"BANKROLL MANAGMENT"

Neteller: Current $0
Inter: Last week $414; Current; $485 (+$71)
William Hill: Last week $0; Current $89 (+$89)
Total: Last week $405 (-$185 of my original stake); Current $575 (+$160)

I decided to indulge in a bit of bankroll management.

The bonus on the Inter account has been cleared for the month, leaving me at a very nice $485. At this rate I should make the $1000 target by Christmas I would have thought - barring a terrible attack of the dreaded variance. That is certainly my current target.

Since William Hill have an attractive $70 bonus for playing five hours there in September, I decided to tackle that for the rest of the month, using some money from Inter. I have now put this back into Neteller ready to attack the October bonus on Inter. All did not go smoothly however and I had a bit of bother getting the William Hill account running. This is the first time I've ever had that - normally Poker sites are very good at taking money off you (if nothing else).

I've also taken my "start up" money out, so I am now playing almost completely with money I have won since I started playing again - a nice feeling.

Things have gone quite well on William Hill. Since it is in the same network as Inter, I am essentially playing the same people.

I did have some trouble from a maniac one evening. He wasn't hard to spot - the usual form - raising every other pair of cards and continuation bets thereafter. I took the normal approach of waiting for the right hand and thought I had it when I called his raise from the big blind with a pair of eights to go heads up with him. The flop came 2 8 10 and I thought "gotcha". I duely check raised him on the turn, which was a nothing card. On the river, which was a Q, I did it again only to be "threebet". I saw it and he had J9 off for a straight. SIGH. He wasn't just doing this to me however, he was hitting all sorts of unlikely things against everyone else too and the table was distinctly going on tilt. At least I didn't lose anything else to him. Sometimes folk just get lucky.