Right, as requested, starting the journal again.

Had a quick 2 hour session tonight, didn't feel I was quite on the ball as I often am and at times even struggled to apply myself fully to 5 table, but think I played generally OK. Played mostly 100PLO at gaming club and stars tonight, with a short game at 200PLO (stars) in the middle.

Anyways, I managed to turn over about $40 for the session, which was OK considering I was $100 down at one point, so no complaints really. There was a lot of choice in tables today but the GC ones kept breaking and the Stars $100PLO was (at one point) almost ludicrously tight, so it was never going to be very profitable. My biggest win came as I flopped middle set and nut flush draw, I checked to a pre-flop raiser (in the hope I could check-raise) but it checked round to the turn, I hit my nut flush, bet out 1/2 pot or so, got maximum raised and then decided I'd take the risk of calling and see if I could make what would look like a blocking-type bet on the river and get a call from a lower flush. However, in the end I decided to move all in on the river and my opponent folded. In retrospect, I probably should've bet a lighter, I think my eyes got a bit greedy!

Lost out on one hand as I bet out hard on flop and turn with top set on a flush board, then made a small bet on the river in case my opponent was following with a lower set, but alas he had a 9 (?) high flush and won the pot. I suspect he may have been tilting from a hand on another table but I have no real regrets about the way I played it.

The loss that put me down was the following hand:

PokerStars Game #1196792359: Omaha Pot Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2005/02/10 - 17:14:47 (ET)
Table 'Proteus' Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: BLACKJACK6 ($58.10 in chips)
Seat 2: FelonusMonk ($100 in chips)
Seat 3: PurpleLm ($62 in chips)
Seat 4: Tom67 ($27.70 in chips)
Seat 5: BigBlueBlast ($57.35 in chips)
Seat 6: dr cobben ($77.75 in chips)
Seat 7: gaval ($98 in chips)
Seat 8: Dr.72 ($35.50 in chips)
Seat 9: COOLJCOOKIES ($185.10 in chips)
Tom67: posts small blind $0.50
BigBlueBlast: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FelonusMonk [4h Ah As Js]
dr cobben: folds
dr cobben leaves the table
gaval: calls $1
Dr.72: folds
COOLJCOOKIES: folds
BLACKJACK6: calls $1
FelonusMonk: raises $4.50 to $5.50
PurpleLm: folds
Tom67: folds
BigBlueBlast: folds
gaval: calls $4.50
BLACKJACK6: folds
*** FLOP *** [5h 6h Ts]
gaval: checks
FelonusMonk: bets $12.85
gaval: calls $12.85
*** TURN *** [5h 6h Ts]
gaval: bets $37.30
FelonusMonk: calls $37.30
*** RIVER *** [5h 6h Ts 9s]
gaval: bets $42.35 and is all-in
FelonusMonk: folds
gaval collected $110.80 from pot
gaval: shows [Qh 8h Jc Kh] (a pair of Fives)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $113.80 | Rake $3
Board [5h 6h Ts 9s 5c]

I feel we both played this hand fine on the turn and river (although if I was him I'd be worried about losing to a boat on the river, but I think his bet is probably a smart bluff considering the pot and the relative stack sizes). His flop call was loose but perhaps he didn't realise it was quite probably I had a higher flush draw. I have no complaints about how I played it. His turn lead is very good because he's representing a straight, knows I almost certainly don't have it and would likely lay down (or at least call when he has about 15-20 odd outs), but my "special feature" of course is the double flush draw, so there was no way I could fold knowing that I had 14 clean nut outs (and probably really 18 outs).

Had a few hands tonight where I gave up and checked the river to what I assumed was a chase that had connected, then been surprised when the pot was pushed my way. Sometimes it happens in poker, and actually today it saved my session as I probably picked up $100-odd of pots that I'd have folded to even a small river bet.

I made one fine lay down (albeit only in a $25 pot) when I couldve made a river crying call (he showed a winner) and one smart steal in a 5-handed pot (I normally wouldn't bluff but the board was showing a low straight possible and I had a pair of blocking cards, 66 or something, over the top of it and it had been raised preflop so it was a good percentage steal). Other than that, fairly dull session.

I'm guessing once I get my rake rebate money and free up the empire bonus (hopefully by the end of the weekend) I should have something like $500 minimum, perhaps a fair bit more, so we'll see how things go. I have the day off tomorrow but I have to take my car into the garage and get the damn bus back so whether i'll have much time to play I dunno.

Monk
xxxxx

OK, so had a short session at Empire yesterday (25PLO8) to pick up some bonuses. I made next to nothing (about 10 bucks) at the tables but at least I'm only 3 hours from the $150 bonus, so I'll probably play that out tomorrow or monday.

This afternoon I played some $100PLO and a tiny bit of PLO8 at Gaming Club and Stars. Tables were a bit looser today (although stars was pretty tight soon after I joined). The usual gaming club problem of tables breaking and getting short-handed was in evidence, but the fishiness of the play today more than made up for it. I finished basically level on my Stars PLO table, and lost about $50 at PLO8 (in mitigation I did throw $40 at a river bluff that I was fairly sure would succeed against a good player, alas he'd runner-runnered the same flush I was trying to represent!). At gaming club, however, I picked up about $180, which represents a good session for me there after I lost a few big pots in the last week. I might start playing some $200PLO next time I'm there (for some reason I've only played 100 and even 50 games at gaming club; 50 is usually below what i play unless the tables are ultra-fishy and there's nothing decent higher).

There were some interesting hands from this session, especially at gaming club, and I felt I was really on top of my game (though I folded one marginal draw that would've hit and won a big pot, and failed to bet out a draw on one flop and instead checked, allowing someone else to draw to a marginal one on the turn and bet me off mine).

The pots I won were mostly small, although some larger pots came my way. I think the biggest hand was an occasion where I was dealt AA35ss preflop. One raiser in EP, I called, and an LP player re-raised it up to about $15 or so. It came back round to me, I decided that I wanted to get heads up or get out; in retrospect I might have simply called. Anyway, I decided that (although it seemed likely the other aces were out) I raised the max, up to $70 or so. Two players called along. Flop came 46J giving me a straight draw and an overpair; the EP player bets out his last $65 and I call off mine (we both started on about $120), the LP aggressive player calls down too. Turn and river brought a 9 and a K, I was certain I was beaten here but lo and behold EP and me both split the $400-odd pot with our bare aces. This was a bit of a rollercoaster!

