The Weekly Journals of DavidRoss

Week 25

Where has the time gone? I am 2 weeks shy of 6 months of playing full time. I‘ve already made over $30,000, but I can’t get over the feeling that it’s been really tough lately. Maybe I’m just spoiled by some of the great weeks I had. It’s going to be hard to get my usual number of hours in for the next 2 weeks. Monday was a holiday for us here in Canada, so I skipped my usual afternoon hours, and I got late starts on both Sunday and Tuesday because of a dinner party on Sunday, and a 9:00 PM curling game on Tuesday. It’s tough when real life gets in the way of Poker.

I started the week off in fine fashion with a $330 win Sunday night in just 4 hours of play. My good run from the previous week continued and my big hands held up nicely. Then Monday, nothing went right. Again it was just an evening session, around 5 hours, and I gave back Sundays winnings with a $328 loss. It could have been much worse. I was down as much as $450 at one point. Tuesday was like the two previous days packed into one. In the afternoon I played less than 3 hours and won $250, and in the evening I played 3 more and gave back $60.

I guess no matter how much you play you continue to see things you’ve never seen before. On Sunday night I made sets on 3 consecutive hands at the same table. I lost the first two to rivered straights that weren’t obvious, paying off a river raise. Quite expensive. Then on the 3rd hand I mad a set of 5’s but had to check the river when the board ended up Q 9 5 9 Q. By far the scariest board of the 3, but my hand was good. Unfortunately I checked the river and certainly didn’t make enough to cover the other 2 losses. Then last night I joined a table, posted in the cut off and was dealt KK. I lost to 94s when a 4 came on the river to give him 2 pair. Very next hand I get KK again. I raised first in and won only the blinds. Next hand brings KK again. I think it’s over 8 million to 1 against this happening. This time I did get called and my hand held up giving me a $7 profit from my triple crown!!!

On the plus side I have noticed more bad play in the last week than I had seen for a while. This hand is pretty strange. I open raise in EP with As Kd. I get 3 bet in MP and the CO caps it. BB calls and so do I. Flop is Qc Td 8s. We check to the CO who bets. Everyone calls. Turn is the 6c. Again checked to the CO, who bets, and again we all call. River is 5s and this time it’s checked around. I am shocked to see the chips coming my way, and hear the fireworks going off (I love that sound). BB had KJo. MP 3 bettor had A4s, and CO 4 bettor had A9o. I made a fair bit of money off those 2 over the next hour. This next hand is an example.

Same guys, I get AQo in EP and I open raise. Both the guys from the previous hand cold call me. (They’re play might be getting worse actually). BB plays too. Flop is A 7 2 rainbow. I bet and they both call. Turn is a Q, and only the MP calls this time. River is a 5 and I bet and get raised this time. Knowing how he likes his Aces, I’m thinking this is A5 and not a slowplayed set, so I 3 bet and he just calls. He had A9!!! I love this guy.

I’m taking my 2 boys to see David Copperfield tonight. My younger son is crazy about magic. I bought him a few tricks from a magic store in Vegas on my only trip there a few years ago, and he’s been hooked. I hear this show is very good. It’s a 6:00 PM show so my hours playing shouldn’t be affected. And in case anyone is interested we lost our curling game last night ending the undefeated season very early. It doesn’t look too good for the Cubbies / Red Sox Series everyone outside of New York and Florida is hoping for. I can’t believe Boston isn’t going to pitch Pedro today, but maybe they’re going to spring him at the last minute.

Well I’ve just finished the worst poker day of my career. The only spot of hope is that I finished strongly. I played a long (for me) afternoon session of about 4 ½ hours and lost $480. I then took my boys to the magic show, which they loved, but I was a bit disappointed in, and came home to just keep on losing. I was down well over $1,000 at one point, before winning a bit after 2:00 AM to finish down only $788 for the day. I even played a 5/10 Party game to try and change my luck, but dropped $300 there. The really frustrating thing was I got great cards. I won 10% of my hands played which is high for me, and I saw less than 25% of the flops. But I won only small pots, and got rivered time and time again. It’s just so expensive to build the pots when you’re ahead just to see the river that you know beats you, but facing a $100 pot for 1 more bet you call anyway. I’m now down over $500 for the week. Yuck.

