A breakdown of profit by month so far:
— September PLUS $13
— October MINUS $9
— November PLUS $225
— December PLUS $234
— January PLUS $415
— February is off to a good start. Made $203 in the first week. We'll see how the rest of the month goes, but the goal is to make somewhere from $600 to $800 this month.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Chasing … and catching
Chasing flush draws is no way to make a living … unless pot odds dictate that you do so.
Here's an example of a hand where I got in a little deep and then decided I needed to finish what I started.
Stacks:
UTG+1 with 1305
MP1 with 2363
MP2 with 2547
MP3 with 1765
CO with 1460
BTN with 1035
SB with 1400
BB with 1625
UTG with 1555
Blinds: 25-50
Site: Full Tilt Poker
Dealt to CO: 8♦ 7♦
Sklansky group 5
Preflop:
3 players fold.
MP2 calls [50]
1 players fold.
Hero calls [50]
BTN calls [50]
BB checks
1 players folded.
Total folds this street: 5
Potsize: 225
There had been a lot of limping, so I felt that the chance I would be raised off this hand preflop was pretty slim.
Flop: 7♥ 2♦ K♦
BB checks
MP2 bets [225]
1 players fold.
Hero calls [225]
This could be considered a loose call since it was for about 15 percent of my chips, but I had middle pair to go with the flush draw. If I had had just the flush draw, I likely would have mucked right here.
BTN raises to 985, and is all in
2 players fold.
Hero calls [760]
Now I think I'm committed. If he has a pair, I have nine flush cards plus two sevens and three eights that will give me the pot. There was more than 1,600 in the pot, so I was getting better than 2-to-1 on my call. And if I had 14 outs, that meant I was almost even money to win the pot.
BTN shows: K♣ 10♦
Hero shows: 8♦ 7♦
Potsize: 2420
Turn: 6♥
River: 8♣
BTN shows a pair of Kings
Hero shows two pair, Eights and Sevens Hero wins the pot (2,420) with two pair, Eights and Sevens
I win. A happy ending for all. Well, all except the button, I suppose.
Current bankroll: $1,128.
OPR ranking: 98.19.
Here's an example of a hand where I got in a little deep and then decided I needed to finish what I started.
Stacks:
UTG+1 with 1305
MP1 with 2363
MP2 with 2547
MP3 with 1765
CO with 1460
BTN with 1035
SB with 1400
BB with 1625
UTG with 1555
Blinds: 25-50
Site: Full Tilt Poker
Dealt to CO: 8♦ 7♦
Sklansky group 5
Preflop:
3 players fold.
MP2 calls [50]
1 players fold.
Hero calls [50]
BTN calls [50]
BB checks
1 players folded.
Total folds this street: 5
Potsize: 225
There had been a lot of limping, so I felt that the chance I would be raised off this hand preflop was pretty slim.
Flop: 7♥ 2♦ K♦
BB checks
MP2 bets [225]
1 players fold.
Hero calls [225]
This could be considered a loose call since it was for about 15 percent of my chips, but I had middle pair to go with the flush draw. If I had had just the flush draw, I likely would have mucked right here.
BTN raises to 985, and is all in
2 players fold.
Hero calls [760]
Now I think I'm committed. If he has a pair, I have nine flush cards plus two sevens and three eights that will give me the pot. There was more than 1,600 in the pot, so I was getting better than 2-to-1 on my call. And if I had 14 outs, that meant I was almost even money to win the pot.
BTN shows: K♣ 10♦
Hero shows: 8♦ 7♦
Potsize: 2420
Turn: 6♥
River: 8♣
BTN shows a pair of Kings
Hero shows two pair, Eights and Sevens Hero wins the pot (2,420) with two pair, Eights and Sevens
I win. A happy ending for all. Well, all except the button, I suppose.
Current bankroll: $1,128.
OPR ranking: 98.19.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Another small goal met
The "OPR" that I consistently refer to is actually "Officialpokerrankings.com" — a Web site that puts the Big Brother in poker.
The site monitors every single poker tournament played on several sites and compiles all sorts of helpful numbers about each player's game. It's pretty insane.
