mathare's Poker Diary

[mathare]

3rd February 2010
A middling sort of a day today. A profit of $2.50 from 11 SnGs isn't great but I think I played OK and just didn't quite get some of the breaks I needed to go on and have a more successful day.

Not much else to say about that really. Everything was fairly average in so many ways.

[mathare]

5th February 2010
I managed only a fairly short session yestersay with just 8 SnGs played as I was feeling rather under the weather. I have been put on some new tablets that leave me feeling really drowsy and generally rough so perhaps I shouldn't have played at all yesterday but I managed to scrape a $1 profit and edge ever closer to that bonus. I need to play something like another 27 SnGs to claim that and have just over a week in which to do it so all the pressure is off now. I can't wait to get this out the way so that I can then move on, although I haven't yet decided what to move on to.

[mathare]

5th February 2010 (part two)
This afternoon I spent most of it being bubble boy with four 4th place finishes in 12 SnGs including three of the first four events I played. It was all rather frustrating. I got it together later on though with two wins, two seconds and a third place for a profit of $15 overall. Much better than the last couple of days and could have been even better still had some of those bubbles turned into cash finishes, even if they were only thirds.

It's dawning on me too, now that I have nearly 400 $5 SnGs under my belt that some of the objectives I set aren't going to be met. I've got 56 wins compared to 80 second places and I can't see me reversing that trend in the next 100 or so. I'm not too bothered about that though. If heads-up is a weakness in my game then I can study where I am going wrong and work on that. Similarly I don't think I will meet the 15% ROI figure I wanted to achieve but 10% is certainly possible and I should be able to do better than that. Even though I may not makes these targets I set myself I am happy with my play in as much as I am showing a decent profit for the effort I have put in, I have learned a lot about SnG play and have built a solid foundation to take my game forward.

[barrelmaniac]

looks like things are moving in the right direction Mathare, I don't play a lot of poker but I always like checking this out to see how you are doing, you say that your target ROI is 15% which even the 10% you have achieved I think you should be proud of (I don't make or lose anything on average, but I think my lack of patience and tendancy to go on tilt is the main reason for this).
I was talking to a poker playing friend the other week about what % ROI the pros/semi pros make, I told him that I doubt that realisticly over 35% could be achieved but he thought it would be alot higher, whats your view on this? edit* (for online poker)

[mathare]

looks like things are moving in the right direction Mathare, I don't play a lot of poker but I always like checking this out to see how you are doing, you say that your target ROI is 15% which even the 10% you have achieved I think you should be proud of (I don't make or lose anything on average, but I think my lack of patience and tendancy to go on tilt is the main reason for this).

I am indeed proud of that 10% figure because it includes a number of SnGs played last year when I wasn't as skilled and lacked the focus and motivation I have this year. My ROI for this year is around 14%.

I was talking to a poker playing friend the other week about what % ROI the pros/semi pros make, I told him that I doubt that realisticly over 35% could be achieved but he thought it would be alot higher, whats your view on this? edit* (for online poker)

For SnGs a ROI of around 10% is about average but it should be higher at lower stakes and vice versa. Once you get up to around $100 a ROI of around 8% or so is considered decent enough and you should be able to get slightly higher with appropriate effort to learn the game better and exercise game selection. Above that sort of level you're looking at around 5%. For cash games ROI isn't a good measurement and you need to work in BB/100 (big bets per 100 hands) in which case 1-2BB/100 is considered about right. It varies based on the game type (full ring, six-max, heads-up, limit, no-limit etc) but they are ballpark figures. I don't have any MTT guidelines to hand because I'm not an MTT player; I can't stand the long losing streaks and all the effort you have to put in to most MTTs for no reward.

[mathare]

6th February 2010
It shouldn't be like this. This isn't at all how I wanted to go out but since when has the game had any respect for how I think things should be?

