Starting the year on a downswing

Well thus far the year has started out continuing the downswing I started in the end of 2k10. Before I get too involved, this is by no means a complaint. Merely an observation. If there is one thing I have learned about poker(and statistics), it's the existence of variance. I have been on my largest (and longest) downswing yet playing. So far it's close to 200 games and down about $75 Now granted this is by no means the largest or longest I will probably ever have, but at this moment and factored for my bankroll it is pretty significant. In writing about it though I hope I can formulate a plan to slow the variance down and eventually reverse it an upswing. I think one of my main problems is trying to "bite off more than I can chew" and playing stakes that are a little higher to test the waters. I've also been playing a lot more MTT's with higher entry #'s and while I can feel a big score coming with a lot of deep runs I've made, it just hasn't happened yet. So it looks like in slowing the variance monster down I may have to go back to what got me here, my bread and butter... the $1 45 man sng's. While I still mix in a good amount of the $1&3 45 man's, they definitely have gotten away from my norm. The main aspect in all of this is playing games I'm comfortable playing and know how to win, while still making the best decisions on the felt. Bad beats will happen, but as long as good decisions are made eventually they will pay off. I've read a lot on the variance forum on Pokerwit, and thru what some players say I've really examined the bad beats and downswing and view them for what they are. They are not "bad beats" unless I'm the one that beats myself with a bad decision. Sometimes I think people fail to realize that even thru all the glitz and money, that it is still just a game. And to me there is no point unless you are having fun and do your best to play your best. That is what all players should truly strive for and within that good things will happen. I guess what I'm really saying is there is no point in not being optimistic about poker, and life in general. You never know what each day will bring you, and sometimes you have a little bit of control over it too.

2k10 Summary and 2k11 Goals

Obviously I am not the most ambitious blogger as I had intended to be from the beginning of starting this. And obviously I did not nearly come close to achieving the goals I had set for myself poker wise this year. Perhaps my sights were set too high. However, with that being said I still managed to have my best year to date grinding (other than the lone $3k score back in 06) and hugely improved over 2k9 stats. I managed to move up in stakes twice on Stars and played really well overall IMO. Of course there is always room for improvement so that's more of what I will focus on this year. Overall I managed to play 129 games on FT and 638 games on Stars which gives me 767 games played for the year. I had total profits of $620 which amounts to winning about $0.80 per game played. Not bad when my average buy in is in the $2 range giving me an ROI of about 40%. Here are some visuals:




So all in all it was a decent year for me, but definitely leaves room for improvement. Moving forward this year my goals are mostly going to be volume oriented rather than monetary, because with volume will come money. My ultimate goal is to try to almost triple my volume from 767 to 2100 games which seems very reasonable, but will mean I will have to buckle down and play more. I plan to incorporate more MTT's as I've been getting close to a "big" score in the stakes I play and also continue to grind the SNG's that have built my bankroll to what it is. Also I was able to get slightly over 4700 tlb points on stars which was not too far off my goal of 6k. This year I am aiming to double that and get as close to 10k as possible if not more. So basically my goal in playing this year is just to play more and improve my game every time, with that the money will come. And yes perhaps I will try to blog more this year and make it a bit more interesting as I feel this has been very mundane and probably dry to read. Thanks for reading anyway for those of you that may check in every so often. GL in 2k11!

It's been awhile...

Since I have posted, but after talking to someone that actually pops in on this thing occasionally I decided I better get back on the wagon!

I've actually been playing quite a few mtt's lately sort of getting away from the sng's and see if I can put together a deep run. So far I've been doing pretty well and have been putting together some good stacks and coming oh so close to making a final table. There are 2 tournaments that stick out recently with about 1200 or so entrants I got a 19th place and then a 33rd on Saturday after losing a coin flip to a maniac for a top 5 stack. Variance is an ugly beast as any serious poker player can attest to, but you just have to keep on chugging and that successful tournament will come. So far I've been pretty break even with my results and I'm definitely trying to stay within my bankroll not playing any buy in over $4.40 for now. The only drawback to mtt's I see so far is my volume has significantly decreased since they take so long. I've only been able to play about 8-10 a session when my schedule allots as opposed to 15-20 sng's. But, I'm having fun with it and definitely using all the skills and knowledge I have learned to make some good shots and take down a big field tournament soon.

