Too Much of a Good Thing

I think I've managed to overdose on poker. Blasphemous, yes, but sadly true.
I think I put in a solid eight hours of poker today. I guess that's not an insane amount, comparatively speaking, but enough to make my brain mush.

Pretty solid day, profit-wise, with a few peaks and valleys. I'm doing the bonus whore site hop right now, working off three or four bonuses simultaneously, so I usually set a fairly arbitrary goal/stop loss for each site, and just rotate through them. There was actually a fairly full $25 NL ring game at TigerGaming when I got up around 7, so I bought in and immediately was dealt JJ. Took down a decent pot and was off and running. Kept getting strong starting hands, kept hitting draws, kept getting paid off by people on draws. 45 minutes later I cashed out of the table with $225. Roar.

Then I gave some of it back at Aspinalls, when I just couldn't catch anything and kept pushing too hard with marginal hands. Bubbled out in a MTT there, too, when my KK got sucked out on.

PokerPlex was kind to me, though. Hit a straight flush for a huge pot where the guy with the A high flush kept re-raising me on the river.

Party kicked me in the nads again, though. I swear, Party is tightening up, or there are lots of people chasing bonuses there right now with the reloads, or something. A couple of pretty horrendous beats aided in my demise there tonight, but I saw more trickier plays in the hour and a half I was there then everywhere else combined all day. And this was at a 2/4 table.

But yeah, all in all a good day. I'll take it.

Trying to think of wise, illustrative things to say but failing. Probably due to that whole brain mush thing.

The last week has given me a lot of grist for the PokerTracker mill, and it's interesting to look at trouble starting hands that I should let go but don't, and see if it matches my internal perception of hands that smack me around and make me call them my daddy.

Ax suited is an interesting one (especially when x < 10), as I feel like I limp in with it way too much, unable to let the flushy allure go. I'd have guessed that it was largely -EV for me but it's actually +EV across the board, except for A4s and A7s. I suppose the answer (and it ain't rocket science) is that you can get away with playing Ax if you're able to let go of it when the situation dictates it, even/especially if an A hits the board.

Another surprise was KQo and KJo. I always feel fishy in regards to these, thinking that I play them too often out of position and in the face of strength, but both are solidly profitable. I guess you can't argue with the power of big cards, but it also likely is due to selective passivity and letting them go when it's time to fold them.

On the flip side of the coin, K10s and JTs are two of my biggest surprise losers. I like playing J10s and seem to remember good success with it. Nay, not so, not even close. Again, extended the very obvious thread, the bigger the two cards you gots, the better.

Which is pretty mushy analysis. Sorry. Time to take my worn-out self to bed.