I don’t know what to do during these bad spells. Everyone has suggestions, like change tables or limits, but as long as I’m not playing badly, and I don’t think I was, I believe you just have to put in the hours. They say adversity builds character, well today I’m quite a character. I hope it translates into a winning streak as good as yesterday was bad. I’m due to have a whole lot of hands hold up. I had KK vs AA 3 times, and against AK twice, and lost all 5. I wouldn’t mind being on the other side of that one today. I also flopped a set with Presto (55) against AA and QQ, only to have the Q spike on the end. That one got expensive. Twice I got AA in the BB and had the entire field fold to me. Sigh!

Sometimes you get a feeling. You know the flush card is going to come, or that the board is going to pair. Probably when you’re wrong, you just forget that you had the feeling and move on, but when you’re right, you think, “Wow, I knew that was going to happen”. After the horrible day Wednesday, I was eager to start again on Thursday. I knew, I mean I really knew I was going to have a big day. Here is the very first hand I played.

I post in the cut off with T6o. One limper to me and I check. Button and SB both call and 5 of us see the flop. Flop is A T 6. EP bets out. No fooling around, this is the start of my big day and I raise. Everyone folds back to EP who calls. Turn is another T filling me. He checks, I bet and he calls. River is ………….an A. Doh! He bets, and I probably was pretty safe folding but I guess I had to see it. I called and he showed A9 and took my pot. I thought “here we go again”.

However in this case I was right. I got ahead almost right away and stayed there. I was up around $350 for the afternoon, and another $500 + in the evening to finish ahead $866 for the day. That leaves me ahead $281 for the week. It looks like another bad week, but considering I have $1,100 in losses over 2 days, a nice comeback. In one hand I made the nut full house against a smaller full house, and a flush. We got it capped 3 ways on the turn and the river.

I guess there must be something to those Major League Baseball Jinxes. The Cubs and Red Sox lost in such improbable manners and totally spoiled the playoffs for me. I have zero interest in watching the Yankees and the Marlins play. I don’t think the Marlins have a chance now. They have 1 great arm that might just be all used up.

I found this hand interesting. I wonder how everyone else plays this. A good player (Acesdad) open raises in MP. Everyone folds to me and I have As 8s. In any position except the button I fold this. ATs or higher I would play, but on the button there are some hands I play just for the reason that I can expect to get the last bet if I make my hand. Curious if others call raises with suited Aces? Two other things to consider. I know how well he plays, because he plays very similar to me, and by that I mean I don’t expect him to make many plays against me. So if I get 3 bet I can safely lay it down. On the other hand, I’m playing under my Empire alias. He knows me well as davidross, but may not know much about this ID. I don’t know if that will affect his play. Both blinds fold and we’re heads up. Flop comes 8c 6c 3h. He bets and I just call. Turn is 6d. He bets and I call again. River is the Th and he checks. I bet and he pays me off with his AQs. I didn’t raise because I’m almost positive he will fold if he has the reverse dominated hand I think he has. I’m assuming AK. For the risk of giving him his 3 outer I get an extra bet. If he has the big pair I get 3 bet, probably call and see the turn then fold saving a bet. I think there are more unpaired hands he would play than paired, so I chose to just call down, and bet if he checks. Comments?

So another disappointing week comes to a close. Friday was a mediocre win of $208, after a small afternoon loss, but Saturday night was the same old, getting down over 250 in the first hour, fighting back slowly all night only to lose a horrible hand to a river gutshot and then never recovering to finish down $144 for the night. That gave me a very small win of $335 for the week. Better than losing I guess but not much of a salary. I haven’t had a losing week in 16 weeks now, but I’m only averaging $700 / week for the last 5 weeks. I’m also disturbed that I had 3 losing days out of 7, but I really don’t see how I could have avoided any of them. Just more evidence that although I still have an edge in these games, it’s not as big as it used to be. I could sure use a big week but this week will be a short one too. I’m throwing a big party fro my wife’s 40th birthday next Saturday and my house will be full of visitors from Thursday on. Play will be limited as the kids will all be sleeping down here by the computer.

I had 6 or seven tables break on me last night. If two people leave or sit out at the same time, the table will break within 4 or 5 hands it seems. It’s crazy. I know most people don’t like to play shorthanded, but not even waiting an orbit or two seems crazy. A lot of times they sit out to wait and see, and I’ve been at tables with 3 of us playing and 4 or 5 sitting out. Twice I took a bathroom break and came back to find a full table gone.

