My passions for Texas Hold ‘em and Photography.
The key is finding a cat that likes to sit on boxes, because really that is all that is going on here. Abby has this thing for sitting on or in boxes. I’m getting plenty of photo opps of this exact situation, just different beverage is all. I haven’t had time to play holdem since Monday night and I don’t see that changing until this weekend, but snapping a photo only takes a second.
I played my first live holdem in ages this past weekend. It was a friendly $0.05/$0.10 no limit holdem game with most people buying in for $10. We started with 9 people at the table, 3 of which play regularly on PokerStars like me. It requires a lot more patience to play a live game when you’re used to seeing a ton of hands per hour online. We only played for about 3 hours and I had a good night.
Last night I played online and had a good night, especially considering out of my last 5 sessions I had lost about $43. I won about $12 and most of the night I was playing just 2 tables instead of 3. I didn’t plan it like this, but I kept finding myself looking for a 3rd table since one of them always ended up having only 3 or 4 people. Finally I just left it at 2 fast tables and it worked out well. I’ve also decided to keep weekly stats on my bankroll now, instead of stats on each session. I’m getting tired of the micro-management of my bankroll. As of right now I’m at about $180 and the theoretical plan is to move back up to $10NL at $200, but I reserve the right to change my mind when the time comes.
After being down about $7.00 I rallied and ejected with a $0.50 loss for the night. I know it is a loss, but there is a lot to be positive about here. I lost $43 in three sessions at $10NL, so a $0.50 loss after moving down is like a win. I want to blame others for my bad run here, but ultimately if I think they’re bad players and fail to make money off of them, I can be the only person to blame. I know I’ve gone on tilt something fierce the last couple sessions, last night I actually yelled at my monitor once, like some psycho. I think my brother heard me yell (no we don’t live together), because the phone rang shortly after that and we talked about how things were going. He talked me down and I rallied shortly after. One thing is for sure, I haven’t had a good run of cards during this tough stretch. My great hands get counterfeited, or another trend that shouldn’t become a trend is flopping a straight and my opponent has the same hole cards. Suck outs have been too common. In any case, that little rally last night is what I’m taking with me to my next session.
After losing a total of $43 in my last two sessions at $10NL, its time to move back down to $5NL. Certainly I’m not proud of this fact, it sure makes one feel like they have a lot of holes in their game. I’m staying positive about things though. This is part of bankroll management. I’ll be taking a closer look at my game. You know, what doesn’t kill me will only make me stronger. I figure when I get back above $200 and move back up to $10NL I’ll have that little bit of experience that I didn’t have the first time. I’d like to sit in on some sessions with my brother again, work things out, plug the holes in my game. So although nobody likes taking a step backwards, I think in the long run this will make me better. Now, reflecting on the journey so far…
Since September 2007 its been a long but steady road from $2.00 to $212 until this speed bump. My first session at $10NL, on 08/17/08, was almost a year from the start of this journey- and I won $10. The next two sessions I lost $43. Sure it stings, but I refuse to believe at this point these players are better and thats why I lost, if anything it seems the opposite. More people see more flops for more money than they did at $5NL. The aggression is twice as high, it feels like everyone has loaded the last of their bankroll and they just don’t care anymore. Q-4 suited is a good hand to call PF raises with and getting all-in on the flop with TPNK is a good play. It seems like I could take advantage of that kind of play, it just didn’t happen this time. This isn’t sour grapes, just some observations. I may or may not play $5NL tonight, depends on my level of enthusiasm, but I’m definitely curious to see how it goes, because this trend can’t continue.
I vote for stupid. I took this while in my car sitting at a red light. When I first pulled up they were next to my car, and I got a good enough look that it didn’t appear the dog was in any type of restraints, just cradled in her arms. It seems like if the dog was startled by anything (honking horn for instance) it might try to run. Maybe they drive by someone walking their dog and he decides its time to play, or a squirrel catches his eye and it must die now. It just seems like if you love your dog so much that it has to go everywhere with you, even on a motorcycle, you wouldn’t take the chance of it freaking out and ejecting while you’re doing 40 MPH. What do you think? Stupid or cool?
