A Fresh Start

[Kramer545]

Thanks emmasdad!

I will indeed post some of my hands on that forum if I come across any truly tough decisions. Right now I'm so new to the game that I'm not exactly sure what is worth posting and what is a "standard" hand. I've been caught up in playing and rereading the stud section in supersystem to really do a lot of reading on the other games forum, but this weekend I'll be giving it a really thorough look-see. It'll help me in general and also give me situations on what makes a truly tough decision in stud. Right now all my decisions seem fairly easy when I'm playing...but I'm 100% sure that's because I don't know the intracacies of stud yet, i.e, many of the decisions are easy to me, but they are probably the wrong decisions.

I do have serious questions "preflop" that I need to find the answers to before I'll be more comfortable with my decisions, such as whether you'd play AA9 with one or two aces up in someone else's hand or just throw it away immediately. Or call with KK5 when someone with an ace as the door card completes the bet. I'm not asking anyone to answer these questions; I'm just giving examples on how totally clueless I can be at stud because those of you that have been playing awhile probably see these decisions as no-brainers. Hopefully with some thorough reading (and thanks for the suggestion of that stud book...I'll pick it up as soon as I can) these decisions will become clear to me as well.

Right now the starting hands I'm trying to play are large 3-straight, 3 flushes with a high card (K or A), large pairs with any kicker and small pairs with a large kicker...oh and rolled up trips, but I doubt I'll see them very often. Also with the straight and flush draws I check to make sure not too many of my cards are already out (it's hard to remember sometimes that if I have QJT, that not only do I have to look for K and 9, but also keep an eye on A and 8 as well to see how many of them are dead). I don't think I'm sticking to this starting hand selection all that well at times. Right now some hands just look so good that I have a hard time throwing them away, particularly if quite a few people have already called. Getting my teeth kicked in a few times with these hands will probably cure me of that.

I will probably stay at UB for now (mostly because lately I've been moving from one site to another and I'm just tired and too lazy to want to move again *L*). I don't mind the antes really. I'll feel better about my stud game if I can start winning despite the antes.

Thanks for the encouragement! I'll probably need more of it later on when I start to have serious doubts I'll ever learn the game as well as I want to. *L*

[Kramer545]

[Kramer545]

Alright, I decided to take tonight off so I'll do my weekly wrapup. I had an okay (not great, not horrible) week at holdem since moving back up to the $50 tables. I finished up $73.84. Of course I've lost some back at stud as well, but I'm not sure exactly how much (I'm guessing about $20 altogether) since I didn't have PTS running on all my games. So I ended the week up about $50 or so. I'll get back to exact figures as soon as I can. I'm still waiting for Pacific to send me my money, but even though I checked and found out I requested my withdrawal on 5/5 it is still "in process". What am I going to do though? Bitch to them that they haven't sent me a bonus I haven't really earned? *L* If it's not done by next Monday though I'm going to cancel that transaction and just take out what I deposited...at least if they are that slow then I'll be able to complain about it. I may miss Party's reload opportunity though.

So I have 4 hands that qualify for biggest losers of the week: Here they are.


Lost: $29.20
10 players
I have [Jc] in CO ($57.10).
UTG min raises to $1 ($29.20). 2 folds. MP1 calls. 2 folds. I call. 2 folds. BB calls. 4 people in the pot. Pot: $4.25.
Flop: [2c][2h]
BB checks. UTG bets $5. MP1 folds. I reraise to $10. BB folds. UTG calls. Pot: $24.25
Turn: [2c][2h][7c]
UTG checks. I bet $20. UTG calls with his last $18.20. Pot: $62.50
River: [2c][2h][7c][2s]
UTG shows [Tc] and wins with 4 dueces, king kicker.


I posted this hand on the bad beat forum so anyone interested in my comments on this hand can just look there.


