Cash out

I didn't play at all last week due to increased uni work and a little bit of tilt. I just didn't feel like logging and facing the possibility of another downswing. I subsequently decided to cash out my roll which stood at $500 (lost a quick 50 playing tilted hu on full tilt). I was a bit annoyed with myself for dropping the $150 odd, but i suppose i did start on $100 so $400 profit from low stakes is not too shabby.

Played some live poker at star city (nl200) and managed to win around $220 after being stuck $170 so that felt really good. Might redeposit this week.

the return on the tilt monster

Just had a fucking awful session. I hit the tables this morning at around 10am and managed to extend my eurolinx roll from $500 to $530 without much trouble. Things were going very cruisy until i copped about 3 shithouse beats. Im aware that no one likes to hear the intricate details of other people's bad beats, but lets just say these ones left me well tilted. I didn't feel too bad about my game so i decided to hop back on about 6pm. Well its now 4am and over the last 10 hours i've been playing on off (probably played for about 5 hours in total). Managed to fuck off about $90 and send my roll spiralling to $444. Fucking sick. Fuck i hate poker sometimes.

Going to bed and might give poker a miss for the next few days. I have $150 in neteller as well, but $40 of that is from a hu session me and my friends had while pissed at a mate's house. Therefore, all in all, my roll stands at a dull $554. Fucking shit.

Also, i just realised how long it will actually take to clear this fucking whore of a bonus. I need to do 7000 raked hands and from all my gaming so far i've only managed 264. FUCK! :((((((((

Thanks Empire, time for Eurolinx!

Well i managed to complete my $100 bonus on Empire within 3 hours. All i had to do was play 500 raked hands, whcih was piss easy playing 4 tables short handed. I ran really bad and managed to drop $30 at empire, but the bonus more than made up for this. So at the conclusion to Empire my roll was $615. I then took a few days off poker, searching for another bonus. Eventually i decided on Eurolinx's "100% upto $500" bonus, which requires i play 7000 raked hands (atleast $0.25 in rake). This will be my biggest bonus whoring test yet, but if completed will provide an enormous boost to my roll.

Subsequently my roll now stands at $500, with $115 in neteller. Let the grind begin.

The end of Tower! Hello Empire!

I finally released my $75 bonus. Unfortunately this coincided with a bit of a downswing. Played for about 2.5 hours yesterday, 6 tabling nl25. Just ran stupid bad for the first hour: eg my KK all in against q 3 on a 2 Q 7 board. ( River = Q). This, along with other classics meant i spent the next hour and a half fighting to earn back about 2 buy ins ($50). I managed to only recover a small portion of this, bringing my roll to $467, which became $542 when my bonus was released. When my money finally gets to neteller i will deposit the lot into Empire for their "20% upto $100" bonus. According to my calculations i will only need to play 600 raked hands to release the bonus, which shouldn't be too hard at nl25.

Im pretty sure i can start using pahud and pokertracker again with empire? If anyone has any experience with empire and using these pieces of software (how to set it up etc) it would be grealy appreciated. Anyway, time to donk away my tower points!

Smooth

After the disappointment of yesterday today was very welcome. Played 2 sessions, managing to pull in a total of $65. This takes my roll to an all time high of $494.05. Yippee!

Only 67 points left until i release my tower bonus, which will add a further $75. That should see me well rolled for nl25.

TIMED OUT ON MY FIRST ROYAL FLUSH! :(

So sickening. Just played a session and timed out on my first royal flush. I get dealt Aqhh. Action preflop. Flop brings 2c Kh 10h. Initial raiser bets out and i call along with another player. Turn brings the 7 diamonds. bet, call, call. The river of course brings the glorious J hearts. Initial raiser bets out, i select re raise to $7 but the tab does not respond. At this point i start panicking and sure enough i look down at my "wireless network connection" tab and am greeted by the "signal strength low" message. Fucking disgusting. I time out of the hand and both other players end up getting it all in. The initial raiser with KJ and the opponent with 89hh. Would have been about a $45 pot. So pisssed off right now.

Back down to earth

Well the boom didn't last long. Actually logged back on again yesterday to play some more about 3 hours after my initial win. Probably shouldn't have.Managed to lose about a buy in. Fairly bad beats, actually didn't play too badly. Here are a few of them:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2271875

This guy was a fucking spastic. Awful player. After a few limpers i raise solidly preflop with queens. I get 2 callers. Flop comes As 10s 2h. I fire $3.25 into about $3.8. The donk calls.

Turn brings another spade. Based on his current play a flush is very possible. He checks and i decide (perhaps incorrectly) to check behind. With this sort of player i just don't think i can bet him off a weak ace at this point and like many donks, he may be trying to check raise me with a made flush.

