Poker Journal, day 2: Not so great

I started the day early. By the end of the sit and go happy hour at Full Tilt Poker I had already played 6 SNGs and managed to get to the money once. The early morning happy our ends 2pm European time. I seem to be starting to get a habit of finishing third or busting out in the first 15 minutes. I need to correct this sooner rather than later, but I'm a bit stumped. I probably need to tighten up my game in the early goings a lot and hope to win a coin flip in the middle stages against a loose player instead of investing too much at the start. Another bad habit of mine has been trying to steal from the stealer. Two times in these five games I have raised with a smaller pair than the original raiser.. I know I'm probably behind the other guys hand yet I still find myself being aggressive.

I found myself double clicking the poker software again more closer to the night time in Europe and managed to finish the last tournament for the night in the money. I got very, very lucky multiple times in the tournament and still managed to only finish third. This was due mostly to my stupid and costly mistakes. I found myself pushing too far with little to nothing after gaining by far the largest stack. During the game I turned both QTs and T7o to full houses and even managed to outdraw a flush with the latter. It's not fun to only finish third when you know you got very lucky and still blew it in the end. I re-raised a bigger pair twice during one game, how can that happen? I should just learn not to assume everybody is bluffing all the time, it just isn't working. My final demise came with a rare case of poetic justice when I went all in with A6o against 63 and got outdrawn.

My profits were on the negative side as my total investments totaled up to 8,4$ while my winnings only covered 3,6$ for today. By counting in the rake back deal and the deposit bonus those numbers slightly move closer to each other, but I cannot escape the fact this was my first day on the negative.

I don't think things necessarily went this way because of bad luck, I fully accept there were major flaws in my game. I played too much, too quickly in the early afternoon. I hear the games turn softer towards the night, but even if they don't 7 games in an afternoon is too much. I think overplaying like that is a message from the evil tilt monster and I need to work on being able to stop playing for a while after losing a coin flip and a tournament especially early on.

I have heard from some people it could help to set up a schedule of play. Maybe a game or two during the SNG Happy Hour and a game or two in the night with the fish (I enjoy the company of my own)? I think I might try it starting from tomorrow.

Total investment: 7 x 1,2$ = 8,4$,
Total winnings: 2 x 1,8$ = 3,6$, + 0,38€ from rake back

Balance for today: -4,4$ :((