Beginning Bankroll: $6.59
I finally had an entire day free to devote to growing my bankroll in this experiment. I didn't spend the whole day on it, but I worked at it for several hours. Here's how it went.
I played five "sessions" on PokerStars today, all no-limit Texas Hold 'Em (NLHE):
- Two multi-table tournaments (with entry fees of $1.10 and $2.20),
- Two NLHE sit-n-go tournaments ($1.20 to enter each), and
- One NLHE cash game, with $.01 and $.02 blinds. I bought into that game for $1.00
Things went very badly during my first 3 sessions, which were the two multi-table tourneys and one sit-n-go. When I wasn't card-dead, I would get a moderately big hand only when someone else had a monster. Or else they would suck out on me when I'd go all-in with the best hand. You know, the usual. So I didn't make the money in any of those.
Then I took a break from this project and played a tournament on FullTilt with my other bankroll. My luck hadn't changed yet and I crashed and burned out of the money again. Man, I haven't been able to get anything going in any multi-table tourneys lately. Anyway, after that fiasco I took a break for lunch.
Newly nourished, I sat down at a 6-player "Fast" cash game on PokerStars. (In a fast game, they give you less time to make your decisions when it's your turn to act.) Things definitely went a whole lot better there, as I was able to turn my $1 buy-in into $2.87 fairly quickly (somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes--I didn't keep track of the time). It's awfully nice when you get pocket aces twice in a row. That certainly helped. I know a player is supposed to keep playing when s/he's winning, but that hasn't ever worked for me. When I'm up big in cash games and stick around, my luck always changes and my chip stack withers. So I took my haul and left while I still had it.
Following that success, I took another break to check my e-mail and do some other web surfing before I returned to PokerStars to try my hand at one more sit-n-go. It was a struggle as I started out well, then languished through more dead cards. I spent most of the time watching my stack shrink as the blinds increased. I did manage to keep afloat long enough to reach the top 3 and the money. Then things go interesting.
One of the final three had taken a lead early in the tourney, then apparently got up and left, his avatar at the table labelled, "Sitting Out". So it was a matter of waiting for his stack to get blinded off before I could make much of a move (because I was not the big stack, who had me covered by about 2-to-1). I did play my normal game during that period, betting strong hands, calling decent ones in the small blind, and folding losers on the button. But I didn't push any by going all-in or making big bets. Fortunately, the big stack played straight, too, not pushing every hand. Finally, the absent one's stack went dry, and we were down to heads-up, with me trailing by a good margin.
My opponent turned out to be the type to push all-in with just about any hand, though not every time. As soon as I caught on to that, I started looking for good hands with which to call him. One was a suited ace-rag (diamonds), and he turned over Q-10. The flop didn't help either of us, except one was a diamond. The turn and river came Q and 10, and I was sure I was a goner to my opponent's 2-pair. Then I looked again; the last two cards were diamonds, so my nut flush doubled me up. But I was still trailing.
Not very long after that hand, I called his all-in with another suited hand (I forget which cards I had, but they were clubs, and I think he had something like Q-8 offsuit), and I hit my flush to take the lead. Then I went on to win the whole thing and the $4.50 first prize. (I don't remember what cards were in the final hand--it all happened too fast.) So that triumph, along with my cash game success, turned the day into a slightly profitable one, and my bankroll grew by a whopping 67 cents. Well, that is slightly better than a 10% increase for the day, so that's not all bad.
It was a challenging day at the virtual felt, but still wound up a positive for this experiment. Thanks for checking in, and good luck at the tables.
Ending Bankroll: $7.26
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Back At It
Beginning Bankroll: $1.51
I finally found some time to get back to working on this project. I've been busy on the road and, frankly, when I've had time for poker, I've been playing on Full Tilt instead of PokerStars. But I gotta start making myself work on this. So I did today.
First, let me point out that PokerStars added $5 to my account as a promotion on the 23rd, giving me 14 days to play with that bonus. (They haven't made it clear what happens after 14 days; will they remove the $5 from my account? We'll see in another 11 days.) So my bankroll may be artificially inflated for a few days. Anyway, back to my results today.
I started out by playing in a $.02/$.04 limit hold 'em cash game, bringing 80 cents to the table. I've been reading up on limit hold 'em strategy lately and thought I'd give it a try (as opposed to my usual game, no-limit hold 'em). I played for a while--at least an hour--but just could not get cards. Oh, I did win some hands, but very few. Most of the time when I bet aggressively pre-flop, I got 3 or 4 calls, then completely whiffed on the flop. By the time I left the table, my buy-in was down to 58 cents. So I dropped 22 cents on that experiment.
