October Review- November Goals- $20,000+ Month

October Review- November Goals- $20,000+ Month

Poker

Not much to comment actually this month went surprisingly well for me in terms of both win rate and table profits. Nearing the middle of my month I had several ridiculously swingy days  Along with the 72s Promotion and a lot of run hot in the beginning/ middle of the month and breaking out of that downswing near middle I was able to take a shot at 200nl again. 

This month almost 95% of my volume was 6-tabling zoom. Either 3/3 of 100nl (Full Ring and 6 Max) or 3/3 (100nl / 200nl) 6-max games. As opposed to last month where the majority of my volume was 8-tabling; I was able to cut my volume by 25% and increase win rate by close to 3-fold. *Good trade off if you ask me =)* 

Yesterday was possibly the last day I will have played this month as it is Halloween and it is off to the bars/parties to celebrate with lots of candies, cheers, and handing out with friends. 

Since a lot of my friends are in University right now and it's just around the period of time when they're through with their first set of midterms it's a great time to celebrate! 

I ended up taking several days off this month for thanksgiving, hanging out with friends, and going to the movies. 

Turkey/Duck Kept warm in oven

Thanksgiving actually was more of like a 2-3 day holiday as family friends came over for dinner that night; but also the days preceding it was followed by us eating at their homes. 

After the bloating thanksgiving dinners, buddies of mine would go to karaoke and then proceed to the local pub to have a few cheers and shoot some pool (snooker). 

The Numbers

I was pretty stoked when Full-Ring 200nl-Zoom ran for a period of time. . actually 1 day couple hours.

I need to learn to stop sitting on the regular tables(non-zoom games). I happen to be terrible at table-selection as well as playing 4-zoom games while stacking 12 regular tables on the side . . isn't particularly my strong point. 

200nl went much better than last month where I lost about 5bi's. I believe my peak for the month was around $15k pre-rb; however due to horrendus run-bad and play-bad last night (costed me $2k) my win rate at 200nl was butchered. 

I was able to get in nonetheless about 93k VPPs despite playing only 65% of the volume I did last month. It did affect me by only reaching about 70% of my expected "VPPs". Currently Sitting on about 825k VPPs for the year and really need to kick it up a notch in November if I plan on continue finishing SNE a week or two in advance. 

Goals Recap

Previous Goals that were set last month:  I fell short of my VPP goal of 100k+ VPPs, as well as having several 10-20 bi downswings within this stretch of month. Most certainly updated Blog more frequently than last month almost twice as much!. Overall I'm more or less satisfied with October as it turned out, not too particularly excited but not too disappointing. 

I took about 5-6 days off this month; with 1 or 2 days where I put in only about an hour or two worth of grind. Exactly 200 hours played this month which is on the lower side of my expectations.

Always room for improvement!

Goals for November 

• Continue working out 4-5x a week
• Earn at least 125k VPPs
• Continue winning at 200nl-zoom; 
• Improve my game and winrate
• Improve my C-Game as well as B-Game.
• Play 85% of hands while not mentally tired/tilted
• 240h/ 375k hands. 
• Manage Time much better

FINAL WEEK!#SUPERNOVA ELITE CHASE#OCTOBER

FINAL WEEK!#SUPERNOVA ELITE CHASE#OCTOBER

Shortly after my Mid-Month Update I came across an absolutely atrocious 30bi downswing which took nearly forever . . well couple days to break out of.

After going on a brief heater I figured it was time to give it another shot at 200-zoom~ Obviously can't be scared of the monster in the closet forever!


200nl-Zoom went surprisingly well this month for me as opposed to last month. The main problem I found out regarding moving up stakes is "over adjusting". Naturally each stake should be a little bit more difficult than the last; but shouldn't be by much! The thing that was going through my mind was "These guys think I'm fish . . I need to outplay them in every single hand", which was of course the wrong approach to go about in a thing like this.

One more week left in October !

Review of Goals for October

Goals for October

• Continue working out 4-5x a week
• Earn at least 100k VPP's 
• Win profits at the tables ; increase winrate
• Work on Mental Game "Tilt" 
• Try and Update Blog several times a week
• Manage time a lot better

I've continued working out; and have been trying to update the blog as frequently as possible. However, due to thanksgiving dinners, going out with friends/family I was unable to grind/blog as frequently as I would have liked.

