tilted behaviour

Covering the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series over the Easter weekend meant that I unfortunately missed out on probably some very juicy action on the PKR low-stakes cash game tables.

However since returning (including a session before working the JHDSS) I have managed to put together a fourteen buy-in winning run over the previous five sessions. Since I’ve been winning fairly early on in the session instead of grinding out a profit over hours of play, these sessions have been very short and with just over six hours and 800 hands of play.

Although it may seem that I am running pretty good, I still feel that I’m playing really well, and thought I might post just a few of the hands from the latter sessions.

In standard full-ring play I wouldn’t normally open this kind of hand in early position, but for this session I was playing fairly laggy – VPIP of 33.3, PFR of 19.2 and a 3bet % of 5.7 – and since I had a good feel for the table decided to play it anyway (lets also throw in that it’s my favourite hand too!).

Game#1260562263
Blinds are $0.25 – $0.50
alexou91000 ($36.65)
Cardmaster ($30)
duncanwhisk ($41.90)
tRaMSt0p ($60.29)
NONSTOPX ($105)
mamut19 ($17.25)
bobbyrob85 ($27.35)
Styxounet ($17.43)
KKaeser ($54.89)

alexou91000 posts (SB) $0.25
Cardmaster posts (BB) $0.50

Dealt to tRaMSt0p 7♣ 6♣

duncanwhisk folds
tRaMSt0p raises to $1.50
NONSTOPX folds
mamut19 calls $1.50
bobbyrob85 folds
Styxounet calls $1.50
KKaeser calls $1.50
alexou91000 calls $1.25
Cardmaster folds
FLOP ($8) 4♥ 7♦ 10♦

alexou91000 checks
tRaMSt0p bets $3.85
mamut19 folds
Styxounet folds
KKaeser folds
alexou91000 raises to $7.70
tRaMSt0p calls $3.85
TURN ($23.40) 4♥ 7♦ 10♦ 5♣

alexou91000 checks
tRaMSt0p bets $14.85
alexou91000 raises to $27.45 (AI)
tRaMSt0p calls $12.60
RIVER ($78.30) 4♥ 7♦ 10♦ 5♣ 3♥
alexou91000 shows K♦ Q♦

tRaMSt0p shows 7♣ 6♣

tRaMSt0p wins $75.30

When I was check min-raised on the flop I was very sure that he had a flush draw, but still being unsure, I decided just to peel one with my two-pair, trips and backdoor straight draws in position.

When alexou91000 checks the turn I was fairly certain that he indeed had a flush draw and now meant I had to size my bet. It was fairly likely that he would fold to a full pot bet (which was virtually his stack), but if I made it too small he would most likely call and check-fold if he missed since he was getting such a good price. Consequently firing just over a half-pot sized bet meant that he was pretty much committing his whole stack in the hand, plus he may think that by raising all-in he may gain some fold equity . . . unfortunately for him I snapped him off with my pair of sevens (forgetting that I actually turned a straight draw) and held, well, improved actually.

Early on in this session a lost a buy-in when I check-raised all in with middle-pair and a flush draw on the turn, but was snapped off by just top pair.

Although I was in the red early on, I played the remainder of the session fairly tightly – VPIP of 22, PFR of 12 and 3bet% of 6.7 – with these two hands being the ones most interesting.

crookid was playing super laggy at 46/14 and was virtually playing every hand of the past few orbits. He has an incredibly high percentage of betting in position and having position on him meant that I my range against him was fairly wide.

