You may have noticed that I haven't posted in a while. Well... my laptop screen broke and its currently in being repaired. (not due to a bad-beat frustration smashing, just a random hardware problem).
Since I have Pokertracker installed on it and I want to properly show the graphs for my sessions, I'm waiting until I have it back before I load it up with the hand histories (all in the same database) and make a new post.
Stay tuned; I'm still playing during this down-period, so they'll be a larger-than-normal post when I get the computer back!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
December's First Session
+$12.70A pretty good session in general. Once I had the feel for the good players / bad players at the tables I started to grind my way up. (FYI, I'm not using a HUD for these games at all as I don't find its necessary). One note, my PokerTracker seems to have gotten out of sync somewhere (or maybe I missed posting a session), but my account actually stands at $121.43 as of right now. I'll make the right column bankroll sticky update to the current amount on this update. A good start to the month!
November Summary
Another month, another summary! First, for everyone's enjoyment, my November graph:
Just after the peak of this graph is when about I started playing the 0.10-0.20 game, and as you can see it started with a massive downswing. I was able to pull through though, and with my last session of November (posted earlier) I brought my 0.10-0.20 game in the green, and redeemed (well, not really) the monthly graph.
As far as stats go:
Only 14, 553 hands, so not too much considering I had the entire month to play. But work has been busy, so I haven't had time to play every night. 40 hours over the whole month isn't too bad when u consider that's just over an hour a day. The amount won of $52.83 brings my current balance to a respectable $104.11 (from a November starting balance of just under $60). Due to the massive starting downswing my hourly rate actually decreased a little to $1.34 / hour (however, there isn't really enough hands to say this is an accurate number). Here's to better luck in December!
Just after the peak of this graph is when about I started playing the 0.10-0.20 game, and as you can see it started with a massive downswing. I was able to pull through though, and with my last session of November (posted earlier) I brought my 0.10-0.20 game in the green, and redeemed (well, not really) the monthly graph.As far as stats go:
Only 14, 553 hands, so not too much considering I had the entire month to play. But work has been busy, so I haven't had time to play every night. 40 hours over the whole month isn't too bad when u consider that's just over an hour a day. The amount won of $52.83 brings my current balance to a respectable $104.11 (from a November starting balance of just under $60). Due to the massive starting downswing my hourly rate actually decreased a little to $1.34 / hour (however, there isn't really enough hands to say this is an accurate number). Here's to better luck in December!
Monday, December 1, 2008
I figured it out
Ok, really good update today. I'll start by being consistent and posting all of my recent sessions (first two losses, 3rd is my nice session).
-$4.92
-$4.75
+$20.58
So my best session yet at 0.10-0.20 LIMIT. I actually was able to 9-table here reasonably well. At the beginning I really thought this was going to be another horrible day of suckouts, but things started to look up and I ended up doing really well this session. To give you an idea of what I face on a daily basis here are two hands from this most recent session (I've hidden the results of the hands, see if you can guess what the opponent had in each case):
HAND #1:
Limit Hold'em, $0.20 BB (9 handed)
Preflop: Hero is UTG with A
, 9
Hero calls, 1 fold, MP1 raises, 2 folds, CO calls, Button calls, 2 folds, Hero calls
Flop: (9.5 SB) 2, A
, 9
(4 players)
Hero bets, MP1 calls, CO calls, 1 fold
Turn: (6.25 BB) K (3 players)
Hero bets, MP1 raises, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets, MP1 caps, Hero calls
River: (14.25 BB) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets, MP1 raises, Hero calls
Total pot: $3.65 (18.25 BB) | Rake: $0.17
Results in black below:
Hero mucked A, 9 (two pair, Aces and nines).
MP1 had K, K
(full house, Kings over twos).
Outcome: MP1 won $3.48
Standard? Perhaps. But the Kc is what ultimately loses me some extra bets. I actually was giving him respect for AK when I get 4-bet on the turn.
