Moving

On a non-poker related topic looks like I am going to be moving soon! I am getting a transfer with the company I work for and have to relocate to the DFW area. I am going to need to be there sometime in early March, but my family won’t be following until school is out in June. It’s going to be tough not being with them for 3 months, but it’s for the best financially for us. Loneliness aside it’s going to reverse my normal Poker routine I think. I usually play very little during the week. I will put in 4-5 hours on either Friday or Saturday night and then maybe an hour or so during the week. Once I move I will have nothing to do during the week, but plan to travel back to the family on a lot of weekends. I have a feeling that I will end up doubling my normal table time each week because I will most likely play 3-4 hours each night during the week and then not play at all on the weekends. Since I am not used to playing that much every day hopefully I won’t get a case of burn out. I do enjoy playing poker and if I ever stop enjoying it I just won’t play anymore. I am sure I will like it for the first few weeks, but we will have to see after that. It might start to feel like a job playing everyday so I might have to force myself to not play some nights during the week.

On a poker related topic… I am nearing my BR limit to start taking shots at the $5.20 DoN’s. It’s about damn time!! It took me a lot longer this time to grind it up because I am not playing nearly as much as last year. It’s been hard to only see the BR go up a few bucks at a time and not get antsy to move up. Once I get up to the $5.20 level the BR progress will go much faster. I just hope that my first few shots go well so I don’t have to step right back down again. If I take a shot and lose I will have to play another 12 $1.10 DoN’s just to get back to even at my current win rate avg. It’s such a huge difference in this first step up going from $1.10 to $5.20. I wish they had an intermediate step in the $3.00 range for these like the regular SNG’s. Last year I was extremely lucky to have started off with a perfect 8-0 record in the $5.20 DoN’s. I know that won’t happen again but hopefully when I get there I can win the first one or two of them to give me just a slight cushion so I don’t have to drop back down immediately. I haven’t played one hand in over a week now since I got sick. Between being sick and throwing in a trip to DFW to look around I haven’t had the time or really felt like playing. I think that will change now some since I am finally feeling better…just couldn’t knock this crap out..it just lingered and made me feel worn out all the time. I did play a few DoN's finallythough over the weekend.

C-ya
Dave

BR$ 79

Pokerstars FPP points

o.k. now.. what the hell are you supposed to do with these things if you are a micro limit player like me with low volume? I won’t ever really have enough to do anything with even if I saved them up. I guess I could save them for like a year and get a t-shirt??? LOL The past month I did around 150 tourneys and ended up with like 80FPPs roughly. Even as I move up in stakes I don’t plan on really playing much more so even if I get to the $10.40’s I will only bring in around 330FPP/month. At my crappy volume I would have to be playing the $20.80’s to even have a sniff at Silverstar. The obvious choice when you are only generating 15FPP/wk is the 10FPP & 20FPP MTT tourneys they offer each day. I used to play those some last year. The problem is that most likely you will end up playing for a few hours and get maybe $.35 for your trouble. While it’s better than a poke in the eye it’s not how I want to spend my limited table time. There are a few Hyper-Turbo satellite options you can use them on, but talk about a crap shoot! At least you don’t need to worry about playing for a few hours for $.35!! LOL… I am always looking to get the most bang for my buck or FPP points in this case. There is a 70FPP satellite to the Sunday XXXXX (look it up) where there are a 100 runners and top 10 get a $11.00 Ticket. Hmmm.. 1 in 10 chance to get 86% of your rake back? I’d take my odds of beating 90 people instead of 7 chances in the 10FPP MTT to win $11.00. If you win a ticket just unregister and you get your money in $T to use. I did this twice last year out of 3 tries so I got 57% of my rake back for my trouble. Then again you could always play the tourney and go for a nice cash (after 10 hours of play that is). The other option I kind of like is the 60FPP satellite to the “Steps” tourneys. Again there are 100 runners and top 10 get a Step 1 ticket (worth $7.50) and the winner gets a Step 2 ticket (worth $27). The problem with the Steps is that you are stuck in them until you hit Step 4. The good thing is that you are in a 1 table SNG with a chance to really move up into some high buy-in Steps and you earn more FPP’s with each tourney. I did this twice last year. The first time I won a Step 1 ticket and came in 4th in my SNG. The second time though I won a Step 1 ticket, then a Step 2 and then a Step 3. I crashed out pretty bad in my Step 3 tourney so I didn’t get a real cash return for my FPP’s but I got some experience playing with some Platinum & Supernova guys and I racked up another 52FPP points along the way so it only cost me 8FPP for the experience. If I had managed to make it one step higher I would have cashed out a $215.00 MTT entry! My vote is for either the 60FPP or 70FPP satellites depending on what you want back. I think for your time you will get more in return there. At the end of the month I had enough FPP’s to try one of these. I went for the 60FPP Step satellite and I crashed out in 13th.. so close and it sucks to go completely card dead at that stage ( I am talking about 7 hi card dead for 2 entire orbits!). Oh well.. maybe next time..but I think it’s better to spend an hour there instead of going for a $.35 cash in a huge MTT. I am about ½ way to enough FPP points for my next shot and once I move up to the $5.20 level I should be able to do one about once a week. Fun.fun.fun.

