Preliminary Results at Higher Stakes

It's been a little more than a week since I decided to start playing higher stakes. For the most part, I have been playing $5/$10 limit hold'em (6-max) at Party Poker and $100 NL at Full Contact Poker. I have been playing a few different games (and stakes), but they're not worth talking about.

I have been very lucky so far -- I have literally won EVERY session that I have played. Of course, some of that is because I would play until I got ahead and then I would quit. I have done this a few times at $5/$10, but less so playing $100 NL.

The $5/$10 has been particularly interesting (fun?) because these games are very aggressive. I am playing only a single table, which has helped tremendously with my decision making. So far, I am +$500 or so, over a relatively small number of hands. I don't have Pokertracker stats because I have been mostly playing on my laptop, which doesn't have Pokertracker.

The $100 NL has been a complete goldmine. I have done very very well, through a combination of luck and skill (i.e., I have played well and I have gotten lucky). I am currently about +30 PTBB/100 hands, which is sick and not sustainable. I'll take it though. It's great for the bankroll. I am going to try and post a screen capture below so show my session stats (courtesy of Full Contact Poker).

The Time has Come

Patience is a virtue, particularly for poker players. In contrast, my father, an impatient man, would frequently exhort me to "shit or get off the pot" throughout my childhood.

Well, I have decided that it is time for me to shit or get off the pot. I semi-retired from "serious" poker earlier this year, promising to play less frequently and strictly for fun. This turned out to be excellent poker strategy, allowing me to rebuild my bankroll.

The game that I have played most frequently over the last few months has been $50 NL. My bankroll can easily accommodate playing higher than that, but I have not been comfortable playing at stakes that high. I am reasonably sure that I have the ability to play at higher stakes; I just don't think I had the mind set to do it.

Today, I finished clearing a reload bonus at Paradise Poker (I have a very long blog written describing this bonus chase). I am also in the middle of clearing an initial deposit bonus at Full Contact Poker, where I have a bankroll of more than $300 (I think; I haven't logged on there in more than a week) -- even after cashing out my initial deposit. I also have short bankrolls at Full Tilt Poker and UltimateBet. Finally, today, I built my stack at Party to more than $1200, so I cashed out $200 as I had promised myself.

Why am I mentioning all of this? Looking at the finances, I have decided that I really need to move up stakes. It's time to take my shot.

So, I plan on playing $2/$4 limit, $3/$6 limit, and even some $5/$10 limit. When I play no limit, I'll be playing minimum $100 NL.

I might go bust; I might get rich. One thing for sure: it's time for me to shit or get off the pot.

Playing Higher Stakes at Party

For the last few weeks, I have been playing $50 NL and $100 NL when I've played at Party Poker. For whatever reason, I have a bad feeling about no limit right now, so I decided to play limit tonight. Looking at my bankroll, I realized that I could play $2/$4, so I bought into a 6-max room at these stakes.

I started off playing OK. But then, I lost a few big pots due to donkey plays (some mine, some their's). Anyway, I was stuck about $50, so I decided that it would be a good idea (sarcasm warning) to buy into a $5/$10 limit (6-max) game too. I immediately lost $150 there also.

Eventually, things stabilized at both tables and I started to just "hang around" for awhile (i.e., not winning or losing). I particularly got a feel for the $5/$10 game, which was very aggressive, bordering on absurd. It was actually profitable conditions because you could sit back, wait for a good hand, and it'd get paid off.

Eventually, I busted out of the $2/$4 game, about the same time that I had clawed my way back to even at the $5/$10 game. I took a short break and then returned, promising myself that I would play until I either broke even for the night (overall, +$100 at $5/$10) or I started to play poorly. Luckily, I continued to play well and I finished the session +$19 overall when I won a large pot on my last hand.

Welcome to Donkeyville

I have played very little poker this week, perhaps the least amount poker that I have played since I started seriously playing more than two weeks ago (noted exceptions: vacations that did not include electricity). The last Party Poker reload really burned me out and I just don't feel like concentrating very much.

In spite of all of that, I tried playing some on Sunday (it's now Thursday) and I managed to donk away almost all of my winnings (but not the bonus) from my reload. Since then, I have played the occasional sit-n-go at Party to get my Party Bonus Points and a few more SNGs at Full Tilt. These are usually $5+$0.50 affairs (FTP) or $10+$1 (at Party;I refuse to play the $5+1 SNGs at Party... 20% rake is ridiculous).

Last night, I played two of these SNGs, both of the 6 person variety. I won the SNG at Party ($36 minus $11 = $25 profit) and I took 2nd at FTP. The FTP tournament was far more interesting as I was card-dead until we were three-handed. I then started bullying my two opponents (which is kind of hard to do with a short-stack) until we were all about even. We then stayed even for a rather long time (for one of these SNGs, anyway); I was easily the most aggressive person at the table. I was quite proud, in fact, when the poor guy to my right started complaining about how I was "overbetting" all of the time. Considering that all of my bets were about half to three-quarters of the size of the pot, I was not overbetting, just betting often.

