I continue to run somewhat dry. Had a couple hands, but didn't get any big pots. I actually hit 2 flops today with AK and AQ. Remarkably similar hands, which I will post below. First session of the day I played 276 hands for $6.04 at 25max. That made 3 consecutive wins so I played the 50max this evening. I lost $16 when I correctly read my opponent but he refused to fold QQ on an A high board with a flush hitting the turn. I made a note, but didn't manage to have anything against after this hand. Aside from that, flushes managed to hit repeatedly, so loser of a session. 262 hands for a loss of $29.45--great return to 50 max.

So I have and raise it up in the CO. SB calls and we see a flop of . I bet the pot and SB calls. Turn card a and SB bets the pot into me. He has a little less than a mini raise left in his stack, so he's calling even with only 2 pair, but I sense he has QT, so I muck.

Now I have in 2nd or 3rd position. There is a bring in big blind post in MP and UTG limps in. I limp, several other players limp. Flop: . Ugh! Against all these players I don't want to build a big pot, so I just put out a probe bet and only the BB calls. Turn card and the BB bets the pot into me. He's also a short stack and commits himself with this bet. I muck.

First hand, the guy hadn't made any suspicious plays, so I thought I was beat. Second hand, I thought he didn't have the straight, but I'd invested very little and thought that there was a decent chance of him having me clocked with only a 4 outer. So it goes. I think tomorrow will be better.

In other news, it looks like Click2Pay is a viable option with Neteller pussing out. The bonuses have helped cushion these blows I've been taking recently, and I'd hate to have to eek it out on just my table win rate. I don't really know what my win rate is with the bonuses, though I suppose I could figure it out at some point. At any rate, I'm not going to clear the current bonus until next week sometime. Probably not until next weekend when I play some more 2/4 limit, though I should put a good dent in those points this weekend.

Up and down today. Played 4 sessions. 2 at 50NL and 2 at 2/4 limit. 384 hands NL for $11.25. Not much, but better than a loss. First session of 2/4 was suck out fest. Lost $51, including $10 on the last hand that I should not have, folding the flop being the clearly correct course of action. SEcond session better, delivered almost the exact same suckout as I had taken in teh first session. AA getting cracked in each on running straight cards. In my last orbit on 2 tables I picked up AKs, 77, and KK, flops were horrendous each time. I lost $10. Losing an extra $10 at the end seems to be the order of the day. Made $50.75 in the last session. So 530 hands of limit for a loss of a quarter. Time well spent!

Click2Pay is apparently not an option. I've been stressing over the Neteller mess, but I 've decided I'm just going to keep playing for the next couple weeks and see what happens. I have zero power in all this, so no need for me to expend any mental energy on it. If only I were a millionaire living in some tiny island nation. I would totally set up a new ewallet. There is a ton of cash waiting to be made on this. If all the wallets close to the US market, I would think Calvin Aire would just start a new one to keep his clientele. Hell he could split costs with the folks at PS and FTP. I think they're all in Costa Rica, officially.

Yesterday was good and terrible. I planned to play some limit per my plan to play limit on the weekends, but the 2/4 tables were not appealing and the 1/2 tables didn't look that great and had 6 people waiting on the one good table. So I played 50NL. I took a bad beat early on and got kind of pissed and started playing very aggressively. Not wild aggression, same sort of hand selection, but just aggressive with those hands. I beat the hell out of people and won half a buy in. Second session going well, I have won almost a buy in and get my AA cracked by 66 which flops a set. I called his flop push. I don't think my call was horrid, but I can fold that hand and have done so in the past. At any rate I finish up only $4 as a result.

Start my evening by looking again at the limit tables, which still suck, so again I play some NL. I get stacked early with AK when the pfr's TT hit on a . He checks this flop w/ 3 callers (which I find strange; either this guy is really good or terrible). I bet it for him and he just calls. Turn card is a non-heart 9 and he bets the pot. I don't think he has QJ. I push (I don't like my play here since the pot wasn't so large that I had to do this), he calls. Up and down on the other tables and I lose $2.55 more. So the day at NL goes badly.