Next I played in two no-limit hold 'em Sit 'n Go tourneys with $1.20 buy-ins. I busted out of the first one in 7th place (out of 9). I guess I shouldn't have pushed my hand when I flopped top pair and a flush draw, only to get called by a guy who flopped a straight. Man, I hate when that happens.
In the second SNG things turned out a bit better, but it looked pretty bleak for a while there. I started out fine, won the first hand, won some more, and had the early lead. I was playing well, making correct decisions and betting aggressively. Then I caught an A-Q (I forget if they were suited or not--doesn't matter anyway) and made the standard 3x BB bet. I got one or two callers. Then I caught an A on the flop. I bet the pot (I was in early position), another player raised, and I bet all-in. My opponent called (I had him covered) and turned over A-10. Hallelujah!
Guess what the turn card was. That's right, a 10. So that dropped me from around 2500 chips to 1000. After that I could hardly catch any good hands at all, and my chip stack shrank to less than 600. Finally I managed to double up, then again, and was right back in it. (Not contending for the lead yet, but at least I had some breathing room.)
Eventually I made it into the final four, as the short stack, naturally. Through pure grit and determination (and a couple of lucky hands) I avoided elimination and finally made it into the top three and the money. We had played four-handed for what seemed like forever. Anyway, it's late and I need to wrap this up. I finished in second place in that SNG, bowing out at the end when my pocket aces PLUS another ace on the flop (whaddaya do with pocket rockets, then a set heads up? Slow play, of course) got cracked by a straight. Isn't that always the way?
So, with the $2.70 for second place, my overall result from today's play was a gain of eight whole cents. Woo-hoo! (Don't tell the IRS, OK?) Add in the $5 bonus cash, and it looks like a good day, anyway.
Thanks for checking in today. I promise to work on growing this PokerStars bankroll instead of falling to the temptation of the better choice of games on FullTilt. I am as curious as you about what I can do with it. Good luck at the tables.
Ending Bankroll: $6.59
I finally found some time to get back to working on this project. I've been busy on the road and, frankly, when I've had time for poker, I've been playing on Full Tilt instead of PokerStars. But I gotta start making myself work on this. So I did today.
First, let me point out that PokerStars added $5 to my account as a promotion on the 23rd, giving me 14 days to play with that bonus. (They haven't made it clear what happens after 14 days; will they remove the $5 from my account? We'll see in another 11 days.) So my bankroll may be artificially inflated for a few days. Anyway, back to my results today.
I started out by playing in a $.02/$.04 limit hold 'em cash game, bringing 80 cents to the table. I've been reading up on limit hold 'em strategy lately and thought I'd give it a try (as opposed to my usual game, no-limit hold 'em). I played for a while--at least an hour--but just could not get cards. Oh, I did win some hands, but very few. Most of the time when I bet aggressively pre-flop, I got 3 or 4 calls, then completely whiffed on the flop. By the time I left the table, my buy-in was down to 58 cents. So I dropped 22 cents on that experiment.
Next I played in two no-limit hold 'em Sit 'n Go tourneys with $1.20 buy-ins. I busted out of the first one in 7th place (out of 9). I guess I shouldn't have pushed my hand when I flopped top pair and a flush draw, only to get called by a guy who flopped a straight. Man, I hate when that happens.
In the second SNG things turned out a bit better, but it looked pretty bleak for a while there. I started out fine, won the first hand, won some more, and had the early lead. I was playing well, making correct decisions and betting aggressively. Then I caught an A-Q (I forget if they were suited or not--doesn't matter anyway) and made the standard 3x BB bet. I got one or two callers. Then I caught an A on the flop. I bet the pot (I was in early position), another player raised, and I bet all-in. My opponent called (I had him covered) and turned over A-10. Hallelujah!
Guess what the turn card was. That's right, a 10. So that dropped me from around 2500 chips to 1000. After that I could hardly catch any good hands at all, and my chip stack shrank to less than 600. Finally I managed to double up, then again, and was right back in it. (Not contending for the lead yet, but at least I had some breathing room.)
Eventually I made it into the final four, as the short stack, naturally. Through pure grit and determination (and a couple of lucky hands) I avoided elimination and finally made it into the top three and the money. We had played four-handed for what seemed like forever. Anyway, it's late and I need to wrap this up. I finished in second place in that SNG, bowing out at the end when my pocket aces PLUS another ace on the flop (whaddaya do with pocket rockets, then a set heads up? Slow play, of course) got cracked by a straight. Isn't that always the way?
So, with the $2.70 for second place, my overall result from today's play was a gain of eight whole cents. Woo-hoo! (Don't tell the IRS, OK?) Add in the $5 bonus cash, and it looks like a good day, anyway.
