March wrap-up: Impressions of the STT scene

Current Bankroll: $1,135.94

Since my switch to tournaments from RUSH poker, I've had a very good run of luck at the STTs. I call it luck because I've only played 119 of them, and my ROI is at 37.34% (thinly veiled brag) which is ridiculously far above what is supposed to be sustainable: 15% for the best of the best.

After a really rough February, I'm loving poker again. I've learned another poker skill, too! The ability to really multi-table. I'm up to 8 at a time!

Observations on Multi-tabling:

1. Full Tilt has an "auto-tile" function if you are playing multiple tables. So long as your monitor resolution is high enough, if you select a table and push CTRL+9, it will arrange them all in a nice little series of boxes net to one another so that you can see all the tables at once, like so. This is me pretending I'm good enough to 9-table NL 5/10.

2. Eight tables is definitely my limit, and even then it gets a little crazy if I end up surviving late in 6 or more of them. I tried playing 9 once, and had the good fortune of cashing in 7. That was a little ridiculous.

3. Above the $11 level, it looks like the STTs on Full Tilt really don't run too often. While they fill and go every 45-60 seconds at the $11s, the $22s looked incredibly slow by comparison. I guess that's a price that's too high for your average Full Tilt donkey. Definitely not my friend if I want to move up and multi-table them. If my success continues, I very well might put a part of my roll on Poker Stars again because their games actually do run fairly often at the $22 level.

4. I'm seriously considering getting TableNinja to help me multitable better in the future. What it does is use AHK scripts so I can fold, raise, bet, or open a new tournament with the click of a button. A whole lot less mouse clicking, but a whole lot easier for me to mistype and screw things up. Also, on their website, it explicitly says their software doesn't work with PokerTracker 3, which is what I use. That would be a problem since I would need to buy Hold Em Manager, but I've seen posts on forums, etc. that it actually DOES work with PT3. Not to mention, I can always just try the free trial first.

Does anyone out there use TableNinja (hopefully with PT3)? Thoughts? Anything I should know before TableNinja is my undoing?

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

DAMMIT! I'm done with you, RUSH poker cash games! I've injected you into my veins one too many times, enduring your hellish swings and illusions of riches. GET OUT, I SAY!!!

I'm sorry, honey. It isn't you. It's me. And it's tough for me to say that.

I'll remember you fondly for teaching me better preflop and postflop skills, the ability to mass multi-table, for bringing me out of being a losing player at NL5 and NL10, and for building up my roll.

I'm not sure you're going to want to hear this next part. There's... another game. I've been playing you both, baby, and I want you to know the truth. That's right, I'm going back to my first love: the tournaments. They know how to treat a man right. And it's partly about the money.

Cliff Notes: Lost more at RUSH cash games, bringing me down to ~$650. Tourneys brought me all the way back to $994. So long, cash games!

Thorn's Big Mistakes: Tilting Down

February brought a rude awakening: I'm still a tilt-monkey. Shortly after my last, glorious post about a storybook January, I hit another 10-buyin downswing at NL25 Rush over about 3000 hands, just before I hit my oh-so-close bankroll goal of $1500. At least three buy-ins were lit on fire due to tilt.

But wait, my tilt problem got even worse. I somehow convinced myself that I was close enough to my $1500 goal, and following my beat down, not only did I fail to cut my losses and quit, I MOVED UP to NL50 Rush.

"I crushed NL25 over 50k hands, right? Screw those last 3k hands and ten buy-ins, I can win it all back with just 5 buy-ins at NL50, DUH!!!" And that's how my bankroll dropped to $850, cutting off all of January's profit aside from $100 (all of which comes from rakeback, so my graph is actually negative again).

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you light over 40% of your bankroll on fire. Thank you, thank you. But there's good news! Coming next time (hopefully): a thrilling tale of recovery! I'm a man of faith... plus I'm still up $141 for the year, so even though I feel like a huge moron, it's hard to be too disappointed when my bankroll has gone up almost 20% in a month and a half.

Current bankroll = $891.

Staying Positive,

Thorn

January 2011 Results and Lessons!

January was awesome! With rakeback, I took in a little over $700. I'm just 3000 hands shy of my fairly ambitious hand goal and about 1.3 buy-ins short of being rolled for NL50. I should get there by the end of the week (yay rakeback!), unless another downswing hits me.

I learned a few useful tips this month. Allow me to share :). First, I found out how incredibly swingy the game gets from NL25 and up. People really don't give NL25 and NL50 enough credit because they're still "micros." There's a 10-buy-in downswing there in my graph. I also had a super hot 8 buy-in upswing just a few days ago. This game is CRAZY!!!

Also, more importantly, I found out that I am much, much better 3-tabling Rush than I am 4-tabling. I tend to lose track of the action with 4, and way too many times this month I ended up folding premiums preflop because I couldn't get to the screen in time. AA, KK, QQ, AK... you name it, I folded it. It's pretty horrible when you click the raise button and think you just got it in time... but you didn't. Because you were an idiot and played too many tables. IDIOT!!! That may or may not have had a lot to do with my downswing.

So I got smart, cut down to the number of tables I could handle, and things took off with a bang. It also doesn't hurt that I luckboxed a couple buy-ins to end the month today :). And that's how you double a bankroll, folks. Can I keep my success up in February, and at NL50? Is it THAT much harder than NL25? Was this all just a 50