Onwards and upwards

Things are still going well poker wise, and that's pretty lucky given that I've only another 12 days left of work. I really can't wait to see if I can "cut the mustard" as a pro, but even if it turns out that I can't I will just find a job, keep poker as a profitable hobby and be happy that I took my shot at making a living from a game that I love. Basically I'm pretty psyched.

Been playing a little bit of low stakes PLO in the last few days, and it's so much fun! A good reminder of how poker used to be for me, when every hand was a brand new situation, and the brain is working overtime just to recognise all the variables at work in each. Think I will continue to play it as the games (although scarcer) seem very weak, with lots of people chasing non-nut draws and playing terribly weak hands in all positions.

Been trying to find a good rakeback site to provide me with rakeback at Ultimate Bet, but only managed to find megarakeback.com as able to help. Has anyone heard of or used this site? Or have any better recommendations? I also want to try out PKR (that 3D animated site that is heavily advertised all over the www) and would like to get a rakeback account on there before I make a deposit, so does anyone know of a good rakeback site for PKR also?

Alan has recently been posting about his experiences at playing 6 max NLHE. As he mentions, aggression is markedly increased at these tables and to stay afloat your own aggression must be correspondingly increased. Resteals are common from the blinds. Re-re-steals even occur a few times. Strong draws must be aggressively pushed, and strong draws are rarely folded when counter-aggression is encountered. That said, a good player must still know when to run, or when to push it in. I was playing a 6 max game myself the other night which nicely illustrates what can regularly happen:

A very aggressive player was in the cutoff when he put in a raise. Both the button and the SB called, as did I with AcTc. The flop came down Ts 8c 5c and I immediately said to myself "That's it, I'm going to war with this hand". We both checked to the cutoff, who bet the pot, which was his standard move. The button and the SB promptly folded, and I min-raised to $44, hoping to slow my opponent down and see a turn. He moved allin instead for another $180. This screamed weak/draw to me, so with my TPTK and nut flush draw I made the call, knowing at worse I was 30% but was far more likely a strong favourite against this very active player.

He turned over QcJc for a flush draw, gutshot and 2 overcards, normally a monster draw but against my AcTc he was only 28% (9 outs). Even if he had a real hand (QQ or KK) that he was trying to protect, I would have had plenty of outs. As it was though, he didn't catch up and I took the pot.

Just goes to show that when you think you have a good draw, you have to be prepared to go down with it at a 6 max table. There's no way you can profitably call such an allin at a full ring game, at least without an extremely specific read IMO.

Brain teaser: 6 max NLHE. You are in the BB with TT. The cutoff raises, the button calls and you call. Are you more likely to hit a fullhouse on a flop of Tx Jx Ax, or on a flop of Tx 3x 6x???