Oops. Took a few hours off work today and decided to try the afternoon session at PR. Nothing much was happening for awhile. I was up a few bucks and down a few bucks. The tables were pretty tight as I expected. I'm considering not even calling a bet over 3x the BB with pocket pairs only because I never seem to get paid off for them when I hit. Anyways, I was on my last few rounds of the day and disaster struck. I won't go into it here in any detail (it'll be in my end of the week losses of course) but I'll just say that my full house (flopped a set of 8's) lost big to a larger full house with a 4 flush on the board. So there goes the majority of any winnings right there in that one hand. Lost $45 right there. I figured I'd better leave at that point because I'd probably do something stupid with my last few rounds I was going to play.

Oh well, just wanted to vent a little. It wasn't a bad beat but I'm not quite as upset losing like this as I would be if I'd done something completely moronic. It was in an unraised pot so I guess I should consider that before patting myself on the back. And there were signs he gave that should've told me what he was holding (which I didn't notice until I replayed the hand, fat lot of good that does me now). At the time, however, I switched off any circuits to the thought process of what he might have and was only trying to consider how to bet to make the most money. I guess he was too.

Anyways I'll probably play again later tonight so I won't bother with stats right now. I'll see if I can minimize the damage done today and hopefully at least not fall any further down than I am now. I'm positive I'll be in my opponent's position before too long so I'm not going to sweat a single loss too much.

I remembered I'm going to be busy tonight so I thought I'd play another short one (an hour) and see if I could win some money back. Unfortunately no. I don't think I lost any more (or if I did it's negligible) but I certainly didn't win. My first hand had my AA cracked by TT (not even another ten either, got a straight only after going all-in with his pair on the flop). I, at least, won that back pretty quick by hitting a set. After that it was just up and down, up and down. Rarely more than $4 either way.

I tried to buy-in for half a stack on two tables (something I never do, but considering my bankroll I thought I'd try it). I played that way for awhile but it got to be too much trouble. I felt I needed at least $25 in there to justify calling raises with pocket pairs (or SC in position) so everytime I'd lose a couple bucks I'd buy in to $25 again (and PR doesn't make that process painless). I was actually more comfortable with half buy-in though and I felt I got a little more action that I usually do with a full stack, but unless I figure out another way to do it (maybe buy-in for $30 and rebuy if it gets below $25 or something) I'll probably stick to the full stack for right now. I'm not going down to the $25 tables though; my small BR will live or die at the $50s, since it is replacable.

I'm going to experiment tomorrow with aggressiveness. Unless it's a small PP in early or middle position (where I don't want to be bet out of the pot), if I'm the first one coming into the pot (or even the second if the first person limped), I'm going to raise it. If I don't have a hand I'm not comfortable raising I probably shouldn't be in the pot anyways. Most of these people seem way too passive and I feel I'm not taking advantage of that. It seemed like very, very few hands today were making it to showdown. Usually the more aggressive person (and there were a couple, and each had chipstacks of well over $100) was taking it down before that, even if his move was obvious, and they kept letting him do it. I think I turned passive for awhile because of my bankroll, so we'll see what happens tomorrow if I turn it up some. The blinds are seeing way, way too many cards on those tables for cheap or free (but it's nice when you're in the blind ).

Anyways, today I don't think I would've did much raising anyways. The cards were pretty dead after I hit that set. On one table in particular I had an 8.70% VP$IP. I've never seen so many J2o and 84o hands in my life.

So anyways on to the stats:

Today
Lost: $41.25
239 hands, about two hours of play total

Total on Poker Room
982 hands
Won: $14.85
VP$IP: 19.55
PFR: 3.87
WTSD: 15.64
W$SD: 60.61
PTBB/100: 1.68

Quest to $100 tables: $2000
Total Bankroll: $414.85
Left to Win: $1585.15

I'm taking the night off tonight. I'm tired, stressed and just don't feel like playing. I actually played another session last night, later on when I could. It was another fairly short one (about 1.25 hours), but it's rare that I play three sessions a day and I don't want to get burnt out by playing again tonight. I won't bother with the stats right now, I'll just add them onto the next time I play.

The last session didn't go much better than the ones before it. I ended up losing a small amount. I'm still up $9.45 on PR right now, but I swear it feels like those people are picking me apart. And a table on my final session is one everybody dreams of finding as well. There was a player who had over an 85% VP$IP. In a particular hand he called a preflop raise of $3 with T3o UTG! TT3 came on the flop. He was the classic calling station. If he had anything on the flop he called. If not, he folded. Then there were two others, both with VP$IPs over 50%, but they were very aggressive. Each one had a PFR% of over 25. All had really nice stacks. Unfortunately I didn't get the cards (isn't that always the way?). My big hand I won a $10 pot with quad 8s from one of the aggressive people by letting them bet into me on the flop, but of course at the first sign of strength I showed (which was simply calling his postflop bet) he tried to check it out afterwards and ended up folding to a very, very modest river bet I made. It was still funny watching those aggressive players keep betting into the calling station as if they could get him to fold and end up losing to middle pair. *L*

I did try something last night after playing two tables for a half hour or so: I turned one of the tables off and just played a single. It was a bit boring but it was amazing how much I could find out about the other players that I wouldn't've if I'd been two-tabling. A couple years ago I stopped two-tabling for the very reason I think I'm in a rut now. I try to pay equal attention to both tables and if there is a gift to doing that, I don't have it. I end up not paying enough attention to either table.