So I finally got through all the SnGs I needed to play to claim that deposit bonus but it wasn't cheap. In fact I had an awful afternoon with just 1 cash in 15! I had a whole bunch of 5th places finishes a few bubbles and assorted lower placings but my only cash was a second place - and that could (should) have been a win but the villain got lucky a couple of times heads-up and when the blinds got high he got lucky in what had become a crapshoot. This is far and away the worst run I have experienced this year and may perhaps be my worst ever. If not, it's certainly up there. Why did it have to come now though? OK, in some ways it's better it came now than at the start of this challenge but it is a serious setback nonethless.

At least I can take a break from poker now and regroup, give my mind a rest and relax a little as I was definitely starting to tilt during the last few tourneys. Actually, let's be honest, I was tilting, not just starting to tilt, and it affected more than just the last few events as my only cash came in the first event I played and it was rapidly downhill from then onwards. My tilt isn't spewy tilt though, it's more a frustrated, negative midset PokerStars did all they could to feed that beast today. I don't think I had any breaks go my way; I had virtually no good luck at all. I'd be card dead for the first few levels and when it came to the shovebot stages I'd run my first half-decent hand into something bigger else get outdrawn, often ridiculously so as I had quads against me a few times plus a straight flush. I lost count of the number of times I was outdrawn by straights often from much weaker starting hands I was well ahead of too. I have never known luck like it.

One second place in 15 tourneys - sheesh! That's a loss of $69 in one afternoon. The bonus isn't worth that much more than that. :(

I'm trying to find the silver lining here but all I come across is more cloud. I met a couple of my objectives I suppose:
Unlock 1st deposit bonus - done
Overall profit on PokerStars according to s/sheet - done
That last one is pretty close but the bonuses (I have now claimed the first stellar rewards bonus) just tip me into the black. I was pretty confident that by the time I snagged those bonuses I could also say my PokerStars balance was over $350, if not $400, but that's not the case after this afternoon's awful session. I don't even feel like I played that badly; I just got massively unlucky when it mattered.

I am now free to pursue other interests though, which is handy as I need to do quite a bit of non-poker work. I will keep my hand in though but I need to decide the best form of the game for me to play now. I have a few ideas on that, and I have spoken several times of a switch to Full Tilt on a rakeback deal but I need to have a think about what I want from poker long-term and how best to achieve that. What I need now though is a long lie down to recover from this afternoon's utter massacre! :(

[mathare]

7th February 2010
I haven't played the 500 SnGs I specified as a condition on several of my objectives (I'm on 409 at the $5 level) but now I have those bonuses I don't see the need to keep playing them on PokerStars, especially after yesterday's results. Instead I have changed focus to a form of the game that I hope will improve my overall skills and ultimately help me win more money whatever form of the game I settle on as my specialist subject - I'm playing heads-up SnGs. I have played them before and squeezed the odd one in here and there over the last couple of weeks but now they are my main poker focus. I'm looking to improve my controlled aggression, playing weak hands, getting into an opponent's head, identifying and exploiting weaknesses in my opponents, hand-reading skills and so on.

Before today I had played 64 heads-up SnGs, all $2+0.10 and all on Bet365 (iPoker). The common bankroll guidelines I have found on the internet seem to follow those for traditional full ring SnGs i.e. don't buy in for more than 5% of your bankroll so a 'roll of at least 20 buy-ins. I have around $130 in my Bet365 poker account which is more than enough to be playing $2 heads-up SnGs and would support play at the $5 level but for now I am more interested in learning about heads-up play, building up my experience on the cheap and making a few quid along the way. I may have a bankroll for the next level up but not the mindset just yet so I'll stick to $2 stakes for a while.

Stage 1 of my plan is to get to 100 SnGs on iPoker and to evaluate where I stand after that. After 64 SnGs I was showing a loss of $14.40 (-10.71% ROI) and it is my intention to turn this into a profit by the time I have played 100. It means I will need a good showing my from next 36 games as I need a ROI of around 20% on those games to turn an overall profit. I think that means I need to win at least 21 of those 36 games if my maths is correct. It has started well as I played 4 this afternoon and won 3 of those so that's $3.60 profit, now I just need to keep that up for another 30+ tourneys.

