The Making of a Poker Player

August

2007-09-02T12:10:00.000Z

As a result of moving into the new house and spending far more than we had budgeted for, my bankroll had to take a step backwardsin August. I haven't even been able to sort the study out, so I've no idea when that will be set up for poker. Managed to spend £2k on blinds though - what is that all about.

I've pretty much wiped out my Laddies and FT balance and therefore my cash game and SNG challenge will be on hold for a while. I've left $100 in Laddies to grind through the levels again, starting at the $20 buy-in. Can't see me dabbling with the SNGs again this year unless I get a good score and bankroll ny FT account to start on the $30 buy-ins. Have enough in FT to see me through the Hendon Mob league.

So August included quite a few MTTs, primarily added value freerolls. Strange thing is that I've enjoyed the MTTs again and hopefully it will manifest itself as a decentsized win.

Still loads to buy for the house though so it is likely that any monthly profits will be withdrawn for house shit.

FBF

Virgin Festival

2007-08-06T20:51:00.000Z

Only a small win, but nice to get it so soon after starting with the MTTs again. Decided to put in a concerted effort to win a seat at this festival after seeing the PL lads chasing the seats. Leg 1 won, final leg at the weekend.

Got lucky early on, but once I accumulated chips I was pretty confident I'd grab one of the seats.

http://www.virgingames.com/poker/Festival.aspx

Hendon Mon league starts tomorrow. Never played in it before and I'm expecting tough competition.

FBF

July

2007-08-02T19:30:00.000Z

A bit of a rambling post as it must have been well over a month now since I seriously dabbled with the poker. Whilst I haven't missed it, as between the holiday and house move my mind and time has been elsewhere, I am really looking forward to getting immersed in the game again. This is unlikely to happen for a couple of months yet, as my poker play usually goes quiet during the summer, but come Sep/Oct I'll be back pursuing my 2007 goals, and maybe some others.

The only problem is that 7 months into the year and it looks like I am unlikely to deliver on all of my goals. Primarily this is because I just don't have as much time as I would like to spend on the game so it was inevitable that these would slip. In all honesty I am lucky to be where I am on each of the goals given how little I have played.

I still want to hit my goal of building the laddies $10 to $2k and think this is still on track for later this year. If I remember rightly I have got about $500 to go on that goal. On the SNG front then I still need to start on the $30 buy-ins so getting up to the $50 buy-ins is more of a realistic goal for the end of the year.

The other problem I am going to face is taking money out of my bankroll. I've blew the budget on the house move and won't dip into my equities for the other stuff we still need to buy. I'm probably going to need to take some money out and I'm unlikely to deposit a big sum; I'm too tight and would probably go back to building up the bankroll from a low level again.

What I'm tempted to do is leave $500 in laddies and then 4/6 table the $50 buy-ins which I was hammering before I stepped up to the $100s. Any profits from the cash games would then be ploughed into MTTs and satellites to bigger buy-in events to try and make a relatively big score. Regular grinding profits from the cash games aren't going to make much of a difference for me but a big score in an MTT could be put to good use and should certainly improve my MTT play. Still not sure what to do but I do like the idea of trying the higher buy-in events.

The only poker I have been dabbling with since I got back on broadband about a week ago is $5 HU SNGs. Now these are something I have never really bothered with before but I have really got into them. I think this is largely a facet of them being quick, I single table so I am more focussed, and [most importantly] I have been running good. Played about 20 so far and currently gone 8 wins in a row. Nice bit of variance but even so a great result. Will go through 100 of these before deciding on whether to step up levels. Definitely another aspect of my game to focus on.

I did play an MTT last night and didn't fair too well. Only managed to get to 15th from 36 runners when my AT all-in PF lucked out on the river against TT.

Glad to be [almost] back.

FBF

Poker break

2007-07-10T19:38:00.000Z

Had a couple of weeks of the poker due to a family holiday and as I'm moving house on Thursday, and losing broadband for a while, it looks like I might be having a month or so off the poker.

Can' say I'm missing it and usually play better when I come back to the game after a break. My intention is to beat the $100NL level before moving back to MTTs for a while.

Tempted to splash out on a bespoke fitted study from one of those companies like Neville Johnson when I am in the new house. Not sure if I can justify the expense though, but it would be nice to have a poker den again.

Right, time to cancel broadband, Sky and sort out the utilities.

Too 'kin stessful moving, won't be doing it again fr a while.

FBF

June - Time for a break from poker

2007-06-19T19:49:00.000Z

During June I’ve focussed on the cash games at the $100 buy-in level. I started 6 tabling a bit which is a step up from the usual 4 tabling, and it felt a bit weird having $600+ in front of me on the cash tables, especially after starting this challenge with $10. Hopefully I'll be saying the same about $6k in a few years.

Despite the number of tables I felt in control and could probably handle 6 tabling in the long-term. The reason I stepped up to 6 in the first place is that I went card-dead (even 4 tabling) and was playing some marginal cards as I was starting to get a bored. 6 tabling tightened me up a bit and I started to like it.

After about 6k hands I looked in good shape, was sat on about $700 profit, and was looking to crack the $1k profit within 10k hands. A poor run of cards, including poor play by myself has wiped out about half of that profit, so I’m now sat on about $350. Through 8k hands I’m beating the level for about 4BB, my hourly earn over those hands has been about $10, way below what I achieved at the $50 buy-in level but I proabably ran good at teh $50 level (even though it didn't seem that way).

From my 8k hand experiece there is a marked improvement in quality at the $100 buy-in level with not as many muppets donking their cash off. It also seems to be more swingy and most of the regulars are winning players. Mid-week I can sit down at a table and everyone is a winner in my PT database; I need to either avoid these tables or adapt my game to drive out extra profitability.

