Played a 75 minute session today (one table of course). I've been playing at UB again because right now that's the only site where I have a bonus working. Even though it's painfully slow at the $50 tables while single tabling, it's better than nothing right now until I find a better bonus opportunity. I quickly learned again how rocky the $50 UB tables can be. So there weren't many big pots today (for me at any rate). I had a good chance for one when I was the last person to call a $2 raise preflop with 66 (two people also called so there was 4 to see the flop). Flop came AJ6 and I led out with a 75% bet on the flop, sure that I'd get a call or raise from someone but they just let me have it. I won more than my share of little pots with strong plays after the flop, trying to take advantage of the rocky table. I made $7.60 today. That, plus my win yesterday and the bonus earned has got my $150 deposit from yesterday up to $193.65 on UB. I have only $128.25 left at PR (that's where I had my $24 loss at the multi-$25 tables yesterday). $151.42 at Party and I still have $234.49 left in my Neteller account, waiting for a bonus to come up (if someone has any ideas let me know, but keep in mind it has to be a bonus that doesn't have to be cleared too quickly because I won't multi-table just to clear it). So I've at least reached the $700 level for my bankroll at $707.81.

I will, at some point, take out $175 from my bankroll. I think I mentioned it before, but $175 of my bankroll right now is not part of my poker winnings. It'd still be somewhat of a relief to me to only be playing completely with my winnings. But I'll probably wait until I get closer to the $1000 mark before doing it as I don't want to get my bankroll pinched too tight at the $50 tables.

The belief that some bonus is better then none is definitely not true at those limits, you should be playing at sites that have the worst tables ie Pacific, instead of worrying about miniscule bonus amounts.

Yeah I thought about that after I wrote it Golden. The problem is that I didn't really know any alternative sites that were that much better than UB. I've only just begun to branch out into sites other than UB (Party and PokerRoom), and those two places, at certain times, I've found to be just as rocky as UB can be. Maybe it's a matter of poor table selection I've been making, though. I certainly know I've heard laughable stories about Party's players, but except here or there I haven't really come across it yet (at least any more than I come across those types of great games at UB). I'll try Pacific, since you recommend it.

I played a $5 SNG last night for fun. I signed up for an 18 player tournament without realizing it was 3 tables of 6. I'm certainly not used to such a small table, but by the time I realized what sort of a SNG it was I was already seated so there was no backing out. I did well in the beginning. Everybody was playing supertight, so I was stealing just about every pot they would let me take. Once I got up to $2000 (started at $1500), my cards died and the couple I did catch (a flopped nut flush and a KK) I couldn't get anyone to join me into the pot. So I'm hovering right around $2000 for quite a awhile.

Finally it's down to 12 people at two tables (I'm squarely in the middle at 6th place) and I've marked one guy in particular as a juicy catch. I don't believe he ever pushed all-in, but he started calling all-ins left and right. Fortunately people started giving him their money. One hand that I remember (didn't have PT running), two people were in the pot. Flop was JJT. The fish bet a little, gets raised and calls. The next card is a king. Fish checks, the other guy goes all-in and fish calls. The other guy loses with 99 to the fishes K8. Occasionally the fish would lose these so by the time it was down to 12 people he had about the same stack as me. Then a hand where another guy donks off his entire stack to the fish when he bluffed with a straight draw on a TJQ board and the fish called with J5 and it held up.

Now it's my turn. Fish is the chip leader. I have A4o in the BB. Fish and another just call PF and I check. Flop is AA8. I check as do the others. River was a king. I bet and fish raises, the other guy calls, and I reraise all-in. Probably not the brightest move in the world with a weak kicker, but I was pretty sure that the fish would call (and that the king really helped him) and the other guy would fold (he was very weak-tight)...and I guess I got a little greedy wanting half the fishes' stack and turning into the chip leader myself. My plan worked out. Fish called, the other guy folded...and fish turns over A5. Yikes! So I end up being an even bigger donk than the fish and when I don't improve (and he even catches a useless 5 on the river) I'm out the door. Turned out I didn't have as much fun at the SNG as I thought I'd have. *L*

