There are times during your poker career when you have light bulb moments and I've had a couple during the past two months.

First one came in this hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3348411

Villian is playing 51/7 and when he min check raises the river I know that I'm in trouble (doesn't stop me from calling though). What did this hand teach me? That the fish love to chase and really love to check raise the river whereas my goal in this hand is value extraction, coupled with pot control.

How has this changed my game? Against the fish I now tend towards betting the flop and the turn with my marginal hands and checking the river behind with hands that have showdwon value.

2nd revelation

This came about last week.

Limp caller is playing 53/7 and has one of those aggression by street profiles that is the opposite way round to a nit i.e. escalating. In this case 0.6/0.9/14 (yes fourteen).

This is the hand in question

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3348627

When he bets the river I figure that he can't be bluffing as he'll have to showdown and I toss my 5s away.

Afterwards I'm so curious as to what he was doing and he answers, revealing the strategy of these players:

Dupidstonk said, "wtf are you doing?"

cla123 said, "taking the big pot"

Dupidstonk said, "but I was always going to see what you had"

cla123 said, "ya what do i care i took the big pot????? whatt are u talking about"

Incredible and revealing; I now intend to check back any turn when I have a big hand and bet strong with marginal hands/air. Unfortunately he leaves the table shortly afterwards. However I am able to put the read to good use against another villian the following day.

This guy is on my table for about 50 hands. Playing 62/4, calling raises and not folding to cbets. The really annoying type. His aggression by street profile is similar to that above at 2.8/1.3/7.0. We've tangled a bit but nothing much when this hand comes up.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3348641

I'm all ready to call a small river bet with 2nd pair when he shoves after I've checked 2 streets. My thought process in the chat box went someting like this:

bedje01: bets $13.30 and is all-in
Dupidstonk said, "now I'm curious"
Dupidstonk said, "why would you shove the river when I've checked two streets'"
Dupidstonk said, "and your river agg is 6"
Dupidstonk: calls $13.30
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bedje01: shows [Qs As] (high card Ace)
Dupidstonk: shows [9s Js] (a pair of Jacks)
Dupidstonk collected $28.65 from pot
Dupidstonk said, "because you're a donkey?"

Unfortunately he'd left the table before receiving my last smug comment.