I lost $27 last night, by far the most I’ve lost in a single session to date. Worse yet is that drops my bankroll down to $185, which really blows considering I was relatively steady going from $2.00 to $200+. I lost about $20 on two hands alone, getting stacked on both of them. Both hands I flopped 3 of a kind. The first one I had K-Q in the hole and raised $0.35 to $0.45 preflop and got two callers. The flop came with two Kings and I actually checked the flop. I basically never slow play anymore, but this time I thought with all the aggression I was meeting it would work for me. Wrong! They both checked and the turn card was a 3 which gave someone with pocket 3’s a full house. I’m sure if I would have bet the flop he would’ve have called, we even confirmed it in the chat. The second one I had 8-9 in the hole and the flop came Q-8-8. Considering there was no preflop raising, I didn’t suspect the guy that ended up all-in with me had pocket Q’s. Who limps in with pocket Q’s? Well at least I didn’t slow play it. 
Both hands are what I like to refer to as “Pokerstars Perfect Storms”. I’m not going to drop down to $5NL just yet though, but I might take a few days off to recharge the batteries.
I won about $10 at my first session of $10NL, and last night I lost $0.55 at my second session. Not a big loss but it could have been worse and/or better. Let me explain. I played for about 2 hours, and for most of that 2 hours I was down money. It was getting late and I needed to get to sleep when I won a big hand that put me up about $4.00. Perfect, time to get out of here and go to sleep, right? Wrong, as I am exiting tables I get caught up in a hand and end up losing all I had just won plus a bit more. I’ve had that happen before and I’m sure I’ll have it happen again. What about you, ever get into a hand just as your leaving and wish you hadn’t?
Last night I played my first session at $10NL after making my bankroll goal of $200 and moving up from $5NL. I ended up winning about $10 bringing my bankroll up to $212.76, nothing to write home about I know, but for my first session it was a nice win nonetheless.
At first I certainly took it slow, just getting a feel for any differences. Now it was only one session, so I’m not taking much stock in what happened, but here were the 2 main things I noticed just last night. First and most obvious is the pre-flop pot sizes are considerably larger, while the stack sizes are the same as $5NL (max buy-in is $10 for both). This makes the post-flop play a little trickier, considering it doesn’t take long to realize you could be playing for stacks real quick like. Second, the players did seem more aggressive on average, mainly pre-flop. Given that trend, I was surprised to see a higher percentage of players seeing flops on a regular basis. Other than that, the play didn’t seem much different. Like I said, that was just one session though, I hope to play some today/tonight and have a little better view of things.
photo credit: Aaron Michael Brown
The title says a lot. I won just about $7 again last night and since my goal has been to have a $200 bankroll before moving to $10NL, the time has officially come. I’m certainly excited but also just a little nervous, mainly because I’m not sure what to expect. I move up with confidence though. Looking back at the journey so far I saw an interesting fact. It took me about 8 months from the time I won $2.00 in a freeroll to make $100 at $2NL (the very beginning was limit holdem actually). I moved up to $5NL when my bankroll reached $100, and it has taken about 2.5 months to make another $100 and move up to $10NL. I like what I see, but I also know that past results do not guarantee future performance. Now it is time to set my next goal before moving up to the next level. I’m leaning towards a $1000 bankroll then move up to $0.10/$0.25 NL. Any thoughts, comments or criticisms are welcome.
photo credit: Yannig Van de Wouwer
Last night was the first time in 8 days I played holdem online at Pokerstars. I won just over $7 bringing my bankroll to $195.68. My goal has been to move up to 10NL when I get to $200, so I’m basically one good session from that, as long as I don’t have any major setbacks that is. I’m not arrogant enough to think it is a foregone conclusion, but I’m confident it won’t be long now. I wasn’t sure how last night would go, since it had been over a week since I last played, but I just remembered what I learned while sitting in on some sessions with my brother and it served me well. I have my golf league tonight but I expect I’ll play some after that. Here is hoping I have some more good news to report tomorrow.
