Hey, Bend Over And Grab That Bar Of Soap

FullTiltPoker Game #4549444139: Table Wilkes - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:38:07 ET - 2007/12/18
Seat 3: flydogg007 ($34.05)
Seat 4: Chewyjd ($31.75)
Seat 6: lifesagrind ($48.50)

Kacori posts the small blind of $0.25
Mr_R_Hand posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #8

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to lifesagrind [Ac As]

tsduo folds
flydogg007 raises to $1
Chewyjd calls $1
SkiDooSledder folds
lifesagrind raises to $4
jausbrey folds
cladower folds
Kacori folds
Mr_R_Hand folds
flydogg007 folds
Chewyjd has 15 seconds left to act
Chewyjd raises to $31.75, and is all in
lifesagrind calls $27.75
Chewyjd shows [Ad 3s]
lifesagrind shows [Ac As]
*** FLOP *** [2d 4d 5h]
*** TURN *** [2d 4d 5h] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [2d 4d 5h Js] [Jh]
Chewyjd shows a straight, Five high
lifesagrind shows two pair, Aces and Jacks
Chewyjd wins the pot ($62.25) with a straight, Five high

Understanding Disappointment

The plan was to end my two month tournament sabbatical with the three big blogger tournaments last night. The Big Game, The Skill Game, and ThePokerGrinder. Alas due to familial obligations I only arrived back home in time for the last one on the list.

Much has been said, and many bloggers have bitched, about the quality of play in blogger tournaments. As of last night I have come to the following conclusions about poker bloggers. Just because you write about poker, doesn't mean you know how to play poker. At least not play poker well.

This is in reality no different than playing in any other tournament online. You have your good players, and you have your bad players. The problem lies in the expectation that poker bloggers should be, as a whole, skewed more toward the good player side.

The poker blogging community has within it, it's own microcosm of society. You have your elders followed by the middle agers and finally the children. Everyone must remember that these "children" play in the tournaments as well. Hopefully one day they will grow and learn but some, well some are just born with an extra chromosome. There is nothing you can do for them developmentally but be supportive of their endeavors.

These are the ones you often hear about, but not always. Everyone is capable of making that fatal mistake. Just try not to let it be you.

Dreamland

Have you ever awoken screaming from a nightmare? How about a nightmare that involved poker? Were you playing with monsters, or were you up against monster hands? How about every time you bluffed heads up, your opponent had the nuts? Did you blow off your entire stack bluffing into the nuts?

Have you?

You have had that dream... well welcome to my reality. I've made some piss poor decisions before but tonight takes the cake. I blew $80 at a $50 table. All heads up, and I had the 80 in front of me before my opponent bought in as a short stack. Sure, he got lucky and caught cards, but I also ignored the obvious signs of my opponent having me beat. Truly a matter of ego outweighing common sense tonight.

A Months End

Would you look at that? The graph actually ends at a point higher than it started.

I know... I'm amazed as well.

I took the NL cash game seriously this month (ie. not a single SNG played) and I have to say I enjoyed playing them. I've had a love hate, well... mostly hate , relationship with the NL cash game in the past but making the switch to full ring and not worrying about the money I may lose or win really seemed to help me.

Since I'm all about the money when it comes to playing this game, I've got to look at whether the SNG's or the cash games were more profitable for me. In the month of October I played 10.72 hours at the $24 turbos for a profit of $235.70. That comes out to $21.99 an hour which is nothing to sneeze at. At the .25/.50 NL game I played 16.57 hours in November for a profit of $338.60. That comes out to $20.43 an hour. That puts these two forms of poker at about dead even for me on the profitability scale.

With that in mind I'm going to stick with the cash games again this month. I didn't miss playing the SNG's at all which also surprised me. At least I have a backup if things turn sour for me.

The Streak Ends

After 13 months of straight Iron Man qualification at Full Tilt, I can no longer qualify this month. Having recently purchased The Orange Box I was engrossed in a game of Portal last night and completely spaced on playing poker. I had already taken to many days off from the tables and now I can no longer qualify for the month.

It's been a personal matter of pride for myself that I could keep the streak going so I'm a little disappointed right now. Fortunately when I make Iron Man status again next month I will be able to take in a pretty decent bonus. I will miss out on my increased bonus medal counts though which really sucks. I was wanting to collect some more to make a purchase from the Full Tilt store but now it will take a little longer.

At least I'm winning money at the tables this month (now that I've publicly stated that you can expect the obligatory "worst day ever at the tables" post)

I'll post and end of month recap and some numbers tomorrow.

My Will Be Done

There are times when poker just isn't about the cards...


Seat 2: wheaten ($81.45)
Seat 3: lifesagrind ($48.25)

lifesagrind posts the small blind of $0.25
Ruud27 posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to lifesagrind [Kd Th]
Oak1974 folds
jcraw70 calls $0.50
Baschti84 folds
Glastoki folds
wheaten calls $0.50
lifesagrind calls $0.25 - Seeing a flop here is an easy decision
Ruud27 checks

*** FLOP *** [8h 3d Kc]
lifesagrind bets $1.50 - Top pair out of position, it's time to see if I can have this cheaply
Ruud27 folds
jcraw70 folds
wheaten raises to $3
lifesagrind raises to $5.50 - I know, what the hell am I doing. Problem is... he could put me on just about anything here, and I can put him on trying to take this away from me.
wheaten calls $2.50 - His call is telling

*** TURN *** [8h 3d Kc] [9h]
lifesagrind bets $11 - I have to continue considering my flop play
wheaten calls $11 - I know I'm beat here... but I also know he isn't 100% secure in his hand. Considering my play up to this point I'd have to put him on KJ, maybe KQ

*** RIVER *** [8h 3d Kc 9h] [2d]
lifesagrind bets $31.25, and is all in - I have two choices, check and fold, or push. I know he has me beat, but I also know he believes I could have him beat. I take the only reasonable choice left to me... push
wheaten has 15 seconds left to act
wheaten folds
Uncalled bet of $31.25 returned to lifesagrind
lifesagrind mucks
lifesagrind wins the pot ($33.25)

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $35 | Rake $1.75
Board: [8h 3d Kc 9h 2d]
Seat 2: wheaten (button) folded on the River
Seat 3: lifesagrind (small blind) collected ($33.25), mucked

Moral of the story: Playing the player can be more important than playing your cards. (Just don't get too carried away with it)

Sunday Tournies

Everybody knows about the Sunday majors.

Well here's the two I'll be playing in tonight.

The Poker Grind.net presents...
Date & Time - Nov 18th @ 10pm
buyin - $20+2
Where - Full Tilt , click Tournament > Private
Name of Tournament - The Poker Grind.net Bounty
Password - thepokergrind

and

The Big Game

A Little Presto Sauce

By far my most interesting hand since switching to No Limit Cash games this month.

Table Wood Plank - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: anal_yzer85 ($92.45)
Seat 2: joepoker77 ($48.25)
Seat 3: drchad ($24.50)
Seat 4: drossxyu ($80.80)
Seat 5: electricladylnd ($49.05)
Seat 6: Quickfox7 ($43.15)
Seat 7: lifesagrind ($57.70)
Seat 8: cashinchecks1 ($36.70)
Seat 9: pete1974 ($15.40)
electricladylnd posts the small blind of $0.25
Quickfox7 posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to lifesagrind [5d 5c] - lets see a flop shall we
lifesagrind calls $0.50
cashinchecks1 folds
pete1974 folds
anal_yzer85 folds
joepoker77 folds
drchad calls $0.50
drossxyu raises to $2.25
electricladylnd folds
Quickfox7 folds
lifesagrind calls $1.75
drchad calls $1.75
*** FLOP *** [2c 5s 2s]
lifesagrind checks - Life doesn't get any better, let's see who has what here
drchad checks
drossxyu bets $4
lifesagrind calls $4 - Please call drchad
drchad calls $4 - YES!
*** TURN *** [2c 5s 2s] [9c]
lifesagrind checks - How bad does the bettor want this
drchad checks
drossxyu has 15 seconds left to act
drossxyu bets $9.75 - ohhhh he likes his hand
lifesagrind has 15 seconds left to act
lifesagrind raises to $20 - Here's an amount you can call
drchad folds
drossxyu calls $10.25
*** RIVER *** [2c 5s 2s 9c] [5h]
lifesagrind bets $31.45, and is all in - Smooth and creamy, all you can eat
drossxyu calls $31.45
*** SHOW DOWN ***
lifesagrind shows [5d 5c] four of a kind, Fives
drossxyu mucks
lifesagrind wins the pot ($119.40) with four of a kind, Fives
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $122.40 | Rake $3
Board: [2c 5s 2s 9c 5h]

Seat 4: drossxyu (button) mucked [2d 2h] - four of a kind, Twos - Ouch, sucks to be him

Seat 7: lifesagrind showed [5d 5c] and won ($119.40) with four of a kind, Fives

It happens, rarely, but quads over quads is always a guaranteed double up.

