The return of the cash game

I have always wanted to play cash games for a living. There's just one problem, I suck. I don't know why I haven't been able to turn around my game. In the weeks leading up to my "going pro" I was playing 25NL everyday and getting owned just about as bad as you could. I just couldn't figure it out. I compared my stats to those of a real pro and the seemed almost identical. I left my cash game in the trash and began playing my sngs again. Recently though I have taken a few hours here and there to have a little fun and resurrect my game from the ashes. In true fish style I decided to move up in stakes. Here are the results so far.

In a word. "Crushing" Now I know my sample is very small and that I am running way above any kind of sustainable win rate but I'm happy non the less.

As for playing sngs? I'll get right on that.

Its my nature to be lazy.

So far this month I have been just about as worthless as I can imagine. Although I have made some reasonable money I am fast becoming an official slacker. I need to start a routine or begin myself on a set schedule to overcome my faults. To ween myself off of my favorite sin, I will begin to play short sets of 40 super turbos. Amounting to about an hour each while I 12 table, this shouldn't be hard to do. For heavens sake its only 4 hours a day to get 4k games in per month. After a successful month I will bump it up to 5 sets a day to make the jump to 5k games, and then again to 6k. One month down the road I might even put forth enough effort to hit 10k games in a month.

For now I will leave you with my graph for the first week of November.

October's over. Prop bet time?

I gave in to the feeling of running bad half way through the month. In turn I pretty much stopped playing poker. I barely played half the games I meant to.




As you can see, I didn't run very well. I have to stop myself from worrying about how I am running. Its completely detrimental to my attitude. I should be able to ignore it. If I look at my graph as a whole, I have undeniable proof that if I keep playing I will make money. I'll keep working at it I guess.

November is in full swing but I am not. Time to get back into the swing of things. A new prop bet has begun. Another 500 sng run good propament. This one has a new twist. Any buy in level is allowed. I chose to play the $24 turbos on Full Tilt so that I can maintain a good hourly yet have a shot to win some prizes. So far I am running at 31% ROI. Not many games though so no reason to get excited yet. It's always nice to get a running start.

Push for the end

My 1,000 games didn't go as planned. By 9am I had 300 games but had something come up that took me from the tables. Maybe I will try this again another time. The experience did help me realize that it will be a bit harder than I initially thought.

Week 3 is over and I have to say that my volume was crap. 700 games in total really sucks for a week. I threw myself off of my normal schedule to do the 1,000 game day. With that failing, I am left with very little to show for myself. Here is week 3.



I need to make some serious attempts at big volume days if I am to hit 6k games this month. I know I can do it if I really try. That just isn't my style though. LOL. I would need 333 games a day to get there.
Lets see if I have it in me.

1,000 games in a day

I'm gonna make a run at the obviously crazy 1,000 games in a day. I will begin here shortly. I have a strong feeling that I may fall short but I will have some fun trying. Lets hope I can make some money while I am at it. maybe I can take a chunk out of the 10k challenge today. I will post the outcome in about 24hrs.

The 10 k challenge

A poker buddy of mine (Really_broke) and I have decided to run a small prop bet between the two of us. As of October 15th 2010, we are racing to make $10k first. It will be decided including rakeback. It's a bit of a crap shoot as to who will win. He plays higher stakes than I normally do, but I have more opportunity for volume. As always though, I think the deciding factor will be who puts in the most effort.

I have played on Full Tilt for a year now. While looking through my cashier I discovered that I was still allowed to do the "First deposit bonus." That's right, I have never actually deposited money on the site. Well, I tried to make my first deposit and was informed that they think I am under 18. I have to show proof of residency and my DL to be allowed to deposit now. Wtf Full Tilt? You allow me to play for a year... make several withdraws... but you think I am underage? LOL, whatever. I shipped them my info today. Lets hope its all sorted out soon.

I have been trying to figure out what my rakeback percentage is including all of the fun bonus offers at Full Tilt. Everyone starts with 27%. With the addition of the Iron Man bonus and now the Blackcard promotion I am finding it hard to figure out for sure. As far as my friend and I can tell, it could be close to 40%. A little less than that currently but with more time spent in the Iron Man system I think that's about the max. Its a comparable amount to the Pokerstars system as long as you aren't going farther than supernova. Honestly, I am not sure that I ever would anyway.

