Moving on up

Challenge bankroll: $236.78

Things got off to a terrible start on my return to FTP, dropping down from $195 to around $171 in the space of 1000 hands on the 5c/10c levels. I just couldn’t win a hand no matter what, which has always seemed to be the case on Full Tilt’s lowest level. So yesterday I decided to move up to the 10c/25c level ahead of schedule and immediately found myself right back in the groove. Over 1700 hands yesterday (I find 6 tables on the go at the same time to be quite comfortable now- I might have to get myself a bigger monitor!) I made back everything I lost on Wednesday and another $40 more. That small difference in the blinds makes a lot of difference to your winrate.

I am still playing short-stack poker, sitting down with 40% of the full buy-in. Running a bankroll of 25 buyins at this amount for the challenge will see me move up to 25c/50c when I have made it up to $500 (a target I hope to reach by the end of the month) and then up to 50c/$1 when I reach $1000 (endof November would be nice). Hopefully now that I have broken the $200 barrier and have moved up, the ball will roll a little quicker now.

Having a Party

Challenge Bankroll: $195.00

Full Tilt was playing up for me on Sunday, so not wanting to deprive myself of some table time I put $10 from my Neteller account into Party Poker just for the hell of it and managed to run it up to about $80 in a couple of days. Despite the Americans being evicted from PP for the time being the competition there is still very soft, full of Canadian and German donkeys that haven’t a clue what they are doing (calling a preflop raise, reraise and re-reraise with QJo? Please! (My KK held up when the QJ flopped the top end straight but went runner runner Q J to give me a King high straight.))

Anyway, I withdrew that money from PP and have just topped up my FTP account with it (giving me a nice little 50% reload bonus to work towards). Full Tilt have increased their capacity of their servers and there does appear to be more people about the place (hopefully from Party Poker). I’ll find out what they are like later.

Friday 13th

Just as well it’s micro limits.

One Outer

Challenge Bankroll: $104.62

I have decided to move back to full ring games for a while. I just don’t seem to get anywhere playing micro-limit 6max games anymore. I had a really bad session yesterday evening dropping me down to about $70, just being an arse with myself after getting all my money in with AA for the other guy to river a 4 giving him two pair (J4) on a King high flop.

I’ve played 1200 hands now at FR and have found myself winning again at a rate I’m used to (12PTBB/100) for this level. Full Tilt is down for maintenance at the moment, so I’ll share with you a hand I played last night.

I’m in MP with TT and it is folded round to me so I bring it in for a minimum raise and the remaining 4 players (cut-off, button and both blinds) call. The flop is Ah Kc Jd. SB bets 10c, BB calls so I call for my gutshot given the pot odds are 12-1. Button calls and the flop is Kh. SB bets 40c and BB calls. The pot is now at $2.20 so I decide it is cheap enough to see a river, Button calls too. The river is 10h giving me a full house. SB goes all in for $3.20, BB calls for his remaining 85 cents. I think for a minute, putting at least one of them on a Queen for a straight. I push all in for my remaining $6.40, defying anyone to have a better full house or even a Royal Flush. Button calls and it’s showdown time.

SB shows QT for a straight. BB shows K2 for trips. I show Tens full. Button shows J9h for flush. BB flopped the nut straight and took the risk of slowplaying it. I should have been pushed out of the hand by the turn when the 2nd King came. If the SB had pushed all in on the turn I would have been forced to fold. Of course I know I’m lucky to have caught my only out, but it has been a long while since I’ve caught something way against the odds.

The challenge now continues on FRNLHE…

Slow progress

Challenge bankroll: $112.96

So far this week things have been moving pretty slowly, but I am determined to get out of this rut and do so whilst not “cheating”. Last night was a complete wash-out again. All I seem to do of late is gaining $10-12 in the day and then losing it all again in the evening. The good news is the bankroll is edging up slightly, but I still consider myself to be on a ‘break-even’ run so far this month (better than a losing month, beggars can’t be choosers).

Today I haven’t played that many hands (about 350ish) but I am a whole $7.60 up on the day. It was up to about $15, but when the others keep hitting runner runner on you, what can you do?

Regulars will notice that I have started to put the running balance at the top of the post, as I used to do many months ago. Hopefully it will help me keep focused. Every little helps!

