Full Tilt Grinder

Low Volume

2010-01-17T15:16:00.003-10:00

Haven't been playing much as I've been busy with work and just haven't felt the urge to play.

My lucky run at the sit n gos has ended and I'm now showing more down to earth stats (although it does indicate that I'm still running extremely well).

My ROI is down to 46.1% and ITM = 55.2%. Total profit this year of $86.90 just from single table tournaments. I have not included my rakeback, although that value is included in the right hand column.

On the Pokerstars cash game side, I've recovered nicely from my earlier downswing and am now break even over 3825 hands.

I've been trying to figure out why I haven't had the urge to put in the volume. I'm not sure if it's because the low stakes doesn't interest me, or if it's because I've just been more wrapped up with family and other hobbies. Hopefully this week, I'll find the time to put in a decent amount of hands and increase my profit.

Running Well in Sit n Go's

2010-01-11T15:43:00.002-10:00

I continue to run well in sit n gos. My ROI (return on investment) = 80% and ITM (in the money) = 61.1%. Obviously still a small sample size and I'm running like God. Let's hope this lasts until I have enough to move up to the $11 + 1 turbos.

Finally, it's a new year!

2010-01-08T00:42:00.004-10:00

Well, 2009 was a shitty year for me playing online poker. I lost more money than I can count so I sorta stopped keeping track after a while.

I couldn't wait for 2010 to show up and now that it's here, I've been working on my game.

Instead of depositing, I've taken what I had already deposited on my 3 main sites (Full Tilt, Pokerstars and Cake) and have decided to practice good bankroll management and to see just how well I can do.

On Stars, I started off the year with $29.56 and have decided to play $2 NL. My thinking is that I'm going to put in a lot of hands at $2 NL to see if I can beat it. If I can't beat the lowest of stakes on Stars, I should just quit poker altogether. So far I've put in about 3000 hands and am down about 2 buy-ins.

On Full Tilt, I started the year off with $86.69 and decided to play some turbo sit n go's. In fact, I haven't played any cash games this year on Full Tilt. Happy to say that I'm running ridiculously good and am currently up $58.20 playing $6.50 turbos. It's always good to be on the positive side of variance.

On Cake I'm sitting with $82.25 and haven't played anything there yet. I'll probably focus on Tilt and Stars and if by some chance I go busto, I'll return to Cake. The great thing about Cake is that I get 33% rakeback. The negative side is that they do not allow a HUD which is a huge advantage to those who have it.

Once again, I'll try to keep running totals in the column on the right and hopefully 2010 will be a better year than last. Happy New Year!

How do echeck deposits affect MGR?

2009-11-10T12:24:00.002-10:00

Just how much do echeck deposits affect MGR? This is a question I've been asking myself for some time. I decided to experiment on Full Tilt Poker to see if I could easily determine how my MGR was affected.

I made a $200 deposit and found that my MGR took a negative hit for $8 which comes out to exactly 4%. What I'm not clear on is if this value is linear, meaning it is always 4%, or if it decreases as you deposit higher amounts. I'll make a note to keep track on future deposits.

Have you seen different values? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know how much MGR was deducted as a result of your echeck deposit.

Full Tilt Freerolls

2009-11-08T20:32:00.002-10:00

I'm sure you've heard stories of players who have never deposited to an online poker site, yet have built large bankrolls. These players all started earning their first few dollars via freerolls.

I'm sure you've also heard about Chris Ferguson starting with $0 and running that up to $10,000. To earn his first few dollars, he spent many months playing Full Tilt Poker freerolls and was lucky enough to cash in a few to get him started on his way to $10,000.

Here are some instructions to start building your bankroll today:

1) Download the software from Full Tilt Poker here.
2) Create a new account.
3) Login to Full Tilt Poker and browse for the freerolls under the Tournaments tab.

*note that these freerolls fill up quickly and you usually just have a minute or two to join before they are completely full. Registration typically opens 40 minutes before the start of the freeroll.

Here's most recent list of Full Tilt freerolls.

05:40 (ET) No Limit Hold ‘em
09:40 (ET) No Limit Hold ‘em
13:40 (ET) Omaha Hi
15:40 (ET) No Limit Hold ‘em
17:40 (ET) HORSE
19:40 (ET) No Limit Hold ‘em
21:40 (ET) Razz
22:40 (ET) Omaha Hi
23:40 (ET) No Limit Hold ‘em
01:40 (ET) No Limit Hold ‘em Turbo

All prize pools are $100 and all pay 1st - 27th place.

In addition, US players have the following available to them:

21:05 (ET) $250 Freeroll

20k Freeroll Bust Hand

2009-09-13T10:14:00.003-10:00

I had been looking forward to this tournament all week... Out in the first 30 minutes.

Cake Poker Review - First Impressions

2009-07-19T23:57:00.003-10:00

I opened and funded a cake poker account since I haven't been doing so well on Full Tilt. I had problem depositing with my various Visa and Mastercards so I ended up buying an All Access Prepaid gift card from a local Tesoro. The cards come in increments of $25 (3.95 fee), $50 (4.95 fee) and $100 (5.95 fee). I realize I'm basically paying 6% juice on the $100 card, but it's worth it in my opinion. This way, there is no link to any of my bank accounts or credit cards, which makes me feel a lot safer.

The All Access prepaid Visa worked fine on Cake Poker and I recommend it to anyone who has problems with their debit/credit cards.

I played a few hands tonight and the cash games are full of nits. Avg % of players to flop must have been below 20% and the avg pot was only 5-6 BB. So far I'm not impressed with the cash game selection.

Sit and go selection was even more dismal. I registered for a $4.60 + .40 Turbo and no one joined. After about 20 minutes I decided to leave. This was fairly late at night (about 11 pm Hawaii) so this may be the reason for the lack of player traffic since I assume the majority of cake players are US based (since Cake is one of the few remaining US friendly sites).

All in all, I'm not impressed with what I've seen so far. I'll have to try again tomorrow during peak hours to see what kind of action I can get.

What took me months to win is pretty much gone

2009-07-05T12:25:00.001-10:00

Had a rough weekend. I played a number of tournaments and didn't cash in a single one. I played a number of cash games and took numerous bad beats and coolers. This led to me tilting and playing really badly.

The bottom line is what took me many months to win is basically all gone. This weekend cost me over $1,000 with the majority being lost in the last 24 hours.

Oh well, back to the drawing board I guess. I'm still up for the year slightly but will drop down in levels and re-work on my game.

The good news is that I cashed out some money last week and I'm still only playing with profits.

I'm glad there isn't another 3 day weekend till September.

I Run Good

2009-06-30T00:24:00.003-10:00

I run good...

220 hands
+$256.65
116.66 bb/100

Full Tilt Withdrawal - Bank Transfer

2009-06-28T22:27:00.008-10:00

Initiated a Full Tilt bank transfer withdrawal tonight (6/28/09) to my checking account. Will use this blog entry to track the status and how long it takes to clear into my account. I've decided to do this for several reasons:

1) I'd like to make sure I can still cash out from Full Tilt. It's probably a good idea for me to test every few months just to make sure I don't get stuck with a lot of money on Full Tilt that I can't withdraw.

