Well its that time of year when............well basically, we all get ill !!! I have been suffering with a really tight and sore chest for the last few weeks and have been living on ibruprofen to get by but basically I have been as miserable as hell and not been able to concentrate on anything, so much so that I have not played poker or drunk any alcohol for over 10days. Broke up from work on Tuesday this week till after xmas, hoping that all would be ok, but after getting the xmas food shopping done on weds morning, I spent the next two days either in bed or lay on the sofa, rather than my chest getting better by relaxing it was getting worse. My wife, bless her, eventually had enough and sent me to the doctors on Friday morning. As a typical man I hate going to the docs and I don't think I have been for about 5 years, but wifey knows best. For once wifey was right and it turns out that I have a severe chest infection and also possibly some pleurisy, no wonder I was in so much pain !! Luckily the antibiotics seem to have started to kick in as of today and I do feel somewhat better, my whole upper body still aches from all of the coughing that I have been doing trying to get up some phlegm from the depths of my lungs that refuses to come out. Hopefully I will also get my appetite back ready for the big xmas nosh up tomorrow as I have hardly eaten anything in the last few days either, but at least things are picking up and I should be back to health for the new year and the new goals/persuits.
On the subject of the new years persuits, the plan of possibly hitting Paddy Power in the new year took a blow as I didn't know that you were not allowed to play on your own affiliate links, so thats fooked up the extra rakeback plan on there for now. So I guess the only other option for now is to get my head back down on stars. Due to the serious lack of volume I will almost certainly be back to Bronze star at the start of the year, but that prob won't make that much difference to me anyway. It would be good if I could put enough volume in on the first few months of the year to give myself a realistic chance of getting to supernova by the end of the year should I manage to move up in stakes sticking to my strict bankroll plan which I blogged about last month.
I will def play a bit before the end of the year, but probably not much, only played 88 sngs this month for about $20 profit, but I am am not that bothered at the moment as all I care about is getting my health back on track ready for the new year.
Will probably have a more detailed think about next years plans and goals over the next few days and hopefully post on NYE.
So until then, Merry Christmas all, drink lots, eat lots and do everything to excess, oh and take time out and give a small thought for all those SNE wannabes desperately grinding 20k vpps a day over xmas cos they left it a bit late ;-))
Goth
Greatest song ever made...........
Joy Dvision - Love will tear us apart
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Saturday, December 03, 2011
November Review
November didn't really go according to plan, mainly due to lack of volume. I had a really good start hitting everything in site then the doom switch flicked and went on a $200 downswing, luckily it didn't last too long and I managed to finish the month off it profit, albeit only about $60. As I said the biggest problem was the volume, I still can't seem to get back into the grind and I only played 182 tournies in the whole month. This annoyingly means that I am going to probably miss out on one of the stellar bonuses, I think I need get about 2900 vpps in December to get another $50 bonus, with xmas and all of the pissups coming up, I just can't see me getting to this. Although if I do decide that supernova is a realistic aim next year, I might just try to get to Gold Star ready for the start of 2012. There is a chance that I might just use 2012 for bonus whoring around some of the sites I have not yet joined, amazing Paddy Power is one of those, they are doing a 200% signup bonus at the moment up to $2000. I have worked out that in the 3 months, I could probably get $1200 of that possibly more if I squeeze in some 6 max cash, althuogh I have heard mixed views on where iPoker is going at the moment. The added benefit of Paddy Power is that I am already an affiliate for them, so if I join up via my own link, I can probably get another 25% on top of any bonuses and VIP payments, so it could work out for 3 for the first 3 months of the year, would be nice to turn over about $2000 before any profits at the table.
I guess the main driver of what I do is what stars do the change the VIP system. They really need to do something so that the low stakes grinders who knock out about 3k VPPs a month can get a guaranteed 30% or so rakeback equivalent. The new year will also probably bring in a lot of ex Fult Tilt Regs who are waiting for the new year to start grinding for supernova, this might water the fish pool down a bit, but will at least keep the games going.
I also hear that Bodog has completely anonomised all of the tables, so I can really see a huge exit from that site of all the regs who can no longer use huds and tracking software, so again most of these will end up stars I guess which is quickly becoming the only real place to play.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Full Tilt evenutally comes back and what format it will come back with, will they come out with all guns blazing with large rakeback and VIP deals to attract everyone back and if they do, how many people will really trust them to go back?
I think 2012 is going to be an interesting year for online poker, lots of countries seem to be ring fencing it to their own countries so they can claim their share of the golden pie, unfortuantely I can only see this increasing. The land of freedom will of course come back on the scene, hopefully in 2012, but again, I have a feeling that all of the sites that they are allowed to play on will be completely ringfenced to just the yanks.
Part of me thinks the bubble as burst, the players seem to be getting more and more knowledgeable and the games getting harder, the other part of me sees this as a challenge to improve my own game and try to have my best year ever as again it seems that I am only going to be about $2k up by the end of the year, better than last year, but still no where near the results of the previous 3 years when I was probably only playing 1/5th of the volume that I have put in. Maybe I need to look back through my records and I am sure that they will show that I was winning a lot more playing MTTs that I thought I was and need to introduce them back into my schedule. Although funny enough, I have been playing a few of the $2.50 180s on stars, only played about 5 so far and not got a cash yet, I still gonna give them a go on the side of my 9 mans which I still think will be my bread and butter for a while.
Determined to get at least 500 STTs under my belt this month, then if it look I can get to Gold Star, will play some cash on side. I will probably end up playing a bit of cash anyway, as I think stars are doing another 72 Billion milestone hand promotion, so will def try and bink a bit of that, I'm due some after 18 tabling for 7 hours last time and not hitting a bean !!!
Bit of long update this one, but its been a while, off to the pub now for a nice couple of lunchtime pints before getting back to hopefully grinding a few tournies out.
Something mellow for you to chill out to today from my all time fave godfather of grunge......
Neil Young - Harvest Moon
I guess the main driver of what I do is what stars do the change the VIP system. They really need to do something so that the low stakes grinders who knock out about 3k VPPs a month can get a guaranteed 30% or so rakeback equivalent. The new year will also probably bring in a lot of ex Fult Tilt Regs who are waiting for the new year to start grinding for supernova, this might water the fish pool down a bit, but will at least keep the games going.
I also hear that Bodog has completely anonomised all of the tables, so I can really see a huge exit from that site of all the regs who can no longer use huds and tracking software, so again most of these will end up stars I guess which is quickly becoming the only real place to play.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Full Tilt evenutally comes back and what format it will come back with, will they come out with all guns blazing with large rakeback and VIP deals to attract everyone back and if they do, how many people will really trust them to go back?
I think 2012 is going to be an interesting year for online poker, lots of countries seem to be ring fencing it to their own countries so they can claim their share of the golden pie, unfortuantely I can only see this increasing. The land of freedom will of course come back on the scene, hopefully in 2012, but again, I have a feeling that all of the sites that they are allowed to play on will be completely ringfenced to just the yanks.
Part of me thinks the bubble as burst, the players seem to be getting more and more knowledgeable and the games getting harder, the other part of me sees this as a challenge to improve my own game and try to have my best year ever as again it seems that I am only going to be about $2k up by the end of the year, better than last year, but still no where near the results of the previous 3 years when I was probably only playing 1/5th of the volume that I have put in. Maybe I need to look back through my records and I am sure that they will show that I was winning a lot more playing MTTs that I thought I was and need to introduce them back into my schedule. Although funny enough, I have been playing a few of the $2.50 180s on stars, only played about 5 so far and not got a cash yet, I still gonna give them a go on the side of my 9 mans which I still think will be my bread and butter for a while.
Determined to get at least 500 STTs under my belt this month, then if it look I can get to Gold Star, will play some cash on side. I will probably end up playing a bit of cash anyway, as I think stars are doing another 72 Billion milestone hand promotion, so will def try and bink a bit of that, I'm due some after 18 tabling for 7 hours last time and not hitting a bean !!!
Bit of long update this one, but its been a while, off to the pub now for a nice couple of lunchtime pints before getting back to hopefully grinding a few tournies out.
Something mellow for you to chill out to today from my all time fave godfather of grunge......
Neil Young - Harvest Moon
Sunday, November 06, 2011
STT (SNG) Bankroll Strategy
The Internet seems to be flooded with cash bankroll strategies, ranging from 30 buyins and take a shot at the next level, to the more nitty, 100-200 buyin approach before moving up to ensure that you never go broke. If you have read my blog regularly over the last few years, you will know that I favour the latter approach, which is why 5 years ago I was 1 tabling $20 STTs and I am now still 9 tabling the 7s lol. You may laugh at this, but even after my failed mass tabling effort last year to get to supernova, I have still made a profit every year and I am still living off my initial £100 deposit into online poker way back in December 2003.
I guess my ultra nitty bankroll approach and the fact that like most people, I have had to dig into my roll to pay bills every now and then ,means that apart from the odd drunken $200NL cash session, I have not played higher than I have. Now that I have decided to stick with STTs for the next year or so at least, I hopefully intend to move up to at least the $30s on stars by the end of 2012.
I have therefore developed s bankroll strategy that if all being well will see me happily taking shots at the higher levels with the big boys and hopefully with the bigger fish too.
I do tend to tweak my plan every now and then but the basics will always stick the same and should you choose to follow something along the same, it can suit most levels and bankrolls.
The basics involve never keeping any more money online than you really need to, which is a rule that I am sure more than a few Full Tilt players wish they had adhered too !! but thats another story. In my case I have a VirginOne account, which is absolutely perfect, as this account is my mortgage/current/savings account all into one, so basically if any of my bankroll is in here, I am effectively getting my mortgage rate in interest, which is currently 3.75%. The account also allows the ability to set up virtual savings areas which look logically seperated. In here I have setup two areas, one called "Poker Stars Bankroll" and one called "Poker Winnings" How I use these areas will be made clearer below.
At the moment, my active bankroll is approx £1300 and I do have to point out that even though I play in $$$ I ignore this and treat it as ££, which to be fair, does make it even more nittier than if my stars account was in $$ to, but thats just a personal way I do things. My Roll is currently split with approx £1050 on stars and £250 in my "Poker Stars Bankroll" savings area. I do also have approx £1300 in my "Poker Winnings" savings account.
While playing the $7s on stars, the maximum I keep online will be £1500. Once my stars account hits £1500 I will withdraw £500. This £500 will split 50/50 with £250 going into my "Poker Winnings" account and £250 into my "Poker Stars Bankroll" account, so in essence if I was starting from scratch and this was my first withdrawal when reaching £1500 for the first time. When I withdraw I would have £250 in the winnings area, £250 in my bankroll area and £1000 online, giving a total bankroll of £1250.
As I work full time, I don't really have to eat into the poker winnings area, but if you are a full time poker player, you could easily adapt the above so that the "Poker Winnings" area in essence becomes your "income"
In my case, I intend to leave the poker winnings area until December 31st and then split the winnings area as follows:-
25% = Payment off Mortgage
25% = Towards a new car (seperate savings account for this)
25% = Luxury Joint Item (something visual my wife and I can reward ourselves with)
10% = For my wife to spend as she pleases
10% = For me to spend how I please.
