I suspect this will mostly just be useful to me, as a place to vent and look back on my progress, but if anyone else is interested they can follow along.

Short bio: I'm a software developer in San Diego, 5 years out of college. I've played poker with friends since college, but have been taking it seriously for the last year or so. I started out with low limit hold 'em (live), which I'm decent at, but switched to NL recently, which I'm not quite decent at yet, lol.

I haven't played a lot of poker recently because of work, but things are winding down now, so in anticipation of this weekend's Vegas trip I hit up the B&M to get back into the swing of things.

$40 NL, $1/1 blinds @ Ocean's 11 Casino
Friday (2/11/05): -$120, 7 hours
Saturday (2/12/05): -$80, 5 hours

Well, that didn't go so well

Friday's session I was pretty card dead -- I got about a dozen small pocket pairs, none of which flopped sets, and then I compounded the problem late in the session by limping with pretty marginal hands.

My worst played hand: I limped from the cutoff with 45o, after everyone had folded, the button came along, and the flop came 457 with two diamonds. I slowplayed it on the flop to the BB's $3 bet and lost another $20 when a 2 hit the turn giving the button a straight (and the BB two pair with 72, lol).

Saturday's session was actually a pretty good one (if only +EV was spendable in the short term ). I had good reads on most of the table. I bled off about $40, but kept my stack loaded, and doubled up to $80. Then I got my stack in with KK against AQs preflop, but an A hit the flop.

Back to square one, I got my stack in on an A high flop with AJ against A5 who had a flush draw. He min raised my flop bet, which he always did on a draw, so I pushed but it was only another $10 or so to him. His flush hit on the river

I bought in again and doubled up again, with AJ versus KJ on a J high flop. That was my best played hand, actually -- a guy live straddled, 3 or 4 people called, and I bumped it to 10 with AJ, since none of them looked married to their hands. The live straddle was the only caller, but he didn't look thrilled about his cards. I bet out $20 on the flop, and he went into the tank. It was clear he hit the jack, so I started riffling my remaining chips, since Caro says that induces a call, and he went ahead and put me in.

My worst played hand was A9s UTG. We were down to 7 players, so I decided to limp with it (terrible), and then called when the very solid BB raised to 4 (not great, but I had $70 at the time and he had me covered).

The flop came A97 all diamonds. The BB bet out $20 into the $15 pot after making a show of counting out the chips. I went into the tank, and a glance at the only other caller told me he was going to fold. And then I folded because I didn't want to lose to AA. So dumb!. As soon as I folded I knew I should have pushed. The BB showed me AK with no diamonds.

That's my biggest weakness right now in NL, I think. I don't do as well analyzing hands in the heat of the moment, and I fall back on my tendency to be weak tight. $35 left on the table is just as bad as $35 lost on a bad call.

Norton, hey glad to see you have made the big time and have your own journal . Anyways are you playing the 1/1 at oceans??? If you are let me suggest you take your game to Sycaun. I really like Oceans but their rake is rediculusly high. $4 rake plus one for the jackpot is rediculus. The jackpot drop is pokers version of Insurance in blackjack. A really bad bet that will almost never comeback to you. If everyone at the table buys in for the max $40 there is a total of $400 on the table. They average 40 hands an hour say 38 are raked. So from the original $400 almost half it taken by the house in an hour of play. There is no way to beat this game on a consistant basis, i dont care of Stu Unger came back to life and sat down at this game. Sycaun has a 1/2 game that has a $20-$100 buy in with a $3 rake. Think about it if you win 10 pots in a night of play you go home with an extra $20. Plus those Sycaun games have some of the worst players I have ever played with. Good luck in Vegas go get some tourist money.

Well, Vegas is in doubt as I came down with a cold this week and can't seem to shake it. If I feel good tomorrow, I'll still head out there, but if not then I'll play online. I have a few hundred spread between a couple different sites, and I've been thinking about getting serious about bonus whoring to build it up a bit, so I may get started on that.

Was really looking forward to Vegas, but sadly it didn't happen as I'm still getting over my cold.

On the plus side, I put the bonus whoring plan into motion. I'm starting with the cryptos, then I'll hit prima, and then go from there. I'm starting with limit, since I'm most comfortable with that and my online bankroll is small.

