With SNGs, it's always tough to tell how well you are doing over a short period of time. So far, I've had some slight losses, but I'm still optimistic nonetheless. I don't think I have made that many mistakes, and I believe that I should be able to beat these games.
It would be pretty cool if I could get my bankroll to over $500 this December. Let's see...
I've been pretty much breaking even playing SNGs in the last few days, maybe with a slight profit.
Those are my main games right now, I haven't really played anything else lately. Except for last night, when I decided to join a few MTTs, since I can afford to play in some of the better ones now. No profit yet, but I'll keep going for a while and see if they are worth it. Especially that progressive Super Knock-out tournament I tried seemed pretty interesting.
No SNGs yesterday... but I did make some hot cocoa. 
I took a quick look at the available MTTs last night and felt a sudden urge to play Badugi when I saw that a $2.20 tournament was just starting. I actually managed to reach the final table (not sure if that's much of an accomplishment when there are only 24 players) and got busted in the very next hand.
It was fun, but these tournaments are just not worth it. The next time I'll be playing a Badugi tournament will probably be when the next Micro Millions will start. At least that leaves me about a year to actually learn that game.
I also participated in a $1.10 5CD tournament, but it was nothing worth talking about.
I'll be back to the usual grind tomorrow.
One out? No problem.
PokerStars - $3.11+$0.39|75/150 NL - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
BTN: 2,975
SB: 1,655
BB: 2,429
Hero (UTG): 1,655
UTG+1: 1,318
MP: 1,585
MP+1: 483
CO: 1,400
SB posts SB 75, BB posts BB 150
Pre Flop: (pot: 225) Hero has A♦ Q♥
Hero raises to 1,655 and is all-in, UTG+1 calls 1,318 and is all-in, fold, MP+1 calls 483 and is all-in, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1,505
Flop: (5,186, 4 players) 2♥ 9♥ K♣
Turn: (5,186, 4 players) A♣
River: (5,186, 4 players) 7♣
BB shows Q♦ Q♣ (One Pair, Queens)
Main Pot [2,007]: (Pre 75%, Flop 87%, Turn 0%)
Side Pot#1 [2,505]: (Pre 73%, Flop 85%, Turn 0%)
Side Pot#2 [674]: (Pre 70%, Flop 82%, Turn 2%)
Hero shows A♦ Q♥ (One Pair, Aces)
Main Pot [2,007]: (Pre 7%, Flop 3%, Turn 44%)
Side Pot#1 [2,505]: (Pre 13%, Flop 5%, Turn 50%)
Side Pot#2 [674]: (Pre 30%, Flop 18%, Turn 98%)
UTG+1 shows A♥ Q♠ (One Pair, Aces)
Main Pot [2,007]: (Pre 7%, Flop 7%, Turn 44%)
Side Pot#1 [2,505]: (Pre 14%, Flop 9%, Turn 50%)
MP+1 shows A♠ 3♣ (One Pair, Aces)
Main Pot [2,007]: (Pre 10%, Flop 3%, Turn 13%)
Hero wins 2,931
UTG+1 wins 2,255
Merry Christmas, everyone!
I'm taking a bit of a break from poker over the holidays, so there won't be any updates in the next few days.
Originally posted by Harrier88
Merry Christmas, everyone!
I'm taking a bit of a break from poker over the holidays, so there won't be any updates in the next few days.
And a Merry Christmas to you as well.
I'm also taking a break -- if you can call "Chaos at Vorpal Manor" a break.
Peace on earth, good will to all...
VS
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
And a Merry Christmas to you as well.
Thanks Vorpal! It was a quite relaxing Christmas for me. I'm not sure if the some could be said about your Christmas, judging from your blog post, but all's well that ends well.
I didn't play any poker yet, so I guess my break has been a little extended. For now, let's just take a look back at last year. I wrote a detailed review of what happened on the virtual felt in 2014. Not that much has happened away from the felt; this may actually have been one of the most forgettable years of my life. But anyway, here it is:
January
Started blogging halfway through the month, when I was playing NL5 Zoom on Pokerstars with a bankroll of $365. Despite a rough start, it went quite well, and I moved up to NL10 after making about $100 at NL5. These games did not go as planned, and I soon moved down to NL5 again, ending the month with a bankroll of $409.
