Rollercoaster

Ok so in the past week I have been on an online rollercoaster ride with the wheels quite literally coming off....and I still think that I can succeed in this game.

I have been playing 5/10 NL on Betfair and been playing a very loose aggressive game and being doing my pieces all over the place. I lost £1.1k on Friday night including last months rakeback, this was a sick result and i definitely tilted away over £500. Several ill timed bluffs like a re raise on the end of a board showing A58q6 with A2 against QQQ, the re raise was $373 more after he bet the pot (around $100), he called realtively quickly with only 3 hands beating him....first stupid move of the night.

Another hand that i can remember was me making a pot raise pre with k8o, getting 2 callers and the board coming down 873, me check raising the player all in for $400 more with top pair and him instaclling with 64 and hitting a 5 on the river after I turned what i thought was the miracle King.

The last hand was just one of those decisions in NL holdem that you get faced with all the time if you are playing against proper NL Holdem players, the all in or fold decision. These types of decisions can make heros out of us or leave us clinging on the hope of the 3 outer.

Basically it ran like this. I have $700 in front of me with KJo, guy bets the pot, I call the 35 then it gets raising the mandatory to 70 round the back, a strange move here on a 5/10NL table and it made me think a small pair or ak so i call for what i think may be a 3 outer.

Flop is perfect for me including a Jack and 2 small cards. Original bettor checks, i check and the raiser bets the pot for over $200. I have over $600 left in my stack and have a big decision here, either raise all in and be against AK, a bigger pair than jacks, or something else that i havent considered like small pp trips. So i decide to push the remaining $600 or so into the middle and hope my read on the pre flop raise is correct.

It isn't, he has the boots and calls swiftly, the turn immediately brings a rocket to leave me dead. Marvellous, how can I put him on AA with the min raise against 2 guys with over $700 each in their stacks....the play worked perfectly for him but surely you want to be commiting more pre flop with the aces in that spot, espescially when the stacks are deep at the table. Your thoughts on this will be appreciated.


I went to bed a very unhappy soul, knowing that i have tilted away a big chunk of roll and with nothing in the bank and lots on the credit card the future did not seem bright.

Next day i decided to go for broke and play fearless 5/10NL poker with an initial buy in of £250. I took it to £820 in half an hour so that eased the pain somewhat. The big lick 96 held in a pot for $1100 when the flop brought 87T, all the money went in at that point and the worse possible turn and river popped up - running JJ. So unless I was up against 2 pair I was dead or spilting at best.

I won the pot! couldnt begin to imagine what he had? maybe top 2 or something of that ilk, anyway that pot sent me on my way to nearly £600 profit for the session and a dent out of the nightmare the previous evening.

I think i will carry on playing 5/10NL tables because i do believe i can beat the game, we'll have to see in the weeks coming. These will be some of the most important weeks of my poker career to date, I have no roll and am literally going to go for broke on the whim that i believe i am good enough. Watch this space.

AB