I played in a freeroll on Friday night at Party. It was No Limit and there were 1200 players. First prize was $5,000. I lasted 16 hands. In those 16 hands I got AA, KK and QQ and lost about a 3rd of my stack on each. Two of them to sets, and one to a full house. Kind of put an exclamation point on my week. Big hand after big hand cracked.

I keep running into players I would describe as too loose pre-flop, but very good post flop. I believe this is the way I used to play, and it’s very difficult to play against, because you get caught when one of their unusual opening hands hits. I wonder a bit if I’ve gotten too predictable in my play now.

This whole affiliate thing is becoming a problem. I signed up as an affiliate at Empire and Party and have had a lot of interest in the Empire program. I know of 1 guy who has signed up and 5 or 6 others who expressed interest. I cannot log in to see who has registered though and Empire support has not responded to me 3 days later. I have been told (and I believe there are entire threads in the Internet section on this) that if I register multiple players on one tracker, I will not be able to determine how much each has contributed, I will just be given a grand total for that tracker. And they will not give multiple trackers any more. Clearly they don’t want people using the bonus system the way we are using it, but there is no logic to this. They want me(or any affiliate) to promote the site, and will pay us by the volume, but then won’t give us the tools to determine who is playing and who isn’t. At least at Party I can see how many hands I have played in a given month, but Empire doesn’t even provide this. Hopefully someone at Empire will get back to me soon (I guess they don’t work weekends) and I can get some answers. My affiliate informed me that my rebate is at $500 already for October.

Playing a hunch. I open raised with TT and got cold called in MP. Everyone else folds. Flop comes J 6 4 rainbow and I bet. He raises me and I call. Turn is an Ace and I bet. He thinks and folds. Wonder if he had a J.

Playing a draw aggressively. Maybe too aggressive. Iget a free play from the BB with Jh Tc. 6 of us see the flop. Flop is 9d 8c 6h. I bet my open ender / overcard hand. One caller, then a raise. One cold caller then two folds back to me. I raise again and get one more fold and 2 more callers, but one of them is all-in. Turn is the Qc giving me the nuts. I bet and get called by the one person still left in the hand. River is the 2s and I bet and get called. I’m thinking that the 2nd raise on the flop wasn’t a good idea. I think I’m very unlikely to win this hand without making my hand, so I should evaluate this raise as a value bet rather than including any bluffing possibilities. I drove out one player, and lost my chance for a turn raise. The raise probably only put $3 more in the pot, because the player that folded probably would have called one more bet. Then I could have chosen to raise either the turn or the river when I hit.

Good and bad with 99. The first hand started my comeback last night, while the 2nd one signaled the end of the comeback and the start of the 2nd slide.

Hand 1. I have 99 in MP. UTG raises and I cold call. One more cold acall and the BB 3 bets. 4 of us see the flop for 3 bets each. Flop is K 9 9. Wow!!! How do you milk this? BB bets out, UTG calls and I just call. Not yet. 4th player folds. Turn is Tc. BB checks, yuck. UTG bets and I think. I decide to wait again. I call and so does BB. River is the Jh. This could be good. BB checks, UTG bets and I raise. BB calls 2 cold and UTG raises. I cap it and BB folds. UTG calls. He had TT. I wonder how hard he would have pushed if I started raising the turn and whether the BB would have stayed.

Hand 2. I again have 99 this time on the button. We are 5 handed. UTG raises, co folds and I 3 bet my 99. I hoped to play him heads up but the BB calls too. Flop is the perfect As 9d 5s. Checked to me and I bet. BB calls, and UTG raises. I smooth call(the play that costs me the pot) and BB calls too. Turn is the Kd. Please let him have AK I’m thinking. UTG bets and I raise. BB thinks a long time and calls. I’m thinking spades, but why would he pause so long? UTG calls. River is the 2s. Crap. BB bets, utg calls and I make a crying call. BB had 4d 3d for the rivered straight. Honestly I didn’t even see the straight. A very loose cold call pre-flop, but played properly after that I guess.

This week will mark the end of a half year. I’m trying to decide if I will keep posting weekly after that. 6 months seems like a good time to cut it off. I guess we’ll see.

