I had an up and down day at stud. I played a short 40 minute session earlier today and was lucky enough to win $9.65, without ever really being down at all; that's the way I like it.

I just got through another session. I played one table for 7 minutes until it broke up and won $7.55. So I went to another table to take advantage of the streak I was on. I played 86 minutes on this table. Things didn't go quite as smooth. I bought in for $20 and at one point my chipstack was down to barely over $5. Fortunately I got some good breaks after that and ended up winning my money back and then some. I ended up the table down 95 cents and was actually happy with that.

So altogether today I won $16.25. No record breaker, but I'm pretty happy with my play at the new site. I think I still need to work on my discipline preflop. My VP$IP was higher than it should've been (44.26 altogether today) and probably contributed to the bad run I had at the last table (I tightened up considerably at my lowest point to avoid having to buy in again and that's when I made my turnaround). I may have even ended up winning there if I'd just gotten out of a few hands cheaply when I had the chance. I think I'm still stuck in UB mode, where I felt that 10 cents for the ante is worth playing somewhat questionable hands during the cheap rounds. But with Stars' 5 cent ante I need to tighten down because there's little reason to get involved into that many hands. I could stay out of 20 hands, lose $1 in antes (well a bit more with the occasional bring-in) and easily win $5 on the 21st hand. There's no doubt I'd get paid off at this level. I doubt I'll be quite that strict (I like to get in there and mix it up from time to time as much as the next guy), but it's a good thing to think about when I feel like I'm playing too many hands on third street.

The next two days I go back to holdem and see if I still remember how to win at the $50 level.



Results today (green=win; red=loss): $16.25
Results for May: $16.25
Stud bankroll: $166.25


Results today (green=win; red=loss): N/A
Results for May: N/A
Holdem bankroll: $200.00

Another session of stud. Frankly I'm getting really, really pissed off with that game and it's times like this I wonder how you can ever be a consistent winner at it if you can't control the pot odds. I know I won't (nor shouldn't) win every session, but when I see someone with 95% VP$IP catch any and every card he wants and win over $16 while I keep it around 25% and lose $14.25 I have a hard time seeing the justice of it all. Suckouts after suckouts on 7th. I rarely went into 7th street without the best hand this session, and all I ended up doing was padding the pot for the eventual winner. Oh, but the good news is that I got a lot of Sklansky bucks and I'm saving up for a big Christmas.

Sorry, I'm just frustrated. I probably should focus on the fact that I at least ended up the day a winner, although to be honest I quit this session when I did for that very reason (I had been at it for 70 minutes, though, a typical session for me, so I was quitting soon anyways). I feel like I did many things right this session. I'm sure I made some mistakes, but I don't think they were huge mistakes. It's just going to take awhile to get used to the variance (I may be wrong but it seems higher than in NLHE). I guess the only thing that matters is how I do each month so I'll try to keep the bitching to a minimum on here; I just had to vent this one time.


Results today (green=win; red=loss): $2.00
Results for May: $2.00
Stud bankroll: $152.00


Results today (green=win; red=loss): N/A
Results for May: N/A
Holdem bankroll: $200.00