New Poker Venture

My buddy Andy and I are starting a new online poker website that provides bonuses and rakeback programs for most of all the major online poker rooms. Our site will feature poker news, unique articles, and unique videos. Its still in a beta stage, but you can check it out at:

www.pokernewspage.com

November Results

And another month in which I struggled. I played about 3/4ths of it at 6M, and the last week or so I went back to fullring for a bit. Here are my results:

• 50NL 6Max: 26,601 hands, -$381.05, - 1.43 ptBB/100
• 100NL 6Max: 12,088 hands, -$242.00, -1.00 ptBB/100
• 50NL Fullring: 11,184 hands, +$356.34, +3.19 ptBB/100
• Various other levels
• Totals: 67,773 hands, -$322.46, -0.34 ptBB/100

With rakeback and tournies I played (mostly rakeback) I ended at +$303.02 for the month. That comes out to a whopping $1.42/hour. Woo-hoo!

For the year, I'm at +$6,143 with no chance of making my goal of $10,000 for 2008.

October Results; November Goals

Overall, October was a tough month. I had some huge downswings followed by huge upswings. It was just damn swingy. I got a new laptop and tried to make some videos playing the 6-max tables b/c there is more action. Turns out I was running really good there so I've decided to play some 6-max for awhile (I know, again!). But I was getting REALLY sick of the nitty full ring tables at 100NL, and playing 6-max will improve my pre-flop aggression and post-flop game anyway. So 6-max it is for the month of November (I'm going to try and not switch back to full ring even if I run/play bad - instead, I'll just go back down to NL50 6M).

So here are my results compared to my October goals:

October Goals/Results:

• Play 60,000 hands (at least 80% at NL100 and do not move up until I have at least a 3 bb/100 at NL100). Accomplished. I played 60,583 hands at NL100 Full Ring. I usually played 8-12 tables stacked. For the last week I played 6-max nearly exclusively.
  
• Over 6.0 BB/100. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. No. I was -.076 BB/100 (-.038 ptBB/100 for you PT users). However, I did play 5900 hands at NL50 6 Max and ran at 23 BB/100 (11.5 ptBB/100). I
  
• Hourly rate from cash NL cash games: $5.00. I know this isn't good for NL100, but making it $10/hour (10x what I did in September) seems way too lofty. Ha Ha Ha Ha. No. I actually don't know what it is with Rakeback, but at least it was positive.
  
• Watch at least 1 instructional video per week. Accomplished. I watched a number of videos from both Stoxpoker and Cardrunners.
• Spend 30 minutes reviewing hands. Accomplished (close enough anyway)

While I was a slightly down at NL100 FR, with my Rakeback and 6-max winnings, I finished up $495 for the month. I'm at +5,840 for the year, which is WAY behind my goal. I have to win $5,160 total for November/December to reach my goal of making $10,000 playing poker in 2008. I don't think I have a chance of that happening.

November Goals:

• Play 60,000 hands at NL100 6Max
• Keep an overall aggression number over 2.5.
  
• Have VPIP/PFR numbers for the button for what I have for UTG (encouraging positional awareness).
  
• Over 4.0 BB/100. I think this is reasonable and probably low for what a "good" player can make but I'm not a "good" player.
• Watch at least 1 coaching video per week.
• Review hands daily (no time commitment)
• Be rolled and ready for NL200 6M by December.
  

First Poker Video

Here is a link to my first poker video:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NE2AZIAS

It sucks and I probably played like a donk, but it was fun to make. I did 6M to get more action and I did. Unfortunately, my HEM is screwy and not all the hands showed up. I since fixed it and I ended up pretty good for the session.

Feel free to criticize any of the hands and tell me what an idiot player I am. Feedback is goot.

September Results; October Goals

Here are my September results:

• Goal: Over 60K hands (50K at NL100): Nope. Oh SO close, thought. I played 59.4K hands. I played 42K of it at NL100, though and only 3.1K at NL50. I also played some NL200, some NL/PL 50 6-max, and some NL25 6 max (at Stars). I'm at NL100 to stay except when I play cash games at Stars (due to roll).
  
• Over 6.0 BB/100. Not even close. 1.31 BB/100 for NL100; 0.65 BB/100 for all hands.
  
• Get rolled for, and take shots, at NL200. I got rolled and then some. Took some shots at the fish. Played only 2,200 hands at -2.85 BB/100
  

With rakeback, bonus, and tournament $ (cashed in the last 4 tournabees I played), I ended up the month +$1,440 for my 3rd consecutive month over $1K. I'm still not playing well, but I'll take it. I made (are you ready for this?) a whopping $1.16 per hour! (not including rakeback). With rakeback and tournabees, my hourly rate was $8.04/hour. Sweet. I'm almost ready to go pro. (NOT!).

After 8 months, I should have won $8,000 to be on pace to make $12,000 this year from poker. I am only at $5,345, about $2,700 off the pace.

