Ambitious Ambitions

Sup?

Well, I’m well past the 2c/5c level now, and I’ll probably never play there again. I moved up to the $25 level on Wednesday and I’ve been 9-tabling the 6-max PLO8 tables at this level ever since. It’s gone quite well overall and my game has come on a hell of a lot in that time.

But it didn’t start well.

In fact, it started terribly. I went $90 down within hundreds of hands and was probably lucky to break even over the first 6k. It wasn’t all bad beats, and I was certain that there was a leak or two in there somewhere, some nasty habit I’d brought with me from micro micro maybe, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Now, I am quite proud of the fact that I have taught myself how to play this game and have twice built a bankroll of hundreds of dollars from tens of dollars playing the micro micro stakes of the game. But, after 6k hands of break even 10c/25c I had to concede that there were some things I was doing very wrong and, what’s more, I had no idea what they were.

So I finally got over my stubbornness and read some literature. I started with the 2+2 forums. It felt like cheating a bit to be honest but I’m a bit of a prick for not doing it sooner. I spent a good six hours reading every page of the O8 section of the forum and it has helped an unbelievable amount. There’s a lot of crap on there, as I’m sure there is on every forum (except maybe Dur Pok Soc) and some terrible advice, but what was good was unbelievably helpful.

I didn’t realise how shit (well, at least how unoptimally) I was playing before. Even some of the hands I have proudly posted in my previous posts are embarrassing to look over now tbh. But anyway, it worked for the micro micro levels but not for $25. But, now I think my game is okay for the $25 level and have finally been winning a bit of money. It does help that I’ve been running sick good recently as well.

I have played 17 hours in total for a $510 profit over 11.5k hands. This is about $30 ph at 8.9ptBBs/100. Obviously if I ignored the first 6k hands these figures would be sick at like $60 an hour or something. But those first 6k hands happened, were important, and so are included.

So having played over 10k hands at this level now I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of where I stand at the tables and what I think I can achieve.

I believe that with a lot of discipline and a lack of tilt, a win rate of 10ptBBs/100 is possible. This will be my main aim from now on. Playing 9 tables at a time I get through about 600 hands per hour and if I was to achieve my targeted win rate this will bring in $30 per hour. I have a lot of debt to pay off and I desperately want a holiday (I hear Malta’s pretty cheap…) so I want to put in enough hours to make $1k per week at 10c/25c.

Hence, ‘Ambitious Ambitions’! Impossible? We’ll see. Anyone for a prop bet to incentive me on?

$1k, at my target rate of 10ptBBs/100, will take 20k hands, which, at a rate of 600 hands ph, will take about 33 hours. I will continue to work for the agency (unless there is a bit of prop betting going on) as I think it’s important for me to have something to force me out of the house every once in a while and also something other than poker to pay my rent. But for the next few weeks, possibly months, I will be trying my best to fit in a big number of hours of Omaha around work.

If I get anywhere near 20k hands a week, winning at anywhere near my target rate, I’ll be earning well and paying off debt quickly:

I hope to pay off $500 a week in debt and keep the rest of what I make in the roll. I don’t intend to move up from these stakes until all of my debt is paid off so there is no pressure there. And anything I make over $500 in any week will probably eventually go towards a holiday.

That’s all for now, sorry nothing even mildly amusing to report at the moment. I’ll probably be posting my progress or lack of it in this blog. Peace.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2941703

Facebook bowling is -EV

Dickie, if you're reading this, thank you for introducing me to facebook bowling - you owe me a new mouse you houndrel.

My mouse has caused me a lot of trouble recently (I'm sure I've lost at least $50000 in 'mouse tilt') and I think it's been on its way out for a while. So, I guess it should have come as no surprise that my full-blooded attempt to bowl the fastest facebook bowl ever recorded finally finished it off. There was a loud crack and a fat chunk of plastic flew across the room. It was an explosive end to a troubled life.

Luckily it was the mouse I broke and not my computer or my arm but now the pointer thing doesn't point exactly where I want it to point every single time. With a 'fold' button and a 'call' button and a 'raise' button all in fairly close proximity, it's quite important that the mouse points the pointer to the button I want the pointer to point at. Otherwise, it's just pointless.

So I guess 6-tabling is out of the question until I buy a new one. I just tried to 4-table but I was far too slow between tables, sometimes it's important to make bluffs instantly or they don't get through so playing without a mouse would almost completely take away my bluff. Actually, this would probably be +EV thinking about it...

Anyways, had a nice couple of hit and runs since my last post:

17 hrs 15 mins
6336 hands (367 ph)
$92.38 profit
$5.36 ph
14.6 ptBBs/100

Will need a few more sessions like this in the next couple of days to bring me on target for $1k by August. Over $600 short at the moment with only 12 days to go. (It doesn't really matter when I reach $1k of course, but it would be nice to meet a target for once).

Bye.

Stress ball for sale!

