Grinding it out, one day at a time

Looks like I’ll get to sample the Prima network afterall

So my dilemma is, do I stay at a site where I am winning (albeit a tiny sample size) or do I go find a site that has the other qualities that I want from a Poker room. My other main concern is that as I am playing with poor players my game won’t improve as much as it would against slightly better players. One of my great things about playing poker is you can make cash and everyone loves having a supply of beer tokens but another goal of mine is to become the best player I can be and playing sub-standard opponents can only be -EV in the long run surely. Have any of my beloved readers ever switched to a different site just to play against better players despite you being a winning player at the site you were leaving. Would this be cutting my nose of to spite my face?

I have been offered a rakeback deal with Doyle’s Room which is also, for now, part of the Tribeca network which would make my stay on this network more profitable, especially as the rake structure on Tribeca is pretty poor. However I have another concern in that Playtech recently announced that they have acquired some of the Tribeca network and that within 6 months Tribeca will cease to exist. Doyle’s Room (Bowmans and Golden Palace) weren’t part of this deal but that means that they are now looking for a new home and possibly new software and I don’t want to get settled on one site just for it to disappear from under me in a few months time. I’d go back to Ultimate Bet but their hand history is knackered at the minute and we all know how important I think Poker Tracker is to a developing player Well until I have to make a proper decision I think I’ll just try to log as many hands as I can and I’m aiming for another 2k hands this week which hopefully will be profitable as the last 1.5k and go some way to smoothing out this huge rush I’ve been on as of late!

I’d appreciate your comments on wanting to play better players vs poor players to help develop your game.

Best of luck at those crazy tables boys and girls

Saturday was my usual ritual of picking up Pudding Jr from his gran’s and then seeing who could be the biggest kid, me or him! I then had to work behind the bar from 1900-0000 so was again knackered. Played a few hands and went to sleep as I had to open the pub up for the cleaner etc at 1000 the next day as the Landlord was off to visit his kids. Then work the bar 1500-2300 yesterday! I was well away with the fairies by 0045 and I don’t feel too bad today despite the trains being cancelled left, right and centre, the buses being on strike and stepping in a large puddle on the way to work. [/rant]

Back to poker then! Out of a possible 9 hours I had planned I managed to log closer to 3, resulting in 287 hands being played and another $23.79 added to the coffers. I also played an $11 SnG which I came 2nd in after getting heads-up as a 13k/5k dog. I did pull back to around even but pushed KJs into AJo on a Jack high board and the rest is obvious. Cash game wise I ran at 20/10/2.5 but I have been running at 24/13/3 over the 1.5k hands I now have logged. No real hands to go through to be honest as there were no real challenging ones. I was paid off handsomely with Cowboys and also with 97s which helped me turn this nice little profit, it seems like the players at the micro stakes on Tribecca just love to pay you off with all sorts of weird holdings!

I’ve had to withdraw all the finds that were in my Neteller account so I only have the funds that are sat in Bowmans, online at present. I should be able to replenish the roll on the 22nd as I get paid and should have around £200 ($375) extra from being on-call on my day job. When I do reload my roll I’ll be taking the rest of the month off and starting afresh on January 1st with a roll of around $500 which is 20 buyins for NL25. Where I’ll be playing I am unsure but it won’t be on Tribecca despite being $150+ up from my initial deposit. I just can’t get used to having to type how much you’re raising rather than the total amount you want to bet and this has resulted in over and underbets and is a pain when you’re multitabling and also the blind structure for the MTT’s etc is horrific and I like to play in the odd tourney. I’m considering trying the Prima network as I’ve never played there and there is decent traffic for my stakes plus 30% rakeback and the ability to multitable using their mini view which is also compatible with PAHUD etc.

I’m hoping to log some hands tonight, probably paying 2 or 3 NL20 games. I doubt I’ll get this bonus at Bowmans cleared in time for the 22nd as the points earned really seem to be clearing very slowly now for some strange reason. I have around 6.9k action points to work off so we’ll how it goes but I’m not going to really chase this $100 as when I do that I deviate from my usual game and that is -EV especially as my game seems to be quite profitable at present. No point changing your game to chase $100 when I could probably earn more than that this week by playing my normal game. I’m brimming with confidence at the minute and can’t wait for the start of the new year as I just know it is going to be a very profitable one indeed.

Thanks for reading and good luck at the felt

Oh, congrats to Cadmunkey who hit the final table in a $5.50 MTT that started with 210 players. Unfortunately he busted in 9th after being card dead for over an hour and the prizes were very top heavy but still a great performance in his return to MTT’s. I’m sure there will be some sort of report in his blog pretty soon.

