quick update

day 5 of spring break
hand completed: 1529
hands left to complete: 3471

its been a grind, starting 2-tabling and 3-tabling the $1/$2 6max tables. i feel a little pressured because i dont really have the roll to be 2-3 tabling at this limit, i have about $250 in the site right now, which means in actuality with the bonus money that i have already cleared...i've lost about $120 already at Royal Vegas. Its hard to play against people who constantly call your AK down with middle/low pair on the board when my hands don't hit so well. I admit that i have been spewing chips some... i need to learn to control the hands that miss, and better evaluate myself when i think i have the second best hand. the variance is a lot higher with 6max tables so i know to expect bigger swings of wins and losses. at this rate, i will barely break even, after the bonus money has been cleared. I should end up with $700 at the very least by the end of my bonus, but it doesn't look like thats how its going to end with the way that i'm playing. I have to make better folds and not push so hard with hands that miss. Blaming my losses on getting sucked out is unacceptable...those will always happen but there are definately other leaks in my game that have developed that were not there before.

i felt pretty frustrated all day because i had been having more losing sessions than winning sessions so far this break so i took a short rest from online poker and decided to play some live No Limit at the house tonight for Johnny's birthday. It was a good break, my no limit game has been getting a little rusty and it was good to get back at it. Was doing pretty well up about $25 until one hand with fid that i fucked up pretty bad, my pocket 10's vs his QQ. I brought in a raise preflop with $3 and he then re-raised with another $5 on top. I know him well enough that he doesn't do this unless he has a premium pocket pair, not even AK but at least JJ and up. But i let my emotions get the best of me and i pushed all in, knowing i was already behind. He called my re-raise of $19 and and his QQ held up and i was left with $.75 Johnny then came over and staked me $10, and by the end of the night i had built that up to $41. It feels good that johnny trusts in my poker abilities enough to stake me and know that i'm going to make money. he's definately a player that i respect and i hope to be at his level soon eough. What was stupid about my play tonight was, in that crucial hand against Fid, i knew i was already pretty behind, but i let my enmotions get the best of me and i pushed hard. If the same situation occured online, that definately would have been an easy fold. I need to poslish my live game fundamentals more, but its all good...i'll have time for that later.


Points to Focus on for the rest of the bonus-clearing:

• be able to lay down hands that miss flop when you have one or more callers
• remember that position is key in limit, play your hands in better positions
• stop being so passive in early/middle position with borderline hands
• learn to fold more often
• trust my instincts, they're more often right than wrong.
• revitalize my aggressive play that won consistently before
• be able to move down to lower limits if you're not comfortable with the bankroll.
  

spring break

I had decided to dedicate a lot of time to finishing that bonus on Royal Vegas during spring break. So far its going pretty slow....i haven't really been in the mood to play hardcore poker, my enthusiasm isn't as high as it was before. However, i did start multi-tabling the past two days, and let me say....its a fucking rush multi-tabling 6max poker. It gets kind of stressful in the beginning because i feel pressured with such little money spread across 3 tables, but once i get in the zone and i start making some money here and there on the tables i loosen up mentally and its all good. The hands come really quick and you have to be alert at all times, and it sucks because i can't really configure my Poker Tracker database to log Royal Vegas hands, i'll have to look into it later.

day 3 of spring break and raked hands completed so far: 896
i need to definately log in more hours and grind it out, the thing about multi-tabling is that i do feel like im burning through more raked hands but i just get burnt out too quick, even after an hour its taxing.

BONUS WHORING

i've been playing at Royal Vegas for the past two weeks trying to clear that $500 bonus. Its been a slow start so far... I haven't had much time to put in the hours that i want to log. I've only cleared about 700 raked hands so far, and i need to clear at least 5,000 hands by the end of next month to get the full $500. The players on this site are a lot worse than the players at PokerStars so its been pretty frustrating...selective aggression is key to the game. I can't bully these people around like i did at PokerStars, they're too stupid to be able to lay down middle pair or low pair. I think its good practice though...i've been getting too comfortable at PokerStars, just being able to push my hands very hard... it has definately made my game rusty. I'm able to make some good lay downs, while picking and choosing good spots to mix in some bluff-raises. I downloaded an excel sheet to help log my sessions, giving me a more refined view of the money coming in and out of my account that PokerTracker can't really give me.

