16 tabling, all night session & FFS @ min-cashing.

16 tabling:
Since the redeposit of $500 things are going ok, nearly up to $600 after a week of 8 tabling $5 DoNs. I’m a little frustrated that I’m playing the $5 games because I was running around 8% at the $10 games but I have a 100 buyin rule to follow. Even though I am very confident at the $10s experience tells me that all I need is a few bad sessions mixed with the games natural serving of variance and BOOM, money gone! Bugger that, I’d rather play it patient.

I’m now very confident 8 tabling and have decided to take a shot at 16 tabling. Over a year ago I started 4 tabling which to me now seems far to slow. I’m finding myself a few downtime periods while playing which I wouldn’t have though imaginable a year ago “downtime periods whilst playing 8 games at a time” crazy!

I’m going to start this only when the site traffic is at it’s highest as I don’t want to have a scenario where I have half my games at 200/400 and the other half at 25/50. If I can keep them as close as possible that should make those split second decisions a little easier.

Anyone reading this that plays of has played with success at > 8 talbes, please drop me a line, love some feedback. I'll basically have 2 monitors, 4x2 stacked on each other.

Will report with results shortly.

All night session:
The last time I did a all night session I got up at 7:30, went to work until 18:00, got home did the family thing, started playing at 22:00, played through till 7:00, then went back to work until 18:00, then came home, fell over and woke up 14 hours later.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to work today, but I’m still a little delirious. They say server insomnia can be worse than LSD, wonder if that true? (Hold on while I squash that pink elephant…….OK I’m back) I’ve only been up for 31 hours so no need to go to crazy yet.

Anyways, I got in a fair amount of games, but played people I haven’t come across before, probably because I don’t usually play from 2:00-8:00.

Mixed in with my 8 games I also played several MTTs, which leads me to my next subject.

FFS @ Min-Cashing:
Played 5 games, lost the first 4, then started my last one at 5:00. Just under 700 runners paying the top 80. Played the first hour well, expect for one hand that went AIPF 1010 vs KK, no 10 for me. That hand didn’t cripple me but put me back to my starting stack. Start of the second hour just couldn’t get anything going and before I knew it, I was facing the most fucked up question I always seem to face in MTTs, do I crawl and cash or start playing like a maniac?

Like a spineless, gutless, chicken-shit player, I opted to crawl (you know you’ve done it too at some stage!). I had around 2800 with blinds at 200/400/50. I do however; have a very proud accomplishment from this scenario.

I can’t recall the exact numbers but I specifically remember there was a gap of 400 so bear that in mind.

Here what happened.
81 players left, BUBBLE TIME. I was about 5th lowest in chips overall. I was SB with 3000 and BB had 2600. As I was being dealt in I thought to myself, the BB sure as hell doesn’t want to bubble, obvious right! Now if the table folds to me I can shove blind and 1 of 3 things will happen.

1: I’ll pick up the pot, which is like a 50% increase to my entire stack
2: I’ll knock him out bubbling him and doubling up at the same time
3: I’ll lose to him, but still have 400 left and needing to survive 8 hands before I’m blinded all in. I knew even if that happened and I was down to 400, I’m not BB for 8 more hands and knowing these donkaments, some wanker with 20K will unnecessarily go bust.

Suffice to say, I stole his blind. Really was a situation where no matter what cards they were, because of that scenario, I could not lose by shoving. VERY COOL.

So I cashed, yay. However, I’m still bloody short. Before I knew it I was down to top 50 and 1quarter of the chip average. Finally picked up A7o and shoved from late position to be called by monster stack in SB with 66. Cool, at least I’m flipping with my garbage.

Board: K 5 T, J, 9 – you could probably see me jumping after the turn screaming A Q 7!!!!

So yet another min-cash. For all you MTT pros reading this, ffs drop me a line and help me get over this ‘crawl into min-cash mentality’.

So that’s it for onw, I’ve rambled a lot of shit and am dying for some rest, hovever ratsauce89 starts his challenged soon and I have to rail some of that so no more sleep for me right now.

GL all.
Custo

Busto!

I assume the title will bring the readers as everyone is interested to here how online poker players go bust.

Well I am proud to say that it is through no fault of my own. With the arrival of my 4th baby I was left temporarily financially burdened and was forced to draw my entire BR.

It’s just so wired because I started with $1 and built that up to over 3K in less than 2 years now I have nothing. But the money certainly helped, and my family is far more important than poker.

I was given a 30bi steak from my best friend in the, wont say ‘poker community’ even though that’s how we met but luckily the friendship is based on more than poker and for me that went horrible. I kept playing with a fear in the back of my mind saying “if I stuff this up I’m screwing over a mate” and family and friendships are far superior than a game of fucking cards! So after losing like 10bi I called it quits and reimbursed them with apologies.

I’ve been contemplating on what my next move will be and decided I have to rebuild again. Will be depositing $500 shortly and having to go back to the $3.40s. Still using the same BRM system except I’m making it 120/100. 120 buyins to play a limit, if drop to 100, drop down a level. Why these numbers? Because I’m a BR NIT! I will also, if affordable, top up little amounts every now and then from my own pocket (sky rocket for my UK readers :)

So that’s it, it sucks having to drop down in limits so much, but I had no choice. All I can do is suck it up and try to rebuild as fast as I can. At least I know after 2 years of playing with a BRM system I can’t actually go broke, unless I break my own rules, and then it’s just my fault. I’m good enough to make it, just have to start from the bottom again.

But at least I have my family and friends in good health, that’s the main thing.

Custo

Bing Blang Blaow

I just had to have this clip on da blog. Even if you've already seen this a million times....fuck it, watch it agian. LOVE IT, seroius ROFLMFAO.

If Boku87 can do it, does that mean anyone can do it?

Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems to me with the amount of hours and tables this guy is putting in, which is clearly the largest I've ever come across, overall he is always going to be profitable no matter what. He can have 100+BI downswings and still make money in a long run

I assume the following about his gameplay:
Never Bluffs?
Doesn't reference any form of stats or history?
Plays with bankroll guidelines?
Plays the purest form of ABC Poker? IE. Tight nit @ start, then push/fold mode once x amount of bb's left
^^^^^^^Once again, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Am I missing something or is his approach/strategy that straight forward?

If it is that straight forward, wouldn't that mean that anybody can do the same, if they were able to match that form of volume?

Your thoughts/feedback?

8 out of 8, twice in the month!

Running good and I put it down to one thing, consistency!

For the first time ever I have stuck to the one thing and haven't deviated. Since September 1 I have been 8 tabling DoN SnGs at Titan. I started to do this for 2 main reason. 1 was to test the waters with 8 tabling and see how comfortable I am with it. The other was to test myself playing exactly the same game every day for a month straight and see if I can stop myself from going insane.

Volume wise I'm proud of what I've done so far. Over 600 games and hanging around a 7% ROI. What's quite odd is that I tried 2 sessions of 10 tabling and felt super uncomfortable, yet I now seem to be able to 8 table with my eyes closed. I can understand doing from 2 tables to 4 tables would be a massive jump, but I didn't expect going from 8 - 10 would make me so uncomfortable. So I'm sticking to 8 for the time being.