Most of my other decent pay-offs were due to poor play by my opponents, though I don't think I really missed a trick on a big pot. Playing at GCP and Stars is harder work than I'm used to in my previous time at Crypto, where the games are crazy and swingier but feature more poor players. The sites stopped working on my computer, however. We'll see how things go for the rest of the month. I havent played much in february and think I'll be lucky to make £1000 ($2000 or so), my usual target. So far I have about $300 having only started playing this last Thursday.

Targets for the rest of the month are fairly relaxed - I'll not be happy with less than $1000 for the month, regardless how little I play, and I'd like to play a bit more NL, perhaps I'll dabble in some SnGs on Stars now. I might have a few bits and pieces to do this month so whether I'll have time to really make a decent amount of money in the next couple of weeks is debatable. It's going OK though. If things take a downturn I may well look to reinstall the Crypto rooms after clearing my hard-drive (though that's such a fuss I really don't want to). Certainly, once my bonus is sorted on empire I'm going to put a few bucks back in UB as I have about $200 of bonus to clear there too. Absolute has taken a back seat, i have about a month to clear my last $150 bonus there but the lack of profitable tables makes it probably a bit of a waste of time.

Monthly profit so far - $270
"Real" hours played - 13/14 hours (roughly)
Approx Hourly rate - ~$19.50

Monk
xxxxx

In addition, I feel I really need to find more websites which offer good $100 and $200 PLO buyin games. Crypto certainly is one; perhaps I have to bite the bullet and just sort those sites out. They used to be great for me in terms of PLO winnings and I know the O8 games are also pretty weak now, plus I used to make about $250 bonus from them each month.

I note in my stats for 2005 so far, I am making about 30BB/100 in the bigger PLO games whilst I am actually slightly down in everything else (NL and O8, and i've played over 100 table hours of O8 and about 50 table hours of NL in various guises). I need to focus on getting some good loose PLO games going and playing O8 limit at UB (bonus clearing), as well as maybe playing some SnGs which I always do OK in.

Monk
xxxxx

OK, so I managed a quick hour and 3 quarters on sunday, in the afternoon before the BTP tourney.

Played $100 PLO at gaming club, one table of $100 PLO at stars. With so little PLO on the go at this time, I had to dip into a juicy $50 PLO game at gaming club and also a $100 PLO8 game at stars to get a full four tables going. I also picked up on a six-handed $100PLO table at gaming club partway through the session. Usually I don't like playing shorthanded because it seems to promote some very aggressive play and I usually make most of my money from loose-passive types who abound in the 10-handed games.

Had a bit of a duff start to my session, not winning a hand anywhere for about half an hour. At one stage I was nearly 100 down in total, and I lost $40 on the river in the PLO8 game at Stars against a decent player. I had a big low draw with a straight draw and top pair on the flop, and called a pot-sized raise from a player who was fairly good. Turn brought a high blank (T?), and the river brought a 9 which put a runner-runner flush out. He bet small on the river ($10 or so into a $30 pot) and I smelt a good stealing opportunity so I bumped it up another $40 on top. I assumed it was unlikely the flush had helped him and the low had missed, so I figured he might have some sort of missed draw like me but my top pair seemed unlikely to be good with a big straight showing on board. Alas, it seems he'd backed into the nut flush and raised me back so I had to lay down. On balance, I didn't think my bluff was too believable (I played quite passively and it would be hard to swallow a runner-runner flush) but I also felt he wouldn't have enough hand to call me and so it probably wasn't a bad move.

For the rest of the session I played pretty well, I picked up a lot of smaller pots in the PLO game (30's and 40's) at gaming club, which was pretty tight, though I got nowhere at Stars with my PLO table not giving up much. The shorthanded game was a problem for me, and I had a horribly cold run of cards against a couple of aggressive players which is a killer shorthanded. I ran down about $60 without seeing much of a hand in this game, and was thinking of leaving when all of a sudden a nice run of cards came (my middle set held up against a short stack for a ~$50 pot, before I picked up a nut flush against the slightly loose tall stack and was able to milk him) to finish this game about level.

I was most happy about my performance in the PLO8 game, where I recovered from my early setback to post a profit (in 2005 I am overall slightly down at O8, so it's nice to pick up some money here by playing well). No major pots to report but I did scoop a couple of decent sized pots with high-only hands, and knocked out one short stack, as well as picking up half a large pot ($200 or so) in a three-way coup (I had the nut low with a middle flush draw and a gutshot, my flush hit but someone else had K-high; luckily, the third player was playing a weedy pair with 2nd nut low and so we split his money).

Anyway, the upshot of the session was I won about $40 profit at O8 and somewhere in the $50-60 region at PLO (don't remember specifics as I'm work right now!). They may not mean a lot, but it's these small, solid sessions that can really build up, and keep your profits turning over whilst you wait for the biggies. I don't think I've won a pot over about $200 this month, but I'm very optimistic now about my chances, with my Cryptologic sites (InterPoker etc) back on, I now have an additional place to find good PLO100 games which should allow me to play 5 at once (generally there's only 1/2 at Gaming Club and 1/2 at Stars, sometimes even less, which restricts my profits somewhat). Cryptologic died on my computer a while back but the latest software update seems to work fine and so I'll be back on here. The added bonus is another $200 or so of bonuses (if I play a few sites) to add to the pending $150 at empire and the scraps I pick up at UB for the month. I'm still only looking at $1000 if I don't play much this month (having had a break for the first week) but if I put in some serious hours at Crypto in the next week and stick to the 100 and 200 PLO, $2000 is still maybe a possibility.

Monthly profit so far ~ $340
Real hours played (not incl. BTP tourney): 15-16 (roughly)
Approx hourly rate: $22

Monk
xxxxx

Tuesday....

Quick session tonight on the $25PLO8 at Empire. Not as profitable as playing the big PLO games elsewhere (of course) but it's an easy exercise in freeing the bonus, and I've made over $100 doing so (including tonight) so for the 6 hours or so it takes it's not too bad for $270-odd profit. These tables are VERY weak and have lots of poor players, although they do seem to have improved a tiny bit in the last year or so.

Oh, for those of you who don't know I don't play the decent sized games at empire/party because I hate the place and have always struggled with the craziness, variance, and tiny stacks there.