No downswing lasts forever

Totaling 120 buy ins in all, it took nearly a week to overcome my last downswing. It was the worst one I have been through to date. I am glad to finally be free of it. I took the time to sharkscope some fellow regulars last night to see if they have ever run into this kind of variance. It turned out that almost anyone who has been around for a decent sample size has had the pleasure of a 100 buy in hit at these games. Its a bit comforting to know that I am not alone. I also see why a select few people have a high ROI over a 20k game sample. They haven't had one yet.

Graph time. This week looks supper good, and it was. Just remember that it follows the previous week.

Doomswitched Myself

I completed last month working my way up to $1,900. Not too shabby for two weeks.I knew though as soon as I typed the words "sunshine and rainbows" in my last blog entry I was in for kick in the nuts. I just didn't expect it to be this ugly.

Last month at completion.



Welcome to October.


I set out to play 6k games this month and I intend on getting there. I have fallen 400 games behind pace already due to a day that I took off. As you can see, I needed one. I keep stepping up to the plate everyday and expecting to begin crushing again. One of these days its going to happen. Hopefully soon.

First full week

My first full week playing poker for a living has been fun. I no longer wake up early. I don't have anymore boring meetings that I don't want to go to. Its been sunshine and rainbows all around. My volume has always been my downfall. Its a self motivation that I don't seem to posses. Maybe I will grow into playing as many games as I had hoped. I really want to be at 250 games per day, 5k per month. So far I have fallen well behind pace. I think the coming of the next month will give me a new start and another chance to overcome my faults. For now though, I will leave you with this weeks graph.




The ugly dip in profits and EV is courtesy of my small sample of $20 games. I have run as bad in those as I have ever run. On the flip side I'm doing just fine at my $35s and $50s.

Going Pro

As of Sept 14th I have made the jump to play poker for a living. I will be playing Super turbos almost exclusively. I am currently 12 tabling the $10s but may be looking to move up to the $21s soon. I think I will continue to play the $10s until I stretch back into playing 16 tables at a time. I had a bad first day running about $250 under EV but have since taken off well. I will try to update weekly so that everyone watching can get a little experience for what it is like to rely on poker as your sole income.

Here was my first few days. I'll take it weekly from here on out.

August already?

Its halfway through August and I haven't played much at all. I have been busy at work, but in truth, if I wanted to I could have put in some games.

I finally played a MTT that one of my poker friends has been goading me to play for a couple weeks. The $22 super stack 6 max slow as hell tourney that runs everyday. You start with 5k chips and the blinds are 30 minutes! You get a lot of play in this one. That's exactly why my friend wanted me to play it. He has seen me do some "interesting" things postflop in some 180 man reviews and thought it would be funny to see me donk around in this tournament. I actually played really well. I one tabled the entire game to make sure I did. Seven hours later I managed to bust out in 8th place for about $120. It really sucks to get that close in a MTT and not get into the top 3 for the real money. I think that's why I don't really play them that often.

I really need to get in some volume. Maybe I will play some super turbos on FT. I could put in 750 or so pretty quickly and act like I tried this month.

Epic Fail

So the prop bet last month to play more 180 mans was a fail. He held onto his lead till the last day and though I could have played my butt off that day and caught him I let it go and decided to take a night off. Congrats Goathair for the win.

In the process of playing the 180 mans I found that I could make the switch rather effortlessly. I also ran pretty well I guess. Somewhere around 70% ROI. Maybe that's why I gave into my urges to quit the bet. I was up about $750 and the bet was only $20.
Goathair is just grasping the finer points of the game and was 4-6 tabling 8+ hours a day. I was 16-20 tabling for a couple hours each day to stay even. Thanks for proving once again that the tortoise can beat the hair.

July prop bet

Some of the PokerVT members have begun doing their own recorded session for review. We all gather up on Skype and Mikogo to analyze each others play. Mostly we go over MTTs which I like learning about but don't have much if any inclination to play. However, during this process I ran into another member who plays 180 man sngs on Stars. After reviewing one of his games and seeing the flow of the game I decided to give them a try.

