Kicking Back

Have cleared the kickback portion of my bonus at GNUF so a nice easy $100 to the roll for that. Took about 1300 hands of Omaha to clear it the points were not racking up at 6 max fast enough for the limits I am playing. For now I am putting on hold trying to get the full bonus until I move up to the $50 games.

So it looks like in this bonus building phase Onaha is going to be the main game as its much quicker at generating rake. So far am a couple of buy ins down as I get back into the game have made a couple of bad calls where I should know better especially in the full ring games. Am also having to adjust to 6 and 5 max which I have never played at Omaha before, but at the low limits the games seem passive and loose so I suspect full ring post flop is going to be pretty similar. Not sure if at the 6 max games you have to lower the hands you take to showdown ie doesnt always have to be the nuts but will see as I get more hands in.

I am now doing the kickback for Bwin another $100 one but may take a bit longer to clear as the rake there is contribution and obviously at this point I am playing pretty tight. Also having to adjust to 5 max there with two identical blinds although the games do seem to play looser and with bigger pots than GNUF.

I have also just got Empire Total War which is taking up some of my spare time as well, seems ok game at the minute playing the introduction campaign which doesnt seem very varied but hopefully will get into it more once get into the grand campaign.

Once I move my digs next week it should be much more comfortable as I will be able to actually sit down and play at a seat, currently play sat on my bed which isnt ideal or comfortable so hoping to be able to get a load more hands in.

Also rereading the Watchmen comic, havent been to see the film but first read the comic when I was 18 or so and thought it was excellent. Want to reread see if I think its as good and then see the film, seems a lot of people find the film confusing so want to go in with the story fresh in my mind.

Current bankroll $715

King for a Day

I think I have rarely been in a situation online where I have ever seriously considered folding Kings in a cash game, even when you think about for a second you always fall back on the can't fold Kings mantra that is conventional wisdom.

Playing live though there are other things you can look too, when I played in Vegas last year had a interesting spot at a $2/$5 table. Guy UTG raised came round to me for a reraise and he pushes all in, at the time we were both sitting at around $600 think on the fac of it its a pretty standard call if he has Aces oh well cooler.

However observations of the guy made it a slightly more difficult call. Firstly he had previously lost a big pot and had to go off to get more money to buy back in, looking at him he looked like a normal hard wroking guy, some sort of labourer/mechanic as his fingernails had dirt underneath them. So my feeling was the money meant somthing to him, he wasnt a baller or rich tourist with loads to gamble. So I asked him "Do you have Aces" unusual for me to talk at the table, instantly he looked away.

As soon as he did I knew he had them and nearly released my hand then and there, sadly I agonised a bit more fell back onto the mantra and called. I'd love to say he had Queens but no he had the rockets and his hand held. Thanksfully I did use the tell to my advantage later folding tptk to a big bet from him when he had a set. BUt its one of those hands I thikn back on a lot and really stick in my mind.

Back to present day and have now got my GNUF account up and running, need to hit 500 points to release the $100 kickback but then 8,000 points to release my full bonus which may be more of a challange, need to get up to NL$50 asap otherwise it will be a struggle. Main thing I want to do is try and get my joypad working with the bet pot script to save my mouse hand and hopefully allow me to mutlitable better.

Have got the two books I ordered, took a beat realising I already had the PLO one but hadnt read it yet.

Bankroll currently $680

Long Time No Post

It has been a while since I posted in the blog will try and update this more often now but the neglect here I think reflects how I felt about poker for a while.

I ended up having to play through to November before getting a new contract, in that time my bankroll shrunk and shrunk basically because my monthly nut was too high, this brought more and more pressure and ended up underolled for $200NL and in the end had to move down to $100NL which left me in even bigger trouble trying to achieve the money I needed.

So the experiment to a point was a failure but mainly because I didnt have a big enough roll to cope with playing for a living and having to make withdrawals, also not having the 6-12 months savings most people advise and I think more importantly having too high expenses in the first place.

In these credit crunch times now I am back working, until April as it stands, I will be focusing on reducing my outgoings (have already got rid of my car as dont need it while working away) and rebuilding my roll which I had to cash out during November till I got paid the following month.

So I was left with $130 in my poker account and was totally sick after multitabling robotic 18/17 tag nit poker. Didnt really play during November or December so started again in January new year and all that but playing SNG's instead of cash. Didnt really have a roll for the cash games except at penny limits which I couldnt face.

Started playing the $3.5 Sng's and $4 180 mans got pretty lucky early on winning a 180 man for $200 so moved up to the $5.5's and then the $6.50 turbos. At this point having played around 100 sngs mainly in sets of 8's realised what a boring soul destroying game they are, yes good for building a roll but the tight then push bot strategy is just no fun at all.

So back to 6 max cash games I went I had a 20 buyin roll for $25NL so I have a new plan to try and move through the limits quickly to try and get back to $200NL and push on up to $400/$600 and hopefully become a regular in the $1,000 game by the end of the year. The plan will be to move up once I hit 20 buy ins for the next level moving back down if I my roll hits 30 buy ins for the level below.

I am also looking at how I play being a total nit does make some money, and is good for rakeback, but once you get up the levels it is open to exploitation, so I am trying to open up my game and play a much more Loose Aggressive style currently around the 25 vpip mark for my play the last month or so, but tend to start being looser than that to get a wild image, seems to work have already been called a madman. But is easier at $25 as the games are very loose passive and even the tag regulars dont tend to play back at you.

Have also cut back my tables to 2-3 and am reducing my HUD to only display the minimum of stats, the top players in the main swear by not using a hud and getting by on notes and game flow and concentrating to get reads. I have definatley played on auto pilot for years so will try and work on improving concentration and note development, this will be more important once I move through the limits knowing how to exploit people in these tougher times.

