A year in review... (part 1)

This was the first year that I dedicated myself to playing poker, not just as a hobby, but asa source of income. It was needless to say an interesting year as I had the great freedom that comes with being your own boss and being able to set my own hours of play, along with the added stress of having to rely on poker for part of my income. I'm hoping to recant my year as closely as possibly with the hopes of not only learning from mistakes, but also showing my successes so that I can build confidence for the coming years ahead. Before i begin I'll say that i am relatively happy with my year. Before i set out I determined that for me to actually be successful i would have to clear at least 40grand USD to consider poker as a reliable source of income. I acheived this and more, but am still disatisfied with some of the decisions i made and feel like I let myself get burned out part way through the year which caused a bit more stress on my bankroll then there needed to be.

Regardless I will try to retell the year in four parts, with the good and the bad...

part 1
It begins...

The year for me started off pretty well, I made the switch from tilt to stars after enjoying some good success in sng. For me stars was just more attractive because of the fact you can play mroe tables, so I felt starting the year at stars and giving it my whole playing tiem would be best because they have a great rewards/rakeback program which I could take advantage of if I played there the whole year.

For the first few days things went pretty well. I was focused on playing the 16 dollar turbo's exclusievly and was making the transition to playing 20 tables from 16, it went pretty well. then I went on a downswing, and it turned out to be a pretty bad one. About halfway through the month my bankroll had over 100 buyins for the level i was playing, a week later, after a few cashouts, my bankroll had about 20-25 buyins. It ended being about a 75 buy-in downswing when all was said and done and to get out of it I ended up playing 12-16 tables for a week, but eventually I built myself back up and by the end of the month I had a more secure roll to play with.

Beginning in Feb things started to click for me a little better, my roi for the month was much better and I was 20 tabling consistently. I also believe this was the month I final tabled the 10rebuy and finshed 8th netting me 1500 or so and giving me a decent roll to play with. This actually ended up being a pretty big development as it let me take some shots at the steps which led to a big score later in the year. All in all, the first two months were pretty crazy, I had a huge downswing which made me question if i should even be playing this game, and then bounced back to post decent profits in the first two months and ended up with a big final table as well. With my mian game being the 16 turbo's my goal for the rest of the year was continue grinding, build up my fpp's and take some shots at bigger tournies...

New focus, the same but not really...

So i kinda crapped out on the 5 grand thing before i finished but i just got too sidetracked with other life stuff...

I am still grinding but am going to start taking some more shots at bigger tournies and probably move up in stakes for a bit. I also want to play the steps more often, but it can be a long time between scores so i will probably just try to build up lots of step 2's and 3's until scoop comes along.

Looking forward to playing more MTT's though and hopefully a bigger score will come my way soon. In the meantime i will keep posting some results and daily thoughts,

thanks for reading

days 18 and 19...

played three sessions and ran pretty well...

66 sng's: +$235

would like to put this challenge over by the end of the week so i can stop updating totals everyday which gets to be a bit of a pain. i also managed to win a step 6 ticket on pstars and will probably use it for a PCA step 6 where the winner gets a trip package (worth 15 grand) and second and third get $1400 or so. I might wait till i win another step 6 to play just so if i lose i won't feel so bad knowing i have a backup...

Total:
1509sng's:+$3701

Day 16 and 17...

played 7 sessions over the past couple of days

154 sng's:+$333

Total
1453sng's:+$3466


another good solid day, could have been even better but my last session ended with about 5 or 6 horrible beats and ended up being a losing session, still, doing well and only 1500 from the 5k goal, and have maintained close to a 15% roi through the challenge, going to try and complete it next week, hoping i can get in 5 sessions a day starting monday again...

Day 14 and 15...

Played 6 sessions over the last two days, before that i had been playing steps almost exclusively, no luck though as i am still trying to qualify for either the costa rica tourney or the pca. I played in the 700 pca tourney but got horribly unlucky when i had qq allin vs K8 and 1010 and the board made a straight for a chop, then i was short and got in jj vs aa and 77 and the 77 hit a set :(

132 sng's: +$320

total:
1299sng's:+$3130

going to try and bring this home soon, even though i can't make any promises on volume cause i will still be adding in steps, steps are great too cause you get more vpp's in general from the higher steps so it lets you build the fpp's up faster, i wish they had a few more outs though as getting to step 6 from step 1 can be soul crushing at times...

Day 13...

I took a day off playing and then yesterday, monday played steps for about three hours and played two sets of sng's, one set of my regular 16's and one set of 6 man sng's. These both went very well, and the 6 man's were even softer than expected. Sometimes when the 16's are very heavily filled with regulars or other good players i will try out different games, from now on i will probably look to the 6 man's as my second option...

