Update on Progress

Hello to All..

So far after 3 out of 4 weeks I have played 38 out of 150 SNGs.. My ROI is around 0, with variance sometimes peaking it above and sometimes below. The conclusions I have drawn from my game:

1. I am not kept interested in the game when I am playing like this, it takes out the excitement, and in the words of Matt Damon in Rounders "Your whole life becomes a f'ing grind". I have always preferred live play and this "challenge" has furthered this. After the past 10 days or so I have found it hard to find the motivation to play, which is obviously not helpful.

2. The lack of motivation has impacted on my ROI - my performance was much better when I was enthusiastic about the challenge, 4 tabling 1 game a couple of times a week is -EV and I believe is responsible for the ROI position.

3. I have room for improvement at this level, however am better than average at this level, and when playing enthusiastically would definately be in a profitable position.

4. I need to work on heads up play more and pay attention to the blind levels when I go heads up.

5. Defensive play was getting me a reasonable cash ratio, but the benefits of getting 2nd/ 1st over 3rd meant that the way I was playing was definately sub optimum, with alot of my 3rds involving being on <5BBs!

Going Forward....

I am going to have a dip in a wider variety of games over the next months and play some MTTs which up till now I have done very little of online.

I am going to be playing on 2 sites: Full Tilt Poker and PKR. PKR has always provided a useful distraction from the grind, and was good val. for me.

I will still continue with the challenge on FTP, but will be playing other games on there aswell. Using PokerOffice I can still track my stats and info for the $5 SNGs so will be able to report on them, obviously the target of 150 games has gone out of the window as I have completed less than a 3rd of them so faw, but n.mind..

GN.

Is that my AK?

AK on 3 out of 4 tables at the same time.. run good?!


Played 4 last night after poker soc..

came 5th, 4th, and 2nd twice.. the bubble should have been a 3rd AKs (again) vs A7o - AIPF he rivers a 9 high straight!

GG. :D

Adam update (probably long.)

Hey

Haven't posted in a long time, this is mainly due to the work from my MSc taking over my life! However I have decided I deserve 1/2 hour break today and so am going to spew some thoughts here.

Poker

Poker has been going suprisingly well given the little time I have. The b2b account where Owe staked me for a bit ended with around $900 prof from $20 hu sngs which was cool. However, since I have the scholarship and the profit doesn't matter so much, we decdied to switch it to stars and take some shots at $30-$50 tournaments, inc sats to the PCA, and see what happens.
Before this I deposited $100 on stars one saturday and two saturdays later cashed out $600 which was handy, although I did have one sick tournament hand when deep in a 1500 runner $10r:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4781682

FML.

That put me 12th for $360, i think first was around 7-8k. Top 7 paid $1k+.

Another deep run was the 10k gtd $30 freeze on saturday morning, gets around 700-800 runners and is a decent structure. Have gone deep in it a couple of times, this time made the final table but came in 9/9.

Had 75k at 3k/6k/600 and had J6o in the bb...utg and utg+1 (800k stack) limp, co limps and sb makes up, i check.
Flop Jc 8x 6c. Checked to co who leads for 20k, sb fold, i ship, utg fold, utg+1 CALL, co tank folds. Utg has 88 and hits quads on the river. 8th for $500, winner gets 4.1k. sigh.

Well, at least I keep going deep i guess, one day will hit a decent score.

As for my housemates, we played the $500 GSOP event on ongame on sunday. Jeal played, I think Owe had around 40% then 60% was split between 6-7 of us (I had 10%)

Got deep, i think 160 cashed, we were short with 60 left, blinds 1k 2k + 200a, mp makes it 5k, we have 22k and AQo in the cutoff. Villain has raised to 5k hand before and folded to a lp ship. We shipped, i still think its the right ship although in this case he had AA obv and we bust 55th for $2.2k. GG.

Owe has been playing 90% $100 hu sngs, with the occasional $50 and the occasional $200. Has been doing pretty good, playing solid. Recently have seen him take some sick beats tho, lots of 2 and 3 outers, but thats just the nature of the beast.

Jeal gets sucked out on for fun it seems, I swear his account is cursed! The amount of worstcardinthedeck rivers he got yesterday was insane!

As for random poker soc members, from memory:

Wakes goes semi deep in the stars 100k ($10 buyin) for $150. Over summer shipped a $5r on ipoker for $3k and 2 wks ago shipped a 2 DOLLAR FREEZE with 7,000 runners on stars for $3k!
Tidey 8th/7000 in an $8r for 1.5k, consistent 7% roi over a ton of games playing $20-$30 hu sngs

Poker soc graduate and fan favourite joe boyle has also been crushing low stakes sngs on his days off, his results from the last month are impressive:

Moneybags401 155 $4 $11 20% $587

MBN.

Gl to mark in his challenge!

Non committee members:

Seb fairhurt posted a sick screen shot of him having 14 buyins on a .02 .05 table on stars, pretty crazy!