I check the limit tables again. 2/4 still not too great but 3/6 looks good. Second hand of the session is posted in the limit section.
forum/viewtopic.php?p=204048#204048
I also had the good fortune of running KK into AA and some river beats. Overall, I think I played pretty well in this game, but cards fell against me. I played 170 something hands and lost $137.

Current Bankroll: $2050

Well, I pretty much did kick some 25NL ass today. 4 sessions of an hour each; 744 hands up $71.60. Winning sessions the first two loser on the third of half a buy in and made that back w/ interest on the fourth. Couple observations on play.

1. In the past few days twice I have been bet into for the minimum and after I raise the other guy raises back. On one hand he pushed in and I called thinking draw but he had a set. Today the guy just minireraised me (I hate that shit!). I folded the rockets this time. I don't recall seeing this play much before, at least not the min bet raise pattern. I've seen small bet raise plenty of times.

2. You can often tell a lot about a player by their handle. People with names like donkey, fish, or deadmoney tend to be sharks. People with names like fisherman or donkey crusher tend to be mediocre players who know just enough about the game to be easily exploited by the sharks. I also watch the chat to see who's dishing out advice on bad calls or what have you. Those guys are easy marks too.

End of observations. Big losing hand of the day, 2 limpers I have a red offsuit AK and pop 6bb's, the player to my immediate left calls, the BTN calls and both limpers call. I'm not happy. Flop comes (Does this look familiar?). Pot is $7.35 and it's checked to me, I fire $7. My plan is to bail to any resistance. Player to my left pushes in and folded to me. She's shortstacked so only 7 and change back. I'm getting roughly 4 to 1 here, pretty good pot odds. Then I remember my plan, then I remember me bitching about these decisions in last night's post. I sense she has two pair or KT. I fold, she shows an offsuit KT. I accomplished something I guess. Losing never feels all that great, but it was only one big loss today amidst a big win overall.

Happy with my play. No big mistakes. I followed my reads a lot and made some value bets on the end, all but one was correct, so that's a good sign.

I'm in kind of a foul mood. Things are not going according to plan. I cannot put together three consecutive winning sessions at 25NL, which is highly disconcerting for various reasons. One, how can I not do this? When I start thinking about this I'm lead to either simple bad luck (or variance if you don't like that word) or that I suck. Two, I feel like shit when I think about my failure to put a streak together or when I think about me floundering around down here when I was playing 100NL a month ago. Three, perhaps I suck. Yes, I might. I've made several mistakes over the past couple days. I've tried to bluff these guys off hands, when I know good and well they can't fold top pair hands. How hard is it to remember that? Anyway, I win then I lose, back and forth, back and forth and I'm basically even the last 3 days.

I played only one session yesterday (no post as I ended up playing the home game and losing $3 though I was near card dead, so small victory there). Lost $11.57. Started off well today winning just under a buy in. I then lost a big chunk of that in the next session (thx to QQ vs. KK) and finished off the evening making $1. Stats for the last two days:
913 hands
-$5.72 (oh, wait I'm worse than break even)

Okay, (I'm thinking aloud here so pardon the rambling), I can crush this level. I know this from prior experience. I've been playing a bit more loose aggressive, so this may account for the greater swings. I'll try simplifying my game, just playing ABC poker. Eh, I can't do that, so let's say ABCD poker. I have to steal some blinds and small pots. No extended bluffs, one track only. We'll see if this helps tomorrow. I'm likely only playing one or two sessions of NL before moving over to the limiit games for the weekend. Though they could suck again and then I'll play NL.

One final note. Twice today I got the minimum bet lead on the flop followed by the mini-reraise. I go from never seeign this play to seeing it several times in the past few days. Apparently it's popular at the 25NL level. It's such a schwaz play, it's probably extremely effective at getting people to put money in the pot when they're crushed. I hate min bets and mini raises and this play involves both. Bah!

Wife worked today so it was just me and the boy and that = very little poker. Played a brief session during his afternoon nap. 4 tables up at 2/4 but only 2 of them filled, I joined the more promising short handed table and it soon filled up. Got on to the other two full tables and then they fairly quickly dissipated and I said fvck it and stopped playing with a small win. 72 hands for $19. I then played some Thomas the Train with the boy and watched some Thomas along with some Sesame Street, etc. Put him down for be around 9pm and got another session in.

