Custo's Poker Blog - A true Aussie Battler

I simply can’t complain.

2011-04-29T14:33:00.001+10:00

To any US readers that have been affected by black Friday, you have my sincerest condolences. Whilst this has, at this stage, had no negative impacts on me or non US players this atrocity has been felt globally. I wish you all the best and ask you to stay strong, we are all hoping this matter gets sorted out; it truly is the most disgusting thing I’ve witnessed regarding anything I’ve seen with online gaming.

On a personal note, this has given me the wake call I’ve needed for some time now. I’ve whinged and moaned about the game for too long, yet it’s always available for me to play when and where I want. I simply couldn’t fathom the thought of this luxury being taken away from me.

I took my final “shot” at abandoning a bankroll management structure about a month ago and no surprise, busted my role again. I’ve lost count as to how many times this happened over the past 12 months

Given the recent changes I’ve started over with a stringent bankroll management system, basically the same as my original one, but I’m sticking to it. I’ll also be keeping the absolute minimum online to play with, just in case I wake up and Australia loses their rights too.

There will be no reporting on big scores as I’m playing nano stakes, but at least I’m able to play. Growth over the past week has been consistent and I’m very happy with it.

Again, if you have been blocked from playing, I am deeply for you and hope you are able to come to a personal resolution.

For those of us that haven’t been affected, never take for granted what we have and do what you can to help others. No one deserves to have this happen to them!

Sincerest regards,
Custo

Quick modest brag.

2011-03-02T20:35:00.003+11:00

I thought I’d go back to ‘old school’ poker playing and play my 9player turbo STT SnGs, the games I cut my teeth in years ago.

Pic below says it all

8 games 8 cashes. Can’t ask for much more.
I’ve only played 2 sets 4tabling them, like I used to and feel my game is quite strong there. The only question is will I continue to play SnGs or focus on something else?

I also only have a BR of ~$160 which is a little over 20 buy-ins for this limit, this could be potential BR suicide.

But for the time being I just wanted to brag, I mean I haven’t had the opportunity to do that for a while.

I am meeting with a good friend and well respected live cash player tomorrow to hopefully construct a specific and dedicated path so I can get back on tracks and actually try to establish a career, one step at a time.

Will post thoughts on that shortly

Cheers all
Custo

Had my break and ready to rock the micros all over again.

2011-02-20T19:45:00.007+11:00

This post well be, as the children of the internet would say, tl;dr. If you're unfamiliar with that acronym, I’ve discovered a fantastic tool that can decipher any acronym known to man. Select the link below to use it.

Custo’s Super Fantastic Internet Acronym Deciphering Tool

I was reading over previous entries in my blog and surprised as to how many times I’ve tried to “start over”.

I’ll start off by re-capping where I’ve been for the past four months.

I was seriously losing motivation to blog, results wise, nothing exciting was happening. I’d play a tonne, pull some cash out, buy some stuff, and try to grind it back up. I hovered around $100 - $1000 for quite some time, but there was no long term plan or solid goals in mind.

Around September last year I took some part time work writing site news articles for Poker News Daily. I thoroughly enjoyed doing these pieces and had 4 uploaded per week. Aside from the extra pocket money, sometimes it really took up more time than I anticipated. As you may have noticed in the past, being a personal blog, I’m not too fussed with things like correct punctuation and lean towards using a lot of acronyms, tendencies that I had to completely abandon when writing professional articles. This in turn took away a lot of time for me at the tables because when I wasn’t writing, I was researching trying to come up with the most relevant and comprehensive work I could do whilst trying to learn correct writing techniques.

If you are interest in seeing my work they can be found via the link below.

My Poker News Daily Articles

That aside, playing poker I was all over the place. I did everything from 24 tabling 2NL to playing 1KNL heads up (Yes, I played $5/$10 with a bankroll of less than $500)! My breaking point of insane gambling came on Christmas day last year where, once again, I flushed 95% of my net bankroll away on blackjack at Party Poker. It was around December 11th I transferred $225 to Party Poker and started playing $5/hand on blackjack. I managed to run that $225 to over $2,500, then I donked it all off betting up to $500/hand. The almost out of body experience broke me for the final time and I haven’t done anything like it since.

For fun, I spent January doing the most accurate reconciliation of all of my gambling money to see what my net worth currently is at this stage. The numbers are rough but since I started playing online I am up a little over $7,000 from poker but down near $8,000 from blackjack. If only I never fell for the trap who knows what my bankroll would be today, easy 5 figures I have no doubt!

I remember where it all went sour, it was mid 2009, and I’d spent the last 18 months running $1 into $2200. Within a matter of weeks I ran that $2200 into $6000 playing Blackjack at Titan Poker. Thinking I was the luckiest man on the planet I thought I was invincible, until I flushed away almost every cent of it at $500/hand and even one hand betting $1000. I obviously can’t help to think where I would be poker wise if that never happened. I’d graduated from the PokerStars $3.40 SnGs, to the $6.50s and the $16s, beating them for around 12% over thousands of games, I was about to make the jump to their $27s but I decided to flip coins for my net worth.

As dumb as my past actions have been it reminds me of the most important factor, not only can it be done, but I have done it. I know far more that what I did in the past, and with the same amount of discipline and structure, I can do it again.

Bad money management aside, another massive mistake I made was abandoning all of my spreadsheet work once I purchased Poker Tracker & Holdem Manager. I relied on these programs to continue to track my bankroll and in turn lost so much discipline I used to have. I reviewed myself as a player from when I was at my peak and I came up with the following tendencies I need to re-implement in order to become successful again, I need to:
--Play with a solid amount of Buy-ins to determine a level of play
--Manually document every result
--Decrease the amount of tables I play.

The first two will be easy, it’s the last one that concerns me. As of late I’d become somewhat of an action junkie playing the maximum amount of tables I could handle. At my peak as far as multi-tabling is concerned I played 60 tables at the same time of PokerStars Double or Nothing Tournaments, 45 minutes of ~90% folding everything and the rest jamming it in!

Poker as a Parent.
Something I don’t talk about that often but will touch on for a while as it obviously plays a massive factor. For those of you that know me, I work a 40 hour per week job and have 4 amazing children. Time for me is basically a thing of the past. I’ve spent too much time trying to play as something I’m not. Getting inspired by internet kids that grind 10 hours per day. 7 days per week and always come up trumps at the end of the month. I simply haven’t got time to play like that. So I need to approach the game that will suit me and my limited schedule.
There are a few blogs I read of other parents, will fathers only, that grind professionally and I have the upmost respect for them as they all appear to fulfil their parental responsibilities as well as kill the games they are playing. Playing online poker as a parent is a lot harder than it sounds. I can’t sit at my computer for hours on end and grind, frankly I’d rather play Super Mario Galaxy with the kids while they are awake then spend no time with them. So my only time to play is a few hours per night, without driving the misses insane aswell. Really is a juggling act.

Where to now?
Before I get into that I want to touch on one last point. I believe it was late November –early December last year. I had a little over $100, I think around $120, and I was in the process of watching a Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt training video where he was 2 tabling 6max 50NL. I remember about 15 minutes in I thought to myself this is so easy and I understood everything he said and did right away, so I decided to give it a shot. I opened 2 tables of 50NL buying in for 100bb’s with auto top-up turned on and started playing. I spent around 3 weeks doing this, only 2 tables at a time, played over 5,000 hands and won around $500, but as far as enjoying playing poker was concerned, it was one of my highlights. I also played another 5,000 hands of Heads Up 50NL and beat that for a few hundred as well. But the 6max game was where I really enjoyed myself. I look forward to getting back there, but I’ll need a lot more than 2 buy-ins until I try that again. Oh, and if you’re wondering why that successful run came to an end, it was after a few weeks I decided to go from 50NL HU, straight to 1KNL HU, as any intelligent person does.

So, at the moment I have completely busted my Stars account, have $30 bonus dollars at Titan Poker, and $50 at Full Tilt. I’ll take my bankroll as $50 only as I don’t know why I’ve got $30 in my Titan cashier, it might be mine but contingent on some BS rules they decide to throw at me.

I’ve dug up all my old spreadsheet and am in the process of testing all my old formulas to see if they will still work. If you want to see an example of how detailed they were I posted a screen shot when I did my 2008 year in review post which can be found below.

Example of my spread sheet.

I’m planning on playing 1 table of .02/.05 RUSH poker for the main reason it will help me drop my tables and focus on hands, yet still give me the feeling of playing faster than usual. I know 10Buy-ins is risky, but think I’ll be able to grind that back up without too much risk of ruin. I’ll also dabble once again in their micro STT SnGs and micro MTTs.

If you’re still here, well done, and thanks for reading. This is what happens when I leave a blog unattended for 4 months, I ramble on in 1 big brain fart, yet feel I’ve only said 10% of what I’ve wanted to!

Promise to get back into blogging and keep myself accountable playing wise and growing wise, but for now I’m going to bed, I suggest you get yourself a bourbon, because you’ve done good to stick with me for this long, and for that, I thank you.

Night all and be back soon.
Custo

Comment if you’re still reading this!

2011-02-16T13:27:00.000+11:00

I’ll be doing a big return post to revamp the blog this weekend but for the time being am interested if anyone is actually still reading this. So if you’ve enjoyed it in the past I’m keen to know if you’re still reading. Regular updates and news will be coming shortly.

Cheers
Custo

Thanks again PokerStars

2010-10-14T21:24:00.001+11:00

Another invite to a WBCOOP event. Good luck to all bloggers taking part but over the years I've competed I'm way overdue, this one's mine!

Thanks PokerStars!!!

Beginning of the end of online poker?

2010-10-01T10:38:00.001+10:00

NEWSFLASH! I fail on after 2 days from my last post of putting this blog offline! I thought, whilst I won’t be playing, maybe I can still share important news with readers in order to keep active, after all it wont take that long.

I read this last night and found it quite interesting. To me this seems like the biggest impact on the US market since the introduction of the UIEGA and one can only wonder where online poker goes from here?

Here is the article:

PokerStars bans players from Washington State.

Washington State FAQs

Lets hope this isn't a sign of more to come and a permanent move.

Blog offline until early December.

2010-09-29T12:00:00.001+10:00

Not a goodbye, just a pre-emptive message so I don’t get “update comments” after I miss posting for a few weeks. I have a rather important but very time fulfilling “real job” coming up for the next 2 months and by the looks of the workload I’ll be playing barley any poker at all. Perhaps this 2 month break will rejuvenate me? But this is defiantly a +EV life move for me so I’ll see you all in December.

Good luck to everyone at the tables.

Custo

30 and 0

2010-09-12T19:41:00.005+10:00

Here I go again.

Pulled all the previous money out and spent it. I thought how can I start the bankroll? I decided to play the 6max 280FPP games and see how much T$ I can accumulate.

So here it is the before and after shots of a once again, but hopefully final restart of the bankroll.

I feel I ran like crap in these games but I'm no expert in super-turbos, yet.

Wish me luck.

PS. I have a little over 3.5K Full Tilt points so if you are aware of I good way I can use them their I’d appreciate hearing from you as I rarely play there but wouldn’t mind getting back into Full Tilt. I’m obviously looking for something similar to the Stars games I just played.

Goodbye twenties.

2010-09-07T22:31:00.002+10:00

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed but back in 2008 I added a gadget to this blog called “time left until goal” which has a countdown until midnight tonight. Tomorrow, September 8th, I celebrate my 30th birthday and I had a disillusioned dream of being financially free from playing poker. With 1 hour to go I’m sad to say that this won’t be the case. So is this the end? Of course not, it’s just another chapter.

This will be a long post so I’ll be breaking it up into categories. As per usual this is a personal post so don’t expect and professional writing in it, I’m just gonna pout it out like I always do here.

Achievements over the past 2 years.

Well I never had that big score, but I feel I’ve had some damn nice success. In hindsight my best time was when I was a reg in the $16 9player SnG’s. I was beating these games for a little over 7% after 1,000 games. Now I know what any reg will say here (lol, sample size) but nevertheless considering this was done 4tabling I feel it was pretty damn impressive.

I’ve never really had any solid success at cash but cash games is really something I never studied or applied myself to like I didn’t SnGs. A cash game for me was more trying to double my buy-in then GTFO.

As far as MTTs are concerned, as mentioned I can’t brag about anything to big as I really never played anything over an $11 game. My best run was coming 159th out of 18,875 players which was in event #1 at the MiniFTOPS XVI. I’ve one win at the smallest tournament ion PokerStars, yes the 10c 360 player, had a few final tables at games from $2.20-$5.50 but nothing massive. GG Custo!

My faults and downfalls.

If I had to be brutally honest with myself, and I’m sure my friends will agree with this and possibly add more, I’d say I change my strategy WAY TO MUCH. I’ve had tendencies to try to re-invent the wheel the second something goes wrong or I start losing. “Oh, I’ve just lost 10 buy-ins at SnGs so I better go to cash”. “Opps I just lost money at cash so I’ll try double or nothing’s” “Wow double or nothings are poisoned with Chinese bots so I’ll go play super turbos” over and over and over again. I just can’t seem to stick to one format and learn to dominate it, which I am capable of if I just apply myself.

No more shot taking.