2) YTD tracking will become a whole lot easier.

According to the withdrawal notes, "Once approved, you will be credited within 10-15 business days".

I've requested a withdrawal for the exact amount I started off with this year. This means that the only thing left in my account is profits for the year. Hopefully this will last and I won't need to re-deposit in the future.

Date and Time: 2009-06-29 04:25:49
Status: PROCESSING

Date and Time: 2009-06-29 16:56:02
Status: APPROVED

*update:
Date and Time: 2009-07-15 00:16:18
Status: RECEIVED

16 calendar days (12 business days)

Omaha Hi - My First Win

2009-06-27T01:56:00.004-10:00

Booked my first omaha hi win ever on the .01/.02 cent tables. Bought in for $1 and left the table with $2.85.

I've played omaha a few times in the past but typically went broke pretty quick. I'm going to make an conscientious effort to start learning how to play omaha. It requires a lot more thinking than hold em does and the dynamics / odds are interesting. The nuts literally could change with every card dealt.

I'll ask Lum to give me lessons since he is the resident omaha expert. I know Keith has been playing Omaha at his weekly live game so I could probably ask him for pointers as well. There's definitely no plans to be playing 200 PLO anytime soon, but I will probably try to mix in some PLO when I get bored of hold em.

Rough session

2009-06-16T01:27:00.003-10:00

Played a few hundred hands and got sucked out on a bunch of times.

I was dealt AA vs 99 and lost when he flopped a set.

I was dealt KK vs AK and AQ suited all in pre-flop. Lost when AQ rivered a flush.

Overpair vs a flopped set which I played way too agressively.

Overall just a rough night. Was able to limit my losses and actually made a small profit by the end of the session. Still, I hate losing to suckouts, but I guess I was due. I haven't experienced any really bad beats in a while. I hope this doesn't start a trend...

WSOP 2009 Event 7 Results

2009-06-08T14:15:00.003-10:00

Well, my preparations for the World Series of Poker 2009 definitely didn't go as planned. I didn't get in enough multi table tournaments, and I definitely didn't get in enough poker time in general during the weeks leading up to the WSOP.

Anyway... I think I did ok for my first WSOP. I was able to pick up some pots in the early levels as well as bluff my way to a flew pots. I also got extremely lucky betting pocket 8's extremely hard and rivering my set to take down a huge pot.

However, after the dinner break, things went down hill really fast. I wasn't getting dealt any hands and the blinds and ante's quickly ate away at my stack. The times when I tried to make plays to pick up small pots, it seems as if I always ran into people with hands who would re-raise back at me.

Eventually during level 9 I was so low on chips that I had no choice but to push the rest of my stack with A3 off. Unfortunately I ran into a guy with pocket 8s, and my WSOP was over. I ended up around 500th place with the top 290 getting paid (3000 total entries). I was a bit frustrated that I had put 11 hours of time (including breaks) and I still didn't get paid.

Anyway, it was an awesome experience... I hope I get to do it again some day.

WSOP Preparation Not Going So Well

2009-05-25T01:13:00.004-10:00

Been busy with stuff and haven't really had a chance to play much poker. Since I don't have the time to be putting in long hours playing tournaments, I've been focusing on full ring. Most of the WSOP will be full ring so it's the next best thing to playing tournaments.

Played about 70 hands of 200NL tonight and absolutely killed it.

Take a look at this guy... Not sure what he was thinking:

Stats for my 25 minute session:
Hands: 71
Won: $378.70
BB/100: 266.69

Full Tilt Super Turbos

2009-05-11T00:06:00.002-10:00

Full Tilt runs super turbo's which are a pretty interesting type of Sit n Go. Basically all players start with 300 chips, blinds start at 15/30 and go up every 3 minutes.

Most of the action comes pre-flop and players typically push their whole stack. It's a very fast paced game and I haven't seen one last longer than 30 minutes (granted I've only played 4).

Anyway, I seem to be pretty successful. I've cashed in 75% (3 of 4) with a 3rd, 2nd and 2nd place finishes. Small sample size, but these are fun and they really break the monotony of playing in large multi table tournaments, or grinding it out in cash games.

I know that these do nothing for my WSOP preparations, but these are fun and I may look to play more super turbo's when I get bored of grinding it out at the cash tables or MTT's.

Sit & Go

2009-05-03T15:06:00.002-10:00

Played 2 sit & go's today since I didn't really have enough time to play in some large multi tables tournaments which typically last a couple of hours. I was lucky enough to take first place in the first one as I was picking up quite a few good hands and they were holding up.

In the second one, I actually had to play some good poker and I thought I did ok. I was trying to play the player instead of the cards, and mixed up my game pretty well. I was able to play aggressive at times, and slow down when I needed to which worked well to confused my opponents. When it got down to heads up, I was at a huge chip disadvantage. I had just about 1500 chips and the leader had about 12k. I doubled up a few times by pushing and getting lucky. It went on for about 20 more minutes with the chip lead going back and forth until finally I got lucky and flopped 2 pair. My opponent got too ambitious with his straight draw and I took it down when he didn't complete.

So overall, not a bad day. Two sit n go tournaments played, and 2 wins.

Practice for WSOP continues

2009-05-02T02:48:00.002-10:00

Played two more multi table tournaments tonight but still no luck. The first tournament I wasn't getting dealt anything. Second tournament I got dealt some cards early and moved up to 7th about 60 minutes in to the tournament, but got caught trying to bully the smaller stacks. Eventually I was down to about 15 big blinds and pushed AK off, unfortunately into pocket aces.

Even though I didn't cash, the second tournament I played tonight, I ended up in 70th (516 entrants), with the top 54 getting paid. Overall I wasn't happy with how I played in either tournament, but I guess that's why I'm practicing. With the 2009 WSOP event I'm going to play about a month away, I hope to get at least 20 more multi table tournaments in before then.

After the tournaments ended, I went to donk around on the 200NL tables and walked away with about $185 in profits. I really wish my tournament game was on the same level as my cash game. In cash games I always feel like I have an advantage, but I just don't feel comfortable in large tournaments.

First Multi Table Tourney in Years

2009-04-25T22:53:00.004-10:00

So I decided to get my feet wet and dabble in tournament play. Wanted to start off small and the selection late at night isn't that great. Anyway, I ended up playing a cheap $2 + $0.25 NL Turbo with 179 entrants. Top 18 in the money.

Anyway, not much to tell. I basically didn't get any cards but was able to steal some blinds here and there to prolong the agony.

My stats were:
VPIP: 3%
PFR: 3%

Eventually I got down to about 3 big blinds and pushed my stack in an attempt to pick up the blinds and antes. The big blind called my rags and basically my night was over... Out in 77th place.