Week 26

New week, same results. Started Sunday night in a big hole….again. I keep reviewing my play to see if I’m on tilt to start as Homer once described it, but I don’t think that’s the case. But I seem to sit down and get 3 or 4 big hands cracked right off the bat, usually on the river. Then I miss on 3 AK’s in a row, and suddenly I’m down $150. Sunday I got down $250 before getting on a good roll. I ended up winning $160 for a decent 5 hour session. In fact it was a great session except for 1 table where I lost almost $400. I can never decide whether or not to leave a table where I’m running bad even though the game is good. Even though my gut tells me I’m snakebit, my head says “there are 3 guys here playing terribly, stick around”, so I stay, but I never got even with the suckouts. Monday afternoon was a disaster. I lost on all 4 tables and was down $450 heading into the evening. I had a good evening session winning $300 of it back but still down almost all of Sunday’s win. I’m up $12 for the week.

When I lose big like I seem to be doing every 3 or 4 days now I can’t help but think that there is no way my bad play cost me $450. The only way you lose that much in 3 hours is to get really bad cards, but how come I’m getting really bad cards every 3 days? I hope this is just the opposite end of the luck spectrum that saw me go 22 days without a loss when I started at Party. Clearly that was a bit of a positive deviation for me, but I wonder where the “norm” is? Back in my paradise 5/10 days I seemed to have one bad day a week, some weeks two, and some weeks none, but never 3 until that 3 week period where I lost big time. I haven’t had 4 winning days in a row since switching to Empire / Party full time. Although the games are tougher, I still think they are beatable. I feel that with a normal distribution of cards I will win at a decent rate, so I can’t help but think I’m getting worse cards than normal right now. Maybe I’m kidding myself, but I only have one win over $400 in October. I had 10 of them in September (granted there were some 5/10 days in there). I can’t help but fell I have a good run coming to me. We’ll see I guess.

I lost a best 2 out of 3 showdown with a maniac last night, that would have put me close to even last night with just a little better luck. It was very late and I was ready for bed, but the game was very juicy, and I was loathe to leave it. I open raised in LP with ATo and got 3 bet by the crazy man from the button. We saw a flop of A x x and I bet and got raised. Turn was a K, and I check/called. River a Q and again I check/called. He had KQ. Aaargh, A couple of hands later He raised and I called him from the blinds with 88. I flopped my set on a A 8 7 board and bet the flop and got raised (I expected him to raise), and then smooth called. Turn was a 2, he bet and I raised him. River a 5 and I bet, he raised, I 3 bet and he capped it. He had 75 and I won considerably more than I lost to him on the previous hand. Felling pretty smug we got to our 3rd and final showdown. I have QQ and I raise 2 limpers. A cold caller between us and he 3 bets from the blinds. I cap it and 5 of us see the flop of J 6 2 two clubs. He bet and I raised and he 3 bet and I capped and we were heads up going to the turn. Turn was the 7c putting a possible flush on the board. He bet and I raised and he 3 bet and I just called. I have the Qc. River is the Kd. He bet and I called. He had Ad Kh. Unreal. 4 outs and he played it like he had AA. I lost the tiebreaker and my will to play any longer. I finished the orbit and went to bed. I made notes and hope to see him again soon.

I wish I knew what he had. I have QJo in the SB. 4 limpers to me and I complete. BB checks. Flop is J 9 5 rainbow and I bet. BB raises me and there is one cold caller. I just call. Turn is a 4. I check and so does the BB. Clearly the cold call worried him too. CC bets and we both call. River is another 5. I bet by mistake. I can’t explain why, I was getting ready to check/call but I bet. They both folded. I guess I was probably good anyway, but I wish I knew.

An incorrect read that worked. I am UTG +1 with Jc Js when UTG raises. I 3 bet and we are heads up. Flop is As Jd 7s. He checks, I bet and he calls. Turn is Ts. He checks, I bet and he raises. I think the T helped him, I don’t think this is AK waiting for the turn to riase, and although he might have a flush, Ks Qs seems to be the only likely hand for that, and I still have outs if he does. I’m guessing AT or TT here so I 3 bet. He just calls. River is the awful Qd. He checks. What to do. I go with my read and I bet. I don’t think he has a K. He just calls. He has the very surprising QTo with no spades. Phew.

Tuesday I had a great afternoon session. I was up $340 for only 2 ½ hours of play. It looked good for one of those $400 days I’ve been missing, but after curling Tuesday night I came home and took another beating. Dropped $200 again to finish up only $136 to the good. Wednesday was another fantastic afternoon session. I won $575 in another 3 hour session. Wednesday night was a struggle, but I managed to win another $125 for a $602 day. Man I needed that. So up $750 for the week, but it’s going to be a short week. My wife’s birthday party is Saturday night so I won’t be playing at all on Saturday, and we have family coming to stay starting today, so my evening sessions will probably be limited too. Sure hope I can have another big day today.

