Just a little poker...+ Sunday stats

As it's my 34th birthday today I treated myself to a marathon poker session last night.Mrs A had an early night and I decided on no distractions ( tv off etc) and to hit the tables in a determined,resilient mood.

Began with a fairly early exit from Laddys weekly raked hands freeroll, before playing in another freeroll event which was a qualifier for a direct satellite into their $750k tourney on Oct 1st.To be honest, for the first half hour I thought it was a direct qualifier, and when I realised I was playing nearly 3000 others and only the top two got through my motivation could have slipped, but I was in serious mode and finished 80th which was close but no cigar.

I'd won $80 at Laddys late on Friday night, but started my cash game night in bad shape by losing most of that in one of the only hands in my whole session where I felt I was truly outplayed by the villain.I'm usually careful about betting on the river when checked to me if I feel I'm only going to get raised by someone with a better hand but even players with a vpip% over 70% hit their hands sometime...

I left Laddys after I flopped a straight with 910 on an 678 board and the damn connection froze just as I was trapping a fish.He was betting into me and I was just about to pull the trigger when it went.I called support who assured me there was no problem at their end but I was absolutely raging and closed Laddys down straight away.I was still able to surf the rest of the net so I'm not sure I believe them!

I took a break after that and kept myself fresh by taking 10 minute breaks from my cash game every time I felt my concentration start to slip.I reckon I usually play for 2 hours before needing a break but for me recognising when I'm tired and doing something about that plugs a definite leak I had in my game.


Moved to Inter and after a poor showing in their $3k gtd I opened two £25nl 6 max cash tables and didn't switch off until just after 6am after winning about $200.Gametime + with PT was absolutely vital to my success last night as was choosing the right tables to play at and also being able to sook up the badbeat suckouts that came my way.( all in for a buyin preflop with Aces v queens and J7 soooted ,Q on flop was prob biggest.)

I felt I played well last night.I picked off a few bluffs and made a few at the right times.I won a nice wee $30 pot with 44 on a K high board because I felt the LA ( loose aggressive) was making a move on me.( he was, with AQ).

I won another nice wee pot when I raised with AsQs from early position and bet my flush draw on a Kh 2s 6s flop.The villian called my $4 flop bet ,I hit my overcard Ace on the turn,bet $8 which was raised to $35 and then called for my last $6 on the river to beat K8 o/s.

Looking back ( as per Doubleas book suggestion) at my ten biggest winners and losers from last night makes for interesting reading.I mainly use Pokertracker for its gametime+ function and for helping with bb/hr ,hours played etc and don't use it for looking at my game in more depth as much as I should.

One benefit of two tabling which I may have mentioned before is that it was easier to be emotionally detached from the goings on at each table.Having said that I had some real fun late on at Inter when some guy wrote "Scottish w*nker" in the chatbox.I'm usually silent in the chat and concentrate on the game but the same guy had been acting the big table coach for a while now so I checked him out on Sharkscope ( love that site) and found he'd played ( Llanbabo was the username) 105 games and lost $526 so I asked "Do you do better at cash games than sngs?" in the chatbox. He ignored that so I asked again and after pretending he didn't know what sng meant he said "I mostly play comps not sngs" to which I replied "but you lost a £50 turbo sng yesterday". "Oh yes,I remember now" he said as I tried to contain my by now almost hysterical laughter.He donked off some cash and left shortly afterwards.

Ok better run.Due up at my Mum and Dads for a family birthday dinner.Step A is 12 next Friday so it's a double celebration.Didn't wake up till 3pm today so god knows how I'm going to sleep tonight.Mrs A gave me cash for my 34th and I'm hoping for the same from my folks and I'll put it towards a laptop so I can escape this smokey cupboard and play poker from the couch.

Sunday update figures are : Interpoker $727, Pokerroom $1044,Ladbrokes $1230.Total $3001
( + $242 for week)

I'm quite pleased with this weeks profit especially as I've mainly messed about with the odd sng here and there and only really hit the cash games properly last night.Also good to get my Bankroll back through the $3k barrier.Now I just need to keep it there and build on it.