A harsh introduction to cash - Continue or rethink my strategy?

[Paul176]

Alright so I finally built up a bankroll capable of playing 0.5c/0.10c cash if I bought in for half the max. by grinding out begginner SnGs. After my first day/session at it I've taken an absolute battering. I should probably have set myself a maximum loss but I'm now running at a $30.76 loss after 307 hands. I realise this could just be down to luck but at the same time I'd rather not blow any more cash without asking the question over whether I'm just not playing well enough/not good enough. I felt I played reasonably in the session and was grinding out a small profit generally but I had a number of crippling hands. Here is one of the last ones: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2009-04-10 20:20:15 Table 'Sulamani (max 6)' 6-max Seat #5 is the button Seat 1: Superflii ($8.95) Seat 2: mrsded ($11.44) Seat 3: NNR100 ($13.26) Seat 4: babuna ($35.67) Seat 5: Paul176 ($4.92) Seat 6: francis87 ($2.30) ------------------------------ NEW HAND francis87: posts the small blind $0.05 Superflii: posts the big blind $0.10 --- DEALING POCKETS Paul176 is dealt [Ks,Kh] mrsded: folds NNR100: raises $0.25 to $0.35 babuna: calls $0.35 Paul176: raises $0.50 to $0.85 francis87: folds Superflii: folds NNR100: folds babuna: calls $0.50 --- DEALING FLOP [Tc,8h,9s] babuna: checks Paul176: bets $1.50 babuna: calls $1.50 --- DEALING TURN [8s] babuna: checks Paul176: bets $2.50 babuna: calls $2.50 --- DEALING RIVER [5d] babuna: checks Paul176: goes all in $0.07 babuna: calls $0.07 babuna: shows [Jd 7s] Paul176: shows [Ks Kh] babuna: shows [Jd 7s] Paul176: shows [Ks Kh] Hand 1577102584: babuna: wins main pot($10.24) ------------------------------ I had a good few more hands such as that one. Just picked that one as I'm a bit concerned I overplayed my overpair. I then boughtback in and won a nice $3 pot. The next hand I picked up AK and a player I already had down as a bit of a nutjob raised reflop so I reraised him all in, got my call and he flips KJ. Next thing I know king and a jack hit and I'm down another $8. That that led me to buy in for $10 - which was more than I was supposed to :@. Soon after this happened. Bodog History for Hand #1577166936 Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2009-04-10 21:37:35 Table 'Swain (max 6)' 6-max Seat #4 is the button Seat 1: Aces__Joe ($12.43) Seat 2: bobbagadush ($6.49) Seat 3: wnk92892 ($7.38) Seat 4: babydaisy ($17.78) Seat 5: poke it ($9.78) Seat 6: Paul176 ($10.80) ------------------------------ NEW HAND poke it: posts the small blind $0.05 Paul176: posts the big blind $0.10 --- DEALING POCKETS Paul176 is dealt [Kc,Ks] Aces__Joe: folds bobbagadush: raises $0.25 to $0.35 wnk92892: calls $0.35 babydaisy: folds poke it: calls $0.30 Paul176: raises $0.40 to $0.75 bobbagadush: calls $0.40 wnk92892: calls $0.40 poke it: calls $0.40 --- DEALING FLOP [Ts,Tc,Qh] poke it: checks Paul176: bets $2.00 bobbagadush: folds wnk92892: folds poke it: raises $2.00 to $4.00 Paul176: calls $2.00 --- DEALING TURN [6d] poke it: checks Paul176: checks --- DEALING RIVER [2c] poke it: goes all in $5.03 Paul176: calls $5.03 poke it: shows [6h Th] Paul176: shows [Kc Ks] poke it: shows [6h Th] Paul176: shows [Kc Ks] Hand 1577166936: poke it: wins main pot($20.96) ------------------------------ The call on the end was probably a little bit fishy but I had decided that he was making a move in one last attempt to get me off the hand - well that or I just couldn't accept my kings were beat again. Analysis on the two hands would be great! I lost a fair amount more by running into straights, trips and two pairs with top pair. I don't really feel I played that badly but I'm also aware that I might just be fooling myself! While a very small sample (307 hands) here are some of the stats from the session: Vol. Put $ In Pot: 31.27% Vol. Put £ In From SB: 45.00% Won $ When Saw Flop: 38.89% Raised Pre-Flop: 17.59% First Action On Flop After Pre-Flop Raise: Raise: 2.86% Bet: 71.43% Call: 5.71% Check: 11.43% Check/Raise: 2.86% Fold: 5.71% No Flop/No Action: 35.19% Not sure how much use these stats are but thought I would throw them in there in case I was doing anything glaring wrong. Anyway my confidence has now understandably taken a little knock and I was hoping for advice on the best route forward. The way I see it these are my options: I could move my balance to a different site with lower limits and play 1c/2c or 2c/4c in order to boost my confidence (and hopefully bankroll) a little. This would also allow me to buy in for the max allowed at the table and stay within my bankroll. I could go back to tournies and attempt to regain what I have lost. I'm loathed to do this though as I find tournie play a little monotamous at times and this was the reason for my attempt to move to cash. Or I could put it down to a bad run and stick at 5c/10c buying in for $5 and hope things turn around. I realise I'm likely overreacting and with the size of the sample analysis is hard but any thoughts/advice would be wonderful! :)

[GaF]

Re: A harsh introduction to cash - Continue or rethink my strategy? I certainly havent cracked cash games yet - even at the microstackes - but I'll offer viewpoints anyway - I may or may not be right - but hopefully it will give you a few things to consider and think about. - First thing that jumps out - your reraises with KK are pretty small - Hand 1 I would be reraising to about $1.50 pre flop (you raised to $0.85). Hand 3 I would be raising to about $2 pre flop (more than Hand 1 because you're out of position and have an extra caller of the raise) - Hand 2 (AKvKJ) - you got it all in pre flop, when you had your opponent dominated - you have positive ev - you are happy. The result is unimportant. - 31% VPIP pre flop is way too high - 18% PFR is a long way short of your 31% VPIP - sounds too passive to me. Suggest you look over some of the stats from the benchmarking (though slightly different as it's 5 handed - so you should be playing tighter). For VPIP there was a clear line between the top players and the bottom players. All of the top players had VPIP of below 26%. All of the bottom players had VPIP above 26%. So 31% is huge! - Your post flop bet stat of 71% seems good to me :ok I think the thing to be aware of is that in cash games (compared to tourneys), implied odds are (usually) larger, as stacks are deeper. If you're playing for stacks in cash you will generally therefore need a stronger hand than if you're playing for stacks in a tournament - so an overpair to the board is far stronger in a tourney than it is in a cash game. There is a big difference in the way you should play the game as you play for different effective stack sizes - I'm not a fan therefore of buying in short (later when your game is steady, you may want to buy in short as a deliberate tactic, that's fine :ok) - it confuses your thought processes and learning/development - so in your shoes, I would rather buy in for a full stack at lower stakes than buy in for a partial stack at higher stakes. (again, as you move up the stakes, there's room for buying in short when taking a shot, but primarily I think you need to learn your game at the previous levels with a full stack first)