Operation: March to the Minors

I decided to start another blog since my old one spans a period of a year and a half with a year of that off.

My primary goal as stated in that blog is to try to pay for a trip next year with my poker winnings, which means I'm grinding to something like $1500, however the first part of that is getting to the point where I can comfortably be bankrolled for .50/1 LHE. This means that I need to have a roll of $300 on one site, and currently my main roll is split across two sites.

I've been focusing on one site mostly and averaging over my first 1400 hands 10BB/100 hands so far at .10/.20 and .25/.50 (which I moved up to in order to get enough points for a free copy of Poker Office). So far this site has been quite good (Titan Poker) at these levels judging from my win rate so I'm going to focus there. I also have a significant roll on Stars so will be working there as well.

Estimating a win rate of 5BB/100 hands to hit $300 on Titan will take me 8400 hands, so we'll shoot for 10,000. Since I have a very time consuming life I'm going to shoot for about 2000 hands/week hopefully...this may be hard. But it's a goal.

Today: Played about 150 hands (two tabling) at .10/.20 with a win rate of 11BB/100 hands - PROFIT! Had a hard time at the beginning with two tables and then dropped down to only one after a little while which made life much easier.

Seems that every time I have tried to add extra tables I have problems, but then getting in a good number of hands is an issue. Not sure how to work on that beyond slowly and carefully.

Originally Posted by ponyboy

Seems that every time I have tried to add extra tables I have problems, but then getting in a good number of hands is an issue. Not sure how to work on that beyond slowly and carefully.

quality over quantity fo' shizzaz. I obsessed over maximizing my time/rakeback etc. by playing enough tables and was embarrassed to admit that I couldn't handle more than two or three at once. It resulted in tons of spewing and frustration. But in time, as my understanding and confidence grew, multi tabling just 'happened'. In short, you can't move forward until you accept where you are.

gl

Well, tried my hand at the Stars tables today and needless to say the quality of play was a little higher. I'm sure after 2000 hands it will all even out but it was a much tighter atmosphere for sure.

My only bad hand looking over my history was a guy who hit a straight on the turn with 10/9o and I didn't respect his raise to my bet with TPTK. However, I just need to get used to raising since nobody at Titan seems to know what that is.

I'm going to try to get in some more hands tonight when the Friday fish are out but my fiance in home so that's probably not going to happen.

Wow, just had one of the worst sessions in recent memory this morning and I'm totally on tilt so I had to stop. One of those mornings where absolutely nothing was going right and every flop and draw went nowhere.

By the end I made the mistake of shooting over to Golden Riviera just to load up a table of 4NL to get my confidence back up. 3 hands in I get dealt AQs, raise 6xBB, 2 callers - Q high rainbow flop. Great. Make a 3/4 PSB, get raised, push and look at him flip over AA. That's when the poker programs get shut down for a while because I was ready to lose it. When you feel that the poker gods are conspiring against you then it's time to quit, because I know that isn't what is happening.

I need to figure out a way to adjust my play or learn to leave a table. My problem this morning was two total maniacs who played any two cards who I would play at and seemed to never catch that TPTK or even half decent hand in order to get their chips. AQo would flop J 7 4, AK would flop 8 9 10...then when you bet, they just call to the river anyway and will not fold so it's useless. Very frustrating.

Got off of my tilt yesterday and actually managed to log a winning session after all of the crap I dealt with.

Today so far has been river city - for the other guy. Had a turned straight turned into a flush for someone on the river, had a guy limp with 4/5 hit trips on the river against my TPTK, several other situations where by calling people hit their cards and I was forced to fold or the guy had called with no reason to and hit a good card.

However, through good consistent play at least I am breaking even with all of the unfortunate turns dealt so far.

Originally Posted by ponyboy

By the end I made the mistake of shooting over to Golden Riviera just to load up a table of 4NL to get my confidence back up. 3 hands in I get dealt AQs, raise 6xBB, 2 callers - Q high rainbow flop. Great. Make a 3/4 PSB, get raised, push and look at him flip over AA. That's when the poker programs get shut down for a while because I was ready to lose it. When you feel that the poker gods are conspiring against you then it's time to quit, because I know that isn't what is happening.

