FTP still bit ugly...

Have played another two sessions since my last blog on FTP. Had a break-even session, then had another one last night where I dropped about 1.5 BI. Bit frustrating.

I suspect it may be the Rush week promotion that is going on. However, I suspect I may have to change up my strategies a bit and see if that helps. To be honest, I'm hating getting big pocket pairs as they seem to be causing the most damage to me. At least with more speculative hands like suited connectors and such, you can get away from them if you can't get in cheap or miss the flop. My big pairs seem to keep running into bigger hands or an AK that improves on the flop.

A bit of coolers as well....like flopping two pair on an AJ2 board and the opponent getting a set of deuces. That just sucks.

Got one more day to go with the Rush promotion, then I'm putting it on the backburner for a bit.

Had an ugly session on Party as well...lost a little more than a buy-in. I'll need to review those hands today and see what was going on.

Ugly FTP session

Played a couple of tables on FTP last night as part of the Rush week promotion...ugly.

I'm getting tired of getting KK and running it into AA preflop. This seems to be happening frequently and can drive you nuts. Unfortunately, things like this make me tilt and I spew off more money that I really didn't need to if I was more calm. It started after making top pair and betting pot on flop, turn and making 2 pair on river (A7 on A7xxx board)...and getting shown pocket sevens for a rivered set. I then started making bigger pots than my hand really needed.

Lesson learned. I have to keep the following things in mind.

1. I'm beating the game long term..up about 8 buy-ins for the year so far.
2. I did make some good plays last night. Making top pair on river and suspecting I was behind...so I checked behind player...turned out he had AK for TP with a better kicker than my A10.
3. The year is going well overall so far. Been playing more 6-max stuff and seems to be going okay for now.
4. I'm well bankrolled for the game...so no money worries about playing too short.

Been reading some psychology books...been helping with tilt so far. Last night shows that I still need some more work on this.

Geez...

Really need to update here.

I've started reading Alan Schoommaker (sp?)'s series of poker psychology books as a form of "soft skills" development for my game. I have finished the first one (Your Worst Poker Enemy - YWPE for short). This was pretty good as it gets you thinking about your own poker psyche. I've learned a few things especially when dealing with bad beats and losing streaks.

Just started reading Your Best Poker Friend...so I'll post my thoughts on it when completed.

My games have been interesting. On PokerStars, I restarted playing O8 again and the results have been pretty good overall. The great advantage of being able to play different things is that you can switch things up when you need a change of pace.

Have tried playing some games on Party...those games are rough. When, at the micro-stakes tables, you see less than 30% of players seeing the flop, you know there isn't much money to make there.

Still playing Rush on FTP...seems okay for now. Bit up and down right now but got plenty of bankroll for the game.