Things are going well here in LaLa land. The first day of summer was beautiful and reminded me of why I moved here in the first place. I'm feeling optimistic about my game this month. I've been trying to play 4 hours of internet poker and 4 hours of live poker daily. My internet play has been lack-luster but I recently started playing the night shift at Commerce (8PM-12midnite) and am starting to get back into the swing of the live game. As usual the games at Commere are awesome. I've been opening up my game a little bit and trying to gamble more with the loose players and it seems to be working out well. One thing I notice about playing more hands is that you definitely make more mistakes. When you play super tightly the only way you usually lose a pot is by being out-drawn but playing more hands can definitely lead to you making a strategy mistake or simply getting out-played by a loose player who is more willing to gamble than you. Playing more hands is way more fun than playing only the premium hands and I'm trying to balance my desire to gamble with my desire to make money. Last night I made a mistake that cost me a huge pot. The pot was 3 handed and I was in middle position. I raised the pot with AQ offsuit and flopped a gut-shot straight draw. The player in front of me bet the size of the pot and I immediately folded . The gut-shot got there on the turn. This card made the first player top 2 pair and the player behind me the second nut. Now, normally folding to a decent bet for a weak draw is the best play but in this case I had about $250 in front of me and was up against 2 very bad/loose players, each with over $600 in front of them. There was huge implied odds and if I would of called the flop bet I would of tripled up my $250 because I am pretty sure I could of gotten all of the money in on the turn. This hand kept me up most of the night but I am trying to let it go. I found another way to gamble more with the loose players when I flopped a set of dueces on the button. It was a limped pot with 5 of us seeing the flop. The flop came 2 5 6 with 2 spades and a loose player in the big blind bet out $25 into this $12 pot. Normally this would be a mandatory raise for me because any spade,3 or 4 would make the board look very dangerous. Then I remembered flopping a set of 5's with a similiar board, raising the flop bettor who showed me a 6 and folded. I realized that I raised him off of a hand that was pretty much drawing dead and should of simply called and take the gamble that he didnt have a legit draw. When I hit the set of dueces this time I opted to smooth call. On the turn, the 5 paired and the BB led out again for $25. I doubled the bet to $50, he called, and then I got my last few bucks in on the river winnning the pot with my mini-full house. It felt great to get action on a hand that I may of missed if I raised too early. I got to go see a man about a horse. take it easymy email is yogadude_165@hotmail.com

Source: Live No Limit Holdem with Yogi Steve