Objectives
Show a profit after 100 $2 heads-up SnGs

Once I have shown I can profit from heads-up poker I will likely take a step up and start to play $5 heads-up SnGs, probably at Full Tilt as that ought to be the quickest way of earning my deposit bonus there, not that I have set anything up with Full Tilt yet, let's get this heads-up stuff out the way first eh?

[mathare]

8th February 2010
An afternoon of two halves today. I played 18 heads-up matches. In the first nine I won seven and lost two; in the back nine my results were reversed, losing seven and winning just two. An overall loss of $1.80. I'm trying not to be disheartened as I know luck can turn a heads-up match on its head in an instant. I think I played pretty well but in the latter part of the day just didn't get some of the breaks I was maybe getting earlier. This means I can't now meet that objective I set yesterday unless I go on a really good run. I have played 91 heads-up SnGs in total and need to win eight of the next nine in order to show a profit. I am enjoying playing heads-up though but perhaps I would be better with more short sessions as breaks from other tasks rather than playing for most of the afternoon as I did today. That's something to bear in mind for the future.

[mathare]

9th February 2010
So there we have it, that's the 100 up and things haven't gone as well as I would have liked. I won only 3 of the final 9 tourneys I was missing from the ton which is nowhere near good enough end leaves me with figures of 48 wins and 52 seconds for a total loss of $18. Ah well.

Show a profit after 100 $2 heads-up SnGs - Failed :(

On the bright side I'm not that far away from breakeven here. Today I ran into some bad luck and overplayed a few hands that ended up costing me. Some of my old impatience was back I think. However, with a bit of reading up on heads-up tourney play plus some experimentation with PokerStove to see where hands like Q9o, K7o etc stand against a random hand and I reckon I should be able to turn things around and hopefully tip the balance back in my favour.

I have yet to decide whether to play more heads-up poker on Bet365 (my balance there is £81.06 so maybe I should try to spin that up to £100 through £2 heads-up SnGs) or move to Full Tilt right away and assess the games there. If I go to Full Tilt though will I play full-ring SnGs or heads-up? That's a question I am going to have to answer at some point anyway so best get it out there now and give it some thought. But for now I think a (short) break from poker is the order of the day.

[mathare]

9th February 2010
So there we have it, that's the 100 up and things haven't gone as well as I would have liked. I won only 3 of the final 9 tourneys I was missing from the ton which is nowhere near good enough end leaves me with figures of 48 wins and 52 seconds for a total loss of $18. Ah well.

Show a profit after 100 $2 heads-up SnGs - Failed :(

On the bright side I'm not that far away from breakeven here. Today I ran into some bad luck and overplayed a few hands that ended up costing me. Some of my old impatience was back I think. However, with a bit of reading up on heads-up tourney play plus some experimentation with PokerStove to see where hands like Q9o, K7o etc stand against a random hand and I reckon I should be able to turn things around and hopefully tip the balance back in my favour.

I have yet to decide whether to play more heads-up poker on Bet365 (my balance there is £81.06 so maybe I should try to spin that up to £100 through £2 heads-up SnGs) or move to Full Tilt right away and assess the games there. If I go to Full Tilt though will I play full-ring SnGs or heads-up? That's a question I am going to have to answer at some point anyway so best get it out there now and give it some thought. But for now I think a (short) break from poker is the order of the day.

[mathare]

11th February 2010
I have a dilemma: $40 or a new trackie top?

PokerStars are doing a special promotion to celebrate their 40 billionth hand whereby one can exchange 2500 FPPs for a one-off cash bonus of $40. This seems like a pretty good deal, based on the cost of other bonuses and items in the VIP store. But the trackie top I like so much is back in stock too, and is also 2500 FPPs. I only have 2800 so I need to make a choice. How much do I like that jacket? Is it worth £25 (which is roughly what the bonus translates into)? Hmmm....

[barrelmaniac]

11th February 2010
I have a dilemma: $40 or a new trackie top?