It is still easily beatable, but it is probably a level where I will need to look at my game, make a few tweaks to drive out those extra BB/100, rely more on table selection, position versus the maniacs, and player notes. I’ve a few ideas on some obvious short-term wins, more aggression and a greater willingness to gamble, but as I’m not in the zone with poker at the moment I am going to take a break and come back to it in July. I'm sure both of those changes will also lead to greater swings in my bankroll and with only 10 buy-ins at this level I may end up having to drop down.

I've already started to think that even when I beat this level I may step down to the $50s. Really want to avoid this as I don't care about the money, it is all about getting my game up to being able to beat the higher levels; it does feel better though when you are beating the level at a good rate.

Profit wise I'm a bit behind schedule on my monthly profit target of $500/month but I should be able to get back on track through the rest of the year.

FBF

My $100 buy-in Manhatten :-

$100 stats through first 8k hands :-

Laddies $50NL Games

2007-05-20T11:58:00.000Z

Last night took the Laddies cash game bankroll to up over $1,000 and now I'm ready to step up to 4 tabling the $100NL games.

From the charts below you can see I went on a few extended periods of relatively flat profitability but the general trend is upwards and I had a mega heater over 1k hands at the $50 buy-ins.

The games are still relatively soft although not as much action on overbets compared to what you see on the $20 buy-in games. Although the 8/2 players I see on there can still be profitable. Still a large volume of players (and the gamblers appear after a win on the sportsbook on a Saturday night).

So I was beating the game for about 24BB/100 over a very small sample of hands (nearly 5k) and this translated into an hourly rate of ~ $22. Of the 16 players I have in my PT DB with 2.5k hands or more there are 6 beating this level, the next best return after mine is 21BB/100. So whilst these are really small volume of hands I am confident I am beating it enought to step up.

I also don't think I ran particularly well at the $50 buy-in. Got stacked a few times and overplayed big pairs a number of times as well. However, I'm not prepared to analyse my game at the moment in any level of detail even though I know I can make many improvements. If it's not brokes then don't fix it and I've had problems in the past after trying to apply 'moves' that I've read about, or remove leaks from my game. I'll only start to analyse my game and look to make improvements once I can't beat a level.

Next decision for me is whether to move straight into the $100NL or play the $30SNGs. Party are offering me a $100 bonus that I think would take 50 $30 SNGs to clear. That would force me into playing 50 SNGs over the next week. Tempted to go straight into the $100NL though.

Decisions, decisions.

PT stats for my NL challenge :-

Chart at $50NL :-

Chart for Laddies cash game challenge :-

$20 STT HEATER

2007-05-17T20:12:00.000Z

At the end of March I built up my SNG cash flow (from zero) to $440 giving me the bankroll to step up to the $20 SNGs.

I expected my ROI to drop from the 30% I had on the 10s and after my first few SNGs at the $20s I was worried it was going to take a lot of SNGs before I could step up to the $30s.

Anyway, I went on a massive heater and after 24 SNGs my bankroll is above the $770 I need to step up to the $30 SNGs; It's currently at $775. The $770 gives me enough to drop 10 buy-ins before I need to step down to the $20s and start to rebuild. Hopefully, I will not be stepping down from the $30s.

My ROI and ITM are not really valid after only 24 SNGs but at 59% and 58% respectively they are clearly solid results; even if I am getting the best side of variance. As I was 4 tabling the $20s my hourly rate over those 24 SNGs was $36; now that is getting about halfway towards what I would like to see as a long-term sustainable rate.

Nice structure on iPoker which suited my game but as there is a distinct lack of liquidity at the $30s I may move over to FT. I wish I had a rakeback account with FT and may look into changing my account with them.

I need $1,320 in my SNG bankroll to step up to the $50s. At a 10% ROI that is going to take 167 entries.

Fame at last .....

2007-05-16T19:43:00.000Z

... but only in the local rag. The red tops will have to wait until my WSOP victory :)

http://www.thisiswarrington.co.uk/display.var.1392573.0.0.php

AN Everton FC fan lived out his dream by beating four Everton legends on the pitch at Goodison Park.

But Martin Unsworth didn't tackle them playing football but instead took them on in a live poker match tournament on the pitch.
The match took place straight after the Toffees last home game of the season, where they beat Portsmouth 3 - 0.

He played against Mike Newell, Duncan McKenzie, Alan Whittle and Dave Watson in the charity Littlewoods Poker Tournament.

The 31-year-old won his place in the final competition after winning one of the four online qualifying rounds in April and he kept his cool against the players in the Texas Hold Em final.
Martin said: "I was bouncing after the 3-0 victory so I had a feeling it was going to be a great night. "I always wanted to lift a trophy on the pitch at Goodison Park, and while my footballing career never got me that dream, my new found passion did. It was an excellent day that I will bore the grandchildren about in the future."

The tournament raised £5,000, which will be shared between Leukaemia Research and the Everton Former Player Association.

Everton Legends Poker Tournament

2007-05-06T19:47:00.000Z

Saturday was the inaugural Everton Legends Poker Tournament held at Goodison Park. I had won entry into this at the first attempt a few weeks ago, and as all the prize money was for charity, there was no real pressure on for the game.

I had been very impressed with the organisation of the day in advance of the event. I was working in the US all week so the marketing folk at Littlewoods worked with my Wife to get me and a pal tickets for the game, which was something not included in the original prize. Very nice.

Met up with Greg Amoils, Poker Manager, and the other internet qualifiers at 2pm and then had a few beers before, during, and after the game, all courtesy of Littlewoods. Nice one Greg, top bloke and hope you got on well in Stoke this weekend.

First half was a bit of a non-event but then the Blue boys got it together in the second half with a great performance to support the 3-0 victory. Couldn't have picked the other results much better if I had tried and baring some kind of suicide to a runner-up Chelsea side, Everton will be back in Europe next year.

I was bouncing after the results so I had a feeling it was going to be a great night. Also, with being away with work for the week I hadn't played any poker for a while and I tend to play better when I come back from a break.

