Where you make your $$$$

As a dedicated part time poker player you may be wondering where the good players really make their money over the long run. Is there some complex trickery which you are unaware of? The simple answer to this is no, there is nothing complicated about poker whatever many authors may try to convince you of. It is unlikely that you are being outplayed as somebody's play is on a level above yours. Poker is in essence a very very simple game, if you can make everyone else in a pot fold - you win. If you have the best hand and stick with it - you win. Your job as a player is to work out where you are in a hand based upon simple cues - bet size, history with opponent and possibly bet speed.

It is that simple. Obviously there are going to be times where you make some horrible misjudgements but if you are taking heed of all the information given to you, tracking players, narrowing the range with which they may be doing certain things you are most of the way to becoming a winning player. For me poker is very much a simple game of mathematics and understanding basic and implied odds is essential to your development as as player.

Anyway the places you make your money are quite simple and number one above everything else is THE RIVER. This is the point in a hand where the pot is biggest and therefore the size of bet you make or call will be by far the largest for that individual hand. Being scared of being behind at this stage is understandable but if you think your opponent has a weaker pair or kicker you MUST bet for value AND be prepared to fold if they raise. If you have them on a flush which missed, check and let them try to buy the pot. It is your decisions after the last card which are the most important financially. Don't call if you think you are behind, and get value if you think you are ahead. Weak river play is the surest sign of a losing player - how can you win overall if you don't take advantage of the biggest opportunity for gain. Get into the habit of betting on the river when you think you are ahead but might be behind - you'll be surprised how often you get called down by poor hands and how rarely your instincts are wrong.

I had a comment on my blog the other day that it is easy to play a set and although this is a great situation on the flop you would be amazed how badly most people play these hands. Usually it is through trying to ensure you make something and playing it slow - not only do you often win the minimum you also get committed to big pots giving your opponents fantastic odds to draw to a well disguised hands. The main thing I would say about these is that it is fine to win nothing post flop on them, sometimes everyone will fold to your aggression BUT over all of these hands strong play is almost always the best way forward. The other thing I would say is that you want to be looking for implied odds of 10:1 to draw to a set pre flop - if one person bets 4X the BB and you are the only caller with 44 you are going to lose money unless you have a brilliant read on your opponent and are able to call down light against aggression.

The other main place you make your money is laying down BIG hands early and not getting over-committed. Being aware of what might happen later in a pot and the position you have is essential. Here is one I played yesterday where I swear most people get over-committed and stacked, almost nobody I know folds this and I genuinely think mine IS the best option (could be I'm a wuss).

I have KK UTG and bet to $40, 2 callers both with position on me and I have no read on them at all, all players have $1,000 in front of them. Flop of Q72 - lovely for my hand, I bet $80 and player A calls and B raises to $190 - what do you do? My brother when asked said call and then push on the turn if a low card comes (my brother loses at poker). I looked at this situation and hated it for me. I basically have 3 options (unlike usual) , fold, call or raise to define my hand. Lets analyse these

Raise - I currently have $120 in the $450ish pot, I am not over-committed and my initial reaction to the raise is 'balls' as I have no idea where I am, I may be ahead, I may be drawing virtually dead. Raising needs to be a big raise to define my hand as a small minimum raise will be called every time. A big raise will put over half my stack in the middle in a situation where I have no idea where I may be. I dislike this option as if they call I have to shove the turn almost without looking at what card comes.

Call - Just don't do this, it is horrible beyond reason, player A may reraise and if he flat calls what do you do on the turn?? I haven't defined my hand at this stage and a turn bet again commits me quite heavily. If I check, I really have to raise rather than call any bet and again I am committing my stack without having a clue where I am in the hand. The check call may even be the worst option going as you then pretty much have to call the river as otherwise you thought you were behind so why didn't you fold before.

Fold - You have a powerful hand, you also have pride and don't want to look like a wimp. Maybe 40% of the time you are ahead of the KQ and AQ and that's great, you look and feel like a prat when these hands are shown down. However sometimes you just have to wave goodbye to the money committed and accept that you are clueless and let it go for that reason alone. I folded after agonising over the decision but I do believe that in the long term that decision makes/saves me a small fortune. Committing your stack with little idea where you are and limited opportunity to define your hand is rarely a good plan and if the situation leaves you with little idea just let the hand go. I would also have folded AA here quite happily.

Just for the record and because it backs up my point making me look special (in a good way) my opponents had QQ and 77 respectively and I was dead to a K. Obviously I could have been ahead but I would still stand by my decision to fold. When dropping big hands you have to accept that sometimes you will be wrong and could have won a monster.

Think honestly about the hand and I doubt many of you would have been able to drop the KK that early, it's something which comes from experience above anything and I never used to be able to do this, my game and profits rocketed when I avoided rubbish situations like this.

That is all for now, may blog over christmas, may not but either way I will be playing as I do like that festive generosity which is often displayed at the tables

seasons greetings etc

Steve

Some fine play from me, some less fine play from my opponents

I promised I'd blog some hands, or at least one in particular so here are a couple of interesting ones from the past couple of days. Both are against massively overaggressive opponents who do tend to experience massive swings in their chips stacks.

Heart in Mouth Decision Making - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1826815

I have KK in early position in this hand and flat call the raise preflop from an aggressive player looking to capitalise on his aggression later on. 358 flop which is pretty much ideal as he is selectively aggressive but very little in his range is beating me here so I elect to flat call again, probably getting him to put me on a flush draw. 6 on turn and I check again looking to raise his next bet. He bets about the full pot putting me in a very awkward position - if I am to play this remotely properly I have to raise if I continue and will be committed for the rest of my chips.

His bet is very very strong and if I'm wrong I will be in a very bad situation. I think about his play and go with my thoughts pre and post flop and raise to $510 thereby taking away the decision if he raises as I have only $330 or so left. I am definitely looking for a fold at this point as anything else will usually signify I'm behind. Sadly he raises and I have to call as I know he can do this with a lot of weaker hands than mine. River comes a Q which was ok (not a flush) and pleasingly I saw him flip JJ to rake a big pot.

This was a hand which got my pulse racing a lot as it is way outside my comfort zone and explains why players like this can win a lot as it is so hard to put them accurately on a hand an you need to be willing to commit to decisions rather than bailing out when they bet every street. Rectified my evening and I was pretty happy with my play as I had a plan and followed it through in the face of some strong discouragement.

Right no pictures as I am an idiot and copied down the wrong HH and am not about to trawl through to find it. Anyway, 4 way pot for $30 preflop and I have 66 and will be second to act of the four players after the flop. A beauty of 26Q comes down with two spades and preflop raiser puts $100 in, I flat call with aggressive player behind to disguise and hopefully drag the flush draw in too. Aggro boy raises to $250 which means very little as he rarely has anything near what he represents, strangely last player to act calls this and raiser drops. Me to act and I have to push here as anything else is weak and I will get called by a lot behind me. Both call and I am praying for no spade as I am certain one of them at least has the flush draw. Both called creating a massive $3k pot (these hurt to lose, they really hurt) Turn a 2 - get in as I have the fh and river another 2 which momentarily worried me. They flipped and aggressive player had AQ???????????????????????????????????????? and the other guy had AT spades.

I really hate both sets of play for a variety of reasons. My play is fine theirs is genuinely horrid and here is why. The guy with AQ - knows he is likely ahead of preflop raiser and raises to define position vs me - ok so far, however when player behind calls and I raise all in an easier fol could not be had, it isn't even a decision but NO, he pushs all his chips in when 95% he is behind. Awful, just awful.

Player with the flush draw - on the flop facing a big bet, call, raise he has two options depending on his reading the best of which is fold, an acceptable one is all in if he reads the players as capable of getting off hands like AQ or two pair - I wouldn't like it but it is a viable option. His call is terrible. Two players still to act and either may be on a biggie. Even if we just call the next bet will commit all his chips and make a call terrible if he has not hit on the turn. He is effectively paying $250 to see one card with a maximum 9 outs - 20% chance of hitting, as I have the set he has less outs and makes his call look even worse. His call of two people being all in after doing this is fine, expensive but ok I guess that is justifiable.

Honestly with play like this how am I not a millionaire, I just do not understand either of them in this hand and it was like christmas had come early

Good day today as a result although I am tired so may not play any more, I've put a solid 2 hours in which is pathetic but maybe I need more sleep.

Steve

Limited Amounts Happening

I've not played much over the past few days as we've had people staying but should be back to the tables in the run up to christmas now. Today has continued in the same way that previous experience at 5-10 has gone as very little happened. Win $500, lose $700, win $400 etc etc etc. It's dull when you play long hours and get so little happening. I've not hit much today and the bluffy players have not been at the tables so I have had to be more active with my bluffing and have successfully pulled off a few biggies without getting called down.

I've ended up about $700 up for the day and have played extremely solidly, it''s just been dull. Dull, dull, dull with one moment of heart pounding drama which I'll write about tomorrow as I'm too tired right now. Surely I'll have a big day at some point - four or five buy-ins is all I ask.

Steve

Some Hands, Some Analysis, Some Waffle

I've not posted that many hands recently so I thought I'd put a few in to one post for analysis. They are a range of different hands which have created interesting pots.

