Promoted at Last!

Well I have been promoted at work! The boss rang me today after facing a grueling interview earlier in the week and he told me that I have got the job! All +ev in poker speak. of course this means a ton of extra responsibility and a tiny amount of money added but all is good!

Me Has A Grand!

Yippee! Bodog have splashed a nice bonus my way tipping my bankroll over the $1000 mark!
I'm back and on the comeback trail having started with just $200 and virtually no NL cash experience .
I have to say that my impression is that I am a good limit player but my NL cash still needs work. I just still have trouble folding as the ethos of limit play is not to get bluffed out of a pot if you have a showdownable hand. In NL you just have to make more folds with TPTK type hands.
Luckily I pick games where the opposition are way more stupid than I am so I will turn a profit anyway!
I will now have a crack at $50 NL.
My next milestones are $1200 for $2/4 limit and $2500 for $100 NL.

Bodog Madness

Okay so i hit the limit tables again on Bodog. I'm making adjustments again to play with the low stakes players. I made a killing last night but tonight I've hit the usual run of them having aces when I have kings, getting rivered in every big pot and having the fish make 2 pair on me with hands like 43.
I've had to take a break. The variance is mad on that site, don't get me wrong I've made a lot of money there but you can forget hand reading.
An example, i hild QJo in the BB, button raises, sbcalls, I call flop comes QJ4, i cr the flop and the button ans sb both call, the turn is a ten, fearing an AK i check the button bets sb raises and I think and fold. Anyway the sd arrives and the button shows TT and the sb mucks. What can i do? it just went like that all night where no board was playable for my hand, I have 88 flop comes KTQ I have to fold knowing that the will call me to the river with a gutshot.
Oh bless them! Anyway up to tonight I have been running good and am getting closer to the $1K barrier!

Okay, I am now a winning Limit Holdem Cash Player, winning NL cash Player, winning MTT player and winning Sng player.

I rate my skils as Limit Cash, MTT, NL cash, Sng in that order.

My NL cash is good to beat 25nl and I'm sure once I have the roll to play 50NL I will win but I think making the transition between limit and NL is proving mentally tough. The problem is that I have look at the board still as a limit player and put their range as a limit player would. In reality playing NL cash their ranges are much tighter.

I'm strong at contesting small pots and that's what keeps me afloat. i think I'm good when all my stack is not at stake as i can read the board better than NL players and understand the board in comparision with ranges and know where to pick up pots.

When my stack is at risk it becomes trickier.

An example from a cash game yeaterday. 25NL I raise UTG with AA folded to BB who calls. Flop T56 rainbow I bet out 2/3 pot and opponent raises. In my mind I knew he had a set, he just had to but I couldnt get away from it. I mean on that board what else could he have? He's not raising that flop with AT or a straight draw on that flop! He's got me beat.
Now you can look at his range and say well he's unknown he could have AT or the str8 draw or pocket jacks, I knew he had the set I call and lose my stack.
In limit you just cap the flop and then call down if he raises the turn only risking 3bb to get to showdown.
I do read the board but as is always my problem, I read the board, look at the betting put them on a hand and still call anyway beacuse I may be wrong and limit players don't fold!
Maybe I'm just being too hard on myself, I like to win at everything!

Anyway time to get my brother round and hand him his weekly ass kicking at xbox!

Oh and my BR is approaching the $800 mark so may be able to move up to 50nl soon but making a killing at limit and winning $160 at an MTT feels like cheating!

So I have kicked ass at limit today. I just won $150 today playing 1/2 limit. I just played my normal game and ran good for a change. Fantastic!

I have to play xbox now. In fact I might even go up the golf driving range. Down 3 buyins in 2 hrs. I bluffed off one when I tried to push a guy off aces with nothing after he ccd all 3 streets, it looked like a busted draw so I shoved on him, very sily. Then another guy limps HU wth AJ, flop comes ace high, turn comes another ace and I do my stack. I hate it when I play a hand badly which I did with the bluff hand, I mean even if i wanted to take him off the hand he can't call a min raise with a busted draw so why go all in. Stupid. I won't do that again. Then the guy limping hu with aj. I had another one limp HU with aks luckily i only had 2nd pr so I got away there.
I played badly, the fish got me and I have to go and play golf in the cold as punishment.

Well I feel like a gladiator today. I have won all of the money back i lost on Bodog so i'm back with a servicable roll on there and I'm still there or there abouts on PKR. I have run my roll back up to $700 where we started before I had a downturn. I think i'll keep it this time as I have become a much better NL player and it's showing in my results. I may have to stay away from limit for a bit. I keep sitting in that game on bodog and getting killed by the madfish. I just don't konw what hand to put them on.
So my roll has been run up from $200 to $700 now. I'm eyeing the $1000 milestone then we move up. Well exiting.
That's the thing about poker.I could run good and be there in 2 weeks or I could run like poo and still be at the same level in 3 months!

Moving in to my rants over the past two days I have hasd the following hands! AAvAA KKvKK and AAvAA. I split the pots so I am doing better than before but when you get it in with these hands you expect to turn a profit not just pay rake on your returned pot!

Still it's better than getting killed with them. Now for the running good bit!

Well I have doubled up on PKR. It's always a nice feeling to have double the money you started with on a site so many positives there. My NL game is coming on nicely and I have to say that lowstakes NL is just so much easier to beat than limit. The limit guys just call you to the river with any 2 and you have to hit to win. It can be soul destroying to get dealt hands like AK,AQ etc and not hit and the fish take your dosh with 85o havinfg hit on the turn.
I am getting killed at limit at the moment although it is a swingy game, people talk about NL being swingy, I know I have less than 25k hands, at NL, but if you get your chips in the middle good then you're not going to get outdrawn all that often and over time you will be a big winner. In limit your AA can be up against as many as 4 different players all taking shots to get to the river and draw out. Those pots get big too and I can easily see $25-50 swings on 1 hand, a few and you're looking at a chunk of your roll.
That's the downside, I have lost over $150 on Bodog, there is some $1/2 limit action on there but I'm running terribly so this has stunted my bankroll growth. I hope I don't go bust on the site but I guess it's beyond my control.
I will also be interested to see how much rakeback I've earned from PKR. Their rake payday is on the 10th of each month so I will be interested to see how much they give me. I'll bet it's only $5 or something silly like that, still every little helps.
Oh and I just had a crack at 50NL. I bought in for $35 and crushed the game leaving with $70 so very nice. I'll try not to sniff $50 NL again for a while as if I lost a cople of buyins it would crush me(bankroll wise I mean).

Happy New Year

Well Christmas and the New Year are now out of the way. Has been nice and I have played a bit over the festive period.

I am still running like poo, okay my bankroll is not in danger but I have lost 6 times on the trot with AA or KK. Each time I have got my money in good only to be outdrawn. The latest one a guy cold calling my raise with Q6s got lucky.

This is happening in both limit and NL and I rekon it has swung me down nearly $200. I haven't lost that much money but I'm not winning either. The rest of my game is okay, just the AA/KK thing.

I can't wait to run good but i guess I'll have to weather the storm. it's just such a shame I couldn't have run good over Christmas as the fish are at their prime, hopefully they will stick around.

I feel shit waiting to run good but that's what it will take for me to move up in stakes.