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.)
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
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:
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.
Friday, March 28, 2008
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!
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!
Sunday, March 9, 2008
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.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, February 1, 2008
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.
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.
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.
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