Lessons learned: If I'm going to make some plays to pick up blinds/antes, I have to make sure I have enough to back it up. 3 big blinds isn't enough to push a moderate size stack off their blinds. I think next time I need to make my move sooner.

On the bright side, I made about $100 at 100NL 6max during the tournament so tonight wasn't a complete waste.

Preparing for WSOP 2009

2009-04-24T16:51:00.003-10:00

I'll be playing in the 2009 World Series of Poker. Still haven't decided which event but considering I'll be in Vegas from June 1 - 7 that means I can play event 7, 9 or 11, which are all hold-em events ranging from $1500 - $2000. Event 9 is a short handed game (6 handed).

Since Full Tilt also sent me a $250 bonus, it seemed like a good time to start working on my poker game again. Over the next month, my plan is to start playing more and more tournament style poker and move away from the cash games I'm so used to in preparation for the WSOP.

The thought processes in cash vs tournament are so different. In a cash game, if I make a mistake, I can always reload and try to win my money back. With a tournament, there is no such luxury, and if you hope to make it into the money, you basically have to play error free poker.

I already know that my game will have to become more conservative in order to do well at tournament style poker. At the same time, I have to pick spots to be aggressive since others will also be hesitant to put a lot of chips into play.

This should be an interesting process as I switch my game from cash to tournament. I will try to post regularly on this blog about my progress.

Welcome to 2009

2009-02-12T00:38:00.002-10:00

It's already 43 days into the new year and tonight was my first poker session in a long time. Played 3 tables for about 20 minutes and absolutely tore it up.

Hands: 79
Won: $333.95
BB/100: 211.36

Also, because I have a hard time doing all the calculations for rakeback and profit (or losses) from poker year to date, I'm going to keep it simple. On January 1, 2009, I started off with $940.31 in the bankroll. All calculations in the right hand column (under Current Stats) will simply be + / - year to date. I know it's not a good way to keep track since I won't know how much is from poker and how much is from bonuses or rakeback, but honestly, I spent more time doing the math last year, than blogging.

Hope your 2009 is going as well as mine started off...

Took a good vacation from poker...

2008-12-05T02:04:00.002-10:00

Haven't played much poker at all in the past month. Been busy with other things and just haven't felt the itch.

Keith convinced me to play in December to qualify for my end of year bonus from Full Tilt. Decided it's free money so I might as well give it a shot... That is unless I lose more money than I would earn from the bonus :).

Anyway, played a really short session tonight. Here are the stats:

Hands: 183
Won: $19.35
BB/100: 5.29

Definitely felt a bit rusty and went back to my old habit of playing too many hands. Tightened up near the end to finish the session around 19/14 with an AF of 3.75. I was up a lot $$$ more but leaked too many chips early on.

Another short night...

2008-10-28T23:20:00.001-10:00

Kept the session short again and made sure I ended up with a profit. Most of the winnings came when I flopped a boat vs trips.

Hands: 155
Won: $134.40
BB/100: 43.35

Brushing off the cobwebs

2008-10-27T23:44:00.002-10:00

I was running pretty good for a while and then I took a 2 week break since work has been hectic... Played a really short session tonight and walked away with a decent profit.

Hands: 96
Won: 256.20
BB/100: 133.44

I should have played longer but I'm too tired... Time to get some sleep.

Easy come, easy go

2008-10-13T23:54:00.001-10:00

Took a pounding tonight. Ran into sets 3 times with overpair, top two and TPTK. Otherwise pretty uneventful. Oh well, time to start grinding my way up again...

Bankroll down to $467.

Playing with only a few buy-ins

2008-10-11T23:53:00.002-10:00

My luck has turned around and I'm actually playing pretty good poker. I'm still a favorite the majority of the time when all the chips get in, and most of my hands have been holding up.

I've been playing a little 100NL and some 200NL extremely under rolled. However, I'm not concerned about playing with just a few buy-ins. I made a withdrawal earlier this week and right now I'm only playing with profit.

I know all the recommendations about bankroll management and the risks of going busto when playing with less than 20-30 buy-ins, but I really don't care.

I'm playing poker for enjoyment, and grinding it out at 10NL is not my idea of fun. At the higher limits, I think I play better poker since the money actually means something. However, that doesn't mean I'm playing with "scared money". I am able to move the chips around pretty well when the situation calls for it.

Cards falling my way

2008-10-08T22:06:00.003-10:00

Played just about 150 hands tonight and got lucky a few times.

Got into a hand with Full Tilt Pro Lynette Chan and sucked out to split the pot. I was way behind after the turn and had to make a gutsy (probably foolish) call on the river.

Then got involved in another interesting hand... I flop top pair and OESD. What's your play here after the button makes what appears to be a c-bet?

Anyway, made a withdrawal from Full Tilt of the money I had deposited after I went busto ($200) and a little bit of profit leaving me with about $400. Do I start playing with proper bankroll management? Should I start challenge #2? Or should I just continue screwing around like I have been? Needless to say it's been much more fun than grinding at 10NL.

All I can say is wow...

2008-10-08T01:03:00.002-10:00

I'm at a loss for words...

Suckouts are part of the game... but it's making me broke

2008-10-07T22:02:00.003-10:00

For those who have been following my blog, I posted last week about potentially trying a second challenge... I've decided not to do it. Will take a break from poker for a bit... For real this time.

Here are some hands from my last session (tonight).

Hand 1: Made a good read, but bad result.

Hand 2: Just my luck...

Good luck everyone... I'll be back in a few weeks/months.

Thoughts about challenge #2

2008-09-29T00:52:00.002-10:00

So I've been reading about some exercises where people play with extremely tight bankrolls in which they use 4 buy-ins as the measure of stakes they should be playing. What this means is that with a roll of $400, the person should play 100NL until their bankroll is up to $800 (move to 200NL) or 200 (move back down to 50NL).

The purpose of this exercise or challenge is to give the player experience at a large variety of games... The downside is that the risk of ruin is pretty great.

I'm not looking for the money to last forever... I'm looking to play at stakes which actually mean something so I can learn about my game. Playing 10NL is difficult for me because I'm not disciplined enough to value the amount of money at stake.

I'm seriously considering doing this... I'll decide over the next couple of days whether or not I'm going to do it.

Challenge is Over

2008-09-26T23:51:00.005-10:00

So it's official... I'm pulling the plug on this challenge, although the blog will stay up. I was feeling frisky the other night and cheated. Took most of my roll to a 200 NL table and got my ass handed to me. I left the table with about $50.

Lessons Learned:
1) I'm not good enough to stay disciplined at the lower stakes. When you stack someone and it basically only buys you a Big Mac, that sucks ass.
2) When I moved up in stakes, I took less risks and played better poker. No more drawing to my flush/straight without the right odds. No more playing loosely pre-flop.
3) If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely play at a site other than Full Tilt. The 10% rake at 10NL is too big a hurdle to overcome. Other sites like PokerStars and Ultimate Bet only rake 5% at 10NL.
4) Rakeback is key... See my previous post on rakeback here.

