Flatlined

Loss: $34

Ok I think this hand sums up how things have been recently.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1253982
I tried my hand on Full Tilt poker again (why do I do this to myself?) and on pretty much every hand I played (around 1,200) I would get decent flops such as top pair and a good kicker and the then turn would bring flush draws and the river would bring straights, flushes, full house and holdings I never knew existed. When I do have cinch hand they have absolutely nothing so I get no value.

Yes, I'm complaining about the cards. But I've not been playing well either. Take this hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1254000

This was a proper hand of poker which I got completely wrong. Calling the turn was a horrible play looking back on it. I'm either folding there or reraising. At least I should be if I weren't stuck in my ways with the passive/trappy stuff that I've been doing for the past three to four months. It does prove profitable when the cards are going right for me but when they don't it's an awful grind. And because I'm used to it now I find it difficult to play tables where players are slighlty better and won't be so easily trapped. I've forgotten how to raise and reraise to be honestly.

To try and address this I've started playing sit and gos again. The pressure of the blinds should force me to be slightly more creative and aggressive. For now I've just been playing $2 six max FTP tables. They're really good actually because you get to see a lot of hands but the blinds eventually catch. I think I'm about $10 up on them at the moment. I've tried taking my game into cash rooms but I've run into trouble so far. No major issues, I haven't been stacked, just my big hands getting cracked (AA and KK quite a lot recently)

However, the money seems immaterial at the moment. I'm not really playing poker, I'm playing patience: waiting for big hands and then betting for value. It may earn money in the long (oh so very long) run but it doesn't earn skill and useful experience.

As they often say in poker: I need to switch gears.