The lads went there own way after the game for a few drinks in the local boozers and then we got together at 7ish for the main event :) A couple of drinks in the board room were followed by a jog down the Everton tunnel and onto the pitch to start on the poker. The 'legends' participating were Dave Watson, Mike Newell, Duncan McKenzie & Alan Whittle. Whilst they weren't experienced playing poker they were great company and there was lots of banter and good tales at the table.

Alan Whittle never shut up (in a nice way) and ran over the table for most of the evening; one hand that stuck out was when he called an all-in bet with 23o and beat ATo with a 3 on the turn. He had a big stack at that time but I'm not sure he was thinking that his cards were live.

I got involved in a couple of hands early on and managed to pick up a few chips off DM when my 77 limp beat the low pair of 4s, he caught on the flop. DM was more intent on getting off by 9 so that he could take his Wife for dinner. A couple of times he got it all in and doubled up, but I think he made dinner with his Wife with time to spare. Nice fella but most of the comedy from DW and AW.

After the early skirmishes I went card dead for a while and sat on my stack as the others got involved and knocked out. When it went 3 handed I was the bottom stack with MN and AW, I was pleased to be the last of the internet qualifiers and went into push-bot mode to try and steal the blinds or get a chance of doubling up.

It looked like it was all over when MN called my push with K8o and I turned over K5o. Well dominated and I thought it was all over. The Everton gods were watching over me though, it must be because my blood is blue and I was named after Martin Dobson, and a 5 on the turn saw MN knocked out in 3rd place.

Can't remember much of the heads-up, lots of limping and folding to a raise by AW, but I think the last hand was JJ vs. Ax and it all got in PF. My JJ held up against AW and I was the winner of the Everton poker legends cup :)

Now whilst I didn't win any money £5k went to charity; half of it to Leukemia research which I was pleased with as I work in Oncology drug development and I know this is a very worthwhile charity. I did get a signed ball and shirt as well as a trophy and hopefully Greg Amoils is going to let me defend the title next year ;)

Excellent day that I will bore the grandchildren about in the future. I always wanted to lift a trophy on the pitch at Goodison Park, and whilst my footballing career never got me that dream, my new found passion did.

Big thanks to Greh Amoils and Michelle Robbins from Littlewoods who made this a fantastic day.

Nil Satis, Nisi Optimum

FBF

A few pictures :-

View from the center of the pitch before the floodlights came on.

Me being a bit of a 'fan boy' with Dave Watson and Mike Newell.

Me with the legend that is Alan Whittle.

Me, Alan, and the other lads who qualified online.

With the cup. I was elated, jetlagged and goosed at this time :)

Everton Legends

2007-04-15T20:15:00.000Z

I just won a tournament whereby the winner gets to play for charity against some Everton legends at Goodison Park. Details here :-

http://www.littlewoodspoker.com/online-poker/promotions/legends.htm?7382

A great prize for a blue boy like myself and if the day can start with a win against Pompey it should be a great night. I'll ask Mike Newell what he thinks about women referee's.

I'm also going to count this as meeting the target I set at the start of the year to participate in a live event. Okay, it's not a major event but it is a step in the right direction.

FBF

STT & Cash Game Targets

2007-04-02T18:33:00.000Z

VoiceOfJoe had asked in relation to my previous post what levels of ring games and STTs I expect to be on by the end of the year.

This is something I had been thinking about a bit over the last few days as we have moved through the first quarter of the year. Now I am really pleased with where I have got to so far, but I also think I have picked off the low hanging fruit and in order to hit my targets I am going to have to deal with more difficult poker situations.

In terms of targets then I still hope to deliver on those that I set at the start of the year. That is building the STT bankroll to $1.1k and be sitting in the $50 SNGs, and building the cash game bankroll to $2k so that I am sat in the $200NL games.

Two things immediately strike me.

Firstly, the bankroll management to reach these goals is seriously flawed. This was something I was conscious of at the start of the year. It is just that given the amount I can play, and given that I want to be playing at higher stakes, it was a risk I was prepared to take. I'm playing with free money anyway and with 'good' bankroll management to step down when variance slaps me in the face, it should stop me going busto. The fact that I may yoyo up and down at the higher, more difficult levels, may undermine my ability to hit the year end targets for both SNGs and cash games. I may even increase the bankroll required to step up if I find I am yoyoing too much.

Secondly, I have come to the realisation that the concept of annual targets is a bit of a nonsense. I love poker, and hopefully it is a game (more like a passion) I will keep for the rest of my days. Nothing changes on 31/12/07; I don't simply give up if I don't meet my targets. I will stick to them as I think they will help drive me forward but effectively my overriding target, and this may take 12 months, 63 months, 143 months, or never happen at all, is to be in a position to earn around $30/hour from my poker play (SNGs, MTTs or cash games). Once that gets up to $50, and if I can deliver that for 6 months in a row, then thinking about early retirement is a possibility. Therefore I have got 24 years to get there, any earlier than that is a bonus. Of course, I want to get better every time I play.

I played my first set of 4 $20 SNGs last night and even from this small sample I think there is a marked difference in quality. I managed one cash (2nd), two 6ths, and a 7th. 2 of my busto's came when my push at the 100/200 level with JJ and TT walked into AA. Surely I can't go from being a 30% ROI player at 10s to a loser at 20s? We'll see.

Cash games haven't been touched since January. I've started to datamine a few sites so that I can step into 4 $50 buy-ins soon.

FBF

March

2007-03-30T21:57:00.000Z

March has been good for poker, even though I only played for pretty much half the month.

My focus during March had been SNGs and after the first 100 I was running well towards having a $440 bankroll so that I could step up to the $20 SNGs.

I'm now through 140 SNGs and my last set of 4 took me through the $440 barrier so that I am now sat on a $463 SNG bankroll. As this bankroll has been built up from nothing it is all the sweeter.

I'm pleased with my stats too. An ITM of 44% and ROI of 30% whilst 4 tabling are solid results. I'm also averaging just over $10/hour so whilst it is not time to give up the day job it is a step in the right direction.

