[Closed] The Journey is complete. The fun times had. 897's Retired SNG blog.

been 3 or 4 days now since I have been able to play a single hand or even do anything involving poker.

I have only had time to read the updates of the blogs I follow here but most are quiet I guess because of the holidays.

Something bad did happen though, I did start to get the feeling like I am falling behind and like I MUST PLAY.

I was fearing I would feel like this after a solid month of play throughout March. I know I hit a downer but
I still came out ahead for one and even if I did not, I met all my goals so it was a fantastic month.

The whole point of everything now though including starting from a quarter was to teach myself that we as dedicated
players who choose to take this on long term, will get there when we get there. If I go rushing in and squeezing
in games I do not have the time for to meet my volume goals and increasing tables goals I am only going to
end up more pissed off and frustrated then when I would feel beginning the session because I can not possibly
be ready for one with everything going on right now.

I am reminding myself that this whole thing is a LONG TERM process and wether I play or not for even the next
2 weeks is irrelevant. I mean look at how long of a break I took from when I said fuck this game about FL and
I came back like nothing was missed. Then throughout the end of last year I also had very little time to play.

It has changed nothing. I am still developing at a fast and steady pace and I would only damage that pace
by forcing in play time that I do not have.

On a side note, someone very close to me is having surgery tommorow and I am taking them into the hospital.

I was kidding with them and told them once they go under I will just walk across the street and sit down at
the brick and mortar there for some $1 $2 NL.

They thought I was serious so I went with it for a while even got a brochure printed and everything.

I said don't worry I will be back by the time you wake up unless of course I get really deep in one of these MTTS...
Then I am sure you would understand....

Anyways humor always helps in ackward or scary situations like that.

So it looks like I am at least 2 or 3 more days away from any play time or even serious study time.

I will bring the book with me as I will have hours to wait around and I will use those to read something but I
will probably not even be in the mindset to glean anything form the book so it will prolly be TV or some
mindless magazine FTW.

Thanks for reading.

Nothing new to add really, still no poker and may not be untill Monday.

I will see how things go and if the schedule gets back to normal I will be at it sooner.

I am missing it but the burning urge to force some in is long gone.

I may donk around with some 5 card draw or maybe 1 cent 990 man again for fun. We'll see.

Just a really content heavy post to update the readers....

Friday passed so I will post my graph for the week.

The itch is hitting hard some days but with everything going on there is just no suitable amount
of available time to really get into playing. I can't even watch a video because I end up having
something to do before its half over.....

So yeah here is this weeks graph, sick run IMO....

Looks like things go back to normal playing wise as soon as Tommorow.

Thanks for reading.

lotta room for improvement imo

Originally posted by NickParkes
lotta room for improvement imo

I'll give ya that one but at least the red and green lines are finally spot on!!

b/e FTW!

Originally posted by 8979687
I'll give ya that one but at least the red and green lines are finally spot on!!

b/e FTW!

LOL n1

Originally posted by lessthanthreee
LOL n1

I figure humor is always the way!! I hate not being able to play but what can you do.

I see your busy with exams and such so your volume is low as well. How has that been treating you?

Do you cram a set in if you find 45 mins or however long it takes? or do you pass it up if your busy or gonna have to rush it?

I have been DAMN tempted to fire up a few times even knowing I can't possibly be totally into it because of other things going
on and commitments that can call away my attention instantly and immediately.

yeah usually a fire up 2 sets before i go to bed just to relax a bit.. i dont study well at night so it gives me free time.

been running pretty good again this month which is nice

you should always be 100% into poker when u play. distractions can cost u heavily and the tilt can set in. i never play a set unless i know i have plenty of time.

WOOT!!

Got back into the routine today with no problems.

Played me 4 sets of 12 tables and had no trouble keeping up.

I did however have 12 tables open at 100/200 in my last set which was just fucking crazy.

All in all I ran extra hot today, and made $60. It was a mix of suckouts and sucking out which is always fine with me
I can find fun in giving it and taking it especially after so long of bad luck. I thought I might have lost some edge with
absolutely 0 study and 0 playing for so long but actually I found myself making laydowns that I had been meaning to
correct before but kept playing wrong so I feel I am a little better for the break.

