Let me begin this story yesterday. I had a rough day to say the least. Not only did I have a steady losing day at poker, but the team I wanted least to win the super bowl did. So frustrated I was with poker, I really thought about taking today off. I slept a ton, from about 11 PM last night to noon today. I didnt exactly pop out of bed.
So today began with me being very sluggish. Thought about not playing today at all. However after a short workout on the total gym I decided to give a session a shot. I late reg'd for 5.50 20k and got into the 11 40k on time. Also played some sng's in which I broke about even.
So the 40k started off pretty good and I had a decent stack from the get go. There were 6990 players entered. I just kept grinding away and got good cards in key spots. I was very lucky twice when my AK and AQ beat KK all in b4 the flop. When I had AK I was drawing to an ace on the river, when it hit I thought this time could be different.
With around 400 or 500 left I started looking at the payouts. 7th and above was at least 1k with 8.5k for 1st. But, really I just wanted to make a final table in a big tournament. I just kept on playing tight. My goal was to make plays before the flop were I felt more comforatable then playing post flop. Soon we were down to 100 players. They kept falling and I was still alive. Pay jumps happened when we dropped down in the number of tables left. With 18 players left on 2 tables, making a final table became a real possibility.
My friend Scott was counting down the number of players 14, 13, 12. Wow I cant believe I'm still in! Then finally the final table, what a great feeling. I fought as hard as I could. With 7 or 8 to play there were 2 big stacks that kept fighting each other, so my chances of winning were always slim. I hung on and finished 4th for 3200 dollars.
This makes it the 2nd biggest score of my poker playing career, my biggest was winning a tournament for 4200. However, I take much more satisfaction in today's score then the other one. The win was in 2008, and I feel that I've made so much progress between then and now.
In 2008 I was using drugs on almost a daily basis. Today I've been clean for over 2 years. When I won the tournament I must have been super lucky(not that I wasnt today), as I never worked on my game the way I do now. Today was the day I've been dreaming of when playing/reading/studying the last year and a half.
I would like to thank anyone and everyone who has helped or supported me in any capacity over the last few years. Without you my dream would have never come true today, and I can't thank you enough.
With this I leave you:
Trust in Him above all things so your dreams may come true, for if you believe in Him all things are possible.
MNPuck
Monday, February 7, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
January 2011 Reivew
Hello again to all 2.3 of those who read this. January has been a good month for me on the tables. Things have turned for the better, but we will see how long it lasts. I'm happy with the work I've been putting in on my game, and it's seemed to have paid off.
To start with my once a month poker league went sour for me again. I had been pretty aggressive opening alot of pots. The worst player on the table limped UTG. Everyone folds to the SB who completes, I looked down at KK. I raise to 4x the BB. UTG goes into a rant and pushes on me, SB folds. I really consider laying it down, but just can't do it. I call he has AA, good game.
As for online have been running really good. Overall have played 722 games, up 835.25, with an roi of 50.7%. This is nice and all but isn't really substainable over the long run. An roi of around 20% would make me happy. So I'm expecting to cool off at some point. On fulltilt only have played 43 games, up 55.28, roi of 36.4%.
Have had a couple of deep runs on full tilt in some 1 dollar tournies. They have added a feature that allows you to enter tournies multiple times, in which you can multi table tournaments. For the two I ran deep in you could enter up to 4 times. I finsihed 81 out of 9900 in a dollar rebuy and 27 out of 5225 in a dollar freezeout. Was fun to run deep, have learned at this point that getting deep into tournies of those sizes don't happen every day so I enjoyed them.
I've been reviewing hand histories more then ever this month and I really feel this process is paying off. Have also become a member at tournamentpokeredge.com and have watched many videos, that have helped me out alot. I really feel that I have to do these extra things to keep an edge on the ever changing game of tournament poker.
