Yuck

The month ended as it started: tons and tons of river beats. Oh well. I controlled tilt pretty well and ended up booking a small loss after 2300 hands. I ran at 2.4/100 thru 15,492 hands in November for a total gain of $757.30. I'll certainly take it. Hopefully I can add a couple of hundred this weekend in the freeroll and the 5k turbo takedown.

Here's the final chart for November:



BR: $2,344.38

Bingo!

Wow. I quit about an hour ahead of schedule because...*drumroll*... I hit $350. Well, really $349.50 but who's counting? I decided to quit at this amount as a one time thing since I've already reached most of my goals for this month.

So after a slow start things have really picked up this month:




I'll play one more cash session (probably tomorrow night) and then play in a couple of mtts this weekend.

BR: $2418.13

Almost had the $350 night

Got it up to $325 tonight but couldn't finish it off. Got hit with a bunch of badbeats and coolers in the last hour but after the first 2 hours I was certainly due. No complaining here! There are a bunch of decent regulars at 1/2 and I did a good job of shutting down tables when 2 or more of them were sitting with me. There's no need to play with people who are decent to good with the amount of customers on Stars. There is still good game selection to be had.

The bankroll is now over $2,000. I've played 11,654 hands of 1/2 6 max this month for a BB/100 of 2.01. I'll probably play 2 more sessions next week and call it a month. I'll also try to play in the 100k GoldStar freeroll on the last Saturday of the month along with the Turbo Takedown on the 30th.

I still plan to play at 1/2 in December and then probably move up to 2/4 in January as I try to get Platinum and eventually SuperNova. Hopefully I have a bankroll of close to 3k to start 2009 off with and then cash out anything over 3k on the 1st of February. First things first though.

Here's the chart from tonight:

Biggest pot I've seen at 1/2 LHE 6 max

and of course the rivered gutshot earns the huge payday.

PokerStars 1/2 Hold'em (5 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Preflop: Whatever is SB with Th, 9h.

UTG calls, MP calls, 1 fold, Whatever completes, BB checks.

Flop: (4 SB) 8d, 6d, 7s (4 players)

Whatever bets, BB raises, UTG calls, MP calls, Whatever 3-bets, BB caps, UTG calls, MP calls, Whatever calls.

Turn: (10 BB) 2h (4 players)

Whatever bets, BB raises, UTG calls, MP calls, Whatever 3-bets, BB caps, UTG calls, MP folds, Whatever calls.


River: (24 BB) 9s (3 players)

Whatever bets, BB raises, UTG 3-bets, Whatever calls, BB folds.

Final Pot: 32 BB

Whatever has Th 9h (straight, ten high).
UTG has Jc Tc (straight, jack high).
Outcome: UTG wins 32 BB.

Wow what a crazy night. I will make $350 in 2k hands one of these nights. The play is THAT bad.

Up over $1,800 now. I'm gonna stick at 1/2 until January no matter how much I make. There's no rush to move up. I'd love to get my 1/2 winrate over 2/100 BB. I'll probably stick my toe into the 2/4 waters in January and see if I can make platinum in 15k hands or so. All I know is it takes 24k hands at 1/2.

Oh and I recovered from the rivered gutshot partially by rivering a fullboat (I flopped 2 pair) in a $57 pot so we'll call it even... I guess.

Here's the chart from tonight:

4 hours of 1/2 6 Max LHE

and a SNG 18 person $6.40 turbo. I lasted 11 minutes in the turbo. This hand sums up the 2nd half of my night by the way:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (7 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com


MP1 (t2255)
MP2 (t1360)
CO (t1610)
Whatever (t1510)
SB (t3565)
BB (t3015)
UTG (t1545)


Preflop: Whatever is Button with Tc, Th.
1 fold, MP1 calls t50, 1 fold, CO calls t50, Whatever raises to t300, 2 folds, MP1 folds, CO calls t250.


Flop: (t725) 8d, 3s, 7s (2 players)
CO bets t600, Whatever raises to t1210, CO calls t610.

CO has Kh 8c
Whatever has Tc Th

Turn: (t3145) 8s (2 players)

River: (t3145) 5d (2 players)
Final Pot: t3145


CO has Kh 8c (three of a kind, eights).
Whatever has Tc Th (two pair, tens and eights).
Outcome: CO wins t3145.

I 4 and 5 tabled 1/2 6 max and was up $170 after going on a crazy 20 minute rush of cards and then the switch was flipped and the river became my opponents best friend for the last 2 hours. Oh well. I feel like I'm gonna have a $400 night one of these sessions but right now I'll continue to grind away and try to improve on the things I can control. Here's my chart from last night:

PT3 it is

Since I'm already used to it I went ahead and bought PT3. $89. Hope it's worth it. I feel like tracking programs cost me a little bit until I figure out what the stats mean in real life situations and get used to certain scenarios. It's fun to be engaged and try to noodle through things.

Last night was awesome and then horrible. I ran very well the first half of the night and then got coolered, sucked out on and generally beat down in the last hour or so. Was up near $200 pretty quickly and then finished up $112 so it was rather frustrating as it looked like I might have a monster night.

My plan right now is to play around 15k hands this month and probably about the same in December and then go for Platinum in January and Supernova in 2009. I figured out that I can make Platinum playing 24k hands at 1/2 6 max. That works out to nine 5 hour sessions. I will be gone the first 6 days of January so I might have to play some 2/4 to make sure I get the 10k VPPs. If I happen to stick there then all the better.

Last night:

Slow Start

I'm sick this week but I still put in 4k hands and was beset by a ton of badbeats and suckouts and set over set situations. Luckily I was able to book a small $60 loss so I'm still running at 4/100 BB thru 6100 hands at 1/2. I'm not sure if I'm gonna stick with PT3 or try out Hold Em Manager since my 60 day trial period is over. We'll see.

It looks like I'll be putting in pretty light volume this month due to the holidays and me being sick. Maybe something like 15k hands. It would be great to run at 3/100 and still pull in $900 or so. That's saying a lot since I'm negative on the month right now.

I folded two winners last night for a total of $45. That hurts. A lot. In both situations the pot was 3 handed on the turn and I was facing a bet and reraise holding something like K10 on a 10 hi board when the board had just turned flushy or straighty. Oh well. Those are almost always good folds.

Here's the graphs from Monday (-106) and Wednesday (+47):