Still hovering at around 1600..

I am kinda stuck at around 1600, but that's just fine with me. After all, with the rakeback we get at Cake, staying even (especially in a bigger game like I am buying in for) means making money. I am trying to play less overall poker but make more money doing it. This has been somewhat successful, but the swings and big buy ins make it hard for me to play very much. I have been playing mostly 1-2 PLO8 or NLO8, and if the pot sizes and donks are just right, I will spring for the 2-4 tables, hopefully NL, as there is TONS of action. I buy in for the minimum at both almost every time, (120.00 at the 1-2). This is above my 5%, but not by a ridiculous amount. It is enough that I have to nut peddle for the most part though, which sucks, because I am making sub-optimal plays sometimes in order to protect my stack. I am however willing to gamble with the true donks at the upper levels, and the variance that goes along with that can be kinda sick. I am hoping not to run into some super sick downswing though during this stretch. It is entirely possible, even though I have tuned my game to take on less risk at the expense of less reward (long term).

If I did have a brutal downswing, I would simply have to pack it up at the bigger limits and hit up the lower levels again. The old grind. One thing that is pretty annoying in that the bigger the limits on O8 on cake, the crazier the players. You just rarely see the type of crazy action you see at the big tables down at the .25-.50 tables.

Anyhow, I soldier on, hoping to break hard into the bigger numbers, but wary that it can all go awry in one crap session.. Wish me luck.

O8 madness and other stuff

Over the past couple of weeks I have had some interesting stuff happen. I still haven't quite been playing as much as I would like to, but I still feel like I have been making good progress. One thing that I haven't been making good progress on is my spreadsheet. I basically fell off the wagon last month sometime as far as keeping up on it went. I kept on keeping records for awhile, but even that got spotty. I had been staying in relatively the same place monetarily, going between $800-$1200 or so. Every time I worked my way back into the lower 1k range, I would go on a terrible run and get back down to $800-900.

So then last week sometime I decided to try to take a shot. I have been an advocate of it throughout the challenge and have done it on occasion, although not as often as I had originally planned. Which brings us to last week. I had about an hour to kill and logged onto cake to play some 08. I was browsing the tables looking at my normal limits of .25-.50 or the occasional .50-1. Then I noticed a table at 1-2 that had an average pot size of $168.00. This is a pretty absurd number as the max buy in at this level is 200.00. Now this number can be inflated when there have been a few all ins in the last short period of time, but this is still pretty obscene. So I brought up the table, and right when I did, a seat opened up. I watched for a few hands as two big stacks hammered flops and turns for full pots with less than the nuts. The poker player in me is strong, and I couldn't resist taking a shot at this crazy table. I decided to just play one table, full buy in, and try to really nut peddle. This was a 6 handed table, but I figured if I could just hit some good flops, I would have no problem getting paid off. In the first few orbits, I flopped a couple of low sets on some threatening boards and dumped them to pot bets. My goal was to only play nut or 2nd nut lows, and 5 card high hands or at least a solid combo of both if I had a two way hand.

My first big confrontation went like this. I was on the BB and it was minraised ahead of me, I called and completed the action. I didn't have much of hand at all... until the flop. I flopped a wheel with a 3rd nut flush draw. Not bad lol. So maniac #1 leads for the pot. I am next and decide to just call, really hoping to re raise anyone that raised behind. Also, there aren't too many scary cards for me on the turn, and I am pretty comfortable. To my surprise, it gets called around. The turn is harmless and I am ready to get it in. The aggressor jams the pot again for 80.00 and I raise him, two folds behind and we get it in. He has a set and is drawing dead for the low, and bricks the river. I scoop and take down a big pot. Alright, mission accomplished. I am pretty pumped, and after posting my SB I uncheck the autoblinds to get my ass outta there.

