October Graph and November Goals

Okay, October is done. I’m quite happy with the way things went. I may not have made mega bucks but dropping down and moving to Stars was definitely a +EV decision!

Here’s the graph:

Yeah still only 24K hands but I’ve made a lot of changes to my game and playing procedures which in the long run will definitely be worth it. All together I logged 60 hours online with a multi-table ratio of 4.27. My ptbb/100 was 3.8bb/100, but I was down an extra 350BB from ‘all-in luck.’ Most of these coolers were near the end of the month where I had to endure a 7-8 buy-in downswing!

I have a new screen too so that I can extend my laptop. The result is that I can comfortably 6-table now.

So here is what I predict for November:

1) Will play 20 hours a week online: So 40K hands for the month.
2) Going to play mixed limits 100NL to 400NL: 6-tabling probably 3 tables of two different limits. i.e. 3 tables of 100NL and 3 tables of 200NL. Maybe some 400NL later.
3) Will play 10 hours a week of live cash games.

I’m not even really setting these as goals. I basically just do whatever I feel like anyway. However, I’m very confident that November will be my highest playing volume month yet.

Tonight is live cash game night so no more online play today. I guess this is still October so it won’t count towards my 10 hours a week!

Pot Limit Hold’em Graph

It was quite easy modifying the excel sheet to show my live win rate/hr and also ptbb/100 (based on 30 hands per hour). It’s all automatic now.

Overall I ran at 19.88ptbb/100 over the last 214 hours!

I'm actually down for this month, but have only played 3 short sessions! This month has been an online month for the most part.

Still deciding whether or not to go play tonight - the weekends are definately the most profitable.

Later. TB

St*rB$cks

I’ve just finished a one hour session on Stars, my Latte is cold and it’s getting dark outside. Problem is that if I try to head home right now I’m screwed—the traffic is just plain stupid.

I played live last night…it was good!

Seriously, I must be killing that game. I’ve not played very much this month, but I did quite a lot last month. I have all the records for the last 3 months in excel format and I have the records from the last few years on my PDA. At some point I’m going to enter everything into the excel sheet and see exactly what I’ve done. I really don’t know what to expect, but I wouldn’t be too surprised to find I’m beating the game for 10-15ptbb/100. My sample size is not HUGE, but I think it’s enough—I’ll find out when I put it all together. I might be able to put a graph together too!

The game I play is 1-2 Pot-Limit Hold’em. It’s GBP, so you could say equivalent to a 2-4 PL/NL game in the States. The fact that we play Pot-Limit doesn’t really make that much difference. If anything it gives me a greater edge against weak players who don’t know how to build pots and can’t simply go “all-in” when they don’t know what else to do.

We have a 5-5PL game too: I’ve played it a few times but when I chickened out of £1500 pot one night, I realized I wasn’t ready. The more experience I gain the more I realize how over bankrolled I want to be for the games I play in. I can’t wait to play that 5-5 game full time, but I’ve set myself a target in the 1-2 game and only when I achieve that am I moving up. When I do play it though, I’ll be so well bankrolled that +/- 2K night after night won’t even flinch me. There are only a few good players and an aquarium of fish—the kind of guys who wipe out their entire bankroll in one night, but always find a way to return the next—and then we have the guys with more money then sense!

Okay, it’s cappuccino time. Ciao.

A Royal Flush

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: toughbeats ($100.50) - (28.6% / 25.2% / 5.01/ 520)
Seat 2: Mr.Zacard ($100) - ( 0.00% / 0.00% / 0.00/ 1)
Seat 3: darkcaller ($152.65) ( 0.00% / 0.00% / 0.00/ 1)
Seat 4: Bj0nn ($202.20) ( 32.1% / 15.2% / 1.02/ 172)
Seat 5: johnnyk11 ($142.10) ( 0.00% / 0.00% / 0.00/ 1)
Seat 6: sodapop ($225.30) - ( 0.00% / 0.00% / 0.00/ 1)


PRE-FLOP:

toughbeats posts small blind $0.50
Mr.Zacard posts BIG blind $1
Dealt To: toughbeats


FOLD darkcaller
RAISE Bj0nn ($2)
FOLD johnnyk11
FOLD sodapop
RAISE toughbeats ($8)
FOLD Mr.Zacard
CALL Bj0nn ($6)


FLOP:

Pot: $17.5


BET toughbeats ($14)
CALL Bj0nn ($14)


TURN:

Pot: $45.5


CHECK toughbeats
BET Bj0nn ($180.20)
CALL toughbeats ($78.50)


RIVER:

Pot: $304.2




SHOWDOWN:
toughbeats:

MUCK Bj0nn

toughbeats collected $199 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $202 Rake: $3

Final Board:


Seat 1: toughbeats small blind showed [As Qs] and won 199 with a Royal Flush - Net Gain/Loss: ($98.5)
Seat 2: Mr.Zacard big blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-1)
Seat 3: darkcaller folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 4: Bj0nn mucked [6s 7s] - Net Gain/Loss: ($-202.2)

Seat 5: johnnyk11 folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 6: sodapop button folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Another Week....

So the weekend is over and yet another week lies ahead…Monday to Friday are the real grinding days!

