Kick off the year

I managed to finish off 2008 in crushing style, just not being able to put a foot wrong in December and November. I still scared myself by playing a lot drunk, so right off the bat in 2009 I started my new years resolution... Friday night. Friday is generally a weekend night for me and weekends were all about relaxing at pubs/restaurants until kids came along. They slowed that right down and now it's about relaxing at home, but with drinks too usually. And poker quite often. The last couple of months it's mainly been grinding some rediculous game like NL5, doubling up and then doubling stakes to NL10 etc etc. I'd usually try to run $5-$15 into something rediculous. My best effort in November was $15 into $800+, and I was playing NL400!!! Drunk as, playing a 40/38 style the whole time, and catching cards when I needed to.

So Friday night I've always noticed to be a good night for poker, as in, more fish seem to be around, so my new game plan is to not drink Fridays, and instead grind like nobody's business for 4+ hours on that night. Sweet!!! I also have to knock off an Absolute bonus (about half way there) and two Pokerstars bonuses, one for $80 which is about 2 nights away, and one for $150 which may take a few weeks. I mention these two sites as they aren't sites I'm attracted to long term, and I am really just playing to clear the bonuses as well as check out the fields while I'm there.

First up on Friday I played Absolute. Two tables, couldn't get a good table position going (but there were fish), and couldn't get the cards to fall my way. I ended up down $20, but really was itching to check out Pokerstars. I'm torn between learning more tables and playing NL25 or keeping myself going at NL50, but since I was excited to play and have the bankroll for NL50 now, I thought I'd start there for a big grind. It started bad. I couldn't seem to get a great table there either, mainly battling one or two fish and 3 or 4 TAG's. But the table count is huge. There are tonnes of NL50 grinders, I even played a couple of supernova's playing NL50!!! The hands weren't that exciting, just had me the loser on every occasion. I should have folded KK overpair, which I hate doing, then I found out he raised with air, and hit a set on the turn, doh!!! Eventually I finally cooolered a fish for a 220BB pot, but it really amounted to damage control, as I was almost freefalling at that point, and if I'd lost that pot (I had flopped a set, he turned trips) to an unlikely better boat, I would have quit for the night. As it was I kept grinding, and finished the night coin flipping a $20 HU SNG, and fortunately won. This again was damage control and saw me only lose $55 or just over a BI. Not the most pleasant night, and I felt like I played pretty badly at points, mainly just not being patient enough or folding enough. I understand losing nights are part of the parcel, but can honestly say I don't like playing when I don't feel I have a huge edge, and I didn't feel like that.

Stuck to my word of not drinking and playing poker last night as I had a few beverages, so I'm really looking forward to having more balance in my life and enjoying things other than mucking around at a poker table. Here's to 2009!!!