Running Good
I've developed something of a weekly poker schedule. At least for weekdays. I don't play Mondays because 1) I figure it's the least likely night that your average Joe Fish is gonna play and 2) this way I have at least one night of the week away from poker.

I also usually don't play Tuesdays, because that's the night my weekly boardgame group meets. Sounds dorky, but they are a very fun bunch. However, last night I skipped boardgaming because yesterday afternoon I worked out for the first time in far too long, and was left feeling tired and sore.

That didn't stop me from having a very good night of poker.

At the Absolute $2/$4 tables:

4:50pm, 10 mins, up $6.50 before table broke up.
5:11pm, 20 mins, down $29
7:30pm, 40 mins, up $93.50 -- one maniac was betting, and raising and reraising if possible, every hand and every street. I was seated on his right and was able to use the Mike Caro/Gary Carson school of dealing with a maniac (like letting him help me cap it when I had QQ and flopped a boat).

Then I watched the ESPN coverage of the WSOP. Joe Awada may be the new Nicest Guy in Poker. That inspired me to play some $1/$2 7-Stud at Paradise.

9:30pm, 30 mins, up $27.50. I've made $274 at Paradise 7-Stud since reading Ashley Adams's Winning 7-Card Stud, pretty much just following the basic strategy he describes. This book stands out as gaving the biggest direct return on investment of any book in my poker library.

Headed back over to Absolute $2/$4 Hold'Em.

10:30pm, 15 mins, up $57. I got a couple lucky hands and then the table broke up.
11:48pm, 47 mins, down $25. I ran into Sloejack, instantly recognizable with his Grim Reaper image. (Which reminds me, I should put something on the right panel of this page to remind everyone that I play as "LanceyH" on most sites. I think Sloejack knew, but I identified myself as Cheap Thrills JD to be sure, and saying "I'm Cheap Thrills JD" looks pretty weird in the chatbox.)

The maniac that I won money from earlier in the day sat down with us. Turns out he had put some bad beats on Sloejack earlier in the day. He (the maniac) wasn't quite so crazy at this later table.

Both Sloejack and I had cold cards for a while, until I got the Ace of clubs in the BB and flopped a 4-flush. That turned into a straight flush on the river, but as Ciaffone notes in Middle Limt Holdem (I just looked for the quote but can't find it) straight flushes aren't usually much more profitable than flushes in Hold'em, and I actually had the ignorant end of this one, which could've been a disaster but wasn't (profit of $18.50). As Sloejack has already described, he made quad Aces a few hands later, and got a bit more action with them (profit of $25). Sloejack left up for that session; I was also up when he left, but played for another half hour or so after him and finished down. There's a lesson there.

Total profit for me on the night: $130.50. Well, actually I also played in 2 $10+1 sngs on Absolute and finished 5th both times, so my total is only $108.50. Have I mentioned that tourneys are not my thing?

One more thing about running into a fellow poker blogger: Doesn't happen to me often, largely because I don't play on Party Poker. I plan to remedy this soon, after I finish clearing my current bonus at Absolute, and give $2/$4 a try.
posted by James at 1:58 PM