This was the next hand. I limp with AJJ4 and end up calling another minraise. Flop gives me top set (current nuts) and 2nd nut low draw. Original raiser bets 8.00, and the maniac I had just been in the pot with calls. Now I raise to 30.00, and get one call from said maniac. The turn is an 7, making my 2nd nut low, but putting the possibility for one straight out there, 45. I feel good about my hand still overall, and after the check ahead of me, I bet pot again. To be honest, I didn't want to get involved in any more big hands, but the poker player in me just took over and made me bet. I was hoping he would fold, and I could just take down a nice pot on my way out. He didn't. River comes an offsuit Q and again I feel like my hand is best. He checks, and even though I have every reason to just check behind and get out, I pot bet again. I just can't check if I really think my hand is best, even if it is above my bankroll. He lets the timer go down before calling me, and my eyes get huge as both halves of the pot are moved in my direction. Unfortunately we weren't quite all in so I don't get to see what he had. So this puts my bankroll right back up to it's high point. I will also say that it speaks volumes about taking shots. I don't advocate taking one just for the sake of it, but when the right table at the right time comes along, go for it.

I have been playing 08 for the most part this last week, trying to concentrate on improving as much as possible at it. Also I haven't 8 tabled in a while, but will probably get into that swing again soon. Also, I tried to update my spreadsheet as well as I could, but I have a lot of missing entries so I had to adjust it to make it currently correct. Now my graph looks like a mess, but at least the total is current. I shall now attempt to keep it up again. I will also note that I think I am sort of out growing the bankroll challenge aspect of this whole thing, as this is now my entire online bankroll. I have learned a lot and will continue down the path that I have started, but now this is more about my online "career" than just the bankroll challenge.

Had a good session last night.

After a good time on Royal's on Sunday, and me running pretty well too, I played a weekend session. I was in Bellevue for all of last week for a work function, and couldn't play a single hand of poker for the whole time. It was brutal. Then on the first part of the weekend I was too busy/tired to get online and play...which brings us to Sunday night.

I decided to play a little PLO8 just one table to knock some rust off, and I was watching a movie at the same time. It was a productive session, but unfortunately was cut off short when I made a nasty error and also got ~cold decked. The error: I had the nut low but NO high to speak of, and I was in position on an equal stack. He checked the river to me and for some reason I bet the pot of 34.00 into him. I was of course hoping he would fold and I was freeroll-bluffing, but instead he called, and I got quartered because he had one pair of 6's for the high and A2 as well for the nut low. The ~cold deck: I had A22x and pot bet the KK2 flop. Got a caller, and we got it in on the turn when the 5 peeled off giving his K5 a better boat. I don't regret it or anything, but that is a crappy spot to be in I will say. You just have no clue when they boat up or don't. I need to try to avoid these situations.

Now to my later session, all NLHE. I decided on 4 tabling as I needed to get warmed up, and also because I didn't want to have to pay such close attention as "Under Seige" was on TV. Truly horrific movie, but you can't NOT watch it when its on the tube.

I had a really solid session where I ran and played well, and made a tidy profit to show for it. I jammed in preflop with QQ on some shitty LAG player who had AK, and I actually held up. I had a few other unremarkable hands but generally ran well and finished strong.

I have been contemplating whether or not to keep running 8 tables or sticking to 4 for a while longer. I am comfortable at 8 tables now, but its getting to be a bit much with record keeping details and a total lack of hand histories and details. Also it does take all of my attention and that can be annoying if I get hungry or if something awesome comes on TV.

Also I am trying to figure out a better way to keep records. I am already like 1 month behind and I just don't see myself going through all of those pages of papers any time soon... Even though I might, I need to get a better system if I am going to be 8 tabling still. I also would like to post a little more often on this blog and playing 8 tables makes that hard too. Any thoughts on this?

Hangingk Aroundt

So after my hellish night of beats, I decided to take a short break from the Challenge. I already knew I would be on mega tilt even the next day, and decided to try some SNG's to limit my exposure. I got 2nd on the 2nd one I played, then lost like 5 in a row. No cashes. Hence the break.

I did however get my poker fix by playing in a series of nightly tournaments put on by a poker website I am a member of called The +1. These were really fun, and we played a whole slew of games. They also served a good purpose by letting me play some poker just for fun, and not really worrying about spreadsheets or anything like that. I played those for the whole week then got back on the horse on the weekend. My initial session was more of the same nonsense from before, but then things evened out and I made progress getting back up to just over $1000.00. I have since gone down from that total a bit, but am basically just hovering around that level.

