Amount Lost Since 7/11/2007

7/11/2007 was one of the most exciting days of my life, I finally managed to get some funds on my Full Tilt account. The rest history, and I hope it would just say history..

I’m down just over $300 since I started playing. Yes. Don’t you dare asking why or how. It’s called grind and tilt. I hope I’m done with poker for at least 3 months now.

I self-excluded myself from PokerJokes for 6 months and considering extending my 3-day exclusion on Full Tilt to 3 months. Just to make sure I don’t deposit $100 more and play “strictly” 0.05/0.10.

Might Close the Blog

Since I’m mainly a losing player (yes, I admit it), every time I post here I feel like I’m humiliating myself, having to update with all the losses and explain each one of them, and documenting how much I already waved.

I guess that more than a therapy this blog is meant self-lashing and whipping..I may have to run away.

Couldn’t resist the self-exclusion on Full Tilt, so deposited $9 on Stars..won a 18-man $1 tourney, and lost it all playing $3 SNG’s.

Self-Excluded for 7 Days

I waved most of my bankroll away today. I decided to self-exclude myself from Full Tilt for the next 7 days.

I’m Done With PokerStars

That’s it. I’ve had it with these guys. Just take a look at the numerous forum threads, I don’t want to open another one..but let’s say I can relate to them. And yes - I think the system rewards crazy, amateur, dumb (aggressive) players more. Rigged? wouldn’t say that..just so I don’t sound like a donk.

Next month I’m gonna deposit $50 into Full Tilt. If I wave those away, I’m done with online poker. I’ve doing pretty good offline and online is just making me sick of poker.

66.6% Pure Poker

Today started quite late at about 9PM, I entered a $0.01/$0.02 cash table with $1.5 and planned to play a tourney with the money I make there, the table was pretty soft and after about 25 minutes I already had $2.5 without any major pots.

That’s when I got a phone call from a technophobic friend who just bought a PS3 and wanted me to teach him the ABC of it. That wasn’t as soft.

I came back only about 2 hours later and decided to enter a 6-handed $3 turbo-tourney: I played that one perfectly. There were enough donks around and I was concentrated enough to detect them and take their chips, I also hit a few nice hands on the turn and river which helped become chip leader quickly. Heads up didn’t take long although it wasn’t a walk in the park. 1st place brought me $11.5.

I then took a little break, thought about all those nights when I won one tourney and would enter the 2nd, 3rd and 4th thinking I’m gonna take them all like a champ, only to end up with less than my initial bankroll for that day. I thought about it, and told myself it’s not gonna happen.

We’re (Finally) Up

After yesterday’s update I went on and played another $3 tourney at Stars, only to bust out with the same hand I busted out with yesterday (AK), again I was short stacked and I moved all in. The guy had JJ and the flop (J X X) granted him the pot.

Today I woke up early and played cash tables, 2-tabling most of the time. I really like the way I play 90% of the time but those 10% ruin it all and can get me back to where I started, which then leads to frustration and the story goes on.

To make a long story short, I was down to about $14 two hours ago and decided I’m sick of playing chip-trading with the cash tables, I registered to a 6-handed $3 turbo-tourney with the thought “don’t be afraid to bust out this time, play your good hands”.

After a bit less than 30 minutes I took down 1st place ($11.7), netting $8.10 profit and bringing my bankroll to $23.50; I can’t remember the last time I summarized the day with winnings after long sessions.

There’s still so much to learn and observe, especially on how to cope when things are going bad and how not to lose your head when you double up. I still call when I shouldn’t at times but it’s getting better everyday..let’s hope tomorrow will be a bit greener with a bit more patience!

Updated Bankroll for 24/11/07 - $23.5 ($3.63)

-$0.23

I just love the way I played today. Love it.

So here goes: 9:00AM I wake up, start playing at a cash table with $1 and lose it after about 10 minutes. What a bad start. Luckily I had $20 deposited and didn’t panic over losing my whole bankroll.

I then login at about 14:00PM, start playing at one table with $2, and after going up to about $2.70, I begin two-tabling and I lay $2 more at the table. That session ended at ~14:40PM with me getting back my money plus a few cents more.

The longest session went from 23:00PM until 01:44AM (now)..Highest point: $24. Lowest: $13.

I started the session with two-tabling ($2-intial each): The start wasn’t too promising, I called a few hands I shouldn’t have and quickly found myself busting out of the two tables.