Robbing The Piggy Bank

errr... bankroll.

I've been watching for online bargains in an attempt to find a new laptop to replace my aging Dell. What I really wanted to buy was a Powerbook Pro but two things... cost and lack of Vista support meant I had to find a windows machine. With my new and hopefully successful career as a home PC support guy, most of my clients (when I get clients) will more than likely be on either XP or Vista machines. I needed to familiarize myself with Vista as well as be able to dual boot both it and XP.

I had settled on looking at refurbished machines as I felt that would give me the most bang for my buck and still be able to have a decent machine. This lead to spending a lot of time refreshing pages from wholesalers since this type of inventory moves quickly.

I've owned AT&T(yes they used to make laptops), Toshiba, and Dell in the past but I've heard good things about Acer and wanted to give it a try. As luck would have it I found the best deal on a new machine and oddly enough at a Best Buy. I now have an Acer Extensa 5620 and even though it's not a top of the line machine it is infinitely more powerful than my old machine and capable of running WoW just fine. (that was important criteria, my old laptop couldn't show all the texture maps. I often wouldn't see the mini map and the terrain was always just colored square patches, no roads, no nothing.)

At any rate I'm now enjoying my new toy and will be playing poker on it for the first time today.

SNG Maddness....NAH!

One would think that Full Tilt's SNG madness over the weekend would have played right into my strengths. I applaud them for the idea, but the implementation was poor. I simply wasn't prepared to devote four straight hours of multi-tabling. If I could have picked my own four hours it would have been easier but with their time restrictions I simply couldn't fit it in.

I really didn't want to fit it in either though. I've been playing the cash games over the past week (since Nov. 1) and been doing pretty well. I've gotten in 1,026 hands so far and I'm running at a very nice 27.5PTBB/100. This is well above expectation but I'll take it where I can get it.

October Meet November

Another month has come and gone and the older I get the quicker time seems to pass. I'm not sure what causes this phenomenon but I wish it would stop.

At any rate it's time to asses the previous months play and things went decently for me. I managed a 16.9% ROI on my SNG's and of the 4 multi-table tourneys I played in, I final tabled one. Not too shabby.

I'm looking to change gears in November and focus more on the cash games. The urge to play them has been building for a while so I'm going to give in. Abandoning my previously played 6-max cash games for the slower paced full ring should help ease the transition from SNG's. Beyond that there really isn't much to tell. See ya next time.

Still Have My Eyes

Even though I claimed the need to gouge my eyes out after my bad beat exit from the MATH last night, I did not follow through. Wanted to, just couldn't put my family through it.

I can't say I played as well last night as I did the night before, but I was still playing pretty good poker. I was well on my way to the final table when some player I've never seen before decided to make a monumentally stupid move that worked out for him by way of a three outer on the flop. Run on sentence withstanding this player was a pretty easy read. One of those players that was aggressive for the sake of being aggressive. Wanted to resteal at every opportunity and defended their blinds when it was completely unnecessary.

At any rate I went out in 14th and I can take solace in the fact that I played pretty well for the most part.

How To Lose $1,000

Before last night I hadn't played a MTT since August. Beyond that I hadn't seen action in a blogger tournament since June. (I did play the Pokerstars coop event for bloggers but I'm not counting that.) I expected a very rusty and poor performance but I can't actually remember when I had played better.

Everything was clicking for me yesterday. I decided to play one token satellite to gain my entrance for The Big Game. I won the token.

When the tournament started everything progressed well and I managed to be among the chip leaders throughout most of the event. By the time the final table started I was the chip leader and I continued to build my stack from there. Within a few orbits I had a 2:1 chip lead over my closest competitor. I truly felt this was my tournament to lose.

As play continued I took a back seat to the action and tightened up. I saw no need in giving anything away and I watched on as TripJax began to make a big move. As we reached the final four he and I would swap the lead several times.

This is where things went horribly wrong. Four handed and in the SB TripJax raises to 4,200. Button folds and I decided to take a flop with A6d, the BB folds. Here it gets interesting as the flop brings 345 rainbow. I have the open end straight draw and an Ace for a possible 11 outs. I figure this is a good spot to take the pot down since if I get called I have plenty of outs, and if he is stealing the blinds with say KQ or so he will have to let it go. I make a pot sized bet of 10,400 and Trip goes into the tank for a few moments. When he decides what to do he fires back at me with a bet of 23,000.

I know I'm looking at an overpair at this point. The thing is I was really only dead if he had 22, 77, or AA. I believed I was left with only 2 choices, fold or push. Folding left me with 36,000 chips and second place, but just barely. It also would have made TripJax a very big stack and he was the one player I didn't want to have chips. His bet was also an odd amount. If felt a bit like a "go away I don't want to invest anymore money" bet. I believed that a push could be enough to make him fold if he felt vulnerable. After all, with that flop I could have a lot of big hands if I'm willing to push.

So push I did. He goes into the tank and then calls showing me one of the three hands I really didn't want him to have. The 77. I can't hit one of my remaining 9 outs and I'm sent packing in fourth place. To say I was pissed would be an understatement. I didn't stick around to see who won, although if TripJax didn't win something went horribly wrong.

I had already spent the first place money in my head. I need a new laptop and I was going to take that money and get one. I'm calmed down now but I have to admit that loss bugged me for hours.

The one positive out of all this is my passion for the multi's in rekindled.

See you at the tables.

Championship Bust

I'm out of the WBCOOP in 924th place. The hand that did it?
Enjoy

PokerStars Game #12626266672: Tournament #63028692, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level V (200/400) - 2007/10/14 - 16:09:08 (ET)
Table '63028692 132' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Warnosh (8625 in chips)
Seat 2: lifesagrind (14950 in chips)
Seat 3: sijht.nl (11500 in chips)
Seat 4: draconid (14800 in chips)
Seat 5: 66Buffalo66 (23525 in chips)
Seat 6: StrangePP (13525 in chips)
Seat 7: cwebb1977 (25575 in chips)
Seat 8: polyballer9 (8150 in chips)
Seat 9: DodgerPL (23875 in chips)
StrangePP: posts small blind 200
cwebb1977: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to lifesagrind [4s 4d]
polyballer9: calls 400
DodgerPL: folds
Warnosh: folds
lifesagrind: calls 400
sijht.nl: folds
draconid: folds
66Buffalo66: folds
StrangePP: calls 200
cwebb1977: checks
*** FLOP *** [8c Ac 4h]
StrangePP: checks
cwebb1977: bets 1400
polyballer9: folds
lifesagrind: raises 1800 to 3200
StrangePP: folds
cwebb1977: calls 1800
*** TURN *** [8c Ac 4h] [9h]
cwebb1977: checks
lifesagrind: bets 5200
cwebb1977: raises 5200 to 10400
lifesagrind: raises 950 to 11350 and is all-in
cwebb1977: calls 950
*** RIVER *** [8c Ac 4h 9h] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
cwebb1977: shows [9d Ah] (a full house, Aces full of Nines)
lifesagrind: shows [4s 4d] (a full house, Fours full of Aces)
lifesagrind said, "lol"
cwebb1977 collected 30700 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 30700 | Rake 0
Board [8c Ac 4h 9h As]
Seat 1: Warnosh folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: lifesagrind showed [4s 4d] and lost with a full house, Fours full of Aces
Seat 3: sijht.nl folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: draconid folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: 66Buffalo66 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: StrangePP (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 7: cwebb1977 (big blind) showed [9d Ah] and won (30700) with a full house, Aces full of Nines
Seat 8: polyballer9 folded on the Flop
Seat 9: DodgerPL folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Tru Dat

Remember when shortly after Neteller shut out US players, PokerStars began the process of offering the Tru Card Prepaid Visa Card. They offered early signups for the card to select players and since Pokerstars wasn't supporting ePassporte yet I signed up and took one. I never did use the card and I'm not even sure Pokerstars ever officially utilized it as a deposit and withdrawal method. The card has sat in my desk drawer since the day I rec. it and then today this came via email.

