More Foxwoods, More Online

I had a couple of good nights at homegames last week making about $100 total. I went on an early rush at WNP and ended that night up $60...then had another $40 win night. Not bad.

More Foxwoods

I went to foxwoods again yesterday with two friend from WNP. We arrived around 3pm and left around 7pm. I sat at a $100 max 1/2 NL table. My table started off with a lot of very loose/aggressive players. We saw a lot of multi way action for large preflop raises. The standard raise for these guys was anywhere between $12-$25 (6-12.5X the BB..doesn't make much sense for 1/2) and they would raise with/play pretty mediocre starting hands. It's difficult to play this type of game when you possibly have to call off 1/5 of your stack preflop with a vulnerable hand (like mid pockets) in a multi way pot. I lost my first buy in within an hour and a half when i overplayed pocket 9s. I bought back in for another $140 over the next couple of hours and was down to about $40 when I hit two big hands in a row and built my stack back up to $200. I was starting to feel comfortable and 'in the flow' of the game when my friend who drove came by and said I had time for one more round. I managed to lose $60 within that round when I raised or rereaised with big Aces (if I wanted to make a standard reraise I had to make it $12 to $25 or $15 to $30) and had to fold after betting out on the flop and getting reraised . I ended down $100 for the day (which is certainly better than being down $240). If I had known we would only stay 4 hours I wouldn't have gone, the drive alone is 3-4 hours roundtrip, and it's just not worth not being able to take my time when I'm playing for those stakes. I think if I had been able to stay longer I would have been able to battle my way back and end the day with a profit. It takes awhile for me to really get settled into a game, 4 hours is just the beginning.

Early on I was thinking of requesting a seat change but decided if I want to become a better poker player I need to be able to play at all different types of games. If I had to make changes to my game yesterday I would have thrown away more pocket pairs to preflop raises (I saw a few flops for a $12-15 raise with hands like wired 2s, 4s, 6s, 9s hoping to hit a set against multiple players). I could have waited for even better starting hands, really taken it slow. I also would have changed the way I played some big Aces, possibly smooth calling with hands like AJ and AQ instead of reraising, saving myself a bet when I had to fold on the flop.

I've Been Playing Online Again

I deposited $50 into Pokerstars less than two weeks ago and have been playing steadily since. A friend of mine who does very well online suggested I move down to .25/.50 instead of .50/1 , which was great advice. I've managed to build my bankroll up to around $400 so far which allows me to take swings at this limit. It feels like a whole new game and my ideas about micro limits have totally changed. I've started playing 2-3 tables at a time and have gotten comfortable at these levels. I've started to pick up on online tells, betting patterns, etc, as well as adjusted my play to different types of players. I've managed to get better control over going on tilt (although I admit I've had a few outbursts), managed to make better decisions and laydowns, and overall just sharpened up my game. My friend suggested I stay at these levels for awhile, maybe until I'm able to build my bankroll up to about $1k, which seems like a good idea. I'm more excited than ever about playing online, so we'll see how it goes.