Wow, it's been nearly three years since I've played a hand of poker - and to be honest after reading my last post Im not surprised at all.
Lots of what I wrote was wrong...verging on delusional - the last bit about moving up to 50 and 100nl when I wasnt even beating 2nl and 5nl is bonkers.
I think given the environment that I work in now where there is so much focus on numbers and small margins I've got a different approach to the game and fully intend on having another go at building a bankroll in 2016 but this time I'll be doing it right.
Ill be playing AND beating the tiny stakes games, ill be posting my progress every Friday night and am even intending on making videos on my success and failure.
First update will be on 01/01/2016!
Sunday 20 December 2015
Monday 11 March 2013
Reach for the Stars....
So far for the month of March:
LIVE
The first foray into live play did not go well.
Buyin Cashout Profit/Loss Bankroll
The Brock - £20 NA (£20) £135
I can deal with losing, more often than not. But not tonight.
It should probably be mentioned that the game starts with blinds of 1k/2k and a stack of 100k. Relatively reasonable but with the blinds doubling (doubling!) every ten minutes its pretty tough to keep your head above water.
In live play a hand can take 2/3 mins to play out, so if the table is nine handed you can potentially be up to 8k/16k before the button gets back to you, which is pretty brutal.
That being said the player base tends to lean more towards 'Friday night fun poker' than 'Im building a bankroll' so by paying attention and not over-valuing a lone pair I tend to do relatively well.
We were past the add-on stages and my stack was looking dire. With blinds at 10k/20 (for some reason that comes after 8k/16k???) And me sitting with a stack of 215k action had to be taken and quick!.
Kc9c on my BB.
A short stack limps from EP (with 5BB or about 3M), another comes in from the button, SB completes and I check knowing that a raise is only going to get called 3 times at this table.
Flop comes 3c6c8d.
I like this flop a lot, two overs and the second nut flush draw id LOVE to see in a heads up hand, but this is 4 way so I decide to tread carefully and just check.
The short stack bets 40k into 80k, the SB completes making the pot 160k and now im looking at 40k to win 200k and I call in a heartbeat.
The turn brings 9h.
I check and the short stack shoves another 44k into the middle. The SB raises to 100k and I have to go in to the tank for a bit.
I have 9 clubs that I think give me the best hand and although I reckon my pair of nines is behind just now, I think another nine or a king will give me the best hand - that's 14 outs into a deck of 47. Im going to be winning roughly 30% of the time.
The pot is offering me 444k/100k or 9/2 on my call. The SB only has 50k behind him and I figure thats going in anyway. I raise and the SB insta calls.
By this point I feel a bit Lee Evans half way through a performance, eyes desperately scanning the room CHOKING for a can of deodarant!
Not surprisngly the Short stack flips over a set of 6's. The guy i'm worried about....flips over Qc7c!
The River is 10c and I rake it in.
I played ABC poker in this hand, sticking to the maths, was definitely surprised by the SBs holdings (pleasently surprised!)
So Im now up to almost 600k and sitting pretty, at least prettier than everyone else...then I got stupid.
Action limps to me on the button, with 6 players having limped before me, there is now 150k in the pot and I want it. Punish the limpers my brain says, do it....DO IT!
So I raise to 150k from the button.
Action folds round to the cutoff and Im feeling pretty smug until he smiles at me and says "All in...you've not looked at your cards yet."
School. Boy. Error.
He has 220k behind him. The pot 150k from the limpers, 150k from my raise and 220k from his. Im getting 520k/70k - 15/2 on my money. I can't not call this.
I look down at 6s2c and call.
He flipsover Ah7h and the A high holds up.
Down to 380k.
I get pocket 3's on the button and with a fairly loose player being the only limper I raise it up. The blinds fold and he calls announcing check before the cards come down. The flop is Q,4,2. I C-Bet 75k and he announces calls before my chips are in the middle. The turn brings 6s. And my Opp checks, I bet 180k and he announces all In before my chips hit the middle.