From the start of April I will be playing on the 20s until I drop 10 buyins ($220) and I'm not sure what to expect at this level. I would hope that my ROI doesn't go down any more than 50% as I will be pissed knowing my hourly earn is lower at a higher stake even though I am moving up through the levels.

I'll be starting off at Titan as I still need to clear some PSO bonus there. I'll probably then stick to Full Tilt as I had my best SNG results with FT and I thought the starting stack and blind structure suited my game better.

Stats for the 140 SNGs below :-

100 SNGs

2007-03-18T19:51:00.000Z

I've had a couple of weeks off the poker due to a week away with the family and a crazy few days when we got back accepting an offer on our home and [almost] making a deposit on a new home. Should have something bought by the end of the week.

You see, I had to give up my study when our second child came along so the new place will not only give me a dedicated study, but will also future proof us for a couple more kids.

Had a dabble on FT SNGs yesterday and the 4 i played took me through the 100 mark. Been a while getting there but that is to be expected given the cash game and MTT targets as well.

Results are posted below and I am pleased with them. The 26% ROI is boosted by the inclusion of $44 from Pokerroom as I had 4 free entries; without them my ROI is still a healthy 22%.

With multitabling (currently 2.6) my hourly earn is about $9, which is piss but at least I'm profitable and this is the first step on what is hopefully a long journey.

My results also show lots of bubbles but until my ROI really drops I am not going to spend too much time questioning this and looking for improvents.

$440 is the target profit to step up to $20s and given that I am sat at $288 I should get there within the next 100 SNGs.

FT playthrough is almost complete for the $90 PSO bonus, and then a further 75 SNGs on Titan for another $90 bonus.

February's MTT run

2007-02-25T21:13:00.000Z

As I come towards the end of the month it is clear that I have had a good run on the MTTs which was capped off by the $750 win on Paradise. I also turned up for the AP $100k guaranteed, after winning the $200 seat in a freeroll, but never made the money; finishing 113th of 578 runners.

Now whilst I never felt I could win the tourny I never felt outplayed or out of my depth. There appeared to be a lot of dead money in the tourny (and I'm not including myself in that). If adequately bankrolled I would be comfortable playing at this level but as I am playing MTTs, SNGs & Cash tables I don't think it is time for me to focus on MTTs yet.

Disappointingly I have not yet made 'BPP' on Punters Lounge and with only a few days to go until I take a break from poker it is looking ever more challenging. I should have made the top spot earlier in the week but a change to the points structure for cash games was not in place when I won the cash game session. Under the new points system I would have been top!

Anyway, 2nd is almost good enough and I may have another run at BPP in the future if I run good in one of the focus games. Unlikey to play as many MTTs/month for a good few months though.

March is going to be a month of SNGs as I have about 100 to play to clear some bonus requirements for PokerSourceOnline. This will give me $180 of Amazon vouchers to play with and across FT & Titan works out at about $1.5/$2 back per SNG.

My target is that come the end of March I will be bankrolled to play the $20 SNGs. This should be close given that I have $182 profit from 81 SNGs ($2.25/SNG) and need a further $258 profit, which at current return, equates to a further 115 SNGs.

FBF

Stats for first 50 MTTs

2007-02-16T22:47:00.000Z

So far so good and even without the $750 win the ROI is good; although I am playing at micro-levels.

Punters Lounge BPP - Top 5

2007-02-16T22:12:00.000Z

In the targets I set for myself at the start of the year I had included reaching the top of the 'Best Poker Player' table on Punters Lounge which can be seen here.

You basically receive points for your finishing position in a focus game that is held each day and your best 5 results over 28 days count.

It was one of those targets that I thought I might get around to if I ran well for a few weeks and after a couple of good weeks on the MTTs I find myself sat in 5th. As February has a distinct MTT bias to it already I am gong to stick with the focus games until the end of month to try and make the top spot.

MTTs & STTs

2007-02-15T23:10:00.000Z

MTTs
Ran well in a couple of MTTs that I played in tonight, coming 3rd in both the Paradise Poker League and a Monte Carlo sat. 65 runners on Paradise and 44 in the sat.

I'm just outside the top 10 of the Paradise league now (12th) and will therefore be pushing for an overall top 5 finish over the remaining tournies.

As I've played a lot of MTTs this month I'm just a couple of MTTs away from having stats on my first 50 which I'll post over the next few days.

The stats are looking good, obviously boosted by the $750 win last week, but more importantly I feel like I am playing good poker, and will be challenging for the money each time I play. My ITM % is 21%. Probably be out really early in the next tournies I play :)

Unfortunately the spreadsheet I am using does not capture multi-tabling but I estimate my hourly rate will be somewhere around $15-$20. Whatever it is, so far this year it seems clear that MTTs are my highest hourly earn.

STTs
Been running too good on FT over a very small sample. I always seem to start off well on a new site and then my result diminish. Now I'm not a conspiracy theorist so I know there is nothing sinister going on, but what is it that makes me (appear to?) win more when I first play on a new site. Through my first 9 $10 SNGs I'm running at a ROI and ITM of 55%. This has helped pick up my overall SNG stats but I am still a way off being bankrolled to step up to the $20s.

For the first time I used Sharkscope to pick what it classified as 2 softish SNGs on FT. I finished 3rd and a 4th so the jury is still out on the usefulness of this feature. However, in the long-run surely this can only be positve in terms of potential ROI? It must be a good thing.

Itching to get back on the cash games.

FBF

Paradise Sporting Odds 25up Monthly Final

2007-02-07T22:59:00.000Z

So in my last post I said how I had won entry into a $2.5k freeroll as I came 5th in the PL monthly league.

There were about 80 entrants in the tourny tonight and fortunately I went and won it which was a great bonus for my bankroll. $750 for 1st so my ROI on MTT's is through the roof.