Took a 5-minute break, and sat down at another one (Table A) with $1.50, I quickly get over $2 and decide to two-table again..the next table (Table B) I opened was going to be a golden one.

While playing I made a few mistakes on table A and while I did reach $3.00 there I busted out, which led to a little tilt that got me to wave down a few more cents on table B. So we’ve got $1 left on table B.

I started observing a very aggressive player that would raise and steal pots like crazy, sometimes he’d lose, but the pots he won by stealing and getting lucky on the river were huge so he soon was at $6.

I quickly complimented him and admired his style; during the next 2 hours our chat got a bit more honest and less friendly, especially when he tilted strongly. I managed to bust this guy twice, total net winnings from our LAG: $9.

Which brings our bankroll to ~$23. I could have taken those $3 home and end the day with a green cashflow, but $3 for 3 hours? I decided to play a 10 man $3(+$0.40) turbo-tourney.

I’d play it the same way if I’d get into one. When blinds were at $75/$150 I’m a bit behind with $1000 middle position and some guy (early) with $3000 raises to $2000, I call with my AK to find out he’s got two snowmen.

Flop gave us nothing. The turn showed the darn 8 and I stood up, smiled to the screen and gone to drink a glass of water. I was out 6th place.

I felt things were ticking today..I laid down dangerous hands like Q9,J9,Q10 most of the time considering my position and stack sizes. I played my premium hands very well (except some suck-outs I was hit with) and knew when and how to bluff several times (will have to read more about value-betting though)

See you tomorrow..

Updated Bankroll for 23/11/07 - $19.87 ($0.23)

Make it $50 a Month

I know there’s a slim chance I’m getting myself into a growing snowball here, but today I realized one thing: poker is an investment. You gotta invest in poker if you wanna win in poker, and some of the investment has to be financial. Yes, we should strive to make the financial investment as small as possible, but it’s like a business - You gotta play a lot of people before you can pay yourself..but when time comes - you’ll be paid, big time.

I’m gonna add $20 to one of my accounts today, which brings my monthly poker investment $50. Truth is - my blog network is making me enough so banging away $50 isn’t a big deal for me, but still - I don’t want this $50 to turn into $75, and then $100..and then…$50 is just enough to play the micro stakes and low stake SNG’s without the pressure of huge variance in your bankroll.

From now I’m not going to play to win money, or show a positive bankroll change at the end of the day. I wanna play for the long-term, to become a better player..and that’s it.

I’ll keep you posted.

LOL

I seriously don’t know whether I should burst in laughter or in tears; I just went broke again it’s getting quite pathetic. The bad beats and the ridiculous river rats there never cease to amaze..

As I promised myself, I will not deposit more than $30 a month..I guess I will see you again next month, unless I cash in a freeroll..which I don’t have much time to play.

Cash Games?

My losing streak went until yesterday, when I hit a bottom of $2 after failing to cash in PokerStars’ tournies. That’s when I took 2 x 2nd place in two of them in a row to bring back my bankroll to $4. I played about 3 hours to make a $2 profit; After I spent about 3 hours losing more than that.

So that was yesterday..

Updated Bankroll for 17/11/07 - $4 ($11)

Today I really wanted to play a tournament before entering a very important business meeting, I had 70 minutes, I could’ve entered a $1 SNG in a rush and maybe.. if I played my best poker, if the players were loose and with a little luck..I would’ve taken a net profit of $3 just before the meeting.

Nah..just think how concentrated I’d be if 20 minutes before the meeting I’d go bust out at 3rd or 4th place.

40 minutes before the meeting I decide to “throw” $1 into a $0.01/$0.02 cash table, yes yes, the kind of table I said I’d never play and feel so uncomfortable sitting at..and guess what? 35 minutes later I was up about $4, bringing my bankroll to a whopping 8 American dollars!

Interesting. In 40 minutes I played more hands, made more money and worried less about position stack sizes and table image than I would probably do in a 65-80 minute $1 SNG. More and most importantly: I wasn’t committed to the table, I could leave whenever I wanted.

Today’s experience with cash games, alongside the slight improvement at SNG performance left me with a good feeling that will hopefully last until the next time I log out of PokerStars..and if not, let’s just hope I will stick to my bankroll limitations and keep my bankroll somewhat safe.

See you tomorrow!

Updated Bankroll for 18/11/07 - $8 ($4)