Crypto is small and the table selection isn't that great, but the bonuses are offered monthly and not too difficult to clear. I started with $100 on interpoker's $1/2 and have played 250 of the 450 required hands for the $90 bonus. I'm up $37 so far, which probably isn't sustainable as the tables can get a little rocky. I'll finish it up tomorrow, and then on to pokerplex.

Only put in another 100 hands or so today, and up another $23. I'm not sure how I'm managing more than 8BB/100 on these ultra rocky crypto tables. It helps that when it folds around to you in late position, and you raise with a big hand, so many players think you're stealing their blind and get into a pissing contest with you.

It's funny actually -- raising in EP often just wins the blinds, but if you raise on the button or out of the SB, the BB may cap it for you. They end up losing $8 defending $1.

He he. Maybe 18 months - 2 years ago those Crypto tables were my meat & drink game. At that point in time they were, hands down, the weakest limit holdem tables I have ever seen anywhere online. There were occasions when the 1/2 games had average pots of closing in on $40 (rare, I grant you) and there were almost always 3 or 4 games with APs in the mid-20s. I note that now they usually don't get much above $15 or so. I do like the option of £ games however, same standard as the $1/2 but twice as much profit!

I used to make a mint on these tables despite my relative crapness at limit (I think I was far FAR too passive in the past, but it seemed to cream these games). Gotta love those bonuses too. You should also look at William Hill Poker; you can play on a $ account there too and they give you $25 a month for 5 hours real time play. The others I know are Interpoker ($90 per month for 450 hands) Caribbean Sun ($40 per month, can't recall the release conditions) and pokerplex (I think that's a $25 or $40 per month one?). There are some UK-based sites that probably don't have $ accounts (I didn't check) as well as Classic Poker, which does a one-time only deposit bonus up to $100 or something that'd be worth getting I guess. From what I see of the limit games at the moment, however, there's better elsewhere, but while the bonuses are on offer it's a great place to bonus whore.

One more question... I always assumed that's Ed Norton in your pic... But it's not very clear; is it actually, in fact, you? Just I don't recall him being in any poker films. Unless he was in that one with that guy out of being John Malkovitch (UPF injoke...)


Monk
xxxxx

Thanks Monk -- I'm following this:
http://buildmybankroll.blogspot.com/

If it used to be that juicy, then damn, it really dried up. For someone who's only played live and at Party, it's kind of shocking to see it fold all the way around to the blinds so frequently. I'm used to games where you can limp in LP with KXs and really clean up when you hit the flush.

That picture is, in fact, Ed Norton, but I suppose if I dressed up like that and took a picture it wouldn't be terribly dissimilar. I think he was in "the cincinnatti kid" or something.

Well, sometimes you've just got to look the monkeys in the eye, so I decided to spend last night at the casino rather than online. I headed up to Ocean's 11 for some $40NL.

The third hand or so after I sit down is AK of clubs, so I raise it up to $5 and get two callers. Flop comes A8x, with two diamonds, and I bet out $10. "Why so much, sir?" asks one of the players, which turns out to be his favorite joke and he asks it almost every time someone raises preflop. He thinks for a second or two and calls, the other guy folds.

Turn is a diamond. I check, he checks. River is another diamond. I check, he makes a show out of counting chips, and bets $10. I fold, and he shows 85o with no diamonds.

What a crappy way to start out, lol. Let's see, I think my first mistake was not pushing my last $22 on the turn. He hesitated enough that he probably wasn't on the flush draw here. On the river it's tough to call what looks like a value bet, but it is a little over 4:1 on the call, and he did take his time counting out the chips (which I've found is a pretty good indicator of someone who doesn't want a call). Still, it's hard to call with 4 diamonds on the board when you hold none. Obviously the guy was a total monkey, but I had just sat down so I didn't know it yet.

TT brought be back up to par when the flop came 678r, and then KQ on a queen high flop put me up $20. Shortly thereafter I laid down AQ when I raised and the BB pushed (he showed JJ).

Then I picked up QQ and raised to $5, and the guy behind me reraised to $13. He played lots of trash preflop, but he wasn't aggressive and was oozing confidence when he raised, so I was 99% sure he had AA or KK. Two huge fish came along for $13, so I called the additional $8. The flop came J high, and I layed it down after one of the fish bet $10 into the field. The raiser pushed and the fish's AJ went down to the raiser's AA.

