I have been toying with the idea of signing up with an appropriate site to get a handle on the ring game side of Hold 'Em and clear the bonus requirement with the thinking that if I can play break-even or slightly above and clear the bonus I will get ahead in building the bank-role while learning. I was looking at Full Tilt as they are currently running a 100% sign-up bonus up to $600. I was only ever going to put in $100, so after reading this post by ScurvyDog I decided to head to Interpoker, as I would be leaving bonus money on the table, always get the full bonus amount. Essentially going to Full Tilt with only $100 I would be miss out on $500 in bonus.

In terms of my play I think that I am solid enough with fishy tendencies. I will not look at the possibilities, not think about what is out there and commonly only take my hand into consideration. I am still a complete amateur I have no barbs about that. I am here to learn, I read books, read blogs, I think about my play endlessly and how I could have played better even with the hands that I win and lose.

Last night was the first step into this ring world, and I am no Frodo Baggins. From reading SvurvyDog Strategy guide the idea is to play $0.50/$1.00 ring table, as at Interpoker you need 450 raked hands, and a raked hand is one that has a leat $20 in the pot, under $20 is counted as 1/4 of a raked hand. I decided that I should start a little lower in the limits ($0.25/$0.50) then this and on a NL table as this is what I am used to in SnG games. I buy in for $25 making it a full 10 on the table. I get up slightly in the first 30 minutes, playing fairly tight and getting an idea of the table. Essentially, a few players are dominating and taking cash of people popping in with $10 and losing it all. There are some large pots that I am not part of, with the average around $11-$15.

I get down to about $18 over the first hour after reaching a high of $36 when JTs comes along on BB. I check it in with two other callers. Flop of 9J8 rainbow, I bet $2.50 and get one caller, turn is a 4, I bet $5.00 get raised to $8.00...so I am think I have top pair on the board and I have an open ended straight needing a Q or 7 to complete. I thought I was in front and make it all-in. I was in front at this stage with the pair, but they are holding AcTd, looking for the straight also, they get their A on the river and there goes the first buy-in of $25. I was a little stunned by their re-raise and calling my all-in. I am still running this one through my head, and was 2+ hours after I went to bed, as to whether I played it badly. I mean I guess I could have folded the raise and it was bad they hit their river card but in the same situation at the turn I think I would do it again.

So I buy in for another $25 and check my arms and legs for any signs of scales and if there is a fishy smell lingering around. All clear, and I am playing ok, not great winning some small pots and get it to about $32 mark, I am wanting to get back to evens and then head to bed. One guy comes along throwing money around with the better players happy to take it off him; I wanted some of the action but never got the cards when he was donating his bank role. Well into the second hour sitting at the $38 mark and ATs comes along and I am UTG first to speak and do so with $2 raise and I get one caller. Flop fomes along of AA9. Now I can slow play these three Aces but I think that can work against you head-2-head just get what is there and move on, I bet $2 straight away and get raised to $4. So this is where my lack of thought comes in, I have a rule that if I get raised on the flop fold, get out, at my level I am not good enough to think through sum it all up I still get to caught up in what I am holding and lose concentration, an area that I need to work on. But in this instance I could not let go of my A and the two others on the board. So I ignored rule #1 from the previous post and all-in this sucker, they show AQ, the turn and river where nothing special and take the $70 odd pot with a higher kicker. Ouch, man that hurt. PC straight off, lights out and into bed to stare at the ceiling for 2-3 hours thinking about how I played.

Overall I think I played well, not my A game and got busted in the two monster pots I played but with strong hands. I think that better options such as folding to the raises, well duh, would have been better, despite the first being a strong hand. I guess I need to take more notice of my notes and past experiences, read my notes and think about my lessons before saddling up. Hopefully with these in the forefront of my mind I will make better decisions.

Also I think that I should be posting more, I was going to limit it to once a week as I didn't want to bore people, but this blog is here for me, to assist my game if you find it boring there are plenty of entertaining ones out there, such as those I read on the right. So I will add re-reading my own current blog postings before sitting down at the virtual felt and posting my thoughts on a consistent basis.

So tonight back at Interpoker with the other half of my deposit to make amends. Also I did struggle in the bonus stakes, there is $90 in bonus to claim but on the lower limit I only managed to get to 7%, completed - so to get the bonus I will need to re-establish my deposit and step up the limit to $0.50/$1.00 where the average pot size is in the $20 make before the end of the month. Although I do have two weeks left...should just see how tonight goes back at $0.25/$0.50 before deciding to step up limits.

¶ Tuesday, January 10, 2006