October Goals:

• Play 60,000 hands (at least 80% at NL100 and do not move up until I have at least a 3 bb/100 at NL100).
  
• Over 6.0 BB/100.
  
• Hourly rate from cash NL cash games: $5.00. I know this isn't good for NL100, but making it $10/hour (10x what I did in September) seems way too lofty.
  
• Watch at least 1 instructional video per week.
  
• Spend 30 minutes per day reviewing hands.
  

August 08 Results; September 08 Goals

Results vs. Goals for August:

• Over 60K hands (about 30/30 split NL50/NL100). Fail. I only played 37K hands total for the month. This is due to having to travel way too much this month for work. I got in 27K hands @ NL/PL100 and 7.7K NL/PL50. I also played some 6 max.
  
• Over 3.6 ptBB/100 for both levels. Fail. Sort of. I was at 6.25 ptBB/100 for NL50 but only 1.3 ptBB/100 for NL100. I'm still happy with both, although I can easily find enough hands that I donked that I could have been around 2.6 ptBB/100.
  
• Get rolled for 1/2 NL (doesn't mean I'll move up, though). Fail. Sort of. I did get rolled for NL200, but I fell back down. If I deposited monies from my rakeback account I would be rolled, but I want to play the majority of this month at NL100 and at the end I should be more than rolled for NL200.
  
• Improve my tournament play. I think I did this. I read HOH Volumes I & II and I managed to get a 2nd place in a 180-man SNG this month.
  

Total made for the month (w/out rakeback): +$1.073.47.

My year goal was to make $12k from the poker. YTD I am far behind - I'm at $3,904 (May and June just killed me). So, over the next 4 months I have to make about 8,000 in poker. Considering that my best month so far has been $1700, its going to be a stretch. However, I have moved up stakes so that should increase my potential winnings (but on the downside it increases potential losses). I think when its all said and done, I'm going to be damn close.

September Goals:

• Over 60K hands (50K at NL100)
  
• Over 6.0 BB/100.
  
• Get rolled for, and take shots, at NL200.
  

Other poker news and notes:

• After being very frustrated with how laggy PT3 was making my laptop (could barely play 4 tables), I tried out Hold'em Manager. Long story short - I fell in love with it and bought it. The look isn't as "slick" as PT3, but its a ton faster and takes up less resources. I also feel its easier to filter the data that I most want to see.
  
• I didn't mention it earlier, but I'm a mod in the poker section of a site called insidestl.com. check it out. Though, since I am the ONLY person who reads this, I can guarantee that my entire readership will join the site.
  

July Results

July was a pretty decent month - especially compared to May and June. Overall, I ended up up $1,768 (including poker winnings, bonus, and rakeback). That is the largest month of my (poker) career.

Here are some details:

50NLFR
Hands: 45,067
ptBB/100: 1.44 (not great, but I was over 6 for my last 10K, so that is promising)
P&L: $646.90

50PLFR
Hands: 6,567
ptBB/100: 2.57
P&L: $187.05

100NLFR
Hands: 4,718
ptBB/100: 0.17 (hey, its positive)
P&L: $15.80

25NLFR
Hands: 7,770
ptBB/100: 3.63
P&L: $141.10

Goals for August:

• Over 60K hands (about 30/30 split NL50/NL100)
• Over 3.6 ptBB/100 for both levels
• Get rolled for 1/2 NL (doesn't mean I'll move up, though)
• Improve my tournament play.
  

Mid-July Results

I'm doing alright this month (saying that just blew it for me, didn't it?).

• At NL50FR I'm running at 1.86 ptBB/100 over 27K hands. I need to get it over 3 over a significant sample before I can move up to NL100 for good.
• At PL50FR I'm running at 5.45 ptBB/100 over 3,100 hands
• At NL100FR (yes - I don't deserve to play there but I did) I'm running 11.14ptBB/100 over 900 hands (its just variance)

Overall I'm pretty happy with my play. I'm making much better decisions and I have found the fucking fold button. I've made some mistakes that have cost me a few buy-ins, but I'm making less mistakes than in the past.

Full ring is definitely where I am best suited.

That's it for now.

June Results; July Goals

I had a plan. I followed through. I decided I suck at 6 max games. Time for a new plan. I'm going back to full ring games. I'm starting at 25NL FR and moving up as the WR and bankroll allow. As promised, I will give my results for 25NL 6M... for about 12K hands, I was a -1.87 ptbb/100.

So, for July, I'm going back to full ring tables. I will tell you that I've already moved from 25NL to 50NL. Yes, my discipline sucks - but I got in 7,700 hands and ran at 3.77 ptbb/100. Good enough for me to move up to 50NL. Its not like I haven't been here before. My BR is slightly less than 20 buy-ins but I know this level and have well over 100K at it so I don't need to stay at 25NL. So far at 50NL I"m running at 1.1 ptbb/100, but I have had some horrible bad beats (set over set twice, full house loses to lower full house once - all for stacks).