Plans for the next month are pretty much the same. Continue to play mostly 2.20/180s and 3.25/45s on stars, with some MTT's mixed in. Will be looking to mix in some 6.50/45s and 7.70/180s (hopefully the 7.70s will run more after stars added them to main tourney page) if my bankroll continues to grow. Play the dollar freezeouts and rebuys on fulltilt.
Tomorrow(30th), I will be playing in some sunday events. Qualified for the world blogger championship on stars which should have around 500 entrants. Final table gets like 2k in tourney entries and winner gets like 3k in tourney entries. The entries are for the upcoming SCOOP and Sunday Millions on stars. They also pay down lower with entries. Great value for a tourney that all I had to do was maintain this blog to enter. Will also be playing the 250k guarantee(gonna make this a weekly thing) on stars. Also just registered for 6 entries into the 200k guar little big tourney on fulltilt.
So overall a good month. Hopefully will continue to go well in February. As always can follow MNPuck on twitter for more updates.
MNPuck
To start with my once a month poker league went sour for me again. I had been pretty aggressive opening alot of pots. The worst player on the table limped UTG. Everyone folds to the SB who completes, I looked down at KK. I raise to 4x the BB. UTG goes into a rant and pushes on me, SB folds. I really consider laying it down, but just can't do it. I call he has AA, good game.
As for online have been running really good. Overall have played 722 games, up 835.25, with an roi of 50.7%. This is nice and all but isn't really substainable over the long run. An roi of around 20% would make me happy. So I'm expecting to cool off at some point. On fulltilt only have played 43 games, up 55.28, roi of 36.4%.
Have had a couple of deep runs on full tilt in some 1 dollar tournies. They have added a feature that allows you to enter tournies multiple times, in which you can multi table tournaments. For the two I ran deep in you could enter up to 4 times. I finsihed 81 out of 9900 in a dollar rebuy and 27 out of 5225 in a dollar freezeout. Was fun to run deep, have learned at this point that getting deep into tournies of those sizes don't happen every day so I enjoyed them.
I've been reviewing hand histories more then ever this month and I really feel this process is paying off. Have also become a member at tournamentpokeredge.com and have watched many videos, that have helped me out alot. I really feel that I have to do these extra things to keep an edge on the ever changing game of tournament poker.
Plans for the next month are pretty much the same. Continue to play mostly 2.20/180s and 3.25/45s on stars, with some MTT's mixed in. Will be looking to mix in some 6.50/45s and 7.70/180s (hopefully the 7.70s will run more after stars added them to main tourney page) if my bankroll continues to grow. Play the dollar freezeouts and rebuys on fulltilt.
Tomorrow(30th), I will be playing in some sunday events. Qualified for the world blogger championship on stars which should have around 500 entrants. Final table gets like 2k in tourney entries and winner gets like 3k in tourney entries. The entries are for the upcoming SCOOP and Sunday Millions on stars. They also pay down lower with entries. Great value for a tourney that all I had to do was maintain this blog to enter. Will also be playing the 250k guarantee(gonna make this a weekly thing) on stars. Also just registered for 6 entries into the 200k guar little big tourney on fulltilt.
So overall a good month. Hopefully will continue to go well in February. As always can follow MNPuck on twitter for more updates.
MNPuck
Friday, December 31, 2010
Year End Review
Well it's been an up and down year for sure in terms of playing poker. From winning a good amount of money both live and online in the first 8 months of the year, to losing the last 4 months. I guess that's the way it goes sometimes.
Online I finished the year down 20 dollars in tournies/sngs for the year(5k games). Cash games I was up around 185 dollars. Alot of time and energy to make a measly 165 dollars! I did manage to make an additonal 300 or so via a pending bonus and points milestones.
I'm not going to go into too much detail here, but I have learned which games I do well in and which ones I don't. I'm a winner at 1.10 45's, 2.20 180's, and 3.25 45's turbos. I'm down in MTT's and 6.50's (9 man, 18 man, 45 man). The games I'm winning at I've played at least 1000 of each so I'm pretty confident that I can beat these games long term. As for the 6.50's I don't have a large sample number, so it's possible I can also beat these (I think would have to improve my game).