2/4 tables were sparse. Only 2 going and only one of them looked any good. 3/6 had 4 tables, but all of them were unappealing. 1/2 only had 2 tables up, so I looked at 0.50/1 tables and saw three with flop % over 40 and decent sized pots so I hopped on. Hadn't played this level in quite a while. They still suck. 202 hands for $22.85. I'll try and get a bit more poker in tomorrow.

Have been intending to post the following movie recommendation but always forget. The movie is "The Squid and the Whale" or something like that. Perhaps the animals are reversed, but I think I have it correct. Anyway, the movie is about a family going through a divorce, two children. Really well-written and good acting (even from the kids, which is rare as they tend to ruin movies). If you happen to be a child of divorce, I think you'll find the movie does a pretty good job of recreating the awkwardness of the whole situation for children. There is also some pretty welcome humor mixed in. Two thumbs up.

Nice recovery here at the end of the week. Hopefully I can keep this up next week.
Current Bankroll: $2205

Had to stop tonight as I could not stop thinking about the folllowing hand even a full orbit later. I have KK in the BB, UTG, UTG+1, and UTG+2 all limp, folds to SB who raises 7bbs, I call and UTG calls. Flop comes . SB fires half the pot and I.......mis-fvcking-click that shit and fold . Not a huge deal, though I was overstacked and he had me covered, so I think I was getting a stack, unless he had AA; yeah, that's what he had. What a fortunate misclick. Meh. More likely he had QQ, JJ or AK. At any rate, I could not stop berating myself, which meant that I was not in the now thinking about the cards in front of me and that spells D-O-O-M, so I bailed from the tables and called it a night.

Otherwise a deent day of cards. Played 200 hands of 25NL this afternoon for a profitable but wholly unexciting session, netting $7. Just standard small pot stuff, no one challenging me beyond the flop; just pretty boring.

Evening session a bit more lively. Reads pretty damn accurate tonight, and that tends to result in a good session. 244 hands at 50NL (cuz I won 3 in a row at 25NL, WOOT) for $30. Perhaps could have been good for $60 more or $60 less if I don't fold the Kowboys. So anyway here's the most interesting hand of the session:

I make a small mistake here by not value betting this river, though it takes some serious balls to do that, I guess. I raise UTG w/ , and only the BTN calls. Flop comes and I lead for 3/4 the pot. BTN calls. Turn card is a non-spade 3 and I bet a little over half the pot. BTN calls. River is a non-spade, I puss out and check and BTN checks w/ QJo (no spade) just chasing the OE on a 3 spade flop w/ no flush draw. He went in the note file.

I had some other interesting hands but I just can't recall them atm so just the lone hand for tonight.

Not too great today. Lost both sessions, though smallish victory even in the loss. Played a little under 600 hands today and lost $42.37, which is not so great. Dropped 30 in the first session; I'll post some hands. I was down $40+ after 200 hands in session 2 but got all that back at one point before some missed flops put me back down 12. That's one small victory. The second is that the comfortable feeling hit somewhere around 200 hands. I thought, "Yeah, I can do this. I can play. I know what I'm doing." I don't know if you've ever had that thought come over you, but its sort of like a little confidence booster from your subconscious or something like that (apologies to the pyschologists). So that felt good and stuff and then I mounted a nice comeback, before falling back slightly.

I haven't been posting many hands, so I scratched them down on some scrap paper as I played today. So first session starts off real nice. I have AA, EP raises to $2 and I pop to $7, he calls leaving himself about $12 or so, flop comes and he open pushes. I call and he shows and hits his flush.

Next hand, or perhaps 2 hands later, same guy raises $2; I have AQo and muck. Q on the flop. He and another guy play it out and he wins a medium pot with KK. Ha, take that doom switch!

Same table (I haven't rebought so sitting around 20 something), I'm in the BB with 77 and EP raises to $2, BTN calls and I call. Flop comes: and I lead $3. EP calls and BTN folds. Turn card is something. I check he bets $5 I call. River is a and I push in for $12 or so and he thinks for a bit and calls with . I think my short stack actually helped in this hand. Maybe I could have gotten more but I think he only called my push because it looked desperate.

