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

Stagnant

Well it’s been a stagnant week. I have hardly played this week. I am signed up for the Blogger tourneys but haven’t been able to play either one the first 2 days. I am hoping that today I can play one of them. So far the fields look like they have been around 400-500 runners and with 72 getting a shot in the finals that’s not a bad payoff for a freeroll! I am used to 10,000 runners with top 100 getting a ticket to the next round. I did put in 4 hours last night. Felt like I was spinning my wheels again, but at least I finished up for the night. I played a little of everything..Badugi & NLH ring games, MTT tourneys and a bunch of 5.20 & 10.40 DON’s. I didn’t cash in any of my MTT tourney’s and managed to get sucked out on in several of them too. All in all a frustrating night in MTT tourneys. I lost several 80-20 favorites and worse! I lost a bit in Badugi and won a bit in my NLH ring game so most of my win came from DON’s. Basically I came ahead two $10.40 DON’s for the night. I broke even on my $5.20 DON’s meaning I lost the rake. I kept running two at a time and I would win one and lose the other…this happened four times in a row! I did four $10.40 DON’s and I won three of them. Not cashing in any of my MTT was kind of a bummer considering I played four of them and I didn’t run very deep in any of them. Breaking even on the $5.20 DON’s sucked too. It was just one of those nights when you lose all your races and then get sucked out on too a few times. I felt I was playing pretty good and just didn’t run very well. Oh well..at least I did finish up for the evening..C-ya
Dave
Starting BR: $235
Ending BR: $245

Up & Down

I need to learn to quit when I am ahead! LOL. There are too many times that I start off on a good night and keep playing an playing and end up finishing with a losing night. Everyone says to keep playing when you are winning, but I think I either get tired or since I am ahead lose some focus. Last night I signed up for a $10.40 DON and a $5.20 DON. I cashed in both and while they were winding down I signed up for a $2.20 Badugi tourney and a 60FPP satellite to the steps tourneys. I got up to 5,000 chips in badugi and then gave 1/2 of them back on the next hand! I hovered at around 2,500 chips and picked up a 9 high starting hand and pushed. I got sucked out on and was out in 37th with 16 getting paid. Still not too bad though. The FPP satellite paid the top 10 with tickets into the steps tourneys. I ended up getting a “Step 1” ticket. I went ahead and signed up for it right away and we were down to 4 and I got too aggressive with my A-K and was killed by a J-J. So I ended up playing almost 2 hours to win $1.50! Well at least it was FPP points. I was starting to get tired and should have gone to bed, but I knew I wouldn’t probably get to play anymore this weekend so I was going to make it a late night. Big mistake of course.. I signed up for another $10.40 DON and we were down to 6 and I was sitting on around 2,000 chips and there was a small stack around 1,000. I get As-8s and the big stack bully raises to 450 (blinds are at 75-150). I should have folded but he had been raising every hand for a full orbit now. I went ahead and called hoping for a bunch of spades. They threw out a K-10-6 flop with 2 spades. Bully puts out another 300 and I called. Turn gives me my nut flush with a 9 spades. Bully raises 450 and I push in and he quickly calls with his set of Kings. River brings a nice 10 to fill him up and put me out. I really do some dumb crap sometimes! Well this put me on tilt and I signed up for a $20.80 DON. I know..I really do know better and regretted it as soon as I hit the register button…I get A-K first hand and raise to 100 and get a caller..Flop is all low rainbow and he raises to 200 and I call. Turn is another low and he pushes and I fold. Lost 20% of stack on 1st hand..nice.. I lost another 100 when I called 100 more from the big blind with a pair of 6’s and the flop came all big cards and he bet out. Then I get A-K again in late position and an early position raises to 250. Blinds are up to 25-50 and this was a larger raise than I had seen anyone do up to this point. I thought he might be on a small to medium pair so I pushed all in hoping he wouldn’t risk most of his stack as a 20-80 if I had an over pair. Well he had J-J and called me after thinking about it some. No help for me and I was out in 9th. When will I learn to control my tilt better and not play up limits when I am losing!!! Well I was pretty pissed at myself for tilting another $20 away. I should have just signed off, but I didn’t want to just yet. I signed up for 2 tables of .25/.50 limit Badugi. I was up $7.50 pretty quickly, but I slowly bled it all back and stepped out when I was back to even. Then I opened up a table of .15/.25 NLH and bought in for $15 only. I haven’t played a ring game of NLH in quite some time and never at this buy-in. It was always at the .01/.02 level or .05/.10 a few times. I just sat at the first table I came across (I know..I know). After one orbit I could tell that not much was happening here and when I looked up my table I was like “WTF..why did I sit here??” I found a juicy table that was running almost 50% to the flop with avg pots of $5.00..now there’s my table!! I quickly sat there for another $15 and was going to jump off the earlier table when the blinds got to me. Before they came around though I picked up Ac-Jc and called a raise of $.75. 2 clubs came on the flop and I wasn’t going anywhere and called another $1.00 raise. Nut flush hit on the turn (doesn’t this sound familiar!! It cost me $10 at the Don earlier tonight). He raised to $2 and I reraised him to $4 and he called me. River was another club so at least I knew I had the nuts (no straight flush draws showing). He raised again and I reraised all in and he quickly called with the 2nd nuts King high flush. Well that was a nice double up I wasn’t expecting at this nitty table. I went ahead and said one more round after that one, but I didn’t connect much and lost another $2.00 before I left the table. The other table really had the chips flying… I was just waiting to get some cards so I could make some money. I finally got K-K and made a few bucks. By this time though a few of the wildcats had gone busto and the table calmed down.. It was getting late so I went ahead and signed off before I could talk myself into signing up for something else. After a huge yo-yo night I ended $7.00 down total. So did manage to recoup a big portion of my tilted $20.80 DON loss. Some day I might learn..but probably not.
Dave
Starting BR: $142
Ending BR: $135

