Cash Game Update

The SNG's are proving incredibly unprofitable at the moment. So I've been having a look at my cash game records to try and cheer myself up!

Here are my results since I first started playing 2NL cash game poker;

Hands played 3134
Profit             $12.38
BB/100          19.75

I'm really happy with these results. I realise it is only a very small sample. I want to get to 20k hands before I consider moving up to 5NL. If I'm still profitable after 20k hands of course. Earlier today I played 'live' poker online at 888 poker. They have real dealers which is really cool. I then returned to my nemesis, the roulette wheel. I tried two different live wheels. Both dealers were really hot and I soon ran up a profit of £180, then just as quickly got it back down to £30.........

888 Casino are running a promo right now. They match your first deposit e.g you deposit £30.00 they give you £30.00 free! (this includes pounds, euros and dollars)

Are SNG's the most annoying form of poker?

Ahhhhh.. 25 games into the 100 SNG challenge. I've never before felt so frustrated playing poker. I normally play cash games. There are a lot less all ins, and far less push/fold poker. So I'm not used to constantly getting ejected from tournaments when my AA and KK all ins are called by random cards like 7 2 which then time after time after time.... beat my hands. WTF. The tournament I played in a few moments ago. I was ejected in fourth place (3 places paid) when my AA was trounced by the mighty 3 5 offsuit.

How do people play these things for a living. They must have the best tilt control ever, the patience of a saint.

Another SNG win!

Still only the most micro of micro stakes. But a win none the less :D

100 SNG's Tournaments Update #1

Well, it is very much a case of one step forwards, two steps back where SNG's are concerned. I seem to make really good folds one minute, but then ruin them by calling someone's All in bet with something stupid. Then I exit the tournament... not a good feeling.

Pokerstars $0.50 SNG Tournaments Played = 12     ($6.00 spent)

Returns;

1x 1st Place $1.99
1x 3rd Place $0.79

I'm confident that if I can stop doing stupid things... or at least do them less often that I can turn a profit playing these SNG's. 12 down, 88 to go.

Sit N Go Poker - First Win!

Yeah! following on from my third place this morning, I managed to win a tournament tonight :) it may only be the Pokerstars $0.50 9Man Turbo SNG... But it's a start! $0.50 to enter. $1.99 for first place.

Cashed in a SNG Tournament :D

I have started the 100 SNG Challenge. So far four have been played. The first three saw my aces cracked, my kings cracked and my self control tested. I played one this morning and finished third for the 'grand' prize of $0.79 :D

Sadly my pair of queens were beaten by 10 6 offsuit.... Really!?!? which saw me leave the tournament. I was pushing into the chip leader. He had no reason to call as he had many more chips than anyone else at the table. Why did he risk that by calling my shove for over half his stack with 10 6? unfortunately the flop came 10 10 6......... Damn.

I shall continue with the SNG's today and see how I get on. Using the advice of SNG master Colin Moshman.

Poker Challenges (any suggestions?)

So I'm looking for inspiration. Currently I'm playing 0.01/0.02 cash games mixed with the occasional tournament. I've spent many hours studying a couple of SNG tournament books. I'm thinking of playing 100 Pokerstars $0.50 9man SNG's. The plan is to use (to the best of my ability) the strategies explained by Colin Mosham in his book. I appreciate 100 isn't much of a number really, and that it can take over a thousand to get any idea of profitability, but setting a target of 100 SNG's is realistic. Then I'll be able to evaluate how things went.

I've increased the numbers of tables played today at 2NL cash games. One positive; starcoins (rakeback) were earned at a far quicker rate. One negative; I lost money at a far quicker rate. I'm not ready for eight tables yet :(

Back to four to replace the damage done to my bankroll by playing eight. As mentioned in the post title, do you have any poker challenge suggestions? I'm open to ideas.

Ahhhhhh a bad day's poker

Well, today was incredibly bad. I'm not going to publish the financial results just yet. I've decided to make the bankroll update a weekly thing. I managed to play like an extreme mega fish at 2NL... I then went bonkers and played as bad if not worse at 5NL (a limit my bankroll doesn't allow)..... ahhhhh,

I think I've confused myself by trying to play both cash, MTT and SNT's. Perhaps I should focus on either just playing cash games or just tournaments. Any advice?

I read Sit 'N Go Strategy by Colin Mosham a few nights ago. To be honest the first read was quite rushed. The book covers a vast amount of situations and there are many question and answer exercises. I was very interested to read about the mathematical aspect of making a living playing sit n go tournaments. So presumably if you study the mathematical aspects, allow for the different player types etc etc then you'll end up making money. I read that one of the hardest things is dealing with the fact that if one is a MTT (multi table tournament player) there will be periods of time without a single cash finish let alone a winner. So I imagine it must be very difficult to keep playing one's 'A game' after busting out of a number of tournaments in a row, particularly if due to 'bad beats'. I'm going to have another read of the book today.

I found on a number of poker forums people were talking about the book Harrington on Hold 'em.  I bought this book too, but I've only quickly scanned through it. I read that the pushing and folding ranges in this book are rather different to the ones Colin Mosham suggests in his book. I've decided to ban myself from playing any more poker tournaments until I've finished reading AND studying these books.

