Golden1, what's CS?

Unreal Tournament was amazing. Very amazing.



Molina

CS = Counter-Strike

Aha, that game completely passed me by.

Well, definitely didn't get in the amount of poker today that I usually do lately. At least what I did get in was winning poker for the most part.

Started the day off in the VERY early a.m. right after finishing up yesterday's journal entry with a 3rd place bubble finish in a 12+1 6 seat S&G at Pokerstars. Then when I did finally get up for the day, I decided to clear some VIP's at Staff Poker since I only have 3 weeks left to finish off that bonus. Piers told me (man, this voice chat stuff is SO awesome) there was a 1/2 Omaha H/L game going on there and those clear VIP's pretty quickly so I jumped in. Was doing fairly well but wasn't clearing VIP's like I had wanted to because the game soon dissolved into a HU match with a dude who pretty much knew what he was doing. Very few of the HU hands got big enough for a VIP. I had taken a real big hit to my stack just before the game became HU and it took a lot of hands but I did manage to finally crawl back to within spitting distance of my buyin so I left with only a small loss.

This next part should make MVP choke on whatever pretty little umbrella drink he has in his hand at the moment.
For some reason I clicked the 7stud tab after leaving the Omaha game. Well, looky there, a PL50 7Stud game with a seat open. Now, I'd never before played 7Stud without it being Limit. But I sat down anyway. 28 minutes and 42 hands later, I was a pro who had almost tripled his buyin! Man, I tell ya, these folks will call ANY bet on the river if they take their hand that far. It doesn't matter if it's been dinky bets all the way or even check, check all the way. When it gets to the river, and you hit your hand because they let you stay around, and then you make a pot sized bet, they are gonna call it no matter what! You may be thinking, big deal, the pot is small. Well, when 8 folks see the flop and maybe call a preflop bet and raise then call dinky bets to the river (must be thinking they are playing limit or something), that pot sized bet can be quite large. This PL 7Stud stuff may be worth looking into a bit more.

Broke for dinner. Thanksgiving come early, roast Turkey with mashed taters and green beans. Yum, Yum.

Back to Staff to see if that PL 7Stud game is still going on. No such luck. So, since there always a NLHE 6max game going, I jumped in a NL50 game and pretty much broke even while clearing a few VIP's for about 20 minutes.
Decided Staff Poker was pretty much dead for the night but didn't feel like stopping yet. Hey, why don't I go see what other sites offer PL 7Stud. Since I'm an expert now, I need to know this kind of stuff.

Doyles room doesn't have it and that's really the only other big bonus I have to work on right now, I looked for a rakeback site to play on. Rakeback Poker (Prima network) where I have a 40% RB deal has PL 7Stud. Cool, I'll just see if these folks play the same as the folks at Staff Poker (B2B network). Guess what, the answer is YES! Wasn't quite as lucrative as the Staff session as I only increased my buyin from $50 to $80 in an hour but still very poor players from what I could see and I'm still figuring this game out! Any of you who have any PL 7Stud skills should definitely be able to clean house in these games.

After that poker was done with me for the day as I spent the rest of the evening watching a movie with the family. I can't complain too much though since I finished in the black for the day and won back a good chunk of what I lost yesterday.

Todays Stats:
Pokerstars $12+1 6 seat NLHE S&G, 128 hands, 63 minutes, -$13.00 and busted out 3rd! DAMMIT!
Staff Poker 1/2 Omaha H/L, 116 hands, 54 minutes, -$3.35 got some good HU practice in.
Staff Poker 7Stud PL50, 42 hands, 28 minutes, $38.94 - TOO EASY
Staff Poker NL50, 43 hands, 21 minutes, $0.12 - at least I cleared 15 VIP's
Rakeback Poker 7Stud PL50, 47 hands, 61 minutes, $30.43 - Too bad this game isn't condusive to multi tabling!

RB: 0
Bonus: 0

Bonus Progress:

Earned 56 VIP's towards the Staff Poker bonus. 473 to go.
____________________

Total: $53.14
Time: 3h 47m

ATTENTION: if you read my journal, PLEASE read this post thoroughly and give me your comments.

Ya know what? I was just looking at my stats for the month of February. I've been REALLY down in the dumps the last coupla weeks because I've been having a real bad month. But after looking at the stats, in actuallity I really have only had 3 really horrible days this month. And if at least 2 of those had been break even days, I would be break even for the entire month so far. So I guess maybe things aint quite as bad as I had thought. Granted the bottom line still looks terrible for February. But for the month total, poker really hasn't kicked my ass on a daily basis like I had been thinking it was. If there's any light at the end of the tunnel, I think I just found it.

Anyone reading this have any thoughts on this? Have you had the same experience? Is this a BR management epiphany I've just had that most people already know? I really am truly curious about it.