Lots of MTTs on at the moment, and whilst I am enjoying them, and playing well, they do take up a lot of time. I also need to clear some SNGs on FT so that I get my $90 bonus to buy a few more poker books from Amazon.

Hopefully SNGs from next week. Not seeing much time for cash games this month.

January

2007-02-01T19:40:00.000Z

So I haven't played too much since building my cash game bankroll up to $500. Lost a bit of motivation mid month and spent some time catching up on the US TV series that had just re-started (24, Prison Break & Heroes); now I'm only waiting for Lost and Jericho to start again.

In addition to the Laddies cash hands I only managed to play 28 SNGs. I didn't run good either and only managed to turn a profit of $43. Overall ROI is pretty poor at 16% through 66 tourneys. It is going to be a long slog to step up in stakes at the SNGs but I'll crack on. Will be moving my SNG bankroll over to FT to take advantage of the PSO points on offer; plus PokerRoom are shite.

Whilst I didn't run well in the MTTs I played in I did manage to turn a small profit, largely helped by an overall 5th place finish in the PL Paradise League. Apparently I'm in a $2,500 freeroll restricted to 160 players so I'll need to see when that goes ahead.

Around $450 profit for the month.

My little boy is 2 on Sunday. Only a couple of years before I can get him on the poker :)

Moving on up

2007-01-21T19:33:00.000Z

Well I didn't manage to step up last weekend on Laddies as I would have hoped. Went card dead and you can't mug a mug on the $20 buy-in tables on Laddies. Been away for the week with the family but a few good sessions last night took me above the $500 barrier.

So I am now going to step up to 4 tabling the $50 buy-in tables and whilst I expect the opposition to be tougher I think that with the right seat selection there are still enough gamblers passing through to feed the regulars.

What I have noticed from datamining is there are not too many full ring tables going once I get above this level. If I do get to making the $2k I may need to call it a day and start all over again on the 6max tables, as there are always lots of 6max tables going.

As you can see in the PT charts below it took almost 8,000 hands to get there from my $10 starting point and at 15BB/100 I certainly run good. The trend is also pretty good in the chart, no big downswings yet.

The table of all people with at least 2,500 hands also puts me at the top of the pile in terms of BB/100 and I don't think I am that good. Maybe I ran good? I just don't know and 8k hands is such a small sample anyway.

What is most surprising about this table is that there is only 1 losing player over 2,500 hands. There is so much volume of losing players at the small buy-in on Laddies that it is very difficult for a half decent player to lose in the long-run.

Whilst I haven't got in 5k hands this month I think the chances are that I will leave the cash games and get some SNGs in for the rest of the month. Not sure how this will affect my game by taking a break and then coming straight back into the $50 buy-ins?

I Would love to be stepping up to the $20 SNGs by Feb but this is unlikely to happen given my current ROI (about 17%). I'm moving my PokerRoom roll over to Parbet as PR have been treating players very poor recently. Parbet also have a 200MPP freeroll coming up that could have lots of value. I need to get 67 SNGs in there by the 2nd Feb.

FBF

Laddies Cash Games

2007-01-12T19:13:00.000Z

So I've been progressing quite well with my Laddies cash game challenge this month and my overall bankroll, including profit from December, is $425. The majority coming from the $20 buy-in tables.

In January I've played just over 2,000 hands so far and have started to play on the $30 buy-in tables when available. I'm up $220 in Jan and running at 25BB/100. Overall very happy with the results and I think this kind of win rate is sustainable in the long-run with the right table selection. As I'm 4 tabling I think my long-term rate will be somewhat lower.

I must be running good though as there is nobody in my DB with more than 2k hands that is running better in terms of BB/100. A couple of contenders with 1k+ but I'm definitely doing ok.

It is clear that the 20s are easy to beat and with enough hours in the day you could grind out an easy income at this level. It amazes that there is enough volume of fish to feed the regulars. When you start to look at the stats of players with at least 3k hands then nearly all are winners. Well somebody has got to be losing, but those that are do not play many hands.

Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll be up to $500 and ready to start on the $50 tables. Not running so good on the MTTs and SNGs.

Next Year ....

2006-12-28T20:23:00.000Z

Enjoyed the break from poker in December. Had a bit of a dabble on SNG's on Pokerroom but that has been about it really.

As we approach the end of 2006 I thought I'd get out there with one of the first of probably many, goals/targets for 2007 posts.

Huge post. Apologies.

2006 Achievements
This year was a good year financially, $12k cash profit from poker, sports whoring and casino whoring, in addition to a $7k Mansion PokerDome package and a $3k Mansion trip to watch England v Paraguay in the World Cup.

I achieved my goals of making $1k/month and winning entry to a live major tournament. Unfortunately I was never able to take up the opportunity to participate in the Mansion Pokerdome as my Daughter was born on the day I was due to fly to Las Vegas. Oops.

I also had intentions of learning other games such as PLO/8 and did have a dabble at the beginning of the year. Mixed results but generally down overall and I really couldn’t be that arsed or get myself motivated to pick up other poker variants.

With hindsight it was a Foolish really as I don’t even know HE well enough, let alone NLHE. I’ve plenty of time to spread out into other games but for the time being I should focus upon HE/NLHE

2007 Goals/Targets
Whilst I am not entirely sure that setting goals/targets is a good thing I certainly think that going through the process and putting this blog entry together has made me do some thinking in relation to poker that otherwise would not have taken place. Okay, this is another goals for the year post but it has its benefits for me and at least I have the public failure (even though there are probably no readers of this blog) if I do not deliver on them.

It is now clear to me that my previous poker play over the past 2 years has been entirely profit focussed and I believe this has been to the detriment of my abilities as a poker player. There is no doubt about it that I am an out and out poker bonus whore and whilst this has served me well financially over the past 2 years it is no longer fun 4 tabling with other bonus whores. I've been playing ABC poker and as I've not stepped up in levels I have never really stopped to assess my game and plug leaks.

