Micro Table Grinding Poker

Two Winning Micro Table Poker Strategies

2008-11-21T13:54:00.002+11:00

Well I had a first last night while playing at the Party Poker $10 NLHE cash game tables. I was dealt pocket AA in 3 consecutive hands. I was astounded when I caught the hand for a second time, so you can imagine my disbelief when they came up for the third time. Each time I played them for a raise, although nothing too aggressive but the 2nd and 3rd times, the table folded to my raise which was a bit of a bummer.

* * * * * *

I have been neglecting this blog somewhat, but have continued on grinding away at the micro stakes tables with just as much enthusiasm as always. I have developed a couple of new strategies lately that I have found have accelerated my profits. I thought I’d talk about them here.

Small Stakes Poker Strategy – Starting Short Stacked

Many will strongly disagree with this tactic on numerous levels, but when dealing with the psychological profile of many micro stakes poker players it works very well. As a matter of fact, I would suggest that this sort of strategy will only work at the online micro-stakes poker tables.

I am presently playing on the $10 NLHE cash ring tables, which as the name suggests, allows you to start with a maximum stake of $10. There is also a minimum stake at these tables of $2 and this is what I sit down with, deliberately short stacking myself. To some players at the table this seems to send an automatic message of weakness, to others when involved in a hand, their confidence to call and bet seems to grow disproportionately to their hands.

To elaborate on this thought, what I’ve noticed is that there is more of a tendency for people to call a 3 x BB raise with a marginal hand if they see that they’ve got the original raiser well and truly covered. If I have only $1.70 left and bet 0.30, a player with the full $10 stack is invariably going to call me with a hand that they probably shouldn’t be playing. After all, if I push, the most they can lose (heads up) is a further $1.40. It seems to be a common weakness among a greater majority of small-stakes players and I’ve been exploiting it time and again over the last month. By the way, I have a tendency to only play premium hands and play them pretty aggressively. While they’re kicking the short stack, they usually have to kick him with a strong starting hand.

Multi-Tabling To Ensure Patience

When I play single table poker I find that the pace is slow enough to make me impatient while I’m waiting for a strong starting hand. My tendency is to loosen up way too much and I start playing hands that I should be folding. By multi-tabling a second table, I have found that it keeps me adequately occupied and I have no trouble overcoming the temptation to call what I should fold.

It has been all about discipline and understanding the nature of my opponents but in the past month I have taken my bankroll well over the $300 mark. I feel as though I am on track to move up to the next micro-stakes level sometime in the second quarter of next year.

My Poker Strategy Is Almost A Year Old

2008-10-12T00:28:00.002+11:00

I’ve just realised that in a few days this blog will be 1 year old. That means that it is almost a year since I began my determination to turn my poker play around. My starting bankroll was $30 and tonight, it has just topped the $280 mark for the first time.

Admittedly, my blogging effort has been nothing short of deplorable, but I have been playing quite a bit of poker (as well as maintaining all my other online presences) and felt that there would be nothing more sickening for people to have to read than me spouting off about another winning night. But that’s the way it’s gone for the last 2 and a half weeks.

I think I’ve finally gotten a handle on how to play the $10 NLHE cash games at Party Poker. For the first 3 or 4 months I’ve been up and down, mixing good play with some pretty bad play. But just lately I have chosen my moments extraordinarily well and come away with some nice wins.

A good smattering of Gus Hansen wannabes has certainly helped no end with the any two cards system not working quite as well as it does for the great Dane. Funny that.

Anyway, with around a week before the year is up, my poker play has improved out of sight. I’m actually starting to believe that I will be able to move up to the $25 tables within the next year, particularly if my bankroll continues to increase as it has.

I've found that by multi-tabling 2 tables, my game has improved because I'm not tempted to play as many low percentage hands. Not only that, I also find that I'm less likely to chase the draws that I may have done in the past and this has saved my bacon on more than one occasion.

My next target milestone is the $300 mark.

Still Plugging Along

2008-09-08T23:52:00.002+10:00

Not a lot to talk about at the moment with the bankroll swinging up and down with the net result finding it remarkably similar to about a month ago. Just closed down the Party Poker tables after a nicely profitable session with a run of nice pocket pairs that held up which is very rare. Thankfully, I was sitting at a table of flush/straight chasers who were happy to throw their money at me until the river before folding.

The WSOP Main Event has just begun airing here in Australia with the second lot of Day 1 starters about to be shown tomorrow (Tuesday) night. It's always must-watch TV with the best of the best and the worst of the worst mixing it up. Watched the humdinger of a hand at Ray Romano's table where an all-in showdown revealed a Royal Flush beating a quad Aces to put one poor guy out on day 1. Now there's a bad beat story to tell your friends about!

Hope everyone else is enjoying the poker, both playing and watching.

When Weak Is Strong

2008-08-08T15:41:00.001+10:00

It has been around 2 weeks now since common sense overtook dumb poker and in that time I have won back all of the money I lost during May, June and half of July. There are two main factors that have contributed to my recent success, nothing surprising about them, really.

The first key to winning over the last 2 weeks has been the same important attribute that I have mentioned time and time again. Patience at the table has markedly stacked the odds in my favour. The second key is actually a flow-on effect that has directly stemmed from my patient game – and it’s something that I was unprepared for, to tell you the honest truth.

It’s the second factor that I find more interesting and certainly something that can be exploited at the micro table level.

As a result of being patient while waiting for the right hand, I have managed to project a weak image to the rest of the table. What I was viewing in myself as discipline when folding on the turn or when someone played back at me, others obviously took to be a sign of weakness. As my stay at a table lengthened, so did the number of times I was raised after betting. Initially the constant playing back of my bets was irritating. Short side note here: actually, what is most irritating is when you bet and someone immediately doubles the bet. At least put some thought into it, for crying out loud.

Nowadays, though I welcome it. Over the past two weeks I have sat quietly, looked weak, taken a few pots, done the disciplined thing and folded when I thought I was beaten, honoured the raise after the flop. That sort of thing.

Inevitably the cards have come. Last night my pocket J J connected on the flop to make a set and I was fortunate enough that my opponent, who had chased me out of pots earlier, held A J and aggressively allowed me to double up. A little later my pocket A’s connected again on the flop, another set and I was eventually All-In again (after checking the flop).

The bankroll is looking healthy again, but more importantly, my frame of mind is much more positive and I’m enjoying the sessions at Party Poker once again.

Poker in August - Good Times Are Rolling

2008-08-04T23:23:00.000+10:00

The poker has been fast and furious at the Party Poker NLHE $10 cash games and ever since I replaced the pumpkin that was sitting on my shoulders with my head again my bankroll has been in steady recovery mode. Things have been going so well in fact that I have almost reached the point where I was at the start of May. The new plan of building my stake at the table has been working with some nice profitable sessions coming my way.

Naturally enough the odd loss has been sprinkled among the wins but I’ve managed to keep those to a minimum and the poker gods have been looking down favourably on me.

I’ve also been blessed to make my way onto some tables with a few players who simply had to play every hand that was dealt to them. The opponent who puts money into the pot 80% of the time and never raises can sometimes catch you out but in the long run they’re going to lose and I’ve benefited on quite a few occasions.

This particular post is really just a note to myself to remind me of my progress over the last 2 weeks of poker play. Effectively I’m marking the fact that I have reached another short-term milestone by passing $230.00 (again).

At the risk of sounding like a broken record I am going to once again reiterate how important it is to stay patient. It has been my willingness to fold and keep on folding until I’ve actually got a hand that has put me on my latest run. That and the fact that your average micro stakes poker player who plays virtually every hand doesn’t recognise that the guy who has been regularly folding has suddenly raised before the flop.

Current bankroll - $231.05

Poker Strategy Change - When To Leave A Table

2008-07-24T13:26:00.002+10:00

I’m constantly trying to improve my approach to playing poker online and have been fortunate enough to have received some instructive and insightful comments here on a few of my posts. One of my strategies that I’ve mentioned in the past is leaving the table whenever I make a profit. I’m aware of the downside of doing this but it came down to a money management decision to arrest a long losing streak.

A recent comment by Epoh began a process of questioning this tactic and then I came across another piece on the subject using an example that has struck home with great force.

Essentially, the example asks you to imagine that you are multi-tabling 2 tables. At 1 table you are playing against complete poker novices and at the other one you are playing at the best poker players in the world. Now, using my strategy, I am more likely to play against the novices for a short time while I would be resigned to playing against the professionals for considerably longer (as long as it takes for me to lose my money, I’d suggest). The obvious question follows, why on earth would I choose to play against people I am more likely to win against for only a short time and against people I am more likely to lose against for a long time?

When I read this it made such perfect sense. Of course I would rather play my poker against the weaker players. The smart thing to do is remain at a table until the dynamics of the table changes.

Add this to Epoh’s advice where he cautions against leaving potential goldmines behind and building the small stack into a large stack and I am more determined than ever to turn those short, modest sessions into larger, more lucrative sessions that take advantage of the weaker poker players at the table.

And so this brings me to another related aspect to all of this. I have to identify and acknowledge the stronger poker players at a given table. Being able to recognise those players who are playing good poker should be easy to do, but often I let pride and frustration cloud my opinion of the play of others. Being able to recognise the really good players – and then trying to avoid them – will greatly enhance my chances of being profitable.

Adopting a strategy of chasing the big winning session leads me to muse over what point I decide to take my winnings and leave the table. It comes down to 2 factors: time and quality of opponents.

Time: These days I have less time available to devote to playing poker online with my average nightly session (on those nights I CAN play) only around an hour or so. So the first factor that will rule when I take my profit is giving myself a cut-off time and when the time is reached, I close down my session for the day.

Opponent: If I have identified a particularly weak player or a particularly soft table I need to remain at the table as long as they are still playing. If a table is playing soft I will remain at the table until the dynamic changes as others stand up and sit down.

I wouldn’t mind hearing how others decide that it’s time to move from a table. Do you set yourself a profit target? A time limit? A feel for the quality of your opponents? Something else?

Patient Poker = Winning Poker

2008-07-21T12:22:00.002+10:00

Okay, like a reformed smoker or a recently converted Christian I'm going to sound a bit like a broken record by repeating the importance of patience when playing at the Micro Stakes cash poker tables. I’ve just completed my 5th straight winning day and it was the kind of grind that I was prepared to put in 6 months ago. Back then I won, a month ago I was impatient and lost – not a lot of math required there.

The only disclosure I should make here is that I had the Tour de France on in the background to watch how Cadel Evans went in defending his yellow on stage 15 up to Prato Nevoso.

It took me over 130 hands before I ground my way into a profitable position after coming close to losing the lot when my pocket aces were cracked. But rather than talk about me, I want to make an observation about another guy who was playing a couple of seats to my left.

I was at the $10 NLHE table and when I sat down this guy was sitting on around $16 so he had a winning night going. It didn’t take too many hands to work out that this guy liked to play a lot of hands and when he hit anything from bottom pair on up he would play it aggressively or call all bets. It seemed to be going sweetly for him as he proceeded to push others off their hands and moved smoothly up to around $18.

But as the game wore on, the inevitable happened and his stack was whittled away. It took over 100 hands and a roller coaster of a ride, but he eventually went broke as the same players who folded earlier in the session began calling and playing back to him. His problem, apart from his playing style which was the classic short-term winner, long-term loser style, was that he sat at the same table for way too long. Everyone at the table had him figured out after only a few rotations.

One of my strategies in playing at the micro-stakes poker tables is to change tables fairly frequently. Sometimes the playing style of others doesn’t suit my style, sometimes I just don’t feel comfortable at a particular table or, most importantly, I may feel that the other players are reading me too easily. I’m a fairly tight player and if I’ve been sitting at a table and folding often, the moment I call or raise may send my opponents running. I’m not a big bluffer on-line so I prefer to just get up and move to another table. Why not? There are plenty to choose from.

When I’m new to a table I’m an unknown quantity and I find that my opponents will be a little more wary in the first 10-15 hands I play. A new table often means a quick win and I can move on again.

My bankroll is up to $207.91.

Playing Poker with Patience

2008-07-20T13:15:00.004+10:00

It 's a new beginning and I'm feeling like a new player at the Party Poker $10 NLHE tables with the attitude that I had when I began with only $30. Last post I explained that I was going back to basics and had set myself a short-term goal of building my bankroll back up to $200. Well, it turned out to be a far, far shorter-term goal than I expected with a couple of very profitable tables catapaulting me straight over the $200 mark.

This has made the 4th session in a row in which I have been profitable and the secret's not really a secret at all. I haven't done anything more than remained completely patient, which may also be equated to playing passive poker. I was careful to fold all but the strongest hands and then play them reasonably aggressively. Micro stakes poker tables are filled with over-aggressive players who believe middle or bottom pair is a strong enough hand to push other players off their hands.

By waiting until I hit sets, straights or even just TPTK I was able to put together a very profitable few days. A couple of good folds increased the confidence level - JJ & AK aren't the easiest hands to lay down, but I did so last night and was right to do so.

So it's more of the same for me in the foreseeable future as I try to keep my head together and not let the winning days go to my head.

I've reached my latest short-term goal so I will set myself a new short-term goal of reaching $210 in the next week.

Bankroll - $206.85

Starting Over - Pulling My Head In

2008-07-19T22:43:00.003+10:00

After a bad run in May and June, not to mention a petulant rant here about it all, I have taken a couple of weeks to take a deep breath, reassess my play and generally decided to pull my head in. I'm going back to basics, in other words, back to a winning style of poker.

As was so rightly pointed out in the comments of my last post, I was letting my emotions affect the way I was playing and consequently was losing the plot as well as my money. In football parlance, I was playing the man and not the ball and this can be fatal.

So, what have I done to repair the damage. Well firstly I've taken a break. I needed to reassess what I was doing and go over how I won for so long before my losing streak. Once I had reconciled myself to the way I ought to be playing I have rejoined the Party Poker NLHE cash ring games, re-entering the $10 tables.

My bankroll had dipped to $192.90 so I was keen to turn things around and get myself back above $200 as soon as possible.

Since restarting I have played for 3 nights and have resolved to once again leave the table as soon as I have made a profit. So far so good, 3 nights of playing for 3 winning nights and I have built the bankroll up to $196.60. I am determined to do this slow and steady because it may seem as though the profits are small, they build up a damn sight more quickly than if you string together a bunch of losing sessions.

So in order to force some accountability upon myself I will be stating my progress once again (something else I was doing when I went on a winning run).

Short term goal is to reach $200.

