! But mine were red :)