On the cash side I was a winner in .01/.02 PLO. However, they have change the rake in this game to make it much tougher to beat (more on this later).
Live poker was good overall although it feel off at the end of the year. Just remembered that I was keeping records and found them. I stopped 1/2 way through the year, but have only played a few times since. Also included payment into the poker league. New Years resolution to update this each time I play! Anyway, the year end tally is around +1500. Being I so rarely play live it's such a small sample size to really determine anything from it. Other then I ran good at times.
A final note if you still reading (lol), I've started updating my twitter almost everytime I play. So you can follow me there (MNPuck). To sum it up was a decent year overall, hoping things will turn around for 2011.
MNPuck
Online I finished the year down 20 dollars in tournies/sngs for the year(5k games). Cash games I was up around 185 dollars. Alot of time and energy to make a measly 165 dollars! I did manage to make an additonal 300 or so via a pending bonus and points milestones.
I'm not going to go into too much detail here, but I have learned which games I do well in and which ones I don't. I'm a winner at 1.10 45's, 2.20 180's, and 3.25 45's turbos. I'm down in MTT's and 6.50's (9 man, 18 man, 45 man). The games I'm winning at I've played at least 1000 of each so I'm pretty confident that I can beat these games long term. As for the 6.50's I don't have a large sample number, so it's possible I can also beat these (I think would have to improve my game).
On the cash side I was a winner in .01/.02 PLO. However, they have change the rake in this game to make it much tougher to beat (more on this later).
Live poker was good overall although it feel off at the end of the year. Just remembered that I was keeping records and found them. I stopped 1/2 way through the year, but have only played a few times since. Also included payment into the poker league. New Years resolution to update this each time I play! Anyway, the year end tally is around +1500. Being I so rarely play live it's such a small sample size to really determine anything from it. Other then I ran good at times.
A final note if you still reading (lol), I've started updating my twitter almost everytime I play. So you can follow me there (MNPuck). To sum it up was a decent year overall, hoping things will turn around for 2011.
MNPuck
Monday, November 29, 2010
November Update
Wow it's been forever since I've updated this. So many things have happended that I don't know really where to begin. I guess to be blunt I've went through some very tough times with poker. Have almost quit the game many times for various reasons which I may or may not go into this post. Sorry if this post is sort of out of order and what not, I'm just going to do I mind dump and see what happens.
First thing that comes to mind is my giant 'swoon' since the last post. I hit some rough times in both the 2.20/180's and 3.25/45's. My ROI jumped down from around 25-30% in both games to almost 10%. To be honest I started losing some hands and the started playing bad because of it. Instead of being very aggressive, I started losing faith that I was making the right plays and backed off when I know I should be staying aggressive. It was definately a humbling experience.
My account on pokerstars reached about 1400 dollars at it's peak. After a few months I found myself down to around 700 dollars. I had to ask myself were all the money went. After doing some reasearch I noticed I was down around 300 or so over 3 months in multi table tournaments. Also I swapped 200 for full tilt money to play in some mini ftops events. So I lost about 200 or so in the 45/180 SNGs.
So sometime in October I cashed out my entire 700 roll. I honestly need the money for other things at the time and was really sick of playing anyway. I put 200 some back in a few weeks later and then cashed that out because I wasn't enjoying playing.
I spent most of October and Novmember away from poker, part of me thought it was for good. However, I did miss playing some days. People who know me understand that I've had addiction problems with things in the past. Some would quickly point to poker as another one for me. To be honest I can't say that it's not an addiction for me. However, it's helped me through some times in my life.
I've almost been sober from drugs and alchohol for 2 years. Some of that is because of poker, I really believe this. My 2008 year of losing showed me that I can not play poker while under the influence of drugs or alchohol. It's just not possible for me to be a winning player that way. If I'm sober there are no guarnetees that I'll win, but I have a much better chance.
