Stepped up to NL100 today and I am EXTREMELY proud of how I handled myself.

So early on I had a flush draw/gut shot/2nd pair/1 overcard and lost bout $80 to this solid player. I then proceed to get stacked set over set at the other table, which was NL50. Right after I rebought, I pick up KK UTG and gets stacked all-in preflop by AA. Suddenly down 3 buy-ins. 1 from 100 anohter from 50. I didn't tilt though because those are just hands that are gona happen sometimes. It's not like I played bad or anything. Those hands are just part of the game....So I stayed focus and played very solid. Not much action at the 50 but there was plenty at the 100. Check these hands out.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?544017
his stats are very solid. 22/14/2.5 over 100 hands. I opted to smooth call this hand because 1. I'm in position 2. I don't want to give away my hand strength as reraising here will let him know I'm holding a premium hand. So the flop came alright. I was pretty surprised I got a check from villain but heck I have KK so I bet. He then check-raises me, which caught me a bit off guard. Now I've narrowed his range down to AJ/JJ/99/QQ/AKh.....basically I'm not ahead by much. I thought about shoving here but I was not confident about my hand and I wanted to re-evaluate the turn. Boom the worst card possible (or maybe the card that saved my stack) A hits....now I do not see me beating any of his range and his strong almost pot sized bet is telling me he's not afraid of the A. I kinda ruled out bluffing because he's just not the type of player that would bluff for so much of his stack OOP. Conclusion - fold. if I was ahead of him, then he outplayed me but I think this is a very good fold.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?544022
ok so big hand #2. I'm especially cautious against him because he has about 2.5x the buy-in and it would hurt a lot to get stacked by him. So my raise here was basically to isolate the fish 'sora626' as he has been outplayed and stacked by me quiet a few times and is steaming. I got a call from the solid player in the BB which kind of got my attention. For now I'm putting him on a pocket pair or something like AQs/AJs. From what I have seen he's not yet made 1 call by a raiser OOP. So we got to the flop. Bingo! 2 pair. Not a bad flop for me at all. Both check and I fire a standard continuation (now value) bet into the pot then I get fucking check-raised by him. With me folding that KK several orbits before, I didnt' want him to think that he can push me off hands easily and if he's check-raising anything but a set/straight/or some kinda combo draw, he probably won't push. I min reraise him and he immediately pushes all-in. FUCK I said in my head.....now, lets think about what I beat, I beat a combo draw, JT, straight/flush draw....and that's it. I think about AKs, but that hand is still weak because I'm showing ALOT of strength 3 betting him. I had to just put him on AQ with no spades because he's telling me 'I have a big hand that I dont' want to see another card come out' so I think ultimately he didn't have spades, which leads to the conclusion that he has a made hand and I'm pretty far behind...so I folded. This is probably the biggest fold I've ever made in cash games. I mean, flopping two pair is great, but its def not the nuts.

Although these two plays might seem standard to many, they are kind of a milestone for me. I had sucha hard time laying down big hands before but now I think I can do it and not get emotionally pissed off at it. I even chit chatted with the guy because he showed his hand and is pretty impressed of my play which made me pretty swung. one of the biggest element to success in NL hold'em is laying down big hands and I think I'm starting to have that ability and its happening naturally which only means $$$$$$$$$$$$.

today is a down day and I've lost so much at sng's that I'm down in October but it dont' matter because I played my A+ game.