Steady climb online..

Yeh I know, this post is a little bit of blowing my own trumpet....

But after hearing that Reinder is also having a good month in online poker I thought I would post some of my thoughts about the last few weeks online.

Since december I have had a steady increase in my bankroll playing the low limits on pokerstars in both the SNG MTT's and the low limit (.5/.10) cash games. It started with a €25 ($33) deposit and with careful play and very careful bankroll management that balance is currently at $129.70, so I thought I would share some of my findings about my own game and why I thnk it is going reasonably ok.

Previously I have built my roll to over $900 but due to terrible bankroll management (BRM) I have blown it all making a break for the big time and decided that this last deposit would be my last one for a long time and in order to try to take on my personal challenge properly I set my self some rules and it's these rules that I believe have actually made the most improvement in making profit than any of the playing tips I have recieved or read about. The importance of BRM had always escaped me before so I thought I would explain how I have been doing it recently.

1. Tounaments - Never buy into a tournament for anything more than 2% of Entire Bankroll. (so $1.20 dollar tourneys only)
2. Cash Games - Never buy in for anymore than 5% of my bankroll (still playing at around 2%)
3. Cash Games - If during a cash game I reach 10% of my total bankroll then I must logg out (approx triple my buy in) and buy in for the same 5% at another table.
4. Buy in limits per day - I allowed myself 2 tournaments and 2 cash table buyins for one session. If I lost them I had to stop playing until the next session (the following day mainly)
5. Never chase a loss. The two cash table buyins can be used on the same table (especially after a abd beat and am not tilting) but if that buy in is lost then you must log out and not play cash tables again until next session
6. Set ranges for increasing my stakes and reward wins. I am currently forcing myself to stay at certain limits where I am confortable winning, I will not go up to higher limits until I have reached various stages of my bank roll. The next stage being 200 dollars. Then I will double up the buy ins that I am currently spending to $2.20 SNG's and the odd $5 SNG's now and again as a reward for winning tournaments.

By sticking to these rules I have been having positive ssessions everyday at the moment and although I did play 1 tournament more than allowed yesterday because I was unaware that I was already sitting in a tournament that was running, so I had 4 going instead of the 3 I was aware of.

I would love to hear anyone elses poker progress and I will keep you posted on the bankroll and any big tourney wins I may get this year.

This weeks fun resulted in (in total about 10 tourneys played, 5 cashes, 3 wins = profit)

Tourney: 45 man - placed 1st
Tourney: 45 man - placed 1st
Tourney: 09 man - placed 1st
Tourney: 45 man - placed 3rd
Tourney: 45 man - placed 3rd

Also some micro limit cash table profit

I also died in 2 tournaments online one because I didn't know I was entered into it and the other due to a stupid play with a big hand. I figured 3 out of 5 isn't bad and it was a profitable evening which is the most important thing. (I was allowed extra tourneys due to tournament win, giving yourself an incentive to earn more if you win means you can make mroe money without risking your bankroll.)

Current Bankroll : 129.70

Comments work now!

Sorry guys I had noticed that comments were turned off for people who didn't have a gmail account.

That is now fixed and anyone can now comment on the blog entries so please start to!! hehe, speak to you all soon and don't forget to let me know if you are going to be playing on the 9th.

Poker Observations of the Lam

Poker Observations of the Lam

 

So here it was; a wonderful night to behold lay before my woolly feet as I trod fearlessly back into the world of poker stars. Under the guidance of the legendary Tenakalaz I took part in the 45 seater in line for a dollar (paid for by the aforementioned).

 

It was going well for me until I had to take a call in the real world, and subsequently got blinded down so much that when I returned it was all I could to but watch my all in on two high cards.

 

At least it gave me a chance to watch the Ten' go about his game and as he took down the 150 euros in the last home game I thought some research may be useful anyway. And that's the main reason for this blogg; his careful strategy deserves closer inspection for the sake of my bankroll.

 

He started copybook tight; tight is right, in the early stages. It was not until the field come down to two tables did he loosen up slightly. He created a very nice image by folding slowly at times, quickly at others. No chat.

 

He let the lunatics get their chips stack and lose them, a lot of it finding its way to him.

 

Here I must admit I tried my best to put his off by typing odd words in the chat box but he had it sorted.

 

He played a few careful but committed bluffs against the correct opponents and played his A-game until the field was down to seven, then he used the credit he gained from his tight image to be able to take some high blinds down pre-flop.

 

He was safe and waited for his cards. When they came he coaxed others into a hand and knocked them out.

 

What was noticeable about his game was the discipline he showed in making it to the final table and then being able to switch his game to a more aggressive style. As the players remaining came down to four he was super aggressive, and it was not long between until it was between him and the other best player in the tourney were heads up.

 

Here, when a little luck was needed he had none and had his K7 suited (I think) blown away by an AQ off suit.

 

A great game to watch…

 

I was thinking that maybe it is not fair to submit these observations; we will all get a chance to play him and use what we know about his game against him, but when he can switch his style so effectively, will reading this make him any easier to play? I doubt it.

 

But it could help us.

 

lol

ONLINE TOURNAMENTS ARE HERE!!!

Well it has been sorted....

I now have the ability to create private passworded tournaments on pokerstars for us to play in.

My brother and some of his friends in the U.K have also expressed an interest in playing plus some other friends, so we could expand the tourney to other people we know who can't make the home game.

I was thinking of doing a trial tournament very soon to see how everything works, the structure is a simple sit and go style tournament but I will investigate all the options this weekend and set up a tourney for some evening next week for all those who are interested.

I was also thinking of setting up a teamspeak server so we can all chat whilst playing but you will need to get yourself a headset to be able to use it, but it would make it a bit mroe like the home game.... there is also the chat window of course.

I really want to know who will be interested in playing!

Pokerstars can be found here, it's also available for mac both links are under this