I really want to raise my overall win rate (obviously), but I am going to spend the next 8 days focusing on maximizing my win rate instead of maximizing my potential money earned. Hopefully, my experiment will help me maximize my potential money earned in the future. I am going to limit myself to only playing 8 tables, because I think my overall quality of play suffers significantly when I play 10 and especially 12. I am also going to only play 2/4 NL for these next 8 days and I hope to play 20,000 hands during this stretch. A while ago I put some serious effort into increasing my money won without showdown and I think it had a pretty positive impact on my overall win rate. Since then I have sort of let that mind frame go by the wayside and I have started to suffer in money lost without a showdown. This is referred to as "the red line", because it shows up on graphs in red. My goal for these 20,000 hands is to actually show a profit with my red line. I think I can get my win rate up to 8bb/100 at 2/4 NL if I can make this improvement on my red line.
I haven't done a poker challenge like this in a while so it will be kinda fun to have something to shoot for instead of just playing to make the most money everyday.
Summary of Goals through February 11th (in order of importance):
1. Show a profit with my red line
2. Play 20,000 hands
3. Achieve a win rate higher than 8bb/100
Rules for Goals:
1. Play no more than 8 tables.
2. Play only 2/4 NL, (unless a huge fish is playing higher).
This is quite a bit of playing for me and probably will take about 40 hours in the next 8 days. A win rate of 8bb/100 should result in around $6,400.
I am going to hit the sack for now. I have a good feeling about my chances for success in this challenge and I think it will help my motivation having something to shoot for.
EDIT: When I woke up today I decided it was silly to drop down and play 2/4 NL instead of just doing the same experiment at 5/10. Since I am a winning player at 5/10 I will just do the same experiment here and hopefully win double (or more) the amount of money.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Going, Going....Back to Back....
It is possible I have won more in back to back days that I played, but I think this is a new record for me. Yesterday I won $7,746 and today I won $7,558 for a whopping two day total of $15,304!
Today I only played about 3 hours, but I did play almost all 5/10 and probably averaged 9 tables at a time. Basically, I only lost one big pot all day and I managed to win the rest of the big pots I played. The big pot that I lost was on the only 3/6 table I played today and it was a hand I decided to play tricky by just smooth calling a player's 3bet with AA. He flopped a set of Jacks and stacked me, but it probably would have turned out the same no matter how I played it. I was on the good end of one really sick cold deck today at that same 3/6 table. Here is the hand so you can see for yourself:http://www.pokerhand.org/?3787492
I also played one of the biggest pots I have ever played in a 5/10 game online. The other player played this hand very strange and tried to make a hero call of my overbet on the river....oops! http://www.pokerhand.org/?3787532
So Hold'em Manager gives a statistic on adjusted EV (expected value) that is supposed to show you how well you are running, but it only takes all-in situations into consideration when determining how well you are running. It really messes with my confidence when my Hold'em Manager tells me I have run ahead of expectation, but there is just so much that it can't take into consideration that I really shouldn't let it affect me the way it does. For example: Today I obviously ran SUPER hot to win as much as I did, but according to Hold'em Manager I ran below expectation by about $500. There are other days when I know I ran like crap and everything bad that could have possibly happened to me did and hold'em manager tells me that I ran $2,000 above expectation.
I just read a pretty cool blog written by another poker player explaining how he feels about running good or bad and he explains that you should only be concerned about things you can control when thinking about poker results and EV. The three things he says you can control are:
* You playing with your game selection standards
* You playing in whatever state of mind you’re in
* You playing when and however long you play
If you want to read his blog for yourself it is pretty in depth and very poker jargon filled, but it is located here: http://blogs.cardrunners.com/internetpokers/poker-is-a-whore-1232943829
Today I only played about 3 hours, but I did play almost all 5/10 and probably averaged 9 tables at a time. Basically, I only lost one big pot all day and I managed to win the rest of the big pots I played. The big pot that I lost was on the only 3/6 table I played today and it was a hand I decided to play tricky by just smooth calling a player's 3bet with AA. He flopped a set of Jacks and stacked me, but it probably would have turned out the same no matter how I played it. I was on the good end of one really sick cold deck today at that same 3/6 table. Here is the hand so you can see for yourself:http://www.pokerhand.org/?3787492
I also played one of the biggest pots I have ever played in a 5/10 game online. The other player played this hand very strange and tried to make a hero call of my overbet on the river....oops! http://www.pokerhand.org/?3787532
So Hold'em Manager gives a statistic on adjusted EV (expected value) that is supposed to show you how well you are running, but it only takes all-in situations into consideration when determining how well you are running. It really messes with my confidence when my Hold'em Manager tells me I have run ahead of expectation, but there is just so much that it can't take into consideration that I really shouldn't let it affect me the way it does. For example: Today I obviously ran SUPER hot to win as much as I did, but according to Hold'em Manager I ran below expectation by about $500. There are other days when I know I ran like crap and everything bad that could have possibly happened to me did and hold'em manager tells me that I ran $2,000 above expectation.