I think thats all...

As far as non-poker goes, my MSc is tough. I have a gruelling reading/working schedule, so in between that, lectures, sleeping and seeing hannah i have little free time. However i do take saturday afternoons off. :)

Finally did something I like today in economic theory (game theory) and it made me realise how much of it could be used by people who don't know it in poker. In my next post i might focus on an introduction to game theory and its relation to heads up nl instead of posting about myself! The correlation between some experimental economic evidence i was reading in a paper yesterday and cognitive thought/ timing tells online was pretty sick too. But thats for another time.

This week i have stuff all day today, wednesday, thursday and friday so probably won't be playing until poker soc on friday night. Maybe friday afternoon if I'm on top of all my work...

Gl all, ty for reading!

-Adam

Weekend..

Didnt play at all yesterday (saturday) and have only had a chance to get a couple in today. I am now 8.88 up, which isnt much, but does equal ~7% ROI, and if you include the $2 SNG cash which actually got this thing started I am up 13.89 = 10.43% ROI...


First game I bubbled, I am down to approx 8BB, and ship UTG with 3.3 Get called by KQo (UTG+1) and by SB (who folds on flop) Board= Q 7 2 2 10

Good bye.. :D

Second game i actually end up chopping with chip lead again, for another win, taking about $19.. Sadly I wasnt making a copy of HHs at the time, so I dont have any interesting hands to post, will just copy some in from Poker Office..

BIG WIN (not a skillful hand, but was the biggest monetary win for the game, and got it down to 3 players, I would like comments on the call, I am thinking it is probably -EV in that spot, particularly being a bubble, but I made it in this spot as he had very aggressive preflop, and I think with the most premium hands you dont shove for ~25BB and 10*Raise)

Full Tilt Poker Game #15262782981: $5 + $0.50 Sit & Go (111918770), Table 1 - 80/160 - No Limit Hold'em - 6:57:09 ET - 2009/10/11
Seat 2: bes1986 (3,170)
Seat 5: UEA PokerStar (3,970)
Seat 8: Blondin8886 (2,735)
Seat 9: Strangercz (3,625)
Strangercz posts the small blind of 80
bes1986 posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to UEA PokerStar [8d 8c]
UEA PokerStar raises to 320
Blondin8886 folds
Strangercz raises to 3,625, and is all in
bes1986 folds
UEA PokerStar calls 3,305
Strangercz shows [Ac Ks]
UEA PokerStar shows [8d 8c]
*** FLOP *** [8s Jc 5h]
*** TURN *** [8s Jc 5h] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [8s Jc 5h Kh] [Qc]
Strangercz shows a pair of Kings
UEA PokerStar shows three of a kind, Eights
UEA PokerStar wins the pot (7,410) with three of a kind, Eights
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 7,410 | Rake 0
Board: [8s Jc 5h Kh Qc]
Seat 2: bes1986 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: UEA PokerStar showed [8d 8c] and won (7,410) with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 8: Blondin8886 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Strangercz (small blind) showed [Ac Ks] and lost with a pair of Kings

BIG LOSS (Bad call on the flop fml.)

Full Tilt Poker Game #15262663867: $5 + $0.50 Sit & Go (111918770), Table 1 - 50/100 - No Limit Hold'em - 6:44:48 ET - 2009/10/11
Seat 2: bes1986 (6,160)
Seat 4: kiki1809 (1,895)
Seat 5: UEA PokerStar (2,905)
Seat 8: Blondin8886 (930)
Seat 9: Strangercz (1,610)
Strangercz posts the small blind of 50
bes1986 posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to UEA PokerStar [Ac Tc]
kiki1809 folds
UEA PokerStar calls 100
Blondin8886 raises to 250
Strangercz folds
bes1986 has 15 seconds left to act
bes1986 folds
UEA PokerStar calls 150
*** FLOP *** [2c 6s 4d]
UEA PokerStar bets 200
Blondin8886 raises to 680, and is all in
UEA PokerStar calls 480
Blondin8886 shows [9s 9d]
UEA PokerStar shows [Ac Tc]
*** TURN *** [2c 6s 4d] [2d]
*** RIVER *** [2c 6s 4d 2d] [3d]
Blondin8886 shows two pair, Nines and Twos
UEA PokerStar shows a pair of Twos
Blondin8886 wins the pot (2,010) with two pair, Nines and Twos
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,010 | Rake 0
Board: [2c 6s 4d 2d 3d]
Seat 2: bes1986 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: kiki1809 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: UEA PokerStar showed [Ac Tc] and lost with a pair of Twos
Seat 8: Blondin8886 (button) showed [9s 9d] and won (2,010) with two pair, Nines and Twos
Seat 9: Strangercz (small blind) folded before the Flop


In other news, beggining to see the end of the swine flu, but still feel very rough.. Particularly after doing seminar prep for next week! I am looking at applications for ACA accountancy training place as well, so hope I will run good and get to go to my first choice! And also.. looking at trips for next year, would like to go to: Vegas, Florida, LA, New York and Sydney... Hmmmm.. bank error in my favour onnnnneeee tiiiimmmmeee?????

