Ummm.... help?

What an interesting run I'm on. My cash game has gone to hell in a handcart. My tourney game rocks. What happened? My run at the cash games has been so good the last 2 months, but lately, I can't win a thing.

Highlights from last week:

1) Playing the EPT steps, started at the $7.50 level, have worked my way up to the $700 level. 2 wins away from Monte Carlo!
2) 2nd place in a $4+0.40 180-man on PS. Got heads up down about 2-1 in chips, and was caught bluffing all-in on the river with a busted draw to the other guy with top pair, 2 kicker, but I was already committed by the turn, so felt I'd give it a shot.

Lowlights:

1) Getting my a$$ kicked in cash games. Big time.
2) Can't win with Aces
3) Can't win with Kings
4) Can't seem to win at all.

My account balance is now at $2,338 + the $700 ticket to the EPT steps tourney. So, in some technical way, I reached my $3k goal for January. But not really. The $700 ticket has no cash value (which I would probably cash out if I could) so I am still really at the $2,300 level still.

I have changed my outlook, and am going to take it easy on the cash games for a while. I want to focus on sit-n-gos for a while, and psych myself up to make a run for Monte Carlo. Also, would like to play a few more tourneys, especially after my second place finish on the 180-man on PS.

Thanks for reading, will try an update over the weekend.

Good luck at the tables.

Ryan

Brag Post Alert!

Don't read this if you hate brag posts. It was a fun morning for me today. Backing up to last night, got a little bit of time to play some 50NL on FT, and was down about a buy-in. Hopped onto a $12+1 DS Qualifier for the $530 Sunday Million, and was out in 5 minutes when my aces got cracked all-in pre-flop vs. Q8. Huh?? Yah, sucky. Managed to win a $26 tourney token on FT, but other than that, a down night.

This morning, I had to wake up to review some documents for work, so I was up very, very early. I figured I would get into the 5 EST $24+2 tourney on FT. I limped with AK in early position with the hope of re-raising, and got the chance when almost everyone limps and the BB raises it to 4BB (after 6 limpers???). So I re-raise and he puts me all-in, he's got QQ. I lose the race, I'm out. In about 4 minutes. Ick. $26 not well spent.

Was going to focus on my work only, but got onto Stars instead (I'm such a good procrastinator!) and a $12+1 $530 Sunday Million qualifier was starting in a few minutes. I got in. Then, my luck changed.

I got heads up on the first table after playing only really premium hands and getting it in really good a couple of times and taking the chip lead. When we got heads up:

PokerStars Game #14807113372: Tournament #74378667, $12+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level V (75/150) - 2008/01/25 - 05:43:23 (ET)
Table '74378667 1' 8-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 4: funvloh (3197 in chips)
Seat 8: PJS JR. (5803 in chips)
PJS JR.: posts small blind 75
funvloh: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to PJS JR. [6s 9s]
PJS JR.: calls 75
funvloh: checks
*** FLOP *** [9d 6d 5s]
funvloh: checks
PJS JR.: bets 300
funvloh: calls 300
*** TURN *** [9d 6d 5s] [Jh]
funvloh: bets 2747 and is all-in
PJS JR.: calls 2747
*** RIVER *** [9d 6d 5s Jh] [4c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
funvloh: shows [Js 7h] (a pair of Jacks)
PJS JR.: shows [6s 9s] (two pair, Nines and Sixes)
PJS JR. collected 6394 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6394 | Rake 0
Board [9d 6d 5s Jh 4c]
Seat 4: funvloh (big blind) showed [Js 7h] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 8: PJS JR. (button) (small blind) showed [6s 9s] and won (6394) with two pair, Nines and Sixes

After waiting for a good 20 minutes for the other tables to finish, I got started on table 2. Things didn't go well early. I got down to about 1000 chips before I raised all-in to pick up blinds, and then:

PokerStars Game #14807360565: Tournament #74378667, $12+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round II, Level IV (50/100) - 2008/01/25 - 06:14:13 (ET)
Table '74378667 1' 8-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: PJS JR. (1105 in chips)
Seat 3: katcher11 (5950 in chips)
Seat 4: Sedda (1025 in chips)
Seat 5: hpcricket (2445 in chips)
Seat 8: ceejee (1475 in chips)
hpcricket: posts small blind 50
ceejee: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to PJS JR. [Jd Ac]
PJS JR.: raises 1005 to 1105 and is all-in
katcher11: folds
Sedda: folds
hpcricket: raises 1005 to 2110
ceejee: folds
*** FLOP *** [3s Js 4c]
*** TURN *** [3s Js 4c] [3d]
*** RIVER *** [3s Js 4c 3d] [2c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
hpcricket: shows [Ad Th] (a pair of Threes)
PJS JR.: shows [Jd Ac] (two pair, Jacks and Threes)
PJS JR. collected 2310 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2310 | Rake 0
Board [3s Js 4c 3d 2c]
Seat 1: PJS JR. showed [Jd Ac] and won (2310) with two pair, Jacks and Threes
Seat 3: katcher11 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Sedda (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: hpcricket (small blind) showed [Ad Th] and lost with a pair of Threes
Seat 8: ceejee (big blind) folded before Flop


I took down some blinds in the next 4-5 hands, and the other short stacks got wiped out in a hurry, 2 of them on one hand with my heads-up villain. Katcher11 had taken out, I believe, everyone at this table, so he had most of the chips. Situation didn't look good...

PokerStars Game #14807379077: Tournament #74378667, $12+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round II, Level IV (50/100) - 2008/01/25 - 06:16:30 (ET)
Table '74378667 1' 8-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: PJS JR. (2160 in chips)
Seat 3: katcher11 (9840 in chips)
katcher11: posts small blind 50
PJS JR.: posts big blind 100

Got worse...

PokerStars Game #14807403214: Tournament #74378667, $12+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round II, Level V (75/150) - 2008/01/25 - 06:19:30 (ET)
Table '74378667 1' 8-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: PJS JR. (1710 in chips)
Seat 3: katcher11 (10290 in chips)
katcher11: posts small blind 75
PJS JR.: posts big blind 150

Then, I got it in bad and sucked out...

PokerStars Game #14807465095: Tournament #74378667, $12+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round II, Level V (75/150) - 2008/01/25 - 06:27:04 (ET)
Table '74378667 1' 8-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: PJS JR. (1935 in chips)
Seat 3: katcher11 (10065 in chips)
PJS JR.: posts small blind 75
katcher11: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to PJS JR. [Kd 5s]
PJS JR.: raises 1785 to 1935 and is all-in
katcher11: calls 1785
*** FLOP *** [5h 4d 6d]
*** TURN *** [5h 4d 6d] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [5h 4d 6d Kh] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
katcher11: shows [Ah 9c] (high card Ace)
PJS JR.: shows [Kd 5s] (two pair, Kings and Fives)
PJS JR. collected 3870 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3870 | Rake 0
Board [5h 4d 6d Kh Th]
Seat 1: PJS JR. (button) (small blind) showed [Kd 5s] and won (3870) with two pair, Kings and Fives
Seat 3: katcher11 (big blind) showed [Ah 9c] and lost with high card Ace

Then, on 3-4 hands in a row, he raised and I re-raised all-in with top 15% hands and took them all down. He almost insta-folded every single time. After than, he seemed to be a little rattled and stopped raising. He was folding and unwilling to put any chips into the pot unless he had a hand. He was waiting for an opportunity to get it all in with a good hand.

I became the aggressor and was betting almost every flop that we saw and taking it down. Then, 2 hands after taking over the chip lead:

PokerStars Game #14807505734: Tournament #74378667, $12+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round II, Level VI (100/200) - 2008/01/25 - 06:32:00 (ET)
Table '74378667 1' 8-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: PJS JR. (6620 in chips)
Seat 3: katcher11 (5380 in chips)
PJS JR.: posts small blind 100
katcher11: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to PJS JR. [5d 6h]
PJS JR.: calls 100
katcher11: checks
*** FLOP *** [7c 8s 9d]
katcher11: bets 400
PJS JR.: raises 6020 to 6420 and is all-in
katcher11: calls 4780 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [7c 8s 9d] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [7c 8s 9d Jc] [4s] (Made me sweat a T on the river!)
*** SHOW DOWN ***
katcher11: shows [9s Qh] (a pair of Nines)
PJS JR.: shows [5d 6h] (a straight, Five to Nine)
PJS JR. collected 10760 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 10760 | Rake 0
Board [7c 8s 9d Jc 4s]
Seat 1: PJS JR. (button) (small blind) showed [5d 6h] and won (10760) with a straight, Five to Nine
Seat 3: katcher11 (big blind) showed [9s Qh] and lost with a pair of Nines

