Here are my goals for February 2009 (which may be amended as I plan on speaking to my coach about goal-setting):
[ ] play 60,000 hands
[ ] ptBB/100 for the month 3+
[ ] have a total steal % of over 40% by increasing steals from CO
[ ] work on getting more value on the turn/river by taking less c/c or c-behind lines
[ ] reach Platinum Star on Pokerstars
[ ] play enough on FTP to maintain Ironman (200 FTP points per day)
Saturday, January 31, 2009
January Results
Overall, January was a tough month. Started out good, the middle totally sucked, and towards the end things shaped up a bit. My 6M experiment failed. It was fun to play, but I ran poorly and played poorly. I am much better at FR. I will still play some 6M here and there, but the vast majority of my hand volume will be at FR.
Ok, here are the results:
Comparison to January Goals:
[X] Play 60,000 hands. I played 78K hands
[X] Watch at least 4 videos. I watched way more than that.
[ ] Have a ptBB/100 of 3.00ptBB/100 or higher. Nope.
[ ] Steal more from HJ, CO, and Button (total steal percentage of 40%). Nope. 35%. But, this is a huge improvement over what I have been which was only 24%. My steal from button was good at 49%, but cutoff was only at 23.9%.
Overall:
Hands: 78,379
Profit/Loss: +1419 (including rakeback and the $600 year-end Ironman bonus at FTP)
$/hour: $6.42 (I think I'm ready to go professional)
All-in Equity: - $896.00 (meaning that I would have won $896 more had my hands held up after going all-in). OUCH!
Fullring:
50NL
Hands: 32,111
Profit/Loss: +$715.40
ptBB/100: +2.23*
*3.80 for last 21,674 hands.
100NL
Hands: 18,575
Profit/Loss: - $277.35
ptBB/100: -0.75
25NL*
Hands: 3,164
Profit/Loss: +$109.95
ptBB/100: 6.95
* played some 25NL on Pokerstars because I was not quite rolled for NL50 at first.
6max
50NL
Hands: 13,958
Profit/Loss: +161.70
ptBB/100: 1.16
100NL
Hands: 4,346
Profit/Loss: -$569.90 (OUCH!!)
ptBB/100: -6.56 (OUCH!!)
25NL:
Hands: 1,003
Profit/Loss: +35.70
ptBB/100: 7.12
Ok, here are the results:
Comparison to January Goals:
[X] Play 60,000 hands. I played 78K hands
[X] Watch at least 4 videos. I watched way more than that.
[ ] Have a ptBB/100 of 3.00ptBB/100 or higher. Nope.
[ ] Steal more from HJ, CO, and Button (total steal percentage of 40%). Nope. 35%. But, this is a huge improvement over what I have been which was only 24%. My steal from button was good at 49%, but cutoff was only at 23.9%.
Overall:
Hands: 78,379
Profit/Loss: +1419 (including rakeback and the $600 year-end Ironman bonus at FTP)
$/hour: $6.42 (I think I'm ready to go professional)
All-in Equity: - $896.00 (meaning that I would have won $896 more had my hands held up after going all-in). OUCH!
Fullring:
50NL
Hands: 32,111
Profit/Loss: +$715.40
ptBB/100: +2.23*
*3.80 for last 21,674 hands.
100NL
Hands: 18,575
Profit/Loss: - $277.35
ptBB/100: -0.75
25NL*
Hands: 3,164
Profit/Loss: +$109.95
ptBB/100: 6.95
* played some 25NL on Pokerstars because I was not quite rolled for NL50 at first.
6max
50NL
Hands: 13,958
Profit/Loss: +161.70
ptBB/100: 1.16
100NL
Hands: 4,346
Profit/Loss: -$569.90 (OUCH!!)
ptBB/100: -6.56 (OUCH!!)
25NL:
Hands: 1,003
Profit/Loss: +35.70
ptBB/100: 7.12
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Going for Nova
After talking it over with my coach, Splitsuit, I've decided that I'm going to try and reach Supernova at Pokerstars this year. If I get there, it will be more than my 27% rakeback I earn at FTP. That said, I'm going to try and maintain ironman at FTP to get the semi-annual $600 bonus. At 50NL, I will have to play about 700 hands to get 200 points per day. I think I can do both. We'll see.
Overall, I think the change will be good because I've been running like crap at FTP.
Also, I'm going to use my Ironman points to buy FTP points so that I can get my 37" LCD TV. Its not the most value for the points, but I don't care. I want the TV.
Overall, I think the change will be good because I've been running like crap at FTP.
Also, I'm going to use my Ironman points to buy FTP points so that I can get my 37" LCD TV. Its not the most value for the points, but I don't care. I want the TV.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
No more looking at results
In order to keep myself from tilting from all the bad beats and coolers I've been hit with lately, I've decided I'm not going to look at my bankroll or HEM until Thursday morning when I have to get ready for my next session with Splitsuit. Seeing my results has been frustrating. This way I won't know how bad/good I'm actually running, hopefully making it easier to forget the bad beats and coolers. Hopefully this works out.