Solid Poker v Loose Aggressive Donk

2008-07-02T20:29:00.001+10:00

It has been a few weeks since I’ve added a post here and there are a couple of reasons for it. The first is that I didn’t want to be one of those bad beat whiners who fill their blogs with endless complaining about the rotten patch of bad luck they’ve been going through. At first I decided I would suffer in silence, take my hits and fight back. But the beats just kept coming so I decided my plan B would involve taking a brief break from poker and come back more refreshed and full of focus.

It was going to be back to basics, take my winnings and move on. Last night I played for the first time in over a week on the $10 NLHE tables at Party Poker. I wiped out courtesy of a guy who far, far outstripped any reasonable stretch of good fortune.

I closed down Party Poker in absolute disgust at the way this guy kept winning with the absolute worst of hands. However, in the cold light of day I realise that this guy could be the best thing to happen to me this year. He played virtually every hand, went completely cavalier with small pairs on multiple occasions and got away with it. This guy was flouting the odds time and again and still managed to win.

At some point the odds are going to rebalance themselves and I need to make sure I’m there when it happens.

So this month I’m going to make SmokingNow my special project. I’m going to hunt this guy down and make sure I play at whatever table he sits at. He took my money and he didn’t deserve it so I’m going to take it back, plus a commission for damages.

I’ll let you know if solid poker beats loose-aggressive donk.

Poker In May Is Proving Tough at Party

2008-05-23T13:13:00.000+10:00

I have sort of lost my flow at the Micro Stakes No-Limit poker tables lately. I’ve taken my share of bad beats but then, who hasn’t? What I have noticed though is – and I thought this would be damn near impossible – the standard of the poker being played is actually falling.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for crap poker players coming and splashing their money around with their loose-aggressive style (for want of a better word). But it begins to wear you down when you’re on the end of some pretty horrendous hits.

The way things are going this month I’m going to record only my second losing month since I began my winning strategy that has so far taken my bankroll from $30 to over $200. The month started poorly, I clawed my way back to almost break even before I took another couple of nights’ worth of savaging. Now I’m once again slowly pulling it back but the complete noobs who chase flushes (and are hitting) are seriously starting to piss me off.

All-In All-In All-In

2008-05-12T16:18:00.000+10:00

We had a funny situation take place last night at the Party Poker $5 nlhe cash game. Funny interesting really. I was in the process of deciding whether to take my seat at a particular table that had around 7 or 8 players. I noticed that there was one guy with a stack of over $8 and the rest were under the maximum buy-in of $5.

So I watched the first hand and the pre-flop betting when something like: limp, fold, limp, to the big stack who pushed all-in which then prompted everyone to fold. Big stack takes the pot. Okay, fair enough, I thought, the big stack had a hand and pushed everyone out. Next hand same thing: fold, fold, limp, ALL-IN, fold, fold… Hmm, very strange, 2 all-ins in a row from the big stack.

And so it went hand after hand. It turned out this dude was simply playing All-In poker every hand. It was a bit surreal and it was definitely messing with the heads of the other players. Seeing as I wasn’t actually playing it was a very interesting psychological exercise to see how people reacted.

It took around 5 straight all-ins before the disgruntled commenting started (in French so I couldn’t understand it). 2 people simply upped and left. One guy raised before the all-inner but couldn’t bring himself to call, even when it was obvious he was going in with anything.

Finally one bloke decided enough was enough and had the courage to call, trimming him down to size. After that he was quickly dispatched and within 8 or 9 hands the experiment was over, the money was gone and so was the mysterious All-In merchant who simply stood up and left without a word of explanation.

Party Poker - Qualify For Manila

2008-05-01T15:52:00.004+10:00

The latest Party Poker promotion involves the inaugural Asian Poker Tour even at Manila, in the Philippinnes. Four hundred people will be competing for $1 million and Party Poker are going to send 11 people to join in the fun.

According to Party Poker you can get there for as little as a $1 buy-in.

So what does the road ahead look like for those trying to qualify?

Your $1 buy-in will get you into a sub-qualifying speed tournament with rebuys. For every $35 that goes into the prize pool an entry into the next level qualifier will be awarded. Alternatively, you can enter in the $4 speed sub-qualifier (also with rebuys) where an entry into the next level will be created for every 10 players who enter.

The second level is a $35 satellite qualifier event that is held daily. For every 10 players that enter this event an entry is awarded into the weekly $320 Satellite event. This satellite will be held twice weekly and for every 20 players entering a package to Manila will be awarded.

The prize is worth $6,000 and includes a room in the Dusit Thani Manila Hotel, $2,500 buy-in to the main event and $3,500 spending money.

The qualifiers started a week ago and they're still running now. Perhaps you might like to jump into Party Poker and try your luck. But you'd better bring a lot of it.

Party Poker | April Cash Game Results

2008-05-01T14:12:00.001+10:00

Playing poker can take you up and drag you down. Playing poker at the micro level can speed up the process. And playing poker at Party Poker at the micro level can make the journey a maddening ride of wildly swinging fortunes with no real way to stop it.

April began smoothly enough with the Party Poker micro stakes faithful behaving themselves and predictably handing over their cash. Then I hit a black patch for about a week there and slipped into the red for the first time since January. Five days of suffering had me readjusting my poker strategy as I was going over old hands to find out where I could have improved.

As it turned out my poker play has been pretty solid. Apart from a couple of times where I called when I was 95% sure I was beat, I had played pretty good poker. It was just that there were an inordinately high number of poor calls by opponents who then got very lucky. I just happened to run into a lot of people who would be short term winners, long term losers right at the very moment that they were short term winners...at my expense. You get this fairly frequently at the micro stakes level, after all, the place is littered with rank beginners who have no idea what they’re doing. It’s just unusual that I came up against suck-out after suck-out.

So the Party Poker $5 NLHE cash game tables have once again been kind to me with a double digit profit rewarding my persistence. Now that the bankroll is beginning to grow to a reasonable size, double digit profit for 1 month's work is proving to be a worthwhile return.

I've scaled back significantly on the number of hands I play each night. With time available to play poker very much restricted these days, I can really only afford an hour or two at the most. As an hourly rate, I guess, my return is looking even more impressive given the stakes games I'm playing.

Raw numbers for the month have ended up looking fairly solid thanks to a much improved last week and a half. The turnaround has been due to a couple of important factors. Patience, I seem to say this every post, as I’ve been diligent in waiting for a good starting hand and then I’ve played it aggressively when I’ve hit the flop. During my little bad beat period it occurred to me how many times people were calling and betting with 2nd or 3rd pair and I’ve exploited that fact to great advantage. The odds of playing quality hands swung in my favour (as they statistically should) and I’ve made hay.

So, anyway, my return for the month of April turned out to be a smidge over 14% and I played just under 1,500 hands which isn’t terribly many. My Poker Tracker stats reveal that I made 18 BB per 100 hands and it seems that I am slowly becoming more aggressive, raising pre-flop 9% of the time which is higher than previous months.

My plan going forward is to continue what has been successful for the last 6 months. Hit the Party Poker micro stakes cash games. Take the profits when they present themselves, practice sensible bankroll management and aim for another double digit month.

Playing Poker | Back on Track

2008-04-28T13:11:00.004+10:00

Well it doesn't take long to have the feelings of self doubt washed away to be replaced by the contentment that regular winning sessions provides.

It was only a week ago that April was looking as if it was going to be a rare losing month for me with a series of bad beats threatening to completely devastate the bankroll. But since my last post, I have managed to string together 5 winning sessions. And it's not so much the fact that I've closed Party Poker down on the plus side, but the size of my winning sessions that have been significant.

I can put the turnaround, almost 100%, to the reflections I posted in my previous post. While I was highlighting the manner in which I was getting beaten, it occurred to me that the people who were taking my money were flouting the odds in a big way. Chasing inside straight draws and calling my bets while only holding second pair, etc. I knew that if my patience could hold, my fortune would change.

Sure enough, the callers kept calling, but the suck-outs dried up. We're fast approaching the end of April and my bankroll is heading up again. All very nice.

I've also put together a lengthy list of Party Poker regulars who play waaay too many hands and rarely raise pre-flop. This list, in my opinion, is almost as valuable as my bankroll.

Playing Poker | Stepping Back

2008-04-23T20:07:00.001+10:00

An extended run of losing sessions starts off as an annoying anomaly that builds into a more worrying loss of confidence. It seems that the spectre of bad beats is following you from table to table and you can’t remember how to win let alone enjoy an extended winning streak.

If you’re a regular reader of poker blogs across the length and breadth of the web and if you’ve played for any decent period of time, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. It happens to everyone at some point or another.

Hardly surprisingly, I’m discussing this phenomenon because I’m presently on the border between Annoying Anomaly and Loss of Confidence. For the last 4 days I have been running up against an amazing series of opponents who have been willing to make calls with bugger all in their hands only to hit on the turn or the river or, in a frightening number of cases, the turn AND the river.

It’s time to take a step back and examine what I’ve done that may have resulted in my going from consistent winner to completely losing time after time. And the answer, as is so often the case, is a matter of only the most minor of adjustments to my attitude.

That’s the crazy thing. My poker play has been good. The problem has lain in my patience.

The key to winning poker at micro level NLHE cash games is to remain patient at all times. So many times I have sat in a hole of card dead funk, but through patience and a steadfast belief that “the cards will come” I’ve come out the other side with a handy profit to stash away in my bankroll. Over the last 4 nights, this hasn’t been the case.

Reckless twits come and go at the Party Poker micro stakes tables, they can be the objects of tremendous opportunities when played correctly, you just need to bide your time, wait for the cards and then pick up your pots. It sounds pretty simplistic but I’ve been using this basic framework for an extended period to great success. Right up until a week ago!

I loosened my starting hands and decided I would “teach some fish a lesson”. Turns out I was the fish, or at least, I played like one. It cost me and I deserved it.

So like I said, it’s back to basics for me. Identify the people who play too many hands and who play those hands passively…and cash in on them.

Playing Poker | Rogues Gallery and Choosing a Table

2008-04-07T15:06:00.001+10:00

I’ve left posting go for a few days while I’ve been hard at work on Party Poker recovering the money I lost at the end of last month. I really can’t afford the luxury of too many brain explosions like the poker session I last talked about because, given my playing style, it takes so darn long to claw it all back.

Nevertheless, I’m nearly there now notwithstanding last night’s marathon session in which I was down over half my buy-in before I finally shut up shop well after midnight having fought back to finish up with the tiniest of profits to show for my hard work. Beats a loss!

What I have seen over the last week is some very ordinary poker being played on just about every table I’ve opened at Party Poker. It could be that we’ve just had another flurry of newcomers lured to NL Texas Hold ‘Em. After all, new players are going to start out on the .02/.04 tables, aren’t they. Watching some of my opponents I would swear that they have had their Fold key disabled until after the River card is dealt

Rogues Gallery

The way things have been going recently, I’ve half a mind to publish a rogues gallery post of Party Poker players from my PokerTracker software who have a “Voluntarily Put Money In the Pot” percentage higher than 85% over a significant number of hands. The list wouldn’t be a short one, believe you me.

Ethical or not, these kinds of poker players are obviously looking for a lot of action and I figure I might be able to send them all the action they can handle. Maybe I’ll save it up for the end of the month – stay tuned.

Choosing Which Micro Stakes Table to Sit At

Here’s an interesting little question that I wouldn’t mind some interaction with. It will certainly affect how much money you win and how quickly you win it. How do you select which table you sit at?

When you open the Party Poker $5 NLHE cash tables you’re confronted with a long list of tables to choose from. Assuming you don’t have PokerTracker or similar software to identify the fish and calling stations and you have no player notes, what are the criteria by which you decide to sit down?

Personally, I tend to gravitate to the tables in which only 5 of the 10 seats are taken. I prefer a table that doesn’t have someone sitting on a really big stack (more than 2 x buy in) and preferably that plays over 100 hands per hour.

My reasoning is: my strategy is to sit down at a table, make a quick, small profit and move on. A short-handed table reduces the number of possible players in the pot (remember, micro stakes poker typically features a high proportion of multi-way pots) if I can pick up a good early hand I can avoid the hands with 4 or 5 callers who sometimes catch lightning. The presence of someone with a very large stake could mean 1 of 2 things. Either they’re a very canny poker player or, they have been wildly aggressive and have gotten lucky. Neither player suits my strategy terribly well. I’ll avoid rather than engage.

By the way, I generally only go for the random option when none of the players I’ve flagged as likely to leak money come up in my Player Search.

Does anyone out there have a specific method of choosing which table to sit down at? What about which seat you prefer to sit at once you get to the table – do you have a “lucky chair” or do you identify the obvious weak player and sit on their left?

End-March Bad Beat Madness

2008-04-01T10:28:00.002+11:00

It’s probably inevitable when constantly playing poker against people who have no idea what they’re doing that even though the odds are stacked overwhelmingly in your favour it can count for nothing. This was the case for me about a week ago.

After congratulating myself for finding a nice loose table at Party Poker’s $5 NLHE cash games, I settled down as usual to wait for the callers to hand over their money. But this night was not destined to run to plan. My first major hit came when my AQo was rolled by someone with J 6. It turns out my 4 x BB pre-flop raise and continuation bet when I hit my Q wasn’t enough to get the guy to fold because he hit his 6 on the flop. As we all know, a pair of 6s with Jack kicker is an absolute monster – particularly when you hang on to hit your J on the turn.

That hand set the trend for the night and I made the mistake of deluding myself into believing that at some point getting my money in as an 80% favourite was going to begin paying off. I rebought twice during the session, fell into the trap of playing a little more loosely than I usually do and, by the time I had closed down my Party Poker session, had severely eaten away at my hard-won March profits.

Fortunately I’ve clawed back a few dollars to finish March with a bankroll profit of 7.74%.

A Happy Easter Micro Story

2008-03-22T23:47:00.004+11:00

I don't go in for gloating about wins at the poker table very much but there was one hand last night that was particularly satisfying.

It came towards the end of a very long session that I shared with another player who deserves to be outed. If you're planning on playing the micros at Party Poker, keep an eye out for this LAG for some easy money.

First of all some stats about him fom last night's play:
Played 79 hands
VP$IP - 62%
Pre-Flop Raise - 35.44%

This guy's MO was to raise big before the flop - as you can see he raised a massive 35% of the time. I've only come across 1 or 2 people who've raised more often over similar number of hands. He would then follow up with consistent betting at the pot. Basically you knew you were going to get action.

