Girls Rule!!!

Well I have to say after two months of runbad February was much improved. I finished the month up in tournaments and in cash. Yes I said in cash, I'll discuss this little wrinkle later on. As anyone who knows anything about me and poker knows, up and cash games are not usually found in the same sentence where I'm concerned but more about that later (cliffhanger...).

In February I participated in a $4.40 180 man challenge (games were played on PokerStars) through Full Contact Poker (www.fullcontactpoker.com). You could either go for it alone or have a partner. I choose to have a partner, my friend Rose. There were 14 teams for a total of 22 participants competing. All were men except Rose and I , thus the title of this post. Well to make a long story short (aren't you thankful) Rose and I won. We will each receive $225 for our efforts. Each team or individual had to complete 30 games and the top 25 counted. I played 19 and Rose played 11. Our total score was 666 (too funny huh?). Many of the guys are great players and beating them was no easy feat. Needless to say this win did wonders for my attitude after two months of runbad.

Now for the part about cash games. Eight days ago I decided to give 50NL (.25/.50) full ring cash games a try. Previously, and unsuccessfully, I had played 6 max cash games and done rather poorly. Well so far I have played 5,383 hands with a winrate of 5.81BB/100 and a $312.90 profit. I am simply amazed! I am actually enjoying playing cash games online and winning some, will wonders never cease. While a small sample size of 5,383 hands is not enough to really say I'm a winning cash game player at least it's a step in the right direction. I could just be on one hell of a heater but let's hope not or at least hope it last awhile. As you will see in the graph below I have been running a bit above EV.

Well hopefully my next update won't be about cash games going straight to hell. Until later, may the flop be with you.

Well I should have known better...

I've never liked STTs and why I thought I could stick with grinding them is beyond me. I seem to have started this year off on the wrong foot. The STT grinding was my 2nd attempt at something that just didn't work for me. So it's time to re-group and get on track.

I did decently well last year and ended with a small profit. So I've basically decided to improve on what was working. I will play what I want when I want and I'll work to improve that which is already working.

I love MTTs and MTSNGs and that is what I will play. You STT grinders and cash players can have those games and good luck to you. I don't know how you do it. As an MTT and MTSNG player I will have to just grow to love that crazy thing called variance. I will make every attempt possible to increase my volume and improve my game but I will play MY game. I will do what makes me happy and to hell with what anyone else thinks I should do.

I had hoped to be back to playing the PokerStars women's league games this month but PokerStars disappointed all the more serious women players by changing to the league to attract new women to PokerStars by making the league games micro stakes. I'm very surprised after the former league seemed to be successful that they ignored us with this change. They say they will be reinstating the $5.50 and $55 buy in games at some point but so far nothing. I think Stars ignored a fundamental aspect of good business by ignoring their existing paying customers and chose to spend their efforts to attract new customers instead. PokerStars marketing needs to send some staff members back to business school.

Well until next time, may your cards be live and your pots monsters!

Grinding the $6.50s on PokerStars

Well I'm amazed at myself, okay for those of you who grind out 500+ games a day go ahead and start laughing now, I played 103 $6.50 9 man turbos since late Sunday night, over 49 hours to be exact. I didn't do great only up about $1.90, go ahead I'll wait while you laugh some more, but it beats losing. I'm playing 8 to 9 tables at a time now so it's been pretty easy to get the 100 games in. I have committed to play 1000 of these this month and this is a pretty decent start.

Funniest thing is despite only being up $1.90 I made the bottom of the High Orbit Leaderboard on Star's Battle of the Planets, 86th place. So funny seeing my name there. Not huge but feels good no less.

The most games I've ever played in a month is 450 across all sites so playing 100 over 49 hours is a big jump in volume for me. I had to really push myself and I'll have to continue to push myself, especially through the downswings, but in the end it will be worth it.

Hopefully I can make at least gold star this month and if I get in 1000 of the $6.50s and a few other games I should make it. I'm getting sick of looking at that silver star every month.

Well here's to the grind.... wish me luck!

SKLANSKY BUCKS

Well first off after a rough go with the bankroll challenge, well not too bad really, I've decided trying to do it on PokerStars is too difficult because that's where my bankroll is and where I play to make money. Also sorting the challenge games from my regular games on Stars using PokerTracker just proved extremely difficult once I moved up to the $3.40 games. So I have put it on hold for now and I will start it back up on Full Tilt the first of February. I don't have a bankroll to speak of on FTP, only about $75 and I need to start winning on there just to prove that I can and build a bankroll on there so moving the challenge to FTP just makes sense. I made around $50 in the challenge on Stars by the way.

So now for the topic of this blog, Sklansky bucks and of course variance. This has been my worst online poker month in like.... forever! No, this isn't a whine post! It happens, no one can run good all the time and it was just my turn. If you don't understand variance and learn to cope with it you'll never make it in poker.

