Hmmm ... I got within $150 of my $5K move up mark and wham! Dropped 20BI in just a few days. Poker can be pretty harsh sometimes.

The cbet thing has been interesting though. If you read up on it, people talk a lot about board texture, position and number of opponents. That makes sense to me, although I think about it slightly differently.

Key cbet rule: I'm much more likely to cbet the flop if I'm HU, I'm in position, and my range (as perceived by villain) is ahead of villain's range.

This doesn't mean that I will never cbet unless ALL these conditions are satisfied; just that I'm more likely to do so if they are.

We don't like betting into multiple opponents due to simple odds - I might look good against one villain's range, but the more villains there are, the more likely it is that someone has hit something (even if it is a relatively small part of his range). However, I will still often bet into 2 or 3 if I'm in position and I think I'm well ahead of their ranges.

Position obviously matters because when I'm out of position villain controls the action and can do with me as he likes. If I cbet with air and get called I'm just in an ugly spot, so its usually better to just avoid it.

However for texture, at the end of the day, the 'rule' derives from analysis of relative ranges. Given that by definition I raised and villain called preflop, my starting range is dominated by mid-high pairs and broadways, while his range will often be more weighted towards small-mid pocket pairs and suited connectors. This is why we are less likely to bet wet boards - because they are going to hit his range much more than mine.

This means that not cbetting wet boards will often be a good idea, however, its important to remember that it is villain dependent. We need to do the range analysis every time.

I've found that stopping to think about it in this way, rather than just auto-firing 75% of the time, has made a pretty big difference. Of course I'm still 20BI down, but at least I don't think its due to cbet spew!!