Well, I had a fun enough time at the H.O.R.S.E. tourny, but it's a damned dirty shame that we only had 8 people. After words, I booked another couple of hours at the 5-10's.

Hours played...2:10
End result...+$132

Cool beans! In the brief time I've been playing 5-10 of late (only about 8 hours) I continue to be proud of my game. I think that the move up really helped me become more focused on playing good, solid poker. Same happened when I switched from 2-4 to 3-6. I played solid at the 2-4's for a while, but near the end, I was getting a good deal out of line, not really playing my best, just going through the motions. The same had been true of playing 3-6 lately.

That being said, there's still no excuse for playing less than my best, no matter what the level. Hopefully, I'll slowly develop the right mindset to play my A-game every time I sit down, no matter how high or low the stakes are. In the event that a "life-happening" were to occur that would force me to deduct from my bankroll, I'd need to be able to move down in limits and still give it my all.

Anyway, back to the HORSE tourny; it's always a fun time playing with some BTPers, but like starstealer said, it just wasn't as fun as the last one. Mainly because we barely got enough people for it to happen. I made a couple of side bets which panned out nicely, albeit due to some wicked luck on my part.

I also administered a vicious bad beat on starstealer. I was on the button with Kd3d, and I figured, "what the hell, these guys are a buncha weanies, I'll steal their blinds!" Well that worked out just terrific, as star 3-bet me from the BB. I realized he could be playing back at me with a hand he wouldn't normally reraise...but even so, my K3s was clearly in a world of trouble, so I called, but didn't have plans to put in another bet unless magic happened.

Well, sure enough, I flopped trip 3's and river a flush for good measure resulting in the utter devestation of his AA. To his credit, he didn't whine too much about it, though I can only imagine what sort of awful names he called me.

Anyhow, a bit further in, I had managed to work my stack back down to below where it started, and I found myself all-in in the Razz round as a definite dog to Briachek. In my defense, I knew I was behind, but was pretty desperate and didn't think it'd be in my best interests to wait for a better spot...of course, I sucked it out on the river and had to hear about it for the next 5 minutes, which gave me a good chuckle

I did also make some decent aggressive plays, in my opinion, and lasted until 3rd, where I got all-in against Nawton with a super-draw in the Stud8 round (4-flush, open-ender, nice low draw)...sadly, he had a better flush draw and a similar low-draw, and he scooped the last vestiges of life out of me when he hit and I bricked.

Anyhow, I reckon I'll give a "nice job" to Nawton, and a hearty "HAH HAH" at Briachek. Rough beats, Bri, but if it makes you feel any better, I enjoyed watching them

-TW

Actually, I have no problem getting aces cracked, least of all by you. Its not like I didn't have my suckouts (my pair of jacks rivering a straight was classic...).

It was a good time, despite the small field, and I have to admit the only hand that had me up in arms was one where I had brian completely dominated and he drew one of four outs to scoop (he had a few more for just low - but I don't remember exactly how many).

Looking forward to next week.

First off, it was pretty much down hill after that suck out from TW which wasn't that bad but still took a good chunk and lost me my chip lead. I couldn't get anything big after that.

Second to star, I obviously didn't think I was that dominated on both high and low side and thought I would take at least half the pot. I did have an extra low card just in case the 3/5 got counterfitted so I had that going for me. I thought you might be pushing extra hard because you were low and I thought I had 1/2 the pot with an outside chance of the whole thing. Little did I know you had pretty much the one hand that had me dominated on almost all accounts.

Third off, fuck you TW.

What the fuck are you trying to say Brian?

Right, so I booked a couple of 5-10 sessions today. Played about 4 hours this afternoon, and spent most of the time 100-200 in the hole...but I fought back gallantly to 250 up, after which I pissed most of it away to wind up about +80. My later session only lasted about an hour, during which I vigorously spilt the blood of all who would oppose me. Woulda loved to keep playing, but apparently I forgot that I'd previously made plans.