This isn’t as much as a permanent problem more just a recent problem. For the past maybe 3-4 months I’ve literally done almost everything a poker player can do. I have:
40tabled $1 DoNs
30tabled $5 DoNs
16tabled $10 DoNs
Single tabled $20 DoNs
16 tables 1c/2c NLHE
Single tabled $2/$4
Played all forms of Mtts from freerolls up to $100s

You name it I’ve done it and all this was done with a BR varying between $50 & $500. I’ve had multiple times where I’ve had my entire BR on a single table. Smart moves yeah?

The dumbest thing I ever did.

Well at least this isn’t poker related but it tells a good story.

When I was playing exclusively at Titan Poker I feel into the trap of being addicted to blackjack! (Yes, that bloody little icon on the bottom corner of the poker table just looked too sexy not to click). I can’t remember if I admitted this publicly but at one stage I was up over $1500 just from $5 & $10 per hand. I thought I was indestructible, until the obvious variance showed its ugly arse. I lost a few hundred in the span of 15 minutes and was furious so I did what any degenerate gambler would do; I tried to get it back in one hand. The table limit was $500 and that is what I placed. I remember the feeling like it just happened a minute ago. I get $500 and hit deal. BANG! KK against dealers 6! I was ecstatic, here I am about to double down and double up! I split as fast as I could move my mouse to see my dreams almost come true, dealt a 10 10. Holy Jesus, I have $1000 on the table with 2 20s against dealers 6. From there, my heart stopped, it happened in slow motion the dealer peeled his 2nd card for the 5, I knew I was fucked! We’ve all seen bad beats coming in poker and I knew it was about to happen to me. I stood up and literally screamed at the top of my lungs NOOOOOOOOOO right as the fucking K feel. $1,000 gone, in a single hand. There I was one of the nittiest players with an over protected bankroll management system to throw 25% of it on a single hand of blackjack. GG Custo?

Much more confidence in the game.

Because the majority of my playing has been at the micro’s and low’s I’ve always had this strange fear on more expensive games. The only good thing I can take about playing games like $2/$4 or $100 mtts is there is still a massive level of retardation at those levels. Obviously less than the micros I play but I really expected the overall game-play to be totally different, when aside from a few key-factors, there really is still an amazing amount of retarded plays there. I remember telling my coach when I was under Team Moshman I wasn’t beating the $5s for a big enough ROI so I should move to the $10s because they will “respect my raises more”. I also remember him politely trying to get the message to me that this thought process is totally wrong. I really think he had to bite his tongue out of fear of bursting out and telling me to STFU and not think like that. Thanks Rob, I now understand. With an adequate bankroll I’ll play any stakes, I actually feel that good about poker.

Personal.

Poker aside, I actually have a bloody amazing life. I’ve been blessed with the girl of my dreams who is my wife of coming on 9 years and 4 perfect children. I have an amazing bunch of friends that would give up there left nut (or nipple for the gals) just to make sure I am happy. I live in a great house and overall have a very prosperous future ahead of me. Life in general I am probably one of the luckiest SOBs you’ll ever meet. I always try my upmost to do the right and honourable thing and hold myself with a high level of integrity. Conquering poker is really the only last thing I want.

Tournament Staking.

I have an idea of how many loyal readers I have and new visitors I get so I’ll put this out now. I know the majority of fellow poker players reading this have BRs of 4 and 5 figures and in 2 cases I’m aware of, 6 figures. To all you guys I’d like to propose this. If you ever want a horse in a small mtt, let me be that horse. Weekends may come and I feel like playing a 1000+player tournament, you buy me in. I lose, you lose. I cash then buy-in back plus 50/50 net profits. I’ll even say the first 3 cashes I have I’ll pay 60/40 net. I’m doing and asking this because I know to a lot of you putting me into a $2.20 tournament wouldn’t even show as a dint in your cashier page but could make so much difference for me if I ran well. I’m also doing this to further gain respect and trust from players I respect. No pressure but I am available and hope to make something good out of it. I’ve already spoken with a couple colleagues and they feel it’s a good idea, because the games they stake me in are less than half the rake they pay in a mtt. If you wish to discuss this further please ether comment on this post or email nick@custo.com.au

Where to from here?

Am I suddenly going to change dramatically over night just because my body clock ticks over another year? Or course not.
Will the poker gods give me some insta run good now? Highly unlikely.
Am I suddenly going to bink a massive MTT and boost the BR so I can play levels I want to? Don’t think so.

The reality is I’m just going to have to suck it up and re-build like I’ve done before. I’ll be taking a little time of from the tables, I’ve already cashed out from PokerStars and I’m just going to chill for a week or so. I’ve basically played every day for 4 years now so I think I small break will do me well. I will periodically be adding to the BR with any surplus income I may stumble upon, but I’m going back to the good old basics of 100 buy-ins for a game.

I’ve abandoned the dream that poker will inevitability set me free in x amount of time but because I have such a passion for the game, I’m just going back to have fun, play my best and enjoy life.

Overall I’m still going to be the same Aussie Battler, just a little but older and hopefully, a little bit wiser.

Happy birthday ME!

Thanks for reading, all you guys & gals rock and are my reason I continue to blog.

Peace
Custo.

Quick bankroll update

2010-09-04T11:31:00.004+10:00

Have been feeling good about my game recently but not playing with any form of BRM the past few weeks. Is this what happens when one abandons a complete disregard of money? Possibly, but I won't keep it up because I'm literally shitting myself every hand I play.

With $500 I can begin to build again a lot easier than with $100, the only burning question I still have to answer is what am I going to play?

I have a personal post I'll be making in the next couple days where I'll go a little deeper into what I think is the right move for me.

But for the time being I'm pretty happy about going from $100-$500 in a relatively short time frame.

Daleroxxu’s player interviews; GET ON IT!

2010-08-31T09:59:00.002+10:00

Just a quick post to plug a player I have huge respect for Daleroxxu.

Dale has been kind enough to interview some of the best online poker players in the world and made these available for anyone to listen to.

In my opinion these are the best interviews I’ve heard because they are real, no bullshit to any of them. Dale asks the most down to earth and relevant questions any aspiring online player would want to hear.

Dales interviews to date are:
Jhub3000
Jonathan Little
MI Turtle
Spacegravy
TheLipoFund
Wazz.

I won’t offer the links here, go and check out his blog and you’ll be find links to all of them on the right hand side under “Daleroxxu Interviews”.

Dale has been in the online circuit for some time and his achievments include a winning the main event of the 2006 WBCOOP and he has been crushing SnGs for years now. He is currently ranked 19th for all Double or Nothing SnGs with buy-ins ranging from $36-$100 but I’m sure if he played more he’d easily be higher than that.

If you’ve not heard them get over there and download, they are an awesome listen.

Thanks for sharing Dale.

Custo

Thanks again Anonymous!

2010-08-26T20:40:00.000+10:00

Well yet again I have failed to update regularly enough and been reminded to do so. I’d love to know who you are Mr or Mrs Anonymous, but thank you again for reminding me and please note my update is up less than 24 hours of your comment.

Unfortunately I haven’t got a lot to report on at least not for another month or so.

I’ve double up the BR since I last posted so yay for me! I’ve done this via micro stakes cash & HU SnGs, really enjoying the HU SnGs but not so much the cash, I really think I’ve engrained tournament forms of poker on myself. I don’t know what it is I just cant seem to get down with cash and the only success I had was short-stacking which is hardly a long term prospect I wish to pursue.

Been flat out with work (non poker realted) and a few poker related projects which I’ll be sharing shortly, hopefully be the end of next month. But since my last post which was a little over 2 weeks ago I’ve probably played less than 5 hours.

I know this is a sucky update so bear with me. Will have some good and longer news to report early-mid September. Really just making this post so you all know I’m still here

Cheers
Custo

Bookmark this post (Aug 10 2010)

2010-08-10T21:19:00.006+10:00

I have me a plan. Going into details of it shortly but really wanted to use this post as a bookmark.

Here's the updated BR.

Don't ask how it came about.

Pretty baller huh!

I'm quite down on myself for the lack of updates but with this (plan) being put into effect within the next 5 minutes after I hit publish post, I will be updating more regularly like I used to.

I have a tonne to talk about, but not tonight. Just use this post as a bookmark for a turning point.

Custo

Starting over.

2010-07-18T22:21:00.004+10:00

I’m going to grind the 210FPP 20 player satellites to earn as much T$ as I can then sell it off to start a bankroll.

I haven’t got much to say at the moment.

But will do in the next couple of days.

I’ve made many decisions and uncovered many truths about my game and I look forward to sharing them with you shortly.

But for now, bookmark this post, it may be worth looking back on in times to come because aside from the FPPs, this time I start with nothing except my will to win.

Custo

No poker depression posts today, let's just lol together.

2010-07-14T23:00:00.002+10:00

Since the past 2 posts have been rather depressing, well at least that's what I'm finding after re-reading them, I thought I'd share a video with you that made my laugh. Not the funniest thing on youtube, but certainly worth the watch if you've not seen it.

I have some poker news, but we'll talk about that tommorow. For now enjoy the vid.

I have to give the youtube link, for some reason when I use the embed code on the blog I only get about half the screen in. (Any computer techy people reading this care to tell my why?)

Spoiler @Dr.G, you sent me this.

Cheers
Custo

High Five Etiquette

Break starts now! I’ve hit rock bottom!

2010-07-13T21:37:00.000+10:00

You suggested it, so I’m doing it. I’m taking my first break from poker in I don’t know how long it’s been, 2 years, 3 years, I really don’t know?

Since the last post I felt like such a degenerate player it’s absurd and I’ve lost all respect for myself, it really sucks. This is so hard to admit and I hope I grow from it but I am at the lowest of lows right now. Poker actually hurts, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, I can not think of I positive reason why I should open a game after posting this.

Feels like everything I touch goes wrong. I won’t even talk about bad beats because frankly I’m sick of saying them, and people are sick of hearing them. Unless I flop a straight flush and lose to a runner runner royal I’ll just shut up. Really now one gives a fuck anymore about your nut flush losing to that river 1 outer.

3 days after the last post I 16 tabled 5NL, got up about 3 buy-ins in 15 minutes, then lost I hand which was set over set, and from that moment in the next 10 minutes dropped 13 buy-ins. From there I went straight to 200NL and shortstacked until I went broke. That 1 hand of set over set threw me over the bridge. That’s my state of mind, I’ll lose 1 good hand to a genuine unavoidable cooler, then blow 100% of my roll.

I have just over 8,500 VPPs on Stars and just over $100 in an online gateway account.

I have an idea of what I’m going to do, but I need to walk away from playing at the moment.

Poker is just a massive drop-kick to the guts for me right now. If I could turn around time I would never have drawn my entire roll 18 months ago when I built to over 4K from $1. It would have been better for me to get a credit card or loan than pull my bankroll. It is so hard on my ego to go back to playing for pennies. But with bankroll management and $100 I will have no choice.

What also hurts and makes it so hard for me to play an A game is seeing friends at levels miles beyond me, reading other blogs about people playing/making hundreds or thousands per day while I’m playing the lowest games around. Envy really is one of the 7 deadly sins! I will clarify immediately by saying I am happy for every single friend/blogger I have that plays big games and makes good, very good money, so if you are reading this, which I know some of you are please excuse me, you know me well enough that I wish you all the good fortune in the world. I just wish I had a little.

The only other thing I will say is this is not the end and it is not an admission of quitting. I just need to immerse myself back into work, which starts shortly, leave poker alone, collect my thoughts, and come back motivated and happy.

If you have one of those brainwave ideas I’m all ears, I don’t know when I’ll post again, but I won’t leave it as long as I did last time.

Thank you to all people that commented on the last post and thank you again for reading.

I will be back…….

But for now, I’m off.

Peace
Custo

Last night I played 400NL with a BR of $150!

2010-07-06T00:46:00.003+10:00

What? 3/8ths of 1 buy-in isn’t enough to take a shot you say?

The title may give you an idea where I’m at right now.

Fuck it! Might as well be honest.

Everything has been going downhill from the moment I decided to grind Double or Nothing SnGs. This was inspired by a professional Double or Nothing grinder I respected and thought I hadn’t paid enough attention to this format of game type. I also thought it would be the easiest and quickest way to re-build a bankroll to around 5K where I can play a little more freely.

Below is the graph of games played this year. Don’t worry, I’ll walk you through it.

First few games played some $20s HU, smart move right.

From about games 50 – 1000 I was 16 tabling $5 DoNs. No help or coaching just using common sense.

Approx. game #1000 was an mtt score courtesy of time with BuffySlayer.

From games 1000 – 2500 joined Team Moshman. Hindsight, biggest mistake I’ve made this year. Not to say anything bad about them, nor say anything bad about getting coaching in general but I was on track and doing fine. I basically tried to re-invent the wheel. All I ended up doing was abandoning everything I was doing and went on an emotional downswing the whole time.

From about games 2500-2600, against my coaches advice and truthfully common sense I stopped playing the $5s & started playing the $10s. Playing the way I used to before I started coaching. Of course I had success doing that.

From about games 2600-3800, played a mix of $5s $ $10s under Team Moshman. Anywhere from 10-30tables per session.

From game 3800-5000, 30-40 tabled the $1s, yes the $1s. Why $1s? Well I’ve been drawing on the bankroll a few times this year, around 8 I think since January. $500 out here and $250 out there. For what its worth, prior to starting the $1s I had terminated the agreement with Team Moshman. I didn’t think they would see benefit in me playing 100s of these games per day, even at +10% ROI.

So why did I stop the $1s, aside from the obvious I mean. About 10 weeks ago I got a random email from PokerStars.

The email, which I have received in the past, was informing me that I’ve been a victim of collusion and they have refunded my buy-in for the tournament that this took place in. Thanks PokerStars.

What not only made me sick to my stomach and also confused the absolute fuck out of me is that this took place in a $1 Double or Nothing tournament! Really? Are you fucking serious? There are people in the world that need to conspire to beat other people out of ONE FUCKING DOLLAR. What the fuck is going on? I totally understand cheaters at high levels, screwing people over for tens of thousands of dollars, that makes sense, nothing I’d ever dream of doing but at least it makes sense. But seriously, there are people out there that are cheating in $1 games. It was after that email I was simply left scratching my head wondering what is happening in the world of online poker.

To add salt to the wound, these games, honestly, they’re not poker,

FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD
Shove 5 big blinds at 100/200 blind vs blind and hope opponent isn’t holding a 20% calling range.

It was only a year ago or so where I was playing the 9player $16s quite successfully, playing 4 tables and actually making good decisions.

I’ll admit it, DoNs poisoned my brain and have made me somewhat forget how to play poker. It is possibly one of my biggest mistakes I’ve ever made.

All this leads to my next point, what have I been doing the past 10 weeks. Well, this is my most degenerate story to date as far as a poker career is concerned. There is pretty much nothing I haven’t been doing. I have lost all sense of direction as far as what I am trying to do.

Primarily I’ve been short-stacking 25nl, and funnily enough, really successfully. For those of you that follow this blog you know I rarely play cash games. Below is the graph of recent results taken from PTR.

So I’m making some money yeah, but I’m really not enjoying it. Over the past 10 weeks I’ve been:
24 tabling 2nl
4 tabling 5nl
Single tabling 10nl – 200nl (and of course 400nl last night)
Single tabling plo 2 – plo 100
Playing any form of mtt low buyin of course.
But basically I have been playing anything and anytime and on any site.

I feel I’ve lost all sense of direction, no routine, no purpose, nothing.

So this begs the question, where to from here?

From here, I’m reviewing my blog, I’m going back to read over when I was not only successful but happy, because short-stacking 25nl and mass tabling DoNs is no fucking poker life for me, I’ll quit before I do that.

I apologise if this post has been full of rambles, but I suppose the content matches the current mood.

I am proud that through all this I still can say I’ve not gone broke nor done something ridiculously stupid, actually, playing 400nl last night was pretty dumb so I’ll re-phrase with I haven’t done anything really ridiculously stupid : )

Oh and for what is worth, I lost around $80 in 15 minutes, then shortstacked 200nl for 30 minutes and got like $45 back.

Comment people, talk to me.

Lastly from this point forward, anonymous comments without a name left will be deleted. If you don’t have a Google account and wish to comment then either
A ) get a Google account or
B ) leave your name when you comment.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to bringing some more uplifting posts shortly

Custo

Updating in 48 hours!

2010-07-03T22:40:00.000+10:00

Well it’s been a good 6 weeks or so since my last update and in that time I’ve now been asked on PokerStars tables, Email, AIM, Skype, Mobile and in person about when I’m updating (Mr. Popular or what) lol.

Anyways, to my readers, friends and fellow players I do apologise for the lack of content recently.

I’m only posting this now because I actually have a ****load to say. Some good and some bad but by posting this now I am committing to updating within the next 2 days

Oh and it will be quite long to so be prepared for quite a read.

I will share one thing with you now…….actually stuff it! You can wait another 48 hours. :)

Good luck me!

2010-05-16T22:36:00.000+10:00

Well, the low main event of the SCOOP starts in a little over 8 hours so I’m off to bed now.

I’ve decided given all the advice given to treat this game like any other and just play it. Forget the buy-in! If I bust, I lose nothing. If I min-cash, I’m up a couple hundred, if I win, I turn my life around for the better.

Wish me luck because I reckon I’ll need it.

I’ve been saving my “1 time” the past week and I hope that pays off.

If I can just run good in this event, oh please, let me run good!

The reason I’ll always stay at PokerStars.

2010-05-08T12:46:00.002+10:00

Recently PokerStars held a competition for all bloggers to write specific articles for them and in return all bloggers that did this got a $22 ticket into a SCOOP event and the best 50 bloggers got a $109 ticket.

My first article was this one

Consecutive 180 player tournaments, both ITM!

I worked quite hard on this and followed all the required guidelines that were set out.

Through an unfortunate problem with communications there was an error between me and PokerStars and the article was never noticed.

A few days before the SCOOP started I sent a follow up email asking what the next step was and it was discovered that my original notification of the email sent was overlooked.

Through no-ones intentional fault PokerStars immediately rectified the problem by issuing me the $22 ticket for completing the article and a $109 ticket for writing one of the better posts.

I was quite upset when I found out that my original article was never seen but due to the overwhelmingly superb reputation PokerStars have they fixed everything with 24 hours of the issue being raised.

It is reasons like this that I have been and will continue to be a loyal player/customer with them.

I’ve had similar problems like this in the past with other networks and it ALWAYS has fallen of deaf ears.

I sincerely thank PokerStars for fixing this so fast and with that I am finally taking my shot at a big game.

As I’ve been issued a ticket and not tournament dollars I have no choice to play a game so I’ve entered into the low game of the SCOOP main event.

Finally after so many years of grinding micro stakes tournaments’ I am able to play a huge game and ‘take that shot’ I’ve been waiting for.

I’ll be spending every day leading to this event playing micro stakes mtts just to practice my play. The only problem I’m finding is playing for example a 50c mtt with 2000 people I get into spots where I ask myself “Would these people plat like this if it was a $100 game?” and I keep answering no. However I haven’t played a game so big for several years now so I really don’t know. Maybe there is a heap of donks that play and make moves as bad as they would in micro games?

I can already assume that a large portion of the field will be satellite qualifiers but I also assume there will be some serious solid grinders that are leaps and bounds ahead of me.

I am undecided on my approach towards the game at this stage. It’s either super-conservative trying to make the money then climb levels, or do I just take this opportunity to go for it all, which is statistically very difficult. With my current bankroll after a few withdrawals the buy-in alone represents over 20% of my money so even just cashing in this instance would help tremendously. On the flip side of that I can’t see myself having an opportunity to play in a $1 million prize pool again too soon. So you can see how I am quite torn on which approach to take.

One thing I swear, should I run good in this game I’ll never whinge about bad beats and suck outs again lol. Hell I’ll take 4 years of crap just to run well in this game.

Interested in your feedback and welcome to any advice if you are experienced in these types of games.

To the poker gods if you are reading this all I have to say is……. ONE TIME!
(Promise I’ll never say it again :) )

Thanks for reading and again thank you to PokerStars for giving me this opportunity to play and finally have the chance to take down something big.

Custo.

Results for SCOOP Event 8 low.

2010-05-05T17:50:00.001+10:00

Should be happy, but I’m not. Another min-cash and the standard bullshit hand occurred.

This happened about 15 minutes after the money bubble burst.

Don’t blame the opponent at all for the move just so disappointed to get it in as a 80%+ favourite and lose this far into the game. Had I have held up I would have been in the top 100 of over 2500 players left.

That hand aside, I felt I played great and am proud to have made it so far. Just wish KK held for me because it would have been a damn big run and maybe given me the opportunity to finally play some decent stakes whilst still using bankroll management.

PUMA HARD CHORUS UNITED KINGDOM

2010-05-02T15:19:00.004+10:00

Happy Valentines love. Bit late but this is pure gold.

Well done boys

I must be rusty at STT SnGs or the gods just aren’t smiling down at me today.

2010-04-26T15:46:00.000+10:00

Not to sure why but I decided to 4table some STT SnGs today.

Been a while since I played them as I’ve been playing thousands of DoNs recently. That updated report will come soon but for now I just want to whinge.

So bask in the glory of what it’s like to be f***ed over in 4 consecutive games.

Obvious top set no good

Naturally run into aces against a person who’s 100/60 after 5

Another donk who’s min-raised every pot wakes up with an over pair BVB

3 outer me, yeah sure, why not?

I’ve suddenly remembered why I 16 table and pay no attention to this constant shit.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while.

Will come back with GOOD NEWS soon about the Team Moshman progress and DoN grinding.

Why can’t the better hand just hold up?

2010-04-10T14:08:00.001+10:00

I suppose I was only like 57% favourite but why let the flop hit me and then take it away.

Meh, least it’s a nice ROI for the morning.

Maybe this post is just a small brag for the morning :p

Interpret however you wish, but I’m happy & sad at the same time.

I’m officially banned from all cash games at PokerStars.

2010-04-08T23:07:00.006+10:00

After 3 weeks of just taking an absolute battering at the $5 Double or Nothing games and spiralling into an uncontrollable depression about it I did what any degenerate dumb gambler would do and started playing cash games, smart move Custo.

I won’t bore you with the details but I went from +$200 in cash in less than a week to I think a negative figure, I’m not sure, I don’t want to look at it but it probably is. I ran hotter than ever when I started then once it went to my head I started believing I can stack off 80bb deep with bottom pair against anyone cause I am better and they are just making a move…..then they call me with queens full.

I’ve not blatantly spewed of so much money like this for a while and it just sucks. So what’s the solution? No more cash games.

I saw PokerStars have an option for a “self-ban” from certain game types so I have banned myself from logging into any form of cash game there is. To be honest, it feels great. I’ve only spewed of cash coming of the back of a bad run in tourneys. If I didn’t run bad I would never have played cash. By doing this I have no option but to focus only on what I want to get better at.

Now granted the self ban can be lifted after 24 hours by emailing support but honestly if I go on uber monkey tilt its not like I’m going to email Stars, sit at the computer for 24 hours and then spew more money. So it stops me from jumping ship immediately and losing so much more.

Anyways here’s my proof, although I’m not really posting this for proof, more as my own bookmark so I can remember in years to come when I’m one of the worlds best tournament players and remember that it all happened because I finally said “no more” to cash games and started to pay attention to 1 form of poker.

So too all you cash sharks out there, you can no longer have my money :)

To all your tournament grinders, I’m coming!

End of 2nd week coaching with Team Moshman.

2010-03-30T13:04:00.002+11:00

12 months ago if you told me I would play over 800 DoNs in 2 weeks for no profits I would have told you to %^&* off

However, as I've repeatedly said, this is a long term process.

As far as week by week is concerned I had a much better week than I did last week. I am still at an overall loss though, even though I am 20BIs below EV.

As far as volume is concerned I’ve tried & tested multiple things since starting. I’ve gone from:
16 tabling single sets
20 tabling single sets
16 tabling 50 games continuous
20 tabling 50 games continuous
16 tabling 2 hours straight
16 tabling 3 hours straight
10 tabling single sets

I’ve found for me, that my best results are coming from 10 tabling single sets. Playing mass tables continuously is a lot harder than it sounds. Not only do you have multiple games that are bubble played with blinds @ 300/600, at the same time you have multiple games where the first hand is being dealt. So the attention to detail is so paramount. 1 wrong click can stuff everything up.

What makes it even harder is once 2 or so hours have passed and I haven’t lifted my butt from my computer chair physical pain beings. My back starts to ache, my eyes get strained and holding a mouse with 1 hand and having my index finger over the “y” key (for folding) makes my hands feel like they are about to become moulded into an un-natural shape.

So for the time being I will continue to 10table which is simply stacked 5 tables top left, 5 tables bottom right. It’s also interesting that even though there are 10 games going, my critical thinking time has increased exponentially allowing me to make those more solid decisions as opposed to just clicking away. So for me to hit my target I’ll have to play 40 sets per week, not too difficult.

I wont lie, but I’m still struggling folding, what I consider monsters, at the start of the game, but it’s becoming more obvious why it is correct to fold hands like AKs & QQ at the start.

So I’m at 830 games in so far and still at a monetary loss, I did have a brief moment where I was in the black 

I’m feeling super comfortable with the number of games going and decision making process.

This is proving to be one of the hardest grinds I’ve ever done, only because I’m at a financial loss. But I do feel within the next month we’ll all see something substantial.

But without further adieu, here is the graph from the start.

Disconnected whilst 20tabling! FML

2010-03-24T22:29:00.002+11:00

It’s probably the 3rd time I’ve been disconnected in my life so I really can’t complain to much, plus the circumstances in which it happened is unfortunately totally my fault .
I play 2 stacks of 10 tables, 1 stack top left and 1 stack bottom right. I keep my mouse in a position where it’s always over both tables so when I table pops up I can quickly hit fold on the keyboard (I’m basically folding 90%+ of my hands now)

There is a stupid link on the top left of all PokerStars tables for the turbo takedown. If you click the link it opens up a webpage. The problem is running HEM, Table Ninja, PokerStars lobby and 20 tables is stretching my computer to its limits.

I basically moved the mouse accidently and mis-clicked, clicking on the webpage link and Firefox tried to open but the commuter crapped itself. So everything completely froze and I was forced to have to reboot, which for me takes around 5 minutes, maybe a few more.

By the time I came back online my remaining tables were down to around 2-3 BBs everywhere, plus I’d lost a couple. What obviously makes matters worse was the fact this happened mid/late game. If it was early game I would have probably just missed levels 10/20 & 15/30 where I’m basically folding everything so it wouldn’t have mattered as much, but of course it had to happen at the later stages. $%^&

Anyways, that’s really upset me so I’m taking a break tonight.

Here’s the graph so far.

End of first week’s coaching with Team Moshman.

2010-03-23T10:34:00.002+11:00

It just struck me that I’ve only been posting updates in CardsChat and not here. Whoops, will post in both places moving forwards.

If you wish to follow the progress there please click link below.

I’ve joined team Moshman. This will be my progress thread
Please note that registration to cardschat is reuqired so if you are not a member quickly sign up to follow and put "custo80" in the referal section.

Anyways, had an absolutely abysmal week, the worst start I could have imagined. This only happened due to me completely misinterpreting good advice and implementing it the wrong way.

My first weeks graph is below and hopefully as you can tell by the last 100 games or so, I’m starting to figure it out correctly again.

Sorry for the lack of updates and stay tuned.

I’ve joined team Moshman. Coaching starting shortly.

2010-03-15T13:33:00.001+11:00

As of today, I am officially receiving coaching from team Moshman. If you haven’t heard of Collin Moshman, well I don’t know what you’re doing following poker blogs.

I contacted the management team via their website http://collinmoshman.com/ and applied for a coaching deal. Within 24 hours I was contacted and an offer put on the table. The original deal was that I play 400 $5 double or nothing tournaments per week and pay 50% of net profits for a period of 6 months.

Without much time I quickly asked to re-negotiate these terms as 6 months of half my profits is far too long for me. So I suggested I’ll play 6,000 games which I aim to have finished n 2 months and still pay 50% of my net profits. Without hesitation they accepted this and I signed the contract last night.

As I am writing this I have played just over 1,300 games this year for a net result of 6.8% ROI which is .5% under EV. I strongly feel that 6.8% ROI is quite bad for the $5 level. Clearly I must expect to have a slightly lower than average ROI as I 16table these games in sets of 50 at a time. I’m sure if I was 4tabling them I’d have a higher result due to being able to concentrate more and make perhaps better decisions as opposed to just going through the motions. But, on a personal note, I only have one objective at the moment and that is to rebuild my bankroll as fast as humanly possible.

I’m sincerely hoping after some coaching and critiquing of my game I can be at 10%+ ROI playing in exactly the same manner. From there start to move back up the levels.

What I found most attractive was their policy of “No win, No Fee”. I have had a coaching session before at the rates of $65/hr from a private coach and whilst it was good there is only so much one can learn from a one hour session. I need something on-going. I’m hoping this will be easy for the team to help me develop as I can at least say I am a “marginal winning” player.

In this thread I will share what I am learning and post my results of the 6,000 games I play for the duration of the agreement. If all goes well, I look forward to hopefully becoming an integral part of their team.

Collin Moshman’s reputation is self explanatory and in my eyes, legendary. So it’s very safe for me to assume that anyone within that circle can achieve successful results.

Feel free to ask questions and I hope you enjoy as much as I will the journey that is about to start.

Custo

Result for MiniFTOPS Event #1

2010-03-12T12:05:00.005+11:00

So close.

So bloody close.

I came 159th out of a field of 18,875 players. Aside from the Sunday 1/4 million at PokerStars, this is the biggest field I’ve ever played in.

I got very fortunate in the early stages min raising with pocket 5s and the flop came 885. Here is the hand.

So this really set me up well given me over 130 big blinds to work with.

I thoroughly enjoyed the structure that Full Tilt offer in this game. 5000 starting chips with the blinds starting at 10/20. I’ve not played a great deal of deep stacked poker but was very comfortable with it.

I ended up playing for around 7 hours and cashed for a little over $200. I never actually intended to play this event but my good old friends Icemonkey offered to stake me with the conditions of if I bust out I pay nothing and if I cash I pay back the buy-in plus 55% of net profits. So I was happy to make some money for myself and my friend.

The event was full of Full Tilt Pros and at one stage I was on the table with Lee Watkinson.

Funnily enough Lee raised my blinds 3 times on the table and since he’s a pro, he had to have something. Right?

It does hurt to miss out on $55,000+ that was awarded for first place but once again I am proud of my accomplishment of running so deep.

I am going to look closer at the rest of the MiniFTOPS events and decide on what else to play. I'll also start playing to satellites at Stars and try and get into some SCOOP events.

Lastly I would like to say thanks to everyone at CardsChat that was on the rail for me for several hours last night. It meant a lot and really appreciate everyone’s support. Hopefully I can bring you better results shortly.

Here is the rail thread:

Rail for Custo

That's it for now.

Custo

Brag: Consecutive 180 player tournaments, both ITM!

2010-03-10T14:25:00.002+11:00

Well things are gradually picking up for me. I’ve been trying to stay as consistent as possible with respect to the types of games I play and it is working out better than expected.

I have always noticed that the best online players were generally logged in at the same times and playing exactly the same games and number of tables. So recently I have been 16tabling the $5 DoNs for 2-3 hours at night time and playing some 180s and mtts in the mornings.

I am hoping to extend my playing time at night to 4-5 hours just to get through more volume. I have noticed something that really shocked me. Just out of curiosity I visited SharkScope to view the top 20 players in Double or Nothing games with cost from $2-$5 and to my surprise a lot of the players have either slightly higher, the same and in some cases a lower ability score as me. The stand out difference is they all have around 10,000+ games played and I’m at around 5,500 at the moment. I’m seriously wondering now that I am increasing my volume and not diverting from the type of game I play if I will make the top 20 in the category. I would consider that a major brag. Whilst the game isn’t exactly rocket science I think to be considered in the top 20 of any type of game is something to be proud of. I wonder how many people that is out of. Must be thousands.

Anyways, let’s get back to the title subject.

First off, I am becoming even prouder of my poker playing ability. I’m feeling more comfortable, making better decisions, and yielding better results.

I attribute this to 2 main things at this stage.

1: My purchase of TableNinja.
2: That one session I had with Jamie.

Now with TableNinja I no longer think of playing a set of games of being able to lose x and need to win y in order to have a good session. I’m paying less attention to my all-in hands with is allowing me to make better decisions with whatever I am faced with at the time. Previously, if I was playing 16 games and I was all in pre flop with KK, I’d quickly drag the table up so I can always see it and watch the play. If I was called by QQ and saw the Q flop I’d instantly become upset and aggravated which in turn affects my play until I’ve gotten over it. If I was knocked out of a game I’d begin to say to myself “Well, I’m playing 16, just lost 1, have 15 left, so need at least 9 out of 15 to show a profit for this session”. Thinking like that is a recipe for disaster. The logical side of me knows this but the emotional side outweighs logic more often than not.

Now I’m of the opinion, “I’m going in with the best hand and whatever happens, happens. Let it be and focus on the next hand which is waiting for me". The other benefit is when a DoN gets down to 6 handed and on the bubble, when the game is over it simply closes without me knowing if I’ve won it or not, so I really have no idea what is happening whilst I play. All I have to do is focus on playing A+ poker and the rest takes care of itself.

Ok, now I’ll get on to the title subject.
(Have I been rambling too much again?)

Consecutive 180 player tournaments, both ITM!
Pretty cool stuff.

I actually played 4 games this morning. 1 which was the $2.75 mtt with over 7,000 people and 3 $4.40 180s alongside that.

I missed the cash in the $2.75 and 1 of my $4.40s. To be truthful I wasn’t paying as much attention to them as I should have because I was to focused on what was happening in the other games.

1 game I was in the top 20 of chips for the whole game and the other I had won a coin flip to put me in top 10 with around 50 players left.

In fact the game that I was in the top 20 for I was actually 1 out of 179 after 2 minutes when my QQ held up against AK all in pre flop. Always helps, thank you PokerStars.

I’ve had multiple ITMs while playing 9 player SnGs more times than I can count, but I’ve never done it at the same time in a 180 player SnG.

See for yourself.

Can you tell by now that I like pictures? Pretty cool huh!

Yet alas, this was about as good as it got. I finished 13th in the one I was short stacked in on the right and 7th on the left after I called an all in with QQ vs AJ and watched that lovely A drop on the flop, once again, thank you PokerStars.

Once again, I'm left with mixed emotions. I am upset with no win but from a personal growth perspective my game is finally approaching a new higher level.

This is justified not only by today’s results but also the following previous posts I've made last month and this month here:

February 18th 2010 won a 18 player SnG after being down to less than 1 blind.

February 22nd 2010 came 2nd in a $2.20 180 player SnG.

February 22nd 2010 came 6th in another $2.20 180 player SnG.

March 3rd 2010 had the highest cash ever in a $3.30 2000+ player mtt.

So my begging question is, am I simply on a heater? My answer is unequivocally NO. I am becoming a better player and so I should be for all the time, studying and training I've had over the years.

I’m still quite some way from the top but it feels damn good to know within myself I am getting better, admittedly probably slower than most people but its getting there.

For anyone that is of the belief that luck really is a factor and determines out outcomes in this game I can now really laugh in your face because for all I’ve gone through and where I am going now playing poker is clearly a game of skill.

And I'm getting better as each day goes on.

Custo.

Correlation isn't necessarily causation?

2010-03-05T11:31:00.002+11:00

To quote a comment left on my recent post I wanted to explore this statement and get other opinions.

Here is the quote:

“Just remember, correlation isn't necessarily causation.

There might not be a relationship between your finish and any change in your play style - you only have a few data points so far. Also there might not be a relationship between a change in your play style and that win.

...or there might be?

This also applies if you have some big losses with no wins for a while. It doesn't necessarily mean that there is anything wrong with your play - just keep at it.

Think long term.”

So the question is can I account this recent success as a result of my paradigm shift or is it just a massive coincidence that I happened to have the best finish of my life 2 days after the sweat session?

Well I think I’ll put this to a personal test.

The Test.

I intend to play 100 mtts with buy-ins ranging from $2.20 - $11 with field sizes of 500+ and 15 minute blind levels. I will not put any form of timeline on it as my intention is not to rush this and I’m not an mtt grinder. I will only play these at PokerStars and only play when I feel like it.

I am hoping with this new style of play to have an ITM rate of 10%+ and at least 1 final table. I will not revert back to my old approach of shutting down if I get close to the money and I’m average on chips and I will continue to play for the final table then the win.

I do have to consider the fact that I may have 0 ITM finishes and have accepted that fact, although I’ll be very surprised if that was to happen.

Once 100 mtts have been completed I will have all results made available and we will see just of this new approach have improved my game long term.

I am very interested in everyone’s feedback and will regularly update on results as I get through the games.

Custo

Sweat session with Buffslayer and 2 days later I have my career high mtt cash!

2010-03-03T10:08:00.003+11:00

Warning: Longest post I’ve ever done so you might want to make a cuppa before you start to read. :)

I have so many mixed emotions about this post I am actually struggling t articulate what I wish to say.

A few weeks ago a fellow poker player by the name of Buffyslayer1 was kind enough to start a thread on 2+2 offering 5 player that are struggling with there mtt games some assistance. After contacting Buffyslayer he was generous enough to say yes to me and offer some of his time and expertise.

We arranged a time for me to watch him play some mtts and I feel it has completely changed my entire approach as to how I play these games.

I watched him play 4 mtts, for memory they were:
$3.30 > 2000 players
$5.50 2 rebuys & 1 add-on > 1000 players
$11 rebuy > 2000 players
$55 > 1000 players

We were speaking about all sorts of strategies and tactics used to get through these large fields and making it to the final table.

One of the biggest leaks in my mtt game is the “In The Money Bubble”. Something I’ve had fear of for far too long.

My general mentality with any form of mtt is simple. If we are around 100 spots from the money bubble and I feel I have enough chips to make it but not enough to take shots and try to build my stack, I simply end up blinding out and min cashing. The reason I always do that is I keep thinking “I’ve already played for 2-3 hours and I want to get something back". The problem I also faced is by the time I make the money I’m generally down to less than 5 big blinds and have no real chance or growing my stack back up to run deep.

So the main thing I’ve completely changed about my game is not even considering the money bubble, in fact as Jamie said (Jamie = Buffyslayer1) “There is no such thing!” There is only a final table bubble.

This session happened on a Saturday morning my time. The next day I opened 8 Mtts, 5 of PokerStars and 3 on Titan poker and had the following results.

Titan Poker
$5+$1 titan double. Lost AIPF KK<1010, villain flopped a 10
$5+$1 titan double. Simply lost.
$5.50 > 600 players. Busted 7 spots from the money which I didn’t know at the time AIPF QQ < 77 as villain flopped a 7. In this particular game I had around 30 big blinds and was more than healthy to cruise into the money but because I didn’t pay attention to how many spots were left I took my shot with a clearly stronger hand an got unlucky. Obviously if my hand held up I would have been in fantastic shape to run very deep in the game.

