Post-Holiday Play!

Tonight I decided to get back into it, after a short Holiday break.

First up was Pokerstar's Multi-table tournament promotion for getting all the questions on a quiz correct. By responding correctly, you can join the tournament with a $5 entry fee, but they add $20000 to the prize pool. I checked just before the time-slot, and it looked like just over 2000 players joined, so I hopped in, seeing as how only $10,000 of the $30,000 prize pool was covered by the players (kinda making my $5 worth $15, if you think about it!).

Unfortunately, I had to sit out of the first hour of the tournament due to nagging household chores, but after I jumped into the saddle to play, I actually placed quite well. The bubble was at 324 players, with prizes starting at $15.00. I was knocked out at roughly 425th - so just out of the bubble.

I then proceeded to play 2 separate $5.5 sit and go's! (an attempt at moving up in stakes!). Regretably, I ended up placing 5th in one and 6th in the other.

Thinking that perhaps I'd chewed off more than I could handle, I fired up 2 separate $3.4 sit and go's! (back to what I'm used to!). I lost both in 5th place again! (What's with me and 5th place?).

In the end I played 4 more. I was 2nd place in the last 3, so this made up for the other $3.4 losses at least.

At the same time, I played a little bit of NL2 cash during the low and mid blind play when my concentrated isn't needed as much, and came away with some small change. This makes my last 4 sessions positive, which almost makes up 3/4 of a buy-in. So I'm happy with my progress there.

Anyways, the bankroll is now at $221.78. Still off from the higher point of $254, but still quite respectable.

Have a happy holiday everyone.

How I can't win with a Full House!

OK.

I've played 14 hands tonight at cash. On hand number 8, I lose a full $5 Buy-In on another Full House, losing to a better full house made on the river! Sound like my last post? You betcha! I know this is just a bit of bad luck, but it can be very discouraging.

Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 438143

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



UTG+1: $4.63

MP1: $4.71

MP2: $4.16

CO: $5.20

BTN: $5.00

Hero (SB): $5.00

BB: $2.29

UTG: $6.50



Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB with 9 9

UTG calls $0.02, 5 folds, Hero calls $0.01, BB checks



Flop: ($0.06) 9 6 5 (3 players)

Hero bets $0.04, BB folds, UTG raises to $0.16, Hero raises to $0.28, UTG calls $0.12



Turn: ($0.62) 5 (2 players)

Hero checks, UTG checks



River: ($0.62) T (2 players)

Hero bets $0.24, UTG raises to $6.20 all in, Hero calls $4.46 all in



Final Pot: $10.02

Hero shows 9 9 (a full house, Nines full of Fives)

UTG shows T T (a full house, Tens full of Fives)

UTG wins $9.52

(Rake: $0.50)





Lets see how we roll for the rest of the night!

Rough night at $3.40 SnG's!

Its been awhile since I've posted (and played!). Holidays are taking their toll, plus having two flu shots at once on Tuesday meant being ultra-sleepy -> not the best state to be playing poker!

So, got back into it tonight. Been playing one cash table, which so far has been break-even over 60 or so hands.

Unfortunately, during that time I've participated in 3 separate $3.40 Sit and Go's. I lost all three... the first one I lost with a heartbreaker of a hand. The table was so aggressive and loose, it was closing on the bubble and the blinds were only at 25/50!! Here it is for all to see.... Brutal Hand.

Poker Stars $3.00+$0.40 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25/t50 Blinds - 5 players - View hand 435044

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



BB: t2855 M = 38.07

UTG: t1830 M = 24.40

CO: t2590 M = 34.53

Hero (BTN): t1445 M = 19.27

SB: t6280 M = 83.73



Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is BTN with K Q

UTG raises to t100, 1 fold, Hero calls t100, SB calls t75, BB calls t50



Flop: (t400) Q Q 3 (4 players)

SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, Hero checks



Turn: (t400) K (4 players)

SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets t150, Hero calls t150, SB folds, BB folds



River: (t700) A (2 players)

UTG bets t200, Hero raises to t500, UTG raises to t1200, Hero calls t695 all in



Final Pot: t3090

UTG shows A Q (a full house, Queens full of Aces)

Hero shows K Q (a full house, Queens full of Kings)

UTG wins t3090

The Meaning of Tilt

The evening before yesterday, I had a fairly even night.