Lost: $22.75
10 players
I'm in SB with [2s] ($113.10)
Folds to the button. Button calls ($22.75). I call. BB checks. Pot: $1.50
Flop: [Qc][2h]
I bet the pot: $1.50. BB folds. Button min raises to $3. I call. Pot: $7.50
Turn: [Qc][2h][7h]
I check. Button bets the pot: $7.50. I reraise to put him all in. Button calls. Pot: $46
River: [Qc][2h][7h][Kc]
Button shows [Ts] and wins with a set of tens.


Obvious the screwups are pretty big with this hand. The fact that I was double the buy-in probably played a part in my decisions. I probably should've folded preflop. Then I should've been very wary of his min raise on the flop. I think I was just feeling so good I didn't think I could lose and, of course, I was wrong. This is a classic example of the troubles you face when you come in with a very, very marginal hand. You flop something good then have a hard time getting away from the hand even if you know you should.


Lost: $13
9 Players
I'm in the SB with [Qh] ($50.15)
UTG+2 posted blind OOT.
UTG calls. UTG+1 folds. UTG+2 checks. 2 folds. CO calls ($48.20). Button calls. I raise to $3. Only CO calls. Pot: $8
Flop: [3h][5s]
I CB $5. CO calls. Pot: $18
Turn: [3h][5s][4s]
I check. CO checks.
River: [3h][5s][4s][6h]
I check. CO bets $5. I call.
CO shows [7d] and wins with a pair of kings.


Well I think I played this okay until the river. I was unlucky to begin with that he'd call a 6x PF raise with such a hand as this. The fact that he called on the flop without a real draw on the board is something that I didn't consider when I called his small river bet. What else would he be calling with on the flop if not a king or better? I let his very small bet on the river overshadow the obvious.


Lost: $7
9 players
I'm in MP3 with [9h]
It's folded to me. I bet $2. Button and SB call. Pot: $6.50
Flop: [Ac][As]
SB checks. I CB $5. Button raises to $10. SB folds. I fold


Well here's the obvious danger of trying to steal the pot. My raise with J9 wasn't horrible because this was a very tight table and I really thought I'd steal the pot either preflop or on the flop. When AAQ showed up on the flop I knew I'd win it if noone else had an ace, so I wasn't unhappy with that flop. But of course I ran up against one (most likely), so I got out as quickly as possible. I usually don't like to make a raise with suited connecting or semi-connecting cards that contain a face card, so maybe I was a little loose here. I usually like them to be small suited connectors like 54 or 87 because I know I won't be competing for the same cards with someone who calls my raise (again, most likely), and that if all small cards flop he'll never see it coming, especially if he has an overpair. This was just a bad timed play on my part.

Well that's all for now. Even though I'm taking a break from online poker tonight I may just play in a small live tournament tonight for fun (finally a chance to put Mike Caro's book to the test *L*). I'll let you know how it goes if I play.

[Kramer545]

Okay, wow, what a horrendous night I've had at poker. *L* I'm not sure a single thing went right, or that I did a single thing right.

Okay first off, my small live holdem tournament.

I think I've talked about this tournament before. But it's not suited to the best players...it's suited to the deep pockets. How it works is that you buy-in for $25 and get $100 in chips. For the first hour blinds are $5/10, so you can see the problem you might have with a tournament like this. Unlimited rebuys for the first hour and an add-on at the end of the hour where you get $200 in chips. There was only 12 people playing. *L* However, within that first hour there was probably close to $600 in rebuys made. So you can see my problem, with my little bitty pockets trying to compete with their deep ones. I did, however, go down there this time with $100 and a plan. I was going to get two good hole cards and go all-in preflop, as much as humanly possible. You might think I might not get a caller that way, but more often than not with those players you'd get 2 people calling you. I saw a call all-in with 42o if that gives you any idea. I wasn't going to just call preflop under any circumstance. It was all-in or fold. If I built up chips I would adjust, but at the beginning there's simply no reason to call PF with small PPs or suited connectors because the odds suck.

