Has it really been 6 months!

Cant believe looking back that my last post was 1st Feb. At that point id built my roll back up to £2k. I cant remember how soon after that but I took a shot at higher stakes and blew the lot while waiting for Friends to come around one friday night, pretty impressive as was inside 50 mins. First 50% were sick luck the rest, well that was just standard tilt.

Since then I havent played much at all, being a Dad plus busy job have made it tough. In Apr/May time I did build a £1k roll from a £100 deposit. I built it playing like a loony toon and lost it in the same fashion, but it was fun.

Didnt play at all in June. Went back on at end of July, one night just for a bit of fun with a £90 deposit a was going to play two MTT. Unfortunately got disconnected and couldnt register in time. So took the £90 and started playing cash. 4 weeks later that stands at £2.2k. Theres been no strategy in this or consistency. Played everything from NL50 to NL1000. Its been pretty swingy, Ive played really loose, using no stats/tracker and generally spaz poker as Brennan would say, had a lot of fun doing it. Roll would be alot higher if I hadnt stuck around a few sharks on the higher tables a couple of times. Also ran KK into AA atleast twice for 4 fig pots.

Ive took a grand out to make myself buy something with, like the good old days where id do positive stuff with profit.

Now lets see how high the remainding £1.2k can go or how quickly it can go busto.....

Jan Summary

As Im just a social player dont usually go for end of month updates but am going to try to this year

Jan ended £720 profit, bankroll now at £2.1k played around 6800 hands but as we know at various levels

Even managed to do the same again on the last night Sunday. Played loads of different stakes again, was up at start but swang down to £650 down before getting almost back to level. Again quite a bit under ev, but mainly due to one big pot ($800) where got AK in vs jj on K 2 10 K board for the J to hit

My blips with higher stakes didnt make much difference to overal month. My main profit and volume came at NL100, My profits at NL200 and NL600 were evened out by losses at NL400 and NL1000. Doesnt take a genius to work out far more +ev to stay at NL100 but I just never seem to get it, just seem an aler ego comes out a few times month and wants to gammmmble

Tempted to switch back to laddies for Feb but havent 100% decided yet. Not sure of my plan regarding stakes either. I can feel a huge crash coming if i continue to dabble higher. Soap is spot on in the fact if im gonna do it, to have a session where feeling positive and go big from the start. We'll see.

No discipline

Havent played for nearly 2 weeks so was gagging for a game on Friday night, managed again to play allsorts of stakes, starting at NL100 right up to NL1000 (all $). Really swingy, was £1.1k down at worste point and ended up about £200 down. When your playing different stakes really hard to judge how you play but just looked back at hold em manager at big pots and seemes I did ok. 5 bigget posts I won, was huge favourite in all of them and 5 biggest post I lost , 3 of them I was racing (slight underdog each time)

About $1k under ev for the session, mainly due to those races.

It was in smaller, not all in pots where I leaked some cash and played worse. Love to say back to grinding but its just far more exciting higher up ;-)

Heads up

After the epic session on Friday I have just had 2 smaller sessions. Rather than ring games I played some heads up but at NL50, didnt want too big swings after my mentality on friday (I really wanted to play at least NL400 again!). So I brought myself back to earth with NL50 HU

Won a few buy ins and roll now sitting at a healthy £2100

Reviewed my hands from friday, was pleasantly suprised that in most big pots I played it ok, and that was with calm eye looking at it next day. However the jumping around stakes still looked stoopid, esp on my holdem stats!

Anyhow my NL100 stats still good and all over higher levels around break even which doesnt give justice to the huge swings on them on Friday, but also shows how crazy it was to risk big chunks of my roll.

Am off to Cincinatti with work on wednesday for a week, have to stay the weekend so no poker for me for a while. Got a meeting in new york on thu but couldnt manage to hang on there till weekend as need to be in Cinci on Friday so its the weekend there rather than big apple ;-(

Jackal...... we have a problem

I wasnt going to post this, I thought maybe I could do with just not posting last nights update and no one would be any the wiser. However it would be wrong to just pretend I had managed to keep the discipline ive had since Nov

Last night I logged on at 11ish to will hill, just too see who was on. To my delight a couple of my fish list were on same table with seat available. So sat down to play NL100 (ps Ben, I know you asked if id be moving up but I already did at end of Dec, see prev post)

Anyway they were as bad as normal but I didnt get any action from them, they busted out pretty quick and other players were quite solid so I was planning to log off. However saw one of them went to a NL200 table (he was in a particular loose mood) so I followed. Then the other fish also sat at a different NL200 table so I followed him too. Obviously this would be a good plan if I could guarantee not mixing with other players on the table but we all know the cards might not let that happen

