Special Entry: A new month, a new direction

Well after taking almost a week off from cash games (not that long of a time, but long enough to solve my problems), I feel much better for a couple of reasons:

1. I've spent the week playing $10 SNG's on Party with mixed results and also contemplated taking a larger chunk of time off from ring games to grind out some profits in that arena.

2. I've watched the Tuff_fish videos about 1,000 times (that AK vs. 77 hand never gets old ), and made me realize that while I'm capable of tilting, I've never been anywhere near that bad and puts things in perspective. Not to mention laughing my ass off.

I'm cured...for now.

Having said "I'm cured", I've made a decision to stick to ring games. I came to BTP to learn ring games and am still convinced that in the long run, more money can be made by moving up the ranks of ring than SNG buy-ins.

I've also decided to leave UltimateBet - based on both my results there and advice from BTP'ers time and time again. Shame on me for wasting everyone's advice up until this point, and quite frankly shame on my bankroll!!

Party it is. The $25 and $50 NL games from my experience are much much looser than anything UB has to offer, and there are always more tables than I can handle available. Also, the resizable tables will eventually allow me to exceed 4 tabling, which coenceides with my goal to play as many hands as possible.

I've started a new PT database (I have not deleted the old one) and will be tracking my results right here in my journal as I always have been.

I'm also going to impose that I play at least 25,000 hands before I move up to $50 NL - I hadn't made this rule as of yet, but would like to verify my results (at least over a somewhat meaningful sample) before I move up.

My goals for July are to start with 4 tables, and if things work well, work my way up to six. I'd like to log 20,000 hands a month - but that will probably not happen until I'm running a full six tables, which may not be right away.

I'll be leaving a token amount of money in UB to maintain a presence there, and may actually designate that site my SNG site should I be in the mood to play a few, or to grind out a suppliment to my Party bankroll should i fall below $500. I'll also be going back at some point to clear my remaining bonus.

I'll be posting my first daily recap tomorrow night!

From what everyone says about UB, that sounds a sensible move. Good luck!

SATURDAY, JULY 1, 2006

Finished down $19.90 tonight. Well not exactly the start I wanted to my new run at Party's ring games. Played two sessions today - lost about $34 in the first and won about $14 in the second, albeit not at the win rate I want. Played quite a lot of hands today - I'm trying to train myself to put in more hands, after all: more hands = more money. I wouldn't say I was on tilt all that much tonight, but I misplayed a few hands getting my bearings with the new games and trying to understand the new opposition - from what I can see already, these games play like day and night vs. UB.

One session does not a campaign make though. Still, not exactly the fireworks I wanted to start my July with, after my first losing month (June) since I started my run last year.

Tables played: 4 full ring
Hands played: 1,735

Poker winnings: ($19.90)

Bankroll as of 7/1/06: $741.41

I've removed the countdown, as I've set a requirement of 5 PTBB/100 over 25K minimum before moving up. I've shifted my focus on getting better (if it comes to it, I may even stop multi-tabling as well) instead of rushing to move up levels. I've lost a lot of confidence in my game over the last month or so, and I'm the type of person that has to be the very best there is...in fact the 5 PTBB/100 isn't even close to ideal, but I'm striking some sort of half-assed balance between moving up vs. being a premier SSNL player. I'm content to grow my game at higher stakes, but don't want to move too quickly anymore.

SUNDAY, JULY 2, 2006

Finished up $135.55 tonight. Well if my recent downrun is the proverbial ying, today was without a doubt the yang of it all. HEATER. I managed to catch a lot of good cards today and tonight, and actually get paid off - HUGE change from UB. I don't know if it's just the weekend crowd, but if this is any indication as to how Party's SSNL games play, mallin baby!

Obviously, I can't expect to win 5.5 buy ins every day, but it feels good to be on the right side of variance for a change.

I didn't play perfect poker, so a couple of points for myself:

1. Bet more rivers (I lost some value on a few hands)
2. Play draws passively (I still find myself semi-bluffing, it worked fairly well vs. UB rocks but NO ONE respects it here at Party, which is actually a good thing right now) - I've gotten my teeth kicked in a couple of times with the old "two overcards and the nut flush draw".
3. One positive point - I've put extra focus on positon, and have refined my starting requirements greatly to heavily favor the button and CO - not that I didn't do that before, but even more so now.
4. Finally, I've removed suited connectors from my game for the time being - not enough equity at this game, and usually not getting the multi-way pots and deep stacks to play. Come to think of it, my SC play at UB was -EV after review of my old PT database.

Things are looking good right now - still have a ways to go before my 25K hands, but if I continue to win at my set 5 PTBB/100, I'll have more than enough bank for the $50 game.

