I started this week by setting up my laptop for poker. I got a Dell 5150 with 512 MB of ram which is six times what my desktop had. I got it for 950 after some rebate with no tax and free shipping. I experienced far fewer disconnects this week, maybe one tenth as many. I set up a second monitor later in the week so I could keep my main game up all the time and use other monitor for a second game or forum or tourney. The computer came with a Norton firewall and security system. I was happy with zonealarm so I guess I'll wait and see how this goes. The second half of the week, I wondered if I had any firewall at all.
Thursday: I switched over but forgot to get a mouse so I ended up misclicking several times and couldn't get much going at all.-134.
Friday: Again card and flop dead. I managed one semibluff raise with K10 on a QJ2J that worked on the turn when the board paired.+23
Sat: Started out ahead about 400, but ran into some of the runner runner crowd that kept on catching. I'm about ready to switch back to the desktop. -87.
Sun: I'm beating the 10-20 after 450 hours so I decide to give the 15 a shot and get turned or rivered 4 times in one hour losing 425, so I retreat back to the 10 and grind back 400.Then I try the 15 again and run my overpairs into the nuts twice sending me down about 350, then I catch a rush with the main hand a boat over boat and end up going from -350 up to +1100 and ending up +989 on the day. At this point I was ahead for the week and it looked like I would have another decent week. I had no idea that the next day would be by far my worst ever.
Monday: I was card and flop dead in the 15 and the game was pretty aggressive. Nearly every time I was in the pot got jammed pretty good, but I could not win a hand, constantly missing flops, bluffs and being outdrawn. Two hours winless in a ram-jam game and I finally get AA in the BB and everyone folds!! Then I take down a small ~3BB pot and go another 2 hours without winning a hand.
I was stuck 739 in about 4 hours so I go back to the 10 and again get hammered. My opponents can't help but notice that I can't win a single hand. It's unbelievable. I'm not tilting, but I'm sort of numb and stunned and irritated. I don't win a hand the last 1.5 hours so that's an incredible 5.5 hours out of 8 winless. I can honestly not remember a day quite so bad. I lose a record 1358. When I sat down at the 15 I told myself that I have to be ok with occasionally losing 1500 in a day, but it's much easier to say that than go through it.
Tues: The thing I learned the last time I played full time is how hard it is to put in hours when running bad. Playing becomes like getting back into the dentist's chair to get a root canal. I needed to see if I'm still in the funk, so I dropped down to play the 5 and yep, second hand I flopped the nut straight and get rivered by a runner flush. Bad beats are evidence that the game you are in is good, so I just have to wait it out and I did get back ahead for a while, but then I flopped a set of cowboys on a 2 flush board. Ks 10h 4s 6h and I 3-bet the flop and raised the turn. The river is Qd so I figured the draws missed so I end up 3-betting the river but my opponent chased the bottom end of a gutshot on a two-flushed board and caught.-79
Wed: Started out strong in the 5-10 winning about 300 in a couple hours. I was thinking that the luck funk was over so I played the 10 and was against one of those guys that plays about 70% of his hands and he was catching everything, if not on the flop, on the turn or river. He outdrew everyone over and over with runner two pairs, ect. I don't think I've ever seen someone play so bad and hit and outdraw every single time like that. He probably won 1100 in just a couple hours and he outdrew me every time except one, so I ended up stuck 54 bucks on the day to give me a 3 day losing streak and my worst week this year.-818. It's hard to say what the problem is or if there is a problem. It's easy to say I was painfully unlucky, but it may be something I'm doing. I do pay off too much when it gets like this. I guess it's time to review my hands and looks for leaks.
The only upside is my no limit tourney game is improving. I've been playing the GC 1k freerolls and finished in the money 3 times this week.
