Another blah session. Had another 11 PPs (10 I saw the flop with) and didn't hit a set again. I did get an AA, but of course after I bet $1 UTG preflop everyone folds. No KK, no QQ, no JJ, not even TT. If it wasn't for an AQs that I got a flush with on the river, along with someone else catching a smaller flush, I wouldn't've had a winning day. As it was I managed to squeak out a $2.62 win throughout the 3 tables I played. The only good thing about today is that I got my bonus down to 685 raked hands left to go.

Speaking of which, when I get this bonus I'm going to put only enough back into PR so I can play there without worrying about running out of money if I have one really bad day. Ditto for Party. With the rest I'm going to park it into Neteller so that I'm always ready to take advantage of bonuses on whatever sites are giving them out at the time. For the longest time I stuck my nose up at bonus chasers. I always felt that if I wasn't good enough to win money without bonuses I shouldn't be playing. I've finally changed my mind about that and finally I'm starting to see all the money I've been giving up by not taking up good opportunities when they present themselves. Of course it helps already knowing that I can win without bonuses, so now my focus is just on getting as much money into my BR as possible and if that means chasing bonuses then I'm all for it.

You'd be suprised how well you'd do by just giving people credit when they get agro on you...especially when you've shown a lot of agression. The moral: fold. That'll be a HARD transition...but you'll be glad that you did. When you start getting in the much higher stakes, you'll have to start making tougher calls...but not yet

Will do snowman. These super tight games make it fairly easy to do that without risking a whole lot of money. I played really agressively today postflop and I was actually shocked at the amount of times I won those small ones. I needed to because I didn't win a whole lot of big ones today.

I actually finished the day $14.15 up playing 3 tables. I won about $11 on one, $2 on another and $1 on the last one. Little bitty wins on two of them but it's very rare that I win something on all tables I play and I credit those small pots to that.

I played a slightly shorter session today (hour and 20 minutes) and even though it's not good to think this way very often I felt I should leave while I'm up a bit rather than make a stupid mistake or get a bad beat and have to leave a loser again. I need a little pick-me-up every so often when things aren't running great. And I wanted to end the week on a bit of a high (or at least medium) note.

My biggest win was only $4.60 when I flopped a set of aces. I was lucky to get that much and had to milk it out of him.

On the flip side my biggest loss was only $4.75 (after that my next biggest was $1.75 *L*). This happened when I flopped a straight and someone chased to the river with a flush draw and hit it. He tried to get cute at the end and checked but I wouldn't've bet again with a gun to my head. Yay for position! To his credit though, he did catch top pair (with AT) on the turn so he wasn't calling with only a flush draw. I just wished he'd caught a ten instead because my straight was fairly concealed.

Oh and I was lucky with one hand. I had 66 in middle position and it's raised to $1.50 in early position. Normally I'd call this but the raiser only had about $9 left so I mucked. Flop was T6x. I was a bit upset about that but I still knew I made the right play. Turned out I really, really made the right play. I'm sure you can guess what the raiser had: TT. It was only luck that he didn't have a few more dollars, and make it worth a call preflop.

I did get a very odd small win. I was UTG+2, and to mix it up I raise to $1.25 with 98s. It was a very passive table so I half expected to take it right there. I got a caller though. Flop comes up T52 rainbow. I decide to go ahead and check this time. He checks behind me. Turn is a 7 giving me a OESD. So as if this is a delayed CB I bet $2 into a $2.85 pot. Unfortunately he calls. River is a 5 and I give up and check. He checks behind me and I'm shocked again when the pot slides my way with a pair of fives, 9 kicker. He had 86o that he not only called a $1.25 raise with, but called a 3/4 pot bet on the turn for the chance to hit a gutshot. Notes were taken.

I also got a pleasant surprise when I finished, checked my raked hands left to go for my bonus and found I'm down to 22. I only played 243 hands altogether today so I was still expecting to have 50+ left to go. So I think now it's time to drop back down to two tables. I'm comfortable at 3, but I'm still playing blind (except what PT tells me) because other than a player here or there that makes himself obvious, I'm not getting much of a read on anyone else.

I guess that's it for this entry. My next entry will be my end-of-the-week entry. I'm not sure how I did in terms of wins or losses yet so it'll be a surprise even to me.

Alright, filtering for just this week I found that I did have a losing week, but it wasn't too bad. I ended $3.29 down.

I'm going to simplify my weekly entry a bit so it doesn't get outrageously long.

