Murderously terrifying two days at the tables.

Murderously. Down about 80 dollars at 1/2 Limit.

And I'm largely playing well. Normally a dip of that magnitude - in my 400 dollar roll - is enough to send me screaming back to the books. I'l still hit the books, though the two large mistakes I made, I'm aware of - they both involved pocket pairs, QQ and KK - mine, against A anything or a lower pair - were relatively minor mistakes. Preflop raise (reraising and early preflop raiser in both cases), and agressive play after the flop. The mistake was, in both cases, maintaining the agression after the flop, onto the river.

Still, the yoyo effect of bouncing between terrorised fear and thunderous rage is considerably lessened these days. I'm more confident with betting into the table with Top pair Top kicker, even on the days when that seems to be a losing proposition. I'm also getting more aggressive pre and postflop again, with a greater tendency to either fold or raise/reraise. I've cut calling with connectors down to calling with suited connectors, and my preflop fold stats are in the 75 - 85 per cent range. The average for the tables I play hovers around 60-65.

So looking at the last few days play, what types of situations have cost me the most?

Betting a premium pocket pair, preraised, against callers who I read as loose/passive, or loose aggressive. In both cases, I bet too far into the board, and calling down, or even folding at the river or turn (against the passive player), would have been the smart play. One mistake was in no limit, and I put the guy on a bluff and reraised. He was worried I had trip aces against his A5 two pair. I though about an overcard - the Ace, but mistakenly didn't figure him for an A anything hand - qq or jj seemed much more likely. First mistake - when the hell does a passive player bluff? Second mistake, if he keeps raising, he's caught a hand that will beat overcards. Third mistake - his pause before betting was not because he was on a bluff. Its because he was passive, and didn't have the nuts.

Second hand was KK against a pair of twos, which cold called three bets preflop. Board came queen high, and as a loose agressive, he raised and reraised on the flop. My mistake was in capping on the turn, as he would have bet out almost anything on the flop, including a flopped low or mid pair, but would've just called with a paired q hand on the turn, and hoped to catch his kicker. (I called this guy down for a decent sized pot later with nothing more than an Ace High, because this time, I payed attention to what his bets were telling me - one raise and a call on the flop, and a call on the turn, and I could put him on nothing, with AK in my own hand.)

In both cases, my play until the flop was correct, including aggressive betting. I played out a bunch of other hands the same way, or, on unthreatening boards waited until the turn to put in my raise - something which, when the fear gripped me, I could never do with TPTK.

Overall my play was pretty good. I caught some nice reads on playing styles and betting patterns, meaning I could pick up some pots I would never have caught otherwise - the Ace high mentioned above is one, reraising with my pocket Jacks on a q high board was another. And I generally played with patience, collecting notes on the worst players, marking down who's willing to call preflop raises with what, and storing them away for another day when I can sit down and take my money back.

All in all, calling stations, and Limit LAGs picked off most of my profits and sucked me under. K9, J6, calling stations playing sets without a raise at any stage. Not even when one memorably caught a Full House on the river against my K high flush. Middle pairs with bad kickers pairing on the river.

Apologies for the self obsessed post this time around. Next time I'll obsess about something external.