Goal: its really, really, really, easy. Remember where your fucking fold button is. At these levels, people aren't usually bluffing. ldo.

I need a plan

I need a plan. This month has totally sucked pokerwise (and work-wise for that matter). First off, all of the goals and thoughts I had in the last post are utter fucking blown. Forget about it. I need a fucking new plan.

I am so bad at poker its not even funny. Thing is, I honestly don't know why. I've watched video's, I've read books, I've posted hands on forums -- nothing helps. Probably because I am misunderstanding/misapplying everything I see/learn.

I need to have a plan and I need to be disciplined about it. I believe I spoke about playing less tables as one of the things I was going to do. I must stick with that. Four may be too many tables. Which, is a problem because I get bored with it easily and it will take forever to get in the hands I want to get in for my plan. Oh well. I must remain disciplined and stick to a MAX of 4 tables. Why just 4 tables? Its simple. I need to think long and hard about every single hand I play. I need to think out why I am taking the action I am taking; I need to think about my opponents ranges and how my hand fairs against that range. I need to have a plan for beyond the current betting round - I need to know if I bet the flop, what is my plan on the turn/river based on my opponents actions/cards that come out. Basically, I need to THINK. Just fucking THINK. I'm a fairly smart person so if I just fucking THINK I should be able to reach the goals I want to reach.

The plan: move down to lowly fucking 25NL 6M and play 10,000 hands until after such 10,000 hands, I have a winrate of over 3.0 ptBB/100. For a 1/2 way decent player, that should be easy as fucking pie. Not for me - cuz I suck. If I do not reach the wintrate, I will play another 10,000 hands. If I am still not there, I will play another 10,000 hands. Until I make the winrate as 25NL then I just don't fucking deserve to move up.

When (if) I finally accomplish that goal, then I will move up to 50NL, where I will start the process all over. So many beginners do this and rise on up. Me - I'm an experienced player with over 400K hands and I STILL SUCK.

Also part of the plan is to take at least 30 minutes after EVERY day or session to review my hands. I will devote another 30 minutes to posting a hand on the forums for review/comment.

I will show my 10,000 hand results here to embarrass myself.

June 08 Goals; Leaks; Stoxpoker

First, we'll start off with my poker goals for June:

1. Play over 60,000 hands between the 50NL/PL FR and 100NL/PL FR, primarily at 100NL/PL FR.
   
2. Stick with FR. I know that you think 6M is fun (and it is), I need to settle-in at FR instead of playing both, I need to focus on FR for awhile - besides, it better fits my nitty style.
   
3. Have a pt/BB greater than 3 over those 60,000 hands. Don't think I've ever made that goal yet. It will happen for the first time this month.
   

Leaks, and why I will be successful this month:

1. Small Pots for Small Hands, Big Pots for Big hands. I've recently become a member of Stoxpoker, which is another video/coaching site (more on that later). Anyway, one of the first videos I watched was "small hands for small pots" taught by Ed Miller. Kind of obvious, and logical right? Well, not for me, apparently. I look back at how I've been playing and I've been building big pots out of small-to-mediocre hands such as TPTK, and overpairs. I need to find a place to check when in position and stop building huge pots. There is nothing wrong with taking down a modest-sized pot with TPTK, or TPGK. Its ok to sometimes check the flop with TPTK, its ok not to cbet EVERY-SINGLE FLOP WHERE YOU WERE THE PRE-FLOP RAISER WHEN YOU ONLY HAVE 1 CALLER. I'm going to keep the number of tables down to six and really focus on building a pot the size commensurate with my hand and my opponents range, which leads to....
2. THINK ABOUT YOUR OPPONENTS RANGES. From that, I can see how it fairs against my range to determine what size of pot I want to build. In thinking about my opponents range, I also need to think about how he would play those ranges based on his stats and the plays I've observed him make. In other words, instead of blindly cbetting or blindly checking behind when I miss, I need to put my opponent(s) on ranges and then decide best how to exploit that. I need to remember against certain opponents in certain situations its ok to take a passive line; its ok to fold a good, but not great hand.
   
3. With the above two things in mind, I think I can open up my PFR % from button down to the hijack position as I will be doing a better job of evaluating the situation and exploiting my opponents tendencies. Meaning that I'll be playing better post-flop and so I can open up my PF ranges when in position.
4. Work on getting my $won w/out showdown up. PT3 has this cool graph that shows the dollars you've won when you did not go to showdown. Last month, mine went pretty much at a right angle. I don't think it needs to be positive, but it needs to be much closer to even so it isn't such a drag on my dollars when saw showdown. From my graphs from May, I noticed that I was winning a ton when I saw a showdown (my big hands and ok hands were holding up), so the fact that I was consistently losing money w/out a showdown didn't feel like it had a big impact. But, when some of the bad beats starting coming, and I built big pots with ok hands that lost on showdown, my dollars won at showdown flattened out and my won dollars w/out showdown continued heading down. You can guess what the results were. So, how am I going to get that up? A lot of that has to do with the first 3 points - I have to stop building a big pot on the flop/turn with marginal hands to keep from being pushed off of them on later streets. Its ok if I lose a small-to-medium pot with at showdown with small-to-medium hands once in awhile if I don't lose as much when I build a big pot only to wimp out and let it go. And, if I am paying more attention to my post flop play in thinking more about what my opponent's range is, I will be better at letting hands go w/out getting too much in and I will be better at finding spots to push my opponents off of their hands and actually winning w/out a showdown.
   

Stoxpoker vs. Cardrunners:
I may have mentioned this before, but shortly after I paid the rather large sign-up fee at Cardrunners, I learned that if I have a rake back of more than $500 in a month, rakbreak.com will pay for 1 month of Stoxpoker membership. So, this month I did just that (but had to pay a $75 sign-up fee). Well worth it, IMO. Of the two, I find Stoxpoker much better because of a cool classroom videos they have in which they go over strategies and then apply them using a replayer vs. featuring almost only videos where you watch someone play tables. I personally get a lot more use out of the classroom feature where you get the background and then very in-depth explanations using examples. Stoxpoker also has classroom videos regarding psychology and math. I will keep Cardrunners for a little while longer to get some value out of my sign-up fee, but I think I will stick with Stoxpoker in the long run.

May 08 Results; Worst. Downswing. Evah.

June, ah. June. What can I say about June? I can say it was one helluva rollercoaster ride. I started out on absolute fire -- in the first 2 weeks I was up over $900 playing both 6M and FR at the 50NL/PL and 100NL/PL levels. I was rocking. Then I made the big mistake of opening my mouth and bragging. I told my wife how well I was doing; I told my buddy Denny how good I was doing. That very day, I started a 10 day downswing in which I did not have a single friggin' day where I was ahead. It was amazing. The last week of May, I turned it around a bit and was up about $400, having 5 out of 6 days in the plus column. A lot of that was taking bad beats (JJJJ loses to K10s when guy hits his 1 outer for the royal flush - lost over $200 on that hand), but admittedly a lot of the downswing was spewy play with me. I did figure it out though and I believe that was the reason for my turn-around during the last 6 days. Anyway, check out these results by time period:

May 1 - 16:
Hands: 17,151
P&L (w/out rakeback & bonus'): +$979.60
ptBB/100: +4.79

May 17-25:
Hands: 25,642
P&L (w/out rakeback & bonus'): -$2,238.50
ptBB/100: -5.41

*PL100 6M: -$725.40
*NL50 FR: -$659.70
*Nl100 FR: -625.50

May 26-31:
Hands: 7,254
P&L (w/out rakeback & bonus'): +374.25
ptBB/100: +6.05


Total for May:
Hands: 48,657
P&L (w/out rakeback & bonus'): -$949.95
P&L with rakeback & bonus': +$68.57
ptBB/100: -0.52

2008 Total: +$2,369
2008 Goal Thru May: +$5,000
Pace: -$1,631

For my next post, I will list my June goals, and explain what leak I think I've found and what I plan to do about it, as well as Stoxpoker and how it compares to Cardrunners.

May 2008 Results

Well, overall I did ok. I ended up $1,322.81 for the month. The majority of that though was rakeback. Hey - I'll take it. My BR at Full Tilt is $2038 and my BR at Stars is $326. And that includes the $1,000 I took out. If I hadn't withdrew over the course of last year, I'd be rolled for NL200. Its probably good that I withdrew a lot because rolled or not, I'm not ready for NL200.

Total for year: +$2,301. Well behind my goal of making $12,000 this year in poker (I should be at $4,000).

Here are my results at the various levels I played:
25 NL/PL (I put some money at PokerStars to take advantage of bonus offers):
Hands: 10,514
P/L: +472.50
ptBB/100: +8.99

That's a pretty nice win rate. Maybe I should stay at this level...

50 NL/PL FR
Hands: 24,699
P/L: - $10.65
ptBB/100: - 0.03

* I was +4.09 ptBB/100 playing PL50 and - 1.99 ptBB/100 playing NL50

100NL/PL FR
Hands: 1,110
P/L: +383.95
ptBB/100: +17.10

Can you say, short term variance? I can. BUT - I'm going to play more NL100 in May.

I also played 12K hands of 6Max at various levels and was a -$270.20.

I'm not going to play much 6 max for a while.

FR 10K Results

I suck. I did not get 3+ptbb/100 playing NL/PL50 FR over 10,000 hands. Not even close. I've had a number of terrible bad beats, yes, but in the end my problem is my complete and total inability to fold decent, but non-nut hands. I really get married to hands. If you've read my blog (which nobody has), you'll see I've stated this often and I STILL have not learned my lesson. I need to keep that fold button near and dear to my heart especially at the lower levels. Will I get bluffed off of the best hand sometimes? Sure. But more often than not a strong bet on the turn or a check-raised CB, or a raised CB, means my TPTK is no good, or my overpair is now not fairing well. But I don't see the yellow caution lites my opponents give me and I run right through the reds.