February
Encouraged by successful sessions at NL5, I decided to take another shot at NL10. This time, it actually went well, and at one point, my bankroll exceeded $500 for the first time since I started blogging. Unfortunately, I was hit by a downswing soon after that, which brought my roll back to under $400 again. Following a short break, I had another brief upswing followed by a downswing that annihilated my previous winnings. I eventually stopped playing with a bankroll of $387.
Meanwhile, I played some NL2 with the last $10 on my virtually abandoned William Hill account, as well as a few SNGs at the lowest stakes available, for a very short time. I ended up cashing out and bagged $20.
I also managed to set up an account at Ladbrokes after a lot of struggling. I started with a deposit of $50, of which I moved $10 to a sports betting account. Early attempts at NL2 ended in disaster.
My attempt to set up an account at Poker770 failed due to technical problems during the depositing process.
March
I decided to move $80 from Pokerstars to Ladbrokes, leaving a little under $300 in my Stars account. That gave me a starting bankroll of $108, which I used to play NL5 Speed Poker games. My first week went exceptionally well, with a profit of over $100. Soon after that, I experienced technical problems with my Pokertracker HUDs and had to take a break.
Shortly after getting back, I entered a prolonged break-even stretch with tons of minor swings, followed by a downswing that reduced my bankroll to $152. After a short experiment with 9-man Turbo SNGs at Pokerstars, I returned to Ladbrokes and managed to regain some of my losses, finishing the month with a bankroll of $206.
April
Due to real life distractions, I only played occasionally during this month, with a lot of prolonged breaks inbetween. Cash games at Ladbrokes started out swingy, but went a lot better towards the end of the month, which ended with a bankroll of $308. Meanwhile, I was playing a few $1.50 45-man Turbo MTSNGs at Pokerstars, which went reasonably well, but I stopped playing them after a while to focus on cash games instead.
I also noticed that, for whatever reason, there seemed to be hardly any traffic at Ladbrokes' NL10 Speed Poker games, which prevented me from moving up and forced me to look for alternative plans. Eventually, I decided to aim for NL20, which, surprisingly, seemed to have better traffic again.
May
For the first few weeks, I played almost no poker at all because I noticed a couple of unauthorized transactions from my Skrill account and needed to take immediate action. It took a while until the issue was resolved, giving me very little time for poker related activities.
After I did get back to the games, I experienced a number of technical problems at Ladbrokes, which, together with the fact that my StrategyPoints are not properly processed after three full months, led me to the decision that I want to cash out at this site. After the very alarming problems with Skrill, I decided to be extra careful with these withdrawals, and it my money didn't arrive until near the end of the month.
$290 of the money from Ladbrokes was moved to WilliamHill. I bagged the other $50 to cover my initial investment from when I first deposited. My first and last NL5 session at WilliamHill went exceptionally well, with a profit of $25.
June
The next few sessions were successful as well, and I play an experimental NL10 session, noticing, with surprise, that the traffic seems to have improved somewhat. I lost $28 and went back to my usual NL5 grind. This might have put me a little off balance, and I failed to replicate my earlier success at NL5. Not long after that, Speed Poker games at iPoker started to have an annoying amount of technical difficulties that made them virtually unplayable. I played some Zoom at Pokerstars, which also went horribly, so I took another prolonged tilt-break.
When I got back, I decided to play Fast Fold games at WilliamHill and Pokerstars simultaneously. I eventually focused on Stars, where the games went a lot better and I was able to bring my bankroll back to $350, enabling me to take a legitimate NL10 shot. It failed, and the downswing continued for a while after I moved back to NL5. Near the end of the month, it went a bit better, and I ended up with $227 at Stars.
July
I went back to WilliamHill, where I experienced my worst downswing yet. Once my bankroll dropped down to $143, I decided to cash out and bag the money.