I'd love a higher ROI, not sure what professional DoN players can sustain with that volume and at that level, but I've noticed my sharkscope ability go from 61 upto 65 this month, so I figure I must be doing something right.

My proudest achievement this month I've managed to do twice. First time about a week ago and the second last night. I've managed to win 8 out of 8 games at the same time. Sitting just over 600 games I've played around 80 sessions and to have 2 sessions where I'm 8 for 8, I think is freaking awesome. I've had several 7 out of 8s and my lowest has been 2 out of 8 (only 2 of them)

Better back this brag up with some evidence so check out below.


and



^^^^ Here I was mucking around with the $1 games to see what happens to my ROI/ITM, nevertheless 8 wins is hot at any stake.

The other thing I'm loving with 8 tabling is that, I remember specifically during a session I took 2 horrendous beats at the same time on different tables causing me to bubble. 1 hand was my AA vs AKs, opponent hit runner runner for nut flush. Second had was I had QQ vs 99 AIPF and board came Q93 K 9. WTF. But at the time I simply shrugged it off and focused on my remaining 6, of which I won them all. So it's actually teaching me better tilt control. Bad beats are always going to happen to me, it's how I act after that is important. I laughed at those 2 eliminations and still managed to keep a positive result.

So that's it for me so far. I haven't gone insane, and am learning to 8 table very well. Later down the track I'll switch back to regular SnGs to hopefully increase the ROI but for the time being I'm happy to make some guaranteed money.

August 2009 – the month that almost ended my career!

Looking back at August, it almost felt like an out of body experience.

Hindsight opinion: I could have done things so much different.

So what happened?

First real month of deciding to play SnGs exclusively and I got hit with my first BIG taste of negative variance.
I’ve had 10BI downswings before.
I’ve had 12 games ootm in a row.
But I’d never tasted what negative variance can really be like until last month.

I can’t recall the exact figures, which is beside the point to be honest. But I suffered from a 30+BI downswing which shock my world. I was over-rolled for my games which was fine but damn, 30 buy-ins down in the game I love SUCKED.

From there I started single tabling 100NL on Stars and 4 tabling 50NL on Ipoker, trying to convince myself “If I play really really really tight, I shouldn’t run into that much trouble and make back my losses asap, WRONG.

No need to give dollars and cents, but I had a negative 4 figure loss in August.

I really questioned, for the first time in my life, can I do this? Also, do I want to do this? The answer came back to what it always has been, YES!

Looking back I lost the main chunk of money due to not following my own rules and letting my emotions take control of my actions.

In a really weird kind of way, I'm actually happy I lost so much last month. It really taught me that there will be big downswings and there is nothing that can be done about it. Importantly, they will happen again, so be prepared for it. The most shocking part is that there still may be bigger downswings to come!

September 2009.
Having recently gone gold star on Titan I’ve decided to test the waters volume wise and see what I can do. I’m starting to get used to the fact that I need to put in the games and time so I’d like to see how many games I can actually get through in a month.

Since the start of the month I’ve played 160 SnGs for a +9% ROI. A little shocked at that but happy as I’ve never played so many games 8 days into the month.

I’ve moved from 4 tabling to 8 tabling which is working out very nicely. I’m was hoping to play 300 SnGs by the end of the month for at least a 5% ROI, so far the volume is tracking good, hopefully I can attain the good return.

August was a learning curve, yes another one. I lost big then played out of my depths to make it back quickly. Doesn’t work, looks like this will be a slow grind, but one things for sure…..

I will never ever give up and I will become stronger with this!

I had a lot of support following my last post and want to thank everyone on my blog and forums for their help and advice, if no-one wrote back or helped, my results would have been a lot worse, so THANK YOU ALL.

Be back soon with mid monthly updates.

Good luck to all.

Custo.

20 Buy-in downswing in 8 hours, how to deal with it?

What really sucks was I played optimal poker for the first 5 hours, and then tilt took control for the next 3 hours.

How can I play optimal poker and lose 20 BUY-INS IN A SINGLE DAY?

Good question.

I’m not going to entertain you with video replays of the BS hands I went through but here’s an idea, all hands are allin hands…

AK vs AQ – He flops the Q
JJ vs 77 – He flops a 7
AA vs AKs – He runner runners flush
A9 vs A2 – He rivers a 2
Heres one of my favourites for the night……
3 way pot, my AK vs QQ vs A5…..
Board….. A J 2 5 5

You can see where this is going.

I know what your already thinking, took some bad beats, get over it and get on with it. I’m not denying that for 1 second. But 8 hours of this repetitive garbage, seriously wtf?

I’m to seasoned to know PokerStars doesn’t “have it in for me” nor am I going to say that’s it’s all rigged.

What I’m pleading for at this stage is just advice, how the hell do you deal with poker when the cards treat you like that over and over and over again?

I know the swings and variance associated with SnGs and accepted that a long time ago. I’ve just never seen a consistently harsh set of outcomes dealt to me

What to do???????

FYI - this is all on $16 9man turbos at PokerStars

Adding 1 more table and plans for August.

For years I’ve played 4 tables simultaneously. I’ve been watching heaps of videos from Sit N Go Grinders, mainly videos from ‘glitlr’. With 2 monitors it’s a little easier to do so basically I’ve stared 4 tabling on my primary monitor and having 1 extra game on my second monitor. This was if I bust out early I just bring the 5th game over and continue to 4 table.

I’ve done this for a few days now and my last 3 sessions I can do nothing but laugh.

Stats are:
3 sessions of 5 tabling.
Cost = $16x5 = $80
Results:
Session 1: 3 3rds Return of $81, profit of $1
Session 2: 3 3rds Return of $81, profit of $1
Session 3: 3 3rds Return of $81, profit of $1
can you friggin believe it?

So basically I’m a little unsure of what to make of these results. Is this some strange random luck or lack thereof? Or have I somehow conditioned my brain to just expect the minimum.

Certainly won’t stop me, in fact I’m so comfortable with 5 now I’ll be adding another in my next session. I’ll only stop once I either become uncomfortable or start showing a consistent negative roi. I was going to make a dramatic jump from 4 tables to between 10-12, but a lot of successful players I know online all say the same thing, just add one at a time. I think I’ll heed that advice.


August
As far as August is concerned I’m planning on doing something I’ve never done before.

I’m really going to make a go of the $16 9man turbo on stars. Month after month I’ve been switching between game types and sites and all for what, either a minuscule profit or even a loss. I’ve never spent a full month of just grinding away at the same type of game.

From watching pro sng grinders I’ve noticed a distinct and obvious pattern between them all, they all have a routine. Every day at every time I’ll find them playing the same amount of tables at the same time of day. “Clock in, Clock out” seems to be their way.

Me, I just sit down, logon and play whatever the fuck I feel like. Bad idea.

