December Challenge: 5000 hands FL $1/$2 5-Card Draw

GL Vorpal. ♠_thumbsup:

Go for it!

I'll be watching.

Gl should be an exciting end of the year with guys working their nuts of to reach goal and to prep for next years assault.

Sessions 1 & 2

I intended to play 200 hands or 1 hour, whichever came first.
I got in 62 hands before the table broke up.

I had a player on my right playing 35/32 with >15 3Bet %.
I lost a few hands early on:
♦  Hit two pair vs D3 who hit trips
♦  Two pair vs limp/caller who stood pat. He checked post-draw but I didn't bite -- he had a low straight. Could I have bluffed him off it? Hmmmm.....

I then made it back and more mostly playing solid-by-the-odds poker, and calling a couple of bluffs from the spew monkey.

When I was ready for another go, the only $1/$2 table had two waiting, so I played some $0.50/$1 while waiting.

This proved to be immensely profitable. Check my blog for details.

When the $2 table opened up, I promptly got spanked losing a couple of big pots straight off. Ground it back, though.

Points: 33.7/500
Hands: 282/5000

Mental Game
I am generally a thrifty person.
In Canada, we have a $1 coin generally known as a "loonie", and our $2 coin is known as a "toonie" (I thought "doubloon" would have been better, but we can't always get what we want).
Anyway, tossing toonies and loonies around like they are pennies is hard for us cheap old buggers.

However, I did manage to think in terms of Big Bets. At the point where I was down 5 of 'em I was beginning to doubt. At $0.10/$0.20 this is only a loonie, and good play brought me back from down 3x that lots of times.

Dropping down to $0.50/$1 was a good thing, because the magnitude of each bet seemed so small. When the $1/$2 table opened up, it was much easier to handle.

I had a bit of handling to do, as at one point I was down 10 BB

Cheers,
--VS

Update

I was bored just before supper and there was a table open, so I played a few more hands.

Very few.

Supper was ready after only 12 hands, but there was a monkey two seats to my right who kept open raising w/ small pairs, and CBetting them unimproved. I caught him on the first hand with me holding trips, after that I raised him a few more times.

12 hands, 2.5 net BB -- he had the goods once.

So to wrap up the day:

               Today    MTD    To Go  
       VPP:       34     34      466  
     Hands:      294    294    4,706  
      $Won:       15     15           
    BB Won:       13     13           

That'll do for a start...

I was not going to put the won/loss numbers in to avoid being results oriented, but I will.

Another thing to note is that I had hoped to get in at least 500 hands of $1/$2, but the tables weren't there. $0.50/$1 more than picked up the slack though, and I am on pace for 500 VPP in 15 days, which should leave me ample time to make the FPP I need by month's end.

For fun, I watched a table of $5/$10 for almost an hour.
These guys are INSANE. Snowing like Moscow in February. And with ridiculous hands, too.

Would you pat 66Jxx ?
Ever?
Other players were calling pats w/ AAxxx, too.

Snowing is a form of bluffing, and I won't bluff if they won't fold.

--VS

Make SilverStar in order to make the best use of my FPPs before they all disappear at the end of the year..

Are you sure Vs--,

Taken from the PokerStars website:

Please note that FPPs only expire if you do not earn any FPPs within one full calendar year. For instance, if you earn any Frequent Player Points in the year 2013, your FPPs will not expire that year. However, if you earn no FPPs in the 2014 calendar year, your FPPs will expire on December 31, 2014.

Originally posted by Lazza61
Make SilverStar in order to make the best use of my FPPs before they all disappear at the end of the year..

Are you sure Vs--,

Taken from the PokerStars website:

Please note that FPPs only expire if you do not earn any FPPs within one full calendar year. For instance, if you earn any Frequent Player Points in the year 2013, your FPPs will not expire that year. However, if you earn no FPPs in the 2014 calendar year, your FPPs will expire on December 31, 2014.

OK then!

Thanks for pointing that out.
VPPs start over at 0 each year, though don't they?

If I earn 500 VPP, I'll get another $10 bonus outright -- so that alone is worth the effort.

I can buy $35 worth of cash for $3250 FPP, but if am not forced to spend them, then buying tournament tickets is the way to go, I think.

I got into the MicroMillions 5-Card Draw event with via a satellite worth 104 FPP IIRC

Besides tournament tickets, are there any other bargains I should be aware of?

Thanks again!
--VS

subscribed, and good luck my friend

VPPs start over at 0 each year, though don't they?

Yup. So if you happen to get close to a stellar bonus, it might be worth an extra grind.

Laz

Session 3

Not so good.
There were no tables of $1/$2 available, so I sat on a $2/$4,
Only 21 hands in, the table broke up, leaving me with a small profit.

The goal, though is points & I need volume to get them

I played a mixture of $0.10/$0.20, $0.25/$0.50 and $0.50/$1
The session was one of those where you bluff catch when they aint bluffin', and whenever you do, they call.
That, and when I hit a decent draw, they hit a decenter one.

There were several hands where I thought I should have folded, but that totals about 8 BB of the 40 I lost.

I have had worse sessions, and I'm still on schedule

Later,
--VS

             Today    MTD    To Go  
     VPP:       25     60      440  
   Hands:      507    801    4,199  
     Won:      -35    -20           

Are you counting all hands or only the ones played at $1/$2

I'm counting all hands.
It is pretty apparent that the volume isn't going to be there to give me 5000 hands of $1/$2

I still need the points though.

atm I have 221 hands of $1/$2

To get 5000 hands I need to do 250 / day, assuming I can play 20 days in a month.

