Welcome!

It's Plutoman here and I play low-stakes online poker as a hobby. I've got another blog here, but in the last month I've been posting quite a few hands and I didn't want to bore the many thousands of people (!) who read my other blog.

This poker blog will differ from most: it'll be almost entirely hold 'em free. In early May I was lucky enough to be runner-up in a SCOOP badugi event for $4758 after buying in for $16.50. Since then I've played mainly badugi, triple draw and no-limit single draw and will be concentrating on these three games for the time being. My overall profit stands at around $6300 but I've cashed most of that out; I'm currently playing with an $800 bankroll.

I might as well kick off by posting three hands I felt I butchered in Tuesday night's (losing) session of single draw.

Hand 1
When Greg three-bets me with his short stack I've got three sensible choices here. Unfortunately I didn't choose any of them.
Option one is to shove, hope he folds, otherwise break if he pats and pat if he breaks. I'm not sure I like that - I might get him to fold a really rough nine (which would be nice) but I might also get him to break a worse hand than mine, which isn't what what I want at all.
Option two: just fold. There probably isn't much I beat here and my draw isn't wonderful.
Option three: call, then break if he pats and pat if he breaks, taking advantage of implied odds.
What I did (shove and pat regardless) wasn't particularly clever. When he calls and pats I'm not beating much. I think next time I'd pick option three.

PokerStars Game #50973626499: Single Draw 2-7 Lowball No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2010/10/12 3:46:58 ET
Table 'Silke' 7-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 2: plutoman20 ($29.55 in chips)
Seat 4: LukeJ79 ($22.95 in chips)
Seat 6: Greg941 ($8.15 in chips)
Seat 7: hermit9 ($28.25 in chips)
Greg941: posts small blind $0.25
hermit9: posts big blind $0.50
John V1982: is sitting out
John V1982 leaves the table
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to plutoman20 [2s 6d 3s 4h Td]
plutoman20: raises $1 to $1.50
LukeJ79: folds
PICHUFINA joins the table at seat #1
Greg941: raises $1.50 to $3
hermit9: folds
plutoman20: raises $26.55 to $29.55 and is all-in
John V1982 joins the table at seat #3
Greg941: calls $5.15 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($21.40) returned to plutoman20
Greg941: stands pat
plutoman20: stands pat on [2s 6d 3s 4h Td]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Greg941: shows [3h 7c 4d 5c 9h] (Lo: 9,7,5,4,3)
plutoman20: shows [2s 6d 3s 4h Td] (Lo: T,6,4,3,2)
Greg941 collected $16 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $16.80 Rake $0.80
Seat 2: plutoman20 showed [2s 6d 3s 4h Td] and lost with Lo: T,6,4,3,2
Seat 4: LukeJ79 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Greg941 (small blind) showed [3h 7c 4d 5c 9h] and won ($16) with Lo: 9,7,5,4,3
Seat 7: hermit9 (big blind) folded before Flop

Hand 2
This is horrible. The smallish reraise convinced me to continue. At the very least I should have drawn here, but I think folding would have been better really. My line screams "I don't like my hand very much", which of course is true.

PokerStars Game #50974052131: Single Draw 2-7 Lowball No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2010/10/12 4:12:09 ET
Table 'Silke' 7-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: PICHUFINA ($39.80 in chips)
Seat 2: plutoman20 ($23.35 in chips)
Seat 3: John V1982 ($11.55 in chips)
Seat 4: LukeJ79 ($29.30 in chips)
Seat 5: susankramer ($20 in chips)
Seat 6: Greg941 ($20.15 in chips)
Seat 7: hermit9 ($32.20 in chips)
LukeJ79: posts small blind $0.25
susankramer: posts big blind $0.50
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to plutoman20 [7s Th 2c 9s 3s]
Greg941: folds
hermit9: folds
PICHUFINA: folds
plutoman20: raises $1 to $1.50
John V1982: raises $1.50 to $3
LukeJ79: folds
susankramer: folds
plutoman20: calls $1.50
plutoman20: stands pat on [7s Th 2c 9s 3s]
John V1982: stands pat
plutoman20: checks
John V1982: bets $4
plutoman20: folds
Uncalled bet ($4) returned to John V1982
John V1982 collected $6.45 from pot
John V1982: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $6.75 Rake $0.30
Seat 1: PICHUFINA folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: plutoman20 folded on the Flop
Seat 3: John V1982 (button) collected ($6.45)
Seat 4: LukeJ79 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: susankramer (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Greg941 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: hermit9 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Hand 3
My pre-flop play is fine here I think, but I should have just checked behind post. With my small (half-pot) bet, I'm asking to be bluffed off my hand. Did that happen here? I doubt it, but who knows?

PokerStars Game #50974089298: Single Draw 2-7 Lowball No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2010/10/12 4:14:11 ET
Table 'Silke' 7-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: PICHUFINA ($40 in chips)
Seat 2: plutoman20 ($20.35 in chips)
Seat 3: John V1982 ($15.75 in chips)
Seat 4: LukeJ79 ($29.05 in chips)
Seat 5: susankramer ($20 in chips)
Seat 6: Greg941 ($19.40 in chips)
Seat 7: hermit9 ($31.45 in chips)
PICHUFINA: posts small blind $0.25
plutoman20: posts big blind $0.50
*** DEALING HANDS ***
Dealt to plutoman20 [5d 9s Th 8c 6s]
John V1982: folds
LukeJ79: folds
susankramer: folds
Greg941: raises $0.50 to $1
hermit9: folds
PICHUFINA: folds
plutoman20: raises $2 to $3
Greg941: calls $2
plutoman20: stands pat on [5d 9s Th 8c 6s]
Greg941: discards 1 card
plutoman20: bets $3
Greg941: raises $3 to $6
plutoman20: folds
Uncalled bet ($3) returned to Greg941
Greg941 collected $11.70 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $12.25 Rake $0.55
Seat 1: PICHUFINA (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: plutoman20 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: John V1982 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: LukeJ79 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: susankramer folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Greg941 collected ($11.70)
Seat 7: hermit9 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)