At Pokerstars, I started out playing some 9-man Turbo SNGs again, but quickly became bored with them. What followed was a period of experimentation, where I tried out almost any format of poker there is, including a brief attempt at grinding HUSNGs. Eventually, I settled with 9-man Turbos, and had some success, being able to move up to the $3.50 games.
August
After some swings in both direction, I hit a serious downswing that brought my bankroll all the way down to $120. This caused me to take the longest tilt-break yet. I decided to mainly play NL2 Zoom once I got back. Originally, it went horribly, but it all started to work out eventually. After dropping to around $80 at one point, I managed to get back up to $100 by the end of the month. I also joined our moderator team at around this time.
September
I decided to add some Five Card Draw games to my repertoire. There was some steady progress, and I was able to move to NL5. From that point on, the results were quite swingy, with slight losses. Apart from that, there was not much to report.
October
Despite the lack of success at NL5, the month started out quite well, thanks to a 7th place finish in the Pokerstrategy Freelancer Freeroll for $80. I decided to switch from cash games to SNGs again, only to experience some lackluster results. Eventually, I ended up playing a mixed variety of games, with a quite low volume. My bankroll at the end of this month is unknown.
November
Not much is documented about my progress during this month. I failed to cash in the Freelancer Freeroll this time, and started out playing mainly NL5 Zoom. I made yet another switch to SNGs about halfway through the month, with a couple of scheduled micro stakes MTTs, which I started playing around the time the MicroMillions went underway. I was using a quite conservative BRM, and my bankroll seems to have finished at around $200 towards the end of the month, where I had to quit playing for a few days due to illness.
December
I switched to regular speed SNGs after discovering that the blinds structure has been changed in the Turbos. The highlight of this month, if not of the entire year, was definitely my 3rd place finish for $226 in the Freelancer Freeroll. With a bankroll of $442, I was now able to comfortably play the $3.50 SNGs. The games were quite swingy overall, and my roll went down to around $400 by now. The volume of games I played decreased gradually, ending in a so-called Christmas break that persists to this day.
That looks like a standard year, some ups, some downs.
What are your plans for 2015?
Best wishes for a peaceful, prosperous 2015,
VS
Yeah, nothing out of the ordinary, really. I did notice, however, that I often kind of lacked a proper plan during the last half of the year.
Speaking of which, I only have one poker related goal for 2015 so far: "Don't go broke."
I might even give Zoom another chance sooner or later, but I'm not sure if it's such a good idea to keep mixing my games up like that.
I'll mainly focus on wrapping up my B.A. degree. It is unbelievable that I was not able to find a suitable internship position within an entire year...
I have heard, though, that I also have the option of taking a few additional university courses if I have been rejected by at least five different employers (I have), so I'll look into it.
That's what I get for picking an obscure university degree...
We're back at the tables.
I had a quite successful SNG session yesterday, but also a pretty terrible one today. I also gave Zoom cash games another chance (NL10), but only in short, single-tabling sessions. Once again, I played today and yesterday, and I think I made about a buy-in in the end.
Overall, I was pretty much breaking even, with a very slight profit of a few dollars.
I don't think I will make Zoom my main format again, I just don't think I could handle the ups and downs in the long run. But I might stick around for the odd session every now and then, and maybe I'll eventually change my mind. I also might give 45-manners another go.
All things considered, though, I feel pretty comfortable with my 9-man SNGs, so there is really no hurry to switch right now.
Popping in just so you know I am reading your posts :f_biggrin:. I can't really comment on much because of the experience gap but I did see your Freelance Freeroll win - congratulations!
I hope you had a very merry Christmas and I wish the best to you for the coming year. 
Thanks for stopping by, Sol! To be fair, there isn't really much to comment on right now, since I haven't been playing that many games recently, and I'm also, once again, experimenting with different formats.