Plugged away at the tables for a good few hours last night. My play was very on and off and had mixed results as I went through several really bad spells in the six or so hours I played. The tables were full of action though and it was great fun, losing didn't even bother me.

Progress to date:

16hrs 30mins
6091 hands (369 hands per hour)
$68.88 profit
$4.20 per hour
11ptBBs/100

Few winning and losing hands here if they're of any interest to anyone:

Nuts and a redraw takes quarter:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2912350

Bad turn in $30 pot:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2911656

Big flop:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2911586

Nut low and draw to high miles behind:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2913571

Love the turn:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2913471

Don't know about this one:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2913429

Jam it:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2913382

Missed wrap:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2913358

Hate his call on the turn but whatever:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2913347

River:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2912857

A set just isn't good on this kind of lowwy flushy drawwy flop (without the fd, that is) when faced with serious action but I'm sure he's happy:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2912610
My hand has 63% expectation vs a bare set on the flop. That's why this game is so tricky sometimes.

Everything misses in a $25 four way all in:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2912610

In the 2.5k hands I played today I earned enough FPPs to play another 210 FPP sat. I took one of the 6 seats without much trouble and unregistered from the tourn as usual and had to decide what to do with the $11. Last time, I played and won two heads up matches but they were really boring. So I decided to spread it out between a $6.50 9-player PLO8 SnG, a $3.40 10-player PLO8 SnG and a $1.20 10-player NLHE SnG. Was nice to chill out after all the poker and there was some good banter at the tables. Crashed out of the holdem one in an unnecessary way:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2914191

but won the two Omaha ones for a $42 return on my 210 FPP investment. This means that my 400 FPP stress ball is worth $80. Anyone want to buy it?

Dwain Chambers

As I played so shit the other day I decided that dropping to just four tables would be a good idea last night. I played 482 hands in the 1hr 40min session for a $19.76 profit. Good stuff.

9hrs 40mins
3647 hands (377 hands ph)
$52.43 profit
$5.42 ph
14.4 ptBBs/100

Bankroll did take a hit though as I played two $22 PLO8 multis for no return. I got into three way all ins in both as a favourite (but not a big one) and lost. I need to play lots more today and tomorrow. Sticking to 2c/5c now.

Bob Monkhouse

Playing like a right twat at the moment.

8hrs
3165 hands (396 hands per hour)
$32.67 profit
10ptBBs/100
$4.10 ph

Was all my fault today.

Got some films I've been meaning to watch for ages so gonna watch them instead of playing tonight. Starting with Howards End. May play more over the weekend but $1k by August is looking like a tough ask now.

400 FPP stress ball

Played another 210 FPP 20 man SnG sat to the $100k after my poor session of cash. Somehow managed to qualify thanks to some appalling bubble play from some of them. This fold was important:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2901073

UTG just had to be incredibly strong there, I fold everything. The push by TT is worse than pushing AKs there in my opinion. Anyway, unregistered from the tournament obviously and inspired by Paul’s heads up form decided to use the $11 to try two $5.50 heads ups. I lost a big pot in the first one with a set vs flush draw leaving me with half a stack so I tilted and went on to win. Sweet, freerolling in a way now for the second one...

Which went on for ages. It was a ‘deep stack, blinds never go up’ heads up. 2k starting stacks, blinds stay at 5/10 throughout. Well, we were both too good for each other so after over an hour of play he had a massive chip lead of 2150 - 1850. He was playing better than me so I said ‘is there any way of chopping this and going to bed?’ He initially thought I was coming onto him with the ‘going to bed’ bit so set him straight and I was glad when he suggested that we just go all in. I said ‘cool’. Next hand he shoved, I snapped and my JT held up. We both lolled in the chat and when I finished him off a few hand later I ‘gg’ed but he didn’t reply. The bitter bastard. So another 210 FPP turned into $20 or so. This made it all the more annoying when my 400 FPP stress ball was delivered today. FFS I just spent a potential lot of $$$ on a fucking stress ball. Now I know why they are so called.

So, that’s made up slightly for my crap session last night. I plan to put in a few hours today and tonight probably. Hope to run a bit better than I did last night.

Waste of time

Completely ruined my figures tonight, played 1153 hands and ran shockingly bad for about 1152 of them. I guess it was due to be fair. It was quite funny at times some of the stuff that was going on. Least fun you can have in this game is getting it in with the nut high draw and the nut low draw vs some idiot who thinks top two are good and missing both. Got stacked doing that a couple of times in quick succession and also had an unavoidable set vs set in the middle of it all - he flatted me on the flop and I still had the second nuts on the turn so I got them in thinking I was ahead. nh. Was down over $20 at one point but the tilt stayed away and I managed to pull it back.

I 6-tabled for 3hrs 20mins playing 1153 hands for a loss of $5.18. Not as bad as it was at one point but still a big disappointment. I played okay and learned nothing, waste of fucking time.

Time... 6hrs 30mins
Hands... 2523 (388 hands per hr)
Profit... $32.14
WR... 18ptBBs/100
HR... $5 ph

Looking weak now, those figures. Got the day off tomorrow as I say. Will have to put some hours in then.