Hours played...5:22
End result...+$518.60

Continues to be an incredible week, and should easily be my best to date unless I manage to completely shank it in the next two days. I've been making some minor adjustments to my play, and I think they're paying some dividends. I've also been remaining pretty steady at a ~19% VPIP, which is right where I'd like to be. When I get into the 20's, as I had been for a while, I sometimes have a huge session if the cards are hitting me...but I've also had some breathtaking losses. So I think I'll try to keep it in the 18-19 range.

Doesn't look like I'm gonna hit 40 hours this week, but getting in 30 should definitely happen, and I think that's gonna be my long-term goal for the time being.

As for right now, there is important work to do! I realized to my shock and chagrine that I'm 79 cents short of the required $11 to play in the PStars tourny this Sunday, so I've formulated a brilliant plan to make up the difference. I'm gonna plunk it down at the $50 NL tables and go all-in until I'm at 11 or busted. Either this will quickly steal me enough blindage/limpage to hit the $11 mark, or I'll get lucky and double up, or I'll lose my 10 bucks and have to suck it up and transfer some more money in. Off I go!

-TW

Damn! Took a bad beat when my suited mo-town ran into pocket kings. Fuckin stars is so fucking rigged, I swear.

-TW

Right, I reckon it's cash-out day! I fired up 4 tables of 5-10, but after about an hour and a half, there was a brief delay involving Empire's server resetting...and at that point, it kinda occured to me that between my pounding headache and occasional nausea, I probably really shouldn't play any more today. Of course, every cash-out day, I cash out when I figure to be done...and wind up playing afterwards anyway, so today will probably be no exception!

Anyway, here's some figures. I should note that my total gain also includes ~450 in assorted bonuses, but I'll just lump 'em in with my poker profits in order to artificially inflate my winrate for the week.

Hours played...28:14
Total gain...$2183
Weekly winrate...$77.32/hour

Hah hah, I know that shit ain't gonna keep up, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts! I also upped my salary to $750, since my move to 5-10 looks to be a permanent one. You'll note that I've reverted back to my previous slackerage when it comes to hours, but as long as I'm around the 30-mark, I should be good to go.

As for next week...more of the same, really. At some point, I'd really like to set aside a week or two to fully immerse myself either in PLO or limit O8...after which, I'd mix it in with my normal limit routine to try and stay sharp at both...but I really don't see it happening for a while. For the time being, it's probably in my best interests to just stick with what's been working, because although this month has been fairly lovely so far, I still can't really afford the luxury of basically taking two weeks off.

But on the other hand, maybe I'll just do what I always do. Ya know, get impatient, say "fuck it" and do exactly what I just said I'm not going to do. For example, I previously claimed that I wasn't gonna move from 2-4 to 3-6 till my bankroll his 3000, and yet off I went with a bankroll of about 2000...recently, I insisted that there was NO WAY I'd move up to 5-10 until the bankroll hits 5000...about 18 hours later, there I am at the 5-10ers. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I'm tempted to sit down at some O8 tables right this instant...yeah, I think I'll do that!

Later,

-TW

Yeah, so as anticipated, I said "fuck it" and played some PLO today. It was some fun times, a good change of pace, though I must say it's been awhile since I played a big-bet game...and thus losing a $230 stack on one particular hand KINDA HURT.

Hours played...3:30
End result...+$167.71

Obviously, things turned out okay...in spite of my severe incompetance at the game, flopping a bundle of top sets and having most of the hold up always makes for a swell day!

I must say, I still have a lot of "Harry Hold'em" in me, which leads me to severely overvalue two pair, and play a lotta crap hands just because of delicious 2-card features. My VPIP for the day was ~37%, tee hee.

Anyway, the current plan is to stick with it for the rest of the week, though I'll probably actually alternate between PLO and limit hold 'em. I'll also probably be posting some troubling hands in the PLO section, though my embarassment at playing the likes of 2-4-9-J for a raise in EP might preclude a heavy amount of posting.

-TW