Poker: 31 July

Had a few poker hands this afternoon. Trading was slow. Will blog on the Oanda platform training we went some time next week.

Ups & down in the session. I had two tables at once. Both NL Hold'em 9 players normal ring games. It went well earlier on. I noted down some bad beats (not pretty bad) though but some mistakes which I think I have to train on and watch out for in future.

Firstly, i was pretty silly. I had a pair of Js in hole. I raise on pre-flop. Only one person followed. Flop turn out to be K K 9. Opponent checks. Thats where I got it. I all-in (left about sixty cents there) thinking K has got nothing to do with him. He calls. Thats it.

Second mistake was, I had a pocket A J. I hit ace pair on flop. I didnt raise that much, I raised slowly, slowly than should be. J came out at the turn. I still raise but not very much. Opponent calls and hit a straight on river. I should have nailed him out earlier.

Some players play pretty tight in REAL money. But some play very loose. I encountered a player who buy-in double my from what I had, and finishes much earlier than me. He seems to call on every round, to the point that as though he does not have a 'Fold' button installed.

I only remembered one big win from the session. I had suited K 8 (hearts). I hit flush on flop. I raise. One of them (left) called. The turn, turn out to have another Heart. He raised. I hesitated and re-raised him. The only card he could win me is if he had an Aces heart. He calls and I grabbed the pot.

(Flushed, not royal nor straight though)

I lost overall (win in first table but lost in the second table - that all in thing). But I found myself improving, not being intimidated that much by real money, although it is micro. By the way, I was looking for a Poker Tracker (track your statistics) over the net but couldn't find any. Some are way too expensive. Blackberry mobile does not have it either. (BB Poker Life Lite doesn't track micro lots) Wonder if anyone who has any sort of tracker to recommend?

Result: -$1.12

Black.