Opponent Based Play - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1800126

Yesterday I was saying that I had been up against some overtly aggressive players and failed miserably with hitting anything where I could take them down. In this hand I succeeded and my play was based purely upon the opponent. Let me take you through the hand. I'm dealt QQ and my opponent has made a standard raise to $35 from mid-late position which he does a lot. I flat call in the hope of picking up a fairly sizeable pot later on. Flop comes 842 two diamonds and he bet near pot size at me. I have two options here but whereas I would usually raise this to discover how good my hand is, I decide flat calling is far preferable here as he is likely to either fold or repop and I don't want him to do either as my hand although strong could conceivably be in for a world of hurt.

Turn comes a 6h which felt very safe and to my surprise he bet $175, I would consider dropping here to many opponents on the basis that they are representing a fair amount of strength and I'm going to have to commit a lot to the pot as I HAVE to raise if I play on - a call is just horrible in my opinion. I decided that my opponent's raise was very very wide here and I was 75%+ sure that I was ahead and he was trying to run over me. Therefore I min raised, leaving myself enough to get away from it if needs be. I expected him to fold but he repopped all in. Did not like this at all and again against many opponents this would be going straight in the muck. However he is more than capable of doing this with diamonds/hearts/straight draw/weaker pair and after much thought I decided to go with my initial feelings and make the call. River a K and he flips TT so I was bang on in my decisions.

During this hand I truly did not specificly know where I was at, usually that is enough to get me to fold as I don't like taking guesses but because of the history with this opponent I was able to make good decisions throughout against some extremely well executed pressure. I still am unsure as to whether I think he's good or not, I've seen a lot of poor hands winning massive pots for and against him and he will make massive calls with mid pair etc. On the whole I like him being at the table as it loosens everyone up a bit but as he succeeds in making me uncomfortable a lot I suppose I should give him a lot of credit for being a pretty good maniac.

For a lot of unthinking players my play in the hand may seem obvious and simple as I had an overpair and went with it - trust me 75%+ of the time where the betting makes you feel like you're beat you are and being able to lay down the big hands is a key element in becoming a winning player long term.


Poor/unlucky for my opponent - you decide - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1800174

I like my play here and dislike my opponents as he checks the likely winner and gives up a free card in silly fashion. I have KK early pos and call a raise from the button. Flop comes T high and I suspect I am ahead here and decide to check raise what looks to be a good flop. My opponent who has a set of 5's checks behind. Turn comes a K giving me the current nuts, again assuming my opponent has nothing I go for a check raise and pump it to $170. Again my opponent flat calls. Turn comes a 9 leaving me thinking that the only possible hand I've lost to is JQ hearts but let's face it I cannot drop this to his river push ever as I'm way too committed and despite being a touch worried I bet the river strongly and called the raise. Huge pot and you may think I got lucky but lets look at my opponent's play.

First of all he has raised with 55 and hit when in position - his check on the flop is ghastly as now if he shows strength later I'm gonna be suspicious also if I have AK he is missing out on the reraise I would undoubtably throw out to any bet. I will not have him on a set during the hand if he bets and the check guarantees minimum value from my hand if I fail to connect further. I could have lost a big pot if he'd played this better and I hadn't hit IF he bets the flop - a healthy amount of suspicion to the preflop raiser who checks the flop then shows a lot of strength is almost always a good idea.

He bets the turn and I reraise - he has got to reraise here, he must think he is ahead and I could be raising with a variety of draws and will be tempted to call in these cases. The flat call asks for trouble if really does, many draws available and he is giving me every opportunity. River leaves a straight possibility which he must at least realise I could have so when I bet 3/4 pot his raise is not good given how the hand has played as If I had AK I could easily drop it (also wouldn't have got in this situation but still...) Basically he has raised when he no longer has any idea where he is and is only getting called by hands which have him crushed.

This opponent is one of my current favourites to see as I don't think much of his game, he bluffs too much and then misplays his big hands.


How to play a set of 5's (sharp contrast to above) - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1800214

Having called preflop I hit a wonderful flop of KQ5 two hearts and am first to act. I decide the bet helps disguise my hand best and stick in $30, I am reraised to $90 and as I will do in these cases I flat call looking for a good turn card where I will commit. Turn comes a 2 and I felt that my opponent had something like AK or a flush draw so I put in a weakish bet to define where I was. I exepcted to be raised here and it duly happened as he banged it to $222. This is a no brainer for me as a call asks for trouble, if I raise I am committed no matter what comes on the river so I go for one of my favourite moves the big all in reraise (works well with the nuts or without if you know your opponents) and he calls it. He had KQ so I can understand that he couldn't get away, or at least felt that he couldn't - I'd have dropped personally unless I had a good read on my opponent.

Anyway this is somewhat different to how my opponent played his 5's in the hand previously and on the whole I rather prefer my more thought out play to his donkey antics.


Hero Call - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1800233

I'm not in this last one but my god what was he thinking, anybody? No... I don't have a clue either. Splash is one of the aggressive players I failed to connected against and he is very capable of moving the chips about with air BUT - you just don't call with the 3 here, there is no way that can ever be a winning play, almost everything beats him, even if he had a draw on the flop - he has hit. Oh I hate this call so much - you need such a good read to do this and with Splash's range you just cannot call this.

For all those who like making the big calls, please try making the big raises instead as at least that way you'll get paid off more when you have the goods and give your opponent the option of a fold. Splash's play is quality purely because he would have done the exact same thing with the nuts which can make him damn hard to play. Patience is the key in picking off the big bluffs, just don't get involved until you have something you are willing to put your whole stack in with.

I still cannot put splash on a single hand which the caller could beat, not one and I will die long before I figure out what on earth his opponent was thinking.



Right that's it for now, hopefully some interesting stuff for you and I'm going to try to sleep again

Steve

Returning to the lifestyle theme

One of my recent posts seems to have hit a chord with a few people who live a similar lifestyle and the point that I made was that the time you have on your hands is not necessarily a great blessing.

When I worked full time for a living it was always a huge hassle to find the time to go to the shops, get my car fixed, read a book and a whole multitude of other things as well. I assumed quite naturally that when I turned pro this would cease to be an issue and I would spend my days indulging in excercise, sports, reading, watching films and spending whole days blissfully wandering around town browsing and buying stuff in shops.

Ah what a fool I was, nothing like this has happened, instead I have no routine to speak of and seem to exist in no particular timezone. My car was recently vandalised by some delightful children who bent my rear windscreen wiper into something resembling a modern artwork - lovely as it looks it is now somewhat less good at it's one and only purpose on my car in that it cannot clear the windscreen. This happened nearly a month ago now - have I fixed it, a job that would take a phone call and maybe a short drive? No, course I haven't as I don't have the time.

But surely with christmas coming I've been able to buy presents well in advance and really make the effort for people! Again no, in fact I've probably done less than I had this time last year (however whatever I do will be an improvement as I left all the presents in my house when I went home for christmas last year - oops)

I've become less active at browsing the internet as well which is truly weird as I am at my computer for many hours every day. I used to look at pocketfives.com every day, I used to use facebook more. However I didn't do these things at home, no, I did them at work and I think that holds something of a key in all this. When you are at work browsing the internet is a fantastic alternative to productivity and a miriad of sites are necessary additions to your day to while away the boredom.

Conversely when you set your own hours and decide exactly when you shall bother to do your work and there is no limit to the holiday you can give yourself, no deadlines etc there is also nothing to escape from so in this way you waste less time browsing the selfsame sites which gave some structure to your day.

I guess the biggest culture shock really is the lack of structure, no reason to go to bed, no reason to get up and you rely entirely on your own motivation (or lack of it) to get you through.

I've been thinking about this and although I am now 26 my life has never before been without some kind of structure. You go through school, university and jobs and throughout that time, however lazy you may be there is still a structure to your day - up at a certain time for school and work, socialising late evening at uni (getting up not so much of an issue there). So it is quite difficult to acclimatise to a life devoid of this.

The last few days I have risen around 4pm and gone to bed at about 8am - I'm enjoying myself and being productive but it's not ideal. Sadly I don't yet know what ideal is yet, not for me anyway. I want to play late at night/early morning, I want to be able to watch late night sports but I also want to see some daylight occasionally!

Thing is I try to go to bed at a smart time, 4-5am and my mind whirs away because I know I don't have to sleep, I could get up and do something. This leads to a small amount of burnout as my body struggles to cope with my inability to set a routine. Heck I don't even really want a routine, I don't want to set an alarm, I don't want to feel I should be doing things at certain times. However another part of me craves this exact thing.

I hated getting up in the mornings for work as I never could go to bed before 1am or so, thus I was always tired. However it gave me structure, it gave me a sleep pattern of sorts and I think that is important to my well being and motivation.

I enjoy what I do, I'm back to being relaxed and happy, but I still should be making more of it. My excercise regime has fallen flat at the moment, I don't go out and do stuff and I still have no routine, not even close to one.

Anyone who ever considers doing this for a living needs to be extremely strongwilled above all else. Possibly even above talent. If you don't have the determination and ability to make it work for you then you will crash and burn as the lifestyle could potentially make you miserable.

If you need people around you, again it is not going to be ideal as poker is essentially a solo pursuit. I'd love to have someone in the Birmingham area who I knew and liked who had a similar lifestyle as nobody outside the game really has a clue what you are talking about when you discuss bad runs, cracked draws, pot odds etc. But I do not have this, I knew that was the case and I'm perfectly happy with the situation, however in an ideal world someone who can empathise would be a useful addition to most full time players I would imagine.

I think most people when turning pro consider money and isolation as the two major issues which they will have to deal with during that time. However it is not the biggest hurdle - if you know you can cut it before going pro (and why are you trying if you do not know this) then the play itself shouldn't be an issue as you improve and adapt with the game and situations. The main obstacle to full time success has to be getting a routine which works for you - if you can't manage this then the poker lifestyle is not going to work out.

