Amateur Poker Association & Tour
Poker Forum => General Discussion => Member Blogs => Topic started by: CrizzyConnor on January 21, 2010, 05:17:47 AM
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...in before "tl:dr"
So I read quite a few of the blogs on here and I finally decided I'd give it a go, knowing me I'll probably quit within a few weeks but hopefully not. The plan is that the blog will serve as a tool to keep me practicing proper bankroll management. I've never been good at that particular skill as I'm a bit of a gambler at heart. I'm the type of guy that thinks it's a good idea to play a $216 PLO MTT on Full Tilt when he's only got $500 in his roll ("even if I lose I'll still have over half my roll" I told myself then proceeded to be the bubble boy) or thinks that a good way to use the last $55 in his account is by sticking it on the one tourney and hoping for a big score ("I've got a feeling" and I did end up with $1,600 that time but it's not the way to go about staying in the black in poker).
Is poker rigged or am I just a lucky gambler? Three of my biggest scores to date have been in tournaments where my whole roll has been fully invested. This didn't really help curtail my gambling ways at first. It's like the sites were trying to keep me around, the huge fish that I am, so they gave me these little top-ups every time I was almost down and out to make me think I was good. My main problem was that I would constantly play outside of my roll and would buy in direct to $50, $100, $200 tournaments. Most of the time I would stick to some sort of BR management of around 10-12 buy ins thinking I'd be ok, I was deluded. As the time went on I learned to reign in my gambling ways slightly, just in time for a massive downswing in the second half of last year. I had a healthy roll across a few sites in the summer but by November I was almost bust on all. I say bust but I've not went totally bust because I always cash out half of any win I have over $400 so I'm getting something out of poker, in 2009 I cashed out enough money to pay for a couple of APAT weekends, clear my credit card and buy some DJ gear. It's nice to have something to show for this poker malarky other than entries on a bank statement...
So anyway I depleted my bankroll severely and was running horribly with no decent scores to speak of until the APAT online WCOAP in December when I managed to take down the PLO event and final table the main event. I think this kind of gave me back some confidence in my game, I withdrew the lot though and paid for my family's Christmas presents (tyvm). I then redeposited $50 on Pokerstars at the start of January and have since managed to spin it up to my current roll there of just over $300. I don't intend on depositing again, I never do but then I always end up being a complete degen and going through my roll in a night. This usually happens on the weekends with the help of alcohol and a chat ban. This time I really do intend on sticking to it and this is my means of doing so, nobody wants to go busto in public now do they?
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Introductions over, here's the deal. I'm going to try and stick to playing with between 50 and 100 buy ins at a given level. If I drop below 50 buy ins for the level then I drop down. If I work the bankroll up to 60 buy ins for a level above me I might take a 10 buy in shot depending on how I feel but I'll drop back down as soon as I go below 50 buy ins at that level. This could of course keep me in an endless cycle of shot taking and not getting there but I'm good with that as long as I don't go bust. My current bankroll is listed below. I intend on playing $3.30-$5.50 MTT & SNGs for now and don't plan on playing any higher until I have at least $600 in my bankroll. I think this is fairly strict and there's every possibility I could say feck it tomorrow and play outside my roll but this is my first step to trying.
20/1/2010 - Day One.
I decide to play a couple of games tonight as I"ve got no work or Uni tomorrow.
BR = $317.21
$3.30 PLO $1.5k Guaranteed - out in around the middle of field
$4.40 NLHE 180 man SNG out in the 60 or 70's
$4.40 NLHE 180 man SNG out 24th 6 from money but I play for the win not the min-cash.
$4.40 NLHE $2k Guaranteed, ends up with 2197 runners & nearly $9k prize pool. As always the payouts are very top heavy and I'm gutted when 4hrs and 58 minutes into the tourney I bust in 40th place for $23.72. Great. That's the trouble with MTT's though, you need to final table to make a decent cash. I got crippled with 45 players left when I had KQ suited on the button, guy to my right has been raising 2.5x from the cutoff four orbits in a row. He does it again and with an 18bb stack and a healthy looking pot in the middle I decide to make a stand and re-raise all in. Of course the BB wakes up with AK and calls, cutoff folds like he was always going to. Luckily BB only had 11bbs so I"m left with 7bbs and one orbit later I push from the cutoff with pocket 8's and the small blind has pocket Kings. FML.
So all in all, 5hrs playing and $7.22 profit to show for it. I already want to just forget this whole bankroll thing and play some $20-50 games. lol. This would be the shortest blog in history if I done that. That's me for tonight though.
BR @ end of session $324.43
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All the best with this Chris look forward to reading more.
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Bloody Hell - that first post is me FML ;D ;D ;D
Great stuff don"t neglect it
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yep that also sounds the mirror image of me. i once stuck half my bankroll on a $250 super turbo knockout tournament, thinking i was gonna knock out one of the full tilt pro"s and get my money back!
should really do a similar thing! good luck!
oh and a tip, try the 18 man sng"s on pokerstars and multi table, they are sooooo soft!
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Is poker rigged or am I just a lucky gambler? Three of my biggest scores to date have been in tournaments where my whole roll has been fully invested.
Interesting point. The general consensus is that you don"t play as well if you are playing with scared money..... I"ve often wondered if that really applies to tournaments, and if in fact the opposite might be true. Like you, I have often "taken a punt" with a huge chunk of bankroll, and generally found that I have played much much better.
Good first blog entry - keep it coming.
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tl;dr
ok ok I did - Good read all round!! U gna stick with mtts or u play ne cash?
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good luck, stick with it ftw
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Hi my name is "Chris" and i am a "Degenerate Gambler"
Nice post Chris, you"ve made the break, also being very open and honest. Big congrats on self assesment, and making the adjustsments to suit. I am currently trying to find a format towards making a more steady profit/progress instead of win, big win, win then who cares attitude to a downward spiral of los lose lose, oh well it wasn"t my money really cavalier type of attitude.
You say play the night for ~$7 profit, what"s the point?
You also went for the win and not itm beforehand?
Well sometimes, especially with a sm stk, you may be better off accepting to be itm. Then your next tourney could be seen as free rolling, also you would not be going into your 4th trny of the night thinking, shiiiiiiiit?