River brings the Js, giving me the second nuts with a queen high flush. His $5 half pot "please fucking call me" bet is very suspect. I have a strong hand but correctly decide to flat call. He shows Ks 10h and scoops the pot with a king high flush. His inability to fold his shitty pair of tens after my strong play preflop and with the Ace high flop pisses me off but i dont tilt.

Next big hand made me quickly log off: http://www.pokerhand.org/?2271890

I suppose i played the hand quite poorly, although my opponent was never folding his set and after my initial loss i was really looking to take him to value town. Just bad luck with him filling up on the river against my flopped straight.

Just finished another session then. Managed to lose another 2 buy ins at nl25. Probably about half of this was tilting. Copped a few annoying shitty little beats on like $12 pots against short stackers and it got to me. This was my final hand for the night:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2271899

Fairly tilt induced call. I could have certainly have found a fold. His shove just screamed straight. Bad end to the night.

Going to drop back down to nl15. Need to get my confidence back and try rebuild to around $450 before i take anymore shots at nl25. Took out $20 for necessaries so my roll now stands at $395.85 :(

Boom town

Took my first real shots at nl25 today. I opened up 6 tables with my bank roll at around $405. My first big hand came when i got queens in early position. After a min raise to 50c i decided to pop it up to $2.20. The player next to me, who i had already established was a nutcase lag reraises me instantly to $8. It folds around and am forced to make a tough decision. In the end i decide to shove, given the player's previous history and the fact that he had only $12 left. He snap calls andshows AKss and we are flipping:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2266714

the flop brings a very handy 8h Qd Kd and i eventually take down the $44.90 pot. The very next handi get aces. I make it $1 and surprisingly get 4 callers. Flop brings Ks 10s 6d. One of the original limpers fires a very strong $4 and i tank. At this stage i really put him on something like Ak, kq, kj, perhaps k10, or maybe a set (although even given the flush draw these players looooove check raising their sets). I decide to throw in a strange $9 reraise. His response is to instantly shove his remaining stack. This opponent actually had a large stack and had been playing reasonably so i really wasn't sure what to do here. I eventually decide, given his preflop play and flop aggression, that he probably has a pair of kings. I shove and am called.

He flips over QJss giving him the royal flush up and down draw. Once again i am basically flipping (im a 54% favourite). turn brings another K and the river brings a glorious A, giving him the straight but my the boat! ship it!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2266689

$86.70, one of my biggest pots ever online! Roll is now $485.55! BOOM!

The grind

Didn't play too much over the weekend. Just a small session on sunday evening to pull in a little over a buy in. Just played a relaxing 1.5 hour session and earned another buy in, bringing my roll to a commanding $395.40.

I tried playing 1 table of nl25 out of the 6. No massive pots but i walked away with a solid 25c profit (ha ha) and some good experience.

Just trying to get the required 600 points for my bonus. Its much slower going that i thought it would be. I've only earned 326.2 so still another 273.8 to go until i receive the $75.

Sickening session

Decided to play another quick session. One word to describe it: disgusting.

Early in the session i get 66. I decide to limp behind a few other limpers. At this point i just start to notice that my mouse is fucking up. Sure enough the "battery empty" light is flashing and within 5 seconds my mouse is rendered completely immobile. As is to be expected i flop quads.

At this point in time i am frantically throwing shit around the room trying to find another mouse. Unfortunately i fail and am timed out of the hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2234093

Im suprisingly calm after what would have been a tilt inducing event in the past and decide to game on. Over the next 30 minutes, 6 tabling, i manage to pull around $5. Finally, deciding i've probably had enough, i start to close tables. With 2 tables left to close i am greeted by kings in early position. I give my typical x4 raise and receive 1 caller.

Flop brings 554. I bet out $1. My opponent re raises to $3.

Sensing that his range has to be 66-10's, with the possibility of jacks, i re raise to $8. My opponently instantly shoves and i make a snap call.

He turns over queens. I punch the air with delight and commence my victory dance.

turn: 10

River: Queen.

--> this seriously seems to be happening too often. Another $30+ pot gone. Fuck i hate poker sometimes.

Quick session.

Just had a quick session today. Played well and have extended my roll to $360.15. Would have been over a buy in more if this hand went in my favour:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2230763

I suppose i didn't lose money on the hand, but it would have been nice to scoop the lot. Would like to have a session now but am far too tired! :(

up and down and up!

It's 3:20am saturday morning and i have just finished playing another session.

