Bankroll Management

Thank you Chris Ferguson.

I was running very very badly these past few days. One hand almost sent me to the brink of quitting.

I had 5-6 and raises on the button. BB calls me and flop comes 3-4-7 rainbow. BB bets the pot, I think for awhile and min-raises. Loose BB reraises all-in and I instacall. The pot was at a whopping $135. BB shows A-7.

Turn 7

River 7

Are you kidding me?!?!?! I was really hurting and I closed all tables after that hand. Then I went to check some emails and read again through Chris Ferguson's article on bankroll management and how he turned $0 to $10,000. I decided to give his advice and moved down.

It was amazing how much my confidence shot up again at a lower level. I was beating the game again and finally posted a winning session of $30. Every little bit helps. I decided after a few more sessions I had the mental discipline to try the higher level again.

This hand probably cemented my confidence. I had Q-Q and raised in the cutoff. Got 2 callers. Flop comes Q-10-2 rainbow and SB bets the pot (about $10) and mid player calls. I think about reraising here but just call with my monster. Turn was an Ace and SB pushes all-in for $30. Mid player reraises to $60 and I made the call. I say to myself "just please do not have K-J"

SB turns over A-Q and Mid player turns over K-J.

River - the most beautiful 2 I had ever seen in poker. The full house gave me a massive pot of abour $140 and I was feeling it! Then came a hot streak that made a volcano seem like a slight cold.

I held AA about 9 times and 7 of them got paid off. I finished the session winning around $340. It's not much by normal poker standards but you have to understand I started this roll with $20 in my account. It's a pet project which is now back up to a healthy $780.

Bankroll Management - an underrated and misunderstood concept in playing successful poker. Taking that refresher course on this subject seemed to have saved my ass once again.

Ridiculous Beats Within 8 Seconds

Well I wish things could be better but just recently I got crushed in ring. I am still happy with how I was playing but getting in your money with the best hand on 3 tables but losing all of them stings.

Hand 1 - 5-6s late position. Raised it 3.5 BB and got one caller. Flops comes 5-6-7 and I bet it out. Opponent calls and turn comes J. I felt he either had the nuts or was drawing to it. He may also have pocket 8s to 10s so I decided that I was ahead and tried to make him pay. I pushed all in and he called with A7s. River was a jack counterfeiting my 2 pair.

Hand 2 - KK vs JJ and a Jack on the flop.

Hand 3 - pocket 4s on a 4-9-J flop. I bet it out, opponent raises, I min-raise and he pushes all-in with pocket Queens. Turn 10, River King for a straight. Are you kidding me?!?!

All 3 hands happened at the same freaking time and that was enough to almost make me throw my laptop across the room. Good thing my tilt control was starting to improve and I check my points. 8 points before I ended my session so I just played my 4th table without playing a single hand untill I made 100 points.

Down $120 (3 tables at $40 each) and now down to $620. Rakeback however is soaring and is at around $120.

I am thinking of re-analyzing my playing styled from an article I read at Bluff Magazine. A hyper-aggressive but intelligent approach which is in extreme contrast to my tight aggressive style. I am averaging about $40 a day on TAG but I am pretty sure my style will not fair well in the upper limits.

Well I guess I still need to grind it out until I improve my bankroll before I make that leap

Sets Are the Bomb

Well to my increasing horde of readers and fans.......

I just came from a pretty insane session where I had hit 4 sets with KK, KK, JJ and 88. It all pretty much ended up with all the chips in the middle and a all of it under my avatar after everything's been said and done.

Variance does come around after all.

Roll is now at $840 but I realized I am going to need about $1200 to go up to the $1/$2 levels.

First Week of Feb

Ok to my six avid readers (which was vehemently corrected by Pepesmith :P ) I am now up $550 in my roll and doing pretty well in the .5/$1. Apparently the games at this level is a lot more aggressive and the average pot is somewhere at $25. This is a good area for tight aggressives like me who sometime like to mix it up with some loose action in late position.

The 4 table structure allows me to basically sit back and wait for the premium hands. After sitting for quite awhile folding everything (even from the SB) I am usually able to get away with stealing to replenish what I have lost from the blinds. When I get a premium hand I tend to let LAGs do the betting for me but I usually bet into the raiser with premium hands. More often then not they raise to take it away and it's easy enough to get all my money win as a huge favorite.

This takes patience but it seems I have cut down my poker sessions to down to one hour a day (time it takes to reach 100 FTP points). I am also maximizing my rakeback as well since most of the rake is coming from the other players.

Will post some hand histories if something interesting comes up.

January In The Books

Well I can't say my winning streak lasted all the way to the end of January. My $600+ roll took a few hits the last few days of January and I went down all the way to $350. I was feeling dejected but I took the time to really go through how I lost.

I tried to list out all the big pots where I had all my money in and in turns out that I was the favorite on almost all of them. I had probably lost close to $300 on hands that were crushed by 3 outers. Some hands were totally my fault though. Idiotic bluff attempts against AA (the effects of tilt I guess) stained my losses as well and I figured that the best medicine was to tighten down.

And even though this wasnt the best time to move up levels, I felt that I was playing good but running bad. Maybe a shift in levels would do me good.

I moved up to the 50c/$1 tables at the start of February and it started out OK. I was playing very tight and my rakeback indeed was benefitting from the increased blinds. As of this date I am back up to $440 (not counting rakeback from January) and looking to stay in the .50/1s for the next 2 months. If I can hit my goal of $800 I may finally move up to the $1/$2.

Will keep my avid readers (all four or five of you......) up-to-date.