Dear payTru Member:
Please be advised that you will not be receiving a replacement card for your current payTru card once it has expired. Please examine the expiration date on your payTru card and check your balance at www.paytrucard.com. Please plan the use of your card accordingly as it relates to point of sale purchases and ATM withdrawals. Remember that all transactions carry a nominal transaction fee which is deducted in real time, so please plan for this when performing your transaction(s).
Your card will not be accepted at merchants or ATM machines once it has expired.
This is not a result of your use of the card and does not effect your credit rating in any way. We will advise you in the future if there are changes to this policy.
Thank you for your membership patronage.
payTRu Card Services

Seems odd that they would just be canceling my account since I've never used it. Sounds more like they may be closing down for good.

My Turn

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 2864930

Iron Man Medal... Not So Special

One should always read the fine print. When I checked my Iron Man Status page and saw mention of a new Iron Man Medal, I thought, how cool. I was going to be rewarded for 12 months of consecutive Iron Man Status with a little token of my accomplishment.

Imagine my shock when I logged on to play last night and saw a few other players with medals. Then I found out that anyone who had qualified last month got one. That was completely sucky.

Since it's just a promotion tool for Full Tilt and not a real recognition of accomplishment I'm going to have it removed from my avatar.

A positive spin on the whole thing is that now I can tell who plays a lot when they sit down at the table.

My apologies for a disjointed post.

A Cold September

Sadly September was a losing month. When it comes to losing months though, this is the kind I would choose to have. I ended up down a grand total of 72 cents. That's right $0.72. When I receive my rakeback for the month it will be profitable but I don't like to count that as actual poker winnings.

On the SNG front I managed to finish the month with two good sessions which saved me. A total of 152 played for an ROI of 0.4%. Better than a negative ROI I suppose.

Having just completed my 12th consecutive month of Iron Man status at Full Tilt I'm not going to give up now. After this month my avatar will recieve the "Iron Man Chip" addon. Although I play with avatars turned off it may look cool. (Haven't actually seen one yet)

In order to maintain I'm going to keep playing the $24 turbo SNG's each day, but only four of them. If I want to play more after that I'm going to switch to NL cash games. My NL record has sucked this year and I want to put some time in to see if I can end the year in the black on these.

In other news; I've had a WoW (World of Warcraft) account for months but have never spent much time in game. I've finally found a character I like to play though so that is all changing. With renewed interest I will more than likely be spending my free time leveling up instead of doubling up.

Spinning wheels

I wish I knew how to win right now. I managed to donk out of the HUC losing two straight to Highonpkr.

I also can't seem to get my head above water in the SNG's right. I'm only down a small amount but with my recent withdrawal I may have overestimated my risk of ruin.

I have a bad tendency to lose when I'm feeling the pressure to win.

Light bulb moment: I finally realized as I'm writing this why that is. Bad beats affect me more when I feel the pressure. I literally cussed at the computer during play tonight which is something I rarely ever due. Hmmm maybe writing in this blog still has value after all.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Excuses are like...

and everybody's got one. While I'm playing more SNG's this month, I'm certainly not seeing an increase in my ROI. As a matter of fact, I'm faring much worse this month. In August I played 80 SNG's for a 15.5% ROI. In September I've played 114 so far with a 2% ROI.

I could equate my issues into forcing myself to play when I don't really want to, having other projects going, not concentrating, but those are all just excuses. The fact of the matter is that I'm not playing the way I know to play. No excuse makes up for the fact that I know I'm playing poorly yet make no effort to correct it.

Patience young padewan. If I could give one piece of advise to anyone wanting to play SNG's. That would be it. Patience is the single most important key to success at the low limits. I need to practice what I preach.

Where To Begin...

Let's see. I know my posting has been sporadic at best lately but I am still playing poker. In fact staying true to my word I'm still on track to double my play from last month. My problem is a severe lack of free time right now. I'm getting ready to embark on a very exciting, yet very scary career move.

Being known as the "tech guy" to all my friends I get called upon whenever someone has a PC related issue. Every time they call me, they also tell me I should work on computers as a business. I've heard this enough times that I've finally decided to do just that. It will start as a part time gig that hopefully grows into a full time job. I will be launching next week and getting everything ready has been very time consuming.

Playing poker has actually led to my being able to do this. You see all of my startup costs have been covered by poker profits. In fact, I believe that I will never have to spend a dime of "my own" money during the life of the business. I see no reason why I can't cover my small monthly costs (phone, advertising, etc.) with poker play.

This has led me to consider something within poker I've never really had to deal with before. Proper bankroll funding versus risk of ruin. I've really emaciated my bankroll during this process. The bankroll is currently sitting at about $750. I like to maintain a minimum of 45 buy ins but prefer 65 for SNG's. Presently I'm playing the $24 turbo's but I should be playing the $12 ones. Normally I would just drop down in limits and continue playing. The thing is that I believe I have proven to myself that I can beat these games. I feel it would take a severely freakish losing streak for me to be in bankroll danger. Thus I've decided to stay where I'm at and play a little thin.

At any rate look for some more frequent posting coming up. In the mean time go check out The Poker Grind.net and show some support for a new blogger on the scene.

Update: I received my money from Full Tilt a few days after posting about it so alls good.

Mobile test

This is a mobile posting test
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Foreboding

The last time I received a response like this the site went under and I never saw my money.

Hello Tom,

Thank you for contacting Full Tilt Poker 24 hour Email Support.

We sincerely apologize for the extended delay in processing your
withdrawal request and any inconvenience this may have caused you. While
withdrawals normally take 24-48 hours to process, we are currently
receiving an unusually high volume of withdrawal requests at this time,
making our average processing time longer than 48 hours.

We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience, and we anticipate
returning to our regular processing times of 24-48 hours as soon as
possible.

We value your business and appreciate your continued patience.

Regards,

And The Challenge Begins

The Heads Up Challenge 5 got underway today and I played my first match in the hearts bracket against the Surly Poker Gnome. I was fortunate enough to win back to back matches in the best of three series to move on.

To be fair I was running very good tonight. In my set of 4 SNG's I managed two firsts and a third. I then won not only the two matches against pokergnome but also one against some random player.

All in all an excellent night of poker.

ReFormat

I somehow managed to corrupt my OS last weekend and had to do a complete reformat of my hard drive. I couldn't find the setup disk that came with the laptop so I couldn't do a normal restore and it took me a while to get everything back in order.

Good news...my laptop runs much faster now.

Bad news...not much poker played because of it.

I was very happy with both the Poker Tracker and Tourney Manager people as they responded to my requests for new registration info almost immediately. I managed to save all my SNG data in Tourney Manager but I'm having to start over with Poker Tracker. No real loss there as I haven't been playing any cash games and I prefer the other program for my SNG tracking.

At any rate I'm debating an increase in play for the month of September. This will be difficult as this is the start of my busiest two months at work. I'll just have to wait and see.

