January 2011 Review

The first month of the year has come to an end and for me it has been an epic fail. I was down almost $6,000 at the tables at one stage before recovering slightly at month end.

I started the year with a very positive outlook and an attempt at SNE was to be my primary goal.

It all began at NL100 where I began 24 tabling while trying to gain 2740 VPPs each day. I believed firmly from my calculations that this was feasible at this level. However it soon became clear that I was regularly getting only between 0.21 and 0.25 VPPs per hand when I had forecast the year at 0.27. This meant that I need almost 9hrs a day to make SNE instead of the 7.5hrs that I thought. Dam.....

I had been inspired by the SNE story of player dannyohboy who worked a full time job, had 3 kids and made SNE at NL100. He only sleeps 3hrs a day btw, insane..!! I thought if he could do that, I could easily do it without a job and any kids.

My main problems were a terrible start and a poor initial bankroll. January the 2nd or Spewfest Day as I have named it saw my attempt fancy play after fancy play with occasional bad beats thrown into the mix. The culmination was my 2nd worst day ever and almost 13 BIs down at NL100.

I continued at NL100 for 6 days and was then at around 20 BIs down and around a day behind SNE pace. I decided that the SNE chase would be too hard at this level and had to be carried out at NL200. This was also mentioned to me by player OMGBentley.

Since I did not have the roll to play my normal 24x 100bb Tables I decided to try for the first time the gamboool that is 50bb poker vs the 20bb short stacks. This meant that I would still sit down with $2,400 in play but with the increased VPP rate. I knew my ranges and strategy had to change to counter the edge the SS player gains from the All-in shove move that they continually employ. This form of poker is far less interesting and basically eliminates 2 streets (Turn/River) of poker as u will find your stack in the middle on the flop or pre.

I haven't played well until the final week of the month and have suffered many bad beats while being ahead with all the money in the middle. This took me to around $6,000 down by around the 23rd of the month. At this stage I got quite negative about the SNE chase and decided to have a few quiet days. WBCOOP began and I decided to play most of the events. During the day I played DoNs and Fifty50s with a little bit of NL200 and in the evening I would fire up WBCOOP.

I did well in this Series of Events, Final Tabling 1 and cashing in 3 events altogether. I also finished high up on the leader board and was the top player from the UK.

Doing some analysis on the bigger hands in HEM I can clearly identify around $1,500 in spew this month. I used to be so solid after I had played poker for a year. Now coming up to 6yrs experience I seem to be tilting more and more. Note to self: Eliminate Spew

I successfully cashed for the 3rd time in a row in the Turbo Takedown. This gives me an additional repeat cash bonus.

I am now around 10 days behind SNE pace and my goal for Feb is to try to close the gap by playing the 50bb tables for the first 10 days. Then I will switch to the 100bb tables but I will only play 10 tables and work on my game. I have to become a winning player again. If I can do this then I will go back to 24 Tabling and pursue SNE again, if not then I will play less tables and aim to be a winning player in 2011 and ignore VPPs. I may also add in a few new sites to my play if this scenario plays out. Stars is often touted as the toughest site out there. I am interested in and have been looking at William Hill. If anyone has any experience of this site I would be grateful of some feedback particularly with reference to traffic, software and player ability at NL100+.


The final numbers for January are as follows:

164,000 Hands Played
55,334 VPPs

-$5,380 (Cash Game Losses)
+$ 159 (Tourney Winnings)
+$3,000 (FPP Cash Bonuses)
+$ 600 (Stellar Rewards)
+$ 200 (TT Repeat Cash Bonus)
+$ 237 (3x SCOOP tickets)
-$ 30 (New Mouse)
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-$1,214 (Total Month)

See you all soon

 
 

WBCOOP 8-Game

Today I played the 8-Game for the 1st time. I have only played 2 out of the 8 games prior to seating so I was pretty much clueless.

I 1 tabled this event while watching a movie, TV programmes and surfing the interweb. As it turned out it was one of the most enjoyable poker days in a while. I had to figure each game as I played. I had web pages with notes on each game open and learnt and played.

The Games are:

1. Limit Triple Draw 2-7
2. Limit Holdem
3. Limit Omaha H/L
4. Limit Razz
5. Limit Stud
6. Limit Stud H/L
7. NL Holdem
8. PL Omaha

There were 652 entrants and I managed to finish 72nd and collect my second SCOOP ticket this week.

One of the funniest hands was when I didn't realise that the game hand changed from Razz to Stud. I was playing the nuts in Razz, but the game had switched and I went crazy betting and re-raising when my hand was useless in Stud and I lost a Huge Pot, lol.

On Monday in Event 1, I final tabled for a 5th place finish and a $215 SCOOP ticket. I will get a few more WBCOOP leader board points today which might take me into the Top 10. I am out tomorrow night so I will miss the NLH event but I will play in Sundays Main Event Final. This will be my last chance to get big points to Top the Leader Board. Basically I need to win the main event to top the leaderboard and take down the $5,000 1st prize.... You never know..

I will also play the Turbo Takedown and attempt to get three consecutive cashes for the triple bonus.

My SNE attempt has been put on hold this week due to running and playing terribly month to date. I will be back on it from Monday with a few decisions to be made game wise. Pokerstars have announced changes to their cash game line up. The 20-50bb tables will disappear and be replaced by CAP tables. I have been playing these 50bb tables so I will now go back to the full-ring 100bb tables. The game quality may improve due to the recreational player pool from the 50bb tables probably moving to the 100bb tables. This is yet to be seen as they might opt for the CAP tables.