The glitch to my plan, however, was the fact that at the beginning I couldn't get a playable hand. Finally I got blinded down to $70, picked up ATs and went all-in, and got called by K9o. I win and am up to $140. Then again I go on a cold streak and get blinded down to $100. Finally I catch 99, two people limp and I go all-in. A limper calls me with J8o and catches a jack. So I rebuy at about the 55 minute mark. An orbit goes by and they say it's the last hand before add-on. At this point I'm ready to double up or go out in a blaze of stupidity when I pick up 33. It's raised, I go all-in, and it's reraised all-in by another player. Raiser folds and the other guy shows TT. I don't survive this one either.

So that's it. I leave and it'll probably be another 6 months before I go back to try it again. At least I leave with $50 more than I expected to have. This was just fun money though, it had no effect on my online bankroll.

So now I'll talk about what did affect my online bankroll. I came home and was still in the card-playing mood, so I fired up UB and got a little stud action going. I bought in for $25 at the $.25/.50 table. 94 minutes later I'm leaving with my tail between my legs, dragging my last $1.40 behind me. OMG, I either did everything wrong or was the unluckiest SOB at the table. I think it was the combination of both, but probably more the former than the latter. There's a guy at the table who catches 3 full houses within 15 minutes and the best hand I was able to muster all night was the wheel straight, which I lose convincingly to a flush. I get my first rolled up trips, kings, bet the hell out of them and lose to someone catching a straight on the final card. Other than that wheel straight I caught I didn't catch another hand I was drawing to (and I wasn't really drawing to that; I had two pair A3). Twice I had 4 flush and twice I had 4 straight on 4th street and don't catch anything. My VP$IP at 32% was by far the lowest at the table. I know it's still high compared to suggestions I've gotten, but c'mon, you'd think I'd have a little advantage being so far below the other players (noone else had lower than 50%). I'm still trying to figure out when to bow out of a hand and when to stay in one, and so far I'm probably staying in a hand longer than I should. My W$SD is 33.33%.

I'm really not too upset about all this. I'm just going through the learning pains of trying to figure out a new game and even if I lose the entire $100, that's what it's there for. I still have $73 to turn it around, so I'm not in deperation mode just yet.

The only good news tonight is that my Pacific withdrawal finally says "Processed" instead of "in process". Though it's still not in my Neteller account yet. It looks like I may get the entire $293.

[Kramer545]

[Kramer545]

A good day at stud this afternoon during a short session. I won $19.25, mainly due to hitting ace high flush three times. I've got my stud bankroll (including the bonuses I've earned) closing back in on the $100 mark at $94.76. I'm rereading TOP. I read it the first time with no real intention of playing limit poker, but now that I am playing limit (and mostly that book refers to limit) I may pick up on a few things I'd missed out on my first reading. Time permitted I may play again tonight, so I might have another entry today.

Good news on the Pacific withdrawal. It's finally showing up at Neteller, all of it, including the $59 bonus. So I have $500 and some change in Neteller right now. I'll wait until tomorrow (or late tonight) to deposit it, because I can't be sure I'll have time to play tonight and since it's a time-sensitve bonus to be earned I want to make sure I don't deposit it until I know I have time to play. I should get about $75 in bonus money; that means 750 raked hands to be played in 7 days. For the first few days I'll single table and see how it goes as far as raked hands. Only then will I start multi-tabling if I feel I need to. I'll play one table as if I'm single-tabling and the other table(s) I'll just play very, very tight and do my best to stay out of trouble. I'm hoping it won't come to that though, at least until next weekend.

[Kramer545]

[Kramer545]

I played for about an hour and a half at the $25 tables today and the theory on whether I could accomplish clearing my bonus in 7 days by single-tabling was answered quickly: No.

I played a single table for about about 20 minutes and kept seeing non-raked hand after non-raked hand. Like me, I guess a lot of people are trying to clear a bonus and are playing very tight. So I decided to add a second table. Some of the tables I opened had VP$IPs of less than 10% after 10 minutes or so, so I was changing tables immediately when I noticed that. The best table I found in the beginning was 22% and I felt lucky to find that. Finally I found a few in the 20s and one in the 30s (made that table seem very, very loose-passive. *L*). I ultimately ended up playing 4 tables at a time. Even with that I played a total of 274 hands with only 159 raked for a % of 58. I'm kind of glad at this point I don't have to try and clear 1000 raked hands. *L* I have 543 left to go.

