Showdown percentage

I am having an incredibly hard time at Celeb Poker. After many, many heads ups, I am still not making any headway and have in fact lost some money again. The good thing is that I just got a "please come back to us" bonus from Party, $25. It looks like I am not going to clear it in time, but hopefully I can make some money with it.

As of today I am paying special attention to the "showdown%", that is, what percentage of showdowns I won. I remembered that I read on Fuel's blog some time ago that this was a key number and that it should be high (no kidding). And I know that it is a leak in my game that I bet too much on won hands and make people fold, it has been a problem for me for a very long time. Anyway for me it was 57% after playing on Celeb for a couple of weeks. Today I reset the counter and managed to get it up to 65% now.

It is hard to keep checking because you are giving your opponents the possibility of outdrawing you, of course. And on dangerous boards I certainly bet out more. But I am putting an effort into letting my opponents bet for me, only raising (and then only a little bit!) on the river, if I can afford it. Also, if I am not sure I am winning, I just call at the end or even fold.

Heads up games really make it clear how each chip that you lose or that you throw away with a bad call ends up in your opponents' hands. This was always the case of course, but if there are just two of you, this really jumps out at you. So as Fuel said: fold losers, show down winners.

Another thing that I wanted to mention is: how did I ever manage to not cash in a Party SNG :-) OK, I just played one tonight, but it was SO easy. Of course it was nice to get AA twice early on, but I did not make that much money off of those cards. I made a lot more when I flopped two pair with 54s :-) and my opponent could not fold top pair medium kicker: he actually went all-in on it when I wouldn't go away.

I didn't manage to win the game though, in the heads up phase at the end (which should be my strength now perhaps!) I ran QJ into KK. What can you do.

My bankroll at Party is now $30, meaning that I have "freed" $5. My goal is to at least double my bankroll in the next two weeks, before the bonus runs out and I most likely have to return the $25.

Good luck at the tables