Operation Double-the-Fun

[JeffreyGB]

Well, I completed Operation Break Evens (successfully!), right on time. Then promptly hit a downswing. BR is now just over $3500.

For my next goal, I'm shooting to double that by the end of the year. I definitely want to finish with over $5k, but over $7k sounds significantly nicer . It's a bit ambitious, since I don't get as much playing time in as I'd like, but if I can hit a couple of $1k+ months between now and then, it'll be nearly in the bag (and since I've made my move to SnGs, I've already had one such month; almost went two for two before the swing).

[vqc]

SGNs are the way to do it!

Good luck. You have 3 months!

[JeffreyGB]

Good luck. You have 3 months!

Thanks!

But...
8-31-05 to 12-31-05 != 3 months

4 months to do it in.

[vqc]

Sept Oct Nov DOH!

[JeffreyGB]

Exactly opposite my expectations, I've been hella busy lately. Hopefully, that will calm down a bit soon (I'm expecting so).

Anyway, my play has been a bit less frequent than normal. Still, up to $3630 now. Playing another small stakes home game tonight, so hopefully that'll get up to $3650 or so (and either way, expect some pics of the poker table I BUILT soon).

[JeffreyGB]

My table: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ic.php?t=18870

[JeffreyGB]

I've been having a run of 3rd place finishes. Not something I could complain about much, since I was consistently hitting the money, but not quite what I'd like to be seeing. Just as I'm making this consideration, I take first (and apparently played well enough to have the 2nd place player scared when it got to heads up - he asked to chop 3 times, once even while he had the chip lead!).

So things are going pretty well. I'm currently at $3872, showing $372 progress toward the goal.

[Waggho]

Hello there, Jeffrey! I see you are doing pretty well. Although, I just want to tell you, I´m still ahead! I reached my goal of hitting $5000 today. I´m very glad!

See you around,
Wag

[a500lbgorilla]

Hello there, Jeffrey! I see you are doing pretty well. Although, I just want to tell you, I´m still ahead! I reached my goal of hitting $5000 today. I´m very glad!

See you around,
Wag

Holy crap

You havent posted in months

wb

-'rilla

[JeffreyGB]

Hello there, Jeffrey! I see you are doing pretty well. Although, I just want to tell you, I´m still ahead! I reached my goal of hitting $5000 today. I´m very glad!

See you around,
Wag

Nice job, man! Good to see you again too. Where are you playing these days? I'm mostly doing SnGs at Stars (and playing far fewer than I'd like).

- Jeffrey

[JeffreyGB]

Had a great day today. 4 SnGs (2 $55s and...2 $109s). Moneyed three of them. Won two of them outright. Played some of the most aggro poker I've played in the two I won - once it was three-handed I was eating the table alive in the $55; and it didn't hurt that I was getting slapped in the face with cards. In the $109 that I won, I had to stay very aggressive to stick around, but the fact that there was one big stack and several small stacks ended up helping me make it ITM. Once we were there, another short stack (with only 500 chips) went out on a nothing hand, and I was HU with 1.7k v 11k. I pwned him. After 20 mins, he asked to chop. I agreed initially, thinking "wow, $360." Then I thought about how badly he'd been playing HU. Told him I changed my mind. Then I continued pwning him (he started playing push-fold poker, which was easy as hell to beat). The $450 I got for first made me happy I turned down the $360 chop

[Waggho]

Yeah, I know I haven´t been around much lately. That is mainly because I´m writing a diary/blog/whatever similar to this one in a swedish poker forum.

I have been playing fixed limit the last months, and now trying out 3/6 6max (at Empire mostly).

[JeffreyGB]

Having a good run moving up to the 109s. Up to almost $4.7k. Way ahead of schedule, and looking at what may be my most profitable month thus far.

[JeffreyGB]

Rounding out the month with $5.5k. I'm on an insanely good streak, something close to 19/20 ITM, evenly spread between 1, 2, and 3. This month was by far my most profitable. $2k this month. My next closest was $1.1k last summer, and even then a few hundred of it was from bonuses.

