Game of two halves

Hope everyone had a great Xmas.Mine was like the old football cliche "a game of two halves".
On the home front we had a good one.Seeing friends I hadn't seen all year and enjoying a Xmas meal out at Bar Milano with the family were the highlights.Mrs A bought me a poker table top amongst other stuff so looking forward to a home game soon.We did play Holdem last Friday at our friends but only a £1 tourney as the wives didn't know how it worked and feared losing the house,car etc despite me trying to explain the concept of a freezeout.All good fun and KK managed to kick me in the junk in a live game too.All preflop v.......AA!


Did I mention I've dropped $800 since Xmas eve at the tables? I thought I'd seen what the variance beeeetch was capable of but the last few sessions have really tested my love for the game.

I pulled off a few hand histories to show just how sick things have been but that's not what this blogs about so I'll spare too many gory details.I will mention losing to two straight flushes last night with an Ace flush myself,losing all in preflop with AK v AQ v a polite fish who at least apologised,KK going down to A4 after getting it all in on the turn and a rivered Ace ( he had nothing till then),QQ losing to 10 7 once again all in on a ten high flop the turn brings a 7 and for another $200 my money went in on the turn with a J high straight and the villan made his boat on the river when the board paired.

I'm sure we've all been there to some extent or another.I've looked at hand histories and I'm not
blaming it all on variance but I can't honestly say I've ever experienced anything like it at the tables.I suppose in part its a consequence of playing the wildest craziest 6 max nl tables.

Areas for improvement include laying down a big hands when beaten.Easier to do when running well for me which should not be the case.I've also been 3 tabling the 6 max and have been guilty of playing the cards and not having any decent reads before making major decisions.I didn't ever go into full blown tilt mode but I did loosen up to much at times after being kicked in the junk and thats something to be aware of.I hardly take a break when playing either which is stupid when playing 2 tables for hours and hours as one error in judgement can cause rapid stack depletion.

Most of these losses came at $1-$2nl and while I'm not changing my bet big style I need to be more careful when playing loose players who will call a decent preflop raise with any two cards.Easy to fold when they miss or take top pair top kicker to the cleaners when it hits hard.

I kept telling myself that its villans like Mr A4 who have got my roll where it is today and without players like him I'd be much worse off in the long run but its not easy when you have an $800 loss staring you in the face.

I hate posts like this.I'd much rather be posting about winning all the time but I'm not a bs merchant and if the sky falls in I'll post about it.

My roll isn't entirely crippled.I have $708 at Pokeroom ( includes -$80 for Mums gift voucher),$600 at Ladbrokes ( arghhh!) and $1337 at Interpoker.

I am going to be very careful though over the next few days.If the losses continue and I feel I'm not playing well then I'm going to take a break from it to clear my head entirely ( shouldn't take long!).

Apologies to Mr Edge who said hello to me at a Laddys table.I was in the midst of poker hell and 2 tabling so I hope you'll understand my lack of chat and hope you had a fine Xmas.That goes for all fellow bloggers and readers.( well Rosie the reader!).

All this downswing junk came after nearly falling off my chair laughing at Jordan's description of me as an International sensation! Made my day that did.Pity my poker and luck haven't been able to live up to the billing over the holidays so far.I'd love to play in the Donkeys Always Draw tourney but the only day I'm working over Xmas is Thursday so the 2am start is probably too late.For anyone not working I'd recommend getting over to Jordans blog and checking out the details.

Ok I'm off to sacrifice a goat for luck...