My goals and objectives have been so skewed this year for a variety of reasons from work to personal issues. However, I do feel that this year has been a success if even a small one. I've learned so much about poker, life, and just appreciating every day for what it's worth. Sometimes that means a lot of time away from the tables to regroup and refocus. I've managed to quadruple my bankroll on Stars and have played the best poker I ever have this year. There is definitely room for improvement though, and I'm looking forward to a new year and new goals. I do plan to push to end 2010 on a high note though and will be sure to "brag" about any big scores I take down.

I'd like to say thanks to the person that actually mentioned reading this (I won't name that person since this is the scary internet). Your impact on my life has been more than I could ever ask for, and I will carry that with me as long as I live.

Tryin Not to Ramble....

So let me start this post off with a re run of this particular game: http://bam-baminbedrock.blogspot.com/2010/08/some-help-with-prop-bet-please.html

Amir, the creator of pokerwit, posted this in a forum so I decided to give a run at showing the blogging community (even though I am partially part of it, but mostly a pokerwit member) how to play some cards. There were 31 total entrants and only 6 or 7 pokerwit members so we definitely had the odds stacked against us. Amir was kind enough to donate $200 of his own money to the prize pool which more than doubled it. So with the $5 buy in it was effectively an $11.50 buy in. I started out this game pretty aggressive and mixing it up approaching it in a "small ball" sense and trying to get a feel for how these bloggers play. I was getting some hot cards, but unfortunately getting outflopped and losing showdowns. So I quickly found myself short (30 of 31 people) in only the second blind level. That caused me to really tighten up for a bit as my image was somewhat loose and crazy. So I relaxed and picked up a blind here and there to keep my stack from diminishing any further and waited for a spot to bring me back to life. Bambam, the blogger captain, had been showing a willingness to open early with junk (he showed 39 suited and 72 off both under the gun after opening and no callers). I got pocket 9's in mid pos with the blinds starting to get closer (my M was about a 10 or so at that point, maybe less), and Bambam opens utg again so I 3 bet shove hoping to just pick up a raise and some blinds but he calls! Well turns out he has AK and we are racing, but luckily I won that race and that was the beginning of my upward climb to a second place finish. I quickly doubled up again after having pocket jacks and flopping trips to a guy with AQ and hitting his ace. That put me the chip leader at the table. So I continued to grind and eventually made it to the final table as 1 of 2 pokerwit reps left. The other was blind all in so it was up to me to try to win it! I was sitting about 5 out of 8 at that point. Well my true grinder instinct took over and I made some great moves stealing tons of blinds and even had a great soul read hero call with third pair on the river (it was second pair on the flop). My read was spot on there! Eventually I grinded my way up to being the chip leader and started to really dominate the table as everyone was playing really passive and just letting me walk on them. By the time they defended I had such a big chip lead I could gamble (I had over half of all the chips with 4 people left). Well I lost a few flips to double all the short stacks up and the table really started to even out. That was the beginning of a very long, but fun, grind. The chip lead kept flip flopping between the three left and there were quite a few split pots which some of worked into my advantage and others not. I don't think I've ever seen that many split pots short handed in a game ever! Well eventually it was shove pre time and I caught K 8 off on the button which isn't great but is above average. And the range the other two were showing was so tight I figured easy blind pickup and at worst I'm 60/40. Ehhh, wrong! Both called my all in, but I was in second. Chip leader had AK and third place guy had KK! Man I was dead to the water and looking at a third for sure! Well, AK hit the A to win the game in crazy fashion! It was a nice cap on a very fun game, but I know my skill factor was far above my opponents so it was slightly disappointing to not win. But such is poker! I'm just glad represented the Pokerwit team so deep with the odds being stacked against us (player wise). I also came away with my third highest cash to date on Fulltilt with $80 profit. The first highest also being a Pokerwit event. Thanks Amir for boosting my bankroll so much! :) But I'm now almost eclipsed the $1K mark with my bankroll and looking good on the games I have been playing on Stars. I managed to win two games simultaneously the other night on there for another big boost and my biggest cash of $42 on stars for a $3 45 plyr win. So it feels good to be moving up and making successes. It shows me that the time I spend thinking and studying poker is paying off on the limited amount of time I have to play. Well that was quite a ramble and I hope somewhat interesting. I was planning on delving into some personal shit that has been bringing me down lately, but I will spare the details of that for perhaps another day (if these problems still exist). Anyway thanks for reading and good luck at the tables!