Game#1261973803
Blinds are $0.50 – $1.00
tRaMSt0p ($99)
panolis ($304)
pio777 ($37.30)
fredward ($110)
AmdyZero ($136)
djlaye ($155)
crookid ($104)

tRaMSt0p posts (SB) $0.50
panolis posts (BB) $1

Dealt to tRaMSt0p 9♠ 9♥

pio777 raises to $2
fredward folds
AndyZero folds
djlaye folds
crookid calls $2
tRaMSt0p calls $1.50
panolis calls $1
FLOP ($8) 3♥ 6♦ 7♣

tRaMSt0p checks
panolis checks
pio777 checks
crookid bets $8
tRaMSt0p calls $8
panolis calls $8
pio777 folds
TURN ($32) 3♥ 6♦ 7♣ 9♣

tRaMSt0p checks
panolis checks
crookid bets $14
tRaMSt0p raises to $42
panolis folds
crookid folds
tRaMSt0p wins $57

When faced with my flop decision I quickly checked Holdem Manager and crookid’s stats supported my read of him being fairly loose. pio777 (the preflop raiser) was a fairly tight player and the fact that he didn’t continuation bet meant that he was most likely to have an Ace-King type hand, and as for panolis, he was just as loose as crookid.

When crookid fired out on the flop there was only a slight chance he had me beat, but I decided just to call to see how the loose panolis might play his hand. And since pio777 was tight, he easily could have checked a set, and we would all find out about it with so much in the pot already.

Gin on the turn and it was an easy check into two loose players – even though I could be behind to three different straights – and when crookid fires out again I think it’s an easy check-raise as I don’t really want to see an 8♣ or something just as ugly land on the river.

In hindsight I probably could have check-raised smaller to like $31 because it might induce him to spaz out with air or hands with terrible equity – a range his range is very skewed too.

Game#1261966738
Blinds are $0.25 – $0.50
tRaMSt0p ($53.97)
goldentee ($112)
AmazingChicken ($19.41)
WillieWinsom ($15.07)
Kloonike ($53.84)
Booun ($50.59)
smudge2u ($19)
preyb4ur84t ($10.79)

tRaMSt0p posts (SB) $0.25
goldentee posts (BB) $0.50
Booun posts (BB) $0.50
Booun posts (SB) $0.25

Dealt to tRaMSt0p K♦ K♠

AmazingChicken folds
WillieWinsom folds
Kloonike raises to $2.25
Booun folds
Smudge2u folds
preyb4ur84t folds
tRaMSt0p raises to $7.50
goldentee calls $7
Kloonike folds
FLOP ($18) 2♠ Q♠ 5♥

tRaMSt0p bets $14
goldentee calls $14
TURN ($46) 2♠ Q♠ 5♥ 3♠

tRaMSt0p bets $32.47 (AI)
goldentee calls $32.47
RIVER ($110) 2♠ Q♠ 5♥ 3♠ 8♦

tRaMSt0p shows K♦ K♠

goldentee shows Q♥ 10

tRaMSt0p wins $107

On the turn I actually timed down because I was thinking what could this goldentee be calling with. He had called a three-bet preflop and a sizable bet on the flop and had me thinking that he held Aces, Kings or Queens. He may have called with an underpair like Jacks through to Eights, but if so, he isn’t calling a bet on the turn.

Either way I grew some balls and stuck it in – having the Ks<.pokerhand> helped of course – and when I was snap-called I dropped my head thinking I was dead.

Well that was until he tabled his Q♥ 10♥, I shipped the pot and then checked that he was a complete fish playing looser than any of the players from the previous hands.

I do realise that I’m having a good run at the moment but am still fearful of the reverse trend.

My online poker goals that I set at the start of the year are all on track, but it’s going to make it tough to complete by the time I was expecting as I have an incredibly hectic schedule coming up.

A few more days at home before I head to Christchurch for the New Zealand Poker Championships and then straight to Sydney for the next ANZPT stop. I return home for just a couple of weeks before (possibly) working the Melbourne Poker Championships and then over to Las Vegas for the 2010 WSOP.

Since PKR can’t be accessed when I’m in the USA, I don’t expect me to play more than 25-hours over the four months. This of course means that my online aspirations for the year take a back seat, but hopefully I can take what I’ve learnt this year into practice on the cash game felt of the many Las Vegas cardrooms.

