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!