Obviously without reads on the villian its hard to put him on AA, but you have to ask yourself which hands you beat that villian will stack off into your strength with? And do we want to play for stacks against an unknown villian with top pair?

Originally Posted by ponyboy

I need to figure out a way to adjust my play or learn to leave a table. My problem this morning was two total maniacs who played any two cards who I would play at and seemed to never catch that TPTK or even half decent hand in order to get their chips. AQo would flop J 7 4, AK would flop 8 9 10...then when you bet, they just call to the river anyway and will not fold so it's useless. Very frustrating.

In the situations you describe, your cbets are still just a semi-bluff with some overcard outs. If villian calls our cbet and we dont improve, the adjustment is to stop semi-bluffing into said calling station (unless you have a read that he will call with air/draws)..

Originally Posted by acoss3006

Obviously without reads on the villian its hard to put him on AA, but you have to ask yourself which hands you beat that villian will stack off into your strength with? And do we want to play for stacks against an unknown villian with top pair?

In the situations you describe, your cbets are still just a semi-bluff with some overcard outs. If villian calls our cbet and we dont improve, the adjustment is to stop semi-bluffing into said calling station (unless you have a read that he will call with air/draws)..

True on the 1st point. I was totally tilted by that point already and made a really stupid play, although one could argue that just flat calling with AA preflop can be a bit stupid as well.

I also know that semi bluffing is a fine art although at my limits I find that guys will call to the river with atc and often catch their river card, when according to pot odds they should fold. They just don't know what fold means.

For the last few days I have basically been breaking even. Haven't had a chance to play a ton of hands but I figured I would get back to my goals.

Today I sat down and decided to try to get one goal taken care of, getting my Golden Riviera roll up to $50 so I can cash it out and leave that brutal site. I played way outside my limit considering my whole roll on there was $14 at that point, but ran like a god and managed to get it up to $31 in about an hour playing .25/.50. Hopefully with results like that it won't be long before that roll is back out and I can funnel it into another site.

I also decided to take my money out of Stars and try to push it into a site where I can earn some Bonus money since I plan on playing a lot more hands over the next few months. Cashed out $117 from an original roll of $50, so while that is a nice profit it has been on there for ages. All I need is a suggestion for a new site to put it into with a decent bonus that is not overly hard to clear at low LHE limits. The IPoker sites seem to be pretty good for this.

Well, another successful session at Golden Riviera. Roll from $31 to $41 in about 50 hands at .25/.50 which means I'm hopefully only a small bit away from a goal I've had for a while, ever since I learned they won't let you cash out less than $50.

The most frustrating thing about that site is waiting for a table because they are either full with a huge waiting list or empty. I had to wait about 20 minutes today for a seat and if I wanted a lower limit, there simply aren't any players. The good thing seems to be that the players that are there are fairly loose and call happy.

So far so good, considering my limited playing time. I'm very happy with my results so far and just have to keep playing consistent poker.

Jesus. Just finished a 15 minute session and up another $7 for a total of $48. If I didn't have to go to work I'd stay and just try to donk out another couple of blinds.

I figured that over the past 200 hands (all I've played at .25/.50) my winrate is 30BB/100 hands, which is a great rush. If I didn't hate this site so much I might stick around.

I'll have more time later on this afternoon so hopefully will have some good news.

Yee ha! Goal accomplished and I'm finally able to pull my monies out of that craptacular site. The first session tonight did not go well, card dead and managed to come out of it only down about $3. Then I login again after walking my dog and get dealt A9s on the button, flop a boat. Then next hand is KJs, limp in and flop a straight. $17 later I'm walking away and cashing out $58 from an original investment of 0 (they gave me $10 free a couple of years ago).

It feels awesome to keep knocking down these goals. Now I just have to figure out what my next move is going to be.

Oh yeah, I already had another goal - get to .50/1 LHE.