I played a terrible session on PKR tonight where I just wasn’t at the top of my game.

After registering a profitable session at lunchtime, I logged back on at night and was quickly chasing back loses. I managed to grind back into profit before swirling back down in the negative before managing to get lucky and register a small loss for the session. Consequently I decided to upload some hands to show you exactly how far off I was from playing my A-Game yesterday.

jawad93110 had been playing awfully loose and was bluffing in any spot he could. He would raise preflop, continuation bet the flop and then check-raise the turn and show Jack-high. In this hand I felt that I could win a big pot off him if I flopped well – regardless the fact I was playing a sub-premium hand and was out of position – since he was a near lock to bluff off his stack if I trapped him well enough.

Game#1250347686
Blinds are $0.50 – $1.00
tRaMSt0p ($99)
2002KRU ($71.05)
CB750 ($133)
jawad93110 ($180)
kiwi16 ($227)
iguiguana ($38.50)
Tomion ($40)
ChipsBC ($53.77)

tRaMSt0p posts (SB) $0.50
2002KRU posts (BB) $1

Dealt to tRaMSt0p J♠ 10♠
CB750 folds
jawad93110 raises to $4
kiwi16 folds
iguiguana calls $4
Tomion calls $4
ChipsBC folds
tRaMSt0p calls $3.50
2002KRU folds
FLOP ($17) 3♦ J♣ 2♠
tRaMSt0p checks
jawad93110 bets $4
iguiguana calls $4
Tomion folds
tRaMSt0p calls $4
TURN ($29) 3♦ J♣ 2♠ K♦
tRaMSt0p checks
jawad93110 bets $8
iguiguana folds
tRaMSt0p calls $8
RIVER ($45) 3♦ J♣ 2♠ K♦ 5♦
tRaMSt0p checks
jawad93110 bets $20
tRaMSt0p folds
jawad93110 shows 4♠ 5♣
jawad93110 wins $42.75

With the line I took I think I should always be calling the river because he is barrelling it with all his range. Instead I wussed out and gave the pot to him on a well-served platter.

Finally I was ecstatic to look down at a premium hand where I could potentially find a double up hopefully against jawad93110.

Game#1250349435
Blinds are $0.50 – $1.00
CB750 ($129)
jawad93110 ($199)
iguiguana ($41.40)
Tomion ($25.50)
ChipsBC ($53.77)
tRaMSt0p ($111)
2002KRU ($69.55)
HURICANNE67 ($38.50)

CB750 posts (SB) $0.50
jawad93110 posts (BB) $1

Dealt to tRaMSt0p Q♥ Q♦
iguiguana folds
Tomion calls $1
ChipsBC folds
tRaMSt0p raises to $4
2002KRU folds
HURICANNE67 folds
CB750 folds
jawad93110 calls $3
Tomion calls $3
FLOP ($12.50) 9♣ Q♣ 3♠
jawad93110 bets $3
Tomion folds
tRaMSt0p raises to $13
jawad93110 calls $10
TURN ($38.50) 9♣ Q♣ 3♠ K♦
jawad93110 checks
tRaMSt0p checks
RIVER ($38.50) 9♣ Q♣ 3♠ K♦ J♥
jawad93110 checks
tRaMSt0p checks
jawad93110 shows 10♠ 8♠
jawad93110 wins $36.60

When he donk-called the flop I expected him to be holding a drawing-type hand, and when the turn landed a King to fill the most likely outcome of Jack-Ten it put me in shutdown mode. I could still fire out after jawad93100 checked but if he does have Jack-Ten he is most likely going to jam and push me off my hand, and if I do fill up on the river he will nearly always pay me off.

Unfortunately the river put a one-card straight out there, and even though his river check portrayed weakness I felt that a bet wouldn’t do much good. By checking I got to see what he had to give me some quality information for the session and my notes, but also I think he would barely ever call with a hand that wasn’t a straight. The one thing he was capable of (from what I had already seen) was that he could pull the trigger with a check-raise holding complete air and consequently push me off my set of Queens; and since I did have a fair amount of showdown value it just seemed like the right option to check behind.