I will stop doing that. I have to, or I'll never succeed.

On a positive note, I have amped my PF aggression and opened up a lot (for me) in late position. I've also done well over at PokerStars playing NL/PL 25 FR. (running about 10 ptbb/100). And yes, I know I said I'd never play PS again, but they had a deposit bonus and so free money... Plus I really do like their software. I'll probably continue to play a few tables there and see if I can build a roll to get to 50NL/PL.

6-max experiment part deux - over (for now)

I decided to look at my entire poker history and see if I've done better at FR or at 6M and then I am going to focus on that for awhile.

Here is what I found:

	NL/PL 6M:			NL/PL FR"
	Old	New			Old	New
Hands:	141K	64K		Hands:	341K	8.8K
ptBB:	-0.5	(0.36)		ptBB:	0.78	3.50
VPIP/PFR	15/8	12/8		VPIP/PFR	12/5	11/6
Aggression:	2.56	2.82		Aggression:	2.32	2.47
P/L	-399.6	*-688		P/L	1751	229

As you can see from above, I've faired better at Full Ring vs. 6-max. I've really not done particularly well at either, but based on the above, I'm going to focus on full ring more. I think full ring fits my game a bit better as I just don't think I can be as open and aggressive as I need to be to be successful at 6-max. I still do need to open up my game and my aggressiveness at full ring (my VPIP/PFR need to be much closer together than they are - I'd really like to be at 15/12 and a 3 for total aggression factor).

Specifically what I'm going to do, is the same plan I had for 6M. I'm going to play 10K hands of NL/PL50 FR. If I have +3 ptBB/100 after 10K hands, I move to 100NL/PL. If I don't, I play another 10K hands, regardless of my bankroll. I will not move to 100NL/PL until I hit at or darn near 3 ptBB/100 for a fairly significant sample. I figure if I can't do that at 50 NL/PL then I have no business playing 100 NL/PL.

Goal Update

So I've played 11,043 hands @ PL/NL50 6-max so far this month. My goal was to have +3.5 ptBB/100 after 10,000 hands before I could move up. Well, I'll be playing another 10K hands. In those 11K hands, I had a ptBB/100 of -2.64!! Woo-hoo! Nice start. I'm not too down about it because I know I'm playing a more open, aggressive game (compared to my old ways, not compared to the good players). My VPIP/PFR is at 13.12/10.8 is improving as is my aggression (Total AF is 3.47). I still would like to get my VPIP/PFR up to 17/14ish but 13/11 is a big improvement over last month. Last month I was at: 12/8. My AF was 2.69.

In order to get my VPIP/PFR up to where I want it, I need to work on opening up my range even more from the button and cuttoff and 3-betting lighter. I get nervous doing that because it puts you in awkward spots when called and what I REALLY need to work on is my post-flop play. Being over-rolled for NL/PL50 really helps because I can absorb the bumps I'm encountering. I think my biggest post flop leaks are not 3-barrelling enough, and when I do, not picking the right spots. If I take my time, and think the hand through, I do pretty good. But if I don't look at the board, at my opponents stats/tendencies closely, I find I'm doing the opposite of what I should be doing. And the other biggest problem I'm having, and have had for a long long time is letting go of big hands when I'm probably beat. I get awfully stubborn at times and don't make laydowns that I should. I think that if I could fix that leak, that'd put me over 3 ptBB right there. If I fix all the aforementioned leaks, I may just do pretty decent.

I'm also not too disappointed because if I take away just the times when I got my hand in good and was outdrawn my ptBB/100 would be nearly exactly opposite of what it is. Now I realize I can't help those and I really can't count 100% of those because if I get it in 80/20, I can really only count 80% of that, and some of the situations were closer than that. The point is, I've had more than my share of set-over-sets and and KK vs. AA so far this month. I know I can't focus on the bad beats and use that as a crutch - there is nothing one can do about losing when you get it in ahead and over time the variance evens out. The great players face variance but they still manage a great ptBB and that is because they offset those with making the right plays and fixing leaks. So ultimately, if I am going to have a good ptBB/100 I need to fix these leaks. And, I probably need to play better than the average player because my family has passed down the "Fieselman Luck". :-)

I have been watching a ton of CR videos but focusing on pre-flop and flop situations. I need to re-watch the videos and see how the pros handle turn and river situations that I run into a lot.

And, on a positive front, my $1,003 rakeback deposit should be hitting my account in the next 5 days and I've already earned $141 so far this month. Its crazy to think that over the last 4 months I've been averaging over $500 in rakeback. That's 6g's a year. If I never withdrew and broke even, I'd have one heckuva nice bankroll....

