…can be fun, but it can hurt, too.

So, I decided that it would be a good idea to change levels in Omaha H/L, after all I grinded out +100% (not quite 100% if you count the earned bonus, substracting the bonus it would be more like 90%) in the 0.01$/0.02$ PL Omaha H/L ring games.

The jump to the next level is a little bit big though as the next available PL Omaha H/L level at UB is 0.10$/0.25$ and as you can imagine that is quite a difference to pennies. Combine that with a (bad) run of cards and you’re out of the “hard earned” money quite quickly. I played three sessions today and finished two of them down, one even. So I’m out of 2 Buy-Ins (20BB each) and second guessing myself. On the other hand a step up in levels is inevitable as the daily grind in the penny sections is not only sucking the life out of you, but it also doesn’t get you anywhere (at least not fast or quickly).

So I guess I’m giving it another shot tomorrow and we’ll see how that plays out, we all know that swings in poker are normal, but the effects are bigger the higher you go in terms of blinds.

My plan is going to be:

1. Play the normal tight style that brought me this far in the pennies.
2. Stop playing this levels if (-100x BB)
3. Step up a level if (+200x BB)

I’ll keep you posted…

I played a wild mix of games today ranging from the usual penny PL Omaha H/L to 0.25$/0.50$ Limit Hold’em. Was able to stay ahead in Omaha over at UltimateBet, but busted myself out of 10$ over at Absolute Poker, although I held quads twice…just a bad swing today I guess as I wasn’t able to catch anything while holding good hands (Hold’em: K-K…nothing apart some aces on the board; A-K – blank board; Omaha: A-2-3-x, board is something like 2-3-K-10-Q, etc etc)…

Played some orbits at UltimateBet at the penny PL tables and I rocked…totally back in business now and almost up to double my original deposit. Groovy.

In preparation of DADI special Omalympics I thought it would be a good idea to play a S&G of Omaha H/L PL over at Absolute Poker – and indeed it was a good idea, despite me being the bubble boy. Usually I tend to freeze up on the bubble which is:

• a safe way to get in the money (most of the time)
• a safe way to not take any sort of chiplead

This time I said to myself: “Don’t fear the bubble! Play as you usually would” – so I did and it came back to bite me as I ran into the chipleaders A-A-2-K with my A-K-3-4…to bad so I’m out in fourth place (3 in the money), but not feeling all too bad about it. At least I played aggressively on the bubble and with one other card on the board it would have payed off.

On another note: it doesn’t hurt as much to bubble in a 0.50$ S&G than it does in a “major” tournament 😉

After yesterday’s bad run I had a rather good run at Ultimate Bet and was able to get back almost all I lost yesterday, along with some UP…so I’m heading towards clearing my bonus. Good stuff. Even got them quads once, beetches! 😉

The cards didn’t fall my way in my other session over at Absolute Poker, always hard to lose boat over boat…dropped one Buy-In…not in the mood to play anymore today…

Sidenote: Thinking about the term “in the grind”, “grinders” or “rounders” – I started to tag all the known grinders with a yellow user note at the current level I’m playing, this way it’s easier to see who the known faces are and if it’s even worth playing a table… 🙂

you’re at the bad end of variance. Although we all know that it happens 😉

So maybe it would have been a good idea to call it quits after my unsuccessfull session over at PokerStars…but I couldn’t resist to try at Ultimate Bet. What can I say, drop another cool two Buy-ins, in part due to donkey play in part due to suckouts…ah well…tomorrow will be another day…and hopefully a better one at that…

Today I tried something different: same level, but multitable, which is especially useful when you’re trying to clear your B$. In the first session I played on two tables of 0.01$/0.02$ at the same time and had no problem whatsoever, my focus was alright and the parallel action was minimal as I was getting junk hands on one table and okay to great cards at the other table. I was able to more than double my Buy-In in less than an hour. Nice, I think two tables is the way to go for now.

In my evening session I thought I’d give even more tables a shot – and so I did, although there were some problems:

1. Ultimate Bet doesn’t allow playing at more than 3 tables at the same time, so I was able to just add one more table
2. Although I’ve got a nice monitor (17″ TFT) it’s hard to play with > 2 tables as the monitor is a little too small for my needs – it’s alright with my resolution of 1280×1024, but I’m more comfortable if I can see the whole table. So maybe I should buy a bigger monitor (maybe a 24″ widescreen) once my bankroll has been built up a little bit more…

So, the session was stressfull as it’s always hard to play if you’re not really comfortable. Nontheless I was able to break even in the end, so nothing lost due to the experiment.

On another note: I’m close to doubling up my initial deposit at UltimateBet, groovy 🙂

Played around four hours of Omaha H/L at the 0.01$/0.02$ Pot Limit tables, after all today was player appreciation day where UB was handing out free stuff from noon to midnight. As far as I can tell I didn’t get anything, at least I didn’t get any on screen messages or emails, so I guess someone else was luckier.

Donked of some chips in the first two hours, but was able to get everything and more back in the second session, I stayed away from most hands and played the once I had locked (at least the low or the high) aggressively – it payed of and I walked away with roughly 2.5x my Buy-In… 🙂

Played two sessions today and went on a roll right in the first one…played for around an hour and took of with +2x Buy-In nice 🙂

Didn’t catch anything major in the second session and quit relatively fast as I was going nowhere…manage to go out ahead…so I’m not complaining…once again a lovely day at UltimateBet.

Ended the day by donking of 1.5x Buy-In at Omaha H/L 0.01$/0.02$ PL…just couldn’t catch hands even while holding da, possible, nuts (A-A-2-3)…sure enough someone comes through with his pocket kings, no low…etc…not a good session – in fact the first losing session at UB for a while – but I don’t complain, the overall statistics for today are positive, back to hit the tables again tomorrow…

Played two sessions of Omaha H/L 0.01$/0.02$ PL today. Wasn’t able to scoop as much as I wanted, but stayed ahead in both sessions and cleared some more of my bonus. So all in all two successfull sessions.

On another note: It comes in quite handy to start off a table or hit it as a second player as you get 25% more UltimatePoints…especially when you’re trying to clear your bonus, like me.