Monday & Tuesday

Monday evening

I played in the weekly $40 tourney at the local bar. I was eliminated two spots from the money when my QT of hearts didn't improve all-in against AK.

I went to the $1/2$ NL cash table, and bought in for $200 since most players had bigger stacks (they had been playing the cash game for at least 2 1/2 hours). I managed to win a couple of medium pots (including one with AA - wow what a surprise). My stack went up to about $300, then back down to $200.

I kept calling $10 raises with any suited, or connecting cards since there was always at least four players in the pot. The hopes of flopping something big, and the knowledge that I can play pretty well after the flop made this an OK strategy. I'd never play like this anywhere else, but these players are so loose that it's justified.

I won big with J2 of hearts. There was a raise to $12, two callers ahead of me (I'm on the button). I call, and both blinds call. So there's already $72 in the pot.

Flop came Jd 2c 3c... Everyone checks to me, and I bet $30. I get two callers. Turn is another J. They both check, I bet $30 again, they both call. Turn wasn't a very good card to see, another 3. I thought I'd have to chop this pot. The small blind bets out $50, the other guy thinks about it, but folds. I raise with my last $104, making it $54 more, and the donk calls. He shows a pair of Eights. I was relieved to see the river hadn't counterfeited me out of a big pot.

So I made a profit of $325 at the cash table, so $285 for the evening.

Tuesday afternoon

My online poker strategy is basically to play sit and go tournaments, and hope to build some kind of a bankroll without putting in any money. I play S&G on PokerStars. My trusty poker tracker software showed me that I made the money in 4 of 6 $20 single table S&G. It's not big money, but it can accumulate.

So I played three more of these today, one after the other. I finished 1st, 2nd and 4th. Top three places pay, so the last one was a bit disappointing. I had Q9, flop came 9TJ - so I had bottom pair and an open ended straight draw. I played it a bit too strong, and found myself almost all-in against a player who had JJ for top set. I didn't hit the straight, and was left with $850. Next hand I got dealt AJ, went all-in, and was called and beat by AQ.

But my record is still good, now having made the money in this type of tournament in 6 of 9, for a total profit of $180.00.

Here's the breakdown of my sit and go record so far this year.

$22 Single Table - 9 events, 6 money finishes, + $180
$55 Single Table - 3 events, 1 money finish, + $60
$22 Two Table - 1 event, 1 money finish, + $50
$33 Single Table - 3 events, 1 money finish, + $36
$22 180 players - 2 events, 1 money finish, + $17
$33 Three Table - 2 events, No money finishes, - $66
$14 Satellite to Sunday Millions - 1 event, No money finish, - $14

Total
23 events, 10 money finishes - up $263.00

I'll try to keep it going, resisting the urge to move up in levels until I've reached at least $1000.