I still have many things to work on in this regard but I am extremely confident that I can and will make this work for me long term. The only other alternative is returning to work and that's just not gonna happen.

A bit rambly I know and I apologise for any repetition from previous posts but as I'm sure you can all tell I just write when I feel like it and then publish, there's no editorial process at work here - hence why emotions sometimes come across, especially when I'm losing!

Steve

Frustrating

I've been on some crazy tables this evening with a lot of bluffing going on, a lot of really marginal calls and usually this is a prime place for me to be as I bide my time, connect with the odd set and take some of them down. Sadly to do this you have to connect occasionally and I just didn't, every big pot I miss when I know that a stack will be coming my way should I connect - ended up a buy in down although it was worse than that for a time.

It's frustrating to see a couple of really poor plays and players getting paid off in a big way and being unable to capitalise at any point. You just can't call a $500 river bet with a straight when 4 hearts are on the board - your read has to be impeccable for this, yet I saw this happen...and pay off as the guy had bluffed the river - nice sized bluff, 60% of the pot, aggression beforehand and I really hate the call.

Same player who called got raised by the button, reraised and was then put all in for an extra $500 on $150 already committed - obvious call with A9 I hear you shout.. not to me, especially from an inactive button who has shown no bluffs but he had made a move with A2... makes you wonder it really does.

I feel like I'm playing well and have a reasonable read on the tables - if I didn't I'd be a lot more down as I made a lot back of one player through being able to predict where he'd bluff and check to let him fire at the pot.

Bed is calling as I got sucked into a longer session than Id anticipated - not a good day but not disasterous, there's always tomorrow

Steve

Strange Day

I'm just over $800 up for the day and cannot remember a time where I hit more hands - top/middle set on the flop etc. I should be on the situations and way I've played be about $3-4k ahead, sadly my hands are repeatedly getting sucked out on - lost a 2k pot where I flopped 999 for top set with no draws on as I raised on flop to $260, raised all in on the turn and got called by 9T which had hit a flush draw and connected with the 7 outer on the river. Shocking is not quite the word. I was shaking with anger after that one as it was right at the start of a session and I hate being put in a position where I'm chasing due to my opponent being a moron who knows nothing about pot odds. Being offered 2:1 my chances are around 7:1 yeah I call.

Sigh, I've not been so happy with my play for a good long time as I am consistently making the right decisions to extract value - now all I need is for my hands to hold up, not asking much I feel.

I'm coming off again having got level as I'm irritated by not being miles ahead, I'll play some more later and hopefully win lots. I'd really like a big day and it should be today as I've been great. I was so incensed by this last one that I told him to go XXXX himself - I'm usually so restrained in the text too!


Steve

YES YES YES

OK, so maybe I wasn't entirely truthful in my last post, I'd been playing really well and despite the losses I cam back on and played a fully stacked table alongside the small stack I had been left with. Then this hand came up and I extracted a huge amount of value from it - there is virtually no way I should have made as much as I did so I'm going to talk through it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1786486

I call the preflop raise and hit middle set with my 99 - obviously at this stage I know that there is no way I am getting off the hand unless a flush hits, then I may consider it. The preflop raiser bets $100 and is called by the other player left in - now I have a choice here as I suspect a flush draw for player B and don't really want to let him hit on the turn. However my main target is the original raiser as if I can get him to committ then I have a massive opportunity to win a big pot. This is why I just call, only a spade scares me and as I am on the button I know already that I am pushing any turn other than a spade.

Anyway turn comes a 2 which I rather liked and imagine my surprise when the original raiser bet $400 committing himself to the pot, KK did cross my mind at this point but I cannot ever lay this down here - anyone who does is a muppet by the way - I push all in knowing he has to call with whatever he has. I was praying for no spade on the river and got what I wanted - turns out preflop raiser had AK, player B 77 for bottom set - no way out for him and I scoop a $2800 pot. Oh it feels good, am now about $800 up for the session and have come off to o important things such as eat and get my vision back!

The guy with AK has played this horrifically - honestly his play is disgustingly bad, never ever get a full stack committed with one pair when you are not certain where you are in the hand. He has no clue after the flop and unless he puts us both on flush draws his turn bet is terrible as it committs him to the hand where he could have checked and seen both of us go all in before wisely folding. Ultimately he has gifted $900 to me here and should be ashamed of how bad his play was.

Happier now

Steve

Angry, very very angry

I build myself back up to 5-10 once more and what happens - my luck happens that is what. Ended up losing a $1600 pot with 777 on a K97 two heart flop where all the money went in to a guy holding K7 who hit runner runner hearts to screw me.

I am so angry with this as I only have one buy in of profit to play and open two tables - I win the hand and I'm away and sailing but no, now I have to drop back down and build up again. I just need the first big hand to go my way and not have this rubbish happen. I am not waiting to build up lots more at lower stakes as that is not how I operate, I take shots and rebuild through profits a higher stakes. It is really upsetting - I want to play 5-10, I should be playing 5-10 but I am being strict and now it is back to the waiting game.

Damn, damn, damn

Steve


I have carried on since this first post as I had $320 left on the table and I decided I may as well either succeed or lose it all and to be honest my luck has not improved - KK vs AA with a K on flop - would have stacked him for 1k but only had $250 at the time. Great hand, bad timing. Then I get all in for a 1k pot against a flush draw which obviously hits - so back to $200 and now I've had a set of T's vs 3's so would have stacked the guy again but because I was short only won $200. Had my hands held up I think I'd be about 3k up on this table rather than $600 down.

This sucks

Steve

Reflections on the first month as a pro

This post is going to be looking over how my first month of full time play has gone. Lessons which I've learnt, mistakes I've made and how it all differs from my expectations.

First and most important thing to acknowledge is that I'm unlikely to struggle to make a comfortable living playing poker as my only source of income. Regular readers will know that I have suffered some massive swings and some poor discipline during this time. However despite this I am still making a decent amount and have been able to build up after bad swings by dropping stakes and forcing better discipline upon myself.

I think this is a very important realisation for me. It hasn't by any means gone how I'd hoped and I've had to play lower than I would wish to but it's abundantly clear that I am (financially) at least a successful player.

What I have also realised is that my expectations and aspirations are extremely high and I demand a lot from myself. It is not going to be enough for me to make a comfortable living - I want a lot more and will not be happy unless I am making somewhere around $4k a week on average. This is more than attainable and is ultimately the minimum level which I wish to aim for when I return full time to 5-10nl.

What I have found a major problem is the lack of routine. This has surprised me with how difficult it is to impose when I have virtually no requirements upon my time or energies other than to focus on my game. I had assumed that I would fall into a routine of going to bed around 4am, rising by 1pm and then playing poker from around 10.30pm - 3.30am. This ain't happened, not even slightly.

I have taken to staying up all night on occasion, finding it difficult to bother going to bed - what this has resulted in is an ever varying schedule where I don't give myself the time during daylight hours to do other things. When I get up at 4pm Nat is home within an hour or so and my opportunity to do anything productive for myself disappears as I spend the evening with her and then when she goes to bed I play poker. It also means that I don't excercise as I'm lazy and need to do it when I'm in by myself during the afternoon.

I have found that when I keep to a more sensible routine I am happier, more productive and because of this I become more motivated with my game. My goal for the next month is to get into a proper routine which will involve getting up at a reasonable hour and not staying up through the night for no apparant reason other than because I can.

I have such a fantastic opportunity to be this relaxed, cheerful, carefree person with very few things to worry about and I've not been. I put this down to my lack of routine leaving me tired, my body confused and then I compound it by doing stupid things at poker. I need to refocus on why I am doing this for my job. I'm not going to say that it's not about the money because it so blatently is (at least in part). The money is a necessary and nice byproduct of doing something which I love, this will happen anyway so what I need to concentrate on is living my life to the full, making the effort with things and generally enjoying my time.

I didn't anticipate this being a problem, I don't struggle with boredom, I am happy with my own company for long periods but it has become one because ultimately I'm lazy. Because there is little which I have to do - I do nothing and that is not healthy or enjoyable. I've snapped out of my bad mood and lethargy now and I am going to make this work in a way I enjoy and am happy with. Step 1 in this is going to be imposing that routine on myself and the sooner I successfully do that the sooner everything else will fall into place.

It's not an easy life and I can see why people struggle with it, this way of being would not suit the majority of people I know. For me it is all about willpower and belief at the table coupled with discipline away from it. I manage ok with the first of these and have been woefully inadequate at the second - that must and will change over the next few weeks.

I'll keep you all updated on how it goes

Steve

An Interesting Hand

I've won about $800 back today and played fairly well in a shortish session. One intriguing hand came up where I would strongly question my opponent's play. I'll talk through it and you'll see what I mean.

I'm on the button and all players involved have a full stack ($400). Player A raises to $16 and B then reraises to $44, me to act and I have KK - pretty good but the number of times that reraise means AA on this level is ridiculously high so dropping the hand is a genuine option. I decided to flat call the raise. Two reasons I decided to do this, first is that it means I can get away from any flop with an A or a big reraise from the initial raiser. The other is that my call is extremely scary (or should be to the other 2 players) and will hopefully curb the preflop action allowing me to make my decisions based upon the flop.