I’m actually really excited about this and keen to watch the graph after a few weeks of consistent playing.

The only slight variation to this routine will be I plan to play a few 180 non turbo games. Only problem being is as they are around 4 hours per game I’ll probably only be able to play these on the weekend, or in the middle of the night.

So that’s it for now. July was a little all over the shop only cause I was a little all over the shop.

Let’s see if I play consistently good, can I get consistently good results?

Go Ivey Go!

I can not explain how excited I am the Phil Ivey has made the November Nine. I was watching the updates on worldseriesofpoker.com all day yesterday from the final 27 down. Every year it seems that 1 pro makes the final table yet an amateur takes it down.

2003 - Sammy Farha – Busted 2nd
2004 – Dan Harrington – Busted 4th
2005 – Mike Matusow – Busted 9th
2006 – Allan Cunningham – Busted 4th
2007 – Tuan Lam & Lee Watkinson – Busted 2nd & 8th
2008 – David ‘Chino’ Reem – Busted 7th

Every year at least 1 pro seems to make it through this monstrous fields and every year they fall short.

When I first go into poker I loved the fact that amateurs where winning the main event. Now, after playing semi-seriously for several years, I’m praying for a pro to take the title down, and I could not think of one more deserving then Phil Ivey.

Along with the rest of the poker community, I’ll be watching you Phil, good luck and take it down!

No more data entry – YAY.

As some may or may not know, I’ve been keying results and statistics for all game types for some time now. In a failed attempt to get away from this I purchased PT3 late last year. Unbeknownst to me, it is practically a useless piece of software for tournament tracking. Finally last weekend I just took the plunge and got my self Holdem Manager.

Like a blessing from the gods this piece of software is. It has been a right pain to start a SnG, log the start time, enter the final place, and calculate the time played (4 games at a time) all in my head. Now with nothing more than a single mouse click, it’s all taken care of. Just need to make a few small personalisations and I’ll be happy

It’s also helped my avoid looking at my actual BR so hopefully there will be a nice surprise at the end of the month. I know as of right now I’m down, so any positive figure, I’ll be happy with.

Brag for the month

4 games - 4 Cashes.

Doesn't happen often but damn its good when it does
3 wins, 1 2nd



Gotta give thanks to the trainers at SnG Grinders. After watching your videos confidenece in coming back, and understanding why and when to make certain moves starting to make a lot more sense.

Results for May 2009.

Start of May 2009 BR =$2668.40
End of May 2009 BR = $2973.57

Overall $305.17 Profit
Bankroll increase of 11.44%

Where did the money come from?
Ring games = -$154.01
SnG's = - $16.8
MTT's = $339.98
Bonuses = $136

Super disappointed with myself for not showing a profit in the SnG section for the month but easily explainable. I played 3 main games for May.
• Full Tilt $12 9man turbos
• Poker Stars $16 9man turbos
• Titan Poker $11 6man turbo Double or Nothings.

FT & PS showed a healthy profit. Dropped around $300 on Titan. Went a little crazy for a while. I saw I was not far off from maintaining my silver status @ Titan so I decided to open up a ridonkulous amount of tables and play just so I could maintain my VIP status heading into June. So basically I lost $300 on these crappy games to maintain a $10/month loyalty bonus, WTF? Not doing that again.

Different mindset/approach/strategy between a regular SnG and a DoN. I’m sticking to my regs at FT & PS. Might start 4tabling $11 9man turbos at Titan but need a sample size from there first to get an expected winrate. Might even grind out 100 or so next week to get an idea.

My plans for the month of June:
• Focus on grinding it out and 1 or 2 specific types of games and locations.
• Keep watching videos from SnG Grinders and posting in their forums (best investment I’ve made so far)
• Play MTTs only for the win, no more of this ‘trying to scrape in mentality’
• Start playing more frequently the Stars 180 player turbo, probably the $12s to start with. Thanks to a video from TigerBalm I’m quite happy with his strategy and hope to use it myself, just pray I don’t run completely card dead.
• Implementing a daily stop/loss and stop/win amount (still considering whether this a smart move or not, too many pros and cons to make a concrete decision.

Overall, happy with 10% growth. Obviously I want more but if I took my money to a bank and asked for a 30day term deposit, I don’t think anyone will give me that type of return.

That’s it for May folks.

Custo

My proudest MTT result to date.

Was a good Sunday last weekend. I’ve been trying recently at the PokerStars nightly $70K MTT. It was my 3rd attempt at it and I finally got this result.



I’ve had bigger pay-outs than this one and this certainly isn’t my biggest ROI but I really felt my tournament game just went up another notch being able to make it into the top 10% of the field at this level of play.

For years now I’ve been playing $10 games and under. With a re-visited BRM I’m able to play in games of this stature.

As proud as I am for cashing in it I’m a little disappointed with my own play. I came out strong in the first 30mins making moves and calling 1 guy down who tried to bluff me with air to almost double up immediately. Once the 2nd hour started I really hit the breaks. I did run quite card dead but I let fear of not making it ITM overtake my desire to run deep, where the money really starts. I played a scared and safe game to creep into the money and that was the exact outcome I got.

I remember there were about 100 people to go before getting paid and I got dealt AA in late position. With a little over 13 big blinds I thought “stuff it” and pushed all in. no one called and I collected the blinds and antes. The very next hand and weirdly after that I got dealt AKo back to back. Without hesitation again I put it all in and once again, no calls. Perhaps my rock image was being taken into consideration. With those 3 blind shoves I was able to accumulate enough chips to practically sit out and guarantee a pay day. Once the money started I waited for the first decent holding to try and double up. I waited until I was down to 7 BBs and then from the SB with K7c I went for it. I was quickly called by the BB with A2o but had me out-chipped by about 6-1. I didn’t hit anything and was taken out.

Was an awesome feeling to cash in a game like that next time I can hopefully take it to another greater level?

If you’re reading this and experienced with MTTs of $50+ and fields of over 1000, I’d love some feedback.

Cheers
Custo

And the announcement is………

I’m going pro on Sit n Go’s!
&
I’m completely quitting all forms of Cash Games.

Why?

I’ll start with Cash Games.

The only way to put this is I don’t enjoy them and that’s putting it politely! I’d convinced myself earlier this year that I have to master cash games and if I don’t I’ll never make it. This decision was a sudden knee-jerk reaction to a massive downswing I had in January playing 6man DoN SnG’s at Titan.

After 4 months of “experimental playing” I really have absolutely zero desire to play these types of games. I made a loss last year from them and things are looking the same this year.

I’m not going to crap on and on about negatives in this post, but cash games won’t be happening for me. This is obviously not a life-long decision but a decision I’d say for quite some time. To be honest, if I hadn’t of had such negative variance in my SnG’s at the start of this year, I probably never would have thrown everything I had at cash games.

The style of play just doesn’t do it for me, and if I’m going to do something I’m going to do it 100%. I simply have zero passion for ring games.

