After a couple more brutal double or nothing sessions, I decided to take a break from them. Over the last few days I've been concentrating on playing the 6 man super turbos on tilt. I've finally started to get those down and am beating them for around a 6% ROI. Add the deposit bonus Im clearing and rakeback and it's actually been a pretty good week. I'm ready to give the DoNs another try and am planning for some heavy grinding this weekend.
I'm wanting to get more into MTTs and have a schedule planned out for this sunday. Being the nit that I am, I'm selling out half of myself on 2p2, partly to just minimize if i bust out of every tourney, and also to start to build a good rep with stakers so eventually I can get rolled in bigger tourneys.
Also gave rush poker a try. Its crazy being able to 8 table and get in over 1500 hands an hour. Broke even in 2 hours of play but made a decent profit factoring in rakeback and bonus clearing. With 80bb min starting stacks and average stacks around 130bb, there is a ton of play and profitable since most online players arent used to playing so deep.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Finally out of the muck
This past week and a half has been probably the toughest since I started seriously playing poker. After starting the month with a few winning sessions, I couldn't book a win to save my life. It seemed like every session no matter how I started or finished, I would end up down 6 to 8 buyins. I had a 250 dollar downswing, which is the worst of my poker career. I have made more than that on cake this month, but it's still scary having that happen on the site and game that has been my bread and butter. I gave the 9man turbos a try, and though I started off well, I just couldnt get anything going.
Being fed up with stars, I decided to signup with Full Tilt and clear a deposit bonus. While I started decent, I quickly had a bad downswing there. I dropped 160 bucks playing 6 man super turbos and 9 man turbos. Finally two days ago things started turning around. I got back to even on tilt and am now up about 100 on the site. I've also booked wins my last two sessions on Stars. The DONs are still beatable, but I really think I need to start expanding into multitable SNGs, MTTs and cash.
The downswing did away with my exercise and nutrition routine. I think that lead to a snowballing effect and might have been how it lasted as long as it did. I'm starting to get back on track and hopefully can keep it up even if I start running bad again.
The last week has made me take a serious look at my poker career. I was honestly starting to think that I would never win again and that the past 8 years learning poker had been a waste. I now realize that I need to put a lot more work into my game. I need to start reviewing sessions and hands. I need to purchase HEM or Pokertracker and probably also SNG Wiz. And most importantly, I need to expand my game past just DONs because this format seems to be getting solved by the average player and probably will continue to become less profitable until not even the rake can be beat.
Being fed up with stars, I decided to signup with Full Tilt and clear a deposit bonus. While I started decent, I quickly had a bad downswing there. I dropped 160 bucks playing 6 man super turbos and 9 man turbos. Finally two days ago things started turning around. I got back to even on tilt and am now up about 100 on the site. I've also booked wins my last two sessions on Stars. The DONs are still beatable, but I really think I need to start expanding into multitable SNGs, MTTs and cash.
The downswing did away with my exercise and nutrition routine. I think that lead to a snowballing effect and might have been how it lasted as long as it did. I'm starting to get back on track and hopefully can keep it up even if I start running bad again.
The last week has made me take a serious look at my poker career. I was honestly starting to think that I would never win again and that the past 8 years learning poker had been a waste. I now realize that I need to put a lot more work into my game. I need to start reviewing sessions and hands. I need to purchase HEM or Pokertracker and probably also SNG Wiz. And most importantly, I need to expand my game past just DONs because this format seems to be getting solved by the average player and probably will continue to become less profitable until not even the rake can be beat.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Out of the gates slow
Since my moderate success the first couple days, I've haven't had a winning session. Most have been break even with a couple of losing ones. My play is ok but I seem to be having trouble finding a balance between letting myself get too short and forcing the issue when I'm still safe. Some of it is lack of concentration because right as I click the fold key, I realize that this is a spot I should have shoved. One of the drawbacks on TN is that being able to execute a decision in a tenth of a second instead of the few seconds it takes to move a mouse and do it means less time to think about the decision.
In the days I didnt have scheduled I played some 5s. I've noticed I need to be a lot tighter in those with my shoves because the average player doesnt realize how dumb it is to call a shove light. I'm hoping to get about 1k 10.8s in between now and Sun. I've been slacking a little on my pace and the weekends are always juicy and will be a good time to catch up.
