I only had time for about 100 hands tonight but there were several fools at the tables. I wouldve liked to stay longer.

I picked up about $880 putting me at +$1738.75 for the day in 275 hands
Total win rate is now 5.6 BB / 100 hands
The stake is back in the black.....+$270.85.....lets I hope I can make a real push in this last week.

First 2 hands of the session. Both hands are the 1st hand at the table (different tables) Im in the BB in both hands.

#1) I have KK. Paul Wolfe limps in MP. Cutoff limps. I raise to $50. Wolfe folds and now the cutoff reraises to $120. He has a $575 stack. I dont believe he has AA but I dont want to fold him off. I call with the intention of check raising any non ace flop all in.

The pot is $260. Flop is 764 rainbow. I check and I dont even get a chance to check raise all in because he pushes in for $455 into the $260 pot. I hate this saying, but I beat him into the pot. He had AJ. The turn was a J and made me sweat but he missed. Nice first hand.

#2) Other table. UTG min raises to $20. Folded to me in the BB with AQ and I only call. The min raise UTG worries me.

Pot is $45 My worries melt away when the flop comes KJT (2 hearts though). I lead for $40 and he calls.

Pot $125. Turn is a 5. I bet $100 and he calls.

Pot is $325. River is a 4. I bet $300 and he calls. He has AA. DUH! Another moron playing these stakes.

I did make one mistake which was costly.

UTG raised to $30, a call, then I call with QQ Another caller behind me.

Pot $135. Flop is J65. UTG bets $100 (and has another $215 behind). Next guy folds, I raise to $250 and then guy behind me pushes in for $445 total. UTG calls all in.

Its $195 to me with a $1145 pot. I just couldnt see folding here the way some of these guys were playing, so I called.

UTG had AJ, but the guy behind me had JJ. I dont know if he wouldve called preflop if I had reraised. I think its 50/50.

This was at FTP and alot of guys there will overplay TPTK and things like that just like guys at $50 NL do. (as you saw here with the AJ UTG player) Ive seen alot of guys do things like push there with KJ even after I raised the flop bet, so I couldnt fold getting 6-1 but I was pretty sure I was beat.

Overall it was a very nice short session. Hopefully todays good fortune will continue. It looks so easy when you get some cards and have just a couple fools at the table.

I am not a backer but I'll bet that the backers aren't stressing your W/L as much as you are. Think about it this way, I’m sure that the advice you have given to the stackers since they started coming to this site will be worth more then the small amount they may lose by backing you. So even if you continue to run as unlucky as you have, coming to the site and meeting you will still be +EV for the backers.

BTW this journal has been a great read. I’m sure that posting your results on a day to day basis is very difficult but I think that everyone on the site enjoys reading them, so thanks.

Once again, the damned $5/$10 tables just keep breaking up (when Im lucky enough to find them open in the 1st place).

I got 100 hands in this morning before the tables broke up. +$634.75
Total win rate is now 6.1 BB / 100 hands
Stake is now +$905.60

After the tables closed, I was ready to quit so I fired up some $2/$4 (not included in staking deal)

Another by product of playing $5/$10 is that the $2/$4 seems much easier now. I won another $900 playing $2/$4

Heres a cool hand.

Button open raises to $16. Hes raised my blind the last 3 rounds. Ive defended and won each time with check raises on the flop ( I had a real hand each time but he probably doesnt think so)

So he raises to $16 and I call with [7d]

Pot is $36 . The flop comes [6h][5h]. I check, he bets $30, I check raise to $100 and he pushes all in to $410. I have him covered and call.

He has [Jc]. I thought I had a big draw but Im actually a 62% fav. The turn is a 4 and I bust him when he misses his 6 flush outs.

Are you still going by Iceman5 on FTP or have you changed? I have been watching some of that 510 game and there is some really bad play there in my opinion from what I have seen thus far.

yeah, Im still iceman5 at FTP. The play at FTP is the worst Ive seen so far for $5/$10. I only have about 750 hands there so far though.

I only got in about 75 hands tonight. The Prima table broke up and FTP was having server problems and they said to sit out or face a very possible disconnect. I was going to take a chance of being in a big hand and getting disconnected so I just left.

