End of March

Well I ended March on a good note. Total status is:

- $1,138 bankroll
- $25 in Tournament Cash
- Two $26 tokens from Ironman
- Roughly $200 in rakeback
- Transferred out $125 for cash to a friend

Net result is that I am at $1,540 when all is said and done.

If you guys will notice I have $25 in tournament money and I am experimenting on trying to make some money off satellites. With the new feature of FTP I can now convert satellite buy-in amounts to tournament points which I can use to enter in any MTT or SnG. I also have the option of converting it to real cash for a 5% fee.

The reason why I am thinking of playing these satellites is that it is so much easier to win consistently then MTTs and SnGs. Granted the wins are not as high, the usual $14+1 satellite gives out seats worth $55 to the top 30% of the field. The skill set required here is very different meaning one must excel at blind stealing. In fact I had won my first $55 without a single showdown!

I played 2 more of these satellites but got sucked out on and the net result is $25. The cool thing is now I have a way to track how much money I am sinking into MTTs and keep my ring game cash free from the extremely volatile swings of MTTs.

Hmmm just a few days back I was way down to the $700 mark. I guess you just can't keep a good man down.

Ok Ok at least I'm persistent.

Devastating Drought

I wasn't kidding when I said I was running bad. Let's put it into perspective....

I have lost the last 4 days playing online.

I have lost the last 17 consecutive playing sessions I played.

I have lost 23 of the last 24 big pots that I have played. I had my money in with the best hand on 19 of them (seriously! I started taking notes) and 8 of these hands I had my opponent completely dominated. The only hand where I won was when I sucked out on a dominated hand. It seems FTP is really dishing out the beats! (Maybe it's Feed The Fish Day)

I had gone from $1600 down to $710 (but a friend of mine had asked me to transfer $250) which translates to a net loss of $640.

I had moved down from $1/$2 back all the way down to 25c/50c again.

The key to recovering is through proper bankroll management and building up my confidence again and the only way I could do that is to move way down and build my roll again from the lower limits. I am seriously feeling rotten and depressed with how lady luck has treated me but I havent come this far just to turn away and give up.

Hmmmmm I just won $30 on my last session. Maybe things are about to turn around.

Hope everyone's running good

Fluke??

Well I broke the $1,600 mark last Sunday and true to my word I had moved up to the $1/$2. The first session showed good signs as I was able to scratch out a $100 profit and was able to reach my 200 point quota in under an hour. The game isn't so different actually except that there are more raises being put in post flop. Overall I know I can hold my own at this level.

However, I just encountered an unpleasant event called variance.

This probably ranks as one of the worst sessions I have had in FTP.

KK in the BB and a raiser in MP. I reraise and he calls. The flop comes 2-K-7 and I check my set followed by a check. Turn is a Jack and I bet out hoping he hits it. MP flat calls and river comes 10. I bet out the pot and he raises me all-in. I stop to think and feels that he may have 2 pair, a smaller set, a bluff or A-Q. I call with my top set only to see the dreaded straight.

Fast forward pocket queens with low cards on the board. I check inducing a bet and I reraise. Guy pushes and I call. He shows A-7 suited and runner runner flush rewards him for a great call (dripping sarcasm)

For the Coup De Grace..... AK vs AK and he draws out a 4 flush.

I was able to slowly build my stacks though so damage was cushioned a bit but it still was pretty painful. I can confidently say that in every situation I had placed my money in with the best hand. In fact I had been able to trap my damn opponent drawing to 938,837 to 1 odds but they have pulled it out. I was able to minimize the damage to $190 but I can still feel the sting.

So is this a fluke or what? Given this streak of disastrous luck I will take it a sign from the powers that be and move down for the time being until I hit $1800.

Crossroads

Well my play has been consistent so far and I have etched out a small profit over the last 4 sessions. I keep track of the times where I have made bad calls and it has definitely gone down to minimal levels. Suckouts of course still happen and I guess that really does happen if you can get in your money with the best hand.

I have almost crossed the threshold that I have set for myself of $1,200 and I am torn between moving up to the $1/$2 or staying in the .5/1 until the end of the month to ensure that I am truly crushing the game at this level.

So to the 7-8 (I think my reader base has increased by 15% over the last few days! Meaning I got another reader) I pose a question...

Should I move up given that I only have enough for 15 sessions? (I buy in at $80 in the $1/$2s) Let me know what you guys think.

Broken the $1,000 Mark!

Just came from a nice +$170 session and just wanted to share a great hand where there was just no way I could go wrong.

I held pocket queens on the Button and EP player makes a 4X raise to $4. MP player calls and I reraise to $12. Both players call signaling significant power in their hands. $37.5 in the pot.

The flop was a beautiful but dangerous A Q J. EP checks and MP bets out $15. I call and EP goes all-in with an instacall from MP. WTF? Obviously I had to make the call with a whopping $130 pot.

EP - AJ
MP - JJ

The Ace didn't show on the turn and river. Pass the sugah!

With this session and with rakeback for February I have finally broken the $1,000 mark!!!

Not bad from a roll of $15 at the start of the New Year. Let's see how far I can take this.

Extending My Play

Well it had been a good February and I was able to ask MnlGrind to help me cash out $300. What a difference to finally feel some cold hard cash from playing online poker! Made me increase my enthusiasm into putting in more time in this experiment. With the cashout my bankroll dipped to $540 (without rakeback for february set at around $120) but I really needed the morale boost.

Now I want to play higher but I could not increase in limits yet (to the $1/$2) until I could raise my bankroll to around $1200. Given that, the only choice I had when it came to increasing my play was to extend my playing time. I am now gunning for 200 points a day and trying to reach Ironman.

The increase in playing time is mixed blessings though. I had been running OK and for the first 5 days I have reached my quota of 200 points a day. I can only excitedly wait for the $250 or so in rakeback that I can expect to receive but at the same time I find my game deteriorating a bit in this extended play. I also find myself tired after a session so I will probably need to re-assess after a few more days.

Overall my roll is now at $640 (took a bad hit of -$110 just now) and still on track with meeting my goals. I am also raking in the medals for $26 tokens so I should be taking shots at the MTTs by April.