Anyways, tonight I've made about $90 in just under 2 hours of 4-tabling these PLO8 games, which is solid enough. A few big hands came my way, the most memorable being when I had AA56ss, not a monster I grant you so I limped in EP and the MP guy with about $70 who was the LAGgiest fish in the history of all things made the full raise to $3 and got about 4 callers. Coming back to me and I figure my hand has little chance in a multi-way pot of scooping, but I must be favourite vs Mr Maniac (he could literally have any 4 and won't fold them), and a full pot raise will likely push nearly everyone out (even if not, I am still probably +ve EV to play out a 3-handed pot). I wouldn't do this if I couldnt get at least 2/3 of my stack in, but here I can easily bump it to about $20 with only $28 in hand, maniac moved over the top of me, everyone else folds except one $20-odd stack (that wasn't in the plan!) and I call of course. The board looks horrible but features no low and both players had A24-type wheel hands. I was a farily solid favourite for high, although in the 3-handed pot i didn't actually have much more than 1/3 of the equity. Still, I took it down and stacked a nice $75 pot.

Other than that I played quite loose (really just to keep my interest up in the game) but I feel the weakness of these tables allows me leeway to play more hands profitably. To be honest playing this style I'm likely not making the best out of my time here, but it's fun and a nice relaxing change of pace when you're used to games that are 10 times this size. On a slightly more comical note, I am only just under 10BB/100 on these tables during the bonus (though admittedly that's only 1050 hands).

Anyways, rack up another $90 plus the $150 bonus tonight.

Monthly profit so far ~ $590
Real hours played: Roughly 18
Approx hourly rate: $33

My general aim is around $40/hr for the year so I'm doing fairly well this month considering some times i have been "multitasking" with non-poker things (thus playing less tables) and also playing some non-optimal games for me. Now I am back on Crypto as well as stars and gaming club i will always be able to find some decent PLO games at 100 and 200 somewhere so that should push my earnings up, long-term, when i play my regular games.

Monk
xxxxx

Hey there,

Played about 30 mins of PLO8 tonight and made about 6 bucks in that period. I'm tired and a bit full of cold so I don't think I'm going for a major session tonight. I might look in on a 2-hour session tomorrow if I find the time, though I am going out with some friends to see a film in the evening. Might take the day off work if this cold doesn't improve a little.

Anyways, had some more good news yesterday as some old rake rebate from empire came through, another $150 "extra" to add to my monthly money, though not strictly "directly" from the table I decided to include it to bump up the monthly total seeing as I took the first week off.

Monthly profit so far ~ $745
Real hours played: Errrrr 19 or so
Approx hourly rate: $39

Been a good week. My minimum target for this (likely quiet) month was $1k and I think I should break that now. It depends how much chance I get to play, but I'm hoping to grab another $2k month (~£1k) if I can get another 2 weeks with a reasonable amount of play. Will be concentrating solely on $100 and $200 PLO now at Interpoker (where I have a $90 bonus to come) Stars and Gaming Club.

Monk
xxxxx

Nice job man. Keep it coming.

Well, today was a bit of a nightmare. Played fine again I think, but the river was a cruel mistress and I found myself (at one point) lagging behind pretty horribly by about 1/3 of my monthly winnings, although I brought it back to about $130 deficit by the end of the day, and with a $90 interpoker bonus pending the damage shouldn't be too great.

I played on after some pretty nasty hits because I felt I was playing well and (for once) I wasn't throwing things around my room as a result of the river cards. When the table is loose and there's a lot of big pots flying around, I take beats in my stride very easily. The times they really upset my karma are when I wait for 2 hours for a hand only to have it stolen from my grasp.

Anyways, onto the day... I had a bit of a cold so decided to take the day off work (I could've gone in but again I was a bit knackered and thought I could use the time at home, so...) and put the poker up for a four hour session this afternoon. Was happy to see that I could indeed find 5 playable PLO 100 tables on gaming club, stars and interpoker, so I settled down for a long session. I noted that, when I come in, the average pot for the PLO8 100 table at Inter was about 80 bucks, so I decided to take a stab at that for a while and play four PLO100 tables alongside it.

Won a nice early pot when my AA held up (I flopped an open ender and an overpair to a 9T5 flop, got it all in against a short-stack who had top two and hit the 5 on the river to win it; it's not advisable to get all your money in here against someone who can make a meaningful raise, but his last bet into the pot was $30 into a $90 pot so I had odds to make the play quite easily). However, I then picked up a turned straight, I cleverly set the trap by check-raising it (pot was small) and got called down by my favourite goon. River paired the board, damn. He had bet weakly on the turn, suggesting he had turned a draw, so i probably should've thought about folding to his $45 bet when I checked to him, but with $65 in the middle already I decided that I only needed to be winning 30% of the time to make it a good look down and made the call. Had he been a better player, or bet the full pot, i'd not have called. The deciding factor was the flush draw present on the flop. I figured he might've been building a pot on the turn with a flush draw and then bet when it busted and I checked. Alas he had two pair (4's and 2's) and caught the third 4 on the river to boat up. In mitigation, he also had a straight draw on the turn but was still very suspect to call my maximum re-raise with only 7 outs (I also had a low flush draw). So back level again.

I lost another marginal one and then this horror came along that cost me a big pot... The worst thing was the idiot then left the table two hands later so I had no chance to get it back. In case you're wondering I called the river (and the flop) because he had been betting crap all day and it was hard to put him on a hand. On the river it was 45 more to me with over 250 in the pot, so I couldn't really fold to such a poor player. He got very very lucky, quit up. Four outer here for such a collosal pot was a nightmare though. Still, with these idiots around I know I'm going to tear someone a new A in one of these pots very soon...

