The King is Dead -- Long Live the King

October is almost over and I have spent the last few days considering my poker game and how I achieved my goals for the month but yet I am disappointed.

My goals were to achieve SilverStar status at Poker Stars and make a profit. I started the month with about $325 in my account. I hit SilverStar status in about two weeks and I had, at one point, run my bankroll up to $750.

I then started playing like a complete donkey and I pissed away a bunch of money being an idiot. I don't know how low my account got, but I never pissed away all of my profit. I did get a little scared and I cashed out $100 (my initial deposit) before I lost all of it. So, I am playing totally on profit now and that's a bit nice.

I have had really uneven play lately -- some great, some awful. Very little in between. Anyhow, I now have $501 in my account and it's time to set some goals for November.

These are:
(1) Play consistently better
(2) Earn at least $150 for the month in profit
(3) Make GoldStar status.

As strange as it sounds, I think #3 will be the easiest and #1 will be the most difficult. I could have made GoldStar this month if I had started playing $1/$2 6-max limit hold'em earlier and if I had stayed focused and played more of it later in the month. I've cleared 3000+ VPPs this month without trying too hard, so another 1000 shouldn't be too difficult.

A day of hooky

I am staying home from work today. I am going to try and play some cards while I do other things.

9 am (bankroll = $479)

I buy into a $25 NL room with $15. I lose the first hand to a straight flush. Not a sign of good things to come.


10 am (bankroll = $473)

I am not playing great but I am not catching any cards either. My best hands have been 99 (once) and AK (twice). I flopped a set with 99 but I didn't get any action. There has been nothing exciting to report so far.


11am (bankroll = $453).

I kept losing at $25 NL, so I switched to $0.50/$1.00 limit 6-max. I kept losing there too. I suck.

12pm (bankroll = $465)

I quit limit hold'em and I opened two tables of $1/$2 HORSE. I started out poorly on both, so I opened a third table of $25 PLO. I doubled up pretty quickly in PLO and I also won a few nice pots at HORSE, hence my stack seems to be increasing some.

12:22pm (bankroll = $480)

I am sick of poker and I am going to take a break. I just played a heads-up SNG ($11+0.50) and I won. Amazingly, I'm back to even money for the day.

4:26pm (bankroll = $431)

I stopped giving updates for awhile because I suck so bad. Luckily, I won a few big pots in the last ten minutes, otherwise I would have been stuck over $100 for the day. I'm quitting for the day, and if I'm smart... I won't play for a few days. I'm just bleeding money right now.

Final Edit: I played another short session of $25 PLO just for "fun". Instead of tryinig to win, I decided to just "play". Not surprising, I did incredibly well. I doubled my stack in about 50 hands. Final Bankroll = $446

TILT!!!

After writing a blog entry yesterday, I decided that I needed to start primarily playing $2/$4. I almost had the bankroll for it and the higher stakes would keep me focused. I started out playing really well and then a bad beat hit me and I went on tilt.

The hand went like so:

I was dealt AA in the small blind. Everyone fold to the button who raises, I re-raise and the big blind caps. Both of us call and the flop comes:

Ac Ts 3h.

I bet out; both of my opponents call.

The turn is Js.

I bet out; the big blind raises; the button calls; I re-raise; the big blind caps; and the both of us call.

The river is 5s

The action gets capped again. The big blind held JJ; the button held 3s 5s and took the pot with his flush. FUCK!!! That was a $113 pot!!!

I managed to grind my way back to even after that, but then the coolers and bad beats and tilt took control and I donked away about $100. I then lost a buy-in at $1/$2 just for fun. The final hand at the table epitomized the session: I raise from UTG with Kh Th and only the big blind calls. The flop is ideal for my hand: 2h Jh Qh giving me the second nut and an opened-ended royal/straight flush draw. The turn and river blank (heavy action) and my opponent flipped over Ah 9h. FUCK!!!

Last night, I played some more... $1/$2 HORSE and 6-max limit hold'em. I played pretty well throughout, but I still lost another $25 or so. I was quite pissed by the end of the session, so I cashed out $100 to make myself feel better.