First of all, here are my stats for the week:

1,967 hands, 1,799 minutes played (all tables combined)
Amount Won or Lost: $3.29 (wins in green, losses in red)
VP$IP: 16.57%
PFR: 3.86% (that's actually been raised in the past couple days)
Aggression Factor (minus preflop): 3.20
WTSD: 18.25%
W$SD: 61.97%
PTBB/100: (0.33)

Now here are my total stats since the move down to $25:

2,512 hands, 2,382minutes played (all tables combined)
Amount Won or Lost: $87.32 (wins in green, losses in red)
VP$IP: 16.72%
PFR: 3.98%
Aggression Factor (minus preflop): 3.78
WTSD: 17.79%
W$SD: 61.96%
PTBB/100: 6.95

I have $504.77 at Party, $52.25 in PR and 49 cents at Neteller *L*, so my total bankroll at this point is $557.51. I have $442.49 left to go to reach $1000 and the $50 tables. When I get my $100 bonus from Party I'll add it to my bankroll.

Okay, I have 4 qualifying hands (over $7) to list as my biggest losers of the week. I think I've mentioned all of them in other entries, but I'll play them out right here.


Loss: $29.65
7 players
I'm 2nd to act with [Qd] ($36.50)
UTG folds, I bet $1. Two folds, button calls ($29.65), SB and BB fold. Pot: $2.35
Flop: [Ts][5s]
I bet $1. Button reraises to $5. I go all in, he calls.
Turn and River: [Ts][5s][8d][2c]
Button shows [Td] and wins the pot with full house.

I think I made my feelings clear about this hand above. It was a stupid, embarrassing, newbie move that should never have happened. Again it was his really large raise on the flop that confused me at the time. I just didn't think someone would bet a set like that and risk not getting much money at all. Of course if he didn't have a set, what could I beat? JJ? Not much else. It was just a horrible play and a prime example of what not to do.


Loss: $20
Ten Players
I'm in SB with [6s] ($23.05)
UTG+1 posts dead blind.
UTG calls. UTG+1 checks. UTG+2 calls. MP1 folds. MP2 calls ($20). 2 folds. Button calls. I call and BB checks. 7 players in the pot. Pot: $1.75
Flop: [7d][4d]
I lead out for $1. BB calls. 3 folds. MP2 calls. Button calls. Pot: $5.75
Turn: [7d][4d][3s]
I lead out for $5. BB folds, MP2 and button calls. Pot: $20.75
River: [7d][4d][3s][Js]
I check. MP2 goes all in for his last $13.75. Button folds. I call.
MP2 shows [7s] and wins with a flush.

I think I played this oddly all the way around. I'm not sure what I was hoping to do with my little $1 bet on the flop. When I caught a straight on the turn it didn't seem like a bad thing though. I really didn't expect two callers though. Then the flush card hits on the river. As I mentioned above, that flush draw didn't scare me as much as a diamond coming up would. I just didn't see him chasing a backdoor flush draw on the flop (even if my bet was very weak). Well he wasn't but backdoored into it anyways. I called his large bet on the river because I talked myself into the fact that he was just representing the flush after I checked and the pot was plenty big to take a stab at it. Obviously I screwed up and didn't give the raiser credit for the hand.


Loss: $13.25
9 players
I'm in SB with [2s] ($30)
3 folds. MP1, MP2 ($18.35), the CO and button all limp. I call and BB checks. Pot: $1.50
Flop: [8s][6s]
Everyone checks. Pot: Still $1.50
Turn: [8s][6s][2c]
I lead with $1. MP2 and button calls. Pot: $4.50
River: [8s][6s][2c][9d]
I lead out with $4. MP2 raises to $8. Button folds. I reraise to $12. MP2 calls.
MP2 shows [6h] and wins with a larger full house.

Basically I'm okay with this loss. I still don't think I should've reraised the river though. What could he be reraising me with? At the time it seemed like a straight slow play of eights (maybe he had A8, since he limped), but what hands could he put me on that he thought a raise was a good idea? He obviously wasn't that scared that I caught a straight on the river, which he would be with an A8. There were no flush chances. He could've easily been playing 98s as well. I think I should've called the river, but it'd been my first "set" in awhile and I think I got a little carried away with it.


Loss: $12
10 players
I'm UTG+2 with [Kd] ($35.95)
2 folds, I raise to $1. Only SB ($25.89) calls. Pot: $2.25
Flop: [Jd][3c]
SB leads with $2. I reraise to $6. SB calls. Pot: $14.25
Turn: [Jd][3c][6d]
SB checks. I bet $5. SB calls. Pot: $24.25
River: [Jd][3c][6d][Qd]
We both check.
SB shows [As] and wins the pot.