Player A completes and the flop comes 778. This is an excellent flop for me as I am only likely to be behind to AA and it also enables QQ,JJ to pay me off handsomely if they decide that they may be good. Action is checked to me which is great news as barring a 7 I now am certain I am ahead in the hand. I bet a 2/3 pot $84 and player A calls and B folds.As I was more worried about player B this is superb for me. Turn comes with a 9 and after it is checked to me any bet I make commits me and I opted for the overbet push which probably look weaker than a lesser bet - however either way I am comitting myself to the pot so the best course of action is the one which brings my opponent in most often and I think the overbet lets my opponent decide that I am blufign often enough to make it possible. River came a 2 and my opponent showed the JJ as an $830 pot was pushed my way.

Here is my problem with my opponent's play - my flat call pre-flop and my opponents reraise should be sending massive warning signs to a hand like JJ. OK he has an overpair to the board BUT there is big action and not only is he facing an $84 bet on the flop but also the original reraiser is still going to be acting after him - to me this is a really easy fold with virtually no exceptions. However a call is okish if you play a really quite loose game.

On the turn he would be much better off pushing as it at least gives me the option of folding (I wouldn't have) however when he faces a bet larger than pot size and assuming he's paying attention he must be aware that the chances are that I have AA,KK,QQ and he has 6 outs, or in other words it's not worth it.

However he calls and I imagine he is already saying the words I know you have AK in a bout of foolish misplaced optimism. It is amazing how often people put you on AK to justify calling, the number of times you see this typed into chat is quite extraordinary.

I love players who not only can't get away from their big hands but especially those who call off all their chips rather than betting them strongly and giving me a decision to make.

Steve

Back we go

Another less than stunning day at 5-10 where nothing much which was good happened so I'm dropping back for a bit until I've built up enough to have another shot, hopefully won't take more than a day or so as I'm eager to get it going back at the stakes I belong at.

This may happen a few times as I'm going to be strict with my requirements for playing 5-10 and as I keep a short bankroll I could be up and down a ew times over the next week or two. Hopefully I move back up, get something going and build a larger roll to play with but I'm not going to push my luck as that is what destroyed my roll at omaha in the first place. I'd rather be slightly bored by the stakes than stressed because I can't afford to lose!

Steve

Return to 5-10

And it hasn't gone as well as I'd have hoped. Played well and was quite happy with my play in general but it felt like i just didn't get the run of the cards. I played so few large pots - biggest was only about $600 and I was sucked out on in that. Whenever I had something I got no action and basically bled chips for 1500 hands. Still I only lost a buy-in so it could have been a lot worse and at least I felt immediately comfortable and happy with the tables I was playing.

I'm still finding it difficult to impose any sort of routine on my days and fall so easily into bad habits with my sleep patterns. Yesterday I got up at midday stayed up till 7.30am and have risen at about 4pm today - so I have managed to miss all the daylight hours! Now it's not like I need to keep to any routine but I do feel that I should be getting up by 2pm at the latest really. Still I had good reason for staying up last night - NFL followed by Super Mario Galaxy for a couple of hours, truly a fine evening (setting aside poker results)

Steve

I just shouldn't play 2-4nl

I may have mentioned once or twice how much better I've been doing in 3-6nl with most of my wins coming from these tables on the rare occasions they get going on party. This could not be more true than this evening. I haven't been in the mood for much play so have played a few short sessions across either 1 or 2 tables of 3-6nl and completely ignored the lower game.

It's gone quite well - I'm now up to $2k up for the evening and have won a fair few sizeable pots with some nice play of high cards and sets. I just won an $1100 pot with KK as the flop came AK7. I had been reraised pre-flop and flat called. The guy played it like he was stringing me along for my whole stack and I was absolutely certain he had AK or AA. Usually when I get this feeling I am proved right as I have a knack for feeling out the monster hands. Imagine my surprise as he check raised me the min on the flop and then bet and called on the turn as he flipped...AT. Honestly shocked, I'd not raised preflop for about an hour and had folded virtually every hand.

I'm very grateful to the lad but what exactly was he thinking of - I called two reraises ad then raise him all in. What can I have that AT is beating????????mJust goes to show that even at higher stakes some people just do not notice what is blindingly obvious and lose their stacks because of it.

If I had the AT out of position on the largest rock at the table I would have folded pre-flop and not gone any further - the re-raise is as horrible as my flat call is beautiful. I never quite understand what people read into my table image. When I get aggressive people keep on folding, when I play like a rock people donate their entire stack when I clearly have it - these are not the regular players I'm talking about (they know better and watch) but some of the one offs are just awful and are the reason why poker is a very crushable game in the long term.

Steve

Very little if anything about poker - I recommend avoiding reading

I'm finding it quite hard to play at the moment, my brain is just not in gear and my concentration span is pitiful at best. It's not really poker related as things have been going well, I've played a bit today and am $1k up but I almost don't care. I am struggling to motivate myself at all and it's an effort to be smiley and happy, or or those who know me, to be my version of this state of being (cynical and grumpy).

I'm not particularly happy at the moment and I am struggling to put my finger on why. There have been a number of things going on over the last few months and I think I've just let things get on top of me a bit. Rather than enjoying life and taking the rough with the smooth I seem to be brooding on things and failing to allow any joy to penetrate my soul.

Luckily I am pretty sure that it is not my career choice or the life I lead alongside this as I actually rather like not having a job and having time to myself - sure I could spend it a lot more productively than I do and probably should BUT I rather like my lifestyle. I think I just need to make more effort with things in general to snap myself out of this as I genuinely like being active and doing lots of stuff but i do have a bad tendancy to get myself into long ruts where I fail to make the effort. This comes in a variety of forms from keeping in touch with friends or excercise right down to making the small efforts with Nat.

I've had my brother over for the weekend and it's quite sad but playing pro-ev actually gave me some spark as we get fairly competitive and unneccessarily OTT celebrations are the norm in the event of crucial last minute goals. There are few games where I see people go from smug elation to angry and miserable within a few minutes and it is entertaining. Also saw one of my close friends who I've not seen for a while and she is currently extremely happy which is great to see.

Sadly once they'd gone I no longer have to make any effort and at the moment that seems to be hugely negative for me as I drop in to a somewhat less than cheery individual.

It worries me when I feel sad as it's really not my normal state. I'm usually very content and cheerful inside (grumpy/cynical/sarcastic) is what everyone else will see! and I'm not used to prolonged periods of feeling down. I find it very difficult to snap myself out of it and I'm awful at letting people help and they tend to get their heads bitten off for having the temerity to be nice (sorry Nat).

I'm back to a stage where I am ready to move back into the 5-10 game and this should be exciting and a good thing for me but I really have very little passion at the moment so shall refrain from doing so until my mental state is somewhat improved.

Who knows I may wake up tomorrow and feel much better, it will go away as quick as that it's just a matter of when really. Who knows mayybe the prospect of playing Mario Galaxy on the Wii will help!!!

Steve

Restart and try again

After much fruitless searching through my computer I have come to the not unreasonable conclusion that it is beyond saving in its current state. So I have explored my options and reset the whole thing back to how it was when it left the factory. I don't keep that much of importance on my computer so really the only things which I lose by doing this are my poker tracker databases and I'll need to contact support to get a new key to run this with.

So all in all a satisfactory conclusion to the technological difficulties - you may be thinking why did I just not do this before and the honest answer would be because I genuinely did not know it was an option. Shows what I know about computers anyway.

My lethargy towards poker has continued so I've played for about 30mins today and then gave up, maybe tomorrow I shall return to the tables properly

Steve

Stupid F'ing computer

My laptop has something wrong with it. As to the exact source of this or what the hell is causing it I am none to sure. Excitingly it has recently decided to try dying on me as a regular occurance, throws a strop, bluescreens and crashes and dumps physical memory etc.

Now I am not entirely sure how exactly to fix this. It tells me to download any BIOS updates - done, then to turn off caching and shadowing within BIOS - HOW DO I DO THIS. I don't know where to look and have been trying tonight and cannot for the life of me find where the hell I am able to do this on windows vista.

Even if I work out how to turn these option off it still may not solve the problem and I may have to contact support and send my computer away to be fixed.

I hate things I can't control and technology is right at the top of that list, nothing and I mean nothing is more frustrating and incomprehensible to me as problems with my computer. This frustration is compounded by the fact that it is my work station and main source of entertainment.

I get snappy and irritated over nothing when my computer is being crap. I didn't buy a $2000 top of the range model for stuff to go wrong with it, my old computer had it's share of problems and my new one has decided to join in witht the fun.

Should anyone have any hints suggestions or whatever about what I should do I would be delighted to hear them as I have absolutely no idea what I need to do.

Steve

Lacking focus

The past couple of days I've not really had much of an urge to play. This is quite strange given the fact that it has been going well and usually this results in me being more eager to play. However for some reason each time I sit down with the intention of playing my focus is completely gone and I feel slightly bored by the prospect of playing.

It's quite strange as it is really rare that I feel like this and I'm not quite sure how to rectify it. Obviously a day or two away from the game is a good idea but sadly I don't feel like doing much else either. It may be that a strange lethargy has overcome me with the days getting shorter and it being dark most of the time. I do tend to be more lethargic during the winter and have to force myself to do things slightly more and I guess that feeling like this is just something which I'l lhave to deal with from time to time.

Steve

Continued success

It's been another fine day despite some less than fine beginnings. For some reason when I sat down to start playing my mind really wasn't on the job. Dunno why but sometimes my focus can drift and I knew it wasn't a good time for me to play. Sadly however I pressed on regardless of this and against my better judgement - needless to say a couple of awful calls later I was $500 down and in a less than good mood.

