Good Plays, Crappy Calls

I'm STILL calling off most of my profit. Twice today I lost $50 & $65 to pocket kings. I have been making some laydowns, but overall I need to recognize I'm beat. I should easily have known I was beat.

I've been playing on 2 tables consecutively today. This works out well. On the 9 seat table I play tight, and on the 6 person table I play loose. I can do this pretty easily if I rely on Poker Tracker & Game Time's Overlay Stats.

After pissing away most of my profit, I'm left with....

Ending Bankroll: $1,315.00

First Day at Full Tilt

Well, I felt I was playing so badly I forced myself to quit. I was doing what I consider to be great in several key areas, but easily made up for it with crappy amateur calls. I was stealing pots, and playing aggressively adding about 25% to my bankroll at every table I sat down at. Then I would get in a big hand, with a great hand. First it was KK in a big raised pot with the board JJx. Of course he had a Jack and of course like a fool I doubled him up. Next time, and in a monster pot I had AA on a Qh Jh Xs board. I overbet the pot and of course he called. On the turn came the Th making a flush if he had hearts and a straight if he had AK. Not only did I lose over $100, I check called the turn for $25 and check called his all-in for $50 on riv. What an idiot! The only hand I could really beat here would be AQo or maybe AJo. Worst yet, if I'm going to check-call, I might as well bet out. Despite these horrible plays I ended up about $30 due to some good aggression.

Ending Bankroll: $1,185.00

Devestating Day for the Bankroll

As a U.S. player, today was the last day to play at Doyle's Room. I felt pressured to earn my bonus of $300 which was only a few thousand action points away (80%) there. So I started playing on the $1/$2 tables with $200, and lost big. AND didn't get to the bonus either. I made bad bluffs in big pots, and lost pretty much all the large pots I was in today over $200.

I ended up a big loser today, and transferred my money to Full Tilt poker. Better luck there I hope!

Ending bankroll: $1,151.00

Cash Games it is

After losing two $50+5 STT S&Gs in fourth place, I decided to mix it up and play at a cash table. It seems I have to lose $30-40 before I become actively involved (mentally). I ended up making back the initial $40 I lost + $110 I lost from the tourneys + about $250 more! I was in the zone at a 6 person .50/1.00 table. If I wasn't so greedy I'd have about $60 more from not reraising when I had the nut straight and there was a pair out there. (of course he had the boat on riv) I did well picking out my victims, isolating them, and picking them apart.

I find cash games are better than tourneys in several areas.

1. Cash games have less overall luck involved. In the STTs, the blinds get so massive with 3-5 people left, you're required to go all-in repeatedly in a sort of round-robin fashion until the end. This translates into you HAVE to get hands in the endgame, and they HAVE to hold up (whether or not they are beat, i.e. you get 88 raise to 3x BB making you pot committed and someone wakes up with AK, AQ, AJ, AT, or any pair and you end up winning).

2. In STT you can play great for 45 minutes and then be put in spots dictated by the blinds where your forced to put your money in and go out in 4th or 5th - Losing $55. Where in a cash game if you play great for 45 min you could be up $50-$150 and your play isn't forced by the blinds. So, if you lose a couple big hands your back down to +$50 or even. Using my gorrilla math, that's atleast a $50-$100 difference. As you can tell there is a lot of easy money to be made in the STT, but I believe there is a much bigger luck factor involved after the initial 30 min.

Ending Bankroll: $1,700.00