I just made another final table in this month's Freelancer Freeroll, but unfortunately, it was only a 9th place finish for $40. This was the turning point:
PokerStars - $0+$0|600/1200 Ante 125 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
BB: 6,656
UTG: 48,176
UTG+1: 102,571
MP: 12,591
MP+1: 27,236
Hero (MP+2): 23,629
CO: 33,431
BTN: 21,092
SB: 21,618
9 players post ante of 125, SB posts SB 600, BB posts BB 1,200
Pre Flop: (pot: 2,925) Hero has J♠ J♥
fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2,400, fold, BTN raises to 20,967 and is all-in, fold, fold, Hero calls 18,567
Flop: (44,859, 2 players) 3♣ 4♠ 2♠
Turn: (44,859, 2 players) A♥
River: (44,859, 2 players) 9♣
Hero shows J♠ J♥ (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 68%, Flop 74%, Turn 5%)
BTN shows 6♦ A♦ (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 32%, Flop 26%, Turn 95%)
BTN wins 44,859
That left my with only around 2BB, but I was lucky enough to receive AQs in my next hand. Not surprisingly, BB called. He had 97 and hit a straight on the turn, officially ending my tournament.
I was a bit disappointed that I had to leave the final table so early despite being in decent shape, but at least I got this far. That would be my third FT finish out of the four Freelancer Freerolls I played.
If nothing else, the $40 should easily cover my losses from yesterday.
Still nothing to report, I haven't played any poker at all today.
Yesterday, however, I lost a few dollars in a short Five Card Draw session, mainly due to a complete lack of focus. This made me realize something: One of the main reasons why I seem to have a lot more mental game issues in cash games compared to tournaments might be that the temptation to sneak in a quick, uninspired session is just much higher in this format.
With SNGs, I always know that I need to have about an hour of time in order to complete a full session, so I often just avoid playing when I realize that I may have something else to do soon, that something might distract me, or that I just won't be able to stay concentrated until the end for whatever reason.
On the other hand, there been plenty of cases in the past where I just fired up a few Zoom tables because I had nothing better to do and needed to stay busy for half an hour, or any other situation where I just wasn't able to play a decent game. If I had the discipline to only play when I was sure that I could bring my A-game, I might be able to play these games with the same efficiency as SNGs. I remember a few occasions where I tried focusing on exactly that, but in the end, the temptation to fire up a quick game had always been too much at one point...
Nevertheless, my decision to stick to tournament poker for now stands.
In other news, I was recently browsing through the website of my local shooting club and discovered that they offer affordable trial courses, so I decided to visit their clubhouse earlier today to get some more information on this. I was told that they offer courses for both archery and "regular" shooting, and while I'm interested in both, I was advised to finish one course before I start with the other. So I decided to give archery a try, and I will start this Thursday. This should be interesting, let's see how it goes...
Yeah, you should stick to games where you feel most comfortable. Format(s) you love the most.
About you archery courses, sounds cool. Everyone should have a hobby besides poker ! Makes life much more interesting.
Have fun !
Originally posted by ZapOut
About you archery courses, sounds cool. Everyone should have a hobby besides poker ! Makes life much more interesting.
Yeah, I like to try new things. There are actually a few more things I'd like to try out this year, but I'll get to that when the time is right.
Also, I'm pleased to report that I finished my first archery lesson without any casualties. I'm less pleased to report that I finished my first 45-man SNG session of the year without any ITM finishes...
Still a lot better than the opposite case.
A little anecdote from archery practice yesterday:
When I first showed up, the instructor asked me if I wanted to try shooting at the standard targets that are 18 meters away, or if he should set up an easier one at a distance of 10 meters. I said that I'd prefer shooting at the 10m target to get started, so we did just that. As I was shooting my first arrows of the day, it turned out that I was aiming one of them way too high, so it deflected off the upper edge of the board, kept on flying, and somehow ended up landing right in the middle of the 18m target.
Of course, this was exactly what I was aiming for the whole time. 
Back to poker. My motivation seemed to be at a low point recently, so I only managed to play two more 45-manner sessions since my last update. Only one of them was profitable, thanks to a 2nd place finish, which was the only success. I wasn't running that well.
While I'd like to keep trying these games, they just take a little too long for me. It seems too hard to find the time to put some semi-decent volume in, especially if I try to make sure that I'll stay reasonable focused throughout the session, which is what I should do.
