Well after all the hype about today it was a bit of a anti-climax.

I finished up about $35 dollars but to be perfectly honest I wasn't in the mood today. I played maybe 250-300 hands on two tables in two seperate sessions. I was pretty much going through the motions though so decided to take my modest profit and wait to play another day.

I did one session with two $2/$4 tables and one with two $3/$6 tables. I am not finding there to be much of an adjustment except in my SB play. As Piers pointed out because its $1 to a $3 BB then I need a better hand to limp, at least something I would play on the button but maybe even better depending on the field. I am messing about with a few little things, mainly from reading SS2. I am trying to really picture my opponents cards better and take a few seconds to think through my decisions. I am using GT Plus too so I am making better decisions. I think that with limit poker it is real easy to go into ABC mode, especially multi-tabling. This is prob fine at lower limits but now I am coming to the point where the majority of the players on the tables I am facing seem good I need a little more. So far while results haven't been stellar I feel better about my play. I am making more and avoiding traps better.

It also helps when the card gods really smile on you, QTo in the BB and flop a nut straight on a rainbow flop, and get loads of action! Also AA standing up on a flop of K 4 K with 4 players in. I actually played this hand well, well enough to eliminate the possibility of the K being out there by the river. Normally I would curse the card gods but I really put some thought into it and I was happy. I also won a pot with a runner runner, not often that happens. ATs, flopped the draw, ace on turn and T on river beat an AJ.

This week is going to be a major whoring excersie through Party. I hope to have both my bonus's freed up by Friday so I am ready for some more or can indulge my UB bonus since the weekend is the only time the tables fill enough to make it worth while. Interestingly UB is also the only site where you can earn off $2/$4 the same as $3/$6. Just a shame there is only a couple of limit tables there at a time. I should really keep going with more NL but I want to slay my limit demons first.

Okay, weeks results. Monday 21st - Sunday 27th inclusive.

$3/$6
Hands: 1322
Won: -$49.75
BB/100: -0.63

$2/$4
Hands: 872
Won: $97.50
BB/100: 2.74

Total
Hand: 2194
Won: $45.75
BB/100: 0.71

Not really happy with this week though it seems wrong to thumb your nose at any profit. Just seems a lot of work for not a lot. Looking into my stats my play looks good, right aggression in right place. I have previously been over aggressive on the river so its nice to see there is a drop off against my turn aggression. My SD %'s are back, overall I am exactly 50% and I am actually a little higher on $3/$6 than $2/$4.

The big factor I see this week is my AK and AQ hands, lots and lots of red on PT.

AKs: 6 times, won 16.67%, down $49.
AKo: 20 times, won 45%, down $47.50.
AQs: 4 times, won 50%, down $18
AQo: 20 times, won 30%, down $108.50

Looking at the AQo stats a lot of it was missed flops, $10 here and there. There were two hands were I lost $24 and $21, one couldn't fold his gutshot and hit on the river. The other was where the flop was all diamonds with AK out, I was heads up and had the Q of diamonds. Basically a guy raised me on the turn with T9 of diamonds but I still had the draw to the nuts so called, river was a brick, he chked and so did I.

Weirdly nearly all my marginal hands were really good. AJs and AJo was good for about $80, KQs and KQo was another $55, JJ was $118, TT $35 (and 70% winning). Looking at my finishing hands, my sets and trips took a beating. I was 53% winning at the SD. My life time result for this 68% and since those hands tend to be the ones where you lose a lot I have found this significant on my bottom line. Looking at the details I can see $100 worth of bets in sets getting sucked out by flushes. Interestingly I have had flushes at showdown only once. Guess 1 in 4 wasn't good odds for me. Really odd to when I have had 9 straights and 7 full houses.

Its pretty interesting to go through these stats. I guess what it does is reinforce where I have had crappy luck. This is good for my piece of mind since I think one of the hardest things to deal with in poker is the shit happens mentality, that when its all said and done you can play perfect (or not awful in my case) and still be down.

Well I play tomorrow then I will post this month's results.

Rich

Glad to see you are recovering well from that bad weekend. I can tell you as well that when I have a bad day or bad week it usually always stems from getting an inordinate number of sets cracked because as you said these tend to be bigger than normal pots at least if you are jamming it up like I do. Nothing you can do but take heart that they won't continue to crush your sets at such a high rate. Hope you finish up your month strong tomorrow. Good luck.