5% = Miscellaneous (possibly looking at a seperate MTT bankroll for the few I play a year)
Splitting it the way I have above, seems like a good balance between getting the mortgage paid off early and actually seeing something at the end of the day for all of the hours that you put in, which at the end of the day is why we sometimes play 40 hours plus a week on top of a day job, it def isn't just for fun !!!
So thats the spending part of the strategy, the next part deals with moving up the levels. As you know I am very nitty, so if you follow my strategy below, you may feel very frustrated in playing a lot at the lower levels, but if you do decide to follow it, you should never go broke, unless your a mega fish that is !!!
I think the lowest bankroll you should be playing at for the stars $7s is £750 (or $750/€750) and move up as follows:-
At Bankroll of £750 - £1500, Play 100% - $7s.
At Bankroll of £1500 - £2000, Play 75% - $7s + 25% - $15s.
At Bankroll of £2000 - £2500, Play 50% - $7s + 50% - $15s.
At Bankroll of £2500 - £3000, Play 25% - $7s + 75% - $15s
At Bankroll of £3000 - £3750, Play 100% - $15s.
At Bankroll of £3750 - £4500, Play 75% - $15s + 25% - $30s.
At Bankroll of £4500 - £5250, Play 50% - $15s + 50% - $30s.
At Bankroll of £5250 - £6000, Play 25% - $15s + 75% - $30s.
At Bankroll of £6000+ Play 100% - $30s.
Thats really as far as I have looked ahead for now, with my nitty withdrawal plan, I am going to have ro run well and play a shit load of hands to be able to get to be playing 100% at the 30s by the end of 2012, but I think it could be a realistic aim.
One other adjustment that I might have to make if I am putting in a lot of volume is the online level where I withdraw at, so I might amend the max amount I keep online as follows:-
100% $7s, max in account = £1500.
100% $15s, max in account = £2000.
100% $30s, max in account = £3000.
The above should allow for any real bad runs of variance, obviously if you do hit a real real bad run, you have to drop down the level of the game you play when your bankroll hitsthe levels that you came up on, but hopefully as you will be moving up slowly you should be able to adapt better to the higher skill levels that you will probably meet.
So that is basically it, very nitty, but I think it is very effective. If you don't have an all in one mortgage account, I still recommend you open up a couple of online instant access savings account for your bankroll and winnings areas, in this day and age, you should be able to move money around in a matter of hours and if you plan ahead, you should always be able to get some money into the area you require to deposit into your Stars account should you need it.
I hope some people find this article, feel free to comment as appropriate.
Good luck at the tables, this is GothmanUK on stars, signing off for today.
After putting up a Kristen Hersh track last week, I came across I song that I love and had forgotten about:-
Throwing Muses - Bright Yellow Gun
I guess my ultra nitty bankroll approach and the fact that like most people, I have had to dig into my roll to pay bills every now and then ,means that apart from the odd drunken $200NL cash session, I have not played higher than I have. Now that I have decided to stick with STTs for the next year or so at least, I hopefully intend to move up to at least the $30s on stars by the end of 2012.
I have therefore developed s bankroll strategy that if all being well will see me happily taking shots at the higher levels with the big boys and hopefully with the bigger fish too.
I do tend to tweak my plan every now and then but the basics will always stick the same and should you choose to follow something along the same, it can suit most levels and bankrolls.
The basics involve never keeping any more money online than you really need to, which is a rule that I am sure more than a few Full Tilt players wish they had adhered too !! but thats another story. In my case I have a VirginOne account, which is absolutely perfect, as this account is my mortgage/current/savings account all into one, so basically if any of my bankroll is in here, I am effectively getting my mortgage rate in interest, which is currently 3.75%. The account also allows the ability to set up virtual savings areas which look logically seperated. In here I have setup two areas, one called "Poker Stars Bankroll" and one called "Poker Winnings" How I use these areas will be made clearer below.
At the moment, my active bankroll is approx £1300 and I do have to point out that even though I play in $$$ I ignore this and treat it as ££, which to be fair, does make it even more nittier than if my stars account was in $$ to, but thats just a personal way I do things. My Roll is currently split with approx £1050 on stars and £250 in my "Poker Stars Bankroll" savings area. I do also have approx £1300 in my "Poker Winnings" savings account.
While playing the $7s on stars, the maximum I keep online will be £1500. Once my stars account hits £1500 I will withdraw £500. This £500 will split 50/50 with £250 going into my "Poker Winnings" account and £250 into my "Poker Stars Bankroll" account, so in essence if I was starting from scratch and this was my first withdrawal when reaching £1500 for the first time. When I withdraw I would have £250 in the winnings area, £250 in my bankroll area and £1000 online, giving a total bankroll of £1250.
As I work full time, I don't really have to eat into the poker winnings area, but if you are a full time poker player, you could easily adapt the above so that the "Poker Winnings" area in essence becomes your "income"
In my case, I intend to leave the poker winnings area until December 31st and then split the winnings area as follows:-
25% = Payment off Mortgage
25% = Towards a new car (seperate savings account for this)
25% = Luxury Joint Item (something visual my wife and I can reward ourselves with)
10% = For my wife to spend as she pleases
10% = For me to spend how I please.
5% = Miscellaneous (possibly looking at a seperate MTT bankroll for the few I play a year)
Splitting it the way I have above, seems like a good balance between getting the mortgage paid off early and actually seeing something at the end of the day for all of the hours that you put in, which at the end of the day is why we sometimes play 40 hours plus a week on top of a day job, it def isn't just for fun !!!
So thats the spending part of the strategy, the next part deals with moving up the levels. As you know I am very nitty, so if you follow my strategy below, you may feel very frustrated in playing a lot at the lower levels, but if you do decide to follow it, you should never go broke, unless your a mega fish that is !!!
I think the lowest bankroll you should be playing at for the stars $7s is £750 (or $750/€750) and move up as follows:-
At Bankroll of £750 - £1500, Play 100% - $7s.
At Bankroll of £1500 - £2000, Play 75% - $7s + 25% - $15s.
At Bankroll of £2000 - £2500, Play 50% - $7s + 50% - $15s.
At Bankroll of £2500 - £3000, Play 25% - $7s + 75% - $15s
At Bankroll of £3000 - £3750, Play 100% - $15s.
At Bankroll of £3750 - £4500, Play 75% - $15s + 25% - $30s.
At Bankroll of £4500 - £5250, Play 50% - $15s + 50% - $30s.
At Bankroll of £5250 - £6000, Play 25% - $15s + 75% - $30s.
At Bankroll of £6000+ Play 100% - $30s.
Thats really as far as I have looked ahead for now, with my nitty withdrawal plan, I am going to have ro run well and play a shit load of hands to be able to get to be playing 100% at the 30s by the end of 2012, but I think it could be a realistic aim.
One other adjustment that I might have to make if I am putting in a lot of volume is the online level where I withdraw at, so I might amend the max amount I keep online as follows:-
100% $7s, max in account = £1500.
100% $15s, max in account = £2000.
100% $30s, max in account = £3000.
The above should allow for any real bad runs of variance, obviously if you do hit a real real bad run, you have to drop down the level of the game you play when your bankroll hitsthe levels that you came up on, but hopefully as you will be moving up slowly you should be able to adapt better to the higher skill levels that you will probably meet.
So that is basically it, very nitty, but I think it is very effective. If you don't have an all in one mortgage account, I still recommend you open up a couple of online instant access savings account for your bankroll and winnings areas, in this day and age, you should be able to move money around in a matter of hours and if you plan ahead, you should always be able to get some money into the area you require to deposit into your Stars account should you need it.
I hope some people find this article, feel free to comment as appropriate.
Good luck at the tables, this is GothmanUK on stars, signing off for today.
After putting up a Kristen Hersh track last week, I came across I song that I love and had forgotten about:-
Throwing Muses - Bright Yellow Gun
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Struggling for Time
If your looking for a review of October and how the hundreds of games that I have played have gone you are going to be sorely disappointed. Since coming back from a couple of weeks away in Zante, which was by far the most relaxing holiday I have ever had I must say, I have bearly had time to play. So far in October I have managed a whopping 21 STTs !!!
To be fair, I was struggling to put the volume in before I went away, but since coming back, family stuff and work have seemed to taken priority, so much so that I have had to leave the Team Moshman coaching scheme as I was unable to commit to the time. I have to say it was a very positive experience and I have learnt a lot, I would def recommend it to anyone, especially if you are breakeven reg, it can be a very cost effective way of getting quality coaching.
The lack of time has however put me in a bit of a dilemma, I will almost certainly lose silver status this month so will be losing out on a fair bit of value on the rackeback side of things. My workload in November is going to be quite heavy, so I can't see it improving that much, I maybe ablet o get 200+ STTs in if things go to plan, which is not really enough.
I think the plan for now is fit in as many as I can in November and then hopefully have a push in December to get to Gold Star for the beginning of the month. The reason for doing this is that I am hoping for two things. One that the changes in the stars VIP scheme for 2012 will be of benefit for players like myself who log about 2k-5k VPPs per month and two that the changes for cashing in the fpps will be better for Gold Star in the new year so that I can get better value for the 20k or so that I still have remaining from this year which will give the ole bankroll a nice boost at the start of the year.
Talking of a bankroll plan, I have already developed a detailed plan for next year and will be publishing that next saturday, so if you are interested in a mega bankroll plan for part time players who don't need the profit for income, watch this space ;-))
Thats it for this week, gonna try and get back to weekly posts, with the compulsory monthly review, well the good months that is lol
Peace and good luck at the tarbs.
Song for Halloween this week
Kristen Hersh - Your Ghost
To be fair, I was struggling to put the volume in before I went away, but since coming back, family stuff and work have seemed to taken priority, so much so that I have had to leave the Team Moshman coaching scheme as I was unable to commit to the time. I have to say it was a very positive experience and I have learnt a lot, I would def recommend it to anyone, especially if you are breakeven reg, it can be a very cost effective way of getting quality coaching.
The lack of time has however put me in a bit of a dilemma, I will almost certainly lose silver status this month so will be losing out on a fair bit of value on the rackeback side of things. My workload in November is going to be quite heavy, so I can't see it improving that much, I maybe ablet o get 200+ STTs in if things go to plan, which is not really enough.
I think the plan for now is fit in as many as I can in November and then hopefully have a push in December to get to Gold Star for the beginning of the month. The reason for doing this is that I am hoping for two things. One that the changes in the stars VIP scheme for 2012 will be of benefit for players like myself who log about 2k-5k VPPs per month and two that the changes for cashing in the fpps will be better for Gold Star in the new year so that I can get better value for the 20k or so that I still have remaining from this year which will give the ole bankroll a nice boost at the start of the year.
Talking of a bankroll plan, I have already developed a detailed plan for next year and will be publishing that next saturday, so if you are interested in a mega bankroll plan for part time players who don't need the profit for income, watch this space ;-))
Thats it for this week, gonna try and get back to weekly posts, with the compulsory monthly review, well the good months that is lol
Peace and good luck at the tarbs.
