New High

Closed my bankroll at a new high (for this newest run since I think early 07 - would have to read my blog to be sure of the start date, but who the hell reads these things anyway)

I have $645.00 in play, but have also given my wife $90 since my restarts and of course the $250 back to Slurpee Dude. So all in all I have ran nothing but a free tourney entry into $988.00 over the past couple of months at 25 cent to 2$.

I will stop mentioning the paid outs now and just focus to the actual cash I have going forward. So as it stands right now:

$153 in click 2 pay
$83 @ Full Tilt
$412 @ Hollywood

This puts me over a quarter of the way to my 2K goal by the end of August.

What has happened over the past week. Well, I had a two day fantastic run here this week, starting last night in a 50 cent short handed NL HE game with a $5 or $10 straddle on. No word of a lie, I am in a session and this guy (bless you sir) sits down and starts to bet 5.50 or 10.50 every hand. So he takes down about 15 blinds in a row before the table starts to react to him and push back. Then all hell broke loose.

The average pot at this 50 cent table was $173.00 and not much below that for about an hour. This guy is all in preflop with anything and everything and or betting people off of the turn and the river with an all in. Soon he is up to over $700.00 (remember this is a $50.00 max buy in) and I am down about $180 (the hands don't matter playing this guy). My favorite hand that this maniac won was a re-raise all in against a guy with KK for a $180.00 pot... with 10 7 diamonds... and he hits his diamond, J high, straigh flush, very lovely.

It was neat to have to adapt my game to how he was betting, as did a couple of other better players. for example, blinds 25 and 50 cent... he makes it $10.50 I have AK o, I raise to $35, he calls, I hit I check, he bets $30 then folds to my $48 check raise. So we can say the action was sick. But I refused to play a call and pray type of game, and I think I was right.

I called up Slurpee Dude and he cashed in for a triple up before leaving. The hardest part was when I started to catch, soon I have $220 (and only up about $35) at this table, and now tangling with this guy is getting really risky. He is all in for his $600, on a hair trigger.

Thankfully he was not a good enough player to recognize that the table had adapted and he was now giving back heavily to three of us. He would bet $10.50 and he would call a big raise with his rags... sometimes catching something sick and cleaning out yet another poor sap. Anyway I kept my head and used him as I should and after he left the table I had $300 and was up about $110. Don't get me wrong it was easy , I had to fold for $130 more into a $220 pot with AQ, A high board, no straight, no flush, on river he pushed at me, and I KNOW it was a good fold against sumb crumby two pair. So I really had to keep my head. (how did I know, well I did pick up on enough betting patterns (thanks PCH boys!) to make my decision based on his betting pattern... the cards DID, NOT, MATTER, he told me what he had by how he bet.

btw he left at just under $400.00 for and there was at least three of us at the table with $200 in play at this point. Very impressive really, I applaud this guy I really do. If he was a hair saner there would be a really good chance that he could have left us all negative hundreds and savagely on tilt.

Anyway so I stayed at the table and took over his roll as the big stack. Not exactly the same far more TAG than he was playing but it was confusing for the players to call my $35 flop or turn bet, and I was taking down some nice pots. So I closed the table up about $150 with over $350.. phew....

Today I took $40 of my winnings and gambled (no other word for it) with a short stack buy in at a $2 table, using the short stack gaem that I am building for myseld (I have a draft post saved with about a page of things I do and don't do, and it is working). But the table was full of short stacks so it was a game I could beat. I soon showed a couple bluffs put a guy on tilt and left after 20 minutes and $140 up.

This weekend I should hit my next $100 bonus, as I am getting close now.

So all is running well, and even better I feel more and more weathered for when it doesn't. We will see, but I know my learning has moved farther in the past three months than in the past year.