------HAND 1------
Game #360512384: Omaha High Pot Limit ($0.50/$1) - 2005/02/16 - 10:52:05 (EST)
Table "Bindweed" Seat 8 is the button.
Seat 1: Riggy1 ($455 in chips)
Seat 2: A12tel ($39 in chips)
Seat 3: ic7172 ($31.50 in chips)
Seat 4: AaronBKK ($40.50 in chips)
Seat 5: HERO ($123.50 in chips)
Seat 7: kid444 ($23.75 in chips)
Seat 8: nuser1 ($93.25 in chips)
Seat 9: motion ($40.43 in chips)
Seat 10: ziguri ($81 in chips)
motion: posts small blind $0.50
ziguri: posts big blind $1
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to HERO [9c Ac 4d Qh]
Riggy1: calls $1
A12tel: calls $1
ic7172: calls $1
AaronBKK: folds
HERO: calls $1
kid444: folds
nuser1: folds
motion: calls $0.50
ziguri: checks
----- FLOP ----- [Js Th 6c]
motion: checks
ziguri: checks
Riggy1: bets $6
A12tel: folds
ic7172: folds
HERO: calls $6
motion: folds
ziguri: folds
----- TURN ----- [Js Th 6c][Kh]
Riggy1: bets $18
HERO: raises to $72
Riggy1: calls $54
----- RIVER ----- [Js Th 6c Kh][Jd]
Riggy1: bets $162
HERO: is all-in $44.50
Returned uncalled bets $117.50 to Riggy1
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Riggy1: shows [2d Jh Ks Qs] (A Full House, Jacks full of Kings)
HERO: shows [9c Ac 4d Qh] (A Straight, Ace high)
Riggy1 collected $248 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $251 Main pot $248 Rake $3
Board [Js Th 6c Kh Jd]
Seat 1: Riggy1 showed [2d Jh Ks Qs] and won ($248) with A Full House, Jacks full of Kings

Anyway, it took a while to recover from losing $125 to a one in ten shot, but worse was to come as my cards went cold, I paid off an idiot drawing to a straight (I had a lower straight on the river and should've saved the last $20 but again the pot was $90 so I found it tough to fold).

Gaming club saved me a bit, as I found myself making decent headway there. I found myself up against one bizarre opponent who TWICE failed to raise a nut hand (he had top boat, I bet into him and he just called on the river, last to act, and then he had top set on the flop with action everywhere and only called; incidentally, had he raised I would've called... his call suggested he had the same straight draw as me, so I folded what would've won about $200 pot for a $35 bet). Anyways, I played great there again and finished up to the tune of $120 despite losing a couple of early ones.

At stars the action was rather tight though I did win one decent pot when my very vulnerable straight held up to the river with me betting all the way and capturing a short stack on a draw. Finished up about $10 there.

The worst hit of the night though, for my psychological wellbeing, came in the PLO8 game at inter. I have been struggling at PLO8 all this year and so far, net, I'm down. This horror sesssion didn't help. There were a lot of loose idiots making odd preflop raises and betting all manner of crap, but I didnt see much of a hand and when I called the flop usually missed. I found one decent flop (top trips with a 2nd nut low draw) but laid it down to a bet and a raise, figuring I was probably beat for high by a boat and might be drawing thin otherwise. Anyways, I had to make three rebuys of $20 or so after not seeing anything. I stayed patient though, and waited for my spot. When my spot came, however, I got horribly crapped on by the deal again...

Anyway, here's the hand. See what you make of it. I got my money in on the flop three-handed with dead money on board when I held 60% of the equity in the pot and a $300 pot to scoop. Other than two running high cards that made a flush and didnt pair each other (very very unlikely), the ONLY way I wasn't getting at least my money back here was if a deuce hit the board. Three of the bastards left in the deck and one just HAD to hit lol. No, I have no idea what the gimp with the garbage straight draw had either. Both players had been LAG idiots so far so I had no reason to suspect my 2nd set wasn't good for high, so I figured the last call was fairly easy. To be honest I would've made it against a good player because that board has draws from here to eternity. Too bad the only one that hit was the one that killed me both ways....

------HAND 5------
Game #360656164: Omaha High/Low Pot Limit ($0.50/$1) - 2005/02/16 - 11:39:45 (EST)
Table "Gulfport" Seat 9 is the button.
Seat 1: lee h ($99 in chips)
Seat 2: Unclear ($18.50 in chips)
Seat 3: Firtou ($101.25 in chips)
Seat 4: HERO($80.75 in chips)
Seat 5: Grossebum ($79 in chips)
Seat 6: Cant17091 ($99 in chips)
Seat 7: Gpss709 ($151 in chips)
Seat 8: mickm ($48.25 in chips)
Seat 9: bechtold ($84.74 in chips)
Seat 10: Makaveli8 sits out
lee h: posts small blind $0.50
Unclear: posts big blind $1
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to HERO [Ah 5d 5c 2s]
Firtou: calls $1
HERO: calls $1
Grossebum: raises to $2
Cant17091: calls $2
Gpss709: calls $2
mickm: folds
bechtold: calls $2
lee h: calls $1.50
Unclear: calls $1
Firtou: calls $1
HERO: calls $1
----- FLOP ----- [Ts 4d 5s]
lee h: checks
Unclear: checks
Firtou: checks
HERO: checks
Grossebum: bets $16
Cant17091: calls $16
Gpss709: calls $16
bechtold: folds
lee h: folds
Unclear: folds
Firtou: raises to $96
HERO: is all-in $78.75
Grossebum: is all-in $61
Cant17091: folds
Makaveli8 sits back
Gpss709: folds
Returned uncalled bets $17.25 to Firtou
----- TURN ----- [Ts 4d 5s][Jc]
----- RIVER ----- [Ts 4d 5s Jc][2c]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Firtou: shows [As 3d 6h Qs] (A Straight, Six high)
HERO: shows [Ah 5d 5c 2s] (Three of a kind, Fives, Jack high)
Grossebum: shows [8c 3h 6c 7s] (A Straight, Six high)
Firtou collected $1.75 from Side pot #1
Firtou collected $1.75 from Side pot #1
Firtou collected $138 from Main pot
Firtou collected $69 from Main pot
Grossebum collected $69 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $282.50 Main pot $276 Side pot #1 $3.50 | Rake $3
Board [Ts 4d 5s Jc 2c]
Seat 1: lee h (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: Unclear (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: Firtou showed [As 3d 6h Qs] and won ($210.50) with HI: A Straight, Six high; LO: 5,4,3,2,A
Seat 4: HERO lost
Seat 5: Grossebum showed [8c 3h 6c 7s] and won ($69) with HI: A Straight, Six high
Seat 6: Cant17091 folded on the Flop

As for the pots I won, well, I picked up enough at Interpoker to sustain "only" a $250 loss overall (which, given the two hands I played out here plus another 2 or 3 bad rivers, was reasonable enough). Nothing big to report (I don't think I won a pot where I doubled through at any point today, but I cleared a few short-stacks out and picked up a few in the $150-range with $80-odd to me) and no big plays I put on anyone. Basically played ABC and didn't make too many mistakes. I feel my play was not quite A-level today, having paid off a few too many rivers and maybe made a couple of bets I shouldn't have into big fields, I also made one close fold on the flop with a draw (I described earlier) when I could've won a biggie with the absolute nut straight hitting on turn then river.

