Well the Stars project got off to the worst possible start with me losing two buy in's of $30. Lost one fairly early on when I ended up folding a decentish hand after some caller all the way could have made a straight or a flush on the river and he reraised me, then I called a small all in with AK to pocket 7's and he hit trips. The other buy in was lost to some guy calling my nice preflop raise with KK and him calling with TKs and two tens flopped.

I'm thinking I'm either playing to lose for cash games or am maybe not cut out for them.

I think I'll re-evaluate how I'm going to turn $97.63 into $1000. I may even have to go back to sit and go's, not something I really want to do as sitting for an hour for $25 isn't that attractive although I have to admit, it's better than sitting for two and a half to lose $60!

Discipline

I'm a fan of posts on forums where people set themselves goals. It's interesting to see how people can start with $5 and end up with hundreds and once you've got a few hundred, sky's the limit.

I tend to just donk along. I'm doing ok, but I always hover between $40 and $300 in my Stars account. If I'm at the higher end, I'll play a few $50 mtt's and bring it back down, when I'm on $40 or so, I'll play tight ring games for a bit and try and build it up. I need to get some decent money in the account so I'm going to be disciplined and try and play good 0.25/0.50 NLHE ring games for a while. If I don't get off to a good start, I'm in trouble as I've only just over $130 in the account at the moment, but I'm comfortable at this level and will hopefully be ok. The aim is to try and get to $1000 playing nothing else on Stars. I'll probably two table for now and buy in for around $30 which will allow me another go if things go tits up.

When I say nothing else, I mean no other hard cash events. I'll still play the fpp mtts as I do ok out of them and I'm going to continue having a bash at WSOP qualification with my W$. What I really mean is that I'm not dipping into other cash tournaments :)

Ah I've missed playing cash games on Tribecca

Mar 1 23:47:37] : Hand Start.
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 1 : Looter.52 has $71.75
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 2 : Graham0573 has $87.12
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 3 : patrick3331 has $78.75
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 4 : hegs10 has $56.03
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 5 : desperado2 has $24.50
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 6 : Billum222 has $120.25
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 7 : Alf1e has $10.25
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 8 : melanie5 has $36.75
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 9 : emmett52 has $33
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : emmett52 is the dealer.
[Mar 1 23:47:38] : Looter.52 posted small blind.
[Mar 1 23:47:38] : Graham0573 posted big blind.
[Mar 1 23:47:39] : Game [105647] started with 9 players.
[Mar 1 23:47:39] : Dealing Hole Cards.
[Mar 1 23:47:39] : Seat 2 : Graham0573 has As Jh
[Mar 1 23:47:41] : patrick3331 folded.
[Mar 1 23:47:42] : hegs10 called $1
[Mar 1 23:47:45] : desperado2 called $1
[Mar 1 23:47:51] : Billum222 folded.
[Mar 1 23:47:51] : Alf1e folded.
[Mar 1 23:47:54] : melanie5 called $1
[Mar 1 23:47:55] : emmett52 folded.
[Mar 1 23:47:57] : Looter.52 called $0.50
[Mar 1 23:47:59] : Graham0573 checked.
[Mar 1 23:48:00] : Dealing flop.
[Mar 1 23:48:00] : Board cards [5h Ad Js]
[Mar 1 23:48:03] : Looter.52 checked.
[Mar 1 23:48:09] : Graham0573 bet $2
[Mar 1 23:48:10] : hegs10 called $2
[Mar 1 23:48:13] : desperado2 folded.
[Mar 1 23:48:14] : melanie5 folded.
[Mar 1 23:48:16] : Looter.52 folded.
[Mar 1 23:48:17] : Dealing turn.
[Mar 1 23:48:17] : Board cards [5h Ad Js Ah]
[Mar 1 23:48:20] : Graham0573 checked.
[Mar 1 23:48:23] : hegs10 bet $8
[Mar 1 23:48:25] : Graham0573 called $8
[Mar 1 23:48:25] : Dealing river.
[Mar 1 23:48:25] : Board cards [5h Ad Js Ah 3h]
[Mar 1 23:48:38] : Graham0573 bet $10
[Mar 1 23:48:42] : hegs10 called $10 and raised $35.03 and is All-in
[Mar 1 23:48:46] : Graham0573 called $35.03
[Mar 1 23:48:46] : Showdown!
[Mar 1 23:48:46] : Seat 2 : Graham0573 has As Jh
[Mar 1 23:48:48] : Seat 4 : hegs10 has 6s 6c
[Mar 1 23:48:48] : hegs10 has Two Pair: Aces and 6s
[Mar 1 23:48:48] : Seat 2 : Graham0573 has As Jh
[Mar 1 23:48:48] : Graham0573 has Full House : Aces full of Jacks
[Mar 1 23:48:48] : Graham0573 wins $112.06 with Full House : Aces full of Jacks
[Mar 1 23:48:58] : Hand is over.

I'm going to have to take a break from WSOP qualifying. I just keep getting my preflop raises called by shocking hands then they are hitting two pairs and generally that's me done. I may try again in a few days. It' a bit disapointing as I was looking forward to giving them a go, but I think I've played about 8 events now and I've taken bad beats in some form or other in all of them. Maybe not bad beats as such, but hands that you wouldn't dream of playing preflop yet alone calling raises with are beating me.

No good again in the Mansion but in the $25k $5 rebuy I've hit quad Jacks to move me up to 9k and the average is only 5k at the moment. Amazing how a nice hand like quad Jacks can cheer you up!

Bad night again! I'm in one of those periods when you get a few bad beats at the moment. I couldn't shake off J4 in the $100k and he hit two pairs against my AQ on a Q high board, then I ran into KK with QQ, that was that tourney over. I spent a while in the $8 omaha tourney to lose all my chips to a draw that hit. I think that was probably my fault for commiting but mateyboy was pretty stacked and I'd have ended up folding to his bet on the draw if I didn't move in.

Spent about 3 hours in a double shootout only to get short stacked on the final table. Raise 4xBB with JJ, 2 callers, rag rag rag board and I move in and matey that called with 84 preflop hits his two pairs then in the $5 rebuy on Stars, I'm below average on about 5.5k and am dealt TT, raise preflop, flop 6 6 5, move in, 77 calls, turn 8 river 7 and I'm out. OK I could have lost to 66 here, can't see much else calling the preflop raise, 55 maybe. Just a bit unlucky perhaps.

Anyway, tonights good night of poker never happened and it's been shit again. I don't think I'm playing well though, need to sort it out, it's costing me a few quid at the moment. The game is there somewhere though, on Saturday just gone, I came 13th out of over 1000 runners in a mtt. Sadly only got $35 for my troubles, but 13th is pretty good. I really could do with making the most of these Mansion entries because the money in these really could change the level I play poker at. Must do better tomorrow night, must do.