***** Hand History for Game 6895414830 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, March 21, 08:59:30 ET 2008
Table Table 125805 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 9: pizerule ( $4.66 USD )
Seat 3: Doctor789 ( $1.52 USD )
Seat 2: only4me111 ( $5.86 USD )
Seat 7: vollschiff ( $2.64 USD )
Seat 10: pux13 ( $4.70 USD )
Seat 5: AsXBlood ( $4.72 USD )
Seat 8: SchanzMaN ( $1.96 USD )
Seat 1: DustyDonk ( $6.99 USD )
Seat 4: jodenz ( $4.10 USD )
Seat 6: JamesBlond88 ( $4.96 USD )
jodenz posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
AsXBlood posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to pizerule [ Qs Qh ]
JamesBlond88 folds.
SchanzMaN folds.
vollschiff has left the table.
pizerule raises [$0.16 USD]
pux13 folds.
DustyDonk folds.
only4me111 calls [$0.16 USD]
Doctor789 folds.
jodenz folds.
AsXBlood folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5h, Qc, Qd ]
pizerule checks.
only4me111 bets [$0.32 USD]
joske987 has joined the table.
pizerule calls [$0.32 USD]**
Dealing Turn ** [ 9s ]
pizerule checks.
only4me111 bets [$0.40 USD]
pizerule calls [$0.40 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 7d ]
pizerule bets [$0.12 USD]
only4me111 calls [$0.12 USD]
pizerule shows [ Qs, Qh ]four of a kind, Queens.
only4me111 doesn't show [ 8s, 8c ]
two pairs, Queens and Eights.
pizerule wins $1.96 USD from the main pot with four of a kind, Queens.
#Game No : 6895417682

My only regret is that I didn't push for more after the river.

A couple of hands later I ran my A Qo into K K and hit trips on the Turn, whereupon I shoved All-in and had the guy call for a very profitable end to my night.

An interesting little note about the players in my PokerTracker stats is that, of the people with Pre Flop Raises of over 34% only 1 of them are net winners. And they all have a Voluntary Put Money in the Pot of over 66%. Now there's your definition of the Loose Aggressive poker player.

Party Poker | Watch Your Opponents

2008-03-20T12:51:00.001+11:00

Always make sure you’re paying attention to what’s going on at the poker table. The micro stakes cash ring games are an absolute treasure trove of money making opportunities if you’re alert and know what to look for.

I’ll give you an example of what I’m talking about by using a hand that took place last night while I was playing on a $5 NLHE cash ring table at Party Poker.

I had already folded out of this hand, by the way.

Pre-flop betting had seen 2 limpers enter the pot before the button min. raised and everyone called including the small blind. At this table we’re talking microscopic stakes - .04 to limp, .08 constitutes a minimum raise.

Anyway, there are 4 in the pot and the flop lands A A K.

SB immediately plonks down .24 which is enough to chase the 2 limpers away. The button then doubles the bet to .48 and the SB folds. So far, so boring. Then the button shows the table his cards – pocket A A.

My interest was immediately piqued. The guy on the button had just made the dumbest raise in poker, won himself the minimum pot possible and then was stupid enough to show us what he’d done.

Watching him further I noticed he was entering a lot of pots, so I checked my PokerTracker stats and sure enough, he’d Voluntarily Put Money in the Pot (VP$IP) over 80% of the time, but raised pre-flop (PFR) only 5%.

Regular as clockwork this guy would limp into a hand and then bet big after the flop or turn, invariably chasing off his opponents. He was taking a lot of small pots and there was some serious daylight robbery going on. It was bound to end badly for him and it did when he ran into someone who flopped an Ace-high flush. This particular person was a little more savvy and simply called every one of our friend's extravagant bets before raising after the river. With any luck he didn’t learn from it and he’ll be back tonight. (They usually don’t learn).

The point I’m labouring to make is this. Watch what’s going on even when you’re not in a hand. At the micro cash tables there are a huge number of inexperienced players who play far too many hands and are going to set themselves up as easy targets in the long term. PokerTracker is very useful for highlighting these people but if you don’t have any poker software, keep a notebook open in front of you and make note of the number of hands people are playing.

I’ve said it before and it’s worth repeating, there are endless opportunities for making money at the micro stakes poker table. You just have to know what to look for, exercise some patience and then strike.

Playing Poker | Beating Mr Poker

2008-03-14T16:25:00.003+11:00

There’s no doubt about it, there’s always something to learn at this often times frustrating, sometimes rewarding game of No Limit Hold Em. I’m pleased to report that after my recent run of coming second to a bunch of Party Poker Micro Table fish that I have made a slight adjustment to my game and am back on the winners trail again.

Actually that’s probably not fair on the try-hards who are collectively boosting my bankroll at the .02/.04 level. In fact, what I’ve done for two nights in a row is carefully fold any suspiciously constructed raise which just about always signals someone has hit their two-outer.

Beating Mr Poker

Last night I was given a gift from the poker gods at a short-handed micro table. There was a guy who was cutting everyone up with aggressive pre- and post flop raises, basically dominating the table, catching asome lucky cards when he had to (he hit runner-runner 3’s to show down quads at one stage). Anyway, this guy obviously thought he was Mr Poker, taking down blinds with successive blind steals, pulling down tiny pots with continuation bets, you name it. His problem was, he was playing every single hand and it was obvious there was no way he was making the hands he was representing.

So I bided my time and waited for a hand. Finally, I picked up K K in the small blind and took a chance by only calling the limpers before me, indicating to Mr Poker that, once again, I was weak. He, of course, would be compelled to demonstrate what a Playah he is if he played the hand true to form. Sure enough, the uncoordinated flop had him betting post-flop and turn and then, he jammed All-in on the river. I’d seen him do this hand after hand, so his recent betting history had me very confident with my call and I was very pleased to see him turn over 9 9.

So, after acting the Big Man On Campus (to use a Brady Bunch quote) and winning lots of small pots, the guy lost it all on one over-aggressive play too many.

The big point to remember out of this is that it’s not the number of pots you win that’s important, it’s the size of the pot that matters.

Deviating From the Strategy

2008-03-14T10:58:00.001+11:00

Don’t mind me, this is simply a reminder to myself that there’s a damn good reason why I devised a set of poker rules to follow…and when I follow them, I become a profitable poker player.

It seems that every time I stray from my carefully laid strategy I am reminded why I put the rules in place to start with. I think we humans are naturally prone to self-destruct even when we are aware of the consequences for breaking the rules. It’s all too easy to tell yourself, this time it’s different.

I’m in the middle of a 3 day losing stretch at the moment and I’m hoping it doesn’t stretch to four. The disappointing part of this is that 2 of those losing days would have been winning days if I had have adhered to the rule that underpins my entire profit stratgey – leave the table as soon as a profit is made.

I played only 3 hands at one $5 NLHE cash game, starting with an opening stake of $2 (as is my norm) and had just taken down a pot to take my stake at the table to $2.88. A handy little micro-table profit that I should have stashed away into my bankroll. My mistake – I allowed myself to be dealt into the next hand which happened to be J J. Well, I’m not folding those and naturally, by the time the hand was over, I was behind and chasing that profit for the session.

Within half an hour I had whittled my way down to broke and was more annoyed with myself than I was with the god-awful calls that were being made by fish who kept hitting on the river.

Lesson to self: When you have devised a winning strategy, stay with it to the letter. It’s called a “winning” strategy because it bloody WINS.

Should You Calculate Odds At Micro Stakes Level?

2008-03-10T15:38:00.001+11:00

When you read all the poker books written by poker legends, professionals and mathematicians, you will inevitably come to a chapter or two devoted to calculating odds. Pot odds, implied odds, inferred odds, do I have the right odds to call, have I raised high enough to make calling on a draw the wrong play? It’s a very important part of playing poker – live poker or high stakes poker.

When you’re playing poker at the online micro stakes level, calculating odds and basing your game on those calculations is virtually pointless. *Gasp* Heresy in a poker blog. I did say “virtually” so keep reading and I’ll tell you why.

At the higher stakes levels of poker everyone’s pretty well playing by the same rules and those rules are dictated by the odds. If you’re sitting on a draw and the bet is half the pot, you work out the cost of calling and the amount you’d win if you hit and compare that with your chances of hitting. You make your play accordingly. Your opponent knows this and will be betting to try to make that decision difficult or easy depending on whether they think they’re in front or behind in a hand.

At the online micro stakes poker tables, there’s barely enough time to decide on an amount to bet, let alone figure out what the odds for the other guy might be. (And with the newly introduced Speed tables at Party Poker, there’s even less time). Now, I might be completely naive here, but micro limit poker players don’t calculate odds. At least judging by the betting/calling patterns they don’t. If they do it’s on a far greater plane of mathematics than I’ve ever visited. The majority of micro stakes genii play any two cards and if they hit a pair on the flop, they bet, if they’re on a draw, they call (no matter what the price some of them) and if they miss they check and fold.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should leave yourself languishing at the level of the majority of micro stakes poker players – and that’s why I stuck that “virtually” in there earlier. You want an edge when you play poker and the micro stakes level is no different.

Your edge will be gained by committing the basic odds you might come across to memory. It’s handy to know, for example, that the chances of hitting your flush draw is 19% and the chances of hitting your gut-shot straight draw is around 9%. Many micro stakes players chase their draws on a regular basis. Knowing that they’re an 80% dog when they do this should make you a more confident tiny stakes poker player – just don’t bother trying to calculate the odds to try to push them off their draw.

Loosen My Starting Hand At the Micro Stakes Level

2008-03-02T19:54:00.001+11:00

I’m typically a very tight player, particularly for a member of the Party Poker micro stakes tables. But I’ve been schooling myself to open up a little bit and widen my starting hand range in order to maximise my opportunities of taking down a big pot.

My usual starting hands consist largely of AK – AJ, KQs, pocket pairs down to 66 and that’s about it. Not very adventurous and the action that comes my way is few and far between at times, but it has worked so far in moving my bankroll from $30 to over $200 in 5 months. I’m looking to loosen up a little so that I can make my game a little more unpredictable.

My new range of starting hands will include A anything suited, as well as any suited connector down to 8-7 and all pocket pairs. I figure I can get more creative with my play as well as the unpredictable aspect it will cause. The way I would be looking to play these hands would be to call small (3xBB) raises or, if no-one has raised yet, make the raise myself. A continuation bet will more often than not be the post-flop play but this will depend on any action before me.

When you play the same stakes limit cash games ($5 NLHE) at the same online venue (Party Poker) every night, you run the risk of becoming known to your opponents. Hell, with the help of Poker Tracker I know my opponents and the type of game they’re likely to play so there’s no reason to think that others don’t have the same read on me.

So I want to change things up, loosen my game and see how it works out. With any luck I won’t be woefully reporting that my bankroll has fallen below $200 the next time I update my progress.

Plus A Word of Advice

I have a small piece of advice that some of you may find useful, particularly new poker players who are trying to build up a bankroll. Playing winning poker is difficult enough with all sorts of pressure placed on you by other players at the table so the last thing you want to do is put added pressure on yourself .

Worrying about your bankroll while you’re playing is a big mistake. It’s distracting, will influence the decisions you make whilst in a hand – usually adversely – and generally make it harder to reach the goals you’ve set yourself. Play each hand on its merits and take your profits when they come and your bankroll should look after itself.

A Full Tilt Bonus

2008-02-27T14:00:00.001+11:00

I made the realisation last night that I only had 3 days remaining to claim my Full Tilt first deposit bonus and I still had outstanding bonus credits to pick up. Bugger! I was so busy grinding away at the Party Poker tiny stakes tables that I completely let the Full Tilt bonus slip.

So it was off to Full Tilt to get involved in some of the action on the $10 NLHE cash games and build those all important Full Tilt points. As it turned out, I happened to pick one of the tightest, most un-micro, micro no limit table I have ever come across. When you’re trying to rack up the Full Tilt points you need at least a couple of loose aggressives around to force the pot sizes up. The LAG’s obviously had better things to do and after we had gone two complete orbits 9-handed without a flop being seen I was starting to wonder whether I was completely wasting my time. Fifteen minutes had passed, my stack was slightly depleted and I was still no closer to picking off another cash bonus.

Fortunately the table began to loosen up a bit and the pots began to build. (You ever notice that it only takes one guy to start trying to push people around to get things jumping?) On top of that I managed to pick up a few good hands and soon found myself with a little profit for my effort. The prospect of my main goal – more free money – was slowly drawing within reach. Gawd if ever there was a definition of low limit grinding then trying to pick up enough Full Tilt points to trigger a bonus payout would have to be it.

And then came the icing on the cake for my efforts. I was dealt KJo in the BB and was met with a small raise from the SB so I called as did the button who had earlier limped. Hit my K on the flop and bet, button folded and the SB called. I reckon I’ve at least go the guy beat here, so when a blank lands on the Turn and SB chucks ‘em All-in I was more than willing to make the call. He flips over QQ and I’m golden when he fails to pick up a set on the River.

So my little run at picking up some bonus cash has so far managed to earn me a tidy profit to bolster my Full Tilt bankroll.

So back on January 10 I reported a starting bankroll of 10 pitiful dollars and a self-imposed challenge that I would build it up. After considerable neglect and sporadic play, I have increased this bankroll to a still tiny (but at least a little bit bigger) $19.86. Go me!

Party Poker may have to take a back seat for the next 3 days.

Adjusting My Poker Goal

2008-02-25T11:08:00.002+11:00

Reality has settled in to my ambitious plans and I simply don’t have time to spend 4 hours aevery night grinding away at the Party Poker micro tables. I’ve got other projects demanding my time and, as much as I’d like to neglect them all to concentrate on poker, it can’t happen. As a result I have made a few necessary adjustments to my goals beginning with my short term goal which will then flow on to my longer term goals.

Firstly, I am still allowing myself the luxury of playing every day, I’m not going stark raving mad over the whole “haven’t got time” thing. I’m no longer focussing on making a pre-determined profit every day, instead I’m prepared to quit playing for the day once “a profit” is reached. This has the effect of removing a further pressure which I had placed upon myself that was proving to be rather inhibitive. I was trying to commit to playing at least 100 hands per day. I felt that too often after I had made a profit that I was happy with for the day I was beginning to play a lot of junk hands just to reach the daily quota. It was doing nothing for my game and I was actually resenting the extra hands rather than maintaining a necessary focus and concentration.

I’ve found that unshackling myself from self imposed constraints has given my poker play a new sense of freedom and I am coming away with more winning sessions as a result. It’s all about compromise and whatever strategy most suits your state of mind. For the time being, my state of mind craves the short sessions with smaller profits.

Incidentally, my bankroll has grown too. My starting measly $30 bankroll is now looking a tad more impressive, sitting at $214.90. A paltry sum, to be sure, but when you consider that I’ve mainly been playing the $5 NLHE tables at Party Poker, it represents a helluva lot of patience, quite a few bad beats and a great number of seemingly insignificant profits. Remember, a $0.50 profit is a much better outcome than losing your $5.00 starting stack any day.

I’m still deriving most pleasure from standing up from a table with a profit rather than worrying about the size of the profit itself.