Okay, confession time. I have been a bit naughty today.

I am a great believer in playing out sessions and I try to set my targets in terms of hands (how many raked I want to earn off a bonus etc) and I did that today. I have 140 raked hands off 1400 I need for the Party bonus. I figured I would go for 500 today. Well I bottled it at 300. Okay this is no big deal but the reason I bottled it was, I had in the back of my mind today to make $80 which would make me break even for the month. Well I was on three $3/$6 tables and was generally down about $50-$30 for most of the session when I get two great pots, $97 with AA and $80 with a flush. Well once I knew I had hit the target I needed I really really did not want to play anymore.

I guess knowing this in myself, it was right to stop since there was no way I was going to play my A-game which I was on up till that point (I did a chk raise bluff on the turn for the first time ever). I will say though that I am against engineering wins, I prefer to let the sessions sort themselves out. I guess after the week I have had going from last weekends loss-a-thon I am happy to put this month to bed.

Right, lets talk results:

This month has seen me jump from $2/$4 to $3/$6. I also did some $50NL at the start of the month on UB. I am also including some figures from a few S'n'Gs and tournaments I played, I include these since they were played from BR money so they should be included in my bottom line.

$50NL

Hands: 294
Amount Won: $42.20
BB/100 Hands: 14.35

$1/$2

Hands: 884
Amount Won: $48.24
BB/100 Hands: 2.73

$2/$4

Hands: 2938
Amount Won: $291
BB/100 Hands: 2.48

$3/$6

Hands: 3031
Amount Won: -$386.75
BB/100 Hands: -2.13

Totals:

Hands: 7147
Amount Won: -$5.31
BB/100: 1.04

Tournaments:

BTP Tournament: -$11 (ROI: -100%)
$5+$1 S'n'Gs (Paradise): $32 (ROI: 177.78%)



Well that was interesting, I might celebrate by buying myself a Big Mac if I can bum a few extra dollars. To be honest this month has been such a roller coaster I will take the modest playing profit. I have made $408.42 in bonus' this month from various sites and I am working off $300 from Party at the moment. I will be carrying that over in my figures as pending. So its not all doom and gloom and I have made BR progress at least.

Where I am now:

Cash: $1503.43
UB Bonus Outstanding: $346.96
Misc Bonus: $300

Total: $2150.39

I am still trying to work down that UB bonus. I have worked about $60 this month. I have had $200 off Paradise which was a play intensive bonus (about 3200 hands required) then Party skins for the rest. I try to put in time on UB whenever I am not bonus whoring on other sites. I think this will change a little more as playing $2/$4 upwards I can work the bonus off at a reasonable rate. Previously playing at $0.50/$1 it seemed to take forever.

I have not included any live play in these figures. To be honest I see this as fun play rather than serious stuff and I do not use BR money for it. I made £4 ($7.6) from my home game and £105 ($199.50) from my third in a tournament at the Gutshot. I am going to keep going with this as Vegas is 25th April. I will keep you posted on my progress though as it has been a learning curve so far.

Well I have laid myself out bare so all comments appreciated. Up till now I have always taken a little out but this month I am not since a; I don't need too and b; I want to solidify my BR for $3/$6 and push on for $5/$10. I think I am going to toe dip in my move so when I hit $3000 (if I do!) I will take a few shots on maybe one table at a time. I am noticing differences now in the play and I think I am at the point where things like bluffing should become part of my repetoire since players will laydown. I admit this is a selective play but something that wasn't even worth thinking of at $0.50/$1. I am going to read, learn, review and practise to make the adjustments I need.

Well I hope you enjoy reading this stuff as much as I enjoy writing it. Good luck and may the card gods smile on you.

Rich

Well there is nothing like starting a new month with a bang, sadly I didn't... more a whimper.

Due to some new found whoring I have to play 3100 hands Party and its skins, 2100 in the next 7 days. Well I started today going for 3 tables at $3/$6 since I can work the hands off quicker than at $2/$4. The session started great with me busting someone's AA with a set of 9s. I worked hard, I played extra tight and stayed out of trouble. At one point I was up about $120 when the wheels started to fall off.

I got a mixture of cold cards, missed flops and three really bad hands that meant I finished down $70. I am cool with this as I played well and the three hands I lost big on I might have saved a few dollars on but I felt I had the best of it when the money went in. Didn't help that on three different tables I lost these hands to the table retards so I didn't back off as fast as I might have against a sane player.

