Well I just wanted to say a hearty cowboy-style YEEEEEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAAAAa because following my average few days of bad beatage in the 3/6 limit games, I decided to dance with the one that brung me again tonight, and sat at some PLO. Upshot was I had a phenomenal night, although I lost one big hand ($250) to a river, basically all my big hands and big draws held up tonight, I played well and was basically an utter card rack.

Upshot is, I had (I think) my most profitable day of poker ever, if you include the fact that im a coupla hundred hands away from freeing up the empire and interpoker bonuses. Purely on the tables, I won somewhere in the region of $1130 (I think) which makes this only my second $1k plus day EVER! (and the first one was a bit of a cop out because I won an $870 pot which made up the vast majority of it).

Didn't win any collosal pots today but at least 3 were in the 300 range, a couple more in the 200s and a whole load around 50-100, and I only lost that one single $100 buyin. My favourite pot was when I flopped the mother of all draws (nut flush draw with some absurdly huge middle wrap, all to the nuts) and milked it when I hit the nut straight on the turn with one guy all in for a $290 pot. Sweeeeet.

I will fill in the figures when i get chance because my spreadsheet isnt set up for 3/6 HE so I'll have to fill in those sessions in omaha or something.

Anyhow,

TALLY HO!

Monk
xxxxx[/b]

congrats on the big win. that one big payoff. . now go spend some of that hard earned money on some fish and chips ya limey bastard!!!! whats your name on empire? felonious monk?




what exactly is a limey bastard?

Hey dudes. Seems I slightly overestimated my big win yesterday, it was about $1030, so not my best day ever but certainly a damn fine pay day.

Anyhow, in the style of Tightwad's lovemaking, my journal entry today is going to be relatively quick and dry. I added another 3 1/2 hours at the tables finishing off the two bonuses I was working on last night (InterPoker $100 and Empire $150). After a bad start, I seemed to win rather a large number of big pots, so it was some shock (a bit of an inverse of last night's!) that I was only actually $30 or so up at the tables (I had estimated maybe 200 odd!). Still, at least I freed up the bonuses. My next job really needs to be to get some of the money out of my online accounts, they've become a bit bloated and i'd be happier with a couple of K extra over in the bank, so i will look into it this weekend.

So, an additional $280 tonight, the lion's share of which is bonuses, and although I had a dodgy start to the month with my sojourn onto the 3/6 games, the winnings and hourly rate as a result of this last couple of days are going well and so I guess I can only be happy!

I'm going to drain some of my empire account, some of interpoker (if I can get my new $ neteller account working) and perhaps soon i might consider taking everything out of stars (although i still have a little bonus money there). Gaming Club have been exceptionally difficult with me lately customer-service wise, so i may very well take my cash out of there in the meantime too, once i'm allowed back into the account.

Monthly hours played (this is very approx as my first few sessions were 3/6 and i didn't keep any records): 14.5 hours
Winnings: $1220
Winrate: $84/hr

Monk
xxxxx

Kingsalami.... My empire name is Fel_Monk. I also play party as (I think!) FeloniusMonk. I am FelonusMonk (no "i") at stars and have a variety of other Monkly handles elsewhere. At cryptologic I have a variety of accounts, many of which do not contain blatantly obvious names that relate to my handle on the forums, so I'd prefer to keep them quiet generally. Everywhere else I'm something Monk-based.

Monk
xxxxx

OK.... so a quick BR update, since I'm on the whole "taking stock" schtick at the moment.

I've just withdrawn $1500 (most of my Stars roll) from PokerStars (I still have 400FPPs to go to get the bonus there, but I'm leaving 400 for that and for occasional play in BTP tourneys etc, because I've barely played there in the last month and would rather have the rest in my bank) and $1030 from Empire (to leave $1k in that account, which is a decent float for the $100 and $200 PLO given I can easily add more if need be; given my fairly low variance a $1k downswing there would probably induce another Party/Empire site quittage!).