I just read a pretty cool blog written by another poker player explaining how he feels about running good or bad and he explains that you should only be concerned about things you can control when thinking about poker results and EV. The three things he says you can control are:
* You playing with your game selection standards
* You playing in whatever state of mind you’re in
* You playing when and however long you play
If you want to read his blog for yourself it is pretty in depth and very poker jargon filled, but it is located here: http://blogs.cardrunners.com/internetpokers/poker-is-a-whore-1232943829
Thursday, January 29, 2009
I guess it is time to go wedding dress shopping.....
I always complain about always being the bridesmaid and never the bride, but not this time! So it wasn't the biggest field or the highest buy-in that I have ever played, but I did at least get my first ever online tournament victory. The have this Big Daily Double thing every night on full tilt where they charge a little extra juice and reward you for doing well in both tournaments combined. I played in both of these tournaments and I happened to not only cash in both of them, but also made the final table in both of them. For everyone that cashes in both tournaments they give out 3% of the jackpot that has been accumulated for them to share. The person with the highest average finish gets 2% of the jackpot amount. Also, anyone that makes both final tables gets to share 20% of the total jackpot. If you happen to win both tournaments you get 75% of the jackpot! I double cashed (along with 3 other people), had the highest average finish, and made both final tables (I was the only one) so I ended up getting 22.75% of the $18,709 jackpot for a total of $4,228 on top of my tournament cashes of around $3,200. The best news of the day was that I thought I was probably down around $2-3,000 playing cash games for the day, but I ended up winning $313 somehow. So I ended up having almost an $8,000 day seemingly by accident (since I hardly ever play tournaments and am not really sure why I decided to sign up for those two)!
Having such a good day was very welcome after having a poor showing during my trip to LA. I ended up losing about $4,000 after expenses, but it could have been much worse...and much better.
I played one of the most interesting hands I have ever played live while I was there. I'll try to keep it short. The game was 10/20 NL and the first player raised it to $60 and 6 people called including my self with pocket 7's from middle position. The flop was 7s 4d 3s and the original raiser checked. The player to his left went all-in for $360, I called and so did the player behind me. The original raiser now announced that he was all-in! He had about $4,500 more in front of him and now the action was on me. First of all, it is tough for me to put him on 65 since he raised under the gun. Second, him making such a huge over bet in this spot seemed very strange and it could mean any number of things. He could be going crazy with a big pocket pair (most likely AA if he is an idiot and panicked), overcards and a flush draw like AsKs, an underset of 4's or 3's, and occasionally the nut straight with 56. Without giving it too much thought I just decided there was no way I could fold top set here and I said I call and he instantly looked sick. The guy behind me thought for a bit and folded and now the guy that I had just called asked me if I wanted to make a deal such as running it twice or some other deal we came up with. The dealer announced that we could not run it twice and no deals were allowed. The other player made the dealer hold off dealing the turn and river while we discussed this further. He asked me what I had and I told him I had a set, to which he responded by asking me if I wanted to "just save the additional money (the $4500) and play for what was in the pot?" Of course I said I did not want to save the $4500, because I was now certain that I had the best hand. After I told him this he announced to me that he had the nuts and asked me again if I wanted to save the extra $4500 and play for what was in the pot. I immediately said "Yes!" and he agreed that is what we would do. The dealer was fine with this and dealt the turn and the river which were both blanks and he tabled 56 for the nut straight and drug the pot. Shew! This guy was so worried about how poorly he had been running lately and how he "just knew" he was going to lose the pot as soon as I called that he gave (rather saved) me a gift in the form of $4,500 in cash! Yes, I could have sucked out and won the pot, but he is a huge favorite in the hand and what is the purpose of playing in the hand if you don't want to get all of your money in with that situation. Oh well, I am glad he was playing on scared money (in the most literal sense I have ever seen). So that is how LA could have been worse....