I muck without much hesitation on hindsight I wish I hadnt. The whole hand just played out like a routine or a rhythm. I think he had decided PF he was going to float regardless of the board.
That, and calling the rest of his stack was only 100k more, losing the hand however would have left me with 90k.
I went out several hands later with another Shove PF into the minefield of limpers. This time I looked beforehand and saw A4 - folded round to my right and I got called by AQ, no 4 to keep me in.
P.T.F.O (Pissed The Fuck Off!)
Online
Now it gets somewhat interesting, frustrating, fantastic all at the same time!
I have been sticking mainly to 0.02/0.05 tables and 0.01/0.02 tables. And have pretty much broken even at these stakes. Despite having spells of being up in the region of 4/7 buyins. Getting called down by marginal hands that get there have decimated my profits on more than one occasion.
These 'bad beats' have them encouraged me to play sub-optimal poker, even if it's only for 10-15 minutes when you're running six tables it all adds up.
I have read three new poker books recently and have decided to forego the standard 20 buy-in rule, at least for the lower stakes. I think it is far too 'swingy' at anything less than 0.05/0.10 to feasibly consider it a level at which to build at.
However having looked at the competition on the higher tables (despite it being outwith my current bankroll) I think I can move up there and play. Even if it results in me having to make another $50 or $100 buyin come Friday I think I can make this back consistently and quickly in the coming month.
LIVE
The first foray into live play did not go well.
Buyin Cashout Profit/Loss Bankroll
The Brock - £20 NA (£20) £135
I can deal with losing, more often than not. But not tonight.
It should probably be mentioned that the game starts with blinds of 1k/2k and a stack of 100k. Relatively reasonable but with the blinds doubling (doubling!) every ten minutes its pretty tough to keep your head above water.
In live play a hand can take 2/3 mins to play out, so if the table is nine handed you can potentially be up to 8k/16k before the button gets back to you, which is pretty brutal.
That being said the player base tends to lean more towards 'Friday night fun poker' than 'Im building a bankroll' so by paying attention and not over-valuing a lone pair I tend to do relatively well.
We were past the add-on stages and my stack was looking dire. With blinds at 10k/20 (for some reason that comes after 8k/16k???) And me sitting with a stack of 215k action had to be taken and quick!.
Kc9c on my BB.
A short stack limps from EP (with 5BB or about 3M), another comes in from the button, SB completes and I check knowing that a raise is only going to get called 3 times at this table.
Flop comes 3c6c8d.
I like this flop a lot, two overs and the second nut flush draw id LOVE to see in a heads up hand, but this is 4 way so I decide to tread carefully and just check.
The short stack bets 40k into 80k, the SB completes making the pot 160k and now im looking at 40k to win 200k and I call in a heartbeat.
The turn brings 9h.
I check and the short stack shoves another 44k into the middle. The SB raises to 100k and I have to go in to the tank for a bit.
I have 9 clubs that I think give me the best hand and although I reckon my pair of nines is behind just now, I think another nine or a king will give me the best hand - that's 14 outs into a deck of 47. Im going to be winning roughly 30% of the time.
The pot is offering me 444k/100k or 9/2 on my call. The SB only has 50k behind him and I figure thats going in anyway. I raise and the SB insta calls.
By this point I feel a bit Lee Evans half way through a performance, eyes desperately scanning the room CHOKING for a can of deodarant!
Not surprisngly the Short stack flips over a set of 6's. The guy i'm worried about....flips over Qc7c!
The River is 10c and I rake it in.
I played ABC poker in this hand, sticking to the maths, was definitely surprised by the SBs holdings (pleasently surprised!)
So Im now up to almost 600k and sitting pretty, at least prettier than everyone else...then I got stupid.
Action limps to me on the button, with 6 players having limped before me, there is now 150k in the pot and I want it. Punish the limpers my brain says, do it....DO IT!
So I raise to 150k from the button.
Action folds round to the cutoff and Im feeling pretty smug until he smiles at me and says "All in...you've not looked at your cards yet."