you can find the excel sheet here, bet-the-pot.com forum members are the shit.

i'm currently down $117 at Royal Vegas but its all good, i was expecting it. You always have to change up your game a bit to adjust to new sites... and after a week of tweaking my game a bit i think i found the right combination of style to keep my win rate up. past couple of sessions have been solid, and i'm feeling optimistic about it. Spring break will definately be a time where i need to log in a lot of hands to clear that bonus in time, i've only cleared $50 so far, and i'm about 300 raked hands away from clearing out another $50 to make a total of $100 cleared in about 2 weeks. At this rate i won't be able to clear the full $500 in time, so spring break i will have to really push it.

im really hoping to be able to clear the bonus by the end of this month, but that means i will have to playing a shitload of hands during spring break...probably close to playing 500 raked hands every day of spring break...we'll see how that goes.

once i'm through with the Royal Vegas bonus, i'm looking to deposit into Party Poker again, for a 20% bonus match up to $100...meaning i will have to deposit $500 to get the full $100 bonus. I know there are juicier bonus' out there worth investing in but i really want to get back to playing at Party for a bit, change of scenery and hopefully i won't get sucked out on too bad.

THE SITUATION

I feel no need to dive into the background of my poker career and what has happened until now. this is the first time that i've become truly serious about poker, and thus I will chronicle my memories around the moment I decided to devote a good amount of my time to this game.

quick summary:
november, 2005 - March, 2006
bought in for $50, and started grinding it out at the $.50/$1 limit 6max tables
in a few days my bankroll hit $150 and I moved up to the $1/$2 6max tables and have since been playing at this level with my bankroll in the site fluctuating from around $300 to $600. Since november i've come a long way in terms of my bankroll, dedication, concentration, and knowledge of the game. Even though I have taken down a profit of over $2,000 in about 4 months, I think i'm capable of achieving more. I know there are players out there who play at the same limits as I do, but are miles ahead in terms of analyzing and outplaying opponents.

the practice I have is that usually when my roll hits about $500-$600 I withdraw $100 and leave the rest of my roll in the site.

I have been using the aid of Poker Tracker, the advice of forum members of bet-the-pot.com, PokerAce HUD, Wilson Turbo Texas Hold'em, poker literature, and various articles to help strengthen my skills.

STATISTICS ($1/$2 6max) since November, 2005

total hands played: 27,610

VP$IP: 35.95%
VP$SB: 62.83%
Steal Blinds: 21.00%
W$WSF: 40.48%
WtSD: 31.49%
W$SD: 48.53%
PreFlop raise: 12.59%
AF Factor: 3.43


Amount won: $2,278.47
BB/100 hands: 4.13
Hours played: 299.62
Standard Deviance/Hour : 22.724 BB ($49.192)
Standard Deviance/100 hands: 22.242 BB ($47.62)

win rate definition:
on win rates:
1BB/100 You are an above average player
2BB/100 You are a great player
3BB/100 You are a great player probably on a rush
4BB/100 You are a very skilled player

I am currently averaging 4.13BB/100 hands making me one of the more dominant players at my level. I honestly think if i devoted a little more time to re-reading the numerous books I have and studying my tendencies more, I could raise this even higher and hopefully establish a large enough bankroll to move up to the $2/$4 limit game (recommended bankroll is about $1200 at least). But its always so tempting to cash out money from my bankroll to spend on other things rather than save up and build a large roll for the next level.





Chart of my win rate below since November, 2005 - March, 2006
(click on the picture for a detailed view)



GOALS FOR MARCH, 2006:

• complete deposit bonus at Royal Vegas Poker (200% bonus match, $500 max)
  
• deposited $250 + $10 free from site = $260 current bank roll
• date deposited: 3/01/06
• deadline for bonus to be cleared: 4/30/06
• 5,000 raked hands required for bonus to be fully completed
• EXPECTED bank roll: $700 (from initial deposit + bonus) + $? from winnings
• deposit bonus at Party Poker (20% up to $100 max)
• log more hours