I started trying to shift about half of my focus over to Omaha Hi/Lo, as I think most players are at a similar level to when Party Poker was still going for Hold'em. Lots of horrific play, and horrific players. I may take some shit for saying it, but I think the .25-.50 at Cake is pretty damn tough. Players are generally nitty and rarely make huge mistakes. You have to value bet all the way down with your good hands or they will just fold. At different times on different sites, I have been able to just jam on people and they would call down really light; no longer. I know I can be profitable at these levels and the levels above, but how profitable? If my edge is relatively slim, I would like to try to branch out and go where the dead money is. I think that the dead money is in Omaha right now. I also think that once the poker public gets bored of Texas Hold Them, that they will naturally merge over to Omaha. It is a flop game very similar to Hold'em, unlike 7 Card Stud, which is drastically different if all you have ever played is Hold'em. (Ante's? Bring in's? wtf?) I want to be there waiting for them when they migrate over.

I have also started to try out 8-tabling. I did 4-tabling for almost the whole duration of this Challenge, but I feel like I am starting to have the capacity for more. I am very comfortable at 4 tables at this point. I talked to a few of the guys from +1 and they recommended jumping up to 8 tables from 4, then adding 2 tables at a time after that until you hit your limit. Apparently you will just know when its your limit. I have had mixed results 8-tabling. I basically have just been hovering, and I know part of it is because my play has suffered a bit during the transition. I also had a rash of bad beats in monster pots, (including 4 under-boats in one session), but did well enough to stay even due to other pots won. One thing that I have noted about 8-tabling is that it's extremely difficult to keep detailed records. I can barely get my buy-ins and re-buys on paper, let alone details on hands etc. On one hand I am fine with this, but on the other I don't want to stunt my poker learning because of it. I think I am going to view the 8-tabling thing as a trial. I will let myself adjust and if I can make a smooth adjustment, I will stick with it. But if I can't, I think I will probably save the 8-table sessions for weekends or times when I have lots of time to give it proper attention. Otherwise I will try to stick to 4 or 6 tables.

So now we are up to date, if only I could summon the will to dig through all of my records and update my spreadsheet...

Decisions Not Results I Guess?

Ok wtf. Last night was sick. Just a sick, brutal run of cards, luck, and bad/tilty play. I am fucking pissed off still from it. Unreal night at the tables. Here are some highlights:

Let's just start here. I have a donk ready to go to my left, omgapair. His name is apt, as he has shown that he will go bust with very weak holdings. Only he hasn't. So I try to trap him a bit by not 4-betting, and hoping he gets top pair or at least a pair on the flop. Not the best flop for AA, but good enough to go to the mat with, which was my intent from the beginning unless the board got REALLY nasty. Outflopped. Bummer, but it happens.

On this hand, I raise preflop with QQ, big stack makes it 10 straight, I know he likes his hand now. I decide to 4 bet to 3x his bet, and we get it in pre. Jack on the flop and that's all she wrote. Sigh.

I am mid-stacked on this one, sitting at 31.00. I pick up KK, raise preflop, get re-raised, etc. until we are all in. Q on the flop, and again, that's all she wrote. Fuck. Again? Really?

I have built my stack up a bit on this one, sitting at 71.00. I pick up KJ in the SB and call the min-raise to see the flop. I flop a gutshot, and am done with the hand unless it's really cheap. A min bet counts as really cheap. I peel my gutter to the nuts, and we get it all in on the turn. I thought I was up against another KJ the way he played it. So to the river we go, and boom, boat. WTF. I know that this isn't like an amazingly terrible beat, the guy had outs but c'mon,(I was 77% to win) AGAIN? And in one night?!