Well I got to put in hours just about every day this week to avoid having to do a marathon at the end of the week. I figure if I can manage about 300-400 hands a day I can do this with time to spare.

Results:

$3/$6

Hands: 434
Amount Won: -$71.17
BB/100: -2.73

Well I am happy I got the extra bonus' to play so it does numb the pain of this loss and I feel I am playing better now. I think I am only now appreciating the jump I have made but I am working hard. Had it not been for those stack killer hands I would have finished with a healthy profit but I cannot reproach myself on my play. I am just waiting for that $250 day that will happen soon.

Guess it must be tomorrow then...

Rich

Well the hits just keep on coming...

I managed to conspire to drop $100 or so today. Not really got the figures to hand since I am in a state ro rabid depression. Well I am not really super depressed but I have two small confessions that I feel I can only share with the millions who read this journal.

1. Up till now I have been happy to put most of my losses down to shit happening since I know I play well. Today I can honestly say about $50 was me tilting.

2. I need a new mouse (see above).

I think the hand the killed me today was a limp with 62o from the BB. I flop a gutshot draw, rainbow. Well it chked to a late player who bets, I figure as its about 6 handed I will call this as I got loads of odds and I cannot see no one fancying this flop (this table was very passive too, otherwise I would be out here for the record). Well I hit my 5, sweet. Since there are still so many in an I got now other draws to stress about I chk hoping to chk raise, and my late bettor does the business so I raise, this knocks out all bar 3 players. My bettor in LP and an MP player who cold calls but seems to over play. The river was a 3, pairing the board. Here is one of those moments where you are tempting god to stiff you, I bet and MP raises, LP folds. Yep, full house. This hand in itself is no biggie, I just think it summed the way I feel about poker right now, or how poker feels about me. I had built the pot up figuring I would take the risk of someone slowplaying a set since it was the perfect board for it and sure enough, it stiffed me.

After this I made some bad decisions, jamming the pot against idiots who I knew would call with any cards when I was bluffing. Guess I figured I would go down firing. I am not happy about this but I guess you need to face these things to learn off them. Well my mouse took the pain so I need to get a new one tomorrow, thank god its a laptop.

I played a little $50NL on Party to celebrate their change of blinds. I finished down $36 but this was down to one wanky call against the table retard, and for the first time in the hour I was there he had a hand, bah.

I am not really worried about the money in these losses, with the bonus' I am BR fine now and can take a whooping. I am just feeling the grind a little now. The arse is I have to work this week to get these bonus' off, otherwise I would def take a break for a couple of days. I am slightly ahead of schedule now with 850/2100 hands done so I can set myself nice medium sized sessions to finish it. I like to play up to about 3 hours in a stretch. I can play more but since lately I have not had much reason to I am trying to keep the sessions to the number of hands I want and not about how I am doing.

I hope to sort this funk out. Its happening at a pretty crappy time for me so I am rolling with the punches (or was till today) but it would be nice to think my $200 win day is still out there somewhere.

Well keep the faith.

Rich

Hooray, I won today!

It wasn't quite the $200 day I wanted but I cleared $107. I can live with that. I was up about $140 but missed a couple of draws so went down.

Results:

$3/$6

Hands: 247
Amount Won: $107.25
BB/100: 7.24

This was a needed result. Its been quite alarming that I seem to be losing 3 days in 4, reversing my normal trend. This month I have won only 30% of sessions so far and I know this cannot continue. I played with control today and I was prepared to take whatever got dealt. Fortunatley it was one of those sessions where I won a few hands early and it was going to be a case of how far up I finished.

I have decided to make a few changes to my game which I think will be significant over time. The big one being my starting hands. I am experimenting with hands from Small Stakes Hold'em, I am playing the tight set as it reflects the flops I am seeing but it does involves a lot more raising, seeing more flops and playing more hands in general. To be honest its tough to say if it made a difference to my play today but I think I have the judgement to open out a little more and I hope it will mean more profit. I am overuling a couple of things in MP where is says to play any PP and any AXs hand. I think this is a little too loose but then this is a texture call and the authors would not say these are rigid rules.

In other news I got a new mouse today, its a nice Logitech one I got from Argos. I elected to go for a cordless model again since while there is a risk of chucking it, if it was corded I would prob still chuck it but then it would have my laptop attached...