With regards to small profit, that"s a lot better than losing ~$17, and therefore tonight, all your entries could be seen as freerolls? Just a thought, i am not saying never go for the win.
Your headline post and point is B/roll Management, so yes sometimes take the small amounts and see how you fayre at the end of the month/months. Don"tlook at every tourny as the, "Big One" as a leg upto higher stakes, too soon for your own good.
Another question, if you do find yourself winning at a particular stake, WHY? would you want to throw 1/2 your roll away on a big tourney. That 1/2 may have taken you 2 months to acquire. Are you trying to get rich quick or impress yourself or others with a big win? Carry on at your level, and after 10 months, your roll maybe big enough to take a shot at the big trny for only 5 or 10% of your roll, whereas now you can carry on after a heavy one off loss with a good roll behind you. Who knows, with it only being 5/10% of roll you may play really well because it"s not scared money and end up with that big win to add to your roll or spend as you wish, and still have your B/roll in good order.
Wow sorry about that, gone off on one, me thinks this is self analasys/counselling. Anyway good luck and stick with it, You have addressed it, now give it a chance. Look longterm. :)
Cheers Paul
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Wow sorry about that, gone off on one
standard ;D
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What does this mean? Apologies for my naivety!
tl;dr
Thanks
Jon
ok ok I did - Good read all round!! U gna stick with mtts or u play ne cash?
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too long;didn"t read ;D
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Yeah good luck chris, I guess im trying something similar for maybe the 3rd time! lol
But I will stick to it, started solid for the year and decided to play heads up cash 25:50 and lost 3 buyins ooops but the guy i played ran good, i felt they where pretty poor., nice chunk of roll gone, I manged to get a good score at 6 max to pay back my debt.
So few days on I play they same guy heads up and I got schooled oooops! 3 buy ins gone.
Then the gambler kicked in I put £100 on ladbrokes, time to bet and blackjack it! withdrew £300, 10 min later. woop!
Stupid but got luck so this is where I stand now. I challenge you to a friendly battle of who can get up more in there rolls and try make us stick to a plan! we can have a simple $20 wadger or somthing using Holdem manager to track out stats?? We no each other well enough for no fowel play!!
U up for it??
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So I never really had time to play much tonight as I had a bunch of other things I had to take care of.
I did manage to squeeze in 45 mins right there before I head to bed:
BR = $324.43
So I played & failed to cash in three turbos:
$3.25 NLHE 45-man SNG
$3.25 NLHE 45-man SNG
$3.40 NLHE 18-man SNG
I had one table of PLO 5 cash running at the same time and made $2.32 profit there. I also got $7.61 of my reload bonus which I found weird as I thought it was released in $10 increments but oh well. Down for the night due to the three SNGs but the bonus brought me back up to a slight profit of three cents! lol.
BR @ end of session = $324.46
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if you play 5 at a time, you only need to win one to break even, so always play for the win, it makes so much difference.
Another tip, when you get a big hand early, overplay the hell out of it.... the idiots just can"t fold top pair etc.
This has inspired me to do a similar thing so i might just see you at the tables!
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The Downslide.
So I decided to play some poker late last night and this is how it went:
BR = $324.46
$5.50 NLHE Turbo Satellite to the Sunday Warm Up - out 15th/45
$5.50 NLHE 360 Cap - out in 52nd QQ vs. KK
4x $4.40 180-man SNGs - I failed to cash in a single one, my exits inc - QQ vs. A4 all-in pre-flop (flop 2, 3, 5), set over set and a hero call that was good until he connected on the river. FML.
$4.40 NLHE 8-max - 1,000 Cap - Out in 732nd. Big pot pre-flop and after my c-bet is re-raised I 3-bet all in on a two heart board with AK hearts. The guy hero calls with three over cards on the board to his pocket 2's and I can't hit an Ace, King or Heart.
$3.30 NLHE 1r1a (+ $3 rebuy & $3 add-on) - 1,300 runners & 144 paid. Out in 158th. I'm in the cutoff with AT suited and 10bbs. There's one limper & the BB has just over 10bbs too, I decide to push to try take the pot right there because the limper is a serial weak limper and the BB is folding almost anything with his stack to try creep into the money but he's got 66 and calls, limper folds and I brick. Maybe this is a case where I should have just tried to hold out for the money considering it was my last tournament of the night and would"ve got back $15 of my losses *Shrugs*.
Anyway, that about sums up my tournaments for tonight. I couldn't hit anything when I was flipping and when I was ahead I couldn't stay ahead. I could blame it on playing after drinking but I genuinely feel like I played ok and just couldn't connect.
I also played 2x 5PLO tables for about 45 mins - ended the session up $4.03 but that was clawed back from $6 down so I'm happy, although I was up by a few more dollars than I finished at one point. It"s only place I posted any profit for the night so I can"t grumble :D
BR @ end of session = $286.19
My losses for today would normally only cover an average of one and a half tournaments at my 2009 stakes and would've be considered a good day in the past but this loss genuinely hurt as much as a -$200 day would've before. I guess the bankroll management is making me start to value the money a lot more and look at it as buy ins instead of a figure, which I think is about only positive thing I can take from last nights session.
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Tonight never went much better, although I wasn"t really paying attention as I was doing work related stuff online while these were mostly just running in the background. Ah I"m sure it"ll pick back up soon :D Countdown to busto?
BR = $286.19
$1.10 NLHE - out 1583rd from 6240 runners. Standard stuff.
$1.10 NLHE - out 1224th from 4791 runners. And again, pretty standard.
$5.50 6-max NLHE - 900th from 2045 runners. I have 60bbs and madman is going in every hand. He's down to 10bbs and there's a limper before his inevitable push. I have 66 in BB. I'm willing to flip with the guy as his range is any two cards. So I re-pop it to 25bbs to isolate and get the limper away. Limper then pushes over top of my raise for an extra 12bbs. I'm expecting to be dominated with limped Aces or Kings but call anyway. Madman shows f**k all in a box and limper turns over KJ offsuit and goes on to hit a K on the river. Two hands later I get pocket Aces and raise x3, two callers. K45 board. One of the callers from the blinds bets, I'm all in, guy behind me folds and the blind calls all in with 67 and the 8 comes on the turn. Seriously. I think I need a couple of days away from tournament poker. Although I know that'll only last until tomorrow night when I'm bored again.
