Back on track?

If you remove my experience with Rush Poker (to be explained later), February has been a positive month so far.  I have had 8 cashes in MTTs so far - 3 PLO, 3 NL, 1 NL (6H), and 1 PLO H/L.  In fact, a couple were really deep runs: finished 16th out of 2259 in 6 handed NL and 17th out of 1246 in PLO.  I have tried to broaden my range of games, and it has improved my ROI.  Half of my cashes this month are in PLO.  If I am running deep in non-NL tourneys, there is clearly some weak play out there.  When it comes to PLO, I'm no  CK.

I tried Rush Poker on FTP, and I liked the concept a lot.  Too bad for a couple of things: 1. I'm  not getting rackback on FTP; and 2. I got cleaned out on the river every time I got my money in with the best hand pre-flop.  I suppose that should be expected if I am playing at a 10NL table.  In any event, after losing a few buy-ins, it was enough for me to end that experiment.  It will be interesting to see if other sites put together a "rush" equivalent. 

Over the past couple of days, I have been playing more cash games on PokerStars because of its 40 billion milestone hand promotion.  It has been a nice little gimmick to increase volume by offering bonuses to those involved in 1 million milestone hands on the way to 40 billion.  It would be nice to catch one of these bonuses to increase the bankroll.  There are various SNGs and MTTs related to the 40 billion milestone as well. 

Down month

This month was probably one of my worst months that I can remember.  My MTT play never took hold.  I had a couple of min-cashes in both NL and PLO MTTs.  My month would have been much worse, except for some decent ring game play (NL and PLO).  Looking back, I really got crushed in large MTTs, but not smaller MTTs.  I don't understand what accounts for this difference in results.  Variance is one thing, but a consistent down month reflects a leak that needs to be fixed.  My best guess is that I have been pressing in the wrong spots.  I have tried to play more aggressively, but it needs to be better targeted.  I hope to turn things around next month.

I played in a few WBCOOP events.  I have to say that the start times were brutal.  Starts around 5 or 6 EST ran right into parental duties, especially with my wife traveling.  In any event, did my best to play and strategically used Sesame Street as a babysitter.  I ran relatively deep on Thurs, but got knocked out 25 away from a min-coupon.  Not everyone runs like CK - congrats on the $215 coupon.

Registered for PS WBCOOP

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.
Registration code: 297776

Generally speaking, I'm not thrilled with the times for these events.  Start times coincide with times when I need to pick up my pups from daycare or feed them.  In any event, I will still try to play, and I may even open up my range of events.  I am usually a NL player, but I may try to play the PLO and 8 Game if my schedule allows.

So far this month has been a negative month.  I have had only 2 min-cashes in MTTs so far.  The month would be a whole lot worse if I were not doing well in 9-handed cash games.  Perhaps it is due to less play on my part.  Also, I have been playing more on Absolute Poker to take advantage of rakeback.  Rakeback is something I should have taken advantage of long ago, but I guess better late than never.

I hope to see you fellow bloggers in the tourneys.

Happy 2010

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season.  Many people use the new year to make resolutions for the upcoming year, but I use this time of year to reflect on the past year. 

This year from a poker standpoint was good.  I increased my play significantly this year over prior years.  I steadily improved my ROI throughout the year by playing smarter and adhering to strict bankroll management.  From a professional standpoint, I started my own law practice after spending 8 1/2 years in mid-law, and I managed to reach my meager benchmarks.  From a personal standpoint, my 2 little pups continue to grow and provide me with daily joy, and my wife has put up with me for yet another year.   All in all 2009 was good.

As for 2010, I am hopeful that I can continue to play significant amounts of poker.  However, there will be some challenges at the beginning of the year.  For those entrepreneurs out there, you know that when you own a business, the revenue stream may not always be constant.  Well, 1Q 2010 revenues are starting to shape up, but they are not there yet.  If they don't get there, some difficult choices may need to be made.  Feeding the pups come first, and it may require taking money from the bankroll.  I would also like to continue working for myself, but we'll see if that remains possible.  This second year is make or break.  Now I see why most small businesses fail within the first 2 years.  Let's see what this new year brings.

