Well, the dog days of summer are here, and yet another month of the great YIPES experiment has come to a close. It’s been interesting, to say the least. Not “good” interesting, and not “bad” interesting, but kinda both and kinda neither. Let me explain, starting with the variance of my bankroll:
To make a long story short, I’ve had countless $15 swings in the ‘roll, with $20 and even $30 gains and losses not uncommon during the past few weeks. I’m not entirely sure what, if anything, I’m doing wrong to cause this rollercoaster ride. Sure, part of the problem is Success Syndrome when I’m up, but once I start falling, I’ve recognized the problem and I tend to tighten up, which usually seems to only slow the descent, not stop it. Routinely I’ve bottomed out around $85, only to see the ‘roll scratch and claw its way back to $100 or so. Then I either have a big upswing to $115, followed by a drop of $25, or I just start back-sliding down from the century mark. It’s discouraging and confusing, but at least I ended the month above the goal of $80.
The next month is going to be tougher yet, of course. I have to make roughly $65 dollars to reach the new $160 goal, which means I need to average at least $2.10 per day in profit. Running the numbers in my spreadsheet shows that, with a 50% money rate, I will need to play either two $3.40 SnGs per day, or slightly more than one $5.50 game per day.
On the other hand, if I stick to limit poker, and apply the 2.5xBB per hour rule, and I play two hours a day, I need to start beating the $.25/$.50 games more consistently than I have been. Yikes! Dunno what I’ll do, but I better think of something fast… August is a little over 24 hours away!
In other poker news, I played in another Wednesday night MPT game. The Guru bought my entry ticket in partial payment for teaching his class while he was in Vegas. He mumbled something the other day about financing “a couple of games” so we’ll see if I get another freeroll next week.
Anyway, this week’s MPT could’ve gone better. I started out too frisky, trying to force the cards to work, but instead donked off about a third of my chips. I then settled down and went into TAG mode. That seemed to work, and I manufactured some chips, slowly but surely building the stack back up to my starting amount of T3000. Unfortunately, I was seriously card dead the whole game. The best hand I had all night was 33. In one pitiful run, I had ten straight hands that were three gapers of 9 or smaller. Incredible.
My one lucky break came in the BB, when I had A3o. It folded to the button, who limped. The Guru was in the SB and raised it up to pot. He was getting short stacked and I figured him for a weak ace steal attempt. I was getting short, too, so I pushed, the button then raised to isolate me, and the Guru laid his hand down after a long pause. The button turned over AJ, and I was a big dog, but the board was good to me, delivering a three on the turn and I doubled up. Woof! Then I just kept bobbing and weaving my way to the final table and right up to the bubble. I was short stacked the whole time, slowly getting whittled away and had to make a stand with Q9o, but unfortunately ran into KJ. Neither of us hit the board, but his King high crushed my wussy Queen high and I was sent packing.
You might think I would be bummed getting knocked out one off the money, but I actually feel pretty good about the game and my fourth place finish. This is especially true given the fact that I was card dead the whole game, while others kept turning over wired aces, kings, and other monsters. What makes the loss feel okay, too, is t that about half the players at the table attended the WSOP this year, all going pretty deep into the tourneys they played. The fact that I hung with these big dogs for as long as I did with crap hands certainly feels okay. Kinda. At least I’m not gonna go out kick the dog tonight after this losing session. Woof.
All-in for now…
-Bug
To make a long story short, I’ve had countless $15 swings in the ‘roll, with $20 and even $30 gains and losses not uncommon during the past few weeks. I’m not entirely sure what, if anything, I’m doing wrong to cause this rollercoaster ride. Sure, part of the problem is Success Syndrome when I’m up, but once I start falling, I’ve recognized the problem and I tend to tighten up, which usually seems to only slow the descent, not stop it. Routinely I’ve bottomed out around $85, only to see the ‘roll scratch and claw its way back to $100 or so. Then I either have a big upswing to $115, followed by a drop of $25, or I just start back-sliding down from the century mark. It’s discouraging and confusing, but at least I ended the month above the goal of $80.
The next month is going to be tougher yet, of course. I have to make roughly $65 dollars to reach the new $160 goal, which means I need to average at least $2.10 per day in profit. Running the numbers in my spreadsheet shows that, with a 50% money rate, I will need to play either two $3.40 SnGs per day, or slightly more than one $5.50 game per day.
On the other hand, if I stick to limit poker, and apply the 2.5xBB per hour rule, and I play two hours a day, I need to start beating the $.25/$.50 games more consistently than I have been. Yikes! Dunno what I’ll do, but I better think of something fast… August is a little over 24 hours away!
In other poker news, I played in another Wednesday night MPT game. The Guru bought my entry ticket in partial payment for teaching his class while he was in Vegas. He mumbled something the other day about financing “a couple of games” so we’ll see if I get another freeroll next week.
Anyway, this week’s MPT could’ve gone better. I started out too frisky, trying to force the cards to work, but instead donked off about a third of my chips. I then settled down and went into TAG mode. That seemed to work, and I manufactured some chips, slowly but surely building the stack back up to my starting amount of T3000. Unfortunately, I was seriously card dead the whole game. The best hand I had all night was 33. In one pitiful run, I had ten straight hands that were three gapers of 9 or smaller. Incredible.
My one lucky break came in the BB, when I had A3o. It folded to the button, who limped. The Guru was in the SB and raised it up to pot. He was getting short stacked and I figured him for a weak ace steal attempt. I was getting short, too, so I pushed, the button then raised to isolate me, and the Guru laid his hand down after a long pause. The button turned over AJ, and I was a big dog, but the board was good to me, delivering a three on the turn and I doubled up. Woof! Then I just kept bobbing and weaving my way to the final table and right up to the bubble. I was short stacked the whole time, slowly getting whittled away and had to make a stand with Q9o, but unfortunately ran into KJ. Neither of us hit the board, but his King high crushed my wussy Queen high and I was sent packing.
You might think I would be bummed getting knocked out one off the money, but I actually feel pretty good about the game and my fourth place finish. This is especially true given the fact that I was card dead the whole game, while others kept turning over wired aces, kings, and other monsters. What makes the loss feel okay, too, is t that about half the players at the table attended the WSOP this year, all going pretty deep into the tourneys they played. The fact that I hung with these big dogs for as long as I did with crap hands certainly feels okay. Kinda. At least I’m not gonna go out kick the dog tonight after this losing session. Woof.
All-in for now…
-Bug
No comments:
Post a Comment