Song for Halloween this week
Kristen Hersh - Your Ghost
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Early September Review
Posting my Sept review early cos I am off on me holibobs, 11 glorius all inclusive days in Zante. The plan is to do fck all....and I mean FCK all. After the hectic tour of Canada last year, we decided that this year was gonna be all about relaxing. So it will be beer by the pool, lots of reading, lots of sunbathing and not a lot else. I've never been on an all inclusive before, so I am just hoping that I don't come back a stone heavier and in need of a new liver !!! Got a couple of poker books to take with me and some note pads. Decided its about time I got more into the maths of the game, so have a couple of books on that and ICM. Also determined to finally read JD Salingers "Catcher in the Rye" always wanted to read it, mainly due to the fact that it Winona Ryders fave book and it will give us something to talk about post "rumps" when I eventually meet her and slip her off to the bedroom............
Anyway, back to the poker. September was my best month at the tables so far, finished just over $500 up at the tables, so it looks like the coaching is now really definitely starting to pay off. I think initially a lot of the agressive play that I was looking at putting into my game was a bit misdirected and I was "over" using it. Now I seem to be be picking my spots and opponents better. Having your big hands hold up as well always helps too.
The one annoying thing was the lack of volume that I put in, considering i had the luxury of being platinum for the month I should of tried to put the extra hours in to get the benefit of the August 10% promotion, but just my luck, I had so much other stuff going on I actually played less games than any other month since I started playing stts, I ended up only playing 332 games, I know I am gonna lose 7 days, cos of the hoilidays, but I still should really be 500+ games at this point. Its a shame really, as I definitely think that the games were a lot softer this month, I was tagging fish at every table especially on the weekends and late evenings. I think this was the main reason for my profit. My stats and graph for the month are as follows:-
Games Played - 332
ROI% = 21.4
ITM% = 45.8%
Winnings = $500.10
$/hr = $10.17
So overall very happy with the results.
Still enjoying the coaching, Lasse has been trying to get me into other forms the game and I did a reverse sweat session where I watch him play some of the 18 man turbos, which he thinks are insanely soft at the moment. Some of the players in them while I was watching were truly awful, so I def think I will give these ago and see how I get on. I did actually play 3 of them this week, but never made the final table in any of um, after getting snap called by 10 7s and JT for 8BB vs my Q3s and 88 shoves. So as you can see the players are truly bad, so just need to get a few hands to hold up and maybe I can bink a few of them :-))
Thats it for now, got some packing to do and tidy the house before my Mother comes round to stay and look after the dogs while we are away. Ain't Moms just great !!!!
Greenday - Wake me up when September ends.
Anyway, back to the poker. September was my best month at the tables so far, finished just over $500 up at the tables, so it looks like the coaching is now really definitely starting to pay off. I think initially a lot of the agressive play that I was looking at putting into my game was a bit misdirected and I was "over" using it. Now I seem to be be picking my spots and opponents better. Having your big hands hold up as well always helps too.
The one annoying thing was the lack of volume that I put in, considering i had the luxury of being platinum for the month I should of tried to put the extra hours in to get the benefit of the August 10% promotion, but just my luck, I had so much other stuff going on I actually played less games than any other month since I started playing stts, I ended up only playing 332 games, I know I am gonna lose 7 days, cos of the hoilidays, but I still should really be 500+ games at this point. Its a shame really, as I definitely think that the games were a lot softer this month, I was tagging fish at every table especially on the weekends and late evenings. I think this was the main reason for my profit. My stats and graph for the month are as follows:-
ROI% = 21.4
ITM% = 45.8%
Winnings = $500.10
$/hr = $10.17
So overall very happy with the results.
Still enjoying the coaching, Lasse has been trying to get me into other forms the game and I did a reverse sweat session where I watch him play some of the 18 man turbos, which he thinks are insanely soft at the moment. Some of the players in them while I was watching were truly awful, so I def think I will give these ago and see how I get on. I did actually play 3 of them this week, but never made the final table in any of um, after getting snap called by 10 7s and JT for 8BB vs my Q3s and 88 shoves. So as you can see the players are truly bad, so just need to get a few hands to hold up and maybe I can bink a few of them :-))
Thats it for now, got some packing to do and tidy the house before my Mother comes round to stay and look after the dogs while we are away. Ain't Moms just great !!!!
Greenday - Wake me up when September ends.
Saturday, September 03, 2011
August
August, although my 2nd most profitable month of the year was really a bit of a damp squib, I finished he month just under $300 up on the STTs and after a bit of MTT cashes and Stellar Bonus the month finished off $400 in profit, however I was actually about $270 up after the first week alone on the STTs, then just hit a bit of a break even stretch.
Also, I did play an MTT on laddies and managed to bink a 3rd place. It was only a €5 86 runner jobby, but I was quite a big chip leader when down to the last 3 and like a muppet, I blew most of my chips away trying to be uber aggressive and bossing the ther two out of pots, one of the guys was a reet calling station, so I was just giving my chips away, but nevermind. Considering it was only my 3-4th MTT of the year, I guess making the FT should of been comfort enough.
The coaching is still going well and I am really enjoying it, learning a lot, but still need to learn a lot more of the concepts being explained to me in a bit more detail, I think its my age, but although I understand what I am being told, the day after I am starting to struggle to remember the exact details of the concepts. My memory these days seems to be getting worse and worse. I am starting to convince myself that a lot of this is down to my fitness levels, the training is going ok at the moment and I have managed to lose nearly a stone, but I think I need to start upping it a bit more. Also gonna change a lot of my diet to see if I clear out some of the fuzzy thinking I seem to have a lot (might be the scrumpy lol) I know for a fact the days when I can hold my concentration my results are drastically better.
So will keep plodding along, have got a holiday at the end of the month, so should be able to recharge the batteries and come back in October even more focused and get the bankroll moving back up again so I can play the $15s fully from November, hopefully then this will give me the foundation that I need to start the new year on the 15s and some 30s which will give me a realistic chance of getting to supernova.
Joy Division - Shadowplay
Also, I did play an MTT on laddies and managed to bink a 3rd place. It was only a €5 86 runner jobby, but I was quite a big chip leader when down to the last 3 and like a muppet, I blew most of my chips away trying to be uber aggressive and bossing the ther two out of pots, one of the guys was a reet calling station, so I was just giving my chips away, but nevermind. Considering it was only my 3-4th MTT of the year, I guess making the FT should of been comfort enough.
The coaching is still going well and I am really enjoying it, learning a lot, but still need to learn a lot more of the concepts being explained to me in a bit more detail, I think its my age, but although I understand what I am being told, the day after I am starting to struggle to remember the exact details of the concepts. My memory these days seems to be getting worse and worse. I am starting to convince myself that a lot of this is down to my fitness levels, the training is going ok at the moment and I have managed to lose nearly a stone, but I think I need to start upping it a bit more. Also gonna change a lot of my diet to see if I clear out some of the fuzzy thinking I seem to have a lot (might be the scrumpy lol) I know for a fact the days when I can hold my concentration my results are drastically better.
So will keep plodding along, have got a holiday at the end of the month, so should be able to recharge the batteries and come back in October even more focused and get the bankroll moving back up again so I can play the $15s fully from November, hopefully then this will give me the foundation that I need to start the new year on the 15s and some 30s which will give me a realistic chance of getting to supernova.
Joy Division - Shadowplay
Saturday, August 06, 2011
Bad Timing
The title of this blog entry is not about my bad timing, but about Stars timings for the battle of the planet promotion. If it ran from Monday- Sunday instead of Sunday-Saturday I would of pissed the weekly 100 STT one lol, however unfortunately for me, I had a real bad day on the Sunday (1st Day) before running uber hot for the next few days, then with only about 13 tourneys to go I was going to place easily in the top 20, I then hit the next bad spell before running uber hot again once the 100 completing, sooooo frustrating, but no iccle extra bonuses for gothdude.
Its good to see Stars pushing the STT promos at the moment, with double BOP payouts next week and and a free $7 entry if you deposit $20, I do like some freeeeee $$$$ Also the promo to get to platinum for 750 VPPs also seems to have bought some more feeeesh to the pond and the games do seem slightly softer at the moment.
It would be great if stars could keep the VPP promo going for an extra few months, although I will be missing out on some of the value as I bugger off to greece at the end of september, so will try and get some extra volume in to make up for it.
The coaching has been going well, still enjoying it and learning plenty, hoping that it will start coming to fruition soon and bring a steady upward swing to the graph, which is obv the aim.
Still playing the $7s for the time being so I can try out some of the changes that I am making to my game, must admit when I first started going back to STTs I thought I would be 18 tabling them by now, but I still can't keep up with 9 tabling too well at the moment, but I am sticking with it. Its strange that somedays 9 tables is easy and I can follow everything and other days I seem to be struggling to keep up with everything, I guess its down to concentration levels which vary from day to day and hour to hour, something I def need to work on.
Gonna play the $30k 100fpp VIP event tonight, keep forgetting about these, they are a bit of luckfest so I will probably try and chip up early with a few gambles, if it don't pay of, nay bother.
Still enjoying it at the moment especially as the profit for the year has gone back above $1k, which annoyingly it was 1/2 though May !!! Still got about 10k fpps which I have not done anything with but will probably be saving these till the end of the year. I am thinking about trading them in for 500fpp $7.50 steps tickets as this gives a lot more value, although if the platinum promotions keep going, I might just buy the $650 cash bonus when I get enough fpps, not to sure yet. If I knew stars were going to do steps promos for the WSOP main event next year as I do intend to go and play in 2012, It could work out a good way to get a seat. Alternatively grind them up to the level whenre you can trade them in for the $215 tourney tickets and try and bink summat bigger lol, who knows, I guess i'll decide later in the year.
So for now, its keep on grinding, its not an easy life at the low stakes ;-)
Snogged one of these babes back in the day looool
Bodysnatchers - Easylife
Its good to see Stars pushing the STT promos at the moment, with double BOP payouts next week and and a free $7 entry if you deposit $20, I do like some freeeeee $$$$ Also the promo to get to platinum for 750 VPPs also seems to have bought some more feeeesh to the pond and the games do seem slightly softer at the moment.
It would be great if stars could keep the VPP promo going for an extra few months, although I will be missing out on some of the value as I bugger off to greece at the end of september, so will try and get some extra volume in to make up for it.
The coaching has been going well, still enjoying it and learning plenty, hoping that it will start coming to fruition soon and bring a steady upward swing to the graph, which is obv the aim.
Still playing the $7s for the time being so I can try out some of the changes that I am making to my game, must admit when I first started going back to STTs I thought I would be 18 tabling them by now, but I still can't keep up with 9 tabling too well at the moment, but I am sticking with it. Its strange that somedays 9 tables is easy and I can follow everything and other days I seem to be struggling to keep up with everything, I guess its down to concentration levels which vary from day to day and hour to hour, something I def need to work on.
Gonna play the $30k 100fpp VIP event tonight, keep forgetting about these, they are a bit of luckfest so I will probably try and chip up early with a few gambles, if it don't pay of, nay bother.
Still enjoying it at the moment especially as the profit for the year has gone back above $1k, which annoyingly it was 1/2 though May !!! Still got about 10k fpps which I have not done anything with but will probably be saving these till the end of the year. I am thinking about trading them in for 500fpp $7.50 steps tickets as this gives a lot more value, although if the platinum promotions keep going, I might just buy the $650 cash bonus when I get enough fpps, not to sure yet. If I knew stars were going to do steps promos for the WSOP main event next year as I do intend to go and play in 2012, It could work out a good way to get a seat. Alternatively grind them up to the level whenre you can trade them in for the $215 tourney tickets and try and bink summat bigger lol, who knows, I guess i'll decide later in the year.
