First steps on Everest

(March 11, 2008)

On Monday I got started again. I installed Everest, made a deposit of $100 and I also downloaded Pokertracker 2 to try it out.

So far I'm not all that impressed with Everest: the microstakes tables always have waiting lists (sometimes up to 10 people) and the average number of hands per hour is about 35-40, which seems pretty low to me. On the other hand, I do like having a bit more time to make decisions.
Because I wanted to avoid getting bored, I started playing on 3 full ring 2NL tables. Even though I didn't play all that bad, I lost about $2 playing my first 166 hands. I'm guessing partly because I needed to get used to the new software and tables (which is quite different from PKR because other than the 'knock' for a check, there are no sounds for different moves like betting or all-in).

Yesterday evening things went a lot better: I played 211 hands and won $7.22. Just sticking to solid tight play with very few (semi-)bluffs and folding when I felt I was behind worked pretty well.
I made a big win on pocket deuces that hit full house, but other than that I'm kinda struggling playing pocket pairs. Right now, I'm folding bottom pairs that didn't hit the flop if there are overcards and that seems to work for me. Middle pairs and even top pairs are more difficult: I tend to raise too much with my top pairs, getting no action, and I play middle pairs too passively after the flop: checking or folding them and getting no pots. So, any tips on how to handle pocket pairs would be nice.

I read Everest only allows playing on the 2NL tables for the first 90 days after you initial deposit and since the next level is 10NL I do hope to build my bankroll fast enough to be ready for that. I'm not going to 10NL with $100 or even $150, so I might have to switch again if I don't hit $200 - $250 in 90 days (which doesn't sound very likely).

'till next time...