BOOM! $530 score! Since there were only 44 players in the tourney, there was no 2nd place money. It was all or nothing, and it felt wonderful to come out on top. Maybe $530 is not a lot to some, but it's a wonderful increase to my roll. They are T$, and I probably won't play the Sunday Million, but a nice cash none the less. Probably will treat myself to playing one of the $215 Sunday Millions at a later date.

Needless to say, I am beaming at work today, very happy about my tourney win. I appreciate you all for reading, and will post some cash hands that I played after the tourney. Was up about a buy-in on Stars in about 45 minutes, then it was off to work. Bankroll after the tourney win: $2,514!

Yah baby. Highest so far.

Let's keep going.

Ryan

Another quickie, that's all I have time for

A quick update...

Since I blogged last, my roll has been pretty constant. I am winning on FT and losing on PS. Between the 2, I am still at a hair over $2k. I haven't been constantly above $2,200 ever, reaching it twice before falling way down.

My latest FT session had me on 5 tables, all of which I made a profit at the end, 3 of them I ended over $100 (playing 50NL). On Stars, the first hand, my overpair vs. a set to lose $50. Couple of other dicey hands I probably should not have been in.

I have been varying my play a lot, calling with a lot of suited connected, hands that can create something if I hit. When I don't, I'm out. I won 4 big all-in pots on FT yesterday holding 68ss on a 689 board (villain had T9 and I held), hitting a set of 2's vs. aces, and getting all-in with 54dd on a 6d5c3d board, villain had JJ. I caught up on the turn and took it away from him. Also won another big hand with AA vs. JJ on a 458 board, I bet, he calls. 4 turn, I bet, he calls. 5 river, I go all-in, he calls. So that was a nice one.

2 big hands I lost were AKhh on a 3h5h7h board, guy hit a set of 5's and made a full house on the river, and AA vs. KK, guy hits a King on the turn. Overall, my smaller hands have been more profitable than the big ones.

Anyways, my wife is away in mid-February, and so I will be trying to qualify for a few of the bigger events and hope to play them while she is gone and I have some time. I will have my 3 kids, but they are still in bed by 7:30 most days.

Thanks for reading, I will post a longer update in the near future. Good luck at the tables.

Ryan

Bad, Bad Idea

Wow, was it ever. I am not ready for 100NL. An expensive lesson.

I got rolled over. Re-raised. Re-raised again. It's like they know I was weak. And scared. And after I while, I was.

Down $300 very quickly playing 100NL. Not value-betting when I had the best hand. Calling when I had the worst. Somehow, my play totally changed. I don't know why, really, but I am moving back down in a hurry. Back to the safety net of 50NL until I get to at least a $3k bankroll.

The kicker was after I said I was gonna quit, I had already lost $200, I jumped onto another table, just for one last shot. I raised with 66. Got called in the BB. Flop comes a dream AT6. We get it all in on the turn, which was a 3, he's got AA. Just walked into that one. So, the first $200 was my fault, the last $100 really wasn't, but it stuck like a bitch.

Due to this, and a couple of MTTs on FT that I failed to cash in, my bankroll actually dipped below $2k for the first time since Christmas. Ick. I know there are ups and down, but I have gone from 1.5k to 2.2k to 1.6k to 2.4k now back to 1.9k. It has really been up and down. As I discussed before, I don't know if my cash game is solid enough to make a run at 3 or 4k, but I am going to try, and try to improve my game along the way. We will see.

I played this morning for 30 minutes for a $50ish profit, and find myself currently at a bankroll of $2,008 ($1,452 on FT, $556 on Stars). I am going to calm down a little bit and play only 50NL and some smaller MTTs. I find even with those I get nervous playing a $30 MTT because it's $30!! If it is $5 or $10, I play so differently. Gay, I know.

So, back to 50NL I go. Was fun for the day or 2 it lasted at 100NL. I will make it there again, but not for a while.

Thanks for reading, and good luck at the tables.

Ryan

Is cash the way to go for me?