300

I was reviewing my turbo stats for the year today and I found something interesting. I've played exactly 300 @ $6.50, 300 @ $12, and now 302 @ $24.

Since my games played at each level are identical I thought I would do a side by side comparison of my finish positions.


As you can see $6.50 was good, $12 was excellent, and $24 has been a bit of a struggle. I'm currently on my 3rd attempt of the year taking on the $24 SNG's and this time it's been going better. I still have work to do but since I'm currently only playing 4 a day it takes a long time to see if your really improving. Below is the chart for my last 50.



I've become profitable but the third place finishes are very much out of whack right now. The players are a bit more patient at this level so it takes longer to get short handed. I should probably start shifting gears a little earlier than I'm used to.

Is Anybody There?

I've been back from vacation for a while, I just haven't had anything to blog about. Still don't really but I thought I should make my presence felt. I'm still only playing 4 $24 turbos each day at Full Tilt so I can get my 50 points for Iron Man status. I haven't played a MTT or a cash game in forever. It's not that my interest is waining, it's that I have non poker activities taking up my time.

My kids and I decided to do a short film and this has been very time consuming. I'm loving the process of writing, editing, and effects though so I may have found a new hobby. I'll have to wait and see how it all turns out. My goal is to have the post completed by the 24th of this month.

Poker Pays Off

I think this may be my first post this month. It will also be my last. I'm on vacation and will be out of town the rest of the month so no poker or blog for me. This month poker has taken a back seat and I've only been playing the bare minimum of four SNG's a day. I had to play these whether I wanted to or not so I could maintain my continued Iron Man status at Full Tilt. Thankfully I've been running good and have a 21% ROI for the few I've played.

The TV featured in the photo was delivered to my house today thanks to the Pokerlistings treasure hunt. I managed to win first prize (a drawing, no actual poker skill required) which was a 52" Sony Bravia LCD. This baby is sweet and it's something I never would have bought on my own. It will replace our aging 29" Zenith which we bought at Sears nine years ago. Adding this to the Cruise I won in a freeroll, and the two NUTZ card protectors I won during the Bluff Poker Tour and poker has indeed been very very good to me.

Yippy Kayay

Bear with me... the song seems like it sucks, but you will be singing it at the end...guaranteed

Cob Webs

The desire to play any form of poker has been waning a bit for me lately. In fact yesterday was the first time I had played any poker in about 5 days. I started with an hour long session of 25NL which produced a nice profit of a little over a buy in. I then decided to hit the SNG's. After a sixteen day hiatus from these it was evident I was a little rusty. I was lucky to finish with one first out of my first set of four to break even. I fired up a second set and things went much better as I played my way to 2 firsts, 1 second, and 1 third. Managing to finish the day with a 106.3% ROI it was a very nice "welcome back" to the game.

A Shitty Month

I've now had two losing months this year. Sadly the two losing months outpace the four winning ones making me a small ($100) loser on the year so far. This also marks as the worst year I've had at the tables. Technically the years only half way over with so all this could/will change but I've never been down at this point in a year since starting in 2003. Granted my bankroll also hasn't been this small since 2003 so that may have something to do with it.

This month was a combination of losing at .25/.50 NL, having a bad run in my SNG's, and continuing my bad streak in the MTT arena. When it all happens it seems to happen at once. If you refer back to my June goal post I fell victim to weakness number one. I took shots at hight levels that failed and then I let number four keep me from dropping back down.

I'm confident July will turn out to be a different story for me as I'm going to stick to playing within my bankroll (really I will this time, I promise).

Calling Station

If you looked up "Calling Station" in the dictionary, you would see this guy.



Click here to view a larger version.

This guys was so tight and so weak that I became a little scared of him having QQ so I pussied out a little on the river.

The Biggest Loser #1

In what has been a disastrous week at the tables so far I bring you my first Biggest Loser hand. I'm actually bending the rules a little because this was not my actual biggest losing hand. Exactly two hands after the one listed I lost an entire buy in when preflop I got all in with QQ vs. AA. Chalk that one up to tilt. I also had a winning hand that was slightly more than this losing hand but it was just a case of my having a bigger two pair and a donkey to pay me off.

I find this hand to be a little interesting because I have what looks to be the best hand at first glance. The check raise by my opponent on the flop should have been more of an indication to me what my opponent had, but I locked in on my opponent having a weaker Ace and I blocked out all other possibilities. The turn card locks me in and I'm committed at that point.

My question is this. Did I just get coolered or should I have been able to read my opponents holdings better and been able to get away on the turn?

Here's the hand:



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KING OF THE WORLD #2

Sunday was tournament day for me and I managed to come up with a big goose egg. In fact I only played one event half way well and in that one I definitely brought my "A" game. I unfortunately was sucked out on by the overall tournament chip leader and it soured my willingness to play for the rest of the day.

I took Monday off and then my SNG play yesterday amounted to a -50% ROI effort.

mmmm... poker goodness.


So in a last ditch effort to make a little scratch I headed of to some low limit no limit action. My only hand of any note for the session also ended up being the KING OF THE WORLD hand for today. As is my style I like to open up for a raise when I'm first to act and then the continuation bet is a large part of my overall strategy. The best ways to combat someone who employs this strategy is to either call the continuation bet or just lead out at the flop. This puts the pressure back on the original raiser as they now have to decide if it's worth firing another bullet at the pot.

The player I'm in this hand with has been my designated whipping boy. He was the loosest (68.57% VPiP) and weakest (Aggression Factor 0.9) at the table and had continually folded to my continuation bets. He chose to call me this time but I couldn't give him credit for a real hand since he only called my bets. His bet on the river screams of a missed flush/steal attempt so I acted accordingly.



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KING OF THE WORLD #1

In an effort to display my cash game idiocy to the world (while possibly learning something along the way) I'm introducing two new features to the blog. King Of The World, and The Biggest Loser.

The day after I play a cash session I will revue the Poker Tracker numbers and then post either the biggest winning hand or the biggest losing hand depending on which is greater. Yesterday it happened to be a winner.

Staying true to my work (kinda) I started the day at a 25NL table. Within an hour I was up three buy ins and decided to take some of that money and buy in to a 50NL game. About forty minutes later that buy in was gone and I was back at a 25 table. I managed to take a little more money and ended the day up around $60. I don't know why but I can't get a handle on the 50NL tables. It seems from looking at the histories that I'm bluffing way to much but I don't know why I keep doing it.

Anyway let's move onto my KING OF THE WORLD hand.

I could try to justify my play here but from an odds standpoint I really had no business staying in the hand after the SB pushes. I really felt I had the best flush draw and I just knew the button would call based on his past play. In the moment I thought the call was right. Feel free to rip in with constructive criticism.




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Is This Common?

I've become addicted to the cash games now. I find myself whipping through my SNG's so I can get to playing them. This has lead to some bad play on my part as I've ignored my own guidelines for quitting recently. To get back in the groove I'm dropping back to the 25NL games.

In an effort to gain some insight I'm posing this question. Is this a common play from opponents at this level with a flush draw? This seems screwy to me but others at the table berated me for my bad read of the situation. Pleas comment on this.





Click here to view a larger version.

Up or Down

Still no MTT's played this week but I did start playing the $24 Turbo's and the $50NL games by the end of the week. I'm going to see how things go and I may split time and different levels for a while. I'm not going to update the stats for SNG's based on every 100 anymore. Since I may be switching out at varying levels it will just be easier to start doing the stats on a monthly basis, utilizing the stats from that month only along with year to date charts on occasion.

Speaking of year to date I was looking at my best and worst day of play since I started with the SNG's this year.

After 1,048 SNG's that ranged from $5 HU to $24 Turbo's
best day: $193.50 on February 1st
worst day: -$410.40 on May 23rd

It would be so much nicer if those numbers were reversed. It's amazing that I'm still up after such a big loss day. That day accounts for me having a 5.5% ROI overall for all money levels combined this year.

