A Hand I am proud of

I am really working on narrowing down my style. I have pretty much settled in on the basics and am just refining it a bit.

Some are obvious...J/J+, always open raise. Cowboys or better, re-raise and try to get all-in. Hands like A/J+, open raise from the hijack or later. Open with almost any pair, but also call a standard raise with almost any pair.

Open hands with "potential" like A/x suited, 10/J, suited connectors, and K/Q from hijack or later.

Other than that...not much. Except pocket pairs, I fold when raised to if I am not willing to re-raise.

I had played a brief session and nearly tripled up. Took a break, watched some basketball, started playing again. I was up about 70% when this hand came up.

The first three players folded, and I was planning to open with 10d/Js from the cut-off, but I noticed a guy in early middle position with 13.12 and all four badges.

What I mean is...he has the "true poker player", Rush, Iron Man and Full tilt Academy badges. This tells me he is playing a lot of rush and is studying hard on Full Tilt's academy...which also tells me his style.

So before it even got to him, I KNEW he was going to open raise, I was going to call, he would continuation bet the flop, I would call, he would check the turn, I would raise and he would fold.

Normally I fold 10/J when raised to, but it went according to clockwork; he opened to .15. I called with 2.82, everyone else folded and we took the flop heads up.

The flop was pretty good...Kh/5d/7c. If he hit A/K he is going to put a hurt on me until the turn. If he has pocket 5s or 7s he will also get two bets out of me. Otherwise he is probably ahead but going to lose the hand.

He makes a standard continuation bet of half the pot, .15. I flat call as planned.

The turn is the 3d, the traditional place to raise big hands like a set or A/K that hit this flop. He surprises me by betting again...but it is a weak, defensive bet of .20.

I briefly consider folding..usually a second bet like this means they actually HAVE something. But then I consider the amount...had he made a standard bet of half the pot...which now has about .67 in it without the rake...if he bets .30 or .35, I admit i am beat and go away. I made a play, it did not work, move on.

But his bet screams fear and I pounce with the re-raise to .55.

He takes his time and I start sweating a bit. I have put in .85 cents now...over a quarter of my stack. If he re-raises, I fold. If he calls, then raises the river I fold. If he calls and checks the river, I will bet a buck or so...which if he calls, I will have lost nearly 2 bucks on a poor read.

But he does fold and I rake the pot, making about .50 on the hand.

Not a huge hand, very marginal difference on my overall win/loss rate.

BUT...a very important hand. I looked at an image...an online image...predicted what he would do based on that, played the hand knowing more or less what he would do, and winning a hand I would not have played without a belief that was what was going to happen.

I am pretty proud of that.

It is one of those rare times I feel like I really played well.