New format and new software (Feb profit 1125)

Haven't updated in a while because I've been spending every free moment getting experienced with Holdem Manager. Spent 50 bucks on it (which I subtracted from my profit) but it was the best money I've spent since I bought table ninja. For anyone that doesnt know, HEM is a program that track and databases (word?) all hands and results. It also has a heads up display (HUD) which keeps and displays previous and real time stats on your oppenents. By showing how often opponents voluntarily put money in the pot (VPIP) preflop raise (PFR) 3bet and numerous others, you are able to make much more informed decisions and what ranges your opponents are limping, calling and raising with.

Aside from tracking your results, the software also has an allin EV graph. This line runs beside your true profit and show how much money (according to ICM at least) you would have made if you had hand nuetral luck on all of your all in situations. AIEV is only a small part of what decides how well you are running, but its a good stat nontheless and at least helps me to not tilt when my profit isnt going up but my redline is.

I successfully moved up to the 7.5 super turbos this month. I still played a few on the 3.5s on slow traffic days, but I'm staking some players in the 3.8s now so i cant really play in them. I played a few dons this month but only made 40 bucks or so. I ran really bad in the ones I played and might give them another chance next month now that I have a HUD. I got about 1800 of the stts in but am looking to do at least twice that next month, if not more. Rakeback and deposit and other bonuses were a pretty big part of my profits from this month (about $350 dollars.) I ran pretty far under EV in the tournaments I tracked (about 150 bucks) and felt like I ran kinda bad in the ones that werent' This format has a ton of variance and its something I really need to get used to and not let downswings affect my motivation to grind.

My goal for this month is to put in about 160 hours have profit+RB of 2750. I think its a reasonable goal. Hopefully I'll be putting in some time with my new staking business this month and hopefully Ill get some profit from that as well. Another goal I have this month is to not spend as much time on 2p2. Thats where Im gonna find my stakes and where i can post hands and get advice, but so much time is wasted there on shit threads.

I'm gonna try and update at least once a week. HEM tracks hours and profit exactly so I wont have to make semiaccurate estimates using sharkscope like I've been doing. Hope everyone has a good month at the tables.

Goodbye DoNs; Hello profit (jan profit 1330)

What a month. I started out trying to play enough DoNs to get myself to Platinum Star and eventually SN, and ended it having given up DoNs and playing the majority of my hours on Full Tilt. After getting feed up with break even stretches I told myself I'd played my last DoN and instead started to play the 6 man on Full Tilt. In the two weeks since I've started playing those, I'm up around 400 plus 160 dollars I've cleared of my deposit bonus and another 70 or so from rakeback. I've also played around 80 180 mans on stars in the last week and am up around 130. I finished the month only up a few pennies in the DoNs, but from a deposti bonus I cleared, running as hot as the sun in the FPP sats, and my 4.40 profit, I made around $280 on stars this month. I also made around 420 from cake. Add that together and my profit for the month was right around $1330. Not close to the goal I set for myself to begin this year, but given that the first half of the month was wasted breaking even at the DoNs, I'll take it. A lot of this profit also came from deposit bonuses and those are pretty much all cleared so I'm not gonna be able to do that again.

So my goal for february. I want to completely move up from the 4 dollar super turbos to the 8s. I want to play at least 3k of them and hopefully more. I want to spend at least 2 sundays playing an MTT schedule on stars. I'm gonna set my profit goal at 1750 and my total hours goal at 175. I;m gonna be keeping better track of my hours played this month because hopefully it will be more consistent and I wont be moving back and forth trying new formats like I did last month.

Some parting thoughts about Double or Nothing tournaments. Discovering this format is what first lead me to start making a good profit online. Learning these taught me about ICM, bubble play and wanting to learn them better is what turned me onto two plus two. Looking back, solely focusing on these might have stunted my growth as a player a little bit. My postflop play is pretty weak probably because I havent had to have any for so long. I'm also having to relearn how to accumulate a big stack to win a tournament since this kind of play is counterproductive in DoNs. But despite what a lot of people might say, DoNs are still real poker. I'd be willing to bet that DoN pro grinders could beat almost any format of sng put in front of them. I don't know if the inverse would be true of grinders of other formats being able .to beat DoNs