PokerStars are doing a special promotion to celebrate their 40 billionth hand whereby one can exchange 2500 FPPs for a one-off cash bonus of $40. This seems like a pretty good deal, based on the cost of other bonuses and items in the VIP store. But the trackie top I like so much is back in stock too, and is also 2500 FPPs. I only have 2800 so I need to make a choice. How much do I like that jacket? Is it worth £25 (which is roughly what the bonus translates into)? Hmmm....

Cash bonus, every time. Business is business, there will always be another tracky top.

[mathare]

Cash bonus, every time. Business is business, there will always be another tracky top.

That's a very convincing argument

[John]

It's a nice tracksuit top, sure. You'd have to don it with a pair of black aviator shades though, for the full poker look.

I've spent an awful lot of time browsing the PokerStars store, and it's quite impressive. I've manage to accumulate 17,000+ points ever since I joined, simply because I've never used them. I can't remember when that was, but it was at least a year ago. I'm tempted to convert them into Amazon Gift Certificates. For you Mat it depends what VIP status you are at. I'm on SilverStar, so if you're on the same level you could do the same and get yourself some more books or some clothes. Not to say you have bad dress sense or owt. :D

[mathare]

Depends what VIP status you are at though, I think. I'm on SilverStar, so if you're on the same level you could do the same. Not sure about the other options though.

I'm SilverStar at the minute, till the end of the month I think when I will drop back to BronzeStar. But as I keep saying, I will be taking my play elsewhere as I am getting frustrated with 'Stars. The Full Tilt store has some nice stuff in it too, as it happens. I don't have enough points to get too much from PokerStars though, nowhere near as many as you. I'd need twice as many points as I have to get an Amazon gift certificate so it's the cash or top for me at the minute, and I think the cash is winning out at present. I have a few points in Bet365 that I could swap for cash too actually. Maybe I should cash those in and get the top from PokerStars. I confess I am a bit of a sucker for cool branded merchandise. I'm an advertiser's dream in that respect. I don't do many brand names, certainly not fashion ones, but that PokerStars top and some of the FTP t-shirts are cool.

[mathare]

13th February 2010
I'd forgotten what a massive hassle it can be signing up to a new poker room. I have got so used to UK-based operations, especially those linked to sportsbooks with whom I already have an account, that I had forgotten about the various hoops some places need you to jump through. I signed up to Fill Tilt, with a 27% rakeback deal, this morning. First off my initial Visa deposit failed (still not sure why) and now my account is suspended until I can provide Full Tilt's security department with proof of age and proof of ID. So I have to scan my passport and a bank statement or something and send them on. That means getting the scanner down out the loft (I have no need for one these days) and trying to find a suitable proof of address less than 3 months old. I opt for paperless billing and statements where possible so this could be a bit tricky. I don't like the idea of having to send a copy of the full bill/statement either but that's what FTP require. PokerStars is suddenly starting to look more attractive again...

[eruptive plot]

13th February 2010
I'd forgotten what a massive hassle it can be signing up to a new poker room. I First off my initial Visa deposit failed (still not sure why) and now my account is suspended until I can provide Full Tilt's security department with proof of age and proof of ID. So I have to scan my passport and a bank statement or something and send them on.

that's srange why your deposit failed matt,i signed up in december with my visa depositing $300,it went through straight away with no hassle.
but i do reccomend you get your scanner down to scan your passport,because this is an excellent site to play poker.i still play a little bit on 888 but only about 1% of the time that i spend on ft.
one game i recommend is the $5 game on a sunday night at 6.45,first prize is a whopping $22000.ok you got to beat around 35000 players but i got into the top 100 last week after 2 hours,but couldnt maintain my position,going out in 1500 or thereabouts.i had $20 for my efforts,you get quite a buzz when you get so close to a big prize.
another good thing about this site is there are at least 50000 playing on this site at any time of the day,so the tables are always quick to load up.
and in the 2 months that i have been here i have accrued 4000 full tilt points.
at this rate i could have something really good in 2-3 years

[mathare]

that's srange why your deposit failed matt,i signed up in december with my visa depositing $300,it went through straight away with no hassle.