This leaves me with a float of $400 at Stars, just over $600 at UB, $1k at empire, just under $1.5k at Gaming Club (though I can't access that account right now, grrrrr poker fascists), about $3.5k at interpoker (which I REALLY need to knock down to ~$1k but havent got round to yet) and an online banking float in GB£ which I tend to move around £300 at a time through the crypto poker rooms to harvest the £100 of monthly bonuses whilst I play PLO there. Obviously the BR I have available to play poker is a lot more than this but I don't like to keep much in the sites if possible (why have a couple of k sitting in an account when it could be languishing in my bank earning a little bit of interest?). Also, I'm anally retentive when it comes to financial issues and like to have all my "assets" (cue lame Tightwad joke) all in one place so I can see how I'm getting on.

So I'm looking at keeping my UB BR, 400-odd at stars, $1k at interpoker and $1k at empire as my online BR basic. Puts me on about $3k which is a good figure. Depending on how GCP sort out my problem, I might consider keeping 500 or so in there to play a bit of 100 and 200 PLO. Would be where I'd go if I wanted to play some NLHE again, too, I guess.

So far this year, after 3 months and a week, just over quarter of the way through, here's my figures (pretty rough ones!):

Winnings total: £4800 = $9060
Hours played: 204 (this is a very approximate figure, probably -+10 hrs or so because I didn't make note of my real hours played in January, I am assuming 65 which is about average for a long month for me)

HOURLY RATE: $44.40/hr (£23.50 per hour)

This is above my required desired minimum of $40, although I'm a little disappointed that it's been a good year so far yet I'm not beyond $50/hr. At least I'm doing better than I managed in 2004, which represents progess. If I can retain $44/hr, I'll need 60 hours or so a month to hit my yearly target of $30k. This is definitely achievable, although given I'm likely to be busy with other things it'll be more challenging than I thought. Obviously playing full time I could easily be at 100-150 hrs per month, but with my job running as well it's hard to grab any more than 2 hours a night, along with the odd weekend session. If I move from 100 to 200 PLO for ALL rather than just some of my tables, it'll make a bit of difference, but Cryptologic (where I play 50%+ of my poker) doesn't regularly have 200 games going, so it might just have to be at empire and gaming club, if I stay there. I am hoping to be grabbing $150/month on my rake rebate at empire, which so far i haven't seen much of because I haven't played much until this last month or so. The only other way I can see of making the "extra" money I was thinking about at the start of this year is to start running some affiliate schemes myself, which so far I've done a little bit but without much happening, really. The other long-term possibility is to take advantage of my BR and PLO success to move up the levels at Empire, though I must admit I do have a psychological problem with making the moves up to the real high-roller games where $1k can change hands in one pot (although I've won $800 pots at 100 and 200 PLO before!). I have dabbled in the 400 game at UB on occasions, but so far 100 and 200 has been my limit. If I am to become a real top poker player, perhaps that has to change...

Anyhow, it's been good to me so far this year, and I'm happy with my game. I do want to branch out into some other games (limit stud8 has a certain appeal, and I do keep saying I'm going to start playing some MTTs, perhaps get broadband before that though!).

So, how've I made my money? Well, firstly, it has to be said that other than PLO it's been a dreadful year! I'll break it down game by game:

Note the hours here refer to TABLE hours - I usually play 5 tables or so at once. Therefore for every real hour at a limit, I'm playing 5 or so "table" hours. I don't count hands, so the BB/100 figure comes from multiplying my hourly BB by 2.6 - I assume that an average for PLO is just over 35 hands per hour (I used to go for 40 hands per hour but thats maybe a slight exaggeration)

200 PLO

Finished 2004 with this as my main game. A bit embarassing I've played so few hours in 2005, was a bit surprised to be honest as I thought I'd played quite a lot of this at Stars... Perhaps I was thinking about last year. Anyhow, haven't played enough to make these representative, one big hand either way can make a difference with such a tiny sample.

