I have just completed week 2 in my quest to get ridiculously rich playing online poker. Like the last week, I would say that I learned a lot. The week was actually very steady and I won just about every day this week. I wasn't able to get as much time in as I would like but I still averaged anywhere from 800-1200 hands per day and was winning about $60-$80 each day which isn't too shabby since I am playing happy meal stakes right now. Fortunately, the site that I play on made a huge change that will be for the better. They made resizable tables. I can now make the tables smaller which makes multi-tabling significantly easier. Not only that but playing 4 tables is now easier then playing 3 tables ever was. Not only that, but I have played as many as 6 tables at once.
Thursday was the first day where things started to get interesting. I started off up about $60 and before I knew it I was down $80. Variance came and it came hard. I finished the day down about $50 and it was my first losing day in about 7-8 days that I can remember.
Friday was just as tough as Thursday but more frustrating because I spent the whole day going back and forth to being up a little, down a little, and even which is where I finished. I realized that I was going through one of those nasty break-even stretches that everyone talks about and I could only hope that it wouldn't last as long. Unfortunately, this one lasted about 8000 hands or so which is by far my longest such streak.
Saturday was awful. I was already trying to make up losses and just went straight into the crapper. Throughout this whole time my account reached $1420 on two different occasions but I could never keep it there. At my worst point I was all the way down to $1220 and had completed a $200 downswing. During this time I opened up some $50NL tables. It wasn't because I was trying to chase losses but because the game-selection on the NL$20 has gotten really bad over the last week. I was playing $50NL on the way to falling all the way to $1220 and dropped about $80 doing so due to running bad and making bad calls. I took one last shot at NL$50 and ran really well. I built a stack up to $180 and left the table at $140. I finished the day at $1340 which felt pretty good. I forgot to mention that I spent most the day 6 tabling and put in over 4K hands which is the most hands I've played in one day up to this point.
Sunday: Another nuts day. As I mentioned earlier the NL$20 game selection is getting really poor. Today there were only about 7-8 tables running most the day and each table had the same 4 players and some random players. These guys are all decent players but they are all idiots. They're basically trading each others money and have to give each other coolers to win because they all play really tight. These guys are all on to me and I generally try not to play with them. As a result, I was disciplined and refused to play in those games until they were gone.
It was at this time that I realized how good the game selection for NL$50 is. There were about 20 tables going and its really easy to play in the game and avoid certain people. I obviously don't know who the good players/regulars are yet but when table-selecting I look for tables with the most short-stacks. 2 reasons.
1. Short-stackers are fish so they are not good regulars.
2. Since I am not too comfortable with the limits yet I am minimizing the amount that I can lose on any given hand, and still get to bully people around like I do on NL$20.
I opened up 3 tables of NL$50 and started off terribly.
I started off by losing a $112 pot with AA against KK all in pre-flop where I flopped the Ace and still lost. Gut shot on river obviously. Standard.
I didn't panic and told myself that if I dipped below 20 buy-ins that I would stop altogether and not take a $50NL shot for a while. I could lose 6 buy-ins before this could happen. At my lowest, my account dropped all the way to $1200 which obviously scared me. Thats also when things started to turn around.
For the rest of the day, my sets got paid off and I hit a lot of flushes. Probably the most I have ever hit.
I ended the evening playing 4 tables of NL$20 after the good regulars were gone and tore the fish that remained a new one. At my high my account was up to $1520 but I finished exactly at $1500. This was by far the biggest one day swing in the right direction that I have had since playing online. Hopefully this little shot of variance has passed me by and I continue my winning ways into next week.
I have cleared $280 of my bonus and hope to finish it out tomorrow because I will then be getting my full rake-back.
My rake-back sits at $180 and doesn't include the last half of Sunday so it's probably at $190 which would put my account too almost $1700 if it were added on today.
I played a lot of $50NL this weekend and have gotten much more comfortable in the game. I am still not comfortable enough to play it full time because my bankroll isn't big enough. I really want to be able to handle the big swings when I do get there and I don't think I could handle those at this point.
In some ways I think the $50NL might be easier because there are a lot more fish and there is much better game-selection. It is also easier to pick the fish out in the $50 game as compared to the $20 game.
I still can't get over how the bad the players are.
Here's one hand that I played toward the end of Sunday that left me pissed, shocked, and happy all at the same time.
I get dealt 3 3. Stack $45
UTG raises to $.80 and I call on the button. This idiot who 3-bet me earlier 3 bets again. Last time he had 8 9 and I had 10 10. I flopped my set and he doubled me up. In the earlier hand he min 3 bet me but this time he made it $2 to go.
We both call and the flop comes.
A 2 8
It checks around and I am fairly certain that no one has an A at this point.
Turn 4
Our 3 bettor leads out for $4 and the initial raiser calls. I told myself that if the initial raiser called that I would call as well. At this point, I have the 3 bettor on a pocket pair like 10 10 or J J. I call and the pot is around $18.
River 8
It checks to me and I know that nobody has that Ace and it is time to represent. I bet $11.
The only guy I was afraid of was the 3 bettor and he folded so I knew I was going to take it down.
The initial raiser thinks about it for a long time and then calls so I know that I have lost.
I did lose and he showed 4 5o. As you can imagine, the chat that followed was quite interesting.
His play was bad on so many levels.
1. He raised 4 5o UTG. Dumbass.
2. He called a 3 bet with 4 5o. Moron.
3. He called a good sized bet on the turn with a small pair and a gutshot when he was clearly behind.
4. He called a bet on the river that put him all-in when he was clearly behind.
I called the turn as a float as much as I was trying to hit my draw. I knew that if I missed and they both checked to me that I could win the hand with a big bet on the river.
The 3-bettor told me he had J J.
I also would like to mention that there won't be any graphs tracking my play because poker-tracker is not compatible with the cake network. It makes me sad because I love graphs and it would give me an even more accurate representation of how I am doing.
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