On the one hand, the bad news is that I lost 2 $3.40 Sit and Go's. I finished 4th place in both - just out of the money.

On the other hand, I won $4.48 in NL2 cash play in 217 hands. The next night, I was not as fortunate.

Encouraged by my success the previous evening in cash, I decided to fire up 4 tables at NL2. Unfortunately, the cards ran really cold, and after 3 and a half hours, I was down $4, nearly a full buy-in. At this point, its 1:15 a.m. A rational person would call it quits and hope for a better day tomorrow. BUT NOT ME!!!

Instead, I'm angry that I spent so long at the tables without hitting a hand with action (the only big pair I had out of 440 hands last night was KK. Everyone folded to my pre-flop raise, netting me $0.03). So, exhausted and angry, what do I do?

Why, I buy in two levels above! NL10! And not only that, I do it on a table format I haven't been playing -> 6 max! The land of aggressive players.

Needless to say, my play from that point on was not pretty. I started up a couple of dollars with a nice hand, but within 20 minutes, I had spewed away one and a half full buy-ins.

I fully deserved what I got. A prime example of my awful play was a hand like this:

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/428598
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (UTG): $10.00
MP: $12.50
CO: $7.20
BTN: $10.00
SB: $6.80
BB: $7.15

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is UTG with 5d Kd
Hero raises to $0.30, 4 folds, BB calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.65) 4d 5c 3h (2 players)
BB bets $0.20, Hero raises to $0.70, BB calls $0.50

Turn: ($2.05) Ts (2 players)
BB bets $0.10, Hero raises to $0.90, BB calls $0.80

River: ($3.85) 6s (2 players)
BB bets $0.20, Hero raises to $3.60, BB raises to $5.25 all in, Hero calls $1.65

Final Pot: $14.35
Hero shows 5d Kd (a pair of Fives)
BB shows Qd 2h (a straight, Deuce to Six)
BB wins $13.65
(Rake: $0.70)

SURE, he should not have been calling my flop and turn raises with the low end of a straight draw (they were priced too high), but I certainly had no business making those raises with a pair of 5's.

So, in summary, my total loss for the night was $18.83. WAY TO GO, ME! That's a whole week's work destroyed.

I suppose the only redeeming thing is that as I while writing this, I played 19 NL2 hands, and recouped $1.53. Hit trips twice, and was dealt KK (cowboys) on the last hand. Woo-hoo! Anyways, time for this post to end. No more poker tonight.

Bankroll is now $233.71

End of the Freeroll

Its a hand I should have known better on...

My opponent, however, had an 87 VPIP, and a 33 PFR... and would call down and raise with ANY pair made on the flop, so unlucky me, he hits a hand big when I have top pair, good kicker. Though I should not have called based on the flush possibility regardless. My own fault.

Here is the hand for all to see. Kicked out 3099th out of 5071 players:

Poker Stars Freeroll No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t40/t80 Blinds + t10 - 9 players - View hand 423941
The Official Hand History Converter

CO: t4234 M = 20.16
BTN: t1051 M = 5.00
SB: t4373 M = 20.82
BB: t225 M = 1.07
UTG: t1180 M = 5.62
UTG+1: t2428 M = 11.56
Hero (UTG+2): t2146 M = 10.22
MP1: t1060 M = 5.05
MP2: t4125 M = 19.64

Pre Flop: (t210) Hero is UTG+2 with Q K
2 folds, Hero raises to t240, 2 folds, CO calls t240, 2 folds, BB calls t135 all in

Flop: (t825) 5 Q T (3 players - 1 is all in)
Hero bets t240, CO raises to t480, Hero calls t240

Turn: (t1785) 2 (3 players - 1 is all in)
Hero checks, CO bets t3504 all in, Hero calls t1416 all in

River: (t4617) 9 (3 players - 3 are all in)

Waiting for the Depositor Freeroll Finals!