Hello all...

First off, a recap of my weekend. Let's use simple words... Small win, small win, small win, small win, BIG LOSS! Small win, small win, small win, small win, BIG LOSS!Small win, small win, small win, small win, BIG LOSS! *&$^%*(^%!@#$&(^!@

All right, now that you have the summary version, here is what really happened...

I actually got some solid continuous hours to play poker this weekend, with my wife sick and in bed at 7 on Saturday night, and the kids in bed from a tiring day at the beach, the whole house is quiet and I still have a lot of hours to play! YAH BABY!!

I played some cash for about 45 minutes or so, with nothing to exciting to report, and at 8 (10 EST) I decided to play the $24 28k guaranteed on FT and the $15 NLH on Stars. Was very interesting to see how the 2 play very differently. On Stars, you get your standard 1500 in chips, but on FT, you get 3000. Obviously, the play is slower on FT.

FT Recap: My whole tournament came down to 1 hand I decided not to play. I still have around 3000 chips in the 2nd hour of play, the 2nd chip leader is directly to my left, and another huge stack to my right 2 spots. I call a raise on the button with JcTc, and I find myself in a hand with 3 other people, including the 2 huge stacks. Flop comes Ah9c3h. Ick. Nothing for me. Gets checked to me and I take a stab at the pot for 500ish, and get called my both of the big stacks after a lot of though by both. Right away, I put them both on huge hands, as I thought they were reverse-telling with all the time they were taking.

Turn comes 8c. Wow, now I have an OESFD. I still have about 2200 chips left. After thinking about it for his whole time bank, Big stach to my left goes all-in and the other big stack insta-calls. At this point, I am thinking, I don't know what I was thinking, but I put one of them on a bigger flush draw, and the other on a big ace, or maybe a set. By thinking that way, I reduced my number of outs in a big way, the clubs wouldn't do it for me anymore, so I had to make a straight with a non-club. I spent a lot of time thinking and eventually folded. HOW FKN NITTY! Of course, the SB shows AA for a set of Aces and the other guy shows a set of 3s. So in reality, I had a lot more outs than I thought. I guess my ROT-mind was just pissed when the river was a non-board pairing club and I would have been up to 9k+ chips. Instead, I became short-stacked and ended up getting my money in very bad about 10 minutes later and not sucking out.

PS recap: The PS tourney went much better. I got Aces about 15 hands in, and managed to get all-in Pre-flop against 2 other opponents, one with KK and the other with 66. I held and almost tripled up to about 4200 chips. I became the big stack at my table, though the blinds weren't big enough to start stealing. I got caught re-stealing 20 minutes later with K6 in the BB, the button insta-calls with KK. Somehow, I manage to go runner-runner straight to take him out. I decided to tighten up a little for the next while.

Later on, with about 7000 chips, blinds are 100/200, I raise to 550 with AQsuited in the cut-off and get called by the BB. Flop comes AQ7r. Bingo! The BB has about 4000 left and insta-goes-all-in. I actually thought about what he could have for a while, took a little time, but I could not fold top 2. BB shows AK, and I hold to scoop the pot.

After chipping up to about 18k in chips, I am in the top 5 in chips with about 60 people left (out of 850ish) We are past the money bubble. Then, disaster strikes. First, I get all-in with AA against a short-stack and he flops a straight (-2500 chips). Then, I raise with JJ on the button, called by the BB for 1/3 of his stack. Flop is Q87, he checks, I put him in for his last 1500, he calls with 87 and holds. Ick.

I blind down to about 10k and then on 2 successive hands, I get in with 99 vs. KT and he hits a K on the river, and then JJ vs. AQ and they hit a Q on the river and I am out in 45th-ish. Damn. Was nice to make a run, but I felt with a little luck, I could have been chipleader with 45 left. As it was, I was out.

Because I had some continuous time available to me, I decided to play some sit-n-gos on Stars and FT. When I made my first run in online poker, ($100 on PS run up to $550ish before I go busto) I only played sit-n-gos. Mostly $5 9-man and some 18- and 27- mixed in. The occasional $10 sit-n-go as well. I thought I would try my hand at it again as I had some time. Here are the results:

1) $12 6-man Result: WIN
2) $12 6-man Result: WIN
3) $3 6-man Result: WIN
4) $6 6-man Result: WIN
5) $22 9-man Result: 3rd place (Cash)

Total Profit: $108.55

I'd say, it worked out ok. :D

Was a good thing too, because it offset some of my losses playing cash. Again, running into monsters with my monsters.

