Well my friends wanted to go play live up at O11 tonight, so I made a triumphant return to my original poker proving grounds. We started out playing the $40NL game, but I won about 3 pots in an hour and was getting kind of bored of it, so a couple of us moved over to $3/6 limit.

This proved very fruitful, as there were a bunch of calling stations at the table and one maniac. This particular maniac didn't really seem to care whether he won or lost the hand -- his goal was to beat you into submission until you just called him. Fortunately I had him pretty well figured out when I picked up AA preflop (I was lucky enough to be seated directly behind him).

He raised, I 3-bet, the blinds called, and he capped. The flop came KT4 with 2 spades. He bet, I raised, the limpers folded, he 3-bet, and I called intending to raise the turn. Another 4 came on the turn, and he bet, I raised, he reraised, I reraised, and he called (since it's heads up, there's no cap). The turn put out the flush, and he check called me and showed down K2o.

Anyway, after that he was much more passive when I was in a hand

I was up about $10 playing NL, and another $130 playing $3/6, so a nice night of poker all around.

Once again a bit bloody at the $3/6 full. Had a couple of monkeys take offence to my raising the button with big hands, and lost a bunch of money to some rather silly defenses. The best was my [Kd] against [2d] , who capped it preflop and hit a 7 on the turn to win the pot. He had another beauty with QJ against my AJ a bit later. -$186 for my efforts.

And once again short handed was my savior. There are some pretty terrible players who love to splash it around in those games. I figured out that if you sit alone at an empty full handed table that there's a lot of gamb00lers who like to sit down with you and really splash it around (a few sharks too, but they're few and far between). What's cool is that those tables usually fill up and turn in to really good full handed tables.

So I decided to sit at the 3/6 6max to give it a try and see what it's like. I can see how it could be pretty swingy, as one guy put a rather ferocious beat on my with A5 vs my AQ on an AA2 flop by rivering a 5 for a goodly number of bets. But other than that I ran pretty well and ended up $119 there. I find it easier to deal with getting reads on 6 players, and it's fun mixing up your play a little -- full handed seems like I'm making the same moves over and over.

Anyway, I'm not up to my goal of $2500 yet to move to SH, but I think I'll move there early. If the bankroll drops to $1800 I'll move back to full handed.

There are just some aspects of live poker that can't be recreated online (at least, not yet). Last night I played up at O11 with an angry man. Normally not something to look forward to, but he was comically, childishly angry. He was angry when he lost a pot, he was angry when he won, and he was angry when he wasn't even involved. He threw his chips around, tossed his cards in angrily, snapped at the dealers and players. His default position was with his elbow on the table, hand on his forehead, staring at the floor and shaking his head. He did this after every hand.

Anyway, my friend and I were both at the same table, so we were able to both enjoy the entertainment value of it all. The best was when I called down a bluff of his, and he said "Nice call buddy. You must have been really proud of that seven." LOL. He played every hand, but by the end of the night the rest of the table had dried up, so he was pretty much the only reason to be there. I was up about $70 at one point, but bled it all away and left up $1.

I got myself signed up at Empire, and fired up some $3/6 6max to make sure PT and PA were set up right, and the AHK script worked. 31 hands, +$94.50. Ah, nothing like the positive side of variance.

Short handed huh? another convert- nice! Welcome to the mizors paradise of holdem - the short handed tables. I remember when i first discovered SH- it was 5/10. I just looked in on the table, and the first hand i saw was a $150 or so pot that was capped on the flop, raised and reraised on the turn and called through the river, the winning hand being A2o (making a naked pair of aces, no kicker obv.) being called down by J5s, which made either bottom or middle pair on the flop, i dont remember. Who can go back to the full table grind after that?

Yeah MK, there's some real live ones playing SH, and you have so many more opportunities to capitalize on their mistakes. If there are 2 donkeys at your table full handed, you might be able to raise to isolate every once in awhile, but at a 6 max table they make up almost half of your competition.

Hopped on a $3/6 table tonight with TW, just to screw around a little, but then he had to go and I was card dead, so I eventually left $10 down. Then I fired up some shorthanded, played about 80 hands, and was up $150. I think the poker gods are either trying to tell me something, or setting me up for a huge joke

Piers is always rambling on and on about BB defense, but SB defense is important too, especially against TW:

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (9 handed)

Preflop: Hero is SB with , .
4 folds, MP3 calls, CO raises, 1 fold, Hero calls, 1 fold, MP3 calls.

Flop: (7 SB) , , (3 players)
Hero checks, MP3 checks, CO bets, Hero raises, MP3 folds, CO calls.

Turn: (5.50 BB) (2 players)
Hero bets, CO raises, Hero 3-bets, CO folds.

Final Pot: 10.50 BB

I think I'm gonna stop sitting down with him though -- I think it disrupts his zen-like focus on the game.

seems like everyone keeping a joural on here is doing well. it's good to hear. I hope 6 max works for you..but watch out for that downswing..it will be quick and ugly. i know from experience

6-max swings are insane. I was playing 6max NL50 for a week, within the first 3 days i'd mae $600, within the next 3, i'd lost almost all of it. It's brutal I tell ya. Good luck though, the profits will be greater overall granted you don't tilt due to the variance

So I wasn't going to play tonight, but it before I knew it I found myself in a huge mizorfest at TW's table, capping pots against Mecos with K6o. Fortunately I managed to mize up quite a stack, thanks to MK's generosity and a ridiculous stream of miracle river cards.

Not sure that the rest of the table knew what to make of it. Kind of hard to play those drawing hands when it's capped preflop, and again on the flop with what could be ace high as easily as top pair. The waiting list for the table was 11 deep, and it broke about 5 minutes after we left, lol.

Anyway, +$180 on the night.

MIZOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

34s, indeed!

I'm in 4-tabling heaven, since my 2001fp arrived yesterday. Damn it's sweet. And an absolute monstrosity on my desk.

The $3/6 6 max was less than sweet tonight, however, as I just got destroyed by inside straight draws and random two pairs. Some chick beat down my AA with 82 in a pretty big pot. Man that sucked. Anyway, down $280 on the night. On the plus side, I cleared a $100 bonus.

4-tabling the 6 max gets kind of hectic, so I might switch to 3 tables until I have a better handle on it.

Well, I decided to put in a little more time at the 6 max tonight. I sat down on the button at a new table, picked up AA on the first hand, and was promptly beaten down by Q4o (two pair on the flop). But before I could regret the decision, I made some hands and ultimately shaved $100 off the day's loss.

I was only playing 2 tables, and it really helped out as far as having reads on people and making good decisions, so I think fewer tables at first is definitely the way to go. Perhaps I'll start out at 2 tables, and then add another table or two later in the session, once my reads are crystallized.