September results

September results

Cash games
2NL: 2.2k hands and + $15.28 for 34.4bb/100
10NL: 6k hands and + $17.05 for 2.8bb/100

Bonusses and rakeback
Everest Poker: $50 bonus
Full Tilt Poker: $10 bonus
Full Tilt Poker: $4.56 rakeback

Total + $96

I also cleared the maximum bonus of Take2 at Full Tilt for another $50, which is a nice start for October.

So, result wise, September was a great month. Nevertheless, I'm not that thrilled about my play. I still kept stacking off in spots I should have known I was behind. It seems my mind gets clouded whenever the pot gets big. I didn't have any major tilt sessions though and I feel I have improved in that area at least a bit.

October goals

I'll be playing a mixture of 2NL, 5NL and some 10NL, mostly on Full Tilt to clear some more of my first deposit bonus. I have drawn a little schedule where my number of tables at a given level depends on my winrate at that level. This means I will limit the number of tables to 2 until I achieve my expected winrate. Once, I reach that winrate, I can increase the number of tables to a maximum of 4. Hopefully I'll have the discipline to stick to it and see some better results.

2NL: 1k hands 4-tabling
5NL: 4k hands starting with 2 tables
10NL: 1k hands 2-tabling

So, less volume for (I hope) a better winrate.


Bye!

Results for June 2008

Another month has passed so it's time to recap...

My goals for June were:

• Clear the bonus at Partypoker: good, I picked up the $25 bonus
• Play at least 5000 hands at 4NL: ok, I played 4,700 hands at 4NL and 230 hands at 10NL
• Win $30: bad, I earned a whopping $3.58

After my bad start at the 4NL tables in May, I was eager to do better this month and the first half of the month DID go very well as I was up $21. In the next 5 sessions I lost $21 so I was back to zero. At that point I decided to cut back on the multi-tabling and just played on two tables, which would allow me to make better decisions and actually pay attention to how my opponents are playing. So, my meagre profit for this month is a result of my last two sessions.

Up until now, I have played a total of almost 9,000 hands at 4NL and lost $1 to show for it.

I have been looking back on several specific hands and most big losses were just bad plays. It also seems I'm playing some starting hands such as AJo, KQo, KJo and QJo far too often and far too optimistic.

Statwise, I'm hovering at about VPIP: 24%, PFR: 6%, PFA: 1.4

So, these are heading in the right direction, but I feel I still need to show more aggression and less limping.

No goals for July because I'll be enjoying a much anticipated vacation to France in a couple of days.

I downloaded all episodes of High Stakes to my ipod and will pack my Harrington on Cash games volumes so I can study some more while in France.

Enjoy the game!

Results for May

(June 6, 2008)

Another month has passed, so it's time to look back...

Goals for May

• play at least 2500 hands on 2NL Success, I played almost 2700 hands on 2NL
• win at least $20 Succes, picked up $27
• get to a BR of $160 Succes, bankroll at $177
• avoid getting careless: stay on target!! Success, well, at least at the 2NL
• get and read another book (preferably Harrington on cash games) Success, got me a copy of Harrington on Cash 1&2, which I'm currently reading.

Because I reached my goals pretty fast, I moved up to the 4NL during the month, starting at Partypoker so I could pick up a bonus from Party and pokersourceonline.

After about 2500 hands I was down $27 so I was disappointed. I couldn't believe 4NL was that much tougher than 2NL (though there definately is a step up), so I decided to tighten up a bit.
The next 2500 hands I've picked up $40, so I made some good adjustments or I was just in a downswing to begin with. Overall, I've played 5500 hands at 5BB/100.

I already have cleared the $125 pokersourceonline bonus (waiting to receive the money) and I still need 40 partypoints to clear another $25.
After that I'm headed to Titan to clear my deposit bonus there.
So, all things considered I've had a good month, earning $40 and improving my game step by step.

My goals for June

• Clear the bonus at Partypoker
• Play at least 5000 hands at 4NL
• Win $30
  

'till next time

Results for April

(April 29, 2008)

Since I won't be playing poker the next few days, it's time to look back on the goals for this month:

Statistics

• play 2.500 hands four- or sixtabling at 2NL Success, I played 3758 hands 4- and 5-tabling
• win $20 for a ptBB/100 of 20 Succes, made $ 23.88 with 32 BB/100
• get to a bankroll of $150 Fail, I'm currently at $ 142 due to a tilt session on 2NL and a short adventure with the other guy cathing his 2-outer on the river, which cost me $ 8.
  

