Day 5 (Sunday) completed, and I’m slightly ahead of schedule, having played over 3,000 hands. My initial rush has been tempered by a huge downswing. Fortunately, I won enough in the first 1,000 hands to keep me in positive territory, despite a -120BB downswing. I am now below my target earn rate <sigh> for the 3K hands since I’ve started.

One thing I’ve noticed is that when things are going bad, people keep taking shots at you. Of course this is true at full ring as well, but it is exaggerated in 6-max. I was happy to see my preflop raises getting cold called by crap hands, but lots of them managed to chase me down with only two or three outs. I also faced a lot of odd aggression, as if I had been raising with less than premium hands. Of course, this is the play I want to see, and these jokers pay you off in the end, but it does get frustrating at times.

One thing I’m working hard to avoid is Fancy Play Syndrome. Example: against a particularly tight and passive player, I called a preflop raise from the BB with Tc9c. The flop was ATx, two hearts. I think the flop action was bet, raise, call. The turn brings a third heart but doesn’t improve my hand (I’m left with only 5 outs if he has paired the ace). I check-raise, and he thinks for a while before calling. At this point, I figure he’s either got a big heart kicker or just decided to look me up, so I check the river when the fourth heart falls and he checks behind, winning with a pair of aces. He complimented me, “great raise,” to which I replied “thought you might lay it down,” thinking he was being sarcastic. He replied, “almost did.” I liked my play at the time, but I think I liked it just because it was tricky.

My wife and I looked at cars on Saturday. It’s amazing how much her attitude has changed now that I have announced formal plans to achieve a goal that will benefit her.