So I'm coming away a big loser... Here's my overall stats for the $10NL games I played:

Hands: 33,037
Won: -223.70
BB/100: -6.77

I had two big down swings which account for most of the loss. Variance is a bitch (along with some poor play... Maybe mostly poor play...).

I hope the cards are falling well for you.

I believe in a poker god

2008-09-16T00:21:00.002-10:00

I believe in a poker god and he has cast me to hell. Tonight was another bad night. It seems as if it's been a 2 week long downswing. I can't even remember the last time I had a winning session.

Pocket KK vs 44 on a dry flop. Pot size bet after the flop. Another pot size bet after the turn and he is all in. He has 2 outs in the deck and one of the case 4s comes on the river.

My set vs opponenents top pair top kicker on another dry board. I put in a pot size bet after the flop and he pushes. I call. Runner runner makes him a flush.

Trips with K kicker vs A kicker (luckily I played a small pot).

Top two vs a rivered straight.

I don't think I can try to play thru this downswing or I'll end up broke.

My last downswing was for 14 buy-ins which took me 2-3 weeks to win back. Hopefully I can recover from this but this is definitely devastating to the bankroll. It's definitely time to start reviewing hands histories again to see if I have a leak in my game.

Tonights session was:

Hands: 569
VPIP: 16% (A bit high)
PFR: 11% (A bit low considering my VPIP)
AF: 1.82 (Also a bit low)

Result: -$48.00
BB/100: -84.36

I honestly think I'm the worst poker player in the world

2008-09-12T00:48:00.003-10:00

You should stop reading here if you are tired of my complaints about bad beats, coolers, or if you don't want to see some absolutely stupid calls by me when the other people are representing huge hands...

Cooler #1:

Cooler #2:

Played this hand really really bad #1:

Played this hand really really bad #2:

Played this hand really really bad #3:

I will admit that a lot of these are stupid calls by me and I really suck at this game. I'm ashamed to post my stats, but I'm down a lot of money. Maybe it will motivate me to play better poker.

Anyway, after the freeroll this Sunday, it might be time for a poker break... Nothing seems to be going my way.

Pot Limit Omaha is not for me

2008-09-09T22:36:00.002-10:00

While PLO is a really fun game, until I get better at it, I should probably stay away. It's eating up my bankroll. Altogether PLO has lost me about 8 buy-ins. LOL.

So I moved back to hold-em tonight and won about 1.5 buy-ins back. I'm dangerously low and if I didn't have rakeback, I'd be broke.

Oh well, if I do go broke, I'll re-deposit and start a new goal for myself. Maybe to learn how to win at PLO. Or maybe a challenge where I play under rolled at stakes too high for me. Should be fun...

PL Omaha - First Impressions

2008-09-08T00:58:00.002-10:00

So the past few days I haven't played any hold em and have strictly played PLO. I had become bored with 10NL and felt like mixing it up a bit.

I'd say I probably put in about 1200 or so hands and so far it's been pretty swingy. My first session I went down about 4 buy-ins. Second session, I won back the 4 buy-ins. Third session, I lost 3 buy-ins. Tonight, I lost 1 buy-in.

Overall I've dropped $39 and my stats are starting to look really bad. I'm down a whole lot of money (a bit more than 13 buy-ins) between my hold em and PLO losses. I know I'm a fish when playing PLO, but I love the action.

In PLO I've learned a couple of things:

1) It pays to play your draws if the odds are right.
2) AAAA (or any quads) should be mucked pre-flop.
3) Trips should also be mucked (except possibly AAAx where Ax is suited).
4) The variance is huge. 20 buy-ins is probably not sufficient for proper bank roll management. I would guess the number is probably close to 30 buy-ins.

Getting hand history and stats is tough because my Poker Tracker can not import Omaha hands.

However, here's a hand that I made a note of... I'm not sure if I had the odds to call down all the way (and miss my hand):

Post flop I had a bunch of outs... 9 hearts, 2 Kings, 2 Queens, 2 Jacks = 13 outs.

After the turn I had more outs... 9 hearts, 2 Kings, 2 Queens, 2 Jacks, 3 Eights = 16 outs.

Unfortunately I don't hit my hand but looking back, I would probably still play the hand the same way. Oh well, maybe next time...

Playing marginal hands too strongly

2008-09-06T01:50:00.003-10:00

It's been a while since I really sat down and analyzed my session. Tonight was a particularly bad session so I'm going to go back and review some of my big losers.

Hand #1: Definitely played my K high flush too strong against the A high flush. He definitely didn't seem like he was drawing and this cost me a lot of money.

Hand #2: Played my pocket 10s way too strong on a board that came KQK. I was guessing he didn't have a K and was trying to represent one. Too bad he was holding pocket Aces. At a higher game (2/4 or higher), I probably take down this pot with my big river bet.

Hand #3: Took a bad beat here with AQ off on a board that came AA3. I slow played the hand and the dude (holding pocket 4s) made his boat on the river.

Hand #4: Don't know why I felt like playing my pocket 9s on the button so strong. Opponent was in the big blind and I thought I would do my standard 3.5x raise on the button. The big blind played re-raised me and I guessed he was holding 2 big cards like AK or AQ. Decided to push and ran into pocket Aces again.

Hand #5: Flopped the nut straight. Made pot sized bets on the flop and turn. River put a potential flush on the board and guess what... Opponent was drawing to the flush and hit it.

It was a pretty shitty night. Moral of the session is I need to know when I am beat and not play my mediocre hands so strongly.

Hands: 519
Profit: $-24.25
bb/100: -46.72

Been busy... Haven't had time for poker

2008-09-04T23:36:00.001-10:00

Been really busy with work the past few days. Not to mention we have a bunch of birthday stuff over the next 4 days so I probably won't get too many hands in.

Won a ton of small pots tonight... didn't get stacked so ended up with a small profit over a small number of hands.

Hands: 244
Profit: $14.40
bb/100: 59.02

Winning session

2008-09-03T00:55:00.003-10:00

Booked a small win tonight. Was up a bit more but my top pair top kicker ran into top pair with the river making him 2 pair near the end of my session.

Anyway, I'm happy... A win is a win.

Hands: 744
Profit: $18.65
bb/100: 25.07

Quick Update

2008-09-02T01:12:00.003-10:00

Bankroll hasn't moved significantly over the past 2 days of play. I've probably put in about 1100 hands for a net loss of about $2.

I've been picking up a lot of small pots but losing big ones. Last night I got it all in with strong hands against flush draws twice. Both times, they made their hand. Nothing I can do. Tonight I got it all in with AA vs JJ and he flops a J. Just variance I guess.

Bankroll not doing so great at the moment...

Nothing going my way

2008-08-31T01:48:00.001-10:00

Another rough night. I knew it was time to quit after this hand:

I've dumped a lot of money the past 2 days... Not good.

The river is not my friend

2008-08-29T23:47:00.003-10:00

OK, tonight, the river was not my friend. I'm down about $65 tonight. Instead of moving up I decided to play on deep stack 10NL tables. 3 times, I got sucked out on the river and the chips were all in.