Here I am sitting at a half stack, and I flop the nuts. I made a semi loose call of a standard pre-flop raise from a decent but not good player. There were two other callers ahead of me and I closed out the action. I thought if I hit on him he was likely to go broke with a second best hand, especially since I don't have a full stack. Well I try to get the stabber to come along for one more stab on the turn, but he just minbets, and I am not waiting around anymore, so I jam. I get instacalled by 2 pair and he boats the river. This is getting to be phenomenally horrific.

This was a disaster. Willbilly was a fucking retard. Complete uber donk just ready to give it away. He raises pre, and a mid shorty goes all in for 16.00. Now it's on me, and I flat call. Wildbilly was a station, but I don't think he's going all in pre-flop with that hand. The flop is not pretty but could be worse. I bet half of his stack on the flop, and we get the rest in on the turn when the board pairs. I don't have him on a Jack, I think he would have just shipped the flop had he had one, so it's a really good card for me, protecting me from lower 2 pairs. He has an open ender and a pair, and trips up on the river. I was still a big favorite against both players though, I was surprised a bit at how big. Another huge pot goes the wrong direction tonight. I think my ears have turned red at this point and I have punched the couch pillow 14 times or so.

This one is nothing monumental, it's me versus a short stack, and I have QQ vs his AK. Just to make sure that I know I am not winning any hands on this night, the poker gods send a clear message by not just pairing him up, but making it a boat.

This all happened on one night, and of course at the higher level. I haven't updated my spreadsheet yet.. I am not looking forward to it. I had scrapped my roll up to $1,200, but now it has to be below $1,000.00 again. I am not sure how bad it is, I just slammed my laptop and played halo with Jeh and Fred. Rough estimate would be $900-1000 range. I might drop back down to .10-.20 to reset and get back up to where I want to be.

Humbling night in any case.. (btw I sucked ass at Halo last night too)(and I had to stay late at work and missed a +1 tournament I had pre-registered for)(and I called the Apple store to make sure they had an adapter I want, drove down there from Everett, and they didn't have it). But overall, life is good, and I know I will battle back from this debacle. I am just bummed to see such a chunk of my roll gone to beats in one horrible session I guess..

Just maintaining at .25-.50, and some hands.

I am basically just treading water at $.25-.50... Although I have been having some pretty big swings along the way. I have been adjusting and tweaking my game a bit since coming to the new level here, but I think I will need to adjust even further to be successful.

Here are some hands:

This is one of the most ridiculous hands ever. A medium stack raises in MP and I re-pop hard with AA. He calls. The flop is dreamy for me, I have the nut flush draw, a gutshot, AND friggin AA for an over pair. There are like a small handful of hands I am even behind here, and even then, I am drawing strong. This retard has one such hand, and I cant find a diamond for the win or a 3 for the chop. I was shocked when I saw his hand.

This guy is a bit of a loose cannon, and I played my flopped trips with much aggression against him. I just went pedal to the medal the whole way and he payed me off with 10 10.

This dude was on mega tilt (as you can see by the chat box). I flop top pair and bet hard at the flop. He calls, but I have no clue where he is at. The turn comes, and instead of betting pot again, I decide to just ship it on him, because I know he's angry, and it will look like a "fuck you" bet. He calls off, then leaves the table, then types every terrible word ever recorded in the chatbox as an observer. lol.

This one hurt. I limped on the button with 4h5h, and flopped an open ender and a flush draw. The turn brought my straight. There was a pot bet and a call in front of me, so I decided to raise it up hard. I got one all in out of it and was happy to call. I was a little afraid of the 89 though, but instead the guy had the EXACT same situation as me. Crappy luck on the river..

Dano1 was on a sick tear before I got there. And he was a big time aggro player. I checked my option, and flopped a flush draw. He hammered the pot, and I called hoping to peel a club and take advantage of his hyper aggressive betting. The turn came, and gave me a gutshot, but he hammered again. This was tough, pretty marginal spot for me, but based on what I had seen, h would do this type of thing with all types of hands. I called, but was really hoping for a flush. I hit my gutter, but instead of betting out, I let him fire one last shell, and then I was going to check-raise him. He fired the biggest shell possible and I wasn't going to fold. He had bot-bot.

