April Summary

April was not too bad, although a couple of quite significant losing runs put a big dent into the profits. One 120BB losing streak (at $3/6!!!) and at least a couple 50BB losses really doesn't help all that much.

On the plus side, found a few very nice bonuses which helped, and also have recovered a significant portion of the losing streak losses. Will be glad when I get back to my all time high though hopefully fairly soon in May. I probably didn't put in too many hours in May either so can't expect to be jumping up huge amounts of cash.

I finished the month on $6,750, which is a gain of $1,000 which I really can't complain about. Also played a reasonable number of hands at $3/6 where there have been appropriate fish, and am relatively comfortable at that level, even though I got massively sucked out on :)

However, one of my main bonuses clears via raked hands at $1/2, so that's where I'll be playing quite a bit in May I think.

The gain of $1,000 for the month was made up of:

Bonuses: $625

• William Hill: $50 for 5 hours play bonus
• Sun: $20 bonus for playing 160mpps
• Cake: $110 bonus cleared
• 24: $150 sign up bonus
• Big slick: $25 sign up bonus
• Party: $10 reload bonus
• Pokerroom: $210 through PSO
• Pokerstars: $50 sign up bonus (finally got round to clearing this one)

Rakeback: $115

Fulltilt: $0
Sun: $25
Cake: $80
William Hill: $10

Poker winnings / (losses): $260 (disappointing .. although probably didnt play a huge amount)

For May the goals in order of priority are:

• Clear as much of my 24 bonus as possible ($850 remaining)
• Play my 5 hours on William Hill for the $50 bonus
• Clear some of the Sun bonus - maybe $20 or $50 (through double up SnGs mainly)
• Clear $45 on party which expires in 10 days
• Clear my last $50 on cake
• Clear a chunk of the $450 remaining on Big Slick

Current bankroll: $6,750

A couple very different sessions

Had a terrible start to approx 2 hours of poker, where I managed to drop 50BBs (@$2/4) within half an hour. This time it wasn't only because of nasty beats (although I capped preflop with AKs and some numpty called/raised with 44, flop hit AT7r, and obviously you'd call with 44 hoping to hit your two outer, which did hit him on the turn ....) - I actually played some very very poor hands - like calling down a maniac who was raising every hand, when I had Q high .... all it takes to destroy a maniac is a bit of patience, and obviously I had none at that point in time.

So after that horror start, it was time to stop, reevaluate, and go back to basics.

Was I selecting good tables? Pretty much yes, the best tables available, although they were not quite as juicy as i'd normally like. One table I should have quit earlier though.

Was I selecting the right seats? NO ... the main fish had position on me and I had a TAG or two on my right ... that is a BIG problem.

Okay, time to correct my seating issue, and wait for some fishier tables.

Found some and managed to recover all my losses within about an hour. Mainly due to two hands. One which had a raiser and two callers with me looking at 67s on the BB. Flop was J45r. All 4 players stayed in to one raise on the flop. Three players remained in to a raise, my call, and then a reraise when the A hit on the turn. River was a glorious 3 giving me the nuts, and one other player decided that was worth capping the river on. Ship it ... :)

The other main hand was when I had KK and some other guy had A6 and he decided it was worth betting and raising his pair of 6s on a Q high board all the way to the river. He had sucked out a smaller pot earlier from me, so I guess that was justice.

Cleared another $50 from 24 as well.

Current Bankroll: $6,750

Short n sweet

Another brief session, as I really only logged in to ask for a bonus to be released on 24.

They released $50 and i'm actually 80% of the way there to the next $50 which is handy.

In the meantime I played about 30 hands of actual poker, on a couple $2/4 only averagely fishy tables, but they were the best I could find - VPIP of around 47%.

Had one guy hit his 6 outer (holding KQ v my pocket pair) on the river to take a 6bb pot off me which was kinda annoying, but you gotta remember that if people keep calling down against the odds, then you're going to make money in the long term. Very next hand, i'm sitting on 44 in the BB with one raiser and two callers, so I call. Flop gives me a gutshot in addition to my pair, so its my turn to have 6 outs. One raise and the pot is 10sbs, so its giving me odds to chase. But then the next guy raises after me, and gets called so its now 13sbs and a no brainer for me to call. Turn is blank, and with one raiser and caller followed by my call and then another raiser, the pot is over 10BBs. River smiles on me as I hit my gutshot, although the board also pairs. One raiser, two folders and I take down a 13BB pot - revenge :)

Current bankroll: $6,700

Fish infested waters

Only logged in last night to check my cake gold cards to see if I could cash in, but figured I may as well have a look at the tables to see who's on.