20 table hours
+$556
$27.80/hr
14BB/hr
36.4BB/100

100 PLO

By far my main game. Mainly because at cryptologic it's usually about the only game available and the games are almost always pretty good. I play probably 80-90% of my poker in these games this year. Includes results from all sites, crypto, empire/party, UB, stars etc...

I am happy with my BB/100 figure here, though I feel I would be closer to 30+ if I played fewer tables. Also, because I play here all the time, the hours aren't all at peak. At the right table, playing and concentrating on a fewer number of games, I think i am capable of 30-35BB/100. Still, playing 5 at once, $9.40 per hour, if you throw in the bonuses I make, my total hourly rate would be up above $50 per hour if I'd ONLY played 100 PLO this year.

611 table hours
+$5740
$9.40 per hour
9.4BB/hour
25.4BB/100

50 PLO

This was a few games at Gaming Club when a good 100 or 200 game wasnt available, and one session at party to free up a bonus when I wasn't bothered about concentrating so played a lower game.

30 table hours
+299
$10/hour
20BB/hour
51BB/100

OK, onto non-PLO games, and it's a bit of a trainwreck ... Haven't played much hours in some of these games though, and they're mostly just for fun or a change of pace, except O8 which has been really disappointing this year and hence I haven't played much after some really rough luck and stupid plays on my part. I lost the appetite for NL a little bit, I find it more grindy than most other games and had a bad run at the end of 2004 at it so hence I've not played a hand of NL since the BTP tourney before last...

NL - I played 70 odd table hours of this in January and lost about $50. No biggie, probably had some bad beats. Played a bit at Party and Empire to free up the bonus before they sorted out the stupid blinds.

SNG's - Played 15 of these for the hell of it at party/empire in January. I hate the bad blind/stack ratio at $30, though I played 13 of those, basically level after 13 SNGs with an ITM of 46% (good figure) but a ROI that was terrible because I kept finishing 3rd and 2nd. Didn't have a single win after 6 ITMs. Only finished outside the top 5 once. That's the way it often seems to go for me in SNGs lol, though I might play some later this year, as I quite enjoy em. The two $50+5's I played I screwed up. Total I lost was -$110.

MTTs - Haven't played any except for the BTPs, where I havent made a final table in my two games so far. No cards really. I might play some MTTs at some point as I think there's good money in them, but I don't know enough about the online MTT scene to know where the money is, so for now I'll stay away from these I think, except for the BTPs.

3/6 limit holdem - I played I would estimate maybe 70 table hours of this in the last fortnight for a change of pace. After a good start I ultimately lost $215, -1.38BB/100.

Limit O8 - This is one of my very favourite games, though a poor run and my success at PLO has meant I've barely played this year. Overall, I am down about -$280 at 3/6, 2/4 and 4/8, including some kill games, but I've only played maybe 50 table hours or so. Should play some more but it seems hard to find good games at the moment, UB is usually my home for limit O8, but I guess with my rake rebate I should check out empire some time in more detail, but a bad run last year put me off their O8 games...

PLO8 - Pretty sick to be the omaha forum moderator and be break even overall at O8 in 2005 lol.... I haven't really played enough hours, however. I'm basically break even after 60 table hours of 100PLO, mostly january at Stars and Gaming Club, I am a few bucks up after hardly any time at 50PLO8 at Gaming Club, and played 10 hours for a small loss at 200PLO8 at stars in january. I've put in the most hours (88) at 25PLO8 as a low-concentration change of pace at party/empire, where I sometimes used the game on 4 tables to free my bonuses before they sorted out the blind/stack ratios lately. I won $120 over this time, about 2.8BB/hr or 7BB/100. Overall with PLO8 and limit O8 i'm guessing I've played 150-200 table hours and I'm about even. With the money I make at PLO, even though I think I'm a decent O8 player, I reckon my skill gap over the poor players is MUCH greater at omaha hi than hi/lo, so it's hard to justify playing a lot of O8 at the moment. With the new blinds, I might try some 100PLO8 at empire soon, or perhaps some 3/6 limit. We'll see.

