Wow! I had a great night online Tuesday night! I picked up $19.00 over 500 hands while 4 tabling. This was the first time that I have played more than 3 tables, so it was quite a challenging experience. I actually played 2 sessions Tuesday night, one before House and one after House. I was down around $5 before House, but boy did things take off after House! For the night I ran 23/9/5 which is right where I feel like I’m playing my best!

The hand that put me down early was AA, I’ve had this hand several times this month and it has been a loser for me. In a raised pot pf, the flop falls K-Q-3r, and I led out strong on the flop. I was smooth called by a rock but I thought he might be on AK or something. The turn was a brick and I just pushed All in because a decent bet by me would have been $3 and the villain only had $6+, so I figured I was obligated to call a raise from him regardless, so I might as well push it in. He turned over QQ and I was down right out of the gate.

But I was feeling good and confident as my meta-game has been going really well these last few weeks. That disaster of a hand was easy to shake off and I moved on.

Just to keep things short, I’ll abbreviate these hands as much as possible.

Flopped top two pair w/ K-9o on the button lost to KQs due to running flush cards for villain. -1 buyin

2-4o in SB flopped a wheel and stacked 2 villains on the flop, one w/ TP the other with trip threes. I love these hands, they’re great to lead into A high flops! +1.5 buyins

6-6 vs. AJ, bottom set vs. TPTK, I even gave this guy the standard line of ck-call, ck-raise AI, but he still gave me his whole stack +.6 buyin

AQo vs. J8s on J-J-10 flop, turn is a K and I stacked the villain on the turn after he checked the flop. Nice slowplay! +.7 buyin

QQ and KK held up unimproved 4x EACH!!! That line will stand alone.

I also started playing back at LAGs with really high aggression factors who are leading into my pfr’d hands on the flop when the flop comes really low. This is a great way to pick up a small pot safely, though dodging when the LAG has a legit hand is the key here.

For the month of May, I’ve played 1600+ hands at 8.65 BB/100 Hands. The bankroll stands at $91.10. Thanks again to tworags.com for giving me the seed capital on Full Tilt!

Last night was a great night for my bankroll. I made 17.79 BB/100 and played 312 hands while 3 tabling (In English, that’s $11.10.) That may not seem like much, but combined with the $5 bonus that Full Tilt released into my account, I had a net increase of 25.5% in my bankroll last night. For the night I ran 16/ 7/ 4 and won 54% of my showdowns. To me, that seems like the ideal numbers combination and is what I seek to achieve on a long-term basis.

The bankroll stands at $79.20, which is a pretty good increase from the $12 that Two Rags gave me two weeks ago.

I had two hands last night where I utilized the check-behind. The check-behind is when you have the initiative and are in position, you bet the flop when it is checked to you and check behind your opponent on the turn. The check-behind is used for two main reasons. First, you effectively control the size of the pot when your hand is not a big pot type of hand. Pot control is very important, and you never want to break the cardinal rule of not playing a big pot w/o a big hand. Lots of people go broke w/ top pair because they can’t control the size of the pot. Second, the check-behind is used to induce bluffs and calls on the river. When you show weakness on the turn, many LAGs will fire out on the river and many players with weaker kickers with their top pair or even 2nd pair will call you down on the river. Checking behind also avoids the check-raise on the turn that many players do with flopped trips or two pair, and some also attempt a check-raise bluff on the turn representing the same trips or two pair. When your opponent leads off into you on the river, you have to decide if they are genuinely strong or if they are playing off your feigned weakness on the turn.

Anyway, the 1st hand that I checked-behind on was w/ A-Ko when I flopped TPTK. It was a rainbow board and I didn’t feel that there were any draws out against me. I checked behind on the turn and bet out hard on the river and got called by A-10. Whether the villain would have called 3 streets is a mystery, but I knew that most will call 2 streets when they sniff weakness. The 2nd was w/ A-Jo from the button. After the table folded to me I bumped it from my superior position. I got smooth-called by what turned out to be K-K. The flop fell J-J-x. Most people bet small or just check this flop, I lead for a pot-sized bet, which should look like I missed and was trying to buy the pot. The kings bit and called the big bet. This time when I checked-behind I was looking to get a worse hand to pay me off. By betting hard on the flop and checking the turn the trap was set. The river was another innocuous card and I blasted another big bet into the villain after he checked. He sure enough called and I won a nice pot versus a superior starting hand.