I probably lost about $40 legitimately to suckouts, and then dumped $25 more because of tilt. I wasn't able to control my emotions and I kept wanting to bust the guy that gave me the 2 bad beats. Well, he was also a crazy LAG (75/30/5) that I was trying to exploit.

Oh well, I continue to be a losing player at these stakes. The only thing keeping me afloat is my rakeback. Speaking of rakeback, I was informed that Full Tilt is changing their policy and now offers affiliates the option of Full Tilt paying the players directly (weekly on Friday's). Since my affiliate will be moving to this plan, this sure is going to complicate my "Current Stats".

I guess tomorrow's a new day. We'll see how it goes.

The river is my friend

2008-08-28T22:46:00.005-10:00

Here's another good one:

It's funny because the guy reloaded, was on tilt, and got stacked again on the very next hand when he played his top pair way too aggressively against a flopped straight. He was so pissed that it was pretty funny. Up till then he had been playing solid poker.

So that's two suckouts for me in 2 nights. I'll take it, but Full Tilt still owes me a bunch more...

By the way, don't even comment on how bad I played that hand. I know I should have folded the turn but I had my mind made up that I was going all the way with that hand.

Sucking out feels good

2008-08-27T23:49:00.004-10:00

There's no feeling in the world better than when you suck out on someone. I guess it's because I've experienced so many over the last 6 weeks and I know exactly how that person is feeling. Call me twisted, but it gives me a good feeling knowing that the other person might be punching a hole in his wall. However, don't get me wrong, I'm still way in the negative in terms of bad beats taken vs given. Here's the hand:

Anyway, I played much more TAG tonight which is what I wanted to do...

VPIP = 14.2%
PFR = 9.0%
AF = 2.10

And here are the stats from my short session:

Hands: 310
Profit: $19.95
bb/100: 64.35

Loose Passive causing me to give away money

2008-08-26T00:57:00.002-10:00

I've been playing loose passive and it's been losing me a lot of money. Not sure why I'm playing so many hands but I need to tighten up and play TAG again. Loose pre-flop calls are killing me when I hit the flop with top pair crappy kicker or second pair, and I tend to lose a bunch of medium size pots.

On another note, I took a rakeback payment today. Too bad I lost $30 of it already in just under 500 hands. Looks like I won't be moving up anytime soon.

Much better night

2008-08-24T02:05:00.002-10:00

Played a short session tonight and was able to exploit some noobs. Almost won back what I lost yesterday. I got lucky on a couple of hands and was able to take down some decent sized pots.

Hands: 391
Profit: $31.75
bb/100: 81.20

Horrible night

2008-08-23T00:14:00.003-10:00

Tonight sucked. I had gone a few days without any really bad beats but tonight was like it was a couple of weeks ago... I got sucked out on every big hand I had. The money still went in when I was ahead but, next time I should just fold my big hands, and play all my draws.

On this one, I normally would not have gone all in with JJ, but this guy was raising pre-flop about 90% and was calling down with crap. I was actually hoping for a call here. Obviously he got lucky again.

There were a couple more but I can't remember what I was holding and I'm too lazy to sort thru Poker Tracker.

Hands: 572
Profit: -$32.85
bb/100: -57.43

Cooler ruined my night

2008-08-20T10:07:00.004-10:00

Last night I was winning a lot of small pots here and there and had eventually built up a profit of almost $20. Then the cooler hit:

It wasn't clear to me if he had a set or was over betting his nut flush draw and trying to take down the pot right there.

Anyway, I played a few more hands and called it a night to make sure I booked a small win.

Hands: 645
Profit: $4.10
bb/100: 6.36

Full Tilt 10NL rake makes the game hard to beat

2008-08-19T00:02:00.003-10:00

Analyzing my play since my bankroll challenge began leads me to believe I'm a losing poker player. Why do I say this? Here are some stats:

Hands: 22,301
Profit: -$29.75
bb/100: -1.33

But if you take a deeper look at the numbers, in particular how much rake I've paid since I've started, I might draw a slightly different conclusion. Over those 22k hands, I've payed $463.35 rake to Full Tilt on hands that I have won. Unfortunately Full Tilt rakes 10% of the pot at 10NL. Other sites like PokerStars and Bodog rake only 5%. Theoretically, if I had played all of these hands at PokerStars with the exact same results but the 5% rake, i would be looking at numbers like this:

Hands: 22,301
Profit: $201.86
bb/100: 9.05

Much more respectable in my opinion. So, while I'm a losing player at Full Tilt, if I had actually played at another site with 5% rake (industry standard) on hands won, I would actually be winning at a pretty decent rate.

Perhaps I should be looking to move up or moving my play to another site until I am playing 25NL.

*note: These figures do not include rakeback.

Booked a win tonight

2008-08-18T23:55:00.002-10:00

First off I booked a win tonight... Decided to go back to one of my old strategies of making sure I booked a win tonight even if it meant having a short session.

Started off not so good (down 1.5 buyins), but quickly turned things around after dinner. It seems like all of my hands were connecting on the flop and there was a period of about 10 minutes where I played and won every single hand dealt to me. Most of them were small pots but they sure added up.

Another tactic I tried out tonight was playing a bit more LAGgy. Over 800 hands, my VPIP was around 26%, and my PFR was around 18%. Seemed to have worked ok. I'll have to experiment more with it over the next week.

Hands: 800
Profit: $25.55
bb/100: 31.94

Played pretty badly tonight

2008-08-18T00:01:00.006-10:00

It's been a while since I blogged. Mostly because since the last post I put in about 2000 hands and ended up about even. Nothing worthy of posting came up so I took the weekend off from writing.

Played some hands tonight and dropped a couple of buy-ins. One was the nut flush vs a full house. I had raised preflop and he called with 2-4 offsuit. Not sure what he was thinking... The second hand I had top two after the turn vs flush draw. I knew he was drawing so I got it all in. He called and made it on the river. The other hand where I lost a lot of money was a tilt hand where I had pocket 4s vs 8s and played them a little too agressively.

All in all, a pretty crappy night.

Hands: 436
Profit: -$20.95
bb/100: -48.05

Solid results today

2008-08-14T00:46:00.001-10:00

Had a really strong day today... All my big hands seemed to win when they were supposed to. As always, I did a good job of getting the money in when I was ahead. I don't think there was a single instance when the money went in and I was behind.

Hands: 638
Profit: $40.35
bb/100: 63.24

Here's one for the good guys

2008-08-13T01:07:00.002-10:00

Like I said, get it in with the worst hand and you will win...

Variance is a bitch

2008-08-12T15:18:00.003-10:00

Yeah, so today isn't going so well. Down 7 buy-ins in 234 hands. Too many bad beats to know where to begin. If the bad beats continue, I'm dropping this whole bankroll management thing and maybe moving my play to Stars.

