Thursday, January 25, 2007

Another big one looming?

Well I feel like im getting closer to cashing relatively big in a MTT soon, ive got into the habit now of trying to play at least one or two MTTs every weekend in the hope of adding a nice boost to my bankroll.
I played a $20 180 man sng last week and came 12th, I was so close to making that final table. Theres nothing more frustrating than playing for 3 hours and busting that close to the big money! But, I think I played at my best and felt that I didnt make too many mistakes - I busted pushing A6 from the small blind into the big blind who called half his stack with A9 and it held up. Personally I thought it was a bad call on the bubble but thats just me. These things happen. My M was about 4 so it was a no brainer really..
I quite like the format of the 180 man sngs and seem to get qutie far in them each time, fingers crossed if I keep trying, one day I may get a nice cash :)

Ive used all of my T$ playing the $15 turbos. My bankroll at pokerstars is looking very healthy now.
Im not gonna be too quick in moving up this time, ive decided to wait until ive played around 250 at this level, just so ive got a nice cushion when the inevitable downswings kick in.

Im also going to try some 2 table sng turbos this weekend as I hear they are quite profitable.

So to summarise, heres my current bankroll and ROI:

Pokerstars: $805
WillHill: $130.88
Neteller: $271.68

TOTAL: $1207.56
SNG ROI: 17%

So going in the right direction at the moment

On a completely different topic im at a bit of a dilemma with the kickboxing. Basically Im supposed to be fighting in Cardiff on March 3rd, but im also starting my brown belt training on Sunday. It is very difficult to give equal attention to both mainly because I would have to train full contact techniques for the fight whilst mastering the semi-contact techniques for my brown belt. Im thinking maybe I should get my brown belt outta the way then concentrate on the fighting..hmmm...

Monday, January 15, 2007

$3 Rebuy satellite - I won :)

I entered a satellite for the sunday warm up, not really intending to play the warm up but just because I fancied playing a MTT and this one was starting soon so I thought what the hell!
I had a stinking hangover yesterday but somehow I still managed to play well! I had a bad start but a good/lucky finish. There seems to be a pattern emerging where I do well in these things when hungover!!

I had some hands in the first hour but lost all the flips, had to rebuy about 4 times. I think I may have been a bit too aggressive. So I didnt get the double up before the end of the rebuy, went in with my original starting stack plus the add on. I definately think my experience with the turbos helped a lot, I managed to make some good steals with my short stacks that helped me somehow keep up with the blinds. Throughout most of the tournament I always had about the average or just left.
The bubble was painful, blinds were something like 10,000/20,000 and I had a stack of about 57k in the bb. There were about 40 players left at this point, 32 got a seat!
This was my first satellite and first experience with the stallers, everyone did it..so by the time the blinds got back round to me they had gone up to 20,000 and 40,000, basically putting me almost all in on the bb with 82o - I nearly cried...But by some genius stroke of luck, the whole table including the small blind folded round to me..WOOT! I folded my small blind(though I probably should have pushed really as bb should have folded practically any hand at this point, bear in mind there were 34 players left and 32 got a seat). The next hand it was all over and id won the seat :)

I decided to unregister and keep the T$, my hangover was worsening at this point lol. So thats given me a good boost, and just like my last MTT win right after the downswing!
Im thinking I may keep these T$ as a kind of minibankroll for MTTs only, that way I have a seperate bankroll for sngs and mtts so I can keep better track of where my profit is coming from..

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

An end to the beast of all downswings?

Ok its probably not that much of a loss compared to some others but it felt like my hard earned bankroll was slowly draining away from me! Finally after a nasty run of 26 sngs, only cashing in 5 I managed two seconds and a first place yesterday. So fingers crossed things will be back to normal.

I watched my pokerstars account drop from $640 to $450 at one point. Now its back up to $557. Still at a loss but hopefully I can make that up with a few cashes.
It really is tough this sng game, lots of variance it seems which can get very frustrating! I also found myself slightly tilting towards the end when none of my hands seemed to hold up and my aces were constantly getting cracked - the biggest sign of tilt for me was when I raised KJ from early position and called a reraise all in, what the hell was I thinking! I would never usually do this, and that was the first time I felt my frame of mind was affecting my actions. So I took a break that day and carried on plugging away the next day.
I noticed it affected by mood no matter how much I tried not to let it get to me, something I definately need to work on.

