losing with full boats

Today i stuck to what i said i would for the first time since i started writing this blog. i played a session of $0.50/1 because i felt focused and then played some $0.25/0.50 before playing a satellite ot the £8k.

the $0.50/1 was good but i was pretty card dead. played for 45 mins and cashed out down $2.

the $0.25/0.50 was a disaster. I played so appaulingly badly. I think i found it hard to play seriously having dropped down a limit. I'm not going to make that mistake again. If i play $0.50/1 i'll stick with it or take a long break before playing $0.25/50.

I won a seat to the £8k and so i played it having said that i wouldnt play big tournies unless i satellited in. I think i played the best i have ever played in this tournament. i felt so sharp and in total control. I was in 20th with 50 people left when i picked up 77 in early position and called a small raise from late postion. The board came 7 K K. I checked giving the guy a chance to bet hoping he had AK. he checked. I fired on the turn and he doubled my bet. Suddenly my full boat felt more like a rubber dingy. I was only losing to 77 and JJ but called and check called the river. He turned over JJ to leave me crippled. Although i lost the minimum i still think i played the hand badly. If he'd had AK or KQ or even AA he would have played it exactly the same and i'm missing out on chips that i should have won. Anyway i managed to play my small stack perfectly and pushed allin several times wherre i felt i had a chance to pick up the blinds and did. I then managed to stay around the 10xBB mark for about an hour finding myself in 10th of the final 15. A slightly shorter stack than me pushed into my AK with A10 and flopped a 10 leaving me crippled and busting out in 15th for £82 which was about 25 times my investment.

If you're interested, the guy who hit the 10 when allin went on to finish second for £1308

meanwhile i played the $4k where i had A8 on a 85822 board against 85. another full house over full house situation. i was down to 120 chips in the first level but kept winning allins until i had 2500 ! I thought i was gonna perform a Jack Strauss-esque come back but it wasnt to be.

I'm happy that i stuck to my gameplan and proud of the way i played in the £8k but disgusted in the way i played in the 0.25/0.50 cash. bankroll stands at a healthy $955

Down and up week

This week didnt go as planned.

I started the week playing some heads up cash which went ok and i was playing at $0.25/0.50 so i wasnt annoyed myself for losing $50 or so there. Then i started playing $0.50/1. I was playing well and had taken my $100 buyin (1/3 of my bankroll) to $160 when i flopped top two against another guy's straight. when he pushed in over my re-rasie on the flop i could have folded and still had $145 but for some reason i called. I even new he had me beat. I had KJ and had called a raise on the button. flop came KJ10 and i knew when the flop came down that i was gonna lose my whole stack. I then starting running badly and after one very tired session of $0.50.1 HU cash (What was i thinking!?) i found my bankroll at $90 ! luckily Corinne my girlfriend came up for a couple of days so i didnt play until tonight ...

Our internet was broken but i was determined to play some poker and spent about an hour and a half trying to fix it. When i did i entered the first tourny i could find (so much for only playing cash!) a $20 6pak multi at 11.45 PM, 155 entrants. I felt really focused and despite a big dent being put in my stack when i flopped a straight flush draw and missed all my outs, i battled back and found my self in 30th with 40 to go....

I doubled up when a guy called my allin reraise on the flop with Ahigh and then had my QQ hold up against JJ and a fish with AJ. It was suited !! I then played my stack well and was in 4th of the final 9. I then spent about 40 minutes playing 3 handed when down to 7 players with no cards and stole well to keep my stack alive before making the final table of 6. Blinds were insanely high with barely any flops seen. My AK held up against KQ to put me in the chip lead with 4 left. I then pushed the stacks around leaving all 3 other players with less than 10x BB. They took eachother out and i had a 2-1 chip lead heads up where i played aggressively with some nice cards and took the first place of $906.

What a long and boring way to say i won a multi ! I now have a bankroll of $940 so i'm finally in profit for the term !! As much as i'd love to cash it out i want to try to build it up playing cash. I'm going to stick with $0.25/0.50 with the occasional $0.50/1 when i'm focused. That gives me 18 buyins which should be plenty to deal with the variance, SHOULD BE !! My intention is to only play tournanents of $20 and below unless i have satellited in.

It's 3 o clock now so i'm hitting the sack with a bigger banroll than looked likely

Up & Down Week

What it week it's been. With a starting banroll of $400 i was up to $600 before playing a couple of tournaments and playing badly at the cash tables and before i knew it i was down to $300. From there some sick beats and a couple more tournaments saw me down to my last $8 !! I put that into a $0.15/25 game and made it $60. Then a stt here and there and a injection of $100 (dont tell anyone) leaves me sitting at $350.

I've learnt a few thigs this week that should help me to maintain a healthy bankroll.

One thing is that i have no discipline. I WANT TO PLAY TOURNAMENTS. SO i will, going cold turkey didnt work, but only with money i make as profit.

2ndly i learnt that multitabling isnt effective fro me. I make bad plays on both tables so i'm gonnna stick to paying 100% attention to 1 table rather than half-assedly playing two.

3rdly i realsied that when i give 100% i'm actually pretty good. It's when i'm not really that interested that i do badly. THerefore i'm only gonna play when i'm hungry. Playing when bored at the weekend cost me over $100.

So for this week i have $350 whgich is 7 buy-ins at $0.25/50. It's not ideal but i'm confident that if i'm playing ta my best then i should only lose a buy-in to a badbeat or a cold deck. I'm gonna look to make $50 per day so by next thursday i should be sitting on $550.