Lot of 50p's going on in this blog.
If I keep running like this I'll be bust before the month's out..
Maybe I should stick it all on next weeks Sunday Million, i"m due some run good ;)
BR @ end of session $278.49
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I have a quick question for you lot. I don't know if anyone is still reading this because nobody likes hearing someone's constant bad beat stories which is all I seem to have in the last few days. If there is anybody out there who has read my whining, do you think this last run of tournaments is just standard stuff? Am I blowing it out of proportion because it's happening to me or is it as sick as I think? I know you don't have the full picture as I've only detailed exit hands mostly but the exits feel like they've been brutal near on every time and come out of nowhere when I"m cruising along quite nicely. This is not quite like the run I went on in July-November when I"d go on long non-cashing streaks (and when I would cash it wouldn't be for anything significant) but it's getting there. I can deal with going on long non-cashing streaks as it"s pretty standard in MTTs and only putting in volume really rides it out but it"s the manner in which I"m going out that gets to me.
I seem to have always been able to go deep in 1-2k runner tournaments but when there"s 3,4,5 tables left and before the decent money kicks in I always end up on the wrong side of variance. Anybody got an idea of when it"s due to swing this way? lol. Not sure where to go from here, whether to move to SNGs where the money is more regular or what, I don't really get the same rush cashing in a SNG as I do going deep in a MTT which is what keeps me playing them I think.
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I am reading (and enjoying it immensly, not because of your beats by the way ) however I am probably not one to offer any in depth advice ;D ;D ;D
It just seems to be of those times when the whole world and his dog is against you and you can seem to hit nothing and every race is being battered. Concentrating on you bankroll is commendable and keep at it. Now for the other little management thingy - tilt/bad beat management ::)
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I am reading (and enjoying it immensly, not because of your beats by the way ) however I am probably not one to offer any in depth advice ;D ;D ;D
It just seems to be of those times when the whole world and his dog is against you and you can seem to hit nothing and every race is being battered. Concentrating on you bankroll is commendable and keep at it. Now for the other little management thingy - tilt/bad beat management ::)
Lol, yeah I guess so. I have actually never had a rage like I did earlier. After shouting "no jack" about 20 times in the space of 10 seconds I just blew up like the hulk when it hit. Good job nobody else was in the building with me :D ;D
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In the last two live tourneys I have played, I have had my aces cracked on the final table, in this weekends APAT event ( in which I played like a donkey!) I had my kings flattened by aces, and last night on the FT of a small MTT I had AK outdrawn by QJ.
So getting your money in with the best of it is not always profitable! The thing is and it has been said before in this forum, you always remember the beats, but the suck outs and out draws fade away as just part of the game.
I have to say after the 2 FTs and losing with Aces, I was crushed, but I am now becoming alot more philosophical about the beats, I think you have to if you are going to remain sane!!
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Yeah you"re right Mikey. I just played a quick turbo tournament before going to bed for a few hours and I ran good for a change, until the end when my push with 88 got very loosely called by QJ considering my table image until then but oh well it was a $8.80 turbo donkament so I don"t mind as much. I probably wont remember that run good in a few days but I like moaning anyway :D
I finished 22nd out of 500 runners for $30 which puts me in profit for the first session in days, it was a very short session though :D I"m getting out while the going"s good. Time for bed. I hate the night shift.
BR @ end of session $277.98
EDIT: I feel a bit more peeved off at finishing 22nd when the guy who knocked me out donked off my chips within the five hands that followed and went out in 19th. Then I looked him up on Sharkscope and he was -$27k with a straight line from one corner to the other, wish I did that before pushing into his BB. Oh well, onwards and upwards.
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Decided to play a quick hour of cash and a dollar tournament before bed tonight, I never dented the dollar tournament but had profit in the cash games. I was playing two tables of PLO2 and ended +$2.30 in those and one table of PLO5 and ended +$6.92 in that, wish I had more time to play as I had a position on a player who would juice every single pot in the PLO5 game and was perfect to play with, he"s on my search list for some future games hopefully ;D
BR @ end of session $286.10
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So I ended up jumping back on the two tables this guy was playing at for an extra 15 minutes after I wrote the last update and left with another buy in and the BR @ $291.37. This guy was absolutely great for the game, I wasn"t always directly getting my chips from him a lot of the time as the rest of the table was getting annoyed with him winning pots with trash and they all seemed to open up their ranges to any two cards. I did the oppossite and just nitted up. He was juicing EVERY pot pre-flop potting the minute it came to him EVERY time. It was great when you hit and won, when you lost it was a bigger loss too but I"m willing to take that risk. The other great thing was despite juicing pre-flop the tables we happened to be on were quite passive post-flop which helped scoop up some extra chips. This guy was on again today and I"m hoping he"s a regular around here. I would be willing to play in any game this guy is juicing with my current roll upto $0.25/0.50. He seems to like the same stakes though as he"s playing them again today which is probably good for my bankroll management :D
I just had a quick couple of questions for any of you cash game players out there who may be reading. I"m not much of a cash game player and have always mainly played MTT"s but I want to start throwing some cash game sessions into the mix. My problem with cash games is I never know when to quit mainly. It"s going to be PLO cash I"m playing which is swingy by nature, with this in mind and my current bankroll (buying in for 100bbs deep @ $5 a time) is there a general rule as far as the # of buy ins you should quit at when you"re down as a stop-loss? The same question when you"re ahead, is there ever a time you should quit while ahead if you still feel good about playing, or just play until you feel you"re not playing optimally? My main question is the stop loss because when I"m down in a game that I think is juicy and I can win from in the long term, even if I"m running horribly in the session and losing buy in after buy in getting outdrawn with trash I"ll stay around which is probably not good. Any advice anyone may have is appreciated.
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He was juicing EVERY pot pre-flop potting the minute it came to him EVERY time.
I was not on that table - honest ::) ::)
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He was juicing EVERY pot pre-flop potting the minute it came to him EVERY time.
