Games: NL25 SSS, $5 SNG
Bankroll: $200
Claim to fame: Came second in local South African tourney cashing about $1250.
Hi everybody,
I am a physics student from South Africa….. and yes I’m addicted to poker too. I started playing poker in November last year and joined PS in February this year. Since then I concentrated on SSS with some success (meaning that I haven’t gone broke yet)
30k hands of SSS: (Good)
Building my BR steadily on the NL10 tables to $150 then switched to NL25 were I’m at the moment. I believe that BRM is certainly the most valuable tip I received from this site since I’m not the luckiest poker player around (refer to the bad and the ugly sections). I had no major up or down swings on the NL10 tables, but the NL25 has been a real roller coaster ride. Up to $260 at one stage then down to $170 and then up again. Some days I should just take a break because nothing seems to go right. I remember at the beginning playing NL10 one table at a time… waiting an hour for a playable hand just to get busted. Since then I learned to multi table up to 6 six tables before my computer grinds to a halt. Mansion poker writes the stats in a very inefficient way to the hard drive. I used the trial version of Poker tracker and it was really interesting to plot the winnings and to discover leaks. Can’t wait to get 2000 Strategy points and for PS to sort out the bugs in Elephant. One leak I discovered was my PF aggression was only 0.5 because I called the SB when there was no raises in front of me. My AA’s I got like 40 times and 36 times they held up giving me the bulk of my winnings. AQ and AJ is bad news and I’m only about break even with them due to playing them out of position and wrong continuation bets. Learned my lesson! If you deviate from the SSS you might win on the short term but you’ll surely pay DONKEY TAX at some point.
SNG: (Bad)
Tournament play is really fun and I believe that the real returns in poker come from cashing out in big tournaments. So I’m learning play SNG and I’m only about break even in these at the moment. Winning 31/137 and a few 2nd places in the $1 tourneys but losing the profit on $5 tourneys. I prefer the slow blinds, waiting for quality hands and then play them like a hungry beast. My favorite suckout story: Bubble time in 30 player $5 tourney sitting in second place. Got 63 in bb and nobody raised. Flop 754. So I went all in with my straight and big stack calls with K4! YES! Turn 4. NO! River 7. NOOOO…. Busted by a 44477 full house. Poker I guess… Seem to happen a lot around the bubble in the $5 tourneys. I’m sure that I could show profit in the long run since sample size is too small to make meaningful conclusions.
300k tourney: (Ugly)
So I was naughty and used my TAF money to deposit $50 at Party Poker. I bought into a $3 qualifier for 300k Sunday tourney (No BR to do that, I know) and came 3rd out of 350 players. I played it last night. Double up with 99 , hitting set very early, then lost chips hitting TPTK then not calling river all in. Other guy had Q9 two pair calling preflop raise with that and hitting on flop. Build up again to 10k chips, got AQ again hitting Q on flop, no flush or straight draws, big stack just calling my raises, turn 6, river 9. Check behind on river… He shows 69 two pair! What a donk! A little while later with 9 bb’s left I raised with QQ hoping for caller and to go all in if no overcards on flop, same big stack raised me all in, I push… He shows KK. I had fun none the less and I’m happy with the way I played.
Community tourney:
I played in the community NL tourney last night as Mathemagic26. Got some great cards like AA twice, QQ twice in a row and KK, AK preflop. But in poker the hand is not won preflop...AA cracked twice with preflop all ins, KQ (runners for straight) and JJ hit another J to cripple me. Busted with A5 short stack push in SB vs BB with K10. Was really fun.
My overall goals is to learn and play poker in a mathematical optimal way and then to block out results and to have fun playing poker. Ok I’ll stop now... Any comments and suggestions are welcome.
