An hour and a bit of constant small ball. I'm learning better how to play these small pots, and making money from them, but it sure isn't exciting.

Books: finished Fran Wilde's Horizon, the third and last in this series of people who build cities from the backs of giant alien turtles. Ended up pretty anticlimactic, not really fulfilling the promise of the Updraft and Cloudbound which were pretty good. SF/F writers really like to do this thing where they increase the geographic scope of the story with each book, and it really didn't work very well for me here. Plus the pacing dragged in the middle.

Thinking I'm going to start a reread of the original Oz books next, and do an Oz theme for Inktober. I'm taking a character design class and reimagining all those familiar characters should be both fun and good practice. #Oztober.

Challenge Bankroll: $678.80

Oh, so this is why it's fun:

Full ring table, I 3x open 88 UTG, get five calls. Flop Q84tt, checked to me, I bet $12 into $18, two players behind me call. Turn 5, I bet $40 into $54, MP calls, Button jams for $34.74 more, we both call. River flushing 5, I bet the last $11.87 and MP calls. Button has KQ, MP doesn't show.

This got my heart rate up somehow. I was playing 8/16 triple draw at the same time and had to take a break lol. I probably shouldn't try to play HU TD and NL at the same time just yet; it takes way more clicking than Pineapple.

Challenge Bankroll: $872.28. I'm starting to count the amoe money with today's as well; I've cashed out my original deposit from the weekly $6 so it might as well go here, and it's easier now to just have my Global balance be the challenge bankroll.

Second session was no fun at all. Stacked twice by the same player with AA vs Kx, then by a short stack with a set against my top pair, and all my cbets got played back at. Oh well. Still ahead of where I started the day.

Challenge Bankroll: $718.28

Well, the last session of September went badly. Just getting stacked left and exploited right today. I've been feeling like I'm a marginal winner at best in this game and today certainly provided evidence in that direction. Bleh.

Challenge Bankroll: $354.76. Back to 50nl tomorrow.

Oh god 50nl is so amazingly easy after two weeks fighting 100. Just a session of people handing me their money. This makes me feel much better.

Most obvious and terribly-played AA award goes to: I 3x open button, SB clicks back and I lolcall. Flop Q53, he checks, I bet $5.5, he calls. Turn 4, he checks, I bet $13.5 and he calls. River 6, he jams for $32 and I snap him with my QQ.

Challenge Bankroll: $490.48

Played a couple of not-very eventful hours. Now that I'm back at 50nl I'm working on adding tables. Four-tabled mostly, including a little while where I was doing that and playing $1 Pineapple. Worked OK. Gaining experience!

Challenge Bankroll: $513.51 Going to be figuring out how to balance playing time with Inktober time.

Played a little more, lost back what I made earlier. Eh.

Challenge Bankroll: $485.01

Short very mildly winning session, hardly did anything postflop. Mostly had two and sometimes three pineapple tables going today, which is a lot. Also won $9 in the freeroll yesterday.

Challenge Bankroll: $496.42

Minimal Pineapple action for the first time in a long time, so played 400 flops of 50nl two- and three-tabling. Up and down but eventually up a bit. Ran into a guy who liked to call a lot and happened to have the tops of his range, or it could have been much better.

Not really sure how much I'm getting out of this at this point. Thinking about what the next step is, if just continuing to play is a good plan, or whether I should sign up for RIO, or move to a site where I can look at my stats and analyze how I'm doing.

Challenge Bankroll: $507.57

Long and swingy midday session. Ended up down half a buyin. Lots of good spots for thinking though, so at least there's that. Those had been lacking lately.

Challenge Bankroll: $483.95

Played some. Ev came out ok, results down a little. Still really feeling like I'm building a habit of playing but not necessarily getting anywhere. Ran like ass in Pineapple the last couple days too. Just pushing through right now. I have the house to myself for the rest of the week, not sure what I will do with that, but should come up with some project. Whether that's poker or not I don't know.

Challenge Bankroll: $461.28

Played a shortish session on Thursday, came out ahead a bit, forgot to record it here and wanted to do that before I started playing again today, since this thread is doubling as my session records.

Challenge Bankroll: $527.03. I think the extra days off are doing me a little bit of good. Going to try to get back into a playing habit this week, though.

Ended up playing a very short session at the beginning for the weekly freeroll before getting a 2-7 game. Made a little, thinking I might or might not come back tonight. A few chores left to do before my family gets home, maybe we'll see after that.

Challenge Bankroll: $541.49

Back after two weeks of getting as much action as I can handle at SwC, and finishing my third book. Played a few hundred hands tonight, lost a buyin. Called a couple of rivers I really shouldn't have, and had terrible luck with anyone else flopping anything. Bet some flops I probably could have slowplayed, but have no idea how everyone folded on them.

Challenge Bankroll: $506.23

Played a couple hundred hands, won back most of what I lost yesterday. A couple of actually interesting hands tonight:

UTG 34bb stack limps, MP 7bb stack limps, megafish in CO with 190bb, likes to stab buttons in multiway pots, limps, SB with 128bb completes, Hero with 116bb checks K3o. Flop a gorgeous KK3tt. All check. Turn 2, SB checks, I check, UTG minbets, short stack folds, fish calls, SB calls, I raise to $2.5, UTG calls, fish calls, SB clicks back to $4.5, I think a little bit and call, the other two call behind me. River T, SB bets $20.5 and I jam.

Megafish with 53bb limps CO, I complete SB with 65s, unknown BB raises to $2 and we both call. Flop 653r, all check. Turn Q, I bet $3, both call. River A, I check, BB bets $7.5, fish folds, I call.

Challenge Bankroll: $547.88

Played a session. Lost a bunch. Lost a big aipf with QQ vs AQs for most of it, but also did some big bluffing into players I obviously shouldn't have, since they called very light, and a couple of river calls I ought to have let go. Also not flopping very well lately, which doesn't help.

I'm feeling like I'm not getting a lot going here, either in terms of play or in terms of learning. I'm not going to do anything about it right now, because I'm leaving for two and a half weeks next weekend. But I'm going to use some of that time to think about how to proceed, and add more structure to the learning part of the challenge. May or may not play a lot between now and then.

Challenge Bankroll: $399.62

Well, all those hands may or may not have gotten me anywhere in NL cash, but they ended up being worth it. They qualified me for the $10k Eagle Cup freeroll, which I won for $1870. I don't think that will go in the challenge bankroll if I restart this after my trip though.

I did win $3.12 in yesterday's daily, so the challenge bankroll is now $402.74. Withdrawing now though, so we'll see if this continues in late November.