PokerStars
$11 Sunday 1/4 million. I overplayed KJ on K42 board and ran into KQ within the first 30 minutes. Mistake on my behalf.
$2.20 >5000 players. Busted 22 spots from the money after it checking to me in BB and I had J3 on AJ3 board. Obviously villain in SB had A3 and we both got it in on the flop.
$2.75 > 7000 players. Simply lost
$11 > 4000 players. Simply lost
$8.80 218th out of 3230 players. ITM started at around 320 but I didn’t know that at the time. Unfortunately blinded down to 5bbs and took a stand with A2 then snap called by AK from BB.

So the above results I played 8 with only 1 cash but I wasn’t playing to cash, I was playing for the final table. Had I have taken my normal approach I would have cashed in both the Titan $5.50 game and the Stars $2.20 game but my focus was growing to get to the end, not cruising into the cash.

Historically I have a rather large ITM rate and very low Final Table rate. I now suspect and have pretty much confirmed with this new style of play my ITM rate will drop substantially but I will run much deeper when I do make it.

I have told you about all the above results in build up to this……

Are you ready?

Are you excited?

My Career high cash and best mtt game I’ve ever played.

This happened the very next day.

Sunday, March 1st 20:00 AEST.

Buyin $3.30 with 2045 players.

Result.

8 hours & 5 mins to turn $3.30 into $539.88

My biggest cash prior to this was $287.11 when I came 4th out of 1044 in a $5.50 mtt.

So as you can see it has been some time since I had a final table experience, yet I can tell you a million times about making it into the money.

To be truthful, I am absolutely kicking myself for not changing this attitude earlier. I was always conscious of it but it was Jamie’s complete disregard for min-cashing that made it so apparent to me.

I played this game to get to the final table and nothing else. This is clearly proved by the picture below showing the first hand of the final table.

You see I was dominant chip leader. Having such a large stack in comparison to the blinds and opponents I remember getting a little to cocky and confident and took some perhaps unnecessary shots.

I remember within the first 5 minutes, “mrbibo788” had managed to double up to 500K and we both got it all in pre flop with my 77 vs. his KK. He raised, then 1 3bet, he 4bet so I, feeling like I’m indestructible, 5bet shoved only to see I’m dominated and dwindled down from 2million to 1.5million changing my entire outlook on the final table strategy. With that stack I simple intended to bully in the right spots.
I ended up playing a little tighter as people started to drop off.

I was actually amazed as to how long this game went for. By the time we reached the final table it was 3:00am and I was a combination of absolutely knackered and get so much adrenalin pumping through me.

When I finally busted 3rd I was lost for words. I was so happy about my accomplishment yet so disappointed I didn’t win. I suppose I will have to get used to this feeling as it will happen many more times.

Jamie, if you’ve read this far, which I suspect you have, I can not thank you enough for your time and words of wisdom. Whilst all we did is watch you play I learned so much about psychology and mathematics in mtts and can’t feel any better.

There is no way any of this would have happened if I hadn’t of spent all that time with you.

To everyone reading this, thank you for staying for such a long post but generally the more excited I get about something the more I tend to say.

With this cash coupled with my results from 5NL and $5 double or nothing I have got my bankroll back up over 1.2K from the $500 re-deposit so things are starting to look up again.

I will continue to play mtts from $2.20 - $11 and I really look forward to cracking that $1000+ win from a mtt. There will be many bad beats and bust outs coming up, but with this new approach there should be some more final tables and hopefully that win is right around the corner.

Thanks for reading.
Custo.

Back to back final tables! Bragworthy?

2010-02-22T22:47:00.000+11:00

Following my last post made only a few hours ago I just accomplished this.

Still no win but I'm pretty impressed with myself at the moment.

Got deep in a 180 player MTT today….

2010-02-22T18:41:00.001+11:00

Here is the result

Here is the reason for the result.

Aaaaarrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhh!

One time can I have the better hand hold up please! Had to happen heads up didn't it.

:(

Came back from 170 chips to win a SnG.

2010-02-18T14:00:00.002+11:00

Doomed now right?

Let’s see the next hand

Ugly but I’ll take it. Still no reason to get excited.

Lets see the hand after that.

What can I say aside from, thanks?

Next hand, still all in a row.

OMFG are you kidding me?

I then proceeded to fold the next 6 hands until this happened.

Once again, the best hands wins. (cough *bullshit* cough)

Then I burst the bubble.

Whoops, sorry bro.

Let get to heads up by winning with a monster.

Pure skill this game.

And lastly

Well, at least I finally won with the best hand.

If I ever complain about poker be rigged against me I'll be coming back to this post.

Good game for me.

PokerStars $40 Micro Million. $1,000,000 guaranteed tournament

2010-02-14T18:42:00.002+11:00

In line with the PokerStars 40 billion hands celebration they are hosting the above tournament tomorrow. There is already over 9,000 entrants and still 13 hours to register. I can only assume that this game will be played very similar to the PokerStars ¼ Million tournament which is on every Sunday, well Monday morning for me, and an absolute crazy game to get through even just to cash.

I’m on the fence at the moment as to whether I’ll play some micro satellites and try to get in and take my 1 in 30,000 chance at skyrocketing my bankroll. Still think my chances are as good as being on a milestone cash table to be honest.

Speaking of the milestone cash tables I have now played 7,376 hands at 5NL and I am up $86.28. Not too bad and it’s helping me rebuild the bankroll.

Also played another set of Double or Nothings yesterday and guess what? 9 out of 16 wins again. At least it’s a profit.

Will report back tomorrow after I’ve decided what to do. In the mean time I’m going back to 5NL to try and be part of a micro jackpot.

For more information on the $40 micro million select the link below.

$40 micro million

Won 10 buy-ins in under 3000 hands yesterday.

2010-02-13T14:59:00.002+11:00

Let’s not get too excited now folks, it was only at 5NL. Nevertheless I feel this is still damn impressive.

I had noticed the PokerStars 40 billion hands celebration coming up and thought to myself “why not get involved”. After all if I 16table while PokerStars has 30,000 tables going then my odds are about as good as my aces holding up on the bubble of a tournament against some donkey's J4o. So with odds of around 1875:1 I thought I’ll grind for a few hours and see what happens. Well every other donkey in the world must have thought the same and they were playing their hands like it was the stone cold nuts every time. People were calling my full house to the river with top pair low kicker and even ace high.

It was actually a rush I’ve not experienced in a while and really miss it. The official numbers were 2993 hands and $53.24 profit in 192 minutes.

Here’s the graph, just because it looks so sexy.

Aside from this run, suffice it to say I was not one of the players that was able to partake in the milestone hands. It has however made me think about continuing to play this way whilst the marathon is on. I may even open up to 24 tables or more just to increase my edge.

I didn’t try anything fancy and forgot how amazing it is that so many people can spew of their money with such garbage hands. I even had a couple of situations where people would shove all in pre flop with any 2 cards, only to get called by my aces or kings.

Writing this PokerStars is approaching its 39,666,785,101st hand so there is still a little way to go. If I maintain that success I’ll give myself a rest from Double or Nothings and play cash until the milestone is over. If I destroy it the whole time, I may even jump ship?

Let’s wait and see.

9 out of 16 every freaking time!

2010-02-12T11:30:00.001+11:00

For the past 2 weeks I’ve been 16 tabling double or nothing SnGs and over 80% of all my sessions have resulted in 9 wins and 7 losses meaning that I am showing the minimum profit per session.

Is this normal? Is this what is to be expected when playing so many tables?

So far my best has been 13 which I’ve done a few times and my worst has been 6.

I’m finding playing so many is helping my play a little tighter and not getting into those speculative situations. It’s also helping me avoid tilting off after standard bad beats occurring.

I remember when I used to 4 table the $16 9 player SnGs and over 60% of my results were 2 losses with 1 2nd & 1 3rd also meaning the minimum profit ever.

I’m a little lost on where I am going wrong. I don’t think dropping back on the number of tables would help much as the same thing tends to happen whether I 4table or 16table.

Where am I going wrong? I’m shoving at the correct number of big blinds left ranges yet constantly achieving the minimum.

What can I do? Or like I said, is this to be expected when mass tabling?

Comments and suggestions welcomed.

I won MI-Turtle’s MTT today!

2010-02-05T20:50:00.006+11:00

To start, I wish to make something clear for anyone that is new to my blog. I have been and still am a micro grinder for longer than I’d like to admit. I worked my way up, took it out and have started again. Whilst today’s win give me no financial restitution it is one of the most important wins ever for what may come in the near future.

These games are being hosted by a MTT grinder that is and has been destroying all forms of MTTs. His name is Nick Rainey aka MI_turtle. His blog is below.

www.rainmanpoker.net

The post where he announced these games is below.

MI_turtles hosted tournaments

I outlasted 807 players to take this win down and my god what a victory it was.

This wasn’t about money, because the game wasn’t for money, it was about the effort. I tried as hard as I could and was determined to run well no matter what. I think I’ve accomplished that.

How it all went down?

Early game.

Much like yesterday when I played my first one there were people sitting out everywhere. On my first table of 9 there were 6 people not playing. This made for super aggressive play for me and the other 2 active players. I was fortunate enough to eliminate them both and build my stack early from 1500 to 5000 by the time it was the 2nd round of blinds (15/30).

Once I’d eliminated the 2 active players it was like a dream, me and 8 players all sitting out. Why can’t this happen in a large buyin game for me? Nevertheless, I just clicked raise every hand and proceeded to grow my stack from 5000 upto around 25000.

As one player would drop off I’d see a knew one come on with a stack anywhere from 1000 – 5000, but with me sitting there with over 25,000 and blinds at 50/100 I just played super aggressive and eliminated anyone that got close to me.

Middle game.

With around 300 people remaining I was changed to a different table where the game began. By this time I had around 40,000 and was 10th in chips. This surprised me a little because I thought having been so lucky to win every pot for so long I’d have a monstrous lead on the remaining field, but there were people ahead of me. When I changed to my new table there were only 2 people sitting out, I did however have the chip lead on the table and proceeded to bully the right people.

Throughout the game I was able to keep myself in the top 9 of all chip stacks. This was important to me because my middle and late game is my biggest downfall with MTTs. For some reason I historically get scared and play super tight, complain that I can’t get a hand, and wait until I get to a certain number of big blinds then just shove only to be eliminated. This always happens whenever I make it to the last 10% of a field remaining. I’m trying to understand how to overcome that. I just feel that I should play tight because after playing well for 3-4 hours I’d be devastated with a loss. I’d rather go out within the first 30 minutes knowing I haven’t invested as much time. I have a decent ITM rate but I’ve made barely any final tables in my life.

I think what may have helped was that I played almost every pot. I limped in with any 2 cards to see a flop. A strategy I never implement in a normal game and I only did so due to my chip lead. Perhaps this works well in freerolls but how would it work in a real money game? For those of you that that understand these numbers by the time I got to the final table I was playing 58/10. I’ve never had stats like that in my life.

Late game.

A picture says a thousand words.

5th in chips going in and had 50 big blinds. I start playing a little tighter again but still tried to see as many flops as I could. After all it had worked the whole way so why stop now?

I managed to grow my stack upto 400,000 and then with 7 people left this hand occurred.

Once this happened I wasn’t going to lose!

I played basically psycho aggressively bullying every hand with anything.

The hand that wrapped everything up is below.

And with that hand.

The whole experience has been quite surreal to be honest. Is that what winning a MTT takes? Pure unadulterated aggression and absolutely NO fear of going broke at any stage? If it is, then I seriously bow down and take my hat off to successful MTT grinders because they must have some of the worst and constant bad beats known to man and yet they just get up and do it over and over again.

So what’s next?

Well I played it yesterday with no success and had the perfect outcome today. So shall I quit? NO WAY. I will be unable to play tomorrow as it is my son’s 4th birthday but will be back to play Sunday and every other day. My hope is to play every one there is in order to prove myself that I am serious and hoping to get some coaching from this. So Nick, if you are reading this keep me on the radar because after years of breaking even I am desperate to get to the next level. If it takes 100, 500 or 1000+ tournaments per month in order to achieve success I don’t care, I am by far the hungriest and most aspiring unknown player there is in online poker and ready to prove it, I just need some guidance.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for bearing with a long post, but today really was monumental for me.

On a side note I am hoping to receive some very exciting news from one of my most favourite and respected poker players that I also expect will show me the error of my ways, something I’ve been nagging for a very long time. I'm feared that I will be told I've been playing like an absolute donk, but if they need to tell me that in order to break me down and re build me back up then fire away becasue your the one pimping and I've been getting pimped.

So financially, nothings happening but in terms of growth and development, I really believe the next few months may see be boom and with that, skies the limit!

Good night all
Custo

Crushed the conspiracy case of the cash out curse.

2010-02-05T09:02:00.003+11:00

This is a post dedicated to all the online poker conspiracy theorists out there. IE: ME!

The other day I needed to cash out a small amount and was hesitant due the “cash out curse”

Attempting to convince myself that no such curse exists I came up with a plan.

Step 1: Cash out
Step 2: Play immediately after cashing out and either
a) Show a net profit
b) Go bust.

It took 36 tournaments but I did it, I showed a profit after a dismal start. I think the difference between my net results and EV speaks for itself.

