May Madness

So Ive had a pretty interesting month

The image is my live cash game graph for this year (small sample i know). I'm using poker-tracking.com to record all my live play and i think it will end up being a very useful tool (if you are playing live cash i suggest checking it out). I was going to graph my entire recorded history but am pretty lazy and didn't really have all the information i wanted for my 2009 sessions at star city casino.



I got in a total of 52 hrs live play this month and still have one more game tonight. I'm feeling increasingly more comfortable in the deep cash games and am hoping my coming sessions continue to reflect this. I'm playing two games a week for about 6hrs each game on top of full time work and some online play so i am a little time pushed at the moment.

To the online world...I played about 400 dons on stars for $-192, i had a pretty bad session where i dropped a thousand or so just running really really badly (It was pretty absurd and i raged a bit on facebook, in hindsight probably not the best outlet). I played only ten tables tonight rather then twelve and felt a lot more comfortable. I'm kind of unsure as to whether this is a good or a bad thing.

I made a new account on titan to see what there dons were like because i heard they were doing very aggressive promotions. The site runs a high density of 6 max dons and like party poker they have no antes which i feel is slightly negative for me (as things like the actual bubble person are not so easily missed), i have only played about 40 tourneys on their site due to the fact I'm learning both the 6 max format and how to play with no antes. The big downside is they are raking games excessively to pay for the promotions, while i am clearing a depositors bonus it is probably fine but I'm unsure about the sites potential.

After i clear the deposit bonus i may try out party poker and any other sites that have dons and reasonable reward systems in place... pretty much bonus whoring for the win until i find the most suitable home.

I'm pretty happy overall with how things are moving along, tonight i get to put in my application for part time and once it is approved (fingers crossed) life and poker will be much more manageable

Peace Aaron

Grinding on the less virtual felt

Once again i am overdue to do an update, i have been playing a lot of cash (dealer games) and working. My last 4 cash sessions have added another $900 to my bankroll (23hrs total time played). Across the last few games i think Ive probably lost over $2000 expected value in bad plays and bad lines and hence am making a lot of mistakes and not always maximizing when i have the best of it...

Deep cash is still a scary world and provides a lot of room for errors. I do feel like i am improving and am a wining player even while i feel at times out of my depth, i guess if i feel this way then many of the other less experienced players (which is 90%) either have no fear or are under the gun more then me.

There will always be money left on the table by the mistakes you make and some mistakes are only mistakes in the sense of if you knew your opponents hand how would you then played. You should always feel like you could have played better because this provides you with a drive to improve

My dons for this month are @ 250ish played for an $84 profit (0.6% roi). My month started pretty averagely and once again my volume is low but that's going to maintain to be a problem for another month i think.

Also i got well on the score board in random. games with Rhys and Ryan who have been destroying the cash games i have been at.

April In The Bank

Sorry this is a few days late, i just wasted some days off not updating my blog, not playing poker, not training jiu jitsu......instead i got a bit drunk and then lost badly at board games to Rhys and Ryan who apparently win at life , this is only mostly true (Ryan did accidentally reg for a 2k buyin in the scoop events and got busted with AK against AQ. table ninja for the loss)

I have been feeling really limited time wise but i guess that's what full time work, jiu jitsu training, socialising and poker shenanigans leave you with. Maybe i just procrastinate to much rather then just getting my hands dirty and grinding up a storm.

So about my April. After a slow start to the month i came home strongly, my overall volume did suck as i only played 716 tournaments making a month profit of 1400ish dollars from 43 hrs play (plus rake back/ points) which conveniently is just enough points to clear platinum star.

I do feel like I'm swimming in shark infested waters on stars and so may look to branch out to party poker, plus i don't feel stars is worth playing unless you hit 200k vpp's which is a tall order from where i am right now

I'm also getting involved in some live cash games (dealers are just way to good value to avoid, in fact its closer to a d### measuring contest then anything that resembles good poker). I played 2 1/2 $200 sessions recently, the first session on the 26th April was short (4hrs)and i was down 150 but i felt i played pretty badly in 3 specific pots. I was mostly a pay of wizard on bad rivers, however i tried to develop a loser image for myself in this game then how i would standardly play and i feel maybe this is worth dumping a little for. In retrospect i kind of feel based on the game like this is unnecessary for me to do.

The second session on Monday the 3rd of May was plus 1550 although i think i played averagely due to my inexperience more then 100bbs deep and my lack of recent cash play, a good result is a good result but maybe this result reflected the weakness of the game and the effect of standard tightish play with some solid reads and value bets (but it definitely convinces me that this is a game i should be devoting my time and efforts too).

that's about all Ive got for the moment

Peace Aaron