I'm going to start mixing in MTTs when I have enough time to commit.

[JeffreyGB]

Streak over. 2 OTM before taking home a first today. Final count 16/17 in a row.

Earned some bonus money as well as the little bit of profit from the SnGs. Up to $5673.

[JeffreyGB]

Bad run this weekend (possibly related to moving toward multitabling? Still not great at dividing my focus). Dropped to $5.2k. Went back to single tabling and won a $109 to bring me back up to the $5.5k mark.

[SinkRox]

Hey jeffrey!

Out of interest how many hours are you getting in a week on average?

I know you're a student, Ive just graduated myself and now im in full time work its quite depressing how much of a chunk of poker it uses up.. tho i need to work to pay the bills so i can leave my poker BR without havin to cashout. I'd managed to profit~3K 5tabling .1/.2 over 4-5 months but had to spend it all on bills due to being jobless!!! So ive just started over again with a $175 BR (back to square 1 meh!) Im hoping to get 20+ hrs in a week (ontop of my 38hr a week job) and can't wait to hit $1500 TRUE br that doesnt need to be cashed out so i can move to .25/.5 (hopefully in the new year)

Out of interest why did you move from cash over to SnGs when you were profiting at cash... and what stakes cash where you playing at? Maybe you moved to SnG instead of changing to playing cash with a full buy-in?

Keep it up

[JeffreyGB]

Hey Sink,
Thanks for the comments, and good luck to you.

Out of interest how many hours are you getting in a week on average?

Most weeks I get in less than 10 SnGs. I'd say I average a little over an hour per SnG, so that'd be a bit less than 10 hours a week.

Out of interest why did you move from cash over to SnGs when you were profiting at cash... and what stakes cash where you playing at? Maybe you moved to SnG instead of changing to playing cash with a full buy-in?

I moved from short-stack ring to SnGs to get away from the swings I was seeing in ring. I'd make a profit, but it was a much bouncier path than I wanted to be on. I've seen a fairly consistent/smooth rise since switching over to SnGs. I think it fits my playing style a lot more too - I just enjoyed them more.

When I made the switch, I was buying in for $50 at NL$200. In a way, yes, I did make the move to SnGs over playing with a full buyin. It wasn't quite as simple as that though: I felt like moving down would cost me profit (perhaps I'd make the same, or even improve my BB/100, but I didn't expect to double it, which would be the minimum requirement for keeping with my profit rate). SnGs were more of a step sideways - a way to have a full stack without dropping my profit margin.

[JeffreyGB]

I think that multi-tabling is going to be key to my long term profitability (as I'm starting to reach stakes where finding a game can be iffy). If I want to stick to SnGs and continue to increase my winnings, learning to multitable while playing at least nearly as well as I single-table is a must. To that end, I've temporarily dropped down to the $22s while multi-tabling.

I've made some profit since last weekend - back up to about $5.6k. I'm thinking I just may be able to hit my goal a month (or more) early, if things don't slow me down too much.

[JeffreyGB]

I've made some profit since last weekend - back up to about $5.6k. I'm thinking I just may be able to hit my goal a month (or more) early, if things don't slow me down too much.

Netted $13 this week. And that included clearing some bonuses. I knew variance would catch up with me after last month. It's just a matter of time 'til I hit another good run though - most of my losses this week were bubble-bad beats and, as Aces said, that just means that over the long term, I'll double up a lot in those situations, leaving me in a dominating table position.

[JeffreyGB]

Still two-tabling the $22s. I'm going to keep this up 'til I have a solid 50% ITM. (Currently I'm in the 35% range). Then I move to three-tabling. Do that 'til I see the same. Then I'll move up and two-table $55s or something.

I had a couple of sessions in which I won both tables, so that helped. I've also suffered from the bubble-bad-beat a couple more times (the latest was when the big stack in the BB decided to try to buy me off his blind - I had AK and he'd been pushing over half the raises that came by him; naturally I called. He turned over 56s, I flopped my A, and he runner runnered his flush).