Sitting on about 78k VPPs at the moment; which will give me 1 week to earn 22k vpps.~ shouldn't be a problem at all.

 I've increased my win rate a ton by learning to take much more frequent breaks: running hot, taking frequent breaks, trying not to play late night / all nighter sessions, as well as dropping down from 8 tables to 6. 

Read a few chapters of the Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler and found it quite informative and a very nice read during my breaks.

A few 10-20 bi downswings this month; and a 30bi downswing. . . whilst the 10bi downswings are close to inevitable; the 30bi downswing was a huge fault of mine for playing while being way too tired.

I've also decided to play a mixture of both 100nl/200nl/6m/fr-zoom this is just due to the fact that although 200nl is great for VPPs ; a nice chunk of my profits still arise from the 100nl-fr / and 100nl-6m zoom tables.

Good luck to everyone else!! =] ~

See you at the tables ! =]

Breaking out of that Downswing

Couple days ago I had a few sessions where I dropped "cumulatively close to 30bi's. Almost a 50/50 split between terribly spews and running absolutely bad.

Took only 1.5 days to drop 30bi's and nearly 3 days to climb all the way back up. Luckily I ran into some Friday/Saturday Heat and was able to climb out of this hole.
Total VPP count for the month is 65k
Hopefully will end the month with 95-100k VPPs if not a bit more. Will be looking to take a few shots at 200nl if I'm feeling adventerous =X.


Good luck at the tables everyone ! =]

MID MONTH UPDATE #OCTOBER#Pace to $20,000 month!

MID MONTH UPDATE #OCTOBER#

This month started off much better than last month's mid month review. Though it wasn't always smooth. . there were some terrible terrible downswings this month that's just been overshadowed by volume of course. My volume has been a little bit behind pace due to the fact that I decided to drop my tables from 8-tabling to 6 instead; this also resulted in an increase in win rate which is always a nice bonus. 

The Chase #mistakes

Depending way too much on eye drops, coffee , energy drinks to help me stay awake. The important thing to remember about shooting SNE @100nl is that it is a very tight chase. If I even fall behind schedule a day or two, couple days; It takes several extended 10-12 hour days to overcompensate for the time that I lost.  

This month however is a major exception as with the holiday of Thanksgiving, and lots of family dinners followed by karaoke and beer. . it wasn't exactly the best scenario for me to grind afterwards.

The Review

This month has been quite nice so far as I've taken several seperate shots at 200nl-zoom games. The first was at 200nl-zoom 6max, the others were at 200nl-zoom-full ring. Given that 200nl-zoom-full ring rarely runs I was ecstatic to find out it was quite fun and profitable when it did. There were several sessions when full-ring-zoom-100nl did not run (which is usually a huge pain in the butt for me); I compensated by adding 6-12 6-max/fr tables. . however needless to say either I ran terrible in them or just plain am bad in them. Perhaps it may be the change of environment being "regular tables that is getting to my nerves but I find myself always struggling to play as well as I do in the zoom games. 

50nl-6max went well this month when I 8-tabled (50/100)-6max for an all nighter session chasing losses. . . which probably was not the smartest idea but at least I'm in the green at 50! =)

Notes to Keep in Mind

• Avoid playing extended days. This applies especially if there's a lack of sleep involved in this process
• Avoid playing a very high variance game even if it means sacrificing marginal +ev spots
• Keep to a healthy diet
• Workout 5-6x a week 
• Drop down from 4lbs 
• Take small shots at 200-zoom when I'm neither tired, nor when the pool's nearly empty
• Have positive win rate at 200-zoom-6 max.

[  ] 200k more hands for month 

[  ] Hit that 800k Milestone

[  ] Some table profits 

Currently Sitting @ 47k VPPs for the month; and Ideally I'd like to make about 100k VPPs this month or so. 

Last month although I did 130k VPPs it was at the expense of a 60bi downswing ; losing a ton at 200-zoom, and 8-tabling the majority of the month.

The benefit of hitting 130k VPPs this month and next is that I'd finish SNE approximately 1 Month ahead of schedule giving me the entire December free to nurse my burning eyes and wrist. 

However due to me being 30k VPPs ahead of my own pace due to last month; even if I make only 100k VPPs this month and next I will still hit SNE with about 10-days left to spare. Sounds good to me =)~

And always~ 

Good luck Everyone ! =] 

See you on the tables! 