Developing a Successful Micro Table Strategy

2008-02-20T14:38:00.003+11:00

The good news is that it’s possible to develop a strategy for playing online poker at the micro stakes level. In fact, I’ve been doing it night after night at Party Poker, consistently finishing the night profitably and have been relentlessly increasing my bankroll.

Now for the news that won’t thrill you so much. We’re not talking outlandishly huge profits, in fact, they’re quite small on a daily basis. Progress is extremely slow and a lot of patience is required if you’re going to be a long-term winner. I concentrate on the smallest of the micro stakes games which are the $5 NLHE cash games at Party Poker. At these tables the blinds are .02/.04 so you can see that you’re not going to win huge chunks of cash no matter how well you play or how lucky you get.

At the micro stakes tables you come across a wide range of poker ability and yes, there are a few players out there who are quite good at detecting and exploiting the weaknesses of the inexperienced players. Naturally though, the number of these inexperienced players far outweigh the better players, that’s exactly why they’re playing on the micro stakes tables in the first place. Consequently there’s plenty of money available for the taking.

Money Management

Firstly a word on money management because the poker player who is savvy when it comes to protecting his bankroll is going to be more likely to come out ahead. Different strategies work for different people so I’m going to tell you the strategy that works for me.

Although the maximum buy-in is $5 I rarely, if ever, start with this amount. Instead I will buy-in with only $2. Now some people will be screaming at me here saying that I’m limiting my upside potential with such a small stack and that’s true. But I’m also achieving two goals by implementing a small buy-in strategy. First, I am limiting losses to only $2 – and when you’ve encountered some of the wild micro stakes play that I have you’ll appreciate my motives here – and second, I am sending a message to other players that I am a little on the passive side and may be prone to being pushed around. That’s exactly what I want them to think.

Table Presence

I rarely simply open up a table and immediately sit down and play the next hand dealt. Before starting to play I like to watch at least a couple of orbits to get an idea of the playing styles of my opponents. With products such as PokerTracker this process can be sped up by checking out your opponents past play but it’s unlikely that you’ve played against everyone at the table before so it’s still best to sit and watch. Pick out the guy who likes to push other players around and the guy who regularly calls his way to the river only to fold when his draw didn’t materialise. This knowledge could prove invaluable as you aim to make your profit from the table.

Now, what I’m about to say may seem a little counter-productive, but again there is some method to my madness. Within the first few hands I’m dealt I like to enter a pot with a small bet (limp or min raise). I’ll play the hand passively and, assuming I’m not sitting on the nuts, if I’m raised I will fold my hand. Gnerally, I’m trying to send the message that I can be pushed around by someone prepared to raise aggressively. This will serve me well later when I call or raise a bet.

What Works For Me

Every time I take an online seat at a micro stakes table my aim is to leave the table with a profit – I don’t care what the size of that profit is as long asI’m in positive territory. Consequently I have devised my own personal rule that the moment my stack climbs into profit, I leave the table. It doesn’t matter if it takes 2 hands or 200, or if the size of the profit is 0.10 or $2, I still consider it a profitable night. With enough time left I can always move on to another table and start the process over again. My aim is to keep the bankroll trending north and I’ve found that this is the most effective strategy, at least for me, to make that happen on the micro tables.

Australian Freeroll At Party Poker

2008-02-18T23:40:00.000+11:00

Every day at Party Poker there are 2 freerolls available to Australian poker players. Actually, to be completely honest, the freerolls are open to Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans, but the majority of competitors tend to come from Australia. The freerolls are given the name Trey Nations if you’re looking for them on Party Poker.

The first Trey Nations Freeroll for the day kicks off at 8:05pm (Sydney, Melbourne time) and usually has around 800 entrants. The format of the tournament is as a speed tournament which Party Poker seems to be particularly enamored with. With a speed tournament the blinds go up every 4 minutes so it’s crucial to take down an early pot to put you ahead of the game. It will also allow you to play a little more tightly until you get your next big hand.

However, one of the big problems with the speed structure in a freeroll is the vast number of people who register early and then don’t take their seats until after the tournament starts. By the time you’ve sat through 5 or 6 people all timing out because they’re not there yet, the blinds have already been raised once and in some situations twice.

The payout structure is pretty good too – not that you’ll win a whole hell of a lot for the time spent playing, this is a grind remember. The top 100 finishers get paid starting with 0.30 for placings 81 – 100 up to $35.60 for taking out 1st place.

The second Tret Nations Freeroll for the night at Party Poker takes place at 11:05pm Sydney time. This freeroll generally has fewer entrants (around 300 – 400) and this is so for a couple of reasons. The obvious reason is that this freeroll starts late into the night for a good proportion of the population who are eligible to take part. But the more compelling reason is that the prize structure is nowhere near as enticing as the first freeroll – not that the first freeroll is by any means lucrative.

In the later Trey Nations freeroll you can play for entry into a weekly 50 Seat Frenzy Tournament that has a buy-in worth $15 and is held on the following Sunday morning. Payouts go to the top 10 finishers of the freeroll.

Because the prize structure is less of a drawcard you tend to get a lot more of the freeroll All-ins that are so familiar at the start of the tournament. The speed structure of the blinds forces you to push a lot harder than you possibly would otherwise too.

Realistically though, you don’t enter a Trey Nations freeroll – or any other freeroll for that matter – with the expectation of making money out of it. Rather, you should use the experience to gain valuable tournament experience without risking your hard earned. Once you’ve gotten lucky a couple of times and the field has been whittled down, the competition begins to get very serious. Competitors are playing hard to ensure that the last hour or so they’ve invested hasn’t been for nought.

If you’ve got the patience and are willing to grind out hard for little or no return then you may just have the satisfaction of starting a bankroll from $0. Good luck to you if you choose to give it a go – if you’re ever a chance t manage it then Party Poker is as good a place as any to try.

Party Poker Micro Tabling the Quiet Way

2008-02-17T22:49:00.001+11:00

What with any number of work pressures on my plate, the Party Poker visits have been relatively few and far between, but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up on my profitability goals. Oh no! I’m still looking to be well ahead after a year of micro tabling at Party Poker.

My step up from the $5 NLHE tables to the $10 NLHE tables coincided with the new year, which also coincided with a bit of a holiday. But back to work meant less free time to sit and take apart the Party Poker novices.

When I actually did hit the tables I found that I wasn’t enjoying myself quite as much as at the smallest of micro stakes and experienced a few consecutive losing nights. So what I’ve done to reinvigorate myself is step it back a notch and revisit Party Poker’s $5 NLHE cash ring tables again. Almost instantly that winning feeling came back again.

The important point to playing on-line micro stakes poker is to enjoy the game because on thing is for sure, you’re going to have to grind your heart out if you’re going to see any money in terms of profit. The good news is that, with enough patience and perseverance you can show a profit even if the quality of poker may not be considered top class.

A New Party Poker Reload For February

2008-02-15T21:46:00.004+11:00

Party Poker have sent out the latest reload bonus that will be available for the next 7 days - until 21 February. This one appears to be a short sharp one with the bonus consisting of 15% up to the value of $100, picking up the bonus by accumulating PartyPoints.

But you're going to have to play some long hours at the Party Poker tables, particularly if you're playing the micro limits, because you've only got 14 days from the date you make your deposit to earn your bonus. Probably a good offer if you were going to deposit anyway.

The Difference with Micro Stakes Poker

2008-02-14T22:22:00.002+11:00

On the one hand you have heard all the the theory in the world about the correct way to play No Limit Texas Hold Em. You need to calculate your pot odds, you work out your implied odds, you decide how much to raise to make calling very difficult for your opponent. Then on the other hand you have micro stakes poker table and all that fancy-schmancy tomfoolery mentioned above gets thrown straight out the window.

At the micro stakes NLHE tables you've got the occasional tight aggressive player who will only play his quality hands, usually pretty well with a solid pre-flop raise and a nice continuation bet. But he's the exception, vastly outnumbered by a motley assortment of wildly loose gamblers who compulsively play every hand with a limp or a call. Sometimes you'll get the raise at all costs aggressive bastard whose favourite move is to play back All-In at you whenever you raise. It's a wild ride of unexpected plays, atrocious bad beats and the most frustrating of senseless trips to the river only to drown on a 1-outer.

If you're planning on playing micro-stakes poker, don't expect that a pre-flop raise will thin the number of opponents down to 1 or 2. Oh no, my friend, at the micro tables you will regularly be playing 5 or more handed. And if the flop lands with a possible flush draw or a possible gutshot straight dra to your TPTK, well you ain't shaking anyone off easily. Y'see the odds against hitting that gutshot means nothing to the micro-fish.

The great news if you're planning a more traditional approach is that the micro table player is very easy to peg. They'll be flipping over all sorts of shit after calling with A-rag or they'll be folding after the river, obviously chasing a draw that didn't hit. As long as you're prepared to note the plays and keep your head when the inevitable bad beats come your way, you're going to come out ahead. It just may more of a grind than you're used to.

Oh, and one last thing. When a micro stakes dweller pushes All-in after the river, you can guarantee he's hit whatever he was chasing. Subtlety is NOT part of the micro stakes player's repertoire.

Freerolling At Full Tilt

2008-01-10T15:15:00.000+11:00

I’ve been easing back from Party Poker’s cash tables over the last few days for a variety of reasons, one of which was that I wasn’t particularly happy with my style of play and felt it could do with a brush up. So rather than take a break from poker altogether I’ve been sitting down at the nightly Freerolls in a bid to nurture a more aggressive game and to try it out under ‘match conditions’.

My preference is to play in the Full Tilt Freeroll even though the payout at Party extends all the way down to 80th and the field is a lot smaller. At Full Tilt there are regularly over 1500 starters in the Australian Freeroll and they only pay down to 27th place, however the blind structure is a lot slower giving you a realistic chance to recover from a beat without being blinded out.

Last night was the first time I made to the money in a Full Tilt Freeroll and, not only that, I went deep finishing in 5th place.

The most satisfying part of the tournament was a comeback from dead last place when there were 57 remaining. I was in a comfortable position with around 55,000 chips until I basically threw away all but 4,500 of them. With the blinds at 3,000 / 1,500 and the ante at 100, I wasn’t going to last very long and it certainly didn’t look as though I was going to cash. So, when I was UTG I chucked my last 4,000 chips in with J 8c and resigned myself to closing up shop. Three callers were all over me, but when I flopped trip 8s I was pretty sure I was saved.

I picked up QQ the very next hand, threw it all-in again and my tournament was alive and kicking once again. But then, I not only get back in the game, I proceeded to race through the field until I was chip leader heading towards the final table.

So what did I win for over 5 hours of hard work, good play and good luck? $6!!!

Read it an weep suckers

A Second Grinding Challenge

So, I have managed to add a lucrative $6 in freeroll earnings to the sick and sorry Full Tilt account to bring it up to the grand total of…um…$10.

I’ve been bleeding cash badly at Full Tilt and the situation’s dire. The main problem is that I haven’t been preserving my profits when I’ve been ahead at a table. It’s the same story as before, I’d be sitting on a handy profit for a session only to eventually bust out due to bad play or bad beat.

As with what I’ve been doing at Party Poker for the past 2 and a half months, I propose to devote some time at Full Tilt to build up my bankroll using a similar bankroll strategy. I’ll be playing the $10 NLHE tables and will leave a table AS SOON AS I make a profit, regardless of the size of the profit. I’ll then move over to another table and (hopefully) repeat the process.

Starting bankroll is $10.

Is the Air A Bit Thinner?

2008-01-07T14:28:00.000+11:00

I haven't exactly been choking but I've definitely noticed a difference.

It's been around a week since I moved from the $5 NLHE tables at Party Poker to the $10 NLHE tables and have had mixed results with a couple of winning nights and a couple of losing nights. I've got no problem with experiencing losses...I accept them as part of the ups and downs of playing poker. But it's the way that I've been losing that has been a concern.

I've noticed one important difference between the two levels I've now played and if I am going to succeed at this and higher levels, I'm going to have to make a mental adjustment PDQ. The level of aggressive play is higher at the $10 tables. I'm sure it only gets more and more aggressive as the stakes rise, too. Too many times I am finding myself folding my hand to a raise when I should have stayed with it.

I know that some part of this is due to the perception that the bet sizes are larger so it feels as though I am risking a great deal more. In dollar terms, this is true but in percentage terms it is around the same or even less risk.

I've been up and I've been down and I've had a few days rest to reassess my playing strategy and my progress in $$$ is virtually nil. Hopefully, though, my education has benefitted and I will be a stronger player when I next hit the tables. I just have to put it into practice.

Graduation Day

2007-12-31T21:34:00.000+11:00

It may be the last day of 2007 for everyone else, but for me it's Graduation Day. I have reached my initial goal of playing 10,000 hands at the $5 NLHE tables at Party Poker and finishing with a profit. Not only that, I have beaten my expectations beyond any measure that I could have hoped when I started out.

If you'll recall, I allowed myself a miniscule bankroll of only $30.00 and was determined that, unlike the last bankroll, I would not lose the lot. I would have been happy with doubling my money to $60.00, in fact.

Last night when the 10,000th hand had been played and I closed my session, my overall bankroll stood at $142.27, and I was prepared to step up to the $10 NLHE tables. Once again I'll be setting a new list of goals, plus the requisite milestones to keep my focus along the way. After all, it worked so well the first time, I reckon I must be doing something right.

I'll be reporting back when I have completed my initial set of $10 NLHE goals.

Poker Links for the Week, 24 - 30 Dec

2007-12-30T22:40:00.000+11:00

A quick trawl through my blogroll this week threw up a few juicy tidbits to chew on.

PokerNews and Pacific Poker have announced during the week that the PokerProForAYear competition has finally come down to the 10 finalists with the winner to be decided at Melboune's Crown Casino on January 7.

The always interesting Shamus of Poker at Hard-Boiled Poker has informed us that he has recently been added to the roster of "BigPoker Bloggers" at PokerSift.com. He can also be read at Pokerati where he is also now posting.

The Noted Poker Authority gave us some tips on how to cope with playing at wild poker tables, you know, when the betting just goes crazy and you're taken out of your comfort zone. As he explains, it's all right to move in on those aggressive raises.

At the Anonymous Poker Weblog a few hints/tips/reminders on how to identify and exploit weakness when playing at the micro level.

Blinders gives us some thoughts on differentiating between a donkey move and an expert play in MTT's.

Jaklang at Online Poker Jottings has been checking out BeatTheFish.com and has given it the thumbs up with word being that bonus tips from poker rooms are out there to be had, not to mention some valuable strategy articles. Worth a look.

Anguila at Runner-Runner has posted a hand from a recent MTT that contains a call that would piss off a priest. He's looking for comments.