Anyway, $130 loss for nearly 4 hours play has hurt a bit, but I guess I can point to the bad hands and say that that's why I lost. Next time maybe they'll hold up and I'll be a rich man. Going to get some serious hours in this week and see if I can push the monthly numbers up a bit. Once I clear the Inter bonus I should be back on track, a couple of big PLO hands wouldn't hurt either!

Most worrying is my terrible run at O8. I am beginning to lose a bit of confidence in this game, having not seen a big scooping hand all month. I know it's just a bad run, but on the other hand I seem to be leaking a lot of money without winning any pots. Perhaps I'm playing too tightly, though it certainly doesn't seem that way. Oh well, will stick with PLO high and maybe take a look at limit O8 on UB as a change of pace sometime soon.

Montly profit so far: ~$610
Hours played: 22 or so
Approx hourly rate: $27

Monthly numbers still dont look terrible but I really wanted a big day today oh well.

Monk
xxxxx

Well, I had the day off work again and got my teeth into a REALLY good day, best of the month so far. I managed to get a couple of sessions in, each just shy of 3 hours. As per usual, I hit up 5 tables (I actually played 6 in my second session because the PLO games at interpoker and gaming club consisted of 6 weak tables, without me even needing to look at Stars, so I decided to play ABC and take a serious multi-tabling option). It was $100PLO all the way; the 200 games have been good to me this year but in the last few days I've been enjoying the 100s and so whilst I'm running good I see no need to swap around. I didn't bother looking at any O8 games today, PLO is easily my best earner so whilst I am happy to play those tables I might as well make the money.

Had some frustrations today with suckouts, but in a 5 or 6 hour day of playing multiple PLO tables that's par for the course. Tonight the standard of play was VERY bad (I played in the afternoon, where I made 2/3s of my money for the day, with slightly less crazy play), and I got several big hands where people chased me with very little (although I did lose to a few dodgy drawouts, there weren't any really bad beats at all today so I think I can say overall I had a lucky day). I had a few pieces of major luck when I made a bet on a bluff or semi-bluff, got called, and then hit one of my very thin outs for a winner. On one occasion I took an opponents stack when I limped with AAxx, flop came 445, I bet out, he called (it turned out with 45) and I caught an A on the turn. He then proceeded to give me his stack when he could easily have ended it on the flop. Far too greedy, slow-playing a low one like that.

My big hands of the evening came as I picked up AQJT suited in spades to the king, and found a nice 89T flop with two spades. I checked on a loose table, two small stacks moved all in, one guy with about $90 called, I raised and he moved all in. He also had the nut straight with a lower spade redraw, and thankfully my spade hit the turn for a $230 pot. I also found a nice one as I called a large preflop raise in the SB with TTJQds at gaming club, the flop brought KT4 rainbow, I decided to bet out with my second set and straight draw against the raiser (who was short) and one guy who had a similar stack to my $120. The larger of the two stacks called, and I assumed my tens were good (though you never know with some passive players here). An 8 on the turn put out a possible flush draw and I pushed in the rest of my chips. The flush hit but fortunately he didn't have it and my middle set held up. Pot was about $260.

I had a couple of tough decisions, most notably two close calls with drawing hands when I knew I was behind but my opponent offered me almost exact odds to draw... In both cases I feel I perhaps should've folded (the first hand I let the timer click down and was on the verge of folding when for some reason I decided to call...) but they were both close to neutral EV so I guess I erred on the side of gambling; I managed to lay down a few marginal ones pretty well today but this couple were not so easy to drop;

------HAND 1------
Game #364618164: Omaha High Pot Limit ($0.50/$1) - 2005/02/17 - 11:47:21 (EST)
Table "Bindweed" Seat 10 is the button.
Seat 1: L10YDIE sits out
Seat 3: Husey1910 ($147 in chips)
Seat 4: HERO ($160.50 in chips)
Seat 5: Jackal2 ($177 in chips)
Seat 6: Robbridge ($89.13 in chips)
Seat 7: CalvinK ($20 in chips)
Seat 8: Muncher01 ($101.50 in chips)
Seat 9: karma ($80.50 in chips)
Seat 10: socola ($163 in chips)
Husey1910: posts big blind $1
CalvinK: posts big blind $1
Muncher01: posts big blind $1 + posts small blind $0.50
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to HERO [Jh Kd 6s Kc]
HERO: calls $1
Jackal2: calls $1
Robbridge: calls $1
CalvinK: checks
Muncher01: checks
karma: calls $1
socola: calls $1
Husey1910: checks
----- FLOP ----- [8s 9c Kh]
Husey1910: checks
HERO: checks
Jackal2: bets $8.50
Robbridge: calls $8.50
CalvinK: calls $8.50
samuel003 joins the table at seat #2
Muncher01: folds
karma: folds
socola: folds
Husey1910: folds
HERO: raises to $51
kingchris joins the table at seat #1
Jackal2: calls $42.50
Robbridge: folds
Robbridge sits out
CalvinK: is all-in $10.50
----- TURN ----- [8s 9c Kh][7h]
Robbridge sits back
HERO: checks
Jackal2: bets $76
HERO: calls $76
----- RIVER ----- [8s 9c Kh 7h][Ad]
HERO: checks
Jackal2: bets $35
HERO: folds
Returned uncalled bets $35 to Jackal2
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Jackal2: shows [Tc Js 7c 7s] (A Straight, Jack high)
CalvinK: shows [Jc 5s As Ts] (A Straight, Jack high)
Jackal2 collected $216 from Side pot #1
Jackal2 collected $35.50 from Main pot
CalvinK collected $35.50 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $290 Main pot $71 Side pot #1 $216 | Rake $3
Board [8s 9c Kh 7h Ad]
Seat 3: Husey1910 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: HERO folded on the River
Seat 5: Jackal2 showed [Tc Js 7c 7s] and won ($251.50) with A Straight, Jack high
Seat 6: Robbridge folded on the Flop
Seat 7: CalvinK (big blind) showed [Jc 5s As Ts] and won ($35.50) with A Straight, Jack high
Seat 8: Muncher01 (big blind + small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 9: karma folded on the Flop
Seat 10: socola (button) folded on the Flop