38sng's: +$432

total:
1167sng's:+$2810

Day 12...

played 4 sessions today played pretty well and i have covered a few of my biggest leaks i think, although there is still a few spots i probably need to cover so i can't say i'm playing perfectly, but i am pretty happy with my game right now. motivation is probably the biggest thing keeping me down right now. i will probably just play when i feel for the next couple days as i am just a little tired and semi burned out, not really from poker, but having to concentrate for 4-5 hours a day leave you with not enough energy for the rest of life i find sometimes, so i may just take it easy for a while and then return to finish this challenge in a blaze of glory, we'll see what happens...

90sng's: +$147

total:
1129sng's:+$2378

Day 11..

played five sessions, had a great first session, broke even over my next two and then ran absolutely terrible in my last set... i bubbled 8 tournies, 4th place, so that pretty much sums it up. It was funny because i was actually running well and then bam, lose every bubble race, watched as every shortstack won their allins and then lost a couple incredible three way pots...

114 sng's :+$9

total:
1039sng's:+$2231
pretty frustrating end to the day and i was tempted to play one more set but decided against it, probably a good idea, will try to put in more volume tomorrow...

Day 9 and 10...

Saturday and Sunday, didn't play too much but made some money...

88sng's: +$269
+160 pokerstars bop bonus


Total:
925sng's:+$2222 (160 is from bonus)

Going to include the bonus money in this challenge for the simple fact that money is money. I will also add up how many fpp's i make (pokerstars frequent player points which you can trade for cash). Every 1000sng's i play equates to 17,500 fpp's which is around 200 dollars, so as you can see if i include my rakeback-fpp's then I am nearly halfway there. Either way I am going to keep putting 6 or 7 sets during the week and try to keep the momentum going...

Day 8...

Played four sessions, ran bad, played bad, ended up with a small loss for the day... just wasn't too motivated. I will likely play one or two sessions on saturady and sunday and then look to put in a lot of volume next week and take a big chunk out of that 5grand :)

90sng's: -$53

total:
837sng's:+$1793

Day 7...

Had a good day today, played solidly again and got rewarded for my efforts, finally. played 5 sessions but only 14 tables in the last one with some 6mans thrown in because i was finishing off a Battle of the Planets sng leaderboard score and i needed 14 more games. i ended up with a 1563 and it should net me some extra winnings at the end of the week when they tabulate the scores, probably good for 5th or 6th and a hundred dollars or so.

day 7

102 sng's: + $701

Total

747sng's:+$1846

Obviously today was a good day, up there with my best at these levels. I am thinking the game very well right now and pretty happy about it. I feel like I am making good decisions and letting everything else not bother me. Which is all you can do. Very motivated to play and finish this challenge.

Day 6...

Finished 7 sessions so it was a good day volume wise. After 6 sessions i was only up a measly 20 dollars but had a decent last session to finish up a decent amount... decent day i guess

158sng's: +$147

Total:
645 sng's: +$1145

Right now I'm just trying not to concern myself with if i am running bad or not, but just trying to keep playing quality sessions. I really just ran bad 5 handed to headsup today, it sounds like a broken record, but when it gets five handed you need a little luck to get you to headsup, you're never going to win all your allins, even when you're ahead. Today i just didn't hit any draws (missed so many flushes today it was unreal) and that's the way it went. I won't complain about making money though and will just try to put in more quality sessions tomorrow. I am very motivated to play and play well right now so I'm going to keep charging forward.

Day 5...

Got in another 5 sessions, I really can't even begin to describe how bad I am running 3 handed and headsup right now. It's really frustrating when you have two tables left have huge headsup chipleads in both of them and then proceed to get sucked out on twice and lose 4 coinflips and then get coolered. I just need to keep playing solidily, headsup is really swinggy especially when you're starting with less than 10 bb's...

day5
113 sng's: +$129

total
497 sng's: +$998

Can't complain about the results, I'll just keep plugging away and playing well...

Day 4

Got in 5 sessions, so i am still a little behind where I want to be volume wise, but I guess the challange is about making money, not volume...

today:
117 sng's: +274$

overall:
384sng's: +869$

overall i am feeling solid for the most part, i continue to run bad headsup but am making better decisions shorthanded where i think a few leaks were occuring, mostly due to bad shoves. I am making good calls which is probably the best part of my game, but i still miss some easy shoves and sometimes push a little too wide, 22 tabling makes it so its hard to be perfect in your play, but i am trying to slow things down and concentrate through each session, especially once the table gets 4-5 handed and right up till headsup.

going to try for 6 or 7 sessions tomorrow and hopefully run well... at the very least, play well

Day 3...

got in 4 sessions, or 89 sng's...

three small winning sessions and one losing session for a small profit, running bad three handed although i won my last three sng's which was nice and stopped my last session from being a complete disaster.

day 3 tally
89sng's: +75 dollars

overall
267sng's: +$595

Like i said before running shit three handed and headsup killed what could have been a great day

Oh well, this week i am going to be focusing on playing well and playing a bit more poker. I want to average 5 sessions a day (about 50mins per session) and over 110 sng's per day.