The best part was that I managed to get a decent win at the tables despite how rocky they were. I won $36.66 by the end of my session.

I was very fortunate on my last orbit of the day. I'd just opened this table, but right after I did I suddenly felt it was time to quit since I was losing interest a little bit. So I go ahead and uncheck the auto-post blinds thingy on all my tables. I had only 9 hands at this last table, so I probably pissed a few people off when I left after that first orbit up $19.55.

I managed to catch AA two hands in a row. First against QQ (on a rag flop) and then against AK (with a king high flop). I didn't get their stacks but I got a couple of nice pots. Neither one bet or raised into me, but called my bets immediately. I'd guess that during a non-bonus period I'd've easily gotten their entire stacks. But to be honest I wasn't any better than they were. When each player kept insta-calling my bets through the turn, and in each case they checked on the river, I was quite nervous about losing a big pot myself at that point so I checked behind them. I was kicking myself afterwards for checking the river (I probably could've gotten a call from each), but I still didn't want to lose a large pot in my final orbit of the day with a single pair. Also my last hand before the BB I caught a set of fours and won a medium pot there, so all-in-all, it was a pretty good orbit.

I've got my holdem bankroll up to over $700 finally. Along with my stud bankroll of $118.30, $9.86 still in Neteller and $701.04 in Party my total bankroll is $829.20, which is far more than I've ever had in my previous incarnations of a poker player. It almost gives me hope that one day I may even move up in limits.

[Kramer545]

I was going to take tonight off, but on a whim I decided to play a short session at Party's $25 tables just to knock off a few more raked hands. 50 minutes played, +$50. $50.70 to be exact. The tables were much, much better than yesterday. I had no problem finding 30%+ VPIP tables. They were paying me off right and left even with my VPIP of 16. The rake/non-raked percentage was a much better 72%. I still have 417 left to go, but if I keep winning like this I don't mind the wait. *L*

I really don't have anything more to say today, so I'll make this a rare short entry.

Edited to add: Ugh, a bad session at stud though. Down about $15. Still have my BR over $100 but just barely. My big hand was a straight and was beaten by a river flush. Otherwise I just couldn't catch any cards. I've yet to really learn how to not lose so much money when that happens.

[Kramer545]

Another good session at Party. Played 68 minutes at the $25 tables. I decided to 3 table it today though. I know I was winning with 4 tables, but I'm just sooooo uncomfortable. Also I've gotten my raked hands down enough that I don't feel I have to play 4 anymore.

Anyways I won $23.22 today. What's weird is that I won some on each of the three tables I played on. That's very unusual for me. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and for me to come here reporting a $50 loss; I've won 10/13 "sessions" (tables) since dropping down to $25 to get this bonus and my 3 losses were $5.40, $1.95 and $0.45. My PTBB/100 during this period is 33.21 and I've won a total of $110.58. This is a 3 day period, 666 hands. I've gotten my Party account up to $774.96.

69% raked/non-raked hands so that wasn't too bad. Got another 151 raked so I'm down to 266 left to go.

I gotta start thinking about what I'm going to do when this bonus clears. First off, of course, is to use much of the bonus to buy PT-stud. I'm actually not sure, when I clear the bonus, whether I'll go back up to the $50 tables or stay at the $25s. The $25s have certainly been making a valid argument this week for me to stay there. That and the fact that I'm still a little underfunded for the $50 tables tells me I should probably just stay where I am when the bonus is done. I'll decide when I get a little closer, but right now I'm leaning towards the $25.

What I leave in Party's account will depend on which level I play. If I stay at the $25s I'll probably leave about $125 and park the rest in Neteller to await the next bonus offer. If I play at the $50 tables I'll probably have to leave $200+ there.

