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

Time away from the DoNs

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.