However, I still want to two-table, so I think the next time I play I going to have one primary table (the table with the best potential) and pay attention almost solely to this table and opponents and figure out reads and make actual poker plays and do all the things I can do to win. With the other, secondary, table, I won't pay attention to it much at all. Oh I'll probably notice if someone is raising every other pot or calling down every other hand (and if I don't, PT will tell me so), but in general, I'm not going to even try to figure out if a guy is susceptible to being bluffed or he always slowplays big hands and pushes mediocre hands. To do this, though, I need to tighten up considerably on that second table. I need hands that, if I catch them, are very strong and require very little thought on my part. I'm thinking of trying Black Knight's PP experiment on my second table to see how that works out (though it may not be exactly how he plays it). I will probably play pretty weak/tight at this table when I just catch just a little something. I can't get involved in really tough decisions if I have no clue about my opponent. I certainly don't expect to win as much at this table as the other (and if I do I have some serious readjusting to do), but if it could win me a few bucks each night as an addition, it'd be worth it to give it a try.

So I'll play the PP from any position, so long as it's not raised too much. I'll be aggressive AA or KK from any position of course and I'll be aggressive with JJ-AA from the later seats. I'll probably only play AKs/o from later position. I'd call a small raise with them or raise them myself if it's limped to me. I'll play AQs/o as well, but only if it's limped to me in late position. I won't play them with a raise in front of me. If it's limped I'll play them like AKs/o, raise them to narrow the field. With the aggressive plays I'll make my standard CB, and if I don't hit and if I get called and don't improve on the turn, I'll probably try to check it down and fold to any strength shown. With overpairs I may not fold immediately, but I'll try to get to SD as cheaply as possible (unless, of course, an obvious straight or flush draw is staring me in the face).

I'm not altogether sure about all of this yet. The only way I'll be able to test it out (and make changes if I feel it's necessary) is to play, but I do know that I need to make some kind of change away from trying to get a read on both tables at the same time. For me, that just isn't working out very well at all.

Well anyways, hopefully I'll be a little more refreshed tomorrow and ready to hit the tables again.

Honestly, this is probably going to be my final entry in this particular journal. Not because I'm tired of talking about myself (I've yet to hit that benchmark), but simply because I'm making some big adjustments and the "journey to $100" thing just won't really apply anymore (for awhile anyways).

PokerRoom finally kicked my ass for the last time today. I have no idea what it is about the tables, or more correctly, how I play at the tables that makes me unable to win there right now, but my loss today of over $75 completely destroyed any confidence that I'll be able to win it back at that site. I know I haven't given the site enough time and things could turn around if I keep at it, but at this moment I just have a very bad vibe about playing there. I'll probably try again later on, but for right now I'm going back to UB and see if I can build my bankroll back up. So far that's the only site I've proved to myself that I can win at and I need all the confidence I can get right now.

I'm also basically going to start from "scratch". Even though I said I wouldn't do it, after much more thought (and the ass-kicking today), I feel I need to go back down to the $25 tables and completely work my way up from there (and try and relearn a thing or two that I think I've forgotten). And I'm going to use an adequate bankroll to do it. Instead of withdrawing the entire $800 from my bankroll I'll keep $175 in there, and added to the $325 that I'm withdrawing from PR, I'll have a $500 BR exactly to start with.

I played sort of a practice session at the $25 tables today on UB using that $34 I had left in there. Even though I played there very late afternoon (4-6:00 central), the action was unbelievable. I'll have to get used to some stuff again (like my 6x raise with QQ getting called by A5o and losing when AA8 came on the flop) and I'll have to relearn how to really tighten down and try not to use "plays" on these tables (something I should've been thinking about at the $50s because it isn't much different and I lost way more than I should've trying to play people on there) and just try to get the best hand and milk as much as I can get with it.

I may start a new journal when I'm ready (of course it'll be a "journey to $50 tables" sort of thing because that'll be the next stop), but first I'm going to try to win that $175 back. I'm irritated that I had to put that in there (that being not part of my winnings), but I figure if I'm going to drop down to $25 I may as well do it right and start with 20x the buy-in and not screw around. Assuming I win that $175 back (the bonus $ I still have coming will help) , then withdrawal it, I'll probably start a new journal after that with my original bankroll of $500 again.

Anyways, I'm pretty down on myself and my play right now, but hopefully basically starting over will help me to regain some of the confidence I've lost. Thanks to those of you who contributed something to this journal. I'll definitely still be around BTP, though I may not be quite as visible for awhile.

Hang in there dude, we all run bad sometimes. Sounds like you have a good plan to regroup. Maybe step away from the felt for a few days, and head back to UB.

Good luck K.

Thanks emmasdad,

Yeah I've run bad before (way longer than what I've had at PR) and I'm usually okay with it; I always knew it would turn back around. But I think the $50 tables I was playing, plus the "new" site (still feeling a bit out of my element) combined with a short bankroll for those tables just seemed to cause everything to magnify 100 times worse than it really was. I figure I'll go back where I'm comfortable for awhile and then if all goes well I can maybe try to make some site changes again. I still want to complete my "turn" at PR eventually, if only to show myself that I can beat those tables. *L* Hell, I still have 35 cents in my account there and I can't let it go to waste.

I'm forced to step away from the felt for a little bit because it'll take awhile to get all the transfers done, so that's probably a good thing.