Zero To Sixty In…

I know I’m stuck with .01/.02 for a few more months, but I want to complain about it. I guess something that’s bumming me out about it is that I don’t feel like I’m improving my game much playing it.

I feel like most of the players fall in to some basic categories, they’re easy to pigeonhole, and as long as I maintain my BR and starting hand selection discipline, I can’t be busted. I’m not perfect, so I still misplay a hand now and then, and I still take plenty of beats, which generally don’t bother me. I’ve got around 50k hands of .01/.02 between 2 sites, and my PTBB/100 is still in the 16.00 range. I’m crushing the game, which is great, but I’m mentally ready to move up, but there are no stakes that match my BR at UB.

If they had a $5 buyin .02/.05 game, that would be perfect, I’d be approaching it with my BR and have a short term goal to work toward. Instead, I’m going to be looking at playing $5 for .05/.10 on a shortstack at $100, or sticking it out at .01/.02 until I approach $180-$200, which seems ludicrous. Even at $.64/100, that’s another 23k hands before I’m in that range. At an hour a night, that ’s 4-5 months before I move up. Yikes.

I’m thinking about consolidating my three site BRs back to one, playing just Stars when the bonus is cleared and I qualify to transfer. I should be over $200 then, and I’d be fine to play .05/.10, or at least .02/.05. I have a positive PTBB/100 for each of those levels, but it’s not great, which I will attribute to some bad beats.

Then again, maybe I should quit complaining – I’ve gone $0-$60 in less than 3 weeks playing .01/.02 at UB.

I’ve Been Bad…

I broke my bankroll rule (never sit down with more than 5% of your bankroll) and sat at a single table of .05/.10 at UB with $10 (20%). This was after having a long discussion with a friend at work about sticking to the BR rule of 20 buyins (5%) for NL. I always go on about how poker is 90% discipline and 10% table skills, and here I am, breaking my rules. Shame on me.

Well, how did I do? I played ultra-tight (like 10% of hands). My first hand was AA in the BB, and EVERYONE FOLDED TO ME. I planned on pushing with it hoping for a caller, but no such luck. I played QQ for a raise, JJ for a raise, AK for a call and AK for a raise (I had a nice run of cards), won 3 out of the 4 hands. I doubled up after about 50 hands with KK vs. a nut flush draw and then quit for some family time (family always comes before poker).

I’m in a weird position with my BR, because I have 30 $2 buyins for .01/.02 but only 6 buyins for $10 at .05/.10, and there’s no .02/.05 at UB. I’m getting impatient, but I have to stick it out at .01/.02. I can’t reasonably expect my BR to survive with 6 full buyins at .05/.10, and I don’t like playing cash games with a short stack. I can’t imagine playing .05/.10 with a $3.00 starting stack. It’s too limiting. A raise preflop and 2 calls, and I might as well go all in on the flop with my top pair or fold. Unless I decide to exclusively play the under 2 dollar SNGs, I’m stuck at .01/.02 until I crack $200, which seems like it won’t be until next year.

I played some .01/.02 later in the evening and was slightly down but broke even for my session due to the bonus clearing. I don’t think I played too poorly, I just ran into some cards and lucky draws. I had KK cracked 2x, and got hit by a couple of 3 outers when I had people outkicked. All the more reason to stay at .01/.02 until my BR can handle .05/.10. I did make a dumb play one hand, but I didn’t have numbers on the guy.

UB – $60.03/25.23 pending bonus.
PS – same
FT – same

Reading Material

Well, I looked for http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Poker-Essential-Playing-Living/dp/0976595788/ref=sr_1_1/104-9597456-2076758?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180547252&sr=1-1 but picked up http://www.amazon.com/Full-Tilt-Poker-Strategy-Guide/dp/0446698601/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-9597456-2076758?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180547151&sr=8-1 instead, because I couldn’t find the Mark Blade book at a B&M store and I don’t think Amazon would get me the book on time.