I think I know why it is; I entered my name as Mat on Full Tilt but it's Matthew with my Visa card provider. I realised that shortly after the deposit failed and by the time I went back to try again my account had been locked. I did get the scanner out though and my account is now unlocked again; Full Tilt seem happy with my ID.

one game i recommend is the $5 game on a sunday night at 6.45,first prize is a whopping $22000.ok you got to beat around 35000 players but i got into the top 100 last week after 2 hours,but couldnt maintain my position,going out in 1500 or thereabouts.i had $20 for my efforts,you get quite a buzz when you get so close to a big prize.

A few years ago now I played in a $1 rebuy MTT on Ladbrokes where the winner won a spot on their poker cruise. There were 776 players, plenty of rebuys (none from me though) and I made the final table before busting out in 8th for $80. Took me nearly 5 hours to get that far though. But I know what you mean about the buzz of getting close to a big prize.

another good thing about this site is there are at least 50000 playing on this site at any time of the day,so the tables are always quick to load up.
and in the 2 months that i have been here i have accrued 4000 full tilt points.
at this rate i could have something really good in 2-3 years

I am certainly prepared to give FTP a go. I plan to deposit $250 and play a few $5 SnGs just to get used to the site then think about playing $10 SnGs. I am thinking of playing full ring as my heads-up skills aren't quite there yet and I know what I am doing more when it comes to 9-man SnGs.

[eruptive plot]

I am certainly prepared to give FTP a go. I plan to deposit $250 and play a few $5 SnGs just to get used to the site then think about playing $10 SnGs. I am thinking of playing full ring as my heads-up skills aren't quite there yet and I know what I am doing more when it comes to 9-man SnGs.

i started playing the 9 man sit n gos, but what i would recommend is the 45 and 90 man multi table sit n go.the prizes for winning these are $170 and $288, just remember to play ultra tight or position.they are good fun to play in.
the only game that they dont play on this site is the game that i made so much money on(triple up),but there is a game here for everyone.if ever you come across me on this site let me know i am under the username op3

[mathare]

17th February 2010
That was an experience!

I started on Full Tilt this afternoon with a couple of $5 SnGs to get me into the groove. Fine. I didn't cash in either but I did bubble them both and it took a few minutes to get all my settings (for Full Tilt and PokerTracker) right. The structure wasn't quite what I was expecting either with blinds at what I consider funny numbers such as 60/120, 80/160 and so on. I guess I'm just so used to the PokerStars stucture now and this will take some getting used to. It takes a bit more thinking about to work out my stack size in terms of BB with this structure. The 6-minute levels seem really short too.

Anyway, it wasn't a good afternoon as I only cashed in three of the 11 tourneys I played (a second and two third places) so I lost $29. I got a free $5 from Full Tilt for making my first deposit though, and am making progress on the initial deposit bonus, which is released in installments so I can get it bit by bit and not have the frantic rush to play enough in a fixed period to make sure I get the bonus as I had on PokerStars. Maybe it was the speed of the games that got to me. I had four tables open as is the norm for me and it was a bit frantic at times. I am used to having that many PokerStars tables open and to be able to keep an eye on my bets on Betfair and keep my bets spreadsheet up to date. I'm not sure I have time for that with Full Tilt based on this afternoon's endeavours but maybe that's a good thing as it will hopefully keep me focused on the game itself if I don't have time to do anything else as well.

One thing I wasn't prepared for was the level of play I was up against. Oh dear, some of it is awful! I first really noticed it when I had KK on a board of Qc-7c-8s-Th. I had made solid pre-flop and flop raises and got two callers each time. That Ten slowed me down as it completed straights and I feared trips too. In all honesty though I had no idea what the other guys had. I had ruled out AA but that was about it. I checked the turn, one villain bet quite big and the other called. I got out of there, which it transpires was a mistake. Villain 1 had 22 and Villain 2 had AcTc. OK, the second fella was drawing to a nut club flush and had paired on the river but seriously, he never had the odds to call at any stage. As for the guy piddling about in there with a pair of 2s - what? He deserved to get knocked out, which he did by the ATs on that hand. I should have kept going though as the river bricked and I'd have won a very nice pot.