There is so much talk and emphasis on cash game poker that I got myself to the point where I basically felt guilty for not “following the crowd”. But I’m on my own journey and hopefully all players I know and respect that are ring players will support my decision and understand that this is what I want and this is how I believe I will succeed. Maybe down the line I can even give something back to aspiring SnG grinders.

So, onto the positive news.

Professional SnG Player:
This is where my passion is and this is what I want to do.

Specifically the games I’ll be playing will be exclusively, but not limited to, 9 player turbo’s.

I love SnG’s. I’ve mastered the basic strategy and getting much better at advanced strategy. I’m so comfortable with the games and ready to take them to the next level.

After running a filter on SharkScope for 9 player turbos with a buy-in between $6-$15, I noticed that the best players are between 5-8% ROI. I expected it to be heaps bigger. Bearing in mind that their game size is a little over 20K. I’m very confident that with a little more study and practice I can get myself up there. After 3.5K games on PokerStars I’m currently on 5% ROI.

I’m seriously considering signing up with Sit N Go Grinders Still just have a little more research to do. Looks like their annual cost is ~$200 so I want to make sure it’s worth it.

This new approach is also having a large impact on my Bankroll. The original reason I set-up separate bankrolls was to protect me from potentially losing heaps on cash games if I had a large tournament win.

EG. If my BR was $1000 and I won $15,000 in a MTT, then I could go directly from 10NL up to say, 200NL. A jump like that without experience at levels in between could kill a player. As I’ve decided to abolish cash games entirely I’m operating under the following:

This is a design I wrote a while ago but never implemented it, I’ve tested for a little while and am now comfortable enough to LIVE BY IT!

Single Game Play = 2% of BR (50 Buy-ins)
Multi Game Play = .5% of BR (200 Buy-ins)

Why the above structure?

Let me explain.

Even though I have 50 buy-ins for a $16 SnG, when I’m multi-tabling them and have a bad run, say 1 cash in 4 sessions, psychologically and financially the hit is just too hard.

Picture this:
BR = 1000
Buy-Ins for $16 SnG = 62.
4 sessions of 4 games with 1 cash (3rd) = $229
BR after 4 sessions = $1000 - $229 = $771
BR loss of 22.9%

All of a sudden after 4 sessions, which for me I can do in a single 4 hour sitting, I’m down a level.

Whilst the above is almost impossible to happen on a regular basis, the reality is it can happen and when it does there’s nothing that can be done about it.

This year I’ve literally been a mess having bad runs, changing the BR without telling anyone, then changing it back to the original structure. I think I’ve changed my own rules over 10 times in the past 4 months and it’s completely stuffed with my head.

I now know more than enough about both Bankroll & Money management. I know the importance of protection against both bad play and unavoidable variance. I also know the importance of not being overly nitty where games become boring as the stakes are too small relevant to what cash I have. I’ve found my happy medium, finally, and I’m locking this in for good.

A major plus to this new structure is I can, and did for the first time last night, play games larger than I’ve played before. Last night for the first time I played a $38 game which resulted in a 2nd place netting me a little over $50. I’d expected and was dead right that the playing style was more like playing poker rather than playing against 8 maniacs. It’s no hidden secret that the larger the buy-in, the more respect is given to the game, although completely avoiding those crazy plays seems like it will happen at any level, just much less at the higher ones. I noticed an unbelievable difference in that game as opposed to a $6.50 game. An example was the first played was knocked out when the blinds where 75/150, in a smaller game, by the time the blinds are at 75/150 it’s normally down to 5-6 players left. I tested a strategy in that game which worked to perfection and will be copied every time I play 1 game at a time. Not sharing the strategy (can’t give away all my secrets).

It was fun playing the 1 game, I was able to get reads on every single player and anticipate what was going to happen, something that is next to impossible when playing 4 games at a time. It really felt like playing poker.

So that’s it for the time being. Next step is to finalise research on Sit N Go Grinders to make sure it’s a positive investment and play without distraction and continue my journey towards freedom.

It’s been a sluggish 5 months so far this year, but now with direction and admitting to myself exactly what I want to do and how I want to do it I feel I’ve got myself back on track to get where I want to be.

Thank you for following so far and reading such a long post. I didn't intend on it going this long but sometimes when you write you just can't stop. This is clearly a pivotal point of my online poker journey, one that’s been going since August 2007. I'm looking forward to sharing success stories soon and providing help to anyone that asks in the not too distant future.

Custo

PS. To all cardchatters, I'm coming back shortly.

A massive announcement to be made…..

This weekend!

I need to write it properly and explain my reasoning but I think, like a revelation, I’ve realised why I’ve been playing break even poker for the past 5 months.

My decision is final and will be announced shortly. The only hint I’ll give is I’ve never done this before.

Come back soon, I’m keen for your feedback.

Custo

Alt-Tabing between Stars and Tilt

I was all over the shop last month. I'd have days where I made $80 on Stars SnG's then dropped $100 on pacific playing $20 HU SnG's. I've decided to play only at Stars & Tilt. I've drained all the money out of Pacific and have a very little amount left at Titan which I may use for an occasional MTT on the weekend, my last MTT at Titan I came 3rd out of 97 and the one prior to that I went out 20th which was right where the money started.

The idea behind this is focus. I'm in the process of clearing 2 bonuses, $120 at Stars for a re-load offer and $600 at Tilt, yes I know I finally joined Tilt.

I'll be 4-tabling the $12 SnG's at Tilt, mainly during happy hour to double my FPPs. I'll also be 4-tabling 25NL at Stars.

I'm still reading a lot of blogs, recently just finished Chuckts, Icemonkey's, Fredricks and Jurns and it seems like everyone is struggling at the moment. To you guys and anyone else who is struggling (myself included) I really hope shit turns around asap, we are all better than this.

I made a shift in money allowing me to play 25NL, and I’ll be making a video of it shortly and keen for feedback, I’m just still in the process of re-building this machine since I discovered the old one had 14 Trojans on it, may explain all the bad beats I took?

Anyway I’m off to hit the tables, happy starts in 15 minutes and I know what I have to do.

Results for April 2009.

Start of April 2009 BR = $2568.39
End of April 2009 BR = $2668.40

Overall $100.01 Profit
Bankroll increase of 3.89%

Where did the money come from?
Ring games = -$11.95
SnG's = -$39.55
MTT's = $69.01
Bonuses = $82.50

So without bonuses and 1 MTT cash I had for a little over $100, I would have lost again.

Truth be told, I've been on 74 different forms of tilt since the start of the year and now I've fucking had enough!

Money money money money money! That's all it’s been about. I forgot about playing poker and only thought of making money. Doesn't work that way.

I have one goal and one goal only now, it's going to be hard but if I can full this off, I'm going nowhere but up.

MAKE CORRECT DECESIONS.

That's it! Nothing fancy like trying to make xbb's/100, or have a 40%ITM rate. None of that shit anymore. Just make correct decisions all time.

This year so far has been one of the biggest emotional roller-coasters I've ever experienced, and I'm hoping it's the poker gods testing me to see if I'm cut out for this in the long run. I already know the answer; I just need to seriously re-adjust my attitude, expectations, goals and play.