I got some info from a guy that plays regularly at the casino I hope to spend some time at while on vacation next week, and he says they have MTTs with buyins between 50-100 daily, and mostly 1/2 and 2/5 NL ring. My mom is more comfortable playing MTTs, we’ll probably play one, so hopefully this book won’t wreck my tourney game in the next week or so. I took a quick peek at the tourney structures, and they seem ridiculous – they might as well call them ‘live turbos’ because they blinds go up sick fast, so it will be a luckfest, but whatever, I think I have have a really solid shortstack game.

I’m going to be playing on the cheap, so I may have enough for a tourney buyin and a $100 ring buyin, and that will be about it. I haven’t played live in several months, so it should be fun, and with the slow pace of one table instead of 4, I’ll play more of a feel game. I’ll probably re-read http://www.amazon.com/Caros-Book-Poker-Tells-Mike/dp/1580420826/ref=sr_1_1/104-9597456-2076758?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180547704&sr=1-1 while I’m at it.

I’m really fired up for vacation, and not just to play poker. It’s going to be great to grill some good food, sit outside a quiet cottage, enjoy the sun, read a book, relax, and chill.

Table Image – Am I Weird?

This is kind of a random thought post. I was having a poker discussion with the two other poker dorks (I say ‘poker dork’ affectionately) at my office. Occassionally, they’d say things like ‘I owned that table’, or ‘the table feared me’, or ‘I lorded over that table’, or what have you.

I think I may be weird, because I never think about those things. I read other people’s blogs, and they often talk about how they were running over the table, intimidating players, wanting players to fear them, etc. None of these thoughts ever enter my mind when I’m playing. When I think about winning, I don’t think about crushing my opponents, I think about winning the most chips or money. When I think about how others view me, I think it terms of ‘he probably thinks I’m weak tight, and I’ll fold if he raises, so I’m going to play back at him’, ‘he thinks I always have it when I bet’, ‘he thinks I cbet the flop every time when I have nothing’, or what have you. I don’t think ‘I have him so intimidated he will never call me’. Maybe I have low testosterone, but I’m not trying to beat people, I’m trying to accumulate the most chips. I guess I’m kind of detached from the ego side of beating everyone. It’s not a boxing match to me (although I see lots of similarities because of the multiple levels of thinking), I’m not trying to knock a person out of a tournament, or take all their chips at a cash game so they’ll feel dejected and leave, I just want chips. I have no desire to be the ‘table captain’ trying to push people around. If I push someone off a better hand with garbage, I did it because I thought the bet would be a high percentage play based on whether I think they are willing to fold to a big bet. I’m generally don’t talk trash. I want them to feel good about losing. I want them to think they made a nice laydown. I will, on occasion, needle someone a little, but it’s not a major part of my game.

I hope others playing the game I’m in, whether losing or winning, enjoy it, because if they’re losing but still enjoy it, they’ll come back and won’t feel bad about losing next time. When someone feels bad about losing, they’re more likely to not be around, which means no poker, no winning for me.

Am I weird?

Taking A Break

I’m taking a vacation next week with my mom, sister, wife, and daughter, leaving this Saturday. I’ll be doing a lot of shopping, packing, and prep in order to get on the road (we’re driving 4 hours away and getting a cabin in the middle of nowhere), so I probably won’t be online much in the next two weeks. I plan on buying a couple books – one poker, one not, to read during my down time. I know we won’t have internet access, and probably won’t have cable, so it will be time to chill with family, which will be great. My mom, sister, and I will probably play some cards for fun in the evening. My mom still plays MTTs online, but she has some work to do on her game, so I hope to show her some things.

