Going Forward In Reverse

Rather than looking back at the year that was, lets look forward at what will be. That's not to say that last year wasn't worth remembering. I had a very nice year at the tables. It's just that if anyone really wants to know, then read the archives. Personally, I'm more interested in what I will accomplish in the future.

The first part of this coming year has to be dedicated to bankroll building. After a rather expensive Christmas of giving, and receiving, I have left the bankroll in some sad shape. The total currently sits at $436.69. In order to be able to play the range of tables and tournaments that I want to I'm going to need about three times that amount. I'm not willing to put any money into the bankroll at this point so that means it's bonus whoring time. For the immediate future if I don't have a bonus or some other incentive to play at a site, I won't be playing there.

To go along with the bonus whoring, I've also decided to not play any ring games at a site if it is not supported by Poker Tracker. Being able to review all hands played will be important if I'm going to improve myself as I restart the building process. Taking this edict into account, I will have to give up some bonus money awaiting me at Titan and Noble. The bonus was substantial at Titan but I'm willing to give that up for the ability to review my hands in Poker Tracker. I may still play tournaments at these other sites, just no ring games. It's time to put that money I spent on the Poker Tracker Guide to good use. I may even begin doing daily updates. (The aforementioned was meant to be said with sarcasm.) But seriously, I might.

I've always been a devout proponent of having 300BB's at a limit before playing that level. I've fluctuated the levels I've played at in the past based on it. Having said that though, I'm going to break form and play $1/$2 with my $400 bankroll. I am very confident that my risk of ruin at that level is close to zero. I should be able to clear bonuses faster than playing at the .50/1 level as well. In order to feel comfortable with that decision though I'm going to have to make some sacrifices. Namely my recent Sit-N-Go adventures will now have to go on hiatus. I also can't afford to spend money on many multi-table tournaments.

I will continue to play in the weekly Kansas City Poker Club online tournaments which occur on Mondays. These are only $5 buy in events and usually there are only 6-8 of us even playing. In the 4 that I've played I've managed 2 wins and a second. I will also play the monthly KCPC live tournaments but I'm going to have to give up my monthly Casino play until I can get a live bankroll going.

Since I brought up a "live" bankroll, I've also decided to split my bankroll up a little. I will concentrate on bonuses and bankroll until I hit the $700 mark. I will then take $200 of that and create a "tournament" bankroll. This will be used for multi as well as single table tournaments. The goal is to have this bankroll be self sustainable so the buy-ins I play will be adjusted according to my comfort level within that confined bankroll. A third bankroll will be setup for "live" play. For the January tournament I will just pay out of pocket for the buy-in. For all future tournaments and casino play I will use an established bankroll which will also need to be self sustainable.

Once I have been able to establish each of the bankrolls I will begin to use my online ring game roll to delve more into the no limit arena. Online no limit was kicking my ass a little last year so I want to get in the black with those games as quickly as possible. I also want to get in the black at 5/10 but it may take a while to get back to that level.

Of course all of this will be dependent on my doing something I've never been able to do before. That is to leave my bankroll alone. I hope to take a weekend in Vegas come March and then perhaps take a trip out during the WSOP. These trips need to be paid for entirely by the poker bankrolls. Everything from the plane tickets to the food I eat. That means no screwing around and building as quickly as possible.

After taking a few weeks off I'm ready to get back into it. I will be playing at Check N Raise until my last $30 in bonus is retrieved. I'll then take advantage of the Full Tilt reload before the 4th. I currently have $650 in bonuses spread out among a few sites so after the Full Tilt reload I'll move onto those before taking advantage of another reload.

See Ya At The Tables

Ooops, I did it again

What did I do again you may ask. I cashed out most of the bankroll again, that's what. It will make for a Merry Christmas in my household but won't do anything to further my poker playing. As it stands though I probably won't be playing much for the rest of the year anyway. I leave on Saturday to pick up my son for the Holidays and he will be here till Jan. 1. That will be family time so other than maybe a few short hours I won't be playing for the rest of the year.

I'm working on a plan for next year that will involve some serious effort. I want to start with what I have left in Neteller and build it into something meaningful. It won't be anything as ambitious as some of these project 100K's you read about, but I have certain performance, not necessarily monetary, goals in mind. I'll finalize the plan of action and post it up when I'm ready after the new year.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Dismal

That would be the way to describe this week of poker for me. Nothing seemed to go my way at the cash games or the SNG's. Rather than drone on about details no one, including myself cares about. I present this weeks $20 SNG numbers.

