Monday night table selection sux

As expected, available tables on a Monday evening Aussie time really sucked.

For 24poker, there was only one limit table running between the $1/2 level and $3/6. It seemed juicy enough, with about 65% of players seeing the pot, so I added myself to the waiting list as it was currently empty. An hour later when I had finished my session, I was still sitting at #1 on the wait list. ARGH

In the mean time, however, I had fired up Cake, as at least there's normally one table there I can join as well between $2/4 and $3/6. Well, no, not this time. There were no $2/4 tables running and one $3/6 table which had 4 players sitting down and 19% of players seeing the pot. Dont see how that table could be profitable so I gave it a miss for a start. There was one juicy $1/2 table going so I jumped on that for want of a better offer. I had notes on a couple of the players and had them marked as easy money (green). I found myself sitting on the left of a massive fish, so had the opportunity to take a few notes -

• HUGE FISH, called raise 43o in the CO. Limps almost every pot. Will always see a turn, but folds to a turn bet if unimproved. Will bet only if has a hand. Will actually raise preflop with TT+ but nothing else. Chases all gutshots.

Unfortunately for me, his 43o hit a straight when an A hit on the river to pair my AQ preflop. He also managed to hit a flush draw and a few two outers. He quit the table when i was down by 25BBs!!!!! I had to rebuy in, as the table was still fishy even without him.

I then decided to check back in at the lobby, and noticed he had moved to the $3/6 table and had $120 sitting in front of him. Here's my chance to make some cash back!! So I jumped on there for the next 40 minutes. There was another big fish playing on the same table as well, who I had some notes on.

• Limp PF any pos with weak A or any 2 suited. Folds flop to raise. Calls raise with weak A. Will shut down to aggression even if he has near nuts or nuts!! Chases gutshots every time.

Unfortunately though, my seat position wasn't good as I was sitting to the right of the two big fish. I figured however, that since they were so bad, and the two to my right were not raising or 3 betting much forcing me to fold, I'd still make a decent profit.

First few hands on the $3/6 table, I saw my original fish hit a runner runner flush, and a gutshot straight holding 84o. Luckily for me, I wasn't involved in those pots, however, his stack was now over $200.

From then on, he didnt manage to suck out on many hands, and I relentlessly value bet with any reasonably strong holding, and continually bet the turn, no matter what card had hit. One hand I think I had 96s, missed the flop, bet, he called, turn was another blank, I bet hoping for a fold, but he called. River was another blank, so I checked and he checked behind, and I won the hand with 9 high. Its beyond me why he was calling down with 7 high and no draw.

Anyways, each pot wasn't too big because of the serious lack of aggression, however, I made about a 15BB profit on the table, before his $200 stack ran out. So I took nearly half of it, which I can't complain about. At the same time i'd won back my 25BBs on the $1/2 table, and had made another 5BBs on top of that mainly due to that table staying very fishy, and a number of my big hands holding up.

On bonuses, I think Cake must be looking at my account every time they want to announce a reload bonus. Every time my remaining bonus to clear is down to $10, they release a new bonus. This time 25% up to $100. So I made my $400 deposit to maximise the potential bonus. The session tonight cleared my final $10 of the previous bonus, so it looks like i'll continue to play Cake when there aren't enough free tables on 24poker.

What I also like about Cake is that their rake structure is actually quite good for low fixed limit poker, roughly comparable to fulltilt or stars, and a LOT better than ipoker or microgaming. Oh and the rakeback is 33% which is not too bad either.

I still have another $500 to clear in bonuses off 24 as well. Should take another 6 weeks or so at the rate i'm going.

Current bankroll: $8,300