It Continues...

The bad internet continues and there is not much point in playing poker when I get disconnected for a few seconds every 5-10 minutes. It should be resolved in a few days. At times like this, when I have no way of playing poker, do I realize how much a part of my life it has become.

I found this really cool site with loads of puzzle games. I started playing Nurikabe and after a LONG time I finished a 20x20 grid. This one took me around 82 minutes to finish, and that was after 4-5 long and tiresome failed attempts. I was so thrilled when I finished, that I took a screenshot.





















The game starts with just the numbers, and you have to determine if the cells are either black or white. There are 3 or 4 rules to follow. I played it HERE and will be super impressed if anyone finishes a 20x20 grid within 24 hours of playing their first ever 5x5 game. Please do let me know how it goes if you try, it's a fascinating game.

I will now end the lamest poker blog post ever written by wishing all of you good luck playing poker while I find sillier ways to pass my time.

Internet Frustration

Since my last update, there was some silly internet problem that affected my area, maybe even state. I *think* it's over now, but I can't be sure. As a result, I played on and off, got disconnected a million times, and was just not having fun. I was finally able to play a session and decided to play Rush PLO 100. I really wish they would introduce higher limits at Rush PLO.

Heads up has been going well with the new structure. That is my graph since April 16th when I first started playing with the new structure.

















A breakdown of the graph -
50s: 2-2
100s: 389-349
200s: 39-18
500s: 1-0

I have mainly been playing 100s, but have moved up when I saw some fish. The 500 that I played was a mixture of tilt and seeing a fish. I mark fish with a yellow note, and insta-sat when I saw a yellow note guy sitting. I later realized that he was a huge winner at heads up!! Luckily my AQ held up against KQ.

The plan for the rest of the month is to keep playing whatever I feel like. Heads up, PLO, and 9 mans. Strangely, I haven't had the urge to play 9 mans for a while. I do think I need a main game for the next month though. I like the feeling from just crushing one type of game. I might play heads up during off-peak hours and 9 mans during peak hours. I am just so happy my internet is working well again, so more pokerrrr.

A Whole Lot of Nothing

The title pretty much sums up my month. It has been very half-hearted and patchy. I played on and off, HU and 9 mans. I took days off, played only 2 hours a day at times, and didn't play my best when I did play. Today, I decided to play some 9 mans, and broke even after 2 hours. I then played some HU from 3am-4am and broke even as well.

I just need to get back into that mindset of perfect poker. When I was playing that way, I used to HATE myself for making even a slightly bad decision. Now I make huge blunders and just keep playing. This will change starting tomorrow. No more of this nonsense.

I also want to update this blog a lot more often. Doing that will make me play better, since I don't want to post rubbish looking graphs.

Sweet Rake Changes for Super Turbos

Full Tilt completely redid the buyins and rake for super turbos and the new structure is amazing.

Old 9 mans were 160+9. Now they are 100+3.5 and 200+7! The highest buyin earlier was 320+15, it now goes all the way up to 1000+22.

Heads up used to be 160+4 and is now 100+2 and 200+3.5. You also start with 500 at 10/20 and 2 minute levels as opposed to 300 at 15/30 and 3 minute levels. So there is actually room for some play early on and the push/fold endgame arrives soon enough.

Sadly, I am running awful at 9 mans. A nice 6k below EV in a couple of days. It's so ridiculous.



















Towards the end, I was definitely tilting and playing badly, but I kept running worse. I just had to take a break again from 9 mans. So I hit the new awesomely structured heads up games. The red line doesn't work for some reason for the heads up games and that is AMAZING. I no longer care about the red line and just care about winning. When I suck out being a 1% dog, I now let out a Tiger like upper cut instead of being terrified of how badly my red line was falling.

So here is my heads up graph for the last few days -

















It was mostly holdem, but I also did play some PLO and Razz. I definitely have an edge in PLO against most people, but the only guys sitting at the Razz HU are guys who are good at it. I think I am decent, but have no idea what to do in marginal spots and end up being too aggro.

I also saw something hilarious while playing heads up. I caught a martingaler!! He would start at the $10 games, and would end up at the $1000 ones if he kept losing. I beat him at the 100 and 200 games twice each. He was awful, playing around 85/15. I saw him sitting at the 1000 buyin, but couldn't muster up the courage to sit.

I really want this not to be my first losing month in a really long time. Got to keep crushing the fish at heads up.

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15 Days to Change Nightmare April

Half the month is gone, and things are going really bad poker wise. I started the month out playing my usual 9 man super turbos -



















I then decided I needed a change of pace, and started playing heads up super turbos -



















Put those 2 graphs together, and you get this work of art -



So my EV has been -2000 (sigh)
And I have lost 6000 (sigh)

To make things a little better, I made around 3100 in rakeback and won 1100 in the rake sprint, so I am down less than 2k for the month.