Anyway, the OPR ranking that I consistently mention comes from some formula the site uses to rank all the poker players online. So a poker ranking of 98.17 — my current ranking — means that I'm ranked ahead of 98.17 percent of the players the site is monitoring … whatever that means.
Normally, my goal is to move into the next percentage point. But once I hit the 98 mark, I decided to keep an eye on overall ranking. I was getting close to being in the top 10,000, and I wanted to get there.
Well, I'm there. Into the top 10,000 for the first time ever after the two cashes last night.
Top 10,000 doesn't seem like a whole lot to get excited about, but the site ranks everyone who has played a cash tournament on one of several sites over the past 120 days. More than 533,000 players are ranked in order, so being in the top 10,000 is pretty cool.
The site monitors every single poker tournament played on several sites and compiles all sorts of helpful numbers about each player's game. It's pretty insane.
Anyway, the OPR ranking that I consistently mention comes from some formula the site uses to rank all the poker players online. So a poker ranking of 98.17 — my current ranking — means that I'm ranked ahead of 98.17 percent of the players the site is monitoring … whatever that means.
Normally, my goal is to move into the next percentage point. But once I hit the 98 mark, I decided to keep an eye on overall ranking. I was getting close to being in the top 10,000, and I wanted to get there.
Well, I'm there. Into the top 10,000 for the first time ever after the two cashes last night.
Top 10,000 doesn't seem like a whole lot to get excited about, but the site ranks everyone who has played a cash tournament on one of several sites over the past 120 days. More than 533,000 players are ranked in order, so being in the top 10,000 is pretty cool.
One good night, one bad hand
The first time I played since reaching the $1,000 mark, I went over the $1,100 mark by finishing first in an 18-player, $11 SNG while also finishing sixth in a 45-player, $11 SNG. I would like to punch myself in the face for how I played the final hand in the bigger tournament though. Here it is:
Stacks:
SB with 9186
BB with 6170
UTG with 33386
MP with 8026
CO with 4632
HERO with 6100
Blinds:
Site: Full Tilt Poker
Dealt to BTN: 7♥ 7♠
With the blinds as high as they were — 500-1,000 — this seems like a great hand to push with. But there was one problem ...
Preflop:
UTG calls [1,000]
MP raises to 2,000
1 players fold.
Hero raises to 6,100, and is all in
As soon as I put my chips in, I realized the guy who min-raised with a short stack and a caller already in the pot could only have one hand: aces. It seems crazy to consider folding 7s in this spot, but I would have if I had spent five seconds thinking about it.
3 players fold.
MP calls [4,100] Hero shows : 7♥ 7♠
MP shows : A♠ A♥
Total folds this street: 4
Potsize: 13701
Flop: 10♠ Q♦ 6♠
Turn: 9♠
River: 5♣
Hero shows a pair of Sevens
MP shows a pair of Aces
MP wins the pot (14,700) with a pair of Aces
Poker Hand Converter By Cardschat.com Poker Forum
That was the end, but cashes worth $72 and $22.50 gave me a profit of $72.50 for the night.
Current balance: $1,105.
OPR ranking: Still 98.05, but it will go up. They update once a day.
Stacks:
SB with 9186
BB with 6170
UTG with 33386
MP with 8026
CO with 4632
HERO with 6100
Blinds:
Site: Full Tilt Poker
Dealt to BTN: 7♥ 7♠
With the blinds as high as they were — 500-1,000 — this seems like a great hand to push with. But there was one problem ...
Preflop:
UTG calls [1,000]
MP raises to 2,000
1 players fold.
Hero raises to 6,100, and is all in
As soon as I put my chips in, I realized the guy who min-raised with a short stack and a caller already in the pot could only have one hand: aces. It seems crazy to consider folding 7s in this spot, but I would have if I had spent five seconds thinking about it.
3 players fold.
MP calls [4,100] Hero shows : 7♥ 7♠
MP shows : A♠ A♥
Total folds this street: 4
Potsize: 13701
Flop: 10♠ Q♦ 6♠
Turn: 9♠
River: 5♣
Hero shows a pair of Sevens
MP shows a pair of Aces
MP wins the pot (14,700) with a pair of Aces
Poker Hand Converter By Cardschat.com Poker Forum
That was the end, but cashes worth $72 and $22.50 gave me a profit of $72.50 for the night.
