Sunday, January 3, 2010
End of holidays
The weekend again started with a dip in the bankroll where I dropped another 50BBs on a $1/2 table where it seemed I was again destined to be runner-runnered out of the game. The main fish was opposite me, but I never had the opportunity to move to his right. He proceeded to smash the entire table, so i'm not sure it would have made much difference.
On the tables i'm still running at a loss for January, however, after a few rakeback and bonus credits my bankroll is actually up (and will be up even further with a couple more credits in the next few days). Pokertracker even has me at losing at a very cold rate of 2.5BB/100 on the tables, although in total only down $55 over 2,200 hands. I guess i've been losing more at the smaller limites than the bigger ones.
I also just missed out on playing in the gold card cake tournament yesterday - you needed a 2 of clubs to enter it, and I hadn't received one ... well not until about an hour after the tournament started. Oh well. At least i've qualified for the freeroll this month.
2009 review is now up: 2009 Review
Current bankroll: $24,100
January time played: 8.3h
January hands played: 2,205
January profit / (loss): $50
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Ripping through the Fulltilt bonus
I also found myself on the right side of a bunch of dominating hands in my session, such as K8s versus K3s, AK versus A9 etc, and was even flopping the top pair. Unfortunately four out of four managed to suck out their 2nd pair on the turn or river, which left my session looking a little poor.
Overall down around 25BBs at $3/6 offset slightly by a rakeback credit.
Hoping to run a little better over the weekend, although am fairly busy so might not get in much volume.
Current bankroll: $19,550
August time played: 6h
August profit/(loss): ($150)
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Read the fine print .... then hope for the best
I think I am still eligible, however, won't be counting it as an addition to the bankroll until I actually see it in my account. Will wait and see. Even if I just clear the sign up bonus I should be very close to being on the leaderboard, so might only have to play one extra small session to make sure I qualify for a rake race payment. At the moment I rank comfortably in the top 3,000, although i'm only due for a $100 payment. I could send an email to clarify, but I figure its just as easy to wait and see and hope I receive it, rather than point out a potential reason for them not to pay it out.
I played another freeroll last night - the Sun poker migration freeroll. About half the runners were left and I had a stack of about 1,900 where average stack was a little under 3,000 and blinds were 100/200. I opened all in from the cutoff with AKs, and the button big stack then called quickly flipping over QJs. Obviously he sucks out a J on the flop of JT2r. I turn my A though and suck back out on him. River is a K to hit my two pair but complete his straight for one of his 6 river outs to reresuckout on me. Tournaments ....
I also had a few Ladbrokes cash tables running, and proceeded to get pounded for another 25BBs there. My friendly fish that I had position on seemed to think that 62o was good enough to call a raise from my AA. On a flop of 62J it was. I had a quick check of my stats and i'm running at 40% won $ at show down, which is pretty horrid when seeing only 30% of showdowns. Hopefully I can even it back out in the next session or two, as i'm already 2/3 of the way through my sign up bonus requirements.
A rakeback payment stopped the session being too bad for the bankroll, but it would be nice to have a winning session on the tables some time in the near future.
Good luck for the weekend everyone. Back next week
Current bankroll: $16,000
Monday, January 5, 2009
Back to bonus clearing
So in my half hour session yesterday, I kicked along my Interpoker monthly bonus clearing, although struggled a bit to find any good tables where I was able to have good position on the fish. I ended up only playing a couple orbits there as when I did finally sit next to a fish, they seemed to bust within the next few hands. Oh well. Still ... made about 10 BBs at $2/4 as I hit a couple nice hands.
I also had a closer look at Ladbrokes which I signed up to the other day via RakeAway. I found a couple $1/2 tables that were sort of worth playing on but nothing running at $2/4 or $3/6. In the half hour of only two tabling I cleared 10% of the requirements for my sign up bonus of approx $120, but only broke even on the tables. I also had a quick look at the rake race, and it appears that in order to be in the top 3,000 players to get $100, you need to rake a touch over $4 per day. So that equates to around 80% rakeback - provided other players don't decide to play more and push up that requirement to get into the top 3,000.
Current bankroll: $16,000
Sunday, January 4, 2009
And back to a fair start to 2009 again
I've finally pulled my Bodog W$SD over 48% as well, and its sitting at a still somewhat sick 48.3% after 15,000 hands. Very confident that I can increase this further as it should be somewhere around the 52% mark I believe, which would add another 2BB/100, and make my stats look very very good. As it is I now have a positive BB/100 (although only marginally) at the Bodog $1/2 tables.