Speaking of trying to enjoy poker, I think I'm going to start branching out on games other than holdem as well. Playing the same game over and over again is probably a contributing factor to why I've been on the edge of poker burnout lately. I've dabbled a little before with PLO and 7-stud in the past. I've had okay success with PLO (but at very, very small stakes), but have only broken even or even a small loss with stud. I really enjoy playing both games, but I've been avoiding them like the plague ever since I got back into poker since I didn't know as much about them as I do about holdem. I didn't want to win at holdem and lose everything back to games where I didn't feel very proficient. But I think it's time to start adding these games into my playing. If I find I absolutely can't find a way to win at either over a decent period of time I'll probably just have to give them up or just play every once in awhile for fun, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I think many of the newer players (like me) are studying holdem much more than any other game and that probably contributes to the tighter tables, but maybe I'll find looser games at stud and omaha where people don't know quite so much about poker. And I'd say I've studied these other games enough to believe I know much more about them than the guy who's just playing them for fun. It'll just take time to get comfortable playing them for a profit.

Quick addition: I just found out within 15 minutes that the $50 PLO is not the same as the $50 NLHE tables. Wow, dropped like $15 in no time (and was lucky to win a hand to keep my losses at $15). Obviously I didn't look at the average pot size before playing. Looking afterwards it seems like $50NLHE, $25PLO and the .50/1.00 stud tables are all really close to the same pot size so I'll stick to those for now.

Edited to add: I just won it all back at Stud! Poker is fun again.

P.S. Should I start thinking about getting the PT Omaha and Stud or would it be okay to wait awhile while getting used to the games without the added expense right now?

Ugh, just read what I posted in the bad beat forum to find out how my day went. I was actually up about $8 when that hand happened. I played a few more orbits after that hand but after not catching a playable hand I gave it up for the day. I'll give it a day to see if my luck changes.

I withdrew everything except $100 from UB, so UB will be where my stud bankroll is. I'm playing at the $.25/50 tables. I was going to play $.50/1.00, but I didn't see any at UB. That's probably just as well. Maybe this will give me more time to learn stud with less of a risk of busting out so soon. Plus playing at UB I will be getting that small bonus money each time I play so that'll help to prolong (if it comes to that) any sort of bustout.

I certainly had my ups and downs today. I seemed to start off pretty loose (gotta start bearing down a little at the beginning of the sessions) through the first few orbits. Everything seemed to be just barely playable, but playable nonetheless. Finally though, after I was down $5, I noticed just how high my VP$IP was (around 60%, though only two people at the table had lower) and started buckling down and being much more selective with the first three cards. So after a bit I get back to right at even again. Then I go on a bit of a downspin. I may have still been too loose, but mostly I was losing with two pair kings/jacks against two pair aces/threes, that sort of thing. Or I'd get a great draw (straight and flush draw after the 5th card) and get in the middle of a betting war between two people and when I didn't hit I lost quite a bit on that hand (maybe a rookie mistake to stay in there after a second reraise *?*). On another hand I put a very aggressive player on a pair of queens when I had two kings and he really had aces in the hole.

So anyways, I'm down $10 after all that. Finally I catch a few hands of my own and win $5 of it back. I was nearing the end of my session and my DSL acts up and keeps kicking me off the table so I give it up for the day, a $5 loser. I think if I'd've been a little tighter in the beginning I may have just about broken even for the day. I ended the day at 38% VP$IP, still high, but other than someone who had 36%, noone else had lower than 60%. I'm still not completely confident on how to play draws at stud. Actually I'm not all that confident on how to play made hands as well, but I guess that's what I'm playing for; to gain the experience to know what to do in those situations. Hopefully I can hang in there long enough to learn it before I go bust.


Beginning bankroll: $100
Wins/losses: $5.50
Bonus: $1.02
Current Bankroll: $95.52

K 545-

I commend you on your adventure into 7CS. I encourage you to post some of your difficult hands in the Other Games forum. For your start, you should learn the basic odds of the chances of the first three cards developing into a particular hand. The game you describe has about 5 players seeing fourth street. For your starting hands, remember that drawing hands fare well against a field. Made hands, with the exception of rolled up trips, do not fare as well without improvement. A tool that should help you learn the values of hands and how they hold up against various holdings is www.twodimes.net. There are also threads on 7CS in the odds section, such as . You might also read an introductory book on stud, such as Ashley Adams' Winning 7-Card Stud.

You might consider moving your roll to Paradise for the micro limit stud games. The games up to .25/.50 did not have an ante the last time I played there (it has been a couple of months).

Best of luck in your endeavor to learn 7CS. I look forward to reading some of your trouble hands in the Other Games forum.