My bankroll is now a pathetic $479. This sucks.

Playing like a donkey

Last night, after the kids went to bed and Kelly went out for a run, I played a long session of poker. I started out playing $50 NL hold'em, then I added a table of $2/$4 HORSE, and then I added a table of $1/$2 limit hold'em (6-max). After donking away $75 playing no limit, I quit that table and I opened up a table of $2/$4 limit hold'em (6-max) and a table of $1/$2 HORSE.

I played really well at $2/$4 HORSE, eventually winning about $40 at the table. I played like a total donkey at both $1/$2 games and I started out playing like a donkey at $2/$4 limit hold'em (getting stuck ~$50), but I eventually focused myself and grinded my way back to about even in that game.

I finished the night with just under $700 in my bankroll, which means yesterday was only a slight loss. That's disappointing because I lost about $60 from my peak, but encouraging because I had been stuck quite a bit more than that.

Basically, I am bored with $1/$2 limit hold'em and I am too aggressive right now for no limit. Mostly, I need a break from poker, but for some reason... I don't want to stop playing. I think the solution is to exercise some discipline, perhaps play only one table (or at most two tables) and increase the stakes to $2/$4. I think that my game is good enough.

In fact, I just played a short session of $2/$4 6-max hold'em (26 hands) and I won $58. It certainly helped that I was catching cards and that I had a really soft table. These guys folded to my bluffs and called all of my value-bets. Ideal!

FWIW, my bankroll is now at $752.

Goal for October: Almost accomplished

I managed to clear my goal this morning of reaching SilverStar VIP status at Poker Stars. At the rate that I am going, GoldStar isn't entirely out of the question, but I am really not going to try. My goal was to achieve SilverStar and I've done it. Good enough for me. I am starting to get burned out (more below) and I really need to play better poker, not more poker. So, my goal for the month has been achieved, as long as I don't lose more than $400 over the next 16 days.

After my last blog, I continued my excellent run, building my bankroll to as high as $750 at one point. It's times like these that I am 100% sure that 6-max limit hold'em is my best game. Unfortunately, I got bored with it, took a few bad beats, and played on tilt. As a result, I lost about $50 over the weekend and my confidence took a major hit.

I did have a great session this morning, though, winning a few more bucks while clearing the last of my 50 FPPs. I just played a so-so session on my lunch break, winning a few more dollars. I am somewhat disappointed in my play because I tried a couple of bluffs against the unbluffable, even though I knew that they were not bluffable (there's nothing like losing a pot to a guy who calls you through the river with king-high). Luckily, I caught a few hands at the end and the unbluffable kept calling my value-bets, so I went from stuck $20 to a small profit. The best of these hands was when I held JJ and the flop came JJX and the donkey called to the river with 22... which became really profitable when the river gave him a full house.

So what is my goal for the rest of October? Honestly, I want to just build my bankroll a bit. I think that I can beat the $2/$4 limit hold'em games (6-max), but I am not quite there yet with the bankroll (right now = $766). I would also like to withdraw $100, so realistically... I'd like to reach $900 by the end of the month.

Poker and Fishing Report

I'll start with the fishing report. I went out fishing both Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Saturday evening was on the Mississippi River, just downstream of the I-35W bridge collapse. It was a little weird seeing all of the twisted metal and other carnage down there, but otherwise the river seemed very normal. My usual spots down there didn't produce many fish, but we caught quite a few just across from St. Anthony Falls Research Laboratory.

Sunday morning was on the St. Croix River near Stillwater. The fishing has been great here, but we didn't catch much. The fishing was actually very difficult because of the leaves and other crap that was in the water. We were in the canoe, so we had a lot of paddling to do and my brother was a weak and lay paddler. So, it was a lot of work for me without catching a lot of fish.

To summarize, it was one of those weekends where the "catching" was bad but the fishing was good. Sadly, it might be my last time fishing the open water this year.

The good news is that the poker has been going exceptionally well. I had been bouncing around quite a bit with my bankroll, mostly because that's how no limit poker works. I totally went on tilt, though, and corrected that problem by moving to $1/$2 limit hold'em (6-max). As I've said before, this is probably my best game and lately I've been playing like it. My bankroll high simply sky-rocketed lately, reaching just over $550.