Do I want to be sitting around playing poker everyday in the future? Not really, I actually want to go back to school. At this point poker is a good trial run for me in that regard. It takes concentration while playing, time to review sessions, and requires me to read books to try and stay ahead of the game. Even things like reading weren't possible for me 2 years ago, I still struggle with it some today. It's getting better and hopefully with time I'll be able to feel comfortable enough to return to school.
So my plan is to play the 2.20/180's exclussively from this point forward. No MTT's, except if it's SCOOP or maybe MiniFtops, and I'm only playing 1 or 2 tables of them. My results mixing in 3 or 4 Mtt's with 12 or so SNGs are just terrible. I was playing the 1.10/45's, because my bankroll was low. However I've been working more hours at work then normal so I have some extra money again to give the 2.20/180s a run. This are the games I want to be playing at the moment anyway.
On the live play side I've cooled off considerably from my previous play. I joined a league for 250 and have yet to cash (top 3 of 9 or 10 man table cash), in the first 3 months. There's also a point system which pays out at the end of the year, that I'm not looking so good in either. I also booked two losing sessions. One -80 at Diamond Joes and -130 at a local cash game. The truth is I'd rather take the 200 buyin at Diamond Joes and stretch it over some time and play online.
My Stars account is at 97 from the 110 I put into it. I have about 250 reserved that I can deposit if I need to. So what if I bust this bankroll? Truth is I'm not sure, I'll definately have to reasses things. The total 350 bankroll is almost enough (around 440 is recommend for a winning player to have as a bankroll for 2.20/180s), to know if I'm really a winning player.
Thanks for reading, I'll do an update next month.
MNPuck
First thing that comes to mind is my giant 'swoon' since the last post. I hit some rough times in both the 2.20/180's and 3.25/45's. My ROI jumped down from around 25-30% in both games to almost 10%. To be honest I started losing some hands and the started playing bad because of it. Instead of being very aggressive, I started losing faith that I was making the right plays and backed off when I know I should be staying aggressive. It was definately a humbling experience.
My account on pokerstars reached about 1400 dollars at it's peak. After a few months I found myself down to around 700 dollars. I had to ask myself were all the money went. After doing some reasearch I noticed I was down around 300 or so over 3 months in multi table tournaments. Also I swapped 200 for full tilt money to play in some mini ftops events. So I lost about 200 or so in the 45/180 SNGs.
So sometime in October I cashed out my entire 700 roll. I honestly need the money for other things at the time and was really sick of playing anyway. I put 200 some back in a few weeks later and then cashed that out because I wasn't enjoying playing.
I spent most of October and Novmember away from poker, part of me thought it was for good. However, I did miss playing some days. People who know me understand that I've had addiction problems with things in the past. Some would quickly point to poker as another one for me. To be honest I can't say that it's not an addiction for me. However, it's helped me through some times in my life.
I've almost been sober from drugs and alchohol for 2 years. Some of that is because of poker, I really believe this. My 2008 year of losing showed me that I can not play poker while under the influence of drugs or alchohol. It's just not possible for me to be a winning player that way. If I'm sober there are no guarnetees that I'll win, but I have a much better chance.
Do I want to be sitting around playing poker everyday in the future? Not really, I actually want to go back to school. At this point poker is a good trial run for me in that regard. It takes concentration while playing, time to review sessions, and requires me to read books to try and stay ahead of the game. Even things like reading weren't possible for me 2 years ago, I still struggle with it some today. It's getting better and hopefully with time I'll be able to feel comfortable enough to return to school.
So my plan is to play the 2.20/180's exclussively from this point forward. No MTT's, except if it's SCOOP or maybe MiniFtops, and I'm only playing 1 or 2 tables of them. My results mixing in 3 or 4 Mtt's with 12 or so SNGs are just terrible. I was playing the 1.10/45's, because my bankroll was low. However I've been working more hours at work then normal so I have some extra money again to give the 2.20/180s a run. This are the games I want to be playing at the moment anyway.
