Epic!

Monthly Totals: 38k hands played / -$860 loss

So looking at it from a monthly perspective it doesn't look that bad does it? However this covers up an epic downswong! Here's my graph for the last 11 days:




I've played these last few thousand hands, fairly confident that whatever hand I'm holding when the money goes in, is either way behind or will be by the time the river card hits. It's an insane downswing that has got me totally re-evaluating my poker goals for the forthcoming months. Pokerstars has been good to me. I've loved playing on Stars, and I've made some decent money this year, probably in the region of $18k (including bonuses) but I don't know how long I can let this downswing continue before I say 'enough's enough!' The last 11 days has included 10 buy ins at 200nl, 15 at 100nl and even 1 at 50nl. Yes my last 1k hands have been at 50nl!!!

My current bankroll still consists of +50 buy ins for 100nl, plus I have around 3k Vpp's to go before I release the $4k cash bonus, so it's not the end of the world. Well I'll see how the next few days go, GL all!

Wow, Just F'kin Wow!!!!

Monthly Totals: hands played 26,000/ +$366 profit

Well it's really difficult to explain and put this into words how I feel at the moment. Things started going downhill for me towards the back end of last week, but this weekend was totally fucking brutal, and it just continued today. Usually I just power through these d/swongs, but this one is particularly disturbing. How much of it is down to tilt? Well if you count tilt as continuing to play through it, then yeah it's certainly contributing, but it's not like I'm totally spewing off stacks. So my sets are being over-setted, my flushes are getting boated, my big pairs are getting setted etc etc. I'm constantly finding myself in brutal post flop situations were my overpairs are in 3bet pot's and by the turn it's totally f'kin valueless.

What's making this d/swong more excruciating is the fact I'm working off a $4k cash bonus. I've heard lots of players who are gong for SNE about how they run so shit whilst working off the bonus. Well now I know how it feels as basically the bonus has almost been wiped out from my monthly peak.

I also qualified for the Sunday Million again this weekend.... Why do I bother! Now I'm not lying when I say this, the best hand I hand in almost 3hrs of play was AJo! How did I last so long, well I managed to steal 5 big blinds when I was otb, lol, and once I just shoved when a btn tried to steal my BB. Needless to say I went out long before the bubble.

So it looks like I'm just gonna mess around at 100nl 6mx/fr for the time being as I'm a bankroll nit, and I don't like playing with less than 40 buy ins at any particular level. This d/swong has serious implications as to whether I'll be able to go for SNE. Unless I run particularly well in December, it's looking really doubtful at the moment :( GL all!

Slow Progress....

Monthly Totals: hands played 14,700 / +$2825 profit

....trying to play out this $4k bonus. Still need approx 12,000 Vpps, which is taking me an age playing 6max. It would be so much quicker at FR, but I'm determined to stay at 6max this month.

Gradually I've increased the number of 6max tables I'm playing. I really don't wanna play anymore than 12 tables tbh as I'll just become a nit, which I don't thinks overly profitable (if at all) at 200nl+ imo. So for now I'm playing anything from 6-12 depending on how I'm playing/running.

The banroll's taking a bit of a battering lately. I've started taking a small income from it on a monthly basis. This month it looks like I'll be withdrawing around $3k, which is obviously great, but I just love the thought of my roll building and moving up the levels as a result. Still need to make some substantial moniez between now and end of December before finalising my decision on SNE.

Just a short update, I'll post some hands in my next post, GL all!

Updateries!

Monthly Totals: hands played 8077 / +$2076 profit

Holy shit! 8k hands played, I mean wtf is that all about? I love playing 6max but I just can't seem to play more than 9 tables. I certainly don't have the concentration to play mega multi tables for more than say an hour or two. Not that it matters this month as I'm just relaxing really, and just trying to concentrate on improving at 6max. The only downside to this though is that I'm trying to work off the $4k bonus I bought which requires me to earn 28k Vpp's. Still need like 15k Vpps before I clear it, DAMN!

So Sunday I decide to qualify for the Sunday Million, played in the 5400fpp 6max hyper turbo qually and made it. Seriously those fuckin donkaments make me sick. Why the hell do I put myself through it. I hate the structure of that tourny anyways, but I was card dead for 2.5hrs and went out like a lame duck!!!!

After that I played a few 6max tables, and as you can see from my graph it was a rollercoaster. But overall I'm happy with the way the month is going. Hope it's going well for everyone, GL All!

