Thank you, Phil Gordon

All the chips have been put away. The poker table once again has my laptop on it, with a celebratory Pabst Blue Ribbon next to it. It's the little things about my poker game that make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. One particular hand stands out.

Woody, Esther, and George had all busted out and gone home at various points, leaving me, Bruiser, Forty Ounce Dave, PCS Derek and Shawn to battle it out five-handed. Derek folded from under the gun, and Bruiser limped in at the cutoff. I liked my T9 suited on the button, but not enough to throw out a raise (though sometimes I will). Super-loose Shawn folded his small blind, making me wonder how bad his hand had to be when he was playing fun trash like 94 suited and T4 offsuit earlier in the night. Forty Ounce Dave raised an extra $2 over his 20 cent big blind, an unusual overbet for him. Bruiser called, and despite my normal tendency to throw away suited connectors for a big raise, I called too.

The flop came 733, rainbow. Dave was first to act, and made a tiny little motion that made the light bulb go off over my head: he played with his chips for a second or two, like he was going to bet, then he checked. I've heard enough from Phil Gordon on Celebrity Poker Showdown to know... Dave didn't like that flop. He wanted us to think he was strong, hoping we'd check. Bruiser obliged, but I fired $4 into a $6 pot with nothing but ten-high and a good hunch.

Dave thought about it for a few. "You don't play ace-three, Mike. What could you have?" Thinking I'd make the same play holding pocket 5's, Dave, I gave the board my Thousand Yard Stare, and he didn't answer his own question. But he did fold. After Bruiser did, I showed my ten-high bluff, and Dave flipped his AQ-clubs. "I missed that flop badly - there wasn't even a club on the board." Bruiser, who has taken to calling me "Casino", voiced his admiration of my ability to sniff out weakness.

I made no mention of Dave's tell. When I was just starting out with live hold'em play with friends and the girlfriend (she's now an ex. Ladies, the line forms to the right please), I'd spout every single thing I thought was a tell. Probably because it was exciting to (attempt to) pick up on someone else giving hints on the strength of their hand. And we were playing for fun, no money involved.

Dave's a regular at my cash game, and he splashes about quite a bit. It's not odd for him to be the rebuy leader and the chip leader in the same night. Hopefully, there are plenty more pots I can take off of him holding junk.

$10 in, $22 out, not counting the $5 I paid Dave for 5 grey chips and 5 purple chips. Now I've got fall-back chips for when we have a huge amount of money in play.
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Now I know this won't impress any truly experienced live players out there reading me. I'm just a newbie, doing what I can to work on my poker game. Take a new concept, add it to the mix. Find a flaw, sand off a rough edge to get more well-rounded. When I can take another step to make my poker game more dangerous, it's really exciting. When John, Eddie, and Derek seperately mention that they've noticed I've improved my game recently, it makes me feel great. Every week that I write my little UB update and the cash is increasing, I can't help but smile. I know it's no great feat to beat micro-limits, but I like it nonetheless.

My main poker goal is to improve - to keep my learning curve on an upslope. To see how good I can get. To build up my bankroll, and hold my own against increasingly solid competition. It doesn't need to be immediate - I don't care about instant gratification. I cut my $300 check to UB with the motivation that it would be the only deposit I ever made. Slow, steady and +EV wins my race. I read about other players winning cruises and seats in big tournaments, and I'm tempted to try supersatellites or other big money tourneys. I could do that.. but I'm forcing myself to move up slowly and supress my delusions of grandeur. If I can't beat $5 sng's, $5 tourneys, and $25 cash games at a decent clip, I have no business at $30 sng's and $40 tourneys.

In stark contrast to my online poker experience is Fast Eddie. He's an absolute phenom at NL cash games. This week, he got a $20 UB loan from Pistol Pete, and ran it up to $75+ at our "PCS table" before sitting out with $45 or so. At a different table later, he ended up checkraising somebody on a baby flop all-in, his AA versus the chump's AK, only to go UB-broke on running kings. This Friday, he's going to give Pistol Pete $40 in cash and ask him for another $20 in his UB account. On three different occasions, he's taken $20-60 or so, run it up to $300-600, cashed out $200-300, and burned through the rest, trying to accelerate back to where he was. He's a young guy, and as soon as he wises up with the bankroll, he should have no trouble building it up at a dizzying clip.
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Meaningless UB factoid: I have finished 1st in the last two PL Omaha (ten-seated) points sng's I've entered.