Same table but much later. Loose player limps in MP and I raise OTB w/ JJ. He is the only caller and we see a flop of: xx one of the x's a diamond. I c-bet $4 into a $5 pot and MP check calls me. Turn a . Loose player plays any 2 suited so this is a terrible card. I check behind. River a blank. MP bets $2 into a $13 pot and I fold. He shows me , so I get outplayed here. I hate paying off flushes, but he's made it so cheap here, I think I have to call....maybe...yeah I think so.

Different table, I have 97o in the BB and have several limpers. Flop: I lead something and get one caller. Turn is a blank and I lead again for 2/3 the pot and he calls again. I have him on a flush draw here. River is a non heart K and I give him a chance to bluff his busted flush. He bets $9, which is around 3/4 pot. I call and he has an offsuit K9. Behind all the way and my read is way off. Nevertheless, I think I need to put out a bet of some kind on the river as my kicker is too weak to get fancy and induce bluffs. I put out something like a $3 bet and he raises me, well now I muck. So here's a $6 mistake and I think the above hand is a $15 mistake so, $21 in mistakes.

Failed bluff. I raise in the CO with JTo and the SB calls. SB is a bluffy player. Flop comes out K 9 rag and I c-bet it when SB checks. He now mini raises and I think he's full of it and repop. He pushes in, which is only $9 or so for me, as I'm understacked at the time (don't remember why). I figure he must have hit 2 pair afterall as he can't possibly think I'm folding for $9 more in a $37 pot and I've pretty well represented the K or better. I muck and he shows QQ. So, bad play by me here, but I think it was the right play in that situation against a bluffy player. I shut it down shortly after that hand.

Next session I get off to a bad start with some bad flops for my hands and things just not going too well, but I pick up AA or KK and some guy donates his stack to me preflop, so I'm up a bit to a $70 stack. I promptly piss that away on a steal attempt. I raise in the CO w/ and the BTN miniraises me. I decide to speculate and call. Flop comes; so a decent looking flop which I should bet, but I check and he bets $5 into a $7 pot. I call
Turn: ($17)
I check, he bets $5 and I raise to $15. He calls (crap! but I have a lot of outs here)
River: blank
I have J freaking high here, but I'm reading him here for AK with an A of clubs. I bet $20 and he calls with a set of Queens. So just roughed up badly in this one, that I should have lead folded on the flop or perhaps not steal with it.

I'm a bit shell shocked and at a different table I pick up rockets in the BB. Folds around to MP who raises $2 and I call HU. I check call a bet on the flop and turn. I'm reading him for nothing, so don't want to scare him off and am hoping he will put me in on the river as I am still half stacked at that table. He checks beind on the river with JJ. So missed out bigtime here as I could have doubled off this guy. The board was safe for JJ, no overcards. Shit pretty much sums up my feelings about how I played this one.

Shortly after I pick up AKo and guy to my right raises to $1.75 and I repop to $7 to which he pushes in. I call for about $20 more. He has JJ and I don't catch.

I rebuy and shortly after this is when the calm feeling comes over me and I settle in. Maybe all I needed was to just lose a stack. I pick up several pots here and there. Some big pairs get paid off but only by shorties and it's just small pot poker after that. One hand from the good side of things. Numerous limpers and I check in the BB with Q8o. Flop comes Q85r: ($4)
I bet $2.50 and get 2 callers.
Turn 3 ($9)
I lead for $5.50 and get only one caller. My read has him on top pair w/ a J, T, or 9 kicker, so I'm praying none of those on the river
River 2 ($20)
I lead for $11 and he calls with QJ

My reads were way off most of the day and that tends to make for a poor day at the tables. I plan to tone it down and put less pressure on my reads until they get more consistent. Part of the problem, however, is that in order to improve as a player you must put yourself in more difficult spots and learn by trial and error. I suppose I can just work on reducing the number of trials so that my sessions involve fewer errors. We shall see. I'm feeling good about my game given the way I finished tonight, so I'm hopeful about tomorrow.

