Well, first day of March, after a good February, and I get completely screwed by the tables lol... However, one big hand at the end (second last hand I played!) saved things for me somewhat...

TotalBet (one of the cryptos) along with Gaming club were my starting sites today.... Aiming to do the bonuses here one by one, starting with the £25 today which I freed up no trouble playing 100plo. I also played a euro table (close to $150) and one $100PLO on gaming club.

Anyways, had a good start as I made my big wrap on the river to win an early pot, but then got screwed a couple of times in outrageous fashion...

Horror 1: I call a raise with JJ55ds in the bb. Flop comes with garbage and my raggy flush draw. Turn brings a 5 so I pump it up, pot is fairly big and I'm confident I am ahead. An idiot calls me. River pairs the board with a ten and puts out a flush draw. I put him all in for his last $20 (I would call a bet so I might as well make it myself) and he has T4 for two pair that rivered a TWO OUTER for a bigger boat. $110 pot.

Horror 2: Same player calls my preflop raise (I have AAxx) flop comes Axx with two hearts, one bet to me, I make a big raise. He is the only caller. Turn brings one of his 8 outs (a heart) for the nut flush. Poo. Not so bad this one, but his call is poor.

Horror 3: I try to make a play on an opponent I know to be decent. I raise some high wrappy hand preflop, he re-raises. I make a comment on the table about aces. He obviously knows that I know he has aces (in retrospect it was a bit silly to reveal this, but I thought I would try something a bit different; the guy is very straightforward so it's kinda obvious). Anyways, my daftness apart, the pot is big and 4 way. I am in the SB, flop comes 445 no suits, he makes a typical crappy "feeler" bet with his aces and it folds to me. Now, he knows I know what he has, there is nearly $100 in the pot and there's a good chance he just has bare aces, so I decide to raise my nothing hand, by $35 or so. This should be enough to fold him, but he obviously had his fish cap on today, waited for the time to run down then called (eugh). Turn card gives me an up and down straight draw and J high flush draw and so I have outs now if he has no boat (which he doesnt). I am now forced to check, with only $35 left. He puts me in, I gotta call and he wins a $250 pot with (IMO) a pretty poorly played aces over 4s. Perhaps he has chat turned off but he has to know I know he had aces, and to be honest his play was not concurrent with someone second guessing me, but simply (I think) a bit of an "I-don't-know-what-to-do" moment. I don't suggest anyone else try this, though I guess on the turn he was VERY close to folding so I nearly won a big pot for a $35 bet with J high, so it was well timed... I'll just have to modify my opinion of this player.

Horror 4: Another two outer. Well, actually he had 5 outs... at the time I only thought it was two. Long story short, I have top two against the awful player from horrors #1 and 2, plus another guy who raised preflop. Board is uncoordinated. I decide to check-raise it, unusual but both guys were short and I was pretty sure I was good. I got the preflop raiser's stack in with my two pair of KK99 with a gutshot, he had KK22 with an ace on the side and hit a 2 on the turn. $90 pot.

Horror 5: My internet connection is slow today.... I had a deep think on the river with 2nd nut flush and called a guy down with about 5 seconds to spare (only a $20 pot mind you) but my hand timed out! Very annoying as he showed a straight that had been drawing dead from the turn onwards, and my hand was auto-folded. Grrrrr.

Anyhow, this put me a bit down with the bonus but then... 2nd last hand at gaming club, I have double suited aces. I raise, a few callers. Flop brings 874 with a flush draw. I bet when it's checked to me. Only one caller. Turn is another 4. Not a great card, though both my flush draws are out. He checks, I check. River is a beautiful ace. He checks, I bet $9. He raises to $50. I put the rest of my stack in. He calls with 4Q for trip fours.... I hadn't noticed how he got his $170 stack but it was now in my possession after he played this hand truly abysmally. $330 pot to end the session.

So, final tally for the session (including the bonus) is that I'm $105 up in my first day of March. Decent start, and take those two nasty suckouts out of the equation and it would've been a $300 session so can't complain too much.

Winnings in March: $105
Hour played: 3.5

Monk
xxxxx

A good start to the month and a pretty good day today... Cleared another £25 bonus, on UKBetting, and had a nice day on the PLO tables. Managed to avoid the stretch of 2-outers I ran into yesterday, and turned a nice profit. Played, I think, fairly well. I decided to 6-table today to take advantage of some pretty juicey looking average pots and a raft of bad players pulling into cybertown, I didn't look past cryptologic today as I struggle to clear all the bonuses early on in the month so I can get my winnings up ASAP to a point where I feel I can relax for the rest of it (I am away for my birthday for a while).

Cards seemed quite cold for a lot of the time, but when I did hit I got paid off and I managed to avoid any nasty suckouts in the bigger pots, so although it felt like a slow session of ABC poker (playing 6 tables meant I was very tight preflop and didn't make any interesting plays) it was profitable.

I felt at times I was making some slightly loose calls preflop, but the looseness of the games was (I guess) allowing me to call raises with a wide variety of hands, and in general I was mucking a lot of stuff I play when I have fewer tables on the go.

