Here's where I stand at $1/$2 limit 6-max...

Hands played: 4,484
Amount won/lost: $69.20
VP$IP: 19.22%
PFR: 7.34%
AF: 2.39
BB/100: 0.77
Won at showdown: 60.47%

3 biggest winners:
QT0: +$103.75 (50 times)
AA: +$80.00 (18 times)
ATs: +$68.50 (20 times)

3 biggest losers:
TT: -$43.77 (19 times)
QJ0: -$30.00 (38 times)
A9s: -$23.00 (18 times)

KK is still a loser for me, but it is slowly improving. TT was not fun for me tonight - it lost five out of six times I saw it, and both times that I made a set with it I lost, once to a straight and once to a flush.

On the other hand, the deck hit me in the face tonight. And then it hit me again. And again. And again - you get the idea. I had never seen anything like this before. On the one hand, I had a good night and I'm happy about that. On the other hand, I'm not sure if the results reflect my ability or just way better-than-average cards. To illustrate, here are some of the hoel cards I saw in tonight's 596 hands:

AA: 2 times (won 1)
KK: 3 (won 2)
QQ: 9 (won 8)
JJ: 7 (won 3)
TT: 6 (won 1)

Normal distribution dictates that I would see these five hands a total of 13.54 times. Instead, I saw them 27 times, almost exactly twice as much as is expected. If JJ and TT had performed better than they did, I could have been looking at a real monster of a night. All in all, I'm satisfied. I made some great plays tonight, and some horrible plays. On the bad side, I fell too in love with QJs after it won for me twelve times in a row, and called river check-raises twice because I thought I was invincible, only to lose.

Back to the good, besides all that high pocket pair tomfoolery above, I had this little beauty:

***** Hand History for Game 2474249504 *****
$1/$2 Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, August 03, 23:23:40 EDT 2005
Table Table 11306 (6 max) (Real Money)

djwalk1 posts small blind [$0.50].
LEXCHAN posts big blind [$1].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Camp Director [ 9h 9c ]
innamorato raises [$2].
baseball1970 calls [$2].
Camp Director calls [$2].
djwalk1 calls [$1.50].

** Dealing Flop ** [ 9s, 8h, 9d ]
djwalk1 bets [$1].
innamorato raises [$2].
baseball1970 calls [$2].
Camp Director calls [$2].
djwalk1 calls [$1].

** Dealing Turn ** [ 8s ]
djwalk1 bets [$2].
innamorato calls [$2].
baseball1970 calls [$2].
Camp Director calls [$2].

** Dealing River ** [ Tc ]
djwalk1 bets [$2].
innamorato calls [$2].
baseball1970 folds.
Camp Director raises [$4].
innamorato calls [$2].

Camp Director shows [ 9h, 9c ] four of a kind, nines.
innamorato doesn't show [ Ad, Kd ] two pairs, nines and eights.
Camp Director wins $34 from the main pot with four of a kind, nines.

I was really hoping someone had another eight, or even better, two, but it was not to be. The betting started off hot and heavy and unfortunately tailed off, but it was still a nice pot.

I saw two different players with PFR's above 50% in a decent sample of hands tonight. Using PokerAce HUD, I was able to recognize this quickly, adjust my play accordingly, and abuse them when I had premium starting cards (which was often).

Also had an interesting experience where a player at one of my tables accused another of playing under two aliases at the same table. I asked him how he knew, but the informant had already left the table. I simply left the table. I was too lazy to email Party support, especially since I had no evidence.

Well, I lied to my blog. I'd said I would return and post by last Wednesday, and it just didn't happen. I hope my blog forgives me. It might not happen because this blog will be going on semi-hiatus effective immediately, due to lack of a poker bankroll.

Well, that's not entirely true. I withdrew $175 from Party Poker to cover my upcoming fantasy football expenses, and left myself $16 to play with when I feel like it. Frankly, I haven't felt like it lately. Since I got back from vacation, I've only played once, and didn't even have fun doing it. The home game has not been held in over a month, due in part to people being away during the summertime, and in part to a fading interest from the participants. Myself, I can't say I have the same interest I did a few months ago. I don't think I'm "pokered out," I still love the game, I think about the game often, and someday I will return.