I also acknowledge that I am risk averse and this is why I was initially attracted to Limit games rather than no-limit. Never really liked the thouight of putting everything in front of me on the line. I am not sure if I have been kidding myself that the variance in HE is less than NLHE but from what I can see at the low level NLHE cash games I have been playing there is probably less variance.

I truly think I am going to be playing poker for life and I don’t want to be whoring the $1/$2 limit games to grind out bonus money forever. I appreciate that it will take time to become a good player who can consistently win at the higher levels but I have the rest of my life to achieve this and 2007 is going to be the start of that journey. All of my poker play to date doesn’t count for shit.

So 2007 is not going to be about the money at all and whilst I was hesitant to add a goals in terms of profit from poker I decided it was still worthwhile (although I would not be pissed off if I achieved the other goals and not the profit).

What 2007 is going to be about is NLHE Tournaments, NLHE Cash Games & NLHE SNG’s. Moving up in levels as my bankroll permits, and moving back down as required. This moving up and down should force me to assess my game so that I can win at the next level when I step up again.

1. NLHE Tournaments – Punters Lounge Best Poker Player (BPP)
I was going to take it easy here and suggest a top 5/10 position on the Punters Lounge Best Poker Player (BPP) table. However I am going to stretch myself and go for the top spot.

There are some very good players on PL and a number of them have progressed from low limit tournaments to higher buy-ins. Achieving BPP would be a significant achievement for me and would require a considerable amount of time and effort.

I would imagine I would need to play the BPP tourney every night for at least 30 days to have any chance. Top 5 spot would be acceptable, anything less wouldn’t.

2. NLHE Tournaments – 20% ROI from all tournaments
Having done a quick google search on reasonable ROI’s from MTT’s it would appear (from 2+2) that 15% is a good return. Therefore to make this a tougher target I am going to aim for a 20% return.

What I hope will give me a chance of achieving this is that I intend to focus my tournament play on the added value tournaments. The Sporting Odds champions league being an obvious example as well as the Punters Lounge added value tournaments. There are also going to be a number of freerolls included, such as Virgin V points, and whilst variance will be high, the ROI will be stonking ;)

This goal will also obviously include the tournaments from 1 above and I expect to be playing between 15 and 30 tournaments a month.

3. NLHE Cash Games – Turn $10 into $2,000
Ladbrokes kindly gave me $10 for free earlier this year and from dabbling at the $0.1/$0.2 NLHE tables over a few thousand hands I have got that up to $190.

As I have nothing to lose I want to build this $10 up into a $2k balance whilst at the same time moving up in stakes. I have decided to move up each time I have 10 buy-ins for the next level and step back down upon losing 5 buy-ins at that level. I would have preferred to be bankrolled to 20 buy-ins but given the number of hands I expect to play it would take too much time to move up. I would expect to have to yo-yo between the levels and plug leaks in my game before giving the next level a shot.

It is also unlikely I will continue with the challenge solely at Laddies. Once I am up to $250 I amy move over to Party as there are more games on offer. I'll datamine a few nights first to see what the quality of play is like.

I estimate that it will take approx 50,000 hands to get to the $2k figure (assuming BB/100 of 10, 7 & 5 for $0.1/$0.2, $0.2/$0.4 and $0.5/$1 respectively). Therefore by the end of the year I hope to be sitting down at 4 $1/$2 tables with $200 at each in front of me.

I’ll need to put in 5,000 hands per month to have any chance of achieving this. At 200 hands/hour 4 tabling about 25 hours/month.

4. NLHE SNG’s – Turn $0 into $1,000
Pokerroom is a site I haven’t used for a while but having built up a few player points there when I was bonus whoring I had enough ‘player points’ to get a free buy-in to 3 $10+$1 SNGs.

Obviously a good prompt for another challenge to see what I can turn this free money into and as I have managed to build this up to $102 already through play in December (38 SNGs for a 20% ROI) I am going to see where I can get to in 2007.

The first problem is I only have 9 buy-ins so this could all be over in a couple of nights anyway as I will always 4 table. I think that I need to continue 4 tabling as I move up the levels so that my true hourly rate is comparable. No point having a 10% ROI 1 tabling 50's if I can make a 20% ROI 4-tabling 10s.

I am also concerned that there may not be enough volume of tournies going on at the higher buy-ins at Pokerroom so again I may move the bankroll over to Party.

I am going to step up once I have 20 buy-ins for the next level and step back down again after losing 10 buy-ins. I certainly don’t think this is good bankroll management and I could easily go busto before I step up to the $20s.

Based on my estimates for ROI at $10s, $20s & 30s (25%, 17.5%, 12.5%) I reckon it is going to take about 600 SNG’s to get to the $50s (assuming I never have to step down).

Intention here is to go for 100 SNGs/month and see where that gets me. 25 Sets of 4 is going to take about 25 hours play a month.

5. Entry into major buy-in live poker tournament (and participate)
Ok, so I kind of achieved this in 2006 but never managed to play becuase my beautiful baby daughter, Maggie, decided to come along. This is a nice to have rather than a must. It's unlikley that I will actively pursue this and it is more likely to come along through winning an Inside Edge or Poker Player tourny again.

Tempted to go for the WSOP $1,500 NLHE this summer but it would mean using a week of holiday away from the family and I am not sure I want to do that yet.

6. Make $6,000 from the above – poker alone
I'm really not arsed about the money this year but I can't have a goals post without putting some monetary measure on it. This could come from one good cash on an MTT or from a consistent monthly return. I think I am unlikely to hit this target unless I get a good 'cash' in an MTT.

The poker alone comment relates to the fact that a lot of my profits over the past couple of years have come from bonuses and sports and casino whoring. The $6k target is from the poker play alone.

So I'll be keeping the blog updated with my progress against each of these targets and expect I'll start off with lots of determination, which will diminish as we move into the summer, before coming back again in the Autumn. Hopefully by the end of the year I'll have made some progress against these goals.