Another cool thing is that rakebreak.com has revised how they cash out and now I can cash out whenever I want vs. only once per month. Nice feature. If the one (ok, zero) person out there is looking to sign up for an account at any of the major poker rooms, please check with me first so i can get you and me some moolah for signing up through rakebreak.com. And if you dont' want to go through me, definitely get a rakebreak account before signing up to a poker room. Rakeback Rules (6K a year for a 50/NL player should be all that needs to be said.)

March Results; April Plans

March sucked. I only ended up $570 for the month and all of that was due to RB and bonuses. The good thing is that I got in a ton of hands and will earned over a grand in RB that I should see in the next few days.

February goals.

My February goals are simple: Improve!

Here is how I plan to do that:

• Spend at least 40 minutes a day looking at Cardrunner videos.
  
• Amp up my aggression in LP (Button and CO) by opening up my first in raise and 3-be t range.
  
• I will not move up to 100NL/PL until I have achieved a ptBB/100 of +3.5 or better for a period of 10K hands at 50NL/PL. If I do not achieve that, I will keep playing at this level until I achieve that goal. This will do 2 things: 1) give me more than enough BR for 100NL/PL; and 2) prove to me that I can be a winner at this level.
  
• If I make it to 100NL/PL this month, I won't move up to 200NL/PL until I've played 20K hands at 100NL/PL at 3.0 ptBB/100.
  

Ugh. And Cardrunners

So it looks like I'm having another bad month. I'm up, but only because of rakeback and the bonus FT gave out this month. I'd say exactly how much, but I haven't looked in the last 2 1/2 days - its too depressing to see my BR fall, plus I think that I look far too often and its making me become results oriented instead of focusing on making the right decisions.

With regards to my 6-max experiment part deux, I started out doing really well and then hit a horrible downswing - mostly at 100PL 6M. Whenever I move from 50-100 (be it 6M or FR), I get creamed. What does this tell me? Well, everything I've read on the 2p2 forums indicates that its a fairly big jump, but not that big of one. What I think is that the way I play (too tight, too passive) can be a (very) marginal winner at 50 and below, but above that you have to ramp up the aggressiveness. I don't think that you have to play LAG, but you definitely have to be more aggressive and take advantage of position.

Three things I have decided to do to improve:

1. I'm going to stop focusing on trying to get a ton of hands in in order to get a high rakeback and FT points (I'm gunning for the 42" plasma TV). Playing 8-10 tables just adds to my tightness/passivity as I just go into my zone of tight/passive w/out giving much thought to my hand or villain's ranges. I'm now going to play a maximum of only 4 tables. I've been doing this for the last 2 days and I'm finding it beneficial. I was worried that I'd get bored but I'm finding that there is enough action to keep. Once I retool my game to be a true TAG (vs. thinking I'm a TAG when I'm actually a TAP), I'll add 1 more table at a time. I'm thinking I need to be disciplined and keep the 4 tables max rule through at least the end of April.

2. Reduce/eliminate distractions. When I was running well (and I'm not kidding myself that I was playing well), I'd fire up the ol' 8-10 tables, watch TV and surf the net all while playing. This further distracted me from the tables and I went into auto-TAP mode. Not good. When I play in the mornings I may open a table or two and surf the net, but that is just to pass the time. At night when the kids and wife are in bed, there will be no TV and no surfing the net. My only distraction will be listening to music on my iPod (Thank you, FT).

3. Finally, and perhaps the most important, I've bucked up and become a member of Cardrunners. For those who don't know what that is, its a website that features videos from some of the top online pros. It also features a forum, blogs, and other useful tools for improving your game. Its expensive - $99 activation fee plus 25 a month but my rakeback alone covers that and if I'm going to be serious about becoming a better player, this is well worth it. I've been messing around at 50NL/PL for WAY too long and I want to be able to play 200NL. I won't be able to do that if I don't drastically improve my game. I'm really excited about Cardrunners. I've already downloaded several videos and while I don't if its impacted my bottom line yet (since I haven't checked and the sample size would be way too small anyway), it has made it abundantly clear that I'm a TAP - and not a TAG. I always thought of myself as a TAG, but I'm not. It is SO helpful to be able to actually watch the pros play hands and see what they do when they get into situations that I find myself in and losing tons of money. It also made me recognize how key aggression is. Its amazing to see how many times I can 3 bet light and get people to fold, or make a CBet with nothing and take down the pot, and by watching the few videos has already helped me talk through villain's ranges and how to act and plan my attack. I believe its already helped my play and I'm excited about it.

I think by incorporating these three things (plus continuing to read/post on 2p2), I will grow significantly as a player and hopefully in a short amount of time. Of course, my dad always says that he's figured out his golf swing and will have his best year yet and that never happens, lol. I think that this is a different situation and while I recognize there will be some bumps in the road (from mis-applying what I've watched), I am going to be a better player for it in the long run. This is another reason I'm not paying attention to my results - I don't want to get depressed if the $ don't match the perception of my play. I'm going to play thru the weekend before looking at PT and FTP cashier and then do a big session review to go over hands and look at stats.