On the live play side I've cooled off considerably from my previous play. I joined a league for 250 and have yet to cash (top 3 of 9 or 10 man table cash), in the first 3 months. There's also a point system which pays out at the end of the year, that I'm not looking so good in either. I also booked two losing sessions. One -80 at Diamond Joes and -130 at a local cash game. The truth is I'd rather take the 200 buyin at Diamond Joes and stretch it over some time and play online.
My Stars account is at 97 from the 110 I put into it. I have about 250 reserved that I can deposit if I need to. So what if I bust this bankroll? Truth is I'm not sure, I'll definately have to reasses things. The total 350 bankroll is almost enough (around 440 is recommend for a winning player to have as a bankroll for 2.20/180s), to know if I'm really a winning player.
Thanks for reading, I'll do an update next month.
MNPuck
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Quick Update
Hey everyone,
I'm waiting for some things to download, so I thought this would be a good time to update my blog. I've been having some good results online recently (havent been playing live) and thought I'd post a few things.
First off, I've been mainly playing the 2.20 180's and 3.25 45 turbos on pokerstars. Had a sick run and was running at almost 30% ROI in both games for a time. Have cooled of recently and still have around 30% for the 2.20's and 23% for the 3.25's. One big change I did make was to hire a coach to help me out with these games. He presented me some situations in which I was giving up chips in plus EV situations. Since my roll was getting up there, I also gave the 6.50 45 mans a try and had very poor results. I think I'll stick with the 2.20's and 3.25's for now. I've gotten to were I can play alot of tables at a time on these and play them in sets so I only have a few tables open when it comes final table time.
Hiring the coach made me study my game much more then I normally do. I'd recommend this process for anyway that is looking to get started in a game and beat it. However, one word of warning do a good background check on your coach before hiring him/her. I still need to study more and this is something I'm currently trying to set more time aside for.
Today I decided to mix things up and play some 1/2 8 game mix. Hit a few really big hands in PLO. I feel playing this is a very nice switch from playing the SNGs. One things is I only play 2 of these tables at a time and so I try and actually put alot more thought into each play (part of this is because I dont know some of the games). Playing this may decrease my bankroll somewhat, but I feel it's worth the change.
Other then that I've been reading alot of poker books. I've finished the Harrington triology on Hold'em for tournaments and started reading Kill Everyone. Both are excellent reads and recommend them.
Well my software finally downloaded, so I'm going to go for now.
MNPuck
I'm waiting for some things to download, so I thought this would be a good time to update my blog. I've been having some good results online recently (havent been playing live) and thought I'd post a few things.
First off, I've been mainly playing the 2.20 180's and 3.25 45 turbos on pokerstars. Had a sick run and was running at almost 30% ROI in both games for a time. Have cooled of recently and still have around 30% for the 2.20's and 23% for the 3.25's. One big change I did make was to hire a coach to help me out with these games. He presented me some situations in which I was giving up chips in plus EV situations. Since my roll was getting up there, I also gave the 6.50 45 mans a try and had very poor results. I think I'll stick with the 2.20's and 3.25's for now. I've gotten to were I can play alot of tables at a time on these and play them in sets so I only have a few tables open when it comes final table time.
Hiring the coach made me study my game much more then I normally do. I'd recommend this process for anyway that is looking to get started in a game and beat it. However, one word of warning do a good background check on your coach before hiring him/her. I still need to study more and this is something I'm currently trying to set more time aside for.
Today I decided to mix things up and play some 1/2 8 game mix. Hit a few really big hands in PLO. I feel playing this is a very nice switch from playing the SNGs. One things is I only play 2 of these tables at a time and so I try and actually put alot more thought into each play (part of this is because I dont know some of the games). Playing this may decrease my bankroll somewhat, but I feel it's worth the change.