So, my immediate goal, and promise to myself for the rest of this month and for the month of March & beyond especially, I just need to make sure I don't have any truly horrible days like I have had this month. Little losses of ~$100 are really no big deal in the long run as they can be made up over the next day or two. But the HORRIBLE -$200, -$300, and -$400 days are a total bitch to make up for at the levels I play right now.
So, if I lose over $100 in a day from now on, I am going to keep close tabs on it from there on out to make sure it doesn't become $200 for the day. EVEN IF THAT MEANS QUITTING FOR THE DAY AFTER ONLY ONE SESSION!!!!!! And I can adjust this upwards of course as I progress upwards in the limits I play. (disclaimer, this does not include trips to B&M's as I have to drive so far to get to them, it would really piss me off badly to have to turn right around and head home after only an hour if I started out really bad at the tables. Trips like that, for me at least, are supposed to be fun EVEN if I lose money doing it. Kinda like a vacation is.)

If I break this promise to myself, and you will all see it here if I do, I hereby proclaim that MVP is officially invited to come to my house and kick me in the balls as hard as he can!

My god the players on the B2B network at PL 7stud are absoloutely TERRIBLE. They play the game MORE aggressively than they play hold'em, and that's saying something. I think i've found my new feeding grounds for the next couple of weeks. . .

As for your new bankroll management strategy, i think quitting after you lose a lot in any day is a very good idea. I think the standard rule is if you lose 7% - 10% of your roll on any given day, you don't play until the next day. If you stick by that, and have a solid roll to begin with, and are a winning player, it's very, very dificult to go wrong.

You're playing 6man $50 right? Well, when I played 6max my variance could get pretty hectic from playing tight, then again, I wasn't a particularly good player then.

I don't see anything wrong with a loss limit of 3 buyins, usually after I've lost 2 buyin in a day I'm in a bloody minded frame of mind where good play is replaced by optimism that I'll get a few huge hands/pots by playing squeaky tight.

While I know it's all one long game, some days are just so bad I should be happy with losing only 2-3 buyins.

Molina

Started on a bad note, continued all day but finished on a good note.
Played in the BTP S&G tourney today. Took 8th place when I got allin with JJ against CJ who happened to have KK for his 100th PP of the game at that point!
I played some really low stakes NL2 at UB when I saw one of my old nemesis' there at a table and a seat open 2 to "it's" left. Never got into any heated hands with it though so left after an hour and a half of trying. I can't believe this person is still playing the penny games a whole year and a half later after we used be playing the playchip tables together there! This person is well off enough to afford to play NL5000 if they wanted to. Go figger.
Anyway, after I got knocked out of the BTP S&G, I got bored so I gave the small stack theory a try for the fun of it. I swear, I must be THE most unlucky SOB alive because in 20 allins, I got called 10 times and only won 3 of them! Oh well. At least it was cheap.
Was too early to go to bed after that though so I fired up a 9 seat S&G at FT and 122 hands later, I had a 1st place to my credit and made a $34.00 profit! Yay, me! So all in all I was +$12 with a 1st, 4th, and 8th in my S&G's today.

Todays Stats: (these should make MVP happy as I stuck to one game all day long )

Full Tilt $10+1 9 seat NLHE S&G, 124 hands, 70 minutes, -$11.00 - bubbled out in 4th

UB NL2 FR, ~130 hands, 91 minutes, -$2.50 - Wow, I had forgotten how loose those games could be! Never did to go HU with my old Nemesis though.

Staff Poker NL50 6max, 98 hands, 58 minutes, -$4.63 at least I cleared a few VIP's

Pokerstars BTP $10+1 9 seat NLHE S&G, 49 hands, 40 minutes, -$11.00 - Yep, 40 minutes in and I finished 8th! BTW, CJ is the luckiest card catching bassturd on this site!!! I never seen someone get so many PP's!

Doyles Room Poker NL20, 51 hands, 48 minutes, -$0.82
Doyles Room Poker NL20, 77 hands, 81 minutes, -$15.00
Doyles Room Poker NL20, 17 hands, 22 minutes, $7.66
Doyles Room Poker NL20, 46 hands, 45 minutes, -$4.13
Doyles Room Poker NL20, 53 hands, 47 minutes, -$5.00

Full Tilt $10+1 9 seat NLHE S&G, 122 hands, 80 minutes, $34.00 - Cool, a 1st place finish!!!!!!

RB: 0
Bonus: $0.36

Bonus Progress:

Earned 27 more VIP's at Staff Poker bringing my total to 304 out of 750 needed.
Cleared a whopping $0.36 bonus at UB playing that stupid .01/.02 game.
Earned 265 action points at Doyles Room bringing my total there to 7886 out of 13500 needed.
_______________________

Total: -$12.06 - Now this is what I call a manageble loss.
Time: 9h 42m - total table time but I 4 tabled for awhile so it wasn't really that many hours

Well today was my first day back to work since the surgery. Damn am I sore. Hadn't figured it would be this bad. I guess I aint that 18 year old who had 3 major surgeries in 2 years who could recover in 3 - 5 days. It's funny how going from 18 to 40 will do that to a guy.