Up to a tad over $5700 now. At times it's annoying basically breaking even practicing on lower stakes, but in the long run, I'm sure my game will be better for it.

[JeffreyGB]

Up to 40% overall ITM, with 52% on my last 25. I may be adding a third table sometime this next week.

[JeffreyGB]

Limited play recently due to tons of stuff going on at school and losing the hard drive on my laptop. The results of the few games I have played have been decent, and I'm going to start working on three-tabling the 22s.

I'm going to be following a defined schedule if possible, giving myself specific time to play at least 4 days a week (for 4 hours each day; although one of those sessions will be a micro-stakes home game). Hopefully things will go well once I start that.

I noticed that Bodog handles their bonuses differently than I thought. That boosted my BR a bit (as I'd deducted some for losses I had when I played previously and infact that had all come out of bonus $$$).

Assuming nothing unforseen comes up, I will break $6k this week.

[JeffreyGB]

Something unforseen happened: bad beats for all or most of my stack in 8 of my last 13 SnGs. Something else unforseen happened: I allowed myself to lose focus/become less discplined for a stretch of 10 or so SnGs (all OTMs). Even after clearing a bonus and toasting a $55 I'm still down to $5860. I'm currently only 36% ITM for my run at three-tabling. Since most of those were 3rds (beats, as above) I'm showing a decently hefty -ROI right now.

[JeffreyGB]

Limited play, due to school and holiday travel. I'm currently running around 38% ITM for my three-tabling of the $22s. Sitting at $5973 BR. Should get a decent amount of play in through the end of the week.

[JeffreyGB]

Some ups, some downs. Running at 40% for the past 70. Tiny ROI = 0.5%. I did break 6k finally, however. Sitting at $6013.

[JeffreyGB]

Evened out some variance. Hit a session wherein I moneyed all three tables at once and made some 1st/2nds to even out the large number of 3rds I'd been getting. Brought my ITM up to about 45% w/ ROI of around 10%. Finished the month with $6159.

In December I will begin multi-tabling the Stars $55s. I expect a bit less variance in these than in the $22s, as the average player seems to gamble less, meaning that they are more predictable and (historically for me at least) more solidly beatable.

I'm also starting to mix in an occasional MTT for a shot a bigger money - particularly the $22 180-man SnGs. I've moneyed one so far, but just barely (these haven't yet paid for themselves...).

I should be able to play A LOT more this month. Making $1k shouldn't be difficult - especially with $250 in bonuses that should come through.

Planning a trip to a local casino as well.

[donkbee]

Good luck getting more play in! Sounds like you're going to have no problem reaching 7k, that's awesome.

I noticed you hadn't been posting as much as usual last month (lack of time I'm assuming), nice to see your posts again

[JeffreyGB]

Major downswing after moving to multi-tabling the $55s. Had a bit of bad play and quite a few bad beats. The bad play mostly consisted of two things: overplaying when I had a stack and playing timid when I didn't. Neither is a good situation. Anyway, I'm sitting around $5400 now, and taking my last final this afternoon. $7k will be a tad difficult to hit, but I think I can still make it, since I'm completely done with school after this final.

[biondino]

Nice work dude! Incidentally, is the GB in your name anything to do with Great Britain? Us limeys are fairly rare round these parts

You said you suspected the 55s would suit your style of play more (average player gambling less etc.). Have you found this to be true?

[JeffreyGB]

Nice work dude! Incidentally, is the GB in your name anything to do with Great Britain? Us limeys are fairly rare round these parts

Nope - related to my name

You said you suspected the 55s would suit your style of play more (average player gambling less etc.). Have you found this to be true?

Yes and no. It's fairly easy to consistently get close to the bubble (I've had only a handful of finishes below 6th in over a hundred of them). I'm encountering some other difficulties which I'm still working through once I get to the bubble, and I've yet to determine concretely if I'm playing bad or just running bad - I think it's been a bit of both. There's definitely been a lot more tight play at the $55s than at the $22s. I'd adjusted myself back to playing at the $22s and that made things interesting at first. Aggression is higher too, since a lot of players have learned that it pays.