Multi Table Apathy

My enthusiasm for MTT play has been severely lacking lately. I played a total of five events in May and four of those were blogger donkaments. So far in June I've sat down for four tourneys. Again mostly blogger events. I'm in a MTT rut.

What was once my favorite game has been reduced to an effort in just throwing money away so I can move onto something else. I'm not sure what can be done to get the spark back. I'm tossing around the idea of putting some money on PokerStars and trying to qualify for the Sunday Million. Then I can just take the tournament dollars and play a bunch of events on someone else's dime. At any rate I'm done with the blogger events, at least for the next little while. I don't enjoy them and really just dump my chips anyway.

June Goal

The last goal I set for myself was back in March as I emptied my bankroll down to $300 in a effort to see if I could rebuild. I considered that goal a success at the end of April and have since just been playing the SNG's.

In an effort to give myself something new to look forward to I felt I had to address my weaknesses as a poker player. So in no particular order I came up with the following:

1) I'm very risk adverse. I know I cannot resupply my bankroll so if it ever runs dry I'll have to quit playing for a while. As a result I don't handle downswings very well. It also means I'm very cautious about putting my bankroll at risk.

2) I get bored quickly. No matter how much I want to play the game, after about an hour or so my mind starts to wander and I make critical mistakes. This has been my achilles heel in the cash games. This is also why the turbo SNG's work well for me.

3) Don't like to study. This is a bit of a fallacy. When something is new to me I consume as much information as possible. On the poker front I've been playing for several years and I just figure if I have the time to study the game, I have the time to play. I'm quite certain this is the reason I'm more of a feel player than a math player.

4) Pride/Ego. This has always been a problem for me. I simply don't like to lose and rarely do so gracefully. Combine this with being risk adverse and I can sometimes spiral downwardly out of control. I don't consider anyone, and I do mean anyone, to be a better player than I either am or have the potential to be.

With those highlights in mind I've approached my next goal with some careful planning.

I want to post a positive month in NL cash game play.

This may not seem like much a high reaching goal, but when the above listed issues have reared their ugly heads, I've been a cash game loser over my three years of play. So how do I plan to address each of the above issues in my new goal:

1) Going back to a philosophy I adhered to when I first began playing this game, I'm installing a stop loss. That will be in the amount of one buy in per session. It also means that I'm going to limit myself to one table at a time and in an effort to have as little regard for the money as possible I'm going to play $25NL 6 max.

2) To curb the boredom I'm going to limit each session to 60 minutes. This seems to be my threshold but I will allow flexibility if I feel I'm really into the game. I may also extend it if I'm just having my way at a table.

3) I really still don't like to study. I will make an effort to do reviews of key hands from each session though.

4) I'm hoping 1 and 2 take care of number 4.

I'm not giving up on my SNG play. In fact I have qualified for Iron Man status for seven months in a row so far and I don't want to lose that. To make up my points I'll be playing 16 $12 Turbos at least 5 days a week.

The Duece (Statistics)

After dropping back down to the $12 Turbos I've managed to finish up just over 200 of them. That means it's stats time. I've been on a bit of a tread water/slight downturn over the last 80 or so.

I know I've been making some mistakes early in the tourneys. These could be avoided by tightening up a bit more. I'm falling into the rut that usually involves me loosening up and seeing to much post flop play. I don't know if it's boredom induced but it consistently happens when I playing one form of poker exclusively. I'm toying with some RAZZ play on occasion to see if I can mix it up. I might also look into Omaha. We'll see.

Anyway here are the pretty charts and graphs.

Stats:
Ran: 207
ROI: 27.9%
ITM: 45.4%
Profit: $693.90

The ROI/ITM chart really shows the drop off. My 10% drop off in ITM has resulted in a 30% drop in ROI.


The finish distribution is still very acceptable.

Hostess Musical Chairs

Much in the same way Chris Moneymaker fueled the online poker explosion, the World Poker Tour fueled the TV poker scene. Aside from the table action and entertaining commentary the primary reason to watch this program was Shanna Hiatt. Her girl next door looks and charming demeanor won the lustful hearts of many youthful (and dirty old) viewers. It also didn't hurt that Shanna was a former Playboy model with photos easily accessible on the internet. Unfortunately the end of season three also brought the end of Shanna's rein on the WPT.

Cue Courtney Friel. With big shoes to fill Courtney never quite managed to fit in. She was a stiff interviewer and always looked like she was trying too hard. The players as well as the viewers never warmed up to her and after only one season she was gone.

Hopes were high when Sabina Gadecki stepped in for the fifth season. Bringing back the girl next door charm and free spirit she hasn't had enough airtime yet for the fans to make a judgement. Conversely the players had a full season with her and many, if not all, really liked her.

The WPT apparently did not and have replaced her with yet another hostess. Layla Kayleigh brings some television experience to the table via her stints on the G4 network. With knockout looks and a british accent the fanboys should be aplenty. Time will tell if she fits in but I'm thinking she won't. Early interviews seem to point to this just being a stepping stone she can use for exposure. Also having seen her on G4 in the past she has a tendency to let her bitchy side through on occasion.

I don't believe the music has stopped playing so look for a new hostess next year as the game continues.

So You Had A Bad Day

Let's see... 29 SNG's played, 26 Out of the money, 18 in a row without a cash.

I now have a new single worst day ever.

At first I thought I was playing bad, then I thought I was getting sucked out on. I turned to Poker Tracker for the answer and loaded up the 18 consecutive losses. Nine losses were a result of me being behind when the money went in. Two were lost coin flips. Seven were losses where I was at least at 70% favorite.

Lost the ones I should have, couldn't call a coin flip, and lost the ones where I was a heavy favorite.

Bad day indeed.

I've gone from a 30% ROI at the $24 level after 69 tournaments, to a -4.1% ROI after 111 tournaments. I'm not going to bother with the graphs like I usually do because it's just to depressing.

For the immediate future I'm going to step down to the $12 SNG's until I can right the ship.

What Have You Learned

There are a few things you learn about poker from playing a decent amount of SNG's:

1) How to take a beat - Since SNG's are primarily a preflop game you really begin to develop a deep understanding of hand probabilities. Everyone who studies the game knows that there are few preflop dominant hands and nothing emphasizes this more than SNG's. The beats can really seem sick sometimes but if you can't handle them, you won't be a long term winner.

2) There is great value in mid range connectors - This relates back to number one. Do to the preflop nature of the game you will often be seeing all five cards. With this knowledge drawing hands gain value since you cannot be "bet" off your hand on later streets. This has also led to the opening up of my MTT game. Almost every tourney I play now (which hasn't been that many lately) I'm able to effectively trap my opponents and gain a decent chip stack early. This leads to the security needed to play more flops in the mid to late stages.

3) Aggression matters - Although aggression matters in all forms of poker, the SNG is aggression taken to the next level. I would never dream of limping into a pot in a SNG. Fold equity becomes paramount in the later stages and that fact must be exploited at every opportunity.

4) Being a Donkey is a good thing - Ok, hear me out. I don't mean that actually "being" a donkey is a good thing. I mean that if your opponents are incapable of understanding your play and often "call" you a donkey, then that's a good thing. To go along with this... never explain your actions to an opponent. You may have a completely valid reason for playing the way you did, but if his notes on you simply say "donkey", you have an advantage.

These things are paramount to success. Without the knowledge to wield them properly you simply cannot survive the SNG jungle.

We Actually Got Along

What an incredibly nice weekend trip with the family. In fact we were having such a good time we extended the trip a day. Mount Rushmore was nice but I'd have to say I liked the Crazy Horse exhibits better.

Anyway I have a few things to cover here today. First some poker, then I've been "tagged" with that 7 things you didn't know deal.

Poker: A few days off is exactly what I needed. Since getting back I've moved up to the $24 turbos and I've been doing pretty well. When I manage to hit 100 of them I'll post the usual stats.

