Cashout Time

I was in a terrible mood yesterday after the game but watching Barcelona put on a footballing masterclass beating Real Madrid 3-0 and winning $140 at the tables later on cheered me up a bit.Mrs A will pop into Ladbrokes to collect her winnings this week.Ronaldinho's goals were so good even the Madrid fans applauded his second one! I don't see that catching on at Rangers v ce*tic games but I have been known to applaud the occasional "wonder goal" by an opposition team at Ibrox.

I've played a few sng's recently to warm up for the tourney at 'Stars tonight.I've played 6 ( all $10 ) and the only time I placed was when I came 2nd in fixed limit tourney I'd entered by mistake.Took me 15 mins to notice it wasn't NL so perhaps I need to pay more attention sometimes!

Played 2 at Pokerroom last night ( $10sng turbos) and bombed out of both.Dropped a quick $6 at a $1 nl full ring before moving to my new spiritual poker home of Ladbrokes.Saw Juice treble his buy in at NL but never said hello due to my stinking mood.Kept his table open though and was pleased to see him do well.

Had a good night at the tables myself and won $162 at Ladbrokes 6 max $.5-1nl.One table at $1-$3 nl had an average pot size of $350 for hours and I enjoyed watching it despite not quite having the balls to sit in! One of the players apparently has such a big bankroll he can afford to raise $25-$40 on almost every hand preflop and wins when he catches his miracle card.I watched a player sit down and reraise Mr Rich from $45 to $150 then go all in with Aces on a seemingly rag flop only for Mr Rich to river a straight.I also watched one player go from $650 to $3.4k against him and several others go broke but for once I stayed clear of a crazy table!


Cashed out $1000 from Ladbrokes today and $500 from Interpoker leaving $1175 at Laddys and $1235 at Interpoker.Got $532 at Pokerroom so I think I've still got enough on line to withstand any major downswings.Most of the cashout money is going to pay off my credit card which has taken a hit recently with car repair bills and the new cooker and window for my flat.I've decided against trying to move up the limits too quickly.

I've made over $2k in 5 weeks and the highest limit I've played is $1.5-$3 6 max nl and while I don't expect to continue at that rate even $500 per month over the next few months would be a great wee bonus on top of my normal monthly pay.I have to give my poker play some credit too.Maybe it will just turn out to be a 3 month upswing but I genuinely don't feel that I'm simply running hot 100% of the time.My AA gets sucked out on just as much as before.( My AA lost to a flopped straight last night).I just feel I cope better when it happens.In a sick way I almost welcome the challenge of dealing with taking a big hit at the start of a nights play and then trying to show the mental toughness to get over it and bounce back.

I didn't even feel I played that well last night and made a couple of mistakes through playing too cautiously.I folded 1010 to a raise and reraise all in and watched 99 beat 77 for a big pot.That was actually at a 0.25-.50nl table and I hadn't paid attention to the drop in standard from .5-1nl.Actually on reading that back maybe it wasn't such an error.In cash games there's always another hand.The AA hand pissed me off because I'd folded AA in a similar situation earlier and I was ahead.Called the reraise this time and was behind.That's poker I suppose.

I'm not sure if there's any one particular secret to my recent upswing.Certainly the switch to 6 max from full ring has helped tremendously.Its far easier to get a read a 6 max and by choosing tables ( I'm gonna mention it again!) with high average pots you can almost afford to pay the blinds and wait for a great hand before commiting a lot of $$.

I checked my Ladbrokes stats since the 15th though and I've seen 46% of flops so maybe I'm not the tightass rock I like to think I am! If I was ever to have a poker nickname though it would probably have to be The Lethal Limper.I like to see cheap flops and then decide how to proceed.For example if you get 99 at 6max you could raise and try and buy the blinds but limp in and once in every 8 times its going to make a set and sets are big money makers.

46% of flops seen,33% won when flop seen,17% of games won and 58% of showdowns are a few stats from my 6 max play over the last 5 days.

Ok time to go and roll up a big yin.I've got a tourney to play at 'Stars in 50 minutes....