My biggest pot came early as I hit a rivered nut flush after betting a set with flush draw on the turn. I decided one of the other two callers probably was drawing to the flush too, or would try to bluff, so I checked, and when one of them bet I decided to mess about letting the timer run down before moving in a massive raise. To my surprise he called and I won a near $300 pot. Had I merely bet out I suspect he would just have called; perhaps he was one of those players who just CANT let go of a hand once it obviously turns bad; in that case the check raise was a smart and unusual play on the river, with the chances of a big payoff. I normally wouldn't recommend it though; just bet big or milk the pot.

I won a few other in the 50-100 range but nothing big, though I had a fine finish as I won a couple of decent pots in my last 5 hands (another nice way to finish, after my biggie yesterday) with AAxx which hit AKK on the flop (very nice!) and a set of 8s I played inventively and got paid off by an idiot....

Oh, I also laid down a lot of marginal hands on the flop. Think this helped a lot, though I did make one or two dodgy calls in small pots, by restricting "guessing" plays and decisions that may cost a stack in big pots, you can REALLY plug some major leaks in PLO, and it's something I've been doing a lot in the last year or two. Take this example:

Game #388657003: Omaha High Pot Limit ($0.50/$1) - 2005/03/02 - 22:19:18 (GMT)
Table "Snowball" Seat 5 is the button.
Seat 1: Riggy1 ($471.40 in chips)
Seat 2: deckland ($232.50 in chips)
Seat 3: HERO ($103.25 in chips)
Seat 4: TweetyB ($350.04 in chips)
Seat 5: Baeist ($108.50 in chips)
Seat 7: shipit ($91.50 in chips)
Seat 9: Cashaf ($87.08 in chips)
Seat 10: Belanger ($52.50 in chips)
shipit: posts small blind $0.50
Cashaf: posts big blind $1
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to HERO [4c 4d 5h 5d]
Matt18075 joins the table at seat #6
Belanger: calls $1
Riggy1: raises to $4.50
deckland: folds
HERO: calls $4.50
TweetyB: folds
Baeist: folds
shipit: calls $4
Cashaf: calls $3.50
Belanger: calls $3.50
----- FLOP ----- [5c 4s Ts]
Never_win joins the table at seat #8
shipit: bets $22.50
Cashaf: folds
Belanger: folds
Riggy1: calls $22.50
HERO: folds
----- TURN ----- [5c 4s Ts][Jd]
shipit: checks
Riggy1: checks
----- RIVER ----- [5c 4s Ts Jd][8s]
shipit: bets $64.50 and is all-in
Riggy1: calls $64.50
----- SHOW DOWN -----
shipit: shows [2c Td Jh Tc] (Three of a kind, Tens, Jack high)
Riggy1: shows [8c 7h 9c 6c] (A Straight, Jack high)
Riggy1 collected $193.50 from Main pot


Flopped the bottom two sets but I made a smart laydown as I would've been drawing pretty darn dead. Both players were loose but with the action to me it seemed a lot more likely I was behind to a set of Ts than up against two draws; against the draws I can easily lose and will have few redraws on a bad turn but against the set I will be buried for my stack. This is an example of a situation in PLO where the old adage applies... he who fights and runs away...

You will be interested to note that later on I raised a pot better on the flop with the bottom set... in this instance, I had an open ender straight draw as back up if it got heads up, but was mostly betting because the open better was all-in and I had $100 to go into a big sidepot with another big stack who had played very passively and thus likely had a draw.

Anyways, results for today, including the generous £25 bonus.... I won $415! Cool!

Monthly hours: 6
Monthly winnings: $520
Hourly rate so far: $86

Very decent start so far.

Monk
xxxxx

Well my worst day in ages don't want to talk about it so much but basically it was a 5 1/2 hour session of cold cards punctuated by occasional beats. I musta lost a lot of stacks looking at my final results, I was more down than I thought. Didn't set foot on a $200 table today, all $100 and I lost over $550 at the tables. I made my interpoker and ritz club bonuses but this really was a bt of a heartbreaking session after such a great start to the month, feels like such a backwards step and i'm amazed i'm not more pissed off- just drained. Again, I didn't tilt and made some decent plays, it just seemed everything I touched turned to crap and my good hands lost to rubbish, I paid off too much on rivers, and every time I tried some sort of play I got bitten on the ass. Towards the end I made two or three bad plays too, worse is that two cost me big bets.

Examples: I flop a set but there's a flush draw and straight draw out; I check-raise big, one caller, turn fills the middle of the straight, so he woulda had to have the wrap or a gutshot to have made it. Normally I check here but working on my aggression after laying down a few I've been winning lately, I push incase he is on the flush draw. Well, he was... he called my flop re-raise with a 7 high flush draw and a gutshot, I didnt boat up and one stack goes.

Then the same hopeless LAGGy fish busts me twice in about an hour; all along I have position on him, waiting for a hand. I flop top set on a Q98 flop, he bets which could mean anything, I decide to raise and take my chances. He calls. He also calls a bet on the turn, again not full pot (mistake?)... Anyhow on the flop he had a f***ing gutshot and runner runnered a flush. I put him on the other fl draw/ lower set on the flop and decided to make a herois on the river for 50. Damn. Then a bit later I have AAT5ss in hearts. I make a small raise in EP for deception, few calls round to LAGGy idiot who raises. I pump it up to $65, he is the only caller. I have about $40 left, flop brings Q98 with a flush draw again (sound familiar?) he checks and I push all in, he woulda bet any sort of hand. Anyway, he has QKJJ for the gutshot. Turn and river are both kings and I lose from being a sizeable flop favourite.

Before all that I was not too far down, 100 or 200 maybe, but that kinda killed me. I then made back-to-back dumbass plays at gaming club to end up 200 down there from being mostly about 50 down on cold cards. Worst play was (I guess slightly action-fixated) I pick up AKQQds in EP and raise the max, MP player (who I have notes on claiming him to be an abysmal LAG who will bet a good hand strongly but also play stuff like TPTK) raises it up. He had a short stack (well, I say short, it was more like 60 at the start..) and he gets one call from the SB. I decide that I'm playing this hand, and so I might as well try to get the SB committed when I have likely the best hand. What a horrible, stupid move. For a start MP had played OK and thus probably had aces, and my pair of queens is hardly dominating here against the SB for a side pot thats not big enough to jeopardise losing most of my stack in the main pot. Eugh. Suffice to say the flop and turn are garbage, I call a small bet (only have $20 left) still with the best hand, but SB hit a flush on the river, I fold for $15 into the $300 pot and he takes it down. MP then castigates me for my fishy play. I copied and pasted my notes on him because he was pissing me off.

Well that just about did it for me. Horrible session, horrible night. I guess it has been a long fruitful run for me and it was bound to happen sooner or later, annoying it's this weekend as I had a big weekend of poker planned and now this setback puts that on the skids a bit because I want to take a day or so off in my current mood and recover a bit from getting my butt slammed in the grinder tonight. I actually thought I was about $300 down, so to discover it was in fact $420 was a bit harsh. Tonight I even made my biggest bonuses of the month so far, $90 at Inter and $50 at ritz club, so my real losses at the tables are about $550. I don't think I've had a loss in excess of 5 buyins in recent memory in the bigger games, even in the midst of my bad run in december, so I am annoyed.

This plus the car incident yesterday (I discovered this morning that my grille on the front of the car, which is plastic, is broken and thus needs replacing, and the metal that holds it is bent too, so it does need some repairs which I had missed ) is adding up to a really expensive and shitty couple of days for me. Was in a good mood earlier even despite the car thing, this I think is partly why playing full time would do me no good, the psychological drain of a bad session can be quite heavy... Though to be honest I am taking it much better than usual and can put much of it down to variance and a couple of poor plays. So, perhaps in the gloom there is a flicker of light, that my attitude to the game is becoming more well adjusted.

Monthly hours: 14 (and a bit)
Monthly winnings: $370
Hourly rate: $26

Well, at least I'm up for the month and in terms of days I have plenty of time for a turn around.

Better things to come, let's hope... Maybe for a change of scene I will go for the party bonus tomorrow and check out their new blind structure at PLO, though I suspect if I wish to avoid more suckouts that is not the place to be lol...

Monk
xxxxx

Well, after yesterday's nightmare, I had a horrible start today.

I lost a $220 pot in my FIRST HAND at Ritz Club ($100PLO) in a hand on which I was... 97% favourite on the flop. That's right, 97%. By the turn nearly all the money had gone in and I was 86% fave then too. Basically I limped AA37 with 37hh and the flop brought A92, one guy opened with a pot bet (i'm guessing two pair or a lower set), I just call with so few draws out. Turn brings 5h, he bets very weakly so I bet pot with my top set and low flush draw. This has gotta be mine. He calls. River brings a heart, he bets his last 20, yep of course I call.... On the flop he had top two pair with a higher runner runner heart draw than me. So he needed running hearts that didn't pair the board, of which I held two. Better than 97% on the flop grrrrrr. Well might as well start out with my worst beat in, well, as long as I can remember really...

Had some other major setbacks in this session too (that same gimp in the first hand beat me out of an $80 pot later with a horrible draw, and I lost when a guy called a gutshot on a board showing a flush draw, when I had top set. Turn brought the flush, he bet weakly, I called, river gave him the gutshot and my set of aces lost). My best hands came, however, when I found good starters... Made a $260 pot all in preflop with double-suited aces against a fish, and then later on I had AKKQss, against a short stack betting hard and a loose tall stack who didn't seem very strong. I got it all in preflop with the best hand, and ended up taking $280 with the top boat when my K hit the flop. Normally you should be careful with hands like these but here I knew I was almost certainly ahead in the large sidepot, in fact I was quite a big favourite against two guys who needed to hit pretty hard, and it was me who made the biggie.

Also had the classic PLO situation at gaming club... TTxx, flop came 44T, I bet (weak, about 1/3 pot, this gets rid of most overpairs but keeps 4's in who may think they are good and pay off big later..., somebody raised! The turn was an ace, which looked a great card for me. The raise was likely from 4T or A4, and either would pay me off now. I duly won his stack, he had an unlucky A4 although I did play my hand perfectly.

Anyways, end of this whole session, I was rueing that $220 lost when I was 97% favourite on the flop... a serious, serious beat, but on the whole, a very solid session and back on track for the month. Let's see where march takes the monkster.... John Lee Hooker tells me my sugar's so sweet so... gotta be good! It's FRIDAY NIGHT BABY! IN THE UK!