Saw one player on who in my comments box had 'massive fish, huge vpip, calls down with bottom pair or even an under pair'. Also on the same table was one of the players who had taken me for a couple of those huge bad beats, however, he was a really aggro player rather than a super passive fish. Obviously they could not go unpunished for my prior sessions, so I quickly jumped on.

Played all of 20 hands before the cake software decided to crap itself .. which seems to happen reasonably often come to think of it. Fortunately by this time i'd already made about 20BBs ($120), as aggro boy had bluffed into my top AQ on every street with air, and massive fish had called down my KK betting every street on a Q high board with his under pair of 2s.

Also got a party reload offer which clears at a rate of 5 points per $, so i'll have to look at taking that one up in the next day or so.

I've still got about $50 to clear of my latest cake reload too, as well as $450 on 24 poker, and $450 on bigslick ... hopefully I dont get too many more juicy offers or I may not be able to clear them all!!! With luck they can all come in a couple months.

Current bankroll: $6,600

The fish bite back!

Argh. Had a horror run, over a relatively small period of time. Found some super fishy tables at the $3/6 level, with a VPIP of at least 80%!!!! So that means that its easy to win right .... apparently not. Variance can suck sometimes!

After an assortment of horrendous bad beats, I managed to drop around 120BBs - or $720 which was a decent chunk of my bankroll. Every single hand seemed to be a loser or a massive suck out going against me. Admittedly I wasnt actually seeing many flops as I was having a hugely dry run of starting hands, and often when I did see them, I completely missed. Just the times I did hit the flop turned out to be nightmares. Have to get a few of them off my chest.

Hand 1: I am holding QQ, betting gets capped 3 ways preflop. Flop is Q46 rainbow - kaching!!! One folder to my flop bet, and one remaining caller. turn 7 gets called, river 5 gets raised. Obviously the initial caller is holding 36o for a straight versus the cap preflop ....

Hand 2: I am holding KK, betting gets capped 3 ways preflop. T52r flop, so I bet out and get called. J turn, I bet out and get raised, so I call. River is another J. I check/call. Obviously the caller shows down KJo versus a capped flop initially ... other player had QQ.

Hand 3: I am holding AA and another 3 way capped preflop. Flop is J72r. A diamond on the turn and diamond on the river has one player showing down K9s ... So he has completely missed the flop and yet called a raise and chased his flush .... ARGH

Hand 4: AA and another 3 way capped flop. Flop is Q92r. My bet gets called. Turn A, my bet gets called by both. River is a T, and obviously both raisers/cappers preflop show J8 for the straight .... (one was the same player as hand 2 and 3)

I ended up recovering a bit from the fish though, maybe around 50BBs as they kept on playing trash.

I didn't actually play that much over the weekend though. Did visit a bricks and mortar casino though for a couple hours, which is pretty rare for me. Sat down on the smallest limit table which was $4/8, 9 handed. Proceeded to play very TAG, and hardly ever got a hand. I think my most common hand was T5o and 38o. The table was massively fishy ... with a couple hands all 9 players seeing the flop, and in particular the guy on my right was limping into 90% of pots or more. I managed to make about 40BBs there, just through being patient, and my muppet friend on my right deciding to cap the turn and raise the river when I had raised preflop with JJ, and he was holding JTo on a J high unpaired, but potentially flushed final board. One guy actually complained that I was hardly playing any hands, but when I did, I always got a good hand. DUH! Anyways, that $320 or so win I won't include in my online bankroll, as I was realy just out playing for fun with a mate, and I hardly every play live.

So .. all in all... my online bankroll took a fair hit of around $400. However, if I ever spot any $3/6 tables again that look that fishy, I will not hesitate to play them. These guys will give me their money in the long run :)

Current Bankroll: $6,500

A downer .. what is that?

Been a while since i've had a losing session, but managed to achieve that in another quick 45 minute session last night.

It was one of those where within 3 hands, i'd flopped top pair, and top or 2nd kicker only to lose to an overpair twice, and also managed to lose with AK flopping 2 pair to the button's preflop raise with 53s which of course hit the flush.

Only dropped about $50 though but was down by about $100 at one stage. Am a fair bit closer to releasing my next $50 in bonus which would put me back to square. Should clear that in the next few days.

Holiday here tomorrow, so probably won't post again till Monday.

Good luck!

Bankroll: $6,900

Doh

Okay I really need to read bonus conditions a bit closer. For my current 24poker one, I have to play raked hands with blinds of at least .5/1 ... ie raked hands on a minimum of $1/2 limit tables. So i've wasted a good 300 hands playing 0.5/1. Lesson learned.

