So i've played in a few home games as of late and have had tons of fun doing so. I've also ran into some pretty weird situations with some proficient players. In the first game I played in there was clearly only one threat at the table and we both knew that about eachother before the game started. This of course changed everything about how the game dynamics went. If him and I were in a hand together we would both change strategies accordingly. Of course that ended up in a few hands in which a leveling war of sorts occurred.

For instance, in one of the biggest pots of the night I flopped a flush draw, turned a gut shot draw as well, rivered 2nd pair and successfully value bet with a 1/4 pot bet. This was all out of position when villain raised pf and i was in the blind.

It's hands and games like these in which I remind myself that no matter how bad I run I still actually know what I'm doing, and i can still beat the game overall (well...at the stakes i play).

The other games I've played were against my drunk roomates who more or less just like to gamble. Coming away from these a winner is as simple as getting a part of their action while it lasts. For instance in one hand I flopped quads in position after I raised a limper. Was bet into on the flop of JJ9, as well as the turn of 9, and then was bet into big on the 6 river. I raised all in and he insta-called with T8 for a straight. Everyone was trying to tell me how good I played the hand. Of course I never mentioned that it was more about how badly he played it... 

But the only one of my roomates who is decent has been on a tear in all of the games we've played. He's come out up at least 3 buy ins in every game. Luckily I'm pretty familiar with his tells as to when he wants a call from me. He was a psych major in college and likes to try and screw with my head (only after I screwed with his once for a big pot which tilted him like crazy). It must be nice to run that good.

Online I haven't played much, but I did just get a sweet 26 inch HD tv that i'm currently typing this on. I've been so busy watching movies on it though I just can't seem to get the motivation to play. oh well, probably not a bad thing overall considereing how much i played in december.

Anyways, hope everyone had a good holliday.

~Justin