Generally quiet

Profit: $10 (ish)

I'm putting a student newspaper together again at the moment so I've not had much time to play poker, but what I have played has been generally boring.

I put some money on Carbon Poker. Having played on similar software at poker.com and liking it, plus a rakeback and (alleged) bonus (which never materialised scheme I thought I might find the place nice to play at

The software is pretty good. You can rabbit hunt and show cards when you fold, which is especially useful for showing Phil Hellmuth-esque laydowns. The hope is that fish will just try to run me over when I do that but I know when to trap when that happens. On the bad side, the betting slider is a bit naff and the all in button is to close to the bet button (not hit it by accident yet but I could see it happening).

The worse thing, though, is that there's not much traffic, especially at my levels, so I'm having to be extremely selective in my games. I'm up about $13 on there since I started playing.

I put a little bit more money into Pokerstars too to give it a chance but I've not had much go for me. Very flop dead during the 750 or so hands I've played. I've had quite a few big hands run into bigger hands too.

I was on the verge of withdrawing last night when I went into a room with a maniac who had the deck smash him in the face for an hour. Early on one player was going in all the time. When 10 10s came along I naturally called but so did the maniac player going all in for his last $5. Board was X7Kx8X. All in player had AK and the maniac had 78. For the next hour he ran his stack up to $55 with unbelievable play; calling every draw and hitting it. I was desperate to get some money off him and I finally did when I pushed with AQ on 24Q board. He called with 46. Then I raised with AA, he re-raised so I pushed and he called with 77.

That got my stack up to $26 and then the maniac left - he dusted the rest of his chips off in a .25/.50 game. I was just leaving the table when I got A10 of clubs. Rasied it preflop and got one caller. Flop came 776 with two clubs. I bet he called. Turn an offsuit 8, check, check. River was J clubs I think. I can't remember who had position so I'm not sure if I raised his bet or he raised me. Either way he raised me up to about $4 to call. Alarms bells went off so I didn't put him all in and elected to call. He showed 88.

I think I played the hand ok and paid him off the minimum. I'm trying to work out whether I should have put a bet in on the turn but my instincts were spot on on the river with the board paired. That's what Pokerstars has been like for me so far: cooler city.

I'm not annoyed nor fed up though. Just a quiet phase of poker playing.