Cash Tables

Played the lowest level mtt's this week and lost a little, mixed in with these I also ventured onto the micro stakes cash tables, with some success at first.
Everytime I lost an mtt I played some cash and won back my stake and more, so I stayed in profit through till Friday.
Thats when It all went wrong, I lost my $25 buy in for the first time, reloaded for another $25 and lost that as well so the week ended with a small loss overall.
Its interesting to note that my longest cash sessions are all losing sessions. I dont know if this is because I am staying too long on 'bad' tables, chasing my losses, or if I am quitting to take a profit too quickly on 'good' tables.
I think its the latter, so next week I'll test my theory, fingers crossed.

Back to basics

I've been reading a lot of poker blogs this week and it is interesting to note that even the top, high stakes guys have the same problems as me.
Outdraws, inconsistency, alcohol, fish drawing out on you even when you take away their odds to do so. They aren't just limited to low stakes tournies.
Flush draws have killed me this week. Its so frustrating when you read your opponnent correctly for a flush draw, push all your chips in just to deny him the odds to call, only for him to call anyway, and then hit, to dump you out. I'm starting to lose count of how many time this has happened this weekend. Yesterday it was a call after the turn getting 6/4 for his flush draw v my two pair, the latest was all in pre-flop with Qd Qh v Ac7c v TsJc flop Qc5s3s turn and river both spades to give the numpty who called 2 all ins with TJo a flush and all my chips.
I even crashed out of the 'Challenge team Betfair tournie' when my A high straight v 2 pair made a full house on the river. This game can be cruel at times.
I've had to dip back into Sklanskys books this week to remind myself just to make the play with the best EV and not to dwell on past results, after all its the fish who draw to their flush getting 6/4 on the river that will pay you in the long term. It does seem that these kind of outdraws come in streaks, where good luck only seems to come in isolated instances. I guess its because if you play the odds and dont trust to luck as much, you dont get lucky so often.

Back to the lower levels

Well after a brief sojourn at the higher stakes and a couple of days off, I returned to the familiar £2 mtt on Betfair on Friday afternoon.........
.........and won first time
Think I'll stay at this level for a while, everybody tells me that the standard of play is similar up to about £50 level, but for some reason I have much more success at the lower levels.
Until I work out why, I think I'll just stick at what I know I can make pay. I guess it must be me playing differently at the higher level, maybe a bit tighter or something
Ended the week on a high in the Betfair £5000 Cryptic Christmas Cracker Freeroll, managing a final table place, at one stage I was even chip-leader on the final table, before going out in 7th out of a field of 1000 for a £150 prize.

All going pear shaped

After a bit of a disasterous week last week, its continuing this week, trying to stay at the higher level I played the £3 Gtd on Betfair Monday and Tuesday without making the first break.
My luck seems to have deserted me and even worse I've been playing badly.
I dont think I have any choice but to drop back down to the micro-stakes until I pull my game back together.
As long as I'm losing, my confidence is severly dented and I'm not even enjoying playing at the moment. At least at the lower levels it doesn't hurt financially and I can rebuild my confidence ready to step back up again.
I'll also play the sattelites for the £10k Gtd on Betfair, so I can maybe get a cheap entry into a higher stakes game.
Heres hoping my luck changes