Well... Anyway... as You might imagine, my journal has turned into a drunken rant... So I better add the "bottom line" instead of continuing to type in my inebriated state....

MONTHLY EARNINGS: $675
MONTHLY HOURS: 17.5
HOURLY RATE: $38

Well, despite yesterday's horros, this month is still not too bad... a goo run tomorrow could put me into the $40 hourly rate region.

Oh, and John Lee Hooker is the f***ing MAN!

I am a little inebriated.

Monk
xxxxx

I should really learn to not fill in the last 15% of each journal entry when I can barely stand up...

I am sorry for your bad luck but happy that you posted it. I have been having good days and sometimes it feels like somebody has flipped a switch and no cards are good enough to win. I guess it happens to everyone. I was beginning to question my ability to play this game and rethinking some strategy on the bad days. If I start seeing every big pot sliding away from me I end up playing tight/weak which makes it worse and I miss opportunities that would have helped pull me out of the hole.

You should try and catch the new PLO levels at party. Sometimes they are the best games you can find and sometimes they are terrible, so pick your game with care.

Well, today was a bit of a pisser, all in all. Following my ugly run of cards on Friday, I was all geared up to try to get back on track after a good saturday.

Things kicked off very nicely, I had a profitable (though at times rather annoying) afternoon session, picking up about $200 in 2 hours which put me back up for the weekend... Notable highlights included getting all in preflop with KKATds on one table (a short stack had raised and I was fairly sure there was a good chance he had AA, but the other decent sized stack was liable to have a hand I was dominating. Anyway, we got it all in and I hit a K... the shorter stack did indeed have AA but the big pot came my way. I also won later with KK (must be something in it today..) when a K hit the flop and I got it all in against a guy with bottom set and a flush draw. Session ended in annoying fashion as I made a slightly dubious button call of a preflop raise with A653ds and got the dream flop 663. Well, I made a small bet on the flop, got called by the preflop raiser (who I thought might've had AA and was now short stacked), turn brought an equally lovely 2 (yep, I still have the nuts...) and he check-raised himself all in. Sweet. Until the 9 on the river broke my nut hand giving him a higher boat, a 6-outer. Still, pot was only $70.

Anyway, so went to play volleyball this evening. We played crap, lost to a weak team (I was still a bit hungover) and so I was looking forward to a morale boosting evening session. Like Hell.

Basically a run of cold cards interspersed by some rough luck and I lost my afternoon winnings in less than an hour and a half. Wasn't TERRIBLE but some of it was just very annoying, somehow. Got it all in against an utter LAG fish with AAds, he had K876ss, ok so i'm not a collosal favourite but I was still winning until the river bhrought him his second pair and the $250 pot. From then on I got drawn out of 3 or 4 smaller pots until they got going, called a few preflop raises without hitting a damn thing, then when my big hand came, I lost in spectacular style, thankfully to a small stack because i'd have lost my mortgage on this one .... Basically, I had AA preflop and chose to raise from the blinds (I usually check/call here). Flop came a rather tasty A88. Anyway, was able to build a pot between two opponents, and by the river I thought, well at least I got some action. Guess again... the short stack who I got all in had 88 for quads. Last time I lost quads over boat like that was exactly the same two hands, AA vs 88 on an A88 flop.

Right at the end of the session I lost a $60 pot to a short stack who thought it was a good idea to call a preflop raise with 2238. I was about 45% equity when the money went in (somehow I missed the fact he mighta had a set of 2s lol) but alas his hand held.

Anyway, the upshot of this garbage is that I made $24 at Gaming Club today after being $200 up at one point, and lost $160 at Ritz Club London after having been around $50 ahead this afternoon.. So in my evening session I dropped about $350. Great.

Monthly winnings: $540
Monthly hours: 21
Hourly rate: $26

Given the majority of these winnings have come from bonuses, it is not a good month so far. Luck has been pretty poor though. Variance must be sky high because it seems that I win or lose well over $200 every session I play. I might not get much chance to play later this month so it's looking like being a poor one. We'll see what happens.

Monk
xxxxx

Well, another day, another disappointing session my monthly averages continue to freefall. At least I didn't take a big battering but I did endure a very long run of cold cards for a coupla hours and then got up with a nice little run before losing a couple of decent pots at the end of my session, when I got in with good cards only to lose to better one and, in one case, a horrible opponent play which sucked out on me and won a $200 pot.

I've gone back to empire for a while, posted a small (very small) win there. Woulda been more but the big suckout came there (a guy decided to re-raise all in with bottom set on the turn when i had nut flush all the way and had been betting it - he had 9 outs on the river and hit ugh). Then at the end of the session I have AAQTss, raise it up, someone calls. Flops QQ3, I raise, someone check-raised me (was a guy who played QQ66 for his stack preflop, so I assumed fishiness). I decided I couldn't let go and put him in (assuming either he was fishy enough to be betting a bare trips, or that my raise preflop mighta got rid of any Q3 hands). Yeah, he had Q3 and I didn't catch. Next hand I have about $25 in chips, get AA again and make quad aces on the river. If I'd reloaded I woulda won a $150 pot rather than a 70.