Thanks for checking in today. I promise to work on growing this PokerStars bankroll instead of falling to the temptation of the better choice of games on FullTilt. I am as curious as you about what I can do with it. Good luck at the tables.
Ending Bankroll: $6.59
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Freeroll Flameout 2
Beginning Bankroll: $1.51
Another day, another shot at the Ceres Invitational Freeroll Tourney on PokerStars. Today's edition pulled in 1648 entrants and paid 180 places. This time I wasn't completely card-dead, as I caught a couple of nice hands and nearly doubled my starting chip stack at one point. Then I lost a couple more hands and was down to around 2300 chips. Then it happened.
I caught an unsuited AK in my hand and a flop with a king and two rags. Since all 3 cards in the flop were spades, and neither in my hand was, I decided just to go all-in to protect my top pair, top kicker. Naturally I got a call--the player to my right had pocket aces (including the ace of spades, of course) which he was slow playing. It's amazing how bloody often those rockets pop up when I go all-in. In the end he hit the flush, which was overkill anyway.
Ah well, since it was a freeroll I'm not too broken up about the result. Unfortunately, I didn't have any time to stick around and join a cash game to work on increasing my tiny bankroll that way. (But I did play a 6-handed sit 'n go on FullTilt with my other meager bankroll, and won that one. But that result doesn't count towards this experiment.)
Thanks for following my saga on this site, and good luck at the tables.
Ending Bankroll: $1.51
Another day, another shot at the Ceres Invitational Freeroll Tourney on PokerStars. Today's edition pulled in 1648 entrants and paid 180 places. This time I wasn't completely card-dead, as I caught a couple of nice hands and nearly doubled my starting chip stack at one point. Then I lost a couple more hands and was down to around 2300 chips. Then it happened.
I caught an unsuited AK in my hand and a flop with a king and two rags. Since all 3 cards in the flop were spades, and neither in my hand was, I decided just to go all-in to protect my top pair, top kicker. Naturally I got a call--the player to my right had pocket aces (including the ace of spades, of course) which he was slow playing. It's amazing how bloody often those rockets pop up when I go all-in. In the end he hit the flush, which was overkill anyway.
Ah well, since it was a freeroll I'm not too broken up about the result. Unfortunately, I didn't have any time to stick around and join a cash game to work on increasing my tiny bankroll that way. (But I did play a 6-handed sit 'n go on FullTilt with my other meager bankroll, and won that one. But that result doesn't count towards this experiment.)
Thanks for following my saga on this site, and good luck at the tables.
Ending Bankroll: $1.51
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Freeroll Flameout
Beginning Bankroll: $1.51
I finally had some time to return to PokerStars and work on my bankroll project. I had received an e-mail from PokerStars inviting me to play in a freeroll tournament this evening at 6:00 EST, so since I did have the time, I did play.
The tournament attracted 1495 entrants, and paid the top 135 places. It turned out not to have been worth my time. I was completely card-dead the whole time (well, I did get a couple of fairly nice hands, no monsters, but only when I was under the gun, so the positional disadvantage led me to muck those hands.) I did win one hand with a pre-flop raise, but otherwise nothing went my way. By the time the blinds reached $50-$100, I had fewer than $1000 in chips in front of me (we started with $1500 each). Finally, with less than $700 remaining, I got an unsuited A-Q, so I pushed all-in. I got one call and, of course, he turned up pocket kings which held up. So I washed out in 1200-somethingth place.
Because of the way the cards were falling against me tonight, I opted not to pull up a seat at a cash game and risk any of my still-minuscule bankroll. So my balance remains unchanged for the day. PokerStars is running the same tournament tomorrow night, so if I can swing the time I may just enter that one to see if the cards will run any better for me. If I play, I'll blog about it when I'm done, so check back for a report. And good luck at the tables.
Ending Bankroll: $1.51
I finally had some time to return to PokerStars and work on my bankroll project. I had received an e-mail from PokerStars inviting me to play in a freeroll tournament this evening at 6:00 EST, so since I did have the time, I did play.
The tournament attracted 1495 entrants, and paid the top 135 places. It turned out not to have been worth my time. I was completely card-dead the whole time (well, I did get a couple of fairly nice hands, no monsters, but only when I was under the gun, so the positional disadvantage led me to muck those hands.) I did win one hand with a pre-flop raise, but otherwise nothing went my way. By the time the blinds reached $50-$100, I had fewer than $1000 in chips in front of me (we started with $1500 each). Finally, with less than $700 remaining, I got an unsuited A-Q, so I pushed all-in. I got one call and, of course, he turned up pocket kings which held up. So I washed out in 1200-somethingth place.
