Knightsridge the Grinder

I just referred to myself in the first person. Fantastic. Yet another first for the blog.

I played again last night on the $10 max buyin on Stars. I played six tables, then tried eight, but went back to six. Eight was not too tough, but there was considerable overlap so I went back to six.

I made $28 in about two hours so 140 BB an hour. This is quite good as I was down about $14 at one point. (my KK v QQ all in on the flop of 57T, Q on turn)

By playing six tables for that amount of time I encountered some very interesting hands:

One hand I had KK and raised with one caller. I hit quads on the flop and checked. Turn is a Q check check. River a J he bets $.50, I make it $1.50 and he calls with AA. Strange strange hand. Cannot believe he had AA.

Another hand that I am still debating is I am UTG with KK and make it $.30 to play. The small blind then re-raises me, making it $.75 to go. The BB then calls. I should have re-raised but I didnt, and I called. Flop came QT7 which is just a massive board of draws and possible sets. The small blind leads out for $1.50 and the BB insta calls. I really didnt know where I stood. I was sure either AA or a set was lurking so I folded. The turn came a 4 and they both checked. DAMNIT. As soon as they both checked I knew I would have been in front. The river was a 6, making the board QT746 and the small blind went all in and the small blind insta called again. Their hands? The small blind who had re-raised an UTG raiser out of position had AQ of course and the insta caller BB, 88. That was a $20 pot which is a big pot for those stakes. I couldnt believe he had re-raised me with AQ. I gave him way too much credit. Would have bumped my profit big time if I had stayed in the hand. But to be fair I went with my read and I am cool with that.

I am trying to get used to playing cash games and some hands are played much differently than sngs. Small pocket pairs play very well with set mining big on my list. I flat call any pocket pair anywhere on the table for just the BB, but fold lower ones to a raise. (this may be wrong but I am still learning how the games go) I am also trying to see cheap flops with Ax suited. I hit a few flushes and was paid off on them. As far as bluffing goes, I do very little. I will do a continuation bet with AK but if it is called I shut down as players will call down with very little.

Odds and Ends:

I signed up for Full Tilt last night on a new account to get some rakeback. It is technically the fiancee's account which I am hoping she will play, but Im not too sure. I am getting rakeback on the account so I may start playing there instead of Stars. It could mean as much as $60-$100 a month which at those stakes, is massive. I am just waiting for confirmation from rakebreak.com to say the account is good to go.

I am going to buy pokertracker today. I need some software to track my stats and profits playing cash games (and most importantly the hands costing me the most money) just so I can plug some leaks.

I have given some thought as to when I should move up to $25 NL (10 cent - 25 cent blinds) and I figure 20 buyins should be ok. I would move back down if I went below 15 buyins. So 20 buyins of $25 is $500. (That is shocking as I was playing $50 and $100 with less than that and $200 NL with $600-$700 last year. Bankroll Management has never been my strong suit, but I am trying to change that)

I always thought Stars hand histories had to be emailed to me, which was not cool as it only gives you the most recent 200 hands. Which is quite useless after 6 tabling for two hours. This is not the case as today I found I can automatcally save my hand histories directly onto my computer the same as on Full Tilt.

My thoughts on cash were always quite bleak. I enjoyed the winning of sngs and always thought you cant 'win' cash games. Well I must say, when sitting at a table and you stack a player...it feels pretty damn good. Especially when they reload and go out of their way to play pots with me. This is quite funny though as I play only solid hands.

Hopefully I will get some more playing in tonight.