You People Are All Very Cool

Many thanks for putting up with all the rat talk (and pictures) the last few days, and for all of the supportive words. Hopefully all will continue to remain well in Rat Land and I can go back to babbling about poker.

February has been an odd poker month. I've played a bit more full ring than last month, mostly 15/30 at Pacific, as well as a ton of 5/10 and 10/20 shorthanded. I've also played a decent amount at 20/40 short, mostly at Doyle's. For the sake of being complete, I also sat for about an orbit at 50/100 at Doyle's.

The results have been a little head-scratching. Overall, it's been a pretty good month, as I'm looking at a profit of about $5,000 on the month. So yay for bottom lines.

But it's really not a case of Yay overall, as the results are a little misleading. I pretty much consistently got drilled at 5/10 short, where I played the bulk of my hands. A lot of those hands were heads-up/3 handed, and I think I just have to throw in the towel and admit defeat there. Not the best heads-up player. It's been good experience, especially for future SnG and MTT play when I get heads-up, but it's not where my strength lies. I ended up about -$2,500 in the hole, from a little north of 20,000 hands at 5/10.

10/20 short was a bit better, if you can call breaking even better. I didn't have as many wild and crazy swings as in the past, and basically stayed within a few thousands dollars of either side of even for the month. I played about 8,000 hands at 10/20.

15/30 full ring results were pretty solid, kicking in about $1,500 in profits over 5,000 hands or so. The games at Pacific can be really, really good at times, with fewer maniacs and more loose passives, and I felt pretty solid and in my element, as far as getting good reads and following through, and generally knowing where I stood in hands.

20/40 short results were ridiculously good. I fell into the habit (mayhap bad) at times of bashing my head against the 5/10 windmill, losing money, and, at the end of the session, sitting for a half hour or so at 20/40 short, in an attempt to recoup losses. I know, I know. I've warned against it myself here, and I know chasing losses can have disastrous effects. But I'm far from perfect, so there you go. When running well, I also sat for longer, "normal" sessions at 20/40 short. Overall, I ended up about with about $3,000 in profits at 20/40 short, over 3,000 hands.

50/100 was, umm, exciting. I'd never played that high and just wanted to say I'd done it, expecting to fold for an orbit. Didn't really plan on getting AKs and AA and heavy, heavy action, with both eventually holding up. So I played a grand total of 12 hands at 50/100, for a profit of just over $3,000. Too bad I can't maintain that BB/100.

For all intents and purposes, it should have been a losing month, and it definitely felt like one. The net result is nice and happy, but it's skewed by results at 20/40 and 50/100 that aren't based on enough hands to be indicative of anything.

Digging way back into the PokerTracker archives, it's a little interesting that every level from .50/1 to 20/40 is solidly green, with decent sample sizes at every level, except for 5/10, which is solidly red (and was even before this months 5/10 debacle). I've tried to concoct reasons to explain that, but can't come up with any that really hold water.

Long story short, I'll take the final result, even if it was due to my being a luckbox this month, more than anything. As far as March, I think it's time to bid farewell to the shorthanded tables, and get back to full ring play. I'll also likely mix in some more SnGs, if I want to play and there are a lack of juicy full ring tables to hop on.