So what do you Pokerstars players usually use your FPP’s on???

Until next time,Dave

oh..I was sick all weekend so I hardly played any.

BR $71

Follow up to previous post

One of my many followers made a comment about my profits on the previous post..LOL…I have sooo many followers.. He seemed surprised most of my profits came from DoN SNG’s. The obvious reason is because that is what I play 95% of the time when I am online. The real question is why though?? There are several reasons why I focus on DoN tourneys instead of all the other options I have. 1) EXTREMELY LOW variance. I don’t think there is anything else out there with nearly as low of a variance as DoN SNG’s. You only need to beat ½ the table and there is always at least 5 losing players at each table in the low buy-in levels. Low variance for me means less chance to go on tilt. I am in the money 70-75% of the time in these at the $1 & $5 levels. What’s a good standard SNG rate? 35%? I used to be and most likely am still a horrible tilter so this is a safe game for me. 2) I HATE to gamble! A 50-50 coin flip makes me sick. That’s not good enough for me.. I want 80-20 when I put all my chips in. I did a regular SNG last night just for a change. I had 4 coin flips during the tourney..luckily I won all 4 or I would not have cashed. I went to heads up dead even in chips with the other guy and got my 80-20 and he went runner runner to get a straight to give me a 2nd. I can live with losing the 80-20 at the end, but I hate playing tourney after tourney flipping coins. In DoN’s there is no need to be flipping coins and since you only need to beat ½ the table you can be more patient and wait for the 80-20’s more often. 3) Every type of game has it’s own nuances that you need to know to really be good at it. There’s a certain feel and flow to each type of game and if you are out of synch with that flow it makes things tough. I am really in synch with that flow on DoN’s. I know exactly when I need to change my style and when to attack or when to fold. So basically I think I have figured out how to play a DoN well and when I say “figured out how to play” I mean in repeatable execution in actual game play. I KNOW how you are supposed to play a regular SNG or a MTT and even a cash game ( I’ve read all those fancy books remember! LOL ). But “knowing” how to play and actually doing it in live play is two different things. I just am not in synch with those nuances in the other games very well. Needless to say I was not comfortable in that regular SNG last night and kind of felt like a fish out of water.
A couple of drawbacks to the DoN’s that I have seen and heard other complain about is their earning potential and how boring they are. A good MTT player or a good SNG player is going to make more money than a good DoN player playing equal number of tourneys, but DoN’s really lend themselves to massive multitabling because the endgame is so different. They also don’t last nearly as long as a regular SNG so if you are multitabling you can put in a much higher volume with lower variance on DoN’s. The other main complaint I hear is that they are boring. What does that have to do with anything? If you are just an action junkie you are going to probably be a losing player anyway so play something else then. Your other option is if you think they are boring just play more tables. You get enough tables going and you should be able to stay plenty busy.
So that’s “why” my profit comes mainly from DoN tourneys. At least from my point of view..but then again.. I suck at poker. As long as I don’t suck as bad as five other people at my table though I am o.k. LOL

Until next time.
Dave

How good am I????

How good am I? I think that’s something every poker player in the world wants to know. Let’s analyze the data and see… I have read all the major and well respected poker books ( several times for some of them ). I might have missed a few..but the total is probably 15 books or so. I have watched and still continue to watch the high stakes table play and try to learn from their play. When I plan to move up a level I scope out the tables at the new level and watch the play for a few days and take notes on some of the notable players (both good and bad players) so I don’t go in completely cold. I have analyzed some of my hand histories to try and figure out if I made a huge blunder that caused a loss (or a lucky win). I practice good bankroll management and stay away from games above my BR level and I quit playing when I am tired or tilting. It’s pretty easy to stand here and puff out my chest and say I am a good poker player. Heck my literary resume looks pretty good and I can talk a good game. Well I am old enough now that I don’t play the dick measuring ego game anymore… I suck… I do really well at Double or nothing SNG’s and that is where almost all my profits come from. I am a total cash game donkey.. my ONLY chance to book is win is to quit immediately once I make a nice score. The longer I play a cash game the more certain it is that I am going to dump my buy-in right back. I do o.k. at MTT tourneys as far as cashing. My problem is that I ALWAYS want to cash and I never accumulate a ton of chips unless I happen to go on a heater. In MTT’s I tend to be an average or less than average stack most of the tourney and end up with a minor cash after several hours of play. I just don’t like to gamble enough to build a nice stack in a tourney. I only play NL holdem. I have dabbled in Badugi in the past very little but other than freerolls and have never played anything for money other than NL holdem. I can’t multitable for shit either.. I have tried.. 2 tables no sweat…3 tables not a problem.. 4 tables..if I start all 4 about the same time then I have issues in the endgame of a SNG. More than 4 and forget it…I start making too many mistakes at that point. Lets face it.. I suck at poker overall. It took some time to figure out I suck and some of the reasoning as to why. My only saving grace is that I am getting better at staying away from the things I bleed in for now so I can continue to build a new bankroll. I know I can get better at the cash games, MTT & other variations of poker, but it’s going to take some time and effort.. Right now I don’t have either the time or the bankroll to do that so it looks like I am going to be mainly a DoN player for the time being. Maybe some day in the distant future I can honestly say I am a good poker player, but for now… I suck! LOL