Rolled by August

I'm about 1.4k hands through my new 2c/5c challenge. At the same stage of my '1c/2c, 100% flop' challenge I was over $40 to the good.

2c/5c, PLO8, 6-max:

1370 hands
3hrs 10mins (433 hands an hour)
$37.32 profit
27ptBBs/100
$11.80ph

Making 1c/2c more profitable. The big difference, of course, is that I'm now multi-tabling while at 1c/2c I was, at most, three-tabling. This makes a big difference to both the win rate and the hourly rate. While my win rate at 1c/2c was about 100ptBBs/100, my hourly rate must have been about $2ph (though I didn't keep records of times during the challenge).

6-tabling does change my play a bit as making the 'right' decision every time becomes increasingly difficult. I find myself erring on the side of caution a little too much preflop and on flops and then my calling seems a little too loose post turn and on the river. Weird. This drop in standard of my play is shown by the big drop in the ptBB column. For me, it is a sacrifice worth making as my hourly rate has improved significantly. I'm not sure whether I've got the win rate/hourly rate ratio perfect yet but I'm happy enough with the way it has started to continue along these lines for now.

This 1.4k hand sample includes three successful 6-tabling sessions and a predictably losing 466-hand session of 12-tabling (ffs). The session of 12-tabling is the reason why my ptBBs is below my targeted 30ptBBs/100 while my hourly rate is above. (I got through hands quicker than expected). The 12-tabling session was a losing one and both my win rate and my hourly rate would be much higher if I hadn't done it. I'm just such a greedy twat ffs, DON'T DO IT! I don't always feel comfortable 6-tabling and to try anything above that is retarded imo. That's about the tenth time I've had to tell myself that.

I do think I have ran sickly good so far and the 30ptBBs I was hoping for whilst 6-tabling may have been a bit optimistic.

As far as the bankroll goes, it's up to around $240 now from the $20 fun money I left in. I said in my last post that I was going to work out 'the right' BR for me to have to make the relatively big jump up to the $25 level (and be at that BR by August). By 'the right BR' I mean 'a comfortable BR' really. I'm sure in the world of O8 there is a generally accepted 'correct' BR to have when moving up to $25 but, as temperemental as I can be at times when playing poker, the right BR for me may be completely different to your typical poker player's. So I haven't researched at all and have, instead, tried to work out what needs to be right for me to make the jump.

When I move up to $25 again I really don't want to be in the mindset where I'm liable to tilt. There are a few things that need to be right before I'm able to take that step up in an untiltable state of mind. The most significant one is that I need to have enough money not to be bothered about some sick cooler or bad beat. I cannot let sick hands allow my next (or any future) decision be anything but what I would consider to be the right one.

Basically, I don't want to get annoyed by poker again. Otherwise I'll end up cashing out and taking a break like I had to do around 'blow up' time. Doing that was a massive step back in the BR build I had planned, which, after a couple of weeks away, saw me back to 1c/2c for more 'fun'. This all happened because I wasn't prepared mentally for the small setback I faced at the time, which was then made doubly worse by tilt (http://www.pokerhand.org/?2769734).

I guess to sum up, I want to win lots of money whilst quickly rising through the stakes, and all completely stress-free. Is that too much to ask for?

If my mind is in the right place I genuinely think I can do it. I need to get the right balance between work (actual work, which I plan to continue throughout the summer) and poker. Work is still most important to me at the moment proven by the 70-hour week I have agreed to work at the end of the month.

Going into my step up financially ready will be an important thing to get right.

At the moment, I want $1k in my account before I move up to 10c/25c. This could be much less or much more than is recommended, I honestly have no idea...

I need to make another $760, which, at current rate (probably a bit higher than expectation), would take 64hrs. I said I wanted to be rolled for 10c/25c by August which is 16 days away. 4hrs of poker a day is not that many really. I have tomorrow off work so that's 20hrs out of the way already...

So,

I want my BR to be on or over $1000 by August, 6-tabling 2c/5c 6-max PLO8.

Only if It feels right to move up then will I move up. Then I'll have to work out how I want to go about beating the $25 level at a happy rate.

Ready to build a roll

I'm bringing the '1c/2c 100% flop' challenge to an end. I think I've done what I set out to do (clearly 1c/2c is easily beatable when seeing 100% of flops) but it's just not moving my bankroll on fast enough. Especially as I've got no motivation to put in the volume at the moment.

My $20 'fun money' is now up over $190 so it would be a bit silly to stay at 1c/2c even if I wanted to. I don't think my bankroll is ready for 10c/25c yet either though so I'm going to have to stay at 2c/5c (the only level Stars provide between 1c/2c and 10c/25c) for the time being.

Had a spare couple of hours this evening so took the time to see how the PLO8 2c/5c 6-max tables compare to the 1c/2c ones I've been playing. As expected, they're almost exactly the same. Bit less money flying about but they're still weak.

