Snakes will smoke

Originally posted by Harrier88
When it comes to my sleep schedule, I'm afraid I'm kind of back at square one. I decided to go to church last Sunday to give me an incentive to be up early, which did work out, but I did not get enough sleep that night and as a result, I was so tired that I apparently didn't even notice my alarm clock going off the next time. So I'm back in the old habit of waking up in time for lunch.

I find that the only way to reset my sleep schedule is to go to bed and note the time. Wake up naturally and note the time. Now just go to be 15 min to 1/2 hour earlier each night until I wake up naturally at the time I want. This takes a while, but once you wake up naturally at the same time every day for a month or two, it is easier to reset the next time it gets out of whack.

Cheers,
VS

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I find that the only way to reset my sleep schedule is to go to bed and note the time. Wake up naturally and note the time. Now just go to be 15 min to 1/2 hour earlier each night until I wake up naturally at the time I want. This takes a while, but once you wake up naturally at the same time every day for a month or two, it is easier to reset the next time it gets out of whack.

Honestly, I'm not sure if I would have the discipline to pull this off. I always found it easier to force myself to get up earlier and then naturally going to bed at an earlier time, rather than the other way around. When I was still at university a few years ago, I perfected the art of doing all-nighters to finish projects at the last minute, and that seems to be a habit that persists to this day, because I keep finding stuff to do in the late hours.

About poker, I'm quite happy with my cash games at 888 so far. My bankroll is at about $126 now, and I'm now playing NL6 exclusively. I would love to get to NL10 this year, but there's still a long way to go, and a lot of things can happen.

I might post some graphs when I get to 5k hands.

In other news, I'm going to participate in a fun little archery tournament tomorrow evening.

Nothing serious, just a fun little Christmas-related competition within our own club. As a rookie, my chance of success is of course extremely low, but that's not what it's all about.

Oh, and we'll be shooting in the dark. I hope those guys bring some fluorescent clothing or something...

On the plus side, there will be a nice Italian dinner for those who survive.

So I'm back from the archery gig. My final placement in the tournament was 6th out of 9 - not bad at all for a rookie, I believe.

This is how it went: The entire room was darkened for the competition except for the center of the target, which was illuminated with a little spotlight. There were also some tea candles on the ground in a straight line from the archer's position to the target. The 'host' of the tournament would also turn on a little flashlight to help you properly nock the arrow, but then turn it off before you take aim.

There were three rounds in total with five shots each, as well as five practice shots in the beginning that were not counted. My final score was 76. There was only one of my arrows that completely missed the target (two more during the practice round). Allegedly, there was one guy last year who did not manage to score a single point. This shows how challenging these unusual conditions can be, even to people who know what they're doing.

Apart from the obvious obstacle during the aiming process, another challenge caused by the lack of light was that you could not see the arrows you had previously fired (unless they landed in the illuminated part, which means that they hit the target dead center), so you couldn't even use this information to adjust your aim. The scores were not revealed until the very end either. The trick I used for aiming was to keep raising my bow until the silhouette of the tip of the arrow could be seen in the spotlight, and then lowering it again to the point where I felt it was right.

It was definitely an interesting experience, and considering the fact that I only practiced this sport for about half a year, on and off, with a lot of breaks in between, I would have seen anything better than the last place as a success. It should be noted, though, that many of the more experienced archers are used to aiming with sights, while I'm used to shooting barebow, which may have given me a slight advantage in this kind of competition that slightly offset my relative lack of skill.

Let's see if I can hit the bullseye in tomorrow's Mahjong tournaments, and maybe even snipe down some nice pots at the poker tables.

Okay, I recently reached 5k hands and made screenshots of my graphs last night. However, I'm afraid that the situation has changed a bit.

Now that I'm playing regular speed tables, I have somewhat adapted to the style of 'playing your opponents', and there always seems to be one guy at 888's tables who tries to take the pots down with aggressive shoves, which can be nicely exploited if you wait for the proper situation to set him up, allowing you to pick up some nice stacks.

At one of my tables, there was a quite loose player (referred to as 'villain' from now on) who always starts out small, but then ends up making these huge overbets on later streets. This was my first hand against him, and I didn't know him yet, so I gave him credit:

A bit later, it looked like my time has finally come:

Pretty nice, right?

Well, he reloaded and managed to get deepstacked again after stacking another opponent. Then we met again:

That one hurt. Of course, I wouldn't normally call with such deep stacks when I have only a top pair, but against this opponent, I thought I could expect to be ahead - remember that last hand?

It didn't matter, though. I auto-reloaded and kept playing.

Next hand:

Disgusting... Once again, I would normally realize that a flush is quite possible there and adjust accordingly, but since this opponent had a tendency to do these moves every other hand, I didn't give him credit. I only cared about extracting value.

I did not end my session just yet, and we were destined to meet another time:

And that's when I ended my session.

300BBs lost in a matter of minutes, against the same opponent. I almost forgot how much it can hurt to lose money.

Hey man, good luck with your challenge!

I also play NL6 on 888 so we have probably played a few hands lately haha. I love the fish on 888 so many people making mistakes and shoving absolute rubbish.

Have you tried any of the $1-$3 buy in tournaments as they are the fishiest I have ever seen and I'm not that great at tournaments ?

Originally posted by stompy91
Hey man, good luck with your challenge!

Thanks stompy, but this is not actually a challenge blog. I'm mostly playing recreationally, I guess, except that I may have gotten a bit carried away with the cash games this time.

It's true that the cash games at 888 are a lot fishier than at many other sites, especially the big ones like Pokerstars. That's also pretty much the reason why I'm back at 888 at the moment. But as you can see in my last post, sometimes the maniacal approach can be surprisingly effective, at least in the short term.