I'm ahead of 25 VPP / day,

If I get a couple of days where I can play from 18:00 to 22:00 GMT, I should be able to catch up, though.

The trouble of course is that I'm at work during those hours.

Playing the higher limits has huge advantages.
Although the rake percentage is lower, the $ values are higher.
I raked $0.90 at $2/$4 in 21 hands and $0.99 at $0.25/$0.50 in 231 hands.

In the original definition I left room for playing lower limits if I had to drop down due to losses -- I did not anticipate not have the tables available.

Maybe I should required double the hands of $0.50/$1 and 4x the hands of $0.25/$0.50 -- because it will take that to earn the points.

--VS

Dec 03 Update

Short session.
The $1/$2 tables broke up just when I was well into my comeback

               Today    MTD    To Go  
       VPP:       21     81      419  
     Hands:      144    945    4,055  
      $Won:      -13    -34           
    BB Won:       -7    -35           

I'm beginning to think that I'm going to have trouble getting in the volume, unless I can find a way to play during the day.

This is a table of table counts for the past 12 hours:

  Beg Bet        Limit    9:00    10:00    11:00    12:00    13:00    14:00    15:00    16:00    17:00    18:00    19:00    20:00    21:00  
     0.20  $0.10/$0.20       9       13       15        7       12        9        7        1        4        4        5        3        5  
     0.50  $0.25/$0.50       4        3        3        6        4        2        2        2        1        1        1        1        2  
     1.00  $0.50/$1.00       2        3        3        2        1        3        1        1        1        1        0        1        0  
     2.00        $1/$2       2        2        2        3        2        2        2        2        0        0        0        1        1  
     4.00        $2/$4       1        1        1        1        0        0        0        0        0        0        0        0        0  
     6.00        $3/$6       1        1        0        1        0        2        2        1        1        0        0        0        0  
    10.00       $5/$10       0        0        0        0        0        0        0        0        0        0        0        0        0  

So it is just like NLHE on iPoker -- all the traffic is during Europe's evening.

Well it means I'll have to take some time off work ♦

Have a great day!
--VS

Dec 04

There was a $1/$2 table early on, but it broke up shortly after I joined.
About an hour later there was a $2/$4 table briefly, but it broke up.

Do you think they're afraid of me?

When I say, "broke up" I mean down to 4 players.
I think that the blinds come around far too fast w/ less that a full table, but I can stand playing w/ 1 out -- and I do often.

By the time it's down to 4 I'm packing up shop.

So here's today...

               Today    MTD    To Go  
       VPP:        7     87      413  
     Hands:       47    992    4,008  
      $Won:        9    -25           
    BB Won:        4    -32           

Dec 05

Played 150 hands of mixed limits.
At this rate I'm not going to make this challenge.
I'm off next Monday, and there may be other opportunities throughout the month.

If worst comes to worst, I can always play some $5/$10

I watched a full table at that limit and was appalled at how many times people were standing pat w/ crappy two-pair hands, and getting called by worse.

Speaking of hands, I posted a couple in my blog.

             Today      MTD    To Go  
     VPP:       13      100      400  
   Hands:      147    1,139    3,861  
    $Won:        6      -19           
  BB Won:        9      -23           

Dec 06

Yikes!

No poker today.

So now I'm way behind.
I'm at 425 $1/$2 hands.
To be on pace for 5000 hands in 20 days, I would need to have 250 hands per day, or 1500 hands by now.

I had hoped to pick that up this Saturday and Sunday, but it looks like I'm going to be busy.

I just have to get my priorities right.

In any case, I should still make the points goal -- just at different limits.

--VS

Dec 07

I did manage a decent session, considering that I had not expected to be able to play at all.

             Today      MTD    To Go  
     VPP:       37      137      363  
   Hands:      605    1,744    3,256  
    $Won:        5      -13           
  BB Won:        8      -15           

$1/$2 hands: 248 today -- good but doesn't catch me up at all...

There is still time

Today's interesting hands.

--VS

Dec 08

There were no $1/$2 tables at all this afternoon, nor any $0.50/$1 either.

I played two entire orbits of $2/$4 where everyone was just folding pre, but that's no way to gain VPPs At the end of the 11 hands I had 0 $won and 0 VPP.

I then played a mix of $0.10/$0.20 and $0.25/$0.50 with the following result:

             Today      MTD    To Go  
     VPP:       17      155      345  
   Hands:      605    2,349    2,651  
    $Won:        2      -12           
  BB Won:        7       -8           

The above includes a v short session from yesterday late evening.

I will post an interesting hand or two in my blog after supper.

Peace,
--VS

Dec 09 -- Session 1

             Today      MTD    To Go  
     VPP:       14      169      331  
   Hands:      323    2,672    2,328  
    $Won:        1      -10           
  BB Won:       -1       -9           

Bah!
Still no $1/$2 tables.
So once again I played mixed limits.

The tables are very unstable -- in the 1 hour it took for this session, I played 6 different tables.

It seems odd that I lost in BBs but won in $, but lost at the lower limit.

I'll try again this afternoon when I'm back from the Dr.