Slowing grinding the bankroll up

I had a relatively strong week of play which culminated with another Sunday of play.  Again, many thanks to the wife for watching the pups and letting me play.  Qualified for the $50K GTD Donkament on UB off of 100 points.  Picked up a nice $85 cash placing 138 of 821.  Then, later in the day, I went deep in the $2K GTD (rebuy) on UB, finishing 18 out of 664.  I am happy with cashing the only two events I played on Sunday.  I was up for the week on single table SNGs and 6 handed ring games.  I was pretty much even for the week in heads-up ring games.

Poker will be taking a little bit of a back seat during the holidays.  I hope to grind this week before heading to Newport for a long weekend.  Then, we head to Indiana for the holidays.  Happy holidays to all.

Getting Support

As I spent a good bit of Sunday playing poker, I realized that I am lucky to have the support at home which allows me to play.  How many doggs can get away with playing poker for most of a Sunday with two young pups?  Let's see how many more Sundays the wife will let me play.

Leading up to Sunday, I had been playing fairly well: 

- Won an entry into the Dime $10K GTD on UB.
- 23/364 - $1NL MTT on UB
- 127/2360 - $.25NL MTT on PS
- 376/4261 - $2K GTD on PS   

As for Sunday action, I played the Dime on UB.  I never really got into a groove and finished in a not too flattering 537 out of 1262.  Later in the day, I played the PCA Freeroll Fantasy Main Event.  I ran deep, but not deep enough - finished 124 out of 7639.  Only the top 9 were awarded seats to PCA 2010.  Anyone want to stake me for PCA 2010?

What goes up, goes down, then back up (and then probably back down)

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday.  Variance is a fact of life in MTT play.  I don't like to stay down too long, and I will do things to mix up my mindset so that I can help turn things around.  For example, I had a couple of days running horribly, so I started playing some ring games to refocus - HU NL and PLO.  It really helped.  Had the following notable results:

-  Final tabled - 9th out of 162 in the PCA Freeroll Fantasy $1 Satellite on PokerStars to earn a seat to the PCA Freeroll Fantasy main event.
-  Final tabled - 4th out of 149 in $1NL MTT at Bodog.
-  Really mini-cashed in $.10NL MTT at PokerStars - 672 out of 3740

-  Final tabled the UB CEREUS Twitter Freeroll - placed 8th out of 281.  Brutal beat at the end which would have made me chip leader:

Table: 26 (Real Money) Seat #5 is the dealer
Seat 5 - THEHIREDGUN (7,258 in chips)
Seat 6 - GETS2U75 (64,989 in chips)
Seat 7 - TYCOU (58,950 in chips)
Seat 8 - SUITED59 (47,772 in chips)
Seat 9 - GIJOEVALD111 (37,162 in chips)
Seat 2 - ATLIEN09 (44,887 in chips)
Seat 3 - PINGPONGSHOW (72,708 in chips)
Seat 4 - DISSIDENT11 (61,139 in chips)
ATLIEN09 - Ante 300
PINGPONGSHOW - Ante 300
DISSIDENT11 - Ante 300
THEHIREDGUN - Ante 300
GETS2U75 - Ante 300
TYCOU - Ante 300
SUITED59 - Ante 300
GIJOEVALD111 - Ante 300
GETS2U75 - Posts small blind 1,500
TYCOU - Posts big blind 3,000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to TYCOU [7c Ac]
SUITED59 - Folds
GIJOEVALD111 - Folds
ATLIEN09 - Folds
PINGPONGSHOW - Folds
DISSIDENT11 - Folds(Blind disconnect)
THEHIREDGUN - Folds
GETS2U75 - Raises 7,500 to 9,000
TYCOU - Calls 6,000
*** FLOP *** [7s Kc 2c]
GETS2U75 - Checks
TYCOU - Bets 14,500
GETS2U75 - Calls 14,500
*** TURN *** [7s Kc 2c] [3c]
GETS2U75 - Bets 18,000
TYCOU - Calls 18,000
*** RIVER *** [7s Kc 2c 3c] [Kh]
GETS2U75 - All-In 23,189
TYCOU - All-In 17,150
GETS2U75 - returned (6,039) : not called
*** SHOW DOWN ***
GETS2U75 - Shows [2h 2d] (Full house, twos full of kings)
TYCOU - Mucks
GETS2U75 Collects 119,700 from main pot

Mini-cashes, donkaments, and freerolls - oh my!