Because of the way the cards were falling against me tonight, I opted not to pull up a seat at a cash game and risk any of my still-minuscule bankroll. So my balance remains unchanged for the day. PokerStars is running the same tournament tomorrow night, so if I can swing the time I may just enter that one to see if the cards will run any better for me. If I play, I'll blog about it when I'm done, so check back for a report. And good luck at the tables.
Ending Bankroll: $1.51
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Into the Fray
Beginning Bankroll: $1.20
Well I finally got around to working on my PokerStars bankroll. I confess that I've been unfaithful and playing on Full Tilt a few times this week, and my cosmic punishment has been pretty much nothing but being card-dead most of the time. So it's time to give Full Tilt a rest and see what I can do about making something from nothing.
This evening I sat down to a 6-handed No-Limit Texas Hold-Em table to see what the cards would give me. It was the smallest stakes available, with blinds of one and two cents. I admittedly did a no-no: I brought my entire $1.20 bankroll to the table. But with so little to work with, I pretty much had to.
I did another no-no, too: I quit while I was winning. I only sat in for a few hands--less than 20 for sure--but got amazingly good results. I haven't seen such a run of good hands in quite a while. In that short span I won 31 cents, increasing my bankroll by 25 percent! It has been my experience that when I start out hot like that, if I don't leave the table I'll either go card dead or keep running up against the nuts, and my buy-in shrivels away. So with that in mind, along with my recent unpleasant experiences on Full Tilt, I decided to walk away while I was ahead. Besides, I'll be happy with any session in which I increase my bankroll by ten percent or more. As this was just the beginning of this challenge, a 25 percent increase was just fine.
Now on to replies to comments from readers of this blog.
"mrmiggle" asked what my screen name is. I think for now I'll not reveal that to the general public; I don't need everyone out there gunning for me, making this quest even harder than it's going to be. I'm pretty sure I know who mrmiggle is, anyway, so I'll just send him an e-mail with that info. But mrmiggle, please tell us how your session against one of the FT name pros went. Who was it? Did you clean his/her clock? (Or vice versa?) Was it a tourney or ring game?
And to reader "sitngotraining.com": Thanks for your well-wishes. I'll take a good long look at your blogs when I have some free time, but I took a quick glance today. I, too, like to focus on sit-n-gos, and have been playing them almost exclusively (and mostly 6-handed ones) on Full Tilt lately, but with disappointing results, mainly from bad beats and long stretches of being card-dead. I'll avail myself of your training to see if I can improve those results.
That's today's report. I promise it won't be a week before I get back to this mission and report on it for you. Thanks for keeping track, and good luck at the tables.
Ending Bankroll: $1.51
Well I finally got around to working on my PokerStars bankroll. I confess that I've been unfaithful and playing on Full Tilt a few times this week, and my cosmic punishment has been pretty much nothing but being card-dead most of the time. So it's time to give Full Tilt a rest and see what I can do about making something from nothing.
This evening I sat down to a 6-handed No-Limit Texas Hold-Em table to see what the cards would give me. It was the smallest stakes available, with blinds of one and two cents. I admittedly did a no-no: I brought my entire $1.20 bankroll to the table. But with so little to work with, I pretty much had to.
I did another no-no, too: I quit while I was winning. I only sat in for a few hands--less than 20 for sure--but got amazingly good results. I haven't seen such a run of good hands in quite a while. In that short span I won 31 cents, increasing my bankroll by 25 percent! It has been my experience that when I start out hot like that, if I don't leave the table I'll either go card dead or keep running up against the nuts, and my buy-in shrivels away. So with that in mind, along with my recent unpleasant experiences on Full Tilt, I decided to walk away while I was ahead. Besides, I'll be happy with any session in which I increase my bankroll by ten percent or more. As this was just the beginning of this challenge, a 25 percent increase was just fine.
Now on to replies to comments from readers of this blog.
"mrmiggle" asked what my screen name is. I think for now I'll not reveal that to the general public; I don't need everyone out there gunning for me, making this quest even harder than it's going to be. I'm pretty sure I know who mrmiggle is, anyway, so I'll just send him an e-mail with that info. But mrmiggle, please tell us how your session against one of the FT name pros went. Who was it? Did you clean his/her clock? (Or vice versa?) Was it a tourney or ring game?
And to reader "sitngotraining.com": Thanks for your well-wishes. I'll take a good long look at your blogs when I have some free time, but I took a quick glance today. I, too, like to focus on sit-n-gos, and have been playing them almost exclusively (and mostly 6-handed ones) on Full Tilt lately, but with disappointing results, mainly from bad beats and long stretches of being card-dead. I'll avail myself of your training to see if I can improve those results.
That's today's report. I promise it won't be a week before I get back to this mission and report on it for you. Thanks for keeping track, and good luck at the tables.
Ending Bankroll: $1.51
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)