Really, I haven't played enough since moving back to speak concretely about multitabling them. I definitely found them beatable while single tabling (that's where over half of my current BR came from). I'll have more to say in another week or two, as my play has lately been sporadic at best due to finals.

[JeffreyGB]

Starting to break out of my downswing. Learned about a few things that can be leaks - namely getting overly aggro when I have a stack. That led me to bubbling MANY times that I should have placed solidly in the money.

Unless my stack is gia-normous, I'm staying away from the push-almost-any-hand play. Ran into hands quite a lot during that last run, and each time it hurt me just enough that I couldn't quite come back.

Also, I'm relearning the importance of patience. That's been a big issue as well.

I'm starting to play in more MTTs. I've started moneying them. It's nice I plan to play the Party 40k Gnty almost every day for the rest of the month. Aside from that and a few 180-man SnGs, I'll stick to SnGs for the rest of my play.

I've got a few discrepancies in my records, so I'm not 100% sure where things sit currently. I'm around $5.5k though, give or take.

[JeffreyGB]

I'm coming off of my downswing finally. Bottomed out at 5.1k. Back up to 5.57k now. I'm repeatedly making it deep in the PP $40k Gnty and I'm starting to do well in the multitable SnGs on Stars (took first for the second time in a 18 person $33 and took fifth in a 180 person $22). This month may spell the end of my SnG play. A few more nights like tonight and it could be my second 2k+ month as well.

[JeffreyGB]

Had some developments that I'm not going to get into on here. End result: I have reason to focus on mastering MTT play. So that's what I'm going to do. I've moneyed the PP $40k Gnty twice more and hit another FT @ the 180-man SnGs on Stars. Just haven't quite gotten the deal done. It's just a matter of time though, and once I'm there, I'll be rolling in it.

The last two or three days, 90% of the hands I've lost chips on (and at least as many of the hands I've busted out on) have been bad beats. I'm taking that as a very good sign. Once I bank a few final tables, I expect to be hitting quite a bit of money.

I'm also going to be getting some experience at local casinos in live tournament play. I'm not as concerned with results there so much as getting experience and being able to play my game while learning to make reads from the extra information available in live play.

[JeffreyGB]

Two days late.

3rd in the PP $40k for $3.8k. BR = $9.7k.

Should have made more. Bad bluff in deal making window.

[donkbee]

2 days late is still good! congratulations!

[TLR]

Nicely done, whats the next op ?

[JeffreyGB]

Nicely done, whats the next op ?

Not sure I'm going to have one...we'll see. I want to make $10k this semester (and I'm counting last night, just to be a pansy).

Really, my biggest goal is just to reach a point where my game is rock-solid (currently I have a few leaks that I still need to conquer) and then take a run at some big money. I'll post an op concerning that run, when I get there. Not sure what I'll do in the mean time.

[alias2211]

Had some developments that I'm not going to get into on here. End result: I have reason to focus on mastering MTT play.

hmm, well i can respect your privacy, but you can also respect my speculation after dropping a hint like this. pickup a WSOP entry recently? you're holding out on us

nice roll, btw. been fun to watch your progress over the last several months. i say next goal should be to buy some fun shit with money you make in the next couple of weeks. you have been really disciplined and now it's time for a little treat before you start stabbing jaws at the bigger entry MTTs!

[JeffreyGB]

8/1236 = +$1199. Rebuy Madness was good to me, though KK losing on the final table wasn't that great.

[JeffreyGB]

My next goal is to hit 16k. I don't have a timeframe in mind, save that I'd like to do it before the end of the semester (yes, I know that sounds like a long time given my recent burst, but in the bigger picture, last semester I only made 3k in the duration, and this semester I'm likely to be AT LEAST as busy as I was last semester, so doing only double what I did then is reasonable). Once I'm there, I will be withdrawing around a grand for computer upgrades. Until then, nada. I don't have a need to make withdrawals to buy most things I want, so the money serves me better as part of my BR.