There are 3 casinos within an hour of where we are headed, and my mom wants to go, so I’ll probably take her. After doing some research, I’ve found that one of the casinos (20 miles from where we are staying) has Texas Holdem, but I have not been able to verify what limits they spread, or whether it is a limit or NL game. It would be nice to find a juicy table of 1/2 or 2/4 LHE, but I don’t think I’ll get that lucky, the smallest game will probably be like 5/10 or 6/12, and I’ll have enough money for one 20BB buyin and blow it all on AA capped preflop with 7 callers. I think I’d rather have two $100 buyins at 1/2 NL than one $240 buyin at 6/12 LHE. If you would have asked me two years ago, I’d would rather have had the limit buyin, but not anymore. Although, I think I’d get more enjoyment out of 10 buyins at 1/2, and then maybe my mom would feel comfortable enough to sit at the table.

Anyway, don’t expect too many updates in the next two weeks. If anyone has a poker book recommendation, post it in the comments before I leave!!!!!!!

UB Bonus Side Note

So I thought I’d take a quick look back and see how the bonus clearing has been going, and how it’s affecting my BR and numbers.

I started with about $45.29 in bonus to clear. I’m down to about $26.95. So, I’ve cleared $18.34. My BR started at $10, it’s now $51.68. So, I’m up $41.68, and $18.34 of that is bonus, over the course of about 5500 hands, so if my calculations are right, the bonus is making me about 8 PTBB/100. I had originally expected it to be about 6 PTBB/100, so I’m clearing it a little faster than expected. I think it’s because the tables are very volatile compared to Stars. There’s just way more action and way more all-inning, especially with the stacks being smaller. Less implied odds, but more action.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how it’s going, but I think my original estimate of Thanksigiving is too far away, and my expectation that I’d be at $200 when I clear it is way off. I think I’ll be around $100-$120.

Good News And Bad News

Good news – I cracked $50.00 on UB. Bad news – FT SNGs were rough, and Stars didn’t treat me very well, either. I didn’t play a lot over the weekend, but I feel good about how I did play for the most part. I took a lot of tough beats, but I didn’t let it affect me, and generally got my money in good.

I wish the stacks were deeper on UB for .01/.02. It’s going to be a long time before I’m ready to move up to the next game. My PTBB/100 has really leveled off at UB, it’s at 11.60, and I think part of that is due to the smaller stacks. At Stars, it’s still a lovely 16.5. Anyway, here’s the tally:

UB – $51.68/$26.95 pending bonus
PS – $78.73
FT – $26.25

Update

Cooled off…

UB – 45.21/32.54 (LOL TYPO)
PS – 78.22
FT – 28.75

Probably going to play a tourney or 2 tomorrow night, so I’m sure I’ll be lower than that next post.

Update: Thanks for your concern, I missed a 4. I was up slightly from the night before, just not cranking out the huge wins like I have been the last week. Had I been down $40, there would have been a huge rant.

Back To Reality

My hot streak is over. I had some extra time, so I played a 5.50×45 and a 1.20×45, busted out in both way ahead, got my money in good, but was kinda short stacked due to some bad beats.

I played a little cash .01/.02, and felt like I got crushed, but thanks to the bonus, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I guess I’m down about 7 for the night.

At least I have a few UB points and PS FPP’s to mess around with in a freeroll or 2

UB – $44.13/33.89 bonus
PS – 78.22
FT – 28.75

Using Pokertracker To Find Leaks

I saw this at Ed Miller’s message board, and thought I would pass it along:

http://www.notedpokerauthority.com/board?forum=1&topic=96#p619

This guy is talking about LHE, not NLHE, but the point is the same – using filters to identify specific hands for specific situations, then read through all the hands to see how you played them, and what you could have done differently. Definitely worth the time if you have it, and you have pokertracker.

I have a standing request from Justin at http://grindingforpennies.blogspot.com/ to grab some specific hand situations, and I haven’t had the time to do it. Maybe I will in the next few days. I spend most of my free time playing, because I don’t have a lot of it, but I need to go back and look at some hands and evaluate my play if I want to improve.