Monday, January 19, 2009
And the (Bad) Beats Go On
and on, and on and on...
I'm now down about $1,100 in all-in EV. Please poker gods, forgive me! I know I'm not very good, but I'm trying really hard to improve and things like the hand below is not helping my poker growth very much.
Full Tilt Poker, $0.25/$0.50 PL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter
UTG: $50
MP: $65.80
Hero (CO): $50
BTN: $50
SB: $54.80
BB: $20.25
Pre-Flop: 2c 2d dealt to Hero (CO)
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.75, BTN folds, SB raises to $5.75, BB folds, Hero calls $4
Flop: ($12) 2s 7h 4h (2 Players)
SB bets $8.50, Hero calls $8.50
Turn: ($29) Qd (2 Players)
SB bets $18, Hero raises to $35.75 and is All-In, SB calls $17.75
River: ($100.50) Js (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: $100.50 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed 2c 2d (three of a kind, Twos) and LOST (-$50 NET)
SB showed Jc Jd (three of a kind, Jacks) and WON $97.50 (+$47.50 NET)
I'm now down about $1,100 in all-in EV. Please poker gods, forgive me! I know I'm not very good, but I'm trying really hard to improve and things like the hand below is not helping my poker growth very much.
Full Tilt Poker, $0.25/$0.50 PL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter
UTG: $50
MP: $65.80
Hero (CO): $50
BTN: $50
SB: $54.80
BB: $20.25
Pre-Flop: 2c 2d dealt to Hero (CO)
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.75, BTN folds, SB raises to $5.75, BB folds, Hero calls $4
Flop: ($12) 2s 7h 4h (2 Players)
SB bets $8.50, Hero calls $8.50
Turn: ($29) Qd (2 Players)
SB bets $18, Hero raises to $35.75 and is All-In, SB calls $17.75
River: ($100.50) Js (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: $100.50 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed 2c 2d (three of a kind, Twos) and LOST (-$50 NET)
SB showed Jc Jd (three of a kind, Jacks) and WON $97.50 (+$47.50 NET)
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Rough Week
From my twitter posts, you've probably guessed that pokerz has been rough on me lately. Since my last twitter I topped out at being behind in my all-in EV by over $800 (which means that I won $800 LESS than what I should have when I got it all-in). This doesn't include all the times I was ahead but managed not to lose too much. It got so bad that I cashed out another $1,500 of my poker roll and moved down to NL50FR where the swong continued. I ultimately dropped about $1,000. OUCH!
I was so messed up from the bad beats and coolers that I couldn't get in the right frame of mind for my last session with my coach, Splitsuit to the point where we just had to quit (though I still got a lot out of the session).
After the session, I remembered that going to 6M for a bit helped me get out of the dumps in the past. So, I opened a few tables of NL50 6M and..... it has turned around. There are far more fish %age wise at 6M than there are at fullring and you see a lot more flops in 6M. For whatever reason I'm having a much easier time making reads (and the fact that I've flopped sets 18% vs. the 10% at fullring vs. standard of about 13% helps). This has helped restore some of the confidence I lost during my downswong.
So, I'll probably stay at 6M for a little while.
I was so messed up from the bad beats and coolers that I couldn't get in the right frame of mind for my last session with my coach, Splitsuit to the point where we just had to quit (though I still got a lot out of the session).
After the session, I remembered that going to 6M for a bit helped me get out of the dumps in the past. So, I opened a few tables of NL50 6M and..... it has turned around. There are far more fish %age wise at 6M than there are at fullring and you see a lot more flops in 6M. For whatever reason I'm having a much easier time making reads (and the fact that I've flopped sets 18% vs. the 10% at fullring vs. standard of about 13% helps). This has helped restore some of the confidence I lost during my downswong.
So, I'll probably stay at 6M for a little while.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
So far, so good, in January
I think the poker lessons are really paying off and are definitely worth the money spent.
The two key things I've learned so far are:
Speaking of thinking before you act, I wrote a little article about it at PokerNewsPage.com. Check it out:
Think Before You Act
And when you do, don't forget to sign up for rakeback by clicking here.
The two key things I've learned so far are:
- steal much more from the hijack, cutoff, button, and SB; (I've gone from an attempt to steal of 24% to 42% and am making a lot of money in stolen pots); and
- think before I act. And by that I mean really think about what I'm trying to accomplish and the best course of action to accomplish. Its pretty simple really. But before coaching, my thinking was super-simple. Caveman-like simple. See good hand. Bet good hand. See bad hand. Fold bad hand. I never really stopped to think how to extract value from my hands and I really played into my opponents hands - making it really easy to play optimally against me. Now, I've learned to think about the opponents range and what they might call with and what they might fold with and go from there. I haven't mastered the "how to accomplish" part yet, but at least by thinking about where I want to go in the hand, I have a much better chance of getting there.