I just didn't feel right about having a few hundred dollars tied up in online poker, and need to shell out a few hundred more for fantasy football, all while Sara and I are having a tough time financially due to grad school expenses and the usual continuing housing costs. By emptying my bankroll I make Sara happy, I don't particularly harm my own life because I have been on a relaxation kick lately (and therefore haven't wanted to play online poker), and I save us some money. If I want to get back into it, I can 1-table $0.50/$1.00 with my meager $16 and see what happens. After all, it was under those same circumstances where I experienced my best results by far.

So where does that leave this blog? I still intend to post, perhaps weekly or a little more often than that. If the home game resumes, I'll detail the happenings here. If I play online I'll do the same. Who knows? Two years from now this blog may well be my chronicles of turning $16 into $1 million - but I won't hold my breath:)

All along this blog was supposed to be for me, as an aid to my growth as a player. If I've picked up some readers along the way, I'm sorry to disappoint. I will try to provide entertaining content going forward.

Back from vacation and reinvigorated, here I sit back at work. Since I've decided to ease my way back into the ol' job, I thought I'd slap up a post.

My week off was good; the best part poker-wise was that I finished Harrington on Hold 'Em Volume I and II. These books are completely fantastic. Harrington promised a Volume III which would be 120 poker problems. This sounds pretty cool (and fun) so I'll probably get it when it comes out. I doubt it will help my game much but like I said it should be fun.

I've played once since I returned and it was a disastrous session, losing approximately $85 and putting me back in the red overall. I tinkered with my game a little and it didn't work out too well. I think at these loose loose loose $1/$2 6-max tables that tight is the way to go. I have been considering a sqitch to $1/$2 full-ring, but I'll stick with the short-handed for now. After all, I can't abandon it now that I'm a loser! At full-ring the blinds would tend to eat me alive less while I wait for monsters though.

I will write about that aforementioned bad session when I'm at home, with the power of PokerTracker in front of me. I would like to get a session in tonight and hopefully offset some of those bad results, but we'll see. The Eagles play their first preseason game tonight against the Stillers, and even though preseason is brutal to watch I'll probably do it anyway.

Here's my view of the current controversy in one sentence: I hate T.O., I love the Eagles, and I could care less if he ever plays for the team again.

Sara is starting grad school next month and it's putting quite a strain on our finances. We are both somewhat accelerating our studies to finish in two years each, and therefore accelerating our bills. Tuition is preventing us from paying down the mortgage, or getting new windows, or repaying the student loans we already have from undergrad. It's frustrating, but it will be worth it when we both have our graduate degrees (we hope). After all, the best investment you can make is in yourself, right? Right?? It had better be for the $22,000 per year cost for our schooling.

I don't have much to say right now - possibly a post later tonight, definitely by Tuesday or Wednesday.

Additionally, I've changed the name of this blog to Camp Happy Poker Blog, since that's pretty much all I write about.

Addendum: Props to Blogger on the "recover post" option. I accidentally deleted this one, clicked the button, and BAM it was all back except for the last sentence. That's awesome.

Here's the latest from $1/$2 6-max limit, and the bonus 5,000 hand recap and analysis.

Hands played: 5,673
Amount won/lost: $72.70
VP$IP: 19.39%
PFR: 7.46%
AF: 2.45
BB/100: 0.64
Won at showdown: 62.32%

Well to be honest, I've played a lot more hands than I thought I would in this relatively short amount of time (12-13 days). I think having just one limit and type of poker to focus on has helped me in this respect. I just sit down, fire up four tables, and play for an hour or two.

On the other hand, I am slightly disappointed with my "winnings," if you can call them that. Right now, I'm at just over a penny a hand in winnings. At the same time, at least I'm winning. I've logged 63.55 table-hours of free entertainment.

My aggression factor is right where I want it. I'm missing some raising opportunities on the river, but at this point in my development as a player I have a tough time distinguishing whether or not I have the best hand in these situations and don't want to risk a re-re-raise.