Yesterday wasn’t the best start but it could’ve been a lot worse! After about 500 hands I was almost 5 buy-ins down due to some pretty sick coolers. The most important thing is that I was playing well, and despite the heavy ass whipping I was nowhere near going on tilt. This has to be one of the most improved aspects of my game I’d say.

Anyway, it wasn’t all bad because I had I pretty good final session leaving me only one and a half buy-ins down for the day over 1200 hands. I was playing super LAG too—having just watched the latest CTS video. Actually I think it works very well at Stars because everyone is multi-tabling and playing so TAG—it’s definitely something I’m going to experiment with.

A look at the month so far...

Here's October so far:

The main thing to note from this graph is the transition from Ongame to Poker Stars - also a drop in limits. It's so obvious that I don't even have to tell you when it was.

Ongame is meant to be one of the fishiest sites out there and Stars one of the hardest! Actually, up until the last few months I had great success at Ongame, rising to and maintaining a +win rate at 2-4NL.

To be honest, I feel that the player database hasn't changed that much - like a sudden influx of cardrunner members! Rather, I just feel like I was burning out there. Also it's quite fidgety to multi-table well. You can't resize the tables properly and the slider is bar is crap, meaning that you're using keys a lot.

Anyway, Stars is a breath of fresh air at the moment! I can easily 6-table there and it looks a lot better. The downside is no rakeback, but I've just bought myself a new - 3rd generation - ipod nano using the FPP's! Oh and a few of those cool looking stress balls, lol.

I'm saving FPP's for a new monitor now or one of the ipod sound stations!

You Crazy Americans!

I’ve just finished a late night session on Stars…

It’s 2am on my side of the pond, but “peak” time in the States. I don’t usually play this late but I can’t believe how bad the play has just been!

4-tabling, I was surrounded my super donks—the kind you only dream about! I know it’s the best the time to play and all, but I was seriously surprised at how good the games can actually be! Yeah, it’s going to be high variance, but super +EV too.

I won tonight’s session for 15ptbb/100. I was running at 30ish, but then some uber donks got lucky. That’s okay though; it’s what keeps them coming back!

New Books

I finally received my latest Amazon order. I thought the package had been lost because it’s a week overdue. I just received an email from Amazon today, actually, stating that they would make a new order free of charge. Five minutes later, some delivery guy is at the door with an Amazon box. Eh? That was fast! Yeah, as you can guess it was actually the original order, so I had to quickly email Amazon again to cancel the new order—I’m such a nice guy…I know.

Anyway, new books include: Poker Tournament Formula (should be well suited to the live games I play); Making time (I’m starting to like this kind of self-help, mind and body shit), and The Psychology of Winning (not a poker book, but another self-help).

I don’t know which I’ll start first. I’ll probably read Poker Tournament Formula in the coffee shop with my Grande Latte’s, and Making time while in bed; just before I sleep.

I never used to be much of a reader really, but that all changed when I started playing poker. I’ve read tonnes of poker books, and if they weren’t strategy, they would be poker novels or biographies. More recently, however, I’ve started branching out.

Anyway, it’s getting late and no more time for blogging!

TB

Alcohol is bad

No, I haven’t just blown half my bankroll during a drunken late night session at 50-100NL. It was 25-50!

Really, though; I’m just kidding. Luckily, I mastered the art of never playing drunk a few years ago. I can safely say that poker is the last thing on my mind when I stagger through the front door these days.

But really, staggering through the front door? Now that can’t be good! That’s exactly what I mean: Alcohol is bad!

So that’s it. I’m giving it up! It’s not that I’m an alcoholic or anything; I’m just fed up getting drunk on a Thursday or Friday and taking all weekend to recover! Hangovers aren’t really that bad for me, but I definitely feel the difference. I mean it screws with my fitness program; It fucks up my diet, and most importantly to the relevance of this blog—it makes be play very little poker for 2-3 days!

I know what you’re going to say:

“Why don’t you just drink less when you go out?”

Well, I wish it were that easy.

Look people…I’m British. We (the British), are well known as a binge drinking nation. To make it worse: I’m a Geordie too. At the end of the day it’s all or nothing (once we start, we can’t stop). Well, for me it’s nothing. That’s it. It’s over. Bababoom!

EDIT: I’m not saying that I’ll never touch another drop of alcohol again; just no more binge drinking! I’ll still drink at dinners and social events, but never again am I going some place just for the sole purpose of getting drunk. J

A quick update

I’ve not blogged in a while, but I hope to be back a lot more soon. Since my last entry I’ve spent most of the time reading forum posts, making notes and playing 6-tables on Stars. I’m still playing there now and enjoying it a lot more. The only downside is no rakeback, but after thinking about it I really like the VIP and FPP program they have. Basically instead of the cash back I can use the points to buy i-pods, books, poker chips, clothes; anything really! I’ve been browsing the catalogue and they have a lot of cool stuff.

In any case I think that’s a very important aspect of poker. I was going to write a separate post on this, but basically it’s the art of balancing poker with life. The point is, what I really like about buying material stuff with the points on stars is that you have something to enjoy and show for your poker playing skill!

Anyway, have to run because I’m playing live tonight – juicy cash games!

Later,
TB