Good evening. Whilst railing Ptevey going deep in an MTT for the second day running, I thought why not provide the monthly update!
I have to repeat what I said in my last post. This month has been so so sick! I knew from when I started playing with the concept of a bankroll on FullTilt and was maintaining a good ROI that this poker malarky could be profitable, but I am astounded with how much I have made at the low levels!
The last few days I have been running so well heads up it's just wrong. I have won 30 of my last 34 heads up games (obviously 30 of my last 35 but why would I include a game 35 games ago!!!) and as such have finished the month with a flourish.
My roll = $1887.
Stats for June-
Games- 1,443
Avg Profit- $1.1
Avg Stake- $7
ROI- 14%
Total Profit- $1,585
Heads up- (Same order as above)
665
$1.46
$8
16%
$971
9- man SNG's-
740
$0.9
$6
13%
$668
Overall Pokerstars stats-
3,301
$0.87
$7
13%
$2,874
I am probably ready to move up in the 9-man Sit N Goes, but I may play a few more heads up SNG's and I'm not sure I am ready for the $22's yet, as I expect they will play very differently! I will just take it easy, do what feels good and hopefully next month's downswing won't be too severe and I hope I can have a few more upswings!
I have played a few more tournies over the last few days to no avail. In basically all of them I haven't really had cards or when I did have pairs they have attracted overcards and in nearly all of them I have finished pretty much middle of the road. Despite this, I feel like I am learning fast and hope to play a few more over the next month to improve and maybe hit a good return a.k.a luckbox my way to a big win!!
Thanks to all the people who read this and leave comments etc, I appreciate all the help and advice I receive! :-)
147_insert any good star gag here!
Monday 30 June 2008
Saturday 28 June 2008
sAt 'n' go
An unusually quick update on my blog!
Reason:-
I decided to play an $11 satellite to the Sunday Warm Up today after a couple of hours of uninspiring heads up sit n goes. After rocking it up early on and then doubling through with QQ against AJ I managed to chip up, delve a lead and on the final table dominate proceedings despite starting with just 9 BB (after taking a hit bluffing a rock!) to win a seat in the Sunday Warm Up. 6 handed I felt like I always had a shot despite the blinds getting big and I barely showed my cards to move from level 4th with 6 left to chip lead with 3 left (2 players getting seats!). Here the play was all pretty standard with me aggressing them both and finally after getting down to 3 BB the shortie pushed the button, I called with 7 2 in the SB and the BB also called. My 7 2 held to win a place and relieve the pain from coming 2nd in the 375FPP sat to the Sunday Million despite having a 4 to 1 chip lead heads up a couple of months before (with 2nd place winning sweet FA!!).
If I win these types of sats in August I hope to take the seat to take a few shots but building a roll is my priority atm, so I took the tournament dollars. A nice $215 to add to my roll, which has now reached $1716 :-)
I really think I should play a few of these Sats every week. Looking at thepokerdb.com I have played 10 sats on Stars and have won 4 for a total of $990 from roughly an initial $100 overall. I also bubbled that 375FPP one and bubbled another for $190 a few months back. I think the standard is quite poor and the games play very similar to a 9 man turbo for the most part. So therefore, I am going to have to get over the fact that my ITM will reduce and start looking for the most profitable areas of poker. In the same way, I may start attacking the 45 man SNG's because I haven't given these a proper go and I hope they could be very fishy!!
I have a couple of days of June left but to be honest it has gone so much better than I could have imagined. Hopefully I can have a good day of tournies 2moro but if not over $1500 profit on Stars in less than a month is overwhelming and I just hope I can run as good next month!! Especially as I should be moving up soon, so wish me luck!
A monthly update will recap and hopefully concisely summarise my last few posts on Tuesday, so look forward to that :-)
Much love,
147_.... of David
Reason:-
I decided to play an $11 satellite to the Sunday Warm Up today after a couple of hours of uninspiring heads up sit n goes. After rocking it up early on and then doubling through with QQ against AJ I managed to chip up, delve a lead and on the final table dominate proceedings despite starting with just 9 BB (after taking a hit bluffing a rock!) to win a seat in the Sunday Warm Up. 6 handed I felt like I always had a shot despite the blinds getting big and I barely showed my cards to move from level 4th with 6 left to chip lead with 3 left (2 players getting seats!). Here the play was all pretty standard with me aggressing them both and finally after getting down to 3 BB the shortie pushed the button, I called with 7 2 in the SB and the BB also called. My 7 2 held to win a place and relieve the pain from coming 2nd in the 375FPP sat to the Sunday Million despite having a 4 to 1 chip lead heads up a couple of months before (with 2nd place winning sweet FA!!).
If I win these types of sats in August I hope to take the seat to take a few shots but building a roll is my priority atm, so I took the tournament dollars. A nice $215 to add to my roll, which has now reached $1716 :-)
I really think I should play a few of these Sats every week. Looking at thepokerdb.com I have played 10 sats on Stars and have won 4 for a total of $990 from roughly an initial $100 overall. I also bubbled that 375FPP one and bubbled another for $190 a few months back. I think the standard is quite poor and the games play very similar to a 9 man turbo for the most part. So therefore, I am going to have to get over the fact that my ITM will reduce and start looking for the most profitable areas of poker. In the same way, I may start attacking the 45 man SNG's because I haven't given these a proper go and I hope they could be very fishy!!
I have a couple of days of June left but to be honest it has gone so much better than I could have imagined. Hopefully I can have a good day of tournies 2moro but if not over $1500 profit on Stars in less than a month is overwhelming and I just hope I can run as good next month!! Especially as I should be moving up soon, so wish me luck!
A monthly update will recap and hopefully concisely summarise my last few posts on Tuesday, so look forward to that :-)
Much love,
147_.... of David
Thursday 26 June 2008
Quick Update 2
When I write so much, I forget that I actually kept the title as quick update. I think I have broken a lot of statues regarding description of goods but I hope it is an interesting read anyway.