Anyhows, at this point im 3 tabling, 1 NL100 and 2 NL200 (all $). And my expected/due bad patch hits (not all bad beats as 50% of big pots I was already behind and run into bigger hand). Cant moan at this as it was due. I start flopping set under higher set, nut flush draws vs sets, where my flush hits but pairs the board to house up. These were all vs the better players and not the fish. Looking back at HH some big pots-

My AA looses to QQ, all in pre - $400 pot
My 88 flops 8 j 2 vs JJ- $340 Pot
My AKd, hits flush on 6 9 2 2 board vs 66, $300 pot
My 22 flops 2 5 8 Vs 55, $350 pot
My KK looses to QQ all in pre when he hits 4 to a flush- $320 pot

During all of this the fish had been getting killed also and was playing very bad. However he gets lucky vs a couple of ppl and builds a stack, he leaves and goes onto NL400 table. At this point I know I shouldnt risk big chunks of my roll, but I follow him! Nice logic jackal.

1st hand at NL400 I lose about $300 when I pick up AK raise, guy 3 bets I 4 bet and he pushes, he had A10 and board runs out Q J 2 2 K. At this point I am definitely feel tilt kick in, I reload and fe hands later makes me realise I need a break (well I should have had it about 2hrs ago). I had 3 5d and raise in early possy and get 3 bet by the Fish, 1 caller and I call (the tilt mist was starting at this point). Flop 5 8 10 (2d, gives me pr anf fl draw). The 3 better bets big, other fold, I decide im going for this even before he has bet. I think a big raise will push AK etc out and even if he has a over pair im still 50 50ish, plus he has been playing all sorts and could just have any 2. He pushes and I have to call. He has K10 and im 55% but miss. I dont mind my play after flop but I shouldnt have been in that pot as my strategy was play strong hands vs him only.

Anyhow been playing for about 4 hrs at this point and obviously had won some pots aswell but am about $1000 down. Nice going for my normal $100 roll strategy. I have a break, then go back on and decide Im sticking to NL400, I couldn't face grinding again at NL100 and felt like luck me change. I still have a up and down time but start to pick up some good spots, like 66 vs KK on 6 flop, a Flopped straight vs flush draw that I make him pay big and misses. Still continue to lose some big pots, I was playing how I hav been on NL100, very agressive, example when I try a big squeeze play that I thought would get through with Q5s, however initial raiser call and I flop fl draw, proceed to miss vs his overpair etc etc. However this agro style did get me paid off a few times

Played for 6 hrs in total, ended about $100 down. Once again showing I can grind for 2/3 months and win but always reach a time when I lose the plot and play bigger, and am often outclassed

For once it wasnt going up the stakes to chase loss but rather to chase fish, however cant moan that a had a bad spell at this point as it was definitely due, the jump to NL400 although at the time was to follow the bad player was mainly driven by chasing losses

There you go, I have shown again that long term discipline isnt there. Im lucky however to not have lost big, but tbh Id accepted that I might loose a chunk once I went up to NL400, Id atleast been clever enough to withdraw £1K of my roll but who knows if id have reversed the withdrawal if id continued to loose! Plus staying up till 5:30am not good prep for baby waking up!


Sorry long post and ps roll now stands at £1945

Rolled up

My roll hit £2k tonight, very satisfied to build that just from profit, all from a £150 deposit in Nov which ive since taken out. Reason £2k is significant is the last time I played with a proper roll was summer last year when I managed to bust a £2k roll in one day. Happy that I built it back up rather than dipping into savings taken from previous years profit

Anyway hoping this doesnt affect my focus as even since I got up to about £500 Ive had the £2k mark in my mind

Better

Played much better tonight, came on for a quickish session but stayed on for 2.5hrs as two big fish on one of my tables. I focused on isolating them and playing as many flops as I could as they were very poor post flop. Was frustrated early on as I couldnt get a read and leaked chips to them but once I did it was easy, made easier as they kept showing thier hands.

Managed to get away from KK and QQ post flop vs them on raggy boards after big 3 bet by me pre flop, when thier betting pattern strongly suggested they hit more than a pair (and they were showing all the time, love that). Was happy that I managed to fold overpair as always tempting to play them for full buy ins vs bad players on mid range flop, but folded and waited to keep taking medium size pots from them and wait for spots I knew I was way ahead to play big pots

Also played a solid player to my left well, he was also trying to isolate them so just kept squeezing him and he folded more often than not

It worked well, ended up $250 up after initially being a bit down while I figured it out.

Nearly made a big miclick in one pot with 7 5 sooted, hadnt realised there had been a 3 bet, and $70 4 bet, I was chatting to brennan on facebook and screen popped up and nearly hit call. Could have been disastrous as we were both quite deep and If id hit flop or fancied a flop that hed missed I may have gone for it chasing the misclick money! Lesson learnt, close facebook down while playing!

Roll now £1950