School. Boy. Error.
He has 220k behind him. The pot 150k from the limpers, 150k from my raise and 220k from his. Im getting 520k/70k - 15/2 on my money. I can't not call this.
I look down at 6s2c and call.
He flipsover Ah7h and the A high holds up.
Down to 380k.
I get pocket 3's on the button and with a fairly loose player being the only limper I raise it up. The blinds fold and he calls announcing check before the cards come down. The flop is Q,4,2. I C-Bet 75k and he announces calls before my chips are in the middle. The turn brings 6s. And my Opp checks, I bet 180k and he announces all In before my chips hit the middle.
I muck without much hesitation on hindsight I wish I hadnt. The whole hand just played out like a routine or a rhythm. I think he had decided PF he was going to float regardless of the board.
That, and calling the rest of his stack was only 100k more, losing the hand however would have left me with 90k.
I went out several hands later with another Shove PF into the minefield of limpers. This time I looked beforehand and saw A4 - folded round to my right and I got called by AQ, no 4 to keep me in.
P.T.F.O (Pissed The Fuck Off!)
Online
Now it gets somewhat interesting, frustrating, fantastic all at the same time!
I have been sticking mainly to 0.02/0.05 tables and 0.01/0.02 tables. And have pretty much broken even at these stakes. Despite having spells of being up in the region of 4/7 buyins. Getting called down by marginal hands that get there have decimated my profits on more than one occasion.
These 'bad beats' have them encouraged me to play sub-optimal poker, even if it's only for 10-15 minutes when you're running six tables it all adds up.
I have read three new poker books recently and have decided to forego the standard 20 buy-in rule, at least for the lower stakes. I think it is far too 'swingy' at anything less than 0.05/0.10 to feasibly consider it a level at which to build at.
However having looked at the competition on the higher tables (despite it being outwith my current bankroll) I think I can move up there and play. Even if it results in me having to make another $50 or $100 buyin come Friday I think I can make this back consistently and quickly in the coming month.
Thursday 28 February 2013
It begins...
...badly
Hello and welcome all to what will hopefully be a blog about my success at the poker tables.
I've played this game on and off for years now and have had some modest success along with some modest 'un'-success. But this time I've decided to play it differently.
As opposed to the way I used to play, ie, buyin for $50 and sit my butt down with it - I'm going to build it, slow and steady (although if it chooses to go fast and steady I'll take that too!).
I have purchased a HUD to track my online play, and will keep an honest notebook for my offline play.
So how's it going so far? Well let's get to that!
LIVE
As I don't know of any 'freeroll' live events in my area I grudgingly accepted the fact that I would have to fork out some money to get started.
Now in my hometown there are two regular games with decent turnouts and players of questionable skill levels.
The Brock - Which is a £10 1R or 1A event every Friday and usually sees a turn out of around 35/40 players. This can result in prizepools of around 400-700 pounds on a good day.
They also run cash games but these are a bit sporadic and tend to run at the last minute. Blinds are 0.25/0.50 and minimum buyin is £20.
The Counting House - Standard pub poker. £5 buyin with a rebuy or an addon. Turn out is usually between the 12-18 mark and again play tends to be a little bit sporadic.
There are also a number of casinos about a 40 minute drive away, these some higher buyin tournaments but often the turnout is poorer and as a result are quite bad value for money in my opinion.
The cash games on the other hand are pretty decent, lots of players who like to gamble and as a result, patient play is often rewarded.
For the month of February live play looked like this:
Location - Total Spend - Position - Cashout - B/Roll
The Brock - £20 - 1/2/3 - £160 - £160
The C/House - £25 - 3 - £20 - £155
Home Game - £10 - N/A - N/A - £145
Not a bad performace for the first month. The Brock was three way split which gave the bankroll a good solid start.
The counting house was actually two games. I lost £15 on the main event then played a side event for £10 which resulted in a split for £20 resulting in a five pound loss for the night.
The home game did not go as planned with an all in bluff against the best player at the table going south costing me my chance of cashing.