FINAL POINT:- If anyone else is going to play or try to sat into the $1million Turbo Takedown on Sunday I would firstly recommend it as it is very good value (5000FPP's is a lot but there are lots of I expect weak sats) and secondly post on here or wherever if you want to perhaps swap percentages of each other and we can try to get some value out of Pokerstars generosity.
Isaac special offer (only applicable if your name is Isaac and you run like God!) - 25% of your potential win for 2% of my potential win...u know that's +EV!
FINAL POINT:- If anyone else is going to play or try to sat into the $1million Turbo Takedown on Sunday I would firstly recommend it as it is very good value (5000FPP's is a lot but there are lots of I expect weak sats) and secondly post on here or wherever if you want to perhaps swap percentages of each other and we can try to get some value out of Pokerstars generosity.
Isaac special offer (only applicable if your name is Isaac and you run like God!) - 25% of your potential win for 2% of my potential win...u know that's +EV!
Quick update and some delightful hands!
Hi all. My account is on $1495.15 now, which I would have taken 1000000% at the start of the month, but I have been stuck in the $1400's the last few days which has annoyed me. I have made another $40 in a short session with a few mates to increase my live winnings (though it swiftly went towards a day out to the beach with the gf!!), mainly from one mate in particular who has more gamble in him than Lassey! (and nowhere near Lassey's ability)
To be fair to myself in this breakeven stage, I have been running pretty badly so I am always pleased to come out of the bad sessions breaking even. I was around the low-to-mid $1400's at the start of the night tonight but I continued to start my session with some $11 heads up (2 at a time) and after winning a few was over $1500 for the first time. Anyway, then followed 15 SNG's for a small loss which was pretty annoying seeing as in two of them i bubbled after having a dominating stack and one of them i snatched 2nd from the jaws of 1st (and one bastard I was sitting out of the whole time and still bubbled)! Can't dwell though, I know these things happen!
A couple of delightful hands in this session were promised, and I hope they won't disappoint.
The first one I just knew was going to happen pre flop and even on the flop. Seriously, I have a sick read on Pokerstars now!
PokerStars Game #18406043780: Tournament #93521318, $6.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2008/06/26 - 21:30:33 (ET)
Table '93521318 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 2: menaheme (2788 in chips)
Seat 5: mascherano10 (4386 in chips)
Seat 6: 147_star (2420 in chips)
Seat 9: Georgenia213 (3906 in chips)
menaheme: posts the ante 50
mascherano10: posts the ante 50
147_star: posts the ante 50
Georgenia213: posts the ante 50
Georgenia213: posts small blind 300
menaheme: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 147_star [Ad As]
mascherano10: raises 1200 to 1800
147_star: raises 570 to 2370 and is all-in
Georgenia213: folds
menaheme: folds
mascherano10: calls 570
*** FLOP *** [Ac 6d 7h]
*** TURN *** [Ac 6d 7h] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [Ac 6d 7h 8d] [Td]
147_star said, "lol"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mascherano10: shows [Kd Qd] (a flush, King high)
147_star: shows [Ad As] (three of a kind, Aces)
mascherano10 collected 5840 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5840 Rake 0
Board [Ac 6d 7h 8d Td]
Seat 2: menaheme (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: mascherano10 showed [Kd Qd] and won (5840) with a flush, King high
Seat 6: 147_star (button) showed [Ad As] and lost with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 9: Georgenia213 (small blind) folded before Flop
Yeah, that hurt a lot, mainly because my Ad took away one of his outs! lol cooler and exacerbated as it was on the bubble but kq suited couldn't do anything and it happens! I will post one of my outdraws (sometimes I am behind Isaac!) to show that I don't just dwell on my bad beats.
So yeah, that was enjoyable, but provided nowhere near as much pleasure as this hand gave me.
PokerStars Game #18405378981: Tournament #93521277, $6.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2008/06/26 - 20:56:04 (ET)
Table '93521277 1' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: skydiver1212 (1345 in chips)
Seat 2: gstvbrjs (1270 in chips)
Seat 3: Mongo_1254 (1570 in chips)
Seat 4: seethesun (1395 in chips)
Seat 5: 147_star (1470 in chips)
Seat 6: Dbert88 (1925 in chips)
Seat 7: lifes3ps (1470 in chips)
Seat 8: almostawinnr (1610 in chips)
Seat 9: wintermagic (1445 in chips)
147_star: posts small blind 15
Dbert88: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 147_star [Jh Js]
lifes3ps: folds
almostawinnr has timed out while being disconnected
almostawinnr: folds
almostawinnr is sitting out
wintermagic: folds
skydiver1212: calls 30
gstvbrjs: folds
Mongo_1254: folds
seethesun: folds
147_star: raises 90 to 120
Dbert88: folds
skydiver1212: calls 90
*** FLOP *** [5s 5d Jc]
147_star: checks
skydiver1212: checks
*** TURN *** [5s 5d Jc] [5c]
almostawinnr has returned
147_star: bets 120
skydiver1212: calls 120
*** RIVER *** [5s 5d Jc 5c] [5h]
147_star: checks
skydiver1212: bets 660
147_star said, "sooooooooooo sick"
gstvbrjs said, "vnh"
147_star: folds
Uncalled bet (660) returned to skydiver1212
skydiver1212 collected 510 from pot
skydiver1212: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 510 Rake 0
Board [5s 5d Jc 5c 5h]
Seat 1: skydiver1212 collected (510)
Seat 2: gstvbrjs folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Mongo_1254 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: seethesun (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: 147_star (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 6: Dbert88 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: lifes3ps folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: almostawinnr folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: wintermagic folded before Flop (didn't bet)
That is just truly gorgeous. You can't buy that. Again when the third 5 hit I thought a fourth 5 may hit. As I was playing 15 tables, I saw the bet on the river by my opponent of 660 in to a 510 pot first and thought happy days, then I looked at the river. Anything under 300 and I call for humour purposes (perhaps) but lol later I said I had JJ and he informed me he had an Ace. Would have been a sick bluff but the revelation of the A didn't surprise me!
