July has finally come and gone and am I quite relieved it is over. I ran so bad most of the month in cash games and took a loss overall for the month. The games go up and down. Some weeks the games are really good and are potentially profitable and other weeks the games are full of regulars who know my style all too well. The last couple weeks have been the latter and it worries me. If new players never come then the games will dry up. I do not think it will happen but it is a fear I have.
Fortunately, I decided to go back into tournaments. Something that I thought I would never do. I ran the exact opposite in tournaments then I did in cash games. For one, I probably won 75% of my all-ins. The other big thing was I sucked out more times then I am usually allowed. I am not sure if those suckouts are what caused my hot run or if I am really playing this well.
Before I go into any details, go to my ballin sharkscope graph. It has everything except for FPP satellites and gold card tournaments which is another $2000. Search DrBadBeat and put in Cake as the site.
I didn't play in as many MTT's as I would have liked last week but I managed to make two more final tables.
If it weren't for those two final tables, the week would have been a lot worse.
I lost on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday in the cash games. The first 3 days were very small losses with Wednesday being a very small win. On Friday I was down $800 playing cash games, STT, and MTT. It was the first time that all 3 forms weren't working for me. At the end of the night I found myself going deep in the $5 rebuys. I ended up making the final table and got to 3 handed. There was one player who seemed decent and a guy who was horrible. I was basically waiting for the bad player to make a mistake and was pretty much playing for second since the chipleader had such a big lead.
The fish finally made his mistake and pushed all in with A 9 and got called by the chipleader who had A 10. A nine came on the flop and the fish doubled up. I got knocked out a few minutes later and that little 3 outer cost me about $300. I cashed for $656 and came up $200 total for Friday.
I didn't play much Saturday and broke even.
On Sunday I made about $200 in cash games and another couple hundred in STT's. I went deep again in the $5 rebuys and was short-stacked with 30 players left. When there were 18 left, I was in 16th and probably wasn't going to make the final table.
I somehow sneaked my way onto the final table and came in as the 8th place stack. I would have been thrilled to take 7th in this tournament since I was very short-stacked. I maneuvered my way around and made all the right plays and was able to exploit a fish for a lot of chips over the course of the final table. I finally took the chiplead when there were 3 left. The other two players were huge fish according to sharkscope and the tourney was mine to lose. I knocked out fish number 1 and took a big chiplead into heads up play. I ran well and took it down when my Q Q outlasted the villains A K. All in on the turn.
My first MTT win in quite some time. That little score was good for $1294. On the day I came up over $1600.
I have continued my winning ways each day this week and just like that July was my second best month ever playing poker.
Update: I wrote this yesterday and took a loss on the last day of the month. I dropped about $250 and didn't run very good. It didn't help that twice during my session my computer crashed and I was playing STT's which screwed me over big time.
I was a small loser in cash games and came up about $3400 in MTT's and STT's. I made another $1400 in rakeback and another $813 in tournament tickets. I have two tickets left and have yet to cash in any of the other tournaments that I played in.
I am really proud of the way I played in the tournaments. Of the five final tables that I have made I finished in the top 5 in all of them. I took 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 5th.
I do not see myself playing as much cash in the future especially if the games keep being sour.
This is where I stand going into August.
Current Bankroll: $12147.57 for a profit of $4477
Although it may be unattainable I am shooting for 20K by the end of the month.
I have not made any decisions yet, but I am contemplating moving back over to Stars. If it happens I will probably go back and forth between both sites but will be playing on stars for the tourneys. This is a harder decision then it ought to be but I owe stars about $600 and I am not sure if I am willing to take responsibility for that debt.
Update #2: Cake recently upped the guarantees for the tournaments that I have tickets for and my tickets are no longer good. I emailed them for the third time about this situation and they just credited my account with $218. Score.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Fuck poker and the lucky bastards who play it.
I am so fucking over this shit. I know that because I have been complaining more in the last two months about this stupid ass game then I have in my 7 years of playing. I could have easily predicted what was going to happen over the last 3 days before it even happened. It's the same shit every fucking time.
