Back to the same old loser today. I played a freeroll, which I had qualified for from signing up through pokerlistings to Bodog. I outlasted over half the field and won a massive $5, but I think that was just a bonus that everyone who plays the tourny gets. I'm too lazy to look. While I was playing that I also played a SNG and busted out in 5th. Shortstacks just wouldn't die and I couldn't win a hand late: TT<K4, AQ<33, Q9s<QJo. So not too great a start.

Was doing okay at limit, but couldn't hit a draw on the 1/2 table so lost $4.40 total for both 1/2 and 50c/1. I'm actually wining some hands here and there, which is a nice break from the past two weekends. I feel a bit better even with the losses today.

EDIT: forgot bankroll update
Current Bankroll: $3813
April: -$89

MOve upman, you are using a fish's seat!! .

NIHAN on having he month on the black again. Keepit up!

Ha! I feel like a fish right now. Ended up playing ~600 hands yesterday. I did my taxes and decided my reward should be poker rather than grading a bunch of shitty papers. I wouldn't say I ran into a bunch of coolers or anything. I was in some marginal spots and though I think I made the right plays, I didn't get the right results. Ended up losing $39.

I played all those hands because I kind of got in a groove, which felt pretty nice. I'm looking forward to playing today. Even with the losses I'm feeling a bit better about my game than I was.

I finished up 20K hands of 50NL. I'll post a graph of the carnage shortly, just have to do some work on Excel. The ptbb/100 is really quite impressive

Yeah, I ran at a wopping 2.88 ptbb/100, thanks in large part to a nice 4K downswing from hell. Enjoy.

Big slice of humble pie today. Started off making a horrible play with JJ. Stacked off on the flop; real real dumb. Just your basic donk-off. A bit later the following bit of goodness occurs.

I limp 66 MP we see a flop 5 way:
Checks to me and I pot it; 2 callers
Turn:
I'm pretty happy about this card and lead the turn sort of hoping someone will raise, but they both call
River
Puke. I check, guy bets the pot, other guy folds, I fold

That was followed by a series of hands in which I lost to shorties with the best hand going in, such as: KK vs. J2s; flop 22T. I then lost about $20 on the final hand with a limp/push holding AK utg. I limp, guy with $20 stack raises, two callers, I push in, short stack calls with KK and other guys fold. No rescue for me. Couldn't overcome the losses and finished up 128 hands losing $25.52.

Well....that made three consecutive losses of 50NL, so bankroll rule says drop a level. Humble pie it is. I wouldn't characterize my play as all that good at 25NL, but it was good enough to get the job done tonight. 275 hands for $40. Pretty much zero pressure for me at this level, but apparently I need to be here for a spell and try to get the ship turned back around.

I should change the title of the journal to "Getting My Ass Handed to Me by the Doom Switch." Really frustrating day to end a really frustrating week. There's an old saying in poker that goes something like this: When things are going right you feel like you own the game, but when things go wrong you feel like you don't have a clue what you are doing. That's how I feel right now. I can't do anything right anymore. I bet, I get raised. I check, I should have bet. I call, I should have folded or raised. Just cannot do anything right anymore and I have no confidence right now that I am playing good poker. I'm running like crap, but I know I'm not playing my A game either. If this shit continues tomorrow, I'm done for the remainder of the week.

Limit was okay all things considered. The problem was that I ran into two back door flush draws at 3/6 and ran QQ into KK. That all added up to a loser total at limit:
50c/1 375 hands $20.25
1/2 207 hands $36.15
2/4 29 hands $23.75
3/6 94 hands -$125
5/10 40 hands $0

I decided I hadn't lost enough money at limit, so I played 25NL and that went spectacularly well:
205 hands -$51.90
Highlights: KK vs. AA (did not go in my favor; stacked); KK vs. JJ vs. JTo; T on flop, T on turn (lost half a stack here). the rest of my losses came from several small and medium pots where I made the wrong decisions and/or people got lucky. I don't know of course, cause I don't know shit about this game. Seriously, never listen to my advice ever.

Current Bankroll: $3776
April: -$126

Okay day today. Donked off a partial stack with tp/tk; I could have folded it. Here are the other two big pot hands of the day.

MP raises the min, one other MP caller, SB and I call in the BB with 97o. Flop is:
Everyone checks. I checked thinking a bet would come and I could make a decision how to proceed from there closing the action.

Turn: ($2)
SB leads for the pot. This is big enough that if someone is drawing, they won't be getting correct odds, so I just call. MP (pfr) calls and the other MP guy folds.

River: ($8)
SB leads for $8. I push in for $28 or so. It looks kind of bluffy and I think SB has the 8 or a pp. I think pfr has either a horribly played AA, KK or a suited AK. He's calling with the first two a good % of the time, but he isn't calling anything with the AK. He calls. SB thinks for a bit and then calls. PFR has KK, SB has 99 and I drag a huge pot.

SEcond hand I have OTB. Two limpers and I make it $1.50. The SB (LAGTARD-ESQUE) mini-raises and folds back around to me. I push in. He thinks about 3 second and calls me with K6o. 6 on the flop. He busted out with my money a couple orbits later. I was conveniently card dead.

Just remembered a third hand. I lost $15 with AA. Took me to the river to determine I was behind, but the board was looking pretty awful. HIs river bet screamed milk, so I folded.

I raise AA UTG $1 and get 3 callers. Flop comes Q83r. I bet $3.50 and one of them mini raises. I call.

Turn card is a 9. ($11.35)
I check, he bets $7 and I call.

River T ($25.35)
I have $17 left and he covers. I check, he bets $10 and I fold. The board is looking quite awful and I don't see him betting this river with less than 2 pr. I called the turn bet and this bet is only slightly more, giving me 3 to 1, so if he wants to bluff me out it looks too weak. Hence the muck. He made a comment about pushing me off the hand, which made me think a flopped set is more likely, but maybe he backed into the straight or maybe he had nothin.

EDIT: Forgot the info for the day. I played quite a lot (for me). ~800 hands. Made ~$37

Played two sessions today. Short afternoon session in which I won $11. A bit after this session, the following thought occurred to me: "You are making this too hard. Bad runs happen, bad cards hit the turn or the river all the time. Just roll with it and play the best you can." Or something perhpas more cheesy than that.

At any rate, I had a good night, making $43. Had two big decisions, whcih is where most of this win came from. Here they are:

EP mini-raises and two people call. I have AA in the BB (first hand of the night) I raise it to $3 and EP and LP call. Flop: ($9.60)
I bet the pot, EP folds and LP calls
Turn: brick
I push in and LP calls me with A9o. I don't think this was necessarily a difficult decision for me; I was pot committed by the turn, so might as well push. If the guy hit his set, there's
nothing I can do in this hand with the pot size.

Different table, second hand at the table. MP limps first in. I have in the SB and
raise to $1.25, BB folds, and MP calls. MP has $60 stack. Flop: ($2.75)
I pot it, he calls.
Turn ($8.25)
I bet $6, he calls
River ($20.25)
I bet $6, and he pushes in. I call. I never really thought this guy had the flush, but don't have any real reason why. HIs push on the end looks like a bluff to me. I'm not representing strength on the end, so I'd expect the to just mini raise or somthing. He had .

Missed a post yesterday but only played one shortish session. Pretty well card dead until I picked up AK late against QQ in the BB. Flop came KQx. I didn't lose that much there, so in total: 174 hands -$13. Played more 50NL this afternoon and did pretty damn well. Off to a very nice start with a limp/raise UTG holding KK. Guy with a $30 something stack puts in a big raise and I pop, he pushes in with JJ and doesn't catch. Can't remember how else I got the money, but nothing too strange. 242 hands for $87.

Played some limit tonight, which went pretty well. First pass was a loser, but second pass was much better. Totals:
50c/1 77 hands -$10.30
1/2 53 hands -$8.50
2/4 188 hands $121.34
3/6 8 hands $2.50
5/10 31 hands -$24

In non-poker news, I had my interview today. Sort of good and bad. I initially felt pretty good about it, but later I realized I fugged some shit up. So anyway, another year of grad school, I guess. I should know for sure that I've been rejected by Monday.

Slight bit of good news, dissertation advisor approves of the draft of the final chapter but has recommended some changes. The changes are good suggestions, so pretty positive meeting there. I'm hoping to be finished with dissertation writing by the end of May.