*********** # 1 **************
PokerStars Game #1229136482: Omaha Pot Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2005/02/17 - 11:20:18 (ET)
Table 'T #12120382' Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: jostheboss ($60 in chips)
Seat 2: pasadena1 ($53.60 in chips)
Seat 3: Babylon29 ($30.50 in chips)
Seat 4: starknaked ($184.65 in chips)
Seat 5: Ettan ($96.10 in chips)
Seat 7: heinze50 ($11.80 in chips)
Seat 8: Full House12 ($122.50 in chips)
Seat 9: FelonusMonk ($93.50 in chips)
starknaked: posts small blind $0.50
Ettan: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FelonusMonk [6c 8h Ah 4h]
heinze50: folds
Full House12: calls $1
FelonusMonk: calls $1
jostheboss: calls $1
pasadena1: calls $1
Babylon29: folds
starknaked: calls $0.50
Ettan: checks
*** FLOP *** [9h 7s Th]
starknaked: checks
Ettan: checks
Full House12: bets $4
FelonusMonk: raises $6 to $10
jostheboss: folds
pasadena1: folds
starknaked: calls $10
Ettan: folds
Full House12: calls $6
*** TURN *** [9h 7s Th]
starknaked: checks
Tom67 has returned
Full House12: checks
FelonusMonk: bets $25
starknaked: raises $51 to $76
Full House12: calls $76
FelonusMonk: calls $51
*** RIVER *** [9h 7s Th 6s]
starknaked: bets $41
FelonusMonk said, "damn "
Full House12: folds
FelonusMonk said, "had just enough to call but not enough to win lol"
FelonusMonk: calls $6.50 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
starknaked: shows [8s 7h Qs Jd] (a straight, Seven to Jack)
FelonusMonk: mucks hand
starknaked collected $274 from pot

In this next hand I also won a decent pot, though my call on the turn was troublesome... he was representing trip aces and I HATE drawing dead, but I really couldn't lay down to that... the guy who made the bet was a very loose semi-maniac anyhow so that basically made up my mind very easily. This hand kept from a big losing day at stars; as it was I finished down about $20.

*********** # 1 **************
PokerStars Game #1229255511: Omaha Pot Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2005/02/17 - 12:09:02 (ET)
Table 'T #12120382' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: dans macabre ($98.50 in chips)
Seat 2: moh56 ($40.05 in chips)
Seat 4: starknaked ($229.20 in chips)
Seat 6: Tom67 ($75.50 in chips)
Seat 8: Full House12 ($210.20 in chips)
Seat 9: FelonusMonk ($96.85 in chips)
moh56: posts small blind $0.50
XXCKXX leaves the table
starknaked: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FelonusMonk [5d Jh Qd Jd]
Tom67: folds
Full House12: calls $1
FelonusMonk: calls $1
dans macabre: folds
moh56: raises $1 to $2
Tom67 leaves the table
starknaked: calls $1
Full House12: calls $1
FelonusMonk: calls $1
*** FLOP *** [9c Js 4s]
moh56: bets $4
starknaked: calls $4
Full House12: calls $4
XXCKXX joins the table at seat #5
FelonusMonk: raises $23.60 to $27.60
moh56: calls $23.60
starknaked: folds
Full House12: calls $23.60
*** TURN *** [9c Js 4s]
moh56: checks
Full House12: bets $76
FelonusMonk: calls $67.25 and is all-in
moh56: calls $10.45 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [9c Js 4s Ah]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Full House12: shows [3s Qs 4h 5h] (two pair, Nines and Fours)
FelonusMonk: shows [5d Jh Qd Jd] (a full house, Jacks full of Nines)
FelonusMonk collected $113.60 from side pot
Zonett joins the table at seat #7
moh56: mucks hand
FelonusMonk collected $123.15 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $239.75 Main pot $123.15. Side pot $113.60. | Rake $3
Board [9c Js 4s Ah 9h]
Seat 1: dans macabre (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: moh56 (small blind) mucked [Kd Ac Td 8d]
Seat 4: starknaked (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: Tom67 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Full House12 showed [3s Qs 4h 5h] and lost with two pair, Nines and Fours
Seat 9: FelonusMonk showed [5d Jh Qd Jd] and won ($236.75) with a full house, Jacks full of Nines

Anyhow, as I say, a very nice day! Not often I pick up over $500 in a day so today was a good one!

Winnings - $675 (including $90 interpoker bonus). Very nice, best part of $700 is a cracking day for me, any time you make a week's wages in one day of occasional poker play it's very pleasing!

Monthly winnings so far: $1290
"Real" Hours played: 28 (maybe a bit under actually, who's counting eh?)
Approx hourly rate: $46

This is great news. My yearly hope is that I can win $40 per hour. I have no doubt that if I can stick at PLO, keep these three sites running with the good games on offer, and keep picking up bonuses, I can achieve that easily. Of course, if I play other games for a change my winnings will not look so healthy but I reckon my enjoyment of PLO is such that i'll spend most of my time there. If I move back to my usual $200 tables soon I think $40 could even be an underestimate. As it is, a year of solid hourly rate around this level or more and I could be considering my options in 2006 with regard to turning pro. I think I would like the hourly rate to be in excess of $50 and to have some other income and savings before I consider that. Anyways, here's to a good day! Cheers!

Any comments guys? I'm feeling lonely in this journal (sniff...)

Monk
xxxxx

Well, you know I'm reading along - especially now that you've eclipsed my wonderful performance thus far...

In any case, in that second loss hand that you showed (2nd nut straight from the flop on) - I'm really curious why you would play that in that way. First of all, I realize you have the nut flush redraw - which is big - but the fact of the matter is you must be pretty sure you are behind. However, the bigger problem I have with it is the A468 suited to the ace doesn't seem strong enough of a hand in early/mid position with only one limper ahead of you. This actually relates to the argument that I posted a few days ago (Axxx suited). Now I'm really curious about your opinions with regard to it.

But no need to rain on your parade - great day! I'm hoping Sunday will be a great day for me - but that will only be known sometime after 4:30pm my time...

/d

I will take you through my thinking on that hand, step by step.

