I noticed that change in price between the blinds. I am very tight anyway on the blinds, we prob play similar hands as I am only VP$IP 12% or so long term.

I played the ATo as it was a small field. I figured a raise was a bit too aggressive and I knew the MP players played loads of hands. I figure if I bag and ace or a ten high flop I am good. Had it been a bigger field then I am folding or against better players. Even same number but a good player limps from EP I would fold.

I liked reading your post about betting into the raiser with a made hand. I am going to try that as I am the sort to wait and jump the turn. I see the logic in it and I am eager to try. I did see an example posted somewhere else, if the flop has a high card and you hit the set you can bet as its likely the raiser hooks up and will pay off. With the way my luck is going though, the guy from your example would have had KK, not AK...

Well I am waiting till a little later for the tables to fill to go into combat.

Rich

You ever get the feeling someone is having a real big laugh at your expense?

Its 8pm now. I have just finished a two hour session on Paradise. I decided to play two $2/$4 tables and one $3/$6 table. I mainly did this as there were only two $3/$6 tables on Paradise when I started and I am still whoring on this site so I wanted to get some raked hands in. Also I wanted to play some, if only to sort out me demons from the previous two days.

Results?

$3/$6: $62

$2/$4: -$62

Overall: $0

Well I guess at least I am not losing. This does still seem like someone's idea of a joke. Well I did get $30 out in bonus money so technically its a win. I am going to rest up for about an hour then play another two to three hour session. I feel good though. I am still getting bad play off AK and AQ, overall down about $30 with those hands. I also lost with KK, first hand in the blinds. Normally I would take that as a really bad omen but I played on.

Not much really to report, no real funny hands. I came off a little worse playing hard ball with the table maniac, they always seem to catch against me. I also lost a nice pot with AKs where the play got well raised preflop, I got the ace on the turn after a little action against another guy, raised it as I had him on a lower PP when the river hit the queen. Yep, my read was right, QQ. Bah.

Well I will give you the results of my play later.

Rich

Okay. I know you have all been worried about me but please don't.



Yep, I finally won some money. I know this has been a very short losing streak looking back but I guess its just the amounts that are mind boggling to me. Well I have broke the duck and won.

Okay results in total for today. I played two sessions but I will break it down by limit.

$2/$4

Hands: 288
Won: -$62
BB/100: -5.38

$3/$6

Hands: 313
Won: $194.50
BB/100: 10.36

Total:

Hands: 601
Won: $132.50
BB/100: 2.81

I feel good now. I admit I did cut the session short when I knew I was over $100 up since I figured it was better for me to finish good than play more hands. I still got $50 to clear off Paradise so I was never going to do it in one go anyway.

Well I am going to sleep now, will write more tomorrow but I am sleeping better tonight.

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Rich

Good job. I had a good day too, passed my $2000 for the month and only been playing since the 8th, so i've had a fantastic run

Anyways, keep it up!

Monk
xxxxx

Nice turnaround. Glad you are heading in the right direction again. And as far as quitting when you are ahead nothing wrong with that particularly after a few days of getting your teeth kicked in just leaving with a winning day usually sets things right in your mind for a continued run in the positive direction the next day. Makes for a better nights sleep as well Continued good fortune.

Wow!

I have just had probabley the session of my life. Well maybe not quite my life but its one that will stay with me for long time. What happened you might ask? Well the long and the short of it is that I lost $3. Yep, $3 down.

Okay you want to know the catch. Fine, I played about 400 hands tonight, after exactly 138 hands I was $248 down. You name it, I missed it. I was 14% at showdown, and had only seen 11% of flops. Set beaten by straight, rockets cracked, flush beaten by full house. Well I was having the whole "here we go again" feeling and wishing I had gone out and got drunk instead. Now Paradise helped me here as they have only about five tables for $3/$6 so I decided to keep two $3/$6 and open a $2/$4 table too. I then, as sod's law dictates, went on the winning streak of my life on the $2/$4 table, doubling up in about 50 hands. I then managed to get my own back on some idiots and made it back to evenish. Well I decided I had 400 odd hands and its best to quit while you are slightly behind. I got $20 out of Paradise so I guess I made money.

I think my point from this session was I really thought I was screwed. I was going to have to write another entry as a loser and try to make it seem like it was part of the game and I was dealing with it. Well instead I am writing this as the happiest man ever to lose $3 playing poker. I guess the thing that will stay with me is how I did manage to turn it round with a few clever plays and a lot of better cards. I've not really had a session that went south but turned back like that. All I need now are a few without the south bit at the start and I will be well happy.