Well I am going to retire for the night, 1000/2100 hands played. I reckon I can get 300 raked tomorrow giving me a nice target for the weekend.

Rich

I wish you the best with your streak because I'm having the same problems so I'm taking a few days off as it has been over a week since I had a session where I was up more than $40 (actually only 1 at $40) and I've had 5 100+ (1 of them 200+) losing days. This includes 2 days playing only $1/$2 which really freaks me out.

Keep up the good work and hope you start beating the games like we all know you can do.

Cheers Bri,

Its nice to see a reply on this forum and that everyone seems real keen to encourage me. Sometimes playing like this, poker seems real lonely. I don't really have many friends who play, none really close so its tough talking to people when the shit hits the fan. I tell someone I dropped $450 in a weekend and they just say "Why don't you quit then?"

I know somewhere in my head it will turn real good and as losing streaks go this isn't the worse. Its the fact I seem to be making no real forward motion since it occurred that is bugging. With a few small wins and some rabid bonus whoring I have wiped out the overall loss but I keep a track of my overall play seperate from my bottom line and my play is not really moving.

As a favour to the missus I played some $0.50/$1 as she is having computer issues and needed to make a start on one of her bonus'. Wow, talk about going back to school. Nothing like raising EP and getting 6 callers! Well I bumbled for a couple of hours and managed to lose her $30. How I played those limits now I will never know, it was scary.

Well need sleep now so thanks for the support and I will try to write about something different next time, like how winning streaks are a pain as you have too much money.

Rich

Well it had to happen...

I got a nice win today, enough to restart my month. It was one of those nice days when I hit more than my fair share and my big hands held up.

Right, results:

$3/$6

Hands: 516
Amount Won: $151
BB/100: 4.88

I am now nicely in the green or black this month and feeling better. I hope I can string a couple of wins together and take this forward.

Well its late so I will write some more tomorrow.

Rich

Well I feel I should write a little more after lasts night win. Seems rude to whinge about losses in great pain staking detail then when something good happens ignore it. I have to say yesterday was a big relief, especially as it puts me back in positives for the month. I hate chasing deficits, and I seem to be doing a lot of that lately.

Rather annouyingly I seem to have a $20 difference between my numbers and PT. I have gone through the error files and there seems to be no difference. This is irritating to say the least as it messes my hourly figures. Well hopefully I will win so much that $20 won't make a difference.

Last night was good, for once all the nice breaks went my way. One hand real early was QQ in the SB. It got raised MP and we had two in so I reraised from SB, I figure its a small field and I want them to damn well know I got a hand. I also figure if there is a AA or KK I may get capped. We see the flop Q J 4 rainbow, sweet. I bet since its expected and get raised (cool). One guy cold calls and we see the turn three handed. Turn is a brick, this time I chk, MP bets and other dude calls. I raised now, MP reraised (super cool), the other guy calls that so I cap. We see the river 3 handed and the pot is over $100. The river is a 9, flop still ragged. I am a little worried about a possible draw but cannot really see it given the action. I bet, MP calls and the other guy folds (I would love to know his hand). Turns out my luck has been transferred, he had JJ. I guess he put me on an over pair given my reraise and didn't see the big danger till the river. I mean set over set, what are the odds? Well a nice $144 pot early.

I went through a series of cold cards and missed draws so I basically went down to about $30 ahead overall, got KK cracked by 76o (why do I need to get a premo hand cracked to discover the table nugget). Only thing about this hand was the guy hit his straight on the river but was so goofy he went for the chk raise on the river but my spider sense tingled so I chked. Good to know I am not the only sucker for fancy plays.

To be honest I am not sure of the cards after that but I seemed to hit a lot of sets that held up. Playing the SSH hands meant I was playing more med PPs and more AXs hands than I might have. I was also raising late with nearly any face cards, especially when the field was limited.

One thing I now have that was never there before is a total reverse gear. A few times I would raise and get reraised by guys I knew were passive so I would get out fast. Especially on the flop, while this is the cheap street by making good notes I had a few times with TP where I could see I was against two pair or a set. I used to be worried this would make me look weak but I now see I have saved a fortune is bets from not stubbornly paying off. Since I play hard anyway I cannot really see this be exploited too much since when I got it I will raise back and make war with the best of them. I would like to think now I have done enough poker to know I can drop a marginal situation as a better one will come along later. GT Plus too has been great since I can spot a change in betting patterns and make decisions accordingly. The gamblers and maniacs I will go toe to toe with and play hard ball (I got about $40 net from one guy and screwed him to the point he would fold nearly everytime I raised him on the turn) but seeing a tight passive suddenly light up means a I need to look at my cards again.