I seemed to make a fair few big hands tonight after the cold run, and AA hit a set pretty often... I ran into what I suspect was top set with middle set on two occasions too (folded before showdown...), lost a big pot at Ritz Club when I checked AA on an A27 rainbow board, no bets, turn brought a 3, I bet out, river was a blank, I bet again and called a raise who I suspected either had 45 played oddly or a flush draw. She had the straight .....

Early on had a taste of what was to come when I flopped top two pair in a pot with tons of raising preflop... flop was 59T with two spades, I had no other draws. A very short guy I suspected had AA bet his last few bucks, I raised to try to narrow the field, one guy went all in who I suspected was decent. I decided that it looked an awful lot like a set (even though I had top two)... if not, there are so many draws I was in deep trouble. So I folded my last $60 into a pot that would've been close on $300. Turn came a T giving me the nut full and I would've won. The re-raiser had a draw time to change my notes on him....

Wow AA certainly happens a lot at Empire

And now... the piece de resistance... last hand at empire, i get AA93 no suits.. as dry aces as you can get. In crap position in what looks it's going to be a multiway pot, someone makes a big raise. He is another big stack, and I don't want to tangle with a hand that basically can't really improve. So for once I fold AA. Just look at the HH....


***** Hand History for Game 1701132361 *****
$100 PL Omaha Hi - Monday, March 07, 19:29:01 EDT 2005
Table Table 36970 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: LtHornblower ( $74.5 )
Seat 9: Fel_Monk ( $213.25 )
Seat 8: CausaEffetto ( $93.5 )
Seat 5: ryandrew ( $51.95 )
Seat 7: KGB9999 ( $295.8 )
Seat 10: youraiseme36 ( $110.35 )
Seat 2: dav317 ( $28.5 )
Seat 6: ericroks ( $201.5 )
Seat 4: J10Lloyd ( $100 )
KGB9999 posts small blind [$0.5].
CausaEffetto posts big blind [$1].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Fel_Monk [ Ac 3h Ad 9h ]
Fel_Monk calls [$1].
youraiseme36 calls [$1].
LtHornblower folds.
dav317 calls [$1].
J10Lloyd calls [$1].
ryandrew folds.
ericroks calls [$1].
KGB9999 raises [$7.5].
CausaEffetto calls [$7].
Fel_Monk folds.
youraiseme36 calls [$7].
dav317 calls [$7].
J10Lloyd calls [$7].
ericroks folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ As, Ah, 4c ]
KGB9999 checks.
CausaEffetto checks.
youraiseme36 checks.
sangrefrio has joined the table.
dav317 checks.
J10Lloyd checks.
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qh ]
KGB9999 bets [$10].
CausaEffetto folds.
youraiseme36 folds.
dav317 folds.
J10Lloyd folds.
KGB9999 does not show cards.
KGB9999 wins $49.9

All in all, the most frustrating session imaginable. Runs of bad cards along with a run of big hands that never seemed to work out for one reason or another. I only really had one beat, and that wasnt even a terrible one (though he played it awfully). Still I am just really depressed about the whole experience, losing 3 out of the last 4 days is a bit of a burn. Still up for the month and I know thats ok, but I really want to play my way out of this funk and the way some of these sessions have gone have been so annoying. Last two days I have been nicely up after a run of cold cards, and then had a bad end to thge day to put me down. On the whole there's little more irritating than that.

Have some other HHs to discuss but I'm not in the mood right now, might post them tomorrow if I have time!

In fact, turns out I was $8 up today... but it feels like a loss somehow guess I mighta picked up some rake rebate too, so....

Well, not going to have much time to play in the next few weeks I don't think so perhaps a little less poker would do me good, but I really wanted to reach £1000 ($2000) early this month and this last 4 or 5 days has torpedoed that after my great start. Damn.

Monthly hours: 24.5
Monthly winnings: $550
Hourly rate: $22

Last 18 hours of poker have been break even.... Ugh. Somewhat worse, my winrate for $100PLO is hovering around the 7BB/100 mark. Thats so far below my usual it's not funny .... Oh well, tomorrow is another day....

Monk
xxxxx

True enough. I know I am playing OK, maybe just a few leaks to plug, and in all honesty I just need 2 or 3 rough hands to have gone the other way this weekend (specifically that 8-outer river for $200 yesterday, and the $220 pot I lost as a 97% flop favourite the other day) and my winrate is a lot better. Add those two hands as "wins" and it puts my rate up to a healthy $40/hr, so it just shows what a tiny bit of short term variance can do.

Anyway, I have played solid poker this last month or two and had a good February, so I guess I shouldn't complain. A couple of nice sessions now and I'm right back in the ballgame this month, the return to Empire should be interesting... first impressions of the new blinds at 100PLO actually were that the games were a LOT tighter than I remember, no looser really than gaming club or Crypto, but that's hopefully a good thing because I beat those games very solidly. Once I have another good few sessions under my belt here I'll look to jump up to the $200s which I used to play more than the 100s really, even though the variance of Empire at 200 level scares me a bit ($1000 loss sessions anyone ?) the rake rebate I will get for playing that regularly should be a coupla hundred a month which would be really nice, and I suspect the games (rather like at Stars) are absolutely no better whatsoever.