Current balance: $1,105.
OPR ranking: Still 98.05, but it will go up. They update once a day.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
The system
To repeat the theory about making money playing online poker that I mentioned in an earlier blog, I believe there are just two things necessary:
1. You must be a winning poker player.
2. You must be extremely disciplined when it comes to bankroll management.
Here the rules I laid out for myself before asking a friend to transfer $50 into my Full Tilt account:
1. I swore I would put money online only once in my life. This prevented me from taking a shot at a tournament I had no business playing and ending up with a zero balance. Too many people put $100 online and then play a few $5 tournaments before getting bored and buying into a couple $50 games. I told myself that this was not an option.
2. I put only 2.5 percent of my bankroll up for any tournament or sit-and-go buy-in. This allows me to ride out the inevitable swings of bad cards, bad luck and bad decisions that every poker player occasionally goes through.
3. I broke rule No. 2 early. I put $50 into an online account, but I started playing $2 tournaments and sit-and-gos immediately and told myself that I was never going to move down from there. Playing anything cheaper than that is utterly ridiculous. Besides, if you go through a fifty $2 at a time, you're not a winning poker player. If you go broke at that pace, you should log off forever.
It took forever to build up from $50 to $200, which is when I allowed myself to move up to $5 tournaments. (Again, the 2.5 percent rule.) It took some time to get used to the Internet game and the crazy people who play low-stakes tournaments and sit-and-gos. And it took a while to figure out which size game worked best for me. But once I got rolling, I got rolling.
The move from $5 to $10 tournaments didn't take long at all. The move from $10 to $20, where I should start playing right now (that's less than 2 percent of my $1,000-plus bankroll) took almost no time at all.
Managing money is key, but it's still not the most important thing. No matter how well you manage your bankroll, you still have to be a winning player. Only 1 out of 3 players win money online. If you're in the 2-out-of-3 group, you're going to lose all your money eventually no matter how much you deposit or how smart you are about managing it.
So why all the discussion about bankroll management when being a winning player is more important? Because I can explain bankroll management. When it comes to figuring out how to be a winning player, well, you're kind of on your own.
Current bankroll: $1,033.
OPR ranking: 98.05 (first time ever over 98).
1. You must be a winning poker player.
2. You must be extremely disciplined when it comes to bankroll management.
Here the rules I laid out for myself before asking a friend to transfer $50 into my Full Tilt account:
1. I swore I would put money online only once in my life. This prevented me from taking a shot at a tournament I had no business playing and ending up with a zero balance. Too many people put $100 online and then play a few $5 tournaments before getting bored and buying into a couple $50 games. I told myself that this was not an option.
2. I put only 2.5 percent of my bankroll up for any tournament or sit-and-go buy-in. This allows me to ride out the inevitable swings of bad cards, bad luck and bad decisions that every poker player occasionally goes through.
3. I broke rule No. 2 early. I put $50 into an online account, but I started playing $2 tournaments and sit-and-gos immediately and told myself that I was never going to move down from there. Playing anything cheaper than that is utterly ridiculous. Besides, if you go through a fifty $2 at a time, you're not a winning poker player. If you go broke at that pace, you should log off forever.
It took forever to build up from $50 to $200, which is when I allowed myself to move up to $5 tournaments. (Again, the 2.5 percent rule.) It took some time to get used to the Internet game and the crazy people who play low-stakes tournaments and sit-and-gos. And it took a while to figure out which size game worked best for me. But once I got rolling, I got rolling.
The move from $5 to $10 tournaments didn't take long at all. The move from $10 to $20, where I should start playing right now (that's less than 2 percent of my $1,000-plus bankroll) took almost no time at all.
Managing money is key, but it's still not the most important thing. No matter how well you manage your bankroll, you still have to be a winning player. Only 1 out of 3 players win money online. If you're in the 2-out-of-3 group, you're going to lose all your money eventually no matter how much you deposit or how smart you are about managing it.