I will earn off my first $200 from Party today. I need about 105 hands. Then after that I need 700 by Wednesday. Easily done. I tend to play sessions where I am earning about 200 raked hands a go. I noticed yesterday that I did tighten up when I knew I was far ahead. I think normally I would be pretty cool about things but given the whoopings I have had today I adjusted to preserve my winnings. I guess this might be seen as a leak but then I have to weigh this up against the chances of me losing a lot in a marginal situation and how I would feel about that. The example I am thinking is getting dealt ATo on the button with about 4 limpers in. Now according to SSH this is a raise but I elected to fold it, too many in and I saw too many ways to lose this hand. Well sure enough ace high flop, I would have won it anyway but a T dropped on the river just to taunt me. I was going to play for another 100 raked but when I saw this tying up I decided to end the session early. I guess there is no point in playing when I know I am past my A-game.

I have a little rule. When I finish and I blind off (as I am still whoring) I will only play AA, KK or QQ. I made this rule after screwing a session once on Poker Stars where I lost $40 in my last orbit with AQ, AK and TT all losing. I guess my theory is once I have decided to blind off I am already doing the maths on the session. I can deal with losing with AA, KK or QQ since I am a good fav. The reason I write this is because for the first time I was tested, JJ UTG. I folded it as I was done and luckily as it happened it panned out, ace high flop going down to a flush. I do not know if others play like this. I know all the theory about life being one big session etc but I put a lot of stock in how my mental state is at a given point. Lets be honest, certain wins and losses mean more at certain times. Losing $25 on my last orbit would hurt a lot more than in my first orbit. I guess I am only human.

Well I am going to rest up for another assault on the tables tonight.

Rich

Didn't play last night, met a friend and got drunk instead. Then tried to stay up for the Formula 1 GP in Australia (start 3am), made it for the first 5 laps then fell asleep. Given the deadlines those evil people at Party put on me, I got to get at least 400 raked hands so I am working it today.

Report more later.

Rich

I don't play limit very often so taken this advice as you will:

Since I started playing limit again a couple of months ago...I have changed my limit game from loser-breakeven-to big winner. I've dropped my VP$IPto under 12%like Piers talks about in one post. I also have started folding to check raises and raises on the turn /river almost all the time. Occasionley if I have a very good deceptive hand I will call.

I know you are finally breaking out of your streak but I thought i'd share my thoughts anyway. good luck!

Hi,

Thanks for the words Kenny and I take everything on board as I have no perceptions I am a poker god or anything even close.

The messing about this my starting hands has not really opened me out too much. The differences are basically playing more mid PPs and more AXs hands MP too. Otherwise I am raising with more hands LP, like KJs or QJs which I never used to do. I also raise with more MP if I am opening. Again though I make these also texture calls, but when a table is tight and I have position I see this maxing my edge.

My VP$IP is low anyway, 9% at the moment even with the opening up and seldom over 12%. I agree, the only way to play limit is to play tight as you will frequently have to show down the best hand, or give someone a damn good reason to fold. As I mentioned before, I have not installed a total reverse gear in my play so I am no paying off. Also though using GT Plus I have been able to catch a few players being sneaky and punish a few over aggressive players by waiting a little longer to make my move.

Interesting thing in terms of fixing leaks. I went back through the AQ hands and have modified my play slightly with them and I am now up $88 with both AQo and AQs. AKo and AKs are still losing but very marginally. I would like to think this shows I am dropping quicker when is not there though the win percentages are up now, 44% being the worse for AQo.

I played about 350 hands today, finishing down $35. I was up early catching a couple of nice straights but after that missed a few draws and had a few come off against me. To be honest I am not worried by this. I am going to play again tonight and one decent pot will put me back breakeven then we can really play.

I worked off my first $200 bonus from Party today, I got another 575 hands to go for the second $100. Then its off to finish the Poker Now bonus. I am looking forward to finishing this whoring session, I think I am going to take a couple of days rest then. Its a bit nasty when you know you have to play, and play the day after and day after that no matter what.

Well got to get back to the grind stone.

Rich