I think my win at showdown percentage is pretty nice, which tells me I mostly know when I'm good enough.

More stats:

Win: 10.95% of hands - this worries me because it's pretty damn low for 6-handed play. A normal distribution would give me almost 17%. I'm more than happy to give up a few percentage points here because I play much tighter than the average $1/$2 player, but to be at less than 11% sets of alarm bells. Going forward, I would like to raise my VP$IP above 25% (putting in bets in the right situation) and see my win percentage climb to 13-14%.

One area where I think I can raise my VP$IP is to complete from the small blind more. No matter which two cards I'm holding, if there are three or four limpers I'm getting pot odds in the neighborhood of 9-1 to complete. Unless I'm dominated this is worth a call. I will try to utilize this when I have a passive player to my immediate left, see some cheap flops, and hopefully cash in big once or twice. FYI, my VP$IP from the small blind is 31.17%.

Total rake paid: $290.75 - I think a solid, easy-to-keep-track-of goal for winnings would be to stay ahead of the rake. This shows just how much money these poker sites haul in, when an above-average player like myself (I say that because I have net winnings) is way behind the rake. I don't think I will continue to play with this frequency so I'm not looking to get into a rake rebate program at this point.

In 79 sessions, I've come out a winner 40 times (50.63%). This is a stat I pay way too much attention to; I'll play an extra ten minutes to try at get from $49 to $51, just so I can say it's a winning session. This is stupid and I should stop.

I've won the most money in the cutoff ($272.16), and the second most on the button ($179.74). Other than the fact that I would expect the button to show the best performance, this makes sense.

The hands where I have cold-called a raise pre-flop are few and far between, but agree with what I would expect. Here they are (a total of 24 times out of 5,673 hands):

88 - 4
99 - 4
33 - 4
66 - 3
44 - 2
KK - 1
KTs - 1
JJ - 1
AJs - 1
AA - 1
ATs - 1
77 - 1

I tend to cold-call raises with middle pair, hoping for a wonderful, wonderful set. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Overall, I should probably use more discretion when cold-calling a raise - but I won't. I love sets!

Here are my won/loss totals for each final hand:
High card - ($617.73)
One pair - ($392.84)
Two Pair - $75.85
Three of a Kind - $283.75
Straight - $180.99
Flush - $213.37
Full House - $362.37
Four of a Kind: $35.00
Royal Flush - $3.44 (more on this later)

I wish I wasn't such a big loser with one pair, but I'm not sure what I can do about it. One to think about.

Out of the 810 players I've seen so far, I sit 8th in winnings. Another goal: I'd like to be first. With time this should be possible just due to the volume of hands I'm seeing compared to my opponents. Incidentally, the first two players on the list I played with tonight for the first time. These two players have netted the third and fourth most from me. Number on on the winnings list won $132.20 in 66 hands - not bad at all. Of course, with a VP$IP of 75.76% this hardly seems sustainable.

I've lost at least $10 in my five longest sessions. I'm not sure if this comes from a loss of focus over time or a stubborness to leave the table a loser, where I play longer. Probably a combination. It could also be meaningless because I'm a winner in nine out of my next ten longest sessions, and the loss is $1.13. Biggest one session win: $80.75 in 104 hands. Biggest one session loss: $50.00 (three times) in 114, 71, and 35(?!) hands.

My favorite session: I sat down, posted, and as the first hand was beign dealt Sara asked to come work on the yard. I played one hand:

***** Hand History for Game 2449130878 *****
$1/$2 Texas Hold'em - Saturday, July 30, 13:56:21 EDT 2005
Table Table 10783 (6 max) (Real Money)

rainbow2 posts small blind [$0.50].
Pissert posts big blind [$1].
Camp Director posts big blind [$1].
Aiite posts big blind [$1].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Camp Director [ As Ac ]
Camp Director raises [$1].
Aiite calls [$1].
aaltier calls [$2].
Pissert calls [$1].