Every time in my poker career that I have either hit a milestone or am about to hit a milestone the same thing happens every time. I go on a fucking downswing.
On Monday I dropped $700 in the first 30 minutes of playing only to finish down only $250 for the day. So ridiculously standard. You will probably never see me write that I made $700 in 30 minutes. That will only happen when I start playing a $1000 buyin game. But that will only happen when I stop running bad at NL100. At my last count, I have played about 120K hands of NL100 and am an overall loser. I know who all the good players are in the game. I know who to stay away from and I know who the big fish are. I have realized some leaks in my game and some errors in my play and I have worked on correcting them. I have even stepped up limits and adopted some of the strategies of the players who I consider to be better then me.
The result:
Take a look at these 3 hands that I played perfectly.
Hero is dealt A 7. Both players in the hand have about $120.
Hero raises to $3.50. Villain calls. Other players call.
Flop A 8 7 flushing.
Hero bets $10. Villain calls.
Turn 2 offsuit.
Hero bets $23. Villain raises to $46. Hero goes all-in. Villain calls.
Hero shows A 7 for two pair. Villain shows A K for a pair of Aces.
River 8.
Fuck the world. I never hit when behind with one card to come yet it happens to me every fucking day.
Hand 2: (This was today. I know for a fact I am good player for the way this played out. But being a good player doesn't mean shit since its all luck anyway and the numbers that they claim to be concrete really don't mean shit.)
Both players have full stacks.
Hero is dealt 6 6.
Villain raises to $3.50. Hero calls.
Flop
K 6 7
Hero checks, Villain checks.
Turn 9
Hero bets $7. Villain raises to $18. Warning bells are going off in my head. Villain has a straight or a set of kings. Proceed with extreme caution. Hero calls.
River 2
Hero checks. Villain bets $16. Hero calls.
Hero shows 6 6 three of a kind 6's
Villain shows K K three of a kind kings.
Every time I have been involved in a set over set where I got screwed this is exactly how it has played out every single time. I knew exactly what he had and lost the minimum. I pat myself on the back for that one.
Hand 3
Limped pot. Both players have full stack. Hero is in BB
Hero is dealt 6 4
Flop
A 6 4 flushing.
Hero bets $4. Villain raises to $12. Hero calls.
Turn x flush hits.
Hero checks. Villain checks.
River 8 off.
Hero checks. Villain bets $15. Hero calls.
Villain shows 6 6 three of a kind 6's
Hero shows 6 4 two pair.
Gee, another fucking cooler. Once again I could have gone crazy and lost my whole stack but I didn't.
The last two hands are from today. Too start my session the first hand I was dealt was A A and I got cracked by Q 10 and 9 9. I folded on the river. Then I picked up J J and had to fold on the turn after 3-betting preflop.
Then those 2 that I just talked about and about 5 others that are similar happened and someway somehow I didn't lose $700.
Then this gem happened.
Villain and I played a big pot earlier. About $120. I had a set and he hit his gutshot on the turn. Jesus.
I have $140. Villain covers.
Hero is dealt A K
Hero raises to $3.50. Villain calls with others.
A x x all clubs. I have the K of clubs.
Hero bets $10. Villain raises to $20. Hero raises to $50. Villain calls.
Turn blank.
Hero goes all in for $71. Villain calls.
Hero shows A K for a pair of Aces.
Villain shows 10 10 for a pair of tens.
Someway somehow I dodged the river and avoided losing a hand where I am favored to win some 3% of the time.
After all that, I am only down $130 on the day. I should be down close to $1000 but I am so use to getting sucked out that I basically just fold every time a decent player gives me any kind of resistance.
I have also set up an account with an online e-wallet and just initiated my first cashout. $1000 is being pulled out of my account as we speak. I don't believe in cashout curses because I can't run any worse then I am now. In fact, I am using reverse psychology because maybe they will let me run better so I don't leave.
I know I'm fucking stupid but I can't help it because I am so tired of being pissed off all the time. I don't really want to play this game anymore but I am going to keep at it because it is what I am best at and I have certain financial goals that will never be attained unless I play this stupid game of luck.