I began the month feeling the need for motivation. I played a game here and there but wasn't really putting in any volume. An idea came about between myself and "goathair", to do a volume only prop bet for the duration of the month. He is new to multitabling and is currently at home able to play 24/7, and I'm lazy so it works out fairly well. He puts in 8+ hours everyday playing sets of 4-6 tables. I come home from work and play a 2-3 hour block of 16 tables continuous. I began the bet about 110 games behind and over the last week we have held steady in our gap. I will need to get it in gear if I am to catch up. I have the next two days off but will fall even more behind tonight since I'm hanging out with my kids. Looks like I need to play 70 games per day more than him over the next two days.

I can.. and will.. do it!!

I have a blog?

Seems as I stopped playing poker I stopped blogging as well. Well, the smoking issues are behind me now. Time to get back on track.

Last month ended with me playing the $24 stt sngs on FT. I cooled down a bit and settled at 7% ROI. Not the greatest sample size, so I still feel like 10%+ is doable.

5 days and going

Its been just over 5 days (122hrs) since I quit smoking. I am beginning to feel normal again. I think in another day or so I will start playing poker.

My goals are falling at the wayside though all this. I have almost completed the $24 sngs.

$24 sngs - 232
$10 supers - 152

Although I could complete them both I will most likely just continue playing the $24 sngs.

Can't play poker :( !!

It's not so much that I can't play poker as it is that I won't let myself play. A few days ago I decided to quit smoking. I am still in the state of unevenness. I'm angry at things for no reason, my patience is thin, and I can't imagine what a bad beat or two might do to my game. Ugh. I did let myself play some Razz today though. I can only punt off some much money at one time playing a limit game! LOL, I took the table for about half a buy in and left it at that. I was starting to think about actually putting in a set or two. No, no Donald.

So without poker I am just sitting around going nuts. I smoked two packs a day. That's a lot of time to fill. Not to mention a lot of chemicals and other crap my body got accustomed to. I should have done a prop bet that I could quit. No one would ever think I could. LOL, I'm always smoking. But I can and I will because I finally told myself I would.

No mas smoking =

+ wallet EV
+ health EV
- sanity EV (temporary)

BTW, while surfing Hulu I found a cartoon about The Legend of Zelda. The game was freakin sweet. The cartoon is an Epic fail.

Turbos take forever

Being so accustomed to the superturbo sngs that average 22 minutes for a win, I have found myself a bit dumbfounded at how long it takes me to get through a set of turbos. I guess the real issue isn't just how long one game takes but a combination of factors really.

I play fewer games per set than I did at the other games. 16 at a time vs 8. And they load much slower. I can register for eight consecutive sngs and it takes about 8-10 minutes for the last one to fill up. One set takes just under an hour. That means my volume is cut by 3/4.

With all that said, I gave myself a goal over the last three days. I wanted to play 300 games, and try to make $1,000. So far it has been an epic fail. I hit a rough patch that you can't really call a downswing but it still feels like one. Just the run of the mill kicks in the nuts. Bubble after bubble of lost flips, and running into the tops of peoples ranges.

So far...

Day 1. 88 games -$310.20
Day 2. 33 games +$237.60
Day 3. We shall see.

On a sad note, my ROI has taken a beating. I still think that an ROI of 10%+ is obtainable. Maybe even 15% if you really work at it. (I have seen a few players up there spanning thousands of games.) Currently though I have dropped to 6.83%. Not to worry, Its only been 336 games.

Quick update

I feel the need to post my goals status just to make myself feel bad about falling behind.

1000 $10 super turbos (130 played -$78.00)
300 $24 turbo sngs (80 played +$376.80)
50 $6.50 HU 2 table shootout sngs (5 played +$16.60)

Sharks vs uber fish

After work today I immediately sat down to get in a set of sngs because I was feeling tired and knew that if I didn't at least get a set in strait off I would most likely just call it a day.

The first game up looked good so I began registering the rest of my games for the set without any other players in. I don't normally do that because game selection is important but as I said before I wanted to force in at least one set today. It generally takes a few minutes to fill up a set but this time they just took off. As they popped up one by one so quickly I assumed that a bunch of regulars hopped in and I was in for some craptacular games. I was partly right. There where about 4 winning players per game + myself. The other slots where filled with my favorite opponents, "The uber fish."

Uber fish = anyone who has played over 1000 games at the $20-$35 stakes with a ROI lower than -12%.

