Beginning Bankroll: $8.22
I know I've promised to record my results on this site each day that I play on PokerStars using my Zip to Chips bankroll. Alas, I did play the last couple of days (Sunday and Monday), but circumstances kept me from having adequate time to blog when I completed play. But here's a quick update of each day's play.
On Sunday I entered one NLHE sit-n-go (SNG) tournament--$1.10 entry fee--and played for a while in a cash game. In the SNG I finished 17th out of 45 entrants, short of the money. (It paid 7 places.) In the cash game ($.01 and $.02 blinds) I turned my $1.00 buy-in into a whopping $1.04! I can tell you're impressed. (With my sarcasm if not my results.) So Sunday was my first negative day in this bankroll-growing experiment. 'Twas bound to happen, and no doubt will happen again. Even the top players don't win every session they play.
By the way, I crashed and burned in the SNG when, in the small blind, the action was folded around to me and I had pocket kings. So I shoved all-in. Imagine my dismay (and pure, animal hatred for the poker gods) when the big blind called and turned over American Airlines. Since I had him (or her--hard to tell by screen names) covered, that didn't knock me out, but it did cripple me pretty good.
On Monday I returned to the plus side of the ledger after playing two single-table (9-handed) NLHE SNGs. These had $1.20 entry fees each. I bombed out in 7th in the first one, then redeemed myself in the second by taking second place. So for the day I wound up ahead by another whopping 30 cents.
All in all, I think I played pretty well, making the right decisions for the most part. Maybe sometimes I did (and still do) play a bit too tight, and too passively at others, but survival is job one in this grand experiment. I do hate bankroll "variance", so I'm sure that leads to my tight and occasionally passive play. But as long as the bankroll continues to grow more often than it slips back, I'll be happy. Especially in its current micro state.
I do have some free time this afternoon, but I'm going to pass on playing today because my work schedule has been a little wacky lately and I've had a couple of short nights of sleep. Today, for instance, I worked from 12:30 a.m. 'til noon, CST, after getting only about 4 hours of sleep last night. So I'm just too tired to expect to play optimally. (Remember, I'm an over-the-road truck driver--for now, anyway, 'til this bankroll grows enough that I can live on the profits I will be making at the higher stakes games. ;-) How's that for confidence?)
Hopefully I'll have more time in the coming days to devote to the care and feeding of my bankroll so you'll have plenty of exciting results to read about here. Feel free to write in (via the site's comments feature). Tell me some of your "favorite" bad beat stories, suffered and inflicted.
Thanks for checking up on me today, and good luck at the tables.
Ending Bankroll: $7.46
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Turbo Success
Beginning Bankroll: $7.26
Finally, some more free time to devote to this project. And well worth it, too! This time in a NLHE turbo tourney. Here's what happened.
I entered the tournament on PokerStars (the exclusive site for this project), which had a 10-cent buy-in. Just the right price for the bankroll I'm currently dealing with. I'll cut right to the chase here: out of the 6120 entrants, I came in 39th, turning my dime into $1.06. That 96-cent profit increased my (still meager) bankroll by 13-point-something percent. Since at this point I'm happy with a ten-percent increase per day I play, I didn't need to play any more today. I know, I should keep playing when I'm winning, but I'm a bit short on sleep because of my job and too fatigued to concentrate on poker for extended periods. Besides, after I finished the tourney I took an hour-long walk to get some exercise and increase my fitness level so I can play better longer. (That's the idea, anyway.)
As for my result in this tournament, I can't say I ran over the tables at which I was seated. I still didn't get the cards for that, but with judicious play at the right times, and avoiding getting unlucky at the wrong times, I kept myself afloat well into the really-really-really high blinds. The times I went all-in, either I didn't get a call, or my hand--always the best when I did get called--held up.
I had a scare at one point when I went all-in with pocket jacks and was called by one other player with a lower pocket pair. (I forget what they were exactly, but they were something like sixes or sevens.) The flop made a set for my opponent, but the river gave me another jack to complete my set and keep me alive.
Later, when short-stacked, I went all-in with pocket fives and got called by two others, one with A-10, the other with J-6. The board stayed low and didn't pair any of my opponents' cards, 'til the river brought a six. However, that also made a straight for me, so I more than tripled up on that hand.