HAND #2:
Limit Hold'em, $0.20 BB (9 handed)
Preflop: Hero is Button with J, J
1 fold, UTG+1 raises, 1 fold, MP2 calls, 1 fold, CO calls, Hero 3-bets, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 caps, MP2 calls, CO calls, Hero calls, SB calls, BB calls
Flop: (24 SB) 5, 2, 6 (6 players)
SB bets, BB calls, UTG+1 raises, 1 fold, CO calls, Hero 3-bets, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 caps, CO calls, Hero calls, SB calls, BB calls
Turn: (22 BB) 4 (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 bets, 1 fold, Hero raises, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 3-bets, Hero caps, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 calls
River: (38 BB) K (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 bets, Hero calls, SB calls, 1 fold
Total pot: $8.20 (41 BB) | Rake: $0.20
Results in black below:
Hero had J, J (one pair, Jacks).
SB mucked Q, 5 (one pair, fives).
UTG+1 had 7, Q (high card, King).
Outcome: Hero won $8
So it doesn't always work out bad. I'd be surprised if anyone guessed their hands here. So many bad preflop calls, bad peels and bad play in general. Yea for microstakes!
-$4.92
-$4.75
+$20.58So my best session yet at 0.10-0.20 LIMIT. I actually was able to 9-table here reasonably well. At the beginning I really thought this was going to be another horrible day of suckouts, but things started to look up and I ended up doing really well this session. To give you an idea of what I face on a daily basis here are two hands from this most recent session (I've hidden the results of the hands, see if you can guess what the opponent had in each case):
HAND #1:
Limit Hold'em, $0.20 BB (9 handed)
Preflop: Hero is UTG with A
, 9Hero calls, 1 fold, MP1 raises, 2 folds, CO calls, Button calls, 2 folds, Hero calls
Flop: (9.5 SB) 2
, A, 9 (4 players)Hero bets, MP1 calls, CO calls, 1 fold
Turn: (6.25 BB) K
(3 players)Hero bets, MP1 raises, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets, MP1 caps, Hero calls
River: (14.25 BB) 2
(2 players)Hero bets, MP1 raises, Hero calls
Total pot: $3.65 (18.25 BB) | Rake: $0.17
Results in black below:
Hero mucked A
, 9 (two pair, Aces and nines).MP1 had K
, K (full house, Kings over twos).Outcome: MP1 won $3.48
Standard? Perhaps. But the Kc is what ultimately loses me some extra bets. I actually was giving him respect for AK when I get 4-bet on the turn.
HAND #2:
Limit Hold'em, $0.20 BB (9 handed)
Preflop: Hero is Button with J
, J1 fold, UTG+1 raises, 1 fold, MP2 calls, 1 fold, CO calls, Hero 3-bets, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 caps, MP2 calls, CO calls, Hero calls, SB calls, BB calls
Flop: (24 SB) 5
, 2, 6 (6 players)SB bets, BB calls, UTG+1 raises, 1 fold, CO calls, Hero 3-bets, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 caps, CO calls, Hero calls, SB calls, BB calls
Turn: (22 BB) 4
(5 players)SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 bets, 1 fold, Hero raises, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 3-bets, Hero caps, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 calls
River: (38 BB) K
(4 players)SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 bets, Hero calls, SB calls, 1 fold
Total pot: $8.20 (41 BB) | Rake: $0.20
Results in black below:
Hero had J
, J (one pair, Jacks).SB mucked Q
, 5 (one pair, fives).UTG+1 had 7
, Q (high card, King).Outcome: Hero won $8
So it doesn't always work out bad. I'd be surprised if anyone guessed their hands here. So many bad preflop calls, bad peels and bad play in general. Yea for microstakes!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Focus and Concentration Paying Off
These are my two most recent sessions (basically 4-tabling).