Speaking of thinking before you act, I wrote a little article about it at PokerNewsPage.com. Check it out:
Think Before You Act
And when you do, don't forget to sign up for rakeback by clicking here.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
January 2009 Goals
January 2009 Goals:
- Play 60,000 hands
- Watch at least 4 videos
- Have a ptBB/100 of 3.00ptBB/100 or higher
- Steal more from HJ, CO, and Button (total steal percentage of 40%)
2008 Results; 2009 Goals
2008 Results:
Unfortunately, my old laptop died and I lost a big portion of my database so I don't have much in the way of specific stats. My goal was to make $12,000 in 2008. I didn't make it but I did make a fair amount from poker in 2008: +$8,398.34. Unfortunately, a large chunk of this was due to rakeback and bonuses. I made $4,395 in rakeback in 2008.
Here is my breakdown by month:
Jan: + 976.04
Feb: - 568.60
Mar: +570.99
Apr: + 1,322.81
May: +68.71
Jun: -1,307.59
Jul: +1,768.78
Aug: +1,073.47
Sep: +1,440.48
Oct: +495.14
Nov: +303.02
Dec: +2255.09
2009 Goals:
Its probably odd considering I failed meeting my goal of $12,000 for poker in 2008, but in 2009 my goal is to make $20,000 from poker. I think if I can get enough hands in, this goal is attainable.
More important than the monetary goals, I want to be at least a 3ptBB/100 and whatever I'm playing for a significant sample of hands.
Unfortunately, my old laptop died and I lost a big portion of my database so I don't have much in the way of specific stats. My goal was to make $12,000 in 2008. I didn't make it but I did make a fair amount from poker in 2008: +$8,398.34. Unfortunately, a large chunk of this was due to rakeback and bonuses. I made $4,395 in rakeback in 2008.
Here is my breakdown by month:
Jan: + 976.04
Feb: - 568.60
Mar: +570.99
Apr: + 1,322.81
May: +68.71
Jun: -1,307.59
Jul: +1,768.78
Aug: +1,073.47
Sep: +1,440.48
Oct: +495.14
Nov: +303.02
Dec: +2255.09
2009 Goals:
Its probably odd considering I failed meeting my goal of $12,000 for poker in 2008, but in 2009 my goal is to make $20,000 from poker. I think if I can get enough hands in, this goal is attainable.
More important than the monetary goals, I want to be at least a 3ptBB/100 and whatever I'm playing for a significant sample of hands.
December Results; Poker Coaching
December Results:
I played a total of 61,115 hands @1.84 ptBB/100. The majority of my hands were at NL100FR and NL50FR.
Overall, it was a really good month. In fact, it was my biggest month of my poker "career" and I broke $2,000 for the first time. My total profit for the month was +$2,255.09 with rakeback.
NL100FR:
Hands: 42,181
Profit/Loss: +1,500.40
ptBB/100: +1.78
NL50FR:
Hands: 13,893
Profit/Loss: +441.10
ptBB/100: +3.17
I took a shot at NL200FR and had a set over set which contributed to losing $282.10 in just 90 hands. After that, I withdrew money to keep me from being tempted from playing NL200FR.
Coaching:
After several (gulp) years playing between NL50 and NL100, I went and got me a coach. Splitsuit ("SS") (a poo-bah at twoplustwo.com) started doing some full ring coaching videos at stoxpoker. I thought he was really good so I checked out his website and learned he does coaching. After a few email exchanges, I decided to do his Leakfinder session where mpethybridge (twoplustwo mod and stats guru) analyzed my stats and then I had a coaching session with SS. Both sessions went very well and I plan on taking more coaching sessions with SS. I'm very excited that I'll get over the hump and start improving vs. playing my same ol' break-even poker.
In the 2000 hands since my first lesson, I'm running at +13.84 ptBB/100 (yes, way too small a sample size and a lot of its probably due to variance, but just the small things I'm doing as a result of coaching is helping).
I played a total of 61,115 hands @1.84 ptBB/100. The majority of my hands were at NL100FR and NL50FR.
Overall, it was a really good month. In fact, it was my biggest month of my poker "career" and I broke $2,000 for the first time. My total profit for the month was +$2,255.09 with rakeback.
NL100FR:
Hands: 42,181
Profit/Loss: +1,500.40
ptBB/100: +1.78
NL50FR:
Hands: 13,893
Profit/Loss: +441.10
ptBB/100: +3.17
I took a shot at NL200FR and had a set over set which contributed to losing $282.10 in just 90 hands. After that, I withdrew money to keep me from being tempted from playing NL200FR.
Coaching:
After several (gulp) years playing between NL50 and NL100, I went and got me a coach. Splitsuit ("SS") (a poo-bah at twoplustwo.com) started doing some full ring coaching videos at stoxpoker. I thought he was really good so I checked out his website and learned he does coaching. After a few email exchanges, I decided to do his Leakfinder session where mpethybridge (twoplustwo mod and stats guru) analyzed my stats and then I had a coaching session with SS. Both sessions went very well and I plan on taking more coaching sessions with SS. I'm very excited that I'll get over the hump and start improving vs. playing my same ol' break-even poker.
In the 2000 hands since my first lesson, I'm running at +13.84 ptBB/100 (yes, way too small a sample size and a lot of its probably due to variance, but just the small things I'm doing as a result of coaching is helping).
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