Played a briefish session .. maybe 45 mins, and this time everything went right. The fish only sucked out once (when I decided my hand was worth showing down), and quite a few of my hands hit, including having the nuts to a guy with the second nut. He obliged me though by capping the river which was nice of him. All in all I won around 40BBs in that relatively short space of time.

Current Bankroll: $6,950

Getting killed ... or so I thought

Didn't get to play on the weekend, as I was pretty much out all the time. Although had a home game with the boys which was fun. Effectively playing a bunch of small STTs ... plenty of sledging and enjoyment for all.

However, did play a few hours yesterday, and I was literally getting nothing, and when I did have something the suckouts were coming thick and fast.

I figured i'd have to be down overall by quite a bit, but as it turns out I ended up marginally down from playing, but made over $100 in bonuses. Somewhat of a relief actually, although very disappointing to lose a couple big pots when I took a stab at $3/6 with a massive fish on the table, who consistently sucked out.

Anyways, I really cant complain at the end result, because my stats were looking really terrible. Around a 18% VPIP (got nothing playable) a WTSD of around 25% (hardly ever had anything to show down) and a W$SD of 33% (man did I get sucked out on).

Didn't abuse people too much, well not until I was about to leave the table, and then I let fly. So at least i'm getting a little better there :)

Current bankroll: $6,850

Well suck me out!

Only played a very short session and copped 3 hands in a row ...

Holding JJ, betting is capped between 4 players. Flop is T high rainbow. UTG bets the flop, 2 folds, I raise, UTG reraises. Turn is a blank. I bet UTG raises, I call. River another T. UTG bets and I call. UTG shows T4 .....

Next hand I have AQs, raise which is reraised by previous muppet. Flop is A62 rainbow. I bet he raises. Turn 4, River 7. Muppet turns over 85o ... well F ME.

Very next hand, I raise AKo. Said muppet calls again. Of course he hits another runner runner straight with his 67o ... Unfortunately I had to leave a few hands later before I had won it all back off him. Irritating to say the least.

Did clear my first $50 bonus though on 24poker which was handy. Got a poker night with the boys tonight, but might hit the tables some more on the weekend.

Current Bankroll: $6,750

Muppets in SitnGos

Played one $10 double up sitngo last night, and came across a player who played virtually every hand, and actually seemed to be going quite well. It wasn’t until he called my 2 pair down after my pot size raises on every street to hit his flush with a 45s on the river that I got annoyed with him.

Still, I managed to stay in control and played with extreme patience. I had about 1,000 in chips left with 7 players left and the blinds up to 200/400, which was getting quite painful to be honest. My mate the muppet by this time had accumulated 5,500 chips, and along with another player on 4,000 chips, were chip leaders by miles over the rest of us. (Only a total of 15,000 chips on the table). Anyways, given that you only need to come 5th, I figured I still had a decent chance of doubling up, as another couple players were even shorter stacked than me.

To answer my prayers I received AA, and when a stack of 800 pushed all in at the cutoff with AK and with me on the button, I obviously obliged him with my own all in. An A on the flop gave me peace of mind, and put me up to around 2,600 chips.

Problem was, that for the next orbit or two, I literally received nothing whilst other players were raising and calling, and suddenly the blinds were 300/600. The two smaller stacks had managed to double up, one managed to do it with 52 flopping 52T which was quite annoying as well! In the meantime, my mate the muppet had managed to drop from 5,500 chips to about 1,500. He literally could have folded every hand and easily ended in the money from his big 5,500 chips … but I guess that’s what makes him a muppet.

I ended up folding down to about 600 chips as I was hoping either muppet would take on someone with a bigger stack, or there was potentially one other player who would get blinded out on the current orbit before I was blinded out. Muppet was obliging though, and managed to get himself kicked out by the now big stack, so I got to double my cash. Happy days.

As usual played a few cash games at the same time, with one hand going particularly well when I raised UTG with ATo and got reraised by the button. He fired on a flop of AA7, which I called, he again raised the turn, which I called. The river was a tough choice – do I hope he gives it 3 barrels? Hmmm, no, won’t take the risk so I raised and he called giving me a nice pot. Fortunately that was on a $2/4 table. On my 0.5/1 tables I was getting cleaned up and lost 20BBs – mainly through a couple nasty suck outs, but generally from me clean missing the flop more often than usual.

Anyways I should have enough raked hands (320) to clear my first $50 on 24poker (microgaming), so that will be a nice little boost to the bankroll too.