Although I suggested in my last post I should maybe try another site I realise this isnt the solution when on a downswing. Eventually things have to get better for a winning player, so say the stats...

So to summarise my progress in the $15 turbos:

Played: 71
ITM: 38.0%
ROI: 16% - EDITED: My ROI Isnt 28% I miscalculated. Not as good as I thought but still early days

I cant really complain, I have a positive ROI though I realise this doesnt mean much at the moment for such a low count.

Im enjoying this blogging thing at the moment, I find it quite satisfying having somewhere to deposit my random rambles lol

Friday, January 05, 2007

Downswing Again :(

So far 10 sngs in a row, not even one cash!!!! This is beginning to get very frustrating, the amount of times ive gone out on the bubble 2nd in chips but low M. Push with a premium pair first in and called by the big stack who hits his hand on the flop or river, Im determined not to drop down to the $6s though, im positive this is variance so I must be due an upswing eventually!

Im always tempted to try another site at times like this, I know I should face the music though really. However Interpoker are running a nice reload at the moment which can now be cleared by sngs, but its only running until the end of the month. So Im considering depositing there and playing until the end of the month, at least to stop me tilting as its bound to happen eventually if this downswing continues!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Happy New Year!

Well how quick has that year gone, I cant beleive its 2007 already!
1strules comment gave me a much needed kick up the ar*e. Basically it feels like im on a bit of a downswing at the moment so for some reason I feel less inclined to post, which is wrong really. I cant just post when things are good, the whole idea of this blog is to outline both my ups and my downs.
Thing is though, I hate complaining about badbeats and the like. Ive had my fair share over the last few weeks but then Ive also served a few so I cant complain, thats poker variance :)

This hand came up a few weeks ago, I cant seem to find the original handhistory text but I did paste it into pokerhand.org:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?689256

It always makes me smile lol. I had been reading Phils Little Green Book prior to this, and I remembered a tip he gave where he reccomended sometimes betting the pot with a good hand if an ace is on the board hoping to be raised. Well thats what I did here, I had 2 pair completely disguised in a multiway pot. But this was also bottom 2 pair meaning I would like to limit the fields.
I didnt get the raise I hoped for but got the call. My hand got even better again on the turn. I had the feeling this opponent was going all the way here, I played the hand very slowly ( I purposely took a long time to call his raise here to try show weakness), the check on the river worked perfectly and induced a lovely all in from villain with A6o!!!!!

Ive had some nasty hands since then but as I said I dont like to post bad beats, most people to dont want to hear bad beat stories!
So at the moment Im playing the $15 turbo sngs, according to my records my ROI is 55% at the moment but thats only over 22 sngs. Ive lost the last 6 though :(

My xmas was brilliant, very relaxing, very nice to see all the family again. I think I may have over indulged though, have some work to do in the gym lol.
New Years Eve, well it wasnt the best but im not gonna go into that, long story but I ended up home by 10.30 while the missus was collapsed in bed!!
I decided to play a 180 man $10 sng again on ps, I came 11th. I have a feeling I can probably make a good cash in one of these again soon. Maybe I should try the $20 180s?

So far as I said ive only read most of Phils little green book, its a good one though. Lots of very useful tips, and its all very easy to follow!


Bankroll


Well I had to take advantage of the pokerstars reload, they dont come around often. I needed an extra $600 though, so I cashed everything out of WillHill and Bodog, plus had to redeposit an extra $300 from my bank account although this will be going straight back into my bank account once the 48 hour wait to withdraw has elapsed.
So I have to gain 1500 fpps to get $150, however I have 180 days to do so. Hopefully I can clear this playing sngs.
Ive played quite a few mtts over christmas and not cashed big in any so though my ROI is good in the sngs my bankroll still aint going up:

Pokerstars: $1212.6(Not for long, $600 back out to neteller, $300 back into bank acc)
Party: $18.17
Ladbrokes + Bodog: $3 on each
Neteller: $81.68

Total Bankroll: At the moment stands at $1318, this will drop to $1018 once the
$300 is withdrawn back into my bank acc.

I really need to crack on with this quest and try get the bankroll moving in the right direction, a year isnt long really. I know other people have done it so I dont see why I cant, I think I need to be a bit more of a gambler and not be too afraid to move up the limits.
Well thats it for now, I could go on forever but Id better stop as I dont want to bore anyone to tears! Hope xmas went well for everyone, happy new year all :)