I six-tabled for two hours and got in 660 hands for a $31 profit. It's a very very small sample and I think I did run a bit above expectation but I would hope to make $30 for every 1k hands I played at this 2c/5c level. Going on this information, 6-tabling, which felt pretty comfortable, it should take me about three hours to play 1k hands (for a $10 hourly rate). This seems like a pretty reasonable target to me.

I plan to play 6-max PLO8 2c/5c achieving an hourly rate of $10 and a win rate of 30ptBBs/100.

Hopefully I can do it by 6-tabling but if not I'll switch it around to see what my optimum number of tables is.

I'm working a lot over the next week so I might not get much chance to play but when I do, this is what I'll be doing to try and really get this bankroll going. My long-term goal is to be 'properly rolled' for 10c/25c by August. I'm not sure what kind of roll I'll need yet, that's something I'll think about and write about later. Any suggestions welcome by the way...

Yesterday's bit of FPP fun and today's good session of 2c/5c has brought my profits to $758.04 since the $15 deposit 47 days ago. I'll get to $1k eventually Fran!

I'd better get to sleep anyway, I've got work in a few hours ffs.

4200 FPPs = $100

I used the $88 in tounament chips to play 26 NLHE $3.40 turbo STTs. I was keen to get it out of the way quickly so opened 14 tables for the first session. Always a mistake... I played poorly rushing all over the place and lost shit loads in that first session.

6-tabling after that was easy.

I made my money back and went on to show an overall profit of $10.20. Pretty shit return actually from 26 STTs (39c profit per $3.40 tourn - not great). Fuck it, serves me right for 14-tabling. Anyway, so all my $Ts are now converted and I've turned 4200 FPPs into $98.60.

Not sure whether that's good or not to be honest. I probably could have spent the same amount of FPPs on freeroll multis for a much larger profit but this was certainly quicker.

So, to conclude, I guess all I've found out is that the 210 FPP sats to the Sunday $100k are great value. Oh, and I also found out that I can't 14-table... again.

Splashing out

Played a little bit of 1c/2c since my last post, not much. Lost a bit. Sat down at a table with Paul (147 star) who kept raising the pot, the fucker. Railed him in a few tourns the last couple of days. Very good to watch, lively player who always seems to stack up. I wish I knew how he did it.

1c/2c PLO8
1183 hands
$42.25 profit

'Splashing out'

Decided to play a couple of the 'guarantee' tourns on Stars as they've got the 2x promotion on. Played an $11 NLHE $40k gteed. Nearly cashed but ran tens into AT on the bubble. Hilarious.

Also played a PLO8 $10k gteed ($22 buy in).

Standard was poor as always. I cashed but had this sick quarter put on me towards the end:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2869822

and ended up shoving KKQ9 which sadly got called in two spots. I turned the nuts but the river put the low down and also hit some one's gutshot. All pretty boring really. Got some shit profit.

Was looking for something to do earlier and spotted that I had a spare 5k FPPs in my account. So I figured I may as well do something with them. I bought a stress ball for 400FPPs of course and thought about buying the $50 bonus for 5k FPPs as well. But I had a look around and found some nice satellites to spend them on instead. I must recommend them to everyone.

It's a 210 FPP buy in 20 player turbo SnG with top 6 players getting an $11 seat. That's 30% of players getting an $11 return on a 210 FPP investment. So, for an average player, one would expect a $79 return from a 5k FPP investment in these tourns. Clearly this is a better way of spending 5k FPPs than buying a $50 bonus.

I decided to play 20 of these sats spending 4200 FPPs, leaving some back to buy into VIP tourns etc. I didn't run particularly well but won 8 of the 20 for an $88 return. I now must decide what to do with this dosh. It's all locked away in $T so I may play a load of SnGs (hopefully for a profit) to convert it into a BR to play some more cash with. Or I could gamble it on a few more Omaha multis. We'll see.

Finding God a little hard to read

I’ve been meaning to post for a while but just haven’t got round to it, so here’s a ‘quick’ update on things.

Omaha.

It’s all very mechanical now and a little bit boring. Can't really be arsed to play much.

1000 hands
$42.93 profit @ 107ptBBs/100

If I played at that win rate for 2k hands a day every day of every year I’d be on a $31.5k salary. Quite funny really. I wonder if 2c/5c would bring in $79k?

I do not intend to play 750,000 hands of micro stakes Omaha every year btw. But if it was a challenge on the other hand…

The players are terrible and I’ve actually started to feel bad about taking some of their money. It’s the moral equivalent of stealing a Game boy from a blind man. Obviously, it’s wasted in his hands, but am I right to take it off him? I don’t know. I suppose it depends on what games he’s got. Anyway, there’s nothing quite like scooping in a nice pot so I shall continue until guilt finally kills it I guess.

Omaha music.

