Weekend update

Well, it was a 3 day weekend, so I managed to get some poker in. Not as much as I hoped, but more than I expected. Overall it was a pretty good weekend. First, I got in about 3K hands of 25NL rush. I won half a buy in in my first session and just over a buy in in my second. That's the good news. The bad news is I was playing scared. Not scared money, but scared to make moves and plays. I was playing really nitty and passiing up spots because I didn't feel comfortable. The good news is that my last session was much better. I was playing a better game, but it wasn't a great session money wise. Wound up breaking even mostly due to 2 hands. One was basically a coin flip on the flop with my KJs on an 8 high flush flop. I check raised and felt I had to call it off with what I considered to be about 40% equity against this players range. Turns out I was wrong, as the player shoved 99. I hit my K on the turn, but they hit their 1 outer on the river. I'm not overly upset with the hand, as I had 51% equity at the time, but loosing a 130BB is difficult when you are getting comfortable at a new level.

The other hand I am actually VERY happy with how I played it, although 2P2 would say I played it horribly. I called a UTG open from someone playing 20/4 with QQ. It was a small sample size (just over 100 hands) but this player hadn't C-bet once. They C-bet and I was VERY happy. At this point I put them on AA/KK as I don't think AQ is in their UTG opening range. So I'm doing back flips when an A comes and this player bets again. At this point I go ahead and call down. The sample isn't big enough for me to fold the second nuts and they weren't betting overly large. I wound up loosing about half a stack by the river. I think that was the tipping point for the session, and after that I played a much better game. I wound up breaking even after the session, so I am somewhat happy. Over all I have played just under 5K hands and am up just over 2 buy ins without rakeback. So, in 5 sessions I am already 10% of the way to taking shots at 50NL. No matter what though, I am going to stick at 25NL for at least 50K hands. I have done some research, and I decided I want to get a stat review by Mpethy. A lot of the regs I respect said that 1 2 hour session added 1-2BB/100 to their game, and that would be HUGE. The down side is you need a decent sample and I just lost my database not to long ago. I actually think this is probably pretty good though considering just how much my game has changed, so it is probably better to get a new sample.

The other good news for me is that I now feel like I have 10NL rush figured out and can play there any time and in any condition and make a profit. This is good news as one of my goals this month was to make 10NL rush my new goof of spot/tired/inebriated playing ground. On the 4th I got home and put the kids to bed and fired up the game. I was a bit drunk and really wanting to goof around trying new lines and wierd situations. I got a little more drunk and played around 2K hands. I roller coastered all over the place, but around 1.5K hands in I was down 2 buy ins and decided to just go get the money. 500 hands later I am up about 2 bucks and head off to bed. This is pretty much my final test of being able to crush a level. If I can go in drunk and fooling around and still manage to pull a profit, then that level becomes my bitch.

On the bonus front, the Academy challeng points are suffering now that I don't have the Ferguson. The Ferguson was bad, but some of these others are just stupid. Seriously, how often do you have a flush draw and someone bets less than 20% of the pot? I mean I have it on, but I expect the points to slow down a TON. I am on pace for gold this month, which would be huge (3 free buy ins!). I can't wait to see how much I get in rake back Friday to. Gotta love that free money!

Oh, and the BEST part of the weekend? While doing my session review last night, I noticed that HEM has given me the ABC TAG! First time I have ever seen this tag. I never understood why people hate being called ABC. Uhm, apparently it is profitable up to and including 200NL (which is higher than my target level at the moment!) and can easily make you 6 digits a year. Call me a tag fish/nit tag/whatever the hell else you want - just call me paid!