I was not on that table - honest ::) ::)
You"d be more than welcome to juice them up some more ;) i"m currently up another $12 in the cash games with him, took a quick break for dinner but back on for a little bit, on one of his tables now and on the list for another two... Probably just jinxed myself though, cue the 10 buy in downswing :D
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There"s one buy in away already. A4A6 double suited - I pot, the juicer re-pots as expected. One flat caller and I decide to re-pot again to try get the pot heads up with juicers atc but get two flat calls. Board runs 357 rainbow. IT"S A BINGO!!! Or not. The guy who flat called twice out of position pushes and I snap call. He has aces too with a 5 and a 9. Two spades in his hand too and the turn and river are of course runner runner spade...
EDIT: Got it back with interest across three seperate medium sized pots, right no more updates until end of session.
/Jinx
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BR @ start of session $291.37
-$5.50 Poker Player game
+$18.00 exactly in PLO5
I was up another $4 at one point in the cash game until a hand just before I ended session,
happy with positive numbers on the roll anyway and finally getting back over the $300 mark.
BR @ end of session $303.87
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Had to take a few days off to finish up some work and uni stuff, I"m also entertaining a mate who"s over from Canada for the next week so probably very little poker if any until Saturday or Sunday. Actually enjoying the little break though.
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First game back today, just fancied one-tabling a MTT while watching the football:
$11 NLHE - 1,842 runners. I exit in 133rd place for $23.94 - KK vs. AK (a.i.p.f), Ace on turn *sigh*
BR @ end of session $316.81
Might play some more later.
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Feeling the urge to play something big tonight to subside the boredom.
The $215 PLO game on Stars at 7pm is calling my name & I"ve got nothing to do between now and 11pm.
Hmmmm, maybe I should resist though - it"s those kind of urges that got me here in the first place :D
I have a feeling I may stray slightly from the bankroll management tonight and play something a little bigger later on. Probably just a one off game in the $22-$55 range as a treat to myself for sticking with it so far (or does that kinda defeat the point? :D *shrugs*). I was thinking if I play a $22 and one-table it rather than playing 4 $5 tables i"d have the same outlay. Ah we"ll see what happens, maybe i"ll just go for a pint...
Countdown to busto anyone?
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Don"t be a fool. You"re doing well so far. Ignore the urges and keep at what you"re doing.
My recommendation? Go for a pint.
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Don"t be a fool. You"re doing well so far. Ignore the urges and keep at what you"re doing.
My recommendation? Go for a pint.
I"m pretty skint after my mate from Canada being here all week and I"ve to take the missus to a late showing at the cinema tonight so I skipped going to the pub. I have however reg"d for a game outwith my bankroll but I held off the urges to play TOO big and am one tabling a $22 game right now. It"s a one-off just because I cashed in a game earlier and i"d normally have 4 $5 games going which is the same outlay. Depending how long I last in this I may play some 5PLO afterwards but other than that i"m sticking with one-tabling this at the moment. I"m trying hard to justify this aren"t I? :D
Cliffs:
[ ] I"m good at bankroll management
[ x ] I kept it slightly under control
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I got off to a good start and won a good few pots to get upto 4.5k but about 5 mins before the first break I lost most of that with top two pair vs a set. Down to 1.4k with antes and blinds at 10/50/100... :(
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Bit of a rollercoaster:
Got back upto 3K squeezing out the SB, then doubled up to 6.5k with AK vs AJ.
Then lost 5k straight away with KK vs AA on 424 board.
1.5k > 3K again with AK vs 22
3k > busto with AQ vs KQ a.i.p.f --- board = AT4, turn = J.
Out 589th from 1,257 runners
BR @ end of session $294.81
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Ok so I played a little more. Decided to load up one table of 25PLO for around an hour to see the quality of the play at that level. The quality wasn"t much different except for being a little tighter, not massively different though. I think money could be made if I was 4-tabling. Don"t have the b/roll for it quite yet, soon I hope :D I left the table +$6.80 which wasn"t great but still profit, my end total for the session was $290.81
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Fell off the wagon...
Ok so I decide to play today but I don't know why as I wasn't in the right frame of mind for it. I really couldn't be bothered grinding out $4 & $5 games so fired up a bunch of games outside my roll and failed to cash in any of them, although a series of bad beats lead to my demise in the $33 game when I was going quite well up until then. So I played and failed to cash in the following MTTs:
$8.80 PLO
$11 PLO
$33 NLHE
$11 NLHE
25PLO Cash - I was up $10 at one point but ended -$2.55
I felt myself losing concentration throughout the session, I was loading up games in one of those robot moods - just clicking games open and not really wanting to play but not realising it until 3 seconds after the game's started then when I inevitably crash out clicking another one straight away before realising yet again I don't actually want to be playing. After crashing out of my final tourney and being slightly down in the cash game but realising I shouldn't be playing I managed to finally hit that little x on the top right hand corner. Looking at the totals for the day I wish I could be more restrained all the time and realise that if I can't be bothered grinding games within my roll then I should see this as a sign that I shouldn't be playing at all.
BR @ end of session $224.46
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My boiler has broke down so while waiting on the guy to come fix it I decided to fire up a couple of games of poker:
$5.50 Rebuy NLHE - I decided to rebuy straight away and even though I said pre-tournament I was only playing with this investment I did double-rebuy about 30 mins in after being sucked out on. Plus I took the add-on so total investment was $25.50
Anyway I finished 685th from 1,375 runners. AQ vs. 44 on AQ4 board. Two cards to a flush on board and the guy had been playing flush draws like a maniac on previous hands so I thought it was possible he was chasing again or even AK. He was one of those guys with mega-stacks after hitting every draw but I thought I'd go with it anyway, he had 44 and I missed the other A&Q's to boat up.
$11 PLO tournament - finished 1st from 36 players for $136. I overcame a 4:1 chip deficit heads up and it was a long HU match. I was up against a fairly aggressive opponent and decided to keep pots small unless I had something and not go crazy with draws etc. I finally got level in chips then slowly grinded him down before he made some horrendous calls only to suck out on me and get back to level. I just stayed patient kept playing my game and grinded him down until it was 4:1 in my favour then I won the final hand with AJQ9 double suited vs. 9657. GG.