So for now, its keep on grinding, its not an easy life at the low stakes ;-)
Snogged one of these babes back in the day looool
Bodysnatchers - Easylife
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Losing but loving it....
Well, not acutally loving losing $$$$ lol but strangely enough, even as my downswing continues and I am quietly confident about my game and I am enjoying it. Even the sick sick beats that come STT after STT comes with a quiet "of course" rather than a What the F%&£ and bits of desk flying everywhere. The opposite of course comes when I dish out the sick beats, which if you shove and steal as much as I do, you are bound to deal out the muff, jumping out my chair when I river my one outer screaming, take that you premium hand calling mother f*^$er loooool
Still not sure wtf has changed, the downswing still seems to have stemmed from Black Friday, so it must just be less fish around. I Reckon I have proably dropped about $600 since the change, but I am happy with my game and to be fair its not so much the beats that are the problem, its just the walking into bigger hands all the time which is the real issue and seems to be happening more and more each time I play. I seem to be getting a lot more of my steals shoved over than normal as well and can do nothing but fold and whinge. *sighs.
On a positive note, I have had my first two coaching sessions and they seem to have gone well, I am very impressed with his overall knowledge of the game, in particular odds and percentages and puts across his reasoning for doing things very well, will not mention who it is at the moment, but he is a very well respected member of the poker community and pretty decent winner. I just hope that the changes I have started implementing following his advice so far start to come to fruition, othewise as its a % profit coaching deal, I can see me being dumped before the end of the 4 month contract, which is fair enough. By my reckoning, with the quality of his coaching, I have already had approx $1000 worth of tuition and due to losing the first two weeks running, not paid a bean. I think the main stumbling block is the 150 stts a week that I am having to play as part of the contract, as I work all day, this doesn't leave much time for study and session review and I am also having to carry on 9 tabling, which is not ideal when you are trying to implement changes into your game that you have not tried before. However the learning experience has been excellent and has really helped me change the way I think about the game. I think the sessions have also made me think about life in general and to try and stop pussy footing my way through it with no clear direction of where I am heading or want to be. Also trying to be the best at what you do in all walks of life, it your gonna do it, might as well do it well. My new motto now is "try to do something as good as you can, then step back and think how you can do it better"
We are off for a few days holiday down Cornwall to relax after tomorrow, but once I come back I really want to focus on improving everything I do and have a lot more drive and motivation. Obviously the health and fitness part of this will be one of the main areas of attention, but things at work also need to change, with a lot more productivity in the right areas required.
Some interesting times ahead I think, lets hope it all goes to plan.
I notice Rammstein are touring the UK again next year in Feb, so will be def be off to see them again, just the greatest live act ever !!!
Rammstein - Engel
Still not sure wtf has changed, the downswing still seems to have stemmed from Black Friday, so it must just be less fish around. I Reckon I have proably dropped about $600 since the change, but I am happy with my game and to be fair its not so much the beats that are the problem, its just the walking into bigger hands all the time which is the real issue and seems to be happening more and more each time I play. I seem to be getting a lot more of my steals shoved over than normal as well and can do nothing but fold and whinge. *sighs.
On a positive note, I have had my first two coaching sessions and they seem to have gone well, I am very impressed with his overall knowledge of the game, in particular odds and percentages and puts across his reasoning for doing things very well, will not mention who it is at the moment, but he is a very well respected member of the poker community and pretty decent winner. I just hope that the changes I have started implementing following his advice so far start to come to fruition, othewise as its a % profit coaching deal, I can see me being dumped before the end of the 4 month contract, which is fair enough. By my reckoning, with the quality of his coaching, I have already had approx $1000 worth of tuition and due to losing the first two weeks running, not paid a bean. I think the main stumbling block is the 150 stts a week that I am having to play as part of the contract, as I work all day, this doesn't leave much time for study and session review and I am also having to carry on 9 tabling, which is not ideal when you are trying to implement changes into your game that you have not tried before. However the learning experience has been excellent and has really helped me change the way I think about the game. I think the sessions have also made me think about life in general and to try and stop pussy footing my way through it with no clear direction of where I am heading or want to be. Also trying to be the best at what you do in all walks of life, it your gonna do it, might as well do it well. My new motto now is "try to do something as good as you can, then step back and think how you can do it better"
We are off for a few days holiday down Cornwall to relax after tomorrow, but once I come back I really want to focus on improving everything I do and have a lot more drive and motivation. Obviously the health and fitness part of this will be one of the main areas of attention, but things at work also need to change, with a lot more productivity in the right areas required.
Some interesting times ahead I think, lets hope it all goes to plan.
I notice Rammstein are touring the UK again next year in Feb, so will be def be off to see them again, just the greatest live act ever !!!
Rammstein - Engel
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Struggling
Just can't seem to get a decent run together at the moment, its so bad, I actually posted my first negative month last month, which I thought would never happen playing sngs. The run of bad variance (maybe bad play) really does effect you mentally and you just don't want to sit down and grind out another 20 or so STTs for fear of blowing off another chunk of your roll.
Only played 99 STTs this month, which is not good preparation for when I start getting some coaching as I have to do 150 per week, the way I am running at the moment, I think I will end up in the nuthouse after the minimum 4 month period lol....Hopefully they can identify some simple major leaks that I obviously have that can stem the freefall that I seem to be in at the moment.
Gonna try and get at least 30 in today and try to use next week as a test run to see if I can get 150 per week in without losing my marbles.
Have had the dreaded Man Flu over the last week as well, which hasn't helped the new fitness plan, although it has killed my appetite, so have had no takeaways or nights out in the pub and to be fair, I have lost 5lb due to it, which is better than it was when I was able to get some swimming in !! Should get below 15st again by the end of the month if I can stick to even 1/2 my goals, so at least that part of my life is back on track. Next goal after that will be 14 1/2 stone by the end of July. Its strange, but I feel I have really turned a corner on the health front, I think the stark reality of how much weight I have put on over the last 15 years has at last kicked in and I know now if I don't do something soon, I will not be making my 50th Birthday.
So lets try to keep things on a positive front, even if the poker is running like a dog......
Old Skool Music today
PWEI - Ich Bin Ein Auslander
Only played 99 STTs this month, which is not good preparation for when I start getting some coaching as I have to do 150 per week, the way I am running at the moment, I think I will end up in the nuthouse after the minimum 4 month period lol....Hopefully they can identify some simple major leaks that I obviously have that can stem the freefall that I seem to be in at the moment.
Gonna try and get at least 30 in today and try to use next week as a test run to see if I can get 150 per week in without losing my marbles.
Have had the dreaded Man Flu over the last week as well, which hasn't helped the new fitness plan, although it has killed my appetite, so have had no takeaways or nights out in the pub and to be fair, I have lost 5lb due to it, which is better than it was when I was able to get some swimming in !! Should get below 15st again by the end of the month if I can stick to even 1/2 my goals, so at least that part of my life is back on track. Next goal after that will be 14 1/2 stone by the end of July. Its strange, but I feel I have really turned a corner on the health front, I think the stark reality of how much weight I have put on over the last 15 years has at last kicked in and I know now if I don't do something soon, I will not be making my 50th Birthday.
So lets try to keep things on a positive front, even if the poker is running like a dog......
Old Skool Music today
PWEI - Ich Bin Ein Auslander
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Had a Holibob !!
Not posted for a while, one reason being that I have been away on Holiday for a week in the beautiful Yorkshire Moors. It was the first time we have take our two new rescue staffies away on there hols since we got them in November last year. We weren't sure how they were going to react, but I can safely say they absolutely loved every minute of it. We hired a wonderful cottage in the middle of nowhere, with just the farmhouse and a few other smaller holiday lets. The nearest village was over 2 miles away called Glaisdale and that only had a butchers, general store and the mandatory pub. It really was heaven. We tried to pack in as much as we could during the day and never left the doggies on there own for a minute, where we went, they went: including the train ride on the North Yorkshire Moors Steam Railway. Its a journey we have always done with our previous dogs where we jump on the station at either Pickering or Grosmont then ask the driver to stop at the unmanned platform called NewtonDale Halt. There is then a beautiful 3 mile walk through the woods to the next station called Levisham, I highly recommend this to anyone, if you do decide to give it ago, be careful to check the train times to make sure you don't end up with a 2 hour wait at Levisham for the next train to return you to your car !!!
While I was away I thought about poker quite a lot. The main thought was basically: is it really worth all of the effort I am putting into playing for what now seems to be small profits. I think all forms of the game MTTs, Cash and SNGS have all moved on to a much higher standard and to be truthful, my game just hasn't. This really came to light looking at my results in April, where over a couple of hundred STTs I was actually slightly down at the tables which I thought over that large a sample I would never have that happen. It has also been the same story this month in the 150 or so STTs that I have played, again slightly down at the tables and only the reload bonuses and the Stellar awards giving me an overall profit.
My thoughts led me to the conclusion that I either just have to stop putting the hours in that I do and just go back to playing for fun, mainly low stakes MTTs, with the odd STT and sats into bigger MTTs. Option 2 is to pull my act together and get a coach. It was not an easy decision as I have quite enjoyed not having to stick to a routine every night that revolves around poker, but I have decided that I really do want the extra $$$ to pay my mortgage off as quick as I can and for this to happen I really need to concentrate more on the studying side of the game than I do.
I look back at what I have called "study" in the past and to be honest it has just consisted of watching cardrunners vids and reading through the forums. It is one thing to watch and read, its another to learn and adapt and I think that I have learnt a lot about poker by doing this, but never ever really learnt how to incorporate this extra knowledge into my game and improve overall as a player. This is the reason why I have decided to give a coach a go. I have contacted a site and have an offer with them which I intend to take up the next week or so.
Lets hope by the end of the year I can sit back and say, well I listened, I learned and now its paying dividends and have a decent profitable year. I am not looking to tear up the world, in fact I think all that I am after is a modest $750-$1000 a month in profit from the tables from approx 600-800 STTs and the odd MTT. That along with the rakeback and bonuses would make me more than happy.
I have also started back on to a new fitness program which has already started going well and I feel a lot better after only a few days. I weighed myself for the first time yesterday and came in at a whopping 15st 10 !!! which I think is only 2 lb lighter than the heaviest that I have ever been.
I will obv keep you all informed of my progress on both fronts.
Todays song is quite apt and if you wanna get stoned off your tits, the album "Sleeps with Angels" which this is off is a damn fine choice.......
Neil Young - Change your Mind
While I was away I thought about poker quite a lot. The main thought was basically: is it really worth all of the effort I am putting into playing for what now seems to be small profits. I think all forms of the game MTTs, Cash and SNGS have all moved on to a much higher standard and to be truthful, my game just hasn't. This really came to light looking at my results in April, where over a couple of hundred STTs I was actually slightly down at the tables which I thought over that large a sample I would never have that happen. It has also been the same story this month in the 150 or so STTs that I have played, again slightly down at the tables and only the reload bonuses and the Stellar awards giving me an overall profit.