KK < JJ all-in on a J72 flop (-$40ish) (made quads on turn :D)
QQ < AJ all-in on a 863 flop (-30ish) (A on the river...) :(

I guess my dilemma is whether I should go the sit-n-go route instead of cash. After debating with myself, Cash got me to where I am, so obviously I am doing something right. I guess I need to go back and analyze my leaks. Should I buy Poker Tracker or Manager, or something? Who knows. All I know is that I am too inconsistant to really make a huge positive run at cash games. We will see....

Even after all of this good play, I was about even for the weekend until early this morning, I hopped on for about 30 minutes, 6-tabling 50NL cash on FT. Just before I logged out, I called a raise with KQ to see a flop of KK6, I bet, get called. Turn is an 8, I bet, get called. I figure by this time that he has a K, I just hope it's not AK. I figure what the hell and push all-in on the river, which was a 4, and get called by KJ. Yay me!

The last hand I played, I raise with 99 from the cut-off and get called by the big blind. Flop comes 987r. He checks, I bet, he raises (ick) I am just praying for a lower set, figure it's a coooooooler if he flopped a straight, I push all-in, he calls, obviously has 56sooooted for the straight. Lucky for me, I hit a 7 on the river to fill up for a nice $48 profit on the hand.

I have been discussing with fellow CP members about whether I should move to 100NL now that I have 20+ buy-ins. My debate essentially lies within myself, as I have mentionned to others, I don't mind losing $50 on a hand, but $100 stings just a little more. I have decided temporarily to play 100NL on Stars and 50NL of FT, just for now. I will re-assess in a couple of weeks, or if I lose a few buy-ins at 100NL, I will back down to 50NL.

Current Bankroll: $2,355 (Still have $3k as my goal for January. I will keep you posted)

Thanks all for reading, good luck at the tables, I will update again very soon.

Ryan

Thank Goodness for Rakeback

I have mentionned before, anyone who doesn't use rakeback is just throwing money away. I read on other blogs how people make $1k or $2k on rakeback, and I am sure some make a lot more. Why would you throw that money away?

I play 38 minutes of online poker on average per day. Some days a lot more, some days none. But that is my average. I play, on average 4 tables at a time, sometimes 6, sometimes 2-3 and play a tourney table, but 4 is average. So basically, i play 38 mins X 30 days X 4 tables = 4,560 table minutes per month. I played 25c/50c. My rakeback payment I just received was $110.

Take a player playing 1/2, 4 tabling, averaging 2 hours of play per day. I am sure there are a lot of them. 4 tables X 120 minutes X 30 days = 14,400 table minutes. At stakes 4X as high, I am not saying the rake would be quadruple, let's say 3X more. That person, by my calculations, would be making about $1,400/month on rakeback. Holy shit. That's a fair amount of cash. I look forward to playing those levels. :D

As far as poker play goes, I am thankful for rakeback. :D I keep getting sucked out on. Flop a set of three's, overpair spikes a set on river. Flop a set of Kings, get it all in, someone goes runner runner straight. Raise all in with Kings twice this morning, get called by AT and A2soooooooted, both spike aces. (Thank goodness they were shorter stacks.)

I feel like, is this a broken record, I lose 1-2 huge pots at the beginning of my session which cause me to go into grind mode early on and chip back up. That begs the question, why not just start grinding early? Well, I say that I get in as a huge favorite in those all-ins and don't win. The thought of doubling up on a table early in a session is a nice proposition, but I win more money by playing small pot poker and taking hands down pre-flop or on the flop.

Did end my session this morning, after being down $55ish early on, to flop 2 sets of 2's to crack an overpair of one opponent. Then, the best one was calling a min-raise of 50c on the button with Ad5d from a raiser UTG+1 and SB and BB calling.

Flop: 6d4d3h Could I ask for a better flop? Check, check, UTG+1 bets $3 ($4 in the pot), I raise to $9, SB and BB fold, UTG+1 calls. I am sure he thinks I am on a flush draw.