I was happy to flip with this maniac. He was playing pretty crazy. I was actually really surprised he had such a big hand. The flop sucked ass, but the river didn't.

Two short stacks going at it.. I min raise the flop trying to commit him (and me) I do and he shows down... K9?? He had absolutely nothing on the flop or turn.. weird.

I get the same short stack in a real pickle here, but he wiggles free.. At least it was small pot.

First session at .25-.50

Making the transition to the next level up is a bitch. You are happy to finally be there, but not comfortable enough with the stakes to play on autopilot. Also, if you happen to drop a few buy ins in your first session or two, back down you go to the previous level to rebuild. Additionally, I am trying to be very aware of the table, the players, and the play in general, as it tends to change substantially from level to level. All of this adds up to some stress and excitement. I had some of both on my first real foray into .25-.50 on Cake.

On my first confrontation this happened. Lame. I am always happy to call short stacks with AK preflop. Turn gave me a ray of hope, but it wasn't to be.

On my first major confrontation, I did this. This was sort of retarded of me to do, as I had no real reason to even be in the pot in the first place. First off, sandercott was pretty tight and seemed solid enough. I was folding hands way better than this to him during the session. I SUCK was horrible, he bluffed his stack twice and showed on super scary boards, then bluffed off his stack and reloaded. Total fish idiot. Anyway I take a flop and of course flop my flush draw. Amazingly, sandercott WAY underbets the flop with his set, and after I flat call, I SUCK just calls too. Dreamy. The turn is pretty harmless, but now sandercott fires 6.00 into the pot. I decide to make a stand and raise it to 30.00 straight. I figure unless sandercott has a hand, he can't call. Of course I SUCK check raises all in with his 2nd pair and flush draw. Sandercott puts the rest in with his set, and I am going along for the ride, just praying for a heart. No such luck, and I have officially biffed off my first full buy in at the next level! :/

I was at 2x .25-.50 tables and 2x .10-.20 tables when I started out the session. (I ended at 3x .50 and 1x .20). This was my biggest hand from the smaller stakes. Of course I catch my miracle one outer against a short stack at the lower level... Oh well, good story for the grandchildren ahah.

I had my biggest hand to date here. I raise preflop to the standard size, get one caller behind me and then a minraise from the table donk. I am not going to try to get too pushy with AQo preflop as he will pay off for sure if I hit so I just call as does the other guy. I flop top pair 2nd kicker and the 2nd nut flush draw. I lead hard into the pot, and get a flat call from the guy behind me. Turn is a brick, and I apply maximum pressure on the guy by shipping. He insta-calls with top 2 pair, and I get one of my 12 outs.

So after all, I made around 10 bucks on the session. The connection was ass, so I decided to call it good there. Sat with Ryan for a short session at .05-.10, and also played some more PLO8, but this time tried the 10-handed tables instead of the 6. So far I am preferring the 10.

More on Wednesday I am sure.

Cracked 4 digits

Well I made it to $1,000.oo on the Cake Challenge. I posted on That's Not Poker, but I figure I had better have a post here as a milestone. It feels good but I am now entering the next level for online poker, and I have a lot to learn before I feel like my game is really well rounded and solid. In this upcoming year I hope to move up more levels, and read more online about hands and play. I also want to get in the regular habit of going over a whole session, but with someone else there too for advice. I am thinking this will be a really good learning tool and help me clean up my game a lot. I also want to read more poker books. Not only do I learn from them, it also keeps my game fresh and keeps me feeling like I am moving forward.

I am looking forward to see how far this will take me. Hell, I might tilt it all off tomorrow for all I know.. :)

Mixing it up, and some hand review.

Played some more PLO8 and took a few mini shots at the next level up over the last few days..

The play at the .25-.50 tables I have been at (2 total) as been pretty consistent with the play at .10-.20. One exception is the the players seem a little more aggressive, they bet more. They also seem to be a bit more "refined", where they will bet 3/4 pot instead of just hitting the pot button etc. I did feel comfortable though, even given the stakes in relation to my roll.

