Wednesday, September 30, 2009

September summary

Well, my last hour of poker for the month ended with a fairly poor session. I ran pretty cold at 20/14 instead of 30/20 and even when I played a hand, it often didn't end too pretty with a 30% wtsd and 30% w$sd. Dropped around 60BBs in total although mainly at $1/2 and $2/4, so the damage wasn't too bad.

Annoyingly i'm back below $20,000 again. Although i've got enough rakeback coming to recover that.

It was another fairly light month for me on the tables - all up about 13.5 hours which I know many people can do in a single day. Also it becomes my first losing month to date. I thought i'd be disappointed with that, but to be honest, it doesn't really make all that much difference. I'm pretty sure i'll recover it quick enough in October so no real concerns there.

I had a look at my overall stats on Bodog the other day, and i'm only a slight winner at $1/2 in a little over 40,000 hands. I'm sure I should be winning at a much higher rate given the fishiness there, so hopefully the next 10k hands or so show a decent improvement.

Last month's goals for September:

• Put in some more volume than August (does half an hour count??)
• Clear as much of my Bodog reload bonus as possible and hopefully hit some fishy $4/8 tables (yeah cleared a stack of that although not credited till next month. Have hit the $4/8 bodog tables a bit too)
• Clear some more of my Cake reload that I received at the end of May & June (cleared all of maybe $20. for some reason i've not found it as fishy lately)
• Play some more Pacific if it seems fishy (gave pacific a fair crack this month)
• Spend some more poker points and hopefully convert some to cash (fulltilt?) (spent 1800 or so on a single sng the other day. Busted out with TT allin v AQ v QQ. Flop Q).

The loss of $450 for the month was made up of:

Bonuses/vip/rakeback: $280

• Bodog $100
• Cake $20
• Pacific $100
• Fulltilt $60

Poker bankroll Interest: $60

Poker losses: $790


For October the goals in order of priority are:

• Make a profit!
• Put in some more volume than August and September ....
• Clear as much of my Bodog reload bonus as possible
• Clear some more of my Cake reload and see if I can score a few more gold chips
• Play some more Pacific if it seems fishy
• Spend some more poker points and hopefully convert some to cash (fulltilt?)

Not sure that I will actually put in any more volume, as I know I am going away for a wedding this month, and am already busy with other things this weekend. Will see.

Current bankroll: $19,900
September time played: 13h30m

September profit / (loss): ($450)

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Slightly closer to profit for the month

In a quick session last night, I was able to win about 30BBs but only at the $1/2 and $2/4 level, as very few tables were running that I thought were worthwhile sitting at.

I sat down at one fantastic looking $5/10 table, where I had replaced one of the fish, but there were still three big fish left at the table. Then first hand after i've sat down one of the fish leaves. Next hand another fish gets stacked, and now there's only one left that I don't have position on. I quickly had to uncheck the auto post blinds, as I was about to be dealt my first hand. Funnily enough the last fish then quits on that hand that would have been my first.

I'm still staring down the barrel of my first losing month, although with the missus off to netball tonight I might get in an hour or two of play and you never know. I've got a fair chunk of bonus cash coming in from Bodog, but that won't appear till the middle of October so I won't include that either.

Thinking about it though, i've had several stretches over 30 days before with being down - it's just that they didn't happen to occur between the start and end of a single month where I would have recorded it as a loss. Either way i'm not too concerned with what happens tonight. I'll get it back in the long term plus more, and I won't go out of my way to try to force it to happen.

Current bankroll: $20,100
September time played: 12h30m
September profit / (loss): ($250)

Monday, September 28, 2009

Frustratingly even

Found a superb fish on a $4/8 table last night with a $400 stack. He'd see about 70% of flops and showdown about 60%, winning all of about 30% of those.

Unfortunately for me, those 30% winnings were mainly against me, where he cracked my AA, KK and JJ ... with the JJ particularly nasty on a J92r flop. Runner, runners and 2 outers were the order of the day. Add to that and within half an hour i've lost over $200 to him alone and he's managed to lose his entire stack of $400 plus my $200 to the other guys at the table.

A couple of the other fish did donate quite a lot to me and i'd started the session with a couple wins, so I somehow managed to end the session even. A couple of those suckouts had me ready to put my fist through the monitor half way through the session though. Funny thing is, it doesn't really impact the way I play the cards - and if it did i'd be quitting the session.

