An adventure of going Pro or Broke

It's about three weeks ago that I quit grinding SnG's. Actually I thought, I just gonna  take a break from grinding, but to be honest, I don't miss it at all.

 

I wanted to order the book "treat your poker like a business" at the pokerstars VIP Store....  Available in US, Canada and Latin America only...  meeehhhh

So I ordered the e-book online and read it cover to cover immediately. One of the best poker books I have read so far. I really recommend it to every ambitious poker player.

 

Instead of grinding I just played for fun. A few hundred hands 2-7, a few hundred hands Stud, a little Badugi, a couple of big field tourneys and I finally started to play PLO....   I don't know why I always resisted to play PLO, this game is so much fun.

So far I played only 6.5k hands .05/.10 on UB and .25/.25 on betfair, but it seems that I do pretty well. After spewing around a little bit at the beginning I slowly start to figure out what's going on in the PLO world.

 

My new mission now is to master micro PLO and make it to the low limits.

 

To close this entry, here's my PLO graph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About one year ago I decided to focus on SnG's exclusively. It was a ride on the roller coaster right from the beginning, but I kept on working hard, hired a coach and got more and more confident with my game and my decision making process. I just didn't run really well which wasn't such a big deal, because I knew my efforts gonna pay off sooner or later, if I continue to work hard on my game.

 

But how to define sooner or later? I know, poker is a game of the long run, but in one year of hard grind and study I've played 1.02K tourneys, which is a huge number for me based on the fact that I only 4-tabled for the first 6months or so, and made -1 BI (in words MINUS ONE BUY IN) !!!!!!!!!!!

 

At the moment I am really desperated and frustrated (only poker related)

Does it make any sense to put in so much effort in something that shows so little value. Maybe I am still not good enough to beat SnG's, or propably they are just not made for me or vice versa.

 

I am done with SnG's....   at least for a while, until I can find any motivation to continue.

In the meanwhile I will have some fun at the 2-7 and Stud Tables.

 

cheers

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 days left and I still need to get 280 SnGs in to accomplish my goal of weekly 500 tourneys.

After 220 games I am only about 8 buy ins up. Well it could be worse.

 

A couple of months ago, when I was running terrible bad, I opened an account at Betfair Poker, because I was looking for alternatives to pokerstars.

Unfortantitely the traffic there was....   hmm.... to be honest, there was almost zero traffic. At least  at the SnGs. And so I kept on playing on Stars.

 

But by the end of July Betfair merged with the ongame network and I checked the site out again today. I was really impressed how quickly the tourneys fill up now and how bad the players are. I didn't play any games yet, but I checked a couple of tourneys with shark scope and in every STT there've been at least 7 losing players. Plus I can keep my 40% rakeback deal, plus turbo SnGs have the same structure as on Stars with 3 minute levels, which makes the decision to move over easy for me.

So I will clear my $300 bonus, which should be done by the end of the week,  and then I'll be on my way to betfair-wonderland.

 

Play more

Uncool

 

Hey there, didn't blog for a couple of months, but nothing really exciting happend and I don't really like to write about my beats and how awful I run while I see all the others catch their miracle cards.

Well, somehow I lost a little confidence in my game and instead of moving up to the $16 SnGs I'm stucked at the 6.50s, even though I would have 150 buy ins for the 16s. Don't know why I'm so scared of moving up. Maybe because all the monsters like sippin_chriss, glitlr and co are just waiting for another little fish like me at the next lvl ^^

I started August with playing 98 games yesterday. I had the feeling, that I really played well. Got my chips in as a favorite the majority of times and guess what...   yeah right, miracle cards for the opponents lol

So after 98 STTs I found myself at the end of my break evenst session ever (is "evenst" a word at all??? If not I just created it) with an ROI of -0.1% ( -$ 0.80).

I set 500 tourneys per week as my goal for August, which will not be easy, because my little company is running excelent at the moment and that keeps me busy as hell. But if I can manage to commit myself to the scedule I worked out, 500 tourneys or more should be accomplishable.

 

I try to update this blog as often as possible in the future, but at least once a week.

 

Peace and good luck

 

 

 

Almost halftime of April, and time for a short recap.

I’ve played 629 6.50 18man’s, which means that I am good in pace for my monthly goal of 1k tourneys. But the results are a little bit disapointing. Very, very swingy, but at least I’m breaking eaven.

!!

So I had the idea to check this months finish distributions against march, when I had solid winnings. As you can see, there are huge differences.

!!

That’s where I can start to analyze my game… maybe I get really unlucky towards the bubble and on the bubble, or I just have little fold equity because I couldn’t gain enough chips earlier in the tourney… or a combination of both. Or maybe anything totally differnt…

Lets see, if I can figure it out.

So, finally hard work and getting coached 1 on 1 payed off.

I am really confident now in my decision making process and that’s why it was possible to increase the number of tables from 6 to 12 within only one month, which was propably my major improvement so far.

Also I’m playing 18man SnGs now almost exclusively. These games are much softer to beat in my opinion.

Overall I am very happy with my improvment and with my march results.

I never really thought about real goals poker related in the past. As I have an solid income through my datime job, I was never really addicted to money I make (or could make) by playing poker. To beat the game I’m currently playing and build a bigger bankroll somehow, was more or less my only challenge.

But in December 09 everything changed a little. I lost one of my bigger clients and was thinking about, what if I lose another two or three of them?

I was wondering, how much I would have to improve my game, if I wanna put poker into consideration as an alternative income source.
After playing around a lot with the calculator, I came to the result that I need to make at least $ 40,— per hour, if I wanna play for a living. But as Austria is not the cheapest place to live on the planet and due to exchange rate variance I set my goal at $ 60,— per hour.

Is a winrate of $ 60,— per hour a huge goal for a guy who is breaking even at 4tabeling the 6.50 turbos on Pokerstars? Definitely yes, but isn’t it worth working for?