Every time in my poker career that I have either hit a milestone or am about to hit a milestone the same thing happens every time. I go on a fucking downswing.
On Monday I dropped $700 in the first 30 minutes of playing only to finish down only $250 for the day. So ridiculously standard. You will probably never see me write that I made $700 in 30 minutes. That will only happen when I start playing a $1000 buyin game. But that will only happen when I stop running bad at NL100. At my last count, I have played about 120K hands of NL100 and am an overall loser. I know who all the good players are in the game. I know who to stay away from and I know who the big fish are. I have realized some leaks in my game and some errors in my play and I have worked on correcting them. I have even stepped up limits and adopted some of the strategies of the players who I consider to be better then me.
The result:
Take a look at these 3 hands that I played perfectly.
Hero is dealt A 7. Both players in the hand have about $120.
Hero raises to $3.50. Villain calls. Other players call.
Flop A 8 7 flushing.
Hero bets $10. Villain calls.
Turn 2 offsuit.
Hero bets $23. Villain raises to $46. Hero goes all-in. Villain calls.
Hero shows A 7 for two pair. Villain shows A K for a pair of Aces.
River 8.
Fuck the world. I never hit when behind with one card to come yet it happens to me every fucking day.
Hand 2: (This was today. I know for a fact I am good player for the way this played out. But being a good player doesn't mean shit since its all luck anyway and the numbers that they claim to be concrete really don't mean shit.)
Both players have full stacks.
Hero is dealt 6 6.
Villain raises to $3.50. Hero calls.
Flop
K 6 7
Hero checks, Villain checks.
Turn 9
Hero bets $7. Villain raises to $18. Warning bells are going off in my head. Villain has a straight or a set of kings. Proceed with extreme caution. Hero calls.
River 2
Hero checks. Villain bets $16. Hero calls.
Hero shows 6 6 three of a kind 6's
Villain shows K K three of a kind kings.
Every time I have been involved in a set over set where I got screwed this is exactly how it has played out every single time. I knew exactly what he had and lost the minimum. I pat myself on the back for that one.
Hand 3
Limped pot. Both players have full stack. Hero is in BB
Hero is dealt 6 4
Flop
A 6 4 flushing.
Hero bets $4. Villain raises to $12. Hero calls.
Turn x flush hits.
Hero checks. Villain checks.
River 8 off.
Hero checks. Villain bets $15. Hero calls.
Villain shows 6 6 three of a kind 6's
Hero shows 6 4 two pair.
Gee, another fucking cooler. Once again I could have gone crazy and lost my whole stack but I didn't.
The last two hands are from today. Too start my session the first hand I was dealt was A A and I got cracked by Q 10 and 9 9. I folded on the river. Then I picked up J J and had to fold on the turn after 3-betting preflop.
Then those 2 that I just talked about and about 5 others that are similar happened and someway somehow I didn't lose $700.
Then this gem happened.
Villain and I played a big pot earlier. About $120. I had a set and he hit his gutshot on the turn. Jesus.
I have $140. Villain covers.
Hero is dealt A K
Hero raises to $3.50. Villain calls with others.
A x x all clubs. I have the K of clubs.
Hero bets $10. Villain raises to $20. Hero raises to $50. Villain calls.
Turn blank.
Hero goes all in for $71. Villain calls.
Hero shows A K for a pair of Aces.
Villain shows 10 10 for a pair of tens.
Someway somehow I dodged the river and avoided losing a hand where I am favored to win some 3% of the time.
After all that, I am only down $130 on the day. I should be down close to $1000 but I am so use to getting sucked out that I basically just fold every time a decent player gives me any kind of resistance.
I have also set up an account with an online e-wallet and just initiated my first cashout. $1000 is being pulled out of my account as we speak. I don't believe in cashout curses because I can't run any worse then I am now. In fact, I am using reverse psychology because maybe they will let me run better so I don't leave.
I know I'm fucking stupid but I can't help it because I am so tired of being pissed off all the time. I don't really want to play this game anymore but I am going to keep at it because it is what I am best at and I have certain financial goals that will never be attained unless I play this stupid game of luck.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Week 14: Tournaments are my new savior
I am still having a lot of problems in the cash games. I have been very inconsistent now for a very long time. Fortunately, I have found that there are other avenues of making money. Avenues that aren't as much of a grind. Tournaments. Ah yes, tournaments. For some reason I am running like god in tournaments right now and it is growing my bankroll. I am playing everything from satellites to tournies to sit n go's. In the last week alone I made 3 final tables in MTT's with finishes of 2nd, 5th, and 5th. Those cashes were for around $2200. I have also proved profitable early on in $20 sit n go's because the fields are so soft.
After my second place finish the other day for $1375, I decided to reward myself with some shots in bigger cash games. I opened two tables of $2/$4 and two tables of $1/$2. I was introduced to $2/$4 very rudely. All I can say is that game is fucking hard. Every hand I played I was put to the test. Almost every time I raised I was 3 bet. I was definitely outclassed and that is somewhere I will not venture back in a really long time. Overall I ended up losing $500 during that shot taking endeavor.
Today I had my Sunday tournaments and it was very disappointing. I got knocked out during the first round of the 75K when my top pair top kicker A K ran into a set of 8's. I went a lot deeper in the WPT qualifier but was short-stacked from the very beginning and outlasted about half the field. I had no other cashes in MTT's but have cashed in all but one sit n go today.
Things have gotten so crazy in my account. $1000 swings occur daily and I can make or drop that much any day now. I have reached the highest I have ever played before and am entering uncharted territories in terms of the swings.
Although things are starting to look up, I am still way behind my projections although things are moving along nicely.
Currently I have $8894 + $1043 in rakeback + $218 in tournament tickets.
After my second place finish the other day for $1375, I decided to reward myself with some shots in bigger cash games. I opened two tables of $2/$4 and two tables of $1/$2. I was introduced to $2/$4 very rudely. All I can say is that game is fucking hard. Every hand I played I was put to the test. Almost every time I raised I was 3 bet. I was definitely outclassed and that is somewhere I will not venture back in a really long time. Overall I ended up losing $500 during that shot taking endeavor.
Today I had my Sunday tournaments and it was very disappointing. I got knocked out during the first round of the 75K when my top pair top kicker A K ran into a set of 8's. I went a lot deeper in the WPT qualifier but was short-stacked from the very beginning and outlasted about half the field. I had no other cashes in MTT's but have cashed in all but one sit n go today.
Things have gotten so crazy in my account. $1000 swings occur daily and I can make or drop that much any day now. I have reached the highest I have ever played before and am entering uncharted territories in terms of the swings.
Although things are starting to look up, I am still way behind my projections although things are moving along nicely.
Currently I have $8894 + $1043 in rakeback + $218 in tournament tickets.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Weeks 12/13 I think I am going to make a shitload of money
Although the title says what it says I have not been very profitable for the month of July. I'm actually running a lot like I did last month but not nearly as bad. I have made quite a few adjustments in my game and they have really started paying off. I have made quite a bit of money over the last couple weeks 3 and 4 betting with much lighter hands. I only make these plays against solid regulars because they aren't going to call me with anything less then AK or a good pocket pair trying to set mine.
I really feel that I am playing out of my mind right now and I have never been more motivated in my life to do succeed and do well. About 10 days ago I had the most money I have ever had in my life. It was short-lived because I then went on a standard downswing and paid about $1200 worth of bills. Fortunately, I am right back to that point and I am ready to start making some serious money.
To start the month I went on a $900 upswing and my account was at $8700. I then went on another one of those 20 buyin downswings and before I knew it I was all the way to down to $6700 and I was hating life. I kept struggling and then on the 11th I was paid my $450 bonus from last month and went on a big upswing. I got it all the way back to $8050 but I have since fallen off a little due to a couple of small losing days and tournaments that I have just started playing.
