Back playing some low stakes

Well as we all know the Feds cracked down on PokerStars on April 16, 2011. As luck would have it, I was at my low point in funds on there. I think I cashed out just over $500. I ended up down $70 in February and $209 in March and I was down $166 for April when things ended on 'Black Friday'. So I had gone from a winning player from 2008-2009 to a break even player in 2010 to a losing player in 2011. The crackdown happened just in time for me I guess. I did this update because I loaded $100 onto Bovada Poker last week. I jumped right into the $25 NL cash games and got my butt kicked because I suck at NL cash. Some things don't change. I deposited another $65 to give it a second try and was quickly down to my last $40 on a 2/4 limit table all in on the turn needing a spade or 3 to stay alive. I got the 3 and then moved down to .25/.50 limit 6 max where I've had some success in two sessions to get my account back up to $110. I will be playing .25/.50 limit, no more than 3 tables at a time, for the forseeable future. The players do not seem to be too skilled and there is no incentive (or large enough player base for that matter) to play more than 3 tables at a time so I have hope. I'll stick to this level until I go broke or hit $500.

October - February

Well shortly after my last post I went on a $1,700 downswing - almost all of it at 3/6. After getting my $1,000 bonus in December I had another $700 losing session and decided to cashout down to $600 and just play for fun in 2011.

Weeks of losing takes it's toll. So much tilt and stress and bad feelings in general just made me want to take an extended break. So I did.

I barely played at all from December 16th until the end of January. My plan was to just play mtts in 2011 and play a tiny bit of 6 max LHE at .25/.50 or .5/1 to get my buy-ins back.

Well, as I added tables at .5/1 a funny thing happened:





I decided that maybe 8 tabling .5/1 for a nice little profit and maintaining Supernova status wouldn't be impossible. I have no idea how long I will be able to keep up the 40k+ hand a month pace needed but I know that as long as I'm winning poker has been fun again.

8 tabling delivers a 740/hand an hour which comes out to 50+ hours a week. 10-14 hours a week is doable for me most weeks so we'll see. I have no idea what my winrate will be.

A quick peak at PTR's all-time winner's list at .5/1 shows that I should probably be pleased with anything above 1.5.

October update

I ended up losing $120 in August (14,500 hands) and made a little over $1,500 in September playing around 18,000 hands. The probem with that is that $1900 of that was Pokerstars bonus.

The good part about September is that I lost $1,300 while playing 2/4 tables with zero game selection because of the 50th billion hand promotion. So I did very well while table selecting with no exceptions.

I'm hoping that carries over into October, of course. So far it's been ok. I have been mixing in more 3/6 tables now that my bankroll is over $6,000 for the first time.

I feel like I'm playing better than I ever have. Hopefully the results follow this month.

July went well

I played 5,700 hands of 2/4 and ran at 4.85 BB/100 for $1,146 for my best cash month ever. Wow $73/hour. Nice.

I ran well so I didn't tilt and that fed back into playing well. If every month could go like that I'd be one happy poker player.

Playing that few hands put me behind Supernova pace but I will be able to maintain it by playing 15k hands a month which is no big deal however it doesn't allow for any extended breaks either.

August started much the same up $400 through 1500 hands until I chased an incredible 80/65 fish up to 5/10 and met 2 of his 80/60 friends for the craziest 5/10 game I've ever seen. Lost $150 there and another $550 at 2/4 that night for possibly my largest losing night ever. Such is the life at 2/4.

For the month I'm a little above breakeven now and I'm on pace to get my vpp goal so all is well. If I can keep my flops seen % around 28 things tend to go a lot better for me. The first half of the year was disappointing for me really. I made $3200 but most of that was rakeback.

btw - I have noticed more and more 3/6 regs down at 2/4 now. Hopefully that turns around as summer gives way to fall however there are still plenty of fish to be had. I just have to keep improving my play against the regs and stay off of tilt as much as possible.

Another change of plans July 1st

I played 28,622 hands of 6 max LHE in June.

It mostly sucked as I was 7 & 8 tabling 1/2 trying to get 14k vpps for the month.

I ended up giving up on that plan with a week to go (11k vpps) and decided to move up to 2/4 & 3/6 and 4 table.

That went much better but I have no idea if it was just positive variance or if my improved game selection and concentration really made that much of a difference. I am positive now, however, that mass tabling 6 max LHE is a really, really bad idea (for me at least).

Cash/mtt results: -$168.70
RB/Bonus: $1,500.00

TOTAL $1,331.30

July will be an interesting change for me as I will NOT play more than 4 tables at a time and I will play 2/4 & 3/6 the entire month.

I am sooo ready to get off of the crack that is the Stars rakeback racket. I feel like it's really hurt my development as a poker player when volume meant everything.

I want to play around 9,000 hands of 2/4 & 3,000 hands of 3/6 in July. It could be close to a 50/50 mix depending on how 3/6 treats me.

June 2010

Well I'm down $330 since my last post - all at 1/2. That includes a $100 bonus and cashing for $100 in the Turbo Takedown.

I experienced a $660 downswing in there which is probably my worst downswing ever at 1/2. I have come out the other side now after working to eliminate the lagginess and fancy play syndrome that I picked up at 2/4. We will see how the changes work as now I feel like I've been too passive lately which is typical after experiencing a 10k stretch of horrid cards.

I've been 7 & 8 tabling again as I've decided to go for Supernova by the end of October.

Here's my schedule for the end of each month including spending 3k fpps on TT every month:

June 60k vpp 50k fpps $1500 bonus cleared
July 67.5 73.5
Augu 76.5 102k
Sept 91k 50k $1500 bonus cleared
Oct 100k 19.5k $1000 milestone bonus
Nov 108k 44.5k
Dec 117k 76k

I have included 2 14k vpp months in there which would be close to 40k hands in each month. That would be my new monthly record for hands. I'm in the middle of doing that now in June and I'm on pace and playing better - I think.

The changes in my game have been interesting to say the least. I can see where I've been spewing off bets in horrible spots. I still am, of course, through tilt and certain plays - especially middle pairs like 7s & 8s but I am more aware now than ever before. I feel like the games are still getting tougher over time - even way down at 1/2.

Hopefully the fact that i've played well over 200k hands as a lagtard will help me in some small way as I transition to a much tighter, solid player.

MTD - all at 1/2

It's been a pretty frustrating month for some reason. You would think I would be used to the coolers and the continuous insane badbeats by now. I guess I'm a slow learner.

Still making money and on target for 8k vpps this month so I'm not going to complain.

Hopefully I continue to improve my tilt control & get a better attitude about the variance of this stupid game.