At this stage I have a decision as I can, and often should, switch the computer off and walk away before more damage is done. However losing sometimes leads to me intensifying my focus and really playing well and this turned out to be the case. Grinded my way back to level and then took a break till 5am.

Since coming back on I'm $1200 up at 2-4nl hitting some fine hands and playing beautifully. It's really nice to have two good days in a row and my overall profit is now above $6k in the last two weeks!

Still not moving back up yet as I don't quite feel that it's the right time but it will be soon so watch out 5-10 I'm coming back.

Steve

My best and worst hands

Since returning to hold'em I have logged 17,000 hands across 3 limits, almost all at 2-4 but most of the profit at higher stakes. My overall PTBB/100 is 3.24 but only 1.24 at 2-4 which I think says something for where I have had my lucky hands as much as anything!

Anyway during this the cream of hands has risen to the top and my top 4 hands in terms of profitability are AA,KK,QQ,JJ in that order which is no surprise to me as unlike many I think I play these extremely well. However my recent play has developped a distinct bogey hand which I have run into huge amounts of trouble with. In fact I am -$1300 with it. The hand is a classic trap hand although it is one which I always used to be profitable with and it's KQ.

Seemingly I suck badly with this holding and looking back over it I seem to either win a small pot or lose 100-200 dollars with it. I used to win with this hand in fact it used to be about the 8th most profitable for me. Something has gone badly, badly wrong with it and I am going to have to radically alter my play to rectify this.

I think I will play it a lot more cautiously and avoid raising with it much as this cannot continue and is due to lots of pots rather than one or two bigguns.

Luckily my play with my good hands far outweighs that with my rubbish as I am almost exactly up 4k with AA 3k with KK 2k with QQ and 1k with JJ. Not bad really and the rest of the hands all fit somewhere in the middle. The most I've lost with any other hand is under $400 which shows quite how badly I've played the KQ offsuit.

An the lesson is... buy pokertracker as it'll show you the holes in your game you my not have been aware of. If you are going to take poker seriously this is something I would strongly strongly recommend. How else could you know where you need to improve.

Steve

Not whinging now!!

Right I have definitely been runnign bad in the big pots recently however that has just changed somewhat with one absolute monster on 3-6nl. I'd already got up to $1500 through a nicely played full house on the flop when the below hand came up

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1735766

I have been playing short handed a bit recently and quite enjoying it as it is more aggressive and some people really overplay their holdings. I have a more conservative style with well timed river bluffs and playing my big hands hard. Anyway I had AA pre flop with $1500 in front of me, the guy to my left raised but he also had $1500 so I didn't fancy reraising out of position and revealing some strength and setting myself up to be bluffed later in the hand.

Flop came AT6 with 2 clubs, obviously this is magnificent for me but I want to extract value. I check raised and then very unexpectedly got reraised to $300. Now this is a very interesting situation because of the stack sizes. I KNOW I am very unlikely to get away from this hand if a scare card comes. I also know that most likely he has either a straight flush draw, 2 pair or a set. To be honest I expected the set. Generally he would be unlikly to re-re-raise me in this situation without a BIG hand mainly due to stack sizes.

Anyway having realised this I also thought that IF he had the set he would most likely call any bet as AA was unlikely due to my pre-flop flat call. SO I decided that it was a good situation for me to shove - takes the decision out of it and if he wants to make a bad call with a draw then so be it. Anyway he thought for a LONG time before calling with TT for mid-set. the river brough a 7 which scared me a little as the 89clubs was a possible holding but the $3k pot came to me and turned a bad day into a very very good one.

I have been running bad but this hand makes up for a lot, an awful lot. I am now $5100 up since returning to hold'em and life just feels a touch sweeter right now.

Sadly as I've been playing 2-4 only $1k of this is from 2-4, the other $4k is from 3-6 and a short session of $5-10. I just do better at higher stakes, my game fits them better which is as it should be because that is where I played since April and have logged many hours at 5-10.

In fairness I feel really sorry for my opponent here, I would have thought about dropping the TT but I doubt I could have, it's just too strong in that situation so it was a real cooler for him. Shame!

All my friends and Nat have been telling me it'd turn around and I have been playing with a really positive attitude (and whinging away from the tables) and it's just so nice to have a really good day and win a monster pot.

WOOOOO HOOOOOOOO

Run well when it really matters - that is the key

Steve

I'm so Lucky

Somehow that is not quite true, I'm about level for the day and yet have run into two big pots where the cards have completely screwed me over. First one I get aggressive with AT and having had top pair hit the flush on the river - sadly my opponent has 78DD for a straight flush - 1 card in the deck stacks me and tons result in me winning the pot or stacking my opponent but oh no I lose a $900 pot.

Then KK reraised to $76 preflop - idiot calls with AJ, calls 56 dollars when I have $189 remaining, clever lad. Flop comes QT2 he checks, I push all in as I know he'll call this massive overbet with any Q and he does, with 5 outs. And he hits, it's just farciscal. I have had the single worst month of my life in terms of fortune, so many times I get the idiots to call and time after time they hit - it's seriously way over 50% of the time and it is just time it stopped.

I'm playing really well in general. Genuinely very happy with my game but my luck seems to abandon me in big pots. It is ridiculous and I've had enough. I'm getting nowhere quickly and it is really annoying me. I should be crushing 2-4nl and I'm not and it is gutting. The play is so bad, the play against me is so bad and yet I cannot get a run going. I'm now down since day 1 on 2-4nl.

I promise I'll stop whinging in this blog at some point but I have never experienced a run quite this bad, if they don't call I don't make much, if they do they hit - not fair and not fun

Steve

Frustration taking it's toll

I've not played at my best over the last couple of days, overall it has been mostly good but with a few incidents of tilt where I made decisions which had I been in a different mood or not feeling frustrated I would have made the exact opposite.

I've been playing 2-4nl for about 11 days now and during that time have logged over 14000 hands. However my progress has been snail-like to say the least. On my first day at 2-4 I won over $1400, since then I have won about $100 at this stake. Pretty crap really isn't it. However I have won $800 at 3-6 and $800 at 5-10 so am now over $3000 up in the last 11 days.

I'm not entirely sure why my winnings are not higher, for the most part I have played excellently and suffered some poor luck in key pots. However I think that in the last few days the frustration of playing at a lower stake than I have for the past 6 months has got too me a bit and I may be trying to make things happen and deviating from my usual game with less than brilliant results.

I am very capable of making big laydowns as I've found that generally when a big stack shows extra aggression throughout a hand they usually have me beat - obviously this is not always the case but a healthy ability to drop big hands is hugely important to my game.

The one hand which really really pissed me off was this - I had KK in late position and raised to $16 - 3 callers. The flop came ten high with no flush draws or obvious straight possibilities. The big stack opposite bet $50 into this. As I see it I now have a key decision and a call is weak (this is what I did) although then you can reassess on the action on the turn. A raise will give more info and a fold is actually my preferred move here based on the player. I have limited info and it's going to cost a lot to find out where I am, so folding to a $50 bet is NOT out of the question, I'd probably do this 75% to the big stack in this case. However I called, blank came on the turn and he bet $120 - easy fold in my eyes but I decided to push and got called by the set. Hardly surprising and I hate how I played it. I really hate how I played it, so much so that my couch took a beating from my elbow and that was a fine idea as I now have a bruised swollen elbow for my troubles.

This hand came 20 minutes after England had crashed ignominiously out of the football and 1 hand after I had been stacked on another table where again I had pushed where I would usually fold. SO possibly I wasn't in the greatest mindset when I did this. Annoyingly I knew I was in a bad place and should have left the tables long before this happened.

When things are not going quite as well as I hope these sorts of crushing crippling losses which can be easily avoided really get to me. My bad decisions over the past 14000 hands have cost me over $1.5k because when I make bad choices I make them for my whole stack!

I really want to move back to 5-10 as it is where I belong, wins are more significant and I enjoy the game more at that level. HOWEVER I have set myself targets and until I get them I am not going to do this. I got myself into my current state through a lack of discipline and I'm damned if I'm going to repeat it.

That said I did spy 2 very juicy games earlier so I have played 54 hands of 5-10nl and am over $800 up through that. So I am not totally ruling it out but it is not going to be a regular thing for another week or two.

Although I've not played at my best for the past 2 days I am still up during this time but I feel a bit jaded so am going to have tomorrow completely off poker. Might start watching the Soprano's or something to pass the time.

Cannot wait to move back up and this gives me something to aim for as I am over halfway to the $6k target so it's moving in the right direction at least

Steve

Progress

I've actually had a reasonable day, hoorrah!! After ending up even yesterday I've made about $800 today and played pretty well really. It's been a very consistent day with small gains at regular intervals and one or two big pots. I've been betting my hands for value extremely well and working out with some decent accuracy whether the scare card on the river has me beaten or not.

I'm now $2700 up since switching back to holdem last week along with about $400 in party points and deposit bonuses alongside this. It's not a bad win rate and has been achieved with minimal stress which had accompanied the previous weeks at omaha. I'm still not happy with my overall win rate as it is currently at 2 ptbb/100 hands which is alright but I'm really looking for around 4-5. Still it is nice to be making some progress and it will hopefully mean that by the start of december I feel in a position to move back up to my 5-10 games and make some real money.

What I need to remember is the omaha experience as I went against all of my principles regarding redepositing money which I had taken out. Yes, I was unlucky and didn't deserve to be losing - far from it, however I created my own hole and lost far more than should be possible given my bankroll requirements and level at which I drop back down.

