Small Change to My Plans for June

Yesterday, I had put a plan in place for my tournament selection in June.  Last night I did a trial run and decided to make some modifications.

Here is what I had.  I was going to be playing 3 of the $2.20 knockout tournaments nightly as well as a $1.10 11.00 satellite and the $2.20 100.00 guaranteed deepstack twice a week.

The knockout games are crazy.  I will probably only play one of these a few times in June.  I will still play the 1.10 11.00 satellite when I'm able to start early enough.  I will also play the 2.20 100.00 guaranteed tournament as often as I can.  The structure is goon on this one.  I have finished 3rd and 6th in it so far after playing it twice. 

With only 2 tournaments a day, I should be able to get in my 900 hand average for the month.  I'm going to start out with a long day tomorrow.  I'm going to put in 1 1/2 hour sessions, with decent breaks in between.

I am back to starting with a full stack on NL.  The short stacking trial was working.  With a full stack, I hope to force myself to play better.  My 5 buy in loss the other night was while I was full stacking.  I called some ridicoulous players all in bets.  I had them beat, but the all in wins seem to favor the donks way too often.

High Hopes for June

With June coming, I have hope for a winning month once again. 

After the first couple days this month I was doing good, slowly grinding back some of what I had lost at the beginning of the month.  I knew it wasn't going to be a profitable month due to my rough start.  Last night deflated my hopes of staying ahead.  I went on a 5 buy in losing session.

In June my main game will be NL.  I will be adding in some tournaments this month as well.  I will be playing 3 of the $2.20 knockout tournaments nightly as well as a $1.10 11.00 satellite and the $2.20 100.00 guaranteed deepstack twice a week.  I will not re-enter in these.  If I get knocked out, I will get a chance the next night to play again.

I'm going to attempt an average of 900 hands a day, 27000 hands for the month.  This is in addition to my tournament play each night.  It wouldn't be difficult if I only played NL for the month.

Next month I am going to take advantage of more of Carbon's promotions.  I signed up for the 2 a days promotion.  I have to get 2 VIP points every day in June and I will get an entry into a 1000.00 freeroll the following month.  I'm not planning any trips for June so this should be good.  I will also be able to take advantage of the Saturday Seats to the Big Game promotion. 

Since I will be home on the weekends in June, I will be playing the 10.00 tournament on Sunday's when I win a ticket.  I won a ticket last night for this Sunday.  This Sunday I will also be playing the 215.00 Big Game.  I will be able to play the VIP games as well in June.  All of these will give me a chance to give my bankroll a big boost without dragging it down.

On top of everything else, I will get to do my first VIP points exchange in June.

There's a lot of hope riding on June being profitable.

Tournament Night

Last night I had some time to play so I loaded every 1.00 and 2.00 tournament I could find that started from 7:00 until 10:00.  I had some min cashes in most of the 2.20 bounty tournaments, but did not do well in any of the 11.00 sat's, or deep stack short blind level tourney's.

As the tournaments dropped off one by one, I realized I had a decent shot at my 2.20 deep stack NL 15 min blind level game.  I had been in it for 4 hours and we were on the final 2 tables.  I went to work and built up a top 2 chip stack by the time we reached the final table. 

The other players dropped off slowly and I maintained my chip stack until we got down to the final 3.  I was in the big blind with 3 3 when the big stack min raised.  The small stack had about 7 bb's left and folded.  I called.  Flop was A38 off suit.  I led out and big stack bet big.  This was uncommon for him, but I could see him doing it with 2 pair or better.  I was guessing he had A8 as that was definately in his range.  I shipped it in and he insta called.  He had 88 for a higher set and that was it.  I won 22.00 for 3rd place.  First was 44.00.

At the end of the night I was up by 4.00.

I really like the structure of this tournament.  I may play this a couple times a week if I have time.  It took 5 1/2 hours to play, and starts earlier than I should be playing, but if I only get in it a couple times a week I should be o.k. 

This weekend I should be staying home, so I may get to use my 215.00 ticket.  I have won some 33.00 tickets, and 109.00 tickets, but this will be the biggest game I have played, live or online.

Settling Down Next Month

I'm back from a busy fun filled weekend full of lots of driving.  This next month I'm going to try to stay home as much as I can. 

Today was my first day to play in quite a while.  I played a .60 tournament and was busted out with pocket kings to a 5 8 that called way too big of raise pre flop and hit 2 pair on the flop.  I also played a 2.20 bounty tournament.  I took 1 bounty then the game turned to crap.  I think it's the fact that there are re-buys.  People are playing ridiculously stupid at the beginning of tournaments.  I've always disliked re-buy's for that reason.  Now I'm limited to them if I want to play tournament poker. 