Although I haven't done it in the last few days I have also been taking shots at NL200. Unlike the other jumps there is not really much difference between NL100 and NL200 with the exception to bigger betting. Overall I would say that I am probably a small winner playing NL200. Maybe about 1-1.5 buyins overall.
I have also started playing tournaments again which I am really happy about. The tournaments on Cake are ridiculously soft. The satellites are a total joke and may as well be free money.
So far I have cashed in 5 tournaments with one final table and one near miss. On the final table I took 5th which was good for about $360 which occurred during my downswing so that was a nice little boost.
I have also won 5 satellite tournaments. 3 of the 4 wins were using only FPP points so I'm in free. (Not entirely free because they deduct those wins from my rakeback.)
The other two wins were cash satellites. 4 of the 5 satellites are for the $109 buyin Sunday tournament. I have played in it once and didn't do to well but I have several more shots.
I also won a $215 seat into a WPT qualifier. The winners of that get to play in the WPT North American Championship @ Niagara Falls. Several seats will be awarded and I expect to make some serious noise in that tournament. I am so confident going in to this that I actually expect to win the seat.
Overall this is where I stand. $7705+ $650 rakeback + $542 in tournament tickets.
My sunday is already planeed as I have the qualifier plus the $109 buyin.
I need to keep doing well in cash games because I am barely up money on the month and its time to start making some money!
I really feel that I am playing out of my mind right now and I have never been more motivated in my life to do succeed and do well. About 10 days ago I had the most money I have ever had in my life. It was short-lived because I then went on a standard downswing and paid about $1200 worth of bills. Fortunately, I am right back to that point and I am ready to start making some serious money.
To start the month I went on a $900 upswing and my account was at $8700. I then went on another one of those 20 buyin downswings and before I knew it I was all the way to down to $6700 and I was hating life. I kept struggling and then on the 11th I was paid my $450 bonus from last month and went on a big upswing. I got it all the way back to $8050 but I have since fallen off a little due to a couple of small losing days and tournaments that I have just started playing.
Although I haven't done it in the last few days I have also been taking shots at NL200. Unlike the other jumps there is not really much difference between NL100 and NL200 with the exception to bigger betting. Overall I would say that I am probably a small winner playing NL200. Maybe about 1-1.5 buyins overall.
I have also started playing tournaments again which I am really happy about. The tournaments on Cake are ridiculously soft. The satellites are a total joke and may as well be free money.
So far I have cashed in 5 tournaments with one final table and one near miss. On the final table I took 5th which was good for about $360 which occurred during my downswing so that was a nice little boost.
I have also won 5 satellite tournaments. 3 of the 4 wins were using only FPP points so I'm in free. (Not entirely free because they deduct those wins from my rakeback.)
The other two wins were cash satellites. 4 of the 5 satellites are for the $109 buyin Sunday tournament. I have played in it once and didn't do to well but I have several more shots.
I also won a $215 seat into a WPT qualifier. The winners of that get to play in the WPT North American Championship @ Niagara Falls. Several seats will be awarded and I expect to make some serious noise in that tournament. I am so confident going in to this that I actually expect to win the seat.
Overall this is where I stand. $7705+ $650 rakeback + $542 in tournament tickets.
My sunday is already planeed as I have the qualifier plus the $109 buyin.
I need to keep doing well in cash games because I am barely up money on the month and its time to start making some money!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
June: It was rigged
June has come and gone and all I can say is thank god! Seriously, this was the wosrt month of poker ever. To make things worse, I seem to keep saying that as the months pass. That cannot be possibly normal.
I ended up playing around 78K hands of break-even poker. For the entire month I only lost $210. Due to rakeback and bonuses alone, I have acheived something that I have never acheived before. I find it quite sad actually that I have never done what I did last month. For the first time ever I have had back to back $2K+ months. I guess that means I can never run well for two months in a row.
Overall, this is the way it breaks downs. At my highest point, I was up $1000 and at my lowest point I was down $1100. On the one hand, I was never really on the brink of losing everything but at the same time the swings in between those numbers almost killed me. Since I don't have a graph, I have to bo back and remember how it happened but I don't think I could forget.