Other then that I've been reading alot of poker books. I've finished the Harrington triology on Hold'em for tournaments and started reading Kill Everyone. Both are excellent reads and recommend them.
Well my software finally downloaded, so I'm going to go for now.
MNPuck
Monday, May 3, 2010
July 2010 Update
Wow, it's been a long time since I updated this. My goal is to start updating this weekly. We'll see if that happens or not. Alot has happend since my last blog, since it's been so long I'll strip this down and post some of the highlights from live and online play.
I'll start with live play, I've had a few big wins and not really any losing sessions:
- In April played in a series of 4 events over 4 days, walked away +1000
- Went to Canterbury Park in June to check out the remodel and played 3/6 and finished +400
- Placed 2nd in a tournament at Diamond Joes, lost some in cash game but finished +180
- Last night played in a dealers choice cash game and finished +200
Those are the winnings sessions, the losing ones havent magically been removed I've had a few times were I've broken about even. For example, played in a 2 or 3 tournies at treasure island and cashed small in one breaking me about even for the series of tournies.
Online has been much more up and down. I'll skip over most of the details and go into what games Im playing on there now. I've been mixing 3.25 45 man and 2.20 180 man turbos on stars. Current ROI is about 15% for the 3.25's and 10% for the 2.20's. I was on a hot run in the 2.20 but cooled off and started doing well in the 3.25's. I've been using SNG Wizard to study my endgame as I feel that's the weakest part of my game on those. I've also been playing some 2 and 3 dollar mtt's looking for a nice score. Been close a couple of time but just cant seem to get over the hump and make it to the final table. My account has turned into a pretty nice bankroll for these games, so Im happy with that.
Well, that's about it for now. I just got done with work (which is something new since I last blogged), and am getting ready for some MTT's and 45 and 180's. I'll update again soon.
MNPuck
I'll start with live play, I've had a few big wins and not really any losing sessions:
- In April played in a series of 4 events over 4 days, walked away +1000
- Went to Canterbury Park in June to check out the remodel and played 3/6 and finished +400
- Placed 2nd in a tournament at Diamond Joes, lost some in cash game but finished +180
- Last night played in a dealers choice cash game and finished +200
Those are the winnings sessions, the losing ones havent magically been removed I've had a few times were I've broken about even. For example, played in a 2 or 3 tournies at treasure island and cashed small in one breaking me about even for the series of tournies.
Online has been much more up and down. I'll skip over most of the details and go into what games Im playing on there now. I've been mixing 3.25 45 man and 2.20 180 man turbos on stars. Current ROI is about 15% for the 3.25's and 10% for the 2.20's. I was on a hot run in the 2.20 but cooled off and started doing well in the 3.25's. I've been using SNG Wizard to study my endgame as I feel that's the weakest part of my game on those. I've also been playing some 2 and 3 dollar mtt's looking for a nice score. Been close a couple of time but just cant seem to get over the hump and make it to the final table. My account has turned into a pretty nice bankroll for these games, so Im happy with that.
Well, that's about it for now. I just got done with work (which is something new since I last blogged), and am getting ready for some MTT's and 45 and 180's. I'll update again soon.
MNPuck
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Start of 2010
Going into 2010 I had around 400 dollars in my Pokerstars account. I started off the new year by playing some .01/.02 PLO and soon had 500 in the account. At this point i was getting sort of bored with PLO. I was playing around 9 tables at a time all tiled/overlapped on my notebook so I would get worn out quickly while playing.
Thus, I decided to give SNG's a try. I know during the pokerboom (2005-2006) these were gold mines and I thought that still might be the case. I ordered and read SNG Strategy by Collin Moshman and purchased SNG Wizard to help me out with my game.