Also I've been trying to figure out a good withdrawal system for me; meaning money from my winnings that I withdrawal for personal use. I won't start retroactively which means what I have in my accounts right now isn't available for withdrawal. I think what I'm going to do is start making withdrawals monthly (assuming I win of course). I'll wait until June 1st and keep track from there on. I'll withdrawal 1/3 of my winnings each month starting in July. I think that's a pretty good number and it'll keep my bankroll building. Maybe it'll keep me more motivated to keep playing. I have days now where I have trouble wondering why I'm playing and if it's worth it, because I really don't see any benifits of it other than the pride of being a winning player. Withdrawals from time to time will let me see something concrete from my play.

Oh but my stud account (if by some miracle I actually win enough that I can withdrawal 1/3 of my winnings and still have it be more than the minimum WD that UB allows) is off-limits. I feel I need to keep as much in there as possible until I get a decent bankroll going. If I can somehow manage to get that BR up to $500 then I may begin considering withdrawals.

I guess that's about all I have to say for now.

[Kramer545]

Played another stud session. Got halfway through it and maxed out my 1000 hands of PTS. It was about an hour and a half session and was up and down. I can't catch anything for an hour and I'm down about $10. Finally I got a few hands and get up to about +$5. Slowly I slip back down to the even mark. I can never figure out when I want to quit at stud. There are no blinds to make it my "last orbit", so I'm always playing just one more, well maybe just one more, well that one sucked so I'll just play one more, I had to bring it in so I'm not quitting on THAT hand, and so on and so on. It'd've probably boosted my ego to leave a winner, but I ended up getting involved in a couple of nasty hands at the end and losing so i finished about $5 down. Sort of an "it coulda been worse" kind of session. Thanks to my UB bonus of $2 I'm still over $100, but now I'm really, really close. A bonus won't save me from dropping below $100 next time if I lose.

I think along with PTS when I clear the Party bonus I'm also going to get a good introductory stud book as well. emmasdad mentioned an Ashley Adams book so I'll start with that one unless someone has another suggestion. I may even get two. I have like 12 books on holdem so I guess having two for stud wouldn't be totally bizarre. Right now I feel like very much a break even stud player (even though I'm actually down just a little bit) and I think I'm missing some important information that would tilt me towards being a winning player, if only slightly so.

[Kramer545]

I had a losing session at holdem. Minus $1.65, so it wasn't too bad. I was up about $6 apiece on two different tables and down a couple bucks apiece on two others.Then I get a QQ on one of the losing tables. I just called a decent sized raise PF. ATx came on the flop. The original raiser checked. I bet a small amount and he called. When he checked the turn I bet a larger amount and he just called. I actually put him on a smaller PP at that point. I had no read on him but something told me he didn't have an ace. Then he goes all-in for like his last $4 on the river and to me it looked like a desperation move by a short stack, which I guess is what I was supposed to think. I should've folded (as I haven't improved), but I called since I still wasn't convinced I was beat and I couldn't lose too much with this hand if I was wrong. I was right, he had a smaller PP, but that PP was TT so he flopped a set. I lost about $8 on that hand, otherwise I thought I played pretty well at 4 tables. But other than me, nobody else was paying off hands. *L*

The tables reverted back to being very tight again. The rake/non-rake was 61%. I just got bored with it after 50 minutes so I quit. I have 150 raked left to go and I think I'm going to play a maximum of two tables at a time to finish it off. I didn't like how I had no read whatsover on those pocket tens. And I have 3 days to finish off 150 hands so that shouldn't be much of a problem.

I've already started the process to get PTS. I just don't like being without it. I just took out enough from my stud bankroll and put it into Neteller and when it shows up there I'll register PTS. Then when my bonus clears I'll pay back my stud account (I'd just use the stud bankroll completely for it but I'm already stretched thin as it is).

I did play about a 45 minute stud session a bit ago and it went pretty well. I think I was much more disciplined on 4th street to throw my hands away when I didn't improve (or just got a marginal improvement like a 3rd suited card or bottom pair) so I think I saved myself lots of bets there. My biggest leak, I believe, is catching something even marginally good on 4th street and end up calling bets on that street and maybe two more before I give it up as a lost cause. I ended up about $11 so I'm pretty happy about that since I wasn't getting really lucky with my cards in general. I finally felt I outplayed a few people today, if only by being much more selective on third street and throwing away hands that didn't seem promising enough on 4th.