I don't understand what's going on... I don't generally believe in rigged sites, but it seems as if the people who make stupid calls are being rewarded. However, my stupid calls are not.

One month update

2008-08-12T11:38:00.004-10:00

So I'm one month into my bankroll management exercise and I'm happy to say that I've been able to use good bankroll management during this first month. I've experienced a bunch of ups and downs (mostly downs) over the last 30 days.

I started off losing most of my roll during week 1, and was down to about $40. The next 2 weeks were spent winning back the money that I initially lost. At some points I've been around the $190 mark, but have yet to break thru $200. However, the last week or so I have lost quite a bit of money to bad beats (see my previous posts).

After 1 month, this is where I stand:

Hands: 17,797
Profit: $-19.35
bb/100: -1.08

Let's hope the next month brings less bad beats and more winning...

How to lose a lot of money at poker

2008-08-11T01:17:00.003-10:00

Full Tilt is telling me in a not so subtle way that I should quit playing poker.

Tonight was an absolute ass kicking.

Hand #1) I'm holding pocket 7's and the board comes 997. We get the money in and he turns over J9. Turn comes blank, river comes J.

Hand #2) I'm holding pocket 7's again and the board comes KQ7. Once again the money goes in and he turns over KQ. Turn comes blank, river comes Q.

Hand #3) I'm holding pocket A's and we get it all in pre-flop. He turns over A-10 and proceeds to make a straight.

Hand #4) I'm holding pocket A's again. We get it all in pre-flop and he turns over 6s. Flop comes 6 something something and I lose again.

Not sure how I can win at poker when the deck is absolutely killing me. I know no one wants to hear bad beat stories but this is ridiculous.

My sessions have a familiar pattern

2008-08-10T02:35:00.003-10:00

I was able to salvage what started off as a pretty rough night. I got all in with JJ vs KK and set of 8s vs set of Js to quickly go down 2 buy-ins. I lost a few more pots on various tables to put me down about $25 in the first hour.

I was four tabling and won some pots here and there to claw my way back up. I still ended up losing a few dollars tonight but it's better than what I was down a few hours ago.

I'm not sure if I have too much gamble in me during the early parts of my session but it seems like a constant pattern of losing a lot early and then winning it back slowly. I'll have to keep an eye on it over my next few sessions to see.

Hands: 985
Profit: $-2.50
bb/100: -2.53

Variance in 6 max No Limit Holdem

2008-08-09T01:22:00.003-10:00

Variance in 6 max games continue to concern me. Every day I swing between 3-4 buy-ins at 10NL. I'm not sure if 20 buy-ins is a safe number for 6 max.

Today I started my session down 3 buy-ins in about 50 hands. I was dealt JJ on the button and there was a raise in middle position. When it got to me, I re-raised a pot size raise. Middle position calls. Flop comes J and 2 hearts. Middle position bets pot, I min raise, middle position pushes all in. I call. Middle position turns over 3h 6h or some bull crap like that. Turn comes blank, River comes heart.

That really pissed me off. How does he call a $1.50 bet in a 10NL game with 3-6 suited pre-flop. I then proceed to donk off 2 buy-ins with QQ when the board comes 9-J-J, and then another buy-in with A8 when the board comes K85. Don't know what I was thinking on either hand.

I then proceeded to take a short break to take care of some family stuff.

When I got back, I was playing very TAG and taking down a lot of pots with check-raises. I really need to learn to incorporate check-raises more into my game as they can be very powerful if timed correctly. Eventually I "stole" my way back to even for the day along with a few big pots that I was able to take down...

Tilt... It's going to ruin me one day.

Hands: 607
Profit: $4.00
bb/100: 3.29

Bad Beats R Us

2008-08-06T23:55:00.004-10:00

Played a few hundred hands this morning and ended up winning about 2 buy-ins. Was off to a hot start and was hoping the luck would carry into my evening session. Well... I should have known better.

Lost this mornings profit in about 30 minutes and then spent the next 2 hours trying to build it back up. My roll was right around $190 when this hand came up:

After that hand, I was sick, and decided to call it a night as I didn't want to tilt another couple of buy-ins away. I should start a blog about bad beats and I'm sure I would never run out of content.

Hands: 1060
Profit: $0.90
bb/100: 0.85

Christmas in August

2008-08-04T23:08:00.005-10:00

I was 4 tabling tonight and one of my tables broke so I began scanning the lobby for my next game. I'm looking thru the selection of 10NL tables and I see one table with a $10 avg pot size. Lucky for me there was a seat open so I sat down to see what was going on.

There was a guy at the table named spew2d2 who was pushing in for $10 on every hand. It took me a couple of hands to figure out what was going on, but he was basically donating to us low limit donkeys. I took full advantage of the situation and caught some cards at the right times.

I was dealt A-10, 7-7, 10-10 and K-K and my nine minute session at that table left me +48.45.

I guess Christmas came early this year and it was a nice way to pull me out of the hole I've been digging myself into the past couple of days.

As it turns out spew2d2 is a regular 1/2 player and seemed to be doing fairly well on the tables that I monitored after the donation to us micro limit grinders.

Thank you spew2d2, you've helped push me back into the positive.

Currently at:
Bankroll: $182.20
YTD: +12.45

Full Tilt hates me

2008-08-03T10:49:00.003-10:00

Suckout:

What do you do on this next hand?

6 max variance

2008-08-03T00:07:00.006-10:00

Put in 1125 hands today at 6max and the variance is definitely a lot bigger than full ring. My swing was up $15 to down $25 which is a 4 buy in swing. A couple of times I got sucked out on but I guess that's poker. Here are some hands of note...

Some serious betting going on in this hand. I intended to check-raise the flop but when I saw a bet and a raise, I almost throw the hand away.

Here's one of the bad beats I had. I guess it's my fault for getting involved with 10-3 out of the small blind:

The good news is that I still managed to end the day up a few dollars...

Currently at:
Bankroll: $170.20
YTD: +0.45

Easy to dump, hard to win

2008-08-02T11:59:00.003-10:00

So, I dumped about 13 buy-ins in 4 days when I started this blog. It has taken me 15 days to get the money back, but I'm happy to say I'm on the positive side for the first time in my personal challenge.

I think I'll take a break now to enjoy being positive for a few hours at least :). I've only put in about 10k hands thus far but I'm hoping the streak continues.

On another note, I need to think about how to classify my rakeback. I think I'm just going to have it added to my FTP account and be counted as part of my bankroll. Which means it will count toward the 20 buy-in policy when considering stake selection. What I'm not sure of is if I should consider it as part of my YTD +/-. Does "Year to Date" mean YTD won/loss from poker or YTD won/loss in the account. In either case, I'll make sure to keep track of all rakeback earnings so that I can run some analysis on my play with and without rakeback.

Can't get back to break even

2008-08-02T02:39:00.003-10:00

Played just over 1,000 hands today but can't seem to punch thru break even. Mixed it up a bit with full ring as well as 6 max. Won a couple of buy-ins playing 9 handed and a few dollars playing 6 max.