It was like watching a school of piranha pick clean the carcass of some wayward animal. Ahh.. good times. However there was one special fishy that made me laugh. Here is the hand and then I will fill in our commentary.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 24 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (8 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com



saw flop | saw showdown



UTG (t1440)

UTG+1 (t1655)

MP1 (t1845)

MP2 (t1375)

CO (t1390)

Hero (Button) (t1765)

SB (t1025)

BB (t3005)



Hero's M: 23.53



Preflop: Hero is Button with J, J

3 folds, MP2 calls t50, 1 fold, Hero bets t200, 2 folds, MP2 calls t150



Flop: (t475) 7, 2, 8 (2 players)

MP2 checks, Hero bets t350, MP2 calls t350



Turn: (t1175) 2 (2 players)

MP2 checks, Hero bets t1215 (All-In), MP2 calls t825 (All-In)



River: (t2825) 3 (2 players, 2 all-in)



Total pot: t2825



Results:

Hero had J, J (two pair, Jacks and twos).

MP2 had K, 5 (flush, King high).

Outcome: MP2 won t2825



Me: omg
Fish: you must have seen the flush draw :s

Me: will you play in all of my games?
Fish: don't cry, I totally played my hand on the flush draw

Fish: bad read 4 u
Me: its your world

OK, maybe it doesn't sound funny to anyone but me. I just stuck me as funny because this guy really thinks he was playing right. Nice hand sir.

P.S. Somehow I came back and finished in 3rd as my fishy sadly bubbled. LOL

Time for review

I had a bad day today in the fairly small amount of games that I played. I ran into the tops of everyone's ranges today. Shoved into AA six times. Ugh, is all there is to say. On a positive note, I decided to look at my hands to review them. A bit disappointed in my play. Nothing too major, but a good junk of close ones. The kind of shoves that seem good at the time until you throw them in SNGWizard and get slapped in the face.

An example would be shoving AJo in a situation. It turns out to be -.5 but AQo would have been +.15. Just random crappy spots you have to iron out I guess.

I seem to be starting a bad habit of playing poker during these things too. Things like when MP min raises at 50/100 and I call from the BB. He c-bets into a board that clearly misses him unless he has an over pair. I float his flop bet and lead out the turn about half pot looking like I flopped it and want value but think he will check behind if I check. It has been working quite well but idk if its good in the long run. It pretty well cripples you the few times they have the pp and shove over you.

I have been giving some of the regulars too much credit as well. Shoving in spots where they should know I have to have a monster. Thinking they have to fold nearly everything because of what my range should be. Phsss, whatever. That stuff stops now. I'm not sure some of them really have a clue. Just a basic idea is more like it.

A new month begins

With every new month when you play poker you get a new beginning. Its the only job I have ever known that gives you this opportunity. A clean slate from all the bad beats and variance of the previous month. Its time to begin the next 30 day journey.

For this new month I have set some new goals. Lets hope I can reach them for once.

1000 $10 super turbos
300 $24 turbo sngs
50 $6.50 HU 2 table shootout sngs (4 player winner takes all)
Abuse the micro stakes razz players from time to time.

I decided to spread out my games this month into a few different areas. This will help keep me from quiting sessions early because a bunch of regulars showed up. Now I just switch to a new game and continue on my way. I don't really care about the heads up games but they give me somewhere to be when my other two games are randomly infested at the same time.

Just for fun here is a joke I found on the interweb.

A woman who plays poker once a month with a group of friends was concerned that she always woke her husband when she came home around 11:30. One night she decided to try not to rouse him. She undressed in the living room and, purse over arm, tiptoed nude into the bedroom - only to find her husband sitting up in bed reading. "Dammit Dixie!" he exclaimed. "Did you lose everything?"

Sorry Dixie I couldn't help it.

May recap and 1 year PT3 anniversary

Well, I set out with a goal of 1500 sngs. I didn't even get close. Switching my main game really had an effect on my volume. I just can't play near as many games when their not super turbos. Oh well, I feel like I played well overall for the month.

I couldn't help but play a $119 sng. I played well but it didn't work out. My AKs ran into AQo and he flopped his queen just as we got 5 handed. What can you do?

So, this ends my first year really tracking my results. I'm happy to say that I haven't had a single losing month. However I am really disappointed in my volume. I have been playing sngs now since the last week in November. That's just over six months. I have only played 5,100 sngs. Averaging 850 games a month is not where I need to be.

Results

697 sngs
+$301.63 (a few stabs at the higher stakes killed me)

155 hands NLHE
-$2.58

4 hours of razz
@ +$65.00

I have an idea for my goals in June but we will get to that next time.

