RTFM

Ya know, all these blogs have some incredibly good advice in them (mine excluded... I say nothing of any real educational substance). One of the latest things going around is that the $25 No Limit games on Party are incredibly soft.

With this in mind, I plug into a nice juicy $25 NL game and get to work.

I walked away $10 lighter.

Really, it's my own damn fault. I did two things wrong. First, I hopped on a table 30 minutes before I had to leave for work, so I really didn't have the time to sit and play. Second, I couldn't get my mind out of Limit Poker mode, and called down some hands that, in NL, really should have been turbo-mucked.

Stupid hand of the day... I'm in middle position and get Ah8h. In typical Party NL fashion, just about everyone limps in for the BB of $.50, so I call. Flop comes A63 rainbow with one heart.

Crap.

Okay... checked around to me, so I bet out a buck (stupid stupid stupid). Of course, it gets called down 3 ways and we're 4 to the turn, which comes a 7d. Hmmmm... Checked around to me again. Now what? I've got the ace, but I have a questionable kicker, and no chance for the flush. Logic dictates that I check/fold this. Nope... Genious me, I bet out $4 in a bid to run people out.

I kick out two of them, but the third guy hangs tough. Ugh. River comes a Js. No flush. No paired board. The aces are likely good. Checked to me and I wise up and check. He turns over A9o to outkick me.

Grrrr.

Again, my own fault. I got in there and mixed it up when I didn't have the nuts, in direct violation of my own admonishment that I was going to muck this if the flush didn't develop. The flush didn't develop, that's for sure, but I just couldn't get away from the aces with the board that ratty and all the checking going on. A passable play in limit, but suicide in no limit.

I haven't quite decided on NL yet, actually. I've been doing pretty good in the limit games and I really want to get the bankroll to 200BB for the 1/2 game. Take a $25 bath in one hand would really not be a Good Thing(tm)... Of course, tripling up in one hand would be an outstandingly Good Thing! The question is, do I have the patience to wait for the stone cold nuts before trying anything.

One idea I had to break the monotony would be to play a NL table (sitting quietly until I had the nuts) and play a limit ring table... Trouble with that is, the playing styles of the two games would be so different, I'd fear mixing the two styles of play into each other's tables and end up losing on both. The other thing would be to play two NL tables, but I'm not sure I have the guts to sit on $50 at a time in no limit at this stage of my bankroll health. No Limit at Party might be easy money, but it's not without its pitfalls.

I've got a couple of days off coming up. Tomorrow will probably be a bust for poker. It's pretty much the only day my wife and I will be able to spend any sort of time together, so that leaves Wednesday as my poker extravaganzza day. I think I'll just grind until then and perhaps Wednesday night I'll hit up a $25 NL table and see if I can't strike gold.