Had a good but short session tonight. One thing I observed is really how one maniac can totally change a table. This one guy ran 88/10 over about 30 hands and just kept raising people's flop bets with garbage but then folding the turn/river if he had nothing. He landed a couple of huge pots but more importantly kept landing pot after pot of small stuff just by being aggressive.

Anyway I had another good night, so far still averaging 11BB/100 hands at .25/.50.

Holy. Crap.

What an absolute craptacular day. To put it in a nutshell, I had a massive losing day spanning three sessions and ended the day down 30BB for a loss rate of 28BB/100 hands. Jesus.

I would really love to post some hands for feedback but Poker Office isn't supported seemingly on any site so converting hands isn't possible.

It was basically one of those days where absolutely nothing went right and when I did get decent hands I could not get paid. I had one tilt inducing hand with a calling station who went to the river with Q9s and rivered a flush against my top two pair. Finished off by actually donking away several bets against a loose raiser who also rivered a queen to beat my pocket jacks. When I got dealt AA I had one caller to my raise and then they folded quickly to anything. All in all incredibly tilt inducing and I'm going to bed once I look back and figure out what plays I made that were REALLY stupid.

Oh. Another gem was the guy who called my pre flop raise in the small blind with 4/3o and called a flop bet to get trip 4's on the turn. That was awesome. Looking over just my worst hands I got coolered 4 notable times.

Tomorrow is another day.

I need to retract my previous post. After a nights sleep and going over some of the crucial hands from last night, I actually got unlucky a couple of times, but a couple of times I should have laid things down and just moved on and it would have saved me about 8BB.

For example, the hand where the guy held 4/3s he held in the BB which he checked to see a flop because I did not raise. My fault. Then he flopped middle pair and a gutshot, which of course he's going to call to the turn where he landed trips. Would he have called a pre flop raise? Maybe - but it is still a better play for me to raise.

Only one hand was a total cooler where the guy called to the river with nothing and hit a spade to complete a low flush. He also called a preflop raise and a raise on the flop with a two gap suited connector. Good to know.

The the final hand I just got unlucky because it was JJ vs. AQ and a Q hit on the turn when I was high favourite to win after the flop.

Lessons learned. Never assume it is only luck, sometimes we make really bad plays and sometimes cards don't fall.

Another interesting thing. Over 2000 hands I have only been dealt AA twice and AKs twice. That sucks. Meanwhile I have been dealt Arag (rag meaning below 9) off suit a whopping 150 times.

Had a good couple of sessions yesterday, and I also signed up for the free $50 at Poker Room School which is a bit of a joke but it seems legit since I played at their tables last night. Earning the extra $100 seems to mean you have to sit there for hours playing against complete idiots though.

One thing I have to realize is that technically I am playing at stakes that are outside of my bankroll, or on the low end for people who consider 300BB to be the starting requirement. Currently I'm working on about 200BB total, which to me is fine but I also have to make sure that the higher level of pots doesn't affect me so a 30BB swing like a few days ago doesn't make me freak out. It's also risking way too much of my BR on that site so perhaps discretion is the better part of valor.

The most frustrating thing right now is not being able to have time to play any quality sessions. It seems that playing about 100 hands in a session is my max depending on whether my fiance is home or not.

Anyway, my PRS bankroll is already up 30BB in the first 100 hands thanks to the superdonky play of newbies on that site. I'm just waiting until I can get transferred over to CD Poker where apparently you can earn the extra $100 quite quickly and also get some bonus dollars as well if you play enough. That would put my total bankroll at about $500 after having invested $150 to start.

Now I'm just debating over how to put back my PokerStars money into another site, where I really want to work on a bonus/rakeback strategy with about $200 of my BR and try to double it. The Ipoker network is good only because you can stack points fairly quickly with a fair amount of fish, but obviously Full Tilt and Absolute are great for amount of games and levels. Any suggestions? I'll likely be starting at LHE .25/.50 hoping to move up to .50/1.

Busy week and little time = little poker. Plus my cards this week when I have played have sucked huge and I tilted away a few dollars on Sunday morning when I got really frustrated.

