Rush

I have started playing Rush poker at nights while my baby is sleeping on my lap. In one way its perfect, as I can stop in an instant without really loosing any value. I still think I play much better at regular tables, but I can't really do that when I might have to stop playing in an instant (like last night, when Dom decided to wake up by projectiling on me - let me tell ya, theirs nothing more fun than having KK and getting covered with spit up at the same time).

Anyway, I can annahilate 5NL to the tune of 15BB/100, but I have had a hell of a time at 10NL rush. I run into more damn sets and coolers, but I also think I get a case of FPS syndrome when playing. Last night I started off dropping 2 buy ins, but I really should have only lost half of a buy in. I don't mind loosing money when making plays or trying new lines, but I really hate it when I C-bet in a 3 bet pot with QQ on a K high board and get shoved on by that 80BB stack, tell myself he has AK and thats life, then hit the damn call button instead of the fold button. Or to call the 4 bet shove from a 50BB stack with A6. On the plus side, after dropping the 2 buy ins, I settled down and started playing smart poker instead of F you poker, and wound up winning a buy in.

I actually think the difference between my A game and my C game is simply that I follow my reads more on my A game. I have always had a showdown oriented style of play (Usually around 30%) which has always worked well for me as I am able to value bet pretty thin in many situations. Recently I have been trying to expand my game to start taking down pots without a showdown (I mean, if I know they will call two half pot bets, but fold to 2 larger bets, why not try to take away the pot with 2 lager bets when I don't have show down value, right?) which has added a lot more variance during a session, but has also allowed my to have breakeven or even posotive sessions when I run into a couple of coolers. The last couple of sessions I have had 3 bet percents over 4% (more than twice what I typically do) and have had really good results. Seems counterintuitive that I 3 bet more but seem to get more respect - but thats probably more the small sample size and my extra attention to the light 3 bets.

Anyway, it going pretty well this month. Already up over a hundred without rakeback, which is an increase of around 15% to my bankroll. It's really nice to be playing again and seeing the bankroll growing, and at this rate I might be taking 50NL shots by the end of next month, which is both exciting and scary as I only have about 3K hands back at 25NL. I will take shots no matter what once I get the bankroll though. Life and time are running to short for me to wait for comfort.