I have been running pretty well the past couple of days.  In addition to my grind of single table SNGs and HU play, I have finished 12th out of 137 in the $1NL MTT on Bodog, finished 262 out of 4856 in the $2K guaranteed on Pokerstars, and finished 3rd out of 121 in College Challenge on UB.  Slow and steady grind of cashes.

Aiming to be Isildur1 of micro-grinding

There are a lot of opinions out there about the identity of Isildur1.  Regardless of who he/she is, it is pretty remarkable what Isildur1 has been doing.  At 7:30 p.m. tonight, I witnessed Isildur1 play 6 tables - 5 PLO 500/1000 and 25K HU PLO Championship.  It appears that at each table Isildur1 would start with a 200K stack.  On the 2 tables against Ivey, Isildur1 was down on both tables - 273K v. 795K; 337K v. 406K.  On the 3 tables against Antonious, Isildur1 was up on 2 tables - 540K v. 192K and 567K v. 93K - Isildur1 was down on one table- 192K v. 1.5M.  Isildur1 made the final 8 in the 25K HU PLO Championship.  Conservatively, Isildur1 had more than 1M in play.  Obviously, there are only a small number of players in the world who can play at these stakes.  Then, there are even a smaller number of players in the world who can play as consistently as Isildur1 while multi-tabling against the likes of Ivey, Antonious, Benyamine, and Durr for up to 24 hours straight.  This mystery has created a lot of buzz.  Frankly, it has even gotten to me, and I'm intrigued enough to follow the action.  Let's see how long Isildur1 remains a mystery.

Since my last post, I have had a couple of mini-cashes: 399/5106 in NL MTT on Pokerstars and 16/178 in NL Super Satellite on Pokerstars.  I have also secured a spot in the 50K Donkament on UB from a 100 pt qualifier.  Looking back at my results historically, I find that I do relatively well in satellites on UB - cashing about 25% of the time.  In MTTs on UB, I cash about 21.5% of the time and final table slightly less than 10%.  My ROI in MTTs on UB is 4%.  I want to improve these numbers.  I need to improve my play so that I'm not just getting into money, but final tabling more and placing in the top 3.  How have others taken their play to the next level?   Off to some more micro-grinding ...  

Carson's Grampa Beef Jerky Wild Card Hand

This hand comes from a recent MTT on Pokerstars - my username (chodkows)


Seat 1: morrent (1925 in chips)
Seat 2: rubyz (5930 in chips)
Seat 3: vovankubrak (1945 in chips)
Seat 4: chodkows (1455 in chips)
Seat 5: KidbulletAA (3740 in chips) (Carson's Grampa Beef Jerky Wild Card Hand)
Seat 6: amnesia40 (3520 in chips)
Seat 8: Stevster77 (1325 in chips)
Seat 9: Celtic Storm (3770 in chips)
Celtic Storm: posts small blind 25
morrent: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to chodkows [Ah Qs]
rubyz: folds
vovankubrak: folds
chodkows: raises 100 to 150
KidbulletAA: calls 150
amnesia40: folds
Stevster77: folds
Celtic Storm: folds
morrent: folds
*** FLOP *** [Ad Kh Th]
chodkows: bets 250
KidbulletAA: calls 250
*** TURN *** [Ad Kh Th] [Qd]
chodkows: bets 1055 and is all-in
KidbulletAA: calls 1055
*** RIVER *** [Ad Kh Th Qd] [2c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
chodkows: shows [Ah Qs] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
KidbulletAA: shows ???????