Nothing that crazy. Just sat next to the luckiest ***** luckbox on the face of the earth at The Palace last night. He was raising every other hand with complete junk - and hitting.

One hand, I raise UTG with KK. He cold-calls with 92s and rivers his flush.

A few orbits later, I limp-reraise with AA because I knew he would raise. He did, I raised, and he capped. Flop comes A5x to give me top set. i bet, he raises, I reraise, he calls. Turn is a 3. I bet, he calls. River is a 4. And he flips over 23o for a gutshot straight! He ****** capped with 23o!!!! It takes a lot to put me on tilt, but that did the trick.

So, I move to the other table before I do something to get me kicked out. A few hands in, I have 22, flop comes T2J. Lots of betting and raising later, the guy to my left shows TT for a set over set.

I got some of it back when I got AA again. Flop comes 224 with 2 diamonds. Turn is the A of diamonds to give me the full house and villian a flush. I was able to cap the turn, but couldn't bet the river because I was out of chips (and I started with $200) Of course, the way my night had been going, I would not have been the least bit surprised to see quad 2's or the straight flush.

All in all, not a fun night, in case you couldn't guess.

Do you remember the handle of the 2+2 poster whose quote is in your signature? That sounds familiar...

Time to dust off the cobwebs here, seeing as how it's a new year and all.


After more than doubling my BR in September and then losing half of it during October and November (leaving me a little ahead of where I was at the beginning of September - see forum/viewtopic.php?t=20550 for all the gory details), I began to have doubts as to whether or not I was really a winning player, or whether I was a break-even/losing player who was good at bonuswhoring (500BB downswings will definitely mess with your mind).

So, I'm taking a new approach to prove to myself that I can beat this game. First, I dropped down in levels (from 2/4-3/6 to .50/1). I'm way overrolled for .50/1, but my focus isn't on playing as high as I can get away with - it's on beating the game. I'm going to play 25K hands of .50/1, and if I'm winning at that point ("winning" meaning 1.5 BB/100 over that span) and happy with my stats, then I'll do the same for 1/2, and so on. Once I hit 2/4 and 3/6, I'll bump up the number ot hands to at least 50K, as those were the levels I was having trouble with. I've learned the hard way that moving up just because you have X BB or X buy-ins for the new level can be a recipe for disaster if you have major leaks in your game that were hidden because you ran good.

And, to keep from getting burned out by playing LHE all the time, I'll do the same for other games - PLO8, NLHE, and PLO - play 25K hands at the $25 level and move up from there. What would be a good target winrate for big bet games to prove that I'm "beating" that level - 5 PTBB/100?

I don't really have a set timeframe to accomplish any of this, so I don't have specific "be at level X by the end of the year" types of goals. If I can play ~16K hands per month, I should be finishing up the second level (1/2 and $50) by the end of the year.

==================================
The 2007 Plan
Play 25,000 hands of $.50/$1 LHE with a winrate of 1.5 BB/100 or better
Play 25,000 hands of $25 PLO8 with a winrate of 5 PTBB/100 or better
Play 25,000 hands of $25 NLHE with a winrate of 5 PTBB/100 or better
Play 25,000 hands of $25 PLO with a winrate of 5 PTBB/100 or better
Lather, rinse, repeat at next level
==================================

I'll try to post daily reports going forward. i created a new PT database for 2007 (actually created it on 12/21, but who's counting...

I'm also going to try to stick to one game until I hit my 25K threshhold, but I'm not going to be dogmatic about it, either. If I need to take a short break from LHE and play something else, I'll do that.

=================================================
Results as of 1/1/07:
$.50/$1 LHE - 11,281 hands; 1.12 BB/100 winrate
$25 PLO8 - 383 hands; 19.16 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 NLHE - 90 hands; 122.11 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 PLO - 0 hands; 0 PTBB/100 winrate

Total bankroll: $2392.43 (+$0)
=================================================

Started the rebirth of the journal with a down-and-up day. Dropped 20BB in the first session - was catching good cards pre-flop but completely whiffing on most flops. Made it all back over the rest of the day, ending in a session tonight where I finished up 26BB. In that session I sucked out 3 or 4 times on the river (and got sucked out on as well) - usually spiking an overcard - for good-sized pots.

For the first 10K hands of this database, I had been playing my "normal" 6-max game, and was running around 21/12/2.4, which is a little on the tight side for 6-max. So, yesterday I dusted off an old starting hands chart and followed it pretty closely - UTG and MP are pretty close to how I had been playing, but a lot more raising in CO and Button. I'm liking it so far - my stats (1800 hands in the last 2 days) are much closer to the recommendations I see, and it's making it easier to play post-flop but putting more pressure on the other players.