Some Blog Tournaments for the Week 24-30 December

The Mookie at Full Tilt - Wednesdays - Low Limit Grinder's blog for password and buy-in details.

Hoyazo has let it be known that, for the 52nd time this year, he didn't win the Mookie.

Monday At the Hoy (MATH) and the winner was cemfrommd. For a good rundown plus an update on the MATH moneyboard, visit the man himself. Buy in, password and start time details can all be found at the Hammer Player's blog.

BTW: Make sure you check out Hoy's post that unveils the Top 5 Hoy Haters for 2007.

Mission Accomplished - Almost

2007-12-26T22:49:00.000+11:00

After taking the day off yesterday to celebrate the Christmas season with all manner of cold beer and hot food, I was back again tonight to polish off the last few dollars needed to reach my goal of $140.00. It seems that the micro-limit Euro-fish are still in the giving mood with every table I visited bestowing untold riches upon me, vaulting me over my target in no uncertain terms.

The hand that took me there was the sweetest of them all when I limped into a short-handed pot with Ks Th on the button. I hit Broadway with a flop of Qd As Jh and, with only one other player in the pot, called his minimum bet after the flop. The turn of 5c held no concerns so when my brave opponent doubled his bet, I was happy to go along and call again. A 2c on the river and I've got the nuts in front of me. A cagey check from the enemy prompted me to bet one-third of the pot, making it look like I was attempting to steal it. Sure enough, my soon to be very disappointed adversary raised me to double the pot, so I re-raised All-in and got the call I was after. The poor bugger had hit a set of 2s on the River and thought he had trapped me but good. So long, sucker as he doubles me up and puts me across the finish line.

But that's only part of my target reached. According to my original goals, I still have another 650 hands to play at this level to reach the stated 10,000 hands. That means I have around 4 more days, playing at the rate I usually take before reaching the "experience" goal.

So Merry Christmas to you all and watch your backs. I'm one step closer to playing for some serious money.

Cruising

2007-12-21T08:31:00.000+11:00

I get the feeling that I’m about at the stage where I should be at my most wary. It’s sort of that watershed moment that means the difference between stagnating and progressing. I’ve got the feeling that I’m bulletproof when I sit down at the $5 NLHE cash table at the moment, pulling down a profit virtually every time I play. It’s a dangerous attitude to have, mainly because it means that I’m shifting from the game plan that has brought me success so far.

In order to successfully progress to higher stakes tables this change, or growth, must occur. It’s down to how I manage the adjustment that becomes the key factor in whether I take advantage of my growing confidence. The risk is that I overdo the confidence thing and find myself taken down a notch or two by players that are more experienced, more aggressive and/or more crazy.

Just between you and me, I expect that the $10 NLHE cash games at Party Poker are just as fishy as the $5 tables and my strategy will continue to hold. But I’ve got to sound humble and apprehensive from the start or I’ll find it difficult to get action.

My original plan was to play 10,000 hands at the $5 NLHE cash tables at Party Poker and I have around 1400 to go which should see me reach the target by around the new year. My bankroll has grown from $30 to $130 far exceeding my modest goal of reaching $60. As I move on up I’ll post a more complete set of statistics and figures.

Current Bankroll Position : +323.81%

Milestones, Milestones

2007-12-15T23:30:00.000+11:00

It's inevitable, of course, that the milestones are becoming easier to achieve, what with my growing experience and the resultant growth in confidence. And so, after only a week since I reached the $100 bankroll mark I have moved it beyond $120 and am beginning to prepare myself (with a healthy looking bankroll) for the next level.

The $5 cash ring tables remain a complete minefield with any number of desperados will to call pre-flop all-in bets holding A-rag. Watching someone's AKs get knocked off by the caller's A4o makes you both cringe and rub your hands together all at the same time.

Naturally I have my own annoyances, today's version went something like this:

***** Hand History for Game 6593842277 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, December 15, 04:51:00 ET 2007
Table Table 126658 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 3: Seat 3 ( $5.02 USD )
Seat 5: Seat 5 ( $3.04 USD )
Seat 6: Seat 6 ( $3.82 USD )
Seat 8: Seat 8 ( $3.97 USD )
Seat 9: Seat 9 ( $4.87 USD )
Seat 10: Villain ( $2.66 USD )
Seat 4: pizerule ( $0.69 USD )
Seat 1: Seat 1 ( $4.92 USD )
Seat 7: Seat 7 ( $4.96 USD )
Seat 2: Seat 2 ( $1.96 USD )
Villain posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
Seat 1 is sitting out
Seat 2 posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to pizerule [ Kh Tc ]
Seat 3 calls [$0.04 USD]
pizerule raises [$0.12 USD]
Seat 5 calls [$0.12 USD]
Seat 6 calls [$0.12 USD]
Seat 7 folds.
Seat 8 folds.
Seat 9 folds.
Villain calls [$0.10 USD]
Seat 2 folds.
Seat 3 calls [$0.08 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9d, Kc, 5d ]
Villain checks.
Seat 3 checks.
pizerule is all-In.
Seat 5 folds.
Seat 6 calls [$0.57 USD]
Villain calls [$0.57 USD]
Seat 3 calls [$0.57 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jc ]
Villain bets [$0.64 USD]
Seat 3 folds.
Seat 6 folds.
** Dealing River ** [ 2c ]
Villain shows [ 2d, Jd ]two pairs, Jacks and Twos.
pizerule doesn't show [ Kh, Tc ]a pair of Kings.
Villain wins $0.64 USD from side pot #1 with two pairs, Jacks and Twos.
Villain wins $2.78 USD from the main pot with two pairs, Jacks and Twos.

Now this joker called my pre-flop raise with J 2 and then called with the fishy's favourite - the allure of the flush draw - and proceeded to hit runner runner. Needless to say, the bloke did a runner from the table after that hand, obviously embarrassed at having it shown down. He'll keep.

In order to ensure that I continue to challenge myself, I think I will have to adjust the milestones so that I have to aim to reach them over a shorter period of time.

Current Bankroll Position : +292.77%

A Winning Night and a Question

2007-12-12T15:02:00.001+11:00

I had my most successful night at the Party Poker $5 cash tables since beginning to keep track of my daily returns. This has helped give me a giant boost towards the next milestone target in record time, which is probably just as well considering the Christmas-based interruptions that I’m expecting in the back half of the month. It seemed that no matter what I did last night I couldn’t help but take down the pot – certainly makes a pleasant change to sitting on the other end of a notorious Party Poker suck out.

Compared to the vast majority of microtable denizens I am a particularly tight player, sticking to premium starting hands for the vast majority of the time. A significant number of players I play against have a VP$IP of over 50 which is really quite ridiculous, but it also provides plenty of opportunities. Sometimes I get myself into a fold-rut where I will automatically fold whenever some crazy makes what I consider an indecently large raise before the flop, even when I’ve got a decent starting hand.

So that’s why it was really out of character the way I played my A Qs.

I was UTG and whacked in a 6xBB raise trying to limit the commonplace multi-way pots that scuttle many a strong starting hand. My raise was immediately called by the guy next to me, only to be raised All-In by the next bloke. Everyone else folded around to me. My usual reaction in this situation is to fold, fearing I’ve come up against AA. But last night I allowed myself to break free from my usual passivity and chucked it all in. As an added bonus, the guy who called my original raise also called the All-In move.

A Queen in the door saw my hand prevail and tripled me up. Unfortunately the Party Poker software doesn’t show each player’s hole cards when All-In in cash ring games so I have no idea what the other guys made their move with. And here’s my point… other than to crow about a handy win…surely, if I have risked all of my money by calling someone’s All-In move I have bought the right to see the hole cards of my opponents. Party Poker displays the hole cards when players are All-In during tournament play, why not at the cash ring tables?

I shall be asking the Party Poker powers the same question.

Current Bankroll Position : +272.66%

The $100 Milestone

2007-12-09T23:55:00.000+11:00

I'm currently playing the .02/.04 NLHE Tables at Party Poker. The goal is to increase my bankroll sufficiently to move up to the next cash game level.

A couple of days ahead of schedule and the latest milestone ($100) is mine – not without the odd self-doubt in the midst of a few mind-boggling beats – with the last few days proving to be very profitable indeed.

One thing that I am rather uncomfortable about is that I feel as though I am playing way too tight, allowing myself to get pushed off my hands too easily. (My PT Total Aggression factor is 1.16). It’s an aspect of my play that I must overcome if I am going to be successful at the higher stakes tables. Part of my problem is that I’m very bankroll-conscious at the moment and am often unwilling to risk losing in order to win. I know this goes directly against the essential ingredient in becoming a successful NLHE player, so it’s a part of my game I will have to address sooner rather than later.

Be that as it may, I’m celebrating the power of goal-setting today and am basking in the satisfying glow of success.

So now I have to focus on the next milestone target of $120 which I will be trying to reach by December 21. I have been playing a lot more hands per day over the last couple of weeks so the expected date for reaching 10,000 hands has moved forward to early January which will coincide nicely with the beginning of the new year.

Current Bankroll Position : 225.98%

Discipline

2007-12-03T14:25:00.000+11:00

The key to successfully playing profitable poker isn’t whether I play A 9o from middle position too often but to my overall discipline…

When starting out on the challenge of something ambitious such as building a bankroll from an insignificant amount to impressive proportions, you tend to begin with bright-eyed confidence and an undying belief that the goal you’re attempting to achieve is reachable. Indeed, it is achievable…just about anything our imagination can think up is achievable. Realising your goal comes down to a number of key factors, but the most important one, and the one in which we have the most control over, is discipline.

Here are a few of the discipline challenges I have encountered over the last couple of months as I have been grinding my bankroll up from $30 to $90 on the Party Poker $5 NLHE Cash tables.

The discipline of playing day after day in a bid to meet the goal number of hands per day.

The discipline of sticking to the cash games rather than trying my hand at the SNG tables.

The discipline of sticking to my tried and tested strategy of leaving the table as soon as a profit has been made.

The discipline of slowly building my bankroll rather than succumbing to the temptation of moving too quickly out of my depth in a bid to try to speed the process up.

The discipline of constantly reaffirming my goals to keep them solidified in my head.

The discipline of honestly recounting my progress in a blog to make it more real and powerful.

The discipline of remaining pragmatic whenever someone calls my pre-flop raise and then proceeds to take down my pocket KK with their 8 3o.

The discipline of not allowing overconfidence to distract me from my original goal.

Naturally, my discipline is most sorely tested after a losing day as the doubts start crowding in and attempt to take over from all of the hard built positive energy. For all of the reasons listed above, not to mention a few more that will probably come to me as I continue to think hard over it, setting out goals is vital to ongoing poker success.

Grindability Factor Set To High

2007-11-30T23:07:00.000+11:00

As we near the end of November the progress continues to be slow but steady, as you would expect when playing as a self-proclaimed grinder. I once again picked up ground on my latest milestone target of $100, regaining the confidence I lost when I was used as a plaything during the week.

I’ve taken to stopping by Full Tilt each night after I’ve had my fill of the Party Poker $5 cash craziness to play a few $2 STT SNG’s. I’ve been meeting with a reasonable amount of success with a net profit so far the result. Now, I know this is a completely ridiculous suggestion but I’m going to make it anyway. I have been astounded at the number of times the big stack seems to hit a 1 or 2 outer on the river when someone’s gone all-in at Full Tilt. The comments along the lines of “that’s a Full Tilt Special” are commonly seen at the end of the hand.

Perhaps it comes from being able to see both sets of hole cards while the all-in unfolds, compared with at Party Poker where they’re not revealed in the cash games so you don’t get a sense for how often it happens there too.

The Irony of Poker

2007-11-28T12:59:00.000+11:00

Hugely ironical or a timely reminder of how tough the game of poker can be, I don’t know, but a day after posting that quote about the value of failure I suffered my first losing day for 2 weeks. The reality is I was due for a loss, I can’t expect to win every time I throw money on the table, it’s just the timing that strikes me as rather poignant.

The difficult part about it was the fact that it felt as though I was being used as a punching bag at times last night. If I hit top pair on the flop and bet, someone would come over the top with a re-raise. When I bet on the river with a reasonably strong hand, the inevitable re-raise all-in would materialise. It seemed that every time someone chased their unrealistic draw to the river they were hitting against me (that wasn’t actually the case of course, it just seemed like it).

My mood wasn’t helped when I picked up AA UTG, threw in a standard 3 x BB raise and was popped all-in by a guy in MP. He then showed A 2o and proceeded to hit a 2 on the flop and another 2 on the turn to take me down. It’s cold comfort to know that although he might be a short-term winner, making plays like that will ensure that he is bound to be a long-term loser. I’ve just got to make sure I’m there when the ledger is balanced.

Current Bankroll Position : +176.22%

The Price of Success

2007-11-27T08:28:00.000+11:00

As I am only a month and a half into my newly devised strategy to play poker profitably, I am on a very steep learning curve. I’m reading as much as I can – and not everything I’m reading has to do solely with poker. As you may have picked up from the bulk of my posts, I am relying on the power of goal-setting, combined with a basic poker savvy, to keep driving me forward.

I thought I would share the latest valuable nugget that might help you get over the next time you go bust:

There is an old saying: "Anything worth doing well is worth doing poorly at first." It is not practice that makes perfect; it is imperfect practice that eventually makes perfect.

Whenever you start something new, you can expect to do it poorly. You will feel clumsy and awkward at first. You will feel inadequate and inferior. You will often feel silly and embarrassed. But this is the price that you pay to achieve excellence in your field. You will always have to pay the price of success, and that price often involves the hard work of mastering a difficult skill that you need to move to the top of your field.

Source : Goals by Brian Tracy (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.)

Another Week, Another Milestone

2007-11-26T16:22:00.000+11:00

Another successful weekend has rolled by, the $80 milestone has been achieved and I’m now pointing my focus on the next milestone target of $100. While the numbers appear small, the progress feels enormous and my confidence is growing accordingly.

The full milestone target that I’m looking to achieve next is a bankroll of $100 by December 10. As things stand today, that’s a profit of $13.13 in 15 days or an average daily profit of $0.88 playing on the .02/.04 NLHE Cash tables. Given that my average daily profit for November is currently $1.45, the goal is more than realistic.

I’m still on track to build my bankroll up to a level that will give me a solid financial background to play on the $10 NLHE cash tables.

Having a look around at the various blogs out there, I can see that I am an insignificant speck playing tiny stakes games and earning a decidedly unimpressive profit. However, I have also noticed that, apart from a very minor percentage of the blogging populace, I seem to be one of very few people who have given much thought to devising a plan that will lead them to profitability. (Or maybe I’m just one of the few who constantly talks about it in my blog…)

There’s lots of moaning and bitching about the donks out there who beat their KK with an inferior hand (perhaps unwilling to admit to themselves or us that maybe their earlier style of play may have prompted the seemingly loose call, hmmmm?). I also seem to be reading about people who “had a spare hour so decided to jump onto the $100 table”. Certainly there’s little mention of anyone reaching a certain predetermined playing level and are now moving up to try their game at the next level.