POKERSTARS 72s PROMOTION REVIEW #FREE MONEY

POKERSTARS 72s PROMOTION REVIEW #FREE MONEY

After the announcement of Pokerstars Promotion on 72s BOOM hand which has been reviewed by many grinders/bloggers I decided to do an update and thorough review on how profitable it seemed to be! 

Let's start off with some graphs; ~ 

Graph on the left was specifically me playing 72s within those days where the BOOM Promotion was going forth. 

Some of the grinders were quite ''skeptic'' in saying that playing 72s might not be worth the additional $$ that can be won with the boom promotion.  

I've made a post prior this month to  regarding the value of opponents attempting to play 72s in the wrong spots and donating lumps of money to other players like me. Most certainly I think the 72s was much more profitable than the Happy Hour Promotion. 

The actual amount of money made directly through both promotions were more or less the same; however  whereas the 72s promotion tempted players to play much worse by attempting to play marginal hands with poor execution and plays; the Happy Hour Promotions flooded the games with grinders and very nitty players grinding VPPs.

As you can see not every day I was able to hit the BOOM promotion. This was due to it being particularly difficult to win with 72s Out of Position in FR, as well as fullring-zoom poker beingd.

frequently running short-handed whilst I played.

Nonetheless. 89$ from BOOM Promotion 82$ from winning hands with 72s. As well as least 200$ from players poorly executing plays with 72s brings it up to a very well bonus indeed for just 1 week in the month. Hopefully PokerStars will continue regularly with the BOOM PROMOTIONS as they are indeed very good for the games (:

#Downswings#Worst 2 Sessions of Month

#Downswings#Worst 2 Sessions of Month

 Graph on the left was me pulling an all nighter in attempts to get back on pace to SNE. As you probably have noticed from my week 1 Review. I was falling quite behind on VPPs for the month and desperately needed to catch up if I wanted any chance at all in finish SNE before the holidays.

 Same thing happened today; as I was attempting to grind those extra VPPs and such while playing during the "low hours" as well as being super tired the inevitable downswing slapped me in the face so hard. Spent a good portion of the night trying to get unstuck and hopefully even.  

Lesson: If avoidable never grind during the lowest pool / player hours of the day. Avoid pulling all night grind sessions. 

Hopefully I'll latch on to some weekend run-good an bank a nice giraffe for my Mid-Month Review. ! ~ 

Graph to date will not be posted until then; though do keep in mind those are just 2 of my all nighter session downswings for the month.  

Given that I've been posting nothing but upswings so far I don't want people to get the wrong idea that you never have "bad sessions/bad days" in poker. 

For the most part~ these 2 major downswings were a huge result of grinding late at night; not during peak hours and of course tilting a little bit here and there.

As Always~ 

Good luck to everyone else on the tables!! 

May the RUNHOT be always in your favour =)~ 

October 8th #HEATWAVE#FAQ #EVBUCKS

#HEATWAVE#s'all bout the EVBUCKS

If you've been following my blog for the past week you know I've done nothing but run hot hot hot. 

Today was little to that exception. 

Since I've been cutting down tables recently playing a mixture of 6-8 tables instead of flat out 8-tabling it's been affecting my win rate in a positive fashion but VPP count in a negative fashion.

That being said. . as my volume is 8k hands. . I'm going to crank out another few more hours before I head to bed; nonetheless as it is the end of Oct-8th here in Van~ I shall update

Why Don't I stop 8-tabling putting in SNE volume?

Making SNE this year and making 900k VPP will be difference of about 45k this is accounting for (5x multiplier following year) ; 20k milestone.

But wouldn't the increase in WR negate the difference by volume?

If I cut volume in half. (200k hands a month) for next 3 months. 600k hands to make 45k = 7.5bb/100 difference. I'm not going to increase my winrate by 7.5 bb/100.

Oh but what if you ended up moving up!

Okay I'll humor you; let's say I move to 200nl-ZOOM I'll need to average 3.75bb/100 for remainder of year with that volume. Oh but wait. . that's a very achievable winrate for most players! . . not. 

So you're keeping up with the SNE grind?

Too late to turn back now. I'm at 753k VPPs for the year. Even if I "stopped doing SNE volume" and cut it down I'll still end the year with 850k-900k VPPs. . which is 90% of the way there.

So no life for the next couple months?