I also just signed up to Ladbrokes through RakeAway / Boogster and played a brief session. There are very few fixed limit tables running there though, so my appearance on Ladbrokes may be limited to clearing the sign up bonuses and then looking for greener pastures. That being said, the few tables that were running looked kind of fishy so maybe I will give them a longer shot.
Current bankroll: $15,950
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Handy little session
Turned out to be a reasonably profitable two hours, as I cleared my Interpoker sign up bonus for the remaining approx $200, and also received my monthly Bodog reload for $70.
Found a couple sweet $3/6 tables on Cake where I had position on at least one fish and on one table two fish. I'd made about 12BBs on each in one orbit, and then to my disappointment, both of the fish quit ... so I played all of two orbits before quitting. The $2/4 tables on Interpoker were also a little kinder to me than they have been in the past, and I would have made at least another 10BBs there by the time i'd cleared my bonus. It was a little problematic there though in that I couldn't seem to find any good tables or if I did, i'd have a horrible position, so was quitting after a single orbit and just waiting for better spots a lot of the time.
I guess patience really is the key for table selection, and I refuse to play where I have bad position these days. Its just not worth it.
The Bodog $1/2 tables were also running better than usual and I made about 30BBs in reasonably quick time. The fish didn't quite suck out as often, although did suffer a number of nasty beats from one guy who hit a 2 and 3 outer two hands in a row when I was holding the near nuts. He was then kind enough to cap the river against me holding nuts to give most of it back which was nice of him. (I had the A on a 4 flush board that wasn't paired ... although there was the potential for an unlikely straight flush).
Sometimes I am a muppet though - got an email from cake about a reload so tried to deposit. Got a message back saying that the code wasn't available yet. I guess they sent the email a little early .... Anyways, I again signed up later, and this time it went through, only i'd forgotten to change the deposit amount. So instead of a $100 reload bonus, I earned myself a princely reload bonus of $12.50. I blame the fact that my head was killin me which clouded my thinking ability ... (although probably it was just coz i'm an idiot). I hope they have a christmas reload as well and then I wouldn't have lost anything ....
Current bankroll: $14,600
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Bodog bonuses
It was actually one of those tables which are just about perfect. Two very loose passive fish on my right, and a very tight player on my left who folded to almost all of my preflop raises.
It would be nice to have a few bigger wins, so hopefully that will happen in one of my next few sessions.
I did get my Bodog reload bonus of $230 the other day which was handy. That takes me to about $230 in total for the month on that site alone which makes up for me running fairly cool. The interesting thing about their bonus is that you seem to be able to withdraw as well without it actually impacting the bonus. I will withdraw the $200 i deposited yesterday in about a week, as i'd rather just be playing that site on pure profits. A few more decent sessions on there and i'll be able to start stabbing at $4/8 again.
Interpoker i'm now over 900 points so have less than 100 points to hit my goal for this month, so I may have to stop playing there for a few days if I hit that tonight.
Current bankroll: $13,600
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Too much?
Villain is a pretty nice fish, running at about 70/10/1.5/38.
UTG
$26.52
Hero
$55.75
BTN
$113.80
SB
$41.50
BB
$42.73
Pre-Flop (1.5 SB, 5 players) Hero is CO with QcJd
1 fold, Hero raises, BTN calls, 2 folds (yep cold call me fishy)
Flop (5.5 SB, 2 players)
4hJsQh (sweet .. only concern might be a FD but surely i'm miles in front here)
Hero bets, BTN calls (call me down fishy)
Turn (3.8 BB, 2 players)
As (hmmm not the best of cards for me. KT hit a straight, AQ or AJ are now in front of me. Can't see him holding AA based on preflop and flop. And surely he would have reraised AQ on the flop)
Hero bets, BTN calls (hmm no reraise. i must be in front still)
River (5.8 BB, 2 players)
Qs (okay now i've hit my boat, and am in front of AJ now too)
Hero bets, BTN raises, Hero 3-bets, BTN 4-bets, Hero 5-bets, BTN 6-bets, Hero 7-bets, BTN 8-bets, Hero 9-bets .... (okay by about the 6th bet i'm starting to get worried. Maybe he does have AQ or AA. Surely not though.)
What would you have done?
As far as my session overall went, I actually ended up down around $50, mainly thanks to my last 80 hands of the session where I managed to see only 20% of flops, go to showdown only 22% of those, and actually not win a single showdown. Two other muppets were just sucking out left and right.