My thoughts led me to the conclusion that I either just have to stop putting the hours in that I do and just go back to playing for fun, mainly low stakes MTTs, with the odd STT and sats into bigger MTTs. Option 2 is to pull my act together and get a coach. It was not an easy decision as I have quite enjoyed not having to stick to a routine every night that revolves around poker, but I have decided that I really do want the extra $$$ to pay my mortgage off as quick as I can and for this to happen I really need to concentrate more on the studying side of the game than I do.
I look back at what I have called "study" in the past and to be honest it has just consisted of watching cardrunners vids and reading through the forums. It is one thing to watch and read, its another to learn and adapt and I think that I have learnt a lot about poker by doing this, but never ever really learnt how to incorporate this extra knowledge into my game and improve overall as a player. This is the reason why I have decided to give a coach a go. I have contacted a site and have an offer with them which I intend to take up the next week or so.
Lets hope by the end of the year I can sit back and say, well I listened, I learned and now its paying dividends and have a decent profitable year. I am not looking to tear up the world, in fact I think all that I am after is a modest $750-$1000 a month in profit from the tables from approx 600-800 STTs and the odd MTT. That along with the rakeback and bonuses would make me more than happy.
I have also started back on to a new fitness program which has already started going well and I feel a lot better after only a few days. I weighed myself for the first time yesterday and came in at a whopping 15st 10 !!! which I think is only 2 lb lighter than the heaviest that I have ever been.
I will obv keep you all informed of my progress on both fronts.
Todays song is quite apt and if you wanna get stoned off your tits, the album "Sleeps with Angels" which this is off is a damn fine choice.......
Neil Young - Change your Mind
Thursday, April 21, 2011
America’s Live Casinos thriving After ‘New Crackdown
With class warfare in full, bloody battle across the United States of America, the federal government, the driving force of the country’s 14-trillion-dollar debt, does not take kindly to individuals flying under the IRS’s radar. Well, unless you are General Electric or another corporation that ships thousands of jobs overseas while being anti-oil, of course. Then you have carte blanche to evade taxes and “gamble” with the welfare of the country. But for everyone else, though, if you make a dollar, you better be sure to give the government its 50 cent.
The FBI’s crackdown on the big three Internet poker sites—PokerStars, Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Poker—has resulted in a mob-like influx of indictments, 76 bank accounts frozen in 14 different countries, and thousands of players—if not more—in America suffering an L due to their suddenly non-working sites.
This is not new news. In the poker world, the contradictory nature of America’s principles vs. America’s practices has been well noted for over five years. But it does make people wonder what’s next. These sites are poker sites, but a slew of bingo rooms and game-specific sites are still out there. A word of advice: Run, run, run for your lives!
If there is any silver lining encompassing this dark cloud, it’s that live casinos have been the beneficiaries of massive traffic since the FBI bust. Casinos from West Virginia to California have been reporting increased action. Many of these casinos were suspiciously abreast of the shutdown, or so it would seem, as they began offering increased poker tournament action.
When the poker rooms shut down, the online players showed up in droves to compete in live casinos.
Now, this isn’t a conspiracy-laden piece. It’s the Native Americans—usually exempt from taxes—who benefit the most from live casino action. But the timing does make some wonder if there’s anything on the back end for the state governments or for the federal coffers besides the obvious increase in immediate tax dollars.
The fact that players can do down the street in thousands of towns and cities in America and play any type of game they want leads some to question why they cannot do the same in the privacy of their own homes.
According to the government, someone playing online roulette might be funding a terrorist organization or helping people to traffic drugs, but since the owners of Full Tilt and other sites have been thoroughly vetted since 2006, that doesn’t wash.
Think about it. ShoveThisDrug-FilledCapsuleDownYourThroatAndCrossTheBorder.com wasn’t targeted, not that any such site exists, obviously. FundATerrorist.net is also not a viable option for Internet gamers. The American government is so involved in the life of its citizens since the Patriot Act that any “shady” enterprise instantly has the lights turned out.
The fact of the matter is that government already knew who was behind these big poker sites. So the excuses being made are asinine.
Meanwhile, America’s live casinos are once again thriving. People claiming huge winnings are immediately prompted to pay in their “fair share” (probably 50%, at the least) before even leaving the doors. And there you have it.
Unfortunately, the live casino crowd is going to die down. Internet gamblers will find a way to play online, and the government has no right to be in their business. The massive government will try to make it its business, but the folks will win.
The FBI’s crackdown on the big three Internet poker sites—PokerStars, Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Poker—has resulted in a mob-like influx of indictments, 76 bank accounts frozen in 14 different countries, and thousands of players—if not more—in America suffering an L due to their suddenly non-working sites.
This is not new news. In the poker world, the contradictory nature of America’s principles vs. America’s practices has been well noted for over five years. But it does make people wonder what’s next. These sites are poker sites, but a slew of bingo rooms and game-specific sites are still out there. A word of advice: Run, run, run for your lives!
If there is any silver lining encompassing this dark cloud, it’s that live casinos have been the beneficiaries of massive traffic since the FBI bust. Casinos from West Virginia to California have been reporting increased action. Many of these casinos were suspiciously abreast of the shutdown, or so it would seem, as they began offering increased poker tournament action.
When the poker rooms shut down, the online players showed up in droves to compete in live casinos.
Now, this isn’t a conspiracy-laden piece. It’s the Native Americans—usually exempt from taxes—who benefit the most from live casino action. But the timing does make some wonder if there’s anything on the back end for the state governments or for the federal coffers besides the obvious increase in immediate tax dollars.
The fact that players can do down the street in thousands of towns and cities in America and play any type of game they want leads some to question why they cannot do the same in the privacy of their own homes.
According to the government, someone playing online roulette might be funding a terrorist organization or helping people to traffic drugs, but since the owners of Full Tilt and other sites have been thoroughly vetted since 2006, that doesn’t wash.
Think about it. ShoveThisDrug-FilledCapsuleDownYourThroatAndCrossTheBorder.com wasn’t targeted, not that any such site exists, obviously. FundATerrorist.net is also not a viable option for Internet gamers. The American government is so involved in the life of its citizens since the Patriot Act that any “shady” enterprise instantly has the lights turned out.
The fact of the matter is that government already knew who was behind these big poker sites. So the excuses being made are asinine.
Meanwhile, America’s live casinos are once again thriving. People claiming huge winnings are immediately prompted to pay in their “fair share” (probably 50%, at the least) before even leaving the doors. And there you have it.
Unfortunately, the live casino crowd is going to die down. Internet gamblers will find a way to play online, and the government has no right to be in their business. The massive government will try to make it its business, but the folks will win.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Black Friday
Well it came as a bit of a shock, but as you are all probably aware the FBI/DOJ swooped hard on the major poker sites on friday and took them down. I real feel sorry for the citizens of the USA, they are supposedly "The Land of the Free" that is as long as the corrupt suppressive government can tax the "free" part. This in my opinion is what it is all about, nothing to do with fraud/money laundering, which may in part be going on, but I feel all they want is their massive cut of the golden egg that is internet poker.
So now the poor american players probably can't even get to their funds, let alone play poker which I imagine for 1000s this is currently their only form of income.
When the story broke I, like most people hit the panic button and put a withdrawal request for most of my Stars bankroll. However, after reading stuff on the forums, decided to cancel the request and withdraw a lesser amount which would still allow me to carry on playing at the volume and level that I am currently.
My inital thoughts was that it was the end of the world in terms of internet poker, but after giving it more thought, the majority of the americans that were playing were probably the better ones that carried on regardless of the inital ban a few years ago and to be fair, I think if anything the europeon fish on the whole are fishier than the yank fish lol.
For the time being, I am still going to carry on playing on stars and see what the play is like without the yanks, I am hoping that the games will get softer.
The month so far has been a bit of a disaster and I am about level overall as I have hit a huge downswing and have been struggling to hit many wins when heads up with only 9.7% 1st places so far in the 134 games that I have played (yes I know the volume is shit too lol) The 17% 4th place stat also tells its own sorry tale.
Still gonna plod on for now, but the lesson to be learnt from the events on this friday is to never keep any more of your poker bankroll online than you have to to play the stakes that you do. It actually makes a lot of sense to do this anyway, its better for us to have the intrest on the money that the sites.
I guess there was only one song I could choose for our american buddies today, maybe all of you should take advice from the middle eastern countries at the moment and take up arms against your own government as they seem to be shafting their own people right up the chutney locker at the moment....
The Doors - The End
So now the poor american players probably can't even get to their funds, let alone play poker which I imagine for 1000s this is currently their only form of income.
When the story broke I, like most people hit the panic button and put a withdrawal request for most of my Stars bankroll. However, after reading stuff on the forums, decided to cancel the request and withdraw a lesser amount which would still allow me to carry on playing at the volume and level that I am currently.
My inital thoughts was that it was the end of the world in terms of internet poker, but after giving it more thought, the majority of the americans that were playing were probably the better ones that carried on regardless of the inital ban a few years ago and to be fair, I think if anything the europeon fish on the whole are fishier than the yank fish lol.
For the time being, I am still going to carry on playing on stars and see what the play is like without the yanks, I am hoping that the games will get softer.
The month so far has been a bit of a disaster and I am about level overall as I have hit a huge downswing and have been struggling to hit many wins when heads up with only 9.7% 1st places so far in the 134 games that I have played (yes I know the volume is shit too lol) The 17% 4th place stat also tells its own sorry tale.
Still gonna plod on for now, but the lesson to be learnt from the events on this friday is to never keep any more of your poker bankroll online than you have to to play the stakes that you do. It actually makes a lot of sense to do this anyway, its better for us to have the intrest on the money that the sites.
I guess there was only one song I could choose for our american buddies today, maybe all of you should take advice from the middle eastern countries at the moment and take up arms against your own government as they seem to be shafting their own people right up the chutney locker at the moment....
The Doors - The End
Saturday, April 02, 2011
So Far so Good + March Round Up
March turned out to be a decent month. As usual did not put in the volume that I had hoped for, mainly as ever due to going out on the piss too often *sighs. I managed to play a total of 304 STTs split roughly 50/50 between the 5s and the 10s. Stats for the month ended like this.
STTs Played = 304
ROI% = 18.4%
ITM% = 43.4
Winnings = $464.50
$/hr: = $11.12
Overall very happy, although it was a strange split. I deliberately fire up the tables so I do not know which table is a 5 or a 10, however I played 150 STTS at $5 and was -1.3% ROI and down $10.50 overall. But at the $10 buyin I played 154 with an ROI of 28% and $475 profit...what the fck is all that about !!!! I obv ran super hot on the 10s and super shite on the 5s lol. I guess I should just be grateful that it wasn't the other way around.
So for April, I really do need to up the volume, I know I keep saying this, but ffs, get your fat arse into gear Gothy and just foooking do it. The plan this month is to play a minimum of 600 STTs. I am now gonna move up to exclusively $10 buyins. With the amount of bank holidays that we have in April, this should be achievable. I can only hope I run as good in them as I did last month as that could be some good wonga and bankroll booster. On the subject of bankroll, I am proably gonna have to take £500 or so out of it to pay for some stuff as we went waaaaaay over budget doing the bathroom up and I also want to take the wife for a couple of days away to Cornwall to watch a play at the Minack Theatre which is one of the things on our "Things to do before we die" list.
