Friday update+ monthly stats

I only played a little poker on Wednesday night and managed 2nd in an $11 turbo sng at FT.My two immediate poker goals are to get my sharkscope Full tilt stats profitable overall ( still $44 down though apparently I’m a hot fish) and also to get my FT balance back to it’s starting level of $400.I’ve played a few very short 6 max $50 nl sessions and have definitely got the taste for 6 max back again.The variance may be high which hurts more on a downswing but I’m optimistic that I’m over the worst of my bad run and can start making decent profits again.


I’ve certainly enjoyed the small step up to playing $11 sngs on a more regular basis.After a poor start I certainly don’t feel outskilled by the players there.On the subject of skill levels, poker is one helluva hard game to determine just how good/bad a player is.The main measurement is of course monetary profits but I reckon there are tons of players playing at the wrong levels out there.How many have truly worked their way up by using sound bankroll management and skills and how many are just able to afford “entertainment” at a higher level and so that’s where they play? Is there a huge skill gap between the levels or is a lot of it down to being able to cope with the bigger swings and being a lot more fearless and carefree when it comes to money?



I read an interesting post on Fuels blog about a villain who couldn’t have played a pair of Aces any more poorly if his play had been decided by committee and some of the comments mentioned players at low levels only thinking on level 1 and that they are simply not capable of laying down AA postflop.



Pokerpeaker made an excellent comment when he said that the reason it’s so hard to fold Aces even on a scary board where the flush draw has hit is because there’s plenty of players would play QQ and KK even in that situation so the Aces may be good.I agree that many players do only use level 1 thinking ( what cards do I have?).The hard part about playing micro-levels is working out which players are level 1 only and which players are slightly more sophisticated.Someone else commented that “anytime you get raised on the river one pair is never any good.Never never never” which I totally disagree with.That may well be true at levels above micro and personally I can’t say I’d love to be calling that river raise with my lowly pair but plenty of times my opponent at the micro levels has demonstrated such donkery that a call or even a reraise is required.A regular reraise situation would be holding an overpair like QQ on a rainbow 2 5 10 8 6 board where the villain lead out on the flop and made it obvious his monster k10/j10 ish type hand had hit.


Righty that’s enough daft witterings for now.Just time to say that Step A and her friend enjoyed the Pink gig last night and despite what some music snobs may say ,she actually put on an excellent show.”Family Portrait” and her version of the 4 non blondes hit “What’s up” were my favourites.


Borat tonight followed by a little poker is the plan.Here are my stats for the last calendar month.Have a fine weekend...

Full Tilt $313,Party $310,Ladbrokes $1592,Pokerroom $820,Inter $86.Total $3121 ( - $165 for month Nov 1st-Nov 30th)

1st month of 3rd year of real money poker = -$165.

Looking back over my downswing it would seem I'm actually up $39 since Sept 1st but it's felt like a long slog.Onwards and upwards....

Aug + $323
Sept - $122
Oct + $326
Nov -$165