Things seem like they are mostly back to normal now so I should be 12 tabling 4 sets a day untill I get the
courage and comfortability to play 14. Years away from my goal of 25.

I am getting more and more tempted by Cash games.. BSS... I must go through the articles and videos anyways
to really heighten my SNG games but I will not switch to plying them or mix them in yet as I want to get much
better at SNGs and then focus on BSS.

When I switched to FL I was doing very well with it and I am showing up as a shark when I look myself up on sites,
but that was alot of study and devotion to become a decent FL player and now I am also a decent SNG player.

I want to become a GOOD / AWSOME SNG player then learn cash and tourneys.

Tourneys have been tempting the shit out of me lately as well. Its almost like I want to try a 180 man here and there
while I play the sets of 12 but that would be insane trying to concentrate on so much at once. Maybe I can play like
one or 2 45 mans a 90 man and a 180.

There I go again... FOCUS!!!!

Just got to try and get very good at SNGS alone first then move on to others!!!

Thanks for reading my ramblings....

48 more games down today...

Had a retarded first 2 sets bringing me down a bunch followed by an awsome set bringing me back up to just under even
and set #4 brought me back to even. I had some serious suckouts happening today and AA and KK and even QQ were losing
postflop to some shit you do not ever see on the $6.50s. AA lost to J2os on a J2x Rainbow board which I happily got
it all in on after 5x raising preflop to rid 2 limpers who both called.

No complaints, just pointing out the huge differences between $6.50 and $3.40.

Infact these same situations that were losing me piles of buy ins over the first 2 sets were giving me HUGE stacks on
like 8 tables at once in the second set. Still kept getting sucked out on mega when I made it to heads up almost every time.

I ended up with only 3 firsts all day and a pile of seconds and like 4 thirds.

Easy to handle when its mixed with scoring some sick suckouts on others and a set of run awsome in between it all.

Much harder to deal with when it just keeps happening day after day after day with no taste of success in between.

Anyhow as far as tourneys go I notice that there is the VIP tourneys I can be playing in for free so maybe on a weekend
if I get the time to just play more for fun then serious and it wont cost me any $$$$ I can see how much fun I can get
out of them.

It can help with this bug of try something else that is biting me.

Thanks for reading.

Bah was cleaning up a bit this morning for spring and got into the dustiest sections of the house.

This caused severe reactions including very bad moods and watering eyes and a limited ability for clear
and prosperous thinking. Reactine has done fuck all for helping me and someone suggested sticking a
fucking tea pot up my nose.

Well a netti pot.

At first I thought they said nitty pot. I was like well thats a small and rare fucking pot if its nitty.

Not knowing much about poker they asked what the fuck that meant.....

I said what the fuck do you mean?? How the hell is it going to help me if two nits play for a pot??

This led to the clearing up of it being a netti pot.

I googled it.

Fuck that shit.

However, there is a retard who puts tobasco sauce in one and puts it up his nose... worth the price of admission.

Since these allergies have me pissed off at everything not extremely funny I figured I would hold off on poker today
as I am already on life tilt so one bad beat would probably result in something ugly.

It is rare for allergies to get me this bad but when they do nothing helps.

Well apparently sticking a pot up my nose will.. But if they listened to my suggestion and stuck the pot where I told
them too... Lets just say it is DEFINATELY not going anywhere near my nose now.

Thanks for reading.

8979687 - One of the funniest posts I've read for a long time Thanks for cheering me up this morning !

Originally posted by nibbana
8979687 - One of the funniest posts I've read for a long time Thanks for cheering me up this morning !

Well someone got something good out of it.

Watching that clip of buddy using it with tobasco sauce still isn't boring yet.

Today started out with after effects but not so bad and I ended up finding the time to play one set of 12 games.

I got what I thought was ripped off pretty good untill I had to slap myself and realize how stupid I sounded.

I mean how the hell can I say I got ripped off during 12 games?

Ok so what no firsts and only seconds but it is 12 games. I mean when I look at my database, 12 games isnt even an
ant next to an elephant. 12 games isnt even 5 mins worth of time in the big picture which compared to how many
hours and games and years I am willing to put into poker, isnt even a picture at all yet never mind a big one.

