A new month

I've taken a leaf out of the Andy Ward book this month; well, half a leaf, actually. I'm putting my figures into the spreadsheet, but I'm not updating the pivot tables or accessing any other parts of the sheet that might tell me how well I'm doing.

Now, it's only half a leaf, because even I can look at a column of figures and see roughly whether the sum of them is positive or not, and my bankroll at each of the sites gives me a rough idea how I am doing, but at least it takes me away from minute-by-minute precision.

However, I will be dropping back down to $2-$4 three-tabling on Party tomorrow after a less than sparkling session at $3-$6 today. Ah-hah! I can hear Bluff saying, at this very moment (if he's out of bed yet), "this is precisely what I advised and Birks disagreed with!

Well, up to a point. Actually I would be quite happy to play $3-$6 (or even $5-$10) at Party tomorrow, but the current size of my bankroll on that esteemed site mitigates against it. I'm a bit thin for even three tables of $2-$4 (remember, I only put $500 in at the end of December to open the account), let alone three tables of $3-$6.

In fact, the entire evening was only saved from total disaster by an excellent half-hour on Virgin, that of the genuinely shite software. You can see why players of a certain quality love sites like this -- any show of imagination or aggression does you no good at $2-$4, since four dollars is the same as two dollars as far as many of your opponents are concerned. This leaves you one reason and one reason alone to raise the pot - and that is to increase the size of the pot. Forget raising to get a free card (they will bet their hand regardless) and forget raising to get "control" of the hand (see previous point). Pot equity is all.

Once you get the hang of the fact that you are surrounded by loose-passive players, mad options at Party's $3-$6 become sensible, such as limping after two callers with T8s, despite there being four players behind you. Three of these four will limp and the small blind will complete.

Well, all of that worked quite nicely tonight.

It's virtually impossible to get hand histories, so this one's from memory. The salient facts are there. $2-$4 limit

Me, seat 9: I pick up 54 of spades

Seat 4 limp
Seat 5 limp
Seat 7 limp
I limp
Button folds
Small blind completes.
Big blind checks

$12 in pot.

Flop 4d, 6h, 7s

Checked round to me. Do I bet here? I chose not to. For a start they are a bunch of check-callers (given their style of play) and for a second, betting to induce a check on the turn doesn't work. If they hit anything on the turn, they will bet it. So I check.

Turn: 2s

Ahh, that's more interesting. It's a low card and I now have a four-flush.

Checked round to me again. As I said, these guys tend to bet their hand. There's actually a chance that I am in front here, although with at least five overcards out there, I'm odds against to remain in front. But a bet by me might force out some weak overcards.

I bet. Two opponents fold and three opponents call.

$28 in the pot.

River: 2d

Checked round to me. I check. Opponents show A3 off, muck, muck, and my two pair fours and deuces takes down $27.

Marvellous.