I'll keep you posted on my findings! hopefully I find out how to play poker tournaments properly.......

Poker Bankroll Update

It has been a pretty good week. I've totally avoided any sort of crazy tilt and my patience appears to be improving daily. Here are the results for this week;

 Pokerstars Fifty50 Tournaments

Buy-in (cost)     Return

$1.50                  $3.26 
$1.50                  $0.00


Total Cost     Total Return     Total Profit / Loss

$3.00            $3.26                 $0.26

Pokerstars Multi Table SNG's

Buy-in (cost)     Number of Players    Return

$1.00                 45                                 $0.00
$1.00                 45                                 $3.34
$0.50                 90                                 $0.50
$0.10                 360                               $0.00


Total Cost     Total Return     Total Profit / Loss

$2.60              $3.84                  $1.24 

Pokerstars 2NL 0.01/0.02 Cash Game

 Hands Played     Total Profit / Loss

      1017                    $14.87


Start of week bankroll = $65.80

This week's Profit / Loss = $16.37

End of week bankroll = $82.17

Poker Update

Well, I haven't managed to get as much poker playing in as I would have liked but the results have been positive. I used one of my free tournament tickets and entered a Pokerstars 90 man sit and go... I finished in 5th! it was brilliant, when I reached the final table I noticed it looked different, there were lights around it and it looked really cool.  The first hand I was dealt there was a pair of kings.. All in!! and a double up from 7000 to 14000 chips. Sadly I made a really stupid mistake so bombed out in fifth, I think looking at the various chip stacks people had I should've been able to hang on for third.

Anyway, here's the results for the last three days;

 Pokerstars Fifty50 Tournaments

Buy-in (cost)     Return

$1.50                  $2.19    
$1.50                  $4.17
$1.50                  $0.00

Total Cost     Total Return     Total Profit / Loss

$4.50               $6.36                 $1.86 

Pokerstars 2NL 0.01/0.02 Cash Game

I played two tables together.

Buyin     Hands Played     Total Profit / Loss

$4.00      353                      $0.24

Pokerstars 90 man sit and go

Free entry
5th place $2.71


Start of day bankroll = $60.99

Today's Profit / Loss = $4.81

End of day bankroll = $65.80

Building the bankroll a few cents at a time.

Today was a far less dramatic showing poker wise. I think I played a lot better and didn't go on any crazy tilts. I'm in profit which is great. A miniscule profit.... but I feel I gained a lot of experience and made some good folds.

Pokerstars Fifty50 Tournaments

Buy-in (cost)     Return

$1.50                  $2.84    
$1.50                  $3.19
$1.50                  $2.09
$1.50                  $0.00
$1.50                  $0.00

Total Cost     Total Return     Total Profit / Loss

$7.50               $8.12                 $0.62 


Pokerstars 2NL 0.01/0.02 Cash Game

I played two tables together.

Buyin     Hands Played     Total Profit / Loss

$4.00      186                       $0.75

So I'm pretty happy with today's results. Now lets see how they have affected the bankroll.

Start of day bankroll = $59.62

Today's Profit / Loss = $1.37

End of day bankroll = $60.99

I have TEN free Pokerstars sit and go tournament tickets left to use. I hope I can score some final table finishes to try and boost the bankroll up. I'll keep you posted.

What a Rollercoaster

Today I played the worst poker I have ever played. I thought starting to blog about playing the game was meant to help! so, yeah... I had a bit of a nightmare but ended up in profit despite going on a mega tilt - getting frustrated and playing too aggressively / stupidly. I will write the results below. I will be writing up a description about all the different types of games and tournaments I take part in as the rules and prize structure does vary greatly. It is kind of late now though and to be honest my brain is tired after all the university work today. Perhaps being mentally tired had that negative affect on my game, what do you think?  oh, nearly forgot.. all the monetary figures are in American dollars as that is the currency Pokerstars predominantly uses. I'm actually British.

Pokerstars Fifty50 STT (Single table tournaments)

Cost to Enter (Buyin)          Return (money won)

$1.50                                   $0.00
$1.50                                   $2.54
$1.50                                   $0.00
$3.50                                   $0.00
$7.00                                   $0.00
$7.00                                   $9.63


Total spent: $24.00

Return:       $12.17

Profit/Loss: - $11.83

This loss may appear relatively small, but my bankroll is so small that this is a considerable percentage loss. I went bonkers and decided to play 10NL cash poker where you buyin to the table and it costs you $10 which is way above my bankroll. I was so frustrated about losing so much playing the tournaments that I wasn't thinking rationally. Luckily I came away from the 10NL table with a good and quick profit. Although it was purely from luck and fluke, I could have just as easily lost it all.

Buyin: $10.00      13 hands of poker later     Return: $18.16     Profit: $8.16

As soon as I won that money I left the table and vowed not to be so stupid again. I must learn not to tilt. I started having a look around some sections of the Pokerstars website that I hadn't looked at before and discovered I had loads of free tickets for various tournaments to use. I decided to play two spin and go games with a couple of the tickets.

I WON both of the three way games and saw $12 extra appear in my account :)

Todays Results;

Fifty50 Games = -$11.83
10NL Cash = $8.16
Spin n Go = $12.00

Today's total = $8.33 Profit!

Bankroll: $59.62