I've earnt some decent rakeback, but probably wont be paid till next month, so this is still looking like a losing month overall.

Current bankroll: $20,000
September time played: 12h
September profit / (loss): ($350)

Sunday, September 27, 2009

FT it takes two done

Completed my $50 bonus on fulltilt over the weekend. Overall a net loss of about $40, which is actually a lot better than the $200ish that I was down on the site at one stage. Still annoying to get a bonus and actually still be losing.

Didn't get a lot of play in after Friday night - maybe half an hour all up to complete the bonus. Ran okay in that time and found a few fish who sucked out slightly fewer times than they didn't suck out, so made a few BBs here and there.

I've also replaced my router with wireless N instead of G. Much faster throughput which is kinda handy, although for some reason my msn messenger has actually dropped out a couple times. No issues yet on the poker tables, but maybe i'll have a look at changing channels in case there is some interference. Knowing my luck the one time it does break for me playing poker is when i'm involved in a 20BB pot.

The voip through it also appears pretty good, but i'll wait for the wife's verdict, as that's really what counts .....

The bankroll is still down for the month, but slowly crawling back up, and I have at least hit the $20k mark again - hopefully it stays there this time. I'm also about to withdraw another couple hundred from RakeBackStat as well which will go straight against the margin loan for my shares.

I think I will also sort through a couple other of my poker accounts which I don't really use but have cash on. No point in leaving cash idle on various sites i'm not going to play on.

Current bankroll: $20,000
September time played: 11h30m
September profit / (loss): ($350)

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Friday night search

With my wife out to dinner friday night, I had a couple hours for poker.

Problem is, Friday night Aussie time, is Friday morning still for the majority of the poker community.

So, in order to find at least a few decent tables, I ended up having to open Fulltilt, Bodog, Pacific, Cake, and even purple lounge for the first time in months. Even then I struggled to have open more than a couple tables.

The rocket scientist that I am, didn't even think of opening a few fulltilt points tourneys ... duh

Anyways, I actually ran fairly well, and made a solid 40 or so BBs spread between 1/2 and 4/8. Would have been a few more, but now my PC decided to overheat and pause on me, which cost me a few pots. It obviously had to happen in the 5 minute span that I actually had 5 tables open for.....

Current bankroll: $19,900
September time played: 11h
September profit / (loss): ($450)

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Horrible result partly avoided

Over the last couple days i've actually got a few hours in, and even found some super fishy tables and the $4/8 and $5/10 limits.

Unfortunately for me, I ran into some fish running super hot, with at least one player on each table running with a vpip of 65+ combined with a went to showdown of 50+ and a won $ at showdown of 55+. Effectively that means they're running super hot ... which obviously means someone else on the table is running super cold. That would be me.

After not much more than an hour I was about 80BBs down - and at those limits that's about $700 down. Pretty ugly for me considering i've been hardly making that much in a whole month lately.

The tables were plenty fishy though so I stuck at it and recovered about 60BBs in another couple hours. At least that saved me from tearing my hair out completely.

A quick check of poker tracker confirmed I was running fairly cool. I was going to showdown a fairly standard 40% of the time, but only winning 40% rather than closer to 50%+. Having a quick look through individual hands, and AKo was only winning 13% of the time and was showing a fairly significant loss, which if running normally would basically cover all of my losses and then some for the month. A9o was the only other stand out, which had not won a single hand in 13 appearances.


On the plus side, I should be getting a nice rakeback boost from playing those limits for several hours. I generally had four tables running, so that will generate a lot of rake, although towards the end of my session the higher limit tables had run out of fish so I had to drop back to $1/2 and $2/4. No point staying on a higher limit table if it's not fishy enough.

Current bankroll: $19,750
September time played: 9h
September profit / (loss): ($600)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Coulda, shoulda, wasn't

Planned to play a bit on the weekend, but didn't get round to it.

However, when I did play, I had half an hour on an amazing $5/10 table. Two 90/5 fish and one 70/3 fish and two overaggro muppets made up the table, and within the first orbit I was up 20BBs. My top pair top kicker held up twice when I was sure I was gone in a four way pot that was raised on the turn.

I could have quit there and been back to even for the month. However, since the table was so juicy and I still had another 15 minutes to play, I decided to stay.

