Thursday Night update Current Bankroll $120

I thinking my last update about my online bankroll I had $90.56 at Ultimate Bet. I played a lot of live games over the weekend but not much online. I had lost 1 buy-in at the $10 NL tables and that was about it. In that one, I had to lay down an Ace high flush after putting $3.50 in the pot when the other guy in the hand put me all in and Js and 2s on the board. I played the hand ok but it put me in a hole and apparently put me on tilt enough that I ended up donking the rest of my buy-in later.

In my typical fashion, I was not sticking to the plan last night. I had about $80 left at Ultimate, but the grinding at the 25c/50c tables was bugging me. I decide to take $25 to a 50c/1.00 limit table and see what happened. After a couple of miserable hands, I was down to about $15. Then my luck changed. I played the same tight aggressive style, but the donkeys at the table weren't hitting their draws anymore. My superior starting hands were actually holding up. After winning 3 nice hands in a row, I was up to $30. That was when I noticed that this one guy at the table continually raised and bet with pretty bad cards. After I had earlier laid down better hands, I decided I had to take a stand. I had some good pocket cards (don't remember the details really) in the BB so I called his raise. I ended up with a strong hand after the flop and he kept firing away. I ended up calling him down and saw that he had crap again. Next hand, same thing happened. I had a strong starting hand and hit the flop. When he kept firing, I raised his bets and after the flop, he actually re-raised me. He did make me pause, but I called him down as he bet the turn and flop again. Again, he had dog poop! He obviously knew I was onto him at that point. As soon as the hand was over, sadly, sniff, sniff, he left the table. I was up to $41 and had cleared about $3 in bonus. Good start to the night.

I then jumped into a $5 sng. I really like playing the sngs better than the ring games. I feel like I am pretty good at them. Then, I get in one and get bounced out in 10th place (wah wah wahhhh). Again, not sure of the details of that one. I think I got crippled playing pocket 10s too strong, then pushing with A10 and got called and bounced by AK.

Anyway, I jumped back on the horse after re-reading the article I found in Hoff's blog from a couple weeks ago. I noticed that the reason I wasn't having any luck with it was because I wasn't following it very well. I was still playing marginal hands (KJo, pairs below 6, Q10s, etc) and usually missing the flop. That helped me get down in chips so I had no shot at scaring anyone when it got to 5 handed. My stack was too small.

So after re-reading the article, I decided to stick to it completely. It was tough. The urges were strong but I resisted. It paid off when I looked down at AA and some had raised in front of me. I re-raised and he pushed. My AA stood up to JJ and I had a nice big stack early. I ended up getting some really crazy good cards (AA, JJ, AK, QQ) and running over the table. With that win, was feeling pretty good. I jumped into another one and did pretty well, but ended up bubbling out. Again, I forge the details but was happy with the way I played. One hand I do remember was kinda late and I had A10s. I raised to 3BB and got called. I missed but threw out a 1/3 pot continuation bet and was flat called. I missed the turn and put in a 1 BB bet to put off the bet and fold (which was probably stupid) and again got flat called. The river was a blank and I checked. The dude put in a bet of about 10% of the pot and like the donkey I was on this hand, I called thinking he was probably just trying to push me off. He had a set of 8s. Two of them were on the board. He typed in "A10, haha". I will admit it was a terrible hand. I didn't give him credit for having a had at all, but should have realized he at least had me beat. The fact he laughed was a riot though because he had called a 3BB raise with 48o?? Anyway, that hurt me and I bubbled.

Now I know I am gonna take some heat for this, but I decided to jump into a $10 sng, even though my bankroll says, NO! I liked the way I was playing and wanted to push it a bit, plus I was getting a little bored (Klopzi, is that a stage?). I again followed the above guidelines and ended up playing a good game. I was very happy with my patience when it got down to 4 of us. I had just lost a bad hand and was the small stack but kept pushing and grabbing blinds. After about 15 minutes of 4 handed play, I was in the money, but as the short stack. I was just happy that I had made it, knowing that I shouldn't have been in the game for bankroll reasons anyway. In the past, in this situation, I think I gave up a little too easy and took some unnecessary risks too early. Once I was in the money, I was happy, but not last night. Even though I was the short stack, for some inexplicable reason, the 2 larger stacks started going at each other. I was still able to steal some blinds and hang around, still as the short stack. I ended up winning 2 hands in a row and got within striking distance, but then went card dead for about 5 minutes to put be back down to the short stack. Just as it looked like I would have to happy with 3rd, the big stacks got into a couple back to back hands and I had moved into second. On the next hand, I was about 10-1 underdog in chips and pushed with my A2o (wink) but lost to a pocket pair of 6s. Either way, I was very happy to cash in 2nd. The bankroll stands at around $120 or something like that now.

Sorry for this ramble but I was happy with the night. I am thinking about moving my money from Ultimate, since the bonus never expires, and trying someplace new. I need to really whore up the bonus money if I can. My buddy suggested Hollywood Poker. Any other suggestions (insert pimping comments now)?