So yeah, things are OK, ROI has slightly reduced for the month but that's fine and I hope to have $1600 before the start of July. This way I could go in to July starting on the $16 SNG's, and who knows, could be on the $27s by August if things go very well.
Some stats to conclude (why not, if my mate has signed up to Sharkscope I assume he wants me to use his searches!!
Total June: -
Games - 1330
Avg Profit $1.02
Avg Stake $7
ROI 13%
Total Profit $1357
Heads up June: -
Games - 587
Avg Profit $1.22
Avg Stake $8
ROI 14%
Total Profit $714
Sit n Go June: -
Games - 700
Avg Profit $0.90
Avg Stake $6
ROI 13%
Total Profit $631
At the minute I'm considering which would give me the higher hourly rate, heads up or sit n goes. I can probably squeeze 45 sit n goes in around 2 hours 15. And I haven't really established how many heads up SNG's I can play in an hour but I can cope reasonably with 3 at once. I guess HU is on average 12 minutes (possibly less), thus meaning I can chuck in around 33, but as I can play these continuously it will probably be slighter higher. If I chuck in my avg profit and ROI (and I have to borrow Isaac's maths to draw up some sort of comparison), and of course get a much larger sample, it may work out that I avoid one form of game. But playing both suits me and if I want to watch something on TV or chat on MSN I can stick a couple of heads up on at the same time. Plus, I am learning not to tilt when I get outdrawn playing heads up. I may actually switch some funds to FullTilt because they have a rematch feature on their heads up games which could be extremely +EV.
Anyway, I have reached 19,000 words for this post. My avg words for my posts is around w100000 and my ROI on time and words = high because I blag a load of bog on the blog.
Seriously though, anyway, finally, to conclude, etc, I was going to call this post quick update! What a dishonest assessment that would have been!
Much love and wish me balls so I move up!!
147_star_probably a red dwarf_especially since the beach was hot 2day!
To be fair to myself in this breakeven stage, I have been running pretty badly so I am always pleased to come out of the bad sessions breaking even. I was around the low-to-mid $1400's at the start of the night tonight but I continued to start my session with some $11 heads up (2 at a time) and after winning a few was over $1500 for the first time. Anyway, then followed 15 SNG's for a small loss which was pretty annoying seeing as in two of them i bubbled after having a dominating stack and one of them i snatched 2nd from the jaws of 1st (and one bastard I was sitting out of the whole time and still bubbled)! Can't dwell though, I know these things happen!
A couple of delightful hands in this session were promised, and I hope they won't disappoint.
The first one I just knew was going to happen pre flop and even on the flop. Seriously, I have a sick read on Pokerstars now!
PokerStars Game #18406043780: Tournament #93521318, $6.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2008/06/26 - 21:30:33 (ET)
Table '93521318 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 2: menaheme (2788 in chips)
Seat 5: mascherano10 (4386 in chips)
Seat 6: 147_star (2420 in chips)
Seat 9: Georgenia213 (3906 in chips)
menaheme: posts the ante 50
mascherano10: posts the ante 50
147_star: posts the ante 50
Georgenia213: posts the ante 50
Georgenia213: posts small blind 300
menaheme: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 147_star [Ad As]
mascherano10: raises 1200 to 1800
147_star: raises 570 to 2370 and is all-in
Georgenia213: folds
menaheme: folds
mascherano10: calls 570
*** FLOP *** [Ac 6d 7h]
*** TURN *** [Ac 6d 7h] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [Ac 6d 7h 8d] [Td]
147_star said, "lol"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mascherano10: shows [Kd Qd] (a flush, King high)
147_star: shows [Ad As] (three of a kind, Aces)
mascherano10 collected 5840 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5840 Rake 0
Board [Ac 6d 7h 8d Td]
Seat 2: menaheme (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: mascherano10 showed [Kd Qd] and won (5840) with a flush, King high
Seat 6: 147_star (button) showed [Ad As] and lost with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 9: Georgenia213 (small blind) folded before Flop
Yeah, that hurt a lot, mainly because my Ad took away one of his outs! lol cooler and exacerbated as it was on the bubble but kq suited couldn't do anything and it happens! I will post one of my outdraws (sometimes I am behind Isaac!) to show that I don't just dwell on my bad beats.
So yeah, that was enjoyable, but provided nowhere near as much pleasure as this hand gave me.
PokerStars Game #18405378981: Tournament #93521277, $6.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2008/06/26 - 20:56:04 (ET)
Table '93521277 1' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: skydiver1212 (1345 in chips)
Seat 2: gstvbrjs (1270 in chips)
Seat 3: Mongo_1254 (1570 in chips)
Seat 4: seethesun (1395 in chips)
Seat 5: 147_star (1470 in chips)
Seat 6: Dbert88 (1925 in chips)
Seat 7: lifes3ps (1470 in chips)
Seat 8: almostawinnr (1610 in chips)
Seat 9: wintermagic (1445 in chips)
147_star: posts small blind 15
Dbert88: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 147_star [Jh Js]
lifes3ps: folds
almostawinnr has timed out while being disconnected
almostawinnr: folds
almostawinnr is sitting out
wintermagic: folds
skydiver1212: calls 30
gstvbrjs: folds
Mongo_1254: folds
seethesun: folds
147_star: raises 90 to 120
Dbert88: folds
skydiver1212: calls 90
*** FLOP *** [5s 5d Jc]
147_star: checks
skydiver1212: checks
*** TURN *** [5s 5d Jc] [5c]
almostawinnr has returned
147_star: bets 120
skydiver1212: calls 120
*** RIVER *** [5s 5d Jc 5c] [5h]
147_star: checks
skydiver1212: bets 660
147_star said, "sooooooooooo sick"
gstvbrjs said, "vnh"
147_star: folds
Uncalled bet (660) returned to skydiver1212
skydiver1212 collected 510 from pot
skydiver1212: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 510 Rake 0
Board [5s 5d Jc 5c 5h]
Seat 1: skydiver1212 collected (510)
Seat 2: gstvbrjs folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Mongo_1254 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: seethesun (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: 147_star (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 6: Dbert88 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: lifes3ps folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: almostawinnr folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: wintermagic folded before Flop (didn't bet)
That is just truly gorgeous. You can't buy that. Again when the third 5 hit I thought a fourth 5 may hit. As I was playing 15 tables, I saw the bet on the river by my opponent of 660 in to a 510 pot first and thought happy days, then I looked at the river. Anything under 300 and I call for humour purposes (perhaps) but lol later I said I had JJ and he informed me he had an Ace. Would have been a sick bluff but the revelation of the A didn't surprise me!