I had a good look around for some more charity shop music the other day. I tried a new shop (there are a few now on Bearwood high street), Acorns, which is a Midlands-based charity that offers support to terminally ill children and their families. Okay, it’s a good cause, but £2.99 for a second hand album? Nein Danke. It’s a shame really as I did see a couple of albums I would have snapped up for 50p. They had a smashing bit of Celine Dion, an early ABBA album, and even a Bananarama greatest hits.

But I wouldn’t be seen dead walking out of an Acorns shop having donated £8.97 on three used albums. And sick irony aside, I do not see anything fun coming from that so I bode ‘good day’ to the brave till-woman and left in disappointment, shaking my head at what could have been.

I tried one other shop, equally worthy of my hard-earned money (well, blind Game boy man’s hard-earned money) but their music was similarly dear so I waltzed straight back out. I was getting a little bit impatient so resorted to Mind - ‘for better mental health’ (‘for music at crazy prices’).

I found the shelf where the 10p albums lie and, after the frustration of the previous two shops with the Bananarama near miss, I was in no mood to go riffling through the whole shelf of CDs all day. So, I took a gamble (makes a change) and picked up a handful of them at random and, without looking at them, handed them to the till-woman.

I was pretty happy with the decision until she picked up the first ‘music CD’. My face must have dropped when I saw the front cover: ‘Howards End’. For Fuck’s sake! And it’s not even the soundtrack either, it’s the full version of the 1992 ‘classic’ film adaptation of E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel of the same name. No turning back now though, I was at the till.

The second one, I could see from the back cover, was undeniably music. Thank you, God. But, if my face had already dropped from seeing the first front cover, it must have hit the counter when I saw this one: ‘The Best of Simon Cowell’. I nearly threw up. The whole thing makes me sick, it’s just horrible. It’s a News of the World promotion thing from back in the day, clearly designed for good friends Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell to help each other out and make each other richer. The greedy fuckers. It’s got a massive photo of Cowell on the front looking annoyingly smug just to add to the fucked-upness of it all.

All of this, along with the fact that 20% of the tracks are by Robson and Jerome, makes this, without doubt, the worst thing I have ever bought. Taking over the previous worst… ‘Howards End’.

The other six CDs are just your shit, run of the mill music compilations. Another 80p well spent.

Omaha 'music'

Howards End 10p
The best of Simon Cowell 10p
90's Brit 10p
The best of Paul Weller 10p
Sexual Feeling 10p
Divas 10p
RUN DMC 10p
Saturday night 5p
Sunday morning 5p
Music for summer Evenings 100p
Power of a Woman - Eternal 100p
White Ladder - David Gray 50p
Lifting me - The Corrs 50p
Memory Almost Full - Paul McCartney 10p
Word of Mouth 50p
Pop Icons 10p
1980's hits of the decades 10p
Hits of the 80's 10p
Sunday Magic 5p
3am Party 5p

Soz, getting a bit bored now so won’t have chance to explain the title of this post. Slightly lazy end but fuck it. Watched the amazing tennis final the other day, I particularly enjoyed some of the footage shown during the rain delays where the BBC somehow managed to make tennis look exciting. Was funny to see the two finalists take it in turns to recite the Kipling poem ‘If’. Nadal struggled but it was good stuff so I may as well end the post with that poem just in case you fancy a bit of a read.

Inabit.

‘If’ - Rudyard Kipling, 1895

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Just been informed that I’m now miles behind Fran in the race to $1k (I'm on $615.30 by the way, mate). I’d better not lose or I’ll kill the fucker.

Ermm... maybe I should read that poem one more time.

Happy earnings everyone.

0.75 ptBBs/hand = not enough at 1c/2c

A quick calculation tells me that I'm making an average profit of over 5c every hand. Since when has stealing the blinds been -EV? I may never open for a raise again ffs.

Getting bored

Of all the shit music, that is. The Omaha's great fun. Will be buying another couple of albums tomorrow I think before work because most of the stuff I've got now is pissing me off already. Got up at 7.30pm last night and I'm due into work at 11am. So I guess I'll be staying awake until I finish work... Gonna be fucked.

Anyway:

572 hands
567 flops
$29.42 profit
129ptBBs/100

Another two flops not seen:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2837041
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2837097

Sick.

Made an effort to record a load of hands from the session I've just played so I guess I might as well talk through a few of them.

I obviously have to play a lot of bad hands against short stacks and must resist the temptation to set them in on these kind of flops. A K92 flop would be okay but on this lowwy flop I'm just in terrible shape:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2836395
Pretty tough to find a fold there though. If he has AAAA then it's a world class value push.


I've been lucky so far in that I haven't been in any uncomfortably expensive pots pre flop. This is probably the worst do far:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2836398
Bad river call, btw. Certainly losing out to rake in the side pot, it's only a good call if there's a chance my low is good enough for the main pot. Four handed, I don't think it is... fold.


Dream scoop:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2836603
Nutters, both DRAWING to the high with no low on a made low board. Was slightly worried about it being three way as all I (thought I) had was a very outdrawable high. Turns out I was good for the low as well. Verylucky.