I started at $5500 and these were my swings.
$5500-$6500
$6500-$6000
$6000-$5700
$5700-$6500
$6500-$6000
$6000-even for about 10K hands
$6000-$5400
$5400-$4400 in one day (Stopped playing 100NL)
$4400-$6000 in about 5-6 days playing 50NL mixed with 100NL toward the end.
$6000-$5700
$5700-even for about 10K hands
$5700-$5200
$5200 even for about 10K hands
$5200-$4850
$4850-$5290
End
In other words, the month sucked ass. Never in my life, have I gotten all-in, in so many huge pots where I only had to dogde one 3 and I could pick up $200 only for them to hit over and over and over again. I don't expect to ever see a run like that ever again.
After the rake and the bonuses all get added to my account (rakeback paid yesterday in full) I end the month at $7670 which is a profit of $2170. That was way below my expectation but considering the cards and frustrations I think I can honestly feel pretty good about way things turned out. These are the types of months where I use to spend a bunch of money and then get myself in trouble because my bankroll gets decimated. Long gone are the days of the cash bankroll.
For the first time in a long time I played 6 tables of NL100 since there were about 20 games and a lot more fish going around.
I did really well on my all-ins. I think I won almost every one but I got killed in my pots won without showdown. I got raised and 3-bet much more often than I normally do which resulted in me folding a lot which cost me a lot of money.
I started the day on a downswing (standard). Made it back, swung back down and was actually up for a little bit before taking one bad-beat from this one idiot who kept hitting against me and then paying everyone else off. I finished the day down $50 but made $60 in rakeback so I am still essentially even for the month.
Come on... upswing! I would really like to be at $10K in a couple weeks.
I ended up playing around 78K hands of break-even poker. For the entire month I only lost $210. Due to rakeback and bonuses alone, I have acheived something that I have never acheived before. I find it quite sad actually that I have never done what I did last month. For the first time ever I have had back to back $2K+ months. I guess that means I can never run well for two months in a row.
Overall, this is the way it breaks downs. At my highest point, I was up $1000 and at my lowest point I was down $1100. On the one hand, I was never really on the brink of losing everything but at the same time the swings in between those numbers almost killed me. Since I don't have a graph, I have to bo back and remember how it happened but I don't think I could forget.
I started at $5500 and these were my swings.
$5500-$6500
$6500-$6000
$6000-$5700
$5700-$6500
$6500-$6000
$6000-even for about 10K hands
$6000-$5400
$5400-$4400 in one day (Stopped playing 100NL)
$4400-$6000 in about 5-6 days playing 50NL mixed with 100NL toward the end.
$6000-$5700
$5700-even for about 10K hands
$5700-$5200
$5200 even for about 10K hands
$5200-$4850
$4850-$5290
End
In other words, the month sucked ass. Never in my life, have I gotten all-in, in so many huge pots where I only had to dogde one 3 and I could pick up $200 only for them to hit over and over and over again. I don't expect to ever see a run like that ever again.
After the rake and the bonuses all get added to my account (rakeback paid yesterday in full) I end the month at $7670 which is a profit of $2170. That was way below my expectation but considering the cards and frustrations I think I can honestly feel pretty good about way things turned out. These are the types of months where I use to spend a bunch of money and then get myself in trouble because my bankroll gets decimated. Long gone are the days of the cash bankroll.
For the first time in a long time I played 6 tables of NL100 since there were about 20 games and a lot more fish going around.
I did really well on my all-ins. I think I won almost every one but I got killed in my pots won without showdown. I got raised and 3-bet much more often than I normally do which resulted in me folding a lot which cost me a lot of money.
I started the day on a downswing (standard). Made it back, swung back down and was actually up for a little bit before taking one bad-beat from this one idiot who kept hitting against me and then paying everyone else off. I finished the day down $50 but made $60 in rakeback so I am still essentially even for the month.
Come on... upswing! I would really like to be at $10K in a couple weeks.
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