I'm gonna start my post early for today and finish it up after the evening session. I played 100 hands just now and dropped $70. Here are some of the hands that helped with this.

First orbit a short stack ($10) mini raises utg, I call in MP with 66. I don't want to raise this as this may provoke shorty to push and then he gets 5 cards to bust me with his overcards or I just fold wasting that money, and by calling I can get more people into the pot for when I hit my set, increasing the chances that I will win something significant. Unfortunately on the BB calls. Flop:
They check to me and I bet $2.50, only the BB calls.
Turn:
This looks safe and I'm sensing flush draw when he checks to me again, so I bet $6 and BB calls.
River:
BB checks and I check behind in case he has a random 7. He shows an offsuit 23 for the str8

Different table first hand. I'm in the BB with and we see a flop of
I lead 75 cents into a $1.25 pot and get one caller in MP.
Turn: ($2.75)
I'm not overly excited about a 9 high flush but I'm still betting this in case he has a random single diamond. I bet $1.75 and he calls.
River is a blank ($6.25)
I would have expected a raise on the turn by a better flush and I don't think he has the nutflush since he just called the flop, so I bet $4 and he calls with

Different table, been there for a bit. I have AA in MP and player to my right raises to $2. I reraise to $7 and he pushes in. I only have $26.50 since the hand before I get proper odds and chase a combo nutflush gutterball against a likely set but don't catch. OP has me covered at $31. I call, he has KK and trips up on the flop. Saved some money here, I guess is the only nice thing I can say.

I have in the BB and see a flop of
I lead for small probe bet of $1 into a $2.50 pot and get 2 callers.
Turn:
I bet $4 and only one of them calls. I bet hoping this A scares off a better T and if someone has the A I have some outs.
River:
I either check or make a very small value bet, though I think I check and other guy either checks behind or just calls with . I remember wondering why he didn't do something on the river.

Finally, I have an offsuit AT in the CO and two MP players limp in. I raise to $3 and the second limper calls. Flop comes 676 rainbow ($7.25)
I bet $4 (I think) figuring this looks like a fairly safe flop. He calls. I check it down and he has

Add to these hands a number of others where my flop bets got raised and I had to fold second pair or just give up my steal attempt. Just real shitty this afternoon. That's 3 consecutive losers, so I'm dropping back down to 25NL this evening, though I'm not feeling like playing right now.

Okay I did play again and managed a little under half a stack win over 200 hands. I'm really tired for some reason even though it isn't that late, so bed time isn't far away. Only two notable hands really. I'm in the SB w/ and get enough limpers so that the pot is $1.60 and it's a mere 15c to me. I call and the BB checks.
Flop ($1.75)
Well, flush draw but I'm guessing I'm not going to be seeing a turn card. I check and somehow it checks around! Yeah 7 players and no one bets.
Turn:
Checks to the 6th player who bets $1.30, BTN calls and I have odds so I call. Everyone else folds.
River ($5.35)
I lead $2.50 and only the BTN calls with

Different table, I'm in MP and have KK. I raise to $1, CO calls and BB mini raises me. I reraise to $5 and only the BB calls. Flop comes out ($11)
He checks, I bet $6, he calls. I have the so I'm not worried about a suited big slick here, just AA or JJ as I don't think TT is mini raising me.
Turn ($23)
I push in for $9 and he folds

And those two hands along with some smaller pots are pretty much how I won money in the evening session.

Not a very eventful day at the tables. I have finished off another 3 consecutive win streak at 25NL so I'll be back at the 50NL tables tomorrow. I'd like to say positive things and such, but I'm just going to expect some crazy ass beat downs and maybe that will make it easier to take. Played 439 hands today and made $9.86. Yeah, pretty blah.

Somewhat eventful hands. I complete in the SB with an offsuit KT. Flop comes out T44 and shortstack raises me on the flop and he's all in on the turn for $4 or so. I call and he has 45o. Second session: short stack has 77 and mini raises. I call in the SB w/ TT and flop quads on a QTT flop. BB bets for me and everyone calls. Turn a 9 and checks to shorty who bets (cause you know, maybe his sevens are good here); I call hoping for the c/r from the other two guys but no. I put him in for $3.55 more on the river, which he, of course, calls. Shorties are generally idiots and I think I just broke even against them today.