Luckily I have done really well in the FPP sats. I've cashed in 8 of the 9 I've played when 33% is break even. I've come to realize that my FPPs and stellar bonuses are going to be a major part of my income and I need to not stress out as much about prolonged break even tournament stretches. I've also done really well on Cake the last week clearing up the last of my deposit bonuses. I think I might go clear a dep bonus on Tilt the next few weeks.
In the days I didnt have scheduled I played some 5s. I've noticed I need to be a lot tighter in those with my shoves because the average player doesnt realize how dumb it is to call a shove light. I'm hoping to get about 1k 10.8s in between now and Sun. I've been slacking a little on my pace and the weekends are always juicy and will be a good time to catch up.
Luckily I have done really well in the FPP sats. I've cashed in 8 of the 9 I've played when 33% is break even. I've come to realize that my FPPs and stellar bonuses are going to be a major part of my income and I need to not stress out as much about prolonged break even tournament stretches. I've also done really well on Cake the last week clearing up the last of my deposit bonuses. I think I might go clear a dep bonus on Tilt the next few weeks.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
They cant all be winners
Pretty gross session today. Started off pretty well. Made a few mistakes but nothing too costly. Was up prob around 3 BIs and was down to the last 20 or so games of my session. I then proceeded to lose 11 straight games. I did but bad beat in some of them, but a lot of it was shoving bvb and the other guy calling me with a hand that dominated. I tilted a little bit after the first half dozen or so, but I dont think I played too poorly after that. Maybe pushed a few times when I didn't need to. This was the longest session I've played in a while so I felt a little overstressed near the end. I managed to win the last couple and only ended up down 6 BIs.
Losing that many in a row is such a strange sensation. The first two are easy to ignore, but when you get up to losing 8 and 9 in a row, you start feeling pretty suck. The expression of being "stuck" is such a good one because you feel like you've been stabbed in the gut and it opens you up and makes you leak chips. Strangely enough, around 10 or 11 I reached the point where getting bad beat didn't surprise or faze me and I just wanted the session to be over.
I'm still getting on track with my nutrition and exercise so hopefully as that starts to come around, I'll get better at handling the long sessions and beats. I have the next two days scheduled off, but I think I might play a little on cake to try and clear the bonus I have on their and might mix in a few MTTs on stars.
Losing that many in a row is such a strange sensation. The first two are easy to ignore, but when you get up to losing 8 and 9 in a row, you start feeling pretty suck. The expression of being "stuck" is such a good one because you feel like you've been stabbed in the gut and it opens you up and makes you leak chips. Strangely enough, around 10 or 11 I reached the point where getting bad beat didn't surprise or faze me and I just wanted the session to be over.
I'm still getting on track with my nutrition and exercise so hopefully as that starts to come around, I'll get better at handling the long sessions and beats. I have the next two days scheduled off, but I think I might play a little on cake to try and clear the bonus I have on their and might mix in a few MTTs on stars.
Off to a fair start
Since I was a little out of practice, I've started the month playing shorter sessions. I'm doing about 4 hours now and hope to work my way up to the 6 I need to have by the end of the week. I thought today was Sunday, so I didn't play the shift that I was supposed to. My play has been really good and I've run pretty decent too. The bubbles were busting really quick today which is probably due to a lot fish not knowing how to play them. It was scary how often my 60/40s held up and I'm also proud of how little the beats fazed me. I've almost unlocked my first Stars stellar rewards bonus and am also going to get a deposit bonus of $100 dollars which should take about a week to unlock. I've decided to play my cash on Stars until I reach the 25Nl level since the rake on FTP I hear is really high for the low stakes. I've also decided to play some 5.4 DONs when I feel like playing outside of the normal shifts I've set up for myself.
I've created a spreadsheet to track my play. I have one each for the 10.8s, 5.4s, FPP sats and cash games. This should help me keep track of my profitability in each game and also will come in handy if I decide to pay taxes on my winnings this year.
I've created a spreadsheet to track my play. I have one each for the 10.8s, 5.4s, FPP sats and cash games. This should help me keep track of my profitability in each game and also will come in handy if I decide to pay taxes on my winnings this year.
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