47 played
6 wins
5 seconds
6 thirds

ITM 36.17%
ROI 0.97%
$10.00 profit

Just stellar.

Fuckin Bluff Poker Tour

I probably shouldn't be writing this right now as I am very pissed off but I have to vent. One of the final two events has been cancelled without an apparent reschedule. Since I am 115 points behind the leader, and the most points given per event is 100, it is now impossible for myself, or anyone else to catch the points leader. Bluff magazine is giving the current leader the three seats without completion of the advertised tour.

The way my multi game has been going recently I'm not overly confident in my chances to take the lead in the end, but I shouldn't be robbed of the opportunity without explanation or compensation. I invested months of effort and followed the tour to some really crappy poker sites because I wanted a shot at those seats. Now the Bluff Magazine people are just cutting the tour short. No one from the magazine has offered an explanation even on it's own forums. It's like they just don't give a shit. They got what they wanted out of the thing so fuck the participants.

If I'm wrong about this and I hear otherwise I'll state so here, but until then I'm really disappointed. The final stop is next week at PokerRoom.com. With an added prize pool I'll go ahead and play for the money. I'll finish out the season and play the one seat freeroll since if the rules are actually followed I should begin with a chip advantage. I've invested too much time and effort to walk away at the end.

I hope I'm wrong and I hear something soon.

First Results for Twenty

I just ended my first week of $20+2 SNG's. I'm very pleased with the overall results but I was suprised to see that my 2nd place finishes were outnumbering my 1st's. Whenever I get down to heads up I feel that I am the favorite. I'll need to go back and look at the hand histories to determine if I was playing badly or getting unlucky.

Toward the end of my $10 SNG's I was able to settle into a rythm that has carried forward to the $20's. At first I was struggling with playing two heads up matches at the same time. As I worked through that I tried to find a way of multi tabling. I read that others were recommending a staggering of the start times by 15 to 20 minutes, but that wasn't working out well for me. I found that I needed to start 3 tables, one after the other, in order to play efficiently. This allowed the start time of the first table to be within 3 to 5 minutes of the last one. I found that it was important to me to have all of the tables within the same blind structure so I could transition fluidly from one to the next. Playing two heads up situations has become easier but my heart rate still climbs when I'm down in the money on all three.

Here are the results:
30 played
6 wins
7 seconds
2 thirds

ITM 50.0%
ROI 50.0%
$330.00 profit

I'll take a look at the hand histories and talk a little about the differences I'm seeing between the $10 and $20 level in a future post.

Quick Note

I just got around to catching up on my blog reading. I know you already read iggy's blog but on the off chance you don't....

this is, in my opinion, the best post he has ever written.

How Much Is My Blog Worth?

My blog is worth $7,339.02.
How much is your blog worth?

I wish I could sell it for that much :)

updated: 01/07/06

$20+2

Didn't have to spend long at the 10+1 level to meet my goal. I'm now going to spend an extended period of time at the $20 SNG's so I can get a good reading of where I'm at.

$10+1 Stats:
24 played
7 wins
2 seconds
2 thirds

ITM 45.83%
ROI 53.41%
$141.00 profit

Template Update

It's only been 362 days since I last updated my blogroll so I finally got around to doing a refresh. Not a whole lot has changed but the blogs listed are the ones I'm reading now. If you don't have an RSS feed I no longer read you, sorry.

Going to 11

Finally won 10 buyins at the $5 level sit-n-go's. Took me longer than I expected but now I'm moving to the $10+1's. I plan to work toward the 10 buyin mark at this level as well and then I'll camp out at the $20-$30 level. A decent amount can be won at that level and that should get me through christmas. Here's the final $5 level stats:

92 played
16 wins
12 seconds
7 thirds

ITM 38.04%
ROI 13.2%
$66.75 profit

The ROI is low but I'm happy with the fact that the majority of my money finishes are wins. Still out performing the stock market though so my moneys in the right place. :)

Saturday Night Live and SNG

The Kansas City Poker Club was an excercise in futility as I busted out within the first three on Saturday night. I then ventured to the local Harrah's for some no limit play and placed myself on the waiting list. Two hours later and down $40 from video poker my name was called for the 1/2 no limit. When you think 1/2 no limit one would normally envision the blinds to be $1/$2. This is not the case. At Harrah's this refers to the table buy-ins of $100 min and $200 max. The blinds are then $2 and $5.