Wish me luck!

On a non-poker related note, my wife and I went to dinner with Andy and his wife Angela at a place called The Melting Pot. It is a fondu place. I had a really good time and the food is fabulous. Its a bit on the pricey side (a little over $100 per couple), but we get out so little that its worth it.

Also, I'm trying to lose 35 lbs. I started in January and have lost 12.5 pounds. I'm happy about that but I have a long way to go to reach my goal. I need to work harder and see some faster improvement.

Wish me luck!

6 Max Experiment Part Deux

FR NL started out horrible for me again - I immediately lost 8 buy-ins @ 50 NL. I decided I needed to change it up. I'm running really well (ok, just decent) at PL50 FR so I thought I'd try PL50 6-max. I'm going to do a little comparison of the two after running about the same number of hands. As of now, I'm doing well at PL50 6-max running at 4.86 ptBB/100 while running only 2.8 at 50PL FR - both over about 7500 hands. I'll continue to do this for the rest of the month and the winner will be the one I focus on next month. I may have trouble getting in as many hands at FR simply because there are far less tables so we'll see.

February Results

Two words: Not good. In fact, so bad I'm not going to post any screen shots. I ended up as follows:

P&L: - 568.60 (and that includes over 500 in rakeback).

Summary for 2008:
Jan: +976.04
Feb: - 568.60
Mar: - 199.00

2008: +208.44

I'm so far away from my goal of $12K in poker its pathetic. The bad beats have been horrible the last 3 weeks. Admittedly, I also played bad. Of the over $1K in poker losses last month, I can easily find $500 of stupid mistakes I've made and I'm sure if I looked harder I'd find more so its not all bad beats - although I have taken some particularly nasty ones.

This month has started out horrible. Lots of bad beats so far, but at least I'm not making a lot of mistakes. One huge one was a misclick I had with AA where I meant to be the pot on the turn, and bet a measly 50 cents into a $30 pot! Of course the guy calls (duh) and hits his 2 pair on the river. I was already burning at this point so I called his river RR even though I figured I was beat. That's a situation of a physical error combined with a mental error. I've got to do better if I want to be successful this month.

Ok, so there is some good news. FTP had some server issues and they gave me $25 bucks for my trouble. Additionally, as a result of their server problems, they gave me a $300 bonus opportunity and 21 days to earn it. I've earned $60 of it so far. I also have over $600 of rakeback coming to me this month - I think I'm becoming a rakeback pro. I earned over 3500 in RB last year and my total poker earnings in 07 was 4300. That is NOT what I want to be, but I'll take it.

February 2008 Goals

1. Play at least 15K hands of NL/PL 100
2. Have a ptBB/100 of 2 or greater at NL/PL100
3. Have a 14/8/2
4. Have a positive ROI at the $4.40 180-man S&Gs.

January 2008 Results

January I came in like a lion and out like a lamb. On the 31st I had the biggest daily loss of my poker career. Thank goodness for rakeback and the year-end bonus from Full Tilt.

January Profit/Loss: +976.04

Detailed Results from PT:

I also played a ton of $4.40 180-man Sit & Go's on Stars with a not so impressive result of -3.3% ROI.

Let's look how I did compared to my goals:

January Goals:
30k+ hands at 50NL FR: Yep. did it (well, combined with PL50)
3.5ptbb/hr at 50NL FR: Nope. Not even close. 1.61 for NL50, but I did do 3.21 for PL50.
VPIP: 14%, PFR%: 7: Nope. 11.7/6.41. I'm STILL such a damned NIT!

I also accomplished getting rolled for 100NL/PL by February (thanks to bonuses and rakeback, not my poker skill - or lack thereof). So I'm going to start the month playing 100NL/PL and also playing son 50NL/PL if there are good tables. If I lose 3 buy-in's I'm done with 100 until I win it back at 50.

Poker EV Graph

The graph below shows what I actually made compared to what I should have made. The blue line represents my actual winnings, while the red line represents what I should have won (based on EV calculations (i.e. if I went AI with AA PF vs. KK I should win that hand x% of the time and that is what is used to plot the red line). As you can see, I've lost a lot more than I should have so luck has been bad. This makes me feel a little bit better about the downswing I've been on lately.

Mid-Jan 08 Report - Nice downswong

Ugh. A great start to January has turned horrible. I've dropped over 500 bucks since January 9th. The cards have been horrible to me as witnessed by the -$400 on the EV grapher. What this means is that when I've had the best hand when the money got all-in, I lost $400 more than I should have won based on the percentages.

I've seen my ptBB/100 fall rapidly at NL50 FR. At one point it was up over 8, now its down to 1.64. I've decided to post a screen shot of pokertracker vs. summarizing here. In addition to what you see in the PT screenshot below, I received $525 in rakeback from last month plus I'm up $120 at Pokerstars playing the $4.40 180 man sit and goes (and that includes an 0-for-17 not making the money string).