In NL I played 625 hands for a profit of 3.25.  It helped that I could fold my higher pocket pairs a few times when there was a good chance I was beat.  It also helped that I got a rash of good cards that held half way through my session. 

On Saturday I was able to play the first VIP tournament.  My internet connection was suuuuuuppppppeeeer slow and when I wasn't folding the best hand due to timing out, I was folding junk.  When I did get to play a good hand I just went all in and it didn't hold.

Sunday we were out boating so no poker.

This week I should be able to play quite a bit.

11 More Points Until Fire Tier

This week I have not been playing much.  I have been trying to take care of things around the house that need to be done before we leave for Missouri.  Last night I got started around 9:00 and ended a little before midnight.  I think that will be my average playing time when I play this summer.  In that time I played a couple tournaments that did not go my way.  I also got in 800 hands of NL for a small profit of .27.

With my play from last night I have 11 points until I reach the fire level.  Then I will have a few hundred more points until I can do my first points exchange. 

I am registered for the VIP tournaments this weekend but may not be able to play in them.  They would be a good opportunity to increase my bankroll if I could play them.  It seems that I am busy on that weekend all but a couple months out of the year, making them useless to me.

My 215.00 ticket is waiting to be used as well.  I haven't had a free weekend to use it, or try for another one.

I would like to start throwing some tournaments into my evening play.  I have been looking, but I don't see any good tournaments that start after 9:00.  With short blind levels and now every tournament having rebuys, it has turned the tournaments into donkfests.  I called all ins from the short stacks 5 times yesterday holding the best hand, them having horrible hands to boot, for them to get ridicoulously lucky and win the hand.  Sometimes you run poorly.  It has been more than sometimes the last many times I have played in tournaments.

I never thought I would see the day that I would rather play NL than a tournament.  With the tournament structure options I have, I doubt I'll be playing many tournaments any time soon. 

There are 2 - 2.20  bounty tournaments that start around 9:00.  The blind structures are sad, but I have done o.k. in these bounties in the past.  I think I am going to start playing these nightly through June and see how I do.

Scary Ride Home

I made it back for my Great Aunt's funeral on Thursday.  After that I went to the lake with my parents and spent Thursday and part of Friday fishing.  The fishing was great.  We caught tons of fish.  I got a little burnt.  Friday evening I drove back home.  Saturday I drove to Manhattan for a wedding.  While we were there we had to check out Aggieville.  It has changed quite a bit in the last 10 years, but was still fun.

It was graduation weekend so we were not able to find a hotel in or near town.  We have looked for the last couple months.  There were no campsites available as it was the weekend before Memorial weekend.  My friends Grandma got us a place to stay at the retirement village.  They had a guest room we could rent. 

We drove back on Sunday.  At Wichita we ran into a storm cell that was blocking us from taking our regular route home.  There was lots of hail and it looked like a tornado was about to touch down at any minute.  We turned around and headed back East then South.  The radar showed a break in the storms and it looked like we could get through.  As we headed South the storms continued to build.  Every town we drove through had the tornado sirens sounding.

Finally, about 20 miles South of Wichita we had to take cover as the rain was so thick we couldn't see what was out there.  I pulled into a carwash bay to avoid the hail and kept my eye on the radar.  A tornado was seen only a few miles from where we were.  The storm passed and we got through the first wave of storms.  The rest of the way home we were pretty safe.

It is a lot scarier being in front of the storms as opposed to behind them.  My friend that rode with us from Wichita was on his way back to Oklahoma City.  He narrowly missed a couple bigger tornadoes on his way home. 

Tonight I mowed and sprayed weeds.  Then I got to play some poker.  Nothing too exciting happened except for one player thought he had me figured out.  It cost him when he put me all in while I held pocket kings.  He hit his set on the flop, I hit a flush on the turn and got another K on the river for good measure.  I was playing with a full buy in so that helped greatly.  After 500 hands I was up 2.54. 

Water Tier Out of Reach This Month

Killdeer eggs I saw at the lake last weekend

Last night I played over 3000 hands and ended with a loss of close to 5.00.  There were quite a few times that I made mistakes over that long period.  One was calling an all in from FlushDraww on a Flush board when I held 2 pair.  I knew he had something big or nothing at all.  I gambled and lost.  Now I know.  Don't mess with FlushDraww.  I hope it helped him make a profit last night.  I can't suck out on him every time.