It's so fucking simple it's not funny anymore. If I can beat my own head, watch out, I'll be posting some serious news soon.

That's it.

Will re-join CC shortly, haven't been there for a little over a month cause I've been all over the place attitude wise. Will start posting more frequently again, haven't done so all last month cause I had NOTHING positive to contribute.

You’re seeing a changed man. Poker has tested me and I'm still standing, hence the variance can't beat me.

Be back soon, I'll have some big news coming.

Custo

Results for March 2009.

Start of March 2009 BR = $2361.96
End of March 2009 BR = $2568.39

Overall $206.43 Profit
Bankroll increase of 8.74 %

Where did the money come from?
Ring games = $23.15
SnG's = $137.30
MTT's = $45.98
Bonuses = $0

I should probably be happy with a profit shouldn’t I? This year, particularly the past few weeks has been really trying for me. I’ve been so upset about the pitiful amount of money I’ve made this year. 2009 I’m showing a profit of $119.64. I was making this almost week in week out in the later stages of 2008. I know what most people will say, I should be happy as only ~30% of people do show profits from online poker but I can’t help to ask the question of when. When am I finally going to hit that big MTT win? When am I going to be showing profits over 1K per month?

Impatience is kicking in for me and I already know that formula.
Impatience = lack of discipline.
Lack of discipline = losing money.

Given impatience is in my system at the moment I’m stepping away from the tables for a few days. I’m registered in 2 SCOOP events which start on Saturday so I’m staying off poker until then.

I’m actually hoping to get some words of encouragement from this post?

I don’t know, I may just be ranting at the moment but I really thought with a roll of 2.5K I’d be up more than ~$100 for the past 3 months.

What’s also getting at me is last month I played 13,507 hands on 10NL and ended up with 1.67BB/100. whoopee-fuckin-do.

I haven’t even posted much on the blog recently as I’ve got nothing good to write about. Hopefully I’ve had a bad stretch, (that’s the best excuse I can come up with) and it will change. But I personally reckon my head isn’t clear which is why I’m having my break.

Better news to share next time I post.

Peace
Custo

My best session of the year – all thanks to Icemonkey.

Always give credit when credit is due.

If you’ve not seen this yet download it here, its absolute gold in my opinion.
So you want to be a winning cash game player

The timing on this article being released was perfect. Prior to starting last night’s session I had set myself a specific goal. Nothing of any monetary value as focusing on that generally brings un-realistic expectations followed by negative results. My goal was to play fewer hands to lower my VPIP.

January all I focused on was making $600, didn’t happen.
February I started to re-build my bankroll heavily assisted by a rocket start on 5NL.
March, so far, had been all bad…….until last night.

To illustrate why I only wanted to focus on lowering my VPIP for the session have a look at the graphs below.

10NL March graph


10NL last night graph


See the pattern?

I think I’ll blame durrrr for this. Since watching HSP season 5 I thought I’d copy his aggression but unfortunately it didn’t work for me. Last night I got my stats down to the following:

My overall March stats have been:
18/10/3

The past session was:
14/9/3


In my humble opinion, I murdered 5NL. Averaged 18.26BB/100 in 6271 hands. Whether that was a hot run, awesome play or complete luck I don’t know but what I do know is that it made me cocky at 10NL. I started opening UTG and from EP with hands like K9s, QTs, J8s etc. Massive mistake. Reading Icemonkey’s article simply reminded me that this is still only 10NL and I’m going to get called down with anything. Stick to the basics and play the big hands strong. This fundamental approach and style of play got me back in the black. My plans are to maintain this exact style until I reach 25NL, then it’s time to reassess.

Thanks Sean
Custo

Results for February 2009.

Start of February 2009 BR = $2256.24
End of February 2009 BR = $2361.96

Overall $108.72 Profit
Bankroll increase of 4.69 %

Where did the money come from?
Ring games = $168.08
SnG's = - $36.50
MTT's = - $25.86
Bonuses = $0

Frustrated, disappointed, and losing patience. These are just some of the words I feel as I’m writing this. I showed a profit this month unlike last month so there’s a positive but I was really hoping the numbers would have been a lot higher.

On the most positive note of the entire ring game has finally turned around for the better. I’ve put most of my time into this part of my game and I think it’s starting to take control of my overall game play.

The last 2 months I’ve had losses in my STT SnGs. These games were my biggest breadwinner last year and now I seem to have either lost my touch or lost my passion for them. I’m starting to see why the majority of the poker community doesn’t have that much time nor respect for people grinding out so many SnGs.

My MTT game really had no joy either. I had 9 games for 2 cashes although I suppose it’s better than Januarys results of 29 games and 2 cashes.

I don’t know. I was really hoping to have a BR of around 3K by this time going from last years results, but the one thing with poker is you never really know what’s around the corner.

My main focus for March is on my ring game. I’m really started to look forward to playing 200NL up within 12 months or so and I know that I’ll have a massive support network by so many people at CardsChat. I’ve even noticed more people reading this blog as I’m reporting on cash sessions, if you’re reading this now, thank you and please stay tuned. All the advice, comments and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.

I was over the moon to have graduated from 5NL to 10NL in just over 6K hands. I’m currently just under 3K hands in at 10NL and achieving success just at about half the speed.

BB/100 @ 5NL was 18.26
BB/100 @ 10NL is 9.69

I assume this is the normal thing as I move up in stakes.

That’s it for February 2009. Bring on March!
Good luck all.
Custo

Goodbye 5NL, Hello 10NL

Wow! This didn’t take long at all. I started 5NL on Feb 1st and as of last night I’m covered for 10NL following my 30 buy-in rule.

Stats for 5NL are:

Playing days - 15
Hands – 6,271
Profit - $114.53
BB/100 – 18.26
$/HR - $4.83



That was unbelievably faster than I originally anticipated. I initially thought 4-8 weeks and I’d be able to move up.

Over the past 22 days I’ve found myself to become so much more comfortable playing cash games and enjoying them as well which is most important.

Question - Why did I fail for all of last year and all of a sudden I’m succeeding?

Answer – As crazy as this may sound I have found such a difference between 2NL and 5NL. 90-95% of my focus last year was on STT SnG’s. So when I played ring I was playing an approach I use in SnG’s, obviously didn’t work. I really convinced my self that the shockingness of 2NL would be the same at 5NL. There were still unbelievably bad plays and the stupidest people I’ve ever had misfortune or fortune to come across. But I felt I smashed the limit. I made solid plays and big lay-downs. I made a few AIPF calls with hands like AQ & JJ to drop a buy-in or 2 here and there, but nothing that couldn’t be recuperated within 30 minutes.

I had 2 sessions that I lost money from and fortunately I remember them and remember why I lost money.

1) I played for ~20 minutes and dropped about 3 buy-ins. I played incredibly impatiently and made the dumbest calls I’ve ever made. I deserved to lose that session.
2) My 1 and only attempt on 6 tabling. 4 tabling worked fine so for the time being I’m sticking to it.