So to all you conspiracy theorists I now laugh in your face for I beat this mysterious curse and made a massive $1.90 profit, not bad for spending over $180 on buy-ins.

Subsequently since playing after 2/2/10 when these stats were taken here are my stats from 3/2/10 onwards.

Cash out curse exists? I think not!

Result for Main Event of WBCOOP.

2010-02-02T21:20:00.000+11:00

Guess what ladies & gents. NO CASH. Dismal 0/6 results in the freerollbloggingdonkaments!

Pokerstars was nice enough to give me a hand I had to commit with to build my stack, then break my heart when the cards are turned, then make me scream with excitement on the flop, then shit all over me.

See below

Yeah I know. I’m a 30% favourite before the flop then a 90% favourite then I’m out.

My overall experience during the WBCOOP was fun though. I spent time with other players I hadn’t met before who were all cool as. You should notice a few new blogs cross-linked on mine, all wiked people.

Even though I didn’t win a ticket, I’ll still buy-in to a few low SCOOP events just waiting for the structure to be realised.

That’s all for now folks.

Peace

Result for WBCOOP Event 5.

2010-01-30T23:17:00.001+11:00

Cashed?

Yeah right! Like I was even a chance in the 8game. 30 minutes before the start f the game I had to learn the hand rankings for Razz & 7-2 triple draw. Had fun though, had heaps of fun to be honest. I pretty much lost in every game and managed to ship it in during NLHE & PLO, that’s until someone actually figured out what I was doing. Did last 3 cycles of game types.

Main Event in 2 days, that’s the one I’ll take a whole lot more seriously.

Result for WBCOOP Event 4. (The most important lesson you will ever learn about online poker inside!)

2010-01-29T16:29:00.001+11:00

You can only shove 7 2 for 20 big blinds if it’s NOT SUITED, sutied will never win for you.

See below.

You see! PokerStars RNG was about to give me runner runner but after the turn was dealt they realized I was sooted and didn’t give me my straight. Off suit 7 2 will crack anything! How could I have been so dumb.

8 game tomorrow morning. I’ve never played the 8game in my life. When I was watching mixed games with my mate we always had to pause and ask “hang how is that the winning hand?” So I expect tomorrow to be an interesting event to say the least.

Result for WBCOOP Event 3.

2010-01-28T12:23:00.000+11:00

Fuck this game, seriously. Busted 258th to this joke

Guy was min-raising me bvb every hand. Can’t blame him always had me out-stacked. Finally wake up with AK and of course river suckout.

Back tomorrow, argh!

Result for WBCOOP Event 2.

2010-01-27T23:09:00.001+11:00

Busted 941 out of 1634 which for me wasn’t to bad considering I’ve never played a PLO tourney before. My god it was fun. My only downfall was not taking it to seriously and gambling it up too much. But I vowed to either have a massive stack or be busto before the first break, I just happened to be busto lol.

Tommorows game start an hour later so I get a little more rest and am going to bust my ass to at least get a damn ticket. Considering a few people from Dales chat room got one yesterday I need to keep up with the pace.

On a completely separate matter have a look at this hand from a DoN I played yesterday.

Sparkie256 gets my award for dumbest call I’ve seen this year, but you allowed me to cash so thank you very much lol.

Result for WBCOOP Event 1. (FML)

2010-01-26T22:48:00.002+11:00

Busted 12 spots for the money. Well can’t really say ‘money’ as it’s offering tickets to the next scoop but ffs that sucked.

Had some fun though to be honest. Spent the whole time on Dale’s live stream talking shit and listening to hip hop, even had a last longer prop bet with him, conveniently made when I had 7K to his 2K, but we agreed on 3:1 and I’m now up $5 lol.

Hand that busted me below.

Of course this had to be a blind on blind spot too.

Even though starting prizes were only an $11 ticket, it would have been nice to say I cashed in a wbcoop event and also done a little justice to the 3+ hours I put in. I could have folded my way to the money but I’m trying to stop playing that kind of game and actually win some damn mtts.

Today’s loss has given me the inspiration to play all the wbcoop events so I’ll be back tomorrow for event 2 which funnily enough is a PLO event. I’ve played less than 24 hours of PLO in my life so should be fun.

If Dale’s streaming again, which I think he will, I’ll just bum around there but change my play style to make it interesting.

Be back tomorrow.

Custo

16 tabled successfully – an actual poker post!

2010-01-25T13:17:00.003+11:00

First off I would like to say sorry to the people that have been following my blog for so long. It has been a while since my last post and I’ve had a little flack for the lack of updates so sorry for the absence.

The truth is since I drew my BR last year and re-deposited with $500 poker has really been quite frustrating and uneventful for me. I’ve played ridiculous amounts of volume and watched my BR go up to $650 then back down to $500, back and forwards non stop for a couple months now and it’s really annoying me.

I think one of my main problems is I am so god damn sick of playing micro stakes, it’s driving me insane. The majority of peoples place make no sense at all and it is extremely difficult to grow and play solidly when people call you down constantly with absolute garbage only to runner runner me at a crucial moment. But I won’t blame bad luck to no growth, it is mostly my fault as my passion for micro stakes is non-existent yet I still love the game more than ever so I’m kind of stuck in a rut.

I need to grow and get to stakes that I’m excited about and know I can make a decent income from. There is a plan for this but I can’t get into details. All I can say is that something I’ve been waiting for a very long time is about to happen for me and this will either change nothing, which I doubt, or escalate my results dramatically in the positive direction.

Last November I mentioned I would have a shot at 16 tabling. At that time I failed only achieving 12 with the results with 6 wins and 6 losses. I felt a little freaked out about the pace of the games I didn’t return to it. This attempt was at Titan playing $11 6max DoNs.

Yesterday, assuming one of my main problems is sheer lack of volume, I played 16 games with 2 stacks of 8 tables. My god that was fast. I did this back at PokerStars and it’s also worth mentioning that I don’t use any scripts. Having done it once I really think I need the following things:
Time bank clicker
Auto open SnGs
Auto fold button.

If anyone reading this knows if I can get this stuff for free please let me know. I know Table Ninja will do all of the above but I can’t afford to buy it at the moment. Saying that if I maintain the success I had yesterday 16 tabling I may fork out for it.

I couldn’t have been happier with my results and will do it again after this post.
Here they are

That’s it for now, hopefully my poker career is about to take a massive upswing, will keep you updated when I have more results.

Thanks for reading
Custo.

I went to an extremely attractive female doctor today for my annual checkup.

2010-01-23T22:48:00.001+11:00

She told me that I had to quit masturbating.

I asked why and she said, "Because I'm trying to examine you."

I was walking through the cemetery this morning

2010-01-18T20:53:00.000+11:00

Saw a guy crouching down behind a tombstone.

I said, "Morning."

He said, "No, just taking a shit."

WBCOOP 2010

2010-01-15T10:59:00.000+11:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 229289

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

2009-11-04T15:21:00.004+11:00

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!

2009-10-17T12:04:00.001+11:00

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

2009-10-13T23:31:00.002+11:00

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?

2009-10-07T11:54:00.001+11:00

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!

2009-09-29T21:17:00.003+10:00

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!

2009-09-09T09:39:00.000+10:00

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?

2009-08-05T11:40:00.000+10:00

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.

2009-07-31T16:55:00.001+10:00

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!

2009-07-17T16:44:00.001+10:00

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.

2009-06-22T12:55:00.001+10:00

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

2009-06-13T11:43:00.002+10:00

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.

2009-06-01T18:25:00.001+10:00

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.

2009-05-26T20:28:00.002+10:00

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………

2009-05-18T12:41:00.000+10:00

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…..

2009-05-13T23:43:00.000+10:00

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

2009-05-04T19:13:00.002+10:00

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.

2009-05-01T20:57:00.002+10:00

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.

2009-04-01T19:17:00.002+11:00

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.

2009-03-07T12:49:00.006+11:00

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.

2009-02-28T19:36:00.000+11:00

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

2009-02-23T22:00:00.003+11:00

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

2009-02-21T11:27:00.002+11:00

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.

2009-02-19T20:31:00.002+11:00

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)

2009-02-17T20:03:00.001+11:00

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.

2009-02-11T20:23:00.000+11:00

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)

2009-02-01T16:50:00.004+11:00

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.

2009-01-31T16:24:00.003+11:00

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.

2009-01-30T21:35:00.004+11:00

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?

2009-01-24T17:36:00.002+11:00

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.

2009-01-21T21:50:00.000+11:00

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.

2009-01-15T17:21:00.002+11:00

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.

2009-01-10T15:41:00.000+11:00

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

2009-01-06T10:55:00.002+11:00

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.

2008 – A year in review.

2008-12-31T14:16:00.004+11:00

Firstly a brief wrap up for this month.

Start of December 2008 BR = $1780.10
End of December 2008 BR = $2448.75

Overall $668.65 profit
Bankroll increase of 37.56%

Where did the money come from?
Ring games = -$13.41
SnG's = $513.30
MTT's = $98.76
Bonuses = $70.00

Now how has the entire year gone?

January 1st 2008 BR = $100
December 31st 2008 BR = $2448.75

Ring games = -$8.53
SnG's = $1290.40
MTT's = $927.13
Bonuses = $144.80

I’d said to myself in the end of 2007 that 2008 was going to be a trial year for me. Prior to 2008 I had lost money consistently so to not bust once and show continuous growth is a massive achievement for me.

What’s really interesting is between January 1 and September 1 I made a profit of $366.97. September 2 through to the end of the year I made $1981.78. So approximately 80% of my profit came in the last 4 months. Exceptional growth, I can only wonder what will happen in the new year.

I am happy with my bankroll management system, its’ proved to be great protection for me. There have been several instances throughout the year where I moved up in stakes and had to move back down. Was real kick in the guts when that happened but it’s all about playing what I can afford to play in without putting myself at financial risk.

At the start of the year I was playing $1 SnG's, 10cent MTT's and playing .01/.02 NLHE cash games. Cash games didn't change all year and they are going in the can until I get some official training as I clearly suck at ring games. I'm currently on $22 SnG's and almost rolled for $22 MTT's. I am however strongly considering increasing my buy-in requirement for MTT's to 200 buyins.

Following last months data here are stats for my 3 main accounts for SnG's.

My most profitable game recently has been the $10 double or nothing at Titan Poker, the results are below.

These games have got me a hourly rate of $10.56. If I can attain the some ITM rate on the $20 games then $21.12 per hour is starting to look a lot better.

Plans for 2009

One of the best moves I've ever made this year was not focusing on cash so much. The biggest hurdle I find myself coming across is fear when I move up levels. I'm not going to start saying I want $xxxx by this time next year. I'm focusing om still playing my best but also start looking at my money in terms or buy-ins. Rather than saying I'm $600 away from $3000, start saying, I'm 15 buy-ins away from the $30 game. Ultimately I want to be multi-tableing $100 SnG's and MTT's by the end of 2009 but that's still along way away. I may even find I switch to playing 1 table at a time as the competition may be a lot better and it may be more like playing actual poker, however having viewed some of the hands played by CC colleagues on 200 or 400NL, I suspect it may be similar.

Another one of my goals is psychological. I've had a tendency to enter games with minimal expectations. Hoping just to cash in MTT's or hoping to cash in 5 out of 8 SnG's to make minimal profit, and generally that's exactly what happens. Highly inspired last night after watching the 2005 NBC Heads Up Championship several players were interview. They were Antonio Esfandiari, Scott Fishman, T.J. Cloutier, Chris Ferguson and Phil Hellmuth. They all have different styles of playing but their primary message was clear.

The Warrior Mindset
In order to win, you must think like a warrior. Let no-one put you off your game and show no fear at any stage. Shoot for the stars and know that you can do it. Don't be bothered by uncontrollable set-backs as they are unavoidable. Let nothing deter you and fight harder that you've ever fought before. This will be probably my biggest challenge to date as changing the way you think does not and will not happen over night. But with a positive outlook and critical thinking I can get it down, the only question is how long will it take.

Playing poker aside, I also intend on becoming a more prominent member at CardsChat. Having been helped by so many down to earth good people, I'd really like to give something back to new players, not so much in terms of how to play, more so how to think and keep positive.

Shout-Outs and Thanks

All CardsChat members that have given my advice throughout the year both via chats and responses on threads. Way to many to list but primarily, IceMonkey, KingCurtis, Chuck, Zach, Jurn, Insocre, Jagsti, thank you for any assistance and following the blog, I look forward to many more posts next year showing fantastic results.

Christopher Squirkle.

Mate, even though you don't play, you following the blog and watching the progress and all the comments are highly appreciated. Your one of the only people I know that doesn't play yet reads every post I make. I look forward to that big win where we can have a massive celebration, my shout obviously :).

And finally,
The one who doesn't believe in superstitions.
The one that's teaching me critical thinking.
The one that points out my grammar mistakes so I can edit my posts after they've gone live.
The one who went bananas with me when I took down that 360 player 10cent tourney.
The one who's trying to convert my from PC to MAC (I'm still not sold by the way)
The one I'll be working with even closer next year and in many years to come and some unbelievable exciting ventures.
Yes, I'm speaking of the infamous Dr.G.

