Reach for the Stars....

So far for the month of March:

LIVE

The first foray into live play did not go well.

                   Buyin     Cashout      Profit/Loss    Bankroll
The Brock - £20          NA             (£20)            £135

I can deal with losing, more often than not. But not tonight.

It should probably be mentioned that the game starts with blinds of 1k/2k and a stack of 100k. Relatively reasonable but with the blinds doubling (doubling!) every ten minutes its pretty tough to keep your head above water.

In live play a hand can take 2/3 mins to play out, so if the table is nine handed you can potentially be up to 8k/16k before the button gets back to you, which is pretty brutal.

That being said the player base tends to lean more towards 'Friday night fun poker' than 'Im building a bankroll' so by paying attention and not over-valuing a lone pair I tend to do relatively well.

We were past the add-on stages and my stack was looking dire. With blinds at 10k/20 (for some reason that comes after 8k/16k???) And me sitting with a stack of 215k action had to be taken and quick!.

Kc9c on my BB.

A short stack limps from EP (with 5BB or about 3M), another comes in from the button, SB completes and I check knowing that a raise is only going to get called 3 times at this table.

Flop comes 3c6c8d.

I like this flop a lot, two overs and the second nut flush draw id LOVE to see in a heads up hand, but this is 4 way so I decide to tread carefully and just check.

The short stack bets 40k into 80k, the SB completes making the pot 160k and now im looking at 40k to win 200k and I call in a heartbeat.

The turn brings 9h.

I check and the short stack shoves another 44k into the middle. The SB raises to 100k and I have to go in to the tank for a bit.

I have 9 clubs that I think give me the best hand and although I reckon my pair of nines is behind just now, I think another nine or a king will give me the best hand - that's 14 outs into a deck of 47. Im going to be winning roughly 30% of the time.

The pot is offering me 444k/100k or 9/2 on my call. The SB only has 50k behind him and I figure thats going in anyway. I raise and the SB insta calls.

By this point I feel a bit Lee Evans half way through a performance, eyes desperately scanning the room CHOKING for a can of deodarant!

Not surprisngly the Short stack flips over a set of 6's. The guy i'm worried about....flips over Qc7c!

The River is 10c and I rake it in.

I played ABC poker in this hand, sticking to the maths, was definitely surprised by the SBs holdings (pleasently surprised!)

So Im now up to almost 600k and sitting pretty, at least prettier than everyone else...then I got stupid.

Action limps to me on the button, with 6 players having limped before me, there is now 150k in the pot and I want it. Punish the limpers my brain says, do it....DO IT!

So I raise to 150k from the button.

Action folds round to the cutoff and Im feeling pretty smug until he smiles at me and says "All in...you've not looked at your cards yet."

School. Boy. Error.

He has 220k behind him. The pot 150k from the limpers, 150k from my raise and 220k from his. Im getting 520k/70k - 15/2 on my money. I can't not call this.

I look down at 6s2c and call.

He flipsover Ah7h and the A high holds up.

Down to 380k.

I get pocket 3's on the button and with a fairly loose player being the only limper I raise it up. The blinds fold and he calls announcing check before the cards come down. The flop is Q,4,2. I C-Bet 75k and he announces calls before my chips are in the middle. The turn brings 6s. And my Opp checks, I bet 180k and he announces all In before my chips hit the middle.

I muck without much hesitation on hindsight I wish I hadnt. The whole hand just played out like a routine or a rhythm.  I think he had decided PF he was going to float regardless of the board.

That, and calling the rest of his stack was only 100k more, losing the hand however would have left me with 90k.

I went out several hands later with another Shove PF into the minefield of limpers. This time I looked beforehand and saw A4 - folded round to my right and I got called by AQ, no 4 to keep me in.

P.T.F.O (Pissed The Fuck Off!)

Online
Now it gets somewhat interesting, frustrating, fantastic all at the same time!

I have been sticking mainly to 0.02/0.05 tables and 0.01/0.02 tables. And have pretty much broken even at these stakes. Despite having spells of being up in the region of 4/7 buyins. Getting called down by marginal hands that get there have decimated my profits on more than one occasion.

These 'bad beats' have them encouraged me to play sub-optimal poker, even if it's only for 10-15 minutes when you're running six tables it all adds up.

I have read three new poker books recently and have decided to forego the standard 20 buy-in rule, at least for the lower stakes. I think it is far too 'swingy' at anything less than 0.05/0.10 to feasibly consider it a level at which to build at.

However having looked at the competition on the higher tables (despite it being outwith my current bankroll) I think I can move up there and play. Even if it results in me having to make another $50 or $100 buyin come Friday I think I can make this back consistently and quickly in the coming month.