Turn: 2c Boom. At this point, he checks, I bet out, he re-raises all-in (probably should have done that on the flop) of course I call and take down the pot with my straight. (River was a J I think) He proceeds to type "*&^$%*!@#&$%" on chat for several minutes and asks how I can call a raise with A5dd. Anyone have a problem with the call? I was on the button.

Anyways, that hand brought back some of my losses previously in the session, and I now sit with an online roll of $2,303. This is the first time I have been over $2,300 so I am pretty excited. I still have a ways to go to get to $3k, but I will be working on it.

Thanks for reading, and good luck at the tables.

Ryan

Another quickie, long post to follow...

Just a quick update...

Played very little over the weekend, did not play any MTTs that I had planned, and had wanted to play some Sunday Million qualifiers on Stars, and never got to those either.

Played a home game on Sunday night, 5 way all-in on the first hand! Was pretty funny. 9 players, everyone limps, I have T6hh in the big blind, I check. Flop comes Tc7c6s. SB bets 10 (playing 1/2) I raise to 40, 3 other people go all-in, SB too, so I call:

SB: Ac6c
MP1: 4c5c
MP2: KhTs
MP3: 7s6d

Obviously, I am not a fave to win vs. 4 people, but for some miraculous reason, my hand held to quintuple up on the first hand! Was pretty funny. Managed to not win another hand for about 2 hours. Ended up winning 3 or 4 small pots later on and ended up $300 for the night, so that was nice. Paid my HOA dues for the month. :D

Online has been slow. I did want to post a couple of hands, but don't have the time right now. Big swing hands in the last few days:

2 x All-in PF with KK, both times run into AA (-$89.50)
Flopped set over set and got 1-outed (-$46.85)
BB special 72 flops two pair against AA who didn't raise and holds (+$36.45)
Turned straight flush with 6s3s against AsKs, all in on the turn (+$62.55)

Other hands I will post in my next entry, but wanted to share those with you now. I probably won't be playing much in the next few days, work has been pretty crazy. But I will try and update some time on Friday or Saturday.

Current bankroll on Stars and FT = $2,203 and rising.

Goal for the end of January $3k. If I get to $3k by the end of January, I am gonna play an FTOPS event on FT. I will be trying to qualify for them either way. Would like to play a couple of the smaller buy-in hold'em events and perhaps a PL Omaha event. We will see.

Thanks for reading, will update you again soon.

Ryan

Quick Update

6-tabled for the first time this morning with good results, +$38 in just under 1 hour. 6-tabling is definately harder than 4, as I can see the 4 tables clearly on my screen, but with 6, the tables overlap. Timed out a couple of times when I didn't see that it was my turn, but no harm done.

Going to try and get a couple of MTTs in this weekend, but I might play a home game as well, still trying to put it together.

Probably won't update the blog until Monday, so have a great weekend at the tables, and we will talk to you next week.

Ryan

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great holiday. Mine was especially nice with my brother in from Vancouver, Canada, along with his new wife. My mom and dad are here as well, so it has been a nice time for everyone. We say every year, "This will probably be the last time we are all together for Christmas". We have been saying it for 7 years, and hopefully, we just keep saying it.

As far as poker goes for me, I played a lot more over the holidays than I expected. I got my bankroll to a peak just before Christmas of about $2,300 only to have an extremely shitty week. I really didn't feel as though I was playing worse, I just kept running into monsters. I don't have pokertracker or anything like that, but over the last month, I have started to keep notes about certain hands and how much I win/lose and stuff like that. From December 12-30, here are some interesting stats:

QQ: All-in preflop 8 times, won only once when called (called 5 times), net -$77.25
KK: All-in preflop 14 times, called 11 times, ran into AA 8 of those times and lost all 8, lost to JJ once, won the other 2, net -$122.50
AA: All-in preflop 12 times, called 4 times, won 2 of 4, lost to 87cc and QQ, net +$5.25 (ICK!!)

That was the story of my big pairs over this very negative run. I hit my low (down from my high) on the morning of the 29th when my total bankroll was at $1,675. I proceded to take the 29th and 30th off, to clear my head, re-group, read the Negreanu book of 50 tips to improve your play. Was planning on being off all the way through to today, but on NY's eve, everyone went to bed by 10. Had many family members in town, and everyone was gone or sleeping. Sweet.

