Journal #1: March 1, two five.

I've been talking like I'm going to play at least one session of 5/10 NL when March Madness rolls around.  I'm not ready, and here's why.

Yesterday was a Sunday at Caesars, with the weekly drawing starting at 6pm.  I was seated at 1/2 at about 5pm, and wasn't loving my table draw - Hong, Frowny Guy, Cardplayer Cruise Mike, and some others.  2/5 looked interesting, so I jumped in that game instead.

The table had me in the nine seat, Jeremy in the eight, and a Young Aggro Kid (YAK) in the seven seat.  The dynamic between YAK and Jeremy was odd, both were getting a lot of chips in light in threebet pots, and I didn't know how to react initially.

Older guy opened, YAK threebet, I folded tens in the small blind.  The old guy checkeraised to $200 on a board of J73hh, leaving $135 behind, and folded after YAK jammed on him.  It remains to be seen if my tens were good there.  It felt like YAK was very strong - big overcard hearts at worst.

YAK opened the cutoff, Jeremy threebet the button, and I had decisions in the small blind.  I folded AQs, then watched YAK jam and Jeremy call off with 55 and A4s, respectively.  This was when I had about $450 and Jeremy had $250.  Chances were good that I was going to have to expand my range to play against their wide threebet range.

This session didn't go well for Jeremy, who was trying way too hard to get unstuck, or impress us.  I won my first nice hand when it was two limpers to me, and I made it 25 on the button with black aces.  One other caller and Jeremy called, and he checkraised me on Q72dd.  I jammed, he called, and the runout was kinda disturbing: Jd, 5d.  I tabled my hand, Jeremy sighed "Of course." and mucked.

It was nearly the end of the drawings, and therefore possibly the end of this cash game, when the older guy next to YAK opened, and YAK threebet to $55.  I have $740 in my stack and the old guy has $160.  I couldn't decide on a course of action, so I panic-folded jacks.

I folded jacks, preflop, at this table.

I need to have a plan, and a bet sizing if I'm going to fourbet.  I need to have some backbone.  I need to pull the trigger.

The old man just called pre, and then jammed the jack-high, two club board.  YAK called, and the runout was two small non-pairing clubs.  The old man tabled KJdd and won the hand.

I'm not entirely sure how the YAK would react to a fourbet from me, but like I've been told before "You're never gonna know until you try."  It's not a lock that he'd be willing to play a monster pot with pairs under jacks, or that he'd muck AK or AQ.  If he continues with the hand, I might see a very small fivebet.  I need to be ready for that.

I need to be mentally willing to cram 150 bigs in preflop with jacks if the situation warrants it... and it probably did, with this table dynamic.

I won another small pot from Jeremy, stacking him again when I threebet ATo to $55 on the button, he called with J9o, leaving himself $15 behind, then calling off on the queen high flop.

I ended the session racking out $808, but a couple of my decisions were far too conservative.

I'm a little concerned that I'm not ready for 5/10 NL.  I'm not even ready for a wild 2/5 NL game.  As I gain more experience, a session like this should become easier to deal with.  I had more than three buy-ins with me, but I played like I only had one.