Oba donk eh?

I played my longest $2/4 session last night trying to beat a maniac at his own game and ended down just over $200 (50BB). It would have been more but thankfully I got some cards towards the end of the session and it took the maniac a little while to realize that his heater-plus-over-eager-oba-fuelled winnings ($300+) would most likely evaporate if he stayed at the table much longer.

In the cold light of day - with 7 hours sleep behind me - I reviewed the session and felt pretty sick about what I saw: hand after hand butchered and worst of all during the game I was making little effort to strengthen reads over time .

I was gambling with the villain and hoping he would pwn himself. Guess who got pwned?  :(

full post containing lessons learnt, session stats and hands from the game

Here are my results for March 2011 together with the stats. I’ve
included overall 3bet % and my unopened PFR % from each position as I’m
concerned I’ve gone back to playing too LAG and want to monitor this in
future months.

Full post here with stats

 

Now the challenge is over and I’ve had a few hours to calm down, I’ve started to contemplate the road ahead and what I’ve learnt from the last two weeks.

I think it’s time to try my hand at $2/4. Even after withdrawing the extra money I deposited for the reload bonus, I’m rolled for $2/4 thanks to the results this month plus the reload bonus and VIP bonuses.

With a strong prevailing wind, the journey from $2/4 to $3/6 could be a short one. There’s only half the increase (i.e. 250BB) from a $2/4 roll to a comfortable $3/6 roll. However, with higher stakes come higher monetary swings and tougher opposition.

full blog post here

ARGH!!!!!!!!!! How I would love to write expletives all over this *£$$£* post right now!! Today’s second session was DISGUSTING!!! I was trembling at one point and can hardly type now. Thought I’d lost my mind. Honestly!

I was determined to clear the last $10 and lost $200 in the process! Hoorah!! Luckily I’d won $100 earlier in the day so I haven’t wiped out all the winnings.

FRACK!!!

full post with graph of today and full challenge here

I’ve played two sessions so far today and reached Gold Star during the second. Still calling down too much to make any money and its really hard to find good tables. Playing to break even is becoming a worrying habit. Still almost 400VPPs left to complete the challenge. Hope I can keep my sanity intact long enough to come out of the whole thing with more than the bonus was worth.

full blog post with graph of today's session here

I took a big risk playing on a total of 4 hours sleep in the last 36 hours and had another long trying session with a big swing. The hours I’m committing to the challenge hit home today. I’m exhausted but also determined to get to Gold Star before month end given how far I’ve come.

With only 3 hours sleep, I performed pretty badly at work today – starting with being 10 minutes late for an important morning meeting. I have a lot of chores building up. I’ve also regressed to slamming my fists on the table when I get tilted by the result of a hand. The sooner I get through this challenge and back to normal leisurely play the better!

full post and todays graph here

213VPPs before Gold. Approx 600 remaining to complete the bonus..

now for some sleep!

It was bound to happen. I've been playing progressively worse over the last few days making a period of run-bad-play-bad practically inevitable.

I lucked out because the last table of the night filled with loose passives with the capability to chase draws and over-value their made hands. All the final make up was from that one table.

Work is going to be interesting today. Most sleep I can get is 3 hours. Not sure it's worth it!

full post and graph here

After watching a strategy video, I took to the tables. I tried to prepare like any other session, ignoring the heaters of the last two days, but in the end I was still at the mercy of over-confident old habits tonight.

Another night when I was lucky to come away even. I called down in many places where I was unlikely ever ahead often enough to justify it and generally played too loose. The strategy video I watched tonight was about being 3-bet light and guess what? I was 3-betting light tonight!

full blog post here

I'm about 900 VPPs from Gold Star and have cleared $90 of the $150 bonus.

I thought yesterday’s session was hot but today was hotter! A combination of mini-heater vs TAGs plus out manoeuvering predictable showdown-bound players lead to my highest earning PokerStars session ever. However, let’s not forget my worst session ever also happened just over a week ago and was a bigger swing in the opposite direction.

full blog post with today's graph here

As per the Day 6 report, I took Sunday off except for the 100 hands mentioned in the previous post.

Tonight it was back to the full length sessions. It was hard to find good tables initially. My first table of unknowns turned out to be entirely tags and nits. The next table I opened had me out of position to a reg that has run like god vs me and tonight was no different. Still, I in turn ran like god on another table and thus posted a healthy return for the nights play.