So why all the discussion about bankroll management when being a winning player is more important? Because I can explain bankroll management. When it comes to figuring out how to be a winning player, well, you're kind of on your own.
Current bankroll: $1,033.
OPR ranking: 98.05 (first time ever over 98).
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Nice hand, nice flop
An interesting hand from my first place in the wee hours of this morning. I'm normally a proponent of shoving with aces so I only have to play one opponent with them, but since I already had one guy all-in, I decided to flat call and see if anyone tagged along for the flop.
Of course, I figured if anyone had a big enough hand to call that they would probably shove. And if they didn't, I planned to shove the flop no matter what cards fell.
I never thought someone would flat call and do the shoving on the flop for me.
Here's the hand:
$10 + $1 Sit & Go, Table 3 - 30/60 - No Limit Hold'em - 2009/02/03
Stacks:
UTG+1 with 2525
MP1 with 2560
MP2 with 712
HERO with 2573
CO with 1040
BTN with 3570
SB with 2055
BB with 1910
UTG with 1045
Site: Full Tilt Poker
Dealt to hero: A♣ A♠
Preflop:
3 players fold.
MP2 raises to 712, and is all in
Hero calls [712]
2 players fold.
SB calls [682]
1 players folded.
Total folds this street: 6
Potsize: 2196
Flop: 3♥ A♥ 5♣
SB bets [1,343, and is all in]
Hero calls [1,343]
SB shows: Q♣ A♦
MP2 shows: 10♦ J♦
Hero shows: A♣ A♠
Potsize: 3540
Turn: 4♣
River: 9♦
SB shows a pair of Aces
Hero shows three of a kind, Aces Hero wins the side pot (2,686) with three of a kind, Aces
MP2 shows Ace Jack high Hero wins the main pot (2,196) with three of a kind, Aces
Poker Hand Converter By Cardschat.com Poker Forum
Of course, I figured if anyone had a big enough hand to call that they would probably shove. And if they didn't, I planned to shove the flop no matter what cards fell.
I never thought someone would flat call and do the shoving on the flop for me.
Here's the hand:
$10 + $1 Sit & Go, Table 3 - 30/60 - No Limit Hold'em - 2009/02/03
Stacks:
UTG+1 with 2525
MP1 with 2560
MP2 with 712
HERO with 2573
CO with 1040
BTN with 3570
SB with 2055
BB with 1910
UTG with 1045
Site: Full Tilt Poker
Dealt to hero: A♣ A♠
Preflop:
3 players fold.
MP2 raises to 712, and is all in
Hero calls [712]
2 players fold.
SB calls [682]
1 players folded.
Total folds this street: 6
Potsize: 2196
Flop: 3♥ A♥ 5♣
SB bets [1,343, and is all in]
Hero calls [1,343]
SB shows: Q♣ A♦
MP2 shows: 10♦ J♦
Hero shows: A♣ A♠
Potsize: 3540
Turn: 4♣
River: 9♦
SB shows a pair of Aces
Hero shows three of a kind, Aces Hero wins the side pot (2,686) with three of a kind, Aces
MP2 shows Ace Jack high Hero wins the main pot (2,196) with three of a kind, Aces
Poker Hand Converter By Cardschat.com Poker Forum
A new milestone
Pulled it off. Won a 27-person tournament for $108. Crossed the $1,000 barrier.
Current bankroll: $1,028.
OPR ranking: 97.9 percentile. (Not counting tonight's results. Could cross 98 percent for the first time.)
Current bankroll: $1,028.
OPR ranking: 97.9 percentile. (Not counting tonight's results. Could cross 98 percent for the first time.)
Where have I been?
The whole point of a blog is to write regularly. So what have I been up to the past two weeks? A lot.
Just felt the need to post right now to get myself back in the groove. Currently the chip leader in an $11, 27-person sit-and-go. If I win — a big if — I'll break the $1,000 barrier. Stay tuned.
Just felt the need to post right now to get myself back in the groove. Currently the chip leader in an $11, 27-person sit-and-go. If I win — a big if — I'll break the $1,000 barrier. Stay tuned.
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