So yeah, things are OK, ROI has slightly reduced for the month but that's fine and I hope to have $1600 before the start of July. This way I could go in to July starting on the $16 SNG's, and who knows, could be on the $27s by August if things go very well.
Some stats to conclude (why not, if my mate has signed up to Sharkscope I assume he wants me to use his searches!!
Total June: -
Games - 1330
Avg Profit $1.02
Avg Stake $7
ROI 13%
Total Profit $1357
Heads up June: -
Games - 587
Avg Profit $1.22
Avg Stake $8
ROI 14%
Total Profit $714
Sit n Go June: -
Games - 700
Avg Profit $0.90
Avg Stake $6
ROI 13%
Total Profit $631
At the minute I'm considering which would give me the higher hourly rate, heads up or sit n goes. I can probably squeeze 45 sit n goes in around 2 hours 15. And I haven't really established how many heads up SNG's I can play in an hour but I can cope reasonably with 3 at once. I guess HU is on average 12 minutes (possibly less), thus meaning I can chuck in around 33, but as I can play these continuously it will probably be slighter higher. If I chuck in my avg profit and ROI (and I have to borrow Isaac's maths to draw up some sort of comparison), and of course get a much larger sample, it may work out that I avoid one form of game. But playing both suits me and if I want to watch something on TV or chat on MSN I can stick a couple of heads up on at the same time. Plus, I am learning not to tilt when I get outdrawn playing heads up. I may actually switch some funds to FullTilt because they have a rematch feature on their heads up games which could be extremely +EV.
Anyway, I have reached 19,000 words for this post. My avg words for my posts is around w100000 and my ROI on time and words = high because I blag a load of bog on the blog.
Seriously though, anyway, finally, to conclude, etc, I was going to call this post quick update! What a dishonest assessment that would have been!
Much love and wish me balls so I move up!!
147_star_probably a red dwarf_especially since the beach was hot 2day!
Thursday 19 June 2008
+$1k :-)
It's been 3 weeks since I deposited $200 on Pokerstars and I am pleased to say I am up to $1240. Combine that with my live profits of $130 and I am up around $1170 in quite a short space of time, which I will attempt to sustain!
Playing 13 $6.50's has been my recent approach and I am enjoying it greatly. The last 3 sets of 13 I have been running around $2.5 a game which I know isn't sustainable but I hope to settle in to over $1 a game. It would seem that playing more sit n goes reduce the quality of decisions and the ROI should reduce accordingly but I think playing so many helps me in many ways as I just play the hands and position in a set way and don't get involved in marginal situations too often! I hope to be able to maintain long term at least 16% ROI at this level though pretty soon I guess I will be moving up because I shouldn't be a tart!! Hopefully I continue to run well and play well and the $1600 figure will be reached soon.
I would say another reason for my recent success is taking down more firsts than seconds, and this has been largely in part to the heads up games I have been playing in June. I feel that I can push people around and have been using some strange psychology to try to get people to fold which has given me a bit of an edge.
For example, I have been raising and leaving $1 behind from a stack of say $2500 as a way to indicate strength and I also did a sick thing in the chat box in a game earlier.
With the bubble upon us, and two big stacks (me and another) pushing around the two others who had dwindled really low, I pick up 2 5 in the SB. The big stack folds as does one of the shorties. (On around 1000 by now with blinds 300/600 50 ante!). The BB has 935 chips and i know that I am going to stick it in because I don't want to sacrifice the odds and fold. So I write in the chat box gl sir and min raise. I don't know if this caused him to fold but he did and I felt slightly responsible for his super-tight fold by reminding him of the bubble scenario.
So yeah, atm I am getting much better at working with a roll touch wood. If I haven't felt like playing I haven't and when I feel tired I find something else to do. And I'm not missing out on social things due to poker because I know that makes me feel bad and play bad. So I'm finally getting somewhere near the discipline of Isaac. Playing 13 at once means you don't really see the beats anyway which is a good thing!!
Now I just need to stick a couple of tournies in there at some point and hope for a big score, maybe when I get home on Saturday I will start pursuing some of the guaranteeds on Stars.
So, an update on the June stats.
June total.
Games 1059
Avg Stake $7
Avg Profit $1.04
ROI 14%
Total profit $1099
June Sit n Go 9-man
Games 556
Avg Stake $6
Avg Profit $0.99
ROI 15%
Total Profit $552
June Heads up
Games 461
Avg Stake $8
Avg Profit $1.17
ROI 14%
Total Profit $541
I haven't put in as many hours as I could be because the days have been busy but that's kept me fresh I think, though over the summer I am looking forward to some really long stints, especially if I can't find a job.
Hope everyone is doing well,
Paul 147_star
Playing 13 $6.50's has been my recent approach and I am enjoying it greatly. The last 3 sets of 13 I have been running around $2.5 a game which I know isn't sustainable but I hope to settle in to over $1 a game. It would seem that playing more sit n goes reduce the quality of decisions and the ROI should reduce accordingly but I think playing so many helps me in many ways as I just play the hands and position in a set way and don't get involved in marginal situations too often! I hope to be able to maintain long term at least 16% ROI at this level though pretty soon I guess I will be moving up because I shouldn't be a tart!! Hopefully I continue to run well and play well and the $1600 figure will be reached soon.