My day's poker began with my roll at around $270. Within 10 minutes i had managed to lose another buy in and was down to about $240. I decided to play some nl15 heads up. I buy in for the full $15 and am greeted by a player who decides to buy in for $5. Usually these sorts of shortstackers are fish and this guy was no exception. Within the first 5 hands i had stacked him with top pair. He then proceeds to buy in for the full $15. Within 10 hands i stack him again, shoving with the nut straight. Finally he buys in for $10 and once again within about 10 hands i am able to stack him, flopping a set of 9's against his 10 7 two pair. This eases some of my nerves and my roll returns to $270.

I played some more around midday and again tonight. Basically over the course of around 2000 hands i played extremely well and managed to pull in around 4 and a bit buy ins, bringing my roll to the handsome figure of $336.15. Time for bed!

Back to bullshit

Well that optimism didn't last long. Logged on this morning and opened up 6 tables. Early into the session i get 22. Someone makes a small raise and i call. flop brings 6h Qh 2s. A donk bets out, i rr. He shoves and i insta call. He shows Kh 3h. Sure enough the turn brings a heart. HE takes the 30 odd dollar pot.

Not to be disheartened i decide to battle on. Im not tilting at this stage, i have just accepeted that if donks keep doing that i will make money. I battle on for a further 30 minutes, getting a few big hands but no action. Then i get queens: with the blinds at 10c/15c their a are a few limpers, i make it $1 and get one caller. flop comes 4 5 10. I bet out pot and my opponent calls. Turn 9: my opponent bets out fairly strong, so i rr (perhaps a little strong, probably should have just called). He shoves and i call. He flips over 99. Fan-fucking-tastic. His turned set holds and i once again wave goodbye to a $37 pot.

At this point in time i am tilting again so i have the presence of mind to log off. Another $30 fucked off and im back to $270. Fuck i hate Tower poker.

Thats better!

Had a long hard think after last night's performance. Spoke to a few friends who play much higher stakes (nl1000 & nl2000) and asked what they do during bad patches. Obviously Their downswings may involve many thousands, while mine involved a measily $100. However, what they had to say really helped. One mate in particular sent me some of his stats of when he was running bad and it really put things in perspective:

basically they told me that no matter what level i play, there will always be downswings. Its not uncommon to lose 10 buy ins on a bad downswing. The key is to not go completely mad and tilt away more than you have to. The secret to being successful with poker in the long term is to remain honest with yourself. Even though i wasn't playing awfully, i could tell i was steaming. This caused me to play overly aggressive on hands where i should have been either folding or using pot control.

Today i left poker alone all day until this evening, where i decided to play some sensible nl15. The poker gods must have felt the need to reward me, getting me all in with aces on a flop of 37 Q against one opponent with Kings and the other with tens. For what seems like the first time in ages my aces prevailed and i managed to take down the $45 pot.

This combined with some nl15 hu has seen my roll bounce back to $299.

TILT FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!

yeh just tilted $100 on tower. Copped 2 seriously disgusting beats that just sent me spiralling. i decided to try my hand at nl25 being the dickhead i am. Not much more to say really, just some awful awful beats which i couldn't emotionally handle. At this point in time my roll stands at $230. Really not sure if i should continue. Feel so bad.

Travelling nicely.

6 tabled breifly this morning on tower. Won a few buy ins increasing my roll there to $191. The tables are soo soft there its great!. I still have another 500 odd points though before i release my $75 bonus.

On the full tilt front, i played about 300 hands about 20 mins ago and managed to win about $20, building my roll to $143. This gives a total roll of $334. Very handy indeed.

Unfortunately tower doesn't have a good hand history function so i can't show any graphs etc.

Steady

Haven't played too much recently. Just dabbled on tower then and pulled in a few buy ins. My roll is now a bit over $160 there. On full tilt i have dropped slightly to $123. This brings my total to about $283 which is adequate. I plan on bonus whoring some more when i finally release my tower bonus. hopefully my total roll will be in the vicinity of $400 by the time i am done there so i can deposit it onto empire poker for their 20% upto $100 bonus. This, when cleared, would give another $81 which would see me rolled for nl25 and ready for some decent stakes.

Spreading the roll

Decided last night to do a spot of bonus whoring. I did some homework and put $100 into tower gaming for there $75 "ground floor" bonus. Ran reasonably well and pulled in 3 and a bit buy ins at nl10, building the roll to $132. Unfortunately the bonus might take longer than i expected: from around an hour and a half of 6 tabling i only managed to clear 14 out of the 600 required points. Oh well.

This leaves $129 on full tilt. I just finished up in a $2 tourney, coming 25th out of 308th giving me another $5 or so. All in all my combined bankroll now stands at around $266.