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Hand Histories and Happy Birthday!

I've not played a great deal over the past couple of days as Mrs P and I were dog-sitting for her mum whilst she had a weekend away in sunny Blackpool. I did take my trusty laptop but I couldn't figure out how to get it to work with Mrs P's mum's setup so I didn't have my Poker Tracker software working.

Her laptop is also brand new so felt really weird and she doesn't have a mouse so trying to multi-table with the touchpad was a nightmare so I decided to play some different cash games instead as I only play one or two tables at a time and it was far less stressful.

After playing 16,221 hands of NL10 full ring in the first 10 days of May, dropping to two tables was a complete change of pace, but I think I needed it as I wasn't overly motivated to play. Maybe it was the alien surroundings? Anyway, I dropped $15 playing $0.50/$1 7-card stud when I was beaten on 7th street in two pots. I also lost a buy-in at PL2 Omaha hi/low when I had 6532A and some guy had a wheel (5432A) but that was only $2 so nothing to cry about. I then had an epiphany and decided to play some NL Heads-up cash games.

I've had success at HU cash before but over a very limited sample size and when I researched the optimum playing style I found I was being too tight and missing out on value in certain situations. Despite only having 20 buy-ins for the NL20 games, when it is recommended you have between 40 and 100, I thought I'd give them a shot again and set a stop-loss of 2 buy-ins, meaning if I dropped $40 then I'd stop playing and drop down stakes. Thankfully that never happened and within 591 hands I managed to win over 5 buy-ins! Kerching!

I got very lucky early on when I rivered a set to beat an overpair , I'm not sure if I am happy with how I played it to be honest. I then came up against the biggest fish I have ever come across and he quickly donated two stacks to me, one of them with this laughable hand , I mean WTF was he thinking? I just knew I was ahead as he was terrible! To my surprise he reloaded and I knew if I had a big hand I cold use the value shove on him, which is exactly what I did in this hand . He quickly left after that, maybe he was drunk?! I also had an encounter with a guy who challenged me to play him for 2 hours after I called him down with a pair of Jacks to beat his pair of tens. Three hands later I flopped a set and got it all in against his AA and he stood up instantly! What happened to playing for two hours mate? LOL!

So I think I'll be sticking to HU cash for a little while as the standard at the micros is laughable to say the least, they just have to bluff at every pot! Tonight I'm playing in a freeroll on Betfair where Annette_15 and Imper1um will be playing with bounties on their heads! It would be amazing to just be sat on their tables as it's unlikely I'll be playing in any of their usual MTT's as I simply can't afford them! Should be fun and I'll make sure I do a report on the game.

Last but certainly not least, tomorrow is Pud Junior's birthday. Five years ago tomorrow he came into this world and I can still remember the little look on his face as I sat and stared at him after cutting his cord like it was yesterday. Unfortunately his mother and her family think it's a good idea for me not to see him but it'll all be sorted soon or way or the other. Happy birthday sweetheart, I promise I'll see you soon.

As always, thanks for reading and best of luck at the tables.

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