Aside from this I couldn’t be happier with my results in this limit.

It’s also worth I mention that I still haven’t got the HUD turned on. Perhaps now that I’m going to 10NL it may become more necessary but I’m a massive believer in “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” I’ll need a few sessions on 10NL until I make my decision.


First 10NL Session.

So excited about the level increase I had to play last night. I opened up 4 tables with the intention of playing super tight. I set myself a 1 hour time limit so win lose or draw, I’d be able to get used to playing the next limit up for that period of time, I certainly didn’t want to do a ‘hit & miss’ session.

What I found really strange was the lack of apprehension I had at the tables. All last year when I went from the $3-$6, $6-10, $10-15 games I played like crap for the start, sometimes weeks only due to fear of the higher limits. To be honest I was a little fearful to begin with but that passed after about 20 minutes. I remember I was about $7 down to start with but ended up with a healthy 1.5 buy-in profit after 1 hour. Not only was a win rate of $15/hr great but the hands below gave me taste of getting max value for a hand at this level.






So that’s where things are at. Graduation from 5NL to 10NL in 22 days. How long will it take to get to 25NL? I can’t wait to find out

Custo

PokerStars Australian Bushfire Appeal Tournament Feb 22, 14:30AEST

I'm sure by now everyone all over the world has heard about this horrible disaster Victoria is going through at the moment. It has shaken us all very badly. We've not see anything like this since Ash Wedensday back in 1983.

Once I was notified about this tournament I registered. The game costs $20, $10 of which goes into the pool and the other $10 will go to the victims of the tragedy. I personally have already decided that if I make it in the money or final table or even win, I will be contacting poker stars and asking that they take back whatever I win and put it to the cause aswell.

I know that most of our members here are from all over the world, but if you are available, it would be great to see you at the tables.

Thank you for supporting this cause and if there is any member that has been directly affected by the disaster my thoughts are with you and your families.

Custo

Failure at 6-tabling 5NL.

Just because there is a correlation that does not imply there is causation.

Thinking after last nights performance has made me really focus on the statement above.

Did I lose last night because I tried something different than I usually do?
Because I played more tables than usual does that mean that I will always lose?

Of course not! Yet during play last night I kept saying that to myself. “6 tables, I shouldn’t be doing this”. In turn this created a negative expectation and sense of desperation during play and with approaches to hands.

To be honest I took some beats last night. One incredible bad beat and a few unlucky hands as well. Does this mean that ever time I play 6 tables I destined to lose? Not even I’m that superstitious.

Overall I’m not over comfortable with 6 tables. Obviously the more tables I play means the more hands I see. To be honest 4-tabling so far has proved to be very profitable and I shouldn’t change what has proven to be so far a successful system. Even if I had a winning session last night, I’d still be dropping back. One of the main things I’ve learned in the past 14 months of this venture is that I need to be comfortable. If I have any fear or doubt in my mind whilst playing any type of game I’m not going to win.

Anyway for the record here are the hands that caused my demise yesterday.

Get your buckets ready becasue this hand will make you sick.

I forgot that Q6 is a great hand to call a raise with before a flop.

Biggest pot I lost and there was nothing I think I could have done better.


3 outer on the river, wonder if he hits?


Out flopped here, nothing else, still sucks


Good river for me, great river for him


Top pair top kicker vs goddam overpair

First shot at 10NL. (11 tables at once)

Funny story behind this. 6 tables are the most I’ve ever played at once. 95% of the time I play 4 tables simultaneously and everything runs smoothly. Last night after getting home from work I opened PokerStars to see who won the 25 billionth hand and to my absolute amazement they were minutes away from dealing hand number 24,998,000,000. I couldn’t believe it! I made it home to see the hand or potentially be in this milestone hand.

Now on a normal work night, I won’t open tables until I’ve done a usual routine, however, upon seeing this I went ballistic. I went straight to 5NL options to join as many tables as I could and everything was full. I saw that there were some seats available on some tables so I joined immediately on to realise that the games were 25NL, way beyond my BR at the moment. I quickly un-registered and saw some options on 10NL. Both 2NL & 5NL were fully booked with 10, 20 some had over 40 people on the waiting list. I was clicking join list everywhere. What was strange after hand number 24,998,000,000 seats starting becoming available. Before I knew what was going on I was suddenly playing 13 tables at once, 11 at 10NL and 2 at 5NL. I bought in for the $1 extra on 10NL that I usually do at 5NL so it was still within my BR.

Whilst having 13 tables open at once, other tables kept popping up for a seat available and I just had to say no. Even though I knew more tables meant I slightly higher chance of being in the monumental hand, I wouldn’t be able to cope with it. I had the timer warning going offer constantly simply due to not being able to keep up with some many tables. There was no point playing 30 tables if I’m timing out on half of them.

I played the tightest game I think I’ve ever played. What was amazing was how many monsters I got dealt. For memory at one stage I had something like, AA, AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQ all going at once. I managed to double up on both AA hands and better yet they were dealt on the 10NL table.

My stats for the particular session were:
Hands - 753
Profit - $18.11
BB/100 – 13.56



Unfortunately I wasn’t involved in the 25,000,000,000th hand. But 13-tabling was certainly an interesting experience. At least the big hand occurred on an Omaha Hi/Lo $1/$2 table, something I won’t be looking at for quite some time. In case you haven’t heard by now, they were 5 players in the hand on that table at the time. 3 people won $33,333 just for being there, and as the pot was split for a Hi and Lo winner, they got $50,000 each (plus the pot )

Last night was one of the most intense times I’ve spent on the virtual felt. I would never do it again in a single 19” monitor but I look forward to having 2 24” LCDs so I can do it again properly.

Slowing down to move forwards.

So far so good, the cash games are showing success, slow success granted but success none the less. Playing cash is proving to be a little frustrating simply because I’m on such a lower limit on these games opposed to SnGs and even MTTs. I’ve been 4 tabling since the start of the month on 5NL and so far I’ve only had 1 losing session out of 9. The losing session, completely my fault I played very impatiently and made some unbelievably stupid calls with no implied odds at all.

Overall the cash game BR is growing which is a good thing and I’m really hoping to be on 10NL but the start of April. I’m probably most happy about the 8 out of 9 winnings sessions. All sessions are generally 60-90 minutes of 4 tables and net profit anywhere from $2 - $10. The finalised BRM system for cash games is below. I haven’t yet envisioned what it will be like playing beyond 200NL but will probably re-assess when the time comes.

2NL 20 Buy-Ins
5NL 25 Buy-Ins
10NL 30 Buy-Ins
25NL 35 Buy-Ins
50NL 40 Buy-Ins
100NL 45 Buy-Ins
200NL + 50 Buy-Ins

Cash games aside, a massive accomplishment is the last 2 180 player SnGs I’ve played I’ve finished 3rd in each one! The only thing I’m kicking myself for is the first game was $12 netting me around $250, the 2nd game was only $2 netting me around $45. I was only playing the $2 for some fun and ended up doing really well in it. The new MTT strategy is proving to work much better so far.