BR @ end of session $323.96
(http://lolfed.com/wp-content/uploads/borat-very-nice.jpg)
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I've played a few games since the last entry that I haven't wrote here, a lot of small SNGs when I was at work the other night at the end of the shift and I decided to load up like 8 of them and open shove every time. Done this for about 20 mins until I shook myself and was like "wtf are you doing?" and closed the session. That was a bit retarded but onwards and upwards. My bankroll after this was standing at $295.16 :(
So I'm back at work on the night shift again tonight and I decided to play some poker. I had decided the other day that I was going to play the mini-million tourney on stars even though it wasn't really within my bankroll guidelines. As you've probably noticed, I've slowly started to lose sight of this bankroll malarky. It's just been hard to motivate myself to play $4 games and stay within my bankroll, yes I'm playing to win money but I'm also playing for enjoyment and as stupid as it sounds - I'd rather sit for 4 hours and bubble a $55 tourney than spend the same time to min-cash in a $4 tourney. I am trying to change though but it's a long and hard process it would seem. Anyway back to the monthly million, so I log on to play and notice it's got over 30k runners and decide to give it a miss and play the $55 Daily Eighty Grand Sunday Special ($200k Guaranteed). There ended up being nearly 6k runners in this one, just over three and a half hours later I finish in 565th place for $117.48 (one ladder up from a min-cash). I feel I should've gone deeper but the cards just fell wrong at the wrong times but that's poker eh.
So after this the bankroll is at $357.64.
I might play another game before the shift is over (finish at 6am :"(), we'll see what happens.
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So I played another game. An $11 NLHE MTT with 3,065 runners, I finish 4hrs 10mins later in 155th place for $36.78. Not great but better than a loss. My own fault really, I was hovering around 15-20bbs constantly and had been pushing all in on this big stacks raises quite a lot to stay afloat. I finally ran out of luck when I pushed A5 suited into his TT, flop gave me two to a flush but the other spade or the ace failed to materialise, GG.
That"s me for tonight, clocking off at 6am so no point playing anything else and pretty tired.
Decent enough night overall. Must learn to go deeper!
BR @ end of session $383.42
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Yes indeed, you read correctly - No-Limit Omahahahahaha.
Just played a $22 NL Omaha MTT (500 cap - $2k Guaranteed) on Stars. Once again it"s outside my bankroll but that issue was addressed in a previous post, lol. This tournament though, how juicy is this - the combination of bad Omaha players and it being No-Limit is just amazing. I would play this tournament at any stake (provided the quality was the same), the money was going in like nobody"s business - the all-in value bet was commonplace in my game and got paid off left right and centre. I was cruising along quite comfortably until my set and flush draw was beaten by a bigger flush draw. I was still in ok position, among the upper middle of the pack, when my final hand was dealt:
My cards = 5h 6s 7s 9h
Two limpers before me and every raise is getting called or re-raised so I decide to limp along and there"s another limper from button. Five players to the flop which is pretty much bingo for me:
4d 5s 8s
So I have a made straight, re-draw to bigger straight including an open-ended straight flush draw. The three before me check and I bet half-pot, the button re-raises and it folds back to me. I"m thinking "it"s a bingo"; he"s either got the straight same as me in which case I have open-ended straight flush draw to take it, an A or K high flush draw in which case I have two of his outs in my hand and two others dead with my straight flush draw or possibly a set which could make a house but I insta-push thinking I"ll be back up among the big stacks... He insta-double-fist-pump-snap-calls with...
ad qh 4c 5c
He"s dead to another four or five, of which I have one in my hand and another player after the hand said he had one too, but of course you know the idiot is paid off and hits his two outer on the turn and the river makes me a flush but not a straight flush to re-steal :( I"m out in 75th/180, way off money (top 18) but I still think if I won this hand I was finishing in the money at least.
I"m so annoyed as I think I would"ve romped it after winning that pot but oh well, it"s idiots like that which make this game so profitable in my eyes. I"ll definitely be playing this game anytime i"m on and it"s running! I"ve set myself a goal in my head to final table this exact tournament within the next two weeks, let"s see if I can do it - or maybe lose my bankroll in the process :D
BR @ end of session = $361.42
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So I was playing another PLO tournament last night, just a $3 game. There was 839 runners and I go deep in it, the field is horrible except one or two players. So I had just recently lost a pot for half my stack and go from a comfortable 25bbs to 12bbs, I"m still really comfortable playing with this stack at PLO as there"s no antes coming off and you can usually wait for hands or see flops for 1bb etc then start applying pressure once at 7-8bbs by committing yourself pre-flop or punishing limped pots. So anyway I have 12bbs and there are 34 players remaining, I am 25th in chips and all of a sudden the tournament pauses. It doesn"t shut down like tournaments have in the past when they"ve ****ed up, it just pauses and we can still talk in chatbox etc. Other tournaments are still running alright and the site hasn"t crashed. We try calling a moderator and e-mailing support who then proceed to wait 45 mins to reply, their reply is basically "we are aware of the problem, please be patient". Be paitient FFS, we"ve been waiting 45 mins with no reply. Before this reply, after about 15 mins, a few guys in the tournament start saying let"s deal but even though I was only 25th in chips I refuse as I wanted to play on and would"ve rather gone out next than dealt 34-handed. However, after an hour I"ve got to get to bed and have finished up everything else I was doing online so I give in and leave.
So today I get an e-mail from stars saying the tournament was cancelled and we would all be paid the current payout ($11) and the rest of prizepool would be divided based on chipcounts. I end up with $34.25 which some might say is 10 times my buy in and I should be happy but I"m seriously pissed off. Like I said already, I had just lost half my stack, I realise chipcounts is how they do it but an equal share split would"ve been over $60 and first was $500. I honestly would"ve rather played on and went out next for $11. This is twice in the space of three months that this has happened to me on Stars with only a few tables left out of a lot of runners (last time it was 1,200 and at 3 tables). Both times I have just lost a big pot as the tournament has ****ed up, thus reducing my share based on chipcount split. In profit for the session but not happy at all.
/ rant.
