Operation Come Back

[NWNewell]

After a withdrawing most of my money at the end of last year during the impending doom, sky-is-falling period that all US players have suffered through, I've decided to re-deposit and get back to the grind. After all, every day I look up at the sky, and it is still there.

However, the problem is I've pretty much spent my whole poker bankroll (Christmas and deposits for my August wedding).

So I'm starting with a redeposited of $600. The nice thing is since withdrawing, I've moved, got a different cable provided (internet), and have a new email and address. So, I'm going to opening new accounts for bonus whoring and rakebacks (not that I have all that many options being in the US)

I'm not setting any monetary goals. It's been a while since I played online seriously and I think the dynamic has changed quite a bit since the last time I played (don't know if I can accurately estimate a reasonable monetary goal). Instead, I'm just going to try to put in a lot of hands of solid poker (yes, 40k hands over the next 2.5-3 months is quite a bit for me. I'm pretty busy and rarely get in more than 15k a month)

To start out I'm going back to my bread and butter... FR Limit Hold'em. As my bankroll permits, I hope to start working in SHL by the end of May. Hopefully my BR will be approaching $2k in by the end of July and I'll start learning some No Limit at the $50NL tables.

Right now I'm wanting for my epassporte load to go through so I can get some money back onto a poker site. Damn! 7 days for the funds transfer? Oh, well....

Anyway... that is my general plan for the next three months. I'll be posting results and tracking my progress in this thread.

Anything over $2000 will be for some extra splurging on my Wedding/Honeymoon in Vegas. So wish me luck!

[q49z321]

gl,
i never could get epassporte to work. i tried using my m/c debit card and the pending verification charge never showed up, even when i emailed them and had them do it again. wtf? just need to use my checking account number i guess. anyway, i was able to deposit directly to stars using the same m/c debit card. cool. i'll need to get epassporte working eventually if i intend to ever do some bonus whoring, but i'll worry about that when the time comes.

gl with the wedding too. planning your wedding can be pure craziness as i'm sure you've found out, but well worth it in the end.

[NWNewell]

Finally! My epassporte load finally went through after 7 business days!! (Hopefully I won't have to worry about it again, but for those of you looking to use epassporte... loading from a bank account takes forever!! I guess I should have read the fine print a little better.)

Anyway... I've just uploaded my roll to FTP. I mostly choose them because they seem to have a pretty good Bonus an Rakeback deal. I'm hoping that will help pull me out of the $1/$2 rake structure.

Right now they only have two Fr 1/2 tables going at 32% & 30%... meh...
not terrible... but I'm on a long waiting list so I figured I'd make an operation kickoff thread while I wait....

Looking forward to putting in some solid hands today... about 1000 or so...

Hopefully I'll have a favorable update tomorrow.....

[NWNewell]

Well... Things could have been worse, but I was hoping for a little more fruitful start back.

End up + $3.75 after 1267 hands for whopping 0.13bb/100....

I was a bit rusty and made some plays/payoffs against my better judgment. Probably could have squeezed out a few more bb,.

Another thing I tried to do was limit how much I spew on the later rounds with marginal hands. Trying to induce bluffs & avoid c/r's where I think a worse hand would probably fold to a bet anyway. Check out this Limit Forum Thread for some HH.

But all in all, I guess I can't complain.... +3.75 & 31.53 in Bonus is better than a loosing day...

[NWNewell]

Sorry I haven't updated much this week.

I actually did an awesome job making progress towards my main goal of 40k hands. I ended up putting 4263 hands in the first 7 days of my operation (yes, that is a ton of hands for me.... it's all relative).

But as far as my monetary progress, my start was less than ideal as you could tell from my previous post. But it didn't end there. I could only manage to do just better than break even for the first 2500 hands. Pretty frustrating. But of course I realize tough runs happen, and this is a pretty small sample size and a pretty short run.

Then finally, variance tilted my way for a while. I went on a run of about 3.0bb/100 for a little over 1700 hands.

I ended up +105.28 with an additional 106.09 in bonus. So, my bankroll is up to $811.37. Running 1.2bb/100 so far.

Here is hoping for another good week and playing 2/4FR by the end of the month!


On a side note: Has anyone else been having connection problems with FTP over the weekend and/or at the beginning of the week? Last night was the first good connection night I had in several days

[Miffed22001]

im watching this thread, as i want to know if lhe is still worth the effort as i originally made the step in to 2/4 3/6 5/10 when limit got soooo juicy for a while.

Gl sir, show them 1.3bbs/100 pays millions!!!

[NWNewell]

i originally made the step in to 2/4 3/6 5/10 when limit got soooo juicy for a while.

Yeah, so did I. I made my start at Pacific Poker climbing through there ridiculously loose/passive LHE tables. Aaahhh, the good old days. It is going to be much tougher, but hopefully I can counter that by my improved play from back then, rake-back, and multi-tabling.

We'll see........

