I'm alive!

Pud's Poker Progress / Matthew Pitt / 06 October 2009 / Leave a Comment

I had planned to take a break from the tables as I played almost everyday for nearly a month and when you're losing this does take a lot out of you mentally

After a week of feeling like death warmed up, I have finally turned the corner, gotten off my death bed and am back in all my glory! I'm still not sure of I had the swine flu because I never got a temperature, in fact my temperature never got above 36.5, but I certainly had something as it sucked all the energy out of me and basically made me feel horrid.

Since my last post I have ended my staking deal for various reasons. The main one was that I was playing bad and when you couple that with running bad it is a recipe for disaster. I was focussing on the short term rather than being in it for the long run and as a result I was bleeding money.

I went over some hand histories and I was playing ridiculously tight, maybe because I ran so badly at the start of the deal or maybe because in the back of my mind I knew I was playing with money that wasn't my own. Who knows. I explained this to my backer and he was happy to continue the deal but I wasn't comfortable doing so so called it a day.

Although we said that there would be no make-up, ie any money I lost I had to pay back, I told him that I would pay back the $90 and change I had lost because the majority of those losses came from me playing bad so I feel like I owe it to him as I don't feel I gave the cash games my best shot. He's a good guy and has said there is no rush to get the money to him.

I'm hoping that in the future we can work together as it could be very profitable for us both IMO. Maybe in the next couple of months we can do another deal and I can keep clear of downswings and viruses and keep my mind on things that matter like playing for the long term,

Initially I had planned to take a break from the tables as I played almost everyday for nearly a month and when you're losing this does take a lot out of you mentally. I was going to learn and play a new game such as Omaha or Seven-card Stud but the lure of Hold'em was too strong and I've decided to stick with it for the time being.

A while back I let a friend borrow my heads-up strategy book and over the weekend I asked for it back, just so I had something to read whilst I took my break. After reading the first four or five chapters I was itching to play like I always do when I read a good strategy book, so with my new £25 bankroll, fired up some $2.20 HUSNG.

The Poker Gods (amen) were really kind to me from the off as I won my first four encounters without too much trouble,they even let me hit a full house on the river to beat a flush but then I lost my next four games, before winning the next three and losing the last one of my session. Overall I played 12 $2.20 HUSNG, cashed in 58.3% of them for a 6.1% ROI. Whilst this only equates to $1.60 in profit, it was so good to have a winning session again and it reminded me how much I love heads-up poker.

I played another 14 them last night and ran like the proverbial win, winning 11 of them in total, including the one $5.25 game I moved up to to take a shot. I'm being aggressive with my bankroll, playing the $2.20's until I have $50 then playing the $5.25's until I have $100 but moving to the previous stakes if I drop below those amounts. Hopefully this way I can be back playing the $10 and $20 games regularly. So far I have an ITM of 69.2% and an ROI of 29.5% from 26 games, very small sample but its nice to be in the black for once!

Before I go I must give a big shoutout to Annette Obrestad who is currently in the last 24 players of the £5,000 EPT London Main Event. First prize is £850,000 so a hell of a lot to play for.