You have been with me since I started with $1 in August 2007. I can remember being so excited about making 17 cents in a session because it showed a positive ROI. We haven't broken any rules and showed unbelievable discipline which will continue. I'm super excited about the projects coming up next year such as the blog migration and what the "Jabber" is working on for us. We are still a bit away but we have some unbelievable times ahead of us, or that needs to happen is to keep the focus.

So that's it for 2008. Over the moon with my results and looking forward to a bigger and better 2009.

Happy New years all.
Custo

No shortage of fish

2008-12-29T14:55:00.002+11:00

Thought this screen shot would be a good eye-opener for anyone playing and not happy with the profit they are making.

Here I am 4 tabeling SnG’s with the SharkScope HUD running. This HUD is only useful for player information on their past performances. Names have been hidden to protect the innocent.

I have selected 3 main icons to be displayed above all people. From left to right they are:
• Games played
• Average ROI
• Total profit/loss

Here I have 20 random opponents, 18 displayed as 2 were already knocked out by the time my 4th games started. Every single person here shows a loss!

For me, when I get frustrated that I’m making minimal amounts of money and impatience starts to kick in, I look at this and remind myself, I am making money, which is the main thing.

For anyone that may read this post, my message is: If you are making money, be happy! There are so many bad players out there. Don’t get impatient or frustrated with small profits and always play your A game, the results will come, in turn, so will the money.

I’m not making millions yet, but I’m starting to make money. Don’t let bad players tilt your performance. Bad beats, suck-outs and shocking showdowns will happen on a daily basis, get used to it, get over it and get on with it.

Play the way you know best, have discipline and above all be happy while you do it.

Custo

Now I’m getting excited.

2008-12-25T20:31:00.002+11:00

Being close to the end of the year now I am so excited because yesterday my BR allowed me to enter a new level of SnG’s, $20 games. This is an absolute milestone for me. January 1st this year I was 4 tabeling $1 games at Stars, 12 months later I’m 4 tabeling $20 games. I attribute this, not to being the best player, because I’m far from that, but to sticking to an unbelievably strict BRM system, and not breaking it once. I have not succumbed to temptation like I did in the past and the results have reflected that.

Played my first session yesterday, 8 $20 double or nothing games, the donkament of all donkaments, and cashed in 7 out of 8. Bubbled the 8th game on a coin flip, can’t win them all I suppose. I don’t know the exact amount but I suspect the total BR is just over $2100 now. Not bad considering I started with $1 in August 2007.

I am in preparation of writing a full 2008 review for both public viewing and my own purposes which I look forward to sharing with you all soon. I will also be entering my 2009 goals.

That’s it for now, just wanted to express my excitement about the new levels I’m at. Keeping this post short cause the next one will be the wrap up for the end of year and by the way it looks, i expect it to be massive, so keep your eye out.

Merry Christmas to all and a happy and safe New Years.

Custo

This is why you never give up!

2008-12-15T14:00:00.002+11:00

A story of a Multi-SnG today.

I've had a bit of a bad run this month on my MTT's. I had played 12 so far and only managed 1 cash, which was a 20th placing in a game that paid 20 spots. I have been upset about my MTT BR going down but more so my confidence was starting to drop. I thought I was due for a really dry spell. I really needed at least a cash today, just to break this horrible run.

I entered a 18 player $16 games at PokerStars. Somehow, I survived to make it to the final table. I played textbook tight at the start only focusing on making it this far to start with. To be honest, I was completely card dead for the duration of the first table aswell.

The moment the tables merged, there was already an all-in taking place and 1 player was eliminated 9th, before I was dealt a hand. This means I only have to survive 4 more people leaving and I'm guaranteed a profit.

Below is the first hand of the final table. You will not see anything special here, but it will show you my stack, my competitors stacks and the blinds and antes.

With just under 10 big blinds left, I needed a hand and needed one fast. People say that you will need some serious luck to win any tournament. Here you will see the hand that got me back.

Yes I know, I got ridiculously lucky there. How about that flop. 4 all-ins preflop, 1 guy has the over pair, 1 guy flops an open-end straight draw and the other guy flops a set.......And Custo wins.

With my new stack, I knew I could afford to both sit tight and do a little bullying in the right positions.

Playing everything to perfection, I managed to make it to heads up. Here is the first that got me to heads up.

Small problem now. I have less than 4BB's left and my stack is 3K to his 23K. All games this player just could not miss and to be honest was playing exceptionally well making great calls and being very aggressive. I had a feeling luck may be on his side but certainly was not giving up. I knew there was only 1 way to approach this battle, hyper-aggressive. I raised every hand in my SB, and he folded. I'm not sure why, but he turned really quite when we were heads up. Always folded to my SB raises and even folded his own SB when I was BB. I wasn't complaining.

Here is the hand that switched the balance in power.

Rags vs Rags and my rags won.

Now I'm in contention. Here is the very next hand.

Coin flip preflop, very nice outcome for me. Just when you need the coin tossed the way you call it.

Next hand, whether I'm dealt AA or 72o I'm putting him in.

All over, thank you very much.

16 hours in 1 day = bad idea!

2008-12-08T22:31:00.000+11:00

Don’t normally admit this but I think I have to today. Yes, I played too much poker. Aside from a 1 hour lunch break I’ve played from 6am – 10pm and yes, I have nothing to show for it.

It all started by setting the bloody alarm clock 1 hour too early. PokerStars host the biggest donkament I’m aware of, over 22,000 players and $11 entry fee. It’s on at 7:30 Australian time and I thought, as I’ve got Monday off, why not give it a shot. Of course stupid me set the alarm for 6am rather than 7am so I had nothing to do for the first hour. Why not quickly grind some SnG’s? Opened 4 tables $11 each and BANG! Lost them all. Great way to start the day isn’t it? Wake up and immediately flush $44 down the toilet.

Left absolutely bedazzled about what just happened, as it’s highly irregular for me to lose 4 games straight, my PokerStars game started.

Well 3 suck-outs, 2 bad beats and 1 wrong all in later, I was out within the first hour.

At one stage today I was down around $150. Having a small breather, I managed to regain some composure and grind a little back up, I think for the whole day I’m down around $70.

I’m not blaming anything but me today. I played way too many games and chased losses too much. In the future if I intend to play an early MTT, I'll stick to that then play my main games at my normal playing time.

I’ve estimated I spent around $500 today on buyins so to be down only $70 isn’t as bad as it could be, but for the time I invested it totally sucks.

Tomorrow, ill be taking things slower, much slower.

Now, its time for bed, and a bloody sleep in!

PokerStars WBCOOP

2008-12-04T12:43:00.009+11:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 133207

Good luck to all bloggers and I hope to see 9 CardsChatters at the final table.

Results for November 2008

2008-12-01T10:49:00.015+11:00

Start of November 2008 BR = $1244.11
End of November 2008 BR = $1705.30

Overall $461.19 profit
Bankroll increase of 37.07%

Where did the money come from?
Ring games = -$4.75
SnG's = $178.70
MTT's = $287.24

November is over and I’m left to scratch my head. When I put all the results together I’d confirmed my earlier suspicions. On Tuesday night, November 25th, I felt I was up marginally for the month. Turns out that as of the 25th I had a net profit for the month of $19.69. 5 days later, I’m up $441.50. That’s a profit of ~$92/day. Now that’s making things exciting.

Admittedly I did have 2 large MTT cashes after the 25th, but even if I put them aside this happens.

Net profit in 5 days = $441.50
Net profit – Recent MTT profits = $441.50 - $237.50
Total profit without MTT cashes = $204

New total profit $204 / 5 days play = ~$40/day.

Certainly fells better than the $2 or $3 I was profiting per day 6 months ago.

Official poker rankings has boosted my global ranking from 38,995th up to 35,559th, not too shabby and my 2 cashes didn’t even come from Poker Stars so moving up ~2,500 spots for a few minor cashes I’m very happy with. I’d love to win a big tourney at Stars and wee what that does to my ranking.

The first 25 days in November really were swings for me, losing big then winning small. The last 5 days have been a real confidence booster. I’m no longer worried about the $10 buy-in games so it took a month to get over that.

I have no intentions on moving up stakes next month; my main goal will be to have more consistent growth rather than a repeat of last month. I know my end results were good, but if the month had ended on the 25th, I would have a $19 profit to show for it.

Below you will see my 3 main profiles on the different sites I play at. First positive, everything is in the black. SnG's are still my focus at the moment and I hope to grow these even more by the end of the year.

These results have been tracked since I first started playing 3 years ago. I'm sure, Poker Stars especially, the total profit would be higher if it tracked me from when I started playing seriously.

Overall results for all sites are here:

Poker Stars

Pacific Poker

Titan Poker

I ended setting no goals at all for the month of November. I do have some hope of where I'll be at the end of the year, once they are finalised I'll put them up.

But for now, I'm going back to the tables.

Thanks for reading, will report back soon.

Custo

Another deep session.

2008-11-30T15:18:00.003+11:00

Seriously this first place must been soon. My game has improved so much and I just cant crack that first place yet. 3 days ago I came 4th out of 342 players.

Today played exactly the same game and got this result.

I went out in heart-breaking fashion aswell. Blinds were 1000/2000 and I had around 60,000. Table folded to the small blind who raised it to 6000. Now whenever it comes down to the blinds and the SB raises instantly you assume it's a steal. I however was dealt KK in the BB. I re-raised to 22,000, SB paused and went all in for his total of around 40,000. Needing only 18,000 more and also having KK I insta called only to have my dreams shattered in front of my eyes. Yes that's right it was AA. I screamed at my monitor for that 3rd K but it wasn't to be.

Left with around 15,000, less than 8 big blinds I waited for K 10 suited. All in preflop against opponents 88. At least it was a coin flip which I knew I'd have to take to re-build. Opponent flopped trips and it was all over for me.

As per usual happy to cash and grow the BR, yet so upset to come so close and still not make it.

4 spots away from a record.

2008-11-27T14:44:00.002+11:00

Played one of the best games I've ever played. Unfortunately, fell 4 spots away from what would have been the biggest win I've had to date. Still nothing to be upset about.

My new poker life – now with PT3.

2008-11-24T18:12:00.001+11:00

Yes I’ve finally done it; I’ve joined the group of Poker Tracker users. I’m so excited! Best part of it – I didn’t pay a thing!

Titan poker has an offer to earn 500 points and I got Poker Tracker 3 with HUD (Heads Up Display). So I joined, played 30 $11 Double or Nothing SnG’s and cashed is 19 out of 30 of them earning me just over the required 500 points, better yet, netting me $50. So technically, I’ve been paid $50 to get some $90 software for free.

After a lot of technical assistance, THANK YOU ICEMONKEY, I’m about to test out this new database. I’m not going to start importing files from December 1, so I’m giving myself a week to basically see if I can break it, and put it back together. I still may import all my old files to see some results, I’m just waiting for their support to confirm that if I do import, can be removed so I can start from scratch.

It’s been a little while since my last post, sorry about that. Just completed work at a bank here with some crazy hours leaving me no time to play poker at all.

I unfortunately do not have a good feeling about my end of month result. Whilst I know I’m currently in the black, I feel it is very little. It seems that November is slapping a lot of people around, maybe were all just cursed this month?

November was my first month playing $10 games and I was really expecting to be higher than I am at the moment. I’m still getting used to playing bigger buy-ins which I think is messing with my head. Even though it’s been 3 weeks, and I can more than afford them, there’s still a level of unsureness, which is purely psychological. Not overly worried, I’ve experienced this at every level climb, it will just take a little time.

I’ve also recently joined up with Lucky Ace Poker. Only reason being, they have an offer with SharkScope to earn enough points to get the SharkScope HUD for free. As I’m currently an avid SnG player, I feel this HUD will benefit me more that the Poker Tracker one.

So I’ve really been all over the place this month. Reconciliation is now only 6 days away. I’m going to put some serious effort into grinding away at the SnG’s to build that little more before the month is out.

Custo.

Deficit fixed.

2008-11-07T17:42:00.001+11:00

Perhaps writing yesterdays entry was the best way for me to regain my composure.

Awesome results yesterday and I mean awesome!

Firstly, played 4x$6 SnG’s, 3 losses and 1 3rd. Not the best result but I lost due to a couple early mistakes.

Jumped back on and had 4 for 4 cashes. I really wanted to capture a screenshot of 4 top 3 tables at once but timing wouldn’t allow it so this is the closest I could get.

2 wins, 1 2nd & 1 3rd = guaranteed profit.

After a break, it was close to midnight and had the urge to play a game with a larger field. This was inspired by watching day 2 of the 2008 Aussie Millions. I opened stars and bought into a $12 - 45 player SnG only to be knocked out 40th. Bought into my 2nd game to be knocked out 38th. Both games I tried to accumulate an early chip lead by playing loose which was an obvious mistake.

Being conscious of my bad play I decided, win or lose I’ll play 1 more with my standard TAG opening approach.

I remember the game got down to 21 people left and I was the 3rd lowest in chips, around 1200 with blinds at 100/200. Being confident with my short stack strategy, I waited for the best spots, got my money in and managed a couple o double ups.

Before I knew what was going on this happened.

Chip leader at the final table!

