running in place

Played for a few hours today, and my persistence was rewarded with a final take of... $0.10. Which is better than a loss I guess, but not particularly inspiring. As for my play, most of it was just a slow bleed, exacerbated by the table being often quite quiet (occasionally dropping down to just 5-6 out of 10 players).
I'm getting better at staying in hands when I've got a good hand, in the face of some strong betting (see below). Still need work on getting out of hands when it's likely that I'm going to lose, though. And still not confident when it comes to extracting chips from players when they're trying to see the river. I tend to want to not overbet because I figure if they don't call then I don't make any extra, but still underestimating what people will be prepared to pay.

I need to put some more time in on the more calculating aspects, judging pot odds and outs etc. Practise is fine but I think I'd learn faster with some more theory under my belt. So, going to read some sites and maybe pick up a poker magazine. It's very much a 'curl up on the sofa and read something' day today.


Anyway, I'll leave with one of the hands I quite liked today.

#Game No : 6108612974
***** Hand History for Game 6108612974 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, June 30, 07:15:40 ET 2007
Table Table 125806 (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: iceman_nz ( $3.80 USD )
Seat 3: SoExclusive ( $7.91 USD )
Seat 5: trevorcm ( $18.50 USD )
Seat 10: Flop_Barreir ( $6.83 USD )
Seat 8: e_r_c ( $3.18 USD )
Seat 6: Dkotor ( $3.04 USD )
SoExclusive posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
trevorcm posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to e_r_c [ Qc Qh ]
Dkotor folds
e_r_c calls [$0.04 USD]
Flop_Barreir raises [$0.12 USD]
iceman_nz folds
SoExclusive calls [$0.10 USD]
trevorcm folds
e_r_c calls [$0.08 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Th, 6c, 5s ]
Flop_Barreir: i reraise the dealer
SoExclusive checks
e_r_c bets [$0.20 USD]
Flop_Barreir calls [$0.20 USD]
SoExclusive calls [$0.20 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qs ]
SoExclusive checks
francois889 has joined the table.
e_r_c bets [$0.32 USD]
Flop_Barreir raises [$0.82 USD]
SoExclusive calls [$0.82 USD]
e_r_c raises [$1.68 USD]
Flop_Barreir: trips 10?
Flop_Barreir folds
SoExclusive calls [$1.18 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Ks ]
SoExclusive checks
e_r_c is all-In [$0.86 USD]
SoExclusive calls [$0.86 USD]
SoExclusive shows [ 7c, 8h ]high card King.
e_r_c shows [ Qc, Qh ]three of a kind, Queens.
e_r_c wins $7.17 USD from the main pot with three of a kind, Queens.

I think this hand was my biggest single win so far. I liked my betting in this one, though it wouldn't have been quite such a big win if SoExclusive wasn't so willing to pay big to chase a straight (and then to call with nothing just out of curiousity!)

This month's profits: $3.85