Didn't play a hand for the first two orbits then got someone to double me up. It was really the only notable hand of the night. I was in the Big Blind holding pocket Aces. It folded around to the cut off who called and then the SB went all in for his last $23. I called hoping to bring along the CU. He suprised me by raising it to $50 and I reciprocated with a bump to $100. He then pushed all in and he knew he was in trouble with my immediate call. He flipped up pocked K's and the small blind had AJ suited. My hand held up for almost a double up. I managed to take in another $100 over the course of the next two hours and decided to call it a night. The table was next to the rail and with all the smokers hanging out at the rail I quickly developed a headache. As a former smoker I find smoking all the more irritating.

A quick $300 for three hours work which allowed me to buy a GPS Unit. We are goint to start GeoCaching as a family activity. This should be fun and educational activity for the kids as well as get us out of the house.

The Sit N Go playing started out cold but got hot at the end. Lack of time kept me from playing many games but here are the stats for this week.

25 played
5 wins
4 seconds
0 thirds

ITM 36%
ROI 12.2%
$16.75 profit

Finally

I haven't been playing any multi table tournaments lately except the Bluff events, WWdN, and Pauly tournaments on the weekends. I have had absolutley no success in any of these lately but last night I managed my first final table in quite some time. In fact I was in a zone that I haven't been in for quite a while. You know what it's like, right moves at the right times, making the tough laydowns and betting better hands out of the pot.

I expected to fire up the computer and play in the WWdN last night but it was already over when I went to sign up. I must have missed the memo on the earlier start time. Feeling the urge to play a tourney I found a $10+1 w/ 1 rebuy and 1 add-on starting at PokerStars. I took advantage of both options and had a total buy-in of $31. My stack size stayed within the top 15 for most of the tournament and after 739 players were eliminated we were at the final table. Going into the final table second in chips I had a lot of confidence that victory was imminent. First hand in I put a small stack to the test with my pocket 9's when the flop came 8 high. He ended up all in and his pocket 10's had me dominated. This left me as the short stack and I went about fighting my way back to about even with the bottom 3 players. I held my own until getting down to six players. I was in the BB with pocket 6's and it folded around to the chip leader in the SB. He raised and I pushed. His pocket 9's had me dominated and I was out in 6th.

A nice little $750 win and more than the money, it reminded me that I am capable of playing an excellent tournament game. My bad run in the Bluff events recently has had me down and I needed this confidence boost. Tonight I have the Kansas City Poker Club tournament in Olathe, after which I will head to Harrah's for some live no limit.

Boredom the Giant Killer

Found another leak in my SNG strategy...Boredom. If I don't have other tables open to occupy myself in the early levels I just play to many hands. This leads to either going out very early or building a big stack. This unfortunately is not how I like to play so I've gone to having 2 limit tables open for bonus whoring while I play 1 SNG. This has worked well over the last two days as I've managed to money in 5 out of 9 with no 3rd place finishes.

The Bluff event last night completely sucked. The structure was way to fast for my liking as we were at the 50/100 level a half hour into it. I didn't check the final finish but if the player to my right kept catching like he did early on their was going to be no stopping him. All 5 players atop of the leader board were out before the first break. This means I'm still in second but I have a very large uphill battle ahead. I've read on the forum that a new site has been added to replace one of the later events. It is a skin on the same network as Doyle's Room. Problem is that network does not allow you to have accounts on more than one skin. I'm sure that the usual ways of getting around this will still work but the Bluff Magazine people really need to address the leaks in this format. If they take away another points event, like PokerShare, then the race for the win will really be a sham.

Week 1 of Sit n Go's

Started with a roar but ended with a whimper. I went on a bad run after a stellar start and barely finished up. I have discovered that I'm calling to many bets in the early rounds and being too aggresive (without thinking, there's nothing wrong with smart aggression) in the later. I believe I've been able to work through most of it as I was able to money in the last few I played on Saturday night.

