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)....

Last time I talked about what makes a good table. Today I'll talk a bit about the different individual personalities you'll encounter. A majority of players can be classified along two dimensions: loose vs. tight & passive vs. aggressive. Loose vs. Tight This dimension is primarily about what cards a player is willing to play. Loose players tend to see a flop with a much wider range of hands than tight players. At the extreme, a loose player could be playing with any two cards. Tight pl...

I did pretty good this weekend, scored about $80 total. As predicted, the tables were great Friday night. My favorite tables are the ones where there are a lot of players that call one bet before the flop, but rarely raise before the flop. This let's me play a lot of marginal hands at a profit, like small pocket pairs or Ace-something suited. I love those hands because they usually don't require much decision making. If I have a small pair, I'll only continue with it if I get a three of a kin...

w00t! I made it to the final table at the Casino San Pablo tournament on Saturday (in person, not online). They start paying out prizes at 10th place and I went out in 7th. Not too shabby. A combination of short stacks at the table, and me getting trash hands, had me just waiting for the short stacks to go out. Every player that busted meant more prize money for me. It worked ok at first, as three of the short stacks eventually went out before me. But the binds & antes were so huge, I eventu...

I finally got my bonus from Party Poker, so my total for the night was about $114. These games are tough, I just can't seem to make very much money. I think I was earning more cash total at $1/$2. I considered moving back down, but I want to make progress towards the higher stakes. I'm starting to think earning so little is just normal, at least until I improve. Battling this tougher competition is helping me get better, though. My reads on opponents are improving and I'm pretty confident tha...

Last night was another tough game at $2/$4. After three hours, I only booked a win of about $7. Better than losing, I suppose. It was one of those nights where I started out losing a few big hands right away, then spent the rest of the night playing catch up. What was slowing down my progress was that I kept splitting big pots with other players. Four times there were four to five people in these huge pots with over $100 in them. I'd get a strait for the win, but then would have to split the ...

I broke even last night. Well, not exactly. I actually made about $12 after three hours of play. Party Poker will give me a $100 bonus if I can get 1,000 raked hands before the 26th. So last night I was just trying to get it up to 500 hands, then I'll do 250 hands over the next two days. I buy-in to each table with $150. Since I play two at a time, that's $300 I keep in play at any one time. Kind of nerve wracking, having all that money at risk. I have to keep telling myself it's just a sc...

I lost that tournament from last week. Kind of depressing, I really wanted to make it to the next round. Oh well, maybe next time. So it now looks like I'll be playing in two events at the World Series The first event will be the $1500 No-Limit event, where I'll stay in that timeshare with Dutch and his friends. Well, I hope to do that event. I'll be trying out a few satellites in Vegas to try to win myself a cheap seat. My wife also wants to play in the ladies event, which is about a week ...

Oh man, I'm totally nervous about that tournament tonight. I only have to finish in the top 40 to advance, but it's through a field of 400. I'm visibly shaking with nervous energy as I type this. I want to win it bad . Anyway, onto the article... Playing poker well requires a rather wide skill set. Lately, I've been thinking about those skills and how I stack up. Math skills: This is more essential in limit, but still plays a critical role in no-limit. You need to be constantly compari...

That tournament I won last week was a qualifier for a bigger one tomorrow. There are going to be 400 players and I just have to finish in the top 40 to advance. Fighting those big fields is tough, play lasts so long that the blinds start getting really huge. I'm going to have to accumulate a lot of chips early, so I'll have enough room to put the pressure on during the mid-stages. I'm already nervous. I've been doing more tournaments this week to practice. I played $2/$4 for about 15 minut...

w00t! I got first place in that FCP Protege tournament! I just had to finish in the top 40 to qualify for the next tournament, but only first place had an actual cash prize of $200. I wanted it bad. I had been working on a strategy for that structure and it was nice to see it all come together. It was great, I didn't feel like I made more than one or two mistakes the whole tournament. The last tournament I was in was pretty tough, I was short stacked most of the time. I went into the final...

I lost again at the tournament this week. At least I didn't go out too early, I went out around 23rd place. There were a couple of stupid moves I made and I really need to get a better handle on my no-limit play. My main problem seems to be when I raise, then get re-raised all-in. I keep folding when I should call or calling when I should fold. I did make the right decision in one hand, winning a huge pot. But I'm sure I was making a ton of mistakes in the other hands. I've got to improve my ...

I finally had a decent session last night, I won about $47 after a couple of hours. (You might notice my bankroll dropped, but that was because I forgot to update the amount in one of my accounts after a losing session last week.) Party Poker made some changes, which has been affecting my table selection. I used to be able to bring up 10 tables to watch, which saved the hand histories to a log file, then would use some software to analyze those logs. I'd let it run for about an hour, then sit...

Well, the losses have stopped, but I haven't been able to earn very much. I played some $3/$6 last night and found a couple of very loose tables. It started out pretty bad though, as I was quickly down about $100. Again, the loose players were hitting their long shots against me. But it only took two hands of them not drawing out on me to put me back to even (plus about $10). That's really why I have to stay aggressive. If I got scared and started playing my good hands passively, I'd not on...

I had another bad run this weekend. Man, this sucks. I played at the casino on Saturday and managed to lose $194. I was actually getting great starting hands all day, but very few stood up. I had KK cracked multiple times, QQ cracked, 77 (with a 7 on the flop to make a set) beat by a strait on the river, 44 (with a 4 on the flop to make a set) beat by a flush on the river, etc. The whole day was like that. The tournament wasn't much different. I lost a big chuck of chips when I had to lay ...