January 2011 Results and Lessons!

January was awesome! With rakeback, I took in a little over $700. I'm just 3000 hands shy of my fairly ambitious hand goal and about 1.3 buy-ins short of being rolled for NL50. I should get there by the end of the week (yay rakeback!), unless another downswing hits me.

I learned a few useful tips this month. Allow me to share :). First, I found out how incredibly swingy the game gets from NL25 and up. People really don't give NL25 and NL50 enough credit because they're still "micros." There's a 10-buy-in downswing there in my graph. I also had a super hot 8 buy-in upswing just a few days ago. This game is CRAZY!!!

Also, more importantly, I found out that I am much, much better 3-tabling Rush than I am 4-tabling. I tend to lose track of the action with 4, and way too many times this month I ended up folding premiums preflop because I couldn't get to the screen in time. AA, KK, QQ, AK... you name it, I folded it. It's pretty horrible when you click the raise button and think you just got it in time... but you didn't. Because you were an idiot and played too many tables. IDIOT!!! That may or may not have had a lot to do with my downswing.

So I got smart, cut down to the number of tables I could handle, and things took off with a bang. It also doesn't hurt that I luckboxed a couple buy-ins to end the month today :). And that's how you double a bankroll, folks. Can I keep my success up in February, and at NL50? Is it THAT much harder than NL25? Was this all just a 50,000 hand pipe dream and I'll wake up as my true fishy self in February? Stay tuned.

Folding Kings Preflop

Here's an interesting hand where I ended up folding the second best hand in poker pre-flop. I'm pretty sure this is the only time I've ever done that. I think it turned out alright.

Full Tilt Poker $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
UTG+1: $48.59

UTG+2: $98.60

MP1: $60.71

Hero (MP2): $26.48

CO: $21.15

BTN: $47.45

SB: $17.10

BB: $29.90

UTG: $67.26



Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is MP2 with K K




UTG calls $0.25, 2 folds, MP1 raises to $0.75, Hero raises to $2.25

TIME TO POUNCE!!!



4 folds, UTG raises to $14, MP1 raises to $30

UTG limp, 4-bet, 5-bet?!?

Hero folds


I smell aces...

UTG requests TIME, UTG raises to $67.26 all in, MP1 calls $30.71 all in



Flop: ($124.02) 7 J 6 (2 players - 2 are all in)



Turn: ($124.02) 4 (2 players - 2 are all in)



River: ($124.02) Q (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $124.02

MP1 shows A A (a pair of Aces)

UTG shows A A (a pair of Aces)

UTG wins $60.51

MP1 wins $60.51

(Rake: $3.00)




Third best with kings preflop. What's the world coming to?

So remember, folks. A word to the wise. The UTG limp, re-raise, re-re-raise is ALWAYS aces. Maybe even double aces. You heard it here first.

I'm Alive!

Hey there! I'm still alive and kickin', haven't gotten hit by a bus or murdered by the wife yet :P.

My bankroll's about the same as my last update, but it sure dipped down by $300 at NL50.

Lucky for me, RUSH called my name in the new year, though, and now I've got it all back! I swear, it's like crack-cocaine, and every poker junkie known to man seems to be on and donating me their money :) Also doesn't hurt that I've been getting smacked in the head with Aces and Kings. Here's the year's pretty graph! Comment now before the downswing (That's right, I'm pre-empting you, karma)!

My wife also pointed out how I'm a short to medium term planner only. So I'm not going to set some sort of silly monthly or yearly goal for poker.

Next stop: Get to 50000 hands at NL25 RUSH and see where you stand. Have I finally cracked the NL25 RUSH puzzle?!? Stay tuned for more...