Gambool!

I did a little housekeeping on the online bankroll last night to consolidate some small amounts from various sites into my Neteller account.

On checking Party Poker, I discovered I had the grand total of $26 in my account, due primarily to them giving me a $20 freebie to tempt me back into playing on their site.

It hardly seemed worth withdrawing, and it crossed my mind to go to a $25 NLH table and lump it in each hand until I got a caller and lost it or made a few big gains.

That didn't seem fair on the other players, so I headed for the blackjack tables - minimum bet $1, maximum bet $200 - and stuck all $26 on the first hand. Which I won.

Then I stuck all $52 on hand two, and pushed. 20 v 20.

Hand three saw me stand on 12 to the dealers 6, and when they busted I now had $104.

I could have made one more bet before hitting the maximum bet limit, but $104 was just about right to cover my squandered buy-in to the Blonde Bash so I called it quits after three hands.

I wasn't sure I'd be allowed to withdraw the money. It seemed a bit too good to be true.

Yet the withdrawal request went through OK, and this morning the cash was safely with Neteller. Not a bad result.

Over the weekend I managed two sessions of Stud-8, which couldn't have been more diametrically opposed.

Friday night was 'can't win a hand night'.

At one point whilst playing 8 handed, I realised another player had scooped or split - but mostly scooped - 11 of the previous 15 hands with the simple tactic of calling every bet on every street no matter what his starting 3 cards were.

I was his victim on one occasion, when he rivered a gutshot straight to my set and I dropped out of another hand on 5th street when I saw him improving and my hand didn't. Which was how most of my hands were going.

Sunday night went just as I'd hope any Stud-8 session would go. Wait for good starting hands, bet them, improve, bet again, improve, bet, and keep getting called.

No fancy play, just good starting hand selection, and giving no free cards. I doubled my money without doing anything remotely clever.

I've moved up two levels since the start of the month, and I'll certainly give the next one a try next weekend when the games are busier. The only noticeable change is the proportion of players who will always see 5th street has dropped slightly, but it's still very loose.

We are still well short of serious money, but I certainly suspect I could hold my own at the next couple of levels.

Time will tell.