Whatta player...

Whatta player...

This last month has been basically insane. Not because I've doubled my bankroll or anything, but because I've only posted 2 sessions out of 20 where I didn't finish in the black! How is that possible you ask? Well, I haven't had more than a couple of bad beats for big pots, so I guess my good play has largely been justly rewarded! I'm making laydowns with what must be the correct frequency, as my aggressive plays continue to have a positive expectation. Even when I encounter resistance but can then occasionally sense it is not genuine adds greatly to my profits. In accordance with that, I'm very rarely getting out of line with my raises preflop, and I'm making far less mistakes in terms of position.

I think one of the best adjustments I've made recently is one advocated by Phil Gordon in his Little Green Book: don't play suited connectors out of position against a preflop raiser. Until recently I'd been trying to break players by calling preflop raises and occasionally re-raises with suited connectors from the blinds or early position, and I was then trying to play draws out of position for the rest of the hand. Phil reminded me that only pocket pairs can effectively be played out of position, as you can either hit the flop and be in excellent shape, or simply miss and get away cheaply. For drawing hands you need the option of checking or betting which position grants you, otherwise you will pay far too much for your draws if there has been substantial preflop action.

When you run well, poker seems the easiest game in the world. I recognise things must be going very well mostly through the absence of the doubt and uncertainty that usually constantly plague me! I sit down at the moment fully expecting to win, and I daresay this confidence is helping my performance considerably. To keep this from becoming a form of arrogance, I remind myself I'm still down 1.5k on FTP, and continue to grind out the $0.25/0.50 games to initiate my return. Given this current good run, I'm glad I'm now very familiar with both the good and bad effects of variance, as it has helped build my patience along with a limited immunity to tilt.

I continue to be challenged and motivated by the exploits of all the other bloggers I read about (see those on the right for a shortlist), and am glad that they always provide me with a level of discipline and other ideals to strive toward. Thanks guys. Next month I want to hit 30k and have a shot at a $5/10 game. Wish me luck!