The only area left is STT SnGs. Not much movement here at all to be honest. With so much time and focus going onto cash games the amount of SnGs played has dropped. I think I’m completely over all types of double or nothing SnGs, these games have become utterly boring with not the greatest pay-off potential. Unless I was winning a minimum of 3 out of 4 they are hardly worth the time. There is so much more potential in the 9 player ones so I’m back on them.

So that’s it so far, no massive news to report. I haven’t reconciled the month and won’t be doing so until the 28th. Main objective is a month in the black unlike last month.

Custo

My first cash session. (In the Black)

I just completed my first cash session of 4 tabling FR 5NL. Ended up $6.31 59 minute session. I’ll put some stats below that I see most cash players talk about but I still have no clue what they mean, hopefully they are good.



Here's the graph.



I'm looking forward to now going over this with some CC colleagues so I can find out whether I'm doing well or I'm the luckiest donk online.

I have 6 hands below that I really need analyzed. After each vid I will explain my actions so I can learn for the future.

Hand #1

I was trying to bluff but it went wrong and I ended up sucking out majorly on the river. I tried to bluff on the flop, then use the A on the turn so scare opponent, when the river came I figured opponent has come this far surely I'll get called on the river if I shove. Bad play by me I know. Should I have just folded the flop? At least I admit I sucked out I suppose :)



Hand #2

Should I have folded the flop with 2 overs? Did I get lucky here again?

Hand #3

I only overbet the flop & turn cause the board gave a possible draw and let's face it I got a very lucky flop. But once again, did I play this correctly?

Hand #4

I only raised the flop big cause he was a short stack and tried to take it there. Once he checked the flop I figured I'm getting 3:1 and if he hasn't got the A it's mine, if he does oh well, but the odds are in my favor of him not having it, otherwise why didn't he shove the flop?

Hand #5

No word of a lie, I hit the time button after his raise on the flop and almost folded. I had to call, I don't know why but I had to see the turn. I clearly chickened out on the turn but was sure he had either 2 pair or a set, I'll never know. Should I have shoved him after his re-raise on the flop?

Hand #6

Before I justify this hand you need to know that this hand was the very next hand on the same table as hand 5 so my image may have come across like I'm on tilt.

I know I should have re-raised it pre-flop and probably bet harder on the flop. The question is did I chicken out for the right reasons?

Thanks in advance for reading and all commments, criticism, feedback and advice is welcomed, if it wasn't I wouldn't have put such goddam embarrsing hands up lol.

Custo

Results for January 2009.

Start of January 2009 BR = $2448.75
End of January 2009 BR = $2256.24

Overall $242.51 Loss
Bankroll decrease of 7.86%

Where did the money come from or in this case go?
Ring games = $14.48
SnG's = - $254.85
MTT's = - $2.14
Bonuses = $50.00

Well at least I know where I went wrong this month. I spent so much time looking over last years results, outcomes and graphs I’d automatically assumed I could make $xxx for the month without even trying, BOY WAS I WRONG. I still remember January 1st saying to myself, “all I need to do is profit ~$600 and I’m on track.” – 1st mistake!

I’d fallen back into a habit that was meant to stay broken which is not focusing on monetary values. I slipped up, but I’ve identified and rectified it. At the start of the year I raced probably harder than I’d raced before. I don’t have the exact numbers but I spent over $3000 on SnG buy-ins alone. I overplayed my games and I played for some ridiculous sessions 10-12-14 hours per day.

February brings 3 big changes for me.

1. Returning to full time work. This will obviously mean my playing time will be decreased substantially so I’ll probably get in around 2 hours per night.
2. A new and hopefully successful approach to MTT’s. Tried a new strategy last night, or dare I say this morning and had a very nice cash which means I’m $242 in the hole rather than $430 in the hole, couldn’t have come at a better time.
3. Finally starting to play cash games properly. Only step left is to get the HUD up and running and we’ll see what that brings.

Goals for February.

MTT. - I played 29 tournaments this month with 2 cashes, 1 being just ITM and the other 3rd place. I feel I really played poorly this month. The 10 spots of being ITM in the $55 really got me down. I can’t see myself playing as many due to time restrictions but I’m certainly going for some cashes and at least 1 final table.

SnG. – My biggest grinding area at the moment. I’ll continue to 4 table $10-15 games and try and build the SnG bankroll so I’m comfortably able to play the $20 games next month which if played solidly enough is very achievable.

Cash. – God, where o where do I start with this? The first and primary goal is to show a profit. I’ll be 4 tabling 2NL for 60-90 minutes per day with auto-rebuy feature enabled if dropping below 100BB. One of my biggest weaknesses with cash games is because my total BR is a little over 2K, it’s hard to treat the game properly. The reality is because I’ve chosen to run 3 independent bankrolls and the Ring bankroll is only over $100 this is what I must play. I also need to prove to myself as shocking as the play is I’ve been there and I’ve beaten it.

Overall I am disappointed with a negative month but it could be a hell of a lot worse. Last year I had 3 negative months with my biggest loss being 20.02%. Can’t make money every session and I blame my losses on an incorrect mentality which leads to an incorrect approach. I didn’t lose massive amounts in 1 day I just had a lot of bad days. In fact my biggest loss for 1 day was $111.71 or 4.88%.

Februarys key point for me will certainly be “quality over quantity” a complete 180 of what I did this month, let’s see how I go.

To wrap up, what would a post be without at least one picture? Here is this mornings result.

Preparation for becoming a cash game player.

I’ve been playing poker seriously since August 2007. To clarify when I say seriously, not professionally, but with a sound bankroll management system. I started with $1 and built that just over to $100 on .01/.02 by January 2008, then started playing SnG’s and MTT’s.

Since January 2008 I’d dabbled in ring games with absolutely no success, I showed a net loss in this area for all of 2008.

After a dismal performance this month in poker in general, I’ve finally realized that I am going to need to learn how to play cash games effectively if I’m going to be doing this as a profession in the next couple years.

With extensive research now done and a few trial runs on multi-tabling ring games I believe I’ve come up with my ultimate approach to beat cash games.

February 2009 will be a testing ground for me. I have Poker Tracker up and running now and will be getting help with my HUD installation shortly.

My plans are to play 4 tables every day for anywhere between 60-90 minutes. At the end of the month, if I show a profit, hopefully a substantial profit, ill continue with my endeavor. If my new found system fails, I won’t quit, I’ll just have to get some guidance from a successful player at my limit, most probably via CardsChat, I already have the fellow in mind.

I’ll still be multi-tabling my SnG’s to keep my skills up there but February for me is really about proving to myself that I can beat cash games.

I’m setting no type of monetary goal for the month in this area, as I don’t really know what would be considered average, good, great or kick-ass. I just want to grind it out to the best of my ability, show a few other players and get their feedback on things like my BB/100 (whatever that means, I still have a lot to learn).

The end of the day, if I see green I’ll be happy.

Here are a few hands from today’s warm up session.