Time Management. If ANYONE needs to sacrifice life in order to play poker. . either they really are passionate/obsessed about the game or . . . . . [insert insulting word of choice] 

Pre- Eatin' Fish-- Eatin' Fish

You gotta eat fish before you eat fish. 

A healthy meal is a start of a healthy body. A healthy body leads to a healthy mind.

Nutrition = Key To Upswing 

(semi-serious)

S'ALL about the Hand histories.

Biggest Winning Hand

Poker Stars $100.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2322769
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $129.62 
SB: $116.50 - VPIP: 20, PFR: 15, 3B: 6, AF: 2.7, Hands: 7935
BB: $105.68 - VPIP: 40, PFR: 30, 3B: 0, AF: 0.0, Hands: 10
UTG: $142.39 - VPIP: 31, PFR: 15, 3B: 4, AF: 6.0, Hands: 164
MP: $102.73 - VPIP: 21, PFR: 18, 3B: 11, AF: 2.6, Hands: 1965
CO: $119.73 - VPIP: 27, PFR: 9, 3B: 14, AF: 2.0, Hands: 11

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BTN with 3 3
1 fold, MP raises to $3, CO calls $3, Hero calls $3, 1 fold, BB calls $2

Flop: ($12.50) J K 3 (4 players)
BB checks, MP checks, CO bets $9.00, Hero raises to $23.50, BB folds, MP raises to $38, CO raises to $116.73, Hero raises to $126.62, MP calls $61.73 all in

Turn: ($345.69) 9 (3 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($345.69) 6 (3 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $345.69
Hero shows 3 3
MP shows J K
CO shows K A
Hero wins $308.89
(Rake: $2.80)

Biggest Losing Hand

Poker Stars $100.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2322770
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $49.53 - VPIP: 25, PFR: 18, 3B: 6, AF: 2.3, Hands: 4065
SB: $203.74 - VPIP: 16, PFR: 12, 3B: 4, AF: 1.6, Hands: 5407
Hero (BB): $137.33 
UTG: $120.05 - VPIP: 40, PFR: 21, 3B: 8, AF: 3.9, Hands: 124
MP: $97.00 - VPIP: 21, PFR: 11, 3B: 3, AF: 1.6, Hands: 1390
CO: $45.46 - VPIP: 28, PFR: 20, 3B: 6, AF: 1.6, Hands: 243

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with K A
UTG raises to $3, 4 folds, Hero raises to $10.50, UTG raises to $41.50, Hero raises to $137.33, UTG calls $78.55 all in

Flop: ($240.60) 3 9 J (2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: ($240.60) 3 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($240.60) 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $240.60
Hero shows K A
UTG shows Q Q
UTG wins $237.80
(Rake: $2.80)

SPEW OF THE DAY #Givin'Back2Community

Poker Stars $100.00 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 2322771
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $102.66 - VPIP: 17, PFR: 13, 3B: 5, AF: 2.7, Hands: 24992
SB: $165.69 - VPIP: 17, PFR: 13, 3B: 6, AF: 3.2, Hands: 14148
BB: $48.50 - VPIP: 14, PFR: 13, 3B: 6, AF: 3.8, Hands: 4151
UTG: $161.76 - VPIP: 15, PFR: 7, 3B: 9, AF: 3.0, Hands: 190
UTG+1: $37.89 - VPIP: 19, PFR: 12, 3B: 4, AF: 1.3, Hands: 1537
Hero (UTG+2): $358.82 - VPIP: 21, PFR: 17, 3B: 7, AF: 2.9, Hands: 2818294
MP1: $138.25 - VPIP: 18, PFR: 13, 3B: 6, AF: 2.9, Hands: 3467
MP2: $182.67 - VPIP: 16, PFR: 5, 3B: 2, AF: 1.8, Hands: 968
CO: $51.32 - VPIP: 14, PFR: 12, 3B: 7, AF: 3.0, Hands: 10849

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is UTG+2 with 6 6
2 folds, Hero raises to $2.50, 4 folds, SB raises to $10, 1 fold, Hero calls $7.50

Flop: ($21.00) 3 K 9 (2 players)
SB bets $11.00, Hero calls $11

Turn: ($43.00) A (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $23.50, SB calls $23.50

River: ($90.00) Q (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $130.00, SB calls $121.19 all in

Final Pot: $332.38
SB shows A K
Hero shows 6 6
SB wins $329.58
(Rake: $-6.01)