Obviously what happens next is a sequence of nasty beats, and I drop 40BBs to be down 20BBs for the session. AA couldn't hold up twice, AJ on a flop of AJ2r lost to AQ, my QQ then runs into T8o on a flop of 562r ... turn 9 river 7 and wtf ...

My two big fish then left, so it was time for me to leave as well. No point chasing losses on a short table versus some aggro opponents.

Next time .....

At least I made a few BBs off Fulltilt from the $2/4 and $3/6 tables at the same time so it wasn't all bad.

Current bankroll: $19,950
September time played: 6h
September profit / (loss): ($400)

Thursday, September 17, 2009

My first security scare

Received an email this morning from Pokersource thanking me for my order.

Rewind a sec .. thanks for my order ... I have not even logged into my pokersource account for over a month.

Logged into my account, and sure enough, there was an in progress order for a transfer to redkings.

This made me a little suspicious, partly because I don't even have an account at redkings ....

Anyways, I jumped onto the Pokersource customer service chat who incidently responded immediately which I was quite impressed with.

It then took all of about two minutes to get the order cancelled and my password changed to something else just in case.

I'd be surprised though if it was me actually having my password breached at my end, particularly as I haven't even logged into pokersource for a month or three. Weird. I'll have to check if there's anything happening on 2p2 regarding this kind of incident.

All in all, a good result for me though, and I understand the matter has been sent to their management.

On the router front, since resetting and manually entering my settings, it appears to be working okay, but I only put in a small session so its difficult to really conclude anything.

My session was okay, although I missed about five draws in a row which would have drastically improved it. Maybe i'll hit a few in a row next time.

Not sure how much play i'll get in on the weekend, but hopefully I can get some volume through this month soon. I'm also due some rakeback which for some reason hasn't been showing up, although it won't be a huge amount.

Current bankroll: $20,050
September time played: 5h30m
September profit / (loss): ($300)

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

More tilt inducing than a bad beat

Is when your internet connection decideds to go flaky, and your nuts gets folded out. F me. My router almost became a frisbee.

I thought i'd fixed my issues with my router reboot the other day, but I was incorrect. Doesn't happen often ....

So after losing a $100 pot when my connection decided to drop mid hand, it was time for some more repairs.

I'm still a bit suspicious of my router, or possibly my wireless usb stick attached to the PC, but figured i'd tackle the router first. A quick firmware upgrade followed by a factory reset and manually re-entering my setting had me back in business.

No issues with connectivity so far, but I won't hold my breath, and have started researching new voip wireless routers just in case. Not sure which brand is best though, and am almost considering looking a commercial grade routers.

Even with that loss on the tables, I still ended a few dollars in front, when the fish were paying me off.

I had AA cracked by one particularly loose and aggressive fish, and a few hands later I received 5d4d in the big blind. He raised from early position and got three callers so that was a no brainer call from me. Flop was a fairly sweet 5s4sTc, and my check/raise got three bet by aggfish. I'm thinkin there's no way i'm behind here - surely he doesn't have TT, so I cap it. Turn is an even sweeter 5h which fills me up. After my bet and his raise on the turn, there's still three runners, and I just can't put him on TT although it's in his range, he's aggro enough to be spazzing out here with AT or an overpair or even a spade draw. I three bet and he caps and the other guy folds which isn't a great sign, however a spade hits on the river giving a flush which I bet into again. He just calls and shows AA for a mighty two pair.

Had a couple other fairly trashy hands hit monsters from the big blind on the flop or turn, so that's probably what kept my session in the black.

Current bankroll: $20,000
September time played: 5h
September profit / (loss): ($350)

Monday, September 14, 2009

They say things happen in threes ....

After starting the month running like poo, I was hoping to put in a good session on the weekend.

Unfortunately my PC then decided to freeze every 10 minutes or so. I suspect its overheating so tweaked my fan speed up a touch. That actually did the trick and I was back in business, unless I have torrents running flat stick. Since I don't run torrents whilst playing poker (as it increases the chance of a timeout) its not an issue.

So .... 10 mins into my session, and my internet connection freezes, whilst I have two big pots going. And I dont even get disconnect protection for some reason... So .. after waiting 10 mins I play again for another 20 mins, before my connection freezes again.

Reboot my router, and i'm back in business, and all seems fine. Luckily I was playing on some hugely fishy tables who donated me about 20BBs, but instead of a long weekend session, I get in all of an hour.

