Back to the grind

Over the past 4 years or so most of my poker has been cash games. So i decided to go back and have a dabble last week... big mistake. I was playing fairly LAG (too much heads up) and managed to find myself 2nd best in a number of pots that I could not get away from AK on a KK2 flop where hes holding 22 etc. I then missed an up and down straight flush draw with two overcards to top pair. I then folded a up and down straight flush draw with two all ins before me... i held 2h3h so i figured one of them prob had a higher flush draw of course I was wrong and i'd have hit and would have won a huge pot. Anyway that put paid to the cash session and I left feeling a little bruised.

I've not had much luck in MTTs either. I've been playing low stakes 100-200 runners comps with added money or a decent guarantee. The best of which is the outstanding value in the William Hill Super Series MTTs. They run 4 of these a week and they are exclusive to Hills

Sunday 16:00 UK - £7,500 ADDED Buy-In £35 + £4
Monday 19:30 UK - £3,500 ADDED Buy-In £15 + £2
Wednesday 19:30 UK - £1,500 ADDED Buy-In £7.50 + £1 (requires 25 MPPs earnt in the previous 7 days)
Friday 19:30 UK - £500 ADDED Buy-In £2.50 + £0.50 (requires 20 MPPs earnt in the previous 7 days)

I've mainly been playing the £7500 added one, the prize pool is usually around £15000 and so it's fantastic value. Last week I was running really well moving towards the latter stages when I get it all in on a rag flop with Aces... he calls with Kings and the river obliges with a two outer. Was a bit gutted as I was playing well and though I'd have a shot at a win if I won that pot.

Where I have been running good is in Sat and STTs. I'm in the Monthly BF $150k on Sunday for $50 at the first time of asking and I've also qualified 3 times from 3 attempts for the weekly $3000 Passport game for $20, think its just matter of time before I win one. HU is going okish... keep grinding away then seem to hit a bad run of 4-5 on the bounce every few days. The success in the small Sats prompted me to play a few six handed STTs and I've won more than my fair share. I may dabble more in these over the next week or two.

On the live front Dusk Till Dawn opens next week and I'm really looking forward to it!! I'm bought in for the £100 Freeze Out on the Friday night and I'm really looking forward to playng live again.

On the work from I've decided to take a bit more work on. This is really to take the pressure off a small bank roll at the moment. We'll see how it's going and review again is a few months.

Cheers for the support on the comments,

Jim

Busto!

Whoops! Well I had been sailing close to the wind for a while. Running the bankroll down to the bare bones and spinning it up was bound to come and bite me on the arse sooner or later. I'd been running okish on the $200 HU games for a few days just showing a small profit from being up 3 or 4 games each day and managed to work off the cash loss from early October. Then the wheels came off, I saw a player that I'm well up against sat on the $400 tables and proceeded to drop 4 games on the bounce, I then went into freefall.... I could not win a game for love nor money and as the red mist settled I was looking at a £2k loss for the day and not an awful lot left in the tank. The next day started pretty much as the previous one had ended and I had to reserve £1k to pay the bills. By 7pm I had £53 left in Betfair, £2.50 in Hills and £1.73 in Bluesquare. So technically not bust :)

Now this left me with a tough decision. I've always said that if i lost the bank roll I'd go back to work full time. Having said that in the past 30months since I went 'semi pro' I've ploughed thousands out of the poker fund into the 'house keeping' fund. There's also the family aspect to consider. Jack is 17months old now and a total terror! I've spent so much time with him over that period and no one will ever be able to take that away. I've got friends who leave the house at 6am and return at 8pm monday to friday and never see their kids grow up. Shell is also still working 3 days a week, so income is low. Neither of us want to give up the lifestyle we have at the moment but the bills need to be paid.

I've had few quid rakeback come in for various accounts and this only adds up to about £1k from not much play in October. With the agreement of the Mrs (mainly cos she does not want to go back to work) for the first time ever I've nabbed £3k from our 'rainy day fund' to create a £4k bankroll starting November the 1st. I've started a new Profit and Loss spreadsheet and the aim is to keep the stakes low, focus on paying the bills while slowly building up the roll to is former glory.

So far so good.... not played much since November started but £600 up from solid play on the low stakes HU games (mostly $100 and $150s).

It's really is time to stop dicking about, get back to basics and earn some money. Failing that the Mrs will have to go back to work :)