Some interesting hands from a very short session. I had 40 minutes max to kill, so I thought I’d open a couple tables. This one is a 50bb minimum table that had 3 players on it. I joined and then it filled up really fast. I only had one other similar table going since I [...]

Here’s an example of a mistake on my part, leading to me taking a risk, followed by some unfortunate turns of circumstances. I have AA on the button. Early position raise. Standard play, 3 bet, but here I look at the guy’s stats, something like 40/33, so I think here’s an opportunity to trap a [...]

I need to document this, as vague as it is. I’m in a funk, and I need to look at it so that I have this to refer back to. The downswing started with the “Raise Everything” project at Rush Poker. I expected to be losing money with this but I was doing it for [...]

Another session of Raise Everything at rush poker. VPIP of 66, PFR of 59.9, minus bb/100 of 75.38. And that’s in spite of stacking one guy who was willing to get it all in on a Qxx 2 tone board when he min 3 bet me with AQ, but I hit my flush on the [...]

Haven’t posted much in the daily, mostly because my poker volume is way down. September mostly consisted of playing 2 tables a day for 15 minutes at Tilt to complete the Take 2 promo. I successfully managed to do that, losing a net of $13 in the process as a result of the 55 that [...]

Here’s an interesting hand from my mini-sessions at Tilt chasing their promo. Very first hand at the table, so no reads at all. Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 8 Players Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker BTN: $2.95 (11.8 bb) SB: $32.01 (128 bb) Hero (BB): $25 (100 bb) UTG+2: $19.70 (78.8 bb) MP1: [...]

Not doing well for a daily grind blog, since it’s been a while since updating. But I haven’t played much poker at all, other than keeping up with the Full Tilt promotion. I’ve finished 15 days = $25, so 10 more to make the full $50. Sessions have only been 15-20 minutes and my FTPs [...]

Sigh. Working on the Full Tilt promotion again, second hand at one of the tables. Open limped, min raised, called, I raise KK and get two callers. Low two tone flop. I bet, and get shoved over. Could be a set, two pair, paired ten, flush draw, or combo pair/draw, so I call. So I [...]

Not much to report. Only played two session for the Tilt promotion, covering two days against Tilt’s server time. Web based points tracker was veeerryy slow to update with the first session. Fortunately I had kept a screen shot of my cashier when I sat down so I knew that I was up around 4 [...]

Day 6 of Tilt’s promotion complete. The web update seems slower and slower, but it would make sense that it would be somewhat delayed as that keeps cheap nits like me playing for another orbit or so making sure that I clear the minimum.So I keep quiting as soon as the update says that I’m [...]

Not much to report; played 10 mins of 25nl to earn 1.57 FTPs, or something like that. I’ve now gone from 8 the first day to 4 the second. Now I’ve got it down to just enough. I don’t know if the promotion makes it more or less worthwhile to play at Tilt though. I [...]

So yesterday I played about 10 minutes of poker. Just enough on Tilt on two tables of 25nl FR to earn an FTP for the September promotion. I haven’t played cash there a lot, but even to me it seems like there are more short stackers than usual; people with small bankrolls trying to get [...]

So I sat at Party for a while, 2 tabling 25nl, which was 1/3 of my current bankroll there. Finally had an up session and managed to recover the rest of my original deposit, so with the bonus I’m up to $100 there. Yay! Don’t think I’m going to make the new bonus; 100 Party [...]

Something’s slowly dawning on me. I’m back at full ring again, feeling more comfortable after a run at 6 max. Sticking with $25nl for the moment, not worrying about increasing the number of tables, generally hoping to generate a groove and go back to $50nl again. ~ Usually I pay almost no attention to the [...]

Well, after 3 weeks of almost all 6 max, I seem to be running well at full ring again. One 7 table session of $10nl to get into it, one 3-4 table session of $25nl, 600 hands total at rates of 69.8 and 89.6 bbs/100 respectively. Obv sustainable. Helped by winning 4-4 showdowns during the [...]

A few notes to add: My PokerStars bankroll alone has made it to the $1,000 level. This still from my original $50 deposit. It’s taken a while, mainly because I don’t play enough. My overall bankroll went through this milestone a while back, and then activated some doomswitch because I soon hit a downswing after [...]

Maybe it was inevitable, but given the frustration with multi-tabling 25nl, watching videos of higher buyin play, and having finished my silverstar goal, I took some stabs at $50nl. I have a 2 buyin stop loss, meaning if I lose $100 playing at 50nl, I stop. But I’m only playing one, two, or three tables [...]

It’s not generally a good idea to be too results oriented or to be tracking bankroll closely, which I had forgotten in the process of starting this sub-blog. The last two days I’ve played a lot of poker, at least for me. The primary reason being some weird desire to make silver star for the [...]

I’m afraid to note that I’ve had some more up sessions. And that is a reflection on how badly the two losing streaks, especially the last one, affected me. I’ve had a sweat session with someone, and I think that helped a lot, even though we didn’t discuss much directly about my downswing. I also [...]

Having up sessions is nice. I’m a long ways from recovery bankroll-wise and playing-style/confidence-wise though. I’ve finally started to hit sets again and to get paid for them, which always helps the overall line. I’m beginning to wonder whether my success in tournaments is due to only playing one or two at a time. This [...]

A session of 4×25. 3 times I raised from the blinds against two fish, immediately to my right and left, and they both called. Both were passive post-flop; agg less than 1. First time I had AQ, checked until I hit a Q on the river, fish to my left raised, I called, he had [...]

I’ve reset my HEM sessions to only look at sessions since the last big downswing, and even eliminating that I’ve only finally made it back to break even. Which is something at least, I guess. Missed writing about a few sessions. Last two were 4x$25nl, both up a bit. There’s not a lot extraordinary happening. [...]

Might as well put this in a new post. Second session of the day, 5x25nl Went too far with 88 on a 9 high flop, cost me 40bbs chasing a KK. I think partly he underbet the pot because of three of us being in Folded TT to 2nd barrel on low board. I dunno. [...]

Only 3x25nl for 45 minutes while waiting for dinner. Up one buyin. Some bad short stacks; limp/calls my QQ PFR, big stack calls behind. Flop is 772, short stack shoves, I call, other player calls. Turn is K, river Ace, I check/check. Short stack has A2, other player has a pair of 4s. Then I [...]

After a 3rd down session of 4x$25nl, went to 8 tables of $10 for 2 sessions Still overrolled, but I guess it’s preventative action to drop before tilt/spew gets too much Dropped down, to experience what winning sessions are like, had two up sessions. This may be a new project; multiply the $10nl tables. On [...]