The Canadian dollar is at a 10 year high against the US dollar. Yuck. It has gone up 20% since January, which means I have taken home 20% less than I would have if it had stayed where it was. Timing is everything.

I played a hand against another 2+2’er the other day where I completely misread the board and raised the river thinking I had made a straight. He just called and won with his pair of Aces. I had T8s and was on the flush draw. There was a Q and a 9 on board and when a 7 rivered for some reason I thought my 4 card straight meant something. I’m sure he’s wondering what the hell I was doing.

Changing tactics. I have As 6s in the SB and 4 people limp. I call and the BB makes it 6 to the flop. Flop is Ks 8s 4d. I check, pretty sure I’ll get a bet with the K on board. UTG bets and 1 LP call. I decide just to call here, and try to keep the BB in. I will often raise here too. BB does call. Turn is the 3s. Again I check, BB checks and UTG bets. Phew. I took a chance here because I don’t think the free card will hurt me. If the 4th spade comes on the river I won’t get any action, but I took the chance. Right now my plan is to smooth call once more and then bet the river. LP folds and I call. Now the BB raises!!! Change of plans. UTG calls. I think BB must have a smaller flush. I can raise here and he’ll call down the whole way, but what will UTG do? I decide to just call here and check raise the river unless another spade comes, then I’ll have to bet. River is 3d. Hmm. I hope BB isn’t on a set. I check, BB bets, UTG calls and finally I raise. They both call. BB did have a T high flush and UTG had the unbelievable 99.

It’s amazing too me how many times I have written something only to have it come true right away. After complaining about the lack of $400 days I had my 2nd in a row on Thursday, winning $464. Then after saying my longest winning streak at Empire was 3 days, I go and win for the 4th day in a row on Friday with a $240 win. That put me up $1,457 for the week and left me ahead $31,882 for the 6 months now complete. I took a day off on Saturday for the Party, my first day off since the end of June. The party was great, but I’m paying the price today. I’m exhausted and need to have a nap if I hope to play tonight.

I got into a stupid argument with another 2+2’er (Who didn’t know I was a 2+2’er) over one of the “Nice Chase” comments I hate so much. I don’t know why those set me off so much, I guess it’s just the arrogance of the person who seems to feel they deserve to win every hand they are ahead on going into the river. I had AKs UTG and raised. He 3 bet me from the Blind with 99. The flop was rags and he bet out. I called. Turn didn’t help he bet and I called. River brought my card (I can’t remember if it was the A or K) and he checked and called my bet. He hit me with the “nice chase” comment, and I answered with “I never know how to respond to idiots who say that”. I know I should just smile, but I knew this guy was a good player and should know better. Well now the war of words just escalated and the table tightened up almost immediately. Stupid on both our parts. Of course I’m sure he folds AK every time someone in the blinds bets into him.

Knowing your opponent. 1 MP limper to me with 99 also in MP. I limp along too. Button raises and BB calls. Now the limper 3 bets. Uh oh. I have a note on him and I read it. It has him limp-reraising with 53s. Hmmm. I 4 bet my 99. I’m not sure why, it was just an instinctive reaction. Both the button and BB call. Flop is 8s 4c 2c. MP bets out, and I raise. Both the button and BB fold. MP just calls. Turn is the Th. MP checks and calls my bet. River is the 5c. He checks and I checked behind him. He had 8h 6h. Oops, missed a river bet.

I think this was the right play, but ouch. I post in the cutoff and call an MP raise with As 9s. Button calls too, and the BB calls. Flop is Ac Qd 3c. MP bets out and I raise. 2 cold calls. Uh oh. Turn is the 9c. I check and the button bets. BB raises and MP folds. I think a long while trying to do the math. I have 4 outs, but have to pay $12 for a pot that’s currently got $60 in it. I folded thinking I would need a $120 pot to make it worth while, and of course a 9 rivered. Ouch.

I will post something next Sunday, but I think the format will be a little different. Cya at the tables.

Oh yeah, I played two people I had never seen before this week. One was nemed the Pokerbabe, and the other Babemeister. I threw out a look god play good comment to see if it was our babe but got no reply. I think she plays a lot higher than that so it's probably identity theft. THe babemeister seemd to ba a combination of Babe and Clarkmeister.

