All work and no play makes Frazwood a something, something, something

If my blog actually has any readers, then I apologize for the lack of posts lately. I have been busy with my "real job", traveling once again to Orlando for the past week. My internet connection was scarce -- too scarce to blog. I played a little poker while I was there, but really only enough to get a few Party Points so that I can get my bonus points for frequent play.

Before I went away, I had a bit of a rollercoaster ride at Full Tilt. I built my stack there from $90 to $210 by playing good, sensible poker. But then, I decided to buy into a $200 NL room, buying in for $100. Yep, you guessed it -- I lost the entire $100. I then proceeded to donk some more cash away, dropping my bankroll there even further.

While in Orlando, I bounced around a little bit at Party Poker, perhaps winning $25 for the week. Pretty standard, really (Dr. Evil voice).

After returning from Orlando, I had a lot of free time to play poker (especially yesterday). Unfortunately, I managed to donk away even more money at Full Tilt, although I essentially broke even at Party Poker. I also bought into UltimateBet again, depositing $200. I did well at first, but then went on another rollercoaster ride. I was up as much as $50 and down as much as $50 before I decided to go back to playing limit poker. After a few good sessions, I cashed out my original $200 and I now have a short bankroll for playing $0.50/$1.00 limit hold'em.

I am really starting to think that I should be playing limit moreso than no limit. When I am playing tilt-free (and I have substantially cut back on the tilt factor), I can grind and grind, steadily profiting from other people's mistakes. The variance with no limit just seems too big for me right now. Besides, why bother making tough decisions playing no limit when all of the decisions are much easier in limit?

Poker Share, Another Party Poker Reload, Semi-Unretiring, and Fishing

In my last blog entry, I mentioned that I was trying to clear a PSO promotion at Poker Share. I had initially lost $100 but then I had battled my way back to slightly better than even.

After that, I continued to play well. I eventually finished +$235 for the promotion ($50 of which was my initial deposit bonus), which was as good for my ego as it was for my bankroll.

About the same time that I cleared the promotion at Poker Share, Party Poker offered another $100 reload bonus. Unlike previous reloads, I did not keep track of my play. I think I won about $50 while clearing the bonus, but I really did not play very well. I had been playing too much poker and I was bored with the game.

After clearing the bonus, I didn't play for about a day, which was very good for my poker karma. I have since had a long streak of winning sessions, which just ended when my AA ran up against a set of sevens at Poker Stars (I swear that I am cursed at that site).

For now at least, I am feeling VERY good about my poker game. Since cashing out 90% of my bankroll a few months ago, I have rebuilt it almost entirely. I have played particularly well the last few weeks (a bunch of reload and initial deposit bonuses have helped).

For the last few months, I have told friends and family that I am "semi-retired" from poker -- that is, I still play for fun, but I don't take it seriously and I don't play very high stakes anymore. I am now starting to think about "semi-unretiring".

I clearly can play well and I can make money at this game. I have learned that I can play too much, and that's when I play poorly. I want to combine my love of the game (i.e., my semi-retired attitude) while playing at higher stakes. I don't know what I am going to do for sure, but I have already started playing higher stakes. Instead of playing a mixture of $25 NL and $50 NL, I am now playing $50 NL and $100 NL.

I also managed to go out into the three-dimensional world today. I was "forced" to bring my canoe to work and to go out collecting water samples from two local lakes. In the process, my fishing pole accidentally made its way into the canoe and the line accidentally got wet. I even managed to catch a muskie, the third one that I have ever caught. Accidentally, of course.

Poker Share

Pokersourceonline (PSO) recently removed one of their promotions (The Gaming Club) and replaced it with a new promotion (Poker Share). I was quite excited about this because I had recently completed my The Gaming Club promotion and this gave me a new opportunity to clear a PSO promotion and to get another $75 Target gift certificate for my wife. Hardly exciting I know, but these are the things that make me happy. So be it.

Poker Share used to be an UltimateBet skin, but they essentially closed down when UltimateBet decided to prevent Poker Share from signing on customers in North America. Poker Share has returned, but its no longer associated with UltimateBet. I don't know the full story, but I'm sure that you can find it somewhere in the vast internet.

Poker Share is currently offering a 100% sign-up bonus (up to $300). To clear the bonus, you must accumulate 10x frequent player points (FPPs) per $1 of bonus. I initially deposited only $50 so that I would clear the Poker Share bonus at the same time that I cleared the PSO promotion (500 FPPs).