So what does all this lead to?
1. I have realized that Heads Up Super Turbos are not for me. The edges are so thin and unless you find megafish, it's not going to be beatable.
2. My urge to get back to cash is growing.
3. I definitely want to give 9 mans another go.

So I have 15 days to turn this month around and make April fantastic. I will be playing some or all of 9 mans, PLO, rush. I will probably start with 9 mans and if I get off to a good start then I will keep at it. Here is my alltime graph for 9 man super turbos to put things in perspective. The last stretch is a big worry for sure.

Aaaaaand, to make myself feel better, even with the breakeven red line, my overall profit (with rakeback and bonuses) doesn't look that bad.



















I have felt better and better as I wrote this blog post. I am definitely going to play 9 mans for a while and see what happens. 200k soon?

Heads Up Super Turbos

I needed a change of pace from 9 man super turbos. I wasn't playing well, my red line was dropping, it wasn't fun. I discovered Heads Up Super Turbos and am I glad I did! They are soooooooo much fun. I have started loving poker again and found myself playing 4 hour sessions without realizing it's been so long. I've also been getting around 95 per hour in rakeback (2 tabling) as opposed to 55 per hour in 9 mans (7-8 tabling).

Obviously, I don't play any decent players because the rake is not beatable when you start with 10 BBs. You have to find a fish, and keep rematching. I played one guy 111 times, then another 2 guys 100+ times. Today has been a CRAZY day. I was down 5500 at one point, and 45 minutes later I was down 1500, which is where I called it a day. I 2 tabled 2 different fish for around 3 hours and it was sooooooooo profitable.

I am not sure how to show my graphs only against a particular opponent, so I will pull up the 2 fishes' graphs.

Fish 1's graph against me:

I pretty much crushed him (his awful red line), but he ran a little good.

Fish 2's graph against me:

I crushed him as well. Both these guys were consistently losing ~$20 per game. The average time for a game is 48 seconds, so that is burning money fast! The rake is $4 per game, so my red line was pretty much going up at $12 (20-4*2) per game.

My overall HU Super Turbos graph - (3 days of playing)

Poker is fun again, the key is obviously finding the right opponent and exploiting him like crazy. When you play so many super turbos against the same guys, you know their ranges and leaks inside out.

Rake Sprint III Results

Edit: I did ship the sprint for 1100

What a terrible weekend. The last time my red line went down by 5k, I lost 12k in a day. Atleast that didn't happen. I made around 800 in rakeback, and hopefully should win the rake sprint for another 1100. I just started a session, so will post a more detailed update later. I also want to post my lifetime superturbo graph, to put this latest run in perspective.

I Got Battered Today

It was just ugly. I will let the graph do the talking:

I got like 440 in rakeback today, which is decent. I just kept running into hands. And I'm not talking about AQ vs AK (which happened a bunch). Stuff like KJ vs KK and T9 vs TT where he can only call with KK. I am not going to let this horrendous red line get me down. Tomorrow is a new day and I am going to play well.

Weekend Rake Sprint III

I got a nice surprise when I saw an email saying it is already time for the 3rd Weekend Rake Sprint. I got 3rd in the first one and won the second one. I am definitely aiming to win this one. There aren't any other high stakes super turbo players on my rakeback site, so it is all on me to put in the volume this weekend. I will be looking to get 850+ in rakeback this weekend. I managed 815 or so in the last weekend sprint.

They increased the prizepool from $2500 to $4000, however the winner's share only increases from $1000 to $1100. They did increase the number of players paid from 5 to 10. Increasing the prizepool is a good sign though, since it means that these rake sprints have been successful for the site. That leads to more money for the players and for the site.

I took the first 2 days of April off, and the rake sprint will be a nice way to start the month.

March Results

With 9 days to go for the month, I set myself this goal - Reach 3500 games for the month.

That meant playing 1377 games in 9 days. I ended the month at 3087 games, which is a little short. But I did play 38 hours in the 9 days, so I am happy with my volume and how I played. Here is my graph for the last 9 days -



















I ran really well, but my red line was up at just over $4/game, which is very nice. This hot streak has brought me to JUST above EV for the month, and still well below overall.

March results -




















My March goals were -

Make 30000 by

Rakeback: 10000 (180 hours or so)

Bonuses: 3000 (Full Tilt Leaderboard and a rake race in mid-March)

Profit: 17000

My March results were -

Made 25000

Rakeback: 6100 (played 120 hours)

Bonuses: ~2800

Profit: 15000

The overall profit should be around 25000, when you include FTPs and ironman. I am very pleased with the month. I think it ties my best month ever. The goals for next month are simply - play as much as I can and play well. I would like to break the 25k barrier, but I doubt that will happen unless I run super hot because I am getting a little busy in real life.