Current Bankroll: $6,700

Almost forgot

Did actually have 2 interesting hands and played one 10pound double up sitngo.

The Sitngo was one of the easiest I have ever played in. I ended up playing one hand (QQ in middle position) to make about 200 chips, and then I proceeded to fold every single hand. When the blinds were still $25/$50 there were suddenly only 5 players left and I had doubled up. Sweet. I didnt even notice for another hand that there was only 5 of us left. Kinda shocked with that one.

An interesting hand was only on the $0.50/1 table, where I was dealt 67o in the big blind. It got checked around to me so I checked, and the flop was a miraculous 345r. I obviously raised being first in, and got a caller, a raiser, and another caller, so I then called the raise. Turn was a J, which I checked, and the next guy raised, followed by a reraise then call, so I raised, and it got capped all the way round. River was an A, which stopped one of the guys, but the other 2 kept betting and raising to cap. I didn't even check what they had after the hand, but I think its the first time i've ever had the betting capped into me on both the turn and river when I am holding the stone cold nuts. Maybe I should play on the .5/1 tables more often!!

A few hands later I was dealt KK and one player called my raise. The flop was AK5r, where the player raised into me, so I obliged with a reraise. Turn was a K, and he has raised again, and obligingly called my reraise. He didn't raise the river, however, was kind enough to call my bet. I think that's the first time i've had quad kings, and it was an added bonus that he actually bet and called me down :)

Cyas at the table - i'll be lookin for the fish

2nd quick stab

Played about an hour since my last post. Couldn't find a decent $2/4 table on Cake, so took my second stab at $3/6. Kinda weird - the two 2/4 tables were tight as rocks, but the 3/6 table had a vpip over 65% ... go figure.

Anyways, it turned out to be reasonably uneventful, and I won around 7BBs, although was never down for the session. My seat was also ideal, with 1 massive and one minor fish sitting on my right, and the only TAG of the table to my left. Unfortunately I had to quit my super juicy table to get ready for work (not too disappointing though as the two main fish were down to about $30 left each - but woulda been nice if i'd taken it from them). I still have $40 in bonuses to clear on cake as well.

At the same time I opened a couple tables on 24poker, where I need to clear my $1,000 bonus, 320 or so raked hands at a time for a $50 release. The odd thing is using raked hands, is that it clears no quicker at $2/4 than it does at $0.50/1 .... so I figure i'll play mainly $0.5/1, with a bit of 1/2 if there aren't enough fishy tables at the lower levels.

Also just received another party reload offer, and will probably take that up as well for a very small amount. The irritating thing about party now, is that you lose 10% of your party points every week that you dont play. I can't believe that is in any way a good business decision on their part. Hopefully they lose a bunch of players and have to change it back soon. Since i'm currently clearing a party bonus though, I did open a $2/4 table there, and promptly won 20BBs before the fish decided to leave, so I had to quit the table as well, as the rest were extremely tight.

All in all a good little session, although played over too many sites which does get a bit confusing.

Current Bankroll: $6,600

Oops

Signed up for another bonus last night, which was one of those one's where the bonus conditions are going to be significantly worse if you wait another day. Problem is, now I have to clear $500 on the ipoker network, and $1,000 on microgaming.

It would be a bigger oops, except the microgaming one has a 90 day period to clear the bonus, release in $50 increments, and the ipoker one has hopefully 90 days to clear as well, but i'm not exactly positive on that one.

Only played briefly last night to create a hand history database to allow me to link up pokertracker to my new sites. The microgaming one clears via raked hands instead of rake though, so as long as I play at least .5/1 I will be clearing the bonus. So if i do that I should definitely make more than I pay in rake, although wont be making as much from actual poker winnings. I can live with that though - less variance :)

Current bankroll: $6,450

small update

Just checked my mail - I just squeaked into the money on Cake poker for $15 ... still disappointed but better than nothing!!!

Also forgot to mention, Party gave me $10 to play with as well. I managed to bank $50 before I lost the $10 that was restricted. Two thumbs up to party for giving away free money :)

cheers!

Back from my break

Got back on the weekend and was able to put in a few hours on the tables.

Cleared my Pokerroom bonuses, so that was a quick $210 boost all up, although had a bit of a dark day at the tables, when I continued to be 2 outered more than enough times for it to be memorable as abnormal.