Tables played: 4 full ring
Hands played: 2,086

Poker winnings: $135.55

Bankroll as of 7/2/06: $876.96

MONDAY, JULY 3, 2006

Finished down $103.17 tonight (split up over a couple of sessions). Another gem of a day. The $800 in bankroll curse continues to haunt me...no matter how much I get it above $800, somehow variance rears its ugly head and knocks me back down. Sick sick losses...KK runs into AA, sets beaten by straights and flushes, AA cracked multiple times or having the table folded PF to them. KK with A flops, the list goes on. Throw in a few second best hands to boot, and we have yet another hell of a ride. Anyone that says there's no/low variance at SSNL is either lying or isn't in touch with the game, or they were very lucky and ran through the limit before moving up on a nice run. I play quite tight and it's brutal.

I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm just a very marginal winner at $25 NL. 5,700 hands so far at Party isn't enough to tell the whole story, but having said that I'm glad that I've set winrate requirements for myself before moving up. No doubt that barely breaking even = losing player at $50 NL, and no bankroll is sufficient for that. No way 25K hands is going to be enough.

Tables played: 4 full ring
Hands played: 1,944

Poker winnings: ($103.17)

Bankroll as of 7/3/06: $773.44

I wouldn't get too down about it yet - I've had (and am having) downswings lasting 5K hands. You just need to be patient and wait for the good times to correct all that shit.

TUESDAY, JULY 4, 2006

Finished up $26.76 tonight. Well, not a losing day but not a great one either. I'm speaking in terms of my play. I think I need to scale back the whole concept of playing more hands in LP and calling based on implied odds back a bit. Got burned a couple of times tonight for doing just that - though one hand I was rivered on. Also took yet another Party Pound me in the Ass tonight when my QQ top set on flop on a reraised pot lost to a rivered wheelhouse - donk raises UTG and calls my 4x reraise with J-10. What a joke.

In other news, I played the UB $12,500 guranteed tonight and actually played very well - despite bubbling the final table having top set run into the one hand that beat me - the straight. Not savvy enough to fold the 2nd nuts in that situation - don't think any mortal would have folded either. Oh well, $70+ net for the tourney isn't bad.

I'm off from work the rest of the week so will be playing a lot over the next few days.

Tables played: 4 full ring
Hands played: 1,013

Poker winnings: $26.76

Bankroll as of 7/4/06: $800.10

WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY, JULY 5-7, 2006

It hasn't been a good few days. Over the last couple of nights I've shown shades of the pre-BTP days with my leftover money over at UB -- I took a brief hiatus from my ring game to play some tourneys, most of which were ended with one horrible beat after another. I was in a state of perma-tilt and needed to pull myself away, which I struggled with for several hours the other night. Finally, I did so without a significant loss to my UB money. Still, the very notion that I allowed myself to fall back into those old habits is very disturbuing for me, and it goes beyond poker. There's no amount of money in the world that will make me allow myself to lose control like that. I made a commitment to myself to why I'm here and why I'm doing this, and I will not allow myself to lose my money again, as I said in my first journal entry.

Looking on the brighter side of things, I managed to rally my potential tonight and gave myself a proverbial kick in the nuts and told myself to knock it off, which I did. I returned to Party to continue my $25 NL campaign, and posted a solid session tonight.

Wed-Fri: Finished down $7.44 - turned around the tilt quite well tonight (2+ buy-ins over 500 hands)

Tables played: 1-4 full ring (I think I'm going to stick with 4 for the time being, and not push it until I'm sure where I want to be in terms of winrate)

Hands played: 1,795

Poker winnings: ($7.44)

Bankroll as of 7/7/06: $792.66

SATURDAY, JULY 8, 2006

Finished down $45.50 again tonight. My struggles continue. I just plan ass suck, both at poker and at life, no two bones about it. No matter what I do or how much I play, post and practice, I still can't beat the $25 NL game. I'm a breakeven player at the very best. Seriously, WTF gives? Either I'm paying off draws like a god dam ATM or getting my ass outplayed by $25 NL players -- not right. Not right. One step forward, two steps back. Still can't get my fucking bankroll above $800, let alone high enough so I can actually make some god dam money.

Played in my first rebuy tourney today - played well and cashed, lost on a horiffic beat - both of us had AQ suited, opponent flushed. I don't mind the beats, I mind beating myself or people outplaying me, that's what infuriates me to no god dam end.

Tables played: 4 full ring

Hands played: 1,094

Poker winnings: ($45.50)

Bankroll as of 7/8/06: $747.16