Unnecessary bluff, shouldn't be surprised by the call at these stakes:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2836702


Probably the most interesting hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2836717
I had to think for a while before folding. Put simply, a set on a drawwy board with a made low down is very dangerous. I was almost certain my high was good (unless he had something sick like 7724) and was equally certain he had the low so figured he was on a decent freeroll for the scoop. As most rivers are scare cards, out of position, I think it's got to be a fold. It's not as if I can call to see a safe river as anything other than an offsuit K or Q or a 3 gives me a big problem calling a likely pot bet on the river. He said he had the low and "a hearts flush draw and a straight draw" (as you can see in the chat of the aces bluff above). Whatever, just something to think about. I could actually write loads about what to do with the nuts (high and low) on various boards but can't really be bothered. Not really sure how much anyone cares about h/l anyway.


Speaking of sets on made low boards, I think he has to fold the flop:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2836678
Betting the low and a redraw for the high can go wrong here against two opponents (usually means you're heading for a quartering with another low vs either the high or a better draw for the high) so I was happy to get heads up on the turn. Sometimes the river will blank and you're frustrated when they quarter you with the same low and king high for the high but in this instance I thought I was freerolling for the scoop so happy blasting!

Is this a fold?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2836735
Weird to check/call the turn then blast a low river. Any sort of low, I call.


Only one more hand saved from the session, not very interesting but may as well include it:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2837000
Guess that's a fold...

Lots of tough decisions to make (especially now I'm playing every hand) in what I think is a very interesting game.

Bourne to run well

Not going to play today, my brain feels proper tilty (potentially disarrsterous state of brain when seeing every flop). So gonna watch the Bourne trilogy instead.

Some stats from the challenge so far:

341 hands
338 flops
$22.70 profit
166ptBBs/100
Hands to reach a showdown - 89 (26% of all hands)
Hands won at a showdown - 63 (71% of hands to reach a showdown)
Pots won without a showdown - 25 (7% of all hands)
Total hands to show a return - 88 (26% of all hands)

What to make of them?

Firstly, 'hands won' is slightly misleading as a lot of pots are split heads up, sometimes at a loss to the rake. Similarly, a pot in which I'm quartered is presumably also considered a 'hand won' despite losing money in the hand. Still a bit surprising, I guess, to see that more than a quarter of hands are 'winners'. Seems high.

Other than that, only 71% of hands to reach a showdown are 'winners'?

Seems low...

Guess some 'nothing hands' are just checked down all the way to win or lose on the river, whatever. But playing every hand means I do have a lot of marginal decisions on every street, perhaps I need to sort my crying calling out.

Having said that, in what are usually multi way pots, it's not unusual to have the best hand on the turn and get rivered. I'll check these behind in position and sometimes the silly villains don't bet when they hit so I often make it to a showdown I know I've lost. Based on this, maybe 71% isn't as bad as it looks.

Suppose without pokertracker I may never know the 'crying call/checking down with nothing/knowing check' river-ratio (if this isn't one of the stats they provide it really should be).

Anyway, fuck all that rubbish, I've got a Bourne trilogy to watch. Should be an exciting six hours or so. Bye. xx

Best money I have ever spent

The CDs are world class.

261 hands dealt
258 flops seen (two accidentally folded and one taken down pre!)
$17.15 profit
164ptBBs/100

One tabled again, sat down with $5, whittled down to $2.50 very quickly after having to fold two sick rivers. Built back up to $11.63 after hand 114 of the session. Made a tea and lost $5.50 in the twenty hands I played whilst drinking it. I then left the table before I tilted. And made another tea.

Especially impressed with the 3am compilation. Kool and the Gang, Buggles and Jackson 5 comprise the first three tracks. World class.

More Omaha music

Just charity shopped my bollocks off for some more music to listen to whilst blowing my roll playing every hand of PLO8 I'm dealt.

Went to that Mind place ('for better mental health') again where the CDs were only 50p. This time when I got in I saw some CDs for 10p! Madness. I snapped up five of those bad boys but I'm instantly regretting it - they're all scratched to fuck. I haven't tried to play any of them yet but I'm guessing they're no good.

I also snapped up an 'expensive' 50p one as well. This one's called 'Word of mouth' and features 15 tracks by various artists including AMP FIDDLER, JUANA MOLINA, DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS, and SUFJAN STEVENS. Who the fuck are they? Oh well, could be good.

One of the 10p ones was a bit of a bargain, Paul McCartney's memory almost full. Sweet, hope that one works. The others look shit. Got some songs from the 80's on two CDs and something called 'Pop Icons' with Christina Aguilera, Five, Westlife, etc. Christ.

In one of the cases, called '70's Summer Hits' are two CDs, neither of which are called '70's Summer Hits'. There's one called 'Sunday Magic' with two half naked people on the front. Dread to think what's on that disc. And the other is called '3am Party'... dread to think what's on that disc.

