"TIME FOR A RETHINK"

Neteller: Last week $150; Current $220 (+70)
Inter: Last week $132; Current; $8 (-124)
William Hill: Last week $101; Current $101 (-)
Ladbrokes: Last week $58; Current $23 (-35)
Bodog: Last week $44; Current: $32 (-9)
CD: Last week $0; Current: $92 (+92)

Total: Last week $467; Current $476 (+9)
(-$104 on the month)

Having had two poor months running I think a review of what and where I am playing is called for. The loss on the month would have been greater had I not taken up an offer of $50 to go back and play on CD.

There are two current problems as I see it. The bonuses on Inter are no longer worth chasing as the new "bonus revolution" system makes them too hard to clear at a level which is comfortable. The 1/2 and particularly the 2/4 tables are incredibly tight (almost all around 20% of flops seen most of the time). This means that a couple of hands which fall wrong for you, like KK getting beaten by AK, which happened to me the other day, mean that you will be really struggling to stay in the black. The answer to that is to give Inter a miss, which is what I am going to do. I will just keep that account going to play the "player points" freerolls using the points I have acquired.

The other problem is an amazingly bad run at Limit. I have worked out that I have now gone a run of over 10 "all ins" without a win. The latest one was a pair of 6's that hit a flop of A65. A guy went all in with me with A5 and hit another A on the river. I must surely come out of this run soon. I am just going to stick to playing No Limit on Laddies and Bodog and if the bank rolls run out, then so be it.

"...AND CONTINUES"

Neteller: Last week $150; Current $150 (-)
Inter: Last week $157; Current; $132 (-25)
William Hill: Last week $101; Current $101 (-)
Ladbrokes: Last week $58; Current $40 (-18)
Bodog: Last week $53; Current: $44 (-9)

Total: Last week $519; Current $467 (-52)

My downswing has continued. It's nothing epic but very waring. The main problem has been getting rivered on key hands where I was ahead all the way through and betting accordingly. This has happened both at Limit and No Limit.

The worst No Limit hand came when I tripped up a pair of threes on the flop of A23. I went all in for $31 and was called by a guy with A2. He caught an A on the river, so his full house beat mine. Yet another 22/1 shot hammers me. I have now sunk on Laddies from +200 to my current 40. In the whole run I haven't won one "all in" hand, even when I've been virtually out of sight, as on the hand described. These runs happen of course, but they are hard to take.

For a bit of fun, I've been playing some multi table tournaments with the "points" I have accumulated on various sites. The MTT's on Laddies are noticably more wild than on Bodog or Inter. On Laddies players seem to try to double up or steal with the most unlikely hands from very early on in the piece. My usual tactic is to wait for a decent hand and try to pick one of these guys off. I've managed to finish "in the money" a few times, but the money has only been a few dollars, sadly. Top finish so far is 5th. On Inter and Bodog the MTT's bear a closer resemblance to normal poker. I can't see that there is a lot of skill involved in this though - it's just a crapshoot really.

"DOWNSWING CONTINUES"

Neteller: Last week $250; Current $150 (-100)
Inter: Last week $125; Current; $157 (+22)
William Hill: Last week $69; Current $101 (+32)
Ladbrokes: Last week $81; Current $58 (-23)
Bodog: Last week $53; Current: $53 (-)

Total: Last week $578; Current $519 (-59)

I had hoped that my downturn would dissappear with the New Year but sadly that hasn't been the case. No particular things I can blame. I'm not playing badly, just not hitting cards when I need them and particularly, getting good "second best" hands particularly in my Limit games. I will try and tough it out for another week. If that doesn't happen, then I will have to look to dropping in levels at Limit to try to recuperate.

Regardless of that I am thinking of revising my strategy at Limit anyway so that I play a large number of low limit tables - say 3 at 25/50 rather than one at 2/4, which is what I have been playing. The looser play on the lower limits should work out as a steadier earner than the grinding you have to do at 2/4 (where 20+% seeing the flop is the norm). If you get a couple of bad hands where you get dumped on the river (as has been happening recently) then it takes a long time to recover.

I haven't played much No Limit - the loss is down to one sad hand where a "wise fool" called my Aces with a pair of 2's and caught one on the river - par for the course then :-(