** Dealing Flop ** [ 8c, Qh, 9c ]
Pissert bets [$1].
Camp Director calls [$1].
Aiite calls [$1].
aaltier calls [$1].

** Dealing Turn ** [ 5s ]
Pissert bets [$2].
Camp Director raises [$4].
Aiite folds.
aaltier calls [$4].
Pissert calls [$2].

** Dealing River ** [ 6s ]
Pissert checks.
Camp Director bets [$2].
aaltier folds.
Pissert raises [$4].
Camp Director calls [$2].
Pissert shows [ Jc, Ad ] high card ace.

Camp Director shows [ As, Ac ] a pair of aces.
Camp Director wins $31.50 from the main pot with a pair of aces.

That was a good one. My BB/100 was 1,025.00 for that session.

10 biggest winners:
QT0: +$111.69 (55 times)
AA: +$96.75 (24 times)
QQ: +$91.12 (28 times)
ATs: +$69.13 (22 times)
JJ: +$66.50 (28 times)
99: +$54.25 (33 times)
88: +$51.50 (28 times)
44: +$49.75 (32 times)
AQo: +$44.87 (57 times)
AK0: +$44.69 (56 times)

10 biggest losers:
TT: -$39.84 (28 times)
QJ0: -$32.50 (47 times)
Q8o: -$31.50 (52 times) [have never won with this hand]
T3o: -$23.50 (37 times)
42o: -$23.50 (64 times)
T4o: -$22.50 (58 times) [have never won with this hand]
J7o: -$22.00 (53 times) [have never won with this hand]
J40: -$22.00 (46 times) [have never won with this hand]
J50: -$22.00 (40 times)
T8o: -$21.00 (55 times) [have never won with this hand]

Because I know you've all been holding your breath, KK is now +$20.91 (25 times), after holding up eight out of the last nine times I've seen it. Thank christ. Now, if I could only get TT in the black... The only other pocket pair in the red right now is 22, at -$1.50 (24 times).

10 hands I have seen the most:
64o (76)
84o (66)
42o (64)
62o (63)
Q2o (61)
43o (61)
K3o (60)
73o (59)
72o (58) I've only won once with the Hammer, and have never raised pre-flop with it. This will need to change.
T4o (58)

All ten hands are losers.

10 hands I see the least:
Q3s (6)
82s (9)
QTs (10)
K2s (11)
T6s (11)
97s (11)
63s (12)
T3s (12)
J4s (12)
K7s (12)
T5s (12)

82s, T6s, and 63s are winners in this group. The rest are duds.

Best 5 win percentages:
AA: 75.00%
QQ: 67.86&
AKs: 65.00%
QJs: 63.16%
JJ: 60.71%
BONUS - KK: 60.00%

QJs won the first twelve times I held it, a lost the most recent seven times I've had it. Weird.

That's almost enough for now, except for this:

***** Hand History for Game 2484933749 *****
$1/$2 Texas Hold'em - Friday, August 05, 22:57:46 EDT 2005
Table Table 11090 (6 max) (Real Money)

grettaz posts small blind [$0.50].
Camp Director posts big blind [$1].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to mjb39618 [ Qc Td ]
tonyfg calls [$1].
jbedell is all-In.
Camp Director calls [$0.72].
tonyfg calls [$0.72].

** Dealing Flop ** [ Ac, 2h, Jc ]
Camp Director checks.
tonyfg checks.

** Dealing Turn ** [ Kc ]
Camp Director bets [$2].
tonyfg folds.

** Dealing River ** [ Tc ]

Camp Director shows [ Qc, Td ] Royal Flush.
jbedell shows [ Ad, Ts ] two pairs, aces and tens.
Camp Director wins $2 from side pot #1 with Royal Flush.
Camp Director wins $5.16 from the main pot with Royal Flush.

Nothing like backing into calling a pre-flop raise only because another player was all-in, backing into a royal flush, and getting no action on it. I did like how Party capitalized "Royal Flush" - pretty cool.

I'm off to Rehoboth Beach for a week; by the time I get back I'm going to need some marathon sessions of low-limit short-handed poker. See you then.

