Cash room progress.

Profit: $85

Even when I had that horrible 24 hours just before Christmas I was still confident in my game. I was sure at the time that I'd simply had 500 or so hands of bad beats and missed draws. Even so, I took Christmas off to get it completely out of my system.

I posted that 'easing myself back in' blog and have been a good run ever since. On Sunday I made quite a bit in cash rooms but the Bloggerment win had to be reported first.

It's all come from that 'fake $50' I got free too. I got an account on one of the ipoker skins where they gave me $50 free dollars for signing up. Instead of blowing it on a $50 cash room I decided to use it as a buffer bankroll - something I could use to make sure that X-mas was just a fluke set of results. But I've got to like the software and it's also given me a chance to try out a program called Realtime Hud. It's a free alternative to Poker Ace and its far better. It keeps its own database (apart from poker tracker so you don't have to run that in the background) and it allows you make changes on the layout itself (rather than in a separate window). I've already found it very, very useful, especially for determining when and where to c/bet.

The main part of my game I've been working on is position. I'll raise from the button and cutoff with a very wide range of hands now because I'm so confident in my situational awareness after the flop. I'm not limping in at all now which is something I'm really pleased about because I used to be very passive in that regard.

My bet sizes are just about right - as they have been for some time now - and I think I've pretty much nailed my river value betting. When I lose a hand with two pair, I lose maybe 20% of my stack. When I win against two pair I win 50%+ of their stack maybe 90% of the time. It's those sorts of critical points in my game that I feel I've really worked during the last three months.

I've said this before but I've thought about it again today and it's so important: I just never get stacked unless it's a cooler or a bad beat. I don't ever really lose big pots. In 3,600 hands this year I've lost $3 or more eight times (only three pots above $7). In contrast I've won $3 or more 29 times. This means that I'm getting away from the hands such as top pair/top kicker that tend to get most of the action on the flop and turn, and not chasing big/expensive draws. But when I do hit my hand I am able to extract value.

The only problem with all this progress is that I've done it with fake money. I don't mean play money, just money that isn't mine yet. I've got to do some stupid points clearance to get to it and it's going to take ages. I need 6,000 points and I currently have 400.

This is an irrelevant point to be honest because I've already promised myself that I'm not going to remove any of the bankroll this year. It's there to be built upon so I can eventually play higher stakes. So far it's free money that I've nearly trebled in ten days.

The goal, for now, is this: Continue to build this bankroll in ipoker and try and take shots at higher stakes when I can. Then, when I eventually clear the points. I'll remove the money and put it in another ipoker account where I can enjoy rakeback at I'm missing that on my current ipoker site.

It'll take time an patience but if there's one thing I've got it's those two things.

Here's hoping my next blog doesn't record the usual 'downswing after a happy, confident post' routine.