I'll kepp y'all posted.

Monk
xxxxx

Well, only gonna be quick today cos I was talking to brian and need some sleep. Basically I broke out of my losing/even run nicely (good thing!) but go to bed in a bit of a foul mood after I lost decent sized pots in 2 of my last 3 hands at Ritz Club to lose a $130 stack, both to abysmally played hands from a pair of very poor players who populate this site. First one he caught a river three outer (I had trip 2s on a A223 board, he called a raise with nothing but QQ and hit his Q on the river), second one I got dealt AAQ9ds in my last hand at the table, flopped a flush draw with K85 and bet pot, got one caller (a very bad player), a 9 came on the turn, I bet again (normally I wouldn't but he might always have folded and he was bad enough that I was quite likely to be in the lead; in retrospect this may've been a bad play). He moved all in with a lower flushdraw with a gutshot and caught his straight flush gutshot on the river; he also had a pair on the board (8s) so he actually had a fair few outs but it was still appalling play and a yucky way to lose, well I'll cease on the bad beat whining now. Actually played a number of interesting hands today that I will try to post tomorrow if I get time at work, though no promises. Suffice to say I won $40 more at empire (variance is really low since my return!) and another $200 or so at ritz club, though sinking $130 right at the end was the difference between a good session and one which could've been so much better. Just like the last few days, the end of my session was bad - especially since the half hour before I hadnt won a pot on 6 tables. I guess the $240-odd win would've been more like $400+ at that point. Anyway, a win's a win...

Monthly hours: 27.5
Winnings: $790
Winrate: $29

Oh good, I'm back where I was 9 hours into the month. Nearly 20 hours of play later ....

Monk
xxxxx

Well, had a three hour session tonight and another decent win like yesterday, although once more I was a little annoyed to have slipped the best part of $200 in my last 45 minutes or so at the tables. One nasty river where my opponent had about 12 outs and re-raised me all in for a $200 pot went against me, that seemed to be the catalyst for a little run of cold cards, one mediocre call for $40 on one table, and a couple of large and slightly costly draws missing.

Anyhow, look on the bright side, I guess me slightly rough run is now more or less at an end after two solid winning sessions. I am particularly happy that today I beat Empire very soundly; so far I've had two sessions of cold cards, today I picked up a couple of nice hands and played solidly excellent poker at 3 PLO tables for just over 2 3/4 hours, for a profit just over $300. Over at Ritz Club London I lost a reasonable size pot early when I made a move with KKds in a four handed pot against some weak loose players, with the only raiser being the shorter stack. Raiser was the worst player at the table but this time he had AA and made a set to pick up the $300 main pot, however no-one had the case ace and my kings held to pick up the $65 in the side pot, so I only lost $30 on the hand. I had close to 30% pot equity on the main and about 60% on the small sidepot so again a high variance play but a +ve EV one so I'm happy with that.

Again I have a number of hand histories saved, but instead of an in depth look I'll go through a couple of my highlights, though today I thought I settled into a good run of play, stole a few small pots, and generally made good value bets in the right places. The first 20 minutes of the session were a little hectic, though, as I tried out a ton of tables on 3 different sites, though I eventually settled into 3 each at Empire and Ritz Club.

Anyhow, twice I held the top set and managed to double through a stack, both times against opponents with good wrap draws, so the fact I lost once with a set against a draw (which catalysed the bad run at the end of the session) is about even, luck-wise, so I can't complain. I also hit a biggie when I found TT on a JT7 flop with two hearts. No-one seemed to find a pair of balls in this hand, with small bets and minimum raises on the flop. When the turn brought an 8 of hearts I felt sure someone would find a pot bet, but nope, the four handed pot went to the river with only a token $4 bet. A 7 gave me the second best boat but I am still wary of JJ and 77, very possible holdings in a big field. I check to the last two, one guy bets $4 into a big pot, which seems weak. He is a poor player so when it's back round to me with no raises, I assume JJ and 77 are out of the question. Here I should've raised big in case someone had a 7 with a J or T, but instead I plumped for a small extra pay off and only put in another $8. Poor move I think, though I got called in one spot. Of course, if anyone found the guts to make a proper bet, even half-pot, at any point, I would've folded my possibly dead second set, but with pot and implied odds through the roof of course it had to be played!

My other decent sized pot I recall was at Empire when I bet a big draw, found a broadway on the turn and got all in against a player who didnt show a smaller straight. Another nice double through.

Anyway, again the session finish was a downer but I can't complain about booking another decent win. Month is still average but I guess breaking $1000 in the first 9 days is pretty decent despite the large number of hours, and I have some rebate on the way from empire which will come at the month's end, and a little $35 or so from Gaming Club, which I'll add on now....

Monthly hours: 30.5
Winnings: $1110
Winrate: $36/hr

If I can get that up nearer the desired $40 then I'll be happy for the month.

Ciao!

Monk
xxxxx

Well, today was an OK session, though once more the last hour or so was a run of cold cards and leaking cash. Becoming a bit of a running theme this month!

As usual for lately, i've stayed off the $200 tables and played more tables on the cheaper ones; today it was 5/6 tables of $100 PLO at Cryptologic and Empire for just under 3 hours.