I also finally started up on ipoker to see how that deal there would work out. Have to say it started horribly with a super quick loss of 50BBs on the $2/$4 limit tables. Whilst it was annoying, there wasn't much I could do about it. I was playing well, and just not getting anything. My WTSD was around 28% and my W$SD was showing around 25%. Had the 2nd nuts a few times which didn't help the bankroll at all.

Fortunately I was able to find some quite fishy players, and a couple maniacs, who managed to donate all of that back to me, and then another 20BBs. So i'm currently up after around 600 hands on the ipoker network.

I also entered a cake $15,000 freeroll using goldcards this morning. Around 950 runners, and I found myself on an average stack size of $11k in about 120th with about 230 players left, and 130 of those being paid. Unfortunately my holidays are over so I had to go to work, and sit out for the rest of the tourney. I wonder if i made the money ... will check tonight when i get home. Oh well!

Before I forget, what I do need to check though is the rake on ipoker. On face value it appears to be MUCH higher than fulltilt. Will have to check pokertracker.

I've also signed up on microgaming to give that a go as well. So if there arent enough fishy tables on ipoker, will look on there at the same time. Its always good to have a choice of sites if the tables are too tight, as I refuse to play on them.

Current bankroll: $6,400

Goin nowhere, and short break

Only played maybe an hour since last Thursday, and in one session managed to lose to a 2 outer on the river 3 times. (Pocket pair v lower pocket pair). Would have been a great session apart from that, so i'm exactly where I started. (and again I managed to fire off a bit of abuse ... STOP IT!)

I did actually pick up a hopefully very valuable Ac in the Cake gold card promotion though, which i can hopefully cash in for a chunk of change one day. My highest card before that was an 8 which doesnt have a huge value. I believe a Q went for $80 and a K went for about $200 earlier this year, so an A should be a bit higher than that. Well at least it will keep me logging into Cake regularly to check.

I will also hopefully sign up to the fantastic deal on the ipoker network shortly too. I needed a long term deal on that network so it was a very handy find thanks guys. Feel free to message me for more details .. and i better get off my a$$ and sign up in the next day or so.

I'm going away for a few days this week though, so probably won't hit the tables to next weekend. Should be fun though, but may not hit that $6k barrier to next weekend now. (Although I think I only need another 150 points to clear the Pokerroom bonus, and Party just emailed me another 8x reload which should clear pretty quick, so maybe I will get there).

See yas in a week!

Current Bankroll: $5,950

Now a super fishy table!

Pokerroom was kind enough to give me a table with the average VPIP of around 74% for 5 players, including my VPIP of around 32 which was bringing the overall average down a lot!!

You'd think that would let me make a ton of cash, and at times I was doing fairly well. However my KdTd then managed to hit a 3 flush board. Unfortunately muppet #1 happened to have Ad5d. I 4 bet the turn, which he 5 bet ... so i figured i was in trouble and only called his bet on the river.

A few more nasty 3rd flush card hitting on the river to beat my top pair, and i think I ended up making about 1BB for the entire session. (Well that combined with the inevitable missing 5 flush draws and 2 OESDs in a row).

Playing Cake at the same time helped though, as one very aggressive player managed to donate about 20BBs to me by betting into me every time, including when i'd hit my hand. Thanks very much.

The Sit n Go's continue to be quite successful, although I'm still only playing a maximum of 10 pound tables. My ROI for the last 2 months has been somewhere near 30%, which is okay I think, particularly when you take add on the 40% rakeback and Sun's $20 bonus for 160 MPPs as well.

Current bankroll: $5,950

Super muppet

Very brief session of 3 tables of William Hill, plus a cake table or 2. Managed to clear $20 of the $50 William Hill bonus for the month already, and in the process lost $30 ... great work there. Lost a couple terrible hands, where some muppet in middle position called my raise (AQ) and called down his T9o with no draws on the board to hit his T on the river. Couple other nasty suckouts and instead of winning a packet I ended down.

Cake was a different story though where I found a player who I will call super muppet. This guy would check/call raises on the flop and turn and then fold on the river. Now I know that doesn't necessarily sound too bad, however, he would fold when he could actually check, and i'm sure at least once he would have had me beat. Needless to say he was pretty easy to play against - a bet represented a hand, and if he had nothing he'd fold ... was kinda handy, and made me a good 15 - 20 BBs.

I will probably focus a bit more on Pokerroom tomorrow as that should be finished by the end of next week at the latest as well as playing cake whenever a fishy table is available. After that the next bonus will absolutely have to be found :)

Still haven't got past my small tilt problem where I chat in the chat box and may call people muppets.... Gotta get past that, as I dont want to scare off the fish!! especially my mate Super Muppet.

Current bankroll: $5,830