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.

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

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.

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