Swing Low, Sweet Variance...

What is up with the waiting lists for the $1/$2 full ring games at Party?  I mean, seriously.  It's not like there's no demand for the game, as there is always a waiting list to sit down.  Albeit a short one at 11:00 am CDT on a Monday, but there was one none-the-less.  In primetime, I imagine the list gets pretty insane.  Anyway, I did manage to sit down at 2 full ring tables and collected absolute crap for cards for the next half hour, getting whittled down about 10BB.  Previous to this I was at a shorthanded table and saw a dry run cost me another 6BB or so.  The full ring games were just sucking my will to live, so I went back to the shorthanded game and bought in for less then the amount I took off one of the full rings; about $39.

I immediately went up to about $50 and then wallowed around there for a while.. Up $5, down $5... Really making no progress (but not losing!).  Then a couple of playable hands turned up for me.  Missed the first two or so, but then I caught with a couple for some mas healthy pots and I found myself doubling my buyin again.   Ended the day up $10 and change after initially being down a fair bit.

I am thinking that there is absolutely no reason at this point for me to go to the full ring game at this level.  It is truly astonishing what I see on these short handed tables!  Three bets on the river on total bluffs.  Raising with 3 gap unsuited middle connectors.  Any two s000ted is definitely a raise/re-raise hand.  Any ace.  Any King.  In many cases any Queen!  As I said in my previous post, it is not uncommon to see someone at the table who voluntarily puts money in the pot over 60% of the time.  It's nuts.

For now I'm going to stick to playing one table of shorthanded.  I was tossing around the idea of opening up a second table, but when I play short handed I have to pay much more attention to the other players so I can get a read on them.  It's remarkably easier for me to follow and learn the trends of 5 other people then 9 other people.  The Gametime window from PokerTracker is also an invaluable tool in helping to identify ultra-loose players.

I'm still in a bit of shock from my good fortune yesterday.  To follow it up with a hard fought win helps to bolster my confidence that yesterday wasn't a fluke.  I'm feeling pretty good about my game, but I'm a little concerned about AKo.  It has been a very sub-par hand for me and I've gotten it many times, so I need to find out if I'm mis-playing it or letting it go too early.

I hope that playing these short handed games doesn't diminish my full ring game skills.  I can be quite a bit looser on the shorthanded games, but I have to be careful not to let that seep into the full ring games.  On the other hand, I don't want to get TOO tight on the full ring games either.

Okay, enough incoherent rambling.  More tomorrow!