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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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

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! :)

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.

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! :)

2 Small Sessions

Well the first graph below was from a late night (early morning) session from Wednesday. Just a small one, so I didn't bother even posting for it until now. And the next was from tonight (this morning). Nothing too exciting, basically grinded out a small profit of $2.48 (total for both sessions).

Double Session Night

So I guess I was about due for a downswing after my last few great sessions, about time variance caught up. Basically the standard stuff, people peeling second and bottom pair on both the flop and the turn, then hitting their trips on the river. Quite a few BDFDs and a few FHs over FHs (I'd flop a set, they would turn two pair and river a higher boat). Needless to say I got up and took a break from it for a little bit. Graph below.

Return to sender: $2.20.

After a break for a few hours, I hit the tables again and ran a little better. Made $5.27, netting me $3.07 for the night.A thought from my LIMIT poker sessions:
I find it kind of funny the way some people must think. I mean if you're calling a preflop raise with A6o (especially OOP, like in the blinds) then what are you hoping the flop looks like? Especially in a 2 or 3-way situation you are either badly dominated or going to win no money.

Basically even if you consider the full ring raising raise of 'some' person to be AA down to 88 and AKo down to A9o you can't really call with a hand like A6. If you hit your A, you won't get paid by any hand that you beat (hopefully). You can only lose a large pot to a higher-kicker Ace or win a small pot from a pocket pair. That's why in full ring at least (I don't claim to be knowledgeable in short-handed LHE), this is such an easy fold.

Now even if they are thinking "Well, I'm going to try and hit my ace cause he has a PP and I want to defend my BB!", then when a flop of 10 10 6 comes, why are these people seeing this to the river? "Oh look 2 pair, top kicker", and instantly they are putting their opponent on the opposite (and the only) range they beat, namely AK, AQ, ... (which means they shouln't have called with A6 in the first place!)

Of course I'm playing the micro-stakes and probably very few opponents are even thinking at all about what the other guy has. But I see this happening so frequently I had to share my thoughts. I guess this kind of stuff is what makes these stakes so easy.

Most Profitable Session Yet

So I was 17-tabling tonight. Definitely not recommended. I found it very hard to concentrate and most of my decisions were not based on anything except what I was holding and my position. Luckily I ran very well and ended up netting my most profitable session yet. Also ran at just over 20bb/100! No sample size of course, but still nice. Made $10.19, Graph below.Ship.

And for those that are into hand histories; here's the largest pot of the session:

PokerStars Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (10 handed) - PokerStars

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, 10

UTG calls, 2 folds, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, 3 folds, SB calls, Hero checks

Flop: (5 SB) 8, 10, 10 (5 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, UTG calls, 1 fold, MP2 raises, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets, UTG calls, MP2 caps, Hero calls, UTG calls

Turn: (8.5 BB) K (3 players)

Hero bets, UTG calls, MP2 raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG calls, MP2 caps, Hero calls, UTG calls

River: (20.5 BB) 6 (3 players)

Hero bets, 1 fold, MP2 raises, Hero 3-bets, MP2 caps, Hero calls

Total pot: $2.85 (28.5 BB) | Rake: $0.10

Results in white below:

Hero had K, 10 (full house, tens over Kings).

MP2 had 9, Q (one pair, tens).

Outcome: Hero won $2.75

lol microstakesaments

Sunday Sessions

Did a few sessions today, taking a break in between each, ended up +$9.12 for the day. Graph for the day is below.This brings my total profit to $31.19, and starting balance up to $70.42.

First November Session

So after posting the October Summary I decided to play a small session. Good start to this month so far! +$2.64
(Note to self: Don't blog and play at the same time (the first half of this I was writing the October summary))

As per a request in the comments:

PokerStars Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) - PokerStars

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9, J

UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, 1 fold, MP2 calls, MP3 calls, 2 folds, SB raises, Hero calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, MP2 calls, MP3 calls

Flop: (12 SB) 6, J, 3 (6 players)

SB bets, Hero calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 raises, 2 folds, SB 3-bets, Hero calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls

Turn: (12 BB) 9 (4 players)

SB bets, Hero calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls

River: (16 BB) 9 (4 players)

SB bets, Hero raises, UTG calls, 1 fold, SB calls

Total pot: $2.20 (22 BB) | Rake: $0.10

Results in white below:

SB mucked K, K (two pair, Kings and nines).

Hero had 9, J (full house, nines over Jacks).

UTG mucked 2, 4 (flush, nine high).

Outcome: Hero won $2.10