There were other times that I knew I had the hand and got the villain to put all of his chips out there, for them to catch a 5% card on the river.  Those irk me, especially when I don't get any love back from the site.

There is so much for me to improve on in my game.  I've only just begun.  Since I have so much to work on, I'm dropping my goal of reaching the Water Tier.  It wasn't going to happen anyway.  After I read Flush's comment I realized that it is 1500 VIP points, not 1250 like I thought I had read.  I should still reach the Fire Tier with the playing time I have left.

I will spend time looking over my hand histories and a little less time playing.  It seems that I need to do this before each time I play to keep everything fresh in my mind. 

Recently, I have went back to buying in at half buy in's, except for one session yesterday.  The tables were ripe, and I felt that I could make more money if I had a full stack.  I never got the opportunity as the tables broke up before I got a hand that was worthy of playing that big. 

I know Flush, I should always have the maximum that I can out there to make the maximum when I get a hand.  More often than not I am getting stacked more than I am stacking on an all in situation.  Until I reverse that, (find the fold button) I am better off with a short stack, so that I lose less in those situations.  By the way, I appreciate all the help and advice you have given me Flush.  It's hard to accept sometimes, and sometimes I may continue to do what I have been doing, despite the facts and sound reasoning you have given me.  I do take them into consideration, and have implemented a lot into my game from what you have taught me. 

It feels like I am slowly gaining, and not playing so horribly all the time.  Sometimes I feel evil, I am so on.  Last night I was taking pain medication so I know I wasn't on, but I don't think that I was too far off that I shouldn't have been playing.

One hand stands out to me.  I had a 10 J on the button.  UTG raises.  He folds to a 3 bet 88%, so I 3 bet him 3/4 pot.  He called.  Flop was 10 J 6.  I knew he had a high pair or 2 broadway cards, or he would have folded to my 3 bet.  I clicked the all in button before he even acted.  He bet, and I was all in.  He insta called with pocket aces.  An ace hit on the river.  Blah!

I feel that I played this correctly.  This time it cost me 4.00.  I would build up a stack then have it taken, when hands like this would happen.  I could never get close to break even last night.  I drifted between 4.00 down and 8.00 down all night. 

I did pick up over 100 VIP points.

This weekend I will have plenty of time to think over my strategies, since I will not be playing.  When I play again Sunday evening I will be fresh and ready.

Water Tier May Be a Stretch

The beginning of this month was looking like I was going to play a record amount of hands.  Then I got a sinus infection that made me tired when I played, decreasing the number of hands I played a day.  Now my evenings and weekends are getting booked up so I cannot play as much.

I only have 9 more days that I will be able to play the rest of this month.  I have close to 700 VIP points so I should make the Fire Tier easily.  The Water Tier is quite a stretch.  I still need 550 VIP points.  I would need 60 VIP points per day the next 9 days I play.  That would be over 1500 hands per day depending on the table dynamics. 

It's not impossible.  I like a good challenge, so I am going to try to push for it. 

When I get home from work I will fix supper, eat, spend a little time with the kids and then it's game time for the next 9 poker days.  After that I will keep with my 9 to midnight schedule so that I don't neglect my kids.  Who needs sleep.  I can sleep when I'm rich.

Need to Play More to Reach My Goal

 

I finally made it to the lake on Saturday.  It was windy and chilly.  My parents had a campsite reserved for us.  We ended up catching quite a few fish before I left on Sunday.  It was relaxing to spend the weekend at the lake.  

On Friday I got in a few hundred hands for a profit of 5.00.  Tonight I played again.  This time I got in a little over 1000 hands for a profit of 7.80.  

I'm not sure if I will reach the level I want to reach at the end of the month.  I may have too many things going on to play that many hands.  

My Great Aunt passed away this weekend so I will have a funeral this week.  Then I have a wedding this weekend.  The following weekend we will be out of town again.  Without weekend play, I will have to play more hands in the evening to have a chance.  I'm still going to try,

Rock - Paper - Stupid

I worked late last night, so that I would be able to go to the grade school track meet today and get out of town early to go camping.  Due to the lack of work ethic of others, I came to a stand still and had to wait until today to finish.  You give everybody a simple task and one person chooses not to do it.  That put me behind several hours today causing me to miss most of the track meet and probably not get out of town any earlier than I would if I had not worked late 2 days this week. 

The stupidity of people costs me $$$ personally, as well as my time, and probably years off my life.  My wife isn't pleased with me working during times she thinks I should be at our children's functions.  I've missed 2 this week alone.  I believe that there should be a balance.  For the whole balance to be work, especially when I'm waiting on information that I cannot proceed without, then I agree with her.