BR @ end of session = $392.37
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Sucks - I think stars have had a few probs like this in the past. Regardless - Id b relatively happy with it. 12x in PLO is still not comfortable regardless of the level of play. If you enter the payout structure into an ICM calc, then Im pretty sure u got a great deal, and poker is really about maximising profit in these situations, so theoretically...mission accomplished :)
Now u have 11 buy-ins to go and grind out the 500 for first (or as the case may be, 1 shot at a bigger game ;) )
wp nh for beating the system as far as icm goes
gl gl for running it up further
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Yeah I totally get all that but i"d have still rathered play on and go out next than get the $34.25 but oh well. The main anger was the timing of it happening because I would"ve got more money literally just before it happened when I lost that pot plus there was a couple of players with 2-5bbs. No point dwelling though, I"ve got my rant out - onwards and upwards, hopefully the next one will be better.
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Now u have 11 buy-ins to go and grind out the 500 for first (or as the case may be, 1 shot at a bigger game ;) )
More than likely the latter :D
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So I played a bunch of games last night while waiting for the APAT announcement. I never kept a close track on which games I played due to being more occuppied with following the APAT updates. So anyway my bankroll was $392.37 at the start of the session but by the time I had my final three games loaded it was down to $295 :o My last three games were two $22 F40 SNGs and one $11 F40 SNG. I crashed out of the $11 fairly early when my QQ vs 77 a.i.p.f got outdrawn when the 7"s completed a 4 card straight that appeared on the board. I finished just before the final table in one of the $22 games (only 6 paid though so not exactly great).
In the final $22 game though I made the final table as chipleader. I was running over the table and with 5 left my closest competitor only had around 40% of my stack. Cue a string of cards for me to call shortstacks all ins (JJ, 99, AK, AQ) and all 4 doubled up the shortstacks. One guy went out but with 4 left we were all evens again. I finally managed to grind it to heads up against a guy who had been going all in every hand since 3-handed. I fold first 3 hands heads up to his all-ins with complete trash then have to make a stand and call with my next hand (KQ) but he has Ax and it holds. GG. It was good for +$180 though so the bankroll is now up to a healthy $475.87.
I"ve been playing outside my roll for a few days now so when I inevitably crash I"ll crash hard so I could be back down to nothing in no time :D It"s looking healthy at the moment though so I"ll enjoy it while it lasts!
Next stop $1k or busto...
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Next stop $1k or busto...
Are u setting odds?
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Next stop $1k or busto...
Are u setting odds?
On which one :D if it"s on the latter then I think it"s odds on...
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Not been playing as much on Stars this week. I"ve played a few games but have became lazy and started just noting my roll at start of session and end of session so nothing to really report other than the roll is down to $416.07, I"m sure i"ll get it back up soon and finally get over that $500 mark. That"s the plan anyway.
I"ve played a couple of satellites this week to the APAT Swansea and Sky Poker tour in Glasgow. I won a seat for the SPT at first attempt last night then won a seat to APAT Swansea tonight. I rode my luck in the APAT sat but I"m not complaining :D
Looking forward to a bit of live poker again.
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The motivation"s still lacking a little so not been playing too much and when I do play i"m still playing well outside my bankroll rules. I played the APAT online nationals with no sucess. I have played the odd game on stars and the bankroll"s back up a little to $481.48 thanks to a small cash in the $55 Nightly Seventy Grand. I hoped to go deeper but I did get to play with Chris Moneymaker for a lot of the tournament which was quite cool as he was talking away to us all and I nearly felted for him when he open pushed three times in a row, on the third time I was in the SB with A6 suited and decided to re-push to isolate only to find myself up against his AJ suited, I did hit a 6 on flop but he hit another two clubs to make his flush and stayed alive then went on a massive heater and stacked up. I still cruised comfortably into the money then after the bubble burst blew up and spewed off vs a complete donktard but oh well, there"s always next time...
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Keep the faith - who said that - oh I did ;D
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Keep the faith - who said that - oh I did ;D
lol, cheers. I played a couple of games tonight after work. Was down to $436 until I just over min-cashed in a $8 PLO tourney for just over $15 then I was the final table bubble boy in a $8 NLHE 500-cap game, was good for $55 I"m not too bothered about bubbling as I was playing for the win and the payout was fairly flat up until 5th. I decided to tangle with the big stack and when I already had a super-agro image it probably wasn"t the best idea to play a draw hard vs him but oh well, play ftw not for the ladder. That cash has finally took me over the $500 mark as the account is up to $505.28, now when am I going to hit that $1k?
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Not been playing on Stars really. Bored with MTTs at the moment, im sure the urge will come back soon. I sold my seat for Swansea as couldn"t make it anymore, I got $120 put into my Full Tilt account for it and have been playing PLO cash with it. Regular 6-max games at $0.05/0.10-$0.10/0.25 and also Rush PLO games from $0.05/0.10-$0.25/0.50 - bankroll management, what"s that? :D
It"s been swingy to say the least, i"ve been up and down like a yo-yo. I"m currently at $179.99 but $20 of that is through part of a bonus i"ve released so really only $39.99 up in real profit. I was up another $35 but had a 3.5 buy in downswing in the space of 5 mins, that"s PLO though... and I love it. Will see how this goes, think i"ll be playing mostly here for the next wee while, or until i"m bust and have to go back to Stars with my tail between my legs ;D
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Played an hour of Omaha on Full Tilt tonight and the roll over there is up to $192.15, I think i"m going to try and stick with $0.05/0.10 for as long as I can restrain myself, 19 buy-ins isn"t great especially for PLO but it"s better than nothing and I can"t really bring myself to play lower.
The stars roll is also down to around $450 because I played a NLHE tourney and an Omaha rebuy but my mind was more on the cash games at the time. Thinking I might try some cash again at Stars and just go for broke with my roll taking a shot at $0.10/0.25, at 18 buy-ins it"s around the same as my Full Tilt roll just for a higher level. I"ll see how I feel though, I never actually know what I"m going to play until I fire up the tables. Wanting to clear the bonus at Full Tilt is keeping me there at the moment but I might give stars cash a go, no rakeback is only thing that puts me off cash games there because I don"t put in enough volume for the VIP programme to be worthwhile to me.