It was my bar shift last night so I couldn’t log on until just after midnight and despite being tired I still fired up 4 tables of 6max NL25. I know from past experience that usually every other hand, at least, is raked in these games so I could be fast asleep by half twelve! I thought it was going to be one of those nights when I was UTG and saw JJ. I popped it to $1 and it was folded round to the BB who pushed for $26! WTF? I considered calling but didn’t fancy risking a whole buyin on a coinflip when all I needed were 50 raked hands to cashout, I folded. However, I did manage to get stacked, well all but $3 as villain wasn’t fully stacked! Here are a couple of hands for you!

Goodbye stack - I don’t think there is any getting away from this hand to be honest. I raise it up with one of my bogey hands, but also one of Cadmunkey’s favourites, the dreaded pair of Tens. I get one caller who I have no reads on at all. Flop is glorious and decide to slowplay and check and villain checks behind. Turn brings an 8 and again I check planning to either raise here or bet any river representing a bluff with a missed AK type hand. Villain again checks. River brings a Queen and I bet out around 3/4 of the pot hoping the Queen helped him. He then raises me and I think I’m about to double up. I should push here but for some reason I raise it to $14 leaving him $5 and change. He then insta-calls and flips over 66 for flopped quads! FFS, cooler!

Recouping my losses - Again no concrete reads on our villain but he seems pretty straight forward and I think AKs at 6max is strong enough to 3-bet here. He flat calls and we see a flop that is King high and I think I am ahead here, especially as villain only flat called my 3-bet. I’d be c-betting a lot and fired out a half pot bet which villain thought for a while and called. I decided to check any turn with the intention of betting the river, hoping it looked like a bluff. Villain checks behind. I then bet around 2/3 of the pot, which is the most I think villain would call here. He thinks for a good 10-15 seconds and calls and mucks the Hilton Sisters, another of my bogey hands!

So 143 hands and a loss of $9.55, not disastrous and it means I finished the bonus chase with a net profit of around $120, not to be sniffed at. I’ve now successfully withdrawn to Neteller and all is good in the world!

Due to my overspending during the first weekend after payday, namely around £300 ($560), I have had to borrow a little from my bankroll but this will be put back online on the 22nd when I get paid as I should have an extra £250 ($470) in that wage. Bankroll was around the $610 mark but I now have around $430 online. I’ll be focussing on clearing the $100 bonus at Bowmans over the next couple of weeks then once that is cleared I’ll be taking a break until the end of the year where I will know my exact bankroll and site that I will be playing at, which will probably be either Full Tilt or one of the Prima skins.

Thanks for reading and best of luck at that those tables

I played 264 hands last night and ran at 26/12/2.5 and turned a $31.77 profit (30.09PTBB/100). This should have been a whole load more as I was up over $80 but donked off a huge part of my profit on two hands that I will post below shortly. I was talking to Cadmunkey on MSN whilst he was on UB and I think he was a little intrigued about the pots I was winning and he reloaded his Victor Chandler account (they share traffic) and sat on the waiting list for a NL20 game to come free. Low and behold the first table to become free was one I was sat at! He ended up being in my BB which was good as he’s TAG, the guy to his right was TAP so this should have created some blind stealing situations. I only really got involved in one hand with the Munkey and it cost me $23! Good job I had a big stack at the time, the twat Here are some hands below, as always comments on how fantastic I am or how shockingly bad I played are welcomed:

Girl on girl action - I think this hand is pretty standard across the board. Villain said he thought I should have folded to his push. He’s a retard obviously.

Right play, wrong result - No real reads on villain except he’s the one who reckons I should have folded my ladies in the hand above. He flat calls my raise preflop then open pushes a very heavily coordinated flop with 3 diamonds. I call having 2 over cards, the nut flush draw and a gutshot for the nut straight. He shows AcQd and I am a 75/25 favourite on this board until the King of diamonds completes my nut flush but gives bollock chops a straight flush.

Overly aggressive - I decide to mix things up and raise preflop with 87s and get 2 callers. Flop gives me an OESFD and I opt to just call the villain’s small bet. 3 of us see the turn which is a 7, giving me middle pair no kicker but adds some outs. River completes my flush and this time villain checks. I bet out $5 into a pot of around $6.50 and he min check-raises me to $10. WTF am I meant to make of that with no reads? Looks to me like he may have JT or maybe TT and I decide to stick him all in. He insta-calls and shows me the nut flush. Should I be flat calling his check-raise here with no reads? Big loss number 1.

What are friends for - Here is big loss number 2! A calling station min raises preflop and I make it 3x his bet with JJ. Cadmunkey then pushes all-in for $23! WTF mate?! We were chatting on MSN at the time, but we never disclose hands when we play, and I was trying to work out what this bet meant. Against my typical Tribecca villain this is 99+, AJs+, especially as I’d been very active but this was Cadmukey and I know he wouldn’t risk all his chips without a monster. Still I called, he LOL’s at me in the MSN and flipped AA. I couldn’t suck out and doubled him up! He said after he didn’t think I’d call and that was his way of telling me he had AA in the hole. Oh well, at least I know he won’t just spunk those chips away like half the donkeys on here!