I would say another reason for my recent success is taking down more firsts than seconds, and this has been largely in part to the heads up games I have been playing in June. I feel that I can push people around and have been using some strange psychology to try to get people to fold which has given me a bit of an edge.
For example, I have been raising and leaving $1 behind from a stack of say $2500 as a way to indicate strength and I also did a sick thing in the chat box in a game earlier.
With the bubble upon us, and two big stacks (me and another) pushing around the two others who had dwindled really low, I pick up 2 5 in the SB. The big stack folds as does one of the shorties. (On around 1000 by now with blinds 300/600 50 ante!). The BB has 935 chips and i know that I am going to stick it in because I don't want to sacrifice the odds and fold. So I write in the chat box gl sir and min raise. I don't know if this caused him to fold but he did and I felt slightly responsible for his super-tight fold by reminding him of the bubble scenario.
So yeah, atm I am getting much better at working with a roll touch wood. If I haven't felt like playing I haven't and when I feel tired I find something else to do. And I'm not missing out on social things due to poker because I know that makes me feel bad and play bad. So I'm finally getting somewhere near the discipline of Isaac. Playing 13 at once means you don't really see the beats anyway which is a good thing!!
Now I just need to stick a couple of tournies in there at some point and hope for a big score, maybe when I get home on Saturday I will start pursuing some of the guaranteeds on Stars.
So, an update on the June stats.
June total.
Games 1059
Avg Stake $7
Avg Profit $1.04
ROI 14%
Total profit $1099
June Sit n Go 9-man
Games 556
Avg Stake $6
Avg Profit $0.99
ROI 15%
Total Profit $552
June Heads up
Games 461
Avg Stake $8
Avg Profit $1.17
ROI 14%
Total Profit $541
I haven't put in as many hours as I could be because the days have been busy but that's kept me fresh I think, though over the summer I am looking forward to some really long stints, especially if I can't find a job.
Hope everyone is doing well,
Paul 147_star
Tuesday 17 June 2008
Crowd Pleaser!
This post is designed to satisfy the demands of an update from many fellow poker bloggers! I guess only Isaac hears most of what's going on with my poker, so for the rest of you not so in the know, here is a quick breakdown of how my poker has been in the last quite a while!!
My Fulltilt poker roll didn't go so well. I started trying to play a heads up game at the same time as a few turbos and didn't adapt to this change well. I also ran really bad at the turbos and after reaching $500 in quick fashion had a downswing and ended up cashing out around $420 after a bit of recovery at cash. A very nice return from $65 a few weeks back but still not a step towards my attempt at moving up and building a roll. Unfortunately, timing was also a factor contributing to my withdrawal as it was too tempting to play poker with a roll in my account and with the exams looming I couldn't run that risk. (Results come out tomorrow and a determination not to wake up too early means I am having a late night poker blogging session!!)
As such, my mission to build a bankroll failed and I was left with a nice bit of money in the bank but no roll online. Before my exams I switched to Pokerstars and played for around 5 hours overall in a month and a half and was running at 50% ROI in the $6 turbos to soar up to $200 (from $65 again) in late April only to lose around $130 in a TWENTY GAME NON-CASH STREAK IN May.
After finishing my exams and returning home from a trip to Wales with the girlfriend and her family I decided I will build another roll over the summer!! I deposited $200 (MY BIGGEST DEPOSIT----I know I am such a nit!!) with a view to playing a lot and working it up! This was on 30th May and the last two days in May were pretty break even with only some good heads up results keeping me around $200.
So, to June. With still around $200 in my account and just a few more FPP's to show for my efforts, I decided to start playin 9 tables at once. 8 9-man $6 turbos and 1 $6 heads up game. This started remarkably well and I soon realised that this was a number of sit n goes I could cope with. I could concentrate on the heads up game and let the turbos play themselves basically, reloading the heads up games if I won but sometimes if I lost as well. From these 9 games I would estimate I was running at around $0.8 a game (13-14% ROI) and if I wasn't ready for a set of sit n goes i would play some heads up, usually $11, and in these was achieving around a 12% ROI. I knew when i got to heads up in the turbos I was losing my edge due to the different game i was playing by multi-tabling and as such being push or fold and was trying to work on this to increase the number of firsts I was placing. I hope this has gone well!
From the start, I had set myself the target of getting to $800 and then moving up to $16 turbos. As you will have probably seen from my Sharkscope on Tilt or Stars, I have played a huge number of sit n goes and have definitely got the experience to move up, plus I hope the ability, so it was just a matter of reaching the bankroll. As a lot of my rise up the $$ was based on heads up results I was feeling a bit reluctant to move up when I reached $800, so at around $500-600 on around June 10th I set a revised target of $900 and aimed to reach that before moving up.
Piling up the sit n goes due to more multi-tabling moving from 9 at once to 10 and then 12 at once (whilst not really exerting myself and having more breaks than usual stints!) I managed to reach my $900 target by around 15th June!
So here I move up right, erm nope because I am still too nitty!!! I'm not a bankroll nit don't get me wrong, I used to consistently deposit $65 and play $6.50's until I got to around $180 and then would withdraw!! I know I have enough buy-ins for the level. I am just a bit apprehensive for some reason! Keys and Isaac were telling me to move up and play less tables. I was thinking seeing as I have acquired the skill of multi-tabling my game would be hindered if I stepped down the tables, and this combined with a bit of fear about a downswing when moving up meant I decided not to move up straight away when I hit $900. Soon after hitting $900, in the evening (is 3AM classified as the evening?!) I had a bit of a downswing in a couple of sets of SNG's and went to bed with $840 in my account. The next day within 2 hours I had restored that back up to $920 and told Isaac on MSN that i was going to play a few $16. I felt good so why not!!
I ended up playing 6 $16 SNGs and stupidly loaded up 2 $6 turbos as well (which i was bound to not concentrate as much on as left myself too short to even moan about being outdrawn against!) and was very pleased to finish 1st in two of the $16 plus two bubbles (one unlucky!) to record a tidy profit, $39 from the 6 $16s.