Just out of curiosity, how many of you out there actually have a plan or a goal in which you hope to move up the various stakes games, be they MTT, SNG or Cash games? On the flip side, how many are just as comfortable to play for the entertainment factor and are willing to deposit more funds when the bankroll is fully depleted?

Australian Federal Election & Milestone Day

2007-11-24T15:55:00.000+11:00

The Australian Federal Election is in full swing today as the nation votes to elect a (new) Prime Minister into office. The writing has been on the wall for Little Johnny Howard for quite some time and the expectation is that Kevin Rudd will take over as the Prime Minister of Australia. George Dubya will have to get someone else to kiss his arse for him in future.

Milestone Day

Today is also the day that I had nominated to have increased my bankroll to $80, as a minor milestone on the road to my longer term goal. After playing a few hours last night I finished with my account sitting at a little over $79.50, so a profitable session tonight should see me realising my goal on time.

Doing so means that I'm still on track with my attempt at averaging a daily profit of $1.25 on the .02/.04 NLHE Cash tables.

I'm A Titan!

2007-11-23T16:34:00.001+11:00

I’ve opened an account at Titan Poker to go with my existing Party and Full Tilt accounts. I’ve done so for a number of reasons, but I suppose the overriding factor is plain ole greed.

I was reading an article that set out to determine the fishiest online poker room taking into the number of low-limit SNG’s, MTT’s, Ring Cash games and Tournament Qualifiers as well as the ratio of rank beginners to more experienced players. It came down to a battle between Party Poker and Titan with the title being awarded to Titan.

Wow! A poker site that is fishier than Party! That’s got to be reason enough for a small initial deposit just to check out the standard for myself. I’m still sticking to the micro-tables although I’ve stepped it up a notch to play the $10 NL 6 max cash games. A little bonus is that, as a first time depositer I also get the opportunity to play in the Beginner Freerolls. I’m not sure whether I’ll bother playing these because, the way I see it, the time I spend gunning for a pittance after 3 or 4 hours of play could be better spent fishing at the cash games.

I’ve had 3 sessions at Titan so far noodling out a profit each time and getting a bit of a feel for the standard of play. To this point it’s pretty much as advertised with plenty of people willing to chase their draws all the way to the river.

So the plan is to apply the same strategy that I'm using at Party Poker to the fish at Titan and challenge myself to growing my bankroll, progressing up the cash game ladder.

Note the Hole Cards At Showdown

2007-11-23T10:54:00.000+11:00

One of the most important aspects, not to mention potentially profitable, parts of playing on the micro-tables is taking note of what’s shown down. Last night was a prime example of picking up a person’s playing style – or lack thereof – when a guy took down a pretty big pot with a flush showing his hole cards which were 9 2d. The fact that to get there he had to call raises after the flop and turn before hitting on the river made my night and flagged that there was a lot of easy money to be made.

Sure enough, time and again I played hands that were called to the river with either flush draws or straight draws that didn’t hit, only to see the hand folded when a bet is made. It’s taking advantage of the obvious poor players at the micro-level that will prove profitable in the long run. For every bad beat that you take off these calling stations there are numerous opportunities to exploit the craptastic.

Mr 8-3 Returns

Right back at the start of the month I moaned a little bit about the guy who called my pre-flop raise with 8 3o, prompting me to dub him “Mr 8-3”. It has taken 20 days but he finally made a return to the tables at a time that coincided with me. And you reckon the band didn’t play Waltzing Matilda inside my head when I spotted him? Like bloody hell it didn’t.

True to his previous – for want of a better word – style, he played every damn hand that was dealt to him, limping if it hadn’t been raised before him and calling if it had. Party time! He paid big time…and I plan on returning to the well in the future too.

Current Bankroll Position : +141.32%

My Progress Report After 5 Weeks

2007-11-21T14:28:00.000+11:00

Time for another check on how my progress is going as I attempt to meet my bankroll goals. I find this kind of analysis is important to reaffirming my goals as well as ensuring that I’m not straying from my original strategy which is easy to do when beset by impatience, overconfidence and complacency. The temptation to begin pushing harder after a little bit of success can cause me to deviate from the original plan and away from the discipline that brought the success in the first place.

I acknowledge that I’m a better poker player than when I started this challenge, but I also acknowledge that I’m nowhere near as good as I will have to be if I am going to succeed at the higher levels.

Goal	Actual
Play 100 hands / day	Playing 99.7 hands / day
To show a profit	Current profit is at 114%
To have a bankroll big enough to allow 20 buy-ins at the next level	Bankroll = $66 Current profit / day is 0.98. The target minimum is $100 which works out at only 0.53 / day.

So I can conclude from this little summary that I am safely on course to achieve the goals I have set for myself. (Insert warm inner glow of indulgent self-congratulation here). I admit that I can improve HOW I play, but, for the standard with which I am mixing it, I'm doing OK.

Making Up For Lost Time

2007-11-20T21:16:00.000+11:00

My internet connection has been restored, pay television (the deity my children bow down to) is returned and the poker fun and games has been allowed to resume.

I think the enforced break has allowed me the chance to take a breath, reassess the way I’ve been playing and not stress so much about copping a bad beat or two. My drive to meet my goals has caused me to play very passively out of the fear of taking a loss when often times, had I remained aggressive, I would have had more success.

I’ve jumped back onto the Party Poker $5 tables showing great patience with the numerous multi-way pots that are common there. So I’ve made myself a little mantra that no-one in the big blind will get a free look at the flop if I’m in the pot.

To welcome me back today our table was visited by a guy who announced as he sat down “I don’t play poker any more…but they gave me a bonus…I’m going to splash it around to you guys”. Oh year, I thought, that sounds like a case of Come In Spinner. But he was true to his word and he was kind enough to donate 2 buy-ins to my cause. A very handy little welcome back present.

Add to that a couple of $2 + 0.25 SNG wins at Full Tilt and it feels as though I’m making up for lost time.

Current Bankroll Position : +113.75%

Things Sent To Try Us

2007-11-15T14:14:00.000+11:00

With my new goals set and a steely resolve to grind my way to the daily profit I had become accustomed to, I thought I had covered all the obstacles that could get in my way. What I hadn’t counted on was the dirty great truck that would roll down our street and snag itself on our cable connection bringing the whole lot down in a tangled mess. Goodbye broadband connection, adios Foxtel.

The earliest we can hope to be reconnected? Monday!!!

5 days without cable television or access to the internet. It’ll feel like we’re living in the 1980’s again – without the techno-crap music, thank God.

So that gives me 5 days to study. I might crack my copy of The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky and go over a few handy hints that will give me an added edge. After a little fortune reversal lately it may not exactly be a bad thing to regroup, reassess and reapply.

Fortunately I can still sneak onto the internet from work and while Poker sites are blocked because of that whole gambling thing, blogs and forums are available for access, so at least I can keep up with what’s going on around the traps even if I can’t participate.

The Pain of Losing

2007-11-14T14:45:00.001+11:00

Here’s an interesting paradox that some of you may be familiar with.

On Monday when the Australian stock market took a dive I lost around $5,000 in one day, yet barely gave it a moment’s thought, accepting it as part of the frequent rises and falls that go with share trading. Yet when I lost 7 bucks – Seven. Lousy. Bucks. – playing poker on the micro-tables last night, I spent the rest of the night muttering and cursing, despising myself for some of the insane calls I made, reliving hand after hand, pissed off at the prick who played 89o and beat my set when he hit his straight on the river.

How does that work???

There are a few obvious reasons for the difference in my reaction (apart the fact that I’m just plain weird) to the two situations but logically they should be same. Why?

There is a known risk of loss when entering both transactions.
There a ways and means of minimising your losses in both cases – setting stop losses for the market, limiting yourself to a certain buy-in, for example.

But I think the main reason that I tool the poker loss so much harder was that I’d had so many winning sessions in a row that I simply wasn’t conditioned to accept a loss. My mind had conveniently overlooked the probability that, every now and then, the cards simply won’t fall your way and the money will move from your account to someone who is infinitely less deserving.

When I Deviate - I Lose

2007-11-13T14:32:00.000+11:00

I experienced another minor hiccup last night with a couple of hits setting me back, one of them was my own fault for being a dumbass and chasing when I knew I was behind, but the others were because of ridiculously loose calls pre-flop that hit from nowhere. You’ve got to accept the beats I suppose, after all if they were decent players they wouldn’t be wasting time on the $5 tables.

Last night’s loss wiped out most of the previous 2 day’s profit so while it has left a bitter taste in my mouth, it’s hardly devastating. The most galling aspect was that, playing at what turned out to be the last ring-cash table of the night I once again deviated from my stated strategy in a bid to chase my early losses and blew a 26% profit to eventually leave the table with a 38% loss.

As if I haven’t had the proof of the success of my “stand up with any profit” strategy already drummed into me, I received a further smack around the chops with it. Lesson : don’t tinker with what already works.

Smart Poker’s Muppet of the Day

A great way to approach some of the bad play that you encounter on a regular basis is to deride and make fun of those who exhibit a deficiency in game. Taking the opportunity to point and laugh, Smart Money has introduced us to Muppet of the Day. Hopefully it will be an ongoing feature of his blog, readers have certainly gotten into the spirit of the occasion with their own additions. Well worth checking out.

Current Bankroll Position : +101.01%

Adjusting the Short Term Goal

2007-11-12T13:24:00.001+11:00

When I posted my initial goal-setting post I mentioned that the goals should be regularly adjusted as circumstances change. I had no illusions about my own progress or that the change of goals would come about because I had far exceeded my own expectations. After all, I had just exhausted my first bankroll, the standard of my own play was awful and there was no real sign that I was going to turn it around.

Some major cramming of noted poker books by Sklansky, Brunson and Harrington as well as diligently putting their theory into practice and some typically shoddy play by my fellow micro-table guppies has kicked me forward at a great rate.

New Short Term Goals

Complete 10,000 hands at the $5 NLHE tables. (I’ve currently played 3,000 hands).
Reach a bankroll of $140. To do this I calculate I must average around $1.13 / day which I figure is a challenge on the unpredictable .02/.04 tables.
Readjust milestone targets to (i) $80 by 24 November (ii) $100 by 10 December (iii) $120 by 26 December
I’ve bought myself Poker Tracker and plan to use it to identify weaker players to help me choose which tables I play at. Interestingly, when I loaded in my old hand histories the players who came at or near the bottom of the statistics were those players I had identified myself. I was fairly pleased that my own analysis was backed up by the numbers.

Long Term Goal Reaffirmed

Play at the $5,000 NLHE ($25/$50) tables by July 2010.

Medium Term Goal Reaffirmed

To play profitably at the $100 ($0.50/$1) tables by October 2008.

I’m happy with the knowledge that I have picked up so far by reading the various recommended poker books, but I still have quite a lot of work to do in calculating pot odds. I find it particularly difficult to do given the speed at which on-line poker is played, so this is an aspect that I will have to work on. I figure that when I fold a hand I should sit there and try to calculate what my pot odds would have been had I stayed with the hand.

So much of the success I'm trying to attain has more to do with effective goal setting rather than effective poker.

Pay Me Bitch!

2007-11-11T20:20:00.000+11:00

How’s this for a dream scenario.

You’re sitting at a table that contains a couple of absolute feebs who regularly take pots with massive overbets, backing the other players down. Occasionally the overbet is called and you see the bluff but it doesn’t deter them from making the identical play over and over again.

Finally, I’m on the button and pick up 9 Tc and make the call with one of those erratic players checking in the BB. The flop comes 8c 9d 9h – trips is a pretty fair flop, I’m pretty sure I know what’s coming and BB bets the minimum so I call signalling I’m chasing. The turn comes Jc and not only do I sit there with trips but I’ve also got a straight flush draw. The erratic BB predictably bumps the betting up 4 x the pot to scare me off the hand so I again make the call.

Well bugger me if the river isn’t the Qc and there I am with my second queen high straight flush in two days. Now if history is anything to go by…

Sure enough the aggro BB chucks me All-In. It’s one thing to pick up the absolute nuts but a whole nuther thing to get paid off to the max!

And what did the showdown reveal? A mighty 8d 2h!!!

Milestone #3 achieved!

Needless to say I flew past my 3rd milestone target yesterday and am now embarking on a new goal.

If I am going to play the $10 NLHE tables with the recommended bankroll risking a maximum of 5% with your stake, my minimum requirement is a bankroll of $100 for a $5 stake. Therefore my new goal at the $5 tables is to get as close to $100 as possible. I estimate it will take around 60 more days to play the 7000 hands to get me to 10000, so that’s only an average daily profit of 0.60 – a target that’s definitely achievable. Exceeding that mark will allow me to play with a higher stake.

Current Bankroll Position : 108.56%

Of Tiny Cash Games and Limit Sit N Go

2007-11-10T20:19:00.000+11:00

Another significant day today has drawn me to within $1 of my first money goal of turning $30 into $60. The 3 day losing streak at the start of the month is now a fading memory but still a reminder of what can happen if I get ahead of myself. The reins are still tightly in check and I am only playing quality starting hands wherever possible. I’m also careful to eject the hand when the texture of the board combined with the betting looks to be going against me.

Although the quality of the microtable player may not be terribly crash hot, the outlandish array of starting hands that people are willing to call a raise with makes it somewhat of a minefield to play in. The play is interesting at times to say the least.

Limit Sit N Go Tourneys

As well as the .02/.04 cash games I have begun playing a few of the Party Poker $3 Limit Hold ‘em Sit N Go’s. I’ve been reading “Small Stakes Hold ‘em” by Miller, Sklansky and Malmuth and have been trying to apply the concepts from the book. It’s early days so far but from the couple of Sit n Go tourneys I’ve entered I have picked up a 1st and a 2nd place finish. Some of the entrants in these SNGs are absolutely clueless about how to play LHE with the first 10-15 hands all raised to the maximum on every street. Not only that, last night one genius announced to the rest of the table “Damn, I thought this was no-limit, I hate limit.” Guess who was first eliminated.

So the sailing is smooth at the moment as I continue to learn the craft. The pace is probably slower than that which most would like to progress, but I am convinced that I can “get rich slowly” by doing it this way. The plan is that at some point the graph will develop into a nice J-curve.

Current Bankroll Position : +91.50%

"Tonight's my first night playing with real money"

2007-11-08T21:16:00.000+11:00

How's this for the chance of a lifetime. Someone comes and sits at the .02/.04 table tonight and, before being dealt a card announces to the table that it's her first night playing for real money. (You could almost hear the girlish giggle as she said it). Well naturally, I thought "just pass the money over here - save us all some time".