1 good, 1 bad, and 1 fucking lucky.

The Good.


The Bad.

Seriously, WTF was I meant to do there, do I just cop that one on the chin and move on?

The Fucking Lucky.

I'm buggered if I know if I played this correctly, what do you think?

Can I get kicked in the guts any harder?

This is a vent post and nothing more. Hopefully this is also something to look back on in years to come and laugh my ass off, but right now I'm fucking pissed off.

Felt good last night, felt good when I woke up this morning. Decided to play a Satellite SnG to a MTT that costs $55 on Stars, the nightly seventy grand it's called.

Satellite cost $16.50 with 9 players and the top 2 win a ticket into the game. I couldn't have played better if I'd scripted it and won. Sweet, great start. Spent the next 2.5 hours re-reading my post of my most successful MTT to date (4th out of 1044)

Said to myself this game, no distrations. No alt-tabing between the game and Google, no playing a small SnG on the side for the first hour, no TV out of the corner of my eye.

I played amazingly. I was making great reads, awesome lay-downs, calls and re-raises. Everything was perfect. Until......



This game paid 216 places up. This hand knocked me out 226th.

I could have folded around and easily made it into the money.
I could have un-registered from the tournament and taken the $55.

I know I'm a massive underdog before the flop, but why o fucking why let me flop a Q then turn a K.

This game is harsh, but I'm not giving up. If the game was a $5 one, or I'm properly rolled for these games it would hardly matter as much.

I didn't fold cause I was going for the win, not the cash. I should have waited 10 more places, got a minimum of $90 then gone for the kill.

This was/is the first shot I've taken at a big prize pool since I started playing with BRM, August 2007.

Perhaps, I'm just meant to keep grinding and wait till I'm rolled for games like this.

Custo on the comeback.

Slowly, very slowly infact, but the January curse, or so I thought there was one, has been lifted. I totaled 5 days with no poker when I had my break, funny cause that doesn’t sound like much in the grand scheme of things but it felt like a lifetime as I’m used to playing almost everyday.

I’ve managed to distract myself from all forms of following the progress of my BR. I’ve abandoned all spreadsheets I use for tracking and have been keeping records with nothing more than pen and paper, remember those? I obviously didn’t, you should see my hand-writing! I’m really not looking forward to the 31st as there will be a ridiculous amount of data entry required that day.

I’ve been putting most of my time in ring games aswell since my return. Last years dismal performance in this format of play left me stressed and I always knew in the back of my mind that I will need to learn how to beat these games. I’d hardly say I’m dominating then yet, but I believe I found the biggest gap in my performance, post flop play. With reading so much poker material and watching training videos I’ve been obsessed with pre-flop play but never really taken the time to understand how to play post flop correctly. Crazy I know but I’m attending to that now. I’m not going to tell you how much I’m up until the monthly wrap-up, I don’t even know anyway to be honest. All I do know is that I am playing with a profit and taking things slowly.

I’ve ventured back to my 4-tabling Titan’s Double or Nothing SnG’s. The past 3 sessions I’ve had I’ve won 10 out of 12 so that’s fantastic.

I’m really not concerned if January turns out to be a net negative cash result, I dropped so much so fast, it’s more important to get myself back on track for the long-term rather than playing like a madman trying to prove to myself that I’m a ‘winner’ every month. If I can keep up the gradual growth and get closer to the life-time goal, I’ll be more than happy with that.

At least I don't get this upset.

My god watching something like that makes me feel better. An obvious over-exaggeration but a classic to watch. I'd hazard a guess there are people that actually act close to this level of extremity aswell.

It's been a good break so far, I haven't played for 4 days now and have spent most of today re-reading old favorite articles and blogs. I still may not return for a couple of days until I feel my approach is perfect.

Will be posting again after the first return session.

Taking some time off & need some help.

Ok. I officially don’t know what’s going on. I have now lost everyday for 8 consecutive days. I am down $366.70 across all game types. My confidence is completely shot. I have witnessed so many disgraceful hands it driving me insane.

I won’t say online poker is rigger – because it isn’t
I won’t say I’m the unluckiest person in the world – because I’m not

For 8 days know all I’ve seen is constant AIPF situations where I have KK vs 55 and 5 hits on the flop. I shove the BB from SB with JJ and BB has QQ. I have the good old AKs vs QQ yet no A or K comes. I have 77 with QQ AIPF flop a 7 then watch that 3rd Q on the turn.

I know we all bitch and whine about it but I’ve never seen it last this long and its taken 15% of my entire BR that took me all of last year to build up.

I am off on a small holiday tomorrow for the next few days which couldn’t be coming at a better time. I need a break from poker for a while and regather my thoughts and look at my long term goals & objectives.

Upon my return I will be looking into some training, particularly for multi-tabling low limit SnGs. I had success in these games but still only consider myself an average player. I feel I went from poor to average last year. This year I want to go from average to good, good to great the year after that.

If any of my readers feel they can help please msg me via this blog or CC if you’re a member, I’ll obviously need some verifiable statistics before we start talking. The search for training is not a knee-jerk reaction to the downfall I’m suffering, it’s something I had contemplated last year, but it’s become even more obvious I need it now.

Hopefully, this will be my last bitch vent post for a while.

Thanks for reading and I am interested in hearing back from you if you believe you can assist. Help is always welcomed and rewarded.

Custo

Far King El

I'd never blatantly swear in a title so this is as close as I'm going to get.

2009 sucks so far. Almost everything is going wrong. I'm down $99.41 in 6 days so far. I've had a great attitude at the start and felt I was playing optimal, then the suck-outs started. I can even remember the first hand that started this goddamn downward spiral. All in pre-flop situation on the bubble of a SnG. My AK vs QQ. Flopped a king, turned a king and got rivered with the Queen. OK, that happens, then it didn't stop. Another all in situation in another game, my A4 vs opponent Q4, not the most premium holding but I had him out-chipped by ~ 4 to 1, and of course he catches that Q on the river again.

I think the problem, I know the problem however, I'm trying to make too much too fast. Towards the end of the year I'd contemplated changing my BR requirements. They are 50 buy-ins across all game types. Well, they have changed as per my original thought.

New BR requirements are:
50 buy-ins for ring games
75 buy-ins for SnG's
100 buy-ins for MTT's.

This unfortunately does mean a slight decrease in the SnG's and MTT's I'll be playing, but I know with constant grinding and following the same practices I had last year I'll be back up. It just sucks that this year started the way it has.

I know losing streaks are part of the game, and to help psychologically I have made my buy-in rules a little stricter so is these shocking runs continue my overall BR will decrease at a lesser rate which will in turn not have as much of a negative impact on me.

This is purely a vent post but one I need to make so when I'm multi-tabling $100 games at the end of the year I can laugh my ass off at such a small decrease in comparison to what I will have.

For now, I'm going back with the same approach I took at the start of last year. SLOW DOWN and don't try and be a millionaire within 12 hours. Moving down in stakes will suck, be it's the best move for the long haul.