[Kramer545]

Okay, first off I'm not going to bother posting an end-of-week post this week. I just don't have the energy. Plus I was playing pretty tight all week so there really isn't much to report in terms of losses.

I had a lot of poker-related activity today. First off, I completed my Party bonus this afternoon. I two tabled for about 1 3/4 hours to do it. I ended up down like 36 cents altogether. On one table I won $12, but on the other table I made three mistakes in three different hands so that I ended up a little over $12 loss on that table. As an example of my mistakes: UTG calls, it's folded to me in the BB and I have K7o. Flop is a king high. UTG bets, I call. Turn is a blank. UTG bets, I call. River is a blank and it was only then, when UTG bet the entire pot did I realize I was facing a player who was UTG. Throughout the entire hand, for whatever reason I can't explain, I thought I was playing from the SB and I was facing the bets from the BB, rather than an UTG player. When he made that large river bet I finally figured it out, and I couldn't've folded any quicker. Up to that point I thought he was trying to buy it out of the BB.

Earlier with that same player I was in the SB and he's in the BB. It's folded to me and I call with J9o. The flop is Kxx with two diamonds. I decide to see if I can steal it. I bet, he calls. Turn is a ten, no diamond. I try again, pretty sure he was on a flush draw. He calls. River is a blank, no diamond. I figure I can't win if I don't bet, and if he was on a draw he just missed it, so I throw out a pot sized bet. He calls with his two pair KT. *L* In my defense, though, they both were diamonds. Because of this play I thought he was trying the same thing with me on the hand I listed above. When all was said and done I was nothing more than his personal ATM.

So anyways, I withdrew $700 to park in Neteller from Party. That leaves $147.95 at Party. Once the $700 was there, I deposited $46 back into my UB stud account to pay back what I took out. I paid the registration for my PT-stud and I'm happy to say I have a fully registered version at this point.

Also, after taking some advice I ordered 3 stud books: Ashley Adams and Roy Wests introductory books and since, if I ordered one more I'd get free shipping, I decided to go ahead and get Sklansky's advanced stud book. I probably won't get to that for a quite awhile, but I'll have it when I'm ready for it. I had to use my CC for the purchase, so I went ahead and withdrew the amount I paid for the books straight from Neteller into my bank account so I could put it towards my CC when it's due. I wanted to pay for these books with my bankroll.

So to update, here's where my bankroll is at: $147.95 at Party, $108.19 at UB and $630.78 at Neteller for a total of $886.92. Since I have no more bonuses to work off I'm going to start alternating the sites I play. I'll probably spend two days at Holdem to one day at Stud since I'm sure Holdem will be much more lucrative to me and I'm still interested in continuing to build my bankroll. I'm not sure playing a lot of stud is the way to do that right now.

I've decided to stick to one table at a time at Holdem though. The two I played today was sort of a trial run on whether I could read players at each table as much as I wanted to; I couldn't. So because I'm playing only one table I will be moving back up to the $50 tables after this. Sure I may be able to make more money grinding out multiple tables and playing very tight, but as I mentioned before, enjoying playing is more important to me than maximizing profits at this point and if I had to multi-table like I did this past week I'd be sick of holdem in less than a month.

Finally, I did play an hour of stud tonight as well. It's such a frustrating game when you're not getting cards. With NLHE you can make plays from time to time, stealing pots or whatnot, to cut your losses a bit, but if you aren't getting anything a stud you just watch your chipstack dwindle a little at a time without being able to do anything about it. I was very selective today with my first three cards, and aggressive when I had a good hand, but they rarely materialized to anything better and I'd typically end up folding my single pair. I started at $25, got down to below $15, then actually did catch a couple of lucky breaks towards the end and got it back up to around $20. I finished about $6 down, adding in the bonus I got today. I'm actually not unhappy about my play tonight. I think I did things mostly right (I'm sure I made a mistake here or there of course). I wanted to give a nod to Piers about his suggestion to play high pocket pairs or overcards aggressively on third street to build a pot. Towards the end I did this with (AK)J when my jack was high on the board. I played it very aggressively and built a big pot and was fortunate to hit an ace high flush on 6th street and take down that nice sized pot. It helped me cut my losses at any rate.

