PATIENCE

Neteller: Last week $6; Current $6
PokerStars: Last week $115; Current $94 (-21)
Full Tilt: Last week $93; Current $93
LuckyAce: Last week; $102; Current $140 (+38)

Total = $333 (+17)

Profit on month: $89

Profit on year: $356

A minor Limit downturn, losing the blogger and bunging the $5 for the entertaining looking RaisetheRiver tournament saw me take a little drop on Stars. This was more than offset by some winning Limit on LuckyAce. In preparation for the RtR tourney I played a 6 man SnG and won it, so I'm fired up and raring to go :-) "Team Sensible" all the way!

The good Limit session on LuckyAce exemplified that most important of poker virtues, patience. I played 83 hands before I did anything more than see the odd flop from the Big Blind and fold. Then I hit a few hands, made some money with them and left.

I played a couple of small tournaments but went out in both to my current bete noire, QQ being called by Ax and hitting. My day will come.

A NEW SKIN

Neteller: Last week $104; Current $6
PokerStars: Last week $106; Current $115
Full Tilt: Last week $93; Current $93
LuckyAce: Last week; $90; Current $102

Total = $316 (+11)

I bunged the $90 from Neteller into LuckyAce, a Pacific skin. I haven't had the time to play much there much, but at least when I do I'll be getting some bonus eventually. There isn't a lot of activity, certainly compared to FT or Stars.

A lot of the Raise the River folk complain about Stars, but I seem to run ok there. A few of us got together on Friday night to play an $8.80 tournament and see who could get the deepest. We all struggled but I managed to come through. At around the first break I had about 7xBB and went all in three hands running with 44, AQs and KK. Nobody called me, SIGH. Then finally I did get called with KK, tripled up and I was away and running. I was "in the money" when I went out 89th (of over 1,100). Some guy bet 3xBB, I went all in with my KK and got 3 (count them the beggars) callers. AK, JJ and rubbish. An Ace came on the flop and my tourney was over. Sad, as if I'd held on that one I'd have had a good chance of the final table and some decent money. So it goes.

Meanwhile I'm still running 2nd in the Thursday night face to face game. The hand that killed me was irritating. I was dealer, raised with KJ and got 1 caller. The flop was J 6 3 rainbow so I went all in. Called by KQ. Predictably, he hit a queen on the river. I still had a few hundred chips so I went all in without looking on the next hand...checked it out... AA! Same guy who rivered me hit a straight. I love the game really. :-(

A NICE LITTLE EARNER

Neteller: Last week $8; Current $104
PokerStars: Last week $103; Current $106
Full Tilt: Last week $93; Current $93
Ladbrokes: Last week; $17; Current $2

Total = $305 (+53)

I had a really nice little session at .5/1 Limit on Stars this week which saw me win $66 like shelling peas. Lovely it was. 35% seeing the flops, callings stations to a man and I hit enough hands to make it pay. Just to highlight the difference, everything else I played this week was break even, usually for lack of hands to play with.

I also had a few punts on tourneys on Laddies, but no joy. There is little action there for anything other than the tourneys, so I'm off. I've closed the Inter account as well, so that, with $60 from Stars, I can build up a little roll to open an account on another site.

Since I'm playing Limit a fair bit, I may as well be clocking up some bonus money as well. I'm sizing up "LuckyAce" which is a Pacific skin (I've already had a Pacific account). This will also allow me to get the "poker indicator" software that is the equivalent of "tournament indicator" which I use for sit-and-goes. It seems to have everything I want in terms of real time info on opponents. I'm not bothered about getting something like Poker Tracker or Poker Office (which I used to use) as I couldn't be bothered doing the analysis that gets the best out of the software. I'm a recreational player.

Meanwhile the second week of the face-to-face league games produced exactly the same 1,2,3,4 as previous week. The chap who has finished ahead of me for both weeks has been milking the weakest player very effectively - I'm going to have to work on that :-)

Not a lot of change.

Neteller: Last week $8; Current $8
PokerStars: Last week $102; Current $103
Full Tilt: Last week $82; Current $93
Inter: Last week $31; Current $31
Ladbrokes: Last week; $21; Current $17

Total = $252 (+8)

Back at work with a vengeance now and predictably less time for poker as a result. I played a bit of limit, but had a downswing after being up about $40 or so. The usual variance thing, where everyone started sucking out on me. AK v A7, he hits the 7, that sort of thing. So it goes.

Only one tournament, my by now regular $4.40 on Laddies which I lost when my 99 was called by A10 and he hit everything ending up with a full house. I think I really need to find another couple of 200 or so player tournaments that I can play at the same time. Failing that perhaps a 180 man sng donk on FT? Funny enough I had a similar exit in the blogger on FT last weekend when Zagga called my 6's with A10 and hit a full house.

The face to face game on a Thursday night has now gone into a league format with a final on a Sunday in 10 week's time, which should be fun. I came 2nd in the first one, so not a bad start.

I got off to a good start (unusual for me, I normally barely play a hand in the first hour) when my 88 hit a 10 10 8 flop. Two punters had 10's and fortunately the board didn't pair, which was the thing that worried me.

I got slammed later though when my two K's were called by two players (despite a 6x BB raise) and Aces appeared on the flop. Predictably both callers had Ax. However, I know that's how this game goes.