I played an aggressive game putting pressure on everyone knowing that no-one wants to come this far and miss a pay off. It worked to perfection stealing blind after blind and growing my stack. I had one opponent trying to bait me by talking garbage in the chat box and going all-in on my big blind. I didn’t sink to their level by calling blind or talking back, predictably he self destructed and I survived.

The final result.

This win, on top of 5 out of 8 cashes in SnG’s has clearly put me back in the black and it only took 1 day.

I thank my ability to focus on a task at hand and not concentrate on getting back the money I’d already lost this month.

Psychological barriers at higher levels.

2008-11-06T15:33:00.000+11:00

I am writing this to attempt to keep myself calm and look back on it in the future for personal reference.

I can remember moving from $3 games to $6 games, I thought that was the biggest jump ever. I remember failing miserably and panicing heaps. I managed to overcome that and now I’m going through it again.

At the start of the month I’ve moved from $6 games to $10 games. Everything started well to be honest. On Saturday afternoon I was 10 for 10 cashes in SnG’s.

After only 2 bad days, Tuesday & Wednesday, I’m down around $70 from both MTT’s and SnG’s. $70 isn’t a huge amount of money and it’s also small in comparison to my bankroll, however, I’ve never been down $70 in 2 days.

I know that this is something I’ll have to get used to. As I move up in levels I have the chance to win more and also lose more.

The really annoying part is it’s only about 7 games I’ve lost which out of the total I’ve played this month would be about average at any level for me.

I really thought I’d have a problem with the new types of opponents at the $10 level, but now that I’ve played them for a while they are all pretty much the same as the $5 games so in regards to my play I’m really happy.

This problem is purely psychological.
• Seeing the total balance drop by $11 when I buy into a game.
• Worried more about losing money than focusing on playing A-grade poker.
• Chickening out of pots in case I’m beat and wont make 3rd when most of the times I know I’m strong.

I know people reading this may be laughing at the moment as they can lose this amount of money pre-flop in a single ring hand.

I think the key is to
• Try and forget about recent results
• Give every session, every game, every hand my absolute best
• Pay zero attention to money
• Don’t play weak poker at all

This is just a battle with my own head that I’m going to have to overcome. I just need to find the best way to not focus on it or worry about it.

I look forward to posting again in the next couple of days with reports of some nice results.

My first ring video available for viewing.

2008-11-05T11:12:00.006+11:00

"The only way to improve is to be strong enough to admit weaknesses and look for improvement from superiors"
Custo - November 2008

After much deliberation I've released my first multi table cash game video. Over the next few days I look forward to comments and feedback from well liked and respected players from CardsChat.

What kills me is I’m doing well at SnG's and MTT's but getting murdered at ring. The best way I feel to improve is to show others what I'm doing and have them provide suggestions and feedback for me.

The video is available here for downloading.

My first video 6 tables of 2NL

Warning about this video.
The following contains no sound and some very bad play. It’s only 20 minutes long and I will not be posting another video until I do have sound so I can walk everyone through my thought process, and provide some good Australian jokes and colloquialisms. :)

If anyone has problems with the link please PM me for help.

The original thread in CardsChat is found here.

Feedback from CardsChat members.

Custo

Results for October 2008

2008-11-01T13:46:00.000+11:00

Start of October 2008 BR = $921.74
End of October 2008 BR = $1244.11

Overall $322.37 profit
Bankroll increase of 34.97%

Where did the money come from?
Ring games = $1.62
SnG's = $139.30
MTT's = $181.45

First and foremost, with this bankroll, this is officially the most money I’ve ever had for poker. The most money I can remember ever having was around $980. So this bankroll on it’s on is a massive milestone for me.

A highlight for the month was more regular final tables at MTT games. Last month I profited $249.96 in MTT's. However, from 1 game I won $287.11. If it wasn't for that 1 big cash I would have shown a loss. This month I achieved 3 final tables with a 1st, 2nd & 3rd. The fact that I'm achieved 3 final tables against 1 in the prior month proves that my MTT game is getting better.

I dabbled in my ring games and unfortunately got what I'd expected, major inconsistencies and no real profitable results. Whilst I didn't lose money, which was my primary goal, I'm really not enjoying ring games at the moment only because I’m not seeing a positive result. I clearly need some help/training and hopefully this will come before the end of the year.

What's so exciting about November?
Finally, after 10 months of play and not breaking BRM once I am cashed for double digit tourneys. I see this as a graduation from micro stakes to low stakes.

I believe in a negative formula which is predominant at micro stakes which is as follows:

Micro stakes = Horrible plays
Horrible plays = Bad beats
Bad beats = Tilt
Tilt = Net loss

It has been so hard playing micro stakes for 10 months and not going crazy. So many people ask me why I don't play bigger games and can't understand my excitement when I win $70 off 1 game. But it's not the win, it's the return. In theory, if I can make $200 from $5 SnG's, then why can't I make $2000 from $50 SnG's?

I always knew the journey while in micro stakes would be long and rough. I certainly don’t expect it to get easier, but common sense tells me that opponents will play with more respect in a $10 game as opposed to a $1 game. Once of the hardest things to deal with in micro stakes is that people will play and call you down with anything. I still expect this to happen as I move to bigger games, but hopefully it will be to a lesser degree.

Also, just for fun, I'm going to keep track of my online status at Official Poker Rankings. In 2007 I was ranked 450,676 out of 615,667. At the end of October 2008 I am ranked 38,995 out of 597,229. Quite happy with that jump. Link to the website is found in the top left hand corner of the blog.

The biggest and hardest part of the month was sticking to the $5 SnG's. These seem to be my bread and butter, a consistent way for me to make money. I was technically cashed up to play $10 starting this month, but to cover variance and a little psychological fear I had, felt it was better to spend 1 more month to accumulate as many extra buy-ins as I can so if I do start playing $10 games and have a bad run I will be covered.

Now I can go into November confidentially knowing variance can occur and won’t damage my BR that badly.

I’ll probably be avoiding ring games for a while and start grinding away at $10 SnG’s and play as many $10 MTT’s as I can.

I’m strongly considering not setting any type of goal for November as starting on $10 games is a big enough move for me. I think it’s better to get my head around these games before posting goals. Will keep you all updated with progress in these games.

Wish me luck and good cards.

Custo

Another Final Table.

2008-10-25T13:01:00.002+11:00

Was a funny morning to be honest. I played another 210FPP satellite yesterday and won getting me $11 tournament dollars. This is becoming a bit of a habit for me. I bought into the 10am $11 MTT at Stars which normally has around 3000+ entrants.

Started out really well slowly building my stack then after 15 minutes went card dead for the next hour. Unfortunately I ended up dwindling away and was knocked out around 1100th.

Also play 1 SnG at pacific and had my opponent hit a 2 outer on the river which crippled me early on, ended up losing that too.

Saw that Pacific offered a $6.60 MTT game at 10:45 and thought I’d give that a shot. The structure of this game I’m not a huge fan of as it was a turbo game, blinds up every 5 minutes. I love and pretty much only play turbo SnG’s, but MTT’s I like slower games.

Entered with 90 other people and sat tight at the start. Really didn’t catch any good cards until 20 minutes in or so, by this time blinds were around 75/150 and my stack was around 1100. Following the rule of, if stack = 10bb or less, move all-in prelfop with the best hand I come across. Got a couple of double up’s and was ale to relax for a bit.

I remember the game got down to 30 players and I was a little over the chip average. My only goal at this point was to make a final table. Luckily with the size of the blinds and most other people panicking so much, I was able to sit back and watch people goo crazy trying to survive.

The pivotal moment was when there were 12 people left. I had both tables open as I wanted to view what was happening at the other table, see if someone gets knocked out. The blinds were around 1000/2000 and I had a little over 5000, in other words, I was pretty much in a death zone! Once again, to my amazement, people panicked and made some stupid plays against dominating chip leaders and were knocked out getting me to the final table.

Once final table started blinds were 1500/3000 and I had about 2200. Sat tight and waited for a decent holding then committed. Had a few double ups and managed to re-grow my stack. I was so fortunate just to make it to the final table I would have been happy with any result, good for me I lasted a little longer.

Result below.

Ace on the River - Barry Greenstein

2008-10-24T09:42:00.011+11:00

I've now completed Ace on the River and following my last post wanted to share what I got from Barry's book. I'm sure that everyone who reads Barry's book will come away with different understandings and key areas of knowledge. Below are the main points that I took in from Ace on the River.

What I appreciated and respected most about this book was the style messages were delivered in. As previously mentioned, this book was not just about starting hand requirements and how much to bet on different streets, it really goes deep into both beginner and advanced theories of poker.

Playing poker for the right reasons.
If poker will be your chosen profession, make sure you are choosing it for the right reasons. Whilst I personally haven't been able to make it my profession due to financial restrictions, I have chosen for, what I believe are the right reasons. If you intend to play poker to hope to win a few big tournaments on pure luck, you are approaching this game for the wrong reasons. If you want to play to make as much money as you can and blow it all on an over-luxurious lifestyle, you are playing for the wrong reasons. Any profession needs to be taken and treated seriously. I've been playing for around 4 years now, yet I've only really taken it seriously for about the past 12 months, co-incedentialy I have not gone broke once in that period of time. When I first started I'd put all my money on the table in a single session, play, and generally lose. Now, after extensive research, I approach the game in a correct manner. I play poker as I've made the decision for this be my profession quite some time ago. I'm confident that I working on a winning system and more than confident that I am playing for the correct reasons.

Play where you are comfortable.
Barry talked a bit about playing in 'good games'. But what is a good game? The interpretation I got from this message was if you see a game that is an easy beat, get in it. Having a sound bankroll management system is an obvious fundamental to the game, but if you come across a game that you know you can be successful at, get in it. Also, lets say that your personal bankroll supports you to play poker at a cash level of 600NL ($3 & $6 blinds) yet you know that you are far more successful at 400NL ($2 & $4 blinds), stick to 400NL. Even if you can afford 600NL, if you are only making a 10% return per week from that game and making a 45% return from the lower game, stick to the lower game. Don't feel you have to play a certain level of poker because that is dictated by your bankroll, at the same time, never ever ever break your basic bankroll rules.

Don't throw your life away on the game.
Upto recent times, I've played an unbelievable amount of poker. Having the attitude, if I just play 1 more game or 1 more hour I'll make that little bit more. There are stories of people that play 12-18 hours per day, 5-7 days a week. Whilst some, very few, of these people do make very good money, what is the cost to them. If you are single and without responsibility, you may get away with it, but it will catch up to you. Don't play when your tired just for the sake of playing. Have a break, a table will still be there in a few hours or the next day. Don't play when you could be spending time with family and friends. Don't play when you are consistently losing, if your having a bad session STOP, the game won't disappear. In my opinion the time to stop is when you feel the game is getting bad or your not playing at your peak performance.

Make sure you give something back.
It is more than clear that Barry is viewed as a leader in the poker community for giving something back. "The Robin Hood of poker" he is known as. Making his personal money from cash games and donating tournaments winnings to charities. It is actions like these that have earned him so much respect in the poker community. This does not mean that anyone playing poker successfully needs to donate to charity. But at the very least, make some time of positive contribution back to society.

To share a personal story, prior to reading this book I made this decision back in 2005. My eldest daughter developed a hemangioma (strawberry birthmark) just after birth. We took her to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, and after a few consultations she was booked in for surgery. Surgery on, at the time, my only child you was under 2 was unequivocally the scariest moment I've experienced in my life. She's 'my little girl' and a bunch of doctors were performing surgery on her. Their professionalism put my mind at ease. They looked after her so well and the surgery was a success. Once she had woken from surgery I made a vow to myself that when I come into some money, I'll be donating it to the plastic surgery department at the Royal Children’s Hospital. I felt I was able to already give a little back at the time. The surgeons asked if they can keep samples and blood from the operation for research and without hesitation I told them yes. But if I am able to give some money to further assist and improve the service offered there to help other children I'll feel so much better.

This road is not and will not be easy.
“Playing poker is the hardest way to make an easy living.”

I’ve heard that so many times now and after Ace on the River it is so more apparent. There are factors to poker that, regardless or experience, education or success just can not be controlled. I believe the hardest thing to control for poker players is the mental game and emotional rollercoaster’s. There are reasons that the best players in the world don’t win 100% of their sessions and don’t win every tournament they enter. If we could control both the cards and the actions of other players then the game would be dominated by the best all of the time. But poker deals with 2 key components.

Cards, which are completely randomised and unknown.
Humans, who while a lot of the times have patterns, shows and tells, can still, be highly unpredictable.

To be able to control your attitude in poker, in my opinion, can be the biggest hurdle to encounter. It is so easy to get upset when you’ve played a situation perfectly and the outcome is the complete opposite you were expecting. But, if you are strong enough to move on from negative outcomes immediately and keep your focus on the big picture, the hardest part of the battle is won.

If you are weak mentally or emotionally, then either learn to toughen up or choose to do something else, because this game can really break a person and I’m speaking from previous experience there. Fortunately I decided to educate myself better and toughen up.

Once again, a big personal thank you to Barry for taking the time to write this book the way he has. I for one can say my game is moving up and this is due to what I have learned from Ace on the River.

If anyone has not read it and is currently playing poker, be it recreational or professional, I, with the strongest conviction, urge you to get a copy immediately then be ready for the next level.

Custo