Only 1 or 2 minutes to go before the depositor freeroll finals! For some reason, I'm more excited about this than anything else this week. It looks like the field will be composed of 5066 entrants. Top 500 are paid $10 or more. I was trying to prime myself by playing a little NL2 just beforehand. On my 2nd hand, I'm dealt a tough one. I've got to fold KK once the flop is bad, and it just gets worse down to the river.


Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/423911The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter
UTG+2: $3.05
Hero (MP1): $5.00
MP2: $6.75
CO: $2.72
BTN: $1.01
SB: $1.61
BB: $5.00
UTG: $5.56
UTG+1: $1.29

Pre Flop: ($0.03)
Hero is MP1 with Kh Kc
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.04, UTG+2 calls $0.04, Hero raises to $0.28, MP2 calls $0.28, 6 folds

Flop: ($0.67) Jc As Td (2 players)
Hero bets $0.30, MP2 calls $0.30

Turn: ($1.27) Js (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks

River: ($1.27) 9c (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets $1, Hero folds

Small Progress

The last few days, I've been chugging away at the $3.4 Sit and Gos. My bankroll is now up to $240.54. It would have been higher, but I've been dabbling in a bit of cash for 10-15 mins after each SnG session to "wind down", and I've lost a small amount there in the past few days.

Can't complain about the SnG's though. I've completed 19 out of the 20 games I need to finish an entire block to get on the leaderboard, but I'm afraid making the top 50 this week just isn't going to happen. I've only got 300 points. Out of the 19 games, the points came about from 5 first place, 1 second place and 1 third place finish.

Monetarily speaking, this isn't a bad week at all. Say I lose that 20th game for argument's sake. Total Buy-in of 20 $3.4's is $68.00. 5 first's is $75.00, 1 second is $9, and a third is $6, for a total of $90.00. So, I've netted $22.00 from these Sit and Go's this week. Not the slam dunk I had last week/weekend, but pretty darned good.

I think I'll play these awhile longer. :-) Now, off I go to play that 20th game. I'll update this with the results once I'm done.

UPDATE: Just finished the 20th game of the block. 1st place finish once again! So, 350 points for the block, which doesn't even get me in the top 100. :-) However profit wise is a different story. That makes my profit for the block $37.00. My BR has now increased to $252.14.

Incredible Weekend

Thus far, this weekend has been absolutely incredible.

My bankroll has increased from about $187 to $234.47. I believe that is a 25% increase.

Here's how it happened....

Last two weeks, I have been having incredible success playing the $3.4 10-man turbo Sit and Go's at Pokerstars.

On Friday night, I played in three of them. I received 1 first place finish ($15) and 1 second place finish ($9). After that, I noticed my Frequent Player Points balance was 20 points away from clearing the $15 reload bonus. Well! I fired up 3 double or nothing SnG's with a $1.1 buy-in. Unfortunately, I lost all 3.

So, I formulated a plan to clear the rest of the bonus by the end of the evening. I foolishly decided to play in a couple of NL25 games (that's a $25 buyin), which would normally require my bankroll to be 5 times its current size. I would play VERY tight, and choose tables with a very high average pot. The reason for the high pot is that higher pots mean more rake, and more rake translates into more Frequent Player Points (FPPs).

Needless to say, it ended up being a wild ride on NL25. I was up a full buyin, then down 2 buyins, then finally I ended the session once I cleared the points.... and miraculously, I was up $3.37. One problem is that I was only playing two tables, and just couldn't play less cards and tighten my game up.

