Blew out my $50 account

Running about $31 still. I was up to about $35 and didn't know the rules completely because there was 4 of a kind on the board and I thought I'd be "cute" or do something funny and go all in. Well the other player had a king high kicker and won the entire pot. I didn't know that rule. So I lost about $3 or $4 on that mistake.

Then I had pocket 9's and was raised like 4x bb and got re-raised like 2x that by player to my left -- the player who just called my first bet just called that bet. One of the players had called both times and I felt he was weak. The flop came Q47. Nothing too scary except maybe KQ or AQ. The player who just called went all in on the flop. The player who raised the most folded. This influenced my thinking and I've seen a lot of smaller stacks bluffing. So, I called he hit a set of 4's to bust me. He was like "thanks for the chips".

I told him I'd bust him. Well 2 hands later I had my chance. AK and I raised 12 cents. He called again. The flop came something like A78 and I raised and he re-raised. So I pushed him all in. The villain had flopped 2 sets on me in a row busting me again!

That sucked. So that pushed me down to about $28 and now I've just built back to about $31.

About 90% of the time the short stacks are bluffing with nothing and I just didn't believe he hit 2 sets in a row. I put him on something like A-10 or a bluff. I'm thinking in the second instance if I had not flopped the ace or had something less like AQ I could have got away but flopping the ace with the KING. I felt he was for sure trying to push me off my hand and maybe had AQ or something at best. In a full ring game I think I might have thought "set" but in a 6 player game I haven't seen that as much and AK is super strong 6 player. I guess this was an instance where controlling the pot would have been better.. if I convinced him I couldn't be pushed all in then I might could have got away cheaper but still if he pushed all in on the river then I'd be forced to either fold or call and I doubt I'm folding AK on that board.

I'm back to $35. I've been playing pretty good. I have noticed that a lot of people are min-raising with pocket aces and they are getting them cracked because they are getting 2 or 3 people in the hand with them. It seems I'm fluctuating between $40 and $20. I feel a lot better being in the 30's even though its more psychological then probably significant.

Some of the hands I've lost recently I'm thinking about are heads up I had KJ and I flopped my jack. The other player had pocket queens. I'm not sure that was a bad play heads up to push all in on that one. It was on the flop and he'd have to hit 2 pair or be playing AJ or a bigger pocket pair to be ahead of me. I feel pretty good about that play.

In another play, I flopped trips heads up. I put this player as being a 'big bluffer' based on my read (which turned out to be right). So, he raised and then I re-raised. We kept raising and then I realized in this case there was a good chance he had hit the 9 too and my kicker was looking pretty sick like a 5. So, at this point I just called and tried to keep the pot from getting any bigger but on the river he went all in. I felt I had to call and he outkicked me with the King. In this case, I should have just called I'm thinking.

I'm also going to have to study up and figure out if there is a way I can protect myself from sets. If I'm in a mutli-way pot then I'm pretty cognizant sets being a danger but heads up/ short handed I've not seen that as much until today.

It can be difficult because there is a tendency to think when there is a lot of raising that someone has hit something huge but then you see both players had junk. I don't want to change up my winning plays because I got bit a few times by something off the wall. Like the KJ vs QQ queens play head up, I don't think there was anyway I could avoid that. I love playing flushes and draws.

Here a situation that came up. I have pocket 10's. I raise about 5x the BB. I raise a bit more because I've hard trouble playing them. The flop comes A25. I think the player that called is probably going to be loose and bluffing a lot. He bets out 15 cent. This is a decent sized bet but a little small. It's believable he called with any ace or a good ace even. The next card to come is the ace and he goes all in.

I'm playing fast tables and I don't have much time to think but this is a tough situation. If he had the ACE then he might realize I'm not likely to have an ace but if he had the ace with a good kicker -- and I'm an aggressive player -- why not bate me for more? Or maybe he's just a money bull and thinks I'll call no matter what. I think about it and figure he realizes the with 2 aces on the board I'm not likely to have the ace. I decide to trust my starting hand strength and call and I took that pot down.

My thought process was HE thinks I don't have the ace with 2 aces on the board: I'll bluff the ace and he can't call without the ace. It's a scare card for sure. It turns out I was right in this case. He actually had something like 3-7 and his only out was a 4.

This is the most long-winded thread. I think its time to start a blog, light. Let this thread die.

He has one. I guess he'd rather post here.

Okay, I agree! I'll start posting on the blog. If you want to keep getting updates go there. I'll just update here once in a while! Thanks.

Don't forget to put the cardschat banners on your blog. The folks in charge won't like it if you're advertising your blog without a link back in exchange.

He prefers deep stack cash games.

The continuation is over at Poker Blog. You can track my progress as I try to not blow out again and run $50 to $100 and then to $500 and a $1000. Yes, I like playing deep stack 6 player fast cash games and heads up. But, I used to play play money and only sit-n-gos. I was winning consistently at sit-n-gos and that's why I decided to put real money in my account. So I may return to that format eventually and give it a try again. I will add cards chat links soon. I don't make any money from the blog or have any ads on it. Thanks and stop by sometime and check my progress. I'll update here only at significant milestones.

Cool .

I don't know if I'm just paranoid or what but I'm not so sure you should post entire hand histories in your blog. It's public ya know? And if a regular opponent stumbles onto it, they might just have your game figured out.

Light, check out my blog. I'm doing the same as you. I started at 48$ and I'm currently at $80. I update regularly. I'll add yours if you don't mind.

Just revising this thread to update a bit:

Whoa sorry to hear about your bad fortune SNG Turbo!! Sounds really unfortunate. Good luck with winning that freeroll. sounds like you were done

On my goal to $100 I'm at about $81 and stagnating. I received a $25 bonus from stars. I peaked at $97 within $3 of my goal but I'm not sure if my game play worsened or just variance but I quickly started losing when i got there.

Right now I'm fluctuating between $76 and $88 and thinking of taking a break because I'm getting frustrated.

I don't see any real progress at .01/.02 lately 2 tabling. I can see some progress at .02/.04 but the variance is much more dramatic and I'm not too confident playing there yet.