Not sure if it's a psychological thing but I'm close... really, really close.

Hands: 1134
Profit: $31.90
bb/100: 28.13

Small downswing

2008-08-01T00:50:00.001-10:00

Played 3 short sessions today (about 800 hands in total). Couldn't really get anything going. I lost a bunch of small pots and it really added up to a decent loss... All together about 2 buy-ins.

My first negative day in about a week... Oh well, tomorrow's a new day.

Sick or Stupid?

2008-07-31T14:19:00.003-10:00

Sick call by me on the turn... Or just stupid?

Justification: He was actually a good player. Something like 13/11/3 but I could tell he was on a draw and was trying to take it down. I thought for a very long time before calling his all-in with my pair of 2's. Not sure if my reading skills are getting better or if it was just a dumb call. I had a feeling and went with my gut.

Slowly but surely

2008-07-29T22:57:00.005-10:00

Picked up a few more buy ins tonight...

Making good progress grinding my money back.

Currently at:
Bankroll: $146.40
YTD: -23.35

As I mentioned before I'm raising less pots and am playing much more passive post flop. As a result my stats now look like:

17.9 / 7.1 / 1.1 (VPIP/PFR/AF) over 6.3k hands.

Definitely much different from how I normally play, but it seems to be working.

Here's a graph of my progress over the last week:

Definitely can't complain...

Cards have turned around

2008-07-28T01:18:00.001-10:00

I've been getting dealt a decent amount of quality hands and have been connecting on the flop. I'm happy to say that I'm up about 5 buy-ins over the past 2 days putting in about 900 hands.

Other than that not much to say. I think I've been playing a lot more conservative and ABC poker as best I can. I've had a few bad beats but I've been trying to keep the pots small when I'm pretty sure I don't have the best of it.

I hope the streak continues and I can get out of the red.

What I've learned about my poker game at the micro limits

2008-07-27T00:07:00.006-10:00

I've realized a few things about my poker game...

1) I will probably never be a really good poker player because I am a gambler. You're probably asking what this means... Of course poker is gambling, but what I'm referring to is my personality type. When playing poker, I'm willing to take a coin flip to double up my stack. These types of hands should be avoided because it's basically a 50/50 chance you will double up (minus the rake which is huge at 10NL), or go broke.

A good poker player will probably wait for a better spot to get his money in. Most time he will wait till he knows he's a favorite before getting it in.

I think this is one of my biggest flaws in my game and I have to remember this the next time I'm considering pushing AK vs QQ or lower pre-flop. While taking a shot at the coin flip is typically ok for tournament in the late rounds, for a cash game, I'm pretty sure this should be avoided.

2) I'm playing lower stakes but I'm not able to adjust my play. I'm playing too fancy like I used to play at 2/4 or 3/6. I'm trying to put plays on people who wouldn't even understand what I'm doing. I really need to stick to ABC poker.

3) All the books and guides tell you to raise pre-flop anytime you are playing a pot. I think this is absolutely incorrect at micro stakes for the following reasons: a) You will kill the action with a big hand. Rarely will people call a standard 3.5bb raise. You should see how many hands I have of AA or KK in poker tracker where it was folded around. I'm giving up equity, and I'm willing to risk that someone will flop a huge hand. I'm still a favorite with those kinds of hands most of the time, since I should be able to outplay most opponents at 10NL after the flop. b) People at the micro limits will not punish you for limping. At the higher limits, you're giving away money if you limp. Not so at the micro limits. I'm able to see the flop for cheap and then build the pot size post flop if I hit it.

One good thing about blogging is that it will help me write down my thoughts and hopefully improve my game. Getting the ideas down in writing actually forces me to analyze what I'm doing wrong and where I could improve.

Feedback on some hands

2008-07-24T23:26:00.000-10:00

I've decided to simply put up some hands from tonight's session for discussion. Does anyone not go broke here? He showed aggression post flop but not that much... He was pretty laggy and it was tough to put him on a hand, but I was guessing AJ. I figured my two pair was good here.

This one I should have seen coming. I put him on two high cards and that he was c-betting on the flop. I should have given up after the 2nd 10 hit on the turn.

This one I am proud of. I probably should have folded after the all in bet on the turn but I had a lot of money in the pot at that point and thought my hand might be good.

Comments?

Felt Like Gambling Tonight

2008-07-24T01:49:00.003-10:00

Lost a few more buy-ins tonight. Got too trigger happy with my pocket Jacks pre-flop and got it in against Kings.

Then a few hands later pushed my flush draw too hard and shouldn't have called the all-in by the villain (set)... It wasn't even the nut flush draw.

Other than those two hands, I played pretty good.

Played a bit of 6-max so that I can learn the short handed game. It let's me open up a little and play more hands.

The good news is that I'm making progress on my tilt control. I guess I didn't really have any bad beats tonight but getting stacked twice within five minutes got me steaming a little bit. However, I was able to get it under control in a short amount of time and proceeded to play pretty good poker and won back a few bucks.

I'm still in danger of losing my entire roll. With just over 5 buy ins, a short run of bad cards and it could be all gone... Maybe I should start thinking about what my next challenge will be.

Full Tilt Mods

2008-07-23T22:54:00.002-10:00

I was getting a bit bored with the default Full Tilt UI so I made some modifications. My current table layout looks like this:

Cards have bigger numbers and four colors so that I could see them easier when playing multiple tables. Recently I've been playing 4 tables and the colors make it much easier for me to see if a flush is on the board.

Additionally, the card backs are now yellow so that I can very easily see who and how many players are in the hand at all times.

The background is black with a faint outline of the original Full Tilt table. I'm hoping that the changes to my UI will help me make quicker and better decisions while multi-tabling.

Mods were downloaded from: Wikia Gaming

At some point in the future I will change out the chip graphics to something a little nicer looking, but considering it took me all of 15 minutes to makes these changes, I'm fairly happy with the results. Let's hope the changes result in more bb/100.

Winning session... Finally!

2008-07-23T00:09:00.005-10:00

So I came into tonight's session with a new strategy. Keep the session short if I needed to, but do whatever is needed to make sure it's a winning session.

I put in about 50 minutes, saw 228 hands and won $14.55 for a win rate of 63.82 bb/100.

It feels good to finally have a winning session after dumping most of my money last week.

Here's some hands that I played pretty well:

1) This guy showed a lot of agression and I almost folded thinking he had a 4. I was happy when he showed top pair with a worse kicker.

2) Here I check the river like I was giving up on the hand after firing 2 bullets. If I bet it out, I'm sure he folds, but my check enticed him to make a smallish bet.

Played pretty good poker tonight and the the cards were cooperating... Let's hope we can have a few good sessions so that I can climb my way back out of this mess.

On another topic, I'm also considering moving my play to Stars, at least until I get out of the .05/.10 level. The rake at fulltilt at this level is 10% (capped at $2) and is eating away at my bankroll. Stars only rakes 5% (capped at $2) even at the .05/.10 level, although I can't stand the Stars UI.