So, in case anyone was interested in my figures, there they are! I'm off to watch the grand national now then get my hair cut, might fit a few hours of PLO in tonight to push my april onwards a bit..... Tally ho!

Monk
xxxxx

Thanks Kenny, it's nice to hear

Well, I fit about 2 3/4 hours in tonight, and was pleasantly surprised to have won about $115 by the end of it, nice considering I had a couple of rough losses, not really bad beats but just 3 or 4 big pots ($100+) where I got the money in as a favourite but things just didn't seem to quite work out. Twice I got it in with the nut hand against a draw and lost, once I got AAss all in vs KKTTss preflop to lose to a set, and once I got two players all in with what I thought was an immense top set, 2nd nut flush draw, gutshot nut straight draw hand to find that my opponents had between them every possible straight draw and the nut flush draw, leaving me little over 40% on the odds and losing to the flush.

Some idiotic play by my opponents helped, and a few hands holding up did the business too. I had a lovely finish for once as I made a smart call-down with a weedy straight on a paired board when I smelt a serious fishy bluff for a $85 pot, and then hit a big hand for $45 to bust out a short stack who was on a total bluff, making a combined $80 on my last two. That money was the difference between a disappointly frustrating session and what was ultimately a solid one.

April numbers so far:
$1825
23 hours
$79/hour

Monk
xxxxx

Had a couple of hours play tonight after playing an hour when i got home from work (total I guess would be 3 1/2 hours or so, though the last 2 hours were spent just 3 tabling) and had a dull session where not much happened cards-wise (missed a lot, and my big hands didnt get paid very well). The one really big pot I got into ran into my WORST beat of the year so far (quite possibly).... I had JJxx, flop KJx, turn blank, by this point I moved all in against a poor player who had shown no aggression, he had KJ and caught his two-outer K on the river. Two outer for a $220 pot, imagine that eh! After that I was quite annoyed, but thanks to my £25 bonus at totalbet I finished the session basically level (about $8 down or so). I'll call it 3 hours tonight since I didn't play properly for the last couple.

$1815
26 hours
70/hr

Still going OK, but I only have another $50 of bonuses to free up. Gaming Club have offered to give me a bonus for messing me about with the reactivation of my account, which is good of them. I might play there a little bit, in that case. Anyhow, time for bed.

Monk
xxxxx

Ah well I guess my great run had to come shuddering to a halt sometime, I had a minor setback tonight and spilt $185 in 2 hours of play at the 200s and 100s (160 went at the 200s, which is easily done quite rapidly of course). Mostly I played OK I felt but cold cards and a couple of rough ones meant that, although I held up a couple of big hands and made some money on empire, I got turned over at UKBetting pretty much on all my tables for a lot of small pots. I lost a stack at PLO100 (first time in a few session) playing one hand so outrageously abysmally that I had to throw up my hands and say.... time for bed.

Pissing away a $100 stack ain't too bad, but it's a good time to stop when you make plays like that. See if I can recover a bit of ground and push up towards $3000 next week, I'm away this weekend and mon/tues then on work. Laters!

$2175
30 hours
$72.50/hr

Monk
xxxxx

OK, so... Lots of recapping to do!

I played a little bit on Thursday night, but it got a bit late and I'd had

a bad session so I decided not to update my journal then.


