$20,000

Taken a while, but i've finally hit the $20,000 mark. Been a bit slower going than i'd like this year, but its nice to achieve the next milestone.

I played about an hour and a half on the weekend, and even then it was often only a couple tables max. The first hour was pretty slow going - made maybe 10BBs on a $3/6 table and even on a couple others.

However, the next session I ran reasonably hot, with a couple aggro donks donating me 40BBs in the space of 20 minutes on one table. Add on about 5BBs on a $5/10 table and a bit of rakeback, and when I completed my balances spreadsheet, I was pleasantly surprised to have hit the $20,000.

I'm sure its much smaller than a lot of people have made from poker, but i'm happy with how things are going, and the levels i'm playing at.

Have to make a cash withdrawal per my bankroll strategy, and i'm sure i'll use a portion of it for some kind of reward for effort.

Current bankroll: $20,000
August time played: 7h30
August profit/(loss): $300

In the beginning

"Mr Cea said...
How much did u start with and what site? what level?"

Maybe it's time to revisit how I started. Step one - I clicked on my very first post for a bit of a refresh as to how my blog started. Step 2 - realise i've omitted a bit. Step 3 - write this post

I actually originally started with a $50 deposit on Party Poker in about May 2007. I think I had just downloaded a basic starting hand table for fixed limit full ring poker so thought i'd give it a go at the 0.05/0.10 tables.

I didn't really know anything about bonuses etc although I had found a bonus code for party, and then managed to input it incorrectly and missed out on the bonus.

With just that basic poker knowledge I was able to make a pretty steady profit, albeit relatively small in $ terms due to the small stakes. At this point I decided to buy Phil Helmuth's book and read that before realising it wasn't that helpful to the games I was playing. I also watched Annie Duke's DVD which was something about the basics of online play. I think it briefly covered both limit and no limit and had some decent common sense.

Something along the lines of my reading lead me to 2p2 and the realisation that a) I should be using some kind of poker tracking software (both for my own game and analysing others) and b) I was nuts to be playing without any sort of bonus or rakeback (i'd now finally learnt about rake and what it was).

At that point I had moved up to 0.1/0.2 and the occaional 0.25/0.50 fixed limit on Party but realised I couldn't get a deal there as I already had an account. So in July 2007 I decided to take up the fulltilt rakeback offer and $600 sign up bonus through RakeTheRake. I decided I could afford a $600 (although probably closer to $900 Australian) commitment, and with any luck i'd be able to withdraw it back so that I was only playing with profit.

I also purchased pokertracker and learnt how to use and interpret the information it provided as well as how to set up a HUD. I'm still using PT2 and gametime+ as a HUD - although i'm sure i'd be better off with a more comprehensive HUD. If Holdem manager didn't crash on my Vista64 install suspect i'd be using that now.

I believe the smallest tables at the time on Fulltilt were .25/.50 so I started there and at the same time read a heap on playing 6max rather than fullring - starting with 2p2 and then also getting stox's book when that came out.

I fairly quickly switched over to playing purely 6max as I found fullring a little boring. Interestingly enough though i'm fairly conservative by nature so fullring probably suits my personality better, but now that i've found how to play a decent 6max game I can't see myself ever going back. Supershort though is a bit of a struggle for me, so I just don't play it.

I gradually added tables so that eventually I was playing 6 tables of .25/50 or .50/1 6max fixed limit. My initial results weren't even that good and I was barely profiting even with rakeback. But since I was playing a few tables at a high rake game, I was clearing the bonus pretty quick and even occasionally had shots at the $1/2 tables just to clear it even quicker. As another side note, I usually only play four tables maximum now and even that was a bit of a struggle yesterday. Since i'm much more picky on table selection its often difficult to get a lot of tables running so i'm a bit out of practice.

After that bonus cleared, I found i'd only marginally improved my bankroll, but my play had improved significantly. I then went on the search for other bonuses elsewhere such as a stack of them through Poker Source which gave me a much bigger kick start to the bankroll with well over 100% rakeback.

Hmm and that's a very long winded answer to a pretty short and simple question.

It's only taken 24,000 hands ...

... but finally my $1/2 limit BB/100 stats are showing in the green on Bodog.

I managed at one stage to get to about 20BBs in front, but then ran my flopped set into a flopped flush (the guy had 82s), and then about five hands later, I flopped another set, only for the same guy to river his flush with 64s. Of course I didn't fill up to a boat on either. He was running at -20BB/100 over 250 hands - just a pity he wasn't giving me those losses.

Its been a fairly long battle to get back to square, particularly when I was down by over 250BBs at a couple stages, but i'm now hoping to gradually eek it up to hopefully get to 2BB/100. It actually feels like i've reached a big milestone in simply getting back to even alone but I genuinely think 2BB/100 is achievable. However, since i've already logged quite a few hands at simply break even, its going to take some time.