I guess we'll see how the next few days go.

Got some R and R

2008-07-22T12:06:00.003-10:00

Had an awesome weekend in Maui with the family and some friends. Gave me a good chance to get away from the game for a while. Unfortunately since I didn't play over the weekend, it means no "Ironman" for me this month. At this point, I probably have more things to worry about that making Ironman anyway... Hopefully I can turn this thing around or I'll be re-buying and starting a new challenge very soon.

On another note, my buddy has started a new blog here: Tenor808. So far he's off to a great start.

Don't know what to say anymore

2008-07-19T02:07:00.002-10:00

Going Broke

2008-07-17T23:03:00.003-10:00

This hand says it all about how I've been running... I'm almost bust.

Just Can't Win...

2008-07-15T23:07:00.004-10:00

I absolutely got raped on the tables tonight. I dropped about 5 more buy ins. WTF...

My QQ's were up against KK and AK that flopped an A. My KK lost to AA. My two pair with the other guy on a flush draw doesn't hold up on the river after I push the turn. I drop another 2 buy ins because I'm tilting...

This exercise in bankroll management is going to be over before a week has passed.

Looking at PokerTracker, AA has won me a grand total of $.95. I've lost $3.85 with KK. Of course QQ has me down $19.15. AK has won me a whopping total of $3.05!!! The hand that has won me the most money is 53 offsuit when I flopped the nuts.

WTF is going on? Is this just a bad case of variance? A real shitty run of cards? Most of the time I can get it in with the best of it, but end up losing by some miracle turn or river card.

I'm thinking I should go back to my old habit of playing higher stakes under rolled. The micros are too unpredictable. At least at the higher limits people respect a 3x raise.

My stats are still respectable (but I need to avoid tilting). My VPIP is 17.74 and my PFR is just under 9%. I'm not playing like a donk, but my hands aren't connecting or aren't getting paid off.

What should I do? If fulltilt had anything lower than .05/.10, I'd have to drop down. Maybe I should deposit $1k so that I can at least play 50NL.

Huge variety of players at the micro limits

2008-07-15T01:10:00.005-10:00

Just finished a horrible session... In general I think I played well, but I'm learning a lot about the micro stakes.

1) Some players will only call you down with the nuts.
2) Don't try to bluff because some players will call you down with crap.

All of my premium hands (AA, KK, AK and even 10's) were folded around when I put in a pot size raise. One time I had QQ and had a caller... because the caller had Aces.

The other hand that really got me frustrated was a board with 4 hearts. I made a play hoping he didn't have a heart. Of course he didn't but he called me down with a set after I fired a bullet on the turn and on the river.

I'm down now about 2 buy-ins... I'm pretty bad at this game. The variety of players are huge and sometimes it pays to be conservative and sometimes it pays to be aggressive. The problem is how do I find a happy medium where I can profit?

I'm pretty demoralized at this point. Whenever I have a huge hand, I can't get anyone else to put money into the pot... When I completely miss and try to make a play, usually someone will call me down...

Day 1 Results

2008-07-14T10:12:00.004-10:00

Well, day 1 was fairly uneventful. I decided to play 4 tables for a little over an hour. I played 374 hands according to Poker Tracker, lost a bunch of small pots and won a few smaller pots (mostly blind steals).

The deck was running cold for me and I ended up losing 81 bb. The few big hands that were dealt to me, typically folded all the way around after my pot size raise. Maybe I should limp in with these hands once in a while. I was typically planning on playing ABC poker at these low stakes but when I'm not getting cards or they're not connecting on the flop, it makes it hard to win pots.

I was hoping to get some hands in last night but was wrapped up with other things that needed to be done.

Also, I'm making some changes to my rules. Rule 4 was no playing on deep tables. I'm dropping this rule because the majority of the action, high % of players to the flop, and larger pot sizes are on the deep tables. I'll still only buy in for 100bb, but I should be able to get reasonable action on these tables.

Day 1 on June 13th, 2008

2008-07-12T00:15:00.002-10:00

I'll officially begin my bankroll challenge on Sunday the 13th. Because I'd prefer not to deposit again, I'll be starting with $169.75, or just under 17 buy-ins. Hopefully I'll be able to run it up to 20 buy-ins fairly quickly, but even if not, I think 17 buy-ins should be sufficient to withstand any short term variance that might arise.

I plan to update the Current Stats in the right hand column fairly often so that others can keep tabs on my progress as well as if I am cheating by jumping to levels I'm not rolled for.

Wish me luck, and I'll be certain to post after my first session on Sunday.

Taking a short break from poker

2008-07-08T00:29:00.000-10:00

I actually have not yet started my new poker task/project or whatever you want to call it. I'm actually going to take a break this week from poker, and get re-focused on the game starting next week. I do plan to play in the $20k freeroll from my rakeback site ThisIsTheNuts (TITN) this weekend.

I currently obtain 27% rakeback from all my play at Full Tilt Poker. However, after moving down the the micro limits, the amount of rakeback I receive per month probably won't be very significant going forward.

If you decide to create an account at ThisIsTheNuts (TITN), please mention my referral code (4400) when creating your account on TITN. They have been an awesome rakeback provider.

Mini Review of ThisIsTheNuts:
1) Like I mentioned above, they offer a monthly $20k freeroll for simply earning 500 Full Tilt Points in the previous month.
2) Additionally, you can cash out your rakeback directly into your Full Tilt account at anytime if your balance is over $50. Most other sites require you to wait till the end of the month to receive your rakeback. I find this is a huge advantage of using TITN.
3) The team at TITN has been extremely professional. Their support team returns email promptly and they also have an online forum where your questions can be addressed.

They have been everything I could ask for in a rakeback site and I highly recommend them.

I'm a big loser at poker...

2008-07-04T23:05:00.000-10:00

Poker has always been a hobby of mine... although I'm not very good at it... average at best.

I started playing online poker about 5-6 years ago on and off. The scenario typically went: I would deposit a couple of hundred, run it up to a couple of thousand, then donk or tilt it away in games I was hugely under-rolled for. Swear that I would never again play poker, let 6-12 months pass by, and repeat the process.

Happened again this week... built my roll up to about $1400 and proceeded to lose it at NL 2/4 over the past few days.

Well, I'm planning to never go broke again. That is unless I find out that my game is -EV in the long run. I'm starting this blog more as a journal about the struggles I have with bankroll management in the hopes that I can stick to my rules, follow proper bankroll management and end up a winner in the long run.

I'm a no-limit player and I've played games all the way to NL 5/10 online. For the purpose of this blog, I will be starting off with $200 and play the .05/.10 games at Full Tilt Poker.

Here are a list of rules I'll be following:
1) Roll = 20x buy ins (i.e. 200 = 20 x $10)
2) If I drop below 10 buy ins I must drop down a level
3) Always buy in for the table max
4) Avoid deep tables

Wish me luck... It's going to be a long, boring ride at .05/.10.