Dublin Poker

I got paid today, so I can afford to donate some more cash into the online fund. I decided to lodge 50 euro into PPP, and if I lost it I lost it. I've said I would take on board advice that I have gotten over the past few weeks. I have moved up a few levels in order to play against a better standard of players. I have also reduced myself to playing ONE game at a time. Until I have mastered this, what is the point in playing 3 or 4? I started off today on $15 STT's on PPP, and played a little bit of 25c/50c. I know 50 euro is a silly bankroll for these levels but its more of an experiment to see if I can make a steady profit, and more importantly if I can keep my cool.

I took each game VERY slowly, giving it my full attention, albeit flicking onto boards and a few blogs at the same time. I played 10 games, and kept a record of my progress. I got 1st in 3, 2nd in 2, 3rd in 2, 5th once, and 7th twice. It cost me $165 to play these, and I took back $341.50. So a profit of $176.50. I got a few bad beats along the way, but managed to keep my cool. More importantly, I didn't bubble any of them, which usually gets me pretty pissed off, as you can understand...

I lost $6 playing a MTT, and another 4000 Paddy Points in the $1000 freeroll. I went out of this on a horrible hand but I wont go into it... it was a freeroll, no point moaning about it! I then went into a 25c/50c cash game with $50, and simply played tight as fuck! I literally waited until I got aces and pushed on the flop. I ran into Kings, which didn't improve. I played for a little bit more, and left with $90, a profit of $40. I arsed about in a few more ash games, and lost a little. I don't want to play them too much, as I'm very inexperienced at them. But when I do play, I'm not playing lower than 25c/50c, maybe 10c/20c the odd time.

Overall, I ended up with around $200 profit for the day (although I have just jumped into another cash game...) If I can keep this up I'll be happy. I think I can grind out a decent profit at this level, because I know I can beat these. The only problem is it only takes one of my really bad days and I know I'll be on major tilt. I have to try and keep this under control.

I decided to change onto All-In, where I have been playing the odd time over the past few months. I jumped into a $5K guaranteed, for $25. There was about 250 players, with top 20 getting paid from $62 for 20th, to $1867 for 1st. I got off to a nice start, staying in the top 10 for the first hour or two. Didn't take many risks, but was watching the screen like a hawk, and watching out for any decent players. As the field thinned out, the standard seemed to be getting better. However, I still managed to run into the only two donkeys left in!

I won't go on about the hands but suffice is to say I was hit by a two outer and three outer in the space of a few minutes. I'm not too annoyed about losing, more about how I lost. Neither of these needed to sacrifice their chips on minor hands (A2 vs AK (straight on river), and 33 vs KK (again, 3 on river), and both players lost my chips pretty soon after getting them. I guess I'm just surprised that this standard of players make it this far in tournaments.

I'm always being told that its good to have these 'fish' at the table, but I never seem to profit off them. I honestly prefer to play against a decent standard of opponent. Thats why I love playing bigger games. You can outplay your opponents, not outdraw them (for the most part!) . I mean, if I have AA, I want to be called by AK, not some muppet with 75o!



I ended up going out in 30th, after these two hands crippled me. Anyway, this tourney aside, I'm happy with how today went, and I think I'm going to stick to the $15 STT's. Maybe move up to $25 and $50 in a few weeks. All I have to avoid is getting a really bad run in a really short space of time, like what happened the other week. But I can't see how this can happen if I'm playing one at a time. PLEASE GOD this is the start of a stress free online career...