July 2009 Summary

Well, I really didn't get in a lot of volume in July with only 16 hours played, but ran pretty hot to have a quite solid result for the month. Can't even remember much happening of interest during the month, except my three quads session. Actually had very few losing sessions, so that's probably why I don't remember too much - its the losses and bad beats that tend to stick in your head.

In hindsight though, its my first $1k month for a while, so that's a bit of a relief that i'm not going too far wrong lately.

Last month's goals for July:

• Clear as much of my Bodog reload bonus as possible (cleared about $30ish)
• Clear some of my Cake reload that I received at the end of May & June (cleared about $20ish)
• Play some more Pacific if it seems fishy (played quite a few hands there from $1/2 to $3/6 - seemed fishy although not overly so this month)
• Spend some more poker points and hopefully convert some to cash (fulltilt?) (nope)

The gain of $1,150 for the month was made up of:

Bonuses/vip/rakeback: $180

• Bodog $30
• Cake $40
• Pacific $100
• Fulltilt $10

Poker bankroll Interest: $60

Poker profits: $910

For August the goals in order of priority are:

• Clear as much of my Bodog reload bonus as possible and hopefully hit some fishy $4/8 tables
• Clear some more of my Cake reload that I received at the end of May & June
• Play some more Pacific if it seems fishy
• Spend some more poker points and hopefully convert some to cash (fulltilt?)

Current bankroll: $19,700
May time played: 16h30m
May profit / (loss): $1,150

Dodgey connection

Planned on putting in a good 1-2 hour session last night, but that got off to a false start when I logged into Bodog, fired up a table, and then the connection to Bodog froze before the big blind even got to me.

Fired up Pacific to see if that was working and had a similar problem even connecting to their servers. Very rare for the internet to give me any problems, and for some reason google was still working 100% fine.

So, know that it's an incredibly bad move to try to play with even a slightly dodgey connection, I moved over to the Wii for some grand slam tennis action for half an hour or so. Must admit its a great game, and once i've won the grand slam on medium difficulty I think i'll give it a go on hard.

After half an hour or so I jumped back onto the tables, and found that my connection was back to 100%, so quickly opened a few more at the $1/2 to $3/6 levels. Couldn't find too many fishy tables, but the one's I did find were great. I had one player on a table who was seeing 90% of flops and 90% of showdowns with an aggression factor of zero. The ultimate calling station, who donated me a good 10 or 20BBs alone.

Not too many interesting hands though, and the session ran quite smoothly, making a couple BBs at $3/6 where I was relatively card dead, a few more at $2/4 where again I hardly saw any hands, and then about 30BBs at $1/2 where a few fish just gave their money away. I did make what I thought were a few thin river value bets that I'd normally not make, but I figured since I was against total fish, even if they did nail me from time to time, i'd win more than I lost. This proved to be a good strategy against the calling stations.

Current bankroll: $19,650
July time played: 16h
July profit/(loss): $1,100

Ignorance can produce a nice surprise

I played a solid half hour last night, and suffered what seemed to be beat after beat after beat.

What made it worse was that it was being done by a couple of aggro muppets who would 3 bet stuff like third pair on a board where I had top pair only to river three of a kind, or another guy who 3 bet me on a flush and straight board on the turn where I held the flush only for the board to pair on the river to give him a boat.

I guess its not hard to understand why those types of hands are particularly annoying. I find the fish just calling down and hitting their miracles somewhat less annoying.

On the flip side when they miss, I guess the aggro guys do pay you off quite well.

It's human nature though to just remember the nasty beats and not all those regular wins where you just bet each street with the best hand and it holds up, or you even produce a suckout of your own.

I was sure i'd suffered a horrible session with a couple of those beats being in 20BB pots, however, once i'd closed down all my tables and tallied up where I was at for the day, I found that I was actually slightly up for the session. Add on some rakeback, and it wasn't too bad at all. Who says ignorance of where you're at doesn't come in handy sometimes?

Current bankroll: $19,600
July time played: 15h30m
July profit/(loss): $1,050

Raining quads

Well, relatively speaking as I hit quads three times in my half hour session.

First was with AA on a flop of AAK where everyone folded to my flop bet. Disappointing, but there's not much you can do.

A little later on I have A8 and flop J88, turn 8 .. and I get called down by two opponents. Nice

Then at the end of my session after a couple nasty beats I have 44 and flop 4h8hQh turn 8 to give me a boat which my opponent 3 bets me with which I cap, and river a 4 to give me the 2nd nuts where he just calls my raise for another nice pot.