Profit/Loss thru 1-15 (including rakeback): $927.44

If you would have told me before the month started that I'd be up this much 1/2 through I would have been elated. But after a great start, this is actually disappointing.

Poker Tracker Image:

Jan First Week Results

Its been a great start to January and 2008 - I've been on a huge upswong. I'm not kidding myself in thinking that its all skill as my normal ptBB/100 is 1.9 and this month its 7.42 for the first week of January, but I have been playing better. I watched a video from RyanMCU and learned a lot - especially on how to be aggressive vs. limpers when in position as well as how to open up my opening ranges and I think its helped (although my VPIP is still lower than I want it to be). I do think that I should be able to meet my goal of 3+ ptBB/100 for 50NL this month. A nice plus is that I'm now rolled for NL100 FR and I took a shot and was very successful (but again, its over a very small sample so who knows how I'll actually do). I plan on mixing in some NL100 FR tables with my 50NL FR tables and hopefully I'll be settled in at NL100 by month end.


50NL
Hands: 8,205
P&L: +$605.88
ptBB: +7.42

30NL (Deepstack)
Hands: 3,724
P&L: +$57.25
ptBB: +2.58

100NL
Hands: 110
P&L: +101.60
ptBB: +46.18

So far so good in January

I have had a pretty good in '08 having one of my better single days in my poker career. I made $232 in cash games and came in 4th in a $4.40 180-man S&G on Stars (good for a $54 cash). Also I've recently found 30NL FR (Deepstacks) tables which are total fishing ponds. For those who are interested, deepstack tables mean you can buy in for 200 big blinds vs. they typical 100. Here are my cash game numbers from yesterday (does not include the few hands of 50PL FR I played yesterday):

50NL
Hands: 844
P&L: +140.55
ptBB/1oo: +16.65

30NL (Deepstack)
Hands: 854
P&L: +105.25
ptBB/1oo: +20.54

Today (Jan 4) started off terrible when this 2 outer hit on the river:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) Full Tilt Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.comFlopTurnRiver.com (Format: Plain Text)

Button ($25.50)
SB ($50.05)
Hero ($50)
UTG ($16.60)
UTG+1 ($22.70)
MP1 ($52.80)
MP2 ($19.40)
MP3 ($37.60)
CO ($47)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Jd, Jh.

2 folds, MP1 raises to $1.75, 5 folds, Hero calls $1.25. (no stats yet, so I just call)

Flop: ($3.75) Jc, Ad, 7d (2 players)

Hero checks, MP1 bets $2.75, Hero raises to $7, MP1 raises to $27.5, Hero raises to $55.25 (All-In), MP1 calls $23.50. (woo-hoo! I got a set and got villain to put all his chips in the pot!)


Turn: ($105.75) 5d (2 players, 1 all-in)


River: ($105.75) Ac (2 players, 1 all-in) (crap. he hit 1 of the 2 cards he needed. boo! I was a 91% favorite to win. Ugh. Oh well)


Final Pot: $105.75

Results below:

Hero has Jd Jh (full house, jacks full of aces).
MP1 has Js Ah (full house, aces full of jacks).
Outcome: MP1 wins $110.


But then, this hand comes up and I make my money back and then some:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) Full Tilt Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.comFlopTurnRiver.com (Format: Plain Text)

MP1 ($57.85)
MP2 ($50)
MP3 ($41.90)
CO ($9)
Button ($52.90)
SB ($18.50)
BB ($43.20)
UTG ($53.70)
Hero ($50)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 6h, 6c.

1 fold, Hero calls $0.50, MP1 calls $0.50, 3 folds, Button raises to $1, 1 fold, BB calls $0.50, Hero calls $0.50, MP1 calls $0.50. (a min-raise? I call everytime with these HUGE odds)


Flop: ($4.25) Kc, 6s, 2c (4 players)

BB checks, Hero checks, MP1 checks, Button bets $4.25, BB raises to $8.5, Hero raises to $15, MP1 folds, Button raises to $56.15 (All-In), BB calls $33.70 (All-In), Hero calls $34 (All-In). (awesome. I hit my set and get 2 people to go AI with me with the same hand - can't believe both were willing to get it all in with TPGK!). With them having the same hand, it really hurts their number of outs. I was a 99.34% favorite to win!!!!!!!!!!!)


Turn: ($144.45) 9s (3 players, 3 all-in)


River: ($144.45) Jd (3 players, 3 all-in)


Final Pot: $144.45 (it holds up and I win a HUGE pot!)

2007 50NL FR Results (in more detail); 2007 Graph

That is my 2007 Results graph. WAAAY too swingy for being such a nit.

I was tired last night and wanted to get pokergrapher started on my whole year (fyi - I played 375K hands in total in 2007).

Anyway, here is my 2007 results for 50NL FR:
Hands: 113,895
P&L: +2129.15
ptBB: +1.87
VPIP: 11.09
PFR: 5.18