+$6.04 shortly followed by +$5.07
Just going to make this a short update and keep my blog up to date with progress. Hopefully I'll have more results like these in the next few days and I can focus on improving my hourly rate by adding more tables.
+$6.04 shortly followed by +$5.07Just going to make this a short update and keep my blog up to date with progress. Hopefully I'll have more results like these in the next few days and I can focus on improving my hourly rate by adding more tables.
Tilt
The title says it all:
-$6.70
I probably should have walked away when my 3rd AA (2 in a row, one shortly after) was cracked. Will focus on next sessions.
-$6.70I probably should have walked away when my 3rd AA (2 in a row, one shortly after) was cracked. Will focus on next sessions.
Monday, November 24, 2008
My 6-Session Rollercoaster
Weeeeeeeeee...
-$14.88
+$8.38
-$6.44
+$10.98
$-2.84
+$10.42
So believe it or not I actually learned something from this. Play less tables. While moving up to these stakes does not seem like a big jump, there is definitely some better players as well. I found that my losing sessions were 10+ table sessions whereas my winning sessions were all less than 8 tables at a time. I'm going to try to stick with this, as well as add in some table selection (nothing more than looking for high % of players / flop) when I choose what tables to play. Hopefully this helps my swingy streak.
You can actually see (if you assume that my session are all relatively the same # of hands) that the losing sessions are more smooth (finer jumps on the graph) and my winning sessions are jagged (larger jumps). This is because there are less tables being played on the winning sessions, and thus less hands (resulting is fewer data points on the graph). This is actually what clued me in to perhaps why I am having those losing sessions.
-$14.88
+$8.38
-$6.44
+$10.98
$-2.84
+$10.42So believe it or not I actually learned something from this. Play less tables. While moving up to these stakes does not seem like a big jump, there is definitely some better players as well. I found that my losing sessions were 10+ table sessions whereas my winning sessions were all less than 8 tables at a time. I'm going to try to stick with this, as well as add in some table selection (nothing more than looking for high % of players / flop) when I choose what tables to play. Hopefully this helps my swingy streak.
You can actually see (if you assume that my session are all relatively the same # of hands) that the losing sessions are more smooth (finer jumps on the graph) and my winning sessions are jagged (larger jumps). This is because there are less tables being played on the winning sessions, and thus less hands (resulting is fewer data points on the graph). This is actually what clued me in to perhaps why I am having those losing sessions.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The streak is broken...
Finally had a good session at this level!
+$10.67 :D Not much else to add, hopefully more like this to come!
+$10.67 :D Not much else to add, hopefully more like this to come!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Any time statistics wants to kick in, I'm ready.
So I thought after all that previous downswing drama I would make a comeback. Not quite. Seems like everyone that peels the flop with 2 overs hits.
Flop 2nd pair? See you at the river. And they hit. They hit a little more often that I'd like. I should be getting paid off more often in these, but everyone someone flops a gutshot draw, they go runner runner flush, 6 high.
Bam! -$9.07. Make that a quad-downswing.
Flop 2nd pair? See you at the river. And they hit. They hit a little more often that I'd like. I should be getting paid off more often in these, but everyone someone flops a gutshot draw, they go runner runner flush, 6 high.
Bam! -$9.07. Make that a quad-downswing.
A Trio of Downswings
Ok, so my next few sessions of 0.10-0.20 have been horrible. I definitely feel the frustration as I'm constantly getting 2 and 4-outered on the river time and time again. I'm just going to go ahead and post the graphs to start this post off:
+$0.01 ship it.
-$8.22
-$3.29
-$1.86
Basically I feel like I'm playing great, getting my money in ahead just getting unlucky. Its unfortunate that I'm hitting this bad run near the beginning of moving up levels. At one point on the last session, I almost thought I was going to have to move back down to 0.05-0.10. Luckily I made a comeback and am essentially still rolled for 0.10-0.20 as of now.
