April 2009 summary

That's another losing month on the tables making it two in a row. Perhaps May will be better?

I still ended up in positive territory overall though making about $150 - at an hourly rate of $6/hour. Great. Even my BB/100 at Bodog $1/2 is now back in negative territory again after a horrible run this month.

Having a quick look at my stats, i'm still playing fairly solidly so can't spot any leaks that jump out at me. I suspect i've just been running a bit cool. If I look at every time i've had AA over the past 6k hands, i've actually only won 15/42. I'm sure that's a long way below expectation.

I think the month can be best summed up in the following hand from last night. Although there were actually many worse beats.

$2/$4 Limit Holdem • 6 Players
UTG 157.65 (unknown)
UTG+1 16.02
CO 26.2 (50/10 fish)
Hero 97 (me)
SB 6.15
BB 123.05
Pre-Flop (1.5 SB, 6 players) Hero is BTN with AcAh (nice)
UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, CO raises, Hero 3-bets, 1 fold, BB calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 folds, CO 4-bets, BTN calls, BB calls, UTG calls (thanks mr CO
Flop (19.5 SB, 4 players)

9s2h6s (fairly nice flop. spades are not particularly friendly)

BB checks, UTG checks, CO bets, Hero raises, BB folds, UTG calls, CO calls
Turn (12.8 BB, 3 players)

7c (nice ... a blank)

UTG bets (umm wtf does this donk mean? how did the 7 improve him? would he donk a set - surely you'd c/r? Maybe he's on the spade draw and waited for the turn? I am confused), CO calls, Hero calls (the donk into 2 players has put me off. I will call)
River (15.8 BB, 3 players)

Qs (bah, the flush got there)

UTG bets, CO raises, Hero calls, UTG calls (i still suspect i've got enough equity in this pot. the CO raise here seems odd since he 4 bet preflop, unless he's AKs)
Final Pot: 20.0 BB
CO shows KcQh (nice river raise muppet)
UTG shows 8c5s (ummm. wtf. f me)

UTG wins 20.0 BB ( won +14.0 BB )

I'll be taking up the offer from RakeTheRake for 50%+ rakeback at William Hill in May. I'm not expecting a huge volume again in May as I'm going to be fairly busy. Hopefully I can actually make a profit though!

Last month's goals for April

• Clear as much of my Bodog reload bonus as possible (cleared about $110ish)
• Clear the remainder of my Cake reload bonus (please give me another one Cake!!) (done, but no reload unfortunately)
• Spend some more poker points and hopefully convert some to cash (fulltilt?) Spent a few and lost :(
• Play some more Pacific if it seems fishy (Played a stack and came out fairly even)
• Maybe sign up for Noiq through RakeTheRake if their race is generous enough. (race wasn't worth taking up)

The gain of $150 for the month was made up of:

Bonuses/vip: $205

Bodog $110
Cake $20
Pacific $75

Rakeback: $100

Fulltilt $10
Cake $20
William Hill $70

Poker bankroll Interest: $50

Poker losses: ($205)

For May the goals in order of priority are:

• Clear as much of my Bodog reload bonus as possible
• Take advantage of the 50%+ rakeback at William Hill for May through RakeTheRake
• Spend some more poker points and hopefully convert some to cash (fulltilt?)
• Play some more Pacific if it seems fishy

Current bankroll: $17,400
April time played: 24h

Fish out in force

Odd for a midweek, but the fish seemed to be out there on quite a few tables. Of course i'd only have 15 minutes to play which kinda sucked, but they still donated me a good 40BBs at $1/2 and a handful at $2/4.

I actually found one guy on a $1/2 table on Bodog who was betting and raising every single time, on every street no matter what two cards he had. When I sat down he had about 70BBs, and in the space of 15 minutes he'd thrown away the lot. Actually it was probably more like 10 minutes ... if that.

On another table I had two opponents around the 70/5 mark and one at 65/30. A goldmine as it were, although oddly the 65/30 guy I had 600 hands on and was running at +10BB/100. I guess a chunk of that could have been from me running super cold and donating him quite a few BBs in the last few weeks. Those guys handed over about 20BBs for my session even though I had my AA cracked twice in the space of 15 hands. They paid me back when I hit the 2nd nut flush on the turn of a capped 4 ways preflop, 4 ways on the flop, and 3 ways on the turn. My flush was quite a ways in front of an overpair in the end for a huge pot.

I also received my Bodog reload for the month, so i'm going to have to make another deposit again tonight or whenever I get back onto the tables.

I think i've got one month left on my William Hill deposit bonus, so I won't be looking for a new bonus to chase quite yet.

Current bankroll: $17,400
April time played: 23h30m
April profit/(loss): $150

Little time, little play

Its amazing how small things like looking to buy a house, organising a wedding, sorting out car salary sacrificing, birthdays etc get in the way of playing poker ..... (not to mention Dream Team as well - some tricky trading coming up).

I've played less than half an hour in the last couple days - in fact literally only 3 orbits on a couple tables. They were kind enough to give me about 10BBs at each of $2/4 and $1/2 before the fish on my right ran out of cash on both tables so I can't really complain. Effectively that's brought me back to square for the month, so April has been another tough slog. I should be getting about $100 in reload bonus cash in the next couple days so hopefully I can end up in the black again.

Current bankroll: $17,250
April time played: 23h
April profit/(loss): $0

Could have been

.... a great weekend.