[NWNewell]

Quick Update (Day 11):

Well, it is been what I would call a pretty standard run and number of hands played since my last update.

I was going to post some more HH in the Limit forums, but FTR's Converter kept giving me an error. Oh, well... maybe next time... I know I'll have more later anyway. They were mostly just the same stuff as before. Working on Turn-Check/River-Autocall and WA/WB type of situations. I'm really trying to work on not being overly aggressive post flop. But I don't think I've found the proper balance yet.

Anyway... I played about 1400 hands and ran 0.83bb/100h for a total of +$23.25.

This brings me to a total of 5649 hands for a run of 1.1bb/100h.

With bonus I'm up to $870.74.

This is mostly FR with a little SH mixed in (probably 20% SH).

Anyway... that about does it... I'm off to put in a few more hands.

[NWNewell]

Terrible couple of days.

927 hands of misery. I think JJ or TT hit a set on the turn or river on me like 4 times. The few sets I was able to flop, opponent caught a runner-runner 4-flush on the board to complete his one hole card flush. Or I flop top two pair with Aces & Kings only to have the turn come T and river J to give my opponent a straight with his QQ. Ok, ok... enough whinning. Just let it be known that the last couple days have been ZERO FUN for me at the tables. Just feel like I can't win a hand... to the point where I was playing pretty timid the last hundred or so hands. So, I decided to take a break for a day or so to cool off and regain some confidence (or at least just let this loosing feeling dissipate and get back to the tables with a "clear" head)

-$43.25 over those 927 hands for -4.67bb/100h.

This brings my win rate down to 0.65bb/100h. I suck... what can I say...

Thank good for bonus, +$22.46. At least that eases the pain a little.

So, now my BR is at $849.95.

[NWNewell]

Week 2 Wrap-Up:

After a couple days off, I was back at the tables for a pretty long session last night, for me anyway (well, two sessions actually). 4-tabling for 1372 hands.

I didn't really have the kind of comeback I was hoping for. But none the less, not a bad session. 1.07bb/100h for a total of $29.41, plus $27.64 in Bonus.

This brings my total bankroll up to $907.00.

After 7948 hands I'm up $114.69 running 0.72bb/100h. Not so hot , but I guess slow and steady win the race . Plus $192.31 in bonus.

I'm actually doing much better than I expected as far as number of hands played. But while I can't really complain, any progress is good progress, I was hoping to establish a little better win rate and be farther along by this point. Was really hoping to be up over a grand and making a push for the $2/$4 tables by the end of the month.

Also, not that I'm complaining because I'm at a very good pace to easily clear this bonus before it expires. But I'm only clearing approximately $1.40-$1.50 per table hour. BonusWhores estimates $1.71 for FR and $2.42 for SH. At the mix I'm playing I should be averaging around $1.90 per table hour. Hhmmm... apparently their rates are not all that accurate.

Oh well... I'll get there eventually.

Unfortunately, I probably won't be making much progress this weekend. My fiancee and I doing some wedding stuff and looking at wedding rings for us at the beginning of the weekend. Then we are headed over to Tampa to visit some family for a Memorial Day picnic. I'll be trying to squeeze in some poker, but I probably won't make any significant progress until the beginning/middle of next week.

[bigspenda73]

Cool thread. FR limit is a grind man, you really shouldn't be expecting much more than 1bb/100. However, if you can throw another .5bb/100 in there from either Bonus/rb then that's a nice little winrate if you can grind out some hands.

Good luck and Im going to be on FT in a week (epassporte bank load, lol) playing $50PLO and either 1/2 or 2/4 SHLHE. The SH games look decent. Any reports on those?

[dsmrolla06]

Hmm, ive been able to deposit on FT using my visa check card with no problems at all and no fees. Its about time you get playing again spenda, your still never on vent though.

[NWNewell]

Good luck and Im going to be on FT in a week (epassporte bank load, lol) playing $50PLO and either 1/2 or 2/4 SHLHE. The SH games look decent. Any reports on those?

yeah, I can't wait until I get up into the higher limits. There are not many tables, but some of the SHLHE up as high as 10/20 look pretty good sometimes (upper 40% and occasionally over 50% to the flop). I haven't really scoutted them out so see how well they play (post flop)... no point for me right now... so I can't comment too much more than that.

But as a hole, the 2/4 & 3/6 Limit games look looser than the 1/2 & 0.5/1 Limit tables .

I play a little $1/$2SHLHE right now (probably only 20% at the most), but only when I can't find 4 descent FR tables. Once I get over $1k I'll start playing more SH.

PS That epassporte bank loading deal is slow! CheckCard or CreditCard won't work for my banks. "blocked because epassporte is considered a gamboling site, and it is illegal to transfer the funds" (same with FT), says Bank of America. Oh well, hopefully I won't have to worry about reload again. May eventually get epassporte's Visa when I start withdrawing. doesn't seem like too bad of a deal. Except for the $35 initial cost. Anyone have any experience with that card?

[NWNewell]

Not much to say, except.... I play goot!