I really felt I was some way off the pace in that session, losing about

$260 playing PLO at Crypto, although I made about 80 back at Empire with a

couple of small wins on the 100s. The crypto 200s proved to be my undoing,

as I kept leaking small amounts on draws etc. and kept having to rebuy for

chunks of my stack, although I didn't feel I played too poorly. However, I

made a couple of poor plays; on one occasion, I pushed too hard with KKxx

from the SB and ended up losing my STACK on a hand that, had I been playing

cautiously, I'd have lost about a buck on the 100s. I also made a big turn

call with a draw (about half my stack on a PLO100) that I probably

shouldn't have made. All in all, having finished about 185 down for the

session, I had to shrug my shoulders and admit to myself that my ugly play

with the KK hand (I flopped a flush draw and overpair on an uncoordinated

board, but having raised preflop (a mistake) and getting called on the flop

I then lead out when a straight draw hit on the turn and lost my last few

bucks (another mistake) as my flush missed - sure, he chased (and caught) a

damn GUTSHOT to win it, but I lost way more than I should've) and the bad

draw call cost me nearly all my losses. So I was a bit pissed off with

myself.


I then decided to get a couple of hours in after getting home from work on

friday, and, having been reading some SnG forums earlier in the day,

decided that I fancied a return to the SnG action I used to do pretty well

at. Basically, as was the case for my last SnG session, I got absoultely

crapped on by the poker Gods and basically everything that could go wrong,

did go wrong.


Major whiney gripes (OK, if you have any interest in listening to my rants,

you can read this paragraph. Otherwise, errmmmm...).. Firstly, my cards

were pretty dead. I didn't flop any sets with pairs, and the only big

pairs I got in EIGHT SnGs were AA (once), KK (once), QQ (twice, one of

which lost my stack) and TT (which I folded preflop to a re-raise).

However, when I DID find a hand and got into a big pot, I lost it.

Basically every time. Of the 8 SnGs I played (all $30 with some $40 also)

I lost FIVE of them on cointosses, when I either had AK or a decent sized

pair in the mid-late stages and lost the chase. These were, as far as I

remember, the only all-in cointosses I played, leaving me 0 for 5. I don't

remember sucking out or hitting a draw ONCE, except when I called a tiny

all in raise with 68o in the BB (I had a huge stack and there was another

guy in, plus it was only one BB to call) and hit a flop of Q68r from which

I won a tidy pot. Oh, add to the five cointosses the tourney where, in the

middle of it all, I got all in with AKs against AQo and QJo.... And guess

which &%&*^&*%ing card hit? Yep, Mr

pair-of-jacks-with-my-all-in-raise-with-a-good-stack-on-QJo won the damn

thing. Had I taken that hand I'd have been ITM for sure and have about 40%

of the chips on the table. So, the final reckoning... Out of 8 SnGs I made

the money ONCE. It got heads up (note - the last SnG session I played, I

made the money 6 times in 11 tourneys and still finished a sizeable loser

after not winning a SINGLE one), and my usual heads up luck prevailed -

with the BB large (10% of the money on the table) it was push with any big

two time - I shoved it in with KQs, he called with KJo and a jack hit on

the river. $120 for 2nd after the 3 outer beat me out of $200 for first.

So, SnGs suck seems to be the upshot of all this ... Lol, nah I still

think they're fun and fairly profitable too, but all the bad beatery that

the inevitable all-in races at the end provoke seems to not work for me too

well, and I find myself regularly being very frustrated by them (one of my

psychological leaks I need to work on) so I guess for me they'll continue

to be an only very occasional diversion.