PLO8 has been quite an adventure. I am playing the 6 handed tables, but I think I am going to switch to full ring. In 6 handed NLHE, I know what hand strengths are what, and how to adjust pretty well. But in PLO8 I am essentially nut peddling when I have to be pushing smaller edges; something I am not good at yet. So I think I will switch over to full ring next time and continue my learning process. I will say its really nice to get in more hands when you are learning though.

Speaking of hands:

In this PLO8 hand I flop the straight flush wheel. This is cool.

This hand happened during one of my "shots" at .25-.50. Villain had the Ac8c and hit the nut flush on the river. I am glad I played this as aggressively as I did, because I don't think he had me on a set based on my action. I check raised the flop on him, and then led for ~80% of the pot on the turn. I think he though I had a big Q or something.. Anyway, being aggressive made sure I doubled up when the gin card hit, and I also charged him quite a bit to see the river in case it didn't.

I decided to get cute on this pretty harmless flop. I thought the J was a great card for me, but it wasn't and I paid off the short stack as quick as I could.

This sorta sucked against a short stack. I guess I am glad it wasn't a bigger stack..

This dude played his KK very strangely. But what about how I played my hand? Did I need to fire the second shell? And if I did, did it need to be so big? I thought at the time that I had 2 live overs probably and of course the nut flush draw. Thoughts on this one would be appreciated.

I had KQ on this one. At the time it felt like a bigger laydown than it looks here..

This one just sort of developed. I was calling ballinn's bet no matter what. He was tilting really hard and just spewing chips. Then a half stack behind just calls. Hmmm. This makes my decision that much harder, as he has to have a hand he likes quite a bit in order to call. But here is the catch, yes, I did bring it in for a normal raise, but that doesn't mean I am calling 7.00. Volare knows this, and he also knows that ballinn is spewing. I think he just figured that he was good against ballin, and that I would go away. When I shoved, he only had ~3.00 more to call off, but he probably wasn't happy about it. It's not often that two opponents essentially have only 5 outs against you preflop.

On this hand I sorta chickened out on the river, and just checked. Villain had KQ0. :/

I finesse the living shit out of this guy. (did that sound gay?) I bring it in for a pot raise preflop. He minraises me. Even though it gives up a lot about the strength of my hand, I 4 bet. I keep it pretty small though, I am not trying to scare him out of the pot, I am just trying to commit him. I feel pretty comfortable on the flop, and frankly, I am not folding in any case. He checks to me, and I figure I had better let him hang himself, as he can't really call anything if he has whiffed the flop. He checks again on the turn, and I am not waiting any longer. I jam the flop and he puts in the last of it.

I think I should have value bet the river here, even though I forget what he had. I think I was going to just check-call.

This fucking hand sucks. And it's what I am talking about when I bitch about bad timing for my beats. I maintain that I take a very normal amount of beats(which of course feels like WAY too many), but they have been happening at terrible times. Like this one. I RR preflop with my AQ. I get flat called and flop a Q. I lead hard at the flop, and I really felt he was just trying to take the pot away as I had seem him make these big moves at pots earlier at the session. I make the call but he hits his gutshot, bummer.

Funny session last night and some thoughts.

I played 2 separate sessions last night, for a total of ~800 hands I think, and I made a dollar. It's funny how that works. I am actually kind of proud of the session, as I still struggle with the notion that it's ok to show up, play great poker (which I didn't do last night btw), and break even. I guess it goes against my competitive nature in some way. I show up to win. When I get to the table, I am excited, and I am there to play. But it doesn't work that way in poker. Often times passiveness is rewarded more than being active. I need to re-read Zen and the Art of Poker again, the author hammers these points home almost too much.

Another thing that I was reminded of by Jason is the notion of taking shots. I have heard this recommended by some big time pros like Brian Townsend and others. When I first read the Ferguson rules, I was planning on amending them by saying I could take maybe 10% of my roll at any time and try for the next level up or something like that. But I haven't really done that at all. I think that I will start though, but in certain situations only. Namely, I will only attempt a shot at the level immediately above the one I am properly rolled for. Also, I will only attempt a shot when I am approaching the level as far as bankroll goes. I played at the .25-.50 for 111 hands last night, and initially found the play to be about the same as at the level I am current playing. I will give it a few more shots, but once I lose a buy in there, I won't take another shot until I have built back up.