Week 27

To celebrate 6 months of playing for a living I mixed things up this week. First of all, I didn’t make any diary updates during the week at all. I’m writing this on Sunday morning at the end of the week. I had planned to use the time to try and get started on putting all these updates together into a book, but I didn’t do that either. The second change this week was that I played most of the week at the 5/10 shorthanded tables.

Posting these weekly updates has helped me in so many ways. First of all it has forced me to review hands and analyze my results in a much more detailed manner than I would have otherwise. This helps my game improve. Secondly it has raised my profile within the 2+2 community and given me access to some truly brilliant poker minds, and some really nice people. Fellow posters have been offering me advice on my play and many other things during the whole 6 months. One of the most important bits of advice was to check out Party/Empire which led me to juicier games and the possibility of playing more than 2 tables at once. Another was to get involved in the affiliate programs which has led to extra income. And very recently several people have suggested I check out the 6 max games as a better way to make money. The first person to suggest it to me as a hidden goldmine was my buddy Soda, who urged me to keep it a secret, then he went public anyway with his $100K in 100 days quest, so I don’t feel obligated to keep the secret anymore. Soda’s story is truly amazing by the way, and I’m in awe of his results. Another poster also suggested it to me and made some very helpful suggestions on how to play these games and also asked me to keep it quiet. There was some suggestion that my public record of results in the 3/6 games led to those games getting tougher this summer and there may be some truth to that, but I don’t really think so. And I really don’t think that will happen to the shorthanded games because I can honestly say after 1 full week of playing them that these games are not for everyone.

In hindsight it was probably a very stupid time to try something like this, but 6 months seemed like a perfect time to try something different just for a change. In Soda’s defense, he told me in no uncertain terms to start out at 1 / 2 and get my feet wet. His results were so amazing I thought I’d check it out. On Sunday afternoon I played 2 shorthanded 1 / 2 tables for an hour and won a couple of bucks. The games were quite passive and loose, perfect for me. I played my normal 4 3/6 games on Monday night and won $133, making it 5 winning days in a row. There are no shorthanded games at the 3/6 level, I had to choose from 1 / 2 and 5/10, and I naturally decided that 1 / 2 was too low for me so I jumped right into the 5/10 game on Monday. I decided to play for an hour only and see how it went. I should probably point out that my bankroll is at it’s lowest point since I started 6 months ago due mostly to the cost overruns on our home renovation, and somewhat to the slump I was in the last 6 weeks or so. So playing higher limits at a different game was not a great idea to say the least. Game selection, game selection.

Monday I played my normal afternoon session for 2 hours, then took a shot at playing 3 shorthanded tables for an hour. I dropped around $100, which is nothing at these limits. The games however were nothing like the 1 / 2 games I had sat in. They were extremely aggressive. Monday night I played my normal games until 1:00 AM then switched again to the shorthanded tables. I was up around $300 at 3/6 when I switched. At 3:00 AM after 2 hours I was down $1,000 at the 5/10 tables. Oh my god, what have I done? My biggest fear about moving limits was what if you hit a bad run right away? And here it was. I had a horrible run of cards, but I have to be honest, I was a fish out of water in these games. The aggression on every street had me back on my heels and I was run over a lot. But I still got rtivered with 2 and 3 outers a lot, it was a horrible combination. Ended the day down $767 (thank god I won at 3/6) and had a tough decision to make. DO I just eat the loss or try to get it back? I decide to give it the rest of the week to see if I could play this game. I discussed strategy with soda and my other shorthanded friend, and made some adjustments to my game. My beloved baby pairs and suited connectors went into the waste basket. There is very little room to limp in these games. Every time I limp someone raises. Mind you every time I raise someone 3 bets it seems. I was clearly marked right away as fresh meat and I had to fight back. Tuesday was a little better, I only lost $230, but I could honestly see an improvement in my play. I stood my ground better and didn’t get pushed around too much. I found that sometimes I was getting 3 bet and raised on the flop with hands like 75s. I can only imagine what they thought of my play…”Just raise him, he’s gonna fold unless he makes trips or better”. Wednesday, I lost only $86. I’m playing 2,500 hands a day because of the increased speed of these games, so I now had a significant number of hands played. I can’t blame bad cards anymore, I’m improving, but still losing steadily. Another set of questions to soda and some good answers. I’m now playng very tight, and very aggressive. If nothing else comes out of this I am going to be much better in the blinds when I go back to full ring games. That has to be the worst part of my game, and you use it all the time shorthanded. Thursday was wonderful. I got good cards and played them well. I won $758. Friday was more of the same. The bullies have started to back off, and it’s just the maniacs taking shots at me now. I can handle them. I won another $746. Saturday I didn’t play a whole lot but won a tiny $74 on a night where I took some horrific beats, and made 3 bad plays. Ended the week up $628, but on a high.

