NL100

Once bankroll got to £1k, started playing NL100, but in $, so just under 20 buy ins, as im only 2 max 3 tabling and not tons of hrs felt it was fine. Have alo taken my initial deposit out so only playing with profit/ Played a few sessions overs xmas and roll now at £1300. Still got same old leaks in my game that I notice alot more at NL100, mainly calling a opening raise a bit too often especially out of position. Especially hands like QJ, KQ, KJ, J10, AJ etc etc

Last session I made a decision to try and start plugging that leak once and for all, only flat call to a raise on very limited occasions, mainly if situation (stacks, action around me etc) was right with small pairs or soooted connectors in good position (and depending on action sometimes these were 3 bet). Anything else was to a opening raise was folded or 3 bet. Definitely means for a few bigger pots but definitely feels like im more in control of pots and table.

Lost a couple of full buy in pots and still havent tilted, so far so good. Am happy with £1300 profit since Nov and over xmas havent been tempted by spin ups which I thought I'd fall victim too. Especially after being back at the wifes parents on xmas eve when my brother in law built up to £18k profit before dropping back down to £4k profit at end of night, pissed,, playing gradually higher from NL600 to NL5000 euro (and he calls himself a pro ;-)).

If anything was going to tempt me to have a gamble it was that kind of sick action but I passed the test. I still blame my gambling mentality on the time he came to live with us and I watched him playing his normal high stakes for a few nights running, that was back in summer of 08 and looking back thats when I started trying to do some quick fire NL1000 spin ups, which went well at first but by 2009 became my downfall. Lesson learnt in that its fun to watch bigger stakes but dont try and get there yourself with short cuts!

As Expected

I was definitely due a bad session, it came this afternoon, logged on for a shortish session and quickly lost 4 buy ins, 2 beats and 2 coolers,

- AK on AK2 board, versus flush draw, all in on flop, pretty standard cant moan
- KQ vs AA on a KQ6 board vs a slow played preflop AA, all in on flop river an ace
- J high flush vs ace high flush, jack was second nuts on board
- Set vs set

Nothing horrendous and definitely due, it was the speed at which they happened, 15 mins across 2 tables. This was the first real test of tilt. Maybe as its xmas and im in a good mood but more likely as Ive been playing more for fun meant that I didnt tilt anymore off. Although there was one questionable button 3 bet with J5 sooted, that flopped second pair and flush draw that lost me a bit (well a 90% buy in) more but I'll ignore that one ;-)

Logged back on after tea and won a few buy ins back, with hands that were ahead and held up. The poker gods have started to re balance it pretty soon. I know that in the rest of the year after 4 quick full buy in hands like the above I'd have jumped up stakes to chase it back asap

Not been a good year at all, after years of steadily increasing yearly profits this year has seen a big drop, looking back I have played like a numpty gambler from Jan-Sep. Two -£2k sessions and one -£1k session at the stakes I play is quite ridiculous and all were while tilting/chasing

Think going back to playing for fun and not expecting to make a load of quick dosh has helped put it back in perspective, shows how hard the game can slap you as soon as you stop respecting it. So the positive of the year is think I've come out a bit better after seeing how bad I can really play over a long period, and how the game doesnt reward a quick big win mentality

Anyhows, just over a week left of the year, aim is to get there without blowing the roll I've built on one big spin up. Perhaps best strategy for that is not logging on ;-)

Onwards and Upwards

Bankroll is now up to just over £1k, around £900 profit since start of Nov. Still managed to only play NL50. Quite satisfying to build the BR from scratch rather than taking the option of just deposit a couple of grand that I had put in savings when I emptied my roll at end of last year. As I havent had much time Ive just been playing for fun as I know I cant put in volume to win huge amounts. Think not taking it as seriously has helped as havent tilted when things ran bad at points this week. Still boring down at NL50 so not really any exciting things to post.

With limited time think just going to keep seeing how much I can get up to in these shorter sessions. Plan was to try and get retaged at laddies in jan as will have 3 months inactive account on the site. If that gets through then I'll get back on there as been a while since I targetted 2 huges fishees on my list, think the names were check_lol and 666tuna,

Long overdue

Been a ridiculously long time since updated blog, mainly because I just havent had the time to play a large volume of hands. Having a baby tends to have that affect as doing the old fashioned stay up till 3am doesnt work when you know at 7am you have a energy packed boy wanting to play

Therefore been playing shorter sessions here and there. After my last post I sacked off Laddies when they turned down my retag request for 5th time and took the smallish roll I had and banked/spent it. Didn't play for a month then decided to deposit £150 on will hill and set myself a $NL50 challenge to build a bankroll. That was 5 weeks ago, that £150 is now £900 and all profit is from $NL50. I haven't been using tracking software but think ive ran very well as haven't exactly played a huge amount of hands.

The only blip I had is when I got to the £600 mark, I got kinda bored and on a Friday night decided to whack the whole lot on a $5 $10 table (nice strategy after slowly building it up), sitting down with $988. I wasn't tilting though so played quite solid. Went down to $820, however then suffered a horrid bad luck story while still winning the pot. I have $820 and was dealt 10 10, I raised to $30 on button. BB pumped it up to $70 (he has $1.2k stack), I called. Flop was a beauty of 10 9 3 (2 spades). BB bet out $80, I raised to $220....... at this point he disconnects. On will hill some tables have disconnect protection, this table did and so his hand is classed as all in with the $150 he has put in so far. Cards are flipped and he has 99. I dodge the one out and win the pot. However gutted as would have definitely doubled up, as turn was a 2nd 3. The guy reconnects and starts moaning that he got cut off (dont even think hed realised he had lost the pot until someone else pointed out how lucky hed been to disconnect)

I sensibly logged off after that as felt tilt creep up and that pot got me back to the £600 mark, so no change after my higher stakes adventure

Anyway since then played a bit more $NL50, 6 table and HU, few small ups and downs but had one hot session where couldn't miss any O/E straight draws. Now upto £900 from initial £150 at start of Nov. Not bad but now I have money to play higher again so may not last. My only wish is that if I do it I want to do it when am feeling positive and not when tilting