Spinning Wheels

Well I managed to play some last night and ended up playing for 2 hours and finished about where I started. So other than a couple of FPP I just spun my wheels. I started off with a table of .25/.50 limit Badugi and set a personal record for losing a buy-in..LOL.. Wow was it ugly. I missed every single draw..and I do mean EVERY SINGLE draw. I had several A-2-3-X, A-3-4-X starting hands that I never improved on. The only Badugi I actually had was a dealt crappy Jack high and it wasn’t good enough to win by the end. So that put me down $10 in about 30 minutes so I opened up a $3.40 9 seat SNG for a change. Did o.k. and we were down to 6 and I had 2,200 chips and one of the shorter stacks pushed in early position. I re-raised w/ A-K “trying to isolate” him since he had pushed several hands in a row I figured I was ahead. Big Blind called w/ A-A and killed me deader than a dinosaur. P.S. I was ahead of the shorter stack as he had K-Q so at least my read was correct. I then opened up two $5.20 DON tables and also signed up for a $2.20 Pot limit Badugi tourney and the $2.20 NLH $1500 guaranteed 6-hand tourney that was about to start. Well 2nd hand of the Badugi I get a Jack high starting hand and Pot it. Some yahoo re-pots it back to me. I was worried I was already behind so I just called to see if he stood pat or drew on the first draw. If he drew I was going all in and if he stood pat I was folding to a raise. Well he drew 1 card so I pushed and he called. He also drew and 2nd and 3rd draw and finally showed a Jack high Badugi with a better kicker. Well crapola doesn’t that suck. The way I was running last night though I wasn’t surprised. Funny thing was that I was not tilting at all over this. The $1500 guaranteed was my 1st 6 handed tourney. That was different! We had one sitting out so it was really only playing 5 handed and we started with double stacks and had 15 minute blinds so it gives you a ton of room to work. I slowly chipped up to over 5,000 chips with just small pots and then lost it all in one hand. I raised pre-flop w/ A-9 and had 1 caller. Flop was A-9-3 W/ 2 hearts and I don’t have any hearts. The other guy raises a decent amount and I pushed all–in with my 2 pair hoping he had a crappy Ace. Well he had a crappy A-6, but it was suited hearts and he got his heart on the river. He had me out chipped so I was out. Sheesh…0 for 4 tonight!!! But I still wasn’t tilting for some reason..not sure why. By this time my two DON’s were winding down. I had a decent stack in one and wasn’t worried about that one, but I was one of the short stacks in the other with 7 left with 900 chips. Blinds were up to 125-250 and both of the other small stacks pushed and the big stack called and took them both out. Just after that the other table finishes so at least I have a few positive results for the evening. I signed up for two more $5.20 DON’s right away. I doubled up in one of them pretty quick and was on easy street the rest of that one. The 2nd one I just stayed around 1,500 chips until we were down to 7. I doubled up then and was looking at another easy finish since we had 2 other stacks under 600 chips and the blinds were at 125-250. Then came a hand that pissed me off! I am in the big blind and pick up 6-6. Yahoo in early position calls and one of the small stacks pushes all in. I went ahead and called as did the Yahoo. Flop comes K-10-6 all spades so I get my set. I am hoping to check it down and hope the short stack doesn’t have spades. The dang Yahoo in early position raises 750! I’m like WTF you idiot!! I figured he had his flush so I go ahead and fold. He flips up K-Q with no spades!! And the short stack has A-Q with ace spades. The turn brings the 2-spades and the river is 10-hearts. I would have made a full house but instead the short stack gets his flush and triples up to almost 1,700 chips! Freaking donkeys!!! I know I am glad they are playing otherwise I wouldn’t be winning but dang they really piss you off sometimes. Well guess what??? The donkey didn’t cash because of his dumb play. About 3 hands later the other short stack pushes and he calls and the big stack puts him all in. The big stack had A-A and takes them both out. So after starting 0-4 in my other tables I end up going 4-0 in my DON’s. I actually finish up $2.00 for the night but had to sign off at that point.
C-ya at the tables
Dave