I have also took a chunk of my bankroll out and opened up an 888 account to start playing some MTTs, I really do need to play these as to get a really great profitable year it does help if you bink a big score in a decent tourney. Gonna try and fund the MTT entries by playing the $5 stts on there and doing some sats into the bigger tourneys. There are some crazy aggro fish on that network and if you pick your spots you can chunk along nicely. I did play the $33 $50k challenge last night, but went out after squeeze shoving in the BB with KJsoooooooooted and the fish who flatted in the SB tanked and called with AQ, YES, I know it was a good call, but for ffs, I want cheeeeps....
Overall life is good at the moment, apart from work which is boring as shite, but I guess thats what work is all about. Would be nice to bink a lotto win to pay of the mortgage and then bunk off to be a full time sng monkey junkey. You never know, gotta be innit to winnit....
Enough bollocks for this week,
The Cure - LoveSong
STTs Played = 304
ROI% = 18.4%
ITM% = 43.4
Winnings = $464.50
$/hr: = $11.12
Overall very happy, although it was a strange split. I deliberately fire up the tables so I do not know which table is a 5 or a 10, however I played 150 STTS at $5 and was -1.3% ROI and down $10.50 overall. But at the $10 buyin I played 154 with an ROI of 28% and $475 profit...what the fck is all that about !!!! I obv ran super hot on the 10s and super shite on the 5s lol. I guess I should just be grateful that it wasn't the other way around.
So for April, I really do need to up the volume, I know I keep saying this, but ffs, get your fat arse into gear Gothy and just foooking do it. The plan this month is to play a minimum of 600 STTs. I am now gonna move up to exclusively $10 buyins. With the amount of bank holidays that we have in April, this should be achievable. I can only hope I run as good in them as I did last month as that could be some good wonga and bankroll booster. On the subject of bankroll, I am proably gonna have to take £500 or so out of it to pay for some stuff as we went waaaaaay over budget doing the bathroom up and I also want to take the wife for a couple of days away to Cornwall to watch a play at the Minack Theatre which is one of the things on our "Things to do before we die" list.
I have also took a chunk of my bankroll out and opened up an 888 account to start playing some MTTs, I really do need to play these as to get a really great profitable year it does help if you bink a big score in a decent tourney. Gonna try and fund the MTT entries by playing the $5 stts on there and doing some sats into the bigger tourneys. There are some crazy aggro fish on that network and if you pick your spots you can chunk along nicely. I did play the $33 $50k challenge last night, but went out after squeeze shoving in the BB with KJsoooooooooted and the fish who flatted in the SB tanked and called with AQ, YES, I know it was a good call, but for ffs, I want cheeeeps....
Overall life is good at the moment, apart from work which is boring as shite, but I guess thats what work is all about. Would be nice to bink a lotto win to pay of the mortgage and then bunk off to be a full time sng monkey junkey. You never know, gotta be innit to winnit....
Enough bollocks for this week,
The Cure - LoveSong
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Quiet Times on the poker front
Last week I planned to stay in and try and grind a minimum of 30 stts a day, however these plans seemed to go out the window and I ended up going out on the piss for 4 days out of the 7. This is obv not good for the health, finance or poker bankroll, in particular as I have been running well and winning, I could understand it if I was losing and looking for an excuse not to play, so not sure what that is all about. Must admit, I had some fun on the nights out but I really need to be a lot more disciplined if I want to have any chance of hitting any goals that I set.
Hopefully from tomorrow I will be able to put my head down and get some hours in at the tables and also get my arse back in the pool at lunchtimes at work and maybe even get back on the weights as everything seems to have shrunk...well except for me belly that is.
Looking at back on February as my first month back on the sngs, I have to be happy, my stats finished as per below:-
STTs Played = 393
ROI% = 11.0%
ITM% = 42.7
Winnings = $237.00
$/hr: = $4.39
All of the 393 tourneys were the $5.5 regular 9 man tourneys on stars. Overall I think I ran quite well, I had some sick sick beats, but to be fair, I gave a fair few out.
For March, as I have only played 9 stts so far this month, most of them at the $11s I intend to try and complete 400 for the month, mixing up the 5.5s and the 11s, then in April if all is going ok will be playing the 11s exclusively. I know for a fact that supernova is gonna be beyond me this year unless I really crank up the buyins and volume, but if all goes to plan, by the end of the year, I should have a bankroll whereby next year, I can put a real challenge in for supernova or even 200k supernova.
The house move has been put on hold as the house that we were really interested in has been sold and also, as expected, the valuation on our house was not as high as we would of hoped. We have therefore decided to stay put for the next two years and renovate our current house a bit more, starting with a new bathroom which we should be having done in the next few weeks. I'm not really into DIY, especially as I am shite at it, but I must admit, I am looking forward to changing a few things and putting more of our stamp on the house.
Back on the poker front, prob won't play any stts today, gonna try the $11 turbo muff fest to try and get into the stars $5million guaranteed in 15 minutes, hopefully muffing my way through that and having a good run later on. You never know, could be me driving the add first prize of the lambo soon :-)
Good Luck all who are in it and I hope if I can't take it down, someone I know can bink a biggie.
Nirvana - In Bloom
Hopefully from tomorrow I will be able to put my head down and get some hours in at the tables and also get my arse back in the pool at lunchtimes at work and maybe even get back on the weights as everything seems to have shrunk...well except for me belly that is.
Looking at back on February as my first month back on the sngs, I have to be happy, my stats finished as per below:-
STTs Played = 393
ROI% = 11.0%
ITM% = 42.7
Winnings = $237.00
$/hr: = $4.39
All of the 393 tourneys were the $5.5 regular 9 man tourneys on stars. Overall I think I ran quite well, I had some sick sick beats, but to be fair, I gave a fair few out.
For March, as I have only played 9 stts so far this month, most of them at the $11s I intend to try and complete 400 for the month, mixing up the 5.5s and the 11s, then in April if all is going ok will be playing the 11s exclusively. I know for a fact that supernova is gonna be beyond me this year unless I really crank up the buyins and volume, but if all goes to plan, by the end of the year, I should have a bankroll whereby next year, I can put a real challenge in for supernova or even 200k supernova.
The house move has been put on hold as the house that we were really interested in has been sold and also, as expected, the valuation on our house was not as high as we would of hoped. We have therefore decided to stay put for the next two years and renovate our current house a bit more, starting with a new bathroom which we should be having done in the next few weeks. I'm not really into DIY, especially as I am shite at it, but I must admit, I am looking forward to changing a few things and putting more of our stamp on the house.
Back on the poker front, prob won't play any stts today, gonna try the $11 turbo muff fest to try and get into the stars $5million guaranteed in 15 minutes, hopefully muffing my way through that and having a good run later on. You never know, could be me driving the add first prize of the lambo soon :-)
Good Luck all who are in it and I hope if I can't take it down, someone I know can bink a biggie.
Nirvana - In Bloom
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Quietly Satisfied
Dangerous to say I know, but things are going ok at the moment, I couldn't stop lookign at my results in the end, its just too tempting lol, but and I am quite happy with my play and knowing how I am doing hasn't had any negative effect. Still not able to put in the volume that I would of liked and I think I have only played about 280 $5.50 sngs this month. I have stayed at 9 tables for now as I still don't feel confident of adding more as I think it would affect by roi too much at the moment. I am sure I will get used to it and add more as time goes by, but for now I think 9 is going to be limit for another month or so. The problem with only doing 9 tables and playing the 5.50s is that I am not clocking up enough vpps. I have only knocked up about 780 this month, so just crept into Silver and probably have no chance of reaching Gold by the end of the month. I think therefore my over nitty bankrolling is going to have to change. Even though I set out my bankroll rules on a previous post, I have not been sticking to them and I am still being over cautions. I have £2.1k in my poker roll ($3.5k) and I am still playing the 5.50s lol. So I have decided I am gonna move back up to the 11s in March and take it from there. If I can crank up the volume on them and still get a similar roi, all will be rosy again.
So the aim for the rest of this month is to just keep plodding on at the same rate, aiming to complete about 400 this month, will the aim to double the volume next month. I think Supernova this year is already out of the window, but you never know, if I can keep winning at the rate I am now I may be able to move up the stakes later in the year and play more of the 20s and 30s. I am not sure where the split is that makes the levels mainly decent regs, but I suspect that is is around the 33s mark, as I am sure I have heard this is where the difference starts on the turbos, which again is something I may have to dip my toe in the water at, mainly because over the 280 I I have played so far this year I am averaging about 55 mins per game !!!
On a personal front, this month has seen us start to possibly think about moving house. The problem that we have is that we love where we live, in a nice village, in a cul de sac around 20o yards walk from the village square where there are local shops that inlcude a small coop, butchers, greengrocers, off licence and more importantly my local pub, two other pubs, a chinese, an indian and also a chippie. No wonder I am such a fooking lard arse !!!
The only reason we have even thought about moving is that our garden is a little on the small side and its also on a slant and since we have taken in a couple of rescue staffies at the end of last year I would like to see them tear arsing around a bigger garden and having tons of fun. The only other reason is the fact that, although the house is big, it doesn't have a downstairs toilet, which basically means that the drain on the patio by the kitchen window is my makeshift urinal when I am mass tabling and the missus ain't too please about it !!!!
Ideally we would love (or I would love) to stay in Alvechurch as I have been here for 19 years now and really feel like it is my home. But trying to find a bigger house with a large garden here is probably gonna be beyond our budget and at 43, I don't want to take out another 25 year mortgage, but just want to keep the length the same.
We are having the house valued on Friday and even went to look at a house in nearby Bromsgrove last week, which to be fair, was very very nice. But we are still not sure and can't really do anything until we get the valuation back on our current property. As we have only been here 4.5 years, I highly suspect that it will only be worth what we paid for it, which isn't too bad, but will severely restrict our ability to move up the chain a bit.
The other option that we have thought about is to stay put and put some time and effort into the house that we have, we can't expand the garden, but could def spruce it up a bit and make it better for the doggies. We also have the option of converting the garage, I don't think that we will be able to afford a full extension, but we couild possibly be able to convert the garage into a gym type room with a toilet and en-suite shower room, which could also be used as a bedroom in the future. I think this would add a fair bit of value on the house for when we eventually plan to retire and move into the countryside nearer the see (long way off !!) The only problem that I can see is that all the services terminate in the garage and I can see that the gas feed disappears into the concrete floor in the garage and pops up fook knows where, the same I think for the electrics and water. I am sure these can be diverted, but its just gonna add to the cost and will also prob need a new driveway as this will almost certainly have to be dug up !!
I guess with all the above happening, I am really gonna have to crank up the stakes and the volume and bring in more mooolah !!!!
I guess as this weeks post is all about moving up and moving house, there really can be only one song, I know its not the hard rock that you expect from me, but I do love the band, so there !!!