Preflop: A468ss to the ace is a much better hand than it looks. I'd rather have this thatn, say, AJT3 suited to the ace as it makes more straights and they tend to be better disguised. I raise hands like A678ds from most positions because they're really well-hidden hands against good players; hit a flop hard with low cards and you often get paid off. In this case I had a larger than normal stack and good implied odds. You thinking might be coloured slightly by O8, where the disadvantages of playing a bad hand are far greater. In a loose-passive PLO game you can play the top 30-40% of hands quite comfortably without it being much of a leak, if you play them well post-flop. of course, here I didn't do too well post flop lol! In any case, I have no problem with this call and I think this hand is eminently playable. There are a lot of ways to flop a decent draw with this hand, which is what we want. It's not massively worse than, say, A789ss, which is a hand I would call a raise with in most situations.

Flop: The guy who lead was, plain and simple, an aggressive and fairly clueless fish. He could have anything from an overpair to a straight, but his bet means very little. If I merely call, everyone will come along for the ride. For the price of a small raise, I can separate the wheat from the chaff, and possibly win position. Most players with a nut straight will raise me back, but I could lose people with the same straight as me, or, even better, get it heads up with the weak player. 8J is required for the nut straight, and although it's only a limped flop, this would be a less usual holding than, say, TJ. Again, I don't think this is such a bad play. I am fairly sure I'm ahead or tying for high when two players only call with a flush draw present.

Turn: Once more it's checked to me. I suspect that this card means someone is now tying with me, at least, but there's still no aggression from either and I have a nice redraw to the flush. I decide to bet when both check to me, because I don't want anyone drawing to a garbage spade flush or something like two pair. In retrospect I should perhaps have considered checking, but don't forget that so far I am the only one to take any reasonable action (the fishy fella doesn't really count; he would've gone crazy if he had a big hand) so there's no reason to suspect that I'm behind and I don't really want to give a freecard.

However, then the SB re-raises me. I have clearly misjudged the situation. So I have the second nut straight and a nut flush draw. His re-raise suggests he has the nuts, but why didn't he raise on the flop? I am slightly concerned that he might've just hit the same straight as me on the turn and thinks he's good (in retrospect this was a bad read because the player was good and the sort who MIGHT play a straight cautiously with this board (unlike most average players who raise that flop), at the time I wasn't 100% sure of this and in retrospect that's obviously my fault and a bad read; one of the problems of multitabling). Anyways, given my read and the play up to this point, I break it down... The MP player doesn't have the nut straight. The SB might do. If he does, I'm thinking a flush will be good to win even if it pairs the board (Though I can't be certain) so I give myself maybe 7/8 outs or so. I hit the flush about 20% of the time. Perhaps it's less if someone else is drawing to a similar hand (very possible from MP) so we'll say I win with the flush 15-20% of the time. It's $50 to me in a pot that's already over $250 if I call, so I'm getting paid slightly better than 4-1 (20%) on the pot odds. The call is a close one though it's slightly -ve EV I would say (perhaps only a few bucks on my $50 call, however). I should fold, but it's a terrible call. However, what swayed me was that the SB hadn't bet or raised on the flop, so I thought it was just possible (maybe 10-20% of the time) that he had a similar straight to me; perhaps he check-raised the turn because he picked up a spade redraw too, maybe he has some wrap hand that's given him 2 pair with the 2nd nut straight and a spade redraw. All this was going through my mind (I knew the flush call was just about good, but a little -ve EV) and in the time I had to make the play, I went for the call. Sometimes I just like to gamble, lol. Had he raised the flop as most players would, I'd have folded there and then. I thought that the odds to make my flush, plus the small size of the raise, plus the small (wrongly assumed) possibility he has the same straight as me made it a playable call. In retrospect I should've mucked, I also don't know what MP has and surely (even though he was very poor) he must have something that impinges on my hand. I would surmise my total EV on the call is slightly less than 20% of the chips in the pot (given my chances of hitting the flush + my chances of tying with SB for the straight) and I am putting in about 20% of the chips, with no implied odds. So, in summary, it was a slightly weak call but in EV terms it was not a major disaster.

River: Well of course I have to call for 7 bucks into such a huge pot.

Anyway, sometimes in the heat of the action it's tough to define what side of the +ve/-ve boundary you're on when drawing in a marginal spot. I tend to err on the side of being overly loose if anything, as I have the BR to cope with large fluctuations. In this case though, I think it's fairly clear I made an error in this hand. I'll know better next time, and at least now I have some notes on the guy who caught me with his straight so it wasn't a complete dead loss. In the great scheme of things, these small errors don't add up to much in a game of omaha. It's the really horrible ones where you put your money in when dominated that you have to watch out for. If you lose a few EV$ here and there making badly figured calls, it won't kill you, but calling to catch losing draws (i.e. non-nut ones) and making incorrect plays on the flop which set you up for a fall are the big leaks for most players. Thankfully that's not a problem for me at this point, so hopefully the money will keep flowing

Revised monthly target... Well, I hope I can pass £1000 (about $2000) again, which would be a great total given that I missed the whole of the first week of February. I intend to put in some hours this weekend, so watch this space.

Monk
xxxxx

I can see your point - and this is why I haven't played much Omaha High only (and personally - I think its an inferior game... but hey, that's just me trying to get a rise out of others

In any case, I agree that on the turn you are in the worst situation - and truth be told it is a lot closer than I thought it would be. His play reminds me specifically of the nut straight with a slight possibility of the same straight with a smaller flush redraw. I'd estimate you've got your flush outs as well (and not worry too much about the board pairing) - but I'd say it is less than a 10% chance that he's got the same straight as you.

/d

Depends on your definition of inferior, Star... Personally, I play poker (primarily) to win money, and PLO high is the best and easiest game in which to do that, with the right table and site selection. So to me it's the best game there is; it's also interesting, filled with nuances and action-packed, I think that makes it a game for everyone, really (especially the fish, if they want to play at my table!).

Anyway, quick entry for today.... Was going to go out for a drink this evening but in the end I had a few beers and some wine with my dinner and missed the bus into town, so I settled for watching a music video and then a quick session of PLO. I played some £100 PLO (basically $200) at interpoker, together with some 100 games at gaming club and stars. My average run at stars continued (i've just cashed out $3000, coincidence???) as I dropped $30 there, but I won back all of that at Interpoker (in a frustrating session - won a couple of decent hands but a long dry spell and some fishy players doing unpredictable things cost me somewhat; still, I shan't complain about fish playing sub-optimally, even though it cost me money tonight, it lines my pockets in the long run...) and Gaming Club, where one early hand put me about $75 up and I retained that for the rest of the evening.

