Saturday, February 04, 2006

I played another 400+ hands after my last update. Here are my stats so far:

Hands: 6,178 (23,822 remaining)
Pace: -1,822
Win Rate: 1.09 BB/100
Days Remaining: 22

Posted by Predator314 at 7:14 AM 0 comments  

Friday, February 03, 2006

I played 1,249 hands tonight. I still feel like I'm running bad, but I won at a rate of 1.98 BB/100 tonight. Not that great. I just keep losing some huge pots when my sets run into 4 to a flush and shit like that. Oh well. I'm off to bed to get some rest for the tournament tomorrow.

Stats:
Hands: 5,746 (24,254 remaining)
Pace: -2,254 hands
Win Rate: 1.29 BB/100
Days Remaining: 22

Posted by Predator314 at 10:06 PM 0 comments  

I'm going to move up in limits for real this time. I'll wait until after my challenge is over. My bankroll can really withstand playing $5/10 right now, but I'm overhauling my game and paying bills with poker money at the same time, so that's why I've been slumming it at the $2/4 tables.

The problem with $2/4 is that I can make enough money to pay all my bills, but my bankroll just isn't growing. Now that I'm back on the rakeback wagon and playing good poker and getting a bunch of hands in, I'll have plenty saved up to go to the $3/6 games.

One other reason, I've been playing $2/4 instead of $3/6 is because table selection is much easier. Good tables are more difficult to come by in the $3/6 level. However, there are plenty of retards in this world, so I'm sure I can find some decent ones.

I'm going to stick with the full ring game tables for right now. I'm burnt out on short handed play and the swings I endure. I was looking at my stats for $3/6 (full) last year. I had over 110,000 hands at that limit with a 2.87 BB/100 win rate. That's $18,000+. I need to quit cashing out and buying guitars and homes and shit.

So, I'm not going to make any cashouts unless it is an emergency. I want my bankroll to grow so I can play the higher stakes.... where they respect my raises (sarcasm for the humor impaired). I don't know if the $15/30 games are as juicy as they once were, but I want to give them a shot. That's a long way off though and I've got points in my game that still need work.

Here's a long term plan to summarize things:

1.) Finish my 30K in 30 days challenge
2.) Move up to $3/6 and play at least 100,000 hands
3.) Move up to $5/10 (probably 6 max) and take shots at the $15/30.

Right now I'm focusing on figuring out how to squeeze in 25,000+ hands by the end of this month.

This evening, I'm going to hit the tables as soon as I get home from work. I can get at least 2 hours of play in before I hit The Club for some musical goodness. I probably won't get to play any afterwards because I want to get a good night's rest for tomorrow's big bowling tournament. It all depends on how long it takes me to get fed up with the drunks. I'm too old for bars anymore. The only time I go is when there is some good live music.

Speaking of music, I want to plug these guys: JC/BC. They are an acoustical, classic rock cover band. However, some of the members are also part of the rock band, A Noted Author. There are some songs to listen to on the "A Noted Author" page and also on the lead singer, Bob Campion's page.

Posted by Predator314 at 6:09 AM 0 comments  

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Way behind pace, but I had a decent day today. I got in about 730 hands today to the tune of 5.22 BB/100. I really felt like I ran bad today, but I guess I did OK.

I'm playing under my new Party Poker name. The identity will be kept secret. The good thing about this account is .... RAKEBACK! This will help the bankroll big time. I haven't had a good rakeback payout since Party split from the skins. I get 24% on this account. I figure I'll have a really good rakeback payment for February with this challenge.

Here are my stats so far in this quest:

Hands: 4,497 (25,503 remaining)
Pace: -2503 hands
Winrate: 1.09 BB/100

One thing I realized during this quest. 30,000 hands is quite a bit for me. If I were playing full time, this would be a breeze. I could probably swing 50,000 hands.

I'm going to have to buckle down and try to catch up. I'm going to try to double up on my hands tomorrow night. It's going to be tough because there's a band playing tomorrow night at The Club that I'm gonna go watch. Then Saturday night, I'll probably get a shitload of hands played. I'm bowling in a tournament Saturday, but I don't have plans that night and I'll be too tired to want to do anything else.

Posted by Predator314 at 6:40 PM 0 comments  

Quick update. I'm way behind on the challenge now. However, I have been spending every free moment I have playing poker. But there's already been 2 days in the stretch where I haven't played a single hand and then another where I only got in about 650 hands.

