First, since there were comments asking me to talk more about this hand from my last blog, I will:

thunderbro posts the small blind of $25
Mike Schneider posts the big blind of $50
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mike Schneider [9c 8d]
thunderbro raises to $100
Mike Schneider calls $50
*** FLOP *** [4s Td 5c]
Mike Schneider checks
thunderbro bets $50
Mike Schneider raises to $100
thunderbro raises to $150
Mike Schneider calls $50
*** TURN *** [4s Td 5c] [5s]
Mike Schneider checks
thunderbro bets $100
Mike Schneider calls $100
*** RIVER *** [4s Td 5c 5s] [Jh]
Mike Schneider checks
thunderbro bets $100
Mike Schneider calls $100
*** SHOW DOWN ***
thunderbro shows [7h 8h] a pair of Fives
Mike Schneider shows [9c 8d] a pair of Fives
Mike Schneider wins the pot ($899.50) with a pair of Fives

Basically, in a HU match where I flop a backdraw straight draw on a lowish board and my cards don't actually connect with cards that _could_ make a straight (since there's a 5 and 4 out there, that'd be a 2, 3, 6, 7), this is a decent flop to checkraise a fair portion of the time because it's likely to miss my opponent a lot, the cards that hit my hand look innocent enough, and a lot of cards that don't hit my hand look like they could hit my hand (the 2, 3, 6, and to a lesser extent 7, although that actually gives me a good redraw). Anyway, when he 3-bet me on the flop, I made a choice that I thought it was unlikely he'd play a ten fast this time (based on the game flow). So then the 5 paired on the turn which now makes it less likely he could have a 5, and again I called because I thought a straight draw was his most likely hand he'd play fast on the flop. The river was a blank in relation to thinking he might have A2, A3, 67, 68, or 78. When he bet the river, I ruled out A2 or A3 since those are hands that would check behind because they only beat a busted straight draw (unless he's genius enough to think I could have and call with worse), and it becomes a fairly easy _tough_ call with 9 high.

Alright, so in other news, I made a trip to Los Angeles again on Thursday, and returned Sunday. I left a lot of money in my box at Commerce the last time I was there, so I went mainly to go get and return it to Minnesota with me. While there, I obviously played some cash games. The first day was 300/600 and 400/800, which I won $34,100 (and started off the session down $30,000... nice upswing!). The next day was a shortish 200/400 session where I won $3300. The next day, after busting out of some online tourneys, I played some 100/200 and won another $2800. Pretty good trip for a few days. My spreadsheet is still shouting at me to be a live pro haha. If I could be promised to see 400/800 games like that first night, at least a few times a week, I probably would be...

Operation grindcore is still going well, though I've been starting to inch back up to more 100/200 and 200/400 and less 50/100 and 30/60. Not that there's a problem with that, since my whole mentality is light-years ahead of where it was at a few weeks ago.

Since I've been including an image of the progress, here's the latest screen of how it's been going since I started my little "grinding quest" on September 2nd:

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/7772/grindcoreday20tg0.jpg

And as always, go Twins! I'll obviously be at every one of these next 3 games versus the White Sox... 2.5 games back, a sweep would be the greatest thing ever.