It could have been better had I not gotten rather unlucky in some other rather large pots. The one that left the most bitter taste in my mouth was basically the last hand that I played. I played the tournament the first day I got there and didn't cash so I was immediately in the hole and fought the whole time to get out of it. I only won one day I was there, but it wasn't enough to get me back to even. I was determined on the last night we were there to get winner on the trip even if it meant I would have to play a long session (I wouldn't really play super long to just chase getting even, but it was a good mindset to have I think). Anyway, I was stuck about $2,000 for the trip and I was finally starting to play good and I had a fantastic table image. I knew if I could just make a hand I would always be able to get paid off. About 5 hours into my session (about the time I usually quit) the guy on my right raised it to $80, I reraised to $220 with AsAc, he reraised me to $700, and I put him all-in for $1710, and he very quickly called me. This is a pretty standard spot to get in when someone has Aces and someone has Kings so I just assumed that was the situation here. We didn't turn our hands over and the flop was 3 small cards that were all clubs, the turn was an off-suit king), and the river was the 8s. Even though I thought there was a pretty good chance that the king on the turn beat me I was still pretty sick when he turned over KcQc! He put $1710 in preflop with KcQc and just flopped a flush like he was supposed to. Oh well, that was about all I could handle for the trip and I left a few hands later accepting defeat on my trip to LA. Had I won that pot I would have been very close to being even on the trip, but sometimes it just doesn't work out like that.
The action was absolutely fantastic in LA and I need to make more frequent trips there, but I just really hate the drive over there.
Cliffnotes: I did poorly in LA, but I more than made up for it by running good and winning my first ever online tournament.
Having such a good day was very welcome after having a poor showing during my trip to LA. I ended up losing about $4,000 after expenses, but it could have been much worse...and much better.
I played one of the most interesting hands I have ever played live while I was there. I'll try to keep it short. The game was 10/20 NL and the first player raised it to $60 and 6 people called including my self with pocket 7's from middle position. The flop was 7s 4d 3s and the original raiser checked. The player to his left went all-in for $360, I called and so did the player behind me. The original raiser now announced that he was all-in! He had about $4,500 more in front of him and now the action was on me. First of all, it is tough for me to put him on 65 since he raised under the gun. Second, him making such a huge over bet in this spot seemed very strange and it could mean any number of things. He could be going crazy with a big pocket pair (most likely AA if he is an idiot and panicked), overcards and a flush draw like AsKs, an underset of 4's or 3's, and occasionally the nut straight with 56. Without giving it too much thought I just decided there was no way I could fold top set here and I said I call and he instantly looked sick. The guy behind me thought for a bit and folded and now the guy that I had just called asked me if I wanted to make a deal such as running it twice or some other deal we came up with. The dealer announced that we could not run it twice and no deals were allowed. The other player made the dealer hold off dealing the turn and river while we discussed this further. He asked me what I had and I told him I had a set, to which he responded by asking me if I wanted to "just save the additional money (the $4500) and play for what was in the pot?" Of course I said I did not want to save the $4500, because I was now certain that I had the best hand. After I told him this he announced to me that he had the nuts and asked me again if I wanted to save the extra $4500 and play for what was in the pot. I immediately said "Yes!" and he agreed that is what we would do. The dealer was fine with this and dealt the turn and the river which were both blanks and he tabled 56 for the nut straight and drug the pot. Shew! This guy was so worried about how poorly he had been running lately and how he "just knew" he was going to lose the pot as soon as I called that he gave (rather saved) me a gift in the form of $4,500 in cash! Yes, I could have sucked out and won the pot, but he is a huge favorite in the hand and what is the purpose of playing in the hand if you don't want to get all of your money in with that situation. Oh well, I am glad he was playing on scared money (in the most literal sense I have ever seen). So that is how LA could have been worse....
