SwingSwingSwing's Heads Up Poker Journey

I'm not much of a goal-setter. Never have been, probably never will be. For my poker playing I have two targets; to get better and to be in profit. Both very woolly and in the case of the former, quite hard to measure. Occassionally I may set a more specific target and at the start of the year I set myself two. 

1. To get my Sharkscope graph back into positive territory.
2. Be profitable at all my regular limits in limit 5 Card Draw.

Target 2 was achieved last night. When I started playing 5 Card Draw on Poker Stars, the lowest limit available was 50c/$1 and as such that was where players new to the game would be. With so many bad players there, making money was easy. Easy, that is, when the games ran. 5 Card Draw isn't the most popular game around. My win rate at 50c/$1 is 3BB/hr (i.e. $3) single tabling.

For a bit of excitement, I would take shots at $1/$2. On the face of it, it didn't seem like a tougher game. There were more solid regulars than at 50c/$1 but still a fair amount of fish. But I was getting a hammering. Now I was only taking shots, so after losing I went back to my regular level to recoup losses.

For even more excitement, I would take the very occasional shot at $2/$4. $2/$4 is very different, far fewer fish and more aggressive regulars. When playing at $2/$4 I was there purely to hit and run. If things were going bad I'd leave pronto. If things were going well, I'd leave pronto too just to "lock in" the profit. 

So I was making money at 50c/$1 and $2/$4 but taking a beating at $1/$2. Then PokerStars introduced micro limit 5 Card Draw and all the entry level fish dropped down leaving 50c/$1 pretty barren. I didn't really want to go down with them so decided to concentrate on $1/$2.

 And last night, thanks to hitting trip Aces when drawing 4 to a solitary Ace in the Big Blind I managed to get back in profit at $1/$2. Woo Hoo! 

 So now it's time to focus on my Sharkscope stats.

 Apart from the playing 5 Card Draw, I haven't been playing much poker. I had a few days off work which meant that I missed the announcement and the start of the Full Tilt Bloggerment tournies. Oh well. I suppose it gives me a break for a bit!