Weekly updates

So last week (up to Friday) I played live poker 3 times (twice at Hawaiian Gardens and once at Oceans 11) and had 2 cashes. Unfortunately they were mini-cashes which meant it was a losing week as I spent $290 on tournament entries and only won $200. Add to that a poor week in cash games albeit somewhat unlucky I lost another $100 there, and finally due to entering some bigger tournaments online and more cash losses I lost another $100 there, so all in all I lost about $290.

That sucks!!

This week I entered the Oceans 11 tournament on Weds and did not cash. I then proceeded to lose $120 on the cash tables after being up close to $400 at one point. I played again on Weds and did the same thing - turning an $80 profit into a $60 loss. Its fair to say poker is an emotional game and I also was having no luck online basically losing about 10 small mtts in a row (no cashes) and losing in the cash games often with good hands that just did not hold up. I was pretty depressed on Thursday wondering if the downswing would ever end. I went to Hawaiian Gardens Thursday night and played really badly in the tournament losing a buyin and a re-entrant fee. More on the tournament below. I moved to the cash tables and over a few hours managed to win $200 - a good time to quit especially after the losses over the last 14 days.

So now its Friday and I'm thinking about how I played. Was I playing bad or just running very unlucky.

For example, in the tournament I only played 5 hands - I lost with AK and JJ for the first buyin, and AK, AQ and 99 for the second buyin. I was very patient but could not hit anything and was facing aggressive opponents who showed a better hand than me every time. The starting stack is only 5000 chips which means you have to play fast and get lucky early on to double up, otherwise lose one pot and you are short stack very quickly. I raised AK and missed, then had to fold my cbet to an all in behind me. With JJ I raised big trying to take it down preflop and cbet when there was one overcard. This committed me to the pot and when he raised allin I had to call. In hindsight maybe I could have called preflop and folded on the flop if I did not make a set - JJ is always a tough hand to play especially in a shallow stack tournament.

I am hoping the next week goes better - I need a few profitable sessions just to cheer me up.