With jawad93110 absolutely owning my soul in pot after pot I decided that I was going to break my standard full-ring strategy and just try and target him for some chips.

Game#1250359111
Blinds are $0.50 – $1.00
HURICANNE67 ($36)
CB750 ($114)
jawad93110 ($309)
NEWWAVE69 ($227)
gladheateher ($147)
Frankenpower ($91.35)
davybaby83 ($100)
BritneyLover ($99)
tRaMSt0p ($99.50)
2002KRU ($59.05)

HURICANNE67 posts (SB) $0.50
CB750 posts (BB) $1
davybaby83 posts (BB) $1

Dealt to tRaMSt0p 7♥ 8♥
jawad93110 raises to $4
NEWWAVE69 folds
gladheateher folds
Frankenpower calls $4
davybaby83 folds
BritneyLover folds
tRaMSt0p calls $4
2002KRU folds
HURICANNE67 folds
CB750 folds
FLOP ($14.50) J♠ 4♣ 9♦
jawad93110 bets $4
Frankenpower folds
tRaMSt0p calls $4
TURN ($22.50) J♠ 4♣ 9♦ 9♣
jawad93110 bets $4
tRaMSt0p calls $4
RIVER ($30.50) J♠ 4♣ 9♦ 9♣ 8♠
jawad93110 bets $30.50
tRaMSt0p calls $30.50
jawad93110 shows K♥ Q♠
tRaMSt0p shows 7♥ 8♥
tRaMSt0p wins $88.50

Although I thought my gutshot was live if I hit it, I was extremely grateful to the poker Gods that a ten didn’t fall.

I think the river call is pretty standard against this type of spewy player since I best most of his range. It’s just the way I played the previous streets that are a bit more of a worry.

Although this isn’t a standard open for me in full-ring play, I was just trying to get out of the red and back into a positive session.

Game#1250429696
Blinds are $0.10 – $0.25
NICKDRAKEISGOD ($81.10)
NothingZ ($16.12)
perpalaqui ($34.73)
lori1860 ($30.56)
djc8008 ($39.53)
Poeth ($15.65)
tRaMSt0p ($36.38)
Close2Insanity ($40.83)
Mahoni007 ($13.65)
KeaneR ($12.36)

NICKDRAKEISGOD posts (SB) $0.10
NothingZ posts (BB) $0.25

Dealt to tRaMSt0p 7♣ 5♣
perpalaqui folds
lori1860 folds
djc8008 folds
Poeth folds
tRaMSt0p raises to $0.75
Close2Insanity calls $0.75
Mahoni007 folds
KeaneR folds
NICKDRAKEISGOD calls $0.65
NothingZ folds
FLOP ($2.50) 7♠ Q♦ 5♥
NICKDRAKEISGOD checks
tRaMSt0p bets $2.50
Close2Insanity folds
NICKDRAKEISGOD raises to $7
tRaMSt0p raises to $35.63 (AI)
NICKDRAKEISGOD calls $28.63
TURN ($73.76) 7♠ Q♦ 5♥ K♥
RIVER ($73.76) 7♠ Q♦ 5♥ K♥ 8♣
NICKDRAKEISGOD shows K♠ Q♠
tRaMSt0p shows 7♣ 5♣
NICKDRAKEISGOD wins $70.76

I suppose NICKDRAKEISGOD’s call isn’t that bad, but there are a huge bunch of hands that beat him, and (although it doesn’t show in the hand history) he snap-called my shove and then of course dinked the turn. If I flat the flop I suppose I could get away from the hand on maybe the river, but courtesy of the tilt-inducing session I decided just to insta-ship!

By this time my favourite player jawad93110 had left the table after bluffing some more chips into his stack and consequently play was back to normal.