My first plan was to play $20 NL (blinds = $0.10/$0.20) to clear the promotion. After playing about 200 hands, I was +$20 but I had only cleared 15 FPPs or so. So, I decided to start playing $50 NL on my ridiculously short bankroll. This bad idea became a really bad idea when I donked away my entire Poker Share bankroll in about 80 hands. To be fair, I was dealt one hellacious bad beat that then sent me on tilt.

Because everyone loves bad beat stories... I was dealt AA in the big blind. The entire table limped, so I pushed all-in, hoping someone would think that I was stealing and play table sheriff. This plan worked great when the guy in the first-position called and flipped over 4d 5c. The plan went to hell when the flop landed 6 7 8 and I was essentially drawing dead.

The next day I re-bought for $50 and I played reasonably well but the cards were just stacked against me. I played poorly at times also, in part because of more bad beats. The worst was when I pushed all-in preflop with AA and got called by A2s... and lost.

Eventually, I decided to re-buy for a semi-legitimate amount ($200) so that I would not feel so pressured. Since then, I have slowly won back my money and I am currently +$20 for this site, having cleared about 60% of the PSO promotion.

I feel compelled to give a short review of Poker Share. I actually like this site a reasonable amount, but it's nothing special. The software runs well and the games play well. There is a little quirk when you deposit money: you actually have to go to a second step to transfer it to your poker account (I am a little worried about the cashout, but I'll find out about that later). The traffic is rather low and most of the players are from Europe, so the times for peak play are different than many sites. Most of the traffic plays short-handed no limit hold'em, so I suggest that you look elsewhere if you want to play full-ring limit hold'em.

Party Poker Reload X 2, Part III (The End)

My last few blog entries have described my attempt to clear two consecutive $100 Party Poker Reload bonuses. I cleared the first bonus playing exclusively $25 NL (6-max) no limit Hold'em. I played very well after a horrible start, winning about $90 in addition to my $100 bonus.

I have finally managed to clear the other $100 bonus. I played a lot more than I really wanted to play because my parents are going to be visiting and I doubt that I will have much time to play online poker over the next few days.

I began this bonus chase by playing $50 NL Hold'em (6-max). After playing well for the last bonus-chase, I felt that I could beat the $50 NL game also. This plan started out VERY well, as I won about $50 during my first 200 hands. I continued to grind away, until I lost my focus for a single session in which I donked away more than $40. I regained my focus after that, however, and I proceeded to play well and usually win. I had one losing session, during which I played well but I lost a big pot when I flopped bottom set and my opponent flopped top set. Meh, it happens.

This morning, I decided to play a lot, trying to clear the bonus completely -- I needed to play another 400+ hands. I played absolutely HORRIBLE at first. I lost somewhere around $125 during the first 275 hands.

At this point, I left both of the rooms that I was playing, gave myself a quick pep talk, and then I started playing better. My goal was merely to finish my bonus-chase break even for the chase. I played tight-aggressive and I tried to play most hands with the lead. This is a great way to play poker, so I started winning again. Eventually, I started catching cards and I started winning big pots. By the time that I had played another 75 hands, I had recovered most of my losses, losing only $3 for the session (about +$45 for the chase).

After a quick bathroom break, I returned to the tables, planning to play tight and to finish off the bonus chase. I somehow managed to win another $30 or so, allowing me to win about $75 for my bonus chase in addition to the $100 bonus. This is a good win rate (5.8 PTBB/100 hands), but it's very good considering the two very poor (and expensive) sessions that I had. Without further adieu, here is the table describing my second bonus chase:




My current plan is to take a break from Party Poker and probably poker in general. I like these little "experiments" of mine where I play 1000 hands at a single game and I keep track of my wins/losses. I'd like to try an experiment at Full Tilt ($25 NL) to see how I'd do there. I'm also thinking I'll try playing a bunch of SNG's or something like that. For now, I'm just going to think about it. I am going to enjoy some time away from the game.

Party Poker Reload X 2, Part II

In my last blog entry, I revealed that I had deposited twice into Party Poker to get two stackable bonuses, each worth $100. I was not sure at the time if these stackable bonuses were intentionally offered by Party Poker because they were not advertised. I am now sure that these stackable bonuses were not intentional -- Party Poker has since stopped offering the bonuses.

To re-cap the initial part of my bonus-chase, I decided to chase the first bonus playing strictly $25 NL (6-max). I started very poorly, donking away about $50 before righting the ship and playing better. After clearing about 60% of the bonus, I had fought my way back to even. I was playing better but I was also catching cards... in fact, I had had four-of-a-kind at least four different times!

