I feel like I'm playing my best poker in a long, long time. My non-showdown losses have decreased, and I can feel it in my play. Hence the 80 buyin upswing. This hand is fun:

http://weaktight.com/1461173

Flop thoughts: I can't fold top pair

Turn thoughts: I've picked up a flush draw to go with my top pair and gutshot, I'm not folding now.

River thoughts: YOU HAVE COMPLETE AIR I'M GONNA OWN YOUR SOUL (super-double-fistpump) I CAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL

Couple of other one pair river calls that are always fun, as well as nice and thin river value. So my instincts are good and my technique is coming along quite nicely.

Ed Millers new book, Small Stakes No-limit Holdem, is really, really good, for a number of reasons. It's designed for 6-max nlhe, which I don't play at all (I only play nlhe cash live), and it goes into a lot of detail about the different player types, who are all present at PLO. It goes into masses of details about the theory behind preflop play, who and when to flat in position or 3bet, who to 3bet, 4bet and 5bet, with what, and why. It also goes into river play. My belief is that, in the current state of games, preflop is by far the most important street, followed by the river. In fact, preflop is probably the most important street in any game on the basis that it's the only street you're guaranteed to have every hand. The river becomes unimportant when we're all-in, of course, which does happen a lot these days - but the more we get all-in, the deeper the stacks, and next hand we're getting to the river and with stacks left. The flop and turn are obviously significant but they're also when we often have the clearest decisions. Play aggressively with big draws and big made hands most of the time, sometimes play them slow when we have good reason to; sometimes play marginal draws and marginal made hands and play them both ways, according to who we're playing; mostly fold bad hands. Most of the advice out there is designed around flop and turn play, as well - that's where the largest range of decisions crop up, but in my opinion, not the most important ones.

Aside from the fact it's the only street we always play, all of our postflop decisions depend on the size of the pot and are coloured by our preflop play. In the current aggro games there will be more people 3betting us, leading to more decisions as to whether we're raise-folding this hand, raise-calling, raise-4betting, or flatting QQxxds with the intention of shoving over a 3bet. Under what circumstances should we flat? If an aggro shortstack is behind us, if we've got weak aces, if we've shown down aces recently when we've 3bet? What about stack sizes? What about, if we have answers to all that information but it's still close, do we do one thing 40% of the time and the other 60%, closer, further away, or does it not make a tangible $ difference? If they think we're on tilt, should we still 3bet hands like QQJ9ss? If we do, are we planning on 3bet-folding when the guy's got 80bbs, but we've seen that he is 4betting wider than AA and KK? What about the superfish with 400bbs and we cover, should we be 3betting any playable hands, even out of position? Do we even play marginal hands that deep against a superfish if he's aggro? Doesn't it make sense to flat or even fold strong hands, when we've got a good stack in position to a fish but a good player has position on us and is 3betting?

I'm not even getting tired of this; preflop play has always fascinated me, and I think it's the source of most peoples leaks. The pot may be bigger on later streets, but if the mistakes start early, they influence the size of the pot, meaning we might be minimizing our winnings and maximizing our losses if we're not aggro enough. However, in loose-passive games where people are getting all the money (400bbs) into unraised pots with bare top two on a board with a made straight on it and a flush draw, just because he's seen me semibluff before, doesn't it make sense to keep the pots small preflop, minimizing my investment when I know my payoff will be massive? The reasons to vary our play preflop are many and varied, and the reasons behind this are many, varied and generally obscure. It may be that some concept only makes a small difference - who am I to put a $ amount on a concept? However, they may be very valuable, and considering I'm playing 40k hands plus per month of $1/2, $2/4 and $3/6, focussing on preflop edges is surely the way forward.

Maybe the river isn't that important, but again, there are a lot of mistakes to be made and thin edges to be gained. As previously mentioned, the pots are bigger; it's also different to all the other streets in that we are calling to get to showdown rather than see another card. Check-folding the river may be a really tough task with a lot of hands but a lot of good players generally don't want to let go of hands where it's a clear decision to check-fold. Out of position we should also be looking to check-raise a bunch, both as a bluff and for value, but mostly for value. The beauty of exploitative play is that if you're more honed in on correct strategy than they are and know where along the line they lie, you know how to take maximum advantage in the balance game. Sometimes you can bluff for no other tanglble reason other than that you think it's a good time to randomize your play. Sometimes you can make weird thin calls for reasons other than value: you want to slow down a bluffer, for example.

How much to bet is also a potential minefield. I think I've been betting too little but it does mean I've been called more when I've had the goods and I've got folds just as often as I've been betting bigger, due to picking my spots well. But maybe I should be betting bigger when I've got great hands just because I very occasionally bet big as a bluff. This is no longer a thin edge; it may only come about every x hands but the pot is big, and every $ in expectation counts.

I moved up to $5/10 on a controlled shot - and it went a little pear-shaped, unfortunately. No matter, I actually think this was my best session since I got back from France.

I could talk for hours. Let's be honest - poker is not an easy game. There is a lot to think about. I get very excited thinking about how much I've improved since I started out over three years ago; to think that I'm probably still gonna have to be playing for a living when I'm 30 means that I expect I'll know quite a lot about the game then.