And then the fun began. She played 92o like it was pocket aces...until the river where she checked it down and lost in a showdown. 86o was played like there was no tomorrow before the flop with a 12xBB raise, then it was checked after the flop, called to the river before going down (surprisingly for such a powerhouse hand).

Boom, ka-boom, her first stake was gone and it was a laugh riot to watch the zany action. The rest of us were fighting over getting our money in. She didn't miss a hand and I don't even think she was issued a "Fold" button.

But she didn't stop at one stake. Click - *Rebuy* and round 2 was on for young and old until that too was gone. Cick - *Rebuy* OMG I thought I'd died and gone to hog heaven.

But then all too soon she was gone from our table...so I followed her to her next port of call. It wasn't all one way traffic, though. I watched her push, check and then call from UTG all the way to the river against one poor guy The board showed Td Th 3d (9s) (4c). He raised pre-flop, bet after the flop, bet after the turn and shoved All-In on the river only to find that she finally hit something on the river with her pocket 4s - a boat.

The betting was crazy and the starting hands were just ridiculous, but I tell you what, I have her name marked down and I'll be back for more fun and games tomorrow night. I hope she is too.

It's All Down In Tiny Town

2007-11-08T15:01:00.001+11:00

There are grinds and then there are grinds. Last night I played a helluva lot of poker with absolutely nothing to show for it at FullTilt and then swapped over to Party Poker where I only played 28 hands and came away with a handy profit.

At FullTilt I entered the nightly freeroll that is restricted to Australian players. Once again I was experiencing a bit of flakiness with my broadband connection that was dropping out and back in a few times. This has only started happening since the latest server reconfiguration last weekend, my connectivity appears OK elsewhere and my ISP reports that everything is A-OK at their end.

Anyway, after a solid 2 hours of bumping and grinding, pushing and folding I found myself down to the last 80 of the field of 700. But I was getting short stacked and still 50 places from the money. It only took one ill-considered push at precisely the wrong time to see me out on my ear in 73rd place and nothing to show for my efforts. Uh, that is, except for the knowledge that I play these tourneys way too passively. Where I should have been accumulating chips I was folding my hand expecting something better to come along when in fact it had just passed.

The contrast between the tournament play and the tiny stakes of the micro-table cash games at Party Poker was enormous and the calling stations were out in force, falling over themselves to pay off my flopped sets and straights. Obviously I have tailored my style to be more suited to the set blinds where I can afford to wait for a quality hand to make my move.

The thing is, on a micro-table there is no such thing as a tight table image. I don’t think anyone noticed that I folded down virtually every hand for 2 orbits before entering a pot judging by the willing callers to my pre-flop raises. Not complaining – just saying.

Current bankroll Position : +63.57%

Out! Out! Damn Broadband Connection

2007-11-07T08:42:00.000+11:00

I had what I would consider to be my most frustrating night at the table last night and it had nothing to do with finding myself card dead, I really didn’t suffer from bad beats and I was fairly happy with my own play. My problem came with an extraordinarily uncooperative broadband connection that repeatedly disconnected me from the site. I had entered a STT Sit N Go and hadn’t even played a hand before the dealer’s comments announced that I had already been disconnected and reconnected 3 times.

Great!

My concentration was absolutely shot to pieces as I didn’t know when my screen was going to freeze midway through a hand. I’d come back partly through the next hand madly trying to work out who had taken down the last pot. This is something that has never happened to me before – perhaps it’s karma after my bitchy post from a couple of days ago complaining about the time taken by multi-tablers. That’ll learn me.

The fact that I made it to 4th was even more annoying with the blinds going up, my chip stack dwindling and the freezes becoming more troublesome. As it turned out, I was getting blinded out of the tourney by the auto “Post blind and fold” feature that kicked in when I was disconnected.

Before all of these fun and games I managed to fit some ring cash play in over at Party Poker and picked up a little profit to keep me on track towards my short term goal. It’s slow and steady but the direction is forwards.

Current bankroll Position : +57.54%

Melbourne Cup Day

2007-11-06T09:18:00.000+11:00

I had a relatively quiet night last night after experiencing my brief losing streak. I felt it would be more prudent to be circumspect for a day father than immediately go out to chase my losses.

As it turned out, I still got to play my fair share of hands for the day, but instead of hitting the cash tables I played a Full Tilt Freeroll followed by a Party Poker Freeroll. Full Tilt saw me crash out fairly early but at Party Poker I was lucky enough to make it to the money again picking up a small bonus for my efforts. The payout represented enough to keep me on target for reaching my next goal so I chose to rack my cue and have an early night.

Melbourne Cup today and it all feels a bit ho hum around Sydney. The equine flu outbreak that has brought the Sydney racing scene to a grinding halt seems also to have affected the interest with the locals too. I’ve falling so completely out of touch that I won’t be having a bet this year. The only interest I’ve got is in the yearly office sweep for which I contribute on a fortnightly basis. As it turns out I have drawn the race favourite Master O’Reilly – for what that’s worth.

Current Bankroll Position : +55.95%

Bad Moon Rising?

2007-11-05T09:18:00.000+11:00

Reality hits hard and fast to remind you that it doesn’t pay to become overconfident. (When I say “you”, of course, I mean “me”).

For the 3rd day in succession I have finished in the red and my initial goal, which was looking ridiculously easy only a few days ago, now looks as though it will provide the challenge I was expecting.

The inevitable beats have started to have an effect. Add to that some deserved losses through dumb play – things I have tried to drum into myself like never slow-playing after flopping a set. Suddenly I’m left to reconcile myself with a close examination required of what I am doing differently.

Of the things I can control, I have made one change that has noticeably altered my daily results. I decided I could relax my rule of leaving a table the moment a profit has been made and twice over the weekend I went from showing a handy profit to bad-beating my way to losing the lot. The exact strategy that saw me patiently build my bankroll could have also helped me arrest the slide.

I can put the change in strategy down to 3 insidious factors : overconfidence, impatience and greed.

Current Bankroll Position : +54.49%

An Observation on Multi-Tabling

2007-11-04T19:03:00.000+11:00

Just a quick word to those of you who multi-table. You may think you're handling playing 6 tables at once (or more...or less), I can tell you do by the posting in blogs and comments in forums, but there is a factor that I don't think one of you take into consideration. It's got nothing to do with the fact that you're more prone to making mistakes by multi-tabling rather than devoting your concentration to a single table.

The factor I'm talking about is common courtesy to your fellow players.

If you were playing live, you wouldn't consider for a moment getting up mid-hand and walking over to another table to play a second hand, meanwhile making the players at the first hand to wait until you deign to return to check how the progress of the first is going. For starters, your fellow players wouldn't stand for being made to wait time and again - and nor should they.

I was playing at a Sit N Go today and there were 2 players at the table who were obviously multi-tabling. Almost without exception, every time it was their turn to act the game was held up while we were waiting for them to bother to turn their attention to our table. These self-indulgent bastards thought it would be quite OK to make everyone wait - blind-time slipping away - just because they were under the misguided impression that they can multi-table efficiently.

I've got news for you boys, you can't.

Plus, there's another little secret you might like to know about...the tells are much more obvious when a multi-tabler is around. If the calls, checks and raises are made promptly all of a sudden, I know that the hand you hold is big and important enough to make my table the centre of your attention. You're pretty much announcing "I've got a hand." If it takes ages for you to get back to us, well, your hand is obviously not quite so important and you're willing to risk it being folded down through a failure to act in time.

By all means guys, multi-table to your hearts content, just remember to be considerate to others. Poker is a social game and you're part of that society just like the rest of us.

A Bump In the Road

2007-11-03T19:24:00.000+11:00

I stubbed my toe for the first time in ages last night and it serves as a powerful reminder to play according to the type of opponent you're up against. I came up against a calling station who called my 3 x BB raise pre-flop and then proceeded to take down my A Qo with their powerful 8 3 o. (The useful rhyming slang "Berkeley Hunt" was muttered a time or two while I calmed myself).

I have made a note of this person (heretofore now referred to as Mr 8-3) and you can be sure I will be seeing a lot more of him and I'm counting on him assisting me towards my target bankroll.

So a lesson has been learnt - that's a positive. I will now be more careful to pay close attention to the game of ALL of my opponents.

The bankroll position for the day was in negative territory for the first time in 2 weeks, a pretty good streak that I will now aim to emulate.

Current Bankroll Position : +69.96%

Sometimes You Just Get Lucky

2007-11-02T10:44:00.000+11:00

I had a lucky escape last night playing my usual .02/.04 stakes, one that I should record to remind myself that, should I do it too often I will be seeing my bankroll start heading in the wrong direction.

Here’s the hand in question:

***** Hand History for Game 6463830369 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, November 01, 05:34:30 ET 2007
Table Table 126699 (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 2: ( $2.02 USD )
Seat 3: ( $3.88 USD )
Seat 9: ( $0 USD )
Seat 6: pizerule ( $4.48 USD )
Seat 10: ( $9.66 USD )
Seat 7: ( $4.82 USD )
Seat 10 posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
Seat 2 posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to pizerule [ Jh Kh ]
Seat 3 folds
Seat 9 has left the table.
xxxxxxxx has joined the table.
pizerule raises [$0.12 USD]
Seat 7 calls [$0.12 USD]
Seat 10 folds
Seat 2 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kc, Qd, Js ]
pizerule bets [$0.12 USD]
Seat 7 raises [$0.24 USD]
pizerule calls [$0.12 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9c ]
pizerule bets [$0.24 USD]
Seat 7 raises [$0.68 USD]
pizerule calls [$0.44 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Jd ]
pizerule is all-In [$3.44 USD]
Seat 7 calls [$3.44 USD]
pizerule shows [ Jh, Kh ]a full house, Jacks full of Kings.
Seat 7 shows [ Ts, As ]a straight Ten to Ace.
pizerule wins $8.57 USD from the main pot with a full house, Jacks full of Kings.

Now, the problem was, I was pretty damn sure from the first time I was raised that I was behind, and I was guessing A T was the hand I was up against. But I got stubborn because all I wanted to see was that I hit 2 pair on the flop and it just HAD to be the best hand. The J on the river bailed me out, although had it not come I most certainly would not have pushed All-In.

As I said, I got lucky and more often than not, I would have taken a hit from it.

Free-Rolling Along

The Freeroll payouts are continuing to roll in with another little bonus to tack onto the bankroll. The adjustment necessary to play a Speed tourney compared to a Cash Ring game takes a little bit of getting used to. Whereas you can sit back and wait for the premium hands in the cash games, you can’t afford that luxury when trying to stay ahead of the rapidly rising blinds. At least it promotes creative play.

Current Bankroll Position : +81.22%

Milestone #2 Reached

2007-11-01T08:59:00.000+11:00

The milestones are coming much more quickly than first anticipated with my 2nd goal of growing my bankroll to $50 having been achieved last night. It’s amazing what a little bit of focus has done for my game combined with a moderate amount of education. Obviously I still have mountains of learning to do but I am already benefiting from the confidence of experience.

My original projected timeframe for reaching my second milestone profit level was mid-December which puts me way ahead of schedule. This means I’ll have to sit down and set myself some new milestones to aim for – some that are more challenging than the originals. I don’t want to run the risk of drifting along simply because things have gone better than expected. Like in trading the market, when things are going well you’ve got to push it even harder.

After all, my original plan was to play at least 10000 hands at the .02/.04 level and that hasn’t changed. As of last night I still have a further 8200 still to play before moving up the ladder.

Sit N Go

As a little celebration for reaching my 2nd milestone I decided to treat myself to a $3 Sit N Go tournament of Limit Hold-Em. It seems that 8 other people decided that they would get into the spirit of the occasion by allowing me to take down 2nd place. The cash was a nice little bonus but it’s the experience of playing in a tournament that I found even more valuable.

All of this is still very new and exciting for me and I feel a little sorry when I read how some people tell that they like to play 6 tables at once (or more), otherwise it’s just “too boring”.

Current Bankroll Position : +64.52%

Folding Two Pair

2007-10-30T23:23:00.000+11:00

With few highlights or lowlights tonight I bided my time at 3 .02/.04 tables and came away with a profit from each of them. I am bearing down at a rapid rate on milestone #2, so be prepared to break out the fairy bread and chicken nuggets for the celebration.

I'm still having some difficulty staying with a hand but, then again, anyone who doesn't fold the odd bluff is probably calling too many times. I folded two pair K's & 9's when faced with TKQ 9 and a raise from 1st position after the Turn followed by a call from middle position. I figured the chances were too great that a Jack was out there and I was probably beaten. Turned out it was taken down by a pair of Queens - raiser and caller both held A 7 - ya gotta love playing the micros...

Current Bankroll Position : +55.40%

The Value of Patience

2007-10-30T09:41:00.000+11:00

What a weird night last night turned out for me, and also, compared to normal, a long night in which I played 183 hands.

I know I’ve said this before but it’s worth repeating if only to drum it into the centre of my own consciousness : it is vital to remain patient at the poker table.

I had an early loss at the first table I played where I was pretty much card dead for the duration. The result on me personally was that I was beginning to mutter and curse under my breath over the crap cards I was getting, the crap way others were playing and what I would do to them when I finally got a hand. I was literally beginning to steam (although it was a warm day in Sydney) and I started to play some pretty bad hands. I was lucky to pick up a big pot just before I had to leave the table which minimised my losses.

Having given myself a chance to cool down by sitting and watching an episode of The Office I came back more composed and settled. It was a good thing too because I pretty quickly began taking hit after hit and was watching my stack disappear. This time though I was able to remain patient knowing that something would eventually come my way.

When it did, though, it was a virtual donation in a hand that I should never have been allowed to make, let alone get paid off for.

Hole cards : A Ts – 4 of us see the flop and I’m on the button.
Flop : Q T J rainbow – one person bet the minimum so I called with my bottom pair and straight draw, so did the other two.
Turn : K – I’ve hit my straight but the same person bets it. I call and the other two run away.
River is a blank and my friend in early position makes a big bet at me. I figured they must also have an A so I raised it all-in for the hell of it. Well they call and then show 9 9!!! Thank you very much.

Feeling as though I’d just been kicked in the arse with a rainbow I took my winnings and scuttled off to bed.

Current Bankroll Position : +49.89%

Second Freeroll Tourney Payout

2007-10-29T14:26:00.001+11:00

I picked up my second Freeroll payout last night making it to 38th and earning me the princely sum of 0.70. I know, I know, it’s a pittance, but on the other hand, the prize money represents around 3 days worth of what I need to earn to reach my short-term goal of $60.00, so in that respect it’s not bad at all. Perspective is a funny thing, no?