I did make it out to see my oldest son win his heat at the 25 meter dash.  I missed his winning baseball throw.  At work I was stuck there waiting on information to come to me so I could get my job done and get out of there.  I had to wait and repeatedly call the person for 4 hours to get me the information I needed.  Ridiculous.  WORK TILT!

Last night I got in 750 hands and didn't get my 30 VIP points.  I played tighter than I had been.  The tables were looser last night.  There were a lot of 30+ VPIP players with a high flop and turn AFq.  Waiting for hands is profitable against these types of players as you will get called down by marginal holdings.

My play netted me over 3.00 last night.  I also stayed in the hunt for the 50000 eqaulizer.  I got 5.00 for being in the top 250 players for that for the first 9 days of the month.  I played a lot of hands with the 1st place guy that received 2000.00 for playing an insane amount of hands for 9 days.

I have been really tired lately when I play.  I almost fell asleep last night, and had to call it quits.  I guess 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night is catching up with me. 

Back On Track

They were calling for severe weather all week for yesterday evening.  The storms split North and South of town so we still had our championship soccer game for U8.  The kids played great and we walked away with a win.  The kids were super excited. 

With storms being all around us my oldest son and I went driving around looking at the clouds.  That, along with eating, and soccer, considerably cut into the time I had to play NL last night.  I pushed hard and managed to get close to 1000 hands in.  I couldn't find an easy table like I had played the night before and ended up losing a little over 3.00 by the end of the session.  It probably still would have been profitable if I had not been stacked all 3 times I held pocket aces.  All three times were to a set.  I might have been able to lay them down post flop when the board came low, but these aggressive players that keep getting extremely lucky would bet the same way with air, according to my notes on them and their stats. 

Fortunately, I was playing well the rest of the time and lost a minimal amount. 

I'm still on track to reach the water tier towards the end of the month.  I have a little kink in my plan, as my mother talked us into coming up to go camping with them this weekend.  It didn't take much convincing. 

That will mean a little less playing tonight as I get the camping gear ready.  Then there will be little or no play on Fri, Sat, and Sun.  The campground has wifi, depending on where we are camped, so I may get to play some.

It's a small sample, but it looks like I will probably get around 20 VIP points per 500 hands if I continue to play the way I am currently.  So instead of averaging 1500 hands I night, I only need to average 750 hands a night, the rest of the month to reach the water tier.  I can put in a few 1500 hand nights next week and make up for lost play this weekend.

Tonight is the final night for the first round of the 50000.00 equalizer.  Right now I'm still in contention for a little piece of that action.  I am in the lowest level for that and could get an extra 5.00 if I stay there.  It doesn't look like I will move up tonight, unless I can find time to put in an extra long session.

Back From the Big City

After my seminar yesterday, I decided to get a haircut and do some grocery shopping since I was in the big city.  We had just bought 90 pounds of ground beef from a friend and now I have spent 200.00 on other grocery items.  We should be good for several months now.  The pantry and freezers are stuffed full. 

Shopping took quite a while.  Then I went to Chipotle's and waited in line for a burrito.  There were about 40 people in line in front of me.  If it wouldn't have been Chipotle's, I would have left, but it's been months since I've been somewhere with a Chipotle's.  When I have a craving, it's worth the wait.  When I got to the front of the line I asked if they are always that busy.  They said that they were doing a teacher appreciation in the area and had given coupons to the teachers.  I'll wait in line for a reason like that. 

Thank you teachers, for doing what you do!

I got home late and by the time the groceries were carried in, I only had a little bit of time to play.  I don't like to play when I'm limited on time, but I made an exception since I have been playing well lately.  I got in 500 hands before I was drop dead tired.  That resulted in profits over 6.00. 

Tonight after soccer, I will have to get busy playing to make up for the last 2 days, or at least try to get my 1500 hands today. 

I'm still trying to figure out how much I will need to play to get my VIP points.  The last 2 nights I have only put in 500 hands and have gotten 20 VIP points each night.  I was involved in more hands than usual, so that makes a difference.  The table dynamics were good for me to get in a few more pots than I usually do and it was working well.  Most of the time, I will not get such fortunate seating, so I won't get to play as many hands, lowering my VIP point intake.

First Day & Falling Short of My Goals

Tonight I had my youngest son's final soccer game.  They ended up taking first place in the tournaments.  I don't think they lost a game all year.  It wasn't because of him, but he did help defend the goal a couple times.  He looked like he was having fun out there.  That's what matters.

After I got back to town from that, I had to go back into work to take care of some things since I will be out of town at an Employment Law Seminar. 

I got in 600 hands and I feel too tired to keep on going after 1500.  I also have to get up early and drive 2 hours to the seminar at 8:00.  I doubt I made my 30 VIP points and fell behind in the 50000 promotion.  The good thing is that I did have a profit of 3.00.

Tomorrow I will be getting back late.  I'm not sure if I'll hit my 1500 hands then either.  Wednesday we have my oldest son's championship game.  The game is early so I may be able to bust out some hands then.

My Switch Back To Carbon

This weekend I played a lot of hands of NL.  I came to the conclusion that I had a mental block on playing decent due to my switch from Lock to Carbon.  I was having a hard time with the starting over feeling and it was still affecting my play. 

To right the situation I loaded money onto Carbon in order to get close to being where I had been on Lock.  For some reason my play improved after I did that. 

I have been looking at the promotions and VIP structures on Carbon.  If I push myself this month I think that I can reach the water tier.  If I put in 1500 hands a day, that should give me roughly 30 VIP points a day for 26 days equalling 780 points.  I currently have 500 points from the first 5 days.  I need 1250 VIP points to reach the water tier so I will have to put in some major playing time.  With playing that many hands I may also get some money from the 50,000.00 equalizer promotion.  It won't be a lot since I'm not expecting to be in the top 100 at the end of the 1st round, but anything helps.

On top of VIP points exchange, I'll earn entries into the two monthly VIP freeroll tournaments, and the 50 seats to the Big Game tournaments.  I played my first 50 seat game this weekend and qualified for a 215.00 ticket. 

It will be a challenge for me to have a profitable month after the first few days I had this month.  If I can cut a little out of that loss during the rest of this month I will be happy.  I'm starting to feel better about my switch back to Carbon.

The Road To Somewhere

It's apparent to me now that my good run at the end of last month is not going to continue into this month.  At least not the first day.  When I played I was not focused.  I had some things on my mind that I could not shake and it was definitely affecting how I played.

I hit the self destruct button and played poker.  It wasn't pretty.  I called down hands where I knew I was beat.  My mind was saying there's no way they would still be in the hand with those two cards, even though experience has taught me that they would still be in the hand with those cards and they would only play like that with those 2 cards.

I was in a huge funk last night and should not have been on the tables.  I definitely shouldn't have played the hands I played when I was in that kind of funk. 

I'm irritated by something I have no control over.  I should be able to let it go and play cards, but I can't.  My plans have changed to play a different site because of something I read.  I thought I had something good going that now seems like a lie.  Now it's going to be harder to get back to where I thought I was.

This seems a lot like a couple other times I had something going, only to get my spirit crushed, when I was told that I could no longer do what I was doing.  This time I got a heads up ahead of time so it's a little better. 

I may never get to multi table 180 man sng's again.  I may never get to play multiple low cost tournaments with lots of players and good structure again.  I may never get good rake back again.  These were the things that have helped make me profit's in the past.  

It's time to stop thinking about what I have lost and start thinking about what I still have.  I still have a chance to build my bankroll.  I just need to stay focused and play better cards.  Other people are doing it if I keep working at it, I can too.

Playing On Carbon This Month

Yesterday was our 8th Anniversary.  To celebrate we had my wife's sister watch the kids and we went out for steaks.  Since it was our anniversary I didn't play any poker.  She wouldn't have minded if I did play for a couple hours, but I thought it would be nice to dedicate the whole evening to her.

Last month was a 72.57 profit month.  A majority of that was thanks to rakeback, a deposit bonus, and a tournament.  Towards the end of the month something seemed to really click with NL.  Hopefully that will carry over to the start of this month. 

I will be switching my play back to Carbon on the Merge network so my bankroll will be quite a bit less this month.  I will miss the rakeback and the points and the reload bonus that I was getting with Lock.  I feel that I need to give Carbon a fair shake with their new VIP structure.  They have a larger player base at the 4.00 NL level.  I also like their tournament and sng options.  With Carbon I can also qualify for the VIP tournaments, which can be quite profitable.

My goals for May are fairly vague.  I would like to play a lot of hands and show a profit at NL at the end of the month.  I also want to qualify for next months VIP tournaments and free seats satellite to the big game.  Now that soccer is about over, my weekends should start to free up a little again. 

With Lock, I was really thinking I could reach a bankroll large enough to play 10.00 NL 3 months from now.  With a switch back to Carbon and a lower bankroll it feels like I am competely starting over.  

I cashed out on my Lock account.  If I get that, maybe I can apply some of it to my Carbon account.  They took the amount out of my balance, so maybe I will get a check.