Life of a Low Stakes Grinder

Had a decent month in terms of volume - played ~25,000 6max hands and about 500sngs.  I broke even on the month completely due to two major tilt sessions.  Very discouraging.  Anyways, just trying to put that aside and focus on Feb.  I'm going to do things a bit differently next month.  I'm going to put most of my focus on putting a solid dent into the 100,000vpps needed for supernova.  I'll be 12 tabling full ring for likely 100% of my volume.  Aiming for 80,000 hands or more.  I'll actually be pushing hard for 120,000 @ 25nl-100nl depending on how I run.  Not really setting a profit goal.  I'll be happy to break even or a slight winner and make 15,000 or so vpps.  I might use some fpps to play the Sunday kick off tourny each week on stars because it gives a much higher value per fpp than the other platnium star cash bonuses.  Its 6,900 for a $109 tourny token which is ~$.0157 per fpp compare with the $.012 per fpp for the $300 cash bonus.  I don't mind taking the risk on at this point to give my self a possible huge bankroll boost going into the spring/summer.  I'm planning on making a significant portion of income (maybe 100%) from playing poker during these months as I finish the few courses I'll have left for my degree.   I've taken the last few days as a breather from poker as I prepare for the full ring.  I'm watching the series "full ring king".  I have a huge amount of respect for Mike Newman as a player/coach and if there is one player's career I'd want to have its his.  He has the perfect ptr graph.  When I look at that graph I think, "stress free poker" (if there is such a thing..) haha.

Anyways, thats all I got. 

BC

As stated in my last post, I got off to a late start grinding supernova (even though its only Jan 12th).  I've never tried for SN before and actually haven't played at pokerstars in well over 1 year.  As of right now, I only have 275 of 100,000vpp.  I started off poorly the other day on stars, dropping 8BIs at 25nl.  Needing a break from those games, I've been playing and studying turbo sngs.  I'm reading the book, 'collin moshman's sng strategy'.  Its very helpful.  When all said and done I expect to have 3,000vpps for January.  I'm enjoying the 18man turbos for now ($6.50s) but I'll surely switch back to 6max, or at least mix the two in the coming days.

Well I read a twoplustwo thread the other day showing the rakeback %s for supernova and since I've been playing much more volume and plan to do so in 2011 it would be crazy not to go for supernova.  Everytime I tried to leave titan poker I received some sort of bonus making it difficult to leave.  Enough is enough - the software and traffic + supernova is good enough reason to leave titan. 

So I stand @ a bankroll of $1,062 starting at 25nl on pokerstars.  I have a thread on 2+2 in pokergoalsandchallenges outlining my volume goal and supernova progression.  2+2 is down right now so I can't link it but the outline is, 25,000 hands 4tabling in January.  I've got 4k hands so far with $90 profit and $10 bonus almost exclusivily at 20nl usd on titan.  I plan on playing more than 25k but thats just my min target.

I also completely plan to be playing 50nl on Feb 1st.  But you know how planning goes in poker...

Do I think New Years' resolutions are rediculous?  Oh yeah, big time.   Do I make them?  Oh yeah, big time! lol 

On a serious note, in this overdue blog post I'll outline my plan to wrap up 2010 and set out my plan (*cough* resolution) for 2011.

I'll have 102 credit hours (of 120) completed of my B.comm in finance in April of 2011.   This leaves me with 18 credit hours which I need to do in the spring/summer term.  Taking a 3/3 accelerated course load makes it very very difficult to work full time in the spring/summer.  I currently work part time (15-20hrs/week) for the Nova Scotia government in Dep of Finance (mortgages and loans) but my year long term ends in April.  I would really like to take the pressure off summer employment by having a strong first 4 months in poker in 2011.  It sucks to put a monetary goal on things but I need at least $10,000 for summer living.  Luckily I'm all scholarshipped up and only pay about $2,200 per school term of my own money (this year is already taken care of) but I need about $3,000 for the spring/summer + $5,000-$7,000 to have some fun and live in the summer.  My gf and I travel a lot (and pay too much rent) but usually it is a lot of camping so its relatively inexpensive. 

So Plan:

After a short stint playing some HUSNGs (with what I can say ended up being a pretty solid failure due to an honest lack of hard work during a busy time in my life) I am back to 'old faithful' 8-10 tabling 6max nlhe.  I'm a low stakes guy, playing b/w $20-100NL USD-GBP.  I don't see it being that likely I'll move to 200nl within the next 6 months due to nitty BRM and a high commitment to school.  For the rest of this year I'll just be grinding out about 30,000 hands at low stakes and trying to build confidence up to take on next year. 