Game#1250439199
Blinds are $0.50 – $1.00
Rosk79 ($108)
tRaMSt0p ($116)
asharne ($53.07)
SneakyT ($126)
Methodical ($83.55)
Oktavyan74 ($53.50)
Vampir1962 ($46.50)
vwtdi ($137)
VictorVL ($18.50)

Rosk79 posts (SB) $0.50
tRaMSt0p posts (BB) $1

Dealt to tRaMSt0p K♣ K♠
asharne calls $1
SneakyT folds
Methodical calls $1
Oktavyan74 folds
Vampir1962 folds
vwtdi folds
VictorVL folds
Rosk79 folds
tRaMSt0p raises to $4
asharne calls $3
Methodical calls $3
FLOP ($12.50) J♦ Q♦ 4♠
tRaMSt0p bets $7.50
asharne folds
Methodical calls $7.50
TURN ($27.50) J♦ Q♦ 4♠ 5♣
tRaMSt0p bets $17.85
Methodical raises to $53.55
tRaMSt0p raises to $105 (AI)
Methodical calls $18.50 (AI)
RIVER ($171) J♦ Q♦ 4♠ 5♣ K♥
tRaMSt0p shows K♣ K♠
Methodical shows Q♣ J♠
tRaMSt0p wins $168

My turn bet was meant to set up a shove from Methodical or leave me with a pot-sized bet on the river to put him all in. As you can see however Methodical did shove like I hoped, but unluckily for me he was an 82% favourite when the money in as he had flopped Queens-up. Thankfully I managed to spike a King on the river to collect the pot while remarking in the chat box that Methodical played the hand very well and was unlucky (which followed a previous hand where he was two-outed by pocket eights against his Aces after 200bb went in preflop).

Although I only lost a little bit in this session and still finished up for the day, I was well off from my A-Game.

Since I’m slowly trying to tick off some online poker goals (one down and many to go), playing like this is definitely not going to help in achieving them. Hopefully I can fix my some of these leaks and return to playing as well as I can.

2010 WSOP satellites are up and running with PKR the latest online site to jump aboard the satellite ship with their Road to Vegas League!

The Online Poker Operator of 2009 has served to their loyal player base an opportunity to win one of seven WSOP Experience prize packages. Each package is worth $4,000 and includes a buy-in to a WSOP bracelet event, travel and spending money, an invitation to a PKR exclusive WSOP party and BBQ and five nights in a luxury hotel.

Unique to PKR is that they are conducting a poker league with 22 MTT events spanning eleven weeks. Twice a week (every Tuesday and Thursday) PKR will be running a $10 + $2 MTT tournament covering a variety of poker genres; No Limit Holdem, Omaha, Fixed Limit, 6-Max, Deep Stacked and Rebuys.

Each tournament has an allotted 45,000 League points appointed to every event with the top 100 place-getters earning points. At the end of the 22 league tournaments, if you sit on top of the leaderboard you automatically win a package, finish inside the top 10, 50 or 100 and you will get your shot at one of the five Road to Vegas freerolls where a further six packages are on offer.

The first League event is kicking off tomorrow Wednesday the 34th of March at 7:15 am with No Limit Holdem being the game, and of course, a coveted 45,000 points on offer as well as the huge expected prizepool.