ONLINE
Now comes the tricky part.
I started the month by depositing £20 into Sky Poker. I had seen it on channel 861 and thought "That's the site for me!"
However things quickly went south when I encountered two very real issues. Firstly, the ENTIRE site consists of six handed tables. All of my poker experience is based on full ring poker and short handed games are defenitely not my forte, yet. I lost £6 in tournaments and broke even on cash tables.
The second, and much bigger problem, was the built in casino software...
Yes.
I lost £14 on blackjack/roulette or some other silly combination of fixed betting idiocy.
This is a recurring theme from my teen years when I would play exceptionally tight poker and do well at the tables only to spew my hard won chips in the direction of the casino.
Sky Poker is a no go. It's just too easy to bet with your poker winnings.
But what to do? I've just lost £20 of my B/Roll, I'm in no rush to dip into it anymore than I have to!
So I loaded up FullTilt and Pokerstars and had a look at what I could do for free. I then discovered the wealth of FullTilt FPP's I had from years before, 1200! With tickets to 0.50 tournaments being 120 points I turned 1000 points into $12.00 and started building from there.
Things were going great! I worked it up to $30 with a combination of cash and tournament play.
Then it turned south, pretty rapid.
$3.30 Turbo, Knockout events. I've always been a sucker for knockout events. Not because of the bounty, I could care less about the $0.50 price on my head. But its the fact that everyone else does and they go crazy to try and knock players out! Concentrating on actually cashing in the event has worked well for me in the past...not this time though!
In all honesty I played all three tournaments that I entered pretty stupidly.
The first one I built up a decent stack playing tight/aggressive poker, then I got too clever and tried to squeeze play against two opponents who I knew to be loose and low and behold I got called by A4o. Definitely a loose call by my opponent but also a stupid play by me. That hand didnt put me out of the tournament but it put me to below 10M so pretty much sealed my fate.
The second and third were played in rapid succesion and I went out on equally aggressive plays.
To the cash tables!
Now, I know I should be sticking to some sort of bankroll management system. I KNOW bad players will get rewarded on occasion and I know that swings are part of poker.
But despite knowing all of that I still sat down with 20% of my bankroll.
And lost it.
Then lost another buyin.
And another one.
And one more.
The first of these losses, was fair play. I was actually up $3 at the time called on the button with 78s in what was already a well limped pot. Flop dropped K, 8, 7. The play bet to me by someone I had figured as being tight and aggressive, I raised he re-raised and all the chips went in the middle with him flipping over AKs
Unfortunately an A hit on the turn and I lost my first buy in.
Now the next three were not so 'fair play'.
Retrak90 had a VPIP of 89% over 100 hands. And yet he took three buyins from me. Cracking QQ's twice and drawing out on AK vs A4. All three occasions I was in with the best and it went the wrong way.
I am currently sitting, probably seething somewhat with $4 in front of me from the $30 I had this morning. Determined to at least take a buyin back from this guy.
Online bankroll management can start tomorrow!
Hello and welcome all to what will hopefully be a blog about my success at the poker tables.
I've played this game on and off for years now and have had some modest success along with some modest 'un'-success. But this time I've decided to play it differently.
As opposed to the way I used to play, ie, buyin for $50 and sit my butt down with it - I'm going to build it, slow and steady (although if it chooses to go fast and steady I'll take that too!).
I have purchased a HUD to track my online play, and will keep an honest notebook for my offline play.
So how's it going so far? Well let's get to that!
LIVE
As I don't know of any 'freeroll' live events in my area I grudgingly accepted the fact that I would have to fork out some money to get started.
Now in my hometown there are two regular games with decent turnouts and players of questionable skill levels.
The Brock - Which is a £10 1R or 1A event every Friday and usually sees a turn out of around 35/40 players. This can result in prizepools of around 400-700 pounds on a good day.
They also run cash games but these are a bit sporadic and tend to run at the last minute. Blinds are 0.25/0.50 and minimum buyin is £20.