The volume goal for 2011 is 700,000 hands with anything over that just over acheiving haha.  I'd like to get to 200nl by September 11' but it isn't a priority as I know this will take a very large shift in my game and will cut my volume in half. 

The way I do things is have 2, 4 to 5 table stacks.  This method works for me because I find the tables do not pop-up too quickly and I can still take notes but at the same time, I can't see the results of most hands.  I'll stick to this goal on a 2,000 hands per day, +/- hands basis and keep this blog updated weekly.  I'll probably end up getting super motivated and play 80,000-100,000 hands in January and then drop off a bit. 

As for non-poker related goals:

1. Gym-it 4 times per week along with my weekly friday basketball session (we play 4 on 4 with no subs at work which is sick cardio and super-fun because I think I'm the only one there that played any high school ball).  Anyone who plays poker should be going to the gym, no questions asked.

2. Maintain my GPA

3.  Write the first of three CFA exams by the end of 2011.  There is one in June which unfortunatly I can't write and I believe the next one is offered in December which I think will be go time.  

4.  Live stress free.  No worries.  Life is too short!

I'm been grinding low stakes game $5.25s and $10.50s on ipoker - I've only played 130 over the last two days but I'm not feeling great about the results.  I think the competition is soft - I'm not sure if I'm running bad, playing bad, or a little of both.  I've only won 53.1% of the games and I'm in the red (only like -$4).  If anyone of you out there are grinding these drop me a message and maybe we can talk strategy -

Before I move back to 50nl cash I'm going to give these turbos a real shot because I enjoy the volume you can put in.  I can easily play 100 per day just 2-tabling.  So my goal from today until Monday night is to play 372sngs (giving me 500 total for the week).  If I have a positive ROI or I think I can improve I'll stick with these and set another goal.  My cash game results haven't been great for November - through 10,500 I'm up $110 but haven't been playing great and had 1 real bad session at 200nl.  I'm looking for these sngs to balance out my month and hopefully win a few hundred $$.

I'll post results

BC

Hey DC-

I haven't blogged in a while because I've been mainly posting on 2+2..  Very excited for the season 6 video line up!  Looks sweet.

I'm mainly playing HU cash and HU sngs lately.  Stuck a little bit for November but thats mainly due to running bad at higher limits.  Had a real bad 200nl 6max session last week.  I'm slowly grinding back at $10husngs tho - trying to play 50-75 per day.

Still in school - exams coming up in a few weeks.

Thats it haha

 

BC

When I left off in July I had built my bankroll up to about 1k and was playing mostly 25nl and 50nl.  I plan on jumping back here pretty quick but I'll start off slower with modest september goals.

I've just set aside $500 + $40 initial online buy in aside for a poker bankroll.  I'm going to start in at 10nl to get warmed up then move to 25nl when I feel ready.  The only goals I'll set in september is to play my A game as often as I possibily can; and if I don't feel I have it in me, don't play at all.  Also for a hand goal I'll play 20,000 hands of RUSH poker (2 tabling) and 10,000 hands of standard 6max NLHE (3-4 tabling as usual)

Hope this all goes well -

*see last blog entry

Guess it can't hurt to play 10,000 hands to see how it feels   - 25nl seems about right - as always, I'll post graph when finished.

Pondering whether or not to start playing again... When I stopped playing in June it was because I was playing 25 and 50nl but tilt/concentration issues kept me back.  I had doubted myself too much (and I still do when it comes to poker).  Thinking of playing a few thousand hands of 25nl just to see where I stand but I don't want to lose like 500 dollars.  So here I am.  What the fuck do I do...

Went on a 5 buy in downswing at 25nl. I'm owed some serious slansky bucks.. Glad I moved down from 50nl as I lost all my profits from yesterday + $20. Playing good though. I can't play much at all this weekend because I'll be out of town. Only played 3,000 hands this week so not great. Going for 5,000+ next week.

EDIT. For anyone reading this blog I have some bad news. The $2500 bankroll number has changed. I've decided toake regular cash outs of 50% of weekly earnings every thursday night. I still think I can make $2500 in that time as I've already made over $900. I have however cashed out a considerable portion of my bankroll and then lost a little chunk so I currently have about $535 online. I'm just barely rolled for 25nl. I will however continue to grind both 25 and 50nl. Basically I'll start the weeks at 25nl and if I'm having good results I'll take some shots at some real profits for the week. I can reload my bankroll as I work full time. Anyways sorry if this is cheating but I still feel making $2450 completes my goal.

Peace