Rakeback cleared.

Bankroll: $237.57

Hopefully get 100+ games in this weekend wife permitting.

BAEVentures

Wow. Ugly session. Got my ass handed to me right off the bat, down 18 buy-ins before I snagged a cash. Played the Daily Dollar as well, busted just before the bubble, also got knocked out of a $1.10 90-man early as well.

Games Played: 58
ROI: -19%
ITM: 31%
Today's Net: -$24.85
New Bankroll: $210.62

STT Challenge Start to Date:
Games Played: 452
ROI: 12.9%
ITM: 42.5%
Net: $130.85
Profit Incl. Rakeback: $161.36

Variance was a bitch today. Lost all the meaningful pots due to running bad. I'm about 35 buy-ins below EV now, or ~$75.00. Oh well, it'll turn around sometime.

I should get a nice long session in tomorrow night, if not Sunday afternoon it'll have to be.

BAEVentures

Figured I'd add charts with status to date. Previous post includes the raw data, just wanted to get the BR chart uploaded.

Red Line = EV, Green Line = Winnings, Blue Line = Rakeback



About to sit down for 1 12 table session of $2.25 STT's.

Hopefully, I'll get a bunch more games in tomorrow.

BAEVentures

gl man! the luck will turn around =)

Just finished that session. Started off good, had a few bad beats near the money and ITM though. Wound up with a high ITM, but still below EV... ... crazy ....

5 second places, 2 thirds, no firsts, 5 busts.

Games Played: 12
ROI: 27%
ITM: 58%
Today's Net: $7.20
New Bankroll: $217.82

STT Challenge Start to Date:
Games Played: 464
ROI: 13%
ITM: 43%
Net: $138.05
Profit Incl. Rakeback: $169.37

One interesting hand below. Villain is 34/0 over 61 hands.

Full Tilt Poker No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25.00/t50.00 Blinds - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

UTG+1: t1270.00 M = 16.93
UTG+2: t945.00 M = 12.60
MP1: t1395.00 M = 18.60
MP2: t1295.00 M = 17.27
CO: t1470.00 M = 19.60
BTN: t1110.00 M = 14.80
SB: t1000.00 M = 13.33
Hero (BB): t3655.00 M = 48.73
UTG: t1360.00 M = 18.13

Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is BB with K Q
UTG calls t50, 6 folds, SB calls t25, Hero checks
Blinds are still low, no reason to raise, UTG limper is 15/11 over 194 hands

Flop: (t150) K T 2 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t100.00, UTG folds, SB calls t100
SB calls, I'm thinking draw, most likely JQ, possibly a hand like AT

Turn: (t350) 6 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t250.00, SB calls t250
SB calls again, I'm pretty sure JQ is the holding now, as I'm confident my KQ is best

River: (t850) A (2 players)
SB bets t600.00, Hero folds
SB leads, I thought about it for a minute, and had to give credit to my read and mucked my KQ. Thoughts on this muck? SB is obviously "shortstacked" at this point, has 12 BB left if he check folds here, does any holding other than JQ/AT make sense here? I think I must be beat.

Final Pot: t850
SB wins t850.00

BAEVentures

Just finished another $2.25 STT session. Man is variance kicking my ass. When I used to play a year or two ago and put in small volume playing only 4 tables or so at a time, I thought I knew what it was to get lucky and to get unlucky. I am learning a whole new lesson as I am now roughly 45 buy-ins below EV over the last 100 games. I'm sure it will turn around and I am glad I am properly rolled for my stakes otherwise this would be painful. All in all, I'm only down about $25.00 from my high point, but it sucks to see that red climb as my green line just bounces around.

Anyways, my data seems to have merged a little bit with yesterdays data so there is some overlap (too lazy to look at specific tourneys to figure it out atm, so I'll include everything listed as games played 6/28 although I think it's 7 or 8 games too high.