However, on the plus side, I got paid out a chunk of my Bodog bonus of around $150, so overall I was up for the weekend. Thank god for bonuses/rakeback or it would have been a total waste of time. Might have to post my Bodog stats next time. I've now done 7,000 hands there since I bought the hand grabber, and i'm still running quite cool, even though i'm generally playing with fish. Interpoker also didn't treat me all that well over the weekend, but i'm now well over halfway to clearing the signup and ipod nano bonus. I will do 1,000mpps this month, and then leave the last 500 for next month to qualify for the next months freerolls.
Current bankroll: $13,600
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Interpoker bonus
Pokertracker2 tells me that i've paid approx $67 in rake. Interestingly, my RTR indicates a rake paid of $83. Not sure what the difference is - maybe PT2 is calculating contributed rake, versus RTR paying rakeback on dealt?
I've also earnt 280mpps - and need to get to 1,500mpps to clear $370 (150pounds + $120) in bonus cash. So effectively that's around $70 of the bonus cleared.
All up then my bonus appears to be clearing at around 100%, and then the cream on top is the rakeback of $27. Happy with the deal so far.
As far as play goes, I put in about half an hour last night, and started horrendously with a number of nasty suck outs in the space of 5 minutes putting me down by around 30BBs. One particularly nasty one was when I held AK on a board of AK8r. Turn 3, river 6. I got called all the way and reraised on the river by a guy showing down 66 ... wtf were they thinking. Add in a few similar beats and i'm ready to punch a hole in my monitor.
However, the remainder of the session was significantly improved, and these clowns kept calling down with trash, and my hands kept holding up. I also managed to hit a flush draw or two for the nut flush in a couple big pots which also helped. In the end I was around 15BBs up on a combination of $1/2 and $2/4 tables.
I also dabbled briefly on a full ring table which had a players per flop of 50%. Unfortunately by the 2nd orbit the 3 massive fish had busted out, so I quit as well after breaking even, but making quite a few MPPs just because they were building big pots every hand.
Current bankroll: $13,300
note to self next post - considering eurolinx through RTR to get back onto some fishy microgaming.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Thought I was clawing back up
Also first hand of a half hour session for the day i'm dealt KQs which flops KcQcQd with 3 runners. One guy raises flop and I just call, and 3rd runner also calls. Turn brings another club which villain bets out, I raise, and the turn gets capped in the end. River was a blank. Villain still gets in a raise but only calls my reraise showing a 9 high flush. Great start.
From then on it went decidedly backwards, with the usual horrific suck outs, and I actually dropped cash at the tables, although my rakeback kept me well in front for the session.
I've signed up at Interpoker with my account in pounds. The rakeback/bonus deal through RTR gives me approx 90% effective rakeback. Then you add on the cash equivalent payment of $120 for their ipod if I get 1,500 points by 30 November, and my rakeback is effectively over 100%. Nice.
I've actually found some reasonably fishy tables there too which is handy. I'm running like dog balls though with a VPIP of 21% ... ie i'm gettin no cards preflop, a WTSD of 34% ... a little low, particularly with such a low VPIP, and a W$SD of 35% ... very low .. ffs.
However, on the site i'm only $20 down so far, so with rakeback i'm probably actually up or very near to it. With such a low W$SD I should be down a long way, however, several hands i've won have been quite big. Including one hand where I had AcQh and flopped Jc4c7c, turn 2c so I have the nuts, and since the turn was heads up they allow unlimited raising, and i've ended up 6betting the turn before my opponent just called.
Anyways will see how it goes. Pulled in about 75 points out of the 1,500 that I need in a couple sessions, so I figure i'll get there relatively quickly.
Back Monday. Hopefully the weekend is a little more profitable!
Current bankroll: $13,250
Monday, October 6, 2008
Perception v reality
- How soft is it - are there plenty of fishy tables?
- Are there enough players to allow for table selection?
- Does the lobby show players per flop?
- Are there any bugs?
- Am I getting timed out for no reason?
- How much does it rake?
- How much do I rakeback?
- Are there any other benefits?
- Is cash out simple and quick?
I guess what made me think of this topic is that i've just started on Pacific, which has a relatively high rake. I'm struggling a bit to find the same level of fishiness on the tables as the blindman, but i'll keep giving it a go - they must be out there. Admittedly I also lost to a couple of horrendous beats for decent sized pots as well which may also bias my opinion. So at the moment the jury is still out on Pacific.
The next thing I really need to do is find another decent sign up bonus. I'm leaning towards a longer term deal on Interpoker through RTR using a pounds rather than $US account. It looks like their monthly bonuses are very generous if you use that currency, as well as the initial ipod nano bonus (or cash equivalent for me I think).