Event #1 – Wednesday, 24 March – No Limit Holdem
Event #2 – Friday, 26 March – No Limit Holdem Deep Stack
Event #3 – Wednesday, 31 March – No Limit Holdem (6 seater)
Event #4 – Friday, 02 April – No Limit Holdem Deep & Stack
Event #5 – Wednesday, 07 April – Pot Limit Omaha
Event #6 – Friday, 09 April – No Limit Holdem
Event #7 – Wednesday, 14 April – Pot Limit Holdem
Event #8 – Friday, 16 April – No Limit Holdem Terminator
Event #9 – Wednesday, 21 April – No Limit Holdem Deep Stack (6 seater)
Event #10 – Friday, 23 April – Pot Limit Omaha hi/lo
Event #11 – Wednesday, 28 April – No Limit Holdem
Event #12 – Friday, 30 April – No Limit Holdem $2 Rebuy
Event #13 – Wednesday, 05 May – Fixed Limit Holdem
Event #14 – Friday, 07 May – No Limit Holdem
Event #15 – Wednesday, 12 May – No Limit Holdem (6 seater)
Event #16 – Friday, 14 May – No Limit Holdem Double Chance
Event #17 – Wednesday, 19 May – No Limit Holdem with antes
Event #18 – Friday, 21 May – Pot Limit Omaha (6 seater)
Event #19 – Wednesday, 26 May – No Limit Holdem Deep & Steep
Event #20 – Friday, 28 May – No Limit Holdem
Event #21 – Wednesday, 02 June – No Limit Holdem (6 seater)
Event #22 – Friday, 04 June – No Limit Holdem Deep Stack

So if you are desperate to book a seat on the PKR WSOP plane and are willing to put your tournament skills to the test, then I’ll be seeing you on the virtual felt!

It has been over ten days since I last blogged, but it’s not because I’ve been lazy or too busy, but because I’ve had nothing to blog about!

Last week was a terrible week for me on PKR as I spiralled downward hard and fast. Now I understand that downswings go hand in hand with upswings but last thing I couldn’t catch a break as everything and anything went wrong.

I admit that I did play bad at some points, but only quite minimally compared to the run-bad that I encountered. Maybe some people can identify with this, but after running my initial $500 up to $1,380-odd I decided to trial a tracking program called PokerOfficer. My accounted plummeted to $980 before I stopped using PokerOfficer and saw my account climb to over $1,400. I then – through the advice of some friends – downloaded Holdem Manager, and like in the previous instant, my account again spiralled downhill to below $1,000.

That downswing included one session where I lost nearly six buy-ins with my EV stating I should have only lost one buy-in. The other negative sessions also saw me run well below EV . . . but that’s poker right? I have been keeping track of the major hands that I’ve lost when I’ve been all in. Aces cracked 8 times, Kings 14, Queens 3, Jacks 5 and Sets 2 with most of these being on the flop. On the flipside, I’ve cracked Aces three times with standard coolers getting there with Kings and Tens, and only cracked Kings and Queens a combined three times.

Now that I’ve had close to a week away from the virtual felt, I have a few questions to pose to you before I return to PKR. What is my next step?

Should I continue playing $0.10-0.25c NLH?
Should I play a mix of $0.10-0.25c and $0.25-0.50c NLH?
Should I play only $0.25-0.50c NLH?
Should I continue to play solely full-ring?
Should I switch to solely six-handed?

Now I completely understand that my sample size of 15,000-odd hands isn’t much to go from, but I am just starting with online cash, so I definitely want to take steps in the right direction.

Your help is needed as I don’t want to see this ugly mountain continue to slide downhill!

I played at Crown a few nights ago.

The short story is that I played real terrible at the start to be in for three buy-ins on a $2-3 NLH table before kicking myself in the ass to play better and grind back to near even . . . only to donk it all off at about hour twelve of my session.

Following my live donk off and my downswing online, there was only one thing left to do.

. . . I grabbed the noose, hung it over the . . .

No. Just kidding.

Instead I made a few adjustments to my strategy and jumped back on the horse to continue to grind the $0.10-0.25c NLH tables.

So far things have been solid with the adjustments I’ve made helping me tighten up my leaks. Although the profit hasn’t fallen in droves as yet, I’m hoping that their just around the corner.

I do have a question for the Tilted Behaviour readers out there.

Is it possible to be playing $5-10 NLH on PKR by the time the WSOP rolls around?

I say it is possible if I continue to put in some high volume and run a little better than I have over the past couple of weeks. I do think it is unlikely though as most of the higher games are played only six-handed, and currently I tend to stay away from short-handed play because my strategy is a little too weak (I believe).