Will also look to improve and develop some Omaha skills, its the in game at the minute and seems to be where most of the fish are, havent played it 6 max before so will look to do that a bit although think it might be a bit more swingy than NL.

Other main thing will be to start bonus whoring to get my roll up quicker, probably try the GNUF room first once I get my neteller account unlocked.

Plan for March is to play at least 10K hands and get out of $25 NL had peaked at $800 but back down to a roll $700 at the minute, once I hit $1,000 will move up to $50 NL.

When the going gets tough..........................

the weak panic, start to tilt and have issues of confidence. Pretty much sums up play since my last posting. My form of tilt tend to end up being going to far with weaker hands and also getting involved too much in 3 bet pre flop pots and donking off to obvious hands post flop.

I have been up and down all over the place, today as an example lost 6 buyins in my first session was down $1500 at one point before battling back to being 3 buy ins down for the day. Too many days have been like this though, to combat it have been reviewing hands watching cardrunner videos and also looking at the stats and play of some of the successful players from my datamining.



This is turning out initially much harder than I had hoped, have to keep motivating myself and pick myself up, grinding it out in every sense of the word. |Running well below where I had hoped currently on 0.43 bb/100 which on the positive side seems to mean at least I am a marginal winning player, need to work hard now and plug the leaks and spews. There is a lot of pressure on me though as this is my only current income, but I have a month before that would become any sort of issue.

Thankfully my bonuses and rakeback have pushed the winnings up but not to the point where I could consider doing this long term. Need to hope I go on a heater this next week before going to Vegas next.

Have also changed my hours so part of my freetime is reduced, the games after midnight in the site I am on were terrible so now am playing over lunchtime and also the core euro hours from 7 till midnight. On the positive though now have a routine of spending time with the kids between 4 and 7 so hopefully they feel some benefit of me being home.

Was realy enjoying it over the weekend played while watching most of the golf into the small hours knowing didnt have to get up for work.

June Summary (36k hands plus handfull sngs)

Table winnings $893
Bonuses and Rakeback $2,127

Current total $2,995

Off to the Races

The first week is over and after last Sundays huge day the rest of the week has been a pretty mundane grind, up and down a couple of buyins each session but not making any real progress.

Has taken me a few days to get into the routine but as the week went on started to be able to do longer sessions with more tables, currently tends to be six moving up to nine as the tables get better and dropping naturally back to six as tables break/go bad. Averaging just over 500 hands an hour.

The ipoker site I am on has a monthly rake race with the winner taking $13.5k, so I am joining in the race and aiming for a top 20 finish, top 10 is out of reach as the leaders tend to play 16 tables for multiple hours a day. Top 20 will give me a nice $2k extra bonus which at the end of the month may well push me over my cash target finish line.

Playwise don't think I am playing great, spewing chips at times mainly calling in the wrong spots, had still been playing a real nitty Full Ring 13% vpip, aim for the week is get back to playing around 18%. Feel at the minute that not getting paid on my big hands but bizarrely everyone plays back when I miss. Had the usual bad beats which seems to be what shapes each session play 2-3k hands and it tends to be 3-5 hands out of those whether your hand holds or draw hits on whether a profit comes or not.

Mentally dont feel too bad frustration being the main emotion as I really want to get my win rate up to around 3bb/100 and as said dont feel playing at my best, however am coping with the daily ups and downs you naturally get playing so much 5 buy ins either way is going to be pretty standard.

Don't feel I ma making the most of my free time though although had a load of business admin things to do as well as getting a pc repaired and the other bits and pieces that seem to fill up the day. I am getting a bit more time with the kids though, we all went out to High and Low force yesterday and I did realise I felt a lot les stressed than when on trips out when I am working normally.

Has been good though playing and watching the cricket and other sport defiantly a lot better than going to work for a living. Plus watched the Lost finale a couple of times as well as crappy Die Hard 4.0 but still want to try and get through the Sopranos and get started on the Wire that everyone is raving about.

June Totals

Hands played 17.5k $1,222 Profit
Bonuses and Rakeback $1,101
Adjusments (missing hands in PT) $95
SNG 6 played - $153

Total $2,570

First Day At Work

Not going to do a daily update but as its the first day and has gone so well will post today.

Spent 6.5 hours 4-6 tabling 6 max today in two sessions. One around lunchtime and then a longer one this evening. Definatley had those first day nerves especially with my current poker mindset, but as poker has a habit of doing nothing goes as expected and highs, lows and every emotion in between are always round the corner.

First session was pretty much break even managed to win the last hand and that got me a buy in up. Evening session have gone a total rush, all my hands held up as well as a few donations from people which has given me my best day ever at $200. The main thing about such an upswing though is you know somewher round the corner the variance will even out hopefully its going to be a gradual drop.



Results

Cash 1967 hands $1,622 won
Bonus and Rakeback $ 80

June Total $1,702

May Results

May I started off playing $100 Full ring then moved up to the $200 after I got a bit confidence back from my downswing. But ended the month moving form Stars and going to Ipoker for the rake back and will refocus on 6 max four tabling instead of trying 9+ full ring.

Will probably talk about my downswing in a later post as it has had a big impact on the mental part of my game.

Initial impressions of Ipoker does seem a bit less aggressive than Stars so hopefully will be reasonably soft.

Have played a few SNG's as well was going ok but didn't cash in the last set of five I did so that's knocked that into a loss for the month.





Results for the Month


Cash 17,000 hands $1,093 profit 1.97/ptbb

SNG 14 played $116 loss

MTT 6 played $ 92 loss 1 cash

Bonus and Rake back $ 16

Total $901 profit