"SLOW PROGRESS."

Neteller: Last week $624; Current $150 (-$474)
Inter: Last week $228; Current; $27 (-)
William Hill: Last week $119; Current $119 (-)
Ladbrokes: Last week $84; Current $106 (+22)
Bodog: Last week $100; Current: $103 (+3)

Total: Last week $954; Current $495 (+25 on last week's position)

I've taken $474 out of my Neteller account to pay for a night away with a good meal for my wife and I over the Christmas holiday period.

Meanwhile the poker has been pretty nondescript this week. Another couple of hammerings with KK getting sucked out on, saw me drop on Laddies, but I recovered later in the week, with a good Satruday night two table session putting me over $100.

My best hand was A8 hearts, which hit three more hearts on the flop. I slow played it from the Big Blind and found a punter who also had the flush and managed to get him all in. Good fun.

Meanwhile I can't seem to get anywhere much on Bodog, but I suppose I should persist and see if I can make a go of it. The games don't seem particularly tough, but I haven't been able to make much progress so far.

"FIRST $50+ WIN AND FIRST $70 LOSS - SIGH."

Neteller: Current $624
Inter: Last week $228; Current; $27 (-)
William Hill: Last week $119; Current $119 (-)
Ladbrokes: Last week $64; Current $84 (+20)
(Sun: +9)
Bodog: Current: $100 (-)

Total: Last week $925; Current $954 (+29)

I've done a bit of shunting money around, which leaves me with most of my bankroll in Neteller, a closed Sun account (the bonus was too difficult to clear, especially at No Limit) and a new account on Bodog. Meanwhile, before I closed the Sun account, I had my biggest ever win on one hand there - $57.60. It went down as follows...

Game #3968806224: Hold'em NL ($0.15/$0.25) - 2006/11/13 - 17:41:38 (ET)
Table "Selective" Seat 10 is the button.
Seat 1: Kronsdat ($26.30 in chips)
Seat 2: Dave025 ($15.35 in chips)
Seat 3: ellak ($56.60 in chips)
Seat 4: lindy61 ($24.85 in chips)
Seat 5: edske13 ($24.60 in chips)
Seat 6: Acephil ($48.99 in chips)
Seat 7: soden ($5.25 in chips)
Seat 8: Pokerbint ($6.75 in chips)
Seat 9: Redfox82 ($6.10 in chips)
Seat 10: alphaa7 ($22.85 in chips)
Kronsdat: posts small blind $0.15
Dave025: posts big blind $0.25
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Kronsdat [As 9s]
ellak: folds
lindy61: folds
edske13: calls $0.25
Acephil: calls $0.25
soden: folds
Pokerbint: folds
Redfox82: calls $0.25
alphaa7: raises to $0.75
Kronsdat: calls $0.60
Dave025: folds
edske13: folds
Acephil: calls $0.50
Redfox82: calls $0.50
----- FLOP ----- [9h 4c 9d]
Kronsdat: checks
Acephil: checks
Redfox82: checks
alphaa7: bets $2
Kronsdat: calls $2
Acephil: raises to $6
Redfox82: folds
alphaa7: calls $4
Kronsdat: calls $4
----- TURN ----- [9h 4c 9d][Ah]
Kronsdat: checks
Acephil: bets $4.25
alphaa7: folds
Kronsdat: raises to $8.50
Acephil: calls $4.25
----- RIVER ----- [9h 4c 9d Ah][2s]
Kronsdat: bets $11.05 and is all-in
Acephil: calls $11.05
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Kronsdat: shows [As 9s] (A Full House, Nines full of Aces)
Acephil: shows [9c 2c] (A Full House, Nines full of Twos)
Kronsdat collects $57.60 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $60.60 Main pot $57.60 Rake $3
Board [9h 4c 9d Ah 2s]
Seat 1: Kronsdat (small blind) showed [As 9s] and won ($57.60) with A Full House, Nines full of Aces

Which was fine obviously, but I did take a tonking on Laddies when I ended up all in with two Kings against two Aces. It was a real shame as I was up $18 at the time and my Laddies account was running at $110. SIGH. Still, you have to accept these fluctuations at No Limit and I did take down a couple of decent pots with Aces myself during the week.

At the moment my thinking is that I will play Limit on Hills and Inter at the start of each month to clear their soft bonuses and then concentrate on developing my No Limit game on Laddies and Bodog.

I will also be having a look at developing a strategy for "Sit and Goes", as the player points at Laddies give you free entry to these. However apart from playing a couple of freerolls at Laddies 9 months ago, I have no experience at all of this type of play.

"MORE FUN AT NO LIMIT"

Neteller: Current $400
Inter: Last week $172; Current; $228 (+46)
William Hill: Last week $119; Current $119 (-)
Ladbrokes: Last week $25; Current $64 (+39)
Sun: Last week $75; Current $114 (+39)

Total: Last week $791; Current $925 (+$134)

My good fortune at No Limit continues. I played twice during the week, both times with Juice. Nothing much was happening in the first session, when I got a pair of 9's and raised it only to be reraised. I called it and had the great good fortune to get the wonderful flop of 933! The guy had a pair of Aces and went all in only to get hammered by my made hand. Nice. I could get to like No Limit :-)

I'm still under no illusions however. I know that my skills at this are very limited (no pun intended) indeed and I'm proceeding very cautiously. Come to think of it, that's probably why I'm surviving.

Later in the week I had another session where I just chugged along doing nothing much till I had A10 diamonds which hit KQx diamonds on the flop. (Not bad - the nut flush and the remote chance of a Royal!). I checked it and was paid of handsomely by the biggest stack at the table who raised and then saw me all in.

Meanwhile I'm not doing particularly thrillingly at the game I'm supposed to be able to play. At limit, I've again made a profit on Inter, but only because of the bonus. A vile last session where I dropped nearly $60 was the main cause of the problem. I don't think I was doing anything particularly wrong. It was just one of those sessions where nobody ever called my bets with strong hands and my plays with continuation bets using position just seemed to find guys who had hit and then check raised me. SIGH. Ah well - no long term damage done. Next up the Sun bonus, which will probably take a couple of weeks, as it's a bit harder to clear.

"DOUBLING UP AT NO LIMIT!"

Neteller: Current $400
Inter: Last week $199; Current; $172 (-17)
William Hill: Last week $96; Current $119 (+23)
Ladbrokes: Last week $11; Current $25 (+14)
Sun: Last week $75; Current $75 (-)

Total: Last week $785; Current $805 (+$20)

Hightlight of the week has to be doubling my money at No Limit. My skills at this game are very embryonic but I'm still better than some of the guys on the beginners tables at Laddies - they just play too many hands giving me the odds to play suited connectors and the like. I'll keep visiting it from time to time and see if I can develop a workable game.

Meanwhile the start of a new month means I can tackle the bonuses on the crypto sites again. Sadly I dropped $22 on Hills but the soft $45 bonus for playing 5 hours still left me up on the deal. I've taken another $100 out of Inter and now I'm working off their $100 bonus. My target is to have enough money by Christmas to take my wife and I out for a night away and a good meal over Christmas and still have a reasonable bankroll to carry forward into the New Year.

Now that I seem to be coming to terms with two tabling at 1/2 I suppose the next step, some time in the new year, will be to move up to 2/4. Ambition indeed :-)

Saddest hand of the week has to be the following...

HAND 5------
Game #3871079314: Hold'em FL ($1/$2) - 2006/11/04 - 09:42:34 (ET)
Table "Metz" Seat 5 is the button.
Seat 1: Krassotti ($67.25 in chips)
Seat 2: Shenghui ($32.25 in chips)
Seat 3: noniis ($56.25 in chips)
Seat 4: SLAYER96 ($28.50 in chips)
Seat 5: Eta0106 ($36.90 in chips)
Seat 6: jerry84 ($37.50 in chips)
Seat 7: kingpack ($44 in chips)
Seat 8: kronsdat ($85.75 in chips)
Seat 9: anmaan ($70.50 in chips)
Seat 10: potlimit9 ($17.37 in chips)
jerry84: posts small blind $0.50
kingpack: posts big blind $1
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to kronsdat [Ad Kh]
kronsdat: raises $2
anmaan: folds
potlimit9: folds
Krassotti: folds
Shenghui: folds
noniis: folds
SLAYER96: folds
Eta0106: calls $2
jerry84: folds
kingpack: raises $2
kronsdat: calls $1
Eta0106: calls $1
----- FLOP ----- [4c Kc As]
kingpack: bets $1
kronsdat: calls $1
Eta0106: calls $1
----- TURN ----- [4c Kc As][Ah]
kingpack: bets $2
kronsdat: calls $2
Eta0106: calls $2
----- RIVER ----- [4c Kc As Ah][Kd]
kingpack: bets $2
kronsdat: raises $4
Eta0106: folds
kingpack: raises $4
kronsdat: raises $4
kingpack: calls $2
----- SHOW DOWN -----
kronsdat: shows [Ad Kh] (A Full House, Aces full of Kings)
kingpack: shows [Ac Jc] (A Full House, Aces full of Kings)
kingpack collects $16.50 from Main pot
kronsdat collects $16.50 from Main pot

That damned King on the river meant he equalled my full house. I can't remember having two sets of trips before and certainly not Aces and Kings!