What concerns me most is that this is a lot of poker, 50 hours/month for SNG and Cash Game target, and once I add on MTTs I do not know if I will have the time to put 70/80 hours a month.

Wish me luck.

FBF

Abstinence

2006-12-09T18:53:00.000Z

Well I haven't managed to completely stay away from poker in December but I have had a good break from the game.

I had a few points stacked at PokerRoom that entitled me to free entry into 3 $10+$1 SNG's. Anyway I've played 6 so far and have $37 in my account so I'll continue until I'm busted.

I'll probably do a brideshead on the MTT front later this month on a couple of special tournies behing held at Punters Lounge.

See you at the tables.

FBF

November Poker Results

2006-11-30T23:12:00.000Z

Bonus Whoring
After the poor start to this months bonus whoring, as highlighted in the previous post, I managed to turn it round slightly with a big push in the last week.

I cleared the Will Hill, Interpoker and Laddies bonus over a total of 5k hands; the Laddies bonus being cleared solely at NL (2,500 hands of 0.1/0.2NL for a $100 bonus).

So bonus money for the month is about $250 and I made $120 from my play ($197 at NL and a $77 loss (short-term -ve variance) at $1/$2 Limit). In terms of BB/100 I ran at 14BB/100 for NL and (2)BB/100 for Limit.

Obviously extremely pleased with the results at NL and in $ terms this is better than my return at $1/$2 Limit when I am running at 1BB/100. I also think the risk is lower at NL as I tend to lose lots of small pots and win large ones. Each time I sit down I feel like I am going to come away a winner [although only 60% are winning sessions] whereas at $1/$2 Limit I am never that confident - I am much more at the disposal of variance. There are a number of truly awful players on Laddies (and quite a few good ones picking them off).

So NL was a pleasant change and has helped me increase the free $10 that Laddies gave me up to $226 (excluding the $100 bonus I made). I can see a little challenge for 2007 coming up in relation to that free $10.

What is most striking about my stats vs. Limit is that I have a really low WTSD% (approx. 20%) but I win approx. 60%-65% at showdown. I guess this says that I am a bit risk averse at getting my chips in and therefore I could probably increase my win rate but at the expense of higher variance.

I should read the Sklansky/Miller NL book that I recently got for free after finding some points I'd forgotten about at Poker Source Online. Problem is, I usually lose money after reading a book as I try and incorporate too many changes into my game at once.

My win rate is pretty good anyway but not as good as it could be; there are a number of players on Laddies with 20BB/100 win rates over 5k hands.

Stats below.

Will I step up at Laddies? Well I am not too sure. If I get the $10 up to $500 then maybe I will move up to $0.2/$0.4 but if my win rate is going to at least half that I’m making at the moment then (obviously) I am much better staying at $0.1/$0.2.

Not too much to say about Limit but see stats and chart below :-

Limit Chart since October :-

Tournaments
November was the first month in which I made a concerted effort to participate in a number of MTTs. I focussed on the PL Mansion added series ($1k added - $500 to the winner) and the Sporting Odds Champions League series ($1.5k first prize) as these appeared to have the best added value and a low buy-in.

In total there were 19 tournaments (13 SO & 6 Mansion – although 1 Mansion tourney was in Oct). I was very pleased with my results in that I managed to win one tourny at both Mansion and SO and in total (including the wins) I had 7 final table finishes and 4 ITM top 3 finishes. In both the heads up matches I managed to overcome a significant chip deficit, and had about equal luck as my opponents (maybe I got a bit lucky in the SO heads up).

From MTTs I was up approx $70 on entries (from $56 of entry fees) but more importantly however I managed to place 1st at Mansion (good for $500) and in the top 10 at SO (good for $50) for the overall series of MTT’s.

So in total I am up $620 from tournies for the month, making an overall total of about $1k when added to the cash games and bonus money.

Thankfully I have now reached the target I set at the beginning of the year of making $12k in 2006 and therefore no pressure in December to get lots of hands in. The profit for the year excludes the Mansion $7k package (to which I had more important things to see too - she is worth it) and the $3k Mansion World Cup trip. So it has been a pretty good year for me and it looks like Mansion are definitely my lucky charm :)

December
No short-term goals for December, just take it as it comes and maybe do something different like reading the mountain of books I have stacked, playing some PSP games, catching up on movies and TV series and putting a 250mg HD in my Sky+.

I still have the Sporting Index bonus to clear, Interpoker and Will Hill Monthlies, and Party have just offered me a $75 bonus. I could be good for $375 of bonus money in December. Its tempting but I may not bother.

The only way I can see me clearing the bonuses is if it happens early on in the month. If I can keep up the momentum from this past week I may try and clear the interpoker and WIll Hill bonus over the weekend. SI is going to be more painful and I would definitely like to play a bit more NL at Laddies.

I will also spend the time to think of some new challenges, and not just poker related ones, for 2007.

GL at the tables.

FBF

Lazy Fuckin Whore

2006-11-12T22:05:00.000Z

Well after playing a reasonable number of hands during October I have not been able to get myself motivated to grind out the bonus whore hands this month. Same old story with me; I hammer it for one month, think I can hammer it more the following month, then end up doing (relatively) fuck all.

One of the main problems is that I don't like Tribeca and I have a Sporting Index bonus to clear. There are only ever 2 $1/$2 tables going, and i think, although I am not sure, that you can only play 2 tables at once anyway. Paradise also pissed me off with the shite change they made to the bonus.

So I've got about 500 hands in during this month and I am a small loser. I Need to crank it up in the second half of the month but should clear about 2,000 hands for the Crypto bonuses. I Can't let those Willy Hill and Interpoker bonuses get away.

However, I have not been completely lazy. Instead of grinding through the $1/$2 limit cash games I have been dabbling in a couple of other areas.