GL

$24 sngs going well so far.

Just thought I would through in an update for the month and also let everyone know how the switch to real sngs is going.

The month so far is kind of blah after dropping 50 or so buy ins at my superturbos but I am working to make something out of the last few days.




And now for the $24 sngs so far. Keep in mind that I have been going between $12, $24 and $36 sngs so there aren't too many yet.



Props to Deezel50. LOL, the guy made a 6x raise utg+1 and I called him on it in the chatbox. Sorry by the way Deezel, uncool on my part. Anyway the guy tells me he is just learning. The man has played well over 20,000 sngs just at the $24 level.

I have found a home.

I am settling into the $24 sngs at FT. There seems to be a lack of "good" regulars. Table selecting isn't really an option since there aren't too many that run at any given time but really there is no reason to table select anyway. I have found that the other winning players just don't care though. Every once in a while I see 5-6 regulars sitting in the same sng waiting for it to fill up. I just pass that one up and wait for the next one.

Its taking some time to get everyone put into a color category. There are just so many random players jumping in. Not even people trying to move up in stakes. Just people who have never played a sng before. I have identified quite a few people to steer clear of and strangely enough almost as many fish to sit with. I am still amazed at how many losing players there are. I mean really losing players. Seems that every game has at least 2-3 -10% ROI or worse players, sometimes as many as 6 at a table. Stick with it guys! Its a pleasure to play with you. LOL

Volume is going to be an issue here though. At the super turbo games I was accustomed to playing 12-16 tables at a time. Its just push/fold and walk away in those things. With the turbo sngs though, I only feel comfortable with 6 right now. I have done 8 at a time and it was ok but I got that "huh what happened" feeling a few times. I guess I have to start getting used to it again.

I am also begining to wonder what a good ROI is at this level. Most of the winning regulars are at 5% ROI or so. Although they could work on their game a bit.

ie. I shoved QJo from HJ with 5.5 bb shortly after being crippled. The bb (a 5% reg) calls with AK and lights up the chat box saying how horrible I am. LOL whatever guy.

I have found a few guys that are crushing. They are taking the $24 and $36 games at 10%+ ROI over a few thousand games. So I think with contenued work and constant focus on the other regulars adapting to me, I too can get into that range. I know I can if I try to, But am I willing to put in the effort?

OK last thing. I rewatched a sng that Adam Junglen did for us over at PokerVT. There were some spaz tards playing that thing. Just bad all around. It was a $109 sng. I might have to take a few stabs up there if thats what I can look forward to. Although I need to stay where i'm at for the moment.

Good Luck at the tables everyone! LOL all 3 of you.

Good bye A-game

I have settled on playing just Turbo sngs for a while. Everything has been going well enough. I have been breaking even for the most part due to loosing flips when in the money and some gross bubble losses. I have felt really good about my play though. I am better than I thought I was. Or at least I have been playing with focus and at the top of my game.

I lost my A-game tonight. At first I donked off two tables where I knew I was behind. My favorite fish move tells it all. The raise and you 3 bet and for some reason... hem hem.. they small 4-bet you back. AA anyone? Well I couldn't bring myself to fold my QQ. Later stack. And I did the same thing with TT bvb at another table. Forgivable imo but time to really pay attention.

Then this.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 36 Tournament, 60/120 Blinds (5 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com



saw flop | saw showdown



Hero (SB) (t4475)

BB (t55)

UTG (t4535)

MP (t1785)

Button (t2650)



Hero's M: 24.86



Preflop: Hero is SB with 10, 10

UTG bets t4535 (All-In), 2 folds, Hero calls t4415 (All-In)



Flop: (t9005) 9, 9, 9 (3 players, 3 all-in)



Turn: (t9005) 4 (3 players, 3 all-in)



River: (t9005) 3 (3 players, 3 all-in)



Total pot: t9005



Results:

Hero had 10, 10 (full house, nines over tens).

BB had 7, A (three of a kind, nines).

UTG had K, K (full house, nines over Kings).

Outcome: UTG won t9005




WTF! I wasn't paying attention again. I knew the table was all short except the big stack and myself. I insta called and then realized what I had done. I haven't been that mad at myself in a long time. I don't make mistakes like this. What the hell?