Here's the stats:
42 played
5 wins
6 seconds
5 thirds

ITM 38.1%
ROI 3.25%
$7.50 profit

Sad state of affairs but I fully believe that next week will be better.

Falling Behind

Quackpot had another final table finish on the Bluff Tour last night. This is going to make catching him a daunting task with only 5 events left. I should remain in second place after last night but his lead will now be stretched to over 100 points when the standings are updated. It's a bit dissapointing after leading for most of the tour, but I only have myself to blame.

I wasn't getting much in the way of cards last night but I did get AK three times. I had to lay it down the first two when the flop missed me and I was faced with aggression. The third time I should have layed it down. I hit my A on the flop but another player flopped two pair and I was out in 41st. Only 58 players were present so my finish was less than spectacular.

I'm continuing to hammer out some SNG's when I get the chance. I couldn't play on Wed. because I spent 16 hours at work. I played 6 last night and ended up down a little as I only cashed in two of them. I think I'll hold off on posting stats until the end of the week.

And You Lose Some

Two days in a row of great success wasn't meant to be. It was kind of odd yesterday...I started out by firing up 2 SNG's at the same time and finished 2nd in both. I then fired up 2 more and finished 4th in both of those. Two more and I finish 6th in both of those. Another 2 and 5th place in both of them. Anyone seeing a pattern here. I decided to quit for the afternoon and played just one more at night before going to bed. I won that one so my net for the day was exactly $0. No win, No Loss.

The only real thing I took out of the days play was that I don't like playing heads up on two tables at the same time. Too many decisions to make and the pace is too much. I'm pretty sure that's why I finished second in both of them. I was fairly confident that I was the better player at at least one if not both of those tables.

Make Up Your Mind

I discovered that working 68 hours a week and trying to tackle no limt ring games at the same time..and I do mean same time. As in playing while at work. Surprisingly this is detrimental to winning. Who da thot. :)

Since the work schedule isn't likely to change all that much in the coming weeks or months I need to stick to what I know for now, with a twist. Sticking to what I know will entail playing low limit poker to clear that $1,000 in bonus money I have laying around at various sites. The twist is that I'm going to start playing sit n go's and more multi table tournies.

When I can sit for 4 or 5 hours...like at work, I'll play MTT. When I have less time I'll try to knock out some SNG's. I'm enjoying a 46% ROI on the multi table touneys after playing 188 tournaments so far this year. The SNG's are another story though. I haven't played any in some time but year to date I'm at a -25% ROI after 111 of these.

On both fronts the buyins span from $0 to $100. Since I need a greater amount of work on the single table tournaments I'm going to start small with the $5.50 buyins at Poker Stars. The plan is to force myself to have success at each level before moving up. This brings up the question of what quantifies success at a level. I'm going to research this a little but if I manage to show enough profit at one level to support 10 buyins at the next I'll probably move up.

Anyway that's my plan and I'm sticking to it...unless I think of a new plan in which case disregard what I said earlier.

Swimming With Sharks

Having tested my footing at the online no limit tables I had the opportunity to check out some live play at the local Harrah's. The buy in is $100 min with a $200 max. The blinds were $2 and $5. This seemed a little steep for a $200 buy in but since everyone was working under the same restrictions I figured all was well. As luck would have it they opened up a new table just as I arrived so I sat immediately and got to work.

I found the play to be comparable to the $100 tables online and certainly superior the the live 3/6 tables. I managed to garner some respect from the regulars and had an overall excellent time. I played my first buy in down to $50 and rebought for another $100. I treaded water for a while when the following hand comes up. I play a standard raise from middle position with AA. I get a few callers and the flop comes A high with 2 clubs. The A of clubs was on board so I had no flush draw. Deciding to take down the pot I lead out with a pot size bet.

The loose aggressive button looked at the small blind and said, "I'm going to get him out of this pot." Referring to me of course. He then proceeded to push all in. It folds around to me so I reply, "If you make your flush you can have it" as I push my stack into the middle. We show our cards and sure enough he's on the nut flush draw. The turn is a harmless two but then the table erupts as a third club hits the board. I hold my head in disgust and am about to get up when my friend sitting to my left points out that yes it was a club, but it was also a 2 giving me the full house. This puts me back to around even and I continue to take down a few pots here and there.