Sklansky bucks is a really interesting way to think about variance.

The official definition of Sklansky Bucks is as follows:

"Sklansky bucks are theoretical money won or lost based on the Fundamental Theorem of Poker. The FTOP is discussed in The Theory of Poker. Basically, if you lose a hand but your opponent made mistakes, such as drawing to a flush without proper pot odds, you may lose the pot but you have earned Sklansky bucks by causing your opponent to make a mistake. On the flip side. If you are drawing without odds but you get lucky and draw out on your opponent, you win the pot, but you lose Sklansky bucks."

from: http://www.sklanskybucks.com/

So that said I am due for some serious cash out in Sklansky bucks and I will hopefully collect this weekend and improve my outcome for January. I will be playing in the Turbo Takedown on Sunday after winning my seat this month in the first satellite I played for 500 FPPS. I am working on a Sunday Million seat and this time if I win one I will be playing. So here's to breaking the Sklansky bank and cashing in those bucks.

Below is my EV graph for January the blue line is net expected won in chips and the pink line is actual chips won, so as you can see I was definitely running a bit below expected value. My Sklansky bank runneth over.

The Challenge

After more contemplation and more run bad I decided to wage my own bankroll challenge on PokerStars. Starting with $100 and building to $1000.

I am now on day 6. Things are going okay but the last couple of days have been a bit rough. This was easier the first couple of times I did it than it is now. I think I have less patience with the micro stakes and the micro payouts than I did before but I'm also trying to adhere to stricter bank roll management this time.

I hope to increase my volume during this challenge and I am striving for a minimum of 30 games per day.

Here is how it goes:

I will play only:

60%*
$1 45 man sngs

15%*
$2.20 180s

10%*
.25/.50 limit cash games (can be limit holdem, 8 game or HORSE)

15%*
$1 and $2 MTTs or non turbo MTsngs

I will drop down if I lose 1/2 of my BR (original $100) by either changing to $1.75 9 man games or dropping to $.55 45s.

*I reserve the right to change the percentages as needed, as I may decide to do only the 45s :-)

Here are the results so far:

Bankroll Challenges

Grayson Physioc aka Spacegravy is working on a $100 bankroll challenge and doing videos on his journey for PokerVT. This made me curious about my own past bankroll issues so I looked back at one of my own from last year. I was curious about how I did it and what I played so went through my PT3 to find the results.

On February 1, 2010 I was totally broke on PokerStars, I had been playing on there since August 2009 and I had done nothing but lose. I was fed up and frustrated so I declared to make my last deposit and I only deposited $30. I started winning and by the end of March I had turned $30 into $1098 and I haven't deposited since.

I just looked back through my games to see what I played and I started out with a few $1 45s and quickly moved to a combination of $3.40 9 and 10 man sngs, $3.25 45s, $2.20 180s and some $3.30 27s. I played mostly these for the first month and by the end of February my bankroll on Stars was up to $372.

In March I started adding in some $5.50 27s and 18s and an occasional $4.40 180 and continued to win. On March 19 I played the $4.40 4 max 1000 cap MTT and won it for $640. This was a very nice bankroll booster and I ended March with a bankroll up to $1098. I withdrew $500 in April for a trip to Tunica for some live poker where I won about $1000.

I owe a tremedous amount of my success in poker to PokerVT and the pros there. PokerVT is hands down the best tournament training site online.

While anyone will notice I didn't practice traditional bankroll management guidelines during these two months but the way I did it worked for me. I also didn't get in a large volume of games either. At that time I typically played only 3 tables at a time.

With patience, discipline and perseverance anyone can turn $30 into $1000 in poker if you're willing to learn.

Graphs and charts of winnings below:

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

Well my first full year of playing poker for real money has come to an end and overall I can't complain. In March I won my first (and unfortunately last for the year) big field MTT when I took down the $4.40 4 max for $640. After a slight losing month in April I continued to finish each month with a profit until last month where I finished slightly in the red.

I've learned a lot this year and my game has improved considerably. I'm certainly not where I hope to be by this time next year but hopefully I will continue to win more and more. Poker is a never ending challenge and online poker is truly challenging. I've had moments where I just wanted to quit and moments where I never wanted to quit when things were going so well. Poker is tough roller coaster to ride but hopefully the end results will make the uphill climb well worth the struggle.

I've made some truly great poker friends and found a great support network of fellow players. I can't stress more how important it is to find others to share your love of poker with and to bounce hands and plays off of. Thanks to everyone who's made this year so great with your friendship and support.

In a few days I'll post my goals for 2011 and for this month. Right now I'm taking a bit of a break to decide which game to stick with. This has been a constant battle for me and one of the biggest hindrances to my success in poker. I truly believe specialization is the best way to become a good player but I've just struggled with finding the game for me.

Good luck to everyone in 2011! May all your poker dreams come true.