So I was back down to even for the night, until I called a min raise out of the small blind with AXs. 3 limit players had just joined, and they were giving great odds to drawing hands. I flopped two of my suit, and the BB bet out $4 into the $8 pot, which was called by another player, so I called as well. The turn was a blank and it checked around. The river made my flush, and I bet $10 which the BB called with her two pair.

5 hours, up $20. Not awesome, but not terrible either.

Managed to finally grind out the interpoker bonus. A few suckouts and someone slowplaying AA left me down about $17 on my play for the day, but up overall about $42 plus the $90 bonus. Not bad. Once my PIN comes in the mail I can cash out and move on. My BB/100 ended up at a reasonable 2.81.

One interesting thing about crypto is that you can reraise indefinitely when it's heads up on the river. The casino I play at live has this rule, but I don't really see it online very much, which I think is a shame. Tonight I saw a couple guys put in 18BB on a paired board with a possible straight flush. The winner had a straight flush, and I assume the other guy had quads.

Also played with some BTPers at a .02/.04 table, which was lots of fun. Sometimes we played solid, sometimes we let out our inner monkeys. Somehow I ended up 25 cents.

Interpoker came through with my cashout just in the nick of time for me to take advantage of the Party bonus, so I moved my online roll over to Party. Sadly it's only $330 at this point, so I'm not taking full advantage, but I should be up around $1000 for next month if I stay focused. At any rate, $65 of free money is nothing to sneeze at, and Party bonuses are easy to work off.

So now the dilemma is: limit or NL? I know I can beat the $.50/1 limit games for 4-5BB/100 in my sleep, but they did just change the NL structure, so it's very enticing despite not being my best game. Decisions, decisions. Or maybe I'll just do a little of both.

Go No Limit. Glad to hear you are doing well.

Thanks MG.

Well, I put in 230 hands at the $25 NL tables tonight. The very first hand, I posted after the button and was dealt KK. There was a raise to $1 and then a raise to $3 in front of me, and I bumped it to $10. The first raiser folded and the second raiser, a big stack, put me in. I call and lose to AA. What a way to start!

But fortunately, this turned out to be a good session. I ended it up a little over $28 on a blistering 49BB/100 pace.

Some highlights:
I catch a set of 9s on a 789 flop, and got 3 callers on the flop. The turn brought a Q, and a short stack reraised me to $10. I called and the river was an 8, so I bet his last $4 and he called with Q8.

On a different table, it's starting to get shorthanded and I pick up JJ. I raise to $1 and everyone folds. The very next hand I pick up QQ, so I raise to $2 trying to represent frustration. One guy calls and then a guy with about $18 who has been complaining about his cards all night goes all in. I call and beat his AJs. The next hand in the BB I pick up the pot when no one bets the flop. Then in SB I pick up AQ and complete. The flop comes Q high and I bet $2 at the $1 pot. I get min-raised and reraise to $10, which the minraiser calls. Turn is a 9 and I bet her last $20 but she folds.

Finally I've just joined a table and raise to $1 with 64s in LP. The blinds and a couple limpers call. I pick up an inside straight draw, but don't connect as it checks around 3 times. The next hand I pick up AA, and I'm really hoping everyone took a look at their hand history on that last one. I raise to $1.50 and get called by about 5 limpers. The flop is a lovely A77 and a short stack goes in for $9. I call but no one else comes along. The short stack has 7T and doesn't catch the case 7.

So a pretty good session overall, and worked off about a third of the bonus.

I was planning on some live play tonight, but it was pouring and the freeway was moving at about 45mph. Rain and Southern California drivers just don't mix, lol.

So instead I fired up Party to work on that bonus a little more. I played 50 hands or so of $25 NL, but didn't really get any playable hands. Then I moved over to 2 and 3 tabling some $.50/1 limit. The session started out pretty horribly, and I was down about $25 at one point. It was really just one table -- I got a bunch of big hands and all of them either got cracked or ran into something bigger.

I ended the session on a little rush and finished down $12 at limit plus the $3 or so at NL. Net result is I'm up about $12 chasing the $65 bonus, with another 100 hands to go. I should be able to finish it off tomorrow no problem, and move on and tackle this month's crypto bonuses. Hopefully I'll be able to put in a B&M session in the evening as well.