It was a lot of suffering as I watched my bankroll dwindled from an all-time high of 700+ to 344 at the beginning of last evening. My confidence was not there. I gave up pots when a bluff would probably work and bluffed into what looked like scare cards but actually cards that helped my opponents.

I decide to play less aggressively, contrary to what Phil Gordon preached in his little green book. I limped with more speculative hands in poor positions with the hope of hitting obscure draws and getting paid. Things did not go smoothly to begin with. I lost $20 when my set of 4s lost to a set of Js that rivered quads. My bankroll dropped to ~310 when I dealt who I initially regarded as a solid player a bad beat. Out of position I limp-called a PFR and a flop bet with 76 offsuit and pot-size-pushed a flimsy pair+GSFD...... on a board of 56T9, board had 3 hearts and I had the heart 7, against his QQ that also contained a heart. But I sucked out an 8 on the river to collect the $40+ pot. (http://www.pokerhand.org/?652538)It wasn't pretty but at this stage I'll take it any way I could.

From that on things turned brighter. I started to hit some flops. I won some medium-sized pots with TPGK and flushes, and I became more active in raise-stealing preflop as I stayed on the same tables for longer. I next flopped another set of 4s and this time some dude called my turn overbet all-in with QQ. (http://www.pokerhand.org/?652537) There was actually a King on the board. Did I look like I was bluffing? My final big pot of the day was when I raised with Q3s in late position and called a 4x to 13x reraise by a big-stack SB. SB curiously checked on a 237 flop (http://www.pokerhand.org/?652540). Did he have AK and miss? Anyways I took my free card and the turn was golden. It was a queen, which gave me 2 pairs. Unless he had the dreaded QQ I am definitely ahead. SB led out a smallish 8x, and I massively overbet all-in for more than a buy-in. He called. River was another Q. Great. I had 2nd nuts. He had AA. Pot was $70+. I also made some what I thought were good folds. Flopped nut straight with JT, turn paired board, A 3rd club appeared on river, someone pushed for $12+, fold. J9 in SB, board JT9, BB bet aggressively, I bet out , called minraise on flop and folded turn. BB had KQ. I did lost another 5+ when my KT lost to KQ on a board of KQJK9.

I ended up with >2 buy-ins at each of my 3 tables, thereby pushing my bankroll back up over $380. I won another $3 later in the evening. I hope I have made my way pass the bottom of my latest "Newbie circle of death". It seems that I can't totally avoid the cycle. Maybe it's a matter of controlling how low you get.