That being said the bonuses have been fairly good with Bodog so i'm still doing okay from the site, albeit with the $4/8 tables dragging me significantly backwards as well given i've run like a big dry turd at that limit.

Current bankroll: $16,750

$15k milestone

In the last couple days my bankroll has reached $15,000 for the first time which is significantly more than I had expected at the start of this year when my bankroll was all of $2,500. I will probably reflect on that in my end of year post, but its nice to know that my hobby that I really enjoy has been making me about $1k per month.

I had yesterday off work again as I just can't throw this cold/flu/whatever it is. Putting in about 3 hours of play resulted in me clearing my Party bonus, and making enough profit on the tables to just squeak over the $15k mark. I actually wasn't specifically aiming for it, and was a little surprised when I entered my end of day balances in my spreadsheet to see that i'd crossed that milestone. (Particularly when taking into account that about a week ago my bankroll was under $14,000).

Being unaware was probably for the best, as its not really good for your play to be aiming for a certain amount - I subscribe to the theory that you should always just play as you normally play, as close to optimally as possible depending on your opponents and the play that is occurring within the current hand.

If you're aiming for a certain value it could easily influence your play, even unconsciously, such that you may play tighter when you get to your target and potentially leave value on the table, or (and considerably worse) you might start falling away from reaching your target and play looser to try to meet it (ie TILT), which inevitably will result in further losses. I guess for some people it might occur the opposite way round, but anything that makes you play looser when you really shouldn't be can't be good for your overall bankroll.

Current bankroll: $15,000

Multiple sites simultaneously

I've noticed having multiple sites open at once is normally not much of a problem. However, when you add Cake into the mix with no HUD, it does become a little more tricky, as I have to make sure I have time to make manual notes. I'm still comfortable with 4 tables open, although it can be a little hectic and occasionally I need to open hand histories to back track on notes on some players.

I don't think it hurts my win rate though, as I can spot the fish relatively quickly, although do have the occasional revision where i've mistaken a LAG for a fish.

I got in about an hour of play last night, which turned out to be relatively profitable. Cake had some nice $2/4 and $3/6 tables, although I didn't really go far with them but made a few BBs. Should have some nice rakeback though. I found a nice $2/4 table on Interpoker though, and for once I didn't get slaughtered there. I'm back to being a bit better than -3BB/100 there now ... after making 25BBs ... sheesh. There was one other pretty decent table on interpoker with two tags and three pretty big fish. Problem was I found myself directly to the left of the two tags, and that made for some pretty hard going, so I quit the table after a couple orbits.

Current bankroll: $14,000

A handy little session

Didn't actually get much time to play poker on the weekend, and in the hour that I got in to play, there were very few tables open worth actually playing on.

For my ultimate bet bonus, there were exactly 0 tables open at the stakes that I wanted, so that cut that out. Cake had one table open at the $3/6 level and no other tables worth considering.

I decided to sign up for another bonus as well. Will see how that goes and if the affiliate actually pays out before mentioning it on here though. That being said, their site had exactly 0 tables running between $1/2 and $4/8 at the time I signed up as well. (That's where my previous post happened though, where I accidently played an orbit of NL400 instead of limit $2/4).

Anyways, the Cake table turned out to be superb. A couple of decent fish, and every time I had a hand it seemed any othe LAG/TAG would also have a hand, but a slightly weaker one. Finally cracked the $11,000 mark where I ended the session, so things are starting to look a little better.

I also cashed out another $2,000 the other day, as i'd rather have the money earning interest than sitting in a poker or neteller account.

Since my hands were at Cake I dont have any history to post but there were some great fishy plays by my opponents, and one LAG/TAG who decided to raise every street whilst holding 62o versus my top pair. TY.

Hopefully will do some more UB and clear my new bonus this week though, or at least on the weekend.

Current bankroll: $11,050

Weekend post

Probably not going to get time to post tomorrow, so figured i'd throw in a quick update from the weekend.

Got in about 3 hours which began terribly dropping around 30BBs at $3/6 in the first hour, before gradually clawing it back over the next two to finish all square. Probably made a bit out of rakeback, and earned $30 in bonuses, so am actually a little up for the sessions and happy to recover from such a terrible start.

The first hour was horrible with some smart arse playing like a complete muppet, but managing to hit hands like 73o calling raises amongst others. I ended up leaving the table when he left as he was the biggest fish by far on the table. Fish do win sometimes, so i'll keep a lookout for them next time to grab it all back.