Tag: Slimeface tagged me and I've decided to actually put some thought into these seven items people probably don't know about me. I try not to post too much personal stuff on here since it's supposed to be a poker blog but here we go. (oh and this could be kinda long winded in spots)

1. When I was younger I was considered to be a talented singer. In the summer of 1986 (the summer after my high school graduation) I toured with a group called America's Youth In Concert. This is an annual tour group that travels across Europe performing concerts. Sadly for me 1986 was also the year that Muamar Quadafi was threatening all Americans traveling outside the US. As a result we toured the east coast and Canada. It did afford me the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall and at the 100 year anniversary of the Statue Of Liberty at Ellis Island.

I recieved music scholarship offers from several schools but eventually decided to attend the University Of Wyoming with my friends. While in college we performed Carmina Burana at Lincoln Center. I was also a founding member of the Centennial Singers. After college I never performed again. I think my Dad was always disappointed about that.

2. I once helped a guy who had been shot. After leaving home for college my parents moved to Denver, Co.. So I could havespending money my Dad began delivering the Rocky Mountain News in the mornings. When I got home for Christmas break I took over the route. To deliver the papers I would recline my passenger seat all the way, stack the papers on it, and then stop in front of the houses and chuck the papers from my car.

One morning I saw someone sitting on a porch and they began stumbling to my car when I stopped to throw the paper. I assumed the guy was drunk and had locked himself out of his house. I rolled down the passenger window to ask if he needed help and he immediately opened my door and collapsed into the seat. He told me he had been shot and asked me to take him to the hospital. Problem was I didn't live there and had no idea where a hospital was. The guy also reeked and kept punching the roof of my car from the reclined seat. He also kept calling me "Curly" for some unknown reason. If I had curly hair or was even bald it would make sense, but I had long straight hair at the time.

Not having a clue where I was going I just went to the first major street and started flying down the road looking for a cop. The whole time the guys screaming, "Help me Curly!", and bleeding all over the papers. I eventually blew by a cop traveling in the opposite direction. I was going about 40MPH over the speed limit and the cop didn't even hit his brakes and try to pursue me. I had to turn around and chase him down. When the cop finally stopped I got out and ran to him. He looked over to my car and since the passenger seat was reclined he didn't see anyone. Eventually the guy punched the roof again and the cop saw his arm. He called for backup and waited for them to arrive before getting out of his car.

It turns out the guy had been shot five times by his girlfriend and had wandered for about two miles banging on doors trying to get someone to help him. After the Ambulance took him away I drove the police to the house where I found him. The woman in the house told the police someone was banging on the door. When she looked out she saw two men push a guy into a sedan and drive away... So much for credible eye witness reports.

Afterwards I salvaged all the non bloody papers and finished the route.

3. I was kicked out of college after the first year. During my first semester I pledged to Sigma Nu fraternity and quickly discovered alcohol, partying, and smoking. Since I have an addictive personality this took over my life and I quit attending all but two of my music classes after about a month. At the end of the semester I had only passed four classes. These were my two music classes as well as Macro Economics and Political Science. I had the option to make the final count for 100% of my grade in the later two classes so that's how I passed them. (yeah, I'm that smart)

I began the second semester on academic probation. This didn't matter to me though because I had now discovered drugs. Not hardcore drugs but weed and mushrooms mostly. These began to consume my life and during the second semester I only passed my two music classes.

I was summarily booted from college and pissed away all of my opportunities. Two years later I attended a business trade school specializing in computer courses. I graduated that with a 4.0. Since then I haven't done any drugs and I don't drink but maybe twice a year at social functions. I also quit smoking in 1999 for the birth of my daughter.

4. I tried cocaine once. I liked it so much I knew I could never do it again.

5. I don't like people. Most of this stems from the fact that I am now an introvert. This flies in the face of my youth as I was very outgoing and personable. I believe it all stems from the fact that after my first marriage ended I traveled for about a year with the company I work for. Most of this time was spent in South America and Spain. Since I don't speak Spanish, when I wasn't working (with an interpreter) I would be sightseeing and wandering alone. I spent so much time alone and in hotel rooms that even now I believe as long as I had my laptop and internet access I could live alone on a deserted island and be perfectly happy.

6. I am now on my second marriage and have three wonderful children. If I was ever to get divorced again I would never remarry. (see post above).

7. My current wife thought I was gay when she met me. Since I don't go out of my way to talk to people my wife had to approach me to ask me out (she thought I could be her safe gay guy friend). Let me explain: I lived in a town house community at the time and my roommate was also a coworker. He was also somewhat of an introvert and neither of us talked to our neighbors or got to know anyone. Everyone would just see two guys who were always fairly well dressed who were in their early thirties living together. They just assumed we were gay. Had they ever seen the inside of the town house they would have seen the carnage of a typical bachelor pad, but of course no one ever did.

My son from my first marriage lives with me during the summer and my wife was the lifeguard at the complex pool. She would see us at the pool together all the time and since everyone told her I was gay she just believed it. She invited my son and I to go the the county fair with her and her son. Two weeks later I was practically living at her place and the rest is history.

I guess that about does it.

The Other Shoe

Have you ever known things were going so well that something bad just had to happen?

It's really inevitable. The good side of variance leaves you wondering when things will finally swing to the bad side. I've often felt this way, but not on the magnitude that I've felt it lately. I've wondered about it so much that I've been very tentative about playing. I have this fear that I'll go on this horrible run and lose all the scratch I've built up over the last few weeks. It's resulted in my pushing some edges I just shouldn't be pushing.

I'm down. Not a whole lot mind you. I've been burning about $50 a day so I'm not bleeding out, just steadily losing fluid. My mindset is kinda screwed right now. Fortunately the family is taking a weekend trip to Mt. Rushmore (paid for with poker winnings) so I'll have 3 days of no poker play. That should help clear things up and I can start fresh next week.

Statistical Anomoly

Even after mentioning my incredible run it has continued. Deep down I know I'm running on the very high end of variance but damn I hope it last forever.

With the completion of my first 100 $12 Turbo SNG's I present the stats:

Ran: 100
ROI: 57.6%
ITM: 56.0%
Profit: $690.90

Told you I was running well. That works out to $36.17 an hour, by comparison I should really be at around $12 an hour based on my performance at the $6.50 SNG's.

It's not all blind luck and winning coin flips. I've really felt that I've been on top of knowing when to switch gears. I've adapted very well to my tables lately and that has really been a boost to the confidence level. Confidence fuels ones innate abilities and that's always a good thing.

The Screenshots tell the tale.

Superstition

I almost hate to post this. I'm running so incredibly hot in the SNG's right now I'm afraid if I tell anyone I'll crash and burn.

My sample size is still low for the $12 turbos. 60 tourneys to be exact. In that 60 I've managed a 53.3% ITM and a 44.4% ROI. That comes out to over $26/hour when I'm playing. That's a slight bit more than I make in my real job.

When reality decides to snap back I should settle down to a more believable 20% ROI. The run is nice, and I hope it lasts, but all good things do eventually come to an end. The players are a bit worse at this level than they were at the $6.50 turbos. I suppose most recreational players play the $12's and those that are struggling to really learn play the $6.50's. It's not all that suprising that it works out that way.

Anyhoo, my good fortune has resulted in some good bankroll building and I'm now at $1,038.08. It took me 49 days to go from $300 to just over $1,200 (I withdrew 200 a few weeks back). That is certainly a lot faster than I did it when I started this blog way back when. I will therefore consider this bankroll building experiment a success!

Recent Success

I've been on a bit of a tear lately. Last night playing in the PSO league and also in The Mookie I managed to final table both. In the league event I was a dominant chip leader through most of the tournament and then got unlucky at the final table. In The Mookie I held the chip lead as well for quite a while but then I tightened up to much when we were down to the final two tables. This left me without enough ammo to mount much of a fight at the final table.

The two events were eerily similar.
PSO League:
71 entrants
180 Minutes of play
7th place

The Mookie:
73 entrants
182 Minutes of play
6th place

Pretty weird huh?