The trouble with moving limits is it does leave you vunerable to a bad streak, more than normal. I am strict to the 300BB rule though I will sometimes include money I am earning off on bonus'. I know what Monk meant about losing chunks of your BR. I don't see an easy solution to this till I have a BR big enough to take my shots with. I guess my answer has to be that I am well funded if not greatly funded but so long as I am playing with a positive expectation and I am willing to take a step back then I have to speculate to accumulate. A few hot days and I am clear again. I think because of this I may well either when I hit $3000 take some small shots at the $5/$10, like one table out of three I am playing or wait till I hit maybe $4000 before I take a big shot at it. I think I will try to toe dip into the limit. Until now I have always jumped straight up so I think I will be more careful now.

Well I feel I am in synch with the tables. I will play again tomorrow and I just hope I can string a few winning days together to get myself maybe $300-$400 up.

Well thanks for reading and thanks for the support.

Rich

I am pissed off with poker right now.

Just finished a wanky session where I ended up $72 down. Not awful by the standards set this week but bad none the less. My reasons for feeling pissed off? The following stats from today:

AA 4 times. Won 25%. Result -$38

AKs 3 times. Won 0%. Result -$54

AKo 5 times. Won 60%. Result -$20

AQs 1 time. Won 0%. Result -$30

AQo 4 times. Won 25%. Result -$30

So out of my big hands (KK was 1 for 2 but I made money on it) I have a loss of $172! The fact I have made $100 up from worse hands I guess should make me proud but sadly it doesn't today. I feel well and truely shat upon. I guess I can console myself with knowing I got $30 out of UB which is good for one day. Even so I am not liking poker much. I feel at the moment that when I play its a question of not losing too much rather than how much can I win. I still play my hands the same, or at least I think I do. I have been through some of the carnage.

Highlights include AA being downed by Q7o. This was the craziest hand ever since the guy called the raise, hit the 7 on the flop and I can only assume put my on AK so tried to play hard into me. I called his flop raise, nailed him on the turn (there were no flush or straight draws and no likely two pairs for someone calling a raise, I figure a set would wait till the turn as they had position) and the river was the Q. Fuck Bugger Wank Bollocks.

AKo hittin the K for once with no likely draws, and getting downed by T8s hitting a 2 pair on the river. Again to really wind me up he called my raise cold and because he had position check raised me on the river. Fuck Fuck Fuck.

I also had the fun of flopping a nut straight, can't remember the hand and having the river duplicate one of my cards so I get to share a $82 pot. To say my luck was out today is just not enough. It has stunk today everytime I needed a little help. I was 42% at SD with a VP$IP of 8.83!

Well there isn't really a lot more I care to say on today. Real bad day at the office. This whole week has been arse and I seem to be getting no real luck. I hope this means I am due a massive win soon, I need it as I am still not out of the woods BR wise and failing any good bonus' (which will not happen when I need them) I could do with winning maybe $200-$300 in the next few days.

Well I am going to sleep. Might or might not play tomorrow, not feeling very charitable toward poker at the moment.

Rich

Hi,

Well I decided not to play yesterday. Even if my results since the weekend show a slight upward trend again I feel in a funk still. Instead I chilled out, watched some Desperate Housewives (I am so cool) and read a little SS2.

Now as far as SS2, whoa! I have only read so far the preflop section in limit having read all the intro stuff. Position and aggression seem to be the massive themes. Now I know this should be obvious but its the way it is applied. I know I have a sharp game so its the little touches that leap out at me. Things like reraising with AKo. I am happy to do that with AKs but I have felt AKo is sometimes a bit marginal for that depending on the table.

I have only read a bit of it so I am going to go through it throughly, take out the interesting stuff and the stuff that is different to the way I play. I think that now I am playing $3/$6 while this is still low limt, in the context of the internet the games are a bit tighter so I hope to employ some of this new "shock'n'awe". I really need to reread SSH too. I think I now know enough that I need to start pushing my edges. I feel I play at the moment a solid game but I have more to learn. This last week has been tough so I am going to go back to the books a bit and retool.

I am going to play tonight as I am out tomorrow and I had yesterday off. I am hoping to sort out a few things too so I can do some bonus whoring again. I think that will help give me the BR boost to get passed this sticky patch.

Wish me luck.

Rich

I just had a weird thought today. I was thinking about yesterdays play and the result. I finished up about $128 but I wasn't really chuffed about it. I mean I was happy but that came more from the point of view of not posting another loss. I was reading the thread about the million dolloar hand. I think Monk made a good point about the way you get insulated from thinking of money in real money terms. I can remember being desperate to post a $100 winning day, not its no biggie and I want a $200 or $300 winning day. I think it is even easier for us Brit players as we think if as dollar funny money. My win yesterday effectively meant I made a days wages in two hours. I need to be more grateful I think.