MTT's
Firstly, I've been playing a lot more tournaments than usual (that equates to between 5 & 10 a week for me), spurred on by some excellent added value through the Punters Lounge poker forum. In addition to the added value the quality of play against other PL'ers is very high and I am sure that going up against opponents of that calibre will only improve my game. I reckon that those tourneys must be some of the toughest low stake MTTs on the net.

I'm therefore focussing my play on the Mansion added tourneys and the November Sporting Odds Champions League. I am running ok in both of them and took a lot of pleasure from winning the first Mansion added tourny against the talent of Punters Lounge.

I took a podium finish in the first SO CL game (3rd for 60 points) and then had a some bad beats, and found myself in a few bad spots, before finally getting in the points again tonight (13th for 34 points). Hopefully 94 points will have me standing in the money at the moment.

As a result of this I have started to move up the ranks in the PL "Best Poker Player" challenge here. Given that I don't enter too many of the daily focus games I am pleased with this.

As long as I don't get bored then one month I'll take a crack at a top 10 or podium finish in the BPP challenge. Top 5 would be very difficult and I think I will need to be playing the majority of the focus games to have any chance. Currently I do not have the time.

Ladbrokes NL Games
Spurred on by the efforts of GaF at his Blog I have been messing about at the beginners NL tables at Ladbrokes. Laddies gave me a free $10 so I thought I would see what I can pony it up to. After a run of good fortune over 800 hands I am up approx. $90 (good for 28BB/100). If only that win rate was sustainable in the long run. Anyway, its good to see a bit of positive variance for a change and I am intrigued to see what I can run at over 10,000 hands.

More importantly I have been enjoying the game much more than grinding the limit tables and aim to get my balance up to $300 before stepping up to the 0.15/0.30 games with 10 buy-ins. I am such a risk averse little fuck.

Anyway I'll also probably be bored of it by next month and be back to something else like the 6 max games again.

Anyway, great to have a passion that actually pays you money and here's hoping for greater efforts in the second half of the month.

Parashite Poker

2006-11-03T20:29:00.000Z

Just logged onto to Paradise Poker to try and clear the $120 bonus I had stacked. I was hoping that on a Friday night there would at least be at couple of $1/$2 full ring games going.

First off, no full ring games going. Bastards. Even worse, 9 $5/$10 players (2x 5max), 10 $3/$6 (2x5max) players and 10 $2/$4 (10max) players. Thats your lot on limit games above $1/$2.

Secondly, they have a new promotion called 'Paradise Pay Day' that appears to be shit beyond belief. Upon first checking the cashier I was like a dog with two dicks when I saw that $5,000 had been added to my bonus account but upon reading the T&Cs it was clear that Paradise are screwing the customer.

The clearing rates appear to have been doubled such that every 100 points earned now releases 5 measly dollars of bonus. It was pretty poor before, now it is absolutely terrible. Not only does this shit rate apply to the $5k it applies to the $120 I had stacked there.

Anyway, the cash has been withdrawn from there quicker than you can say 'call in the administrators'.

So it really looks like the arse has fell out of Paradise Poker and I am not sure if SportingBet PLC are going to turn it around. I wouldn't be surprised to see an acquisition of SB or a divestment of Paradise poker in the first rounds of consolidation in the gambling sector.

Off to Sporting Index.

2006-10-31T20:18:00.000Z

October Results
October was a good month for me. Total profit from the $1/$2 cash games was $697; made up of $210 from poker play and $487 from bonuses. I think I played reasonable well and the return of 1.4BB/100 is probably above my long-term average. I reckon I'm a 1BB/100 kind of weak-tight player; especially when 4/6 tabling.

My total hands of almost 7,500 was more than I usually put in but since I changed my game in September, when returning to full ring from 6-max, I did put in a big effort to clear some longstanding bonuses I had stacked. However, my target is still to push through 10K hands a month in order to try and step up through the limits whilst clearing some bonuses to add to my bankroll.

The bonuses cleared this month were, Party (2x$100 bonuses), Pokerstars ($120 longstanding bonus), Interpoker ($100 monthly reload), Will Hill ($47 monthly) & Paradise ($20 of stacked bonus).

Sites for next month will include Sporting Index ($150 sign up for 50,000 action points), Paradise ($120 stacked bonus - although the arse looks to have dropped out of this site), Interpoker ($100 monthly - still at 5x raked hands), Will Hill ($47 monthly) and as a last resort I have got nearly $400 stacked at UB that I may make a start on. Hopefully Party will also offer a November reload as well so I should probably aim for $500 of bonus money in November.

As I am doing ok at the moment I don't have the impetus to analyse my game, plug the leaks and move from being a weak-tight player to a TAG. As long as I continue to be a winning player at these stakes I will continue with $1/$2 until I have reached 300BB profit and then consider stepping up if I feel my game is up to it. I think stepping up will force me to plug the leaks as I certainly won't remain a winning player as I come up against better opposition.

I am happy to keep stepping up and down until my game can support the level I'm playing it.

I'm also sure to hit some negative variance along the way but I also feel that the tighter game I'm playing at the moment is having a beneficial impact on the amount of variance I am experiencing. See stats for the month below :-

So I don't attempt to steal blinds as much as I should, I don't raise enough pre-flop and my agression factor is far too low. Somehow I still find myself to be a winning player (this month at least). I wonder what I could step this up to if I plugged those leaks?

I'm also very tight at 13 VPIP (I used to be about a 20VPIP when I previously played full ring) but this helps when multi tabling and I'm sure a lot of the opportunities I am passing up are marginal in terms of the BB/100 they would add to my win rate. Obviously they will all add up though.

Positional stats are below :-

Not really sure what this is telling me other than I only win 8% of hands I am dealt when I expect that I should be winning closer to 10%. I also probably cold call more than I should; maybe I'll take a look at those hands.

Finally, graph of the 7,500 hands played this month :-

FBF

2006-10-30T21:21:00.000Z

The Beautiful Game

Whether he likes it or not, a man’s character is stripped at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life.

Anthony Holden