Overall I ended up around 20BBs on a juicy $1/2 table and about 10BBs on a $3/6 table which could have easily been a lot more apart from a couple nasty 2 outers on the very last orbit of my session.

Good to get the weekend's losses back fairly quickly though.

Current bankroll: $19,550
July time played: 15h
July profit/(loss): $1,000

Bit of a hiccup

..... but most damage averted

Put in a few solid session over the weekend for almost three hours in total.

Started horrendously, and within the first and second sessions of the weekend I was down almost 100BBs at $1/2. Most of that was at a table where I had a 67/3 guy on my right and on his right was a 82/4 fish. Almost a dream table in theory ... but with results that sucked.

I then took that form to the $3/6 tables where on one table I dropped a quick 25BBs within the space of about 10 minutes where I got two outered on a couple big pots on the river. Add another $3/6 table where the very last hand of my session I lost set over set for another 10BB loss and my weekend was starting to look pretty ugly.

Eventually though things started going back my way and I recovered a solid 40BBs on the $1/2 tables, and another 20 or so on the $2/4 tables. I then found a very juicy looking $5/10 table where I sat down with one big fish on my right. One orbit later when i'm on the BB he leaves, so that ruined the table for me so I set myself to not auto post the blinds for the next orbit. In that hand I was dealt a fantastic 76o and was facing a raise and cold caller, so I decided to come along for the ride thanks to the cold caller. Flop of Q63r was not a terrible flop for me, but I was out of position which kinda sucked. However, a turn and river of 7 and 6 allowed me to get in a nice check raise and I left about 10BBs up after getting no more hands in that final orbit.

Add on a bit of rakeback and i've lost about $100 for the weekend, but it actually felt pretty good to recover that much and even end with a loss of that size.

For those of you looking for a bit of a time waster check out www.epicpetwars.com and feel free to add me to your posse - code kursbsk

Current bankroll: $19,450
July time played: 14h30m
July profit/(loss): $900

Cake rakeback now paid weekly

Cake has now made the move to weekly instead of monthly rakeback payments which I think is a good move in that it should attract a few more players to the network.
Given the bankroll I run on there it's not going to make a big difference to me but i'll never complain about getting money sooner than later!

If interested as always make sure you sign up to a solid rakeback deal and here's where I give the link to my new rakeback affiliated site - Bonus Chasing Grinder Rakeback - Feel free to click through.

I actually hit up a few Cake $3/6 tables last night as they were looking pretty fishy, and promptly found a new fish that I need to hunt down whenever he plays. The first hand I saw him play was where he raised utg, and then fired again on the flop, turn and river before flipping over 63o on a KJ872 board. I was licking my lips. Obviously it didn't take long for him to bust out his 20BBs but at least he gave a few to me.

Ten minutes later I found him playing on another $3/6 table, with a vacant seat on his left. Could not believe my luck and sat down there as well. This time his 25BB stack lasted a good 15 minutes, and again he donated a fair bit of it to me. Happy days.

In total I probably played a good hour and a half, which is the longest session that i've played in a while - and another profitable one at that.

Current bankroll: $19,550
July time played: 11h30m
July profit/(loss): $1,000

Followed by a tiny cooler

Can't really complain that a super hot run is followed by a small cooler - although once again it could easily have been another solid session apart from a couple nasty beats.

I actually started pretty hot again, up about 15BBs in the first five minutes. Again hitting solid hands regularly, and that continued through the session. What didn't continue was when i'd hit my TPTK with say KJ and allowing me to check/raise the flop was then blanks on the turn and river. Each time i'd get called and the turn or river was almost always an A for my fishy mates to hit their three outer.

Not all bad though as I only ended about 20BBs down and even that was mainly on the $1/2 tables. Could very easily have gone the other way though and would have been nice to report another winning session.

I also realised i'd miscategorised a player who had been running at something like 60/50 with a70% wtsd for his first 50 hands so I figured he was pretty much a maniac. Come 100 hands and he's back to around 35/25 which puts him much closer to a LAG/TAG that i'd always try to avoid. On realising this and with him to my right I decided to quit that table.

Hoping to put in a bit longer session tonight.

Current bankroll: $19,400
July time played: 10h
July profit/(loss): $850