Some of you are following my thread of my live poker diary. As I mentioned previously, I haven't been playing online much recently as I've been sticking to the casino.

I've made a great run live over the last three weeks but due to drive time and limited transportation availability, I plan to start playing online a few nights a week.

I currently have $50 in my FTP account (deposited last week after having cashed out months ago). My goal is to increase this $50 to $1000 in whatever time frame it takes. Ideally, I would like to maintain an ROI over 15%. I will be playing strictly 9 handed single table SNG's, 4 at a time, on FTP at low stakes. While my plan is to risk no more than 2% of my bankroll per SNG, I refuse to pay a 20% rake for the $1.20 buy-ins. I will instead play the $2.25 buy-ins and continue to do so until my BR is sufficient to play $5.50 buy-ins for 2% of my roll ($275 BR required).

I have a fairly profitable history online playing strictly single table SNG's (17% lifetime ROI). Unfortunately, I always preferred to play cash and any money made on SNG's in the past had been used to play cash games that I was not BR'd for.

I recently swapped to an Apple MacBook Air laptop as my primary computer, but have not yet picked out a HuD to track my progress as well as provide the much needed info. Any recommendations on a HuD for Mac OS would be appreciated and I look forward to updating with my progress. I don't have a fixed number of games I am looking to play on a nightly/weekly basis, I will play when I have the time and feel up to it. Long term goal, $1,000 account and continue to play 9 handed SNG's.

BAEVentures

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the rake at 9 handed SnG killer?

Good luck non the less!

at the $1 games yes....above that its unquestionably beatable.

Good luck BAEVentures, will be following and I hope to see some success!

Somehow I managed to miss the part where he said I refuse to play 1.20 and read that he'd play 1.20 until he could do the $5.50. My bad

Good luck again, will check in here sometime

It's still roughly 10% even as you move higher in stakes, drops down closer to 8.5% ($69+$6), when compared to MTT's yes it seems high. However, the 17% lifetime ROI I stated is net after paying entry fees. So my average return on a $5.00+$0.50 single table SNG is $6.44.

Even the rake at the $1.20 tables is beatable simply because the player pool is so poor.

Any help with a HuD / tracker for Mac OS?

BAEVentures

I've used PokerTracker on my Macbook Pro with no problems.

First of all good luck with your challenge.

I have tried Poker Tracker on my mac as well, but I do prefer poker copilot, you can look for it and have a 30 day free trial.

I grabbed Poker Co-Pilot last night for the one batch of tables I played. It's not bad, it's definitely no Hold'em Manager, but I think it'll work for now. Also, it's much cheaper than Hold'em Manager which is what I'm used to. It'll keep track of the basics for me and allow me a good chance to review some hands.



Will upload a graph tonight after I've played a bit more.

Sitting down now for a 3-4 hour session. May take a quick break for food but will update upon completion. Wish me minimal variance !

BAEVentures

Not much progress tonight. Profittable over 15 tourneys but ran like crap for the last few. Decided to take a break after 2.5 hours, rather than run for the full 4, tired and hungry.

Bankroll Growth


Equity/Variance


Statistics


Will get in 2-4 more hours tomorrow.

BAEVentures

You are going to put in way more volume or the variance will just make you stop

I intend to, but not when I'm tired / hungry and not at the top of my game. My volume will come in the long run, I am not on a deadline. I intend to play 10-30 SNG's 3-5 days a week. $50-$1000 is more or less a long term goal, as I play primarily $1/2 live and online is just something to do when I can't make it to the casino.

BAEVentures

I forgot to mention Poker Copilot, glad you found that program. I've tried it out myself, I just happen to play more on my desktop than my mbp.

Anyways, I'm on a similar venture as your goal here. I was playing $5.5 SNGs however I hit a big downswing and was getting real unlucky. Dropped down to $2.25s because, like you, I won't play $1.2s haha.

Poker Co-Pilot is definitely solid. I prefer Hold'em manager for the more in depth leak buster software, but can always load my hand history over there after 100k hands or so and see what it has to say. I wish you the best of luck on your venture and maybe I'll bump into you on the tables.

BAEVentures

P.S. Nice to know I'm not the only one grinding out a roll on SNG's.
P.P.S. What do you think of mixing in the low buy-in 45 man tourneys as well? Too much variance I think for me when I'm sitting on 25 buy-ins but once that increases to the 50-100 buy-in level I want it to be, I think it may be worth a shot as I have done decent on them in the past.

Yeah, I'm in the same situation. I used to play a bunch of MTT and cash in addition to my SNGs, but it really messed with my bankroll. This is basically why I switched to exclusively SNGs. When I have many more buy-ins I'll mix in some MTTs. I used to have some pretty good success with 90 man KOs.

Right now I'm just hoping my bad luck doesn't continue into the $2.25s(Though it might have, lost with AA twice in my most recent set of SNGs)

gl 2 you, you sound like a solid player. do you have sng wizard? the major sng grinders swear by it.