Even with the amount of multi-tabling I'm doing, I ended up having nearly a 100BB ($20) downswing. Luckily my plan to practice good bankroll management is paying off and I'm only down about 50BB from when I started, still in a good spot to play my current limits.
I hope to post some better results next time!
+$0.01 ship it.
-$8.22
-$3.29
-$1.86Basically I feel like I'm playing great, getting my money in ahead just getting unlucky. Its unfortunate that I'm hitting this bad run near the beginning of moving up levels. At one point on the last session, I almost thought I was going to have to move back down to 0.05-0.10. Luckily I made a comeback and am essentially still rolled for 0.10-0.20 as of now.
Even with the amount of multi-tabling I'm doing, I ended up having nearly a 100BB ($20) downswing. Luckily my plan to practice good bankroll management is paying off and I'm only down about 50BB from when I started, still in a good spot to play my current limits.
I hope to post some better results next time!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
First 0.10-0.20 Session!
Ok, so super tiny session but I wanted to start something off in 0.10-0.20 :) 
Only 134 hands, I know but I need to sleep! $3.76
Only 134 hands, I know but I need to sleep! $3.76
Monday, November 17, 2008
0.05-0.10 Ending Stats
Ok, so here goes my stats:
Relevant info: I cleared 500BB before the 10K hands, but for those of you trying to get perspective, 10K hands is easily enough hands to make 500BB at 0.05-0.10. I ended up running at about 6.27 BB/100 which I feel is pretty standard for these levels. If you play tight, ABC poker, you can probably do the same, if not better. I definitely don't think I have a sample size for these stakes, but I cleared them so fast (running 6+ BB/100) that its probably not that important anyway. I mean I can count the number of times A3o no pair called me down just to 'see what I had'. Basically making $3 / hour playing these stakes. Which is crazy, but considering the stakes people will pay you off all the time here with your hands. I truly believe you don't even need to be that good of a player to win at the 0.05-0.10 LIMIT game.
Rake is huge here. Basically 50% of the $ I made is what I paid in rake. Obviously this % will go down as I move up stakes, but for now I'm just glad I'm out of this level.
Another note: You collect FPP (Frequent Player Points) for playing at Pokerstars. But since I'm playing at such low stakes, its nearly impossible to get these. At the time of this post, you need to generate 0.40 worth of rake to get 1 FPP. at 5% rake that means you need an $8 pot to get 1 FPP. Unfortuneately, the pots don't get that big at 0.05-0.10. In fact, the largest pot I saw at these stakes was for $4.27. The point I'm trying to make is that you pay a lot of rake in general, but when you don't earn FPP (giving you tournament buy-ins, cool electronics, etc) you are giving away 100% of that money. This being said, you want to move up past these micro stakes as fast as possible, so you have the opportunity to earn points and get some of that value back.
One final note (for encouragement). Notice my "Sessions Won" statistic. As well as I did at these levels, I only won $ at a particular table about 56% of the time. (Wow!) So if you are out there 1-tabling, or close to it, you can really tend to increase your variance a lot. You should only win just over half the time you sit down to play! By multi-tabling, you can reduce your variance and win not only faster, but more consistently as you play. Be prepared to larger swings if you single-table these stakes. Fortuneately, you'll tend to win more when you win and lose less when you lose, but these are the facts!
That's all I'm going to say! I'll be happy to answer any comments, but other than that I'll see you all at 0.10-0.20! :)
Relevant info: I cleared 500BB before the 10K hands, but for those of you trying to get perspective, 10K hands is easily enough hands to make 500BB at 0.05-0.10. I ended up running at about 6.27 BB/100 which I feel is pretty standard for these levels. If you play tight, ABC poker, you can probably do the same, if not better. I definitely don't think I have a sample size for these stakes, but I cleared them so fast (running 6+ BB/100) that its probably not that important anyway. I mean I can count the number of times A3o no pair called me down just to 'see what I had'. Basically making $3 / hour playing these stakes. Which is crazy, but considering the stakes people will pay you off all the time here with your hands. I truly believe you don't even need to be that good of a player to win at the 0.05-0.10 LIMIT game.Rake is huge here. Basically 50% of the $ I made is what I paid in rake. Obviously this % will go down as I move up stakes, but for now I'm just glad I'm out of this level.