My Omaha CD collection to date:

Music for summer Evenings - National Trust (1998, compilation) 100p
Power of a Woman - Eternal (1995, album) 100p
White Ladder - David Gray (1998, album) 50p
Lifting me - The Corrs (1999, single) 50p
Memory Almost Full - Paul McCartney (2007, album) 10p
Word of Mouth - Various 'Artists' (2004, compilation) 50p
Pop Icons - Various (2003, compilation) 10p
1980's hits of the decades - Various (80's compilation) 10p
Hits of the 80's - Various (1986 compilation) 10p
Sunday Magic - ? (2004, ?) 5p
3am Party - ? (2004, ?) 5p

Not pretty.

Good start, except one horrendous pre flop fold

Just played a little one-tabling session whilst railing a good friend, Ptevey, in the million on Stars. I think he played really well to get as far as he did but just couldn't find a spot late on and eventually went out about 200th or something for a nice cash. WP sir.

That's a screenshot of my first session, 126 hands played, 125 flops seen for a $15.90 profit. This is 315ptBBs/100 which is sure to come down. I had a really nice table (not many pre flop raises) and only time will tell whether my strategy can handle a table of pre flop raisers.

Really disappointed about the one fold I made by the way, just a complete lack of concentration. I split a sick pot I should have scooped and insta-folded the next hand utg in disgust. Just forgot I had to limp! It's so unnatural playing some of the shit hands I have to but it seems to have worked so far. Maybe it is +EV to play every hand at this level of the game.

Small sample, I know, and hopefully no more folding from now on. Disgraceful behaviour. I wonder what the players at the table must have thought (if anything) when I folded. Must have put me on 9999 or something. Though this is always a limp utg in my book. Plenty of scoop outs.

Just thought I'd whack some of the few hands I've saved on the pokerhand site in the last couple of 'working weeks' just in case any one fancies a butchers through them. Most of them pretty pointless hands from a couple of gamble gamble sessions but feel free to rummage and berate:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2797571

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2797397

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2797186

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795379

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795339

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795318

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2793145

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2792974

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2764956

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2764918

Some of those hands are proper tilty actually and maybe I should have kept them to myself. Couple of interesting ones though, especially the TJQK one I think it was with fd and sd on a paired board. Obviously very opponent-based action.

Future for me in poker?

Cool.

Been doing loads of 'normal' 'work' for the last two weeks which has been a lot of fun. Spent most of my time at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, mainly on a team-leader's wage (though not doing a great deal of team-leading) working behind various bars around the ground and also spending a lot of time pissing about in the cellar, throwing a ball around and changing the occasional barrel. Again, on a team-leader's hourly rate(?).

Taking a step back from poker has given me a chance to have a serious clear-headed think about my future (or lack of it) in the game.

There have been many times over the last few years where I've gone through spells of playing poker for money instead of working. During these times I have hated the thought of giving it up to go back to work.

And, so, it never fails to confuse me that, when the time comes to go back to work, I always enjoy it and can't think of anything worse than giving it up to grind the poker.

Especially in the summer.

So, given that work has almost always earned me more money than any 'healthy' spell of pokering has, I'm not even sure why I have played (and sometimes continue to play) poker as a sole source of income. So I will probably not be doing so in the near future.

I say 'probably' because:

As it happens, having played what I would consider enough hands at the $25, $50 and even the $100 level of O8, I genuinely think I could beat the game quite well. I am not prepared to put in the volume of hands required to earn a living at the $25 or $50 level (as do-able as I think it is, I would rather be out of the house working this summer than grinding out 6/7hrs of poker a day for a similar return), but if I had the BR not to worry about the swings of $100 and $200 PLO8 it would probably be worth my while taking some time off work to earn some decent money!

So, as it's very unlikely that a spare couple of grand is going to come my way in the form of a BR, I'll 'probably' be working for the rest of this summer. I think this is the sensible decision and does not at all feel like the disappointing realisation that maybe it would have been a couple of years ago. Instead, it's actually something I'm quite looking forward to.

A word on Hold'Em:

I have obviously played a lot of Hold'Em in my days and I simply don't think I'm good enough to beat that game at any meaningful stakes consistently. I don't even enjoy playing endless hands of Hold'Em any more so, even if I am capable, I have no desire what so ever to sacrifice work to make a living playing Hold'Em poker.

So, with Hold'Em completely out of the equation and given that I have no wishes to grind away at the smallish stakes of Omaha I can afford, I have cashed out most of my BR (total cash out for the month of $495.09), and have left just $20 'fun-money' in my account.

I have a potentially disarrrsterous plan for my small BR which I'll come onto later.

I don't intend to cash out from Stars at all over the summer as I'm hoping that work will continue to support me well enough (and start paying off debt at the same time...). I hope to continue playing the odd hour on a night with the micro/small stakes.

If I have built up a big enough BR by late 2008/early 2009 and it still feels right, I will consider putting in some hours at the money-making stakes.