Quick Update

So it has been awhile since I have posted anything. Since my last post I went on vacation and upon returning immediately had to do a stretch in the field again for work. Needless to say that has left very little time for poker since I last wrote. I have however been playing a few 45 man sng's this week trying to get back into a groove. I finally eclipsed the 1000 game mark on Pokerstars too! Not a huge accomplishment for say a pro, but pretty big for a small time player like me. I managed to make $275 profit according to Sharkscope in this time and my avg buy in is $1. So essentially for every dollar I invest I am getting back 27.5 cents, or a ROI of 27.5% (If I'm doing the calc right, sharkscope shows my avg ROI at 56% so I may be wrong). Looking at my grapsh, which I still don't have to post sorry, there have been ups and downs and even seemingly long break even stretch. Overall though it shows an upward trend in profit and there seems to be a huge inflection point where my profit starts to rise dramatically. I attribute this to stepping up my game and really trying to fix my leaks, as well as stepping up the stakes. As of right now I am close to breaking the $300 mark for my bankroll on Stars so I plan to really move towards the $3 45 man games as well as mixing in a few $2 180's. Hopefully this will show an increase in my $/game amount, but I do expect a slight decrease in ROI since the players are bound to be at least a little more competent. It's funny playing the $1 45 man games that even when I feel I am running bad or even playing bad I seem to run deep in at least 1 out of every 4 games I play. I would like to try to keep that in 1 out of every 6 games if possible when I move up fully to the $3 games. I'm finding the $2 180's to be challenging, even though good players seem to go on and on about how they are so easy. I just don't think I have enough sample under my belt to make up my mind about them as well as needing to adjust my strategy to keep from getting so short stacked and unable to make moves. I am comfortable with turbo structure though so once I figure it out I am confident I will make a good run sooner or later. Well that's about the happenings since the last time I wrote, nothing exciting but hopefully I can get back into the groove of grinding more and continue to make progress. Until next time, thanks for reading and good luck at the tables!

So close, yet so far....