Well I'm pooped, so I'm going to close this out and get to bed.

[Kramer545]

I'm taking today off from playing (I promise this time *L*), so I will go ahead and post my EOTW entry right now. Mostly I just want to be able to look back at this next Saturday and be able to tell how well or how badly I did so I want to record it here so it's available.

I've already written yesterday where exactly my bankroll is, but I'll repost it here because it's always easier to find when I use different colors in my post as I do with the biggest losses of the week.

Party (holdem): $147.95
UB (stud): $108.19
Neteller: $630.78
Total: $886.92

It's been so weird that I have no idea exactly how much I've won or lost this week because of all the transfers and bonuses, but if you've read any of the previous posts this week (especially earlier on), you know that I had a pretty good week at the $25 tables while clearing my Party bonus. FWIW, PT shows that I won $114.02 with a ptbb/100 of 19.46 through 1,144 hands for this week playing on Party. Obviously I had some good luck when I needed it. I'm sure I lost a little playing stud, but since PTS stopped on me I wasn't able to get an exact count on it.

Before I get to the biggest losses, I just wanted to say that I'm starting completely new databases on both holdem and stud. I'm doing it for holdem because I'm moving up exclusively to $50 single table and I want that database to reflect only those games. For stud I'm just doing it because the current one I'm using is just worthless because it's been hit or miss whether I've been using it (or it was available) when playing stud and I want to start with a clean one. I know I can use my current DBs and just filter, but I'd just rather start out new with each.

Okay, I guess it's time for the biggest losses. There isn't much to report. Only two reached my criteria of $7 losses or greater. I would say that it was because I played almost exclusively at the $25 tables, but really it was just because I was extremely lucky this week and didn't take really any bad beats (or make any momumentally stupid plays). So anyways, here they are:


7 players
Loss: $8.25
I'm UTG with [Jc] ($24).
I call. It's folded to SB ($24.40) who calls. BB is disconnected and folds. Pot $0.75.
Flop: [4d][3s]
SB leads out for $1. I reraise to $3. SB calls. Pot $6.75.
Turn: [4d][3s][Ts]
SB checks. I bet $5. SB calls. Pot: $16.75
River: [4d][3s][Ts][Kh]
SB checks. I check.
SB wins the pot with [9d], two pair.


Obviously I might've avoided any unpleasantries if I'd raised preflop (or maybe not; SB may have called anyways with that hand). But it was my first orbit and I wasn't sure what the table was like. I was worried about getting raised and reraised and having to throw my jacks away if it was a crazy table. Had I known it was a passive table (as it turned out to be) there wouldn't've been a question of raising. But after that I think it was just bad luck that he called my reraise on the flop with TPWK and managed to hit on the turn. Although my $5 bet on the turn with three spades on the board was quite loose, particularly since I didn't have one. I'm typically not crazy about raising JJ UTG, though I will on occasion. Had I noticed, at the time, that there was only 7 active players at the table I probably would've raised. But at Party it's sometimes a bit difficult to tell exactly how many players are active, how many are sitting out and which chairs are empty (I have the avatars turned off) unless you're specifically looking for that. It's a mistake I did not make again and hopefully won't make in the future.


8 Players
Loss: $8.10
I'm OTB with [Qd] ($22.60)
First two players fold. MP1calls. MP2 ($8.10) raises to $1.47. CO folds. I call. Everyone else folds. Pot: $3.54
Flop: [Ts][5s]
We both check.
Turn: [Ts][5s][2h]
MP2 checks. I bet $2.50. MP2 calls. Pot: $8.54
River: [Ts][5s][2h][7h]
MP2 goes all-in with last $4.13. I call.
MP2 wins pot with [Th], a set of tens.