I thought the best deal rake wise and skill wise was the 6.50 single table turbos on Pokerstars. At first everything was great I was running super hot, within a week I was up about 175 dollars and had almost 700 in my account. I even made one of the SNG leaderboards one week and received 20 dollars for it. Then things went south. All the flips and 60/40's I was winning before went the wrong way. My account took a huge dive and I soon had only around 400 dollars left in my account.
I knew I was getting somewhat unlucky, but I decided to quit playing the 6.50's. Of course because I was losing was part it. The main reason is that I didn't find alot of 'leaks' in peoples games at this level. Sure there were some bad players, but most were pretty competent. Basically a single table turbo SNG boils down to pre-flop pushing. The blinds get so high so quick that you basically have two options: push or fold pre-flop. Most players at this level are fairy competent when it comes to this aspect of their play. They know when to push. Tools such as SNG Wizard and other ICM software has allowed for most players at this level to be good late in the tourney when it comes to the push/fold decision.
Therefore I had to re-evaluate what direction I wanted to take, or if you will what games to play. If poker was a zero sum game (ie no rake or entry fees), this decision would be easier. But, with house fees this becomes are harder question. In the last year I've beat pretty much every game I've tried if you take out the house fees. However, in reality you have to figure this into the equation. If your serious about making money in poker you have to play in the game were people make the most mistakes. The relative question becomes which game do I have the biggest edge over my competition.
To answer this all I have to do is look at my Holdem Manager database. The two cash games I'm beating on Stars are .01/.02 PLO and .01/.02 NL. My winrate on NL is a little higher but over a much smaller hand number. While I may have more experience in NL then PLO, I have to factor my opponents into the equation. I think it's safe to say that the average player at the .01/.02 level is much better at NL then PLO. The reason is pretty obvious as poker nowdays is pretty much thought of as NL. The exposure of NL (TV, Books, Forums, etc.), has made the 'average' NL player much better over the years. The same cannot be said for PLO as it's rarely on TV(saw it once Aussie Million Cash Game) and books have just started coming out within the last year.
Another factor is that NL teaches you some very bad habbits for playing PLO. Since the games look and feel the same (except u get 4 cards vs 2), people will often play it the same. This leads to what I call some 'rookie' mistakes in PLO. Maybe next blog I'll cover some of these.
Based on the above I decided to go back to the grind in PLO .01/.02. I found some software (Table of Interest), that allowed me to play 15 or 16 tables at a time. Basically playing what's called robot poker (or peddling the nuts for the most part), however I would occasionally through a curveball to a 'regular'. I played around 10k hands in a few days and went +50. This is pretty consistent with my winrate I've established at this level.
Based on my stats I would make $360 for every 100k hands I play in PLO .01/.02. Problem is to get the kind of volume to make it worth while, I would need to 15/16 table. This figures to about 1000 hands per hour, or 3.60 an hour. Not great, but something positive at least. The great downside to this is playing that many table burns you out real quick. I can only play that amout for 90 minutes before needing a break. It's doable but very hard on one self. Another downside is you dont get many FPP, because the rake on the game is very low. So after a few days of grinding I though about another possability.
This lead me to thinking about short stacking. It's a strategy I dont really like, but I believe can be effective. In William Jockush's Pot Limit Omaha: Understanding Winning Play, he talks about the benefits of short stacking. Basically when you get all-in and there are others playing a side pot, you have an advantage as these players may bet each other out thus increasing your equity. Like I said I personally hate short stackers, but I'm not playing to make friends.
So the last few days I've been short stacking .10/.25 PLO. I was up around 60 right away, but feel on some hard times and am currently only up about 10. But, I think this strategy can work and playing the 'all-in' advantage can lead itself to helping out with the rake which is the biggest enemy at this level.
That's enough for now, I'll maybe go into some more details about my thoughts on PLO in general and short stacking strategy in my next post.
MNPuck
Thus, I decided to give SNG's a try. I know during the pokerboom (2005-2006) these were gold mines and I thought that still might be the case. I ordered and read SNG Strategy by Collin Moshman and purchased SNG Wizard to help me out with my game.
I thought the best deal rake wise and skill wise was the 6.50 single table turbos on Pokerstars. At first everything was great I was running super hot, within a week I was up about 175 dollars and had almost 700 in my account. I even made one of the SNG leaderboards one week and received 20 dollars for it. Then things went south. All the flips and 60/40's I was winning before went the wrong way. My account took a huge dive and I soon had only around 400 dollars left in my account.
I knew I was getting somewhat unlucky, but I decided to quit playing the 6.50's. Of course because I was losing was part it. The main reason is that I didn't find alot of 'leaks' in peoples games at this level. Sure there were some bad players, but most were pretty competent. Basically a single table turbo SNG boils down to pre-flop pushing. The blinds get so high so quick that you basically have two options: push or fold pre-flop. Most players at this level are fairy competent when it comes to this aspect of their play. They know when to push. Tools such as SNG Wizard and other ICM software has allowed for most players at this level to be good late in the tourney when it comes to the push/fold decision.
Therefore I had to re-evaluate what direction I wanted to take, or if you will what games to play. If poker was a zero sum game (ie no rake or entry fees), this decision would be easier. But, with house fees this becomes are harder question. In the last year I've beat pretty much every game I've tried if you take out the house fees. However, in reality you have to figure this into the equation. If your serious about making money in poker you have to play in the game were people make the most mistakes. The relative question becomes which game do I have the biggest edge over my competition.
To answer this all I have to do is look at my Holdem Manager database. The two cash games I'm beating on Stars are .01/.02 PLO and .01/.02 NL. My winrate on NL is a little higher but over a much smaller hand number. While I may have more experience in NL then PLO, I have to factor my opponents into the equation. I think it's safe to say that the average player at the .01/.02 level is much better at NL then PLO. The reason is pretty obvious as poker nowdays is pretty much thought of as NL. The exposure of NL (TV, Books, Forums, etc.), has made the 'average' NL player much better over the years. The same cannot be said for PLO as it's rarely on TV(saw it once Aussie Million Cash Game) and books have just started coming out within the last year.
Another factor is that NL teaches you some very bad habbits for playing PLO. Since the games look and feel the same (except u get 4 cards vs 2), people will often play it the same. This leads to what I call some 'rookie' mistakes in PLO. Maybe next blog I'll cover some of these.
Based on the above I decided to go back to the grind in PLO .01/.02. I found some software (Table of Interest), that allowed me to play 15 or 16 tables at a time. Basically playing what's called robot poker (or peddling the nuts for the most part), however I would occasionally through a curveball to a 'regular'. I played around 10k hands in a few days and went +50. This is pretty consistent with my winrate I've established at this level.
Based on my stats I would make $360 for every 100k hands I play in PLO .01/.02. Problem is to get the kind of volume to make it worth while, I would need to 15/16 table. This figures to about 1000 hands per hour, or 3.60 an hour. Not great, but something positive at least. The great downside to this is playing that many table burns you out real quick. I can only play that amout for 90 minutes before needing a break. It's doable but very hard on one self. Another downside is you dont get many FPP, because the rake on the game is very low. So after a few days of grinding I though about another possability.
This lead me to thinking about short stacking. It's a strategy I dont really like, but I believe can be effective. In William Jockush's Pot Limit Omaha: Understanding Winning Play, he talks about the benefits of short stacking. Basically when you get all-in and there are others playing a side pot, you have an advantage as these players may bet each other out thus increasing your equity. Like I said I personally hate short stackers, but I'm not playing to make friends.
So the last few days I've been short stacking .10/.25 PLO. I was up around 60 right away, but feel on some hard times and am currently only up about 10. But, I think this strategy can work and playing the 'all-in' advantage can lead itself to helping out with the rake which is the biggest enemy at this level.
That's enough for now, I'll maybe go into some more details about my thoughts on PLO in general and short stacking strategy in my next post.
MNPuck
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