Weekend Update

Since things were not going well with The Quest, I essentially took the last week off. The little bit I played was more of the goofing off variety, nothing serious.

In that vein, I've been playing a bit more PLO, and doing halfway decent at it. I still don't have a great deal of confidence, but I think I'm getting a better feel for it.

PokerStars is having a big "2X" promotion this month. The first week of July it was double VPPs. (Or is it FPPs? I've never been able to figure out their convoluted system.) Other than during the comparatively rare bonus chase at Stars, I've never put much emphasis on accumulating points. I do know it's virtually impossible to earn points in the shallow end of the NL pool.

So, with "2X" as an attractant, I decided I'd have a go this month at attaining one of the metal levels at Stars. Looking over the rules, it appears $1/$2 limit is the best compromise between points and minimum exposure to bankroll damage. I four-tabled $1/$2 limit for five or six hours over the long weekend. I'm happy to report that I need only 999,327 VPPs by the end of the year to reach Supernova Elite status. That's only 144 times the total number of points I've accumulated in the entirety of the four years I've been playing at Stars, but, hey, I still got a shot.

Actually, even hitting SilverStar level, the lowest level that requires something more than breathing to attain, may be in jeopardy if I don't play a whole lot more limit. Unfortunately, I've come to really hate limit. The inability to push somebody off a draw is such a handicap.

Plus, the limit tables at Stars have always been incredibly tight. When you see an entire table with a see-flop of 16%, you know you're in for a rough ride. On the plus side, play generally seems to go much faster. So you can get in lots of non-raked hands per hour.

I had a bit of trouble making the shift back to limit, but eventually started to feel comfortable, if not exactly happy. After a bit of up and down, I finished the weekend up $12. That's less than 1BB/hr. Not great, but not terrible considering how long it's been since I played much limit.

If I were to do this more, I would definitely be looking into doing a three or four screen arrangement and getting a dozen or more tables going all at once. While this may sound like I'm trying to become a MMIA, I'd at least be missing the I(nconsiderate) part because I'm sure I'd have little trouble keeping up with a dozen tables at once. With four tables going my attention was wandering well over half the time.

Last night I decided to rejoin The Quest. I got on one of those wild tables where players are making irrationally large raises for no apparent reason. One guy seemed to be a repeat lotto player. He wouldn't push on every hand, but any time he thought he might be in the lead, he'd push it all in. And then re-buy. And re-buy. And re-buy. I bided my time and when I was dealt KK, I bet in a manner I knew would induce at least one other player to push. Turned out I snared two. And my kings held. One hand, nice $8.50 profit, thank you very much. The table broke up just a few hands later so I called it a night. At least now I'm back over the 20 buy-in mark.