The GCP table was filled with good players, who spent the rest of the night educating anyone who deigned to make a bad move. Utterly unbelievable, there were 3 of them talking all along, giving commentary on every hand, doubtless having a whale of a time, and passing money back and forth across the table whilst basically killing all the action of any loose player who was reading and paying any attention. I was going to say something like "boy, you guys sure know how to get a juicey game going", but why bother. Some idiots will never learn. You can be the best player in the world but you still won't make as money as the guy that all the newbies want to play with. I am keeping as low a profile as possible so far at gaming club, the range of players is very small (there's a number of regulars who i seem to literally play every time) and with no opportunity to change name I want to stay in the shadows as long as possible and not reveal my hand as a knowledgeable player (which has been to my detriment elsewhere). This was primarily why I didn't verbally tear these guys a new asshole tonight, but believe me I wanted to. When they started laughing at a dude with $300 when he called a Q high flush draw for a pot sized raise (all the table twat-captains had $!50 or more, btw) I wanted to punch somebody, preferably one of them. Such is life, however, and I feel I had the last laugh when I was able to confidently put the second twattiest of the trio on a top set and push him off his hand with 9 high when a straightening card fell on the turn, knowing he wouldn't chase his boat. Ha, eat that you smartarse muppet.

Anyways, pretty dull session, up $70 in just over 2 hours.

Monthly winnings so far: $1360
"Real" Hours played: 30ish
Approx hourly rate: $45

Broken £700 in 30 hours. Good going. £1000 (a bit under $2000) is an average/decent month for me, so to get nearly 3/4 of the way there in less than a working week is good stuff. Hopefully I will add some more chips to my stack this weekend...

Monk
xxxxx

Well it's been a strange old afternoon. The usual saturday silly season is upon us, and although I really should be tidying the house I ended up having a late start to the day, talking to TUP on msn for about an hour leading up to his new poker class, taking a late bath and settling in for a session of online poker!

I found out last night that Ritz Club are still giving their monthly bonus (£25 for first 5 hours played in the month) so seeing as they play the same tables as interpoker I went through that portal to get to the crypto plo. I also hooked up a $100PLO8 table at gaming club (no 10-handed PLO when I joined, though I soon moved to a $100PLO when one became available) and a couple of $100PLO games at Stars, chopping and changing (and running into Euri10 along the way, as well as ATE who dropped by to say hello and let me know how he's been getting along). For the first time in a few days, Stars was really juicy today. I've had a pretty dry month there on PLO (played 27 table hours and only $230 up) so it was nice to find some good games today and make some money off them (although my cards were mostly pretty dry, I did pick up 2 or 3 big hands that saw me through).

Well, I was involved in SO many big hands today I can't really go into great detail (also because I have the kitchen to tidy, grrrr!) but suffice to say the action was pretty hot and especially at crypto the hyper-aggressive fishies were out today, which always makes for a bit of a rollercoaster. I felt like I was flopping hands quite often, but in many ways it was a frustrating session; 8 times I flopped the nut straight with no flush draw out, 8 times the turn or river paired the board and left me frustrated. My aggressive pot-buying bets with marginal hands kept getting called, but at least I was able (mostly) to throttle back on the aggression and when I DID hit a biggie I got paid off nicely. Luck was against me as big draws seemed often to miss and my good hands got run down, though I managed to avoid losing a whole stack at any stage (which is increasingly a signature of my PLO play).

However, luck did play a part twice as it backed me into two huge wins. Most notable was when, at Stars, I raised preflop with a hand involving QQ. The flop brought some low garbage, 235 I think, and I followed through with another bet. Alas, I was called, by a good player too. I hit a magical Q on the turn, bet again and got called. Now i'm fairly sure he had a set. River gave a beautiful 2 to pair the board and although I often make milking bets on the river, this time I had no hesitation in betting the pot, knowing he either had quads (unlikely) or probably a boat he'd have to call. He moved in and my fortunate turn card won the day as he mucked 55. Later, something similar happened with AA, when I bet a middling ragged flop (Q83 rainbow) after picking up 4 callers preflop (2 checked to me). Alas, I got two calls on my flop semi-bluff, but the A on the turn cheered me up as I won the stack of a poor player on AQ.

Anyways, I put in nearly 4 hours today. At points I was frustrated by the way it was going, early on I was nearly $150 down after a few big misses and a few pots were stolen from me by the river, but it all turned round in three big hands that came at once (I captured $200 and $150 pots at stars simultaneously, about a minute after I busted a short stack in a $90 pot at Interpoker) and although I ended my session thinking I was fairly sure to be down, when I totted up all four sites I was nearly $140 to the good!

I intend to play again tonight, probably more PLO. I am within £200 of what would be a terrific £100 month. In fact I think I'm within a good session or two of $2000, which would be terrific given I've only been playing this month for less than a fortnight. Only had one losing session so far, which is really pleasing.

I felt I didn't play my best this afternoon, playing 6 tables is perhaps a bit too much for me (which I was doing at times today); I think my play is at it's best on 4 but in PLO it's the big wins that count and so the more I can handle the more likely it is a big pot comes my way playing ABC. Anyways, going to tidy the house now and set myself up maybe for another 2 hours tonight if i can be bothered. Want to get as many hours in this weekend as possible, get my target out of the way and then perhaps mess around on UB playing some limit O8 as a change of pace.

Monthly winnings so far: $1540
"Real" Hours played: 34 give or take
Approx hourly rate: $45

Still keeping the hourly rate up. here's a quick breakdown of how i'm doing in the different games this month so far:

PLO8 - $60 down. Sigh. This is troublesome.
$100 PLO - $1100 won, at a rate of $13 per table per hour! That's $65 per hour if I just play this game, 5-tabling.

PLO winrates in BB/100 hands (very roughly) for each site (to get this figure I am taking my BB/hour and doubling it, assuming about 50 hands per hour and assuming my timings slightly underestimate how long I'm at a table for!)

Pokerstars: 22 (this is usually 25 or so)
Gaming Club: 40 (boy am I killing these tables)
Cryptologic: 28 (not bad)

Overall I'm very much up with my optimal targets this month. Even if I have a couple of bad days I should still easily clear $2000 by the end of the month. If I can keep my winrate overall at $40/hr I will be a happy bunny.

Monk
xxxxx