Happy days, I was now up to $980 and I chilled out until the evening when I planned to put in another session! In the meantime, using remote assistance (which is so sick!!!!!) I was playing on my mate's computer but through mine (WTF!!!) and managed to win 5/6 $11 HU sit'n'goes and place 2nd in a HU shootout which made me feel good about my heads up game. Usually I would take a cut for playing for him but he is a good mate and is a bit of a gambling degen so I was just pleased to build his roll for him. Anyway, inspired by this and not in the mood for too many tables, on a Sunday night I decide to play some heads up!! BAD IDEA!! The standard was woeful but how much worse does that make you feel when you lose. And I was running bad. I ended the night on a much more relaxin game on 5-card draw after having the second bad evening in a row dropping down to $918.
This blog has become more of a diary but as i am somehow remembering these facts I may as well chuck them in! Now we reach Monday. (yesterday -- assuming today is in fact Tuesday and not Wednesday morning!!)
I woke up feeling like I wanted to play poker and I was looking forward to making the money back I had lost the night before. I also decided that even a 12% ROI at $11 games heads up wasn't enough to outweigh the potential tilt heads up gives me and I decided to give these games a break for the near future. So, I thought about playing $16 but as I was feeling a little bit vulnerable due to the loss the night before I stuck with 12 $6 instead. 3 sets later and I soared up to $1068.85, which is the amount my bankroll currently stands on!! My last 8 results are something sick like 2nd, 1st, 7th, 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 6th and running well and playing better poker over a couple of sets of 12 $6 turbos saw to rises of $80 per set (not sustainable but feels good!!).
The great thing is whilst I am clocking up the sit n goes (and hopefully the profits with them!), as I am multi-tabling so much more than before I am playing probably less overall with a greater hourly return. Having more breaks I think keeps me fresh and helps me play more consistently good poker. Plus, working on a roll has made me think Forget (maybe a stronger F word!) Sharkscope, the important stat is what $$ my roll is on!
So, from the 30th May I have worked up from $200 to $1068.85, and using some mathematics JV or Sam Wong { who is a <)))>< !!! } would be proud of that is $868.85 profit in around 18 days. I like to think this isn't an upswing as such as I have been achieving an ROI of around 14% which I have maintained for a while now and I hope I can sustain such levels of profits and hopefully keep a similar ROI when I do finally step up to consistently play the $16 games.
I have set myself the target of $5000 by the end of August (which if I can make $800 each 1/2 month I will achieve!?!), and I will accept any bets against (as long as they are kept fairly small) at a price of evens as a way to inspire me to carry on with my roll!!
So, I have given a complex rundown of my last few weeks and the rise from $200 to what I have now and what I hope will become a huge bankroll (got to be optimistic!!). I have highlighted my aims for the next few months. I have decided i want to multi-table $16, maybe playing 12 and as such will aim for a roll of $1600 before I do this. This means a little more grinding for the next couple of weeks or so.
To finish, I will post a few statistics from Sharkscope (using advanced search for a really nice breakdown and accurate time frames) on my month in June and why I really really should move up to $16 and stop being such a pussy!!
First, June overall stats.
Games 962
Avg Profit $0.96
Avg Stake $7
ROI 13%
Profit $928
June Heads Up Stats
Games 455
Avg Profit $1.14
Avg Stake $8
ROI 14%
Profit $519
June Turbo Stats (factoring in the move up to 12-tables!)
Games 465
Avg Profit $0.87
Avg Stake $6
ROI 13%
Profit $404
These games don't add up to 962 as I briefly dabbled in a few 6-max turbos before deciding these weren't for me!!
And now, perhaps the biggest evidence that I should definitely move up to $16, although obviously the small sample size restricts the validity!
$16 Games
Games 94
Avg Profit $5.54
Avg Stake $15 (probs should be $16, blame Scope!!)
ROI 35%
Profit $521
So, basically June has been a good month for me, but i feel I have just fine tuned my game to be able to play 12 turbos at once and hope to get more 1sts to get the real dough. Whilst the days of 25% ROI as on Tilt when I was 3-tabling won't be achievable, if I can sustain around 15% my hourly rate will increase dramatically (where's Isaac's calculator?!) and I hope to give $5k by Sep 1st a real go.
Plus, I have a roll in an account of over $1k for the first time. It looks really good seeing a comma in my roll. Let's hope I don't run bad after this enormous post because that would suck!!
Finally, a quick update on my live poker. I haven't played much but on Saturday at the Pokersoc I managed to filth my way to a win in the £5 SNG, taking home a nice £20 profit, before taking home an extra £15 from the cash game afterwards.
Then on Tuesday (today?), with high hopes for the Festival, I was essentially card dead for a few hours and despite grobbling bits and pieces to try to keep afloat, a few missed flops and a sick stop and go from a guy Chris that I couldn't call with an underpair dwindled me down to a point where pushing A3 was a viable option. I was called by AJ, the flop offered split hopes with QQK but the 10 on the river sealed the deal and I was left regretting little but wishing I was still in!!
Fortunately, the first hand of the 5p/10p cash game was absolutely sick and paid for the entry in to the Festival tournie.
It definitely deserves a write-up because it was sick!!
5 handed. Gareth folds UTG. Hannes raises the cut-off to 35p. I have 10 10 and decide to just flat call to settle in (this is the first hand after all!!). Isaac calls from the SB and so does Marc from the BB.
Flop 10 9 7, two diamonds!
I have top set which is clearly in very nice shape. But wait, Isaac leads out for 75p and Marc min raises to £1.50. I know Isaac and i don't think he is leading light, and on a very drawy board I dwell and decide the best way to play my top set was to open push for £9.65. Gareth thinks I am some sort of degen and a few people check out what is going on, and I am slightly surprised to hear Isaac call. Marc shows an embarrased 95 and folds. I turn over my 1010 and am very relieved to see Isaac has called with 10 7, an understandable call given the action but the best scenario for me. I avoid the 4th diamond on the river and double through in such a sick start to the cash game! I ended up around £35 up which was nice as I like to work on my cash game when I get a chance and especially because the live game was so enjoyable!