Quality

• stick to a tight aggressive style playing the right odds Success, played some very good sessions with extremely good results but I managed to blow it on one mega-tilt session.
• play smaller/unprotected pots more aggressive from position Succes, I'm picking pots like these, but sometimes it's going the wrong. I'm not sure this is +EV at this level.
• try to put opponents on hands by the river Success, not really there yet, but I'm regularly putting opponents on the right hands or range of hands.
  

Overall not a bad month but my one tilt-session really bummed me. I still don't know what happened. I quickly lost some and then started making a few BAD calls in big pots. I went down over $13 in just 144 hands and then I made another mistake though I swore I'd never do that but I went to the 10NL to try and recover my losses.

The plan was to play really tight and wait for that one hand. At first the plan worked and I got up 25 BB but then I got unlucky: it got folded to me and I limped from EP and got raised by the guy OTB (I had AQo)

The flop comes AQ5 rainbow and I check to the raiser (just the two of us in the pot). He bets 2/3 and I call because I'm thinking he has AK, AQ, AJ or middle to high PP and I'm only behind against AA and QQ.

The turn is a blank and I check again, planning to check-raise. Villain bets 1/2 pot and I shove it which he calls. He turns over A5. I'm cheering already when the river comes.... a 5 and he hits his two-outer. I immediately shut down my computer...

So, even though my results aren't that bad at all, I've decided to stick to 2NL one month longer because I really want to get my BR up to $160 before I move to 4NL.

Goals for May

• play at least 2500 hands on 2NL
• win at least $20
• get to a BR of $160
• avoid getting careless: stay on target!!
• get and read another book (preferably Harrington on cash games)
  

Reward: move to 4NL on Titan Poker and play SNG/MTT with anything that exceeds a BR of $160.

Results for March / Goals for April

(April 3, 2008)

Lots of stuff going on these last couple of weeks, some bad, some good!

The 'bad' stuff: our three kids and myself got sick this last week, so we're all caughing and sniffing and running a little fever. Nothing spectacular but no fun at all so let's move on to the good stuff fast:

• bought an Ipod classic (with a Texas Hold'em game!) so now I can watch a lot of interesting poker podcasts like high stakes, fulltilt learn it from the pros etc. (and listing to my favorite music too of course)
• had four winning poker evenings in a row! I definately feel I am on the right track now
• trying to quit smoking (I felt like there's no better time to try when you're sick) and so I haven't smoked a cigarette in SIX days!!

Ok, time to look back on March and see how I did.

The goals were:
Statistics

• Fail: play about 30 hours two-tabling, so around 2.500 hands I have played for about 20 hours and even though I was four-tabling most of the time, I played about 1.500 hands, well below the goal so that's a "Failed"
• Success: make a profit from playing of $10 (about 7ptBB), which would be a first I won $ 18.76 for a BB/100 of 61 or a ptBB of 31 which is obvioulsy a very nice result.
• Fail: clear $10 of the $100 start bonus at Everest because I overestimated the number of hands I would be able to play, I didn't get any further than clearing about $5 of my start up bonus
• Success: bankroll of $110 Bankroll on 03/31 was $123.45
  

Quality

• play loose pre-flop, but tight post-flop
• do not over-estimate the power of middle and low pairs
• do not chase hands without the right odds
• do not bluff for big pots

Especially the last 4 or 5 sessions I really stuck to these 'rules' and it helped me to win several BI. I also felt I was playing too passive, only betting hands I was pretty sure were the best in the hand. Now I bet more aggressive, especially post flop where a lot of players seems to call often but bet rarely and I get to pick up quite a few more (smaller) pots this way as well.

Goals for April
Because rewards are important :), I'm moving up to the 5NL again (will have to be on another site though) if I succeed this month.

Statistics

• play 2.500 hands four- or sixtabling at 2NL
• win $20 for a ptBB/100 of 20
• get to a bankroll of $150
  

Quality

• stick to a tight aggressive style playing the right odds
• play smaller/unprotected pots more aggressive from position
• try to put opponents on hands by the river
  

I already had a good start yesterday evening. I played 237 hands winning $8.43 so even though my objectives are very ambitious (in terms of ptBB/100) I really feel I should be able to make it.

Cya next time!