However I feel that the experience I have had should stand me in good stead in the future as I WILL remember dropping $12k in a week and not want a repeat. I will remember watching my bank account drop down which should never ever happen. And most importantly I will remember how stressed this all made me and sapped my enthusiasm for everything for a relatively long period.

One of the main reasons I have chosen this lifestyle is the quality of life which I can expect, it gives me he opportunity to read, excercise and sleep properly. It means that I can spend more quality time with Nat and these are the benefits which I need to remember when things go badly.

I'm trying to get myself into something of a routine now and have started setting an alarm for 2pm and going to bed some time in the early hours - 7.30am yesterday and it is currently 5am as I write this so it's likely to be a similar time today. If I can get myself back into the routine of excercising when I get up then it will be extremely beneficial as it sets me up for the day and I am able to concentrate better on my game.

If I managed to achieve a similar winrate at 5-10 when I move back up then I'd be looking at over $20k a month and that is without any spectacular success. This is something which I need to remember and keep my focus on the long game and not get obsessed with short term results.

I'm waffling now so I'm going to watch a bit of Red Dwarf and have a look over the day's play

Steve

Another Day Another Dollar - This is almost my current win rate

I'm not sure how much better I can play. Have been involved in 2 pots which were all in affairs, one the guy was drawing dead and the other I was a 4-1 favourite for a $1000 pot, guess what I lost it. So instead of being $1200 up I am about $200 up. It is so disappointing to play so well, be so keyed up and then continue with the run of my big hands losing more than they mathamatically should.

I'm quitting whinging now, I'm playing fantastically well and deserve a lot more success at 2-4nl than I am currently getting. However despite the fact I swear I have run horrifically this week I am still $2k up - I can live with that, it pays the bills and the rest but it just feels like a massive disappointment because I feel it should be double if not treble that figure for the number of hands I've played. My win rate currently sucks and I am due a big BIG day where my hands all hold and I get dealt into a number of coolers where I am on the right side of it!

Overall I am feeling a lot more positive although my luck is not there I am still winning, I am still avoiding tilt and I am building my bankroll up (albeit less quickly than I would like). I have set targets and when I achieve them I move back to where I belong - 5-10nl. The only reason I'm not playing there is that I couldn't handle losing at those stakes right now so I shall win some more and then move back up. Once that happens we may start to see some proper wins and some good weeks/months. I expect to be able to make $15K plus a month and that has been done by me before so my genuine realistic wish is to have a $50k month at some point by early next year. This will happen as I'm bound to run well at some point and when it happens if my game is as solid as it is right now the big wins will follow.

Anyway enough talk of big cash, I'm playing much lower right now without massive success so keeping my head straight and ignoring the higher games etc is essential to my continued rebuilding programme.

Steve

Creating the right mentality for play

You may have noticed in recent posts that I have been getting somewhat emotionally attached to my results which have, lets be honest, not been great. However throughout this period despite internal fears of losing and the fact that my misery at the tables has spilled over into my homelife and meant that I've been a pain to live with (ask Nat), depsite this I have maintained my calm and made good decisions at the tables. There have in nearly 6000 hands of holdem only been one hand which I would play differently. Obviously I have made mistakes and misread situations BUT I have been happy with what I have done in a playing sense.

This is absolutely fundamental to poker and success in the game. If you approach the game with a negative attitude and assume you are going to lose, then shock, horror you will virtually every time. Now I know I have felt like this and have written about it here, but whenever I have sat down to play I have done so looking to win and playing the situation rather than my bankroll. I have not been scared by losing and laid down hands because it all got a bit big in the betting. I have not chased flushes and straights trying to win a monster. I've played good fundamental poker and am genuinely happy with how I have played at both hold'em and omaha.

Sadly results have been in a downward spiral and it is very difficult to look positively when outside of sessions when all you seem to have is misfortune.

Today I sat down after having had minimal sleep but I felt good and was concentraing well so I played a short session. I hadn't intended to play but it felt right for me and I was back into the right frame of mind to play. I've only played 600 hands and have quit for the day as tiredness has caught up with me again. For once hands hit me and I played nicely once more. The very last hand I played before quitting I was dealt AA in early position and the following happened

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1703593

It had been going pretty well and I decided to take a bit of a flier with my AA and overplayed it quite deliberately. I wanted to raise and get one not two callers. This said my raise is one where I am comitting to the pot a quarter of my stack so it is most unlikely I will be folding this regardless of the flop. My usual raise here with AA would be lower but I like mixing it up with my big hands and the overraise felt right to me.

As soon as I was called by the early position caller I put him on AK/JJ/TT. If he had more he would have reshoved and the way he played it the AK felt most likely. Plus he hesitated a lot before calling so I was confident it was not KK.

Anyway the flop came KJ8 which was going to be either brilliant or disasterous. Either way I am playing this hard. I raised just under pot and got put all in. Standard call (can't drop now) and luckily he did have the AK which I suspected. However it is always a relief when it gets pushed to you in these situations. It could have been JJ and gone the other way quite easily.

I've spoken before about how I like the overplay of hands. Usually they either pre or on the flop so I like to do it with big hands and more marginal ones as well so I keep people guessing. Plus because I do get seen (and show) when I do this with lower hands it gives me more margin for getting called and stacking someone when I do have the goods.

After the preflop call he can't do anything but go all in when he hits the K, if he doesn't go in then why has he played the hand in the first place? Anyway it was a superb note to finish on and is a good example of one way I occasionally play AA.

Anyway I won $1000 for the session and that makes rather a difference to how I feel about poker right now.

Hands - 6006
Profit - $1616.95
PTBB/100 - 3.37 (still not high enough 5.0 is the aim long term)

Steve

Different game same fortune

I'm taking today off now as I've just played 30 hands and lost $600. I am just getting screwed at the moment. First hand I had AA, flat call the raise preflop and reraise on the flop. Guy check raises me all in, I correctly put him on a flush draw and he hits. Not hugely bad but it just hurts as yet again I am a 68% favourite in a big pot and sodding lose.

Next one I have 88 and call the preflop raise and it comes 68T, obviously he has TT and I get stacked again as the river brings he 6 for a full house. I feel horrendous, every day seems to start like this and I just can't get anything going.

I hate this and I'm now $600 up over the last few days and honestly wonder why I bother at times like this. I've been dealt a number of coolers and it really sucks.

My confidence is ebbing away again and it's less to do with confidence in my play and a lot more to do with my confidence in any fortune whatsoever in the hands I get all in with

Steve

Nothing Happening

I've played another 1500 hands today, I think I've played pretty well, no examples of tilt, some good value bets a couple of well executed bluffs etc, however I don't feel that the cards have been kind to me today. Best example of this is where I call a small raise preflop with AQ get a QQ2 flop and he obviously turns an A to give me a full house and him a higher one with his AA. Just seems that whenever significant money is going in the turn or river is damaging me. Hand after this I flopped top 2 with KQ, bet heavy and the turn came an A to screw me to my opponents AQ.

Not really gone very well and I'm a bit fed up to be honest. I want to see progress in financial terms, sod good play I want to actually win. I keep seeing hugely poor play against others and yet when it happens against me they hit the outs they need. Am about $250 down today and it's not a lot but I really should be doing better than this. Great start on the first day and I seem to have been continuously down since then, never by much but always 200-300. I need a couple of really good days just to cement my position.

It will happen, always does in hold'em, get nothing for hours and then a quick couple of buy-ins however it's just frustrating and it's a bit of a drag putting in 6-8 hours and standing still!

Steve

Hold'em day 2

Second full day of holdem and it has not gone as well as the first. I feel that I've played reasonably well with one obvious exception where I over committed to a flush draw and blew $300. The cards were not with me during today and I was down for virtually the whole day eventually ending up by about $60.

So in money terms it was a poor day but because I managed to retain composure and not panic when I was a couple of buy-ins down it feels reasonably good. Obviously I don't normally worry about the win/loss too much but at the moment I am very results oriented and just need to continue winning so I can completely forget the past few weeks.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1694024

This is the hand which caused my moment of tilt and I think it is fairly understandable as this is as brutal a hand as you can get in holdem. I would absolutely never ever drop this even if I had a huge stack and faced multiway action from other huge stacks. I don't think it is possible to lay this down and I genuinely never even considered it. I assumed he had a full house below mine. Still if I accept that I cannot get away from this it's not such a bad day overall.

I played a lot, over 2000 hands and my winrate overall has understandably suffered due to my lack of progress. Probably a more accurate winrate now and I'd be quite satisfied to maintain it around this level.

Hands - 3923
Profit - $1498.75
PTBB/100 - 4.78

Steve

Return to Hold'em

And would you look at that, a successful day, a very successful day. There has been a multitude of fist pumping and general expressions of excitement, enthusiasm and less of the ennui which I have at times associated with this fine game.

I haven't played hold'em for about a month and you know what, it's good to be back. The break seems to have refreshed my attitude towards the game and my omaha experiences have probably made me a stronger player. I am very smartly playing below my usual level and am at the 2-4nl game which means a $400 buy in. This has a number of advantages, the main one being that I am not at all scared to lose and am willing to back myself stronger than when playing higher stakes. I make a decision and I live or die by it at these stakes so I am probably a more dangerous player for others to come up against.