Finally, I came across this blog earlier today which started at the beginning of the month. Robert is trying to do a similar sort of thing to me and I shall be keeping close tabs on his progress. Hopefully I can keep up with him; he’s about $20 ahead of me at the moment.

Improvement

Dare I say it, but today has been (so far) the best day I’ve had in about a week or so, making up for the $14 I lost yesterday plus about $10 more.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a great blog-worthy hand, but here is one that pretty much tripled me up today. I find myself on the small blind with AKo and there are 2 limpers. I make up the blinds and the BB checks. The flop comes Qc Jc Th giving me top straight with a back door Royal Flush draw. I check, BB raises to $1, MP raises to $4 and the button calls. So I throw in my remaining $8.90, BB folds and the other two call. Turn is Td and there is a side pot between the other two. River is a brick the cards are shown. The $4 raiser shows 89 for a lower straight and the button shows QJ for 2 pair. $27.30 for me, thank you very much!

SSDD

I put in another 500 hands this morning and all seemed to be going well, having earned myself around $10 which I was quite happy with and then right at the end, 2 suck outs on 2 tables bringing me crashing down to a net loss of $1.70. I played well, and the cards ran alright, nothing fantastic. It’s like washing the car, you think you’ve done a good job and you’re about to put the bucket and sponge away then a fucking great pigeon takes a crap on the roof. Such is life.

Weekends

I don’t know why, but lately I seem to find that on weekends all I get is cold decks. I have just churned out 1000 hands in a little over 3.5 hours and managed to end up around $25 down. I was almost $40 down but managed to claw a little back over the last 100 hands or so. If I had a hand, you could guarantee a better hand was out there. It’s not the cards (or lack of them) that annoys me, it’s not even losing pots where I (statistically) shouldn’t. What really gets me is you sit at a table knowing that you are the best player at the table and with an average run of hands can clean up, but the hands are so bad you might as well just be on the rail.

All in all, this weekend has been a complete write-off and my challenge bankroll stands at $96. We pray for a better week…

Black out

Due to a power cut on Thursday night in the local area, my Internet connection got screwed until yesterday evening. It’s amazing the things that deny you table time now you have all the time in the world to play the game.

Anyway, last night was a mixed bag at the tables, with plenty of suckouts as usual. I’ve given up with Betfair simply because it is quite hard to multi-table without the computer grinding to a halt, along with the weird way the people play on there. I can’t put my finger on it, but there just doesn’t seem to be any logic to how they play at the lower levels. Most bad players get predictable, you know when they’re chasing draws, got big hands etc, but Betfair players confuse the hell out of me. So, I’ve moved back to Full Tilt where I can quite happily multi-table 4 tables @ 250+ hands an hour without too much bother.

My Bankroll Challenge balance stands at $101.00 after last night. It took me 1200 hands to make $30 or so. I’m now conforming to the 5% rule, but I am playing short-stacked, buying in for 40% of the table limit. It reduces the variance somewhat and fits nicely into the mentality of ‘double up and leave’.

My brother turned 27 yesterday and thus has a party tonight that I am obliged to attend, so my usual Saturday night play has to be knocked on the head. I’ll be staying at my parents overnight which is a pain in the arse, so I have a couple of hours this afternoon at the tables then that is it until tomorrow.

Enjoy your weekend!

Bankroll challenge (again)

My latest attempt at the bankroll challenge started yesterday and got off to a good start. However, the smallest tables on Betfair are the 15c/25c so I’ve had to stretch the rules a little bit when it comes to the 5% rule. I deposited £15 (that just happened to be lying spare in my Neteller account) and managed to turn that into almost £50 in about 3 hours.

This morning it all went to pot and I dropped down to about £30 again. I just couldn’t win a single hand. JJ got trashed by AJ when the board flushed, 3 draws missed and bizzarely I got involved in 2 coinflips (my 99 v KQ and my AK v 77) that ended with a split pot. The first saw 5 hearts on the board, neither of us had one, and the other board came 789TJ for a straight.

The general level of play on the low limits is entirely crap with plenty of calling stations who take no time to think about what the other player might have, which is fine by me. Also, I like the fact that they have £ tables which I had a little dabble on. I think when I get going I might play these more than the $ tables as it just seems more like real money.