Monthly Stats

After arriving home from Rangers poor 0-0 draw on Wednesday night ,I fired up a few $7.50 Super Turbs and managed a few in the money finishes.This was after two dreadful $16 turbos on Stars.The first one saw me raise with AK,call a fish shoving with A4 and losing when the 4 came on the flop.In the other game I was totally card dead and ended up shoving K4 from mid position just after the blinds rose to 200/400.The table was fishy and expecting a call,I closed the table and waited for the beep and wee box popping up to tell me "You have donked out 7th".I wasn't wrong!

Last night I was so tired I had a 25 minute nap around 7-ish before heading over to the s-mans place to watch a highbrow French arthouse film .Errr ok,it was actually "The Hitman" and was complete nonsense, but the company was good and I didn't get back until around 11.30ish.

I fired up four $16's to round off July at the virtual felt and managed a 1st,2nd and 4th for a nice $152 profit.It may not have been a great month for me at the turbos, but hopefully I have at least improved my multi-tabling skills as I felt quite comfortable tiling 4 games and I was still able to pick up a few basic reads.

To the stats and July '08 was by far the most profitable month I've ever had playing poker.I may need to play more Mtt's!

Pokerstars $11344 ( + $4562) ,Party $1021 ( + $27),Bet 365 $520 ( - $14),Full Tilt $178 ( + $69),Ladbrokes $336 ( =) ,Pokerroom $36 ( =).Total $13435. ( + $4644 profit for July)

I should probably cash some money out and at least have it earning interest for me rather than the poker sites.I really haven't given much thought to plans for August at the felt.I'd like to continue to learn to multi-table the turbos and I'd also like to run a bit better when playing them too!

I suppose I'm slightly wary of playing a ton more $50 Mtt's and blowing though a couple of grand thanks to inexperience and general variance, although I now have enough of a cushion to do just that.I'm far too much of a bankroll nit for my own good.

When I began playing with real money the lowest cash tables available at Pokerroom were at $25nl and the play was so bad that it would have been hard to go broke with even a small bankroll.I've probably got a cheek considering how bankroll nitty I am, but when I see fellow bloggers/forum players sticking strictly to buy-in rules at the lowest levels, I want to shake them and tell them to try just a little higher, because unless they run really badly,there's not much chance of busting due to the fishy fishness of the competition.

Of course in the past when pros like Amatay have encouraged me to move up I've balked at it for all sorts of reasons from lack of confidence to simply gulping at the thought of how much a very standard "bad night" at that level may cost me.This probably makes me a total hypocrite! It doesn't stop me thinking that any solid winning player at levels below $25nl should at least step up a little and try to push on.

I would also encourage players to find a style that works for them.Too often I read people on many of the forums I frequent stating that someone should ammend their play based on supposed optimal stats taken from books etc.I have to admit when I first watched Cardrunners cash vids I was surprised how aggressive preflop the players were and certainly whenever I've ( and it's not been often since I discovered turbo sngs) played $100 or $200nl, I'm certainly more pro-active and less of a nut peddler than I was.

Having said that, table selection is the secret to cash game success and I did quite well at $50/$100 nl by selecting crazy wild tables and playing a fairly passive game preflop and crazy aggro myself postflop.Some of my Pokertracker stats are on my old slow laptop and although I've no way of getting a screenshot they were as follows: 27464 six max hands at Ladbrokes.Vpip 30.39% Preflop raise = 6.87%.Flop agg 1.38,Turn 1.30,River 2.67. bb/100= 7.45 .Total winnings $1869.



I think my point is ( there is one!) that there are many ways to skin a cat and the best way is to adapt to the particular circumstances at the time.If you play high aggro tables full of maniacs ( my cash game preference) then a passive,limping game may well be the best ploy for example.( of course I'd move to major aggro mode myself whenever I felt I was well ahead either pre or post flop).

Ok,tonight the ex Mrs A is coming over for some more flat cleaning.I have Nacho until Sunday too, although it's raining so hard I doubt we'll get our usual game of football at the local pitches.

Back soon...