$2/4 no limit cash game on Pokerstars

I sometimes get bored with the tournament scene and will take a break from it to play in a cash game or play in a tournament and cash game simultaneously. Well, I was playing in a cash game on pokerstars the other night and came upon this hand.

I was on the button with pocket tens. There were 3 limpers ahead of me and two more players left to act. I decided to just call with 10 10 because that is not that powerful of a hand and I wanted to see if I would hit my set. The action moves to the big blind and he raises it to $20. Everyone folds and it's up to me. I decide to call his raise. The flope comes 5 10 9 with two clubs. The raiser acts first and bets the pot which is about $50. I raise him pretty big. I know I am ahead right now. He reraises me all in. I now know that he has a pocket pair higher than my tens, but I'm ahead. I call his all in and hope that a face card doesn't come on the turn or river. The turn comes a J and the river brings an A. He had pocket Jacks and takes about $360 from me.

After that beat, I think about whether I played the hand wrong or not. I decided that I played it correctly and that he had about an 8% chance of winning the hand after seeing the flop. 9 times out of 10 I would win that hand. He got lucky. Beware of cash games. The swings are very high just like what I wrote about.

I took out $3500 of the $5000 that I won from the tournament. I have about $1700 in my Pokerstars account and am still doing pretty well. I plan to transfer some money in my Fulltilt and Ultimate Bet account later this week.

Online Poker domination will be in full force starting in the year 2008.

Cash Games and Sit n' Go

So I haven't played many tournaments since the big win. I have mainly played sit n gos and cash games. I believe that people get bad beat (beaten when you are ahead) more often in cash games than tournaments. A lot of the people that play in cash games sometimes come to the table with the mentality that they can rebuy back in. That is the mentality that you DO NOT want to have when entering a cash game. Play tight and aggressive. Choose players at the table that are willing to play with you when you have the best hand. I also believe that you kind of have to have a disregard for money when playing in a cash game. You can't think about how much the raise was and if it will hurt your chipstack. If you think you have the best hand, reraise them. Be very cautious and go with your reads. Trust your instincts ,but don't put your bankroll at risk. If you do put your bankroll at risk, you will definitely have to deposit more money into your account. I haven't had to deposit money into my account for a couple months. I normally play in cash games and sit n gos to fund my tournament buy ins. I think that tournaments are the way to go because you will get paid off if you win the whole thing. Anyway-peace out. Gotta play in a tournament.

Should I claim this?

So I have a dilemma. Should I claim the winnings? It really isn't that much money. Well, I just started thinking about this since winning almost $5K. Two weeks prior, I won a tourney and $1,600. I'm sure the feds are looking at my blog right now and will audit me when the new year arrives. Anybody have any advice?