Not enough bonus chasing?

Having a look at my monthly graph for this year shows a big drop in the amount of bonuses i've been clearing on a month by month basis when compared with 2008 (the red part of the results graph).

There's probably a few causes of this -

1. I've been playing a lower volume this year which will result in fewer bonuses
2. Any months with losses at the table should show as red due to the way the graph works
3. I haven't been actively chasing as many bonuses this year through sites like Pokersource

I think the main contributor #1, as the lower volume has meant i'm not raking back as much - particularly if I look at this month and the last month where i've played more like the volume I put in last year, my rakeback/bonuses have increased significantly.

That being said #3 allowed me to pick up 100%, 200% or even more in rakeback by doing hit and runs on various sites through Pokersource. Basically easy money, but only for $100 or $200 per site.

I'll have to think about it some more for next year as i've gotten fairly comfortable just playing on a few sites that give regular bonuses that are probably close to 50% rakeback, rather than chasing the bigger deals (percentage wise) on different sites.

Current bankroll: $23,950
December time played: 28h
December profit / (loss): $1,600

Sunday, not my day

Played in the Cake freeroll on the weekend with about 100 entrants and the top 20 paid. I received a number of premium hands early but didn't get any bites so basically just collected a bunch of blinds. The only time I did get called I was holding KJ, and whiffed the flop, but a 1/3 pot cbet was enough to take it down.

At about the 40 minute mark I was a little above average with 2,200 chips, and looking at AA in middle position. UTG had raised a bit over a third of his stack with 400 chips (8xBB) so I figured I'd just push all in and hope he'd call off the rest of his stack. The table muppet who played most hands to date then called all in for 2,000 chips with QQ, a short stack with 200 chips called with 84o and the utg raiser also called with KJo.

Flop 922r, turn 9, river obviously has to be a queen to basically punt me out. Not happy, as I would have been chip leader if my hand held up. Next hand its folded to me in the CO with QJo so I push all in - muppet calls with QQ again and i'm out. FFS.

I then went out mountain bike riding and was cruising downhill when my brakes fell off, so I had to lay the bike down to stop which turned out to be fairly painful. This was really not my day. Particularly given i'd had my brakes repaired on Friday.

The cash tables were reasonably generous though so it wasn't all bad, and I ended the weekend a couple hundred in front. It could easily have been more, but my last session lost me about 30BBs at $1/2 where the river suckouts kept hitting thick and fast to the aggro retards who kept three betting the turn when behind and hitting 2 or 3 outers on the river. I was disappointed I had to close the table while those guys still had cash.

Completed my Fulltilt bonus bonus and have qualified for a silver ironman. I'm thinking of playing the 100 points per day for the next 5 days to qualify for gold to increase my end of year bonus.

Current bankroll: $23,900
December time played: 27h
December profit / (loss): $1,550

Sometimes things just go right

Had a nice little session last night, and although I didn't get a huge number of premium hands I still scored a nice little profit.

This was mainly through three or four hands in a very short period where I ended up calling down with an average, but not strong hand heads up against a fairly aggresive opponent, and won them all. They were the type of hands that you don't expect to win often, but just often enough to make the call down worthwhile. String a few of those together that pay off, and your session will end up pretty good.

Of course by doing this you'll occasionally feel pretty silly calling down with your pair of tens versus trip kings, but as long as you're winning your one in six or one in eight and the odds are dictating a call, then it's worthwhile.

Might not get in much poker over the weekend as i'm off to golf and out mountain biking as well. I'll make sure I get in enough to just complete my fulltilt bonus before it expires.

Fulltilt bonus cleared: $282
Fulltilt bonus remaining: $18
Days left: 3

Current bankroll: $23,700
December time played: 22h
December profit / (loss): $1,350

Poker table ratings

I've seen a few guys reference pokertableratings in their blogs, so thought i'd check myself out.

For some reason on Fulltilt it only shows a little under 10,000 hands and gives me the following ratings:

Overall: 47/100 (higher is better)
BB/100: 2.85 (must have recent sessions in it as that is running very well)
Tilt score: 32/100 (lower is better)
Bot score: 4 (lower means more inconsistent)

What does it tell me?

Not much. I'm a little surprised at my low overall rating (I assume 47 is low?) whilst running pretty hot. And also a bot score of 4 apparently means i'm hugely inconsistent which is probably even more surprising as i'd consider my play to be very consistent, although opponent dependent.