I'm still running poorly. But the games are good and hopefully soon the numbers will turn in my favor. I'm jamming a shitload of money in the middle when I got the best hand just get outdrawn on the turn or river. It happens.

Posted by Predator314 at 5:58 AM 1 comments  

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Fuck me. I didn't play a single hand of poker last night. I had a monsterous headache when I got home and all I wanted to do was sleep. So, I'll just have to make up for the extra hands by playing more hands in the upcoming days.

I knew when I set this challenge for myself that there was no way I could sit down for 30 days in a row and play exactly 1000 hands a day. I just need to get some 2000 hand days in on the weekends and maybe sneak in 1500 hands here and there. So, I'm behind pace, but only by about 800 hands or so. I don't have the exact stats here at work.

I did watch the High Stakes Poker on GSN last night. That is probably the best piece of poker TV on right now. It kicks the shit out of any tournament poker I've seen on TV. Plus Gabe Kaplan is actually a good host.

Some notes of intrest from last nights shows (I watched the re-run of last week too):

- Daniel Negreanu is the man. His reading skills are excellent. I'm not talking about the 9-2 hand either (that was scary), but in particular the way he played the 3-7 offsuit hand and the way he played the K9 suited hand where Barry Greenstein rivered him.

- Jerry Buss is weak tighty. No way he can be a winning player.

- That Shiek guy is in dire need of an ass whoopin'. How the hell does this guy have enough bankroll to be playing that game anyway?

- I think the Dr. guy is one of the fish at the table.

- When Sammy Farha sits down, he creates action. But let's be honest, this guy played like a donkey last night. It's just a matter of time before he gets busted.

- Doyle is a sourpuss. I also have a feeling he's become somewhat of a fish in his old age.

- I think Jen Harman is slightly "out classed" at this table playing No Limit. Don't get me wrong, she's an excellent player, but if they were playing limit games, she would be back even with the field or slightly above the rest.

I really like the cash game on TV thing. I wish they would just stick a camera over table #1 at the Bellagio and let us watch the "Big Game". I would rather see their regular game than just a no limit holdem game. Especially the 2-7 triple draw which I've fell in love with at UB, but try to stay away from it.

I also wish they would give us some more info on the prop bets that are going on.

Posted by Predator314 at 6:17 AM 0 comments  

Monday, January 30, 2006

Got a few hands in at lunch and won a little bit. This hand was my favorite:

Full Tilt Poker
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $3/$6
3 players
Converter


Pre-flop: (3 players) Hero is BB with :kc :8c
Button raises, SB folds, Hero calls.

Flop: :6d :2c :tc (4.33SB, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets, Hero raises, Button calls.

Turn: :qh (4.17BB, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls.

River: :ts (6.17BB, 2 players)
Hero bets, Button folds.
Uncalled bets: 1BB returned to Hero.

Results:
Final pot: 6.17BB


This was my last hand:

Full Tilt Poker
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $3/$6
4 players
Converter


Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is UTG with :kd :qd
Hero raises, Button 3-bets, SB Caps, BB folds, Hero calls, Button calls.

Flop: :2s :3d :7d (13SB, 3 players)
SB bets, Hero calls, Button calls.

Turn: :6c (8BB, 3 players)
SB bets, Hero calls, Button calls.

River: :9d (11BB, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, Button folds, SB calls.

Results:
Final pot: 13BB
Hero showed Kd Qd
SB mucks Ac Tc

Normally, the KQ would have been mucked facing 2 more bets before the flop, but the SB was a total LAGtard and was raising EVERY hand.

Posted by Predator314 at 1:49 PM 0 comments  

Today, the real test begins with this challenge. This will be the first day of the challenge where my job gets in the way. I don't really forsee any problems tonight because I have no plans other than eating dinner with the folks. However, when I get home, I'll fire up Party Poker and get to work.

There are a couple speed bumps in the next 30 days which might make it difficult to get my hand quota in. I have a bowling tournament next Saturday. I think I'll be OK on that one, because I can just play late into the night. I usually do that anyway. Then the week after, I'll be in Parkersburg, WV for the Denny's PBA event. I'll be there Saturday and Sunday. You can look for me on ESPN at 12:30pm Eastern on February 12th. I'll probably be the guy being escorted out by security.

I just need to stay ahead of the game and get extra hands played on the days where I have time. It really doesn't take a long time to play 1000 hands when you're 4 or 5 tabling.

