I've been playing 2/4 and 3/6 no-limit heads up on them. I put in a profitable session of 1300 hands (including a brief trip to 5/10 where I got stacked rather quickly.) I've been meaning to play more heads-up no limit, and Stars' adding tables was both a good impetus and an encouraging sign. I'll be doing more of that-- it combines what I like about shorthanded limit hold 'em with what I like about no-limit that brings me to the game in the first place. Obviously this is a small sample, but I was already inclined to head in this direction. I'll keep reporting on how they go.

One more note: I did a small feature for Cardplayer-- the "Online Hand-to-Hand Combat" section in the "Inside Straight", if you're familiar with the magazine. It's apparently out in print now-- I haven't seen it but was told it appeared in this month's issue. it's not online yet, but I'll be sure to post the link when it is.

I've been mixing up the games I play for a change of pace, and because I want to get good enough to find a profitable situation when it arises in any game. So I've been honing a couple of random ones; besides limit hold 'em, I've been trying to improve my stud hi/lo game, and I've recently gotten to working on my pot-limit omaha game again. It's the one I'm least secure in my play, but one of the most enjoyable ones, so I'd like to play it well.

The thing is, I tend to develop decent competencies in things fairly quickly. So a little time spent working on my game in the other games will leave me at least with enough to take advantage when a particularly good game arises.

I've been playing tournaments, too. I've been playing no-limit cash as well, and I want to master that. I've been playing a lot of poker the last few days.

Quick recap of my last week...

-This is my third week being ranked in the PocketFives tournament player rankings. I've moved up to #89 this week. The rankings are updated every Wednesday and can be found here.
-Speaking of the P5s rankings, they've recently introduced a sortable feature which separates rankings by state and country. As my home is still "officially" Houston, I was pleased to discover that I was the 4th ranked online tournament player in Texas. They wrote a feature on us last week: A Closer Look: God Bless Texas. On a side note, I do think it's kind of funny that I've been ranked now, when my tournament volume is relatively low. I think I would move up higher and faster if I played a lot of them, but they drive me nuts. And I like to travel. If I was grinding at the pace I was for the first half of 2006, I probably would be ranked even higher.
-While I didn't play much poker while I was in Houston, I still found time to play a few tournaments. None of those went well, but (for reasons I don't even remember) I decided to fill some time with 30/60 limit hold 'em. I caught a huge heater early on (making something like $8800 in 500-odd hands) and decided to stick with it. My winrate has cooled down, but I'm still turning a steady profit. I think my aggression and hand reading skills translate really well to shorthanded limit.

I'm in Louisiana now, so my social life is going to be mostly nonexistent for the next couple of weeks. I hope to translate this into lots of poker and writing. I'm trying to make some good money in time for the new FTOPS and the Turning Stone Empire State Hold 'Em Championships, which are both full of events that cater very well to my style of play:
The FTOPS schedule
The Empire State Championships schedule

OK, time to relax and call it an evening. More tomorrow.

Sorry for that, but I was in the middle of getting things together to leave Las Vegas. I wasn't playing much poker anyway, so there wasn't really anything interesting to report.

I flew out of Las Vegas Friday night and returned to Houston. I haven't been in a couple of months and thought I'd see some friends; however, many of the people I knew here are now gone, and not that many of the other people know I'm here. And I lost my phone in Las Vegas, so I didn't have any of my numbers when I replaced it. So I'm just sort of bumming around... I have a few books, perhaps I'll read them while I'm here.

I played most of today, but I wasn't feeling well and I had commensurate results in the Sunday tournaments. I can't really identify specific plays I thought were bad, but in general things just didn't break my way-- I lost all the races that were for big chunks of my stack; I made a couple of moves with light holdings at people who were playing too aggressively, and they happened to have hands each time.

Sundays don't seem to agree with me.

I think I'm going to take a few days off from poker while I'm in Houston. I can play poker anywhere, but I should be using this time to visit the friends I still have in this city, go to my favorite places, etc. In a few days I'm going to visit my family, and while I don't prioritze poker over them, they're all early risers and I'm not so I should have plenty of time by myself to play.

When I play again, I'm going to be playing more cash games than I had previously done. The high variance in tournaments can be frustrating, and the nature of living by the big score encourages being lavish or wasteful with the money when it does arrive. (This certainly wasn't helped by living in Las Vegas, surrounded by plenty of people willing to party and gamble and plenty of establishments ready to take as much of your money as you'll let them.)

I want to, at the least, always be able to make a consistent living from this. And that just won't happen through tournaments. There's more money in cash, and if I keep the discipline to play at stakes I can beat and afford until I have the bankroll and experience needed to move up, I think I can be pretty successful at this.

We'll see either way, eh?

I decided not to enter the Bellagio Cup main event. I played a $1500 supersatellite for it Tuesday night and after busting with JJ < AK in the first half hour decided it wasn't meant to be, and as good as I thought the event would be, I didn't think it was worth another $10,000. A well-run tournament with an ideal field size doesn't make up for variance I can't afford right now and burnout.

I've just had enough of live poker this month. The frustration of tournament play is only exacerbated when you're playing for twelve hours, or multiple days, only to miss on a big score, instead of just a few hours, online, while you're probably playing some other games at the same time. It's been fun on the whole, but like most fun, it gets tiring, and time off is necessary.

So that time has just about come, for me. I'll be heading South for a little while, seeing friends and family, resting up, and figuring out where I'm headed next.

I'm going to be playing more cash games, too. I haven't played any in the last few months, but I want to learn them, and get back to playing them regularly, which is how I started in poker originally, long ago. I know I Can make more money at this, and this time I'm going to take the simple and consistent approach-- grind it up, less shot-taking, less wild play, more fundamentals.

I may hit a couple of live events coming up soon, too-- Turning Stone in mid-August and Aruba late September are the early favorites. I don't think I want to get off the tournament circuit completely, but I do want to not have to hope for a big score to keep going.

Anyway, it's been a pretty busy and hectic month, so while I have a lot of stories, I haven't had the time to tell them. Once I get away from Vegas, I'll have more about my time there, as well as a couple of other things I've been working on related to theory.