March wasn't a good month

March wasn't a good month. In total, I lost about $70 over the 5 accounts I have money held. This is in comparison to the gain of $204 I made in February (made up mostly of the $162 I won in the ITH league event). Now some people may think $70 is nothing, but a loss is a loss, and I was worried about why the losses occured.

My losses in March was due to bonus chasing at Poker.com and having a bad time in tournaments. I wasn't too worried about losing at the limit tables at Poker.com, but it was the lack of success at the tournaments that really got to me.

It started in one of the ITH Sunday VIP league games, when after playing fairly steadily, I had AA beaten by 88. The following week I had JJ beaten by A8s (IIRC) which made a straight on the turn. After this, it felt like nothing went right whatever I played. I felt I was either card dead, or getting outdrawn when ahead. Another example of what was happening was in a SNG at Poker.com. I had been playing very tight mainly due to lack of cards. With my stack at about 900 and blinds at 50/100, I pushed with AK. I got called by someone who decided to risk half his stack on KT. A ten on the river put me out. Nothing was going right.

I looked at some hand histories, and saw on a few occasions that I had played hands badly. On another occasion at Full Tilt, I bubbled in 4th when I pushed AJ on a J high board. I got called by Q8 who had a made straight. I looked at the history and realised I didn't raise pre-flop. Why? I think when things aren't going your way, you play scared. You try not to risk too many chips and you make bad plays. This was the type of mistakes I was making.

I decided I needed to work on my game and found an interesting way to do this. I found a really interesting play money tournament at Full Tilt. Most players don't recommend play tables as quite often the play does not reflect a real money game. People play more recklessly as it's not real money they're playing for. Yes, this is the case a lot of the time, but if you can find the right game, you can sometimes find players who do take it more seriously. The tournament I found was a 90 man SNG. As expected, half the field disappears in the first 5 minutes, but once it gets down to the last 30 or 40 players, people tighten up and take it more seriously. This was exactly the practice I needed.

The first one I entered, I finished 7th, but that's only half the story. With only top 9 winning back any play chips, I had been lying as the short stack with 12 players left for quite a long time. I waited, picked my moments, and crept into the final table. I played the bubble really well, and was really pleased with myself. The next one didn't go so well as I crashed out in 37th after losing a couple of big pots in close succession. But in the next one I finished a fantastic 2nd. I did have a big chip lead at one stage after winning a 4 way all-in with AA. However when we were down to the last 3, I was really outplayed by the eventual winner. Never mind. That 2nd place really gave me the confidence I needed.

With a renewed confidence, here's hoping for a better April.