=================================================
Results as of 1/2/07:
$.50/$1 LHE - 11,925 hands; 1.14 BB/100 winrate
$25 PLO8 - 383 hands; 19.16 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 NLHE - 90 hands; 122.11 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 PLO - 0 hands; 0 PTBB/100 winrate

Total bankroll: $2409.89 (+$9.50 poker / +$8.74 bonus)
=================================================

I took the train to work today, so not much time to play poker when I got home. Played about an hour, and couldn't get anything going - pretty much whiffed when I raised pre-flop, and I was at a table full of calling stations (like the guy who called a raise from the SB with T3 and called down on a AAT flop) so I let up on the CB's - definitely no 2 and 3 barrel bets like I'll do from time to time.

Once I hit 12,500 hands - halfway to my target, I'll post a stats post to get any suggestions.


=================================================
Results as of 1/3/07:
$.50/$1 LHE - 12.058 hands; 1.04 BB/100 winrate
$25 PLO8 - 383 hands; 19.16 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 NLHE - 90 hands; 122.11 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 PLO - 0 hands; 0 PTBB/100 winrate

Total bankroll: $2401.04 (-$10.50 poker / +$1.65 bonus)
=================================================

Tonight's session in a nutshell...

Poker Stars
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $0.50/$1
4 players


Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is Button with
UTG raises, Hero 3-bets, 2 folds, UTG calls all-in $0.15.
Uncalled bets: 0.7 returned to Hero.

Flop: (6.1SB, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: 6.1SB)


Turn: (3.05BB, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: 3.05BB)


River: (3.05BB, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: 3.05BB)


Results:
Final pot: 3.05BB
UTG showed 6h Jd

--------------------------------------------------

Poker Stars
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $0.50/$1
6 players


Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is BB with
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, CO calls, Button calls, SB calls, Hero checks.

Flop: (5SB, 5 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, 2 folds, Button raises, SB calls all-in $0.6, Hero 3-bets, Button calls.

Turn: (6.1BB, 2 players + 1 all-in - Main pot: 4.3BB, Sidepot 1: 1.8BB)
Hero bets, Button calls.

River: (8.1BB, 2 players + 1 all-in - Main pot: 4.3BB, Sidepot 1: 3.8BB)
Hero bets, Button calls.

Results:
Final pot: 10.1BB
SB showed 6c Tc
Hero showed 9c 5h
Button had AJ


=================================================
Results as of 1/4/07:
$.50/$1 LHE - 12171 hands; 0.89 BB/100 winrate
$25 PLO8 - 383 hands; 19.16 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 NLHE - 90 hands; 122.11 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 PLO - 0 hands; 0 PTBB/100 winrate

Total bankroll: $2364.24 (-$20 live poker / -16.80 online )
=================================================

Today was the day of the big session - in both directions... +16, +21.80, +33.55, -21.80, -23.00, -18.25 with a couple more smaller ones thrown in for good measure. Add them all together, and I'm up an entire $1.55 for the day. Better than a sharp stick in the eye, I always say.

=================================================
Results as of 1/5/07:
$.50/$1 LHE - 12,967 hands; 0.85 BB/100 winrate
$25 PLO8 - 383 hands; 19.16 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 NLHE - 90 hands; 122.11 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 PLO - 0 hands; 0 PTBB/100 winrate

Total bankroll: $2,366.14 (+$1.55 poker / +$0.35 bonus)
=================================================

Another pretty much break-even day...

=================================================
Results as of 1/6/07:
$.50/$1 LHE - 13,335 hands; 0.78 BB/100 winrate
$25 PLO8 - 383 hands; 19.16 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 NLHE - 90 hands; 122.11 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 PLO - 0 hands; 0 PTBB/100 winrate

Total bankroll: $2366.43 (-$5.05 poker / +$5.34 bonus)
=================================================

A couple of 3-outters on one table (one for a 12BB pot) + a major donator maniac at another table = small profit for the day.

=================================================
Results as of 1/8/07:
$.50/$1 LHE - 13.541 hands; 0.82 BB/100 winrate
$25 PLO8 - 383 hands; 19.16 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 NLHE - 90 hands; 122.11 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 PLO - 0 hands; 0 PTBB/100 winrate

Total bankroll: $2372.58 (+$6.15 poker)
=================================================

Solid night tonight. Had some interesting hands this time that I'll post tomorrow morning.

=================================================
Results as of 1/9/07:
$.50/$1 LHE - 13,982 hands; 0.86 BB/100 winrate
$25 PLO8 - 383 hands; 19.16 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 NLHE - 90 hands; 122.11 PTBB/100 winrate
$25 PLO - 0 hands; 0 PTBB/100 winrate

Total bankroll: $2381.63 (+$9.05 poker)
=================================================

EDIT: Well, it *had* been a solid night... Played one more session while waiting for wife to finish some stuff up. 41 hands - 7.32 VP$P - won exactly 1 small pot at the very end