1/2nl is Goooood :)

Well back from Melbourne and a fairly successful trip it was to the Crown. Almost tripled up, turning $120 into $330 after 4 hours of play. Early on it was a struggle, getting zero cards and just folding a lot of hands. In retrospect this was probably a bonus, as the action was a little frenzied early. Finally picked up 55 in the SB, flopped a set, but had to lay it down on the turn after a re-raise on a connected board. Turned out to be the right move as the guy showed down a straight made on the turn.

Later though I finally hit a run of cards, kaing a K high flush on the button, then hitting a full house out of the blinds with J9 suited. Basically the table was loose enough that I just had to wait for a hand and get paid. I started to loosen up a bit once I had a stack behind me, but really it just wasnt necessary. Still amazes me how many people would call me down even though I'd played like a rock for the last hour ... nut peddling was extremely profitable.

The other big bonus was just gaining the sense of confidence that I could play and win live. I wasn't real good at reading people, but I'm sure that will come with practice. All in all a very enjoyable and successful experience, can't wait for the next opportunity.

Live Baby Live!

Short post - off to Melbourne tomorrow, have a meeting on Monday, so I'm going early to play some live poker. Only the second time I've played B&M poker, so looking forward to hitting the 1/2nl tables and hopefully having some success. I'll post the results next week :)

Mixing It Up

I've been mixing it up a bit lately, playing mostly NLHE but playing a variety of stakes and formats, which has been fun. It's probably the WSOP being on that has made me feel like playing more tourneys, so I've played some 45 man and the odd 180 man SnG's on Stars. Havent made much of an impression on the 180 man, but have been cashing pretty frequently on the 45 SnG's. Had a few 3rds and 4ths, and was a big chip leader in another one with 8 players left when I lost the net connection for a few hours ... I found out the next day I blinded down to 3rd - so I think I would have been a really good show at winning that one. My focus has been on being a lot more aggressive in position and building a stack that way, rather than simply playing tight and waiting for the cards to come. It's been pretty successful in the 45 man SnG's but havent had a lot of success with it in the 180's, I find especially at the start people are too willing to call the position raise and arent willing to fold to the continuation bet. Mind you, I havent played that many and the times I have tried I have been pretty card dead, not catching anything.

With the cash games I'm feeling more comforatable at 25nl. So much so that I have tried to take that aggressive in position approach across as well. It seemed to be going OK ... made half a buyin a few days ago ... but today lost a whole buyin trying to play aggressive poker. I don't think I've found the right balance yet, and it certaintly depends on the table, some tables are a lot more liable to be pushed around. I think the key is more practice and being able to mould my play to the table, rather that deciding a style before I sit down and not adapting once I see how my opponents are reacting.

I've also played about 200 hands of $10 6-max, which is a lot of fun and seems quite lucrative. Maybe I was just hitting hands and getting lucky but I'm running at about 70BB/100 hands there so far :) Obviously that won't continue, but good fun nevertheless.

Tardy Again

Well so much for my post more regularly motto :)

June has ended, and ended with a bang after a fairly flat month. Finished the month ahead about $55 but that came entirely on June 30 ... after I took a stab again at 25nl and this time almost tripled up with an AA hand. More donk play :) I have been diversifying my play though a bit, having played some SnG and 6 max nl to freshen it up. Work's been a killer though so I havent had nearly as much time as I would like ... I'll use that as my current excuse for not blogging much.