Starting BR: $240
Ending BR: $242

Milestone

Well I had an o.k. session tonight. I started off with a pot limit Badugi, 60FPP step satellite and a Sunday 200K satellite first. The Badugi tournament didn't go as well as my last one. I doubled up once and won a few other small pots but never made it above 4K in chips. I ended up going out in 40th out of 104 with top 16 getting paid. The step satellite didn't go so well either. I was card dead the entire tourney and when I finally pushed (with a stack of 950) w/A-K I got called by big stack w/2-4 and he paired up. I went out in 36th with top 10 getting tickets. The Sunday 200K satellite went a lot better. I didn't get any cards for quite a while and just stayed out of the way and preserved my chips. I finally got a good run of cards almost an hour into it and doubled up and then tripled up when my A-A ran against K-K & Q-Q. That put me as chip leader with around 60 people left and 27 getting tickets to the 200K. At that point I was content to preserve my stack and stay out of the way of other aggressive medium stacks that could hurt me some. I had one nut on my right that had a nice medium stack and was really aggressive!! She ended up with a stack bigger than mine but wouldn't back off..she ended up busting out in around 25th!! Unreal…some people don't understand satellites.. I ended up with a ticket but I had no intention of playing in the 200K..that tourney lasts like 12 hours if you run deep. So I unregistered and got my $11 tourney dollars which is why I did it to begin with. I tried another 200K satellite while that one was winding down, but I got burned pretty early when my A-K was run down by A-4 when he made 2 pair. I then switched over to my $5.20 DON's and ran 4 for 5. I was especially proud of my final DON that I was in. Runners were especially bad tonight with only 1 or 2 other positive ROI at each table. To my left was a -25% roi guy. We were at the 25-50 blind level and picked up A-Q in late position and I haven't played a pot yet! There was one limper in front and I raised it to 200 and the Cowboy (it was in his name) thought a few seconds and pushed all in. For some reason I got a fast read on this guy and knew he was weak. As bad as he was I knew if he had a decent pair he would have just called and if he had a top pair he would have min raised me and not push all in and maybe chase me away. Even though at this point in the tourney I was screaming FOLD I went ahead and called. He had J-10 and then flopped the nut straight. I knew better even if I knew I was ahead it wasn't by that much since both his cards were alive. Well that left me with 240 chips and still 8 people in the tourney. Luckily 3 others were around 1,000 chips and the blinds were about to go up to 50-100. I wasn't giving up yet!! I folded the next few hands and then in the big blind I pushed all-in and of course was called since it was only double the blind. My hand was ahead and held up. Then a medium stack got frisky and fell in love with a hand and was busted by the Cowboy again (he was running very lucky!). Now I had 700 chips and the other 2 small stacks had around 800-900 each.. I still had a chance… then in early position I pick up A-9 which I normally auto fold, but with my chip count and the big blind of 150 coming to me next I pushed. I was called by the big blind with A-4. I was very happy until the board paired twice and we tied with our Ace kickers. That sucked!!! Instead of doubling up to around 1900 I was still at 775 instead. I was o.k. though since 2 other stacks were at 500 & 700. I had to fold both blinds since other people shoved and I was down to 500 chips now and the blinds jumped to 150-250. My lucky donkey Cowboy that put me in this position to begin with saved me. Both short stacks pushed all in and Cowboy called. Of course he had the worse hand of the three but in his usual fashion he ran them both down and both were busted. Whew…another win..but it was close. That win did push me past a milestone (maybe only temporarily!! LOL) $200 BANKROLL!!!
Dave