Any thoughts/advice regarding these topics?

Closing in on 1,000

After my yo-yo month, I am coming very close to the 1,000 mark. After I get to 1,000, I will be staked for the .25-.50 game. I think that this is where the competition will start to really stiffen up, as this level is popular for the hardcore low limit young guys. Most of the good players move up pretty quickly though, and 50.00 buy in is a limit where lots of "normal" people feel comfortable playing. And normal people are horrible at poker so that's good news.

I am bracing myself for a failed attempt though, and am mentally prepared to drop back down if I have to. Of course I actually have to get there first....

One thing I am going to keep doing though is mixing up what I am playing. My staple will be 4-tabling the NLHE tables, but throwing in some of those turbo SNG's and some low limit PLO8 really helps keep me fresh for when I sit at the NLHE tables I think. I am planning on playing a pretty straightforward TAG gameplan as my base, and adjusting as necessary to the table and players. I am not sure where this will take me in the next year, but I am just hoping to continue my gradual ascension up the limits...

Rakeback!

I got back from Vegas anticipating a very big rakeback bonus in my account.

Not dissapointed: $180.80 in rakeback for the month. I was initially shocked by this number, but upon reflection it makes more sense. I had a pretty tough month, I was playing exclusively at the .10-.20 level, and it felt like every time I was going to break through and continue upwards, things would go awry. This lead to a holding pattern for a good part of the month. I started at $400.00, and ended at $720.00 before rakeback. Overall it was an upward trend, but I had a very gradual upward swing. This is what the month looked like:










As you can see, there is a very long stretch where I was in a holding pattern. A byproduct of this holding pattern is me giving lots and lots of money to the rake. Every upward swing meant dumping money to the rake, and every downward swing meant I had to do it over again. I guess this is quite profound when you are 4-tabling 6-handed tables.

So overall, I get a big fat rakeback check to get me going in the new year. Yay.

Did the unthinkable: played some PLO8

Today I didn't really feel like playing cash games, I played a couple of tournies, but those just pissed me off (even though I won one of them). So what is a poker prodigy to do? What else but try out some 6 handed PLO8!

I bought in for $10.00 at the .05-.10 6-handed table and tried my luck at it. I have now played it enough to be at least somewhat comfortable with it, as many of the concepts of the game are shared with other poker games. I did run into a few spots where I wasn't sure what to do though. Overall I just played very conservatively and picked my spots. I saw lots of flops though as my table was extremely passive preflop. I ended up getting visited by the quartering fairy quite a few times overall. I made it to about 15.00 pretty quickly, but over the course of the next hour or so lost it all back slowly. I rebought, and cashed out for 40.00 at the end of it all. Now the hands/questions:

On this hand I have 6644, I flop two sets, but when the action heats up a bit I call it quits. It seems like someone probably has a straight or something and I have no low. Thoughts? Is this being too passive?

On this hand I have Js Kh Jd 7c. I flop top set, but after getting significant heat from a player I know from the NLHE tables and have notes on that says he's a good player, I dumped it. Looking back it seems far too conservative to fold here, but I did. He is an aggressive player and I would have had to put all the rest in for sure, so I got out early. Also, earlier in the session I got into a hand with him where he pot bet the turn like that, I happened to have a set of Jacks that time too. I called him, and boated up on the river. He check folded to me with the nut straight. Anyway what is the play here?

I wasn't involved in this hand, but its kinda funny. The board ends up being a straight flush, but of course nobody can play it.

Here I have Tc 5c Qd 5h and flop middle set. I bet the pot on the flop, and get minraised. I and one other call that. Turn puts out a 7, and I am too wary of a straight to continue. I checked out my odds on this board. I had no low possible so I just gave my random opponent the nut low, and I also gave him a straight. Results not pretty.
Is this typical of the spot I am in there with middle set and no low? What a horrible spot, that seems good.

Any other feedback is appreciated.