Onwards and upwards... hopefully :D
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Still been playing a couple of hands of PLO when I can fit them in over on Full Tilt. The roll hasn"t increased tremendously but I had a 3 buy-in drop within the first 10 mins of my session tonight and still managed to end up 1 buy in to the good by the end of my 80 minute session. I have also released another $10 of my bonus and had a small win yesterday too. All in all the roll is now upto $220.04. Played a couple of tournies over on stars and dropped around $20 but made back near enough the exact same at 25PLO so I"m still at $450 over there. The PLO cash is bringing back my enjoyment of the game, not only because I"m winning but because it"s cash I can quit the minute I realise i"m not playing my A-Game which has been helpful. The aim is to stick with 10PLO on Full Tilt for a good while, here"s hoping I can stick to it and increase my bankroll along the way.
Edit: I couldn"t sleep (the joys of a nightshift routine) so decided to play a couple of tables of 25PLO on Pokerstars there, lost $10 on my first hand but then proceeded to grind out 2 buy-ins over the next 45 mins and got the roll over there back upto $492.69 ;D
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So I had a bad weekend at the tables. I say bad weekend, I only actually ended up two buy ins down from my high point but it was still a brutal weekend. A marathon six hour PLO 25 session on Sunday morning across both Full Tilt and Pokerstars was the root of the evil...
I started on Stars where I am by no means properly rolled but i"d say adequately rolled for a shot at 25PLO at around 20 buy-ins. I don"t want to sound like I think i"m great because i"m no where near being good never mind great but I think I"m definitely ahead of 75% of the competition at the PLO25 tables there. I lost a couple of buy-ins straight away but I was happy to strike down most big pots I lost to variance and I was more than happy to stay in the game. I ended up playing for two and a half hours at Pokerstars and endured some brutal beats but I did eventually manage to end the session as only a slight loser. I was at $492.69 at the start of the session and ended the weekend on $499.54 but I released a $10 stellar rewards bonus during the session so I was actually $3.15 down.
Over on Full Tilt I had got the roll to a high point of around $245 after a small PLO10 session on Friday and $11 rakeback. That was until I finished my Stars session, I noticed happy hour was running on Full Tilt and decided to play some there to work off some more of my bonus and try make some more at the tables obviously. I had been playing PLO25 at stars and wasn"t in the mood to drop to PLO10 despite the fact my Full Tilt roll didn"t even have 10 buy-ins for the level?!?! So I fired up three tables of PLO25 :-\ Again the standard of play wasn"t great although not as horrible as the Stars game, the stars game seemed to have on average three fish per table when I played where as on Full Tilt you were lucky to have two at any one time and the rest were solid. Maybe I should"ve stuck to 10PLO, lol. I ended up finishing a three hour session there @ $196.33. I was down nearly three buy-ins but won a rare pot towards the end of the session to get it back up. This session was even more brutal than the Stars session, on the very rare occassion I was dealt a decent starting hand I would either completely brick on the flop or get no action pre never mind post-flop?!?! I did manage to work off another $10 of my bonus near enough (only 2ftps until it"s released), but erm I"d rather not have that and have my $50 back please :D
Being two buy-ins down isn"t a horribly bad session by any means but the sheer length of the session and how the cards were falling really drained me at the time. However I don"t feel so bad about it today. It"s two buy-ins, five at my usual level on Full Tilt which stings a little more but I"m sure I can work it back up over the next week or two. At least I hope so :D
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What a morning. I had an early night last night then ended up waking at around 5am this morning and couldn"t get back to sleep. After breakfast I decided i"d fire up the tables for an hour and now I wish I could"ve just got back to sleep earlier. Since I posted my last blog I played a 40 minute session yesterday and was one buy in to the good and the roll was sitting just above $525. After todays session I am over four buy ins down and the bankroll is a much less healthy $410.34.
PLEASE have a look at these hands to witness for yourself. And notice the one player who was the bain of my life and should have been super profitable to play against but wound up getting there EVERY time:
Hand 1 vs Villain (ILMOSTRO8): http://www.pokerhand.org/?5295328
Now I don"t mind getting outdrawn here to someone with multiple draws or even a nut draw but c"mon, seriously?!?!
Hand 2 vs Villain (ILMOSTRO8): http://www.pokerhand.org/?5295329
Now I got away from this one as I had knowingly put my hand face up pre and had to be beat.
Hand 3 vs Villain (ILMOSTRO8): http://www.pokerhand.org/?5295330
This one was the nail in the coffin that let me know I had to quit. I sat out for 5 mins and contemplated playing on vs this idiot as the luck surely couldn"t keep running in his favour but I think I was so tilted that even though I believe it would"ve been profitable to stay in the game with him normally it was probably best to get out before the damage got even worse.
Hand 2 isn"t particularly sick but hand 1 & 3 were crazy and for this to happen all in the space of one hour tilted the f**k out of me. I"ve had 15 mins or so to calm down while writing this and I guess that"s PLO, the game can"t always go in my favour. I can"t see what I could"ve done to get away from the two major hands vs this player, I hope i"m not just another deluded poker player and that I can beat this game in the long run. Only time will tell - join me next time for another episode of deluded whiney b*stard. Thank you please.
Now I"m going to do this:
(http://www.retirementblog.co.uk/images/02-ronaldo-crying.JPG)
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Hands like No1 just make me want to stick my fist through the monitor, you did pretty much eveything right, he gambled and got lucky.
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This is exactly where the £ is to be made in low stakes PLO. Unfortunately - they get there sometimes, but just be happy u managed to get ur £ in good and ride the variance. I think u need a minimum of 50 buy-ins for PLO, as downswings r inevitable. A 4 buy-in down swing is pretty solid. I managed a 13 buy-in drop in 3 days a few weeks ago. That was fun.......
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Hands 1 and 3 are just sick, i think hand two your maybe overplaying your hand preflop a bit, not sure you want to be getting that much in with weak aces
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Crizzy that"s nothing lol. Ask Dan Owston!!! :o
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Thanks for the comments guys. I definitely know this is where the money is to be made in ssPLO and for sure I am under-rolled to be playing this level, like I said earlier - i"m only just rolled for taking a small shot here, if that. Counting Sundays losses I"ve had a 5.5-BI downswing and I definitely should have enough bi"s to withstand 10-20 BI downswings in PLO but i"m a gambler trying to run up my money xBlink style ;D I"m going to stick with 25PLO on Stars until I drop another 4-BI"s and hit $300, then i"ve got 30-BI"s for 10PLO which is still probably under-rolled but oh well, fingers crossed my boom-switch is on.
