Hard to blog about the downswings

Nothing to report....I reloaded on UB on April 8 and 8 days later the cash is gone. Four straight loosing sessions loaded with suckouts, bad beats and poor play on my part had me wondering what the hell I was doing. I took a few days off to reflect about how I played and here is what I have come up with...

- avoid tables with calling stations: While some may like these players at the table, they tend to ruin the way I play limit. Calling stations won't fold to a bluff if they catch any part of the flop. Not sure how many times I lost hands with cards like AQ on a A-9-7 flop to get called down with 7-5 os and see a 7 or 5 hit the river.

- Avoid tables with maniacs: Why you may ask...I tend to have terrible timing when it comes to going up against maniacs lately....my KK runs into the table maniac that wakes up with 22 and flops the set, end result, I loose $40-50, as I have no way to put him on a hand.

- Keep playing or give up and go home. There is no in-between when playing poker. While I am blessed to be able to do this as a hobby, and have been fortunate to make some money over the last year in doing so (unlike my previous 3 hobbies...shooting pool, throwing darts and playing Magic:the Gathering), I've actually been able to self-support this hobby from the comfort of my home. As long as I still have money online, then I'm good. I haven't had to risk household money for over a year and that a GOOD THING!!!. And my first year of car payments have been made due to poker, so that's TWO GOOD THINGS.

So...what does an $800 loss represent at this point. My bankroll still has about $1K sitting in it, so I'm nowhere near broke at this point. I'm still hoping to build enough cash to justify a trip to Vegas for a WSOP event this summer, but it's looking pretty slim at this point unless I focus on winning an online qualifier rather than grinding out the cash at the limit tables.

With tha being said....I loaded up on UB last night and played about 30 min of $5/10 with Alan rooting me on and walked away with a tidy $90 profit. The table was 'normal' in that it was a full table of 10 good players that respected raises, didn't call bets with 9-2os and basically played solid poker.

My kind of table....

My bluffs were more successful. Positional raises were respected and my solid hands heald up. My only 'huge mistake' hand was a pre-flop raise with KK from mid-position that saw the button and BB call. Flop comes down 6-6-7 and I end up loosing a nice pot to the button that called my raise with 67os. Otherwise, everything worked out well and I walked away with a solid profit.

Which brings me to a question....if anyone cares to answer....what is a suitable amount at a ring game to walk away with? When I play $5/10, I try to make 10 BB ($100) before I think about walking away from the table. Again, table selection and how the cards are falling has a huge impact...but in general, at what point in making a profit at a table should a player start to think about walking away.....10 BB, 20 BB, more....any thoughts?

Lunch is over....back to work....ttfn.