How good are you?

Until next time..
Dave

BR $66

Is everyone good?

In this age EVERYONE playing poker online seems to think they are an expert. With all the poker books and forums available there is a tremendous amount of information easily within reach of any player. Are the games harder now than they were 5-6 years ago? Of course.. Are they still beatable at every level by anyone with decent bankroll management? Of course… How is that possible if everyone is reading the same books and the same forums?? Well the obvious answer is just because you read a book on how to play poker doesn’t mean you will play just the way it told you to. You might “think” you do..but in reality you are far from it. That doesn’t mean you aren’t an expert though and just full of knowledge you like to impart upon other players during a game…LOL.

A few tidbits of late…

First one.. Micro buy-in tourney with 90 runners. I am at the final table and since we have been at the final table the guy on my right has raised my blind EVERY SINGLE time. I had horrid cards the first few times and I let it go, but after 3 or 4 orbits it was obvious what he was doing to me. We were down to 5 people left already and he did his normal over the top raise on me. I had K-10 suited so I went all in and he called w/ A-7. I ended up with a boat and he was crippled to just a blind or two left. He starts going off on me about what a horrible push that was and that he was ahead and I should have never called. LOL… WTF… what did he expect when he raised me EVERY SINGLE time I was in the blind?? Did he not think I would push back?? We were 5 handed too!! I wasn’t much of a dog to begin with and when I pushed I was almost positive I was ahead anyways. He spent his last few minutes of the tournament just hammering me on my horrible call before he crashed out.

Second one.. Micro double or nothing tourney. We are down to 8 people already and the blinds are going up with antes so it’s worth it to just pick those up. I am in middle position and have A-K and push. The guy to my left thinks a second and calls for almost all his chips with 6-6. I get an ace and win. He comments “I never win races”. Well this is about my 4th or 5th tourney for the night and I had seen this person at 2 or 3 of my previous tables and he liked to “comment” about his play or other people’s play. I figured I could piss him off pretty easily so I typed “why call at this point for almost all your chips with just 6-6? You had to know you were a coin flip AT BEST and could be crushed by several over pairs!”. Yep…that’s all it took. He starts typing like crazy in caps..”I at least had a pair..you called with nothing” “ I was ahead”. LOL… yeah.. that was easy!! I typed back “I pushed…YOU called…you made the bad play not me” Then he scopes me and comes back with a “your biggest cash is $45 and you are giving me advice?” LOL… oh boy… so I scope him and he has 2 big tourney cashes for nearly $1K and has proceeded to bleed it away REALLY quick in both MTT & SNG’s over two months. He looks like he is almost broke because he’s in a $1 tourney and you can see his buy-in’s keep dropping over the past 2 months as he blew through his bankroll. So I typed “so you luck boxed 2 tourneys..now you have donated everything back”.. he goes off about how big his cashes were and he’s the best. I typed “looks like you are about ready to deposit again huh?” and then just kept typing “donator” after each of his spews until he crashed out of the tourney. LOL… that always puts a smile on my face and puts me in a good mood!! I tried chasing him around to some other SNG’s but they fill up so fast at that level that by the time I found him they were always full.

This is a rare occasion for me.. I normally never type in the chatbox and tend to mind my own business. But…on occasion I will stir the pot some. LOL..

On a side note..what is it with donk calls? I know these are micro stakes but come on… I ran pretty deep in a $2.20 MTT with 4,000 runners.. we were almost to the money and a big stack at my table is being aggressive and raising a lot of pots. I get K-K and he does his normal 4X blind raise and I push all in. It folds around to him and he insta calls for over ½ his stack…with…3-2 offsuit??? Well that hand is the one that boosted me towards the top chip counts at the time so I was happy but WTF?? This is over 2 hours into the tourney. How in the world did this guy survive that long to begin with? I see this crap every time I play early on in a tourney..but usually not after a few hours.

Well that’s enough spewing for one post…Until next time..
Dave