I played an hour on Saturday, and Bodog decided to pay me back 40BBs at $1/2 out of about the 150 i've lost over the past couple weeks. Nice of them, particularly on one table where every single other player had a VPIP of 60+ at one stage.

Then on Sunday in my first 40 mins or so I was up another 20BBs at both the $3/6 and $2/4 levels, with position on a couple 70/20 fish on William Hill.

Life was good.

After another 40 minutes when I opened a table on Pacific where I had position on a 60/20 guy, and two to his right was a 70/5 guy. Almost perfect.

Then I didn't win a single showdown, including a couple huge pots where I had the nut flush on the turn, only for the board to pair on the river. Ugly.

Back to square one in only 40 mins as I had lost about 40BBs. Still .. it was a great table, and I really couldn't leave.

Thankfully my last 40 minutes turned out to be okay, booking a solid 10BBs at $3/6 and 20BBs at $1/2 on bodog. I even had a couple huge hands, where in the first I was holding A7o on a flop of AAA. I didn't get raised, but I did get called down including the river.

My other huge hand was when I had an OESD and BDFD with 7h8h and a board of 9hTd2s. Turn Th, river Jh. My opponent had only 2 pair but at least paid off my straight flush.

Once I had in rakeback and reload bonuses for this month i'm actually probably just back into the black now. Another ordinary month to date though.

Current bankroll: $17,200
April time played: 22h30m
April profit/(loss): ($50)

The rare 70s fish

As planned I got in a couple hours of poker last night which ended up with a single $1/2 table on Bodog, a mixture of $2/4 and $3/6 on William Hill and several double up sngs on Pokerstars to try to clear my old reload there, as well as just being something different.

I had position on one guy on bodog who was 70/0, and I was thinking I would be in for a fantastic session there. He also went to showdown 70% of the time. Unfortunately for me, he then managed to win 70% of those showdowns to have about a 80BB/100 over the space of about 100 hands. I'm soon another 50BBs down on Bodog. Go figure.

On the $2/4 and $3/6 tables though, I managed to win about 15BBs each, which actually meant that i'd finished the session in the black. Not too many notable hands but I probably switched between about 20 tables for the session to make sure I always had position on at least one largish fish. I should have accrued some decent rakeback as well given the time I played for.

I quite enjoyed playing double ups for a change again too. I hadn't really played since crypto died the other month. Out of my 3 games, I lost my super turbo when I pushed all in for 10BBs with JJ and got called by AT. Flop A and i'm out. Harsh. However, I made up for it in one of the regular double ups where I pushed all in with a OESD and some guy decided to call me ... with A high. I'm like, WTF? how can you call an all in with A high .... Anyways, I hit my draw and survived to double up. The third game ran pretty simply, with no real confrontations, and never having to put it all in which is the way I prefer double ups to go.

Hopefully I will get in another couple hours of poker on the weekend. Good luck all.

Current bankroll: $17,100
April time played: 19h30m
April profit/(loss): ($150)

And down again

The fish have been eating me alive. In the last hour ranging from $1/2 to $3/6 I dropped another couple hundred on some absolutely superb tables with a minimum of 3 players over 60/20.

I ended up with a went to showdown at a slightly low 34%, but a W$SD at all of 15% meant that I had been crucified. I was probably lucky in that again a lot of it was at $1/2 and $2/4, and my $3/6 table actually ended up positive. Although I could also look at it that I was simply running like a big turd on most of the tables.

I should be able to play an hour or two tonight. Hopefully I can run a little better! Its looking like its going to be a struggle again this month.

Current bankroll: $17,050
April time played: 17h30m
April profit/(loss): ($200)

Back to square one for April

Finally got myself back to even for the month last night in a short session. As per usual, the midweek saw very few tables open, however, I did find my big fish from yesterday on Bodog. Unluckily though, the only seat available was on his right. Luckily, there were also a couple other fish to the right of that so I sat on down.

I was also looking for some tables on William Hill. There were probably a good 25 tables running between $1/2 and $3/6. However, it seems that midweek is when all the nits and tags come out, as the highest players per pot was about 45, and when I sat down on that table ($2/4) it rapidly dropped to under 30 within a couple orbits, so obviously I stood up and left.

Bodog was at least a bit more generous to me today though, and my fishy mate gave me back a good 10BBs, and another couple fish donated me another 10 or so. Managed to get my AA cracked for the 4th time in a row, so i'm looking forward to that turning around sooner or later.

Also received some more William Hill rakeback. I dunno how it works there or on what basis they pay it out, as I seem to get random credits, for random amounts, at random times of the week. At least its a little more than I was expecting, otherwise i'd have to complain!

Since there's not much poker to talk about, thought i'd do a quick AFL DT update. Currently sitting in the top 300 overall, but still managed to lose my first league game in my mates' league so i'm in the bottom half of the table there. Not too fussed as it was against another very good team. In my league where i'm playing for cash, I had a solid win first up, so that's looking good. Plenty of trades left in the bank, and i'll keep em that way, as i'd really like to take the winner takes all prize of $300. My main threat has already used 5 out of his 20 trades, and its only round 1, so I suspect unless he gets very lucky i'm in with a huge chance of taking the cash when he runs out of trades near the end of the season.

Current bankroll: $17,250
April time played: 16h30m
April profit/(loss): $0