And in reference to Chris, there"s no doubt about it that I seriously over played hand #2 pre-flop. I was tilting at this point, hand 2 & 3 were right after each other and this was the very tail-end of the session. I was putting my weak holdings face up with little chance of improving beyond one pair, I absolutely love ss-PLO-donks who play their weak aces like this and my calling range vs such players is fairly wide pre-flop. Unfortunately for a brief second I turned into one of these donks :D
Here"s hoping I run better next time.
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Just played a $26 tourney on Full Tilt for a bit of a change I thought and to pass a couple of hours I thought.
First this happened:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5302814P
I never really lost anything as side-pot was almost same as my stack before the hand.
The guy who had AK in that last hand had been playing almost every hand and was playing like a complete donk, which is why I thought it a good idea to value bet so much on the turn in this next hand :D I got my way and he called but it backfired... http://www.pokerhand.org/?5302832P *sigh* FML.
I played the Daily $30k on Stars too and went out when my set of 5"s were no match for a flush draw :-\
Stars Roll: $399.34
Full Tilt Roll: $177.51
No doubt there"ll be another update later tonight or tomorrow as I plan on playing some more.
F**k it, might stick one of my rolls completely on a cash table and flip for double or bust :D
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Feck it, $177 - that"s enough for a couple of tables of 25PLO isn"t it?
Time to go bust for a spin up ;D
Will report back in an hour or two, if I last that long :D
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Feck it, $177 - that"s enough for a couple of tables of 25PLO isn"t it?
Time to go bust for a spin up ;D
Will report back in an hour or two, if I last that long :D
batter the shiite out of them ;D
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What an hour and a half. I was up, I was down, I was up again, I was down again.
I reached a high point of $209 then this hand happened:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?5303141P - spewed all over my computer screen but ach well, sh!t happens.
Then I turned into a tilt monkey for a bit and went right down to $153.
Then won a bit pot with my set vs Aces all in on flop.
I was about to quit right before the hand I posted above and I wish I did now but the old "just one more round" voice in my head took over didn"t it. Ended the session slightly down at $175.56, now time for some dinner. May come back on later, will see how I feel.
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let me know I am in the mood I might join you, wee man just passed some winnings over in exchange for cash need a blow out ;D
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let me know I am in the mood I might join you, wee man just passed some winnings over in exchange for cash need a blow out ;D
Will do, i"ll more than likely be back on in around an hour after I"m finished with dinner so if you"re still on then we can tear up the tables. I"ll post here when I"m ready ;D
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looking forward to it already
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on a .25/.50 PLO cash table - just donked $30 with a nut flush v a rivered boat, its starting well
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Dinner took a little longer than expected but i"m headed to the $0.10/0.25 PLO tables right now, how long until I bust? :D
Whats your Full Tilt username Duke?
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duke9999 - on PS at the mo moving over
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hi or hi/lo
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wiiiii found ya
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yer nearly a buy in up already, don"t think i"ve saw someone be so agressive at plo and get away with it :D
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it"s a gift
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it"s a gift
:D
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oops lol
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oops lol
back to running over the table ::)
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nah - I am still afraid of you
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it"s been a pleasure -- but I must sleep -- good luck I will play for a wee while more
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Im off to bed, I ended up a bit down when I had top two and open ender vs guys flush draw all in on flop. He hit of course. I then proceeded to flip twice on another table, first time I get JTT9 vs AAxx - I lose but then decide to flip again with a different guy and am up against Aces again!!! This time my 2356 crushes the other guys AA25 :D even stevens in the flipaments but not so well in the regular games - i"ll tally up the damage tomorrow.
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And then this happened:
(http://www.pokertableratings.com/graphs/c/crizzyconnor/timeline-fulltilt.png)
I"ll fill in some details over the weekend but let"s just say i"ve took a few days away from poker and I have lost my Full Tilt bankroll due to playing 25, 50 & 100PLO. The degenerate was definitely back in the mix for a couple of days and it was bound to happen. Oh well, I"ve still got the stars roll... for now :D
EDIT: PTR appears to be down for a minute but the graph will be back up there shortly ;)
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So as you can see in the previous graph I was floating around -$80 when I started playing PLO, the -$80 was from one 100NL session aaagggeees ago. So I initially went down to -$125 then began steadily grinding up slowly at 10PLO and got from -$125 upto -$60 until around March 25th when I took my first daft shot at 25PLO and went down to around -$160 then again I slowly grinded it back upto around -$70 until I decided to take another shot at 25PLO and added in some 50&100PLO to the mix too. lol. I then proceeded to lose two buy ins and said f**k it and degened the rest of my money off with sub par holdings. My own fault, simple as. It was easily preventable but when I get in that degen zone it"s hard to shake out of it and be rational. So now I have just over $10 in my account thanks to rakeback but the full tilt account did go bust :D
Pokerstars account is at $412 but I"ve not been in the mood to play for a couple of days and don"t know what i"m going to do with that yet, i"ll wait until the inspiration to play again comes back. Maybe play some more 10PLO cash to try grind my losses back, maybe play some tournaments & SNGs again or maybe I"ll take another degen shot at stakes beyond me and go for boom or bust. Who knows. Time will tell. Now I"m going to go enjoy some rare Scottish sunshine 8)
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Played a couple of SNGs yesterday but never done much.
Have decided to take $300 out of the Pokerstars account and start from scratch. Well not quite scratch but I was probably going to squander it and now I"m going to buy something to show for the hours i"ve put in! There"s now $118.72 in my stars account and the plan is to play $5.50 9, 27 & 45 mans and maybe a few $4.40 180-mans or MTTs until I get the roll up a little. The Full Tilt roll is at $11.62, just going to play two $5.50 9-mans or three $3.30 90-mans with that though. Time to get back on the grind, I want to hit that $500 again by the middle of May. It"s probably not going to happen as i"m not having much time to put in any hours recently but there"s got to be some sort of goal to move towards... :D