Start of 2011

I've decided to concentrate on cash games in January. I might sneak a few 90s or 180s in and possibly a tournament or two, but the main focus is to play cash.

Managed to play a little on New Years Day, but not much. I spent most of the day prepping my excel spreadsheet for Bankroll for the new year. I did play some microstakes $0.02/$0.04 LHE on Ultimate Bet as I tinkered with the spreadsheet posting a $0.54 win in 111 hands good for 12.16 BB/100. Tweaking the spreadsheet from 2010 meant grabbing the MTTs and SnGs also and making sure they were still being spread. Some did change and I saw one added within my bankroll.

Sunday I managed to lose slightly more than 22BBs [$11.10] of $0.25/$0.50 LHE in 169 hands at PokerStars before running to San Jose for my semi-monthly Geek Day.

Monday, after finishing up some ITH/IPR projects, I popped open one table of NL4 on each of Cake Poker and Lock Poker while also playing $0.50/$1 FL on Full Tilt and $0.25/$0.50 FL on Stars. I got butt-kicked early, but managed to fight to a +$0.25 profit plus an extra little bit of rakeback on Cake and Lock. Overall, a meager $0.97 profit.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent playing $3/$6 LHE at the California Grand Casino. What a disaster. I've never had so many really good hands get killed. I'd watch people pull down 10-12 BB pots with a pair and yet I lost two pair, sets, flushes and straights to better hands that should never have either been played or progressed past the flop. One hand really stands out and is a very good representation of what transpired over the two days.

I get dealt Ks8s in the SB. The casino runs blinds at 3-2-2 with the button paying a blind. Most cardrooms in the Bay Area that carry a bad beat jackpot had these aggressive blind structures. The $3/$6 game, however, with no jackpot runs a standard 3-1 BB/SB. Anyway, no one should ever fold a blind in the California Grand $3/$6 game short of a raise up front. With the amounts of limpers the odds you get with any two cards are huge. Anyway, the flop comes out KcJs8h. I bet out, one person calls and the CO raises me. I 3-bet him, the other caller folds and the CO calls. Turn is a 5h. I bet out and he calls. River is a 5d. Once again I bet out, but this time the CO raises. The pot is too big to fold to the huge fish who has been buying pots all day. I call. He shows 5c3s. OK, I might save a BB on the river, but this player is not stopping on the flop if he hit two pair or a set. He's also not calling if he turned a set. He's much too aggressive. This hand was simply a microcosm of the two days. I remarked to my wife that I should have seen the writing on the wall on the first hand I played each day. I lost a flopped straight of 45678 holding 87s to 92o on Tuesday. Wednesday I flopped a set of 7s and lost to a runner runner flush. Between the two days I dropped $526. Yes ugly. My biggest mistake was assuming I could charge up my $900 live bankroll at $3/$6. Of course, I knew I was under-rolled and variance bit me in the ass. Bleh.

Thursday [today] I did much better online. I popped open a pair of $0.50/$1 LHE tables on Full Tilt and a pair of $0.25/$0.50 LHE tables on PokerStars. Managed to win $22.90 on Stars and $43.65 on Full Tilt for a profit of $66.55. Now that felt good.

More cash games tomorrow before heading back down to San Jose.