My most recent session was awesome. I won $52 in only 75 hands (~ 35 BB/100 hands). My current plan is to keep grinding at $1/$2 stakes and to cash out a bit. I've put in $100 of "real money" (i.e., not profit), so I'd like to cash that out and go back to playing simply on profit.

Progress towards my goal

Note: My goal is to clear 1500 FPPs this month at Poker Stars while winning money. I started the month with about $325 in my account.

Things started off great: I won a bunch of money playing $100 NL and $50 NL, pushing my stack up near $450. Then variance kicked in and I lost a bunch of big pots to suck-outs and I lost almost all of my winnings. I won't lie: there was a bunch of tilt-factor in that lost money as well.

I then did something very smart: I started playing limit 6-max hold'em again. I won about $30 playing $0.50/$1.00 stakes and then I moved up to $1/$2. I've said it before, this is probably my best game and I have been slowly (and sometimes not slowly) grinding my stack upwards to where it is now (around $425). The best part is that FPPs clear rather quickly in these games -- I am clearing more than 100 FPPs per day even with my somewhat limited play schedule.

I had a great night on Wednesday. I bought into a table that had a guy raising more than 50% of the hands on my right and someone who was playing 90% of the hands (with less than 5% PFR) on my left. I sat around, waited for a solid hand and then cashed in big time. I actually lost my first hand of the night with KK vs. A7 when the LAG-tard caught an ace on the river. After that, though, I flopped a couple of sets and the like and I went from stuck $20 to up more than $60. Sadly, I essentially stayed even after that. The best hand of the night was a pot that was capped four-ways preflop. The flop came A 7 7 and it got capped four ways on the flop and three ways on the turn (blank) and river (another 7). I had AA and my opponents held A9 and KK.

Since then, I've play a bunch of smaller sessions, usually booking a nice, small win (like 5 BBs/100). I haven't had a losing session for awhile, which is usually a danger zone because that's usually when variance catches up to me and then I tilt and then I lose big-time. The good news is that I tend to tilt less playing limit and I tend to lose less when I'm on tilt. So, that's a win-win for me.

The other good news is that I have big plans for fishing for both tomorrow and Sunday. I might not play any poker at all, in fact.

Why play within my bankroll?

I did something really stupid last night: I decided to buy-in to a $100 NL table. My rationale was incredibly sound: (1) I'm playing well, and (2) I'll accumulate more FPPs that way.

In the end, I got lucky and I won about $100, finishing the night with about $430 in my account. I even managed to accumulate a few FPPs along the way. Reality set in this morning, however, and I donked away $50 playing at those stakes. Luckily, I then went on a heater at $50 NL and I won a bunch of it back. My stack right now sits at about $410.

Poker Goals for October

This is just going to be a quick post because I need to go home (I'm at work). My goals for this month include:
1. Earn SilverStar VIP status at Poker Stars. This means that I need to earn 1500 FPPs this month. I've done it before and I think that I can do it by consistently playing $50 NL
2. Make money. I started today at about $310. So, I am going to go with that number. If I finish October with $500, then I'll consider it to be a great month.

By the way, I have a very negative attitude about my results right now. I seriously expect to lose EVERY hand. I can only conclude that I am seriously running bad, which explains why even though I feel like I am playing great that I am not winning.

Examples of how negative I am:

(1) I flop a king-high flush draw (i.e., the second nuts) and I call a small bet on both the flop and turn before making my flush on the river (the board had not paired). I bet out and my opponent pushes. I seriously thought about folding the second-nuts before calling (my opponent had two pair). This was essentially a crying call.

(2) The cutoff makes a 3x raise and I call from the small blind with 44; the big blind calls too. The flop comes 8x 4s 3s. I bet out half the pot; the big blind raises and the cutoff re-raises. I figure that I'm beat, but I push anyway (I'm on semi-tilt at all times these days). The big blind folds and the cutoff calls with 99. I win.