Despite those losses I still ended $31 the good. In fact it was more than that because I logged on again around midnight and played a few hands and the very last hand I played I flopped a set of Tens (Cad would be so proud) and got paid off by AA and took a $65 pot! SHIP IT! Didn’t have chance to redo my graph etc as it was late so this hand isn’t shown. So in around 1100 hands I have taken my initial $100 and turned it into $233, marvellous! I’ve also cleared 3100 of the 11k points needed to release a free $100 and Poker Source Online have just transferred the remaining $125 of my bonus to me on Party so all is good. I believe that Party have also given me a $25 bonus if I clear 250 raked hands which should take around an hour to do. So all in all things seem to be going pretty good, just don’t tell the Poker Gods (amen).

Bankroll stands at around $590 with $125 in pending bonuses. Shouldn’t be too long before I can take a shot at the NL50 tables!

Thanks for reading and good luck at those tables. Oh and if the Munkey pushes he’s got Rockets!

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry I have been playing on the Tribecca network and, not wanting to curse it, things have started very well. However, I am becoming slightly frustrated by the fact that an awful lot of the players are buying in pretty short ($5-$10) which I feel is preventing me from getting full value from some of my hands. A basic theoretical example would be if I’m sat there on the button with $30 holding 9d8d and a short stack with a $5 stack raises to $1 from UTG+1($0.10/$0.20 blinds) and I opt to call, hoping to hit a nice, but unlikely, 2 pair or straight or flush or even take the pot away using my position. The flop comes 9hAd8c and I know villain has definitely hit the Ace and will call off his stack, I’m not going to get paid of the maximum from this hand. I’m betting $1 to win $5 (assume the blinds get raked). Is this 5/1 stack ratio sufficient to call a raise with as I am sure that i have read somewhere you really need closer to a 10/1 ratio?

What sort of adjustments should I be making against these players? I’m used to having a short stack at the table but it is something new for me to have around 3 of the 5 opponents sat with a short stack is something new. There seems to be two extremes that they fall into. You have on one hand the player who you can steal from at will as he’s sat there waiting for QQ+ and AK hoping to limp then raise all-in and on the other hand you have the maniac who obviously doesn’t really care about the $5 in his stack and is willing to go all the way to the river holding anything that remotely resembles a hand!

I usually try to punish the short stacks in a tournament environment and I have chips to throw around but how do you guys deal with these little buggers in a cash game setting? Am I getting too hung up about being paid of to the maximum and should I just be trying to make +EV plays to get the entire stack of the short-stacked donkey? After 25BB’s are 25BB’s regardless of where they come from!

As always, thanks for checking in

I recently had a couple of days from work and spent a lot of that time playing poker and got a real taste of what it could be like to be a poker pro and I must admit I liked the freedom. I didn’t log as many hands as I could and I had didn’t log as much time as I would have if it were my job but there again I didn’t set out to play a set time or a set number of hands on each day. However, I do have 1st Jan until 5th Jan from work so I think I may sit down and try to play two 4 hour sessions on each of these days and see how it affects my play etc and see if I still find it fun after spending a week doing almost nothing but poker! Actually, I’ll do it for the 2nd until the 5th as I will be terribly hungover on the 1st I should imagine!

So do I have professional ambitions? I suppose I do but it would be very premature for me to start planning for a poker career as I do not have the bankroll, the attitude or the skills at present but I know I can develop these skills over the next 12 months and with that the bankroll should grow. Although I occasionally watch the biggest games on Stars and Full Tilt where hands of $5-10k are not uncommon, I actually spend a bit of time watching the NL100 and NL200 games as they are much more within my reach that the other crazy stakes, and if I could win at NL100 and NL200 I am sure I could earn a decent living from these. What I have promised myself though is that if I can get to a stage where I have been earning $20/hr (purely from playing, no bonus or rakeback) for 50k hands then I would get myself a part-time job (15 hours/week) and play poker for the other 25 hours. Going semi-pro then gives the best of both worlds as it would mean I wouldn’t have as much pressure to win as I’d have some sort of backup should I hit a bad spell at the tables. Where things went from there would solely depend on how that trial period went.

So here are my initial poker-related goals for 2007:

• Learn to control my emotions more at the table

• Get away from being results biased, play to maximise expectation instead

• Learn to limit my distractions to a minimum whilst playing

• Study the hand histories and theory for at least an hour a day

• Progress from NL25 to NL50

• Progress from NL50 to NL100

• Be able to withdraw $1500 for a new system

• Stay focussed on my goals despite what goes on around me

• Give going semi-pro a go

• Run good - obviously

So there you are. Today I am a loose cannon with a poor poker attitude but this time next year I hope to be blogging about becoming semi-professional. I am extremely confident that this can and will happen and I hope you stick around to read about it.