I won a little over $200 making the days totals 175 hands and +$843.50

Total win rate is 6.3 BB / 100 hands
Stake is +$1114.35

I had a AA vs KK hand tonight but the sucker only had $150. Damn!

There was a major fish playing at prima. He pushed all in preflop for $450 after 4 limpers with 74s. AK called and 74s won.

Few hands later, he called $50 wth J5. Preflop raiser pushed $500 all in into a $125 pot with a 953 flop and J5 called and lost.

He had $50 left and pushed with AQ. I called with KK (actually I reraised ) and finished him off.

How many hands have you played since the deal restarted? Just curious...

Ive played about 6000 since it restarted.

I played 460 this morning and couldnt get anything going. I lost about $335. I lost $500 on one hand. I called a $40 raise with [Ks]. Flop was [Qs][4s]. The guy started with $500. By the turn we were all in , but he had AQ and I missed the flush.

After the tables broke up I started playing $2/$4 and made about $600. That has been a recent theme. Im making money but the stakers are hovering around the same place. I hope I can bust out and make a nice push at the 5/10 tables the last few days here.

I feel kind of bad because Im up more money this month than ever before when you add in all the lower stakes 6 max Ive played and the $2/$4 Ive played when the $5/$10 isnt running, but the stakers are just barely in the black.

Hey Ice,

Comments From a Staker (2 Shares)

Just play out the month and let the chips fall where they may (Always wanted to say that in the context of Poker ). I don't want you to feel any pressure in the last few days and deviate from your game (could be dangerous). We all knew the risk / reward for the project and it is no surprise (especially as you are adjusting to a tougher game) that you are killing the lower limit games when you cant get table time at 5/10. I am happy with your results, especially considering the tough run you have had. All that said, good luck the next few days .

BK

Hey Iceman

You write that when you sit down at 2/4 you win every time. It sounds like you win more now at 2/4 than before you started playing 5/10. But maybe it's just some random luck / not enough hands.

So my question is: It's probably a little early to say, but do you think you have become a better poker player by moving up?

I didnt say I win every time I play 2/4 now. I have been doing very well, but I havent won every time I sit down.

I dont think theres any question that moving up has made me better though. It has forced me to concentrate more and to make certain adjustments. I may have been a bit stagnant in my game because I was doing pretty well for so long and was happy with my results so I hadnt tried anything new for a while.

Also, when you play 1/2 most of the time and then mix in some 2/4, there is a certain intimidation factor and a hesitancy to put chips in the pot because your risking twice as much money....but when you move DOWN to 2/4, the opposite effect occurs. I feel like Im dominating these guys and I push them around a bit with my chips.

Its probably much more sublte than Im making it seem. I dont make big bluffs constantly or anything like that. Alot of it just has to do with confidence to make certain moves. I have been running pretty well at 2/4 also.

Yesterday, I raised $16 with AA and got called. Flop was AK3. I bet $25 into the $38 pot and he called. Turn was a 9. I bet full pot $88 and he called. River was a brick and it looked like he really liked his hand, so I pushed in. He called me with K9. Ive had a few easy hands like that.

I didnt play at all last night. My wife was still up when I got home, so I just hung out and watched TV with her.

The stake is +$779.05

I played 23 more hands and ran into 2 sets. 1 in an unraised pot and one when I had KK. I got away fairly checply on the KK because I knew he had a set. I folded and he showed it.

23 hands...-$480

The stake is now -$281.95 for a win rate of -0.5 BB / 100 hands over a period of a little over 2 weeks. Frustration with this is at an all time high.

Total win rate at $5/$10 is 4.7 BB / 100 hands. Maybe thats going to be my true win rate. Who knows?

Im up a total of $3000 in this same period when all games are figured in, so you can see why Im frustrated with being slightly down playing $5/$10 over a 16 or so day period.

Ice
This has been on my mind the last couple days...Since you mentioned that many people make short buy-ins in the 5/10, I have been wondering if that has affected your stats...If you have 1000, and some goof has 300, the stack off equation seems somewhat skewed...
Bobby

Bobby, is there a question in there somewhere? Im not sure I understand what you mean.