As midnight approached (my self designated leaving time), I find myself $35 up and figured I'd just play till my blind. I then way...way...way overplay top pair to another loose aggressive and I find myself down $150. Vowing to get my money back I play until the table breaks at 3:30 am. I never got my money back but I did fight back to only $40 down. I had the opportunity to outplay my nemesis to pay me off a few times but he just refused to do it. He was a decent player but the cards were flowing his way all night and he was the monster stack with over $1,100 when we finally broke apart.

As players began to leave the table just wasn't filling up from the waiting list. When a floor came over one of the regulars asked what was going on and the floor replied that no one wanted to play at the Shark Table. I couldn't help thinking that if this is the Shark Table, I certainly belong here.

The Next Chapter

It's been a while since I've written about what I'm doing in the ring game arena, and much has changed.

The last time I wrote about the ring games I had just moved to the 5/10 limit level. I spent most of September trying to find my bearings but after 6,107 hands I was running down 1.78BB/100. This amount is roughly equal to the rake that's been paid during that time period. I was playing even with the players but losing the rake to the house. Nothing some study and concentration couldn't overcome but then..as usual...I had to dip into the bankroll. This left me with too little left to withstand any losses necessary to overcome the learning curve.

Moving back to 3/6 really wasn't all that appealing to me so I needed a new direction. I had always talked about making Omaha the next game I would delve heavily into. The money though, it seemed, was all at the no limit tables. Now I was a die hard limit player. The only no limit I played was in tournaments. Having had some success in these I figured no limit would be an easy transition.

At first it was. I started out playing the $100NL tables and met with early success. As has always been the case in my past poker experience...early success...translates into horrid downswings. I began by going on a nice run and finishing up seven buy ins my first week. During the course of the next two I would go on to lose fifteen.

Faced with an ever dwindling bankroll I dropped to the $50 tables. Here is where I have begun to find my way. A large problem I had for a few days after moving down was that I wasn't thinking in correct terms when it came to bets. In limit poker everything translates into small and big bets. In no limit you deal with the big blind preflop and the pot size post flop. Without being able to translate my wagers into these limit type finite bet numbers the actual dollar amounts were my only concern. I found it to easy to put money into the middle when the entire pot size was going to end up being smaller than an amount I was putting in preflop just weeks earlier. No limit has also put a new meaning to the words bad beat for me. Technically the donkeys chasing aren't any different, it's just that now I can lose an entire buy-in when one happens. When they happen in uncharacteristic succession it really puts a damper on the whole poker experience.

Finally, last night, I took a look at where my game is heading. The results I'm witnessing are very similar to the progression I went through as a starting limit player. My preflop numbers are now indicative of much tighter play than I had as a limit player. I'm also much more aggressive post flop. This aggression is both a blessing and a curse. I feel that if I am going to become successful at no limit I'm going to have to gain further control of that aspect of my game. I'm able to easily win the small pots but I'm losing to many big ones. Since there are so many more calling stations playing than I'm used to I have a hard time gauging the strength of my hand in relation to others. This then leads to a tendency of overplaying my holdings.

I have some work to do and I'm looking forward to the learning process. Hopefully it won't be a long process since I've gone through it before.

What does all this mean? Well I should have a reason to blog more now. It's almost like starting over and I'm going to have to spend more time looking at everything in Poker Tracker. This lends itself to needing a way to get everything to sink in...that's where the blog comes in. It used to be my way of expressing what I was trying to get into my thick skull. No reason why it can't be again.

In unrelated drivel - I'm sure everyone is up in arms over the PokerShare fiasco. As I liked to play my tournaments almost exclusively at UltimateBet by way of PokerShare, I no longer have my tournament bankroll. They say a check is on the way but that could take forever. In the mean time if anyone is looking to bankroll a moderately successful tournament player drop me a note.

Bogger Championship

I think I finished respectably at 42nd. I was pushing for at least 36th in this event so I could get one of the larger prizes but it wasn't meant to be. Short stacked at 24,000 I made a blind steal holding AJ. The chip leader, and eventual winner of the whole thing, reraised me all in and I felt I had to call. His QQ held up as I couldn't catch my Ace and that was it.

I think I will receive a tshirt or hat from PokerStars for my finish but I'm not 100% sure about that. Thanks to PokerStars for hosting this event and offering up the great prizes.