Games Played: 62
ROI: -3%
ITM: 43%
Today's Net: -$4.15
New Bankroll: $213.67

STT Challenge Start to Date:
Games Played: 515
ROI: 11.9%
ITM: 42.6%
Net: $137.15
Profit Incl. Rakeback: $171.91
EV Adjusted Winnings: $229.80

Just a slight difference between EV winnings and actual. You will see this clearly displayed in the exponential difference between my red and green lines over games 400-?? when I post the graph again on Sunday.

Below, I have included a few hands to show you exactly what I'm talking about...

Full Tilt Poker No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t150.00/t300.00 Blinds - 4 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

SB: t5180.00 M = 11.51
Hero (BB): t4185.00 M = 9.30
CO: t2630.00 M = 5.84
BTN: t1505.00 M = 3.34

Pre Flop: (t450) Hero is BB with K 5
2 folds, SB calls t150, Hero checks

Flop: (t600) K 5 3 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t300.00, SB raises to t600, Hero raises to t3885, SB calls t3285

Turn: (t8370) J (2 players)

River: (t8370) T (2 players)

Final Pot: t8370
SB shows T K
Hero shows K 5
SB wins t8370.00


Full Tilt Poker No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t50.00/t100.00 Blinds - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BB: t1380.00 M = 9.20
Hero (UTG): t800.00 M = 5.33
CO: t3710.00 M = 24.73
BTN: t2820.00 M = 18.80
SB: t4790.00 M = 31.93

Pre Flop: (t150) Hero is UTG with K A
Hero raises to t800, 2 folds, SB raises to t4790, 1 fold

Flop: (t1700) K 8 J

Turn: (t1700) K

River: (t1700) 4

Final Pot: t1700
Hero shows K A
SB shows 8 K
SB wins t1700.00

Just a small taste of what I've gone through the last few days. I want to say I've seen 50 or more 2 or 3 outers hit against me for stacks in the last 100 games. Oh well, life goes on, and I'm not bust so I guess I can't complain too much. It'll turn around soon enough /cross fingers.

Outside of that I have to say that I'm very happy with my game, my EV line continuing to climb through all of this really says it all for me. I'm also very impressed with myself that I haven't just tilted off my cash on subsequent tourneys on bad beats like I was prone to in the past, additionally, I haven't really had the urge, well I've had the urge, but easily resisted, wanting to move up stakes to cover losses. Looking forward to the $375+ BR mark so I can make a run at the $5.50's.

BAEVentures

Took the night off tonight more or less as I was getting accustomed to my new laptop. New 15" MacBook Pro i5 with the high-resolution anti-glare screen. It's sexy and I love having a 15" screen to work with again instead of the 13" MacBook Air I'd been on lately. To all of you Apple haters...go buy one before you speak about it. Should allow me to play a few more tables with ease.

I got HEM and Poker Co-Pilot set up and am now ready to roll. Will definitely be grinding hard tomorrow night.

P.S. Played a little cash 2NL on Stars out of boredom as I was setting up and getting HEM and Parallels loaded and made 4 buy-ins in 600 hands ... yay for not running like ass.

Adding another aspect to my challenge for the month of July.

New Challenge:
250 games / week
1000 games in the month of July

I have 2-5 hours to play in the evenings Monday-Thursday, and would like to put in a minimum of 15 hours of play in these 4 days (15 hours @ .75 hrs/game 12 games continuous = 16 games/hr or 240 games in these 4 days weekly. Depending on weekend plans and what the wife will allow, I can play anywhere between 0-8 hours on any given Friday and Saturday. Sunday's are usually no play days for me as I tend to be traveling and getting stuff done around the house.

Additionally, I will not be playing ANY MTT's while undergoing this volume grind. Strictly 9 man STT's, may or may not swap to turbos at some point during this next month.

My bankroll is roughly $225 currently. If I can maintain even 10% ROI over the next two weeks (500 games) at the $2.25 tables, my BR will grow by $150 to the $375 region, allowing me to make a go at the $5.50's. Assuming I don't downswing hard once starting the $5.50's (I know sick assumption) and if I can maintain a 7% ROI at the $5.50's and then add rakeback to the mix, I'll be earning $0.52 per STT. 500 games later my BR should be roughly $260 higher or in the $635 range by the end of July.