Still not sure what the 3rd thing to happen will be .. hopefully my start of the month losses count as the 3rd thing.

Current bankroll: $19,950
September time played: 4h30m
September profit / (loss): ($400)

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Quick stats check

I've played less than 1,000 hands for the month so checking them is going to be fairly meaningless unless i'm making some kind of huge errors.

It looks like i've simply been running pretty cool, with a 26% wtsd intead of a normal 39% or so, and of those i'm only winning 29% where normal is more like 50%.

Running that poorly is always going to cause a nasty little dip to your bankroll.

That being said, in half an hour last night I at least made a few BBs - even though my big hands still can't seem to hold up .... well actually AK held up once versus AJ. The last few days that would have either been a split pot or I would have lost it.

The tables were pretty fishy so I could easily have made a lot more, but I seemed to whiff quite a few flops in multiway pots. Unless I have a decent draw in those situations I tend to just let them go to much aggression - particularly where I have 3 opponents and a passive fish bets into me.

Current bankroll: $19,800
September time played: 3h30m
September profit / (loss): ($550)

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Running cool

Can't say i'm winning too many showdowns lately. Think i'll have to do a quick stats analysis tonight to see whats going on.

Dropped another quick 30 or 40BBs last night, and had another run of about 40 hands without winning a single one.

I guess it just happens at times, and you need to just roll with it. Hopefully that heater is just around the corner. Gaining this $50 bonus on fulltilt though is starting to get expensive, as i'm running like a big fat turd there.

Current bankroll: $19,750
September time played: 3h
September profit / (loss): ($600)

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Phew

Only another short session on the weekend, which started horribly.

I think within half an hour I was down about 50BBs, most of which were on a super fishy $5/10 table, where i'd again found four opponents with VPIPs over 50, and only one overly tight TAG on the table.

My four fish then took me apart, and in the first half hour I didn't win a single hand. Not one in approximately 45 hands. Ouch.

I recovered most of it though as they continued to play trash and not suck out on me. Pity I also dropped a few BBs on fulltilt doing their take 2 promo, which i've hit every day so far in order to maximise it.

We also had a home game friday night which was great fun again. A new player joined us for the session, who didn't know too much about the game, and decided to go all in with AA on the river with a board showing 4567x. He later went all in in the second game with a two pair AK on a four heart board with neither of his cards hearts. I had two hearts and was fairly disappointed to see the fourth heart hit the board on the river - however I had the second nuts so bet it and he called.

Overall I broke about even for the session, and in those games its not about profit or loss but more just playing the game and the banter and sledging between mates.

Hopefully i'll have a decent session online soon. Some rakeback will also help the fairly sad looking record for this month so far.

Current bankroll: $19,900
September time played: 2h30m
September profit / (loss): ($450)

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Muppets strike back

Had a fairly poor run in my last session, where it seemed every flush draw for me missed, whilst any gutshot, flushdraw, or two outer would hit my fishy opponents.

I even found a $5/10 table where four of the other five players had a vpip over 60 - and I still couldn't seem to win many showdowns.

Could have been worse though as at one stage I was down an extra 20BBs on the $5/10 table after a series of nasty suck outs.

Hopefully the weekend will be more successful.

I've kept up the Fulltilt promo, scoring about 3 or 4 points per day. The whole month will net me a huge $50 reward - however - i've already dropped more than that so far.

Current bankroll: $20,000
September time played: 1h30m
September profit / (loss): ($350)

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Take 2 promotion

Decided i'll do the Fulltilt take2 promotion which requires you to play at least 2 tables and earn 1 point for a certain number of days to get a bonus, which increases the more days you play.

1 point doesn't take all that long - maybe one orbit at $2/4 at the most, so I figure i'll try to play it every day for the $50 bonus. If you're not already signed up to fulltilt, feel free to go through my rakeback site - Bonus Chasing Grinder Rakeback .

You actually have to sign up for the promotion through your cashier as well to activate it which is annoying, but necessary.

I played another short half hour session last night, mainly on the $3/6 tables with a couple $2/4s briefly on full tilt. Made a solid 15BBs in the first couple hands where I was dealt monsters as soon as I sat down which is always nice. You not only look like a maniac, and get paid off more when you raise first in for your first few hands at a table, but that image gets to stay with you for at least most of that session.

Current bankroll: $20,150
September time played: 1h
September profit / (loss): ($200)