So playing live I am actually £66 up which is a great bonus because with the Pokersoc crowd I would still enjoy myself breaking evens!!
Double congrats to both Isaac and Gamble who took down a $530 and the DUPS Festival respectively and both fully deserved their wins. Not bad for cash game players :P :P
So yeah, that I guess is the end of my post. I should sleep like a log now!! I hope next time I have posted (hopefully in the not too distant future) I will still be doing law at Durham aiming for a solid grade and will be well towards moving up to $16 and working my roll up and up!
Thanks for anybody who read this far. I really appreciate any feedback so feel free :-)
Love your small friend who "doesn't look like he should be good at poker", (according to Marc.)
PS. Mr_Rahl runs so good.
PPS Gamble didn't win the Festival by being aggro, but if the method ain't broke, don't fix it!
PPPS Isaac, when do you want your soul back?!
PPPPS Hannes, I always have the King!!
PPPPPS Tony Paul for next years DUPS Festival!
My Fulltilt poker roll didn't go so well. I started trying to play a heads up game at the same time as a few turbos and didn't adapt to this change well. I also ran really bad at the turbos and after reaching $500 in quick fashion had a downswing and ended up cashing out around $420 after a bit of recovery at cash. A very nice return from $65 a few weeks back but still not a step towards my attempt at moving up and building a roll. Unfortunately, timing was also a factor contributing to my withdrawal as it was too tempting to play poker with a roll in my account and with the exams looming I couldn't run that risk. (Results come out tomorrow and a determination not to wake up too early means I am having a late night poker blogging session!!)
As such, my mission to build a bankroll failed and I was left with a nice bit of money in the bank but no roll online. Before my exams I switched to Pokerstars and played for around 5 hours overall in a month and a half and was running at 50% ROI in the $6 turbos to soar up to $200 (from $65 again) in late April only to lose around $130 in a TWENTY GAME NON-CASH STREAK IN May.
After finishing my exams and returning home from a trip to Wales with the girlfriend and her family I decided I will build another roll over the summer!! I deposited $200 (MY BIGGEST DEPOSIT----I know I am such a nit!!) with a view to playing a lot and working it up! This was on 30th May and the last two days in May were pretty break even with only some good heads up results keeping me around $200.
So, to June. With still around $200 in my account and just a few more FPP's to show for my efforts, I decided to start playin 9 tables at once. 8 9-man $6 turbos and 1 $6 heads up game. This started remarkably well and I soon realised that this was a number of sit n goes I could cope with. I could concentrate on the heads up game and let the turbos play themselves basically, reloading the heads up games if I won but sometimes if I lost as well. From these 9 games I would estimate I was running at around $0.8 a game (13-14% ROI) and if I wasn't ready for a set of sit n goes i would play some heads up, usually $11, and in these was achieving around a 12% ROI. I knew when i got to heads up in the turbos I was losing my edge due to the different game i was playing by multi-tabling and as such being push or fold and was trying to work on this to increase the number of firsts I was placing. I hope this has gone well!
From the start, I had set myself the target of getting to $800 and then moving up to $16 turbos. As you will have probably seen from my Sharkscope on Tilt or Stars, I have played a huge number of sit n goes and have definitely got the experience to move up, plus I hope the ability, so it was just a matter of reaching the bankroll. As a lot of my rise up the $$ was based on heads up results I was feeling a bit reluctant to move up when I reached $800, so at around $500-600 on around June 10th I set a revised target of $900 and aimed to reach that before moving up.
Piling up the sit n goes due to more multi-tabling moving from 9 at once to 10 and then 12 at once (whilst not really exerting myself and having more breaks than usual stints!) I managed to reach my $900 target by around 15th June!
So here I move up right, erm nope because I am still too nitty!!! I'm not a bankroll nit don't get me wrong, I used to consistently deposit $65 and play $6.50's until I got to around $180 and then would withdraw!! I know I have enough buy-ins for the level. I am just a bit apprehensive for some reason! Keys and Isaac were telling me to move up and play less tables. I was thinking seeing as I have acquired the skill of multi-tabling my game would be hindered if I stepped down the tables, and this combined with a bit of fear about a downswing when moving up meant I decided not to move up straight away when I hit $900. Soon after hitting $900, in the evening (is 3AM classified as the evening?!) I had a bit of a downswing in a couple of sets of SNG's and went to bed with $840 in my account. The next day within 2 hours I had restored that back up to $920 and told Isaac on MSN that i was going to play a few $16. I felt good so why not!!
I ended up playing 6 $16 SNGs and stupidly loaded up 2 $6 turbos as well (which i was bound to not concentrate as much on as left myself too short to even moan about being outdrawn against!) and was very pleased to finish 1st in two of the $16 plus two bubbles (one unlucky!) to record a tidy profit, $39 from the 6 $16s.
Happy days, I was now up to $980 and I chilled out until the evening when I planned to put in another session! In the meantime, using remote assistance (which is so sick!!!!!) I was playing on my mate's computer but through mine (WTF!!!) and managed to win 5/6 $11 HU sit'n'goes and place 2nd in a HU shootout which made me feel good about my heads up game. Usually I would take a cut for playing for him but he is a good mate and is a bit of a gambling degen so I was just pleased to build his roll for him. Anyway, inspired by this and not in the mood for too many tables, on a Sunday night I decide to play some heads up!! BAD IDEA!! The standard was woeful but how much worse does that make you feel when you lose. And I was running bad. I ended the night on a much more relaxin game on 5-card draw after having the second bad evening in a row dropping down to $918.
This blog has become more of a diary but as i am somehow remembering these facts I may as well chuck them in! Now we reach Monday. (yesterday -- assuming today is in fact Tuesday and not Wednesday morning!!)