I missed a chance of a huge pot early on when I raised KJT8ds (or was it ss?) in EP. A poor loose player maximum raised from the small blind, as it got back to me it was in excess of $20 more to call, and I decided i'd wait for a better spot with more implied odds. In retrospect, I probably had enough to call, as this guy would've given up his stack if I hit big. Alas, the flop would've brought me a straight (in the end 4 players called!) when the poor player moved all in with AA, two others called with sets, and the pot (had I been there) would've been about $500.

I did pick up a nice big one for the $100 games at Empire.... found the top set, made my usual check-raise play in a smaller pot in an aggressive table. Thankfully the opponents only had a poor straight draw and a lower set, so my top set and middle flush draw were dominating the $300+ pot....

***** Hand History for Game 1715213464 *****
$100 PL Omaha Hi - Thursday, March 10, 15:58:06 EDT 2005
Table Table 36970 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: hyahya ( $108.5 )
Seat 2: Bestefar ( $98.4 )
Seat 3: one4you2NV ( $169.7 )
Seat 4: Fel_Monk ( $118.8 )
Seat 5: puffer17 ( $98.15 )
Seat 6: BUCK1000 ( $41.7 )
Seat 7: Dr__Q__ ( $143.8 )
Seat 9: billard ( $122.1 )
Seat 10: evian111 ( $100 )
Fel_Monk posts small blind [$0.5].
puffer17 posts big blind [$1].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Fel_Monk [ 8h 9h 9d 8s ]
BUCK1000 calls [$1].
Dr__Q__ folds.
billard calls [$1].
evian111 folds.
hyahya folds.
Bestefar folds.
one4you2NV calls [$1].
Fel_Monk calls [$0.5].
puffer17 checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8c, 2h, 6h ]
Fel_Monk checks.
puffer17 bets [$4].
BUCK1000 folds.
billard raises [$8].
one4you2NV folds.
Fel_Monk raises [$32.75].
puffer17 calls [$28.75].
billard is all-In [$113.1]
Fel_Monk is all-In [$85.05]
puffer17 is all-In [$64.4]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jd ]
** Dealing River ** [ Kd ]
Fel_Monk shows [ 8h, 9h, 9d, 8s ] three of a kind, eights.
puffer17 doesn't show [ 2c, 5c, 7h, 9s ] a pair of twos.
billard shows [ 6s, 6d, 2s, 4s ] three of a kind, sixes.
billard wins $3.3 from side pot #2 with three of a kind, sixes.
Fel_Monk wins $41.3 from side pot #1 with three of a kind, eights.
Fel_Monk wins $293.45 from the main pot with three of a kind, eights.

So by this point I was doing good. The $300 on this table was swelled by another similar pot (I had top set which improved to a weak flush on the river and took a $200 pot) and I went on a nice run here to run up $500. I was about $300 up overall at one point.

However, as I was doing ok at Empire, I lost a couple of buyins at crypto and eventually had a bad run in the last hour with only one decent pot (I called a raise from the poor player I mentioned at Crypto earlier with A456ds and caught 557 on the flop, he called my two pot sized bets, I foolishly checked my last $16 on the river with a straight when he checked his AAxx to me, which I am sure he'd have called).

This pot could've been huge for me; the flop, in a raised pot, looked huge, though I wasn't wanting to give any free cards. The fact my top two wasn't winning without improvement was a disappointment, but I didn't catch my flush or the king I required in a huge pot:

------HAND 1------
Game #422957833: Omaha High Pot Limit ($0.50/$1) - 2005/03/10 - 21:24:05 (GMT)
Table "Margate" Seat 3 is the button.
Seat 1: Splashfrt ($101 in chips)
Seat 2: Riggy1 ($100 in chips)
Seat 3: likomaboy ($121.34 in chips)
Seat 4: Patr20017 ($63.44 in chips)
Seat 5: HERO ($112.25 in chips)
Seat 6: silvia ($513.39 in chips)
Seat 7: guccigirl ($124.41 in chips)
Seat 8: mcmanus8 ($113.75 in chips)
Seat 9: Lucky_l ($77.25 in chips)
Patr20017: posts small blind $0.50
HERO: posts big blind $1
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to HERO [Qd As Kd 8s]
silvia: calls $1
guccigirl: raises to $4.50
mcmanus8: folds
Lucky_l: calls $4.50
Splashfrt: calls $4.50
Riggy1: calls $4.50
likomaboy: calls $4.50
Patr20017: calls $4
HERO: calls $3.50
silvia: calls $3.50
----- FLOP ----- [2s Ks Qc]
Patr20017: checks
HERO: bets $36
silvia: folds
guccigirl: raises to $119.91 and is all-in
Lucky_l: is all-in $72.75
Splashfrt: is all-in $96.50
Riggy1: folds
likomaboy: folds
Patr20017: folds
HERO: is all-in $71.75
Returned uncalled bets $12.16 to guccigirl
----- TURN ----- [2s Ks Qc][Tc]
----- RIVER ----- [2s Ks Qc Tc][7c]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
guccigirl: shows [Jc Ad Td Kc] (A Flush, King high)
Lucky_l: shows [9h Qh 3h Qs] (Three of a kind, Queens, King high)
Splashfrt: shows [9c Ts Ac Js] (A Flush, Ace high)
HERO: shows [Qd As Kd 8s] (Two Pairs, Kings and Queens, Ten high)
guccigirl collected $22.50 from Side pot #2
Splashfrt collected $71.25 from Side pot #1
Splashfrt collected $324 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $420.75 Main pot $324 Side pot #1 $71.25 | Side pot #2 $22.50 | Rake $3
Board [2s Ks Qc Tc 7c]
Seat 1: Splashfrt showed [9c Ts Ac Js] and won ($395.25) with A Flush, Ace high
Seat 2: Riggy1 folded on the Flop
Seat 3: likomaboy (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: Patr20017 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: HERO (big blind) lost
Seat 6: silvia folded on the Flop
Seat 7: guccigirl showed [Jc Ad Td Kc] and won ($22.50) with A Flush, King high
Seat 8: mcmanus8 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Lucky_l lost