Starting BR: $187
Ending BR: $205

how do you know?

Things are going alright in my poker world. It looks like I am still on track with my goals so far. I do realize that I have a LONG way to go and have to take what is given to me and not force anything trying to reach a goal. I am still doing the $5.20 DON’s mostly and mixing in some heads-up and small buy-in MTT just to keep from getting burned out on the same format. I was thinking about accurate ROI% and I don’t think anyone but the high level players can ever really know what their true ROI% is. I have read that even a 1,000 game sample is too small of a sample to verify your ROI%. The problem is that most positive ROI% players will move up to the next level well before even reaching that amount. I ran a 35% ROI on the $1.20 DON’s but I only did 90 of them before moving up to the $5.20 DON’s! Did I run lucky or not?? We will hopefully never know because I sure hope never to be at that level again. Now I am doing $5.20 DON’s, but I only need another $15-20 profit before I begin to take shots at $10.40 DON’s. Only problem is that I have only ran around 40 of them and I have run at 20% ROI. The first 9 I went 9-0 and 92% ROI. The next 11 I went 3-8 and -47% ROI. The next 20 I have gone 13-7 and 25% ROI. So I have a slight dilemma… Since my sample is so small do I stay at this level longer until I have at least a 100 game sample or move up again? If I want to reach my goals I have to move up when my bankroll supports it so I think I am still going to move up. Of course if I lose the first couple of $10.40 DON’s I will drop right back down to the $5.20 level. The good thing about my long term goal is that I never plan on going above the $20.80 DON level to achieve it. Once my bankroll is large enough to play the $20.80 DON I am planning on staying there and just adding more tables until I am 4 tabling. If I reach that point then I achieved my long term goal and will set new ones then. Until then…back to the grind.
C-ya at the tables
Dave

Starting BR: $173
Ending BR: $187

Round #2 a new beginning

O.k.. I was ready for try again. This was about 2 weeks ago. Same plan as before.. Micro SNG's and Heads-up SNG. I planned on staying away from ring games. It seemed I would always get ahead quite a bit and end up losing it to a bad beat later in the session. I prefer the SNG as I know what my loss/profit will be for each one. While I took my month off Pokerstars came out with their Double or Nothing SNG's (DON'S from now on). I read a few articles on these and watch a couple and they looked pretty easy so that's where I began. TAG TAG TAG.. if you are going to play these you better have a set of balls on you.. Shove fests late in the game and aggression wins. Well I love these things. I have seen all kinds of posts of how boring they are and low ROI%, but I disagree.. I multitable 4 of the $1.10 turbos and that keeps you plenty busy. for the 1st week I ran 36% ROI and then I started mixing in a $5.20 turbos every now and then the 2nd week. It didn't hurt that I ran 9/9 on the $5.20 during the 2nd week while I kept up the $1.10's. The great thing about these (at least for me) is that I don't tilt when I lose a few. So now we are to the present day.

Starting BR $25
Current BR $90