So what do I do now? I’m not sure. First off, I’m not recommending shorthanded to anyone. The people who have a natural gift to play them probably already know about them. My natural “weak-tight” game that serves me so well in the loose/passive ring games just gets killed shorthanded. I suspect a lot of other posters will be in the same boat. Playing that many more hands though makes it possible to win more if you play well. I seem to have made good adjustments to my game, so maybe I should give it another week to try it out. I’ll decide tonight I guess. If nothing else, the improvement in my blind play will have made this week worthwhile. Of course in the regular 3/6 game I don’t get that many opportunities to use it. The wisest course of action for me will be to wait for January when my wife is working and try it out then, or at least try 5/10 ring games again. I’m not sure I’m that wise though.

In other news, I received 2 inquiries about full time employment this week, but at ridiculous low salaries. Makes the decision easy I guess. Nowhere near what I’m making online.

I went back and reviewed some of my early posts from this adventure. Boy a lot has changed in 6 months. This has been a real adventure. I am so glad I did it. I had a great summer and it made it easy for my wife to abandon her babies (that’s how she feels) since I was at home. Playing poker has never felt like a job even though I’m playing every day. I just love the lifestyle. Having said that, I don’t think I’d recommend it to anyone. Unless you are absolutely sure you’d like to do it, and are capable of doing it, you probably aren’t. I’m certainly under more stress than I’ve ever been before, and that’s sure not for everyone. The emotional lows when you’re running bad take a toll in your personal life too. You need to have the discipline to play the hours you need to play, even if you don’t feel like it, although I rarely didn’t feel like it.

I had two hf the worst beats I’ve ever had within 2 hours last night. I had AA on a flop of Q66. I had raised pre-flop and 3 of us saw the flop. They both called my flop bet. When my A turned I bet, and only one of them called. Another Q rivered, and he bet out. I raised, he 3-bet and I capped. He had 66. Later I had KK on a board of A44. My K turned and I thought I was saved. We capped the turn, and another A rivered. His A7 took me down.

This hand was wild. 4 people, each slowplaying at one time or another. I am utg and limp with KK, hoping to 3 bet(Slow play1). LP poster checks with J3o. Button calls with A8s and BB just checks with AA (Don’t ask me why)(SP 2). Flop comes down J88. BB checks his rockets(SP3) and I bet my cowboys. Poster calls with his pair of J’s, and button just calls his trip 8’s. (SP4). Turn is another J. Rockets check. I check. Jacks full check (SP5), and now 8’s full bet. BB calls, I call and J’s full just calls (SP6). River is a 4, and it gets checked around (SP7). This may be the worst played hand I’ve ever been a part of.

I mentioned earlier I made 3 bad plays last night. They cost me around $300. Twice I folded on the river when I thought my draw had missed. The first was an AQ hand I raised pre-flop and got 3 callers. Flop was AT8. I bet and got called twice. Turn was a 9, and I was bet into. I raised and got 3 bet by a very good player. The other player called and I thought for a minute and folded. The 2 of them went to showdown and the 3 bettor won with AJ. Argh. I had only seen him make turn raises with trips or better. Later on I did it again when flopped an open ended flush draw with QTs on a KJx board, two of my suit. I got caught in a raising war with 2 other guys. They capped the flop which I didn’t mind, but when a brick turned They 3 bet it again. A Q rivered, and when there was a bet and a call ahead of me I folded, only to see AJ beat J9. My Q would have been good. Aaargh. Finally I broke a cardinal rule by slowplaying in a big pot. I raised AQ and got 3 bet from the blinds. 4 of us saw the flop so the pot is already big. Flop came down AQ8. 3 bettor bets out and I decide to wait for the turn and smooth call my top 2. One other player called. Turn was a T. Again he bet and again I just called hoping to keep the 3rd player in. He folded. Oh well, I’ll raise the presumed AK on the river. River is a J. Oh crap. Now a lot of hands beat me. He bets and I just call. He has 99.If I raise the flop that pot is mine. Probably raising the turn wins it. Aaaaaaaaaargh.