The other night I decided to try my hands at some bigger tournaments, field sizes not buy ins, on full tilt. I loaded up a few including a $3 turbo, $5 knockout, $3 rebuy, and the daily dollar. Was grinding away steady, but something magical started to happen in the knockout. I found myself building a huge stack early as people were just giving me chips, although my cards were really hot too. There were 566 entrants when late registration was over and I just kept building my stack and knocking out people in the process. Was a top five stack for most of it when I started to slide off as the cards cooled down and I felt it was time to slow down a little bit. Well after that I picked up pocket kings being about 15-20th in chips and the other top twenty stack at the table decided to defend against my raise. There were probably about 200 people left at this point so it was definitely two huge stacks playing against each other. Well somehow we found ourselves playing the biggest pot of the tourney at that point and I ended up knocking him out with my trips on the river like the luckbox I am. He had a pair of aces after all. From there it looked like I was just going to dominate as I just kept running over the table playing great deepstack small ball poker. I was up over 20k chips against the second place player cruising into the money which 54 people got paid. That's about when things came to a standstill though and I ended up doubling up about every short stack at the table with what I felt were reasonable calls given the situations and odds. Granted I was gambling a bit, but I suppose I should have given them more credit for having tighter ranges close to the bubble. I soon found myself outside the top ten again and was determined to turn it around and make the final table and win! Well, there was one huge losing player at my table who kept making these off the wall huge preflop raises and calling super marginal bets. It was amazing he even made it that far to be honest. So down to two tables and I'm busto in all my other games so I'm focusing on this one only. Donkzilla raises and I reraise with AK suited on the button after there was one other caller to his raise. Well turns out to be a coinflip, but I catch a king and double up to be back in the top five in chips. So far in the field everyone I had sharkscoped were losing players except one who seemed to be fairly decent. Luckily I hadn't tangled with him. So I'm feeling good now cruising getting closer to the final table when I had an epic meltdown and donked all my chips off to someone who I knew was way ahead since he was playing so tight. End up going bust like two hands later to the semi good guy and go out in 11th. Ended up only cashing for $24, when first was $566. With knockouts that was probably more like $40.

Where all this was severely disappointing, I did learn a lot of things going forward. The first thing being more patient short handed. In turn with that ICM considerations should have been of utmost importance to me when I made a foolish call. I had almost 56 players chips, or 10% of the chips and only ended up cashing for about 1% of the prize pool. I know looking back I was trying to force the issue, and that can work when you are dominating a table but not when the stacks are very close in size as they were becoming towards that point. Sometimes hero calls with a t off are ok, but not against someone who has obv been playing tight.

It was really disappointing to bubble the final table after playing so well up to that point, but I will take everything I learned from the experience and move on to play better the next time. I can assure you all out there this is only a taste of the success I am driven to see and will reach another final table soon!

Fresh Start

I've finally not had to work long hours for awhile now! Oops, I probably just cursed myself....

Anyhow, I've been taking advantage by slowly starting to play more poker lately. I've been mixing it up trying to find a good niche again and even started to play a few cash games. That didn't live too long as I guess I don't have the patience, or maybe time, to grind out good results. I do realize you can sit and go as you please with cash games, but to really start to make some money you have to find those perfect spots which can take a long time to come. So I went back to playing mostly SNG's and have been having some ok results.

I've been playing on Full Tilt mostly as I just seem to be running a little better on there. I've been playing my regular MTT sng's and mixing in some step tournaments to try to win tickets to some bigger buy in tournaments than I usually play. The step 1 &2's are very soft and are pretty easy to exploit and at least come out of it with your original buy in. The people really play super tight it seems and don't realize you still have to get a decent stack to move up, even though they really do play like satellites.

I also tried my hand at some of the new "Rush" sng's. I was a bit weary of the concept, but really find them fun to play! It doesn't hurt that the very first 135 player game I played I got second place and should have had 1st as I was a much better player, but donked my chips off heads up. That gave me a nice little boost to my bankroll. The Rush concept is interesting as any time you fold your hand you are instantly moved to another table and dealt a new hand. This continues until you reach the final table where traditional play starts. I thought it would be chaotic, but really you start to recognize the field and can play some decent poker. It's sort of tough to get reads on people though since you don't get to see hands play out a lot. Good concept, but we'll see how it fits into my game long term.

I'm nearing the 4 figure mark on my bankroll too (total with stars and ft). I hope to be eclipsing the $1K mark by summers end, but we'll see how the variance Gods treat me. That is a vast improvement over last year. This year I've made almost $700 grinding out micro stakes. Granted $200 was a freeroll from pokerwit, but still I'm pleased thus far. Far from my original goals, but play wise I'm happy with my progress.

I still haven't put much volume in the last couple of months, but things are picking up this month so hopefully I'll have some graphs to show off soon too! Well that's just another quick update. Good luck at the tables!