As far as play goes, I put in less than half an hour's play yesterday, and basically broke even. Started horribly early on when I raised UTG with ATo, and got one cold caller from the button. Flop 933 rainbow. I cbet, he calls. Turn is a T, which I bet out again and get raised. WTF could he have? T9? a 3s? I'm fairly sure i'm in front here, but just call. River is an 8. I check, he bets, I call, and he shows down QJ ... wtf. Slowly clawed my way back, although had another set back or two with some even nastier beats, before getting back to even. Got credited $50 in rakeback though, so I end up positive for the day.
Current bankroll: $13,450
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Another bodog bonus cleared
It's always nice when you log in and your bankroll is $100 higher than when you last quit. Admittedly I knew I was due a decent bonus payment but hadn't included it in my bankroll as yet.
Only got in about 20 mins of poker, but still managed to gain about 15BBs on a combination of $1/2 and $2/4 tables mixed between bodog, cake and fulltilt. No real interesting hands, although one guy was quite good to me as he was quite aggro, and raised a 3 way hand on every street with a flush draw versus my top pair 2nd kicker only, on a board that had draws for both a flush and straight which all missed. I did battle to find a decent fulltilt table, although eventually got on one with a bunch of tight passives, and one very loose passive that I had position on.
Should have a few more bonus $ coming my way from Bodog as well. The next consideration for me will be whether to withdraw again from Bodog next month, or let my roll keep building up on that site so that I can play some more $4/8 there again. I'm kinda leaning towards the latter option, as it would be good to play some larger stakes again on there. Its a bit annoying they don't have $3/6 or $2/4 6max tables there.
I've also noticed that with the interest i'm earning from my withdrawals, i've almost paid off the interest debt from my initial bankroll investment online. (I figure I have to charge myself for the time it took me to actually make my first withdrawal of my original deposit). So basically from next month on, all interest will be added back into my bankroll for an added little bonus.
Current bankroll: $12,950
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Party bonus
At the same time I had a couple Bodog tables open, and they were running super hot. Every draw would hit, every cbet would get my opponent(s) to fold. I would have been up a good 30BBs in a very short period.
I dunno .. maybe $2/4 is just no good on Party ... or at least when everyone is on trying to clear this reload bonus.
The second half of my session on Party was much better though, and I recovered a good 15BBs - couple hands from the seconds half of the session are shown below. Finally found myself a table with a couple fish as well as the usual lag/tags which helped a lot. Cleared the first $10 of my reload bonus, and that's going to be enough party for me for now. Table selection there has been a pain and is quite off putting.
That being said, Party also gave me a $10 free money bonus, which was restricted from cash out until I had earnt 80 party points. The important thing about this bonus though, is that any winnings are not restricted. So by playing a hand of blackjack, and then quitting when I won, I managed to spin that up to $50 before losing my initial $10. This will be added to my poker bankroll since i've only made it because of Poker.
Obviously you have to have a real money Party account to actually receive any of these offers, so i'd recommend opening one at some stage - feel free to use my link on the right to go through PSO for their bonus $ as well :)
Current bankroll: $12,400
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Party reload
Fired up a couple $2/4 tables on Party and a couple on Cake for a session that lasted a bit under an hour. It actually only took me 4 tables on Party before I found two good one's worth playing on. Although admittedly one of them only had one huge fish but I had perfect position on him so decided to stay until he lost all his cash.
I had a pretty decent run on party after losing a couple nasty early beats, I ended the session around 25BBs up. Cake ended up only a few BBs but I hadn't had a lot of luck on there throughout the session. It was quite a swingy session actually with a lot of fairly large pots (15BB+) being contested by multiple players - i think mainly due to me being fairly aggressive and a couple fishes calling with bottom pair, no kicker .. or worse ...
I've cleared about 40 points of the party bonus in that time, so still have another 40 to go. Hopefully I have as much success on the tables whilst clearing the last 40.
Anyways, i've posted a few hands in the entry below.
Current Bankroll: $12,300
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Unlucky fish
One guy was particularly unlucky - he sat down with 10BBs on my left just as the BB got to me for my second orbit. I guess sittin down with only 10BBs is askin for trouble on a limit table, and it did prove a problem for him.
First hand he has raised UTG and I was the only caller in the BB with A8s. Flop was A72r, which I checked and he bet. I decided to play the hand passively here, as i'm sure i'd normally check raise, but I simply called his bet. Turn was a 3, which I simply checked and he bet. Again I called. River was a K which I actually donked into. He called showing 99. I'm sure I played that poorly.
Next hand i'm sitting on AKo in the sb. Again my opponent has open raised from middle position, which is folded to me so I reraise. Flop is AT4r. I bet he calls. Turn is a 7, I bet, he calls. River is a K, I bet he calls and shows AQs. So there's most of his stack already gone.