Anyways a few hands:

** Wait [Hold 'em] (3.006.00 Fixed - $ Cash Game) Real Money

- Bren17 sitting in seat 1 with $47.40
- _ScarfACE_ sitting in seat 2 with $162.52 [Dealer]
- Dancat44 sitting in seat 3 with $89.51
- hero sitting in seat 4 with $147.00
- alby1 sitting in seat 5 with $126.01
- Dinov111 sitting in seat 6 with $342.40

Dancat44 posted the small blind - $1.50
hero posted the big blind - $3.00
** Dealing card to hero: 3 of s, 3 of h (not bad at all. will call a raise in the bb if necessary)
alby1 called - $3.00 (limpers nice for implied odds)
Dinov111 folded
Bren17 called - $3.00 (awesome another limper)
_ScarfACE_ raised - $6.00 (hmm ... well i'll definitely call here with the pot already growing)
Dancat44 called - $6.00 (awesome. i'm almost going to have odds to call a raise on the flop to chase down a 3 on the turn at this rate)
hero called - $6.00 (hopefully no reraise. that would be annoying)
alby1 called - $6.00
Bren17 called - $6.00

** Dealing the flop: 10 of c, 3 of c, 2 of h (kaching. 2 clubs are a little annoying though)
Dancat44 bet - $3.00
hero called - $3.00 (lets try to get an overcall or 3)
alby1 called - $3.00 (awesome)
Bren17 folded (damn)
_ScarfACE_ folded (damn)

** Dealing the turn: 5 of d
Dancat44 bet - $6.00
hero raised - $12.00 (time to get some value, and to make the flush draws pay. dont want to risk alby folding and not getting any more value out of Dancat)
alby1 folded (call woulda been better but oh well)
Dancat44 called - $12.00 (ty)

** Dealing the river: 2 of s (gives me the full house. nice)
Dancat44 checked
hero bet - $6.00
Dancat44 folded (jeez not even a call. maybe he was on the flush draw)
hero mucks:
hero wins $66.00 from the main pot

Continuation betting for beginners .... might write about this later on I think

** Wait [Hold 'em] (3.00/6.00 Fixed - $ Cash Game) Real Money

- _ScarfACE_ sitting in seat 2 with $154.50
- Dancat44 sitting in seat 3 with $0.00 [Dealer] [Sitting out]
- hero sitting in seat 4 with $190.23
- Dinov111 sitting in seat 6 with $349.60

hero posted the small blind - $1.50 (table is now too short. will quit as soon as BB gets back to me)
Dinov111 posted the big blind - $3.00
** Dealing card to hero: 5 of s, 6 of s
_ScarfACE_ folded
hero raised - $6.00 (worth a steal from the sb)
Dinov111 called - $6.00

** Dealing the flop: K of h, K of c, J of c (whiffed)
hero bet - $3.00 (may as well try to steal the pot with only one opponent and I raised preflop)
Dinov111 folded (thanks)
hero mucks:
hero wins $14.40 from the main pot

Its also exactly a year since my first deposit on Full Tilt. I think though i'll do a proper review at December rather than July. I think though its been a pretty decent year so far. Hopefully the next is just as good.

Current Bankroll: $10,750 (+360 Aug)

Clearing through the fish

Well, i've been off work, and put in about 8 hours in total over the last couple days, and it has been somewhat painful, although at least still in a positive direction. The first day I hit the $10k mark which I thought was a great result for me, as I still haven't been playing quite a year, and really havent taken too many risks along the way.

Had one huge fish on Bodog complain about me raising all the time, as he continued to limp into pot after pot only to get raised by me in position. Problem was, he managed to suck out way more than his fair share, which was really getting annoying. For some reason he thought that 22 was good in a raised pot in a flop of KJTr, where I was holding AK. 2 on the river though sunk me quick. Every time he had an A he would call down, and about three contests in a row where I was in front of him, he managed to pair his A on the river to take the pot. For example I had KQo on a board of K52 - obiously him with A7o is worth peeling for in this case. Turn of a 2, is still obviously worth calling a raise. River A ... sux. He also managed to hit a flush with Q5o v my KK where the board hit a 4th flush card on the river for his 5 to be good enough to beat me.

Fortunately towards the end of the session he was no longer sucking out quite so often, so for example when I bet every street with KJ on a board that read K99, turn 9, river 4 and he called me down with A2o I made a few BBs back.

At ongame I was on a table with 3 fish with stats around 60/2/0.3/60 ... and of those 60% going to showdown each of them was winning over 50%. The 3 other players on the table including me were just getting slaughtered. My actual winrate at Ongame where i'm clearing the mansion bonus (well have now cleared) was reading at a horrendous -8bb/100 over the first 1,000 hands. I've now got it back to more like -4bb/100 as the tables have remained pretty fishy, and the suckouts aren't coming all that often.

I did let fly a bit in the chat box, before deciding I was way better off keeping quiet and hoping he'd keep playing at the table. In hindsight though I think he was enjoying the banter.

I also played in one of the Cake gold card tournaments, and was actually doing okay in the top 40 of around 1,300 runners when I had to go see the doctor. Bit annoyed that I had to throw it away, although my stack was only a quarter the size of the largest stack, I was definitely still in it. Got about $30 or so from that, so I guess its better than nothing.

With respect to bonuses, I cleared the Mansion bonus, so that should be around $100. Will find out in a couple days. Hopefully also have some decent rakeback/cashback from bodog and cake as well. I think i'm also about 1/3 of the way through my GNUF bonus as well, although i'm having a bit of trouble putting some more $ on that site at the moment.

Current Bankroll: $10,100

$10,000 - a new milestone for me!

Just a quick post. Played a good 4 hours today on tables ranging from $1/2 to $4/8. Only problem was that Aussie daytime is generally rubbish for peak poker times, so there was lots of starting on tables then the table disappearing and having to find a new one.

Bodog went down for maintenance just when tables were looking good which was also disappointing.

However, I have finally hit the $10,000 milestone. I also signed up to gnuf through PSO to get some more bonus $, and i'm part way to another $120 there.

Nothing else to exciting in play today. I must admit, I hadn't actually considered that I'd ever make this much in my first year. I worked out that my first deposit was on the 26th of July 2007, so I am very happy with my results thus far.

Current Bankroll: $10,000 (+360 Aug)

A nice hand

Actually played a bit of poker on the weekend, so maybe did about 3 hours. The highlight would have been the following hand on Cake:


QJo in BB, with one raiser on the button and one caller. Flop of AsQsTs, which actually did match my Js. SB bets ... kinda weird, but okay, so I call, and Button calls. Turn Ks .. kaching - that's my second royal flush ever. Now, how on earth am I going to get the most out of this I ask myself. SB again bets out - so do I just call hoping to keep button in or reraise? At this point I decided to just call, and thankfully so did the button. River is 9s! SB checks the river, so I bet, and gain two callers, and take down a bit over a 10BB pot. I can't see how I could have extracted any more than that, but feel free to give your opinion. Not my biggest win ever, but its always cool to see that royal flush :)


I ended up signing up on Pokerroom through PSO. (and bubbled their weekly freeroll final which was annoying. My JJ didnt hold up v AQ). However, as far as the bonus goes - with my deposit of $150, I need to get 400 MPPs to clear a $150 PSO bonus, and then another 80 points after that to clear another $60 direct from the room. No rakeback deal is better than that, so I figure its worth my time.


I did play a bit on the weekend, and have knocked off about 120 points so far from that bonus, and my cake rackback for the month has finally hit $100. Actually ran fairly hot on pokerroom(found plenty of fish to sit to the left of), which always seems the way for ongame for me . At the beginning of each bonus I blitz the tables, then give it back just as I clear the last $50. Hopefully this won't be a repeat performance with all the fish on there!


Current bankroll: $5,600

Mini milestone achieved

Played about 40 mins partly on William Hill as I cleared my 4th hour of the 5 hours worth of bonuses. Was tough to find a decent table on there, and ended up only a few $ up and quit as soon as the lone fish left the table. Only one more hour to clear though which shouldnt be too tricky - hopefully I find a nice loose table next time I log in.

At the same time I played a couple double up SNGs on Sun, one for 10 pounds and the other for $5. Both went relatively smoothly where I managed to double my stack in both well before the bubble, and basically then cruised through to the money.

Only hand I can think that was noteworthy was when I was dealt T8s in the small blind, and it was folded around to me. I did my usual 3x BB raise, and I was a little surprised when the button called (he had a medium stack). The flop was a sweet TTx rainbow, so my next thoughts were how to get the rest of his stack in - around 1,200 chips with me having about 2,200 behind me. I insta min raised the flop, which he reraised around 200 chips. I thought about it for a few seconds before calling. The turn was a blank, which I ended up checking hoping that he'd continue his betting, and given he raised the flop I figured there was a decent chance of that. He thought for about 30 seconds before pushing his last 1,000 chips in, which I insta-called. I guess he could have had another 10, or a full house, but I was hoping in a blind battle this was not the case. He flipped over QQ, and received no Q on the river, so he was out.

I guess he learned his lesson not to slowplay and just call a raise with QQ. A reraise preflop would have put real pressure on me to fold. Still, i'm not sure if I played the hand quite correctly, as my no limit experience is very limited, and I still haven't read any of the theory on it.

Anyways it let me hit my $5k milestone, which i'm quite pleased with, although its obviously still small stakes to many people.

Also received in my email another 15% reload offer from party up to a max of $100. I will take up some of that offer, although with only 7 days to clear and not having a lot of time to play i will only make a small deposit.

Current bankroll: $5,030