I checked my Bodog stats as well which gave me an overall rating of 21, with only my results at $4/8 recorded which is where I basically started with a 150BB downswing. I've clawed over half that back, but haven't played on Bodog for a while. Given my play would be exactly the same on both sites, but the ratings are so far apart I have to assume they are more results driven than actual play style driven. This would mean the rating aren't all that useful until they have logged thousands of your hands - probably hundreds of thousands.

I made a few more BBs on the tables last night, although finished the session with a bad beat on a $80 pot which was disappointing. The fact that I was disappointed with a winning session may mean i'm getting a little too comfortable with this current upswing. I need to make sure I keep concentrating and playing my best without tilting through overconfidence.

Fulltilt bonus cleared: $272
Fulltilt bonus remaining: $28
Days left: 4

Current bankroll: $23,450
December time played: 20h30m
December profit / (loss): $1,100

Bubbling

Again another reminder of why I don't play MTTs. I figured i'd give an Aussie Millions gold chip semi final qualifier a shot on Cake as I had the day off work and nothing better to do.

I triple and quadrupled up early on when I saw the number of muppets on my table shoving with stuff like 92o preflop, and they were more than willing to call a preflop shove from me holding KK. At the one hour break and end of the rebuy period I had about 12k chips after starting with 1.5k and was near the lead.

After that I was completely card dead, and met some big resistance to several steals so had to lay down some half decent pots which was disappointing. Towards the two hour mark, there were 12 players left, with the top 10 getting a ticket. Unfortunately I was in 12th.

The guy in 11th then pushed all in from the cut off, with me in the SB with AQo. I was guessing his range was pretty wide here, and somehow convinced myself to call all in with about 11,000 chips left and blinds of 1,000/2,000. I'm not sure its the right move, although when he flipped over A2o I was miles in front. Obviously the river was a 2 which sent me packing, and for no result after two hours.

The cash tables started on fire with me picking up pots left and right, making a quick couple hundred. I played on and off for the rest of the day, but didn't do much more than break even, and that was including a fairly long session against a huge fish who just kept on hitting. He scooped two massive pots holding the mighty 54o and another with 52o (versus my AA).

Can't complain though as it was still a profitable day.

Fulltilt bonus cleared: $265
Fulltilt bonus remaining: $35
Days left: 5

Current bankroll: $23,350
December time played: 19h
December profit / (loss): $1,000

Failed another freeroll

Hit up a fulltilt freeroll and lasted about an hour before crashing out for no return. Ended up having to push KdQd utg with 10BBs and got looked up by JJ. Diamond flop but no help and i'm gone.

I've got the day off today and am about to enter a semi final qualifier for the Aussie millions on Cake. Not really holding out too much hope but I guess you never know.

Got in a bit of play over the weekend and made sure I hit my fulltilt poker points targets. Running a very hot 16BB/100 at $1/2 over 900 hands so far this month, but only about 1BB/100 at higher stakes.

Fulltilt bonus cleared: $258
Fulltilt bonus remaining: $42
Days left: 6

Current bankroll: $23,100
December time played: 14h
December profit / (loss): $750

Where'd the aggro pills come from?

Struggled a bit to find decent tables last night on fulltilt to get my 100 points, so ended up playing a few where there were only one or two fish that I didn't necessarily have position on. What that meant was that I had a few more run ins with LAG/TAGs three betting and making positional raises against me.

However, several of them were taking it a tad too far. One guy 3 bet my CO raise with J7o and then capped a flop of AhKhJh. I had an A but no heart and called down his turn and river bets. River was a heart as well even, but neither of his cards were hearts.

A few hands later my AKo UTG raise is three bet by aggro with A6o on the button. Flop AQ7r and again I get capped on the flop and even raised on the turn before I decide to call down and win.

Admittedly it did backfire for me on one hand where I got to see a free flop in the BB with 63s on a flop of 643. Aggro boy capped the flop, bet into a turn of 7 and bet into the 5 river. He then flips over 86o for the runner runner straight.

All in all a reasonable session for me though, winning a few BBs at the $3/6 and $2/4 level which could have been a lot more, but also winning about 25BBs on a couple $1/2 tables where a couple fish were giving their money away.

Home game with the boys tonight which should be fun. A busy weekend though so i'm not sure when exactly i'm going to get in my 100 fulltilt points worth of play each day.

Fulltilt bonus cleared: $239
Fulltilt bonus remaining: $61
Days left: 10

Current bankroll: $22,900
December time played: 11h
December profit / (loss): $550