Back in the Saddle Again

Well, I bit the bullet and made a modest deposit on Carbon Poker. I'm getting a 100% bonus on my deposit (that I have to clear, of course, by playing), plus 35% rakeback that is being paid every day into my account. That's the good news. The bad news is that, because of my microscopic bankroll, I'm relegated to playing at the 2/4-cent tables until I can build the 'roll a bit. Worse, I'm going a little stir crazy with how slow the games move; I have simply been ruined by Rush poker on 'Tilt, and now it's going to take some time to readjust to "real" online cash games again.

I started on Carbon by playing the 9-handed tables, but, again, because of the glacial pace, I've switched to 6-max. The good news is that I'm having decent success at the short-handed tables. The interesting thing is that most of my success is not due to any great play on my behalf, but rather it's due to the incredibly poor play of the villains. I am not kidding when I say that in the 1000 or so hands of 6max I've played over the last five days, I don't think I ever sat at a table with a players-per-flop stat lower than 30%. Very loose and mostly passive, although a fair number of players are aggro monkeys just dying to spew off chips with naked aggression and zero understanding of board texture. A typical 6max table has two 20/15 regulars, a couple of 50/10 calling stations, and an aggro maniac with a pfr near equal to his vpip, which in turn is well north of 60%. Just tonight I had an 85/65 player at one table and a 95/0 player at another. If you can't take advantage of those kinds of awful players, and walk away a with seriously fatter bankroll, you need to go back to school and study up on the art of poker jiu-jitsu. Against loose players, play tight. Against tight players, play loose. Against aggression, play passive. And against passivity, value bet 'til the cows come home.

In other news, I'm jetting off to Germany on an extended vacation/biz-trip for the next 12 days. I doubt if I'll play much, if any, poker, as my wife has about a dozen things planned for us to do every day that I'm not working. Hiking, biking, river touring, castle exploring..... it's going to be tiring.... with little to zero time even to log into a computer.... but this is a good thing. I think that even the forced two weeks off due to black Friday I underwent was ultimately good for my game... and my overall well being. This vacation should cause a similar result. Said another way, there's more to life than poker-- even for a diehard like myself. Auf wiedersehen...

All-in for now...
-Bug