Action, mistakes and loose play

This week has seen a tremendous amount of action at the tables. I've played about 1500 hands in about 15 hours and won just over $2500. This hasn't happened, though, without putting a lot of money into play. I'm thankful to the poker gods for providing me with enough bankroll padding to be able to play at these stakes without feeling outside my comfort zone.

It hasn't all been plain-sailing though and I had a bad hour or so on Wednesday evening where I was in danger of getting seriously annoyed with myself.

Monday brought a nice win ($1100), with a couple of hiccups along the way, but Tuesday I only broke even despite a couple of risky plays that paid off.

On Wednesday I made a couple of moves that under the right circumstances were OK, but with the table image that I had cultivated (very loose aggressive) were nothing more than chip-spewing. I lost a lot of money in $100s and $200s trying to buy pots with nothing and I picked the wrong time to take a stand when playing heads-up against somebody who I have now re-assessed as "tough" from my original classification of "borderline maniac".

I was down over $2000 for the day at one point, but changed tables and immediately flopped the nut straight in a raised pot (big blind v small blind) with QJ. The raiser had TP+SD and we got all-in on the turn, my hand holding up despite the board pairing on the turn.

Next I re-raise squeezed from the BB with AQs and pushed all-in when re-re-raised. It turns out the 4-bettor had QQ but I considered that unless he had AA I had at least 30% equity and decided to go for it, as there was the possibility he was re-squeezing.

After winning this hand it was obvious that I was viewed as the table donkey, although there was another guy who was in more pots than me and was quite passive. He called a big bet of mine with A4 on a board of 5677(rainbow) and when I checked behind on the river with KJ he won a decent pot. This can't have made me look good either, so I decided I had better make the most of this loose image. I tightened up and only raised in super-solid situations for the next 20 minutes or so: just enough to look as if I hadn't gone into my shell with my big stack.

I had lost a few smallish pots to the guy on my right who now had around $2k after pushing me around a bit when I found the perfect spot to push him back. He raised from the SB and I re-raised him to $120 with QQ. The flop came Q53 and he checked and called my follow-up bet of $190. The 4 on the turn appeared to change nothing and he checked and called again - this time a bet of $370. When the river came an Ace, I wondered if he could have anything good enough to call another big bet. I decided he might just look me up with a relatively weak hand, when considering my previous play, so decided to bet enough to put him all-in. He happily called his last $1200 with AQ (top two-pairs) and I raked in the biggest pot in the history of this blog ($3900).

After a disastrous start to the day, I was relieved to get back to a manageable loss (about $400).

The rest of the week was less eventful, in comparison and I finished it very well despite the occasional hiccup. I was much more controlled in my decision-making and managed to find some very favourable situations where I got somewhere near maximum value for my hand.

The action has been good lately as long as you are prepared to look for good tables, avoiding the tight regulars. One of the advantages of playing one table at a time is that I have time to assess how things are going and can look for a better table if necessary. There still seems to be enough loose money making its way to $5-$10 to keep the multi-tabling regulars in business but I'm happy that my method suits my game.

Maybe I could win more per hour playing a tighter game on 3-4 tables. The win-rate would almost certainly drop dramatically and with the reduced win-rate comes increased variance, putting more pressure on the bankroll. I'm happy playing 1 table: it feels more like a game than a job and the enjoyment factor has definitely got to be a major consideration in determining any future plans in this game.

Managing the swings is one of the keys to success, and I'm comfortable with the bankroll now standing at around $24,000. Having said that, I know I have been lucky in this escapade so far. I hope that continues but I am realistic enough to know that I need to hope I still keep playing winning poker when my luck changes for the worse.