It's all about the volume, and that is my number one goal. Variance is a bitch, and I'm just hoping it doesn't hurt too bad over the next month as I'd really like to get started on the $5.50's as my EV ROI on the $2.25's is 19.8% prior to rakeback (22.8% including rakeback).

Well I'm a day early in grinding volume but hit the tables hard for 4 hours this evening. Was going to play another two hours but was dying for some food and don't really feel like firing up only one set at the moment, but who knows, I may yet.

Games Played: 69
ROI: 6%
ITM: 39%
Today's Net: $8.55
New Bankroll: $222.22 (~$12 due in rakeback friday)

I had one awesome hand I was going to post from early in the session, where I pushed villain off TPTK (I think) with a busted straight draw, but seem to have written down the wrong hand history number. Hopefully start getting some interesting hands for y'all to look at as just reading my BR updates has got to be boring as hell.

Talk to you soon!

Games Played: 38
ROI: 18%
ITM: 44%
Session Net: $15.30
New Bankroll: $237.52 (~$12.42 due in rakeback Friday)

I did decide to play another session before bed, and good thing as I ran well towards the end of it. Hope to keep this up tomorrow. Looking forward to another good grind.

Rough night last night. I have included one hand that I believe I majorly mis-played below.

Played 80 or so games and my ITM was very low (like 30% if I remember correctly)
New BR: $195.49 (RB cleared)

Full Tilt Poker $2 + $0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t15/t30 Blinds - 8 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

UTG: t1485 M = 33
UTG+1: t1440 M = 32
MP1: t1500 M = 33.33
MP2: t1260 M = 28
CO: t1830 M = 40.67
BTN: t1320 M = 29.33
SB: t1530 M = 34
Hero (BB): t3135 M = 69.67

Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is BB with 4 4
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t30, MP1 calls t30, 1 fold, CO calls t30, BTN calls t30, SB calls t15, Hero checks

Flop: (t180) A 4 5 (6 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG+1 checks, MP1 checks, CO bets t180, BTN folds, SB raises to t360, Hero folds!! WTF?!?, UTG+1 folds, MP1 folds, CO calls t180

Turn: (t900) 9 (2 players)
SB bets t360, CO calls t360

River: (t1620) K (2 players)
SB bets t360, CO calls t360

I check the flop cause I'm a fishy and didn't know what else to do in EP. I saw the flop for free, had a big stack and a big advantage over the rest of the table. When the CO bets, I plan on smooth calling and seeing a turn, when SB min-raises (ATC) I figure there's a good chance I could be beat already (23os or any two spades). I have two options as far as I can tell at this point, shove or fold. I opt on the ultra nitty weak side and muck my set with 5 players still left to act behind me. After posting this hand in our Skype group, I believe I probably should have shoved, as I have the boat re-draw against the flush but am most likely ahead here. Additionally, if I shove and lose the hand, I still have $t1300 left to play with and can easily come back given the low blinds.

Oh well, maybe next time I won't be so weak/nitty. Lesson learned.

Hey BAEVentures, I enjoy reading your updates/hands posted on stt forum. My goals this month are a lot similar to yours. I'm starting with $50 in my bankroll and I'm going to attempt to "Climb Mt. Micro SnG Style". Hopefully it works out for the both of us (avoid my tables on FT =P). Good luck with your goals!

Seen you a handful of times. Will definitely check my tables first :-). Good luck!

Just finished my first good session in awhile. Played about an hour and a half. Got 10 games in (playing 9 at a time, busted on early so re-bought). Finished up $15.30 after 10 games. It's been a hairy two weeks but hopefully things will start to turn around. I had been playing 12-16 tables, and coincidentally losing, but will for now, drop it back to 9 tables at a time until I'm well in the uptrend again. Need to get my HEM deactivated off my old comp (tomorrow night) and then I will be able to update with charts. Been a sad two weeks.