Anyway the $12 turbo SNG's have also been going well and my bankroll has seen exponential growth this week. I'm now up to $908.70.

Let's see how long it takes to give it all back :)

300

No this is not a review of the movie. I haven't even seen it. Instead I've reached the 300 milestone in $6.50 Turbo SNG's. Things have gone well so far and I think it's time to take a shot at the $12 SNG's. I've played a few already and I don't see a difference in the quality of play so I'll expect to maintain my previous results.

Stats:
Ran: 300
ROI: 18.5%
ITM: 42.3%
Profit: $361.20

Both my ROI and ITM have increased slightly over the last 100 SNG's so that a good thing.



I've also managed to lower my 4th place finishes and picked up the slack with 3rd place finishes. First is where you want to be but I'm glad to get over the 4th place finish hump.



Here is my winnings graph just because it looks purrty.

I'm Back?

Last nights Riverchasers tourney was a very fun, and very educational experience.

Staying true to my word I began the event with a much looser range than I normally would. I did not stay as passive as I had intended as the players were allowing me to be both loose and aggressive. It was quite the eye opening experience taking this tact from the very beginning. It also helped that I had hoyazo at my table for most of the time. He stated that he would be playing tighter than a mouses ass till we reached the points so I took advantage of his big blind at every opportunity. He only played back at me once and I went ahead and released my hand. He then showed "the hammer", but I'm alright with that. I took much more from him than I gave.

I found that in order to really play this style I had to pay much more attention to my opponents than I usually do. I always try to pick things up, but this time I really had to put my opponents on ranges. This worked out swimmingly and I was able to adapt to each player pretty easily.

There were only three hands throughout the entire tournament where I knew preflop what I wanted to accomplish, and how I was going to play post flop. Of these three hand I played one incorrectly and won, played one correctly and won, and finally played one correctly and lost. I've thought about discussing the one I played incorrectly but I'm going to wait and see if any other bloggers mention the hand before I address it. This is the first hand in the tournament that hoy actually used the chat window so it may be mentioned.

I hit a real rough spot near the end where I thought I would bust out before the money. I made a correct read and got unlucky. This left me last in chips but the same player later doubled me up to put me in the top 3 so it worked out.

When we hit the final table I decided to approach it like I would a SNG. This led me to make some plays that others may have viewed as reckless or incorrect, but I was shooting for first place and I was going to do what I thought I needed to get there. This worked out for me until we were down to the final three. I had 65% of the chips in play at this point

Dry Patch

In consideration of my recent MTT drought I've decided to completely rework my game.

Up until this point my strength has been preflop play. I've done an adequate job in the past and posted some decent yet moderate results. I also believe this is why I tend to play the SNG's well. They are primarily (especially in the turbo's) a preflop game.

My admitted achilles heel is postflop play. Although I've admitted this before nothing was ever really done to correct the issue.

Now I'm taking drastic steps. I'm going to adopt a preflop strategy that would be considered by many "experts" to be that of a donkey. That is to say I'm going to become a loose passive preflop player. Or as I like to call it, "Starting Hands By Gavin Smith". Now I'm no expert, but I'm also not an idiot. I'll try my best to avoid total domination situations unless of course I feel I can get paid off when my hand hits.

This new line will force me to become more comfortable with postflop play in MTT's. The structure of online tournaments generally does not leave much wiggle room in stack to blind ratios. If I can build a stack early I should be able to exploit more situations. This will also more than likely lead to earlier exits than I'm used to. Of the rooms I currently play at UltimateBet offers the best early round structure. They also offer a decent quantity of low buy in events so I'll mostly play there.

As always wish me luck and we'll see if I can learn something along the way.

Really

Upon reading Negreanu's latest blog post I said to myself, "Gee your life must suck."

Change of Pace

My rakeback payment was deposited into my Full Tilt account the other day. I knew it was going to drop since I had dropped my limits but I didn't realize the extent of the... ummmm... droppage?

A glorious $26.22 in rakeback was all I mustered last month. It would probably serve me better to work on my UltimateBet bonus than work toward the rakeback.

The SNG's have continued to work well for me but I'm dumping all my profits into losing MTT's, so I'm not making much progress. I'm also starting to grow weary of continuous SNG's and I've been feeling that itch to play the cash games again.

With that in mind I decided to play at UB and clear some of my bonus playing NL. I wanted to control my bankroll and considering my previous cash game records I decided to play a single table of $25NL. After 569 hands I had lost $7.44. Actually not to bad considering I was down about $50 at one point. I've forgotten the frustration of grinding out the small pots only to make one mental error and lose it all. Fortunately I cleared $5.89 in bonus so it was close to a break even endeavor.

I think I'll still play the cash game one or two days a week though so I can have some variety.

Oh, before I forget. Due to my oldest boy getting a myspace page I decided to get one as well. I'm going to use for personal blogging and the poker content will stay here. Feel free to check me out at my MySpace page.

bankroll: $357.92

Don't know why I bother playing this stupid ass idiotic fucked up poor excuse for a game anyway.

One Of Those Days

Today was one of those days that you wish would never happen. Every move is wrong, every dominant hand is cracked. It happens, It sucks, Get over it.

Bankroll: $285.87

I hope the Mookie turns out better

Hoy Lesson Learned

Never Ever... Ever... believe that your opponent might actually not make a donkey move just because it's a blogger tournament. Always think of your opponents in the lowest common denominator and you will be fine.

Lesson Learned

Disconnect Blues

I've played several MTT's this week with little success. I haven't played any in a while so it took a little adjustment switching from the SNG mentality.

In the short term my journey back to the MTT realm has been negative EV. Last night marked my first cash of the week and I did it in true grinder fashion as the best hand I saw preflop was pocket nines. It took everything I had to not get impatient and blow away my chances. In the end I went out 74th in a field of 826 for a small cash.

The SNG's continue to treat me well but I've been bitten by the MTT bug. As much as I'd like to play some every night I'm going to stick to the Blogger tourneys for the most part. At least until my bankroll is to a more comfortable level.

bankroll: $351.77

Current Build - 200

I've gone over the 200 mark in SNG's since restarting the bankroll. So far things are running very smoothly. I've mixed in a few $12 and $24 SNG's when I was rushed to make my full tilt points a few times. These are still outside my bankroll but I was fortunate enough to not lose to much when I played them.

I spent a bit to much on tournament entry fees over the last week so I gave back about a $100 in bankroll that I really couldn't afford. I am still up though from my last bankroll entry on March 27th so I can't complain too much.

Stats:
Ran: 207
ROI: 16.6%
ITM: 41.1%
Profit: $259.80

My ROI and ITM is down just slightly from my 100 SNG mark but I'm staying pretty consistent. Consistency is good.


The finish distribution is flushing out a little more now. My wins are increasing but so are my fourth place finishes.

Answers

I haven't played much poker over the last few days. I had to take my mother to the hospital on Friday. She has chronic back pain and she was having pain which was more severe than usual. She's still at the hospital but I should be able to take her home tomorrow.


I've gotten a few comments that I would like to address in lieu of poker content.

First up was Grinder who posed the following comment:

"I'm surprised your ROI is only 17% when you ITM is 42%. Seems you should be winning more often. I wonder if you are playing too tight so you are getting ITM with a small amount of chips instead of begin the whale."

I will admit to playing a bit tighter near the bubble than I used to. A year ago I would have been attacking as much as possible at the bubble but I've since felt a slight adjustment was needed. That's not to say I am a nit who has the smallest stack when the money hits. I would estimate that about 75% of the time I am not the short stack when the final three are left. With that said I am not the biggest either most of the time. The majority of the time I am in second place and I'm quite comfortable with that.