I may have progressed deeper if I hadn’t been so conscious of the payout bubble, around which I altered my playing style. Earlier I was prepared to push when I had to and was paid off as a result. I became too careful, releasing winning hands rather than accept the risk v reward ratio. Consequently I left myself short-stacked against the rapidly rising blinds. In this kind of speed tourney you have to continually push when you’ve got half a hand to keep building the chips and remain oblivious to the number of opponents that remain.

Still learning...still learning.

It's the Little Things

2007-10-28T23:27:00.000+11:00

Well, it's official...I'm starting to see obvious signs of improvement with one of my most pleasing plays so far.

#Game No : 6452606216
***** Hand History for Game 6452606216 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, October 28, 08:16:47 ET 2007
Table Table 127693 (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 7
Seat 3: Luke_Pokain ( $1.15 USD )
Seat 4: the_caII_ing ( $5 USD )
Seat 5: HoldemJappie ( $5.34 USD )
Seat 6: aragon448 ( $5.19 USD )
Seat 8: LavenderB ( $3.23 USD )
Seat 10: g0ing_s0uth ( $2.67 USD )
Seat 7: pizerule ( $4 USD )
aragon448 posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
pizerule posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to pizerule [ Kd Th ]
LavenderB folds
g0ing_s0uth has left the table.
Luke_Pokain calls [$0.04 USD]
the_caII_ing folds
HoldemJappie calls [$0.04 USD]
aragon448 calls [$0.02 USD]
pizerule checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kc, Ts, Qs ]
aragon448 bets [$0.04 USD]
pizerule raises [$0.12 USD]
Luke_Pokain raises [$0.40 USD]
HoldemJappie calls [$0.40 USD]
aragon448 calls [$0.36 USD]
pizerule folds
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6s ]
aragon448 checks
Luke_Pokain is all-In [$0.71 USD]
HoldemJappie calls [$0.71 USD]
aragon448 folds
** Dealing River ** [ 6d ]
Luke_Pokain shows [ Jc, 9s ]a straight Nine to King.
HoldemJappie shows [ 8s, Kh ]two pairs, Kings and Sixes.
Luke_Pokain wins $2.76 USD from the main pot with a straight, Nine to King.

Now sure, I should have raised pre-flop instead of simply checking from the BB, but that aside, it wasn't all that long ago that, had I have flopped two pair, I would have held onto it 'til the bitter end. But when my raise was reraised followed by a couple of calls, I actually stopped and considered the board and where my hand may have stood. I actually put the raiser on A J or maybe 10 10.

I'm well on my way to getting myself promoted to the .05/.10 tables.

For the 2nd time I reached the money in a Freeroll, this time making it to 38th place. Add to that a couple of healthy wins at the .02/.04 and the day proved to be another profitable one. My goal still looks to be well within reach.

Current Bankroll Position : +47.42%

Milestone #1 Reached

2007-10-26T08:30:00.000+10:00

It’s all happening at once.

It’s only taken around 3 days of playing in the nightly free-roll and I’ve scored a payout. Very exciting for this little black duck. 70th place and the added bonus of $0.45 to add to my slowly growing bankroll. (Stop drooling over my massive winnings, it’s quite unseemly).

But today is also party time because it marks the day that I have reached the first of my milestones. When I initially set out my short-term goals I also nominated a set of milestones that would be notable when I achieved them. The $40 mark is the first of those and I reached it today. The best thing about reaching this milestone is that I’ve done so around 3 weeks earlier than planned. I’m so far ahead of schedule it’s not funny.

Anyway, the focus is reset to milestone #2 and a bankroll of $50.

Current Bankroll Position : +36.62%

Life With the Micros

2007-10-23T23:29:00.000+10:00

Interesting night last night with one early sick beat by a typical micro-table chaser. Looking back, I sort of have myself to blame for leaving the door ajar in the first place but that doesn’t make up for the 2 crap calls after the flop.

Details of that hand are as follows:

Table Table 127738 (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 5: pizerule ( $2.61 USD )
Seat 8: Prog3man ( $5.43 USD )
Seat 9: dunk246 ( $5.13 USD )
Seat 10: ove_allstar ( $4.87 USD )
Seat 2: Marbet111 ( $3.67 USD )
Seat 4: dawigga666 ( $5.47 USD )
pizerule posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
Prog3man posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to pizerule [ Qs Qd ]
dunk246 folds
ove_allstar folds
Marbet111 folds
dawigga666 raises [$0.08 USD]
pizerule calls [$0.06 USD]
Prog3man folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9d, 7d, 2d ]
pizerule bets [$0.20 USD]
dawigga666 calls [$0.20 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ks ]
pizerule bets [$0.20 USD]
dawigga666 calls [$0.20 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Ts ]
pizerule bets [$0.24 USD]
dawigga666 calls [$0.24 USD]
pizerule shows [ Qs, Qd ]a pair of Queens.
dawigga666 shows [ Td, 2c ]two pairs, Tens and Twos.
dawigga666 wins $1.41 USD from the main pot with two pairs, Tens and Twos.

Just because Doyle Brunson one two WSOP’s with 10 2 doesn’t make it a good starting hand!!!

Lesson – bet out from the start, don’t allow these Any Two Card cowboys a cheap foot in the door.

It was all atoned for later in the night when I flopped quad 8's and was lucky enough to come up against someone who flopped a full-house. It's the kind of hand you hope for and could only have been sweeter if I had more money to pile into the pot.

Anyhow, the night ended with me making another healthy profit and putting another name into the book of people who will chase bottom pair all the way to the river.

Current Bankroll Position : +12.65%

I'm Profitable Again!

2007-10-22T13:52:00.000+10:00

I’ve made it back into the black with a big night tonight, taking a profit away from every table I sat down at. I was particularly pleased with myself at the last table I played at for the night. One cat was playing a super aggressive style, raising on every hand he played, often significantly over-betting in order to take down a tiny pot.

I bided my time, folding in the face of his raise time and again until I finally picked up J J. The flop gave me a set and he predictably raised all-in. My chance had arrived and I had no hesitation in calling. Needless to say I took down the pot with my set too good for his pair of Jacks. Needless to say his name has been recorded in my daily log for future reference.

FreeRolling

As well as the regular .02/.04 ring games I have also decided to get myself some tournament experience by playing in the nightly Freeroll whenever I can. Living in Australia means that the opportunities for freerolls are few and far between, but 1 a night will hopefully prove sufficient. Even though I cautioned myself to tread warily this evening, knowing the craziness that goes on in the first few hands of these things, I still only lasted 14 hands in my first attempt and was out in 293rd place.

Current Bankroll Position : +8.76%

Head Down, Bum Up

2007-10-21T11:44:00.000+10:00

It’s been head down, bum up for the last 3 nights as I have knuckled down to grind my way back towards break even. The news has been mostly good, too, with 3 winning nights in a row being the result of my efforts. From the hole of being over 14% behind, I have dragged my sorry micro-tabling hide back to only 3.63% down.

Along the way I have fought my way back from some low chip stacks to eventually leave tables with a profit, albeit small. My attitude remains that I am going to be happy with small profits because they beat the shit out of a loss every day of the week.

And the learning continues. Knowing when to be aggressive is a powerful tool and it is a part of my game that I’m finding difficult to acquire but is paying handsome dividends when I get it right.

I’m looking forward to putting my bankroll back in the black in the next day or so and then I can begin working on that expected daily profit that I initially announced.

Current Bankroll Position : -3.63%

Reality Bites

2007-10-18T11:10:00.000+10:00

Reality hits with swift brutality and, this early into my brave new bid to become profitable, has gravely dented the confidence I need to achieve my goals.

Three times out of 5 tables I went broke for a combined loss of $9.00 which was only offset by $2.64 profit from the other 2 tables. That left me with a $6.36 loss for the day. It’s day 2 and things aren’t looking nearly as rosy as they were 24 hours ago.

Fortunately my mindset has been prepared for this kind of eventuality and, while I’m not thrilled about it, I am able to take one or two things from the experience that I believe will make me a better player.

What Did I Learn?

Too many times I continued with my hand believing that whenever someone raised my bet they were attempting to steal the pot, so I called. It cost me enough pots to learn that people will chase a flush all the way to the river and then jam the pot when they hit. That’s micro-table strategy and my game has to adjust to cater for it.

I also learned that patience is key. Losing an early hand is not devastating, but it can become so if you start playing inferior hands that would normally be folded in a bid to quickly recoup your losses.

The Grind Begins

2007-10-17T10:43:00.000+10:00

The first night of my new strategy is over and I am pleased to say I finished with a profit of $1.29 – not that the amount is important, merely the fact that I didn’t leak dollars.

Things were looking a bit grim early on when I went broke at the second table after a small profit at the first, but in true grinding style I clawed my way back with 3 profitable forays and 1 further small loss.

Although my fortunes swung, it was a good solid test of my strategy and bankroll plan, not to mention my temperament when things weren’t looking so good. It’s nice to start off with a winning night.

Step One: Write A Goal

2007-10-16T15:10:00.000+10:00

I'm a long-distance runner, so I understand the importance of goal-setting when trying to improve your performance. When I lost my original bankroll I decided to do what I should have done in the first place, write down a clearly defined list of goals complete with strategy, milestones and a timeframe in which I want to achieve them.

The goals come in 3 flavours: long-term, medium-term and short-term and they are also made of plasticine. In other words, they can be reshaped should my circumstances change or the hoped for improvement doesn't come.

Now, my goals are very specific for me and will look ridiculously easy to achieve, but I'm starting right on the bottom rung of the ladder, I admit it.

My Starting Point

I'll be playing the .02/.04 cash tables and have given myself a starting bankroll of $30. I'll be sitting down at each table with an opening stake of $3 (a high 10% of my bankroll) and am planning on leaving the table each time I make a profit.

Long-Term Goals

To play profitable no-limit hold ‘em on the $25/$50 tables.

I’m not completely dedicated to the idea of achieving this goal inside a set timeframe, however, I’ve seen the metric of Hands Played used when others have set their goals and this seems to be a reasonable way to work out how long it might take me to achieve the goal. At this point in my life, I can only reasonably aim to play around 100 - 150 hands per day which means around 10,000 hands in 3 months. Before I allow myself to step up to each consecutive level I want to "do my apprenticeship" by playing at least 10,000 at that level. Therefore, my rough estimate is that I can hope to achieve my long-term goal is by July, 2010.

In order to play effectively at each successive limit level, a minimum bankroll will be required. I have calculated that the minimum bankroll I must attain to play $25/$50 is a tad over $35,000.
During the next 2 and three quarter years, I will have to continue to absorb as much knowledge as I can. To that end, I want to have exhaustively studied the books of Brunson, Harrington and Sklansky – not just read them but read, re-read and re-read again.

I also have to study the mathematics involved with playing winning poker and that means being able to calculate the odds. My ability to calculate pot odds and implied odds should become second nature due to the number of hands I will have played to reach this goal.

Medium-Term Goals

This goal is where I would like to be in 1 year’s time (16 October, 2008). Using the baseline of playing 10,000 hands at each level, I can expect to have progressed up to the 5th level on the ladder which is the .50/$1 level.

The only way I can hope to reach this level is to have shown a profit at each of the lower levels. I can expect my game to improve as I rise to each new level. However, I can also expect the competition to be tougher, so I may find it difficult to start with to maintain profitability.

I must include a plan of what I will do should I find that my bankroll is beginning to dwindle. To that end, I will be stepping back a level if I find that my bankroll is suffering. I will be writing a plan for a bad-case scenario and put it in a future post.

Short-Term Goals

Progress to the next level (.05/.10). Before moving up to the next level I must play at least 10,000 hands and show a profit when I have finished. I hope to average around 100 – 150 hands per day which gives me a timeframe of between 9½ - 14 weeks with which I can expect to have met my goal.

An added monetary goal is to have increased my bankroll from $30 to $60, which is a $30 profit. Given the expected timeframe quoted above, this works out to be an average daily profit of between 0.31 & 0.45 which I think is a reasonable expectation.

In this short-term goal I have split each $10 point as a milestone (Bankroll = $40, $50 and $60) and will be having a mini celebration and indulgent pat on the back when I reach each of these points. I've got to acknowledge my progress

Plans / Expectations to Meet the Goals

I hope to keep a log of every session that I play. In this log I'll note my opening bankroll position, the profit or loss made at each table I play, the number of hands that I played at each table and the closing position of the bankroll at the end of the day. I'll also try to also record notes of mistakes I felt I made and what I could have done better. Just as importantly I will note down when I feel I have played really well pointing out what I did right.

Studying others will become important too, taking notes of other players. Something that I've never done before is determine the loose players, the aggressive, the tight and the solid when I sit down at a table.

I am going to have good days, OK days, bad days and terrible days. The most important factor in succeeding will be how I react to the bad and terrible days. Accepting that they are going to happen is the first step in succeeding despite the losses. I will remain calm and will not complain about the bad beats that I’ve suffered. Instead, I should study the hand history and figure out what I could have done better that may have avoided the loss (or at least minimised it).

Lost Without A Plan

2007-10-15T14:52:00.000+10:00

I have been playing NL Hold ‘Em on-line for over a year now but, like many rank amateurs who think they know it all, my play has been erratic, my strategy pretty well non-existent and thoughts about bankroll management nil. I had set myself no goals for how I might improve my game, or even how I would recognise that my game had improved.

A few days ago, I lost the last of my original stake. As the last few cents trickled out of my account my thoughts of consolation to myself were along the lines of, “Ah well, put it down to the cost of education.”

But the reality was I had learned very little, if anything at all. My mistakes were basic, but crippling.

I played with no strategy.
I had not set myself any goals.
I rarely studied the play of others at the table (I would read a book when I wasn’t in a hand).
I never studied my hand histories.
I still hadn’t picked up a poker book.
I had no idea how to implement an effective bankroll management strategy.
I had no plans on how I might build my bankroll, nor how I would get myself to the next level.

It was time for a wake-up call.

So my education (or re-education) has begun. I have sat down and worked out a plan with written goals for the short-term, medium-term and long-term. I have defined where I want to go and how I’m going to get there and have built in some notable milestones to achieve along the way to stoke my motivational fires.

I have also picked up some books that I have committed to studying (Brunson, Harrington and Sklansky) and I have developed a money-management strategy that will help me protect my bankroll while I’m playing.

Finally, to help me analyse my play and to assist me on my journey I have started a blog. I aim to discuss my progress, post some critical hands for discussion and celebrate the completion of each step.

Before plunging in to the Poker Room, I will give an overview of my goals and the bankroll management strategy that I intend to employ to assist me in becoming a profitable poker player.

And they will be the subjects of the next couple of posts.