October monthly report

I finished the month up $242. My current bankroll is $892; my overall profit stands at $6392, $42 shy of my all-time high.

I might lay off the single draw cash games for a bit: I'm still not sure of some aspects of my play. For instance, there's quite a bit of limping in the 25c/50c games and I'm not sure how to combat it. Plenty of players open-limp pat tens and jacks as well as draws, and sometimes I find myself raising when I'm 50-50 or even 40-60. Occasionally they balance these plays by limping monsters. A hand from last night (if memory serves): there's a limper in early position and I raise with an eight draw. We're heads-up. He stands pat, I draw a queen. He checks, I bluff bet, he calls and shows me 96432.

I'm fairly confident I'd be profitable long-term in the single draw tournaments however. Last weekend I had a go at the $11 buy-in. I was dealt a Q98 on both my first two hands. Each time I open-raised with the intention of drawing; the same player called me out of the blinds both times, and both times he drew three, so I patted my queens and took down two small pots when they held up. They might have been the last pots I won. Down to half my starting stack, I raised to four big blinds UTG with a nut nine draw. I got a bunch of callers including one from the big blind who only just had me covered. I got the card I wanted to give me 95432. The big blind (who had drawn two) went all in, I called and made an early exit when I was shown an 8-7.

Badugi has been kind to me of late. It's only a matter of time before variance turns around and bites me in the bum of course. Here's a hand from last night. Zofo was making a rather a lot of badugis on the second draw. Something seemed fishy. In his defence, if you're going to snow, 654 is one of the best hands to do it with, and all credit to him for getting away with it for so long.

PokerStars Game #51891832277: Badugi Limit ($1/$2 USD) - 2010/10/30 5:43:15 ET
Table 'Britta' 8-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: zofo002 ($45.75 in chips)
Seat 2: x414141x ($46 in chips)
Seat 3: gregorianW ($54.75 in chips)
Seat 4: Lucky013 ($10 in chips)
Seat 6: plutoman20 ($64 in chips)
Seat 8: Frol850 ($33.25 in chips)
Lucky013: posts small blind $0.50
plutoman20: posts big blind $1
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to plutoman20 [2d 2h 6d 3s]
Frol850: folds
zofo002: raises $1 to $2
x414141x: folds
gregorianW: folds
Lucky013: calls $1.50
plutoman20: calls $1
*** FIRST DRAW ***
Lucky013: discards 2 cards
plutoman20: discards 1 card [2d]
Dealt to plutoman20 [2h 6d 3s] [3c]
zofo002: discards 1 card
Lucky013: checks
plutoman20: checks
zofo002: bets $1
Lucky013: calls $1
plutoman20: calls $1
*** SECOND DRAW ***
Lucky013: discards 2 cards
plutoman20: discards 1 card [3c]
Dealt to plutoman20 [2h 6d 3s] [Ah]
zofo002: discards 1 card
Lucky013: checks
plutoman20: checks
zofo002: bets $2
Lucky013: calls $2
plutoman20: calls $2
*** THIRD DRAW ***
Lucky013: discards 1 card
plutoman20: discards 1 card [2h]
Dealt to plutoman20 [6d 3s Ah] [7h]
zofo002: stands pat
Lucky013: checks
plutoman20: checks
zofo002: bets $2
Lucky013: folds
plutoman20: calls $2
*** SHOW DOWN ***
zofo002: shows [Tc 4s 5c 6h] (3-card: 6,5,4)
plutoman20: shows [Ah 7h 6d 3s] (3-card: 6,3,A)
plutoman20 collected $18.25 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $19 Rake $0.75
Seat 1: zofo002 showed [Tc 4s 5c 6h] and lost with a 3-card: 6,5,4
Seat 2: x414141x folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 3: gregorianW (button) folded before the Draw (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Lucky013 (small blind) folded after the 3rd Draw
Seat 6: plutoman20 (big blind) showed [Ah 7h 6d 3s] and won ($18.25) with a 3-card: 6,3,A
Seat 8: Frol850 folded before the Draw (didn't bet)

I pulled off a decent snow of my own today when I got 863A, all hearts, on the button. At the lower levels there are often too many limpers to make this kind of snow worthwhile (it's just too likely that someone will hit a badugi). This time there was one limper but eight-high flushes don't come around all that often (the odds of being dealt four suited cards with nothing above an eight are close to 1000:1) so I patted it all the way. The last of my two opponents folded on the river.