Session #3

Absolutely brain dead so not sure how coherent it will be but what the hell...

Played my first hand of poker, tonight, at 7pm and my last at 3.45am so it was a complete degen session and I love it!
In reality, I play so bad. Played some pretty horrific poker tonight, generally after 11pm so I am going to blame it on tiredness! I managed to show a £45 profit but it should have been a lot lot more and if I was fresher, probably would have been.

I made two awful calls, which combined cost me about £90. Both should have been easy lay downs but both came at times when I had a decent stack so as seems to be the case with me recently, in this situation I feel more superior and don't mind chucking in a couple of £25 chips hoping to see a bluff or something (god knows what I actually think (I don't...thats the issue)).

Generally, it was an insanely swingy session and gave new meaning to the word "grind". I had a high of about £200 and a low of £27. Insane.
The following hand came at an awful time, I was playing some of my best poker of the night and had a rhythm going, I was really watching my opponents and trying to keep the edge I felt I had.
Anyway, for once it was folded to the small blind...
This guy was the most arrogant twat I have ever met, he must have been about 18 stone and no older than me. He was limping with air consistently but catching every single flop. Eventually he got caught out and donked off half his stack.
He raised it to £4 from the sb and I looked down at 22. I call and pray for a miracle 2 to trap him.
Flop : 8 2 6 "YES"
He immediately led out with a bet of £6. I gave it the whole theatre whilst trying to put him on a hand. I couldn't really, could have anything...
Turn : 6, which also brought a flush draw
He again led out with a bet of £11. I tanked for ages and eventually popped it to £29
He called
River: T
He checked. Now I didn't think about anything other than Vegas and the fucking Mirage at this point. It would be impossible to get away from it but I wish, for future ref. I had thought more.
Anyway, I tanked and bet £40 (pretty much put him all in...indeed, he shoved for another £3).
He flipped TT for the higher boat. Sigh.

That sent me on hyper tilt cos he would have stacked off regardless of that T falling. I laid the trap but got done. To be fair his check on the river was pretty sexy. He was shocked when I flipped 22 so I guess he didn't read me for a house, but whatever his logic on the river, the check was nice.

I will make another post about a few other things that happened over the course of the evening but generally I am a bit disappointed not to have earnt more. I expected to be doing better at this point. I think I am getting unlucky with table draws so I am going to look out for this tomorrow night and ensure I stake out the tables. It also seems to be a bit of a crapshoot after midnight...we were 7 handed and literally all had our heads on the table, couldn't be arsed but we're all degens.

I didn't limp all that much at all tonight, I was determined to eliminate that from my game. However, I still need to be more aggressive. I am toyed between making the right move or just folding in marginal situations and playing small ball poker. Obviously this isn't working that well. In prior sessions at the Vic I was far more aggressive/arrogant and playing better poker. Now, due to the fact that I need the money more and want success more, I am playing more cagey and thus only getting meagre profits. I need to think about this.

I am running bad at the moment I think, definately never run this bad in the Vic before. This is slightly encouraging because as I say, I was on a low of £27 today at some point but picked my spots, remained patient and worked my way back up. I knew I had an edge. Its irritating because unless I see drastic change over the next few days I can see it being a close to breakeven few sessions. I owe a mate £50 who staked me initially (when he learnt I was only allowing myself 2 buy-ins he was disgusted so shoved a £50 in my hand...ty).

Really hoping for a big big session tomorrow night and its needed really. Got my girlfriends bday on Monday, which I need to sort out and I've also suffered a loss of earnings this week due to my degen attitude keeping me at home! Unfortunately most of the profit this month is going to have to be pumped back into normal current account. August is gonna have to be the month for roll-building.

Will post tomorrow about a couple of other things that are in my head. Pretty KOd at the minute so cba. GL