Ok, ok.... more like I run goot!! But I'll take it!!

Actually I didn't get in many hands over this holiday weekend (which I expected), only 621. But I was able to make the most out of them.... +$55.29! It was a nice run on the favorable side of variance for a 4.45bb/100h.

That brings my total winnings up to 169.88 for total win rate of 0.991bb/100h. We'll round that up to the magic 1.0bb/100h.. .

With my bonus earnings, now at $203.67, my bankroll is up to $973.55.

It's going to be pretty tough for me to make it to $2/$4 games by the end of the month like I was hoping. But hopefully at I'll at least eclipse the $1k mark and have my 500bb for more $1/$2 6max play.

[NWNewell]

Just a quick update:

Just been spinning my wheels with the few hands I've played over the last couple days.

Only 593 hands for a -$13.25

I was down more, and made a slight comeback in the last 100 hands or so. So, I guess I should be happy, but.....

[euphoricism]

Try and get in the habit of not looking by day, but by looking by hand #. Over the last 2k I did this, over the last 5k I did this. Etc.

Daily summaries will fuck with your head man.

Poker dont care what day it is. And if you look at a longer time period you'll almost always be either slightly up or slightly down.

I wish there was an option in PT to just display last x # of hands. It would be so much better.

[NWNewell]

Yeah, fair enough....

It will only mean that I may go a several days to a week without updates to this thread, but I can live with that.

[bigspenda73]

You need to put in a lot more hands.

How many tables of Full Ring are you playing at a time?

[NWNewell]

You need to put in a lot more hands.

How many tables of Full Ring are you playing at a time?

I wish I could, my friend. I know I don't put in anywhere hear enough hands per week.

I play anywhere from 2-4 tables depending on the selection. Occasionally 2 FR and 1 SH. (will be playing more SH resulting in more hands after I get to $1k)

Being a working stiff, helping to plan a wedding, along with other stuff (and not neglecting my fiancee), I don't get to put in the hours I would like to.

If I get in 3000k hands (~15hours) a week I'm pretty happy.

I mean, actually I could put in some more hours by 3-4 tabling on my laptop in the living room while hanging out with my fiancee. But doing that and watching TV can be distracting and I think has been counter productive for me in the past. I'm trying to avoid that right now.

[euphoricism]

Laptop + bed + fiance = profit. Shes happy because youre hanging out with her, and youre playing poker.

[NWNewell]

Long time, no update....

(because euphor told me to shut up and not look at my results and update so often... jk )

Well, I end up putting in a lot of hands at the end of last week and over the weekend. About 2500. I didn't really make much progress at all. In fact not count bonus, I was actually dropped a little. But then the beginning of this week I put in another 600 or so very profitable hands.

So, those hands ended up saving me and giving me a 1.13/100 winrate over my last 3148 hands since my last update.

My total bankroll, including bonus, is now up to $1123.67, with a total overall winrate of 0.97bb/100h.

So, things are actually going pretty well for me so far. I was hoping to easily be over $1200 and playing $2/$4 full ring regularly. But I the biggest reason I've fallen short of that is just because of the low number of hands I play. Although, as far as my my 40,000 hand goal by August goes, I'm actually right on schedule. Almost 12,000 hands down in 3 weeks, with 28,000 more hands to go over almost 8 more weeks. Plus, I'm hoping to have a a few bigg weeks/weekends in June (I'll be out of town traveling one week and won't have much else to do in the evenings but log some hands! )

So, all in all, I'm having a pretty successful operation and things are right on track! I have to be pretty pleased with that.

[salsa4ever]

good work...

and i say work. cos this sounds like pure grindage. I'm so glad I graduated from the school of limit holdem (or actually all forms of holdem) a while ago

Still, if you're doing 1BB/100 and getting rakeback, that's better than 80% of people are going to do

[NWNewell]

Thanks!

Yeah, actually I'm pretty happy with the way things are going. And in retrospect, I should be really happy with the way I'm running. I haven't had any real big or real long downswings. The worst that has been happening to me is that I'll just hover around a certain amount (up and down maybe 20bb, or drop just a few dollars (while my bonus keeps me moving forward a little). But then I usually have a nice session where I'll score a decent chunk of bets.

Here's to keeping my fingers crossed and being able to avoid the 100bb marathon down swing a little while longer.


PS Here is another SH Hand History for everyone's criticizing pleasure!

[NWNewell]

Just closing the loop on this Operation.

I was right on track to complete this operation with plenty of time to spar. But unfortunately I had to (ok, wanted to) cash out a significant chunk of my BR to pay for my wedding. So, this operation has not been completed.

Anyway, thanks for the replies and HH critiques (when posted). Maybe I'll start another operation sometime after the wedding.

It's ashame... I typically play decent (compared to my competition anyway). But my occasional tilt sessions and frequent cashouts cause my BR to go nowhere. Maybe someday I'll amount to more than a lower limit grinder.

Later all...