Damn I wish my AA only lost twice last night =P.

BAEVentures

No I do not. Never had heard of it. Looking into it now.

BAEVentures

The quiz portion looks promising, grabbing the 30 day trial now. I tend to think I play pretty well with with 5 or less players remaining (I believe my cash to bust ratio is almost 3 to 1 if I make it to 5 players, and nearly 50% first vs 20% 2nd and 30% 3rd. Will give it a look regardless, every little bit helps.

Thanks a bunch for the recommendation.

BAEVentures

Unfortunately, Sit'nGo Wizard is PC only and I'm currently running a Mac. Looks like it's time to add parallels and load W7 I guess.

My session tonight was once again profitable but I seem to be having some bubble troubles. Added my overall stats below, updated my bankroll and equity graphs so you may find the most recent in my previous post. If anyone has suggestions on better bubble play, articles, threads, books, etc, I'd be most interested to see it. Not sure if any of these were miss-played, one I could have folded, the others I was short stack and all in as a dominating favorite. 4-5 handed was definitely giving me troubles this evening.



Bubble Bust #1
Full Tilt Poker $2 + $0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t50/t100 Blinds - 4 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BB): t1085 M = 7.23
CO: t8685 M = 57.90
BTN: t620 M = 4.13
SB: t3110 M = 20.73

Pre Flop: (t150) Hero is BB with K A
2 folds, SB raises to t200, Hero raises to t1085 all in, SB calls t885

Flop: (t2170) 8 Q 4

Turn: (t2170) J

River: (t2170) A



Bubble Bust #2
Full Tilt Poker $2 + $0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t120/t240 Blinds - 4 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

CO: t5080 M = 14.11
BTN: t3770 M = 10.47
SB: t2640 M = 7.33
Hero (BB): t2010 M = 5.58

Pre Flop: (t360) Hero is BB with T T
1 fold, BTN calls t240, 1 fold, Hero raises to t2010 all in, BTN calls t1770

Flop: (t4140) 4 K A

Turn: (t4140) Q

River: (t4140) 3



Bubble Bust #3
Full Tilt Poker $2 + $0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t40/t80 Blinds - 4 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

SB: t4111 M = 34.26
BB: t3050 M = 25.42
CO: t4539 M = 37.83
Hero (BTN): t1800 M = 15

Pre Flop: (t120) Hero is BTN with T T
CO calls t80, Hero raises to t1800 all in, 2 folds, CO calls t1720

Flop: (t3720) A 3 3

Turn: (t3720) 7

River: (t3720) 9



Bubble Bust #4
Full Tilt Poker $2 + $0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t80/t160 Blinds - 4 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BTN: t3731 M = 15.55
SB: t2334 M = 9.72
BB: t4595 M = 19.15
Hero (CO): t2840 M = 11.83

Pre Flop: (t240) Hero is CO with T A
Hero raises to t400, 1 fold, SB raises to t640, 1 fold, Hero raises to t2080, SB calls t1440

Flop: (t4320) 2 5 K (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t300, SB calls t254 all in

Turn: (t4828) 2 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t4828) 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)



Sigh, is all I can really say. If there is a better place to post hands like these (aside from just bitching, really looking for constructive criticism) be sure to let me know. Still pretty new here and have trouble navigating the 5,000,000,000 posts in 5,000,000 sub forums and categories...

Once again, considering the stack sizes and what I know of bubble play, I think I was playing right, just on the wrong side of variance at the wrong times or my BR would have grown much healthier this evening. Had a couple heads up situations where I was dominating and got busted as well.

BAEVentures

everything looks fine, you just got really unlucky. happens to the best of us. much more than we'd like, thats for damn sure.

ya you played those right and post your hands in the stt section for more responses. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/36/stt-strategy/

TY for the link !

BAEVentures

+$4.50 in 18 games tonight. EV wasn't too far off. Not quite at the top of my game for all of it but played ok. Took one sick beat. Current bankroll $72.61. Up approximately $29 from start @ $43.00.

Full Tilt Poker $2 + $0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25/t50 Blinds - 7 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BB): t1705 M = 22.73
UTG: t1475 M = 19.67
UTG+1: t4565 M = 60.87
MP: t1685 M = 22.47
CO: t1770 M = 23.60
BTN: t375 M = 5
SB: t1925 M = 25.67

Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is BB with K K
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t50, 2 folds, BTN raises to t375 all in, 1 fold, Hero raises to t1705 all in, UTG+1 calls t1655

Flop: (t3810) 4 7 8

Turn: (t3810) 5

River: (t3810) 2

Final Pot: t3810
Hero shows K K (a pair of Kings)
UTG+1 shows 6 Q (a straight, Eight high)
BTN shows T A (Ace Ten high)
UTG+1 wins t2660
UTG+1 wins t1150

Latest tracked statistics are below. I will update EV graph and Bankroll graph tomorrow.



BAEVentures

Keep on grinding, I'm up to $84 in the bankroll on my ventures.