Even Blind Squirrels Find the Nutz Sometimes

Had an hour free this afternoon, so I played some $10NL 6max cash. I had two games going at once, and at both tables I had one or two really loose players who were giving their money away. In both games I was able to capitalize on their poor play a number of times and make some nice scores. The two games were so juicy, in fact, that I would have made about $17.50 for the hour if I hadn't gotten greedy at the end. Or maybe not. The truth is I'm not sure if I shoulda played this hand differently or not. Here's the hand that cut my profit in half for the session:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed)
MP ($10)
Button ($8.46)
SB ($17.18)
BB ($12.79)
Hero (UTG) ($21.56)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, A
Hero bets $0.30, 1 fold, Button calls $0.30, 2 folds

Flop: ($0.75) 10, 4, J (2 players)
Hero bets $0.50, Button calls $0.50

Turn: ($1.75) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.90, Button calls $0.90

River: ($3.55) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.80, Button raises to $6.76 (All-In), Hero calls $4.96

Total pot: $17.07 | Rake: $1.13

Results:
Button had K, Q (straight, King high).
Hero had A, A (two pair, Aces and fours).
Outcome: Button won $15.94

Arhgh. The villain in this case was an 80/40 player, and for whatever reason I figured my AA was good on fifth street. Against any other (good) opponent, I probably would have pulse bet on the river (like I did here), but I would have (reluctantly) folded to his shove. The board was just too dangerous to make the call... but I was playing the player and made the call. The bottom line is I'm not sure if I played this right or not. Like I said, against any other player this is a clear fold, but against an 80/40 player? Boy, I just don't know.

In other poker news, I picked up a couple of new (used) poker books at the local used bookstore today. One is written by the father-son team of Carlos and Carlo Abulencia, and it looks interesting; the title is "Low Limit Texas Hold'em Poker: Maximizing Winnings Through Optimization," and it looks to be a short, technical little paperback that has new (to me) concepts like Pushing vs. Pulling Hands and Risk vs. Reward Equations, so I'm looking forward to reading through it and learning what I can.

The other book is also a small paperback, and is titled "Why You Lose At Poker" by Fox and Harper. It, too, looks like an interesting read and has some novel ideas, with chapter like "You Lose Because You've Forgotten The Goal Of Poker" and "You Lose Because Of Poor Bluffing Habits." I'll keep you posted on what I learn from either book.

All-in for now...
-Bug