Another note: You collect FPP (Frequent Player Points) for playing at Pokerstars. But since I'm playing at such low stakes, its nearly impossible to get these. At the time of this post, you need to generate 0.40 worth of rake to get 1 FPP. at 5% rake that means you need an $8 pot to get 1 FPP. Unfortuneately, the pots don't get that big at 0.05-0.10. In fact, the largest pot I saw at these stakes was for $4.27. The point I'm trying to make is that you pay a lot of rake in general, but when you don't earn FPP (giving you tournament buy-ins, cool electronics, etc) you are giving away 100% of that money. This being said, you want to move up past these micro stakes as fast as possible, so you have the opportunity to earn points and get some of that value back.
One final note (for encouragement). Notice my "Sessions Won" statistic. As well as I did at these levels, I only won $ at a particular table about 56% of the time. (Wow!) So if you are out there 1-tabling, or close to it, you can really tend to increase your variance a lot. You should only win just over half the time you sit down to play! By multi-tabling, you can reduce your variance and win not only faster, but more consistently as you play. Be prepared to larger swings if you single-table these stakes. Fortuneately, you'll tend to win more when you win and lose less when you lose, but these are the facts!
That's all I'm going to say! I'll be happy to answer any comments, but other than that I'll see you all at 0.10-0.20! :)
One Last 0.05-0.10 Session
So I decided to do one last 0.05-0.10 session for a few reasons, but mainly my bankroll was sitting around 98.50 and I wanted to make it a solid 500BB of 0.10-0.20 before I got started on that level so that I am properly rolled. Ran great, made $5.70.
Ok, so now that I'm properly rolled I'll be moving up to 0.10-0.20 for my next session. I'll still be posting my level summary for 0.05-0.10 soon, so stay tuned for that.
I've also decided that my 'Profit' updates on the right will be 'Bankroll' updates instead. This makes the %-increase smaller (and more realistic) as its properly compared against the total money for my bankroll. As time goes on, my initial investment will be a small % of my bankroll anyway, instead of the ~40% it is now.
Ok, so now that I'm properly rolled I'll be moving up to 0.10-0.20 for my next session. I'll still be posting my level summary for 0.05-0.10 soon, so stay tuned for that.
I've also decided that my 'Profit' updates on the right will be 'Bankroll' updates instead. This makes the %-increase smaller (and more realistic) as its properly compared against the total money for my bankroll. As time goes on, my initial investment will be a small % of my bankroll anyway, instead of the ~40% it is now.
2 Session Post
The first graph is from a session I forgot to post earlier, nothing crazy; made $2.89.
The next graph is from tonight. Basically got some standard beats early on, then went on a heater and decided to just sign off for the night cause I was getting very tired. A great session though, made $9.58.
This of course brings my total profit to $59.50 for 0.05-0.10 LIMIT Holdem. Since I've made over 500 Big Bets at this level, I'm going to consider it beaten. I'll be making a post about my stats at this level soon I hope (at least before my next session post) and talk a bit about moving up to the next level. 0.10-0.20 here I come! :)
The next graph is from tonight. Basically got some standard beats early on, then went on a heater and decided to just sign off for the night cause I was getting very tired. A great session though, made $9.58.
This of course brings my total profit to $59.50 for 0.05-0.10 LIMIT Holdem. Since I've made over 500 Big Bets at this level, I'm going to consider it beaten. I'll be making a post about my stats at this level soon I hope (at least before my next session post) and talk a bit about moving up to the next level. 0.10-0.20 here I come! :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)