Week One update

I have played a little since my last post. Not as much as I might have liked, because my evenings have been occupied with play rehearsals.

A couple of sessions of $0.05/0.10 Limit HE at PokerStars have left me down a little less than $3. I got very few hands worth playing, and when I got some cards, they either didn't get any action or they ended up second best.

I entered a $1.25 90-player SNG at FullTilt yesterday and finished 16th, for a profit of a whopping $0.37. At least I feel like I played fairly well and didn't make many donkey moves.

As I type this, I am playing in a PokerStars 180-player $4.40 SNG. I have been card dead almost the entire time (about an hour now), and have only won a couple of small pots. Pretty soon I am going to have to double up or go home. I have seen some sick suckouts and highly questionable play, which makes me more frustrated that I haven't had anything to play back with.

As of a few minutes ago, I had a stack of $635 and blinds of $50/100. With one limper in front of me, I pushed with A3s, got two callers with KK and 99, but couldn't spike the Ace or flush and was busted in 69th place.

I'm not getting off to a stunning start for the year, but I'm glad to be getting back into the game. I've been re-reading some of my books and will continue to do so. Another thing I'm doing occasionally is playing some fake money games. Last night I played some deuce-to-seven triple draw on a play money table on Stars. Mainly I get on the play money tables so I can get a feel for how the games that I am less familiar with, such as TD or Omaha, are played. The other players tend to be pretty loose on the play money tables, so devising strategy is mostly a waste. But I do find it to be a painless way to get used to the mechanics of the games, and think about how a hand should be played even if I'm not seeing the other players following what might be proper strategy. If I can pick out what I think they are doing wrong, then I can try to avoid doing those same things when I play. Incidentally, I finished my TD session about 20 big bets ahead, so that's nice.

I might play a few hands of Limit now that I am out of the tourney, but I have some other things I need to do so I may not get much more poker time in today. But every little bit helps, especially if I can learn something from it.