Of corse the last of my tables that set didn't end well either. 3 handed sb 4.5x my bb. I reraise to twice his original bet and he ships it in. Insta call with my KK. What? He has 10 7 off suit. LOL donk. Oh my bad... nice strait on the river sir... sigh.

Fallowed by a few shoves into tops of ranges on the bubble. Gross.

Anyway.. I am playing the $12, $24, and $36 stt on FT. I am actually surprised how bad the other players are. There are some decent regs but the rest must be taking shots at a score or something. Very few people have any games played at any stakes and of coarse there are one or two big losers hanging around. Jeez man... you lost $2,500 in 1000 games... welcome to my table.

Pick a game man!

I have been floating around the 45, 27, and 18 man turbo sngs the last few days. I don't really care for the 18 or 27 man games. I might as well be playing a stt. The 45 man games seemed more worth the effort so today I gave them a go. I like the number of people and structure until you hit about 18 people left. Everyone is left with 10 bb or less. I feel my short stack play is better than the competitions but you are looking at a decent level of variance well before the money. I bubbled or close to bubbled more than half of my games today. Just ran into the tops of peoples ranges all day.

Note to Pokerstars: When I get KK in preflop vs AQ can you just give them an A. It makes me want to puke every time they hit trip Q's on the turn.

With that said I decided to fire up FT again. I really don't put in enough volume on PS to justify playing there. I loaded up some $24 stt sngs and had a good laugh watching these idiots go at it. The games really are softer at FT. It makes me wonder just how fishy other sites are. You can easily find comparisons on the web that all say Stars is full of sharks, and FT is closing in on Stars in that respect. If Stars is 9.5 on the shark meter, and FT is like 9.2, how silly are the sites that are 4.6? Almost every other site is in the 4-5 range. I know the downside is the number of games that run. But if all you play against are fish, I would be willing to play on 6 different sites at one time. I'll look into it.

Break from super turbos

I haven't been playing many super turbos as of late. I really wanted to hit my goal of 1,500 games but for some reason I am so easily tilted right now.

I have been playing some multi table sngs and even the rush poker tournaments on FT. I have done well so far. Tonight I re watched some videos from Spacegravy and remembered a few things I could be doing better. Its been a while since I actually played a game that wasn't push fold from the get go.

I plan on playing more 27 and 45 mans this month. They competition is astoundingly bad in these. Somehow shoving 40 bb all in over an open is popular in these?

Lesson of the day. How to go broke on the first hand of a tournament.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 12 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (9 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com



SB (t2000)

BB (t2000)

UTG (t2000)

UTG+1 (t2000)

MP1 (t2000)

MP2 (t2000)

MP3 (t2000)

Hero (CO) (t2000)

Button (t2000)



Hero's M: 44.44



Preflop: Hero is CO with 3♦, 3♠

2 folds, MP1 calls t30, 1 fold, MP3 calls t30, Hero calls t30, 1 fold, SB calls t15, BB checks



Flop: (t150) 3♣, 4♣, 7♠ (5 players)

SB bets t105, BB calls t105, 2 folds, Hero raises to t480, SB raises to t1970 (All-In), 1 fold, Hero calls t1490 (All-In)



Turn: (t4195) K♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)



River: (t4195) 9♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)



Total pot: t4195

Main pot: t4195 between SB and Hero, won by SB



Results:

SB had A♣, 6♣ (flush, Ace high).

Hero had 3♦, 3♠ (three of a kind, threes).

Outcome: SB won t4195


Viva la flush draws!! NH fishy

Getting back on track

From the last post you can see that I had a bad run. It contenued until I decided to stop for the night. I felt ok about the entire day until the very last set when I felt myself begin to tilt. As soon as my play suffered I called it a night.

The next day was more of the same. I wasn't ready to get back to the grind yet apparently. Strait out of the gate even standard coin flips where getting me tilty. I shut it down for the day. Turned of the poker client, shut down PT3, and turned off Table Ninja. I felt the need to forget about poker and regain my mental composure. If I can't play my best then its not worth playing.

Here is an overview of my month so far. Just 23 games behind pace.
If you click on the picture you can better read it.

When did FT install its doomswitch???

A little warning would be nice Full Tilt. After contacting FT about connection issues yesterday durring my last set I quit for the evening. I think they pressed the wrong button or something. I haven't run this bad ever. I am looking at the worst day of my career. Down $370.50 in only 79 games. Way to build me up then smack me down FT.As soon as I figure out how to make AA beat KJ again I will return to crushing these things.

