The ugly side

Up to this post on Stars I have run pretty well. I take my share of bad beats as well as sucking out a number of times. Normally these even out over just a few days. Lately it's been really ugly for me. It just seems that if there is a card or runner/runner combination that can take me from a dominating lead to a horrible beat it happens. I have lost $500 over the last few days. Here is my graph now:






I found this one match quite 'amusing'. Losing AA in two consecutive hands. I know what you're thinking, what a card rack for getting AA twice in a row.



The 5th hand of the tournament and first I entered with blinds of 15/30 there were two early limper's. I raised to 150. A late position guy re-raised to 270 and that took out the limper's. I shove my AA and he calls with AQ offsuit. Ship the str8 to the donk. This left me with 265 chips which I open shoved next hand after getting AA again. K7 soooooted calls me and ships the flush. My parting words were: "I suck"



My goal of hitting 2K before Jan 1 is at risk now. I need to turn it around quickly. Luckily I made $100 playing the satellites last night to keep my Stars account above $1500. If it gets any worse I might be forced to drop levels.

Sharkscope graph

I guess I should post my results so far. I'm doing well ROI wise. I have now started at the $16 sng level now playing 6-8 tables. That way I have close to $100 on the site at a time and would expect to earn $20+ per hour at that rate playing that level. I am watching RPT videos on MTT play and feel I am ready to play them. I want to have 100 buyins behind me and due to the time it takes to play them I don't want to start at the lower levels. $3rebuy or $20FO is as low as I want to play and for that 2K is necessary in my opinion.

I have done well on the 180 man $4.40's on Stars that I have played. I have an unsustainable 460% roi after playing 20 of them. I have 5 Final tables 2 2nds, and 2 3rds but I have yet to win one. They take over 3 hours to play and I don't often find that much concurrent time.

I may play one of those $50FO tourneys that I satellite into soon. I have profited well satelliting into them but I have always unregistered and taken the cash to date. I think I should play one. I did well playing the AP 150K tourney after satelliting in, I didn't have the option to unregister at AP.

Here is my graph now after 2 months on Stars, it's certainly heading in the right direction:

Learn when not to play!

I recently read a forum post with a Chip Reese quote on it that really rings true with me. Chip described his "A" game as pretty good, but not as good as some other pro's. However he stated his "D" game was not far from his "A" game.

I believe that your game is really only as good as how you play when you are at your worst. It's very important to know when not to play. Months of profits from your "A"game can disappear in hours playing your "D" game. This variance in play can be controlled however it is probably the most difficult skill in poker. Many really skilled poker players are unsuccessful at the game long term because they cannot manage to control their internal emotions and thought processes in order to play their best in ever session they play. Like other skills this can be worked on and improved.

The first key to fixing this problem is recognizing when you are playing poorly and stopping. Then recognize the conditions upon which you will play poorly. For some it is poor eating or a family or work related issue on your mind. If these conditions are present, don't play. The more aware you are of what outside factors impact your game the easier it will be for you to shut these outside factors out and allow your poker skills/instinct to control your plays.

Grinding some more

I am still enjoying the rebuy satellites. I just finished playing 6 of them yesterday. I won a seat in all 6 and I had no extra rebuys in any of the matches. To date on Stars I have won seats 42 of 89 attempts for a payout of $2400 on a buyin of about $1800. I really understand the format and how many chips are required to fold into the seat. I have no problem insta-folding AA, KK preflop or shoving 48 offsuit when the conditions warrant it.

My sng game is improving but I still need to work on the end game (ICM). I plan on buying one of the tools that teach ICM once my subscription to RPT ends. I recently bumped up the number of concurrent tables I play from 2-4 to 6-8 as a trial. At first it seemed daunting but after a few sessions I can once again carry on an MSN conversation, read forums, etc. while playing. I probably miss some reads and also fold some hands I shouldn't. I know for sure I can manage that number of games now and I am looking forward to putting some volume in during Xmas.

Trying the satellite's

One difference between AP and Stars is that on Stars you can unregister for tournaments that you win via a satellite and get T$ for them. T$, or tournament dollars, can be used to register for any tournament including sit-n-go's so they are as good as cash to me.

I decided to play the $5.50 rebuy turbos that satellite into $55 freezeouts. These take just over an hour to play due to the 5 minute levels. You start with 1000 chips and the rebuy period lasts the first 30 minutes and then there is a 1500 chip addon at the break.

My reason for choosing the rebuys versus the freezeouts are two fold. The money added for rebuys and addons is not raked so the overall fee is lower then for a freezout with the same payout. There are also many poor players that don't understand either rebuy or satellite strategy and so my edge is greater. As examples of the poor play; 30% if the field choose not to rebuy during the first hour, then another 30% choose not to addon at the break, then many players that have accumulated enough chips to fold to their seat choose to risk their chips in the late stages.

My results so far are better than expected. I have won 6 seats out of my first 9 attempts.

At first I played the rebuy period too aggressively. One game I had $35.50 invested with a chance of making $55. I did win the seat but I had way too much invested. During my last 4 games I only invested $15.5 each game. That was the initial buyin+ an immediate rebuy + the addon after 30 minutes. I won 3 of 4 of these playing much tighter during the first hour.

I'll probably outline my strategy for these after playing a few more. I think they are one of the easiest ways to grind out a consistant earning with a low variance. The strategy for playing them is also much simplier to master then a sit-n-go and they take the same amount of time. The downside is that there are far fewer of them running.

Done with Absolute Poker... Hello Stars

I withdrew my roll from Vegas Poker (an AP skin), leaving $500 on for now. Once my last rakeback payment is put into my account I will take the rest out. AP just hasn't given me the sense that they take security matters seriously. I'll leave the door open to play there again but it won't be until they make great strides in security including reimbursing those cheated.

I decided to try Poker Stars. I started with a $300 deposit and used a signup bonus that will give me access to a training site for 6 months without charge once I earn 250 FPP's. I was considering joining PXF and will put that off until after the free subscription runs out.

I started with the $5.50 sng's to get use to the interface and proceeded to lose 12 matches in a row. I then lost one more buy in over my next 8 matches to be stuck $70 after 20 matches playing $5.50 games. Well as you can see from the graph I cashed my next 7 including 4 firsts and 2 2nds to get back above even.