But for arguments sakes, here are the increases in limits on PKR; $0.25-0.50 ($10-$50 min and max buy-ins), $0.50-1 ($20-$100), $1-2 ($40-$200), $2-4 ($80-$400), $3-6 ($120-$600) and $5-10 ($200-$1000).

As most of you know I have been playing online solely at PKR.

I deposited $500 just before the end of last year and began playing $0.10-0.25c No Limit Holdem with an emphasis on full ring play ahead of six-handed. Although I have been running below EV, I have managed to run my account up to $1,380 playing solely NLH with maybe 300 hands of PLO and one tournament (which I cashed in).

With a move up limits to $0.25-0.50c just round the corner when I tip the $1,500 mark, I took a big step back over the past few days following some major run bad.

It started when I was playing in a Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo game where everyone just had no clue of how to play. Of course that didn’t matter because after 400-odd hands I had seen barely ten hands that had any chance of taking a low, while the rest were terrible high hands. The few times I got it in good I would somehow rivered for half the pot with someone holding a mighty A-J-9-6 for a low, or my complete wrap and flush draw would take the low as someone’s pocket tens took the high.

Basically it was an absolute terrible session where I lost three buy-ins before deciding that straight up Pot Limit Omaha would be the best option. That was a mistake too, as I lost a buy-in fairly quickly and decided to resort back to plain old boring $0.10-0.25c No Limit Holdem.

With four NLH tables up, I lost a buy-in fairly quickly and now definitely believed that it was going to be a shocking day. However things started to turn round when my 6♥ 6♣ were paid off by 10♦ 10♠ on the river on a board of 4♣ 5♣ 6♦ 6♠ 4♦, then my A♦ Q♦ for top-top was paid off on the turn by 10♥ 10♣. Combined with three straights for smallish pots and I managed to scrape some poker dignity and bankroll back.

Unfortunately just a day later it would all turn to shit once again seeing my bankroll fall to just below the $1,000 mark after some more run bad and bad play.

Unlike the previous negative session, I began this one with $0.10-0.25c No Limit Holdem but over the course of 300 hands I dropped four buy-ins.

The first was pretty amusing (not) as the biggest pot I won was just $3.38 while I lost plenty including running into two sets of overpairs, a flopped flush, a bigger full house and many more I really don’t fell like re-living!

I then decided to gamble a little and took a seat in a $0.50-1 Pot Limit Omaha game and after running into a bigger full house and being forced to top up I lost my whole stack when I was rivered holding K♠ J♣ 9♣ 9♠ by Q♦ 10♦ 10♠ 4♦ on a board that ran out A♦ Q♠ 10♣ 4♦ 7♦.

I can’t really explain why I’m in such a huge downswing.

Maybe it’s just countering against my upswing or maybe because I recently downloaded some tracking software – PokerOfficer – and started testing out HUD as well as being able to review my session history.

I do know however that there is only one thing I can do . . . and that’s just getting back to the basics of playing solid poker and grinding out hundreds of hands for profit so that I can replenish my bankroll and hopefully take the next step few steps in improving my game and moving up limits.

I wasn’t having a good session playing cash on PKR, and just before I logged off I stumbled across a nightly $12 six-handed tournament and decided to register.

98 players ended up playing the tournament . . . but I’m not going to bore you about the details of how I got to the final table, or my interesting hands, but instead show you something neat about PKR.

After (unfortunately) losing the heads-up battle when my shove with sevens was snapped-off by Queen-Ten and an obvious Queen fell, the PKR user interface launched into a celebration.

Firstly my opponent oneplaner’s avatar stood up and started dancing wildly before cash started raining down onto the table and the surrounding stage area.

Although I wasn’t satisfied with the $199.92 payday in comparison to the $329.28 first place, the enjoyable celebration did cheer me up slightly as it is something that I haven’t witnessed on any other online sites before . . . well to this degree anyway!