What I am saying is this...

shut the fuck up 8979687 if you are even slightly bothered by running bad for 12 games then go find something else to do.

I have started to mess around in the evaluation section.

<3 is a fast one, usually by the time I check it out he has nailed most of them and he has written so well I have nothing to
add. Sometimes I get to disagree with him but most of his posts are bang on.

When I do see a bunch that noone has posted on yet I will be chiming in with my 2 cents on a few at a time at first.

Its one thing to be in the game and in the moment and know what to do it is another thing all together to see a hand
posted and converted and imagine you are playing it. It is easy to miss things and sometimes you see things you
would not notice if you did not have the extra time to think it out.

So I may look retarded at first, making some bad posts but that is what it is all about. You post your thoughts and
then others post theirs and then Chenny8888 slams his gavel down and we all bow to his wisdom and everyone
usually learns something from it.

So even if I write things that get corrected often, I will still write so I can learn from what I may be doing or thinking
in the wrong context.

Thats it for now, I will be playing again tommorow.

Thanks for reading.

This week has been a little low on the volume side, but after last week It feels like I played thousands of games.

Friday passed so I will post up a graph.

Looking forward to more volume next week but again I am still not going to force it.

One of my friends finally sent in their ID and got the starting capitol which rocks.

Most people sign up then pass the quizz then say fuck you I am not sending in any ID they can scam me with
my ID.

This never makes sense to me because how can they scam you with just your drivers license?

This is only the second friend to ever go as far as sending in ID and when their capitol is unlocked it looks
like it will be right on par with the amount of points needed to give me my second $25 bonus.

It takes 100 strategy points to unlock $25 and it takes 100 party points for her to keep her $50.

This means I can get $50 sent to me.

It was like 2008 when my last friend went all the way through with the process and I have been staring
at that picture of $25 since then every time I log onto this site. It wil feel good to finally get it paid out.

My mind is churning because you can only get it sent on Party or Titan or Mansion.

I have been watching her play on Party yesterday and it is giving me a headache how annoying it looks.

Popups comming out of the wood work when a SNG ends and we looked through the options and
there does not seem to be anything for stopping those things.

Anyhow from what I have seen I do not want to play there it would tilt the shit out of me, so I am thinking
of maybe depositing on Titan and having the TAF $$$ sent there and just play SNGs and see how much of the
bonus I can clear.

I won't chase it, its just that when there is a free $50 showing up, and then there is a first deposit bonus,
and from what I have read Titan is full of fish for SNGs... it may just be a little boost to the bankroll if
I can 12 table SNGs there it should not take long.

Has anyone here played on Titan? have you played 8-12 SNGs at once? How is the software?
can you stack your tables like on Stars? I guess I will just create an account and see for myself
since I am most likely going ahead with this plan once the $50 is released.

Ok so here is that graph I promised... nothing special just a slow weeks worth of games...

Thanks for reading.

I looked into both titan and mansion and they both are just piss poor!!!!

Well thats what I get from the forums here.. Titan is full of complaints about poor performance and them being
behind the ball by centuries and Nick Parkes found it impossible to play on so it would be useless to me.

I did however try party out with play money tables.

It is different when you try it yourself as opposed to watching someone else.

I actually found you can use their stacking feature which has a table on the side of the screen. SICK feature....

You can actually see what hands you have on every table at once and you can just go fold them or even just
click on the table in the little chart and use the quick functions on any table. They also have neat little buttons
to bet pot sizes 1/2 2/3 etc etc.. I think I an easily 12 table using Party and clear the $500 first deposit bonus.

It seems I will have to verify my bank account which will take days beore I can play on it and I have only
been credited 15 of the $25 to get my TAF payout to $50. I think it is going to be a while before its at $25.

While I wait for all this I think I will use my points on Stars to play the 210 fpp 20 man for the $11 payouts.

I have just under $400 on Stars so I am hoping to get as close to the full $500 as I can.

Noone answered my last questions about Titan, but I will try again for Party..

Has anyone who reads this blog tried out Party Poker? Have you cleared a bonus on it? Is it hard?

