Day 1:

Played for about 2 hours earlier and lost $260 over 383 hands.

Had some bad beats but one of my leaks is definetly overplaying 1 pair hands in No Limit.

These 2 hands are a good example of the leaks: My nickname is Champika.

***** Hand History for Game 185908521 *****
$1.00/$2.00 NL Texas Hold'em - Fri, Nov 17, 11:23:32 2006
Table Fire Escape (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: pac_mayne ($196.00)
Seat 2: fishbones11 ($188.00)
Seat 3: pokerinvestcouk ($214.31)
Seat 4: johnnymarr ($220.05)
Seat 5: chumpika ($339.20)
Seat 6: mikes ($175.90)
mikes posts small blind [$1.00]
fishbones11 posts big blind [$2.00]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to chumpika [ Qc Jc ]
pac_mayne has left the table
pokerinvestcouk folds
johnnymarr raises [$7.00]
chumpika raises [$23.00]
mikes folds
fishbones11 folds
johnnymarr calls [$16.00]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ts Js 6c ]
johnnymarr bets [$22.00]
chumpika raises [$75.00]
johnnymarr is all-In [$175.05]
chumpika folds
johnnymarr is refunded uncalled bet $122.05
johnnymarr does not show cards.
johnnymarr wins $197.00 from the main pot




***** Hand History for Game 185896210 *****
$1.00/$2.00 NL Texas Hold'em - Fri, Nov 17, 10:42:48 2006
Table Most Wanted (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: delta4_66 ($428.65)
Seat 2: LarZ0N ($200.00)
Seat 3: tarzan60 ($80.01)
Seat 4: chumpika ($231.45)
Seat 5: Digger_B ($158.10)
Seat 6: chrille_4 ($84.83)
chrille_4 posts small blind [$1.00]
delta4_66 posts big blind [$2.00]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to chumpika [ 5d Ad ]
tarzan60 calls [$2.00]
chumpika raises [$10.00]
Digger_B folds
chrille_4 calls [$9.00]
delta4_66 folds
tarzan60 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3s Qd Ac ]
chrille_4 bets [$20.00]
chumpika calls [$20.00]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jd ]
chrille_4 is all-In [$54.83]
chumpika calls [$54.83]
chrille_4 shows [ Ah Qh ] Two Pair, Aces and Queens
** Dealing River ** [ 8h ]
chrille_4 shows [ Ah Qh ] Two Pair, Aces and Queens
chumpika shows [ 5d Ad ] a Pair, Aces
chrille_4 wins $171.66 from main pot


Looking back the reraise on the flop in hand 1 was pretty horrible as there is just no point with such a marginal top pair hand. I don't think I am folding better hands and I don't think I can raise for value there on that board.

Second hand is just as bad, looking back at it this is such a easy flop fold but when I am actually playing I see top pair and look for reasons to call rather then fold. Picked up a flush draw on the turn and that is why I called the all in.

The other hands I lost were some bluffs that didn't quite work out and some bad luck although I don't think any of the other hands were really misplayed.

Going to research some guidelines on how to play top pair today.

Beginning

This blog will serve as a journal mainly for myself where I record my progress during the next 4 months which I plan to dedicate to poker.

My aim is to update daily. I plan to include interesting hands I played during the day, my learning progress, a record of the fluctuations of my bankroll and whatever else is relevant.

My current bankroll is $10,500 which has been accumulated over the past year from $50 by playing limits from $0.10-$0.20 upto $5-$10 in limit holdem. Over the past 6 months that has been almost exclusively shorthanded (6 max).

Over the past month or 2 I have began playing NL $100 and $200 6 max with some nice results (although a small sample of only ~6000 hands) and I obviously still have a lot to learn in that game and that is where I will spend most of my time from now on although I am not giving up limit completely.
Over the next 4 months I do not have any other commitments and will be spending a lot of time on poker, I plan to play a lot of hands but at least initially the majority of my time will be spent on learning how to play better.