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:



Click here to view a larger version.

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.



Click here to view a larger version.

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.




Click here to view a larger version.

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.