April Update

So it's almost the end of April and I haven't updated my blog in a while. I had an awesome start to the month and then went on a 10 buyin downswing. I've managed to get those 10 buyins back on Stars as well as complete a bonus to get myself a Stox subscription for free.

I was away from Stars for about 2 weeks while I completed that bonus on a smaller site. I won about 8 buyins at that site too as it was incredibly soft - 25nl was the lowest stakes they offered so obviously all the bad players were there. I'm now back at Stars multi-tabling like mad to try to get Gold VIP status before the end of the month. I'm pretty sure I'll get it with 600 points to go and 3.5 days to play. I think I should have no problem getting close to Platinum as soon as I make the switch to 50nl sometime in the next while.

Yesterday went quite well. I won almost 6 buyins in the course of 3 hours. I also finished reading PNLHE by Flynn, Mehta, and Miller and the whole idea about SPR has taken a lot of the tough decisions out of my game and kept me out of trouble. I started reading it at the bottom of that downswing and it almost instantly improved my game. I fixed a number of leaks that I didn't even realize I had and were just standard play to me.

I also started reading HoC v.1 this morning and will be reading v.2 after that so I'll have to see what I can get out of that book. I'm guessing v.3 will be a workbook (please Dan, workbooks = $).

LOL Donkaments

Lol these tournies put me on monkey tilt. 80% ahead PF, can't hit my 36% chance postflop. MP1 running at 55/2/0 and does not have a fold button. I was in 6th out of 45 left. Went out shortly after with another KK loss. Sigh.

Poker Stars, $4 + $0.40 NL Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP1: 4,447
MP2: 9,796
Hero (CO): 7,952
BTN: 1,175
SB: 3,510
BB: 3,880
UTG: 5,895
UTG+1: 890

Pre-Flop: (300) K K dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to 890 and is All-In, MP1 calls 890, MP2 folds, Hero raises to 2,000, 3 folds, MP1 calls 1110

Flop: (4,890) 9 Q K (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
MP1 bets 2,447 and is All-In, Hero calls 2,447

Turn: (10,084) A (3 Players - 2 are All-In)

River: (10,084) 2 (3 Players - 2 are All-In)

Results: 10,084 Pot
MP1 showed T J (a straight, Ten to Ace) and WON 10,084 (+5,637 NET)
Hero showed K K (three of a kind, Kings) and LOST (-4,447 NET)
UTG+1 showed 7 6 (high card Ace) and LOST (-890 NET)

Finished My 25nl Goal

I finished playing 20k hands of 25nl today running at 5.8ptBB/100. The past couple of days have been a little rough even though I'm finishing up 2 to 4 buyins per day. I'm up 8 buyins for 25nl for this month already but I think it could have been about 4 or 6 more. There's been a few hands where I made huge mistakes and put money in way behind. I've put in a ton of hands though.

I think I may be ready to take some shots at 50nl. I'll obviously be cutting down on tables, probably 4 to start with, but I suspect I will be back at 25nl off and on to work on opening up my game a bit, for some reason I've become an ubernit. I guess it works especially on the weekends when no one has a fold button.

Awesome Day - 4 buyins in 2.5 hours

Today (as well as last night) went fairly well. I played ~1800 hands of 25nl and ran at 10.5ptBB/100 so that turns into 4 buyins. I read a great article the other day saying to stop limping/cold calling which has helped me tremendously.

^ Not doing this makes poker very easy. I have initiative. I have position. I make my opponents play fit or fold. I disguise my hand. Cbets = $$$.

Off to bed now. I'm on nightshift.