On a possative note.. I am only 39 games behind pace for 1500.

Variance is a two way street

I think for most poker players variance has come to mean running bad. Honestly, thats the first thing I would think of if I heard someone talking about it. There is however two sides to this coin. Just remember next time you are suffering a downswing that is ruining you day. You have had the best of it before. And you will again.

On the same note,I have been running hot all month so far. I had a small blip yesterday dropping 3 buy ins but tonight was great. Up 14 buy ins in 56 games. I am still a bit behind the volume I set out for myself but I will make it up this weekend.

Month Update
282 games
+$639.00
ROI 21.58%

What a tear!

I have been on a sweet run this month. Partly due to table selection, and part because I am finally getting back my EV from February. I stopped 25 games short of my goal tonight because the other regulars decided to show up in droves. Have fun playing each other boys.

Update for the month
175 games @ $10.50
+$529.50
ROI 28.82 <- LOL Sick

I'll get back to it tomorrow after work. Man I wish the games weren't infested right now. I'm so ready to play.



This is my graph since I came back to my super turbos. Can you tell where this month started.

Welcome to May and a 1,500 game goal

I had an exelent start to the month within my first 30 games. I had an ROI of 83%. Just rediculous really. Its not that I was doing anything new. I seemed to be able to win flips for once. And no 2 outer pp over pp missery. Since then I have been trying to get some volume in. To get my 1,500 games in I need to average 50 a day. Not to bad but I missed the first two days due to work. I have been on a slow climb all morning making $5 here and $9 there until this last set. Its so easy to drop $100.00 in 20 minutes in these things. It got ugly everytime I was on the bubble. When it seems the short stack can't lose and the big stack is a horrible player without a clue. Oh well. I will take a break for a few minutes and get back in it. I still need another 73 games today.

So far this month.
122 games @ $10.50
+$249.00
ROI 19.44%

Im done with April

From breaking even in a prop bet to a lack of effort at the end of the month I am ready to forget about April. My superturbos at the $10 level went well enough although I ended on a downswing. Just above 6% ROI. Everything else in the world of sngs this month was just blah.

Worked on my hand ranges in sngwiz for two days also. I don't know if I confused myself more or if I achieved something posative. Time will tell.

Total sngs all buy ins = 673
Winnings = +$109.80

I broke away from the stt sceen the last few days of the month to play razz. People are so bad at razz that its hard to lose. Picked up about 5 buy ins in just a few hours of two tabling. End of month bonus I guess.

Next month I will try again at hitting a decent volume. 1500 games or bust.

Shakscope?

I have been thinking about using sharkscope for a long time. I figured it is easy enough to see who is good or not within the first few minutes of a game so I never bothered. I have since signed up and have began marking each player with a color according to their ROI. I don't remember who I got this idea from but thanks. It is so much easier to game select than before.

Not just to avoid the regulars but to find the fish. Now I have seen many fish in my time but I didn't think there were as many huge losers out there as there are. Seriously, people who have played thousands of super turbos and have lost at an alarming rate like -26% ROI. It takes thousands of games to know what your true ROI is but after a few thousand, if your stats look like this its time to rethink poker. Thanks for hanging in there guys. You make my games +EV.

I don't think I have seen more iffy regulars anywhere as I have in super turbos. People taking the game for 5-6% that have huge leaks in there game. But the leaks seem to all be over aggression related so it might be hard for them to spot without anyone saying something. I was tempted to say something today to one guy but rethought the situation after realizing I play this guy all the time. I don't need to inform him of a leak. That's just stupid.

The more I learn about poker the more I realize I don't know. The best thing I can relate it to is math. In math you learned the basics until highschool. Then each year you progress into more and more advanced classes that heavely rely on what you learned in years prior. You can't jump ahead. Calculus makes no sence without algebra and so on. Poker has been the same way with an exception. You don't have any idea how deep the rabbit hole goes. I think this is why many people think they are better than they are. They have gotten their understanding of poker to a sertain level but have no idea the massive amount of info that awaits them. A lot of people just stop learning and get behind. I myself fell into this trap once and refuse to do it again. I feel like I am at a plateau now. Like I have all the info I need. I know its just an illusion though. I would like to push forward and get to a point where I can get a few lessons from some pros that are available to me. I want it to be more of a higher level class so I need to be 100% on everything I know first. There is a difference between knowing something and really understanding what you know.

