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