My volleyball team handily won our game last night, so I was in a pretty good mood when I got home. After a quick shower I decided to play the rest of the hands I needed to unlock my Empire bonus.
Things started off pretty poorly. I had QQ cracked early when an A fell on the flop, but I didn’t waste any money pursuing it. I actually went 25 hands or so before I found some cards. And even then it was a small pot as no one wanted to bet into me when I slowplayed my flush.
After 40 hands of this, I started to bluff at some pots, as I am wont to do when cards are running cold. Though my first play worked out, my second attempt ran into the hand I was trying to counterfeit sitting immediately to my left on the button. So much for my profit from the first bluff. But all of this was giving me a bit of a better read on the rest of the table. There were a few individuals who would call my aggression all the way to the river only to fold when they didn’t hit their cards. I was able to use this to my advantage to steal a couple 8-10$ pots. Unfortunately my cards continued to run cold, and what few cards I did see were ruined by some bad turn cards. I bounced between 10$ up and 10$ down, finally calling it quits with a 2$ profit on the night.
The good news was that I had played the required hands and 30$ had been added to my account. I pulled my 300$ rebuy back out and I’m going to use it this week to chase a bonus at a new site, probably TruePoker as I’ve been hearing advertisements for it on the radio when I listen to the Senators games online. (and wth? Tampa Bay is leading the Eastern Conference? How did that happen)
It seems a bit silly to be spending so much time playing at such low limits (and more strangely, writing about it), but I want to progress slowly (well, I want to progress quickly, but I figure slowly is smarter0. I’ve only really been taking the game seriously since New Year’s, with a few books under my belt and a couple months of online play. I’ve been playing in a home game regularly for a few years, but I haven’t even played in a live poker room (yet!). Still, I like that I am learning more and more about the game each time I play, and winning money doesn’t hurt either. The money isn’t everything though, as I am only using it to finance my bankroll at higher limits, none of it is finding its way back into my pockets. But most importantly it has been a bit of an impetus to resume writing on a regular basis, something which I enjoy immensely, but which I have neglected in recent years.