I was also ahead for the $90-worth of sidepots, so I guess I could consider myself a tad unfortunate here, but that's poker.

I did make an error (though had an annoying last hand) at cryptologic as I lost a late $100-odd pot. I raised KK33ds preflop, got two callers and hit a perfect flop... 37A including a nut flush draw. I bet a bit less than the pot to keep any lower flush draws in. A poor player minimum raised me, without thinking I put him practically all in. A bit stupid because I should probably have tried to milk him; either he had a higher set (aces seemed unlikely) or he was drawing very thin indeed. Anyway, he called after a bit of thought and turned over 779Jss, grrrr. I hit my flush on the turn but an ace on the river killed me and I ended up losing a late one with what seemed like a collosal flop for me. I freely admit I didn't play this too smartly, though in reality all the money was going in on the turn anyway regardless of what I did.

Anyway, I lost about $160 at Crypto but I made approaching $300 at Empire (going well here, and making some rake rebate too!) so overall ended up around $130 up give or take.

Monthly hours: 33 (might be a bit more but we'll be conservative )
Winnings: $1240
Winrate: $37/hr

Well I guess this is solid enough. A few decent days have been pleasing, though it's been a bit annoying that each time I've felt like the hands have been there for a huge win, but each time something goes wrong, commonly towards the end of the session. To say it's only a 1/3 through the month and I'm well beyond $1000 is pretty decent, though.

I won't be able to play again until next week as I am going to be away in leciester in england to celebrate my BIRTHDAY on the 23rd (I know it's a bit early but it's kinda a joint gathering with some old university friends), and have two volleyball matches too.

Today my main thought is that $100PLO is going fine at the moment but I should start to play more $200 again, especially now that Empire is looking a bit better with the blinds (winning over 40BB/100 so far, very short sample though). I played mostly $200 games at the tail end of last year, with some 400 and 100 too, but this year with my return to Crypto, clearing out most of my online bankroll, and recovering from a bad run at the end of 2004, i've been on the $100 games with great success. If I want to move the hourly rate up beyond $40/50 though, I think the use of the bigger games will be necessary. Although it may just be a short-term thing whilst the fish bust out of the new bigger games, my brief looks at the $1000 PLO in the last couple of days have revealed that the games play very similar to the 100's at present, so dipping into the $200 and $400 buyins over the next couple of months would be a smart idea.

Some quick stats:

Monthly BB/100 in the PLO$100 games: Approximately 14BB/100
I would like this to be much higher; 4-tabling I can usually make in the 25BB/100+ range but with the 6 tabling i've been doing this month, plus the relatively mediocre results so far, means that this number is lower. If I can reach 20BB/100 over 5 or 6 tables that would be good. Ultimately I may decide to drop back to 4, if I move up to $200 full-time.

Table hours at $100PLO in 2005: 402 hours
Money won at $100 PLO: $4037
Winrate per table: $10/hour
Winrate per BB/100, assuming 40 hands/hour (probably an overestimate): 25 BB per 100 hands. This is, if anything, an underestimate as I use 40 hands/hour as a general assumption, Cryptologic suggests 35 may be more accurate for PLO. However, I may also perhaps sometimes underestimate the amount of time I spend on each table so overall this figure probably becomes more accurate. This is around what I would like to sustain in these games. If I can manage this per table in the $200 games whilst 4 or 5 tabling, I could get up to $80 or even $100 per hour, which would be absolutely great. Still a way off though.

Monk
xxxxx

Oh god what an awful session....

Back to it after my weekend away, played woefully, got bitten in the butt by some pretty woeful luck, and lost $400, 500 odd in about an hour. I can't remember a session of poker where I felt less in the zone, less confident about what was going on or generally more annoyed. I know we're not halfway through the month yet but, ach, well poker is frustrating me currently. I suppose looking at it one way, I got my money in 5 or 6 times today in pots where I was a cointoss or favourite and lost them all, though I did win one decent pot when my aces did something good.

You'll forgive me for the fact I can't really be bothered filling in my hourly figures and money etc, makes depressing reading and I'd rather just watch some tv and go to bed.

Two steps forward, one step back... Feel like Paula Abdul at the moment....

And I got my damn chat banned by those ********* ********s at Pokerstars. grrrrr!

Monk
xxxxx