M People -Moving on Up
So the aim for the rest of this month is to just keep plodding on at the same rate, aiming to complete about 400 this month, will the aim to double the volume next month. I think Supernova this year is already out of the window, but you never know, if I can keep winning at the rate I am now I may be able to move up the stakes later in the year and play more of the 20s and 30s. I am not sure where the split is that makes the levels mainly decent regs, but I suspect that is is around the 33s mark, as I am sure I have heard this is where the difference starts on the turbos, which again is something I may have to dip my toe in the water at, mainly because over the 280 I I have played so far this year I am averaging about 55 mins per game !!!
On a personal front, this month has seen us start to possibly think about moving house. The problem that we have is that we love where we live, in a nice village, in a cul de sac around 20o yards walk from the village square where there are local shops that inlcude a small coop, butchers, greengrocers, off licence and more importantly my local pub, two other pubs, a chinese, an indian and also a chippie. No wonder I am such a fooking lard arse !!!
The only reason we have even thought about moving is that our garden is a little on the small side and its also on a slant and since we have taken in a couple of rescue staffies at the end of last year I would like to see them tear arsing around a bigger garden and having tons of fun. The only other reason is the fact that, although the house is big, it doesn't have a downstairs toilet, which basically means that the drain on the patio by the kitchen window is my makeshift urinal when I am mass tabling and the missus ain't too please about it !!!!
Ideally we would love (or I would love) to stay in Alvechurch as I have been here for 19 years now and really feel like it is my home. But trying to find a bigger house with a large garden here is probably gonna be beyond our budget and at 43, I don't want to take out another 25 year mortgage, but just want to keep the length the same.
We are having the house valued on Friday and even went to look at a house in nearby Bromsgrove last week, which to be fair, was very very nice. But we are still not sure and can't really do anything until we get the valuation back on our current property. As we have only been here 4.5 years, I highly suspect that it will only be worth what we paid for it, which isn't too bad, but will severely restrict our ability to move up the chain a bit.
The other option that we have thought about is to stay put and put some time and effort into the house that we have, we can't expand the garden, but could def spruce it up a bit and make it better for the doggies. We also have the option of converting the garage, I don't think that we will be able to afford a full extension, but we couild possibly be able to convert the garage into a gym type room with a toilet and en-suite shower room, which could also be used as a bedroom in the future. I think this would add a fair bit of value on the house for when we eventually plan to retire and move into the countryside nearer the see (long way off !!) The only problem that I can see is that all the services terminate in the garage and I can see that the gas feed disappears into the concrete floor in the garage and pops up fook knows where, the same I think for the electrics and water. I am sure these can be diverted, but its just gonna add to the cost and will also prob need a new driveway as this will almost certainly have to be dug up !!
I guess with all the above happening, I am really gonna have to crank up the stakes and the volume and bring in more mooolah !!!!
I guess as this weeks post is all about moving up and moving house, there really can be only one song, I know its not the hard rock that you expect from me, but I do love the band, so there !!!
M People -Moving on Up
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
SNG Grinding
Well, following on from my last post, I have had mixed results on my start of grinding out sngs. As I think I mentioned in the past, I used to mainly play sngs on stars (GothmanUK) but never really more than 2 tables at once. Last year I found I could comfortably 15 table 50NL Fullring cash without losing track of what was going on (although my results may beg to differ) However over the last 7 days or so I have been 9 tabling the $5.50 regular 9 mans on stars and have been struggling. Its not really the results that I have been struggling at as I am in profit over the 150 or so games that I have played, its keeping track of my stack sizes in relation to the blinds that I am finding difficult. Losing track of the above has the result of missing obvious shove opportunities and also sometimes getting too short in relation to the blinds and losing any fold equity.
I am currently tiling my 9 tables so I have them all in view, I think I may have to experiment with different options, maybe try cascading which I normally hate. Maybe even just moving the tables that are getting large blinds on to my 2nd monitor so I am more aware that I should be concentrating on these tables more. My only worry is that if I start moving tables around that one table may end up popping up behind another and I might miss it totally. I am sure I have sat out one whole tourney already doing this !!
If anyone has any advice on the best setup for mass tabling sngs I would be really appreciate any comments as I know I want to increase it to 18 by the end of March and I seem to be disappearing up my own arse at the moment.
One thing I had forgotten was how sick the beats are at sngs, being mainly a push strategy at the end game I can't believe how many times I have been called by Ax when I have Ax+ and they hit their 3 outer. In fact after one session of excruciating suckouts I even thought about giving up poker all together as the profits were just not gonna be worth it. However I seem to have gotten used to it now and to be fair, I do laugh my socks off when I also hit my one or two outer on the river, so I guess its all swings and roundabouts.
Another thing I am trying not to do is look at my results too closely at the moment, so I can't update my P+L on this blog until the end of the month. I am hoping this way I won't go on monkey tilt after a few bad sessions. Hopefully I won't get an "insufficient funds in account" message pop up when trying to auto join the next SNG lol. If I do, I think I will cry.
I know one thing for sure is that I will have to be playing the $11s by the end of March to stick any chance of getting to supernova by the end of the year, I have already missed a month by not playing on stars in january and at the moment I don't even think I will reach gold this month due to too much other stuff going on. I think the most I have played in a day so far is 40, which only equates to 110 VPPS and I think I need to average about 278vpps per day over the whole year to get to supernova (or summat like that)
I also have only just noticed the Battle of the Planets promo which looks pretty cool, I am hoping I can cash in a few of those a couple of times a month, it will definitely be a nice boost to the bankroll if I do. I might try to keep track of my points and post them up as part of a monthly round up as I do love stats.
So in summary, not going too bad at the moment, just need to increase the volume, hopefully make gold by the end of the month, with a view to getting close to platinum in March and April.
Placebo - Pure Morning
I am currently tiling my 9 tables so I have them all in view, I think I may have to experiment with different options, maybe try cascading which I normally hate. Maybe even just moving the tables that are getting large blinds on to my 2nd monitor so I am more aware that I should be concentrating on these tables more. My only worry is that if I start moving tables around that one table may end up popping up behind another and I might miss it totally. I am sure I have sat out one whole tourney already doing this !!
If anyone has any advice on the best setup for mass tabling sngs I would be really appreciate any comments as I know I want to increase it to 18 by the end of March and I seem to be disappearing up my own arse at the moment.
One thing I had forgotten was how sick the beats are at sngs, being mainly a push strategy at the end game I can't believe how many times I have been called by Ax when I have Ax+ and they hit their 3 outer. In fact after one session of excruciating suckouts I even thought about giving up poker all together as the profits were just not gonna be worth it. However I seem to have gotten used to it now and to be fair, I do laugh my socks off when I also hit my one or two outer on the river, so I guess its all swings and roundabouts.
Another thing I am trying not to do is look at my results too closely at the moment, so I can't update my P+L on this blog until the end of the month. I am hoping this way I won't go on monkey tilt after a few bad sessions. Hopefully I won't get an "insufficient funds in account" message pop up when trying to auto join the next SNG lol. If I do, I think I will cry.
I know one thing for sure is that I will have to be playing the $11s by the end of March to stick any chance of getting to supernova by the end of the year, I have already missed a month by not playing on stars in january and at the moment I don't even think I will reach gold this month due to too much other stuff going on. I think the most I have played in a day so far is 40, which only equates to 110 VPPS and I think I need to average about 278vpps per day over the whole year to get to supernova (or summat like that)
I also have only just noticed the Battle of the Planets promo which looks pretty cool, I am hoping I can cash in a few of those a couple of times a month, it will definitely be a nice boost to the bankroll if I do. I might try to keep track of my points and post them up as part of a monthly round up as I do love stats.
So in summary, not going too bad at the moment, just need to increase the volume, hopefully make gold by the end of the month, with a view to getting close to platinum in March and April.
Placebo - Pure Morning
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Deep Thoughts and decision made
January didn't exactly go to plan, the excellent start followed by the poor middle of the month continued in that vain and I finished the month about a buyin down at 10NL. I know I only played about 12.5k hands for the month but I have come to the decision that I am completely wasting my time doing what I am doing. If I am going to put in a decent portion of my spare time playing poker, whats the point in doing it for nickel and dime shit. I don't go on msn chatting with my m8s while playin MTTS anymore which I deeply regret as I miss them all so much. So if the only reason to play poker is for money, why the fuck after playing the game for nearly 8 years have I regressed to playing 10NL cash, when in 2006 I was playing $20 sngs and make a profit at it WITHOUT rakeback. I know the games were easier then, but it really is time to get my priorities right and either play the game for the enjoyment and get on MSN and have a laff or start playing summat that I can know I can beat and get some decent $$ at.
Its not just the above that has been bugging me, I have been thinking long and hard about my failed attempt to get to supernova last year on stars. I really think I let myself down and failed, I kept blaming running bad, but at the end of the day, I just played bad. 50NL full ring should be easily beatable by someone with my experience, but I managed to donk off almost 2k over 300k hands chasing the points for supernova. I know I left it late to start, but I should of still broke even while chasing the bonuses, but I didn't.
I have therefore decided to go back to my roots and do what I know for a fact I can win at in the long term and at worst break even at and that is SNGs.
To be fair, I I have not tried multitabling much playing sngs and my plan over the next couple of months is to build up to 18 tabling the £11 9man regular tables on stars. Hopefully I can build up enough points that by the end of March, I will have a realsitic chance of getting to supernova by the end of the year. The aim then for next year will be supernova 500k. Then in 2013, Supernova Elite. I know to get to Elite I am going to have to move up the stakes a lot and also get involved in the turbos, just to get the volume in, this is obv gonna be an issue, as all my success on stars has been on the 9 man regular tables, so some adjustmants will have to be made of course.
In preparation for the change I tried 9 tabing the $5.50s on stars tonight. In 4.9 hours I managed to knock off 37 sngs and managed to end up $53 in profit. So not a bad start. I did only managed to get about 105 vpps though, so will struggle to get to gold by the end of the month as I know I can't put 5 hours a day in cos of the dogs a that moment, but as I said, hopefully I will build up to 18 tabling. Will carry on with 9 or the next few days, then start adding a couple till I feel comfortable at 18. You never know, if I can can get a 2nd 28inch monitor, I might be able to go to 24 as I currently have 1 28 inch and 1 24 inch.
So Ideally the plan for this month is to get to Gold playing mainly the $5.50s with a few $11s thrown in. All being well, can then start in anger on the 11s in March.
I have dumped £300 into my stars account today for this new challenge and I already had about £100 in there. Will probably not top it up while playing the 5.50s as hopefully I will not need to, but unless I run like god, will almsot certainly need to add a few ££ for when I move up to the 11s in March.
So in a nutshell, the 10NL challenge is off and the 2011 Supernova challenge is back on (gutted I wasted a month grrrrr)
The new bankroll plan is as follows:-
SNG Buyin.........Min roll Comments
$5.50.............£1000 50% of roll stored in savings
$11...............£2000 50% of roll stored in savings
$22...............£4000 50% of roll stored in savings, 50% of play to be at $11
I think if I can get enough hours in, the above plan should potentially get me to supernova by the end of the year. I know I am not going to be able to keep my current ROI of just over 20% in ~900 games. But even if I can get close to 3-5% its gonna be a lot better than my cash turnover over the last few years.
Will also try to fit in a few MTTS to help boost the roll, to be fair I have not played a single MTT this year !!!
Well, I guess I better wrap up this post, been a long one. Hopefully this time I can stick to my guns and actually achieve a goal I start out to get and be profitable getting it.
