..That fought with us upon Saint Patrick's day.

Disaster yesterday - started with $61 - don't ask - after an hour I had $81, after two hours I had $0. Ho humm. Sulked last night and 'Amazoned' Small Stakes Hold'em, Winning Big With Expert Play , The Definitive Guide to Crushing Loose Games and Amateur Opponents - by Miller, Sklansky and Malmuth. It has good revues so we shall see.
After blaming my starting hands, the way the enemy was playing - raising with 56s etc, the Radio and my dog I eventually narrowed my problem down to two areas. Bad luck and me. Ten percent bad luck and ninety percent my own bad play.
This is where I went wrong - on umpteen occasions I reckon:

• broke the starting hand and position rule,
• paid to see the river card when I knew I was beat, I actually knew the enemy had made the flush draw from the way they were betting - even said so out loud - but still I kept putting cash into the pot, duh!
• I got over excited and bet really fast on pocket hands that got thrashed when the overcards were screaming 'Slow Down You Muppet!',
• I tried to bully the enemy off the pot way too many times,
• bluffed and failed way too many times,
• ignored those pairs which whispered 'the enemy has trips or even a full house bozo',
• over-defended my blinds,

.. there must be more but it saddens me to think back on how completely stupid I was / am.

Anyway, today is another day: moving right along ... (Oh, before I forget, why am I writing this blogg? I think that telling someone about something helps you to learn and understand a subject more thoughtfully.)

Overcards:
An overcard is a card on the board - flop, turn and river - which is higher than the cards in your pocket. (Do I need a glossary?)
The appearance of an overcard should shout 'Slow Down! Danger Ahead!' to you. There's more chance someone has beat your pair, out-flushed or out-straight you. When they appear: stop, look, THINK.

The board pairs:
Awoogah! Awoogah! Has someone made trips? A full house? (Swallows) four of a kind?
Ken's rule of thumb is: if the board pairs only continue if you have one of the pair or an overpair.
Thought: every once in a while, when the time is right, bet hard and fast into it to represent the trips and you may pick up the pot right there.
But generally playing a drawing hand - looking for a flush or straight - isn't a good idea unless the pot odds are very favourable.

Overcoming the boredom factor:
This is so hard for me. If I took my own advice (on a ten handed table) about starting hands and position and thought of the blinds as strictly early position I'd be playing only 12.15% of the hands dealt to me. This means that after what seems hours of sitting waiting for a hand to find yourself Under The Gun (one left of the Big Blind) with 77 ... gnnnnn! ALL the advice says muck 'em. But for one teenie tiny dollar .. So you bet. And the worst possible things happens: you win. Because then you do it again: and lose, and lose and lose and win and lose and lose and lose and ...
Or: you get a playable hand at last and you're actually in the game! Yay! Betting on the flop and turn and river and isn't this exciting and .. damn .. the flush / straight / trips sneaked past you when you were having fun and now you're down 5, 6, 7, 10 bets.
In summary: boredom makes me play poor hands out of position, hang onto hands when they're beat, stops me THINKING about the way the enemy is betting vs what's on the board.
Some suggestions:

• Try playing two micro-limit tables simultaneously for an hour or two. This helped me because I had to think quickly and it was so much easier to fold a bad hand and move on. It showed me what it felt like NOT to be married to a hand, to concentrate fully on only premium hands. Hands became very disposable with only the best in the right position getting the attention they deserved. Only the best flops and turns and favourable pot odds were considered. I didn't have time to mess about with under-dog hands .. the next hand would be along any second now. I didn't make any money but I now know what it feels like to be in that state of mind where only the 'right' hands are to be played all the way to the river. Also: players who you know are playing multiple tables seem to play a little tighter. I could be wrong.
  
• Watch the hands you're not playing and make notes. Study the enemy. If you get to see their cards make a note of how they play them. Use the hand history button to have a look. The more you know about the enemy the better. Are they tight, loose, maniacs call stations, blind stealers, blind defenders, blind losers. Know your enemy!
  
• Try guessing the enemy's hands when you're not playing too. A pre-flop raise? Hmmm .. let's put him on AK. He didn't bet the flop - ha! Missed his AK draw. Or .. did he have KK and he's disguising his hand? Woa - you find he had 67s. He was on the button! Of course - he had a chance so thought let's take a pop at stealing the blinds maybe? Look, take notes, THINK.
• Look at your blind play very carefully. I still haven't got this right but it's an opportunity to try playing a loose selection of hands and see if you can defend against blind stealers without going too mad. One loose player on the button raises, the SB folds .. are you simply playing random hand vs random hand? If so, is your hand in the top 50%? THINK about it. Don't just fold.
• How about a pre-flop raise with a half decent hand in a late position being the first to bet in an attempt to steal the blinds? THINK about that too. What's the table playing like? Tight? Will the enemy on the blinds fight back? If they do re-raise you is it just to scare you off?
  
• Music, TV, Radio? I've found they STOP me THINKING about the game and the players and although the distraction helps with my hand selection the THINKING enemy is getting to know me while I ignore clues to their strategies.

More later - I need coffee and have to review my strategy to see if I can win back my $61 this arvy.