So, that's all the long-term poker shit I've been thinking about over the last couple of weeks, have I been playing much?

Hardly at all. Took a few pot shots at 25c/50c and maybe a bit of 50c/$1, not sure. I had one half-hour of fun when I decided to sacrifice $40 by sitting with $20 on two NLO8 $50 tables with the intention of really gambling it up and leaving if I lost the $20. Well, I quickly lost one of the buy-ins and was down to $4 on the other table before rallying back to eventually leave the table with $55 for a $15 profit! Good times. Wish I could show you some of the hands, winning and losing but the pokerhand site isn't working. Had some great banter at the table as well with a couple of the regulars who, having 'played the game for years', thought I was a right wally. It was actually quite amusing as I have been playing O8 for only a month and know for a fact that most of them are easily rapable (and the not-so-easily-rapable ones are at least easily playable).

Also played a couple more O8 tourns ($17 ish outlay for no return), but the most interesting thing I've experimented with poker-wise since my last post is the 6-max tables. The average pot sizes at most stake sizes of the game seem larger than at the full ring tables. This seems a little odd and at the 1c/2c tables the av. pots are massive, usually $1 but sometimes as big as $3.

This got me wondering whether it would pay to see 100% of flops at these tables.

So, as I don't think I'm mentally or financially ready to start playing poker seriously again yet, I am going to set myself another one of those 1c/2c challenges just for fun.

My goal is to prove that the 6-max PLO8 1c/2c tables are beatable when seeing a flop with 100% of hands.

My first instinct here is that the reraised pots in which I have to see a flop with terrible starting hands could prove a little too expensive for my monsters to make up for but hopefully I'm wrong. Even if once every 200 hands I'm forced all in pre with rags vs two monsters I'll be struggling to make even that loss back over the next 199 hands let alone show a profit. Anyway, we'll see.

Don't expect any great volume. Or profit. Inabit.

Blow Up

I've let myself down slightly in the last couple of days.

On Sunday afternoon I really didn't feel like playing any poker, the first time that has happened for a few weeks. And if you don't feel like playing, don't play. Simple, yeah? No. Like the mug that I am, I played anyway.

I really should have just watched a film or something or gone out, asked someone if they fancied a drink or something. But no, I cracked open a few cash tables and plugged away.

It went okay but I was just really bored of it, nothing on TV either. Then I realised that I hadn't played an Omaha multi since I learned how to play the game so checked the tab and signed up for the next three tournaments going. This is how they went:

- $11 PLO8 rebuy

In for $81 to go out shortly after the freeze period started for no return. The villain in this hand stacked me twice in the rebuys and then this to finish me off. It was very ridiculous. I don't really have a very good h/l hand but I was just playing the player (idiot):
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2763467

I was nearly sick at the hand but spending $81 on a tourn with my BR was inexcusable. Bad beats should be pretty insignificant if you're thinking about the bigger picture.

- $11 FLO8 freezeout

Standard was really really bad. Got it in towards the end with a fd and nut low draw, both were live in 3-way all in but missed. Luckily no option to rebuy.

- $5.40 PLO8 freezeout

Cashed but ran into quads to come 20 something for a shit profit. The $400 for 1st looked achievable at one point but not to be.

That was a very bad night.

The next day (yesterday) I tried my best to stay away from the poker but I was bored again with my friends at work so I started playing again. Worst decision ever. Trust me, if you're anything like me and you don't feel like playing, don't play - you'll lose.

I got bored of the Omaha pretty quickly so sat at an empty NLHE $50 to gamble it up a bit. Two people sat down with me at exactly the same time which I was a little suspicious about. I posted the BB and:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2769734

I nearly ripped my hair out, and even with my hair as long as it is it wouldn't have hurt anywhere near as much as that hand did. I left the table immediately. Blatant bit of rigging, it's sick.

I played a bit of razz for fun, lost more than anyone should at that game so sat down at a play money NLO8 with my 1000 chips. Lost them in a sick 8-way all in, I was miles behind but I think I got just about the right price...

I then played five PLO8 STTs (two 9-handed $16 turbos and three 10-handed $3 turbos). I bubbled the two $16 ones which were soo sick and came third in all three of the $3 ones. I should have won all five! After that sickness I turned the laptop off and, pleasingly, it stayed off until this morning. What an awful two days.

So, that's it, I've decided, two days too late, I'm officially taking a break.

Yesterday, I got straight onto the phone to my temping agency for some work. I need to get out of the house and away from the computer. So I've taken some shifts off them and another agency so I'll be taking a 'break' and going to work for a change. Got 36 hours booked for the next few days which should be fun. I'm behind the main bar at Edgbaston Cricket Club all day tomorrow, then at the International Convention Centre on Thursday and I'll be spending most of Friday at the National Exhibition Centre. Anything to escape the tilt.

I'm left with $271.55 in my Stars account after cashing out $215. $471.55 profit is still okay but not as okay as it was before I touched it on Sunday afternoon.

May not post for a while now. GL all.