Anyway, the smoke has cleared. I finally got enough donk time to get my roll moved to CD Poker where I can start grinding that bonus, and I have cashed out enough to take advantage of the bonuses on another IPoker site, I'm just trying to figure out which one to invest my time and a lot of my roll with. So far I compiled a bonus graph listing points required, possible return for my time and how many months they give you to earn it and it looks like Winner is the winner.

Funny comparison actually, on a site like VC Poker they give you 300% up to $600 but you need 6000 points per $100 to get the bonus (36000 total), where at either Titan or Winner you only need to get 2500 per $100 which is an estimated 5300 hands at my limits - and the rake rate is actually better at lower limits. I guess that's just them trying to draw people over to their sites.

Until I can get my monies moved around properly I'll be grinding CD Poker. Gogogogogogogo.

Okay, finally got my monied moved around properly into MoneyBookers and made my first big deposit onto Winner Poker. Now I just need to grind up to 5000 Winner Points to earn the match bonus and that will get my total bankroll with even breaking even on that site (which I'm not going to do long term) to $600 and I can finally get up to $1/$2 tables.

Currently I have started playing .25/.50 which I'm totally overrolled for but I'm finding it helps because I'm focused on making proper poker decisions rather than how high the stakes are. It definitely takes some getting used to even when you are only talking about a couple of dollars per hand. If I get this amount up to $300 then I'll start playing .50/$1.

So far I'm managing to land roughly 1 point for every two hands played which has me 1% of the way there after playing two tables for about an hour total. Obviously this is going to be quite a grind. Good thing my fiance is away this weekend!

Pretty uneventful day which I managed to get away from, increasing my number of points to 3% of completion so far.

Had one tilttastic table I sat at with a guy who again, was a total maniac and managed to suck out a boat against my A high flush, another boat against another flush and rivered trips once as well to take down my two pair. The stupid thing is he was giving money away to everyone else, it just seemed whenever I was up against him he had the nuts. Oh well. Due to a couple of those hands I ended the day slightly down.

I also noticed even over my short sample that K10, KJ and KQ are all losing hands for me so far. Possibly I need to take these out of my rotation unless I'm holding a very strong position.

After 400 hands played today I was up 4BB/100 hands so I can't complain.

Well, a good week has passed. I'm about 10% of the way through the bonus on Winner Poker but sucking big hairy moose balls right now at .25/.50 LHE. Some things I have noted, at least on this site:

Players are quite nitty. 3/4 hands someone raises preflop and takes down the blinds. Then when two players get into it the pot is usually quite large, but it is hard to play a TAG style when everyone else is too. I'm going to experiment with a looser type of play, but this seems to backfire on most people who sit down and play loose.

At LHE, people will call because pot odds dictate it - which you have no control over. If the pot is already $2.50 and then there is a .25 bet players always call to the turn and most often the river because the cards are relatively cheap.

A lot of the times I'm winning small pots and losing big ones to people who outdraw me on the turn or river. This really frustrates me but obviously I just need to adjust my style of play. However, often it puts me on tilt and I start to spew. BIG leak.

I'm also dabbling in NLHE on another site with a small roll that I again, got for free - and so far I'm crushing 2NL, but for some reason it is like play money at this point so I'm playing actually much better because I'm not worried about pushing all in with $2. Just goes to show that proper BR management is really critical.

This morning I decided to try out what my bankroll could handle at NLHE and ended up at 10NL. It was more of an experiment to see how fast I could work through the bonus I'm working on, and it turned out quite good.

Over over 300 hands I earned 2% of the bonus, which is a pretty good ratio considering the blinds are much smaller. Plus, an added bonus is that over those hands I actually ran goot, beating that small sample for 15BB/100 hands and it would have been more except for one hand where a guy pushed with Q9 and a queen on board to my KK and turned a 9 to make 2 pair. Plus, it is much easier to find a seat.

So basically after getting killed at .25/.50 I'm now almost back to break even. I figure I need to play about 9000 more hands to earn the total bonus, which should be no problem over the next two weeks or so.