The Horses have finished

So we had a little challenge and there were ups and downs, but through the month we have ended with the following results...

I pulled the numbers together as best I could, knowing that pro labs can be inaccurate, so a few games may have been missed out.

The interesting things to note are the amount of games played and also the finishing positions. Obvioulsy the more we can finish in the money the better, but also emplying a tight early game strategy should help that so reducing the amount of Early and Early Middle finishes is essential.

Sample sizes of less than 1000 games are a good indication, but until 1000+ games are logged then the jury is still out.

The final numbers are pretty irrelevant, the idea was to show that BRM can be employed to not only sustain a good level of volume, but enable a player to grow his bank and experience/knowledge along the way.

Fear of losing or 'playing scared' should be eliminated allowing the player to make difficult, but correct plays.

Tilt is a factor that needs work, but overall the standard of play has improved and if nothing else this has been 'interesting' journey for us all.

Party Poker Bonus

Monday morning I get a letter through the door from Kara Scott of Party Poker.

I'm sure she had lots to do with the advertising rubbish about the board of directors wanting me to have some bonuses. Either way instead of instantly filing it in the bin I thought why not see what I can do...

The initial offer was $10 immediately which could only be cashed out once a set number of points had been met, then a further $25 bonus which again was to be released by playing and earning Party Points.

So I got started on 13th Feb with a few $3 10 man games. Having been working hard with my coach recently on the 9 mans at PokerStars these felt way easier, far more fish in the pool at Party I think.

I managed to spin the $10 up and by accident (Party Lobby is not my favourite place) loaded up a 6max Turbo. Now I was a bit annoyed, but what a find. These things are super fishy and I have used what I am terming SBRM (Suicidal Bank Roll Management) of 10 Buy Ins for these games.

The main reason for doing this is that it is free money. I have never taken shots out of my bankroll and reading the likes of Vannessa Selbst recently talking about shot taking I thought what the hell, lets see what can be done.

So here it is...

The yellow arrows indicate the balance, and the 2 bonuses that I got. My Party roll has breached $200 from $10 in just 5 days. I am playing the $11 6max Turbos now (while still playing and learning $3.50s at Poker Stars)

Now where this ends up is uncertain but it will be fun watching. Using SBRM can an likely will result in failure so do not try this at home kids!!!

All I can say is thanks.

Bit of a grind

So I have felt a bit down about result lately and took some time off to think about my mindset over the weekend.

I looked at my tilt issues and decided that the majority of plays I am making are ok, but I am probably missing out on 5 to 10 good spots each game which is far too high.

So today I tried to play a few more games to see how things went. The graph below includes 3 games played on Party Poker as they kindly sent my $10 to use for free (cashout not possible until a set amount of points are reached) and I must say on initial view their SNGs are a bit softer than on Poker Stars.

I managed a few wins which was pleasing as HU I have been failing to make the final few hands count. Overall count  was 3 wins, 4 2nds and 5 3rds with a total ITM% of 44.4%.

So even thought the haul wasn't massive the results looked ok, I certainly felt a lot better and even the odd suckout or bit of bad luck wasn't tilting me.

Home game tonight, lets see what happens.

Bad Beat

I try not to get too hung up on Bad Beats or Bad Luck (even though it is difficult) I had to post this though...

I was running a Micro MTT while work was a bit slow and got AK in and had to drop it, 88 and had to drop it and finally KK and this is the result.

Look at the % to win figures on these:

I just had to laugh, I then ran AK all in against 75s and lost followed by ATo for my last few chips. Flop came Ace high against kings, but the turn King meant I was out.

Sometimes it is not destined to happen, no matter how much you would like it to.

Super Bad

So as I play I am earning FPPs (Frequent Player Points) which you can trade in for shop items, T Shirts, Cards, and other stuff, or you can play tournaments which are often step tourneys to others with a cash buy-in. With these you most often can convert to cash by de-registering form the next 1 before it is due to run.

So I play some low buy in Donkfests with a view that I will easily gain a seat if my cards hold against the sometimes idiotic play of the opponents.

It works for the most part, 1 such tourney is the Satellitte to a $3.30 $40k Saturday Event where for 33 FPPs you can often get $3.30 back which goes into the SNG grind bank roll.

BUT... beware the fish (see below) I managed to obv find a few calling stations and had to wait for a hand and then have it hold. I manage to get these to guys all in steadily increasing my bets until we get it all in value all the way baby... but he binked his 8 and I lmao for about 10 minutes. I really wish these guys were on my SNG tables.

EDIT: Next 1 played on 4th hand managed to get AA in the CO raised big as we had 3 limpers in... aipf KJo wins lol

Friday night horse update

The horses have been working away and I think progress has been made. See the graphic below for actual stats.

A solid week in that the guys have run over the allotted 40 games per week. The profits have yet to come, but I think progress has been made. We have reviewed a couple of sessions and apart form some tech issues meaning less time spent with Poker Plough on this than I had hoped for, my ideas have been well received.

Variance is a bitch at times, but I think most of the losses incurred are more from poor choices made while playing than bad luck. If more good choices are made then over the next week I expect the guys to improve their bank rolls and even get in the black.

Bank Roll Management has meant that Poker Plough has played a lot of games this week and NOT gone broke ;)

The big step next week will be closing out some of these bubble situations and getting 1st places instead of 2nds & 3rds (they just don't pay enough).

Wll done so far guys.

Donkaments

So PokerStars did a server reset which has messed up all the Sit N Gos, so instead of missing some playing time I have looked at the micro stakes MTTs available and what a farce.

I have run bad but played well spots such as shoving KsQc on a 9c8cKc flop, not I am 83.6% to win against the idiot who (Big Stack) calls with Tc9s... I mean what does he think he is beating here, I have played a very tight game.

So obviously he hits a T to leave me out again 4th beat  so far lol

amazing

Infact make that 5...

Big Stack opens again in the CO for 2x I shove in the BB with AKs and he calls 8k off his 13k stack with what........

KsQd and the flop is 9d4dTd and your turn card mr fish is the Ace of Diamonds, welcome to PokerStars MTTs another 75% loss ffs.

I wonder what the BR needs to be for donkaments... wow