I woke up feeling like I wanted to play poker and I was looking forward to making the money back I had lost the night before. I also decided that even a 12% ROI at $11 games heads up wasn't enough to outweigh the potential tilt heads up gives me and I decided to give these games a break for the near future. So, I thought about playing $16 but as I was feeling a little bit vulnerable due to the loss the night before I stuck with 12 $6 instead. 3 sets later and I soared up to $1068.85, which is the amount my bankroll currently stands on!! My last 8 results are something sick like 2nd, 1st, 7th, 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 6th and running well and playing better poker over a couple of sets of 12 $6 turbos saw to rises of $80 per set (not sustainable but feels good!!).
The great thing is whilst I am clocking up the sit n goes (and hopefully the profits with them!), as I am multi-tabling so much more than before I am playing probably less overall with a greater hourly return. Having more breaks I think keeps me fresh and helps me play more consistently good poker. Plus, working on a roll has made me think Forget (maybe a stronger F word!) Sharkscope, the important stat is what $$ my roll is on!
So, from the 30th May I have worked up from $200 to $1068.85, and using some mathematics JV or Sam Wong { who is a <)))>< !!! } would be proud of that is $868.85 profit in around 18 days. I like to think this isn't an upswing as such as I have been achieving an ROI of around 14% which I have maintained for a while now and I hope I can sustain such levels of profits and hopefully keep a similar ROI when I do finally step up to consistently play the $16 games.
I have set myself the target of $5000 by the end of August (which if I can make $800 each 1/2 month I will achieve!?!), and I will accept any bets against (as long as they are kept fairly small) at a price of evens as a way to inspire me to carry on with my roll!!
So, I have given a complex rundown of my last few weeks and the rise from $200 to what I have now and what I hope will become a huge bankroll (got to be optimistic!!). I have highlighted my aims for the next few months. I have decided i want to multi-table $16, maybe playing 12 and as such will aim for a roll of $1600 before I do this. This means a little more grinding for the next couple of weeks or so.
To finish, I will post a few statistics from Sharkscope (using advanced search for a really nice breakdown and accurate time frames) on my month in June and why I really really should move up to $16 and stop being such a pussy!!
First, June overall stats.
Games 962
Avg Profit $0.96
Avg Stake $7
ROI 13%
Profit $928
June Heads Up Stats
Games 455
Avg Profit $1.14
Avg Stake $8
ROI 14%
Profit $519
June Turbo Stats (factoring in the move up to 12-tables!)
Games 465
Avg Profit $0.87
Avg Stake $6
ROI 13%
Profit $404
These games don't add up to 962 as I briefly dabbled in a few 6-max turbos before deciding these weren't for me!!
And now, perhaps the biggest evidence that I should definitely move up to $16, although obviously the small sample size restricts the validity!
$16 Games
Games 94
Avg Profit $5.54
Avg Stake $15 (probs should be $16, blame Scope!!)
ROI 35%
Profit $521
So, basically June has been a good month for me, but i feel I have just fine tuned my game to be able to play 12 turbos at once and hope to get more 1sts to get the real dough. Whilst the days of 25% ROI as on Tilt when I was 3-tabling won't be achievable, if I can sustain around 15% my hourly rate will increase dramatically (where's Isaac's calculator?!) and I hope to give $5k by Sep 1st a real go.
Plus, I have a roll in an account of over $1k for the first time. It looks really good seeing a comma in my roll. Let's hope I don't run bad after this enormous post because that would suck!!
Finally, a quick update on my live poker. I haven't played much but on Saturday at the Pokersoc I managed to filth my way to a win in the £5 SNG, taking home a nice £20 profit, before taking home an extra £15 from the cash game afterwards.
Then on Tuesday (today?), with high hopes for the Festival, I was essentially card dead for a few hours and despite grobbling bits and pieces to try to keep afloat, a few missed flops and a sick stop and go from a guy Chris that I couldn't call with an underpair dwindled me down to a point where pushing A3 was a viable option. I was called by AJ, the flop offered split hopes with QQK but the 10 on the river sealed the deal and I was left regretting little but wishing I was still in!!
Fortunately, the first hand of the 5p/10p cash game was absolutely sick and paid for the entry in to the Festival tournie.
It definitely deserves a write-up because it was sick!!
5 handed. Gareth folds UTG. Hannes raises the cut-off to 35p. I have 10 10 and decide to just flat call to settle in (this is the first hand after all!!). Isaac calls from the SB and so does Marc from the BB.
Flop 10 9 7, two diamonds!
I have top set which is clearly in very nice shape. But wait, Isaac leads out for 75p and Marc min raises to £1.50. I know Isaac and i don't think he is leading light, and on a very drawy board I dwell and decide the best way to play my top set was to open push for £9.65. Gareth thinks I am some sort of degen and a few people check out what is going on, and I am slightly surprised to hear Isaac call. Marc shows an embarrased 95 and folds. I turn over my 1010 and am very relieved to see Isaac has called with 10 7, an understandable call given the action but the best scenario for me. I avoid the 4th diamond on the river and double through in such a sick start to the cash game! I ended up around £35 up which was nice as I like to work on my cash game when I get a chance and especially because the live game was so enjoyable!
So playing live I am actually £66 up which is a great bonus because with the Pokersoc crowd I would still enjoy myself breaking evens!!
Double congrats to both Isaac and Gamble who took down a $530 and the DUPS Festival respectively and both fully deserved their wins. Not bad for cash game players :P :P
So yeah, that I guess is the end of my post. I should sleep like a log now!! I hope next time I have posted (hopefully in the not too distant future) I will still be doing law at Durham aiming for a solid grade and will be well towards moving up to $16 and working my roll up and up!
Thanks for anybody who read this far. I really appreciate any feedback so feel free :-)
Love your small friend who "doesn't look like he should be good at poker", (according to Marc.)
PS. Mr_Rahl runs so good.
PPS Gamble didn't win the Festival by being aggro, but if the method ain't broke, don't fix it!
PPPS Isaac, when do you want your soul back?!
PPPPS Hannes, I always have the King!!
PPPPPS Tony Paul for next years DUPS Festival!
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