Here I am, stuck at a client again. I'm scheduled here all week for the financial statement audit and today we all pretty much had nothing to do. We've been promised more work to come tomorrow, so hopefully I won't be so bored as to have to resort to writing blog entries. One or two days is about all I can take of "nothing to do" - after that I'll begin to go stir crazy.

In the world of poker, not much has really happened since last night's post. I am constantly revisiting my play/results throughout the day, however. Hopefully I can get a session in tonight, or at the least tomorrow morning before work. This shouldn't be a problem so expect updated results tomorrow.

Let me expand on an item I mentioned in last night's post:

I'm dealt QTo UTG in a 6-max game. What do I do? I'm pretty sure the average loose $1/$2 table this is not a raising hand, but is it even a calling hand? There are three more players to act behind me, plus the blinds, and I don't want to have to call a raise with this hand. But I fear that folding QTo in a 6-max game is playing too tight and setting myself up for the blinds to eat me alive. So, what do you do at a loose table (say four players seeing the flop, and approximately one out of two hands is raised pre-flop)?

Along the same lines, does the play change if it's QTs?

I suppose these are the sort of questions I could pose on the 2+2 or RGP boards, but who wants to go to all that trouble? Instinct tells me that QTo should be folded in this situation, while QTs can stand a call, even if there is a chance of a raise behind. As the old saying goes (from SSHE?): You should be looking for reasons to fold pre-flop, and reasons to stay in the hand post-flop.

On another note, I'm slowly getting through Harrington on Hold 'Em Volume One, with Volume Two awaiting me on the bookshelf. I will agree with every other review I've read about this book by saying that it's probably the best one out there. The book is on a higher plane - definitely not for beginners. Harrington walks you through hands by taking you into the mind of every player at the table, and it has really helped give me a firmer grasp on third- and fourth-order poker thinking. Of course, higher level thinking won't do me much good at the $1/$2 6-max limit tables that I call home, but that's ok because I still find the book to be an enjoyable read.

The meeting I wrote of last week regarding the potential promotion at work was pushed back and will be help tomorrow at lunchtime. Even though I have to act like it's no big deal at all, it's killing me to have to wait this long to find out. I just keep telling myself that my bosses wouldn't have gone to the trouble of scheduling and rescheduling a meeting, only to tell me that I didn't get the promotion. My expectations are for a compromise between the position I desire and where I am right now, which would be fair because the position I applied for is a little bit over my head experience-wise. Still, out of this experience I've learned that it rarely hurts to try, even if you think something's out of reach. My department is extremely short-handed right now and we are having a tough time hiring from outside, so I threw my name into the hat. It put my bosses in a tough position because if they flat-out turned me down, they run the risk of alienating me and potentially losing me in the near future. And to tell the truth, who knows if that would have been the case. I like where I work, but of most importance to me is to have an upward slope to my career path. One bad thing about my current firm is that discussion of that area seems somewhat taboo - nobody really talks about it. Even our raises are given to us on a piece of paper that is put in with our paycheck - there is no discussion on the matter. So I'm hoping that by applying for this position that at the very least my bosses will recognize that I'll be taking an active approach throughout my career.

And then there are the Phillies. EVer since I was seven or eight years old, they have been my team. The Phillies and the Eagles were precious to me, and the 76ers and Flyers, while not on the same level, were also important. I've experienced one playoff season in sixteen years of rooting for the Phils, the wonderful year of 1993. I was there for Game 6 of the NLCS, when the Phillies beat the Braves to advance to the World Series, and it was a great moment. I stuck with the team throughout the dreadful late 1990s, which is harder than it seems. Those teams of 1995-1998 gave me little hope for success, in 1999 the Phils had a good year for them and won 70 games, and in 2000 plummeted back to their usual 65-97. It's been better since, with win totals of 86, 80, 86, and 86 since, but still no playoffs. Still, I stuck with them. Well now I am officially renouncing the Phillies, for two reasons:

1) They made ZERO trades at the trading deadline. I would have preferred them to deal Wagner and possibly Urbina, along with either Ryan Howard or Thome. Instead they did nothing.

