I lost about $25 after an hour last night. Kind of frustrating to get so close to having enough to move up in stakes, but then to watch the bankroll shrink. I still need at least $75 more before I'll let myself take a shot at $2/$4. I wish I could say it was just bad luck, but I know I made a few mistakes last night.
It was bad luck that started me out, though. I had QQ against an opponent who had A4. He paired his 4 on the flop and we got into a re-raising war (he was a loose/aggressive). The turn was a blank and we re-raised it to the maximum again. I'm not really sure what he was doing, but it's players like that who I usually make my profit off of. The river came up as an A, giving him two pair. I didn't actually think he had two pair at the time, but I thought the A might have helped him. He bet and I just called. He took down the massive pot, which started me off at a loss.
The rest of the night was definitely full of mistakes. In one hand, I was up against a rock, a very tight/passive opponent. I tried bluffing him on the turn... there were two 5's on the board and I was trying to represent three of a kind. He thought about it for a long time, then called my bet. Bluffing doesn't have to be successful most of the time to be profitable. Say there's $10 in the pot and I bet $2 with nothing. He only has to fold 1/5 times for that play to break even, so that wasn't really my mistake. But I bluffed again at the river when a third 5 came up, representing four of a kind. A $2 bluff to win $14 means he just has to fold 1/7... but I should have known that if he didn't believe I had trips, he wouldn't believe I had quads. If he called my turn bet, there was definitely less than a 1/7 chance that he'd fold to my river bet. He called of course, and beat my A9 (Ace high, no pair) with AK (a better Ace high).
I kept making similar mistakes. I had a couple of big wins, but losing those bets here & there never let me recover from my initial loss. Oh well, there's always next time.
Tonight, I'm leaving work early to do the first qualifier for Full Contact Poker's Daniel Negreanu's Protege tournament. That should be fun, I think there will only be about 140 opponents. I just have to get in the top 40 to continue to the next round. Unfortunately, there aren't any payouts for this round. First place does get $200, but none of the other places get anything. With that in mind, I just have to not be reckless, play smart, and try to survive until the final four tables. Once I secure a spot in the top 40, then I can make some big moves and try to get a massive stack for the final table. Wish me luck!