Is the copetition at the say $5s or $6s harder or easier than Stars?? Are they reg infested at lower limits????

Please do tell because By next Monday I hope to be playing there full force....

Thanks for reading.

I recieved a 2nd starting capital at Party Poker and cleared it through SnG's, and I have to say it's not an experience I care to repeat. It's a fairly easy piece of software to multi table on, but the SnG structure there is just awful. Can't remember exactly how the blinds rise, but I remember them rising stupidly fast, but maybe it's just because im used to the way the blinds rise on PS / FT, which I think is just right imo.

Add that to the fact the STT are 10 man as opposed to 9 and they don't have much choice of limits ($1, $3, $6, $11, $22, $33, etc..). The largest factor of me not liking SnG's on Party Poker though is the rake they charge.

For example, for the $3 SnG's, they take 20%, $0.60 as rake This is the same for all limits too, so it doesn't get better as you move up.

Just my 2 cents anyway, hope it helps.

You should only start PartyPoker on $11 onwards. They hate micro stakes players, hence the ridiculous rake at $6 and below.

Alternatively you could try the OnGame network, EuroPoker. They have a pretty good number of games going during the European peak hours and the rake it 10% starting from $3. I can say the games here are waaaaay softer than Full Tilt.

Party Poker is a massive rake-fest, so there are almost no regs on lower limits. They are easily the fishiest SnGs i have seen ANYWHERE. You get so much value out of every big hand that its really good.. variance isnt nice though
As for blind structure, just don't play Turbos. On Party its totally OK to play Normal or Speed SnGs (i played $3 Speed for a bit...) but Turbo is just useless (against total fish you have no Fold Equity and you get to push/fold stage SO early coz of the insanely fast / insanely big blind levels... Therefore epic variance).
I agree with elhh82, wait til the $11s. I'd be interested to know if the PartyPoker $11's are fishier than Full Tilt's...

Originally posted by elhh82
You should only start PartyPoker on $11 onwards. They hate micro stakes players, hence the ridiculous rake at $6 and below.

Alternatively you could try the OnGame network, EuroPoker. They have a pretty good number of games going during the European peak hours and the rake it 10% starting from $3. I can say the games here are waaaaay softer than Full Tilt.

Thanks for the info.. I am only thinking of trying Titn Mansion or PArty because of the TAF about to be paid out
to me and I can only pick one of those 3 platforms. Seens like a waste of time to make an account just to have
that paid out and I phoned them and they said I would most likely have to deposit within 30 days to keep the
first deposit bonus.

I am in Canada so Euro hours = no good for me.

@Ged and elhh82 as for the rake that does kind of suck... I wonder if it is compensated at all by getting the
first deposit bonus. Maybe if the $11s are soft enough I could start them with 50 buy ins. Maybe I could count
the first deposit bonus as a buffer that acts as more buy ins so its actually br management to play them at
50 buy ins with the FDB?? I would have to do some math and im tired right now. I just looked at the buy ins
and it is $5 + $1 thats the highest I have ever seen anywhere so I do not see it making sense to play those
even if it is a 10 person game.

Oh well the first $25 sat there for like almost 2 years I guess I can wait on that second $25 and cashing it out
a while longer. I am not even half way to 100 BIs for the $11s.

Thanks guys for the replys.

Party Poker $11s are soft, soft, soft. Also high variance, but nothing you couldn't handle.

As to whether 50BI is enough, you can drop 10, 20, or even 30 in normal events, anywhere. So it depends on luck at the time I guess. I would recommend them as a platform though.

They are different from FT and PS, in that they are 10 man, and starting stacks are 2000 chips. Blinds start at 20/40, go to 30/60, 50/100 and 100/200, so by 4th level you are in push/fold mode. It is much easier to get in for set value at lower levels though, because of the bigger starting stacks. And the extra player is just more dead money for the prize pool. Trust me.

Play the speed version, or normal, if you want to go a bit slower.

I suggest observing a few for a while, and just check out the minraising, limping, overcalling fish donking off their chips here. You will be amazed, and you will know you could easily beat this. There are so many fish in each match, it is impossible not to be profitable.