2) Rumor around the City is that the team is quietly negotiating a contract extension with GM Ed Wade. This man has been the General Manager for eight years without ever reaching the playoffs or displaying a level of job performance that could be called "competent."

The second one is the one that really gets me - if the Phillies have Ed Wade as their GM next year while missing the playoffs this year, I'm going to have to pick a new team to root for until there is some sort of regime change. I'm thinking either picking a team out of a hat to follow on a temporary basis, or deciding between the Orioles and Nationals, since they are the closest teams to where I live, and I could never root for the Mets. It won't be the same, so I'll probably continue to follow the Phillies, but refuse to financially support them. I attended four games early in the season (I only paid for the tickets for one) and have refused to go back since. Damn Phillies are making me crazy. The wackiest part is that I was so optimistic before the season started, I predicted 103 wins for the Phils. In addition, I bet my friend $100 that they would win at least 87 games. I could very well win the bet and the Phillies could still miss the playoffs. Bastards.

Enough rambling for now - I will be on vacation next week so don't expect any of these disjointed, impossible-to-follow posts. Try to make it through the week without me.

$1/$2 limit 6-max results:

Hands played: 3,888
Amount won/lost: $11.87
VP$IP: 19.03%
PFR: 7.25%
AF: 2.35
BB/100: 0.15
Won at showdown: 60.48%

I've added that last stat because I think it carries some weight; am I calling bets on the river when I know I'm beat? In the past my number has been around 50%, so I think where it sits now represents some progression in my game.

3 biggest winners:
AA: +$77.25 (16 times)
QTO: +$73.25 (40 times)
44: +$64.25 (21 times)

3 biggest losers:
KK: -$28.59 (18 times)
AQ0: -$27.38 (39 times)
A9s: -$22.50 (14 times)

I made nice dents in my two biggest losers tonight - go me!

After almost 4,000 hands, I've been dealt the following hands the most often:
84o (48)
64o (46)
J7o (45)
K3o (45)

Not pretty. And I've been dealt the following hands the least number of times:
Q3s (4)
82s (5)
A3s (5)

I plan to do a more in-depth stat review once I hit 5,000 hands played. I'm really looking forward to getting inside the numbers more.

At least I'm back in the black after a generally solid session tonight, meaning I have enough to four-table again. I won some nice hands tonight, including a nice one (finally!) with pocket kings. They could be turning around for me...

***** Hand History for Game 2462708017 *****
$1/$2 Texas Hold'em - Monday, August 01, 22:12:02 EDT 2005
Table Table 31097 (6 max) (Real Money)

** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Camp Director [ Ks Kh ]
Camp Director raises [$2].
Bob21262 calls [$1.50].
lushh212 raises [$2].
Camp Director raises [$2].
Bob21262 calls [$2].
lushh212 calls [$1].

** Dealing Flop ** [ As, 2h, 6c ]
Bob21262 bets [$1].
lushh212 calls [$1].
Camp Director calls [$1].

** Dealing Turn ** [ Kd ]
Bob21262 checks.
lushh212 checks.
Camp Director bets [$2].
Bob21262 calls [$2].
lushh212 calls [$2].

** Dealing River ** [ 8s ]
Bob21262 checks.
lushh212 bets [$2].
Camp Director raises [$4].
Bob21262 folds.
lushh212 raises [$4].
Camp Director calls [$2].

lushh212 shows [ 8c, 8d ] three of a kind, eights.
Camp Director shows [ Ks, Kh ] three of a kind, kings.
Camp Director wins $33.50 from the main pot with three of a kind, kings.

The call on the flop was because the pot was giving me 20-to-1 odds at that point. With two kings left in the deck my odds of hitting one on the turn were 22.5-to-1. With implied odds added in I thought this was an easy call, and when that king fell on the turn I was one happy man. When I was three-bet on the end I was terrified of a set of aces, hence my call - admittedly a weak play. I suppose I was so used to losing with kings that I thought he had the rockets. It felt good to scoop a nice pot with kings.