My BR peaked at the 390 game mark, currently 764 games played. Dropped nearly 40% in the last two weeks on downtrend, but I am running significantly below EV still. Once I get HEM up and running tomorrow I am good for a solid review session, and will update any trouble hands and/or leaks I find in my big update tomorrow.

Current BR = $196.39 with ~$15.00 due in rakeback Friday (my best RB week so far).

In terms of my volume goal that I set for July starting June 29, I have played 242 games so I'm dead on my goal of 250 games per week.

Best of luck to the rest of ya, looking forward to some good review tomorrow as well as a positive session.

P.S. Picked up HoH Vol. 2 again for additional review. While most of the good topics in that book would be wasted at the $2.25 level, I still enjoy browsing to make sure I haven't missed anything. Looking forward to moving up so I can put some of that theory into action.

Well this is truly unfortunate. It looks like somehow my hand histories from prior to 6/20/10 did not copy over to my new machine in HEM. Poker Co-Pilot transferred them properly but HeM did not and I have no way to re-create.

I have included below my gains to date, my BR graph from Co-Pilot (entire history since start of challenge) as well as the EV graph of the last few hundred games from HEM (Co-Pilot's EV graph kinda blows).







So, yeah, way below EV and clearly haven't had the edge that I've wanted over the last batch of 200 games or so. Hence my decision to move back to 9 tables at a time tiled, rather than 12-16-18 cascade. I find I can pay much more attention to each individual table even 9 tabling, as long as I'm tiled, as it gives me more time to think in my active hands, as I'm able to act ahead on other tables (before the action is on me). When cascading, I can only act once the table is moved to front, so once the action is already to me. Hopefully, once I'm playing the appropriate stakes ($10 or more) I'll use some proceeds to pick up a 27" iMac with an additional 27" monitor and will be able to 24 table tiled that way. I know, it sounds insane, but I think I can do it !

I will play a few more days at 9 tables and then probably move up to 12 tiled. Anything more than 12 and I will definitely be needing to cascade/stack though which will require some effort to learn. Looking to get 3-4 hours in tonight, (hopefully 30-50 games), after an hour or two of reading and review so wish me luck!

Another 26 games this evening. Lost about $3.00 in total. New BR = $196.29.

Session started off very ugly and had a rough patch in the middle. Once again, well below EV but oh well. At least I'm making .30 an hour in rake back while not going broke... I must admit, it's been very tempting to step up stakes to chase losses, as well as to swap games, cash, mtt etcs, but so far I have stuck with the plan and intend to continue to do so. If I get to the point where I've played 2k games and am still running this bad, maybe I'll reconsider and try to play some FR cash and see if variance isn't as tough on me there.

Found one major leak in my game, primarily overplaying AK and AQs when blinds are small ($t15/30 - $t30/60). I'd been C-Betting over 85% of the time, and slow playing it way too often when I hit. My goal over the next week is to get those numbers in line and keep a few more chips in hand when I miss, as well has hopefully get paid a little more when I hit.

Until next time.

Went one more session to get a start on tomorrow iron man points.

9 games
6 cashed
60% ROI
$12.15 net

New Bankroll: $208.44 with $16.55 due in rakeback. Think I ran a little over EV, didn't pull HEM up to check though. Definitely won a few flips and a 60/40 or two where i was actually the underdog !@! Yay for not being on the negative side of variance all the time. Hit y'all up tomorrow.

wow just read through all 8 pages keep up the good work, its always tempting to chase losses by moving up, I felt that pain before. how were you able to post pics, I just started a log as well but I don't know how to post graphs, I have the screenshot but I dont know to get it on a reply post. Any advice will help.

Upload your pictures somewhere like imageshack.us . When posting, click the icon that looks like a little mountain and paste your link in there. Can also [IMG] link here [/IMG].

Alrighty then. Had a decent night tonight. Couldn't do much on the STT front, but finally decided I needed a slight change of pace. Fired up PokerStars while playing 8 STT's on Tilt and enlisted in some $2.20 180's.