Hungover!

2.2k Hands Played / +$1180 Profit

After last months challenge, it feels like I'm sort of hungover from my exploits and have only played 2 small ish sessions. As I think I may have mentioned, I'm back playing 200nl 6max, which over the very small sample I've played, is going quite well. Trying to just ease myself back into it, learning to re-adapt back to 6max ways i.e more isolating/squeezing.

Not sure if anyone else feels the same, but there just seems to be way to many regs on my tables. Yeah some of them are poor, but I would rather there were more fish. Maybe it's a sign of the times, there's been some debate lately about the credit crunch affecting players re-depositing or whatever. It could be that I'm playing at the wrong times, or just the fact that the fish are just getting far less as we progress up the limits. Either way, I suppose as we continue to play and progress, then we need to adapt to the changing times. Play different styles maybe, or even change games altogether. I suppose there's the possibility of changing sites as well, maybe to a more European based site as they seem to have more fish. Anyways, no need to hit the panick button just yet, just thinking out loud regarding some of the observations I've made lately.

Watched the Formula 1 finale at Brazil on Sunday night and wow, what an amazing race! I've been privelidged to watch some amazing sporting moments over the years, but what happened in the last 2 laps, especially in the last bend, when all looked lost for Lewis, then I think that it ranks right up there imo. Really exciting stuff!

Won't be playing tomorrow as we're going out, but I'll have a couple of days off after that so hopefully get some hands in then. GL All!

October Monthly Summary

Totals 110.1k Hands played / +$1649 Cash game profit / 37.4k Vpps = $2.1k / Monthly Profit +$3.7k

Total Vpps for the month was 37.4k which is like 131k Fpp's, translated = $2.1k. So all in all it was an ok month for me.

Summary of the month, well my goal was to play 150k hands. Started off really well and as you can see from my graph, I went on a real heater in the first week or so. Around the 35k hand mark though things went on a real downer. 20+ buy in downswongs hurt, they hurt a lot. I honestly don't think I tilted much in that run, it consisted mainly of coolers and beats. I was really struggling against short stackers, and I still do tbh. Consistently getting JJ/AK v nitty s/s just doesn't cut it against their shoving range of AA/KK, but I just find it so hard to fold after rasing it 3.5bb's and having to call for 16.5bb's!!!





After the big d/swong, I then went on an equally frustrating break even stretch of 60-70k hands. This consisted of losing lots in NSD pots, were every raise/steal attempt was called or raised and every CB called or raised. Everytime I didn't believe them, guess what.... They had it. Fortunately my SD winnings were ok and saved me from losing my mind. If I'm honest, even with the d/swong and break even stretch, I was amazed at how calm and relatively tilt free I was. I was concentrating so much on getting the volume of hands that basically I forgot about my bankroll and winnings. This will stand me in good stead if I decide to go for Supernova Elite, as you have to have a substantial enough bankroll to forget about it and just play hands. Volume is the key and worrying about b/e stretches and d/swongs just isn't a consideration.

The last 10 days of the month were a real disappointment for me. The volume I put it was pretty poor tbh, only 21k hands. Was I burned out, did I lose interest? The problem for me was that there were a couple of days I just didn't get to play. The other problem was the World Series of Baseball.... I just couldn't play poker and concentrate on watching the baseball. Lastly was work, I was just so knackered after going to work for the day that I could only get a few hands in. I'm pretty sure that I could easily have made the 150k hands goal I had set myself if it wasn't for the baseball, but hell I only get to watch it once a year so it was worth it!

So then the million dollar question!

Do I have what it takes to go for SNE?

Wow it's still such a tough question. I really think I have the ability to put in the volume of hands required. The problem is my job. If I was playing full time, then it's a no brainer, the volume would be fairly easy to achieve tbh. But if I get stages like I did in the last part of the month, then I'm gonna fall well short of the volume required.

Playing 100nl and going for SNE is definitely not gonna happen, it has to be 200nl minimum for me, that means needing around $20k bankroll for this challenge as a 100 x buy in is essential I think. To gain the required amount of Vpp's/month, I need to be playing in the region of 170k hands/month at 200nl.

So at this stage what have I learned? I now have some idea what its like trying to fit the volume of hands in and my work commitments. It will be tough, seriously tough and at this stage I just don't know. I'm gonna take nov/dec off from playing major volume and go back to 6max for a bit. In dec I'll make a decision once and for all about SNE. GL all!