The Counting House - Standard pub poker. £5 buyin with a rebuy or an addon. Turn out is usually between the 12-18 mark and again play tends to be a little bit sporadic.
There are also a number of casinos about a 40 minute drive away, these some higher buyin tournaments but often the turnout is poorer and as a result are quite bad value for money in my opinion.
The cash games on the other hand are pretty decent, lots of players who like to gamble and as a result, patient play is often rewarded.
For the month of February live play looked like this:
Location - Total Spend - Position - Cashout - B/Roll
The Brock - £20 - 1/2/3 - £160 - £160
The C/House - £25 - 3 - £20 - £155
Home Game - £10 - N/A - N/A - £145
Not a bad performace for the first month. The Brock was three way split which gave the bankroll a good solid start.
The counting house was actually two games. I lost £15 on the main event then played a side event for £10 which resulted in a split for £20 resulting in a five pound loss for the night.
The home game did not go as planned with an all in bluff against the best player at the table going south costing me my chance of cashing.
ONLINE
Now comes the tricky part.
I started the month by depositing £20 into Sky Poker. I had seen it on channel 861 and thought "That's the site for me!"
However things quickly went south when I encountered two very real issues. Firstly, the ENTIRE site consists of six handed tables. All of my poker experience is based on full ring poker and short handed games are defenitely not my forte, yet. I lost £6 in tournaments and broke even on cash tables.
The second, and much bigger problem, was the built in casino software...
Yes.
I lost £14 on blackjack/roulette or some other silly combination of fixed betting idiocy.
This is a recurring theme from my teen years when I would play exceptionally tight poker and do well at the tables only to spew my hard won chips in the direction of the casino.
Sky Poker is a no go. It's just too easy to bet with your poker winnings.
But what to do? I've just lost £20 of my B/Roll, I'm in no rush to dip into it anymore than I have to!
So I loaded up FullTilt and Pokerstars and had a look at what I could do for free. I then discovered the wealth of FullTilt FPP's I had from years before, 1200! With tickets to 0.50 tournaments being 120 points I turned 1000 points into $12.00 and started building from there.
Things were going great! I worked it up to $30 with a combination of cash and tournament play.
Then it turned south, pretty rapid.
$3.30 Turbo, Knockout events. I've always been a sucker for knockout events. Not because of the bounty, I could care less about the $0.50 price on my head. But its the fact that everyone else does and they go crazy to try and knock players out! Concentrating on actually cashing in the event has worked well for me in the past...not this time though!
In all honesty I played all three tournaments that I entered pretty stupidly.
The first one I built up a decent stack playing tight/aggressive poker, then I got too clever and tried to squeeze play against two opponents who I knew to be loose and low and behold I got called by A4o. Definitely a loose call by my opponent but also a stupid play by me. That hand didnt put me out of the tournament but it put me to below 10M so pretty much sealed my fate.
The second and third were played in rapid succesion and I went out on equally aggressive plays.
To the cash tables!
Now, I know I should be sticking to some sort of bankroll management system. I KNOW bad players will get rewarded on occasion and I know that swings are part of poker.
But despite knowing all of that I still sat down with 20% of my bankroll.
And lost it.
Then lost another buyin.
And another one.
And one more.
The first of these losses, was fair play. I was actually up $3 at the time called on the button with 78s in what was already a well limped pot. Flop dropped K, 8, 7. The play bet to me by someone I had figured as being tight and aggressive, I raised he re-raised and all the chips went in the middle with him flipping over AKs
Unfortunately an A hit on the turn and I lost my first buy in.
Now the next three were not so 'fair play'.
Retrak90 had a VPIP of 89% over 100 hands. And yet he took three buyins from me. Cracking QQ's twice and drawing out on AK vs A4. All three occasions I was in with the best and it went the wrong way.
I am currently sitting, probably seething somewhat with $4 in front of me from the $30 I had this morning. Determined to at least take a buyin back from this guy.
Online bankroll management can start tomorrow!
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