Trying Too Hard

I'm getting frustrated trying to crack 200NL.  I think I'm trying too hard to outplay people, especially regulars.  Pretty common theme for my last few sessions is me trying too hard to put people on marginal hands and bluff them out of pots.  I do think even at small stakes if you can hand read, it's fine to attack a likely weak or polarized range.  You can pretty easily force people to give up aggression in the hand.  However, they give up by calling down, not by getting out of the hand.  That means it's possible to get a little extra value by playing your decent made hands more aggressively (people will look you up with marginal made hands).  But you can't have it both ways, and I think that while I'm getting a lot better at hand reading, I'm still making the wrong conclusions about what people will do with their hands.  Where I would be folding (or trying to fold) to pressure with say an underpair to a turn raise, I keep forgetting that not everyone will.

And to be fair, I'm not giving them a reason.  My image gets shot by making some sort of play and then I either end up bet/folding a couple times or else I show down the bluff/semi-bluff, etc.  If I could capitalize on that and change gears well -- and get the cards to go along with that -- it wouldn't be so bad to get caught.  Instead, I keep up the same style, and of course the idiots keep looking me up or playing back.

I would be seriously complaining about Full Tilt coolering me, as well...where even if my hand holds up, the board gets so scary that I cannot get a bet called...not to mention all the good 2nd best hands I've been getting...you know how that goes.  But, like a ray of sunshine through a gloomy sky, Full Tilt actually let me hit a draw after full stacks went in!!! OMFG, world may be ending.  Lately, the only time I'm winning flips is against the shorties; the full stack all-ins are not going my way.

I snuck out for a round of golf yesterday...actually was supposed to go with my boss and one other guy from work.  Boss hurt his back, but said that wasn't our fault, so have a fun round.  Sweet.  Played OK tee to green, but putted lights out.  The only reasonably close putt I missed was on the first hole (about 6 feet for birdie), and I dropped 4 long ones, including on the 17th and 18th holes to seal the victory against my buddy who came out to join us.  There was a girls high school golf team waiting to do their team picture on the 18th green, and they were all standing just off the back of the green as we played out.  They were just in high school, but seriously there was not a single bad looking girl on the team, and a few of them were really cute, especially all made up for their photos.  Not what you expect from a bunch of athletes, but the LPGA and even tennis (the two women's pro sports I watch) has been getting better and better looking over the years.  I digress.

My buddy and I were even on the back going into the hole.  I give him a stroke on the hole, and we were both on the green in 3.  I'm about 20 feet out and he's about half that.  He gives me a hard time in front of the gallery.  But I curl the putt in, do a mock Tiger fist pump, and get a loud ovation from the girls.  So that was nice.