Watched a pretty sick read earlier today playing $1-$2 NL. I was in seat 3 UTG and wasn't involved in the hand, a few players limp for $2, and when the player in seat one is facing $1 more to call, with a conservative TAG senior player in the big blind, he speech calls "just one more?", big blind raises to $5 (fucking awesome), everyone re-limps the $5 so seat one facing the same situation as a few seconds earlier speech re-calls.

KK4XJ

I didn't follow the hand especially closely on the flop action, but on the turn there seat one (KT) has checked, seat 7 has yet to act, and seat 9 (ten handed table) has prematurely bet. Seat one knows that it's a premature bet, although when the dealer asks seat 7 "did you check" they answered yes. Seat 1 is a regular, quite skilled player with a lot of hand history with all the players involved with this hand. Since he knows that 7 didn't check, but pretended to before further action on the river, he ends up folding KT for minimal damage after showing his neighbor in seat 2.

Seat 7 Kings full of Jacks
Seat 9 Fours full of Kings

I've been getting my playing hours back up a bit more. I'm on a good pace but I need to stay on course if I'm going to get my monthly hours played up to where I want it. Other than that not a whole lot to write about. Super disciplined next level nit lessons all over... next stop, your table.

A few times in the past two months I've been positively impacted by seeing someone inside/around poker who I hadn't seen in some time, and they were genuinely happy to see that I'm doing well. I've always held the perspective that even though the nature of the game requires a "there can be only one" approach, it's so beneficial to be your most friendly self when in the long run. These side encounters to my poker were really rewarding to know that it's because I'm not unpleasant to be at a table gambling with.

I've not been especially (poker) active in the last year. In reflecting on various parts of my life, specifically many aspects of the poker lifestyle I was living were either unsustainable, or even undesirable to want to continue to have in my life moving forward. Poker is still so important to me that I'd struggle to put a measurable value on it, and having a greater understanding on why has helped light the way ahead for several of my goals.

I haven't been happy that I've allowed myself to not write for so long. Not for this blog, or content for something else. I'm not happy that I haven't used this form of composing your thoughts. So write more, for your brain's sake.