This week I have also tried the new Fifty50 Tables and played a few DoNs (Double or Nothing) to vary it up. Its been a fun week pokerwise. Making my best MTT finish made this a memorable week.

Cu soon

R

WBCOOP Event 1 - Made the money, lol

WBCOOP event 1 is currently in progress as I write this.

I have made the cash (or ticket prizes in this case) by getting in the top 200 for a ME Ticket and also by getting in the top 153 I get a SCOOP $11 Ticket.

I have just trippled and now have 20k chips, lol.

The funny part is that it's Pot Limit Omaha which I have played like twice before in my life... haha

I pretty much have no clue what to do... a bit like holdem then... hehe

One of the first pots that I won was against fellow Blogger VOLTASTYLLO where we both had a 4 on a 44AAx board, I assumed it was a chop for both our Full-Houses but in fact neither of us had a boat and we both had trip 4s and I had a K kicker, lol.

This is no consolation to how crushed I am at the cash tables but it is making me laugh

Anyway, there are 102 left and I'm still alive and currently in 24th place

Peace

Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead

Having watched the World News on a few occasions this week you do realise that we often take so many things for granted.

Having been crushed at poker over the course of this month at both NL100 and NL200 (20-50bb), I thought about what the worst possible thing that could happen to me poker wise...... I lose a few thousands this month (done), I bust my roll (almost), SNE attempt fails (almost), I quit Poker or go back to being a recreational player (Strong Possibility).... But in Life terms it ain't that bad... I just go back to the world of Finance and find another job as a Business Analyst or the like.

The point of this post is simply to say and for me to rant that, 'Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead'...!! Whatever adversities I face there are far worse fates than what I encounter on a day to day basis from the Floods in Brazil, Aussie n Sri Lanka to the Suicide Bombing this morning in Iraq to the Extreme Poverty faced by millions in Africa and Asia and so much more.

A few days ago I noticed that I had only $85 on one of my tables (I always auto buy-in for the maximum to have the best possible implied odds vs the Big Stacks).. I quickly popped up the cashier to find that I had all my money in play and that my roll was only $2,700 when I had started with over $6,000. I was forced to purchase a $1,500 bonus to top up my roll and my hopes of getting my first $4,000 bonus were crushed. I got to around 180,000 FPPs so I was close.

I am cool, calm and collected and positive about whatever the future will hold...!! Its a fight but I am more determined than ever to achieve SNE even though my roll is close to busto.

Smile and GL

R

WBCOOP

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.
Registration code: XXXXXX 360811

4 Figure Pay Day + Some Sound for your Soul

Today I hit a milestone.... I made over a $1,000 in a single day for the first time ever by playing a card game.

2 things contributed to this.

Firstly, my hands helled up for once... this almost never happens consistently, but today it did.. I got it in time and time again with the best of it and can not really remember a bad beat.


Secondly, I focused like I haven't done so in a long while. I didn't spew 1 big hand all day in around 8500 hands. Usually I spew at least 2 BIs a day.

Today's numbers:

+$804 (Cash Game Winnings)
+$50 (Stellar Reward)
+$174 (FPP Value)
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+$1,028

Booyah!!

It wasn't my best day ever on the felt as I have made $888 as my record but as that was at NL100 the FPPs were far less. I am now at NL200, enjoying the greater VPP per hand rate. Hope I don't do what i usually do and lose it all the following day..!!


Poker Music

On occasion I put on a little background music to help the grind along.... When I say background, I mean background..!! If I'm dancing to it then its too loud and will mess with my concentration. I have tried many genres but most distract from the grind.

I have found one type of music that can really get u into a rhythm, mellow drum n bass without any hardcore mc-ing

This following set is an hour long and the best one that I have heard for poker grinding... enjoy

SNE TrainWreck

As the New Years Eve hangover eased the epic grind began.

I am now 3 days into my SNE chase and its been an absolute Trainwreck.

I have to get used to grinding 24Tables daily for around 11-12k at NL100. I need 2740 VPPs each day. It's gonna be dam hard..!!

So far i have varied the session times and lengths. I think the best setup is 3 sessions per day. The first being 3.5hrs followed by 2x 2.5hr sessions.

I need 1,000,000 VPPs in the year to hit SNE. At NL100 it's around 7.5-8hrs per day. This is calculated over 365days with no days off. Realistically I will have 1 day a week and also 1 or 2 Holidays which may be a week or 2 here and there.

I will have to move to playing some or all of my tables at NL200. I am looking to do this in March or April. This means I will fall slightly behind pace and will have to catch up in the summer. I want to finish up with time to spare. All this is a long way away so I better get back to the present and reality.

Reality is that I have had 3 days of SNE grind and Day 2 was my 2nd worst day ever in 5yrs of Poker. I started with a few bad beats and then descended into tilt calling in spots that I never usually call. In the end I lost around 13BIs on Day2. The interesting part of the HEM analysis was that I only got Stacked once. So all the cash was lost in small or medium pots.

My SNE Bankroll started at around $6,000 and I have now lost almost a third of it in 3days. I have lost cash on each day and have only had 3 winning sessions out of 9. If this continues I will be busto before I can even think about NL200 and March onwards....

Now that the FPP cash bonuses no longer need to be cleared and only cost 1FPP this gives me little leeway to go for the $4k ones. What I will do is monitor my BR and if it gets too low I will quickly buy a $1,500 bonus to top my balance up. If I don't need a top up then I can save up for the $4k bonus.

Here is the day 2 giraffe: