Thursday, October 15, 2009

HUD back in business .. for now

After downloading what I thought was a fix for my gametime+ HUD issue with my converted database, I quickly found that it didn't work at all.

Didn't take long though to just download an older version of Gametime+ which seems to work, although it automatically pops up tables which is a bit annoying when i'm not even sitting at the table that I have open.

It was the normal midweek struggle to find decent tables, although somehow I spotted a couple $4/8 tables which had a couple tags and three fish that I could get position on. Started off up a few BBs, but quickly gave that back and dropped about 10BBs to a big fish opposite me on the table. AK can't seem to hold up for me this month - and got done twice in the space of one orbit against A5 and A7 respectively.

However, my fishy friends decided to keep calling me down trying to hit their three outers, and after missing several in a row I was back up for the session. After that a player or two quit each table, and one of the fish actually stood up and moved from being on my right to sitting on my left, which was extremely annoying. I decided to just quit though, as the table was getting shorter than i'd like. I'm still not overly strong on the seriously short handed tables, and prefer at least five players, but even more so six.

Back to a new peak of the bankroll now, and due a decent rakeback credit as well. Hopefully I get in a bit of play over the weekend, as I have a wedding next weekend so the poker tables will be pretty quiet.

Current bankroll: $20,450
October time played: 9h
October profit / (loss): $550

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Pokertracker database change

I finally got round to one of my goals for the year - changing my Pokertracker database from Access to Postgres SQL. At first the process seemed a lot simpler than i'd first thought, and the installation was done within a couple minutes.

A while later and i've converted several of my existing databases to SQL, and was applauding how simple it was.

Then I opened a few tables, and tried to run Gametime+ .... fail ... some kind of authentication error code "80040e4d" so that it could not access the database. Then spent half an hour surfing for a solution whilst playing three $1/2 tables, and mostly found a bunch of dead links ... great.

I have hopefully now found a patch that works now and will try tonight, but i'm not holding my breath. I know that I need to upgrade to Pokertracker3 by March next year, so this may even accelerate that upgrade if it doesn't work. It will also give me a more informative HUD so is probably worth doing anyways.

On the plus side, I found that I could fairly comfortably play the three tables whilst surfing around - although I was quickly 30BBs down after a string of beats. By the end of the half hour I was back to even relying on player notes rather than a HUD. Most of my notes simply gave VPIP and PFR, but even that is enough to spot the big fish.

Got credited a few rakeback dollars as well, so now i'm back to my peak bankroll that I last saw on the 30th of August.

Current bankroll: $20,350
October time played: 8h
October profit / (loss): $450

Monday, October 12, 2009

Intermittent monitor problems

I seem to be cursed with PC hardware problems these days. I can't remember having this many issues with a PC before. Now my monitor has decided it doesn't always like the power connection, and occasionally turns off and wont turn back on without reseating the power cable several times. Add to that the DVI input also appears to have connection issues and occasionally disconnects for a split second which effectively restarts the monitor.

So far no really horrible results caused by this - although one hand on a $1/2 table I had AQ and ended up getting timed out preflop because my screen was blank, only to later see i'd have flopped my A against a maximum of two opponents.

As an interim solution i've switched power cables, and then also switched my monitor from DVI to VGA. Currently cursing having to do this as once you've had DVI, there's no way you want to go back to the fuzziness that is VGA. It's not terrible, but its not a super sharp digital picture either.

After all that screwing around I ended up having all of about 15 minutes for poker, and struggled to find any good tables so never really got started. Although I did make a few BBs on the $1/2s another few at $2/4 and a few more at $4/8 for a $50 gain. Basically I stayed just long enough for one of my huge fish to get cleaned out on one of the tables - pity he didn't give much of it to me though.

Current bankroll: $20,300
October time played: 7h30m
October profit / (loss): $400

Sunday, October 11, 2009

$1/2 revenge

With the day off work on Friday, and a spare few hours on the weekend I played a few hours of poker including one of the Cake gold card tournaments.

I still dunno how you tourney guys do it. The cake tournament was a rebuy which had what I thought were very quick blind rises. Starting stack of 1,500 chips, and at the first hour break the blinds were 500/1000. I'd improved my chip stack to 9,000 at the break which was probably slightly below average. I'd survived one lucky all in earlier on during the rebuy period where I had 2 pair and my opponent had the straight, but hit my boat on the turn. Anyways, about two orbits after the break I'm fairly shortstacked compared with only 7,000 chips left and see K2s in the sb with it folded to me. The big blind has a few k more chips than me, so I push all in. He flips AA and its gg me. Just seems frustrating to me to spend over an hour for nothing.... although I did have some cash tables open at the same time.

I guess if I really think about it i'm not far off even from a whole month of cash table play - but it just doesnt seem the same .. and its not.

Speaking of the cash tables, one $1/2 table donated me 50BBs in the space of about 150 hands where I hit quite a few TPTK hands, which miraculously held up multiway relatively often. Made another around 40BBs on another $1/2 in a later session, and I more or less broke even on the $4/8 and $5/10 tables for the weekend.

Things were looking a little poorer when I was down 25BBs on a $4/8 table where I had position on a huge aggro muppet running at 85/45, and I just could not hit a hand ... until ... I had 99 and he'd as usual raised UTG. It then got capped by one of the blinds so was already a big pot preflop. Flop was an amazing 966 with two spades. I didn't play it fast on the flop which I think in hindsight was possibly a mistake, although I did get to raise and cap the turn which was a Qs completing a potential flush draw. Would have been disappointing if either opponent had 66 or QQ but I'm almost always going to be betting and capping here. Anyways both opponents didnt have it and that 25BB pot put me over halfway back to even, and a couple other small pots before quitting left me only a few BBs down.

Current bankroll: $20,250
October time played: 7h
October profit / (loss): $350

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Stinkin it up at $1/2

I still can't take a trick at $1/2. Dropped about another 40BBs last night, so had a quick check of my stats so far this month. Overall, i'm showing down less than usual, and winning significantly less than a normal percentage of showdowns. I have to put that down to running pretty cold, rather than any obvious consistently bad plays.

Fortunately though i've made a few BBs at the $4/8 level again to at least maintain my bankroll rather than losing some fairly big chunks. I am about 150BBs down at $1/2 for the month - which would be far far worse if it was at $4/8. Variance can easily do that to you though - I guess that's why they invented bank roll management.

Current bankroll: $19,950
October time played: 4h
October profit / (loss): $50

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Yoyo sessions continue

Played almost an hour since the weekend, and have again posted one of those sessions where I've started horrifically before recovery most, if not all.

The $1/2 tables on Bodog smashed me for 50BBs in the space of half an hour, spread over two or three tables. Missed a few draws, and got sucked out on quite a few times by the fish, and it was looking ugly. It is amazing how quickly you can lose a lot of BBs on some hugely fishy tables. Come the next half hour and it's turned around completely. My big hands start holding up, I hit a flush draw or two, and i've recovered 45BBs.

Then it was my turn on the $4/8 tables, where again, I can't hit anything to save myself. On one hand I have a huge hand with top pair, an OESD, and 2nd nut flush draw up against two players - one with an underpair and one with a gutshot. Inevitably the guy with the gutshot rivers his two outer, and I lose a 20BB pot. That really was the story of the session there.

Made up for it on a $5/10 table though where again I started off horribly with Ks9s versus JsTs with both of us going for a flush draw in a huge multiway pot, and him rivering the Td. However, a few hands later I have the nut flush draw and am up against the second nut flush draw which we both hit on the river and he is happy to cap the river betting. So that single pot puts me up over 10BBs after another relatively poor start. I think I would have cried if he had shown the straight flush ...

Current bankroll: $20,000
October time played: 3h
October profit / (loss): $100

Monday, October 5, 2009

Long weekend kickoff for the month

Well you'd think a long weekend would mean gettin in a heap of poker....

Unfortunately no, although I have played a couple hours. It's been an interesting session or two though, where the swings have been 60 or so BBs downwards, followed by a crawl back to even to end each session.

The weekend had been fairly generous in providing fishy tables to play at on both Cake and Bodog - although a few did dry up when I cleaned out my fish, so I had to quit as the remainder of the table were generally tags.

Overall in net BB terms I would be down as the fish have been slaughterin me at $1/2, but that's been more than made up with some okay, but not great sessions at $4/8.

Current bankroll: $20,000
October time played: 2h
October profit / (loss): $100