One other interesting hand. I have QQ in MP. UTG mini raises, guy to my right (we'll call him idiot) calls, I raise to $2.25. BB (we'll call him idiot #2) calls with an A8o, UTG calls with QQ and idiot calls with . Flop comes KJT rainbow, which is not a great flop for my hand. We check around since I'm fairly sure one of them has got to have a K. Turn is a blank and idiot pushes for $3, which we all call. River is a blank and it checks around so that UTG and I split.

And that's it for notable hands. Just a lot of small pots with standard play. I'm sure I'll be back tomorrow bitching about my continued bad run at 50NL.

Well, today got off to a very pleasant start. Given my recent beatings at 50NL I just sort expected the worst. Strangely I had my biggest session ever at 50NL. 287 hands for $176.30. If you're wondering, the win rate is over 60ptbb/100 so pretty good. Second session I got back to my old beatings, but I managed to donk off half a stack so I'm actually at fault for the $20 loss.

Let's take a look at the highlights. First orbit I'm in L/MP and limp behind 2 or 3 other limpers with 88. Flop comes
BB leads into this pot for a decent amount and a MP player mini raises. I elect to just call here, which was slightly risky given the board, but it's an unraised pot so there isn't a ton out there just yet and I think if I get a safe turn I can get MP's short stack. BB calls teh mini raise.
Turn: OH HELL YES
BB checks, SB bets out kind of smallish for the pot, I push in (I think this is my first mistake of the day cause I think BB is only on the flush draw here, and I don't want to chase him out). BB calls and MP calls.
River: something
BB has Q6o and MP has AQ
Nice start to the session.

I'm in the SB with an offsuit 89 and complete w/ several limpers int eh pot.
Flop: 567r
I check, BB makes a PSB and it's folded to me. I call
Turn: Q
I check, BB bets teh pot. I call
River: 2
I check (2nd mistake, I have to bet this, but I thought he had absolutely nothing and would fire a third barrel. Because of this hand and some later hands I realized he was a pretty decent player). He checks behind with 56, so I think I could have gotten at least $10 from him betting an apparent busted draw.

I'm in the BB with an offsuit 52. Several limpers. I check and the flop comes 425r
I bet the pot, utg who limped in mini raises me. I think for a bit and reraise. He pushes in a decent sized stack. I think for a bit and call (deciding he has slowplayed AA or similar). He has 66 and doesn't catch any of his 6 outs.

Again I'm in the BB with another ratty 53o. One limper and the SB; we see a flop of: 247r ($1.50)
I bet $1 and teh SB now check raises to $3. I call thinking that if I catch the str8 I can get paid off.
Turn: 6 ($7.50)
SB checks to me; I bet $5 and he calls
River 8 (not too pleased to see this card)
I bet another $5 and he calls with 97o

So that was afternoon session. I start off the evening with some donktastic play. I call a mini raise in MP w/ A7s and the flop comes out: ($3.25)
BB checks, pfr bets teh pot. I have played with pfr before so I know this bet means he has nothing so I raise to $10. BB cold calls and pfr folds
Turn:
BB checks. BB only has $13 remaining and I decide that he just has a draw and will fold (I don't know why I thought he would cold call on just a draw, but I did... perhaps I was feeling invincible from the afternoon session?) I put him in and he calls with KQ

I'm in the SB with 77 and have a couple limpers. I complete, BB chekcs and flop comes: ($2.50)
I bet the pot and get 2 callers
Turn: ($10)
I check, first caller checks, and BTN bets $3. I call praying to fill up and bust his ass.
River
I lead for $20.50 which is the BTN's stack. He thinks for a bit and calls with .

I'm in the BB with KK. MP raises to $2, LP calls I pop to $7. MP pushes in, other guy pushes his massive $7 stack in and I call expecting to see AA, but no. MP has AQo and the shorty has A8o, not too bad, right? Flop has a Q and the river drowns my ass with an A.

Take out my donky start and this is a winning session, but alas. A good day overall. These guys better look out, cause I'm back baby!