In my opinion, smooth calling w/ KK from the SB is a really bad play. KK needs to be protected with a big reraise preflop. He elected to play a vulnerable hand out of position against a slippery player like myself, and he lost a big pot. If he would have repopped it for a large amount, I definitely cannot call that with my A-Jo.

The third hand I want to review from last night was when I had As-Js in the SB. A middle position player limped in and a late middle position player min raised and got called by the button. I am still adjusting my play of AQ and AJ in the blinds, but this is definitely a spot where I want to defend my blinds. I have a biggish suited ace in the blinds against a very small preflop raise. I’m not going to war when I flop TPGK in this spot, but if I flop a big draw to the nuts, I’m in a good spot to win a big pot. With AQ or AJ off-suit, I’m probably not going to defend as much, but to a minimum raise, I’m probably calling regardless of my hands suitedness. The flop is a favorable one bringing the Qs-6s-x. I decide to play this nut draw fast and elect to check-raise. The table checks around to the button who bets 3/4 of the pot. I raise his $0.60 bet to $2.10 and hope for an immediate fold. The table brings me hope of the immediate fold, and then the button calls and my hopes are dashed! The turn is a total blank and I tried to lead out for $3 but I mis-typed my bet and instead bet $0.30 into the $5+ pot. The button obliges and raises it to $2.40 for me and I have a decision to make. The pot stands around $7.70 and it only costs me $2.10 to see the river. I only need 4 to 1 to make this an easy call or the strong hope of $0.70 more on the river to make it a safe call. I figure if the villain has come this far with his hand, he’s definitely calling $0.70 more in this big pot. I call and the beautiful 9s floats out onto the river. I slide the bet bar to the far right and press the eject button to release my load. To my astonishment, the button calls my $5.75 all in bet. Score one for the home team!!!

For the night, 2 of my 3 tables that I played gave me a profit and my cards ran very goot! I played a big draw very fast and got lucky on the river. That’s poker at its finest and if every night played like last night, I’d be a wealthy man in a very short period of time! Here’s to running goot!!

Well, my night started abismally and thought I was in for a bad run. The third hand of the night I'm dealt AA on the button. I've got the nutz and the best possible position, I'm ready to rock this pot. 3 players limp ahead of me and I hit the pot button and make it $0.55 to go. Both the blinds fold and the original limper calls and the other two limpers fold. The flop comes a semi-safe 6-8-6. I figure that I'm good and that a CB should take this one down. The villain checks and bet out a luring 1/2 pot bet. He takes forever and finally calls, I'm hoping that he has AK or something. The turn is another blank, he checks and bet out another 1/2 to 2/3 of the pot. He pulls the same ruitine and eventually calls. The river is a Jack, and he checks again. Now, the intelligent side of me was saying to check this and go to the showdown, but the gambler in me said, "He may just call another bet, swing it out there and see if he'll bite." Sure enough I did and sure enough I get min raised which effectively commits my stack that was close to 100 BBs when we started this hand. The idiot turns over 6-2o and says, "Sry man!" I puke and reload hoping to clean his clock. Well, he takes the money and runs after I take a small pot from him on a CB.

Anyway, enough of the bad beat story. My night started off down one buyin. I caught AA 2 more times in the night that helped catch me up because there was no fluke hand to suck out on me after that. QQ made a big winner for me and my favorite hand came through for me once again. (I'll keep the favorite hand a secret for now. A magician doesn't reveal his tricks.) I did flop the nuts with it and stacked an opponent. Most of my tables were LP and I was able to run over them pretty consistently. In fact, I did a little scouting based on a LPP player that was sitting at my table. I found her at 3 other tables and proceeded to sit down at 2 more of them. When I had doubled up on one of my tables I pulled some money off the table and moved over to another table that she was sitting at. Every table that she was at was around 18 VP$IP and 3 PFR%. I used position and aggression to make my buyin back and eventually ended the night up $6.10 over 350 or so hands.