I hopped onto 3 tables on FT as well as a 45-man $5 sit-n-go. My luck/run changed right away. Amazingly, I had Aces twice in the first 10 minutes, and went all-in against KK both times and won. (Love it when your AA finds KK). The first hour went nicely, with me up about 2 1/2 buy-ins, and I am sitting with $50 on table 1 (even) and tables 2 and 3 were over $100. At the first break of my sit-n-go, we had 12 players left and I was the chip leader with 15,000 chips (out of 67,500).

Then, on table 1, made my first real mistake of the night when I had KK and had 2 callers to my raise. A very high coordinated board came out and I pushed. I was called by a guy with top pair and an OESD which he hit on the river. Cost my almost a full buy-in. To say it was a mistake, maybe it wasn't, I was marginally ahead when the money went it, but it was most likely a coin flip. Probably not +EV.

I get down to the final table of the sit-n-go, 6 people are paid, I am chipleader with almost 20k in chips, 3 really short stacks. When we break the money bubble, I have about 15k, and in 2nd chip position, unfortunately, he is directly to my left.

I pick up pocket 7s on the button on table 3 and raise to $2 after a limper. Guy raises to $6 from the BB ($30 behind), and I was going to fold, but the early limper called ($85 behind), and I figured if I could hit my set, it might be very profitable. Flop comes J76rainbow. Sweet! BB puts out a bet of $10, and the early limper thinks about it for about 20 seconds before calling. That frightened me a little I guess, but I am ahead of everything except JJ so I pushed for my whole stack of $100ish. BB insta-calls and the early limper thinks about it all the way until his timebank ended and folded. BB flips up KK and I show my set. Turn: 8 River: 9. Board reads J7689 - I scoop the pot. The early limper said he folded TT. If that was true, I am glad I pushed.

We get down to 3-handed play in my sit-n-go, I have 20k, other guys have 38k and 7.5k. Blinds are pretty high at this point, like 600/1200 I think, the guy with 38k is playing nicely with me, and I could tell he was trying to get rid of the shorty to get heads up with me. I was folding to his raises, he was folding to mine, trying to put pressure on the other guy. Finally, I pick up KK in the BB, 38k-guy makes his standard raise to 6k (blinds are 800/1600 by now) and I push all in. He called with AQ and I fade his flush draw on the river to scoop a nice pot and become chip leader. Shorty gets agressive after a while and ends up knocking out the previous big stack in 3rd, and he and I get heads up, I have 45k, he has about 22k.

It was getting kind of late, so I played my cash tables until the blinds came around again, and ended up with $75 on table 1, $104 on table 2 and $138 on table 3, for a total profit of $167.

Going heads up in the sit-n-go, I stole about 5 or 6 blinds in a row (at 1000/2000) as it seemed he was waiting for a monster hand to double up. He had about 12k left and he pushes with A8 and I called with AQ. Board runs QJT92. He's back up the 24k. Fucking straight. Stole a few more blinds and had him back down to about 16k and he pushes again with 33, I have 88. He hits a set. FUCK!

He bleeds agains from 33kish down to 24k, I have 43k. I was just pushing with anything decent. I push with Q7suited, he calls with AK. Flop: AQ4, turn: Q, river: 3. GG me! I missed a couple of other hands that we got to the river with during heads up (which lasted 63 hands) but of the 8 times we got to the river, the inferior pre-flop hand won. Just nuts.

So that was a nice $85 win. I was wondering what you all thought about FT's payout struture for sit-n-gos. What do you think? They pay generally less people, and the payout structure is more top-heavy. The top 3 were something like $85 / $57 / $38 or something like that. So you have 80% of the money for the top 3 finishers in the 45-man tourney. Obviously, I liked it because I won, but at Stars, they seem to pay more people (7 in the 45-man tourneys) and the payout structure is a little flatter. Just wondered if anyone had thoughts on that.

Played a little bit last night and early this morning, with a few small successes and find myself currently here:

FT: $1,502
PS: $604
Total online bankroll: $2,106.

I am also due for a $75 New Year's bonus on FT after I earn enough FPPs and a rackback payment here in the next 10 days, so that should help.

Again, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and I hope that you all have a prosperous New Year, online and otherwise.

God Bless.

Ryan