Hopefully, I'll get my desire to play cards again sometime soon... if not, oh well... in the meantime, my tournament game is improving slightly.

Finishing the Party Poker Reload

I spent a lot of time today playing cards at Party Poker. In fact, I played so much that I was able to finish their reload bonus (worth $100) by clearing about 800 raked hands today. I played generally well throughout the bonus clearing, except for a 30 minute period earlier today in which I donked away about $75 playing $50 NL. In the end, I won more than $200 in addition to the bonus, much of which was due to a single hand at $100 NL in which my AA went against someone who held 8s 4s; the money all went into the middle after the flop of 8 4 2. Lucky for me, I caught an ace on a river to take down a $167 pot.

Anyway, here are my stats for the session. I am including two $10+1 SNGs that I played, although they didn't contribute anything to clearing the bonus, so I probably could leave them out of the stats.


Starting tomorrow, I am going to head back to Paradise Poker to continue trying to clear their reload bonus. After that, it's probably back to Full Contact Poker, where I have $150 of my initial deposit bonus yet to clear.

Buying in short

I have promised a blog regarding the fact that I typically buy-in for only 50 big blinds when I play "no limit hold'em". I put no limit hold'em in quotes, because true no limit allows you to buy-in for as much as you would like; I believe that only UltimateBet offers such a room, and it has blinds on the order of pennies. Instead, most online card rooms allow you to buy-in for as much as 100 big blinds.

The structure at Party Poker (my primary site) used to be that the maximum buy-in was 50 big blinds. This was the structure that I played when I learned to play no limit hold'em and it is the structure that I like the best. When they changed their structure (allowing buy-ins of 100 big blinds), I started a downswing in my bankroll that ended when I gave up no limit for a few months and played strictly limit poker (mostly hold'em).

When I returned to no limit, I eventually figured out that I am the most comfortable buying in for 50 big blinds. And that is the number one reason why I buy-in short: I am most comfortable playing this way. This is an important point for online poker: you should mostly try to play games where you are the most comfortable. You can most easily play your best game and you're win rate will be the best. This argument is not as valid for live poker, where you need to be social and such, so that sometimes you are forced to play something other than your best game under your best conditions.

Extending beyond the comfort factor, there are legitimate reasons to buy-in short. The two most pertinent to me are:
1. It limits the amount that I can lose in a single hand. This is actually quite important to me because I bluff rarely but I like to push my good (but beatable) hands aggressively. Most of the time, my opponents fold but buying in short limits the amount I can lose, allowing me to play aggressively.
2. Many people assume that I am a bad player when I buy-in short. This gets me some loose calls with my premium hands. In fact, buying in short is almost looked upon as a donkey move by many people in the online poker world (I have specifically read in someone's blog that "only donkeys buy-in short").

Of course, there are reasons to have the most amount of money possible at the table too:
1. You do not artificially limit the amount of money that you can win in a hand.
2. If you are skilled enough, then you can use your stack to bully timid opponents.
3. You have better implied pot odds against over-aggressive players. For example, if someone raises 4-6 times the big blind (and you think they have a big pocket pair), then you can reasonably think about calling with small pocket pairs or suited connectors. If you hit your hand, then you can win a huge pot... but if you miss your hand, then you can fold and get away with only a relatively small loss.

In reality, if I ever start buying in for the full amount, then it'll be because of reason#3. I believe that as I move up stakes, my opponents will become more aggressive, and I'll need the bigger stack to keep the pot odds in my favor. But at $25 NL and $50 NL, my typical opponent is generally passive, so this factor is not particulary important right now.

Another Party Poker Reload Bonus

When I logged on tonight, I noticed that Party Poker had an account-specific reload bonus going on, so I deposited $500 (only $400 was necessary for the bonus... I deposited $500 to get a 1000 Party Point bonus also) and started clearing the bonus.

I initially started great, winning a big hand with JJ from the small blind against two donkeys who held A9 and AT. The flop was ultra-scary for my hand: T98. I played it aggressively but carefully. Both donkeys called through the turn. The donkey#1 made a small bet into a large pot... and after donkey#2 called... I almost had to call the pot odds were so good.

I was two-tabling at this point and my other table was especially juicy. I had one of the world's biggest donkey's playing and I was planning to take his money. I raised from the button with 99 and he called from the big blind. The flop was pretty good for my hand: TT3. I figured my hand was good when he overbet the pot on the flop, so I pushed all-in and he called with T6o. I guess that I was the donkey. But seriously, this guy was horrible, so I rebought and kept playing and by the time that I left (maybe 60 hands later)... I had grinded my way back to even for the table. I finished the session +$30 or so, clearing about 170 raked hands.

In other news, I have decided to try and enter the WSOP ME next year. I am currently a horrible tournament player, but I figure: what the hell? By my way of thinking, I only live once and it's a rare opportunity to play with the elite. I certainly can't play any professional sports these days.