It could have been better had I not gotten rather unlucky in some other rather large pots. The one that left the most bitter taste in my mouth was basically the last hand that I played. I played the tournament the first day I got there and didn't cash so I was immediately in the hole and fought the whole time to get out of it. I only won one day I was there, but it wasn't enough to get me back to even. I was determined on the last night we were there to get winner on the trip even if it meant I would have to play a long session (I wouldn't really play super long to just chase getting even, but it was a good mindset to have I think). Anyway, I was stuck about $2,000 for the trip and I was finally starting to play good and I had a fantastic table image. I knew if I could just make a hand I would always be able to get paid off. About 5 hours into my session (about the time I usually quit) the guy on my right raised it to $80, I reraised to $220 with AsAc, he reraised me to $700, and I put him all-in for $1710, and he very quickly called me. This is a pretty standard spot to get in when someone has Aces and someone has Kings so I just assumed that was the situation here. We didn't turn our hands over and the flop was 3 small cards that were all clubs, the turn was an off-suit king), and the river was the 8s. Even though I thought there was a pretty good chance that the king on the turn beat me I was still pretty sick when he turned over KcQc! He put $1710 in preflop with KcQc and just flopped a flush like he was supposed to. Oh well, that was about all I could handle for the trip and I left a few hands later accepting defeat on my trip to LA. Had I won that pot I would have been very close to being even on the trip, but sometimes it just doesn't work out like that.
The action was absolutely fantastic in LA and I need to make more frequent trips there, but I just really hate the drive over there.
Cliffnotes: I did poorly in LA, but I more than made up for it by running good and winning my first ever online tournament.
Monday, January 26, 2009
update
Both of my blog readers have mentioned that I haven't updated my blog lately so I thought I would mention why. Matt and I have been in LA for the last week playing poker during the LAPC. I haven't hardly been on the internet at all, because it is $10/day at our hotel room and it kind of feels nice to get a break from it anyway. I have some interesting stuff to talk about from our trip, but I am typing this on my phone so I'll wait to post about it until I get back home. We are driving back on Tuesday before our basketball game.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
I finally had my first good day of 2009
I am pretty proud of myself for it too. I had been playing too many tables (12 most of the time), and it was effecting my play all around. It seemed like I was stacking off lite left and right without even giving it a second thought. I would get to the end of a session and check to see how much I had won or lost and it was ALWAYS lower than I expected. Basically, I was just getting too careless. I was letting myself play poorly and not even caring, because I had so many tables going. It always sucks when you have to cut back the amount of tables that you play, because it feels much slower and seems like you won't ever make money anywhere close to as fast as you lost it. It seems like it really affects my confidence when I end up winning less or losing more than I expected in a session (I have still been waiting to look to see if I won or lost until the end of my sessions).
Anyway, today I cut back to 8 tables and tried to focus more on each table. I started the day off by losing the biggest hand I lost all day in a rather ridiculous way. I got all-in on the flop for $1200 with Qh Qd on a 8h 9s 6s board. I didn't feel great about getting it in there, but we put in $450 preflop and I wasn't going to fold now. I was relieved when he flipped over the other two queens...until it went running spades and he scooped the $2400 pot. I was really proud of the way I handled it though since I had been battling some slight tilt issues and not playing my best the past few days. I took some deep breathes and stared at the ceiling for 10 seconds or so, got up and ran to the fridge to get a drink, and returned perfectly calm as if nothing had happened.
So, even though I started the day down about $1800 within the first 500 hands or so I made a roaring comeback and ended up winning just over $5500. I needed to have a day like that. I am now officially in the positive for 2009. Hopefully, I won't look back from here on out!
Anyway, today I cut back to 8 tables and tried to focus more on each table. I started the day off by losing the biggest hand I lost all day in a rather ridiculous way. I got all-in on the flop for $1200 with Qh Qd on a 8h 9s 6s board. I didn't feel great about getting it in there, but we put in $450 preflop and I wasn't going to fold now. I was relieved when he flipped over the other two queens...until it went running spades and he scooped the $2400 pot. I was really proud of the way I handled it though since I had been battling some slight tilt issues and not playing my best the past few days. I took some deep breathes and stared at the ceiling for 10 seconds or so, got up and ran to the fridge to get a drink, and returned perfectly calm as if nothing had happened.
So, even though I started the day down about $1800 within the first 500 hands or so I made a roaring comeback and ended up winning just over $5500. I needed to have a day like that. I am now officially in the positive for 2009. Hopefully, I won't look back from here on out!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Welcome to the Breakfast Club....
I decided to finally give my readers what they have been demanding for a very long time. A picture recap of my breakfast for the last 7 days.
Tuesday:
Cinnamon Life cereal topped with sliced bananas and skim milk.
Wednesday:
Scrambled Eggs with Cheese and Cream Cheese (I had to settle for colby jack cheese and fat free cream cheese though because that's all we had) and two slices of white toast with fat free butter spray (thanks Landon).