First off on the STT front:
26 Games
46% ITM
8% ROI
Net: $4.50
New BR: $212.94

Only spiked first place 3 times, 2 second place finishes, and a handful of thirds.

On the other end of the spectrum playing the games I'm not supposed to be playing...I did really well on the 180's =). While I only had 2 cashes in 9 games (first set of 6 was the first set of 180's I'd ever played, I never imagined they would be so soft) I did manage to squeeze out one second place and one fifth place finish.

For some reason my tournament histories aren't being sent to me by PStars even though they say they are...Figuring maybe a system issue and will look into resolving that in the morning so I can upload them into Co-Pilot.

Anyways...
9 games played ($2.20 180-man)
22% ITM
382% ROI
Net: $75.60

Thinking I may continue to tile my 8 STT's and run one 180 man to fill the gap and relieve a little bit of the grind feeling from the STT's. I know my volume isn't much compared to some, but it's much more than I'd ever done in the past, and it's starting to wear just a little bit.

I've played 825 $2.25 STT's since 5/24/10 and that is nearly 20% of my lifetime STT's since I started playing in 2004.

Additionally, been contemplating giving HU SNG's a try once I have accomplished my challenge here. I am still convinced that I can turn that $50 on tilt into $1000 playing $2.25's, $5.50's and $11's ! All-In EV is still disgusting and obviously doesn't take into account the times when I dump 30% of my stack in PF with AA, and lose on 223 flop to the guy that called 50% of his stack pre with A2s. I must say, that I love those ******s.

Anyways, until next time, may variance eat **** and die.

Got 21 games completed before full tilt crashed =(. Was down $29.25 and only 14% ITM. The final 9 games I was in when FT crashed would have put me into profit. Was heads up on two tables, 3 handed on 2 tables, and big stack on two tables with 5/6 players left. Also had doubled up on 2 of the other 3. Unfortunately, I think by the way FTP pays on in a situation like this, I'll still be down for the day. Hit some coolers earlier AQ vs A8 bubble on AA286 board, KK to AcTx on J86ccc board, river club. Nothing too unusual, just the standard ugly variance I've been seeing lately.

Will update with my new BR once FTP comes back online and figure out my gain/loss for the day then.

Once FT crashed, I popped over to PStars to mess around with a little heads up play just to get a feel for the blind structure over there (way too slow IMO). Played 4 games at the $2.20 (I know I know, I should play $5.25 and will in the future). Won 3/4. One sweetly played hand below from my last game:


Poker Stars $2.00+$0.20 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t10/t20 Blinds - 2 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BTN/SB: t1570 M = 52.33
Hero (BB): t1430 M = 47.67

Pre Flop: (t30) Hero is BB with 9 Q
BTN/SB calls t10, Hero checks

Flop: (t40) T 8 J (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB checks

Turn: (t40) K (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB checks

River: (t40) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets t120, BTN/SB raises to t300, Hero raises to t1410 all in, BTN/SB calls t1110



Villain had been extremely passive, had only raised PF 3 times (AK two of them, one he checked down, other he checked, checked, and overbet river king). I had been playing pretty aggro PF with 2.5x raises from button 3x raises against limps in BB. C-betting 70% and 50% turn C-Bet. Flop and turn I know he has nothing, river I figure I toss out an overbet and maybe I can get this fishy to play back at me with nothing, or at least make a station call with a hand like T2. Instead he raises, now I know he has an eight and is going nowhere, I shove and he insta-calls. Anyone play this hand differently after checking PF? Frequently I'm raising here PF, but as I said, new to HU and was trying to keep my plays pretty random.

Going through some HH now to evaluate this weeks play as FT is still down. Should get a good hour or two of review in. Will be posting trouble hands on STT forum as always. Still leaking a little with AK and AQs in early blind levels (winning chips in the end, but think I should be come ahead by more than I am). Going to closely evaluate mine from tonight, and take a peek around at some other opportunities where I could have possibly c-bet but passed.

Hopefully, things work out on FT and my BR will be about even for the day...

Looks like I came out of it alright I guess.

BR: $214.53
Net: $1.59

Hope that never happens again though cause Poker Co-Pilot and HEM both have me down ~$29.00 on the day =(. Oh well, guess I'd rather I had the cash in hand than it be tracked right.

Anyways, another day, another dollar, sigh. Alternatively, did some good hand review and have a couple small things to keep an eye out for in my game. Going to try to make sure I'm getting in my few hours of review weekly as it is needed and can only help to increase my return and my long term profit goals.

On another note, sat in a $5.25 HU SNG on Stars and took on a $10.50 reg with over 3200 total HU games played. Opted in on SS so don't know his ROI though... He bullied me around for awhile as I was sitting with hands like 93/72/T4. Picked up AA against him, 3b him 4x his raise PF, he flats, flop KQ6 clubs (I have ace of clubs, I lead for half the pot, he shoves, I snap, he shows 33 with the club and my aces hold up. That put me up $t2300 to $t700 and we got it all in on a flip a few hands later, my 44 vs his AK. I took it down.

Going to continue to make sure I am getting my 50 pts in for bronze/silver iron man qualifier on tilt via the STT's but will spend the rest of my time in hand review and researching and playing HU SNG's on Stars. Long term I think that's what I want to do, short term, I want to accomplish this silly goal I set out to do. It will get done sometime.... sigh ... 9-man STT's hate me =(.

Just read all 9 pages, decent run so far imo, and by that I mean sticking to your BR management rules from the beginning. 95% of people end up breaking their BR management rules when they tilt and its a good thing your keeping to it, will keep up with this.

By the way how is poker co-pilot? I have a mac and don't wanna run parallels so I can't get HeM, is co-pilor worth the money?

I'd say Co-Pilot is worth the money if you really don't want to be running in Windows. The HuD is acceptable and the tracking is decent (very easy to use). However, it does not include nearly all of the statistics that HeM or PT3 does. PT3 might be a better option as they now include a Mac version which I did not know at the time when I purchased Co-Pilot.

All in all, I like it, I know the dev is working on adding some more features, and I have had no problems with DB management like I do with HEM. Just wish it had some more features. In terms of the HUD, I have attached a SS of displayable stats. I still use HEM via parallels for my review sessions, as the filtering options on Co-Pilot kinda blow. I tried to run my poker client on Mac side with HEM running in Parallels, and use the HuD from HEM, but could not get it to work or I'd probably just be using HEM that way instead. I also fear that it would slow my machine down a bit doing this. Another option would be to use bootcamp and simply run a windows partition with HEM and your client, but I like Mac OS way too much to do that, the crashes with the poker clients and other issues with windows will keep my playing the way I do currently.



RB for the previous week just deposited $16.55.

New BR: $231.08

Praying for a good session or two this weekend so I can break a new BR high, hopefully $250-275. Planning on playing 100+ games this weekend as I need to increase time spent playing by a bit since I have decided to only run 8-9 tables at a time until I start winning again. If I have a super ugly session this weekend due to not playing +EV enough, I may decide to drop down to 6 tables. My EV line has been pretty flat the last few days, climbing a little, and I attribute most of this to running into the top of villains ranges, but will adjust my table count down if I find it's because I'm not playing optimally.

July 1-7 = 242 games (24.2% of monthly goal)
July 8-15 so far = 23 games (2.3% of monthly goal, 26.5% total to monthly goal)

With playing fewer tables 8 instead of 12, I will only be getting in roughly 10 games an hour instead of 16, so I will need to increase my time played by 30% or more in order to put in the volume I want to. I'm still hoping to hit $375 in the next couple hundred games so that I can move up to the $5.50's.

May also play some $5.25 HU SNG's and $2.20 180-mans on Stars this weekend if I get burnt out of STT grinding. Still not keeping track of that BR on a daily basis, but will update it here at some point (although it is growing nicely).

Until my next session.

Only played 13 STT's tonight, decided to run 6 at a time and pay a little more attention. Finished down -$5.85. Short session and actually marked a few trouble spots which I will post later. Gonna grab a bite and relax the rest of the evening.