Getting Closer

Finally, a good night at the tables last night. Played an assortment of games last night - NLHE, PLO, Stud, and I conquered them all. I even caught myself 3-tabling at one point fairly easily. Obviously, multi-tabling increases your potential profit\hr, but whether or not it works for me is still to be determined. Anytime I multi-table, I usually have to stagger my games, because trying to multi 2 SNGs when it gets to heads-up in both of them is what drives me nuts. Last night I was short-handed in a NL SNG, halfway through a PL SNG, and playing the .50\1 Stud table. The varying speeds of each game was key to keeping me focuses.

I'm happy to say that Stud was very profitable yesterday, as I finished up the day up about 2\3rds of a buyin. I would have been up more but I couldn't get away from a made straight on 6th st. When my opponent started betting out showing xx3Q3, I knew he had trips, but I was open-ended with a pair of 8s, so I was swimming in outs. Sadly, he paired his Q when I made my straight on 6th, and I couldn't find it in me to fold when it was only going to cost me 2 bets more. Plus, there was always a chance that he had another pair underneath, thinking his two pair were good.

But otherwise, Stud was very kind to me last night, giving me some monster hands that got paid off:

1. Rolled up 2s. You have to love when you're forced to bring in already sitting on a monster. However, I had to play this one slowly as someone took the lead betting out with xx66 on 4th st. I didn't think he had trips quite yet, but with others in the pot, I didn't want to isolate so early. But 6th street brought him trips as well, so I had to call 2 bets & hope that A) I could pair a card for a boat and B) that he didn't have a boat already. Amazingly, both things worked out for me as I paired a 3 & took down the pot.

2. Limped (AK)A. Got in a two bet when I paired my K on 4th, then got the A on 5th and found two people willing to call me all the way down. Nothing like having the virtual nuts & the pot locked up by 5th st.

3. Very next hand, limped (TA)T. Paired my A on 4th, and again boated up with a T on 5th. Only one caller, someone who couldn't find it in him to fold trip 8's, although I can't blame him I guess.

PLO was good to me as well. Finished 2nd in the Turbo game where I battled back from about being down to 500 chips after having to lay down KKxx on a K high board because of the straight possibilities. I took this success in PLO as a sign that I should play more, so I switched over to Heads-up games & took down 4 of 6.

NL was also very friendly towards me last night. After trying to steal with Q5, I ended up folding on a Q62 flop when my opponent check-raised me all in. He shows JTo for the stone cold bluff. Dunno what made him think that I was trying to steal, but it was a good bet on his part. I really thought about calling - the fact that he check-raised all-in gave me the feeling like he was just trying to buy the pot. But we were still short of the money and I wasn't in panic mode yet, so I folded. I ended up going heads up against him when I got him to commit when I pushed on an A-high flop with A6. He *instacalled* with nothing but Q high. I finally got vindication against his bluff when I slowplayed AA until he pot-committed himself with K7 on a 533K board & took down the victory

So what does this all mean? It means that I am about $40 away from getting to the next level of my bankroll challenge. I cannot WAIT to get out of $5 SNG land! Of course, I was almost this close a couple of weeks ago before I dropped almost $100 in losses, so who knows how long this will take, but I'm playing pretty well right now so hopefully I'll get to that level soon.

I started this bankroll challenge with just $70, but a week before I decided that, I was all the way down to only $20 in my account. In less than 3 months, I've worked that up to nearly $500, playing on average about 6 hours a week. I know that's only a fraction of what some of you are used to playing with, but in my case, it's a significant amount. I just realized the other day that I haven't deposited money into my account since May - that's the longest I've EVER gone without depositing. This bankroll challenge thing seems like it's taken forever, but I do have to admit it's probably the best poker decision I've ever made.

GL this weekend, and I'll see you on Poker Stars on Sunday.