Anyway, the big POSITIVE from all this is that on friday night when I got

home from the pub I fired up gaming club (back on with a nice bonus after

they messed me about re: ID documents, so I'm giving them another chance

because they at least sorted it very efficiently once I got annoyed about

it, I think it was basically just an oversight that wasn't something to be

too angry about) and crypto, and then later Empire, and got back on ye olde

OMAHA! PLO was very successful for me at Gaming Club, I made back my SnG

losses in a good run where I felt I played very well on some loose-passive

tables, not a lot of massive pots but I milked well when I had a hand and

put some good plays together. PLO worked great at crypto, too... Although

I spewed $80 or at the very least $60 more than I should have lost on my

last big hand (my $140 stack went after I made a blocky sort of bet and

THEN decided to make an ugly call with the top straight on a paired and

flushy board when my opponent shoved his last 60 in - I was getting 5-1 on

the call and of course I should've folded, but I'd JUST seen the same guy

make an appalling river bluff on another table with absolutely nothing in a

big pot and get called, so I thought that JUST maybe he was pulling

something on me... shoulda known better of course, as he made a rather dumb

raise with 2nd nut flush... Well, not as dumb as my call perhaps...) yet I

still finished nicely up overall, making $50 in a tight 200 game and

another 200 or so in the PLO100's. My big hand came as I called a decent

sized PFR with JT99ds on the button; flop brought a beautiful 983 with two

clubs; although I didn't have clubs I had the top set AND nut straight

draw, and so when the PFRer lead for the pot I went to the felt. I got TWO

calls (PFR had an overpair and nut flush draw, another fishy had some

garbage with 2nd nut flush draw), and I caught an unnecessary straight as

the flush cards all missed. $350 pot was very welcome!


At Empire, I decided to show Tighty how it's done on the 3/6 limit O8 and,

despite a rough start where I seemed to be calling the odd flop then

folding, and moaning about how I can't seem to damn well win at limit O8 at

the moment, I finished strongly and made some tasty hands. When I had AA

it seemed to always hit As on decent boards, so I made a couple of nice

pots on that (including one hand where I got called down by TWO players

with a low showing - no-one had a low so my top set scooped!). My two big

hands: as I made one marginal play that worked out (flopped a gutshot to

the broadway and a backdoor low draw in a big multiway pot; it came 2 bets

to me and I called them cold, a bit risky with the chance of raises to come

in behind me, but I felt with so many players in I had big implied odds and

my low might be good if others were forced out and I got a draw on the

turn... turn gave me the low draw with a low flush shot, river brought my

nut broadway and I split a $200 pot with another AKQJT). The second one, I

had A234ds preflop, limped in EP to let in a few callers, somebody raised

and I called the two bets. The flop came down a tasty looking 76T with two

of my suit; I made the raise with the big draw, got 4 to the turn which

threw out my low AND nut flush draw, I'm now on auto-bet/raise and although

the river paired, I scooped against 2 callers.



So ultimately, after a rollercoaster couple of days, I ended up $200 or so

to the good with a tasty late run. I am, however, annoyed that I think

I've thrown away a few chips in the last few, most notably those THREE big

PLO hands where I made a clearly incorrect decision and lost a large chunk

of change as a result. I don't mind making small errors as they'll never

cost you too much in a loose big bet game, but shelling about $250 on calls

or bets that were clearly -EV is frankly unacceptably poor. I'm gonna

tighten up and focus for the rest of the month, break through the $3k

barrier again, and start sticking it to these fishies! Hope everyone else

is enjoying a strong April...

APRIL STATS SO FAR:

$2580
36 hours
$72/hr

Oh, and it seems notepad has decided in its infinite wisdom that this post should be double-spaced throughout. Who'm I to complain eh.

Monk
xxxxx

Hey all

Played about an hour and a half yesterday, in a deeply annoying "up a fair bit early on then losing big pots at the end" type of session leaving me about $130 down. Played 200PLO mostly with a coupla 100 tables too. Oh, and the big pots I lost at the end were of the "deeply annoying" variety. The worst one being a real big 3-way at 200PLO of about $550 in on the flop; I had top set, my RE-raising opponent had bottom set and an open ender, with one short stack all in with a flush draw. Annoyingly, the dope with the 7 outer who pushed it all in (OK, it wasn't a terrible play but I think he really ought to have folded with an obvious higher set and fl draw out) won the hand, and that steamed me a bit. I then lost when I made a loose call of a short-stack raise preflop and flopped KK9 with my AKJ8... My larger-stacked opponent had called the raise with a monster 9932 no-suits and I didn't catch any of my outs.

OIh well. Back to it next week I guess. Will update my records then too...

Monk
xxxxx