When I review my PT records, mostly I notice that big losses happen because of one hand played badly and then to a smaller degree to calling too many pfr's throughout the night. I don't even think that I call too many pfr's but the few that I do call really add up. I really don't see how some players can keep playing when they are calling another player's raises. Having the initiative is such a powerful weapon. I think one of the biggest improvements to my game will be the recent adjustment of laying down AJo and AQo to pfr's. I haven't won many big pots with those hands, but I have sure lost some big pots with them.

The bankroll stands at $63.10 and I am right on the brink of getting another $5 bonus from FTP.

I should be playing tonight and hopefully the BR will be over $75 come morning.

I didn’t have very much time to play last night and wanted to be in bed early to get ready for my home game on Thursday night. I pulled up 3 $2+.25 Turbo SNGs and took a run at it. Last week I had done very well in these and thought that I could make a quick score again and be in bed by 10:00. I started out super-tight and waited for the idiots to knock themselves out, and eventually they did. The pace on these is so hecktick tough and the blinds were all over me before I knew it. On two tables I was above my starting stack and the other I was running low. I messed up on one of the tables I was doing well on and reraised a guy who doubled my big blind from M.P.; he called w/ A-Jo which completely dominated my A-8o. I was leading on the flop of K,Q,8, but the 10 on the turn gave him broadway. I blew that one up on the bubble. I don’t think that was a good play on my part at this level.

Memory fails me on how I lost the other table, but the last table I went bust on the bubble as well. Since it was my last table I was paying very close attention and had a pretty good read on my opponents and also knew the guy on my immediate right was a good player from the cash games. His full ring $10NL stats are that of a Rock, so that gave me some insight into knowing that I could steal from him pretty liberally. I had watched him steal from the CO here four handed for the previous two rounds and took a mental note that that BB would fold his hand pretty often. This round the Rock folded and I bailed off with my average stack of 4 big blinds and put it all in w/ 8-7o hoping that he would once again fold his BB. Well, he didn’t and I was dominated once again by an A-7s. He turned an A and I went 0 for 3 on the turbo SNGs.

The roll stands just over $50.

Please see my home page for the full story on this bankroll building process that I started last week from $12.

http://www.tworags.com/home/Landlord79

I don’t know how much longer Tworags.com is going to run their $2/cardroom review bonus, but I posted several reviews and got them to send $12 to my Full Tilt Poker account.

That account was empty for over a year and just by coincidence Full Tilt sent me a $50 bonus offer around the same time. Well, without any money in my account, earning that bonus would be impossible.

So, THANK YOU TWORAGS.COM.

I have set myself a goal. I want to turn this $12 of gift from Tworags.com and $50 of possible bonus money from Full Tilt into a working bankroll. Making it to $100 is my immediate goal, then, we’ll figure it out from there, as I will have many more options. I also promised Tworags.com that I would keep them posted on their investment as a way to give back to their awesome site.

I sought some advice from the 2+2 forum on what my best course of action would be and it was unanimous that playing the micro-SNGs was the safest way to build a bankroll with the least amount of variance.

On April the 19th, my regular home game was cancelled and I signed onto Full Tilt to start this journey.

My cards ran very, very goot. I won some spots I shouldn't have and places that I should have won actually held up. When I lost, I had the chips to sustain through it. There is very little real poker played here, mostly, I am just playing my cards and pushing with any 2 decent cards when I get to 10 big blinds or less. These players are so easily trapped that it is ridiculous. Check-raising doesn’t get much accomplished as they are so loose-passive at this level, but suckers-must-call bets are the genuine article.

My first night of roll building was in the books:

1 @ $1.25 Turbo SNG -$1.25
9 @ $2.25 Turbo SNG +$21.15

Net +$19.90 for the night 92.55% ROI

Once again, special thanks to Tworags.com, your money has made a good start.

Day 2 will either be tonight or during the day tomorrow, I’ll post as soon as I can.