This made me think that I could maybe get away with some marginal hands but I resisted temptation for the most part. When I did get it all in I was often up against some tripe that somehow beat me or I was up against an unexpectedly strong hand. My AJ against his AQ. My 99 against his AKs that spikes a pair on the flop. That sort of thing. I hit trips he rivers a flush. You know how it goes.

So the standard of play is pretty poor on the whole and I should be able to exploit that. I can't really explain what happened this afternoon and why, or how, I lost $29 but lose it I did. Tomorrow is another day though.

[crazybadger]

I know exactly what you are talking about. I've been piddling about on FullTilt for a little bit trialling a few different things and one of the first things I noticed was the cards people play. At first I thought I was running into good hands (when they consistently called my bets) or they were bluffing too often (raising with nothing, reraising my continuation bets) but I have since realised it's just that the skill in those lower levels is a lot less than I expected. I think most of them just play their pocket cards all the way to the end without much notice of the board unless it helps them.

Rubbish cards will fold, poor to average cards will play and if they get any piece of the board probably keep playing, and "good" cards will play all the way to the river in most cases because they can't lay them down. I think the biggest problem is what they determine good pocket cards - i reckon its pretty much any pair, any broadway, any suited connector, any ace, any suited king/queen/jack...which is a lot of hands! The only problem is that scattered in amongst all this crap is the rare person who is playing well. I've found myself playing better against the poorer opponents but then running into the guy who outplays me and takes all thoses chips I milked from the others :(

[mathare]

I've found myself playing better against the poorer opponents but then running into the guy who outplays me and takes all thoses chips I milked from the others :(

Exactly what I found too. Glad it's not just me who thinks the play down at these stakes is incredibly fishy. It's got me really looking forward to cashing in from them, but I know I'm also going to get what will seem like endless bad beats too.

Edit:
I found there was a lot of min-betting and min-raising too, as though some people were playing it like limit poker, just hitting the bet/raise button without thinking about how much they were raising. Short-stack play on Full Tilt seems lousy at these stakes too. Players will take themselves down to the felt through the blinds, desperately hanging on even when there are 6 or more players left and they have no chance of making the money. It's quite funny really.

All of this makes me wonder how I managed to lose $29 this afternoon though...

[mathare]

18th February 2010
That's better! I only played 6 SnGs this afternoon but came away with three wins, a third place and two fifth place finishes. That's much more like it, and a nice profit of $43.50 too which more than wipes out yesterday's bewildering session.

I would normally play a lot more in an afternoon but I was keeping one eye on Betfair a lot of the time so decided to keep it down to two or three tables at a time to make life easier. Maybe that helped significantly, who knows. Muppets calling big raises with hands like Q6o and Q9o helps I can tell you that much.

Not an example of muppetry at the tables this one but a hand worth mentioning all the same. Only a few hands into the tourney (blinds at 15/30) and I am in late position with AA. Mid-position raises to 90, I re-raise to 200. The next to act shoves all in (1365), the first raiser shoves over the top for a few more chips (1545) and I call. Both villains have QQ - something I had not seen before - so neither could really improve their hand easily. Oh yes! 7-2-K-T-T and the pot (4470) is mine. I've tripled up and all but knocked two players out . I went on to win that one, although around the bubble I did let a good chip position slide before pulling it back round.

I could get used to playing on Full Tilt if it's going to be like that :)

[mathare]

19th February 2010
I think I might have got the hang of this now. Another good afternoon with a profit of $23 from 13 SnGs. It didn't start well with a quick bust-out in 9th when my rivered nut flush was beaten by a rivered full house but thankfully things improved towards the end when I managed to get three wins to go with the couple of second places I had recorded earlier. The last win was particularly satisfying as with seven players left I was stone last and short-stacked so to hang in there, rebuild my stack and take it down was very pleasing. I'm rather enjoying Full Tilt but I don't expect my 22% ROI to continue for too much longer. Hopefully it will stay at a decent rate so I can build a bit of a bigger bankroll and take on the slightly richer fish.