Anyway I've won 3.5 buy ins today or $1400ish which feels gooooooooooooooooood. I am not a hugely swingy player at holdem, never have been, never will be. 3-4 buyins is an excellent day and I tend to slowly build with my tight aggressive style. This somewhat less stressful form of poker is very useful for me given recent history in omaha and I have maintained my patience and good humour throughout the three sessions I have played today.

Patience is always key to my success as I win a low percentage of pots but tend to make them count for a lot so if I allow frustration to sink in my gameplan suffers accordingly. I've enjoyed my play today, made a few well calculated bluffs along with some less well calculated ones. Have managed to extract huge value from my big hands and the worst hand in terms of profitability today has been AA where I've lost $250. Usually AA is my biggest winner, in fact long term it is by a massive amount and I play it well. Sadly I've been a bit unlucky with it today whereas QQ has been marvellous. Thank you ladies!

I needed today. I really really did, although I know that I now have to continue where I have left off it feels good to have not only played well but been rewarded for it too. I'm gonna post two hands from today (ones where I win) and discuss to some degree.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1688770

This first one is hugely, hugely significant as for the first time in a long time I flopped top set and it won.Let me repeat that IT WON. It was not the nuts when I bet or went all in as he could have had a straight however there is zero chance I am putting that hand down on the scant possibility of 9T being my opponent's holding. I always feel that aggressive play rewards itself when done in a controlled fashion and this hand my aim was to calculate bet size to ensure my opponent committed his whole stack should he have a big hand. He did andsadly for him I had a higher set. This is a really tough beat in hold'em and I would probably have gone down in similar fashion with his hand. BUT I won with top set lalalallalalalala, can you tell that this is a significant weight off my previously overburdened shoulders.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1688734

I reraised a fair amount preflop today with AK and many others but decided to play it slower in this one and the AK7 flop seemed to be a bit of a gift. I checked to the preflop raiser adn was quite sad that nobody else called to juice the pot a bit. Anyway as I was out of position I raised to $100 (had I been behind him in the play I would have flat called most times) and for some reason which I truly can't explain he pushed all in for $300 with AQ. Idiot! What can I have which I check raise with which he is beating. So unlikely that he isn't drawing very very light and a call or fold were the only real options in my opinion. Multiway pot where I check raise when I must suspect he has an A should send warning signals but apparantly and luckily not.

The only other hand I'd like to mention is one where I faced an overbet flop from the raiser with A87 showing and two clubs. I like the overbet as a sign of weakness where you really have a monster and fell hook, line and sinker for it on this occasion as I didn't think my opponent was that smart. I pushed all in over the top with my AQ only to be quickly called (never good) by his AK. I spiked a Q on the turn to take down a $500 pot and boy did a suckout feel good. This sort of thing just hasn't happened for me over the past 2 weeks, in fact it has happened always against me on every occasion so this turn of fortune managed to give me some spark back and I would say that today I have actually run well and a bit above expectation. Maybe I'm due eh!

Anyway I'm going to sign off by giving my stats for the day, and I may be doing this a bit more regularly

Hands - 1786
Profit - $1424.72
PTBB (per 100) 9.97

Good win rate, great win rate in fact. For those of you who do not understand the PTBB it stands for Poker Tracker Big Blinds per 100 hands. Poker tracker big blinds are for some reason calculated differently to what makes sense to me but if you double it then you have the real rate. So I've won nearly 20 BB per 100 hands today or $80 per 100 hands. I'll take it, considering I can get in around 300 hands an hour that is a useful rate and one which I would like to see continued.

It's not a loss, get in, get in, get in, maybe I can play after all

Steve

Poker & Confidence

I do believe that success in poker is irretrievably linked to the confidence which you carry into each game which you play. Confidence is absolutely crucial in correct decision making at the poker table, if you are lacking confidence the parts which are most affected to my mind is your play of marginal hands and ability to let the big ones go.

Let me explain what I am driving at. The confident player makes his decisions based upon maths or feel and worries not about the result but about making the correct decision in any given situation. For this reason he is able to push the narrow margins, make the extra value bet on the river or reraise with nothing as he senses weakness.

By contrast the player who has suffered numerous bad beats or is just in the wrong state of mind and has low confidence will not make the extra bet on the river "because I might be beat", will not reraise the weak player as "he's bound to realise I'm at it" In this way although it is not necessarily 'bad' play but it is sub-optimum and will massively affect the bottom line at the end of the month.

The area which really hurts the low confidence player however is getting attached to hands as "surely this one has to win" for instance having KK reraising pre-flop and then getting raised all in by the tight player opposite - what do you think he has, if you have been paying attention you may be 95% certain he has AA and correctly fold, however if you are low on confidence and have been awaiting a hand to hang your hat on then you call and act like it is impossible to get away from that hand.

Obviously a lot of this will come down to your judgement of the players you face, it is hard but by no means impossible to fold KK pre flop especially if all signs indicate that you are beat. However if you are on a bad run that hand suddenly is too good to lay down.

This is not a typical example of this situation where confidence prevents you laying a hand down. Convincing yourself that the player is trying to bluff you off your straight on the river when the flush card hits is so easy to do if you lack confidence. Rather than analysing the situation and working out how likely it is you are still ahead you decide to go with the hand without much thought because you "deserve to win" after all you held the best hand throughout, right until that river card screwed you.

I am certainly a confidence player and my main failing when I lack confidence is failing to value bet the river as I'm scared of being reraised. When this happens it does majorly affect my earnings as when you think about it that is where most of the value comes from a hand as the pot is already large and any bet you make will have to be moer significant in value purely due to this fact.

Although I don't believe my current deep dark lack of confidence has affected my actual play in omaha I am scared that it will in hold'em. I won't know this until I have played for a few days and it is possible that my confidence shall return but it is a bit of a worry for the moment.

I am currently sat in front of the TV and my mind is sidetracked by thoughts of the next few days. How are things going to go?, am I going to cope? what happens if I start losing or worse start taking a few bad beats early on?

I don't know the answer to these but my predicament terrifies me as although at heart I still know I am a soid winning player in both holdem and omaha, I kinda don't KNOW that any more, maybe it's all going to unravel in front of me, maybe I've just been lucky for the last few years.

Sigh, I just need to focus on long term goals, remember how lucky I am that I am successful in this game and accept the losses and just move on. Now if only it were quite that easy

Steve

Return to the tables

and nothing has changed... before I was consistently getting my money in good 65% favourite + and losing. Sadly that has continued and my fragile confidence has been shattered into a million tiny pieces leaving me doubting whether I can actually do this successfully as a full time career. I know that in terms of expectation I am now running around $20k below expectation on these hands.

I know what some of you may be thinking - I am doing the classic poker player thing of remembering only the bad beats and forgetting all the times where they held up. Sadly I am a realist and am very aware of exactly what is going on and I have plain and simple been a victim of extremely awful luck.

To be honest I have dealt with this appallingly badly in its latter stages as my whole demeanour has been affected, I am moody, stressed, snappy and generally a pain in the arse to be around. I don't want to see or speak to anybody as to be entirely frank I am embarrassed by this current run.

That may seem like a stupid or immature reaction but it sums up how I feel at the moment. I have played nearly 3000 hands since my return and have lost $1500, this in itself is not a huge amount but durin that time on 5 occasions all the money has gone in on the flop or turn where I hold top set and am a minimum of a 60% favourite, I've won 1 of these. ONE, and that is me running extremely well on recent form. On the rare occasions I have got in behind I have failed on every occasion to hit as well.

I know omaha is a swingy game, I'm not stupid or unrealistic BUT I have expectations of at least achieving 50% of my expectation over long periods of running bad but I'm getting nearer 5% on all the big hands. It has been hard to cope with, although I think I've dropped around $12-14k during this period it is NOT to do with the money. In many ways the money is unimportant, I'm up over the last month despite this, I'm secure in how I play and KNOW it is a winning style over the long run. However every bit of joy has been sapped from my being and I am genuinely quite miserable at the moment.

I'm not someone who gets too badly affected by poker usually, I accept bad runs with good humour, I understand that I can't always win and I tend not to tilt too much. I've managed the last one of these well despite the run I;ve had. The others sadly have got to me to such an extent that I feel close to tears after yet another bad beat, I feel physically sick, I have lost interest in many of the more important things in my life and am generally feeling about as low as I ever have in my life.

It is hard to take a week off come back and have it continue. It is difficult to continuously lose where you should lose and also lose where you should win. I've started to wonder if I have been cursed or done something to offend a supreme being who I don't even believe in. The hardest thing is to gain no reward for solid disciplined play and in fact be punished financially for it.

I did something I very very rarely do and told someone at my table to f**k off yesterday. This was after the all too familiar top set by me was cracked by another donkey call. T75 rainbow flop and I got called after my all in pot raise by a hand which consisted of 46XX with a backdoor flush out and I proceeded to get heartily f**ked.

Not only was this a godawful call, seriously awful in every way as he was obviously behind literally every possible hand I could have but he proceeded to inform me that he was 38% for the hand and had odds to call. I would have gladly punched him in his stupid ignorant face. He had 8 definite outs and even if he hit I could redraw to my full house. I was comfortably over a 70% favourite in this hand. I usually take this stuff in my stride and ignore it but it's just unbelievable. People are so stupid at times and seemingly stupidity is the key to beating me. Just wait until I look like I must have a big hand and stick all your money in. I guarantee that you will beat me!