I've got the DVR scheduled to record the High Stakes Poker on GSN tonight too. I caught the tail end of the premier. Then I forgot about it last week. Finally, I got around to plugging it into my DVR to record it. For those of you that haven't seen it, it is a high stakes cash game shown on TV. The week I watched, I saw Negreanu with a million dollar stack. I think it comes on at 9:00pm Eastern.

Lastly, here's an interesting stat from my challenge:

Winrate for my first 158 hands: -20.49 BB/100
Winrate for my last 3002 hands: 2.40 BB/100
Put them together and you get: 1.25 BB/100

Posted by Predator314 at 5:47 AM 0 comments  

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Boo yah! Practice and determination finally paid off tonight. I've been saying all week how 2nd place wasn't good enough. I wanted to win that bowling tournament.

I started out slow in the qualifying tonight, throwing 3 splits in the first 5 frames. It was looking grim. Finally, I kept my composure and threw some strikes to finish with a 174. In the 2nd game, I bowled a 220. Good game. I kept a clean sheet in that one. The last game of qualifying... well... I had no ball reaction and bowled a 145...bleh. However, with my handicap, I was able to qualify 4th and made it to match play.

My first match was a good one. I had a few pins handicap on the guy. I started off throwing 2 tanks which left ringing 10 pins. I went a little on tilt. Finally, I strung together some strikes late to come back and bowl a 202. The other guy bowled a 203, but with my handicap, I won.

In the semi-finals, I had to bowl my good friend and teamate. That was a bad beat. I started off strong and finished poorly, throwing a 188. It was good enough to win though as my friend bowled a 171.

In the finals, I got a kid that had beat me before. We were close to even on the handicap. I started off with a split...wait... the 5 pin fell just before the pinsetter came down, leaving just the 7. I then threw a 5 bagger and stayed clean up to the 10th, which I opened after leaving a 10 pin and missing it. I finished with a 203, forcing my opponent to strike out to beat me. He didn't and I am the new king of the hill.

Hopefully, I can carry this momentum into next Saturday's tournament and take home that $1500 prize. Wish me luck.

Posted by Predator314 at 7:15 PM 2 comments  

Stats update:

Hands: 3,160
Pace: +160
Win Rate: +1.25 BB/100
Days Remaining: 28

It's been a pretty good day. I've managed to get myself out of the red and actually have a decent win rate for this challenge. So far today, I'm running like 6.8 BB/100 or something like that. My aces are still getting cracked all over the place. Usually by some donk that will cap the turn with an open ended straight draw.

I'm off to bowl. Wish me luck.

Posted by Predator314 at 3:25 PM 0 comments  

I've played an additional 502 hands since my last post. And, happily, I've continued my winning ways. I was way up during this session, but then I had aces get cracked twice within 5 minutes. Both to runner runner flushes.

My heart skipped a beat on one hand though. I was playing the bad beat jackpot tables when this hand came up:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Ad, Jd.

UTG raises, 1 fold, Hero calls, 2 folds, CO calls, 1 fold, SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: (10 SB) Kd, Qd, Td (5 players)

SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets, Hero calls, CO calls, SB folds, BB folds.

Turn: (6.50 BB) 6d (3 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets, CO calls, UTG calls.

River: (9.50 BB) Qc (3 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets, CO folds, UTG raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG caps, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 17.50 BB

Results in white below:

UTG has Ks Kh (full house, kings full of queens).

Hero has Ad Jd (straight flush, ace high).

Outcome: Hero wins 17.50 BB.


I'm not entirely happy with the way I played the hand. In hindsight, I guess I should have 3 bet before the flop. Had it been AJ offsuit, I would have folded. AJ suited is one of those in-betweener hands to me. However, this guy turned out to be a LAG with a good hand, so I could have gotten more out of it. Anyway, I was so excited to see that river card, especially when we went into a raising war. I was screaming at the top of my lungs "QUEENS QUEENS QUEENS". The BBJ wasn't that high, but I would have received about $12,000 if he would have turned over quad queens.

Anyway, I'm gonna go shower and watch some bowling. Then I'll be back on the tables this afternoon. I gotta get my hands in early today because I have a bowling tournament tonight. Last week I got 2nd in the tournament. This week, I'm wanting first badly. Wish me luck.

Stats:

Hands: 2,819 (27,181 remaining)
Pace: +819
Win Rate: +0.69 BB/100
Days Remaining: 28

Posted by Predator314 at 8:04 AM 0 comments