Maybe I should've tried pushing him all-in preflop, but I don't want to be one of "those" people who do that with QQ. His preflop raise was pretty large as well, so I had a legitimate worry about KK or AA. A reraise could've been a possibility, but if he pushed all-in then what? Maybe I shouldn't be worrying about such a thing until it happens. So why did I play it? For the very reason that maybe had what he actually did have: JJ, TT, 99 or even AK or AQ. Of course on the flop it gets progressively weirder to me. The ace, of course, worries me. But he throws me for a loop when he checks it both on the flop and turn with two spades on the board; something you wouldn't expect with someone with any sort of hand. So I decide that if he doesn't want the pot I'll take it and bet on the turn. When he just calls I'm not sure where I am. Is he calling with a KK and hoping I'm betting without an ace? Does he have a draw of some sort? Maybe a JJ or smaller PP and seeing if I'm trying to buy the pot? I have no idea. So when he pushes all-in on the river I sensed a bit of desperation from a short stack (his stack was less than half of what was in the pot already), and since I'm getting almost 3:1 for my call I go ahead and see what he has. I maybe didn't play it like a pro, but he definitely misplayed his flopped set to a much greater degree. Had I had a flush draw he gave me two free cards to catch it.

I guess that's about it for now. I'm looking forward to start the next step in my poker "career" by playing at the $50s in holdem and learning how to be a winning player at stud.

[Kramer545]

Alright, small updates in bankroll status, and then I'll do my very best not to bore you anymore with any other bankroll talk until next weeks wrapup entry.

First of all, I've decided to put a "standard' bankroll into my stud account of 300BBs, or $150. I did this because I've convinced myself that I can at least hold my own at the tables (originally I wanted to keep it smaller so I had less to lose), so I may as well start out with a small, but adequate, bankroll.

Next I've made my Party (holdem) bankroll $200.

So long as I don't move up in stakes in either game, these will be my standard bankrolls for each site. So at the end of the month, if I'm over $200 in holdem, and/or over $150 in stud, so long as that overage is over the minimum withdrawal allowed, I'll move those winnings over to Neteller (keeping $200 and $150 in each account). If it isn't over the minimum I'll just, of course, keep it in each account and add it to next months winnings and withdrawal then if it's over the minimum. Once any winnings are in Neteller, I'll take 1/3 of those monthly winnings and tranfer it to my bank account for personal use and leave the remaining 2/3s of it in Neteller. Of course, Neteller has a minimum withdrawal as well, so if that 1/3 isn't enough I'll simply leave it all in Neteller. If this occurs, the following month I will not go back to the previous month and add on those inadequate winnings (I'll just use it as a bankroll builder). This means that I must make enough each individual month before I'll let myself withdrawal anything.

On the flip side though, if I actually lose money during the month at stud or holdem and have to replinish either bankroll (I won't until I feel I have to), I must repay that money to Neteller with winnings. Only after I've repaid it in full will I figure out if I have enough left over to withdrawal.

Well I understand it anyways, so that's the important thing.

So at this moment my updated bankroll status is:
$535.97 in Neteller.
$200.00 in Party (I'm so anal that I actually went to the $.02/$.04 tables and pissed away 95 cents just to make it even. *L*).
$150.00 in UB.

Now I have the question of when I will move up in stakes in each game. Since I'm using a "community" bankroll at Neteller for both holdem and stud, how much do I need in Neteller to safely move up in limits in each? I'll get it figured out eventually I guess, and I'll have plenty of time because I'll be at the respective limits I'm at now for quite awhile. Maybe I'll use each PT and decide whether or not to move up after I've played a certain number of hands at each limit (with a good profit of course).

I did notice I'm going to have to decide where else to go other than UB when I move up limits in stud. From what I saw they usually have several $0.25/$0.50 tables, but after that it jumps up to $1/$2, skipping $.50/$1 for some reason. And that's too big of a jump in limits for me to be comfortable with. But I guess I have plenty of time to figure that out as well.