Ok, I won't write messages like that

But I do hope my message to him was loud and clear

Tokenizor,

I sent your money back because I ended the deal. You got yours quickly because it was easy to do at FTP. The last 3 days since I said the deal ended until now was played with my own money and I assumed all risks and got all rewards because there was no deal in place.

Due to everything that has been discussed here, Ive agreed to start it back up again. Youve told me that you were in so I assume that you will be sending the money back ASAP.

All 7 stakers want back in so the deal starts again tonight. As before, once the deal starts tonight, the stakers are in 50/50 with me. Everyone has emphatically stated that they arent worried about dipping negative so Im not gong to worry if that happens. Im going to play the best I can and let it work itself out.

The deal will end at the end of Aug...win lose or draw. (or if I go bust before that).

So everyone starts fresh starting with tonights session when I get off work. Hopefully I get off to a nice little start tonight, but if I dont, Im not going to worry.

Im more confident now than I was 3 days ago, that I can and will beat these stakes. Im ripping the Prima game up, but I am still slightly negative at Party.

I need to look more into that. The Party players are more aggressive which causes me problems sometimes, but I am also losing money with AA and KK there so far so Im getting out flopped quite a bit. Its too early to tell what adjustemnts i need if any at Party, but the Prima game is very "prime" (pun intended).

I may not post results every single day because i think that may have led to some of my emotional struggles with the deal. It hasnt affected my play though, so I think maybe every other day or something like that will be better. Im still thinking about that, but its only 3 weeks so I dont thinks its huge deal one way or another.

************* Aug 10th ************

Finally, there was several tables avail. I was able to play 3 tables for about 2 hours. I got 360 hands in. I had some very tough hands.

#1) Raise to $30, a call..I reraised to $120 with QQ. They both called.
Pot is $375. Flop 965. Checked to me and i bet $300. Original raiser calls and then the other guy pushes all in. Its $800 to me. I had to lay it down.

#2) I limp A5s after another limper.
Pot $40. Flop AT5 with 2 clubs. Checked to me and I bet $45. BB calls.
Pot is $135. Turn Q.. He checks, I bet $80...he check raises to $450. I have to lay it down.

I made a questionable call at Prima to a short stack. I had KQ.
Pot $50..Flop Q86. I bet $50 and he pushes in for $180. Its $130 to me with a 280 pot. 2-1 and hes a typical short stack fool. I called and he had 66.

Lost about $250 to a short stack with 22...I had TT and the flop was 772.

I did have a couple good hands as well. I hit quad aces although the 4th ace probably killed my action and probably cost me $2-$300. And from the "ice forgot he was weak tight" dept comes this one.......

4 limpers and I complete in the SB with 65.
Pot $60. Flop 643 with 2 spades. I check, EP bets $50, LP calls, I raise to $200. EP calls. LP raises all in but only has another $150 or so. Weak tight ice pushes all in. EP calls.

Turn K....river 8......$1000 goes to LP and $1500 comes sliding my way. WTF? EP had a flush draw and my 6s were good for the side pot. I won about $100 on that one.

I finished with a small loss. I wasnt thrilled with my play with the short stacks at Prima and had some pretty tough situations at Party so all in all it was an ok session.

********* Aug 11 ***********

I played a long morning session and nothing went right. I played almost 700 hands. Im not going to give $$ totals right now but they are pretty bad. I had a feeling this would happen as soon as I opend the deal back up.

I had set over set AGAIN.
I had [Qc] with a [4c][2c] flop....he had [Kc]

I had a hand where I had 54 in the BB. Flop was 855. I checked and a guy bet $95 into the $40 pot. I called.
The turn was a 2 and he pushed $350 into the $230 pot. No way he has a 5, so I call. he has A5. Unbelievable. I wouldve bet double that amount he had A8, 99, TT type hand.

My total win rate since I started this whole thing is 4.3 BB / 100 hands, but as fate would have it, I had 3 very good days when the deal was off. I broke even the first week or so when the deal was on and got crushed today when the deal was on so needless to say, the stake is negative. Like I said, I feared this would happen but Im not going to worry about it. Im just going to keep playing.

Im sure I will be on the other end of these 2nd best hands soon.

I agree Ice. Just keep playing your game and the variance will balance with time.

BK

Like everyone has said just play the game Ice. Playing poker hoping to be able to give the stakers positive results every day would be impossible and stressful! It's interesting that one of the main reasons for wanting backers was to take some of the pressure off yourself at the new limit; but I have a feeling it probably worked backwards.

Go get them next time.

I played a fairly short seesion tonight. 165 hands on 2 tables. It was pretty uneventful in comparison to the past couple sessions. Here a few hands:

#1) MP raises to $35. I call on the button with [Qd]. We're heads up
Pot is $85. The flop comes [5h][3d]. He bets $50. I know he has something because a few hands ago he raised $35, I called and he checked it to me. I bet with junk and he folded.

I raised this flop to $150. He reraised to $300 and I pushed all in. I was fairly confident that he had something like TT / JJ. If he calls, I m the slight fav and even though he reraise dme, he made it the smallest reraise possible without pot committing him self. he had another $450 or so behind. He folded.