Talking of building a bankroll, I worked out something about the bonus scheme I am on with Full Tilt for my initial deposit: it's fantastic! 6c per point and 7 points per dollar means I am on the equivalent of 42% rakeback! :D

So yeah, things are going well on the poker front once more

I have done so more thinking about PokerStars though and the cash v sports jacket (as 'Stars like to call it) debate. It's not that much money, the bonus I mean. $40 is about £25 and I can lose several times that on a horse so it can be seen as a drop in the ocean really. What would I have to show for that £25 if I took the money? The sports jacket, on the other hand, I wear those things all the time. In the winter they are my jumper; in the summer they're my coat. So the jacket wins out I'm afraid and I will be ordering it soon, before it goes out of stock again for months like it did before. It is an item I had my eye on last year and I feel I deserve a reward and that's what I have chosen.

[mathare]

So the jacket wins out I'm afraid and I will be ordering it soon, before it goes out of stock again for months like it did before.

Too late :(

I'm gonna wait for it to come back in stock though as I do really like it.

[mathare]

20th February 2010
For some reason PokerTracker stopped updating the HUD for all players except me the other day so I have been flying blind the last few days. Thankfully the support guys have set me right again although it did involve me starting a brand new database and reimporting tens of thousands of hands and nearly a thousand tourney summaries, some of which had to be entered manually. But I have double-checked my new database against my spreadsheet and the two tally to the penny so I am utterly delighted now. My PT3 database is spot on and it all works again

It was a quiet day at the tables as much of the day was spent sorting out this database and other things like that but it was at least a profitable one, up $11 from 7 $5 SnGs so my Full Tilt ROI remains around the same levels and I continue to be very happy playing there. It's very fishy and I love it! I deposited $250 during the week and I am now up to just over $300 and have earned nearly $8 of my first bonus installment. I'm hoping for a busier day on the poker front tomorrow and the profits that go with it.

[mathare]

21st February 2010
The fish and luckboxes won out this morning with two third places finishes the best I could manage from nine events played. I will have my revenge this afternoon though.

I have also passed another milestone - 500 $5 SnGs played so I though I should look back at the objectives I set for this point to see how I did.

ITM to be at least 45% after 500 SnGs - Failed :(
ROI to be at least 15% after 500 SnGs (20% stretch target) - Failed :(
Heads-up win ratio over 50% after 500 SnGs - Failed :(

Oh dear. After 500 SnGs I had a ROI of 7.63%, just over half what I would have liked it to have been. My ITM percentage was 43.40%, a couple of percent down on my target. And my heads-up win ratio was 45% with 65 wins, 78 second places and 74 thirds. My profit was $209.50.

I can do a lot better than that but I need to control my impulses a little more. I noticed this morning that I am getting too tempted to play some hands too strongly post-flop. I need to learn to fold to big (or even just decent) bets when I have got some of the board but not enough to be assured of winning. Not that I should fold too readily either but I need to think through my opponent's likely hand range based on what I know about him (and the standard of play at this level) before acting. I also need to stop calling all-ins with mediocre Aces when play is short-handed. I had a couple of situations like this earlier when I had the guy covered and he shoved for most of my stack UTG. It was folded round to me and I called with a hand like A9o. He had AQo and I was stuffed. Yes, he could have Kx, probably suited, or worse and even a worse Ace than me but if I can afford to fold and still be competitive then perhaps I should be looking for better spots, ones where I have fold equity and two chances to win the pot rather than having to make the best hand. Lesson learned for this afternoon, hopefully.

[mathare]

21st February 2010 (part two)
It seems that the lucky fish are destined to have the better of the day's play. :(

The afternoon has been just as poor as the morning, if not more so. More often than not I am getting my money in when I am ahead but am getting outdrawn. And when I make a solid hand the villain has to go one better having got lucky calling a big pre-flop raise with 97 or some such tripe. I can feel myself tilting a little so having blown a decent amount today I am going to give up for a while after this tourney is over. Not a long break, just till later tonight or perhaps tomorrow but enough to clear my head and hope that the fishes' luck has changed.