I'm not trying to say that I am a flawless player, I'm not saying that I have a right to win above anyone else. I play poker largely by mathematics and I am currently on a statistically unlikely run of bad fortune. Sadly I do not have the heart to ride this out as it must surely end at some point. I am not willing to finance my play at the stakes I wish to play at to an extent where I may start losing overall. And most importantly I'm not prepared to be the person I have been for the last two weeks, I'm meant to be relaxed, happy and gradually winning enough to live very comfortably on... and I'm not right now, far from it.

SOOOOO what am I going to do you may ask. Good question and sadly one which keeps flitting through my brain and is failing to be answered to a satisfactory level. Well here is what I have come up with as a plan. God knows whether I will stick to it but I believe I will.

I'm quitting omaha for the time being as it is making me miserable. I don't really want to do this as I think my long term win rate is far better in this than it is in holdem but just for now I cannot handle the game. Therefore I will be returning to the game I have consistently beaten for the last 3 years although playing 2-4 rather than 5-10 for the moment as I just couldn't cope with losing 3-4 buy ins at 5-10.

I currently have $3k in my poker account and will play 2-4 until I build up to $5k then I may allow myself to play some 5-10 but we shall see. Don't know how this will go, also don't know what the hell I'm going to do if I start this by going on a losing streak (god I hope not) however that has to be the plan for the time being.

I can only apologise for not posting much recently, I do tend to do this, last time I went on a bad run my posting became less frequent as I go into my shell a bit and am less willing to share my mental state with people. I hope I've managed to give a very honest account of how I've been feeling and show that although life as a poker pro may be a fun and exciting career when it is going well it can be soul destroying if it goes really badly.

I shall try to get back to posting more regularly and may put in a progress counter to show how well or badly it is really going. Stupid thing is that I am actually relatively satisfied with where I am financially through the last 6 weeks - it's not brilliant earnings but it pays the bills. It's just how it has occurred and the heart wrenching downturn I have had.

Ah well, start over and refocus back on holdem

Steve

Time off should really mean time off

Can't get my head away from poker because of recent results and because of this decided to deposit smaller sums on a couple of other sites - same stuff happening and deposits are now no more. I am very very very stressed by all off this and have no idea quite what to do about it. I have had horrendous runs in the past and always come through them so it should be fine, I just NEED a winning day - nothing major just a winning day to see my confidence return a bit.

Right now I will definitely not be playing until friday as I've been stressful for Nat to live with and need to get my mind completely away from this game.

On the positive side I won around 12-13k in three days a week or so ago so all I've done is obliterate most of that, my actual totals are still healthy this has just knocked me for 6 and I'm not dealing with it.

I think when I return I shall go back to the 2-4 or 3-6 games but only when there are higher games running too. I shall also short stack 10-20 when that is at full ring. Hopefully I'll win 2-3k and my whole disposition shall undoubtably improve markedly.

Can't see myself dropping below 2-4 as I'll find the stakes frustrating and that will negatively impede my play so it is best for me to play at something significant yet not soul destroying should I lose 2-3 buy ins

When I come through this it will, like all other times, stand me in good stead for the future, it's just a matter of when that time comes

Steve

Time Off Required

Ok, my curren run has go to me quite badly so instead of putting myself through the mill I'm going to have a week off (have banned myself from party until the 8th) and get my perspective and sense of calm back. Not sure what I'm going to do upon my return, may jump straight back into high stakes or I may try and rebuild from the $1600 in my account by playing lower. I'll make that decision when I return to the game.

This run has been the worst of my life and it's been how harsh it has been rather than the money which has got to me. When you can't win time after time after time when you put all the money in with the odds in your favour it is bloody hard to deal with. I have been reduced to misery by how this has gone and it has been affecting how I feel on a day to day basis, hence why I'm having some time off.

Hopefully when I return I run reasonably and get my deserved equity from the pots I play, not asking much really is it. Even when I was winning I was losing ahuge amount of pots where I was a 60-40 favourite so poker seems to be screwing me quite badly at the moment. Anyone in any doubt as to whether playing poker for a living can be stressful need only read the last few posts to see my mind slowly unravelling. It is not fun when this happens and although I think I am quite good at riding losses and poor luck usually, this run has severely tested me and I have definitely tilted as a result.

May write during the week despite not playing. God knows what I'm going to do if this continues when I resume - another $10k and I'd have to seriously consider quitting omaha for a few months as I don' think my heart could take it.

Steve

I cannot play any better

However I am currently a huge loser. I am being extremely honest when I say that across the last 30 times I have held top set (and it has been the current nuts) I have got the money all in on the turn or river and lost every single one. The worst I've been is 55% favourite, how can this be happening?

I'm not coping with this at all and was literally shaking last time I got it all in on the turn as I was so scared of the next card - and shock horror it destroyed me. Play wise I am playing fine and am trying to maintain a positive attitude as I am still well up for the month and it is not putting me in any trouble financially. I cannot believe what is happening to me at the moment - it will turn around but I need it to happen soon.

Steve

Busted

So my online bankroll now stands at a fantastic 0, over the past four days I've player I have lost every single large pot where I have faced more than 1 out, it's unbelievable and has me wondering whether I have managed to offend someone and had a curse put on me. Along with this I have played a bit off my game but even when I've got comitted as a small dog in a pot, guess what, I lost them too. It's just ridiculous and although I know I'm a winning player and am still considerably up for the month it is just a painful experience where my confidence and enjoyment has severely depleted.

I've dealt with similar occurances in the past and always bounced back and I'm sure I will from this one too it's just hard to see me winning anything at the moment and it doesn't matter how well I play I am just plain unlucky right now.

Am going to redeposit tomorrow and try to build up, not sure how much I'll deposit will have to see how I feel but I may redeposit $6k and jump straight back into 5-10 as I am beating the game it's just that my results are not currently showing this

Steve

I am so tilted

I feel horrendous, every single pot I enter into I get outdrawn, I flop top set in a raised pot of J73, it goes all in on the flop 3 way for a $3k pot and I lose to a donkey with 456x who connects. I have not felt this bad for sooooo long, it doesn't matter what I do I cannot win a big pot. I think Im about 10k down on expectation now - last time I posted I was up for the evening, since then I have dropped another 4k, this is going oh so badly and it doesn't seem to be stopping. I'd be less bothered if I wasn't soooo tilted by it, it leads to me then dropping more through stupid play with no thought.

Christ I am not enjoying the game right now, have tried to build myself up with the 5-10 game which I shouldn't have been doing and now I am considring dropping to 1-2 until I rebuild. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, this has to end soon right?

Steve

Playing the 2nd Nuts in omaha

The second nut flush or straight has to be one of the hardest hands in PL omaha to play well as it is so difficult to find out cheaply whether you are ahead or not. Often (especially with the flush) people will strongly bet the blockers.

The best example of this is when you hit the K high flush and someone else at the table has the Ace but no flush. A strong player can bluff this situation extremely effectively leaving you with a decision for all your chips knowing that you may well be drawing dead. If you bet he pot with the K flush and then are raised how do you decide what to do? It's a huge decision as if they have what they are representing you lose your whole stack, however they may just have the Ace and be representing the nut flush.

So how do you know which it is? Simple answer is that you don't, you have an idea based on the situation and player but they may well play both hands in the same fashion giving you no information.

I never know how to play these as although you do have a fantastic hand if any strong resistance is shown it is quite likely to be beaten - I usually play these hands extremely passively as to be honest they scare me as I don't know how to play them. By doing this however you allow aggressive players to steal and draws to the boat to hit. Obviously the ideal is somewhere in the middle of these two approaches - lets call it cautious aggression. You will reraise but be ready to stop betting if they stay in the pot.

Situations like A high flush vs K high flush can be extremely expensive and a misread cost you your entire stack. The second nuts is the one hand in omaha which I feel I struggle with - I manage to play it profitably BUT I often feel that I have minimised my winning on many pots because I can't fully commit.

I'd be interested in any advice anyone has on hands like this as it's an area I can definitely improve upon.

Steve

And the fine run continues

I've had another awesome day, where in every big pot where the money goes in on the flop or turn I get sucked out on. Luckily I'm managing to take this in my stride but I reckon I'm about 7-8k down on expectation across the last two days. It's quite a hole to deal with really.

However it may have bottomed out (hope so) and this hand is so weird to me, I like my play in it although I could certainly have bet the turn but I decided against it as I didn't think I'd get any action so I was willing to go for a delayed bet on the river should I still hold the nuts. Anyway take a look and if anyone can justify my opponents reshove over my raise considering pot size and my remaining stack I should be very interested to hear it. All I can conclude is that somehow I had cultivated a stealing image, I had raised a fair few but this was a 9 way pot on the flop surely the outright steal is not running through his head. Best I can offer is that he put me (optomistically) on a busted flush, even with this I'd only expect a call. Anyway take a look below.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1642924

Weird one really isn't it, I think the best explanation is that he's on tilt from another table or something.

Right I'm going to put in a short session and see if I can resurrect my bankroll somewhat. I feel a lot more positive than I did earlier today and hopefully that will lead to my hands holding up a bit more

Steve

Can't hit a thing

Last two times I've played I have run so badly. Have been involved in three 2k+ pots this evening with 75% favourite, 50% fave 3 way and 35% three way and hit none of them. If I run to expectation I am at least $3.3k better off. I am currently rather hacked off and am quitting for the evening. I'm also going to spend the next couple of days rebuilding at 2-4 rather than playing 5-10. that is my own fault for not maintaining a large online bankroll but at least it means I don't go off for large amounts.

Ah well, it's all part of the game and I've had worse runs and at least I can justify all of my play over these sessions

Steve