My PF raise is a bit small, but this was a super tight table and bets bigger than this was getting no action at all. My large reraise on the flop was to find out where I was immediately. This play came after I started playing a little more cautiously. Rather than lose a huge pot on the river I'd been trying to find out where I'm at when it's cheaper. When it was called, however, I still wasn't sure where I was at. He could have AJ or KJ or QQ, but he could also have JJ, 66 or 33, and at a table this tight I'd be leaning more towards the latter. My turn bet is odd and I'm not sure what I'm trying to do with it. I remember seeing the 2 diamonds on the board and thinking that I don't want to give him a free card if he was on a draw after all, yet I bet only enough to give him okay odds to draw to the flush anyways. I think I choked on that bet. I didn't want to bet huge with my single pair and lose to a set again (and he certainly didn't act like he was on a draw). Probably the best thing I could've done is either check right there or make a raise of at least $10. Problem was that if I'd done that he would've only had $8 left and probably pot committed if he called. I wasn't sure I wanted him pot committed. Luckily the river diamond froze him, but I'm not sure if he would've bet anyways. He told me after the hand that he put me on a possible JJ or QQ and was just happy to check the river. Frankly , at that point I was too. After he called my large reraise I think I probably should've tried to see the river as cheaply as possible. After all, I made that reraise to find out where I was and if nothing else it told me that he had a hand he felt pretty good about. Then again, at this level someone could feel very good about AJ, so you really just never know. I should've just checked-called from there on out. He most likely wasn't on a draw, and if he had AJ he didn't have many outs to draw out on me there, but I should've used the info I got with my reraise. I didn't and it cost me another $5. All-in-all, I'm still grateful to get out with KK against AA as cheaply as I did.

Well this got pretty long anyways. Now I'm tired of typing though so I'm going to close it out.

Kind of a change in strategy.

I'm really going to try to stop taking this poker thing so seriously. It's really affecting my enjoyment of the game, and I have no desire to one day play poker full time at any rate. I'd just like to use it as a way to make a little extra money from time to time. The funny thing is that I'm writing this after a winning day today. Not a lot (only $8.25) but I found myself taking every bad beat and wrong move to heart and all I was thinking the whole time was what it was doing to my bankroll and desire to move up in limits. And frankly, I was winning much more often when I wasn't quite so serious about my game. Now by no means does that mean I'll quit trying to learn more about poker and keep trying to improve my game. If I do something, I figure I might as well do it as good as I possibly can. So I'll continue to study it and also learn as much as possible from the great players on BTP.

What this ultimately means is that I'm going to forget the idea that I "have" to play multiple tables to win as much as possible just because everyone else is doing it. I'm nowhere near as comfortable at even two tables than I am at one (and I'm not sure my win rate has ever beared out the fact that it's been more profitable for me to play multiple tables rather than one) so I'm sticking with just one table from now on.

And because of this, I'm going back to the $50 tables. No, I don't technically have the minimum bankroll of 20x the buyin that everybody preaches (I have about 14x right now), but if I'm only playing one table I'm not too worried about it. I'd never do this if I was still multi-tabling, but with only one table, and not so much of my bankroll in play at one time, I feel it's a very small risk. Also, I've won at the $50 tables before so I'm not really intimidated by the move up. I actually played an hour session tonight at the $50 and walked away with $32 in winnings (the losses came earlier today playing two tables at the $25s).

So anyways, I just wanted to get it out in the open. And I'll continue to track my progress here. I may start taking out a little money now and then from my bankroll, but never more than 50% of my winnings and I'll only take money out if I win (or I clear a bonus). This way my bankroll will still go up while at the same time I can enjoy some of the money I'm making and at least make it feel like I'm playing for something. And hopefully this helps me keep enjoying poker for a long, long time rather than burning out on it.

Thanks for the support RR!

And of course I'm not going anywhere. I'll still be around BTP just as much as I have been and I'll keep posting updates on how I'm doing. I still really have long term goals of moving up in limits (I don't want to play at $50 forever), but I'm going to quit trying to push it so hard that poker becomes a chore (and I think I've been on the cusp of that feeling for the past couple weeks). Really the only thing that has changed is my perpective for the reason I'm playing. As for my bankroll, I'm not going to be too risky with it. I think I'm okay for the $50 level with not having quite the minimum bankroll, but I still won't go up to the $100 level until I have really close to, or more than, the 20x the buyin for that level. It'll just take me longer to get there than I originally hoped, but I think it'll be a much smoother and more enjoyable journey for me.