Oh, and I hope this doesn't come across as a poor me, won too much money thread. Well I think anyone reading about my week would know thats not the case, far from it. I just think its weird the way this game does warp things. Playing 3 $3/$6 tables with $150 on each means I have $450 in play, thats £230, basically 2/3s of my weekly wage. Scary.

Rich

I know logically I will have to accept losing streak as part of my pact with the devil that is poker. Also as I go up the real money variance is quite a shocker. I really have to put things into bets to remember that I have been here before, $300 at $3/$6 is the same as $200 at $2/$4 etc.

I played my home game last night. It was through a group called 7-20 and I have to say it was brilliant. Really well organised and a lot of fun. We played a £10 freeze out NLHE tournament with 10 players then a NLHE cash game. It was all for small money so the game was played in a great spirit. I finished £4 up including what I lost in my tournament fee (bubble boy in 4th). I have to say I also learned a great deal.

One hand to share, with about 7 left in the tournament I have about 5th stack and get TT MP. I raise 4xBB and its folded to the button who reraises me another 4xBB. Since he has me more than covered I figure no point finessing it and decide to push. This means he has to commit about 80% of his stack to call me. He calls and flips AKo, I flip my TT, now this is one for the statistians amongst you. Since I am all-in with get the drumroll board, which starts with an ace (bugger), then a king (bollocks!), then a ten (thankyou god!), then a jack (no queen, please) then a four. It was such a nutty hand a picture was taken for the website.

I also got big props for bluffing a large pot with 7-2o in the cash game, its a special thing and I think its what lead to be being accepted into the group. I have to say I had a real good night with them playing till 3am. As poker goes it was also a nice change of pace from playing online. I am now really looking forward to Vegas and I hope I will have my game nailed down by then.

Today was a bit annouying. I needed 70 odd hands to release the final $10 and finsh with Paradise for good so I lit a up a few $2/$4 tables and went for it. Result, down $69! Bah. Well I am now done with that site for a while, and its back to Party. I got the reload bonus to play and another one on a skin. That $300 in whoring this week. I hope I can find it in the me to make a modest profit since then I will be BR safe and looking forward to March.

Well got to go and play some, well post later with results.

Rich

Hi All,

Well I just played my first session on Poker Now. The characters on there are pretty trippy and makes it really hard to take people seriously. If you have no idea what I am going on about, basically instead of your normal boring guy and busty girls they have fancy dress characters. I started off as a boxer, then a mountie amongst overs. It was nice having the playboy bunny on the table. I think its funny that since these are shared tables the girl who was the playboy bunny probabley didn't realise she was, cool!

Oh, result...

Well I finished up about $33. Given that I lost $69 this morning I am still down $36. I was going to play again tonight but I feel a bit pokered out right now. I swear I spent half the night in a dream where I flop and flush, bet hard then for some reason the pot gets pushed to someone with two pair... Any interpretations welcome. I am going to assume I am playing too much so I am going to chill tonight.

Also this chillin' gives me time to assemble my money for the Party reload. I am currently working off the Poker Now first deposit bonus which is $100 and tomorrow I start the Party reload for $200. It would be nice to think I might make a little profit from this whoring. I am down about $80 for the month. Since this month has gone to rat shit I would love to think I could at least break even at the tables. Its a shame as 10 days ago I was flying and going for $500 profit. Well shit happens. If I can get this bonus' out and break even I will be back to where I was I think, about $2100. Since I am going to make a big big push this month I hope I can pull together some winning days and see where I finish. The issue this month has really been since my big losing weekend I have not strung two winning days together. I am winning maybe $100, then losing $60 the next day. I know this is how its meant to be, a grind. I would just like my variance to be a little more symetrical, if I can lose $300 in a day why can't I win $300, or even $200???

I am moving house next month and will have a scary mixture of time and lack of money. This is prime poker ingredients (my BR is all online and I don't think of it as money so its exempt) so I expect to put some real time in. I really want to try to make the push to $5/$10. I reckon once I hit that I can really chill with the BR building since it will take years to get to $10/$20 anyway, plus I think $5/$10 is the last level where there are easily available games. I might be wrong on this last point but I am going by the number of tables I see on sites. Once it gets $10/$20 it gets serious.

I also want to spend some time reading and learning my game more. I know I keep saying this but I think I am at a weird stage where I am trying new things and getting to a level where you can make plays. If you raise someone say on the turn, they might actually fold. This is not something I ever saw on $0.50/$1 though I was one of those callers who could not fold a TP. Its interesting now as there seems to be more of an element of gamesmanship on the tables I am playing, as well as the usual idiots. Using PV or GT Plus I am able to sort the sharks from the fish pretty quick though it seems I am a shark who always seems to get eaten by the goldfish...

Well enough rambling. And just for Monk I am going to try to lose in an amusing fashion. Maybe knowing I am bringing some happiness to vendictive types will numb my financial pain?

Rich