I'm back with this odd fact:

I have been dealt QJs eleven times, and have won all eleven times. What are the odds of that?

Latest from $1/$2 6-max limit...

Hands played: 3,658
Amount won/lost: ($22.61)
VP$IP: 18.92%
PFR: 7.24%
AF: 2.38
BB/100: (0.31)

3 biggest winners:
AA: +$87.25 (15 times)
QTo: +$73.25 (37 times)
44: +$61.25 (20 times)

3 biggest losers:
AQ0: -$52.13 (34 times)
KK: -$50.34 (15 times)
A9s: -$22.50 (14 times)
I was finally climbing out of that KK hole and then BAM! I got hit with another large loss. Here's the hand in question:


$1/$2 Texas Hold'em - Sunday, July 31, 12:31:22 EDT 2005
Table Table 31076 (6 max) (Real Money)

QUEENEE001 posts small blind [$0.50].
BigMykle posts big blind [$1].

** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Camp Director [ Kh Ks ]
mike51ham raises [$2].
Camp Director calls [$2].
DAPAPA calls [$2].
QUEENEE001 calls [$1.50].

** Dealing Flop ** [ 2d, 3c, 7c ]
QUEENEE001 checks.
mike51ham bets [$1].
Camp Director calls [$1].
DAPAPA raises [$2].
QUEENEE001 folds.
mike51ham calls [$1].
Camp Director calls [$1].

** Dealing Turn ** [ 7h ]
mike51ham bets [$2].
Camp Director calls [$2].
DAPAPA raises [$4].
mike51ham is all-In.
Camp Director raises [$4].
DAPAPA calls [$2].

** Dealing River ** [ 8h ]
Camp Director bets [$2].
DAPAPA raises [$4].
Camp Director raises [$4].
DAPAPA raises [$4].
Camp Director calls [$2].

DAPAPA shows [ 8s, 8d ] a full house, Eights full of sevens.
mike51ham doesn't show [ As, 9d ] a pair of sevens.
Camp Director doesn't show [ Kh, Ks ] two pairs, kings and sevens.
DAPAPA wins $22 from side pot #1 with a full house, Eights full of sevens.
DAPAPA wins $23 from the main pot with a full house, Eights full of sevens.

The limp-reraise on the turn was because something told me that I still had the best hand. Actually, when DAPAPA raised on the turn, I had a strong, strong hunch that he didn't have the seven, really the only card that I was scared of. I actually thought to myself "he probably has a pair bigger than the board, like eights." Of course, when an eight hit the board on the river I totally ignored it and capped like a fool. KK would be just negative for me right now if I had won that pot; of course, it probably wouldn't have been capped on the river if DAPAPA hadn't hit his boaty.

A tought weekend of poker overall, I am really disappointed to be in the red after 3,500 hands. Obviously there is something wrong with my game - or more like nineteen things wrong with my game. I need to smoke them out, one by one, and make the necessary adjustments. I think the best way to do this is to just keep pounding away, playing hands and gaining the experience.

I need to develop solid strategy for hands like AJ0, KTo, and other good blackjack hands in barying situations. I tend to waflle on whether I should call the BB and then finally decide it's worth it, only to be raised behind. Then, pot odds usually tell me to call the additional bet and I'm often dominated. On the other hand, I hate to throw it away when I close the action and I'm getting 9-1 pot odds or some such number. Sigh - with the experience will hopefully come the mastery.

I know I'm playing too tight, but I don't know where to make adjustments. I was doing the best at the beginning of this journey - when my VP$IP and PFR were both higher. They have been trending slowly downward, as have my results, but I can't pinpoint exactly how I have been palying any differently. Generally accepted poker principles say in a situation with loose players, you should tighten up. But often I'm on the button with suited crap, say 85, and three have called in front of me with the blinds still to act. Do pot odds justify a call here? Again, I'll continue with the lather, rinse, repeat until I get it right.

I truly believe this is the best way to get better, to just hammer away at a level until I can consistently beat it, and then think about moving to the next level. It just makes me feel pathetic that I can only 3-table right now due to the diminished bankroll.