I assume you are talking about the $1-3 MTTs, not the SNGs? I did actually play some of the lower stakes MTTs recently, but not right now, because I don't think I really have the patience for long tournament sessions at the time. I may pick them up again, though.

Good luck with your own challenge, by the way! I've had a look through your blog earlier.

Also, here is the graph that I saved last night, waiting to show it the next day:

Of course, the most recent version now looks a bit different:

What can ya do...
btw, this is NL4 and NL6 combined.

Mixed Mahjong tournaments
Freeroll winnings: $18
Paid-entry tournament profit: $87.26 (-$1.10)
Total profit: $105.26 (-$1.10)

Only a freeroll and a $1.10 tourney yesterday (HK rules).

I took some risks in the semi-final of the freeroll which may have been unnecessary and ultimately resulted in me having to leave the game empty-handed. Things looked quite promising in the $1.10 tournament, where I was 48 points ahead of the players in 3rd and 4th place during the last hand of the semi-final. Unfortunately for me, one of them managed to complete his hand with a lucky self-draw, which was pretty much the only way to overtake me apart from hitting a monster hand.

Disappointing...

No Mahjong today because the site was down due to server problems, now that's a first.

Meanwhile, I was able to win $23.07 off some tournament tickets at William Hill. I could just cash it out, but now that I'm comfortable with regular speed cash games, why not grind it up to build a third poker bankroll.

Haven't updated this thing in a few days, with Christmas being around the corner and all. There wasn't that much to report either. I picked up around five bucks to keep building my brand new William Hill bankroll, and I've played a couple of Mahjong tournaments, more or less breaking even.

So without further ado, I'd like to wish all of you guys a merry Christmas!
Let's take a well-deserved break from the endless grind (on and off the tables) and focus on what's really important.

Around this time last year, I did some kind of review where I reflected on what happened in 2014. This would be a bit harder to do this year, because I played a lot more sporadically than before, and as a result, my progress isn't documented that well either. My only poker goal for 2015 was "Don't go broke", and I'm happy to report that it worked out quite nicely.

So what happened in 2015 on the tables? Well, I've been all over the place, giving all kinds of formats a shot, starting with STSNGs, but later also covering Five Card Draw, PLO, and even Badugi and mixed games. Cash games didn't go very well, especially on Stars, which inspired me to make a comeback on 888, where things were going a bit better, resulting in a decent secondary bankroll of $100.

Some time in summer, I also gave Mahjong a chance, with fairly low expectations, since I pretty much had to learn this game from scratch. Because of this, I would have already considered it a success if I could just get my foot in the door, simply being able to play real money games without having to rely on new deposits all the time. In fact, just understanding the game with its various formats at all proved to be enough of a challenge, keeping me busy for a couple of weeks. Walking away with about $100 in tournament winnings at the end of the year is definitely more than I would have hoped for.

Off the tables, it should be mentioned that I finally managed to graduate from university with a B.A. degree, after finishing an internship that took about two months. As a result, I'm now on the looks for proper jobs, with no success so far.

I remember saying last year that 2014 was one of the most uneventful years of my life. Because of those milestones, I can't really say the same thing about 2015, and I'm sure the next year will not be any different. In fact, considering this entire job hunting gig, 2016 will probably be one of the major crossroads in my life.

As far as poker is concerned, it therefore wouldn't make much sense to set any specific volume or profit goals, but I'm sure that I will stick around and keep playing one way or another, and as long as I do that, I will also keep blogging, even if I may have to put poker on the back burner at times. My only real goals for 2016 are not poker related, I just want to have a proper job and my own place to stay until the end of the year.

To anyone who reads this, I wish you all the best with your own personal goals and a great, healthy and prosperous 2016!

Well, Happy New Year, I guess...
It's not that new anymore, is it?

Haven't posted here for a while, but there wasn't too much to report either. I didn't have much success in the Mahjong tournaments so far. I did manage to share 2nd place with someone else in one $1.10 tourney for $13.02, but that one required a lot of luck. There is another big $10 Jap Riichi tournament this Sunday that I intended to play, but I'll probably blow it off and save the ten bucks. Right now, I just don't think I have a high enough chance for a good return, especially considering that I didn't play any Riichi in a while.

I don't think I played any poker so far either, but I already have plans. Recently, I cashed out most of my Pokerstars bankroll, leaving only about eighteen bucks behind, and I plan to move it all to MPN next week to start grinding again, taking advantage of their 100% deposit bonus, among other things.

Who knows, maybe this could be the start of a whole new exciting journey.

Okay, so the MPN account is all set up with €250, complete with table and HUD layout and all the right options. Now all I need to do make some money.

So far, I didn't do a very good job at this, losing 1.5 buy-ins in my practice session, but I was only testing the waters. Let's do this for real next week.

I have a good feeling about this, the players seem fishy enough and I have some nice bonuses and rakeback to help me through rough patches. I might give Blaze (Speed poker) a try, if I need to get some volume in, but I'm quite happy with the regular cash tables at the moment.

Mixed Mahjong tournaments
Freeroll winnings: $0
Paid-entry tournament profit: $9.72
Total profit: $9.72

Let's start this one again, with new stats for 2016.

Things aren't looking great so far, with still only one shared 2nd place under my belt, but at least we're in the black. It's a high-variance game, no need to get nervous.

Like I announced last time, I decided to cancel the $10 Jap Riichi tournament.

GL in 2016!

Thanks, mate!

All the best to you as well!

Still losing, I may have gotten a bit rusty...

I'd love to play some NL10 so I would be able clear more of my bonus, but not if I'm playing like this.
I could use some little confidence builder session tomorrow...

So, yeah, this blog is, like, over.

I just started a new one, feel free to check that one out instead.