What better way to top off a bad day at work than to come home have dinner and then almost immediately put your new BR theory to work! Yikes! After talking to Piers on the internet for a good long while discussing all the secrets of the universe, (the man knows a damned good lot of 'em) I decided I really needed to get that Staff poker bonus finished up soon so I fired up a table of NL200 FR and bought in for a ½ stack so I could nut peddle and clear a lot of VIP's. Well, everything worked just peachy right up until the chip lady brought my chips to the table. Then after an orbit or 2 of watching everyone, I made the bonehead move of getting involved in a hand with one of those guys who has a VP$IP of 85% (no joke either) and sure as the sun is hot, he of course has the goods when I decide to get involved with him and I lose all my chips to him when he flops a boat and I flop top 2 pair (I had a PP like KK or something) he of course called my 4xBB PFR with T4o and OOP. (I mean c'mon, who wouldn't do the same right? That call must be a no brainer because so many people make it) Flop comes down TT4 and I'm toast after that because he slow played it of course. Why is it that all those 85%'er guys who lose to everyone else always seem to have (or get) the goods when you (me) decide to play against them? So I buyin for another ½ stack of 100€ and piddled that away to about 50€ before calling it quits. Have to admit though the VIP clearance rate was tremendous at that game with his ass playing that many hands and raising almost all of them! I played 93 hands and made 73 VIP's!!!! According to excession, and I believe him on this, NL200 VIP clearance rate is about 60% at those B2b sites. I was easily over that in this game.
So anyway, since I didn't really feel like I was playing all that badly, had just not caught many good cards and of course the afformentioned stacking, I decided that I would see if I could maybe change my luck with a couple of S&G's at FT. Wanted to play the 9 seaters like last night but they just weren't filling up very fast so I played the 6 seaters.
Played 2, finished 3rd and 4th. The third place kinda pissed me off as again I was up against one of those guys who becomes and 85%'er late in the game and I manage to get allin preflop with KK and he has A7o. Of course I don't improve and he flops an A7x to put me out on the bubble. Goddammit this night is not going well! Quickly fired up another one but this time it was one of those where the action is fast an furious and I find myself on the outside looking in from 4th place after only 17 hands! SOB!!!!
That's it, I'm too close to -$200 to keep going today. Tomorrow, I'll make it back.
Thank GOD tomorrow is the last day of this putrid month for me!!!!!
At least come March, I get to start another blank sheet right? I may even go back and try the 1/2 and 2/4 FR limit games again now that I've had a good break from them! But I AM going to start playing a LOT more Omaha H/L and 7Stud. I mean how can anyone whose ever experienced the softness of those games not try to suck at least some of the marrow out of those bones right?

Todays FUgly Stats:

Staff Poker NL200, 93 hands, 94 minutes, -$173.22 OOUUCCHHHHHH!!!! Ah say, Ah say, that was not exactly pleasant. (say it with a foghorn leghorn voice, it's much funnier)
Full Tilt $10+1 6 seat NLHE S&G, 45 hands, 24 minutes, -$11.00
Full Tilt $10+1 6 seat NLHE S&G, 17 hands, 13 minutes, -$11.00

RB: 0
Bonus: 0

Bonus progress:

Earned 73 VIP's at Staff Poker bringing my total to 377 of 750 needed. 2.5 weeks to go.
______________________

Total: -$195.22
Time: 2h 11m

Earlier I spoke of being glad that February is coming to a close. That being the case I started looking ahead to March and all it's new bonuses. I'll be clearing the Staff Poker bonus, Doyles Room Bonus, William Hil 5 hour Bonus, The rest of my Paradise Bonus and probably some more of the Noble Bonus. The Staff, Doyles, and Paradise alone add up to $342.66 and should all be cleared in the first half of the month. I'll also be getting my first rakeback payments finally which should add another 50 - 100 on top of that. If my Omaha H/L and 7Stud ventures go well at all when I play the Will Hill bonus, I may play more of the Cryptos in March and those all together should add another approx. ~$220 to the March bonus pile.
All in all March is looking very promising bonus wise. Hopefully I can win a little at the tables as well and add even more to that.

Rakeback: $50
Staff: $177.66 if using todays exchange rate
Doyles: $135
Willim Hill: ~45
Paradise:$30
UKbetting:~45
Totalbet:~45
Littlewoods: ~45
Poker Plex: ~45
Total: ~615.00 in potential bonuses for me in March. That alone is over half the way to my 1K goal mark for the month. And this does NOT take into account any reloads that Party or Stars or Paradise may offer that month. I may even join a few new sites jus to get the initial signup bonuses.