Back to basics.

With nothing much to do tonight, no real desire to play FFXI after dynamis, I turned over to a little limit hold 'em. I haven't played it in ages, it seems, but there are so many nuamces to the game - you wouldn't normally think so, but so many situations exist where the right play is never quite obvious. At the stakes I'm playing, it's so much more predictable than no limit; it's more strategical than tactical, and the point is not to avoid single big mistakes but to plug as many persistent holes as possible. Tilt avoidance is also key as you do take a lot of bad beats (so easy just to chase one more card, even when you shouldn't). I like that it's a bit easier to multitable effectively - easier to get into a rhythm, and my pokertracker stats are a bit more easy to translate.

I think my play has been pretty extraordinarily +EV, with my best hands being the enormous multi-way pots that I've manipulated pretty effectively. I'm currently taking it easy with 4 tables - 2 $1-2 tables, 2 $0.50-1 tables, winning some crazy pots against some truly donkish opposition. Here's one I just played that just boggles my mind.

PokerStars 0.50/1.00 Hold'em (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ah, Ad.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls, 1 fold, MP2 calls, 3 folds, SB raises, BB 3-bets, UTG+1 folds, MP2 folds, SB calls.

Flop: (8 SB) Qs, Qd, Kh (2 players)
SB checks, BB bets, SB calls.
Turn: (5 BB) 9h (2 players)
SB checks, BB bets, SB calls.
River: (7 BB) 5c (2 players)
SB checks, BB bets, SB calls.
Final Pot: 9 BB
Results in white below:
SB has As 8d (one pair, queens).
Hero has Ah Ad (two pair, aces and queens).
Outcome: Hero wins 9 BB.

Calling all that down with nothing but A high! WTF did this donkey think I could have had? The pre-flop reraise I do kind of get - an above-average hand that shouldn't be in deep trouble should I call him, and I've been playing very tight. When I reraise he's forced to call, but that's as bad a flop as you can see with a hand like that, and check-calling all the way down with nothing is about as strange and weird a move as I could possibly imagine here. I'm just perplexed.

But I'm not complaining. Up over $40 in under two hours, and I don't even feel like I've been running that particularly well. That's a big blind to a lot of players, but for a micro-stakes player, it's not bad. 450 hands in that sample or so - which is tiny, but encouraging.