One of my favorite hands was the one immediately after the bubble had burst and the remaining players were guaranteed at least a 9-cent profit. I was somewhat short-stacked and was dealt American Airlines. This was the third time in the event that I had gotten the aces, and they held up each time. This time I tripled up again.
And so it went. I would get a hand just often enough to steal the blinds or double (or triple) up and stay ahead of the rapidly increasing blinds (remember, this was a turbo tourney). Eventually, though, my luck ran out.
In my final hand, I had a suited A-K (of clubs) and went all-in. I was under the gun, if I recall correctly, but was too short-stacked to worry about my position. (It's hard to say "short-stacked" when I had 109,000+ in chips, but the blinds were 30,000 and 15,000, with 3,000 antes at that point, so I had just over three big blinds left.) Only the big blind called me, and he turned over Q-J. It didn't take long to see the writing on the wall when the flop came Q-J-J. And the river was another Q, improving his full house. Oh well, that certainly is poker. (Ever notice how when you get beat when you're all-in, you get beat by overkill? I mean, the opponent who knocks you out doesn't just hit a pair, but usually gets at least 2 pair, if not a set or straight or flush--or boat. Am I right?)
That's today's story. I expect to have some more time tomorrow to compete at the virtual tables again, so check back for those results. Thanks for reading today. Drop me a line to give me some encouragement or berate me for my lousy play, and good luck at the tables.
Ending Bankroll, $8.22
Finally, some more free time to devote to this project. And well worth it, too! This time in a NLHE turbo tourney. Here's what happened.
I entered the tournament on PokerStars (the exclusive site for this project), which had a 10-cent buy-in. Just the right price for the bankroll I'm currently dealing with. I'll cut right to the chase here: out of the 6120 entrants, I came in 39th, turning my dime into $1.06. That 96-cent profit increased my (still meager) bankroll by 13-point-something percent. Since at this point I'm happy with a ten-percent increase per day I play, I didn't need to play any more today. I know, I should keep playing when I'm winning, but I'm a bit short on sleep because of my job and too fatigued to concentrate on poker for extended periods. Besides, after I finished the tourney I took an hour-long walk to get some exercise and increase my fitness level so I can play better longer. (That's the idea, anyway.)
As for my result in this tournament, I can't say I ran over the tables at which I was seated. I still didn't get the cards for that, but with judicious play at the right times, and avoiding getting unlucky at the wrong times, I kept myself afloat well into the really-really-really high blinds. The times I went all-in, either I didn't get a call, or my hand--always the best when I did get called--held up.
I had a scare at one point when I went all-in with pocket jacks and was called by one other player with a lower pocket pair. (I forget what they were exactly, but they were something like sixes or sevens.) The flop made a set for my opponent, but the river gave me another jack to complete my set and keep me alive.
Later, when short-stacked, I went all-in with pocket fives and got called by two others, one with A-10, the other with J-6. The board stayed low and didn't pair any of my opponents' cards, 'til the river brought a six. However, that also made a straight for me, so I more than tripled up on that hand.
One of my favorite hands was the one immediately after the bubble had burst and the remaining players were guaranteed at least a 9-cent profit. I was somewhat short-stacked and was dealt American Airlines. This was the third time in the event that I had gotten the aces, and they held up each time. This time I tripled up again.
And so it went. I would get a hand just often enough to steal the blinds or double (or triple) up and stay ahead of the rapidly increasing blinds (remember, this was a turbo tourney). Eventually, though, my luck ran out.
In my final hand, I had a suited A-K (of clubs) and went all-in. I was under the gun, if I recall correctly, but was too short-stacked to worry about my position. (It's hard to say "short-stacked" when I had 109,000+ in chips, but the blinds were 30,000 and 15,000, with 3,000 antes at that point, so I had just over three big blinds left.) Only the big blind called me, and he turned over Q-J. It didn't take long to see the writing on the wall when the flop came Q-J-J. And the river was another Q, improving his full house. Oh well, that certainly is poker. (Ever notice how when you get beat when you're all-in, you get beat by overkill? I mean, the opponent who knocks you out doesn't just hit a pair, but usually gets at least 2 pair, if not a set or straight or flush--or boat. Am I right?)
That's today's story. I expect to have some more time tomorrow to compete at the virtual tables again, so check back for those results. Thanks for reading today. Drop me a line to give me some encouragement or berate me for my lousy play, and good luck at the tables.
Ending Bankroll, $8.22
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