I guess only time will tell how it ends......
DeVotchKa - How it ends.
Its not just the above that has been bugging me, I have been thinking long and hard about my failed attempt to get to supernova last year on stars. I really think I let myself down and failed, I kept blaming running bad, but at the end of the day, I just played bad. 50NL full ring should be easily beatable by someone with my experience, but I managed to donk off almost 2k over 300k hands chasing the points for supernova. I know I left it late to start, but I should of still broke even while chasing the bonuses, but I didn't.
I have therefore decided to go back to my roots and do what I know for a fact I can win at in the long term and at worst break even at and that is SNGs.
To be fair, I I have not tried multitabling much playing sngs and my plan over the next couple of months is to build up to 18 tabling the £11 9man regular tables on stars. Hopefully I can build up enough points that by the end of March, I will have a realsitic chance of getting to supernova by the end of the year. The aim then for next year will be supernova 500k. Then in 2013, Supernova Elite. I know to get to Elite I am going to have to move up the stakes a lot and also get involved in the turbos, just to get the volume in, this is obv gonna be an issue, as all my success on stars has been on the 9 man regular tables, so some adjustmants will have to be made of course.
In preparation for the change I tried 9 tabing the $5.50s on stars tonight. In 4.9 hours I managed to knock off 37 sngs and managed to end up $53 in profit. So not a bad start. I did only managed to get about 105 vpps though, so will struggle to get to gold by the end of the month as I know I can't put 5 hours a day in cos of the dogs a that moment, but as I said, hopefully I will build up to 18 tabling. Will carry on with 9 or the next few days, then start adding a couple till I feel comfortable at 18. You never know, if I can can get a 2nd 28inch monitor, I might be able to go to 24 as I currently have 1 28 inch and 1 24 inch.
So Ideally the plan for this month is to get to Gold playing mainly the $5.50s with a few $11s thrown in. All being well, can then start in anger on the 11s in March.
I have dumped £300 into my stars account today for this new challenge and I already had about £100 in there. Will probably not top it up while playing the 5.50s as hopefully I will not need to, but unless I run like god, will almsot certainly need to add a few ££ for when I move up to the 11s in March.
So in a nutshell, the 10NL challenge is off and the 2011 Supernova challenge is back on (gutted I wasted a month grrrrr)
The new bankroll plan is as follows:-
SNG Buyin.........Min roll Comments
$5.50.............£1000 50% of roll stored in savings
$11...............£2000 50% of roll stored in savings
$22...............£4000 50% of roll stored in savings, 50% of play to be at $11
I think if I can get enough hours in, the above plan should potentially get me to supernova by the end of the year. I know I am not going to be able to keep my current ROI of just over 20% in ~900 games. But even if I can get close to 3-5% its gonna be a lot better than my cash turnover over the last few years.
Will also try to fit in a few MTTS to help boost the roll, to be fair I have not played a single MTT this year !!!
Well, I guess I better wrap up this post, been a long one. Hopefully this time I can stick to my guns and actually achieve a goal I start out to get and be profitable getting it.
I guess only time will tell how it ends......
DeVotchKa - How it ends.
Friday, January 21, 2011
The Fish Bite Back
Well the new year started off as the last year ended, I was cruising at my new 10NL challenge and after about 3k hands was a comfortable 7 buyins up. Then it seemed the dreaded doom switch turned. I am still bum hunting, but the next 6k hands, the fish hit everything....and I mean EVERYTHING !!!! Every flush chase came. Flopped sets got rivered by runner str8s or runner runner flushes. I even trapped one fooker with 66 on a 886 board only for the all the money to go in on the turn 7. Of course he flipped 78 !!!
But, I still have belief in my game at this level, may need to cut down on the continuation bets a bit and make better notes on the players, just cos they are playing 78/4 you still need to make a few extra notes on how they do things apart from the obvious "DO NOT BLUFF" !!!!
Managed to pull a couple of buyins back the last couple of days, but I am still about 7 buyins below EV at the mo, it sucks, but at least I know I am getting them in good most of the time.
I am not playing as much as I would of hoped, I think January tends to always be a strange month for me as I seem to set a few life goals and targets. I am trying to lose a bit of weight at the moment, so have been focusing on that bit, managed to lose about 6lb so far, which considering I have had at least two "all dayers" and a few takeways is not too bad, not really started excercising much yet, so hopefully there is more to come. Would love to get below 12st by the end of the year (currently 15st 2) so its a bit of a tall order, but I can but try.
Not played a tourney all year yet, I just can't seem to get in the mindset to sit down knowing that I could be there for a good 6-7 hours and still only double my entry fee, thats the beauty of cash really, just play and leave when you want.
So the bankroll challenge is still on, but getting up to £1500 to move up the levels seems a long way off at the moment and playing at 10NL the rakeback is not much either. I think I got about £13 for ~10k hands from last month !! will prob only do about 15k hands this month as well, so I do need to up the volume a bit to help boost the roll, although to be fair I would rather be winning at the tables.
Todays track is from a band I have only just heard of recently, but they seem pretty cool.
Pretty Reckless - Miss Nothing
But, I still have belief in my game at this level, may need to cut down on the continuation bets a bit and make better notes on the players, just cos they are playing 78/4 you still need to make a few extra notes on how they do things apart from the obvious "DO NOT BLUFF" !!!!
Managed to pull a couple of buyins back the last couple of days, but I am still about 7 buyins below EV at the mo, it sucks, but at least I know I am getting them in good most of the time.
I am not playing as much as I would of hoped, I think January tends to always be a strange month for me as I seem to set a few life goals and targets. I am trying to lose a bit of weight at the moment, so have been focusing on that bit, managed to lose about 6lb so far, which considering I have had at least two "all dayers" and a few takeways is not too bad, not really started excercising much yet, so hopefully there is more to come. Would love to get below 12st by the end of the year (currently 15st 2) so its a bit of a tall order, but I can but try.
Not played a tourney all year yet, I just can't seem to get in the mindset to sit down knowing that I could be there for a good 6-7 hours and still only double my entry fee, thats the beauty of cash really, just play and leave when you want.
So the bankroll challenge is still on, but getting up to £1500 to move up the levels seems a long way off at the moment and playing at 10NL the rakeback is not much either. I think I got about £13 for ~10k hands from last month !! will prob only do about 15k hands this month as well, so I do need to up the volume a bit to help boost the roll, although to be fair I would rather be winning at the tables.
Todays track is from a band I have only just heard of recently, but they seem pretty cool.
Pretty Reckless - Miss Nothing
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Ironic December and Yearly Round up (sort of)
Well would you adam and eve it. After setting myself a bankroll challenge and dropping down to 10NL€ I ended up having my best month on the cash tables in the whole year and I only played 10K hands !!! unbelievable. This was mainly down to only playing 4 tables and doing some serious bumhunting. I tag high VPIP fish as green and every time I sat at a table, within twenty hands or so, I could see at least one player that was gonna be tagged str8 away, it was just then a case of waiting for a hand then taking their $$$ Sweeeeeeet....Long may it continue.
I finished december about 18 buyins up in the 10k hands and after conversion was approx $250 up, which as I said above, not taking into account tourney winnings, was my biggest month profit on the cash tables.
It helped bring a very bad year to an end and I finished the year about $950 total profit, which is my worst year ever.
2010 was probably the worst year of life overall. It all started off what I thought was going to be the best with a dream fulfilled in our tour across Canada in April, which was one of the best two weeks in my whole life. Unfortunately it all went downhill from there. The summer saw the loss of my Grandmother and my precious pooch Fern. November also took the life of my wifes Grandmother and then to cap it all, after surviving and recovering from two bowell cancer operations my Uncle Jimmy had a stroke which proved fatal and he also tragically passed away. Needless to say I did not celebrate new years eve at all last night, I had one large glass of JD and said good riddance to 2010.
So, enough of the past, onwards to the future. I am keeping to my current goals and staying on microgaming for my bankroll challenge. I have managed to get my account up to £600 playing 10NL and i am ignoring my bankroll that I have in my savings account of £1300 (I may use this as a seperate tourney roll, not sure yet). Therefore my bankroll challenge is only what is in my online account. I intend to carry out the following management plan.
Level....Buyin...Min Roll
€10NL....€10.....£500
€20NL....€20.....£1500
€40NL....€40.....£3000
€50NL....€50.....£5000
€100NL...€100....£10000
As you can see, the amount of buyins increases as I move up to give more room to play and also the roll is in £, where as most of the play is on € tables, so this gives a bit more protection as well.
If all goes well, I plan to withdraw £200 at £2k, £300 at £3k, £400 at £4k, £500 at £5k. Once I get to £6k I plan to withdraw anything above that amount in the account on the last day of the month.
It is going to be a long slow process, but I am hoping to spend more time studying this year and trying to concentrate on quality rather than quantity.
Ideally by the end of the year I want to be playing about 50k hands a month at €50NL and running at 1BB/100 minimum. (running at 9.27BB/100 at 10NL at the mo lol)
So heres wishing you all a Happy and Healthy new year and hope you all live life in the fast lane.....
New Order - 60 Miles an Hour
I finished december about 18 buyins up in the 10k hands and after conversion was approx $250 up, which as I said above, not taking into account tourney winnings, was my biggest month profit on the cash tables.
It helped bring a very bad year to an end and I finished the year about $950 total profit, which is my worst year ever.
2010 was probably the worst year of life overall. It all started off what I thought was going to be the best with a dream fulfilled in our tour across Canada in April, which was one of the best two weeks in my whole life. Unfortunately it all went downhill from there. The summer saw the loss of my Grandmother and my precious pooch Fern. November also took the life of my wifes Grandmother and then to cap it all, after surviving and recovering from two bowell cancer operations my Uncle Jimmy had a stroke which proved fatal and he also tragically passed away. Needless to say I did not celebrate new years eve at all last night, I had one large glass of JD and said good riddance to 2010.
So, enough of the past, onwards to the future. I am keeping to my current goals and staying on microgaming for my bankroll challenge. I have managed to get my account up to £600 playing 10NL and i am ignoring my bankroll that I have in my savings account of £1300 (I may use this as a seperate tourney roll, not sure yet). Therefore my bankroll challenge is only what is in my online account. I intend to carry out the following management plan.
Level....Buyin...Min Roll
€10NL....€10.....£500
€20NL....€20.....£1500
€40NL....€40.....£3000
€50NL....€50.....£5000
€100NL...€100....£10000
As you can see, the amount of buyins increases as I move up to give more room to play and also the roll is in £, where as most of the play is on € tables, so this gives a bit more protection as well.
If all goes well, I plan to withdraw £200 at £2k, £300 at £3k, £400 at £4k, £500 at £5k. Once I get to £6k I plan to withdraw anything above that amount in the account on the last day of the month.
It is going to be a long slow process, but I am hoping to spend more time studying this year and trying to concentrate on quality rather than quantity.
Ideally by the end of the year I want to be playing about 50k hands a month at €50NL and running at 1BB/100 minimum. (running at 9.27BB/100 at 10NL at the mo lol)
So heres wishing you all a Happy and Healthy new year and hope you all live life in the fast lane.....
New Order - 60 Miles an Hour
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