Since my last blog entry, I have managed to completely clear the first of the two bonuses (see below for a graph of my results). I continued to play well, although the cards were not as great as before. They were still good -- I even had four-of-a-kind once more.


Most of my profit occurred in a single session when I doubled up three times over about 10 hands. The first hand was an AA vs. KK pre-flop, all-in battle that I won (I had AA). The second hand involved me with KK vs. 24 and a donkey who thought a pair of twos was worthy of calling my all-in. My third double-up occured when I was again dealt AA and I raised from the big blind (the button had limp-called). The flop looked good (T 7 7), so I pushed all-in and I got called. The turn was a six and the river was a beautiful ace, giving me aces-full and the pot. I needed that ace too, because my opponent held 89.

Now, after reading the above paragraph, you might think I was still catching great cards... but I also had numerous bad beats. The most memorable was when I pushed all-in with the nut straight on the turn and I got called by a guy with a smaller straight plus a flush draw. Sadly, he caught his flush and I lost a big pot. Oh well, it happens. I'm merely trying to say that I caught both good and bad cards over my final stretch.

In the end, I am really pleased with my play over the last 1000 hands, which was good for almost $140 of profit (i.e., after my initial -$50 donkfest). I enjoyed playing $25 NL (6-max) much more than I did playing full-ring $0.50/$1.00 limit. It was also nice that the play was much faster (6-max plays faster than full-ring) and it was also nice that a much higher fraction of the hands were raked.

I am not sure how I will chase the next $100 bonus. I am quite glad that I have more than a week to do it... so I'll probably take my time, even playing a single table now-and-then.

I imagine that I'll play a combination of $25 NL and $50 NL. I once again have a short bankroll because I've withdrawn my $100 bonus plus another $100.

The extra $100 of withdrawal was a promise that I made to myself weeks ago if I ever got my Party Poker account to more than $300. I like to withdraw money from my bankroll every now-and-then simply to remind myself that I am a winning player. It's a lot more fun to cash out than it is to watch my Bank Account at Party Poker get bigger and bigger.

Party Poker Reload X 2, Part I

I am not sure if it was a glitch or intentional, but I signed up for two Party Poker Reload bonuses yesteday, each worth $100 and each requiring 1000 raked hands to be played in the next ten days. I've decided to clear the first 1000 hands (at least) playing $25 NL (6-max).

One of my biggest leaks as a poker player is playing too many tables and playing on "autopilot". I play the correct hands from the correct position preflop and then I bet according to the strength of my hand. BUT: I don't consider what my opponent has; I just play my hand. This is a huge leak and I know that I need to stop it. The obvious solution is to play only one table, which is not a great idea for clearing 2000 hands in ten days.

So, I began my bonus chase by playing a 300 hand session in which I played three tables simultaneously. Oops. I lost $32. To make amends, I played four tables during my second session (another 300 hands) and I lost another $23. I played better in the second session until I went on tilt. I had been about +$10, but then I lost a big pot. I then tilted away another $20 before I quit the session.

What a great way to start my bonus chase! I was stuck $55 after clearing only 350 raked hands!

After calming down and considering my play, I made a couple of changes in my game plan. I realized that my opponents were loose-passive, so I needed to be more tight-aggressive. I would raise a little bit more preflop and make my continuation bets a little bigger too. I had noticed that a lot of my opponents were chasing their hands because I was making it a "good price" (though not justified).

(I also decided to play at most two tables)

In my third session, now playing a single table, I won $20 in less than 50 hands. Apparently, my game plan was a legitimate improvement. I then played a few more short sessions, during which I was totally card-dead, and I leaked a few dollars away. Since then, I have played three more sessions during which time I have clawed my way back to even for the bonus chase (actually, I'm -$0.56).

During these last few sessions, I have had numerous interesting hands -- I'll just talk about the good ones. I have caught four-of-a-kind at least four times (during 300 hands). One time was when I pushed all-in preflop with QQ (with two callers: AA and TT), so that was both lucky and profitable. I also caught quads on my last hand, which was also profitable. I raised (4x) from UTG with 99; the big blind called. The flop was 9 9 3. My opponent checked and I did also. The turn was a blank and I bet out after my opponent checked; he check-raised; I took my time, but then merely called. The river was a beautiful three, which caused the villain to push all-in and flip over Q3o (powerful hand that it is).

To summarize, I have played 1053 hands so far (624 raked), netting a loss of $0.56.