Dime/Quarter: 3 Weeks In

Sometime soon, I suspect there's gonna be some strategy posts around here, but in the meantime we'll have to just be content with general updates.

After blowing off more money than I care to admit through bad beats and bad play, I'm pretty sure things are getting back to normal. I'm not sure really if you should label it "fortitude" or "stupidity", but faced with the previously noted bankroll disaster, I made it a deliberate point to ride it out: give dime/quarter NL a serious go, damn the losses. Part of (perhaps nearly all of) being a winning poker player lies in being able to accurately assess your play and what's going on around you. I looked around, knew the game was beatable, knew I had been playing poorly and trying too hard, made the adjustment, and with a little help from luck I netted five winning sessions (all more than double-ups). Still down from three weeks ago, but nearing breaking even.

Part of my so-termed fortitude was realizing how much more quickly a little tight play at dime/quarter (as opposed to nickel/dime) would regain the losses... making $10 profit at nickel/dime is a double up and can take a while to put together... while $10 profit at dime/quarter is just winning a few small pots, where I really excel.

Most of this is a simple matter of mindset. There's such a fine line you have to walk between pushing every edge with minimal risk to yourself, and flat out overplaying and trying too hard. If you're looking for those big, quite addicting "I have the nuts and two people just went all-in in front of me" hands, you're just going to flat out lose. If you're looking for little wins and stack-protecting play, things will likely come out much better.

A couple of noteable runs/hands to speak of:

Worst three hands in a row EVER (for me): Losing a $55 stack with KK vs AA. Next hand, flopping a Q-high flush, and losing $25 to a flopped K-high flush (same guy again). Next hand, flopping a set, overplaying it HARD (thinking table will think I am on tilt), getting called by an up-and-down straight draw, and losing.
Peace. Out. -$105.

A "what was he thinking" hand: Q5o in the BB, limps, I check. Flop KQQ. I check, button bets reasonable. I call. Turn 5 (sweet.) I check. Button bets half pot. I call. River: x. I check. Button bets $2. I go all in for like $33 more. Button calls $33 into a ~$7 pot with AQ. Granted, this is a little risky on my part, but the only hands to fear are KK and KQ, and reads and style obviously made me pretty confident I had the best hand. Calling $33 into a $7 pot with a paired flop and no boat has got to be a -EV play.

A "haha, don't slowplay" hand: 34o again in the BB, SB only limps, I check. Flop: AQ7. SB checks, as do I. Turn: 5. SB bets minimum... I call. River: 2. SB bets $1. I check the board again, no pair, no flush, no higher straight than my wheel. I raise to $2. SB goes all in for $12. I call. SB shows AA.

Other news: finsihed 10th, just inside the money and 6 places outside a finals spot in the first Blogger Poker Tour event. I was actually the chip leader with 12 players left, but lost 1/3 of my stack when my AK fell to a short stack's J7 or somesuch, and it was all downhill from there.

Aside from a little pre-tourney play-money trial to get used to things, this was the first time I played at Poker.com and I was reasonably impressed. At first the interface seemed way unfamiliar and entirely too busy, but I soon settled down and enjoyed a lot of the features, such as the ability to "muck and show" where appropriate (they even allow you to only show one card!), and they actually show the hole cards when players are all in with no side pot, along with each player's percentage through the flop turn and river. (Never understood why Stars and others don't show until the hand is over.) Another great feature is the way that they show pot size and bet size during a hand... like: Pot Size + (total bets so far this street), making odds calculations very clear and easy. The ability to "rabbit" a hand in certain spots is less useful, but I'm sure a lot of players find it entertaining, and to the site's credit, they do it very quickly and it doesn't interfere with play. Anything which gets my opponents to show their cards when they otherwise wouldn't is worth two seconds delay.