In the post the comment referred to I had a frequency of finishes: 1st=14.4 2nd=13.5 3rd=14.4
This is pretty flat, but now that I've added another 80 tourneys it looks a bit different: 1st=16.1 2nd=11.7 3rd=13.9
My current ITM is 41.7% and the ROI is 19.6%

Brian then posed the following:
"Good stuff, but one thing I might suggest is that you worry a little bit less about your day to day results."

hmmm... I'm not. I would consider this blog to be of the "diary" variety as opposed to a "strategy" one. If you look back through the archives to the beginning of this blog you would see that I often posted daily results in the beginning. Since I've made a point out of starting over with my bankroll and "beginning again", I've decided to follow in the same vein and try to post a "diary" of the play on a daily basis.

I can see how this might be misconstrued as results oriented. I will admit that after a brutal day of losses it is difficult to look at the big picture, but I've been around long enough to know that it's the cumulative that matters, not the immediate.

Well that's it. Go read one of the guys I mentioned above. Go on. Scram. Git. Scidaddle.

Business As Usual

Since my last update I've managed to maintain a decent ROI. Today I had to throw in some 11+1 SNG's to make my nut. I managed to go 1 of 4 in these for a small profit. It looks like the play is comparable to the 6.50's so when my bankroll is ready I should be able to make the transition easily.

I have to say I was very disappointed Sunday that the WPBT event was at 8pm and not 9pm. I could have played at 9, but I wasn't home from work yet at 8. I know it wasn't the organizers fault but RAZZ is my second best game so I was looking forward to it.

Bankroll: $333.25

Stat Time

After todays session I've gone over 100 SNG's so it's time to reveal my status.

On the bankroll front I finally had to withdrawal $200 so after play today I have $286.85. It was basically like giving up my rakeback so that's not too bad. Sadly my reduced play is going to result in very little rakeback for this month.

Onto the numbers:
Ran: 111
ROI: 17.5%
ITM: 42.3%
Profit: $126.30

The ROI and ITM graph is looking good. The bad streak I had at the beginning is rather accentuated but I've made a nice comeback.



The finish distribution doesn't look to bad. My ninth place finishes were boosted a bit today as I saw a rather large number of 3 outers hitting. The graph for these turbo's is a bit different as compared to the ones from my outings at the "regular" SNG's. Previously I was seeing a bump in the 6th place finish position but now it's in the 4 spot. I'm also looking a little flat when I get to the money. It appears as though I could end up in any position once I hit the money.

A Beautiful Day On The Felt

A very nice day. Ran my 16 SNG's for a 81.7% ROI. Unlike yesterday I managed to cash in all four tables on my last set. 68.8% ITM to go along with it.

Down Day

Ran 16 SNG's today for a -22.1% ROI. I was holding my own and running close to break even for the day when I failed to cash in my last set of four. When I was heads up in one of my SNG's my opponent criticized my heads up play. I started down 3:1, got a little ahead, and then managed to lose.

I let it get in my head and then I pressured myself to do well in the last set.

That never works out for me.

I won't know how much of my bankroll I'm going to have to withdrawal until Friday. So until then, no bankroll updates.

P.S. I redesigned the blog. If your just reading the RSS feed go check it out and let me know what you think.

All A Twitter

I have to withdrawl $250-$300 from my bankroll today to cover some unforeseen expenditures. I'm not sure where that is going to leave me but I'll have a little bit of bankroll left. I'll update more on it tomorrow.

In the mean time I've set up a twitter account. This will allow me to do the things I've wanted to do but don't have the time for on this blog. Think of it as microblogging with the cellphone. This will be little blurbs or thoughts that I have that don't require the thought of a full blog post here. Check out my profile page and join my followers list if your interested.

If you have a twitter page let me know so I can join yours.

A Good Day

After taking yesterday off from the felt I waded through 16 SNG's today. I'm really liking these turbo's. I wish I would have tried them earlier. Now that I've written that you can expect horror stories to follow in the next few days.

Today's ROI: 29.8%
Bankroll: $411.84

Count The Ways

Let's see... I spent $34.80 to win one $26 token and then couldn't convert it into anything. Then I spent $8 on a $1 rebuy tourney and was kicking ass and approaching the money when the only player that could bust me at the table did. (AA vs. flopped set)

To finish up the day I played 5 $6.50 SNG's and managed a 99.4% ROI. If only that was possible over 500 of them.

Bankroll: $387.34

Quick Note

I have played virtually no poker since Sunday. I decided to try out the 10 day demo for World of Warcraft and I can report that it's just as addictive as you've heard. I can easily see how people have lost themselves in the game. The quests are quick and you can always look forward to the next challenge. If you could get paid for killing beasts... it could be the next poker.

Speaking of poker, I'm getting back in the saddle today. I'm going to try to collect a few tokens and play a few tourneys. Nothing to involved but I'd like to play in the Big Game tomorrow night so I need to token my way in.

After some more ad money and rakeback payment my bankroll sits at: $397.84

Eleven In A Row

Eleven in a row. That would be the number of SNG's that I consecutively did not cash in today. I then had two firsts and a second to end the day with fourteen played and an ROI of -22.9%. Use yesterday SNG's and I went sixteen without a cash. That's got to be close to the worst streak I've ever had.

I've got the Anti-Midas touch.

Bankroll: $223.16

Best Article In A Long Time

This is by far the best article on poker that I have read in a long time. It rings especially true for me considering my last few months. Go read it.

A Magical Mind

Progress

Stayed away from cash games entirely today and it makes me wonder why I even bother with them. I've been so fixated on maintaining my iron man status at Full Tilt I've let my play suffer. I had to grind out the hours... get the points.

So I took a break today and played nothing but SNG's and a Razz Tourney. Finished very well in my 10 $6.50 turbo SNG's managing a 24.6% ROI. Played a $1 45 man SNG and final tabled but was bad beated out in 8th. Used my token today to try for a $75 token but went out ninth. The Razz tourney went poorly as I finished 30/49.

Bankroll: $238.66

Disaster

Wow...Wow...Wow

Words can't describe the depths to which I fell today. The reraises I saw with nothing but flush draws on the turn (which hit of course), the calling down with Ace high (which hit of course), gutshots, open enders, you name it, they chased it (and hit of course).

At this rate I'll be broke in two more days. Game over. Thanks for playing.

One turbo SNG played for a fourth place finish. 583 hands of shorthanded .5/1 played for -$105.45. My only profit was a $50 payment received for an ad.

Bankroll left: $229.41

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tighten up, or loosen up at these small shorthanded tables. The big winners I've tracked seem to be suckout artists at this point. Perhaps just SNG play and some forum research on these shorthanded tables will be in order for tomorrow.

If I Knew Then What I Know Now

How Many times have you said that? We all have. If we could just go back in time, things would be different.

Over the last few days I've been looking at my poker game in those terms. Could I start over and have even greater success? I looked back at my very first blog post and saw that when I started this blog I had a bankroll of $300. I managed to build that up to a nice sum over the years and I wonder if I could do it all again. Just start over.

The state of online poker is still largely uncertain and I want to challenge and enjoy myself while the ride still lasts. With that in mind I have emptied my poker accounts and left myself with $292.11 (and a $26 Full Tilt token). Not quite exactly $300 but with the odd amounts I had sitting in a few sites that's what was left after making withdrawals.

Things will certainly be different this time. Jumping to new sites to take advantage of bonus opportunities are no more. I do have pending bonus money at Absolute and UB due to reloads that are there. I also have the rakeback with Full Tilt now and a small amount from blog advertising. I can also trade in my iron man points for tokens or bonus money if I choose to so all that should offset the bonus whoring. It's probably even more than the bonus whoring yielded way back when.

So what's the gameplan? How will I use the money? For grinding out the Full Tilt iron man points I'm going to make .50/1 limit short-handed my grinding game. That allows me to play within the 300BB bankroll guideline. It does leave me a little thin playing 4 tables at once if I have a bad day on all tables at once. I should be ok with it though. For SNG's I'm going to follow a 45:1 guidline and for MTT's a 40:1 limit. That means with the current bankroll I'm at $6.50 for SNG's and $7.00 for MTT buy-ins. I'll try to collect tokens to play in higher buyins when I can.

Well that's it. Let's see what the future holds.