The very next hand i'm dealt AQo. This time he has open raised from the cutoff, which I then reraise from the button. Flop is A64r. He bets out, I raise. Turn is a 7 and he is all in which I call. He shows down AJo. Poor bugger, that's the end of his stack in 3 hands. Hehe.
Anyways for my 15 minute session I made about $100, and have received my rakeback/bonus cash from the other day which was a bit over $50.
Current bankroll: $11,750
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Hardly any play, but at least making a few bonus $
I've played that almost entirely on Bodog, where my balance basically has not moved, but at least i've cleared another $20 or so in bonus, and should have about $10 in cashback too.
Anyways, I might get a bit more play next week, but should be going away at some stage which will put a dent in that.
Will be a slow start to September by the looks!
I have however cashed out another $2k, so i'm currently earning a bit over $1 in interest per day from my cash withdrawals, which doesn't sound like too much but does add up to about $40 per month, or $500 per year, which is a few BBs for doing nothing at all.
Current Bankroll: $11,600
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
The best laid plans ...
What does that mean for my poker ... well i'll probably get in a few hours, but as soon as she's okay we'll take off.
Anyways, since I dont know exactly when i'm going I wont start any new deals. So I will do a bit of Cake and Bodog to clear their reloads, and maybe a bit of fulltilt for pure rackback, as well as getting around to William Hill sooner or later for the 5 hours that I must do there every month.
So in about 2 hours since my last post i've made about 25BBs on Cake $2/4 tables. The rest are fairly neutral.
Current Bankroll: $11,550
Sunday, August 31, 2008
New bonus site
I signed up with rakeaway:
http://www.rakeaway.com/?ref=snaffle22
I did the Everest bonus and Pokertime bonus through them and was successfully paid out. (They both cleared extremely quickly!!)
And did a couple of their bonuses that are actually through Regalos Poker. Thing is, rakeaway actually gives you an additional bonus on top of the Regalos Poker cash bonus, so its definitely worth using rakeaway for Regalos bonuses.
The other bonuses, well, I will either go through rakeaway, or through the people i've already signed up through if i'm already signed up on their referring site, as there doesn't seem to be any additional bonuses.
It is a very good site though, possibly the best i've found for comparing bonuses, and clearance rates, so i'd highly recommend taking a look.
Anyways if you're interested please use my referal link :)
Also bear in mind that you don't want to use the one off bonus deals on sites where you are likely to want to play on long term and are better off with rakeback. I'd still recommend raketherake for all your long term deals, as well as rakebackstat if you're interested in Bodog. (Links on right)
I found an error with Rakebackstat the other day, which was actually a Bodog error, and Rakebackstat still gave me a credit of $10 just for finding the error. Kudos to their customer service. They also report daily stats which is handy.
I'm off on holiday so i'll catch everyone again in a week's time when i'm back and at the tables.
Cheers all!
Current bankroll: $11,450
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Cake payin me back quickly
The $2/4 and $3/6 tables there donated another 30 or so BBs in total within a couple hours, so i'm gradually clawing my way back up.
Not a hugely interesting session though. I was hitting my cards reasonably often, but probably not more than my fair share. Had a fairly cool run on one table where my VPIP was down to 15% over 100 hands. I still actually ended even on the table though which is quite handy, so would have cleared a bit of bonus and earned some rakeback there as well at worst.
Also upgraded my Pokertracker so microgaming is now importing correctly again. Havent actually played there apart from one orbit though.
Probably wont get much in on the weekend and i'm going away for most of next week, so there wont be too much pokers.
Well at least i'm back up over the $11k mark, and only $100 short of my peak which I dramatically fell off only a few days ago.
Good luck all. Will write again after the weekend.
Current bankroll: $11,250
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
UB bonus cleared .. and a better session
The rest of the time I was playing on Cake playing $3/6 and $2/4 and a bit on microgaming at $2/4 but they have screwed up their software for the moment resulting in no hand histories, and therefore no Pokertracker.
Manual notes here we go again .....
That actually seemed to suit me, as I managed to win a solid 50BBs in the 3 hours, as well as clearing the $125 bonus. Should have also earnt a bit of rakeback on cake as well come to think of it.
A quick check of my stats on UB, where I showed a loss of $18 in the time it took to clear my bonus:
- Hands 559
- VPIP 27.19 ... hmm a bit low .. must not have got too many starting hands. Although actually i think i was next to a maniac for a bit too.
- WTSD 34% .. hmm a bit low .. i guess i didnt hit my hands too often. Annoying.
- W$SD 53.57% ... about right.
Current bankroll: $11,350