#2) 2 limpers, I limp [Th], cutoff had posted. 5 to the flop.
Pot is $55. Flop is [5d][3h]. Same villain from last hand bets $50, a call so I call, cutoff calls also.

Pot is $255. Turn is no help. Another low card. Villain checks, next guy bets $100. Blah....I call, cutoff calls and villain calls also. Ok, good odds for me.

Pot is $655. River is another 8. Villain pushes and everyone folds.


#3) MP min raises, I call with 22, one more LP call. 3 to the flop
Pot is $75. Flop comes [Ts][4d]. Min raiser bets $10, I raise to $75 and take it down. Weak tight my ass.

Nothing else too exciting. I finished up $152 which doesnt put a dent in the mornings loss, but any fairly mistake free session is a good session.

Total win rate is 4.4 BBs but stake is still negative obviously after this morning. Hopefully I turn that around in short order.

Dare I speak for everyone else in this stake deal when I say that we invested in something that we knew had inherent risk involved in an effort to help you move up. We knew that you could play at this level and combined with the chance to make some money the risk was worth taking the ride.

I don't think anyone who staked you is dependent on the amount they invested in this venture. It would be silly to do so if that was the case. The bottom line is we entered this deal in an effort to take the stress of playing higher stakes off of you. The last thing we want is to see "losing other peoples money" make it harder for you to concentrate and perform. We are all in this together, both you and the backers, and win or lose you just need to stay focused and play your game. Don't be results oriented in this very short term and continue to do what YOU do. Keep betting your edges and things will fall in place.

I second that.

Well Said Token.

Keep up the good Play Ice

Ice.

In case you forgot...

You rock! Keep it up!

Some interesting stats to comb thru here since Im always analyzing everything.

Win rate Prima...8.3BB / 100 hands
Win rate Party...-2.0BB / 100 hands

VIP is the same both places
WSF is about 45% at both places
W$SD is 67% at both places
Went to showdown......Prima...21.35%
Went to showdown......Party....11.88%

I keep getting raised off my hands at Party, sometimes on the turn after putting some money in on the flop and turn. It seems like Im getting raised too much, but the hands Ive had just couldnt take that much heat. Maybe people at Party are making moves on me or maybe Ive just run into a lot of 2 pairs and sets...I dont know, but wish I did.

Avg Pot Prima....$238
Avg Pot Party....$278

Both numbers are inflated because if I bet the turn for $100 and the guy folds, PT counts that $100 as part of the total pot, but the point is that 17% higher at Party. There are more bigg hands, more all in type hands, more people betting hard all the way with just top pair, more people calling a preflop raise and then raising the flop. The aggression is something I need to make adjustments for and Im not sure Im doing it correctly yet, but I have returned fire a few times with mixed but slightly good results.

This hand from yesterday is bothering me.

EP limps, I limp in MP with [6h], button limps, both blinds play.

Pot is $50. Flop comes [Th][8h]. EP checks, I check, button bets $40, SB folds, BB min check raises. Hmmm...I hate this but I call. Buttons calls.

Pot is $290. Turn is the . BB checks. Huh? I check, Button bets $150, BB folds Huh? At this point I cant figure out what button has. Do I have the winner? I think I might unless button has KT. I called, but really think I shouldve led the turn or check raised all in here.

Pot is $590. River . I check, he bets $125....UGH. I have no idea what he has. This looks like he wants called. He has to think I have a flush draw, but my ace could be good. I folded.

I was playing with ScottFrancis at the time and he thought I played it OK. I dont like it though. I normally dont chase a flush after a min check raise, but Scott says they do that in this game alot with a flush draw or other random junk. The BB folded so who knows WTF he had. I think if I push the flop or turn I might have won the hand, but of course if button has KT, Im dead meat.

387 hands today and lost just under a stack. I got 2 outed for a $1500 pot.

The stake is down slightly over 3 stacks. Its hard to tell if Im doing anything wrong or not. The last 2 evenings while I was playing at Party, I was chatting with ScottFrancis on AIM while we played. We werent cheating of course, but there were a few hands where I lost some money and then told him what I had and he thought I played them just like he wouldve. Hes been playing (and beating) the Party $5/$10 for 5-6 months now.

I swear every time I bet ther, I get raised. I raised to $40 with AQ and got 2 callers. The flop was A97, I bet $100 into the $130 pot and the SB check raises to $375. I fold. Over and over I keep getting hands like this at Party. I just dont get it. They cant be putting a move on me every hand, but I cant believe theyre catching monster every hand either. The few times Ive reraised..theyve gone all in so I have to think theyre not bluffing.

Im doing better at Prima, but the last 2 days, I cant get a hand worth playing a big pot. I missed draws on 2-3 fairly good size pots that cost me some money and then there was the guy who caught a T to hit a set on the turn against my TPTK. It was a big pot because he min raised from the SB and I reraised to $80 in the BB with AJs. The flop was Jxx. He led $100 and I raised to $300. He called and then hit his T.

Not much is going right, but Im still plugging away. 3 buy ins isnt the biggest losing streak in history after all, but its not fun.