This means for the next couple days i'll hopefully be playing 6 or 7 sessions to get back on track as i am a little behind after the weekend.

Day 2...

a good motto for today for would be less play, same amount of pain

I only played 66 sng's today, 3 sets of 22
day 2 tally: +146
overall tally: +520.41

Obviously these are good numbers, over a small sample, i just still feel like i am running bad, I think my main issue is that i just haven't had any sessions in a long time where i get that really nice run and big score. I really feel like i am making better decisions though so it's just a matter of time. probably will only play 3 or 4 sets tomorrow, then hopefully 6 sets per day next week

My biggest problem right now is just making good plays five and six handed, i don't have much of a problem playing the bubble, but honestly i am hesitating making a few calls because i don't want to start calling super loose, I am just focusing on reading situations better right now and that will hopefully result in better play. I did make a few good laydowns early with big pairs today...

***** Hand History for Game 33332023995 ***** (Poker Stars)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, September 26, 11:10:18 ET 2009
Table 198825149 1 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: jamesm0310 ( $2580.00 USD )
Seat 2: DaKKaD ( $1480.00 USD )
Seat 3: TreeOfClubs ( $1300.00 USD )
Seat 4: SONY888 ( $1470.00 USD )
Seat 5: wavegoodbye ( $1470.00 USD )
Seat 6: crokman ( $310.00 USD )
Seat 7: Jabong82 ( $1480.00 USD )
Seat 8: xereta10 ( $1500.00 USD )
Seat 9: kangstah77 ( $1910.00 USD )
Jabong82 posts small blind [$15.00 USD].
xereta10 posts big blind [$30.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to wavegoodbye [ Qs Qh ]
kangstah77 raises [$60.00 USD]
jamesm0310 folds
DaKKaD calls [$60.00 USD]
TreeOfClubs folds
SONY888 folds
wavegoodbye raises [$180.00 USD]
crokman folds
Jabong82 folds
xereta10 calls [$150.00 USD]
kangstah77 raises [$870.00 USD]
DaKKaD folds
wavegoodbye folds
xereta10 calls [$750.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2h, Ts, Jd ]
xereta10 checks
kangstah77 bets [$900.00 USD]
xereta10 calls [$570.00 USD]
kangstah77 wins $330.00 USD
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jc ]
** Dealing River ** [ Tc ]
xereta10 shows [Ac, Ks ]
kangstah77 shows [Ah, Ad ]
kangstah77 wins $3255.00 USD from main pot

day 1 tally

played five sessions, 22-23 tables each session

112 games total

ended up +374.91$

Pretty happy with how i played today, probably give myself a A- for the first three sessions and a B for the last two sessions. I didn't run great in the last two, but i also made some bad plays early with big pairs.

One with KK when a bad player called me preflop and then called a large cont. bet three handed on a JJ2 board

At this point I shut down and checked, he bet 200 on the turn which i called getting huge odds, then he shoves the river for 900 chips, first hand of the tourney so i would have been left with 900 as well. Honestly this seems like a tough decision, but the way he played just screams trips for several reasons. first bad players like to protect their pairs, if he had say 1010 its almost a guarantee of two things, he is shoving the flop or checking the river, he did neither so i think qq and 1010 or any smaller pair are gone, if he had AA almost a guarantee he shoves pre. The only hand i beat is a bluff. Probably worst read/play of the day.

DAY 1

starting the 5000 grand challenge today, i am starting with only an 800 bankroll... i am kindof starting over bankroll wise as I just had too many things to pay for the last couple months and kept cashing out and then running bad.

Anyways, I am going to update my status daily, I feel like my game is slowly getting solid again after a couple months of playing sub par. The only other games I'll likely be playing would be PCA satties/steps and possibly a few mtt's. But for the first couple weeks it will likely be all 9man sng's and likely all 16's turbos.

The challenge is to make 5000 grand at these stakes (16' turbos). No real time goal, but I think end of October would be a good bet, but it really depends on how much I play. I am not a huge volume guy although i do play 20-25 tables but realistcally 4-6 sessions a day is usually my max. We'll see what happens, I'll update how the day goes later tonight.

wave's blog reloaded...

wow, i forgot i had this blog, it seems like so long ago i started this thing...

well, new blog same idea, I am doing a sng challenge, basically i am playing till i make 5000.00...

all the play will at 16sng on pokerstars, the best website on the planet bar none... i'll update my tally's daily and let you know how it's going...