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You will never go to heaven in a baked bean tin, ('cause a baked bean tin, got baked beans in!)

Last night I learnt a big lesson. Sorry, lets re-phrase that........last night i learnt a BIG, GIGANTIC lesson. In reality, I'm never gonna go to heaven in a baked bean tin, that is true, nor am I ever going to progress at poker playing the way I am. That.....is even more true.

It hit me like a bolt of lightening about 11pm last night. To understand my lesson, you need to understand the way I play. I always play NL Hold'em, 99% of the time cash games. However, sometimes it's 10 seater's sometimes heads up. If i play heads-up, it's usually on a six-seater table against one player. I can usually play around 10 minutes before another player joins, then i tend to get up and go elsewhere. Obviously, the 10 seater action is slower than heads-up as the value of your pocket cards decreases with more players.

I can usually hold my own on the 10 seaters. On the other hand, the fluctuations playing heads-up can be very extream. One minute, you've doubled your stack, the next it's all gone.

So last night i spent an hour on the $0.10-$0.20 tables and came away $2 down. I then went onto a 6 seater table, which only had one other player waiting. Within a few hands, i realised his tatic was simple. He won his pots by raising big. By "big", i'll demonstrate with an example. There is $0.40 in the pot on the flop. I have nothing and bet $0.40, he calls. We both check the turn and he then bets $24 on the river. I fold, he shows King high, or something simular.

This goes on hand-after-hand. i know i have to wait for a big hand and call. Then i get dealt pocket J's. I call, the flop comes 24T, I bet $0.40, he calls. The turn is 8, I bet $3, he calls, the river is 2, I check (knowing he's going to bet big), he puts me all-in, I call. He shows K2 and wins with trips. I lose $20. He leaves the table.

I then join another table and up playing two players. I get dealt pocket 77's. I raise preflop and get one caller. The flop is 568 rainbow, I bet the pot, he raises, i re-raise all-in, he calls. The turn is an 8 and the river a K. He shows A6, I win $31 with two-pair.

The action is a lot more fast and therefore my bankroll changes quickly. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

Anyway, by playing anything but 10 seaters, my bankroll is at risk. Yes, I can make some money, but I could also loose it all. That, however, is not the lesson I learnt. Oh, no.

See the lesson i learnt was simpler than that. So simple in fact, that I'm upset i didn't notice it earlier. The fact is I keep changing the games I play. Because of this, I'm not learning from my mistakes. Calling a raise pre-flop heads-up with pocket 77's is probably the correct call (maybe even a re-raise). Calling a raise in early position on a 10 seater table is poor and probably wrong.

Therefore the game of my choice is 10 seater NL hold'em. I'm gonna stick to that and that ONLY.
from this I'll hopefully be able to pin-point my mistakes and become a better player.

My current bankroll is $469. Here goes.......