Thursday:
Cinnamon Rolls and a glass of skim milk. I was trying to eat somewhat healthy, but I realized I was going to run out of healthy things to eat if I was going to have something unique for 7 days in a row. Plus, I already had the cinnamon rolls and they have to get eaten at some point.
Friday:
Three packets of peaches and cream oatmeal (it started as only two packets, but I didn't measure the milk and I put too much in so I improvised and added another packet to make it the correct consistency) and two pop tarts (cooked a little too long for my taste).
Saturday:
Two egg and cheese sandwiches on toast (I once again had to settle for colby jack cheese and that doesn't go very well on egg sandwiches, just so ya know).
Sunday:
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with extra crunchy peanut butter and strawberry jam and blueberry waffles used as the bread...a fantastic touch if you have never tried it (and I don't know of anyone else in the world weird enough to have tried it). Also, a glass of chocolate milk.
Monday:
Apple slices with extra crunchy peanut butter.
I hope you enjoyed your visit to the breakfast club.
Tuesday:
Cinnamon Life cereal topped with sliced bananas and skim milk.
Wednesday:
Scrambled Eggs with Cheese and Cream Cheese (I had to settle for colby jack cheese and fat free cream cheese though because that's all we had) and two slices of white toast with fat free butter spray (thanks Landon).
Thursday:
Cinnamon Rolls and a glass of skim milk. I was trying to eat somewhat healthy, but I realized I was going to run out of healthy things to eat if I was going to have something unique for 7 days in a row. Plus, I already had the cinnamon rolls and they have to get eaten at some point.
Friday:
Three packets of peaches and cream oatmeal (it started as only two packets, but I didn't measure the milk and I put too much in so I improvised and added another packet to make it the correct consistency) and two pop tarts (cooked a little too long for my taste).
Saturday:
Two egg and cheese sandwiches on toast (I once again had to settle for colby jack cheese and that doesn't go very well on egg sandwiches, just so ya know).
Sunday:
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with extra crunchy peanut butter and strawberry jam and blueberry waffles used as the bread...a fantastic touch if you have never tried it (and I don't know of anyone else in the world weird enough to have tried it). Also, a glass of chocolate milk.
Monday:
Apple slices with extra crunchy peanut butter.
I hope you enjoyed your visit to the breakfast club.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Scammed by bum....
Josh and I were on our way home at 4am coming from a 4 hour marathon session of 4/8 mixed game at the Rio and I had to stop and get gas. Some black bum came walking around from the back of the gas station and started in on me...His story was he that he was new in town and just moved here from St. Louis 2 weeks ago and had a job at the Palms as a cook in the Buffet. Apparently his car had run out of gas and he had left it parked for two days at the Auto Zone across the street and someone had stolen the battery out of his car. However, they had a used battery to sell him at Auto Zone and it only cost $10. I said "So what you are telling me is you need me to give you $10." He said "Well....could you do $20? I am gonna need to get gas too." He even said he would pay me back the $20 if I would just drop by the buffet at the palms with my girl and even Josh if I wanted to bring him along. All I had to do was tell the people at the buffet that the "Black Guy" sent me and they would know who I was talking about and let me in. I can't imagine a way that this could go wrong! I told him I would see if I had $10, of course I only had a $20 so I just gave it to him and told him to get some gas too. Obviously, I didn't believe his story in the first place, but I didn't really care. He clearly needs the $20 more than I do so I gave it to him.
As soon as we got in the car Josh told me that guy had told him the same exact story 6 months ago. Man, that guy sure is unlucky...twice he has had his battery stolen out of his car, but thankfully Auto Zone has had used batteries on sale for $10 each time (as if Auto Zone even keeps used batteries on hand to sell). Not to mention...that guy sure moves alot. I mean just 6 months ago he had only been in Vegas for 2 weeks and as of today he had just moved here only 2 weeks ago. That means he had to move here, move away, and move back all in 6 months time...it must be work related or something I guess.
As soon as we got in the car Josh told me that guy had told him the same exact story 6 months ago. Man, that guy sure is unlucky...twice he has had his battery stolen out of his car, but thankfully Auto Zone has had used batteries on sale for $10 each time (as if Auto Zone even keeps used batteries on hand to sell). Not to mention...that guy sure moves alot. I mean just 6 months ago he had only been in Vegas for 2 weeks and as of today he had just moved here only 2 weeks ago. That means he had to move here, move away, and move back all in 6 months time...it must be work related or something I guess.
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