I played another 13 tourneys this afternoon, on top of the nine this morning, and secured two second places and three thirds which is still pretty rubbish. I came close to winning a couple of times but got rivered, obviously. How many times do I have to see the villain make a lucky straight on the river? I've come to almost expect it now.

As you can probably guess, my 20+% ROI at Full Tilt is way behind me now. A loss of $49 today means I am down 50c from playing poker at Full Tilt. I have nearly $12 in bonus so far though so in some ways I am still ahead. And I did say that the standards of play here meant I would face many bad beats and that this just what is happening. It seems poker at Full Tilt might be a swingy affair with me either winning a nice amount or losing a chunk all depending on how the luck is flowing at the time. It still not been as bad as PokerStars though! :)

[mathare]

22nd February 2010


Come on poker gods, a little help please. I haven't won any of the last 38 SnGs I have played. I played 15 today and all I could muster was three seconds and three thirds. It was awful. Again.

No, the morning was OK, actually. Played four and bagged three second places. At least one should have been a win but then I was probably nailed on for third in one too so maybe that evens out somewhat. But in the afternoon I had terrible fortune with just those three third places to show for 11 attempts. But how can a man win a poker tournament when things like the following happen:

QQ beaten by JTo (85/15 fav)
TT beaten by 97o (85/15 fav)
JJ beaten by 77 (80/20 fav)
KK beaten by QQ (80/20 fav)
KK beaten by AQo (70/30 fav)

I was getting done on more than my fair share of coin flips too.

It was a really rough session with a total loss of $15 although it feels like a hell of a lot more. Really, really, really frustrating.

[mathare]

25th February 2010
The latest issue of Poker Player magazine has a brief feature on Rush Poker. Full Tilt have been plugging it across their site, obviously. They have even been offering bonuses to those willing to give it a try. So how could I refuse?

I gave it a quick trial run last night. I bought in to a $0.05/0.10 full-ring no-limit hold'em game for $10 and thought I'd see how it went. Well, is the answer. I had doubled up within half an hour so cashed out my $20.02, picked up a $5 bonus for playing and called it a night. $15 in half an hour - easy money.

Buoyed by my first experience I had another go around lunchtime today. I played for 40 minutes and lost around $5. Not great but I was still in profit and the game was growing on me.

I threw in another session earlier this afternoon and quickly turned $10 into over $40 as the deck hit me hard in the face. I was hot! I was bouncing around between pocket Kings and Aces and picked up some nice pots. Some muppets will be wishing they played their hands differently I can tell you .

And although I didn't expect it, Poker Tracker can handle Rush Poker tables. I switch the HUD off as you just don't need it at this game but the fact that it can log all your hands is a nice touch. My database won't know what's hit it if I keep playing Rush tables - 500 hands per hour!

It's still early days but I am working on a suitable strategy for taking this game on. I'm doing alright so far so I must be doing some things right along the way. It seems that tight play is certainly the way to do it, maybe stick to Hellmuth's top 10 hands he suggests beginners play. But there are opportunities to steal too as most players are playing tight so late position raises certainly become an option. The biggest thing I have noticed though is that the standard of post-flop play is awful. If players miss the flop they don't know what to do. Continuation bets generally take down the pot in my experience. I have been floating pre-flop to take down pots with c-bets occasionally and it's worked out pretty nicely. Pre-flop there are still limpers who can easily be punished. Few players seem keen to call a 3-bet unless they have a monster and 4-betting seems rare so it's fairly easy to put players on hands.

That's all based on roughly a thousand hands at micro stakes tables so don't take it as gospel. But for now this game seems like a proper cash cow and I will be looking to milk it as much as I can. I was fairly dismissive of it before I played but now I love it. It's not proper poker but the money I am making from it spends just as well as money won playing proper poker.