Only 50 games so far today. Man, I have to kick this lazyness. I will get in another 50 at least tonight.

Update for the night
102 games
+$162.00
ROI 15.13%

Sweet variance

These super turbos are a roller coaster from hell. No matter what you do you are going to have some ugly ups and downs. I know I am better than most of the regulars at the $10.00 level. Even the regs do some seriously stupid things short handed. I have noticed a few leaks in my game since my return and I am working to plug them up. Its just so frustrating to do the rights things and still lose over and over. I don't mind losing flips. I don't even mind the 70/30s all that much put when you multitable sometimes the ugly beats come all at once.

I was in the middle of a session and everything started to go south. I run 10-12 tables at a time and happened to be on the bubble in 7 at once. My AA was cracked by KQo in two of them. I also lost two of them to underpairs. QQ vs someones 55, and KK vs 99. The three others were Ax vs Ax when I was ahead. I think the frustration multiplies just because of the big hands and actually getting it in good. Its not like I havent seen this kind of thing before but I am deffinatly less immune to it than before.



Im done for tonight. I am going to play at least 150 tomorrow. Lets hope the results match the effort.

Day one update

Finaly I feel back in the swing of things. Got in some decent after work volume and i'm happy about that.

$10.50 buy in
93 games played
+$49.50

Its a nice bonus to make a profit. Anything can happen over 100 games in these things.

Just life tilted myself...

I have been really trying to take some time this past night and morning to look at myself in an objective fassion. I don't like what I see. I have been able to coast by in life for the most part. I'm a smart guy and I think this has alowed me to put very little effort into accomplishing tasks. Whether they are day to day or longer goals that I can pull together last minute. Essentialy never having to gain a real work ethic. I have no problem with heavy work loads at the office or having to work 60-70 hour weeks to get everything done. What I am refering to is a self motivation or built in drive to do more.
I have 8 day left in this month including tonight. I will start anew by getting off my ass and completing at least 500 sngs by months end. Weeee!!!

Blogging with a purpose

I have been playing poker on and off for about 8 years now. When I started playing back in the day everyone was really bad and it was easy to make a profit. Now times have changed. Sure, there are plenty of fish out there but the dynamics of the game have changed and a large number of the "bad players" have gotten much better and it seems that reading a few books just won't cut it these days.
In an attempt to boost my skill level and knowledge of the game I decided to join a training site. I fell upon PokerVT.com. It has been very enlightening to say the least. I have learned too many things to elaborate on them all, but with what I was learning I decided to stop playing cash games and begin a new road with sngs.
From my graphs the road looks easy enough, largely due to the teachers and fellow members of PokerVT. I took $50 from my bankroll on stars to experiment in sngs on FT during mid November of 2009.



Not too bad.
Buy in : $3.50
13 days played
551 Tournaments
+$238.11

With my winning here and some from cash games I moved up in stakes to the $7.50 for December.



I started out great. Then hit a huge downswing fallowed by a desert of a break even spell. I really felt my desire to play drop off as the month wore on.

Buy in : $7.00
17 days played
1,062 Tournaments
+$338.40

There is always next month.



Another 300 games of nowhere ville and then bam, back on track. I tried out about 85 $14.00s this month as well. Lets add that in.
Buy in : $7.00
18 days played
677 Tournaments
+$491.70
+$27.60 ($14.00s)

On to February...



Welcome to variance!
After this 40 buy in downswing I called it a month. Goodbye $600. I got gun shy after this and essentially stopped playing all together. I withdrew enough to buy a new 65" TV. I think it was my way of sabotaging myself. You can't lose what you don't have right?

I saw an opportunity to get going again by joining a prop bet with some fellow members of PokerVT. 13 of us put in $50 to ship to the winner of a 500 game $6.50 stake pure profit race. After breaking even for about 250 games I dropped out. At that point I needed a serious heater to catch up.

At least I got myself going for a bit. I'm ready to give it another shot. Oh shit. I killed my bankroll on a TV. Well, I still have $900 on FT. Too short for my $14.00s, but it just so happens FT changed all the buy ins anyway. I now find $10.00 buy ins with much lower rake!

I will play more. I will play more. I will play more!
I will give you guys an update at the end of the month. So far at 26 games I am up $150! Sick good run but I'll take it.