Anyhow, before I went to bed, I noticed a menu item on the software "Sit and Go Leader Points". This got me curious because I had been running so well at the $3.4's. I saw that I had 240 points out of 7 games. The minimum block of games however, is 20. I extrapolated that if continued at that rate, my final points would be : 686. The current leader on the board was at 630. Then I see that I have until tomorrow evening to play my additional 13 required games - unfortunately, not going to happen. Too bad, because being at the top of the ladder in a given week pays $300 at this level, as well as entry into a $50,000 tournament! Wow. So I pledge to try again starting tomorrow evening, after it resets.

WELL, Saturday evening arrives. I play a few to warm up. By the end of the evening, I've played 8 of the 10-man $3.4 (buy in total of $27.20). I'm first place in 3 of them, for a total of $45 in winnings. Not only that, but I get eliminated in 4th place on the bubble in two of them, so a great night was close to being absolutely fabulous! Can't complain about that!

Anyways, checking the new leader board, I have 100 points with 4 tournaments played (the other 4 were played BEFORE the evening's point reset). So at this rate, I will have 500 points by the end of the block of 20 tournaments, which is good enough to cash in, I believe!

Anyways, so far, a great weekend. My Sit and Go / Tournament graph is at the top there. (the red line is luck adjusted winnings). $234.47 is the highest my bankroll has ever been (well, except for when I deposited for the reload bonus, but promptly withdrew that amount).

7785 players. Its a Pokerstars depositor freeroll.

After 4 gruelling hours, there are 145 people left, and I'm 36th in terms of chips.

Unfortunately, its now 2:50 am. I have to wake up at 7:00 am for work.... And I've got 2 short stacks at the table who insist on using up all available time on every hand to drag it out, just so that they have a chance to gain a meagre amount of cash (from $4 to $5). When they play a hand together, the agony is unbearable watching a full 4 betting rounds of double-delaying.

I'm nodding off… and unfortunately, the thought that it’s a freeroll and I'm currently sitting on a prize of $4 grabs hold. Should I actually make it to 36th, it'll only be worth $8. Final table? Okay… anywhere from $30 to $200; but how long is it going to take to get there? I've got $165,000 in chips, and my M (or CSI) is 20. I'm double the size of the average stack.

Basically, I started shove-tilting just to go to bed and eventually lost the stack (placing something like 125 - I don't even remember).

GG.

If I wanted to "optimize" my decision to go to sleep, I should have just sat out at that point and left it. But the all-in every hand sure was fun.

No matter what, I will make the finals, worth 10 times as much. I've actually qualified for it twice now! I'll be more serious about stick around if I make it that far then, even if I have to pull an all-nighter.

The Story So Far

This graph fairly represents the Bankroll since I started playing with a $50 deposit to Pokerstars at the end of June 2009. Its been a VERY rocky 5 month journey!

As you can see, the first month was fairly rough. I was playing $1+$0.10 Double or Nothing sit and go tournaments to build my bankroll. I was quite successful at these Double or Nothing's, but unfortunately, I was also spending time playing cash games at NL2 (blinds are $0.01 and $0.02). I was losing more at cash than I was making in the DoN's - hence the tragic plummet, which had me at a low point of $14.50 in late July. At this point, I realized that playing even the lowest stakes with real money was vastly different than playing for play money, and I pledged to improve and become a winning player.

August was a month where I ran well, and stuck to what I was good at, and essentially rebuilt the shattered bankroll. I avoided cash games altogether. The huge spike at the beginning of October was due to my $50 first deposit bonus clearing.

The massive crash in November can pretty much be accounted for by my decision to run at higher stakes. Almost as soon as that decision was made, I did poorly at the new stakes. Once I saw the freefall, I moved back down in stakes, but then I started running very poorly, and just couldn't seem to win any key showdowns.

Luckily, things seemed to stabilize at the end of November, and I've been running very well, recouping a lot of lost ground in a very short time. This has been very encouraging and has given me a lot of hope for my future with this game