Am currently playing in the aced poker tournament thing, atm. am 24th (62 remaining).

GL. GN. x

Day 5 am

OK, played a couple of games today so far, and think I am starting to see my way out of the flu.. ftw..

(I have gone against my first decision, and am now registering 2 SNGs at a time as the multitabling is working well)

First game came 3rd, pretty standard, nothing of particular note, final hand for me, I was short stack with around 8BB, got it in PF with A8s, vs. 10-10, flop brings 8, but nothing else..

Second game, was a first for me, in that I made a deal to chop up 1st-2nd (i had around a 2K chip lead so it was a win :D ) for $18.54.. I reckon we were fairly equal, and with my chip lead the chop was +EV for me I think.

One of the guys I got most of my stack from had this as his sharkscope:

Games Played: 26
Av. Profit: -$5
Av. Stake: $5
Av. ROI: -100%
Total Profit: -$143
Form: Supertilt

Max. Val. :D :D :D

These 2 bring the BR up to profits, +$1.04 :D :D Munns.. :D :D

Its a step in the right direction..

Day 3/4

Day 3 - Had a bad run today, in 9 games, ended up -$18 (1x2nd, 2x 3rd) not too concerned though, always going to get variance, its the long game that matters!

Day 4 (today) - Right.. so actually have swine flu apparently.. lovely :D

Got up about 6, played 2 games (at same time) came 3rd in one, 4th in the other, and all though I therefore ended up -$2, I was much happier with the way I played, I think yesterday I had got a bit over cautious in my game, and a bit too tight.. After those two games I basically slept all day, and woke up about 5! Not playing any more today, as dont feel to great..

Will post some hands soon..

day 2

Was up at about 5 this morning as couldnt sleep with this flu. Played my second sng and cashed in 3rd, I was short stacked for most of the game, and was down in last place when there were 7/9 remaining, hung on in, no big hands (was getting no playable starting hands) so just exploiting opportunities. 3 handed I have ~1.5K vs. 7K vs. 5K.. would have been nice to make a better position, but its a cash.. at the moment BR is +$11.50 in 2 games... will play some more today (am hoping to get in 5 today) but now its time to watch some TV.

Day 1

- solid lecture/ seminar block 12 - 6.... = no val.
- 3 days off = max. val.
- Catching a second dose of fresher's flu = no val.
- Being able to get a 12 hour sleep tonight = max. val.

:)

I dont feel great this evening, having caught "fresher's flu" for the second time in 2 weeks, but decided to play 1 SNG..

Went for a full table one, obv. $5, non turbo. Came second for $13.50, which is $8 profit, so shiiipp that.. good start to the challenge!

Few hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4757948

Love this hand, normally I check in this spot post flop (which I would like some critical comments on) but decided to drop a tiny little bet in, for no reason other than to squeeze a bit more value out of the hand, I think if he hasnt hit the jack then he checks behind if i check, and folds if I make a bet >100 (based on his style previously). Lovely surprise when he shiiiippps.. obv. insta call.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4757972

Heads up now, and have 4-5 in BB, SB limps, I check.. flop = 9,9,J; killamonjamie min bets ( i understand that this is the move i made before with trips, but I'm a soul reader.. :D) I bet 2 BB, which is only ~7% of stack, so am not too concerned.. he folds..

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4757980

Final hand, I'm in SB, I raise to ~3BB he ships, (he has done this 3 previous hands) I call, sadly board is completely blank for both of us, and his Ace takes it.

... There were a couple of hands I played poorly but I can see the issues, and will work on keeping them out of my game..

Bonfire Night Challenge..

I haven't been playing much poker recently with work and music, but decided yesterday to get back in the online world.. I have deposited in a few accounts, but have decided my main account will be Full Tilt Poker.. I love their software, and it works great with Poker Office.. For those who have read this blog, you will know I have had little success on FTP in the past, so this is even more of a challenge for me... Here is how it will go..

I have deposited $200 into my FTP account, and over the next month (ending on 5th November, bonfire Night) I will play $5 SNGs exclusively and will keep track of my BR over the month. I will provide some updates on a reg. basis and will post graphs and some PokerOffice stats at the end of the month.. Also will chuck some HandHistories up.. If you are online I am playing under the name "UEA PokerStar" check it out, and shout at me if I am playing anything other than $5 SNGs.. :D


In other news... UEA Poker's first tournament of the year was a huge success with over 80 people, Tidey, John and Stephen chopping it up 75-80-80 at the end.. Next week is going to be in Constable terrace, so that should be interesting.. We have around 150 fully paid up members now which is sick, and should make for a great year of tournaments!