I had another look at the 9-man Turbo SNGs today, which I abandoned last December after discovering that the blinds structure was changed for some reason. It turns out that it's now back to the way it was before, so I decided to pick these games up again. I played two sessions today, the first one had only a minor profit, the second one went quite well, with two 1st places and two 2nd places.
I'm glad that these games are back to the way they used to be, and I'm sure I'll stick around for a while.
Also, I recently upped the ante on my ICM practice. For every mistake I make during my 100 hands sessions with the ICM Trainer, I'll have to do five push-ups (misclicks are no excuse!).
Originally posted by Harrier88
A little anecdote from archery practice yesterday:When I first showed up, the instructor asked me if I wanted to try shooting at the standard targets that are 18 meters away, or if he should set up an easier one at a distance of 10 meters. I said that I'd prefer shooting at the 10m target to get started, so we did just that. As I was shooting my first arrows of the day, it turned out that I was aiming one of them way too high, so it deflected off the upper edge of the board, kept on flying, and somehow ended up landing right in the middle of the 18m target.
Of course, this was exactly what I was aiming for the whole time.
Ofc you aimed for that. You should've told your trainer "and now show me that you are at least as good as I am" 
Originally posted by Harrier88
Also, I recently upped the ante on my ICM practice. For every mistake I make during my 100 hands sessions with the ICM Trainer, I'll have to do five push-ups (misclicks are no excuse!).
That's a great idea to work with little punishments... Might come up with something similar 
gl and keep going, l always enjoy reading your posts
Thanks a lot RaucheCh! I didn't even know that you were reading my blog.
btw, I also plan to start shooting with guns next week. It would be pretty amazing if I could recreate that shot with one of those things...
I played a few more tourneys in the last few days, but it's hard to tell where I'm going because of the technical difficulties at Pokerstars recently.
It all started when one SNG inexplicably froze up last Thursday, even though the other five tables were working fine. I contacted support about this, and they replied very quickly and refunded my buy-in.
They also claimed that the issue was resolved, but unfortunately, that was not the case. In my latest session, three more tournaments were affected, one of them twice. While I was able to re-enter one of them in time by exiting and re-opening the table, I didn't even notice what happened in the other two games, because I was focusing on other tables. It was much too late when I was able to finally re-join one of them.
I contacted customer support again after this, and their refunds team is currently reviewing this case, so I might be entitled to some kind of compensation.
Unfortunately, it seems like I'm not the only one who has this problem...
I better take a break from the grind until this issue is resolved.
Originally posted by Harrier88
Thanks a lot RaucheCh! I didn't even know that you were reading my blog.
You're welcome ^^ well I'm following quite a few blogs here. Most of the blogs here, which are not 100% results oriented are in my facourites cause I enjoy to read about other peoples struggle and success.
I actually wonder how much time it takes if you are blogging yourself too...
Keep it going. Btw. you should sign up at a second shooting range and practice your miracle shot there ^^ and then bet with your trainer that you can do it again 
Originally posted by RaucheCh1987
you should sign up at a second shooting range and practice your miracle shot there ^^ and then bet with your trainer that you can do it againSounds like a plan. ♠_cool:
Pokerstars has confirmed by now that the technical problems are caused by third party tools like PT4 or HM2. There has been an update to these tools which is supposed to fix this problem, and from what I've heard so far, it seems to work, so I might try it out later today.
Since I still have hardly any poker-related stuff to talk about, there is a video I've been meaning to share for a while now.
A few years ago, the (former) player-coach of my rugby team produced a music video as the final project for his university degree, featuring his fellow ruggers. I was involved as well, but since I arrived about half an hour late because I went to my first ever underwater rugby practice (WTF is that? Click here.) that took place at the same time, most of the scenes were already laid out by the time I showed up, and as a result, my on-screen appearances are mostly limited to a couple of blink-and-you-miss-it cameos. In case you're wondering, I can be seen at 3:50 (from behind), 4:08 and very briefly if you pause the video at around 4:32. I'm the guy with the number 5, who has a black scrum cap and a weird hairdo.
Anyway, here's the video (rugby scenes start at around 2:30):
