Back Into the Swing Of Things

April is quickly turning into one of the best poker months I've had in a long time. Most of it happened this past weekend.

On Friday I went to a new club to play my first live poker hand in 9 months. With my bankroll management rules I have had to spend almost all my poker playing time on-line. I really enjoyed this new club as they seem to do many things right. There are several tables with a tournament and then a couple cash games afterwards. On the night that I was there they had two 1/2 NL cash games going after the tournament. One is a larger buy-in with the second being a small buy-in.

First the tournament though. $25 buy-in. 10,000 chips, and blind levels at 15 minutes. With 100-200 starting blinds the blind level started pretty high so a good starting hand was usually required. The two tables filled up and it seemed like most players were separated into two different categories. One group were very passive while the other group were over-aggressive. Either way most players were also calling stations which made things a bit trickier to play. It was very clear that betting for value was a great strategy in this tournament, but in order to accomplish that, some type of hand was required. This, for me was the tough part of the tournament. In two hours I honestly only received a couple 'ok' starting hands. My strongest starting hand was a pair of deuces that I had to fold against a raise and re-raise ahead of me. There was only one hand (KQ of diamonds) that I regretted not playing by the time the hand was completed. In that particular hand the UTG player, who was short-stacked went all-in. UTG+1 called and then it got to me. I honestly read the UTG+1 as having an Ace. I was in a very tough spot. I could call but with so many people acting after me any type of re-raise screws me. If I go all-in someone behind could easily wake up with a hand and crush me. I folded, and so did everyone else. The UTG+1 player tabled an Ace-Ten and he won the hand unimproved. I would have had two pair had I played the hand. My read and decision, pre-flop was technically correct but I should have seized the opportunity to get lots of chips.

21 players started the tournament and I ended up getting 5th place. Top three cashed. I felt fine after the tournament considering that I think I would have easily cashed if I had one or two better hands in better position. After the tournament I wasted some time at the smaller buy-in cash game. In less then 30 minutes I had won my tournament entry fee and then some, making it a profitable night overall. The one thing for sure is that I will be returning.

My poker bankroll took saw another nice achievement over the weekend. I have tracked several stats and one of them is actual bankroll versus peak bankroll. On Saturday, I saw my bankroll peak at every single poker room that I play at on-line. This peak has maintained at all sites over the rest of the weekend. I'm now trying to build all my rolls at each room up to the same level so that my game selection will be more balanced.

All in all, a great poker weekend!

It's Been A While

I haven't had a post for a while so I figured I would remedy that today. First, the negative stuff:

My results for March were lackluster to say the best. Technically I did post a profit but it was about as small of a profit that I can achieve. In addition to that, the only reason I posted a profit was because of bonuses that I took advantage of at Pacific Poker. I earned a small profit in my cash games and lost it back when taking shots in larger buy-in tournaments and Sit and Go's. I was still playing within my bankroll but in order to have the roll grow I have to move up levels when the bankroll dictates to.

By comparison, April has been much better. I am currently on pace to have April be my best month in 2008. With my bankroll being spread over several sites, I am finding that only one of them is not at its peak level. This means that the bankroll in these sites has never been higher (over the course of my experiment). This is a good position to be in and it feels good to see the bankroll growing.

The past couple of weeks have also seen some poker news throughout the States. The WSOP is exploring the idea of having the main event play down to 9 people (the final table) and then the tournament will break for 90 days while all the footage is edited and produced. Then the players will re-convene and play down the final table live. At first blush I didn't like the idea but the more I think about it the more the idea grows on me. With any idea like this there are always going to be pro's and con's. With this idea it seems like the pro's outweigh the con's. My only hope is that if they decide to do it, ESPN has to go all-in with promoting the event so they can maximize their audience.

April also saw the US Congress hold talks about the UIGEA. To many this is the law that saw Internet Poker become illegal. Unfortunately most people don't understand that Internet Poker, in Canada and the US is as legal now, today, as it was before the UIGEA. Hopefully the law will be squashed considering everyone involved has admitted that it's almost impossible to enforce the law.

So that's it for me right now. I am playing in a small buy-in tournament tonight at a local club. I'm looking forward to this a great deal since it's been a while since I played live and I feel that my ability to read people gives me a better edge in a live environment over an on-line one.