So, I've been sipping tea, re-reading Super System 2, and generally analysing why I suck at Ring games so much. So far I've established, because of my constant SnG play I've been neglecting positional importance and being too loose with hand selection. In other words, I've been playing Ring games with the wrong strategy to actually make a profit lol.

I have lots of other leaks but that's something I'm focussing on .

Anyhow, onto the game - and note: this is nothing to do with great play - I could not have got an easier situation - a 5 year old would have won this hand.... I've mentioned the above preparation because after reading, thinking, analysing, etc, .. I sat down with refreshed optimism and enthusiasm.

I followed Doyle's advice and sat to the left of the aggressive major chip leader and kept the hell out of his way when he got in early.

4 hands later....

Hand #1339012015000316: Paris 12015
Seat 1: LuckTard (6.80 in chips)
Seat 2: Kakesu (10.65 in chips)
Seat 3: justbob (6.15 in chips)
Seat 4: plus10 (5.00 in chips)
Seat 5: Cuddy120 (5.76 in chips)
Seat 7: bloody hell (22.75 in chips)
Seat 8: Dodgey101 (9.55 in chips)
Seat 9: kttiekat (11.15 in chips)
Seat 10: skibb (15.18 in chips)
LuckTard: posts small blind $0.05
Kakesu: posts big blind $0.10
Dealt to Dodgey101 [ 4s 4c ]
justbob: calls
plus10: folds
Cuddy120: folds
bloody hell: folds
Dodgey101: calls (ok - lets play by the book. Limp/maybe raise. Nah , limp)
kttiekat: calls
skibb: folds
LuckTard: folds
Kakesu: checks
*** FLOP *** [ 4d 5d 5h ] (yay! - only threat is 55 or 45)
Kakesu: bets $0.45 (nice - he did the raising for me. I can hide behind him!)
justbob: folds
Dodgey101: calls
kttiekat: raises to $2.25 (wow! nice, he has a 5! - (hope his kicker misses!)
Kakesu: folds
Dodgey101: calls (pondered for a good few seconds, but not too long)
*** TURN *** [ 4h ]
Dodgey101: checks (reinforcing my pondering)
kttiekat: bets $1 (hmm - he's trying to trap me, COOL)
Dodgey101: calls (pondering again)
*** RIVER *** [ Ad ]
Dodgey101: bets $3 (My "lame" bet into a $5 odd pot)
kttiekat: is all in
Dodgey101: is all in (called faster than the Brat himself)
kttiekat: returns uncalled bet $1.60
*** SHOW DOWN ***
kttiekat: shows [ 5s As ] (Full House, Fives full of Aces )
Dodgey101: shows [ 4s 4c ] (Four of a Kind, Fours )
Dodgey101 wins $18.85 with Four of a Kind, Fours


lol - what a great start to the day, and as per the "rules", after I doubled my buy in shortly after I ran away :-p

Poor guy was steaming - he said he'd been quadded 3 times already today.

lol, nice start mate

I'm back into cash games myself these days and I'm enjoying it. I don't have to worry about making moves because the blinds are rising and I don't have to worry about "Joey ShortStack" constantly going all-in. I've found I'm enjoying myself again and playing a lot calmer.

Keep up the good work (where you playing by the way? Cake?)

Thx dude. yup - cake - as I have some pennies in there. Just made a sizeable deposit in Titan (mad bonus!) so will be grindin' on there for the next 3 weeks as I have bugger all else to do lol.

As a side note I LOVE carbon poker. Only reason I've left is because they cancelled my bonus 5 days in as I made a profit-withdrawl. My fault for not reading the smallprint but I did mention to an online support guy it's a little short sighted - they've lost my money as I'm better off elsewhere earning a bonus.

I actually continued to have a good day yesterday playing ring games - made less than I'd make in SnGs in the same time, but then again, I actually made some money rather than losing it! - which was my usual story in ring games.

My tips for people in the same boat as me (and I know there are some :-) ) from what I've noticed so far:

1) Ring games don't favour fancy play as much as SnGs - you are not often stuck with the same 10 people for very long so image can be wiped in a second, and fancy play can get you into a mess you never intended to be in (i.e. all your chips at stake)

2) Pay attention to your position and your starting cards. I'd got slack on this - I think mainly because most of my "proper" poker playing in SnGs is when the table gets down to 6 or less - which favours looser play and much more creativity with the cards and bets (and position). This backfires on 10 seat ring games.

Once I forced myself NOT to play out of position I started smiling at the amount of times it was definately the right thing to do. The old saying "don't bet with cards unless you are prepared to pay a raise with them" makes a whole lot of sense. It's stopped my playing 8 10 suited mid or early position.

3) Take flops when you have them asap. $1 with trips is far better than losing $5 with trips when the other straight hits. No news there - but the moral of the story: take whatever you can!

Still lots of work for me to do - particularly breaking through the boredom factor - I am sticking with it until I get good enough to multi table. Won't do that until I've won at ring for a little while yet.

Nice one

I took a battering today at Full Tilt and I have just about managed to recover but it took me hours.

I got KK v AA all-in for a buy-in. A King hit the flop and I punched the air with delight. My joy was cut short by the river as an Ace hit. So sick

Then I had QQ v 77 after he re-raised me all-in pre-flop with just $25. I thought for a while but was pleased I had called - until a 7 hit the flop

Since then, today has been a real uphill battle. Went card dead for ages in one spell. Then I couldn't hit the flop if my life depended on it. I was taking 2 steps forward then one step back. I made some mistakes too. I tried to slow play top 2 pair once and the other player was holding bottom pair. I should have bet the turn and he would certainly have folded, but I checked and he hit trips on the river. Totally my fault for giving him a free card and not protecting my hand, for which I slapped myself. lol

I've finished the day slightly down but I had to grind hard, and I can't help thinking that if my KKK had help up and my QQ had held up I would have a nice profit. Oh well, that's poker I guess. Those 2 outers sting like hell though. lol

Sounds like you had a tough day lol.

I started ring games on my new site, Titan, last night and moved up from 5/10c to 10/20c and was quite shocked. I lost $3 , changed table, won $9 when some fool pushed my 5x raise (AA) with his 99 - all-in lol.

Then I lost $15 in 3 hands due to being played like a total fish by the guy on my left. Chasing nut flushes which missed 3 times in a row. I only once had the odds to call. me=donk

I'm finding sitting at a table with $20 no problem (bankroll easily justifies it) but I find it hard to fire the likes of $1 or $2 in as feeler bets etc - it just feels like so much!

I have some psychological hurdles to get over clearly.

I think when I play SnGs I plop down $10 (sometimes $20) and then forget about the money and concentrate on the game - and do well. With ring games the money is in your face all the time and I KNOW for sure it's damaging my game.