Welcome Back To PokerStars

Well after a great 30 day period where I could do no wrong, I have started running bad. I knew it would be hard to maintain a $100/day profit average, but I thought I could at least keep winning. Its been a rough few weeks. Before, it seemed like I was on the winning side of all the big hands, and winning nearly every session. Now it seems like I am on the losing end of the big hands, and losing nearly every session. What a difference a few weeks makes. I don't think my play has deteriorated, but my luck certainly has, which may be starting to effect my play to some extent. I am down on just about every site I play at since my last bankroll report, so it is not site specific. I used to jump around a little when running bad until I found I site I could win on, but its not working this time. Hopefully, this will turn around soon.

WSOP Update

I decided to not play event #6. I will be playing event #2 or a later $1500 buy-in. I am going to do the direct buy-in on PokerStars, to avoid the hassle of registering myself. Plus you can buy-in with $W on PokerStars, and you can get $W at a discount at various websites. The best I have seen is buying $W for 87.5% cash. So, I can buy-in for $1312 to a $1500 event. That is pretty sweet. The only problem is you need to be at SilverStar level to do a direct buy-in. So I will need to get 1500 FPPs before I can buy-in. The deadline for Event #2 is June 7th which will be pretty tough. So last night (June 1st) I decided to start accumulating FPPs towards the SilverStar.

Welcome Back to PokerStars

I have hardly played at PokerStars at all this year. I played a little last week to clear my bonus, and actually won some there vs. my bad streak at other sites. When I saw that FullTilt was not going to do a reload bonus on the 1st, I decided to dedicate my playing time to PokerStars until I get to SilverStar.

My first big session back, was my worst in recent memory. Welcome back to PokerStars! It was not that I was playing bad, or taking bad beats, I just got into some real bad situations.

Situation #1
Raise 4x preflop with TT. One caller on button. Flop drops AKx with a flush draw. I make a 2/3 continuation bet to see where I stand. Call. Turn drops a T for my set, plus now there are two flush draws. I make a pot sized bet to protect my hand, and get reraised. I can't put this guy on AA or KK due to his smooth call preflop, so I push with my set. He calls, and has QJs for the straight. He hits his flush on the river just to rub it in. Summary: I catch a set on the turn and lose my stack.

Situation #2
Raise 4x preflop from the button with KK. BB calls. Flop is Axx rainbow. BB checks, and I make a smallish continuation bet to see where I am at. BB calls. Turn is a blank. BB checks, I check. Turn is a K for my set. Now BB bets the pot. I have the second nuts to AA. This guy smooth called the preflop, and checked the flop and turn. I can't put him on AA. I put him on an A with possibly 2-pair. AK is very likely. I reraise him big. He pushes, I call. He has AA. Summary: I catch the second nut set on the river and lose my stack. I really think this guy played the hand horribly, but he looks like a genius. He prolly could have got me all-in preflop. If my 2-outer does not hit on the river, I get away cheap.

Situation #3
Pot limit. I pick up KK preflop and reraise pot an early raiser. Somehow we get all the money in preflop, which is not that easy in pot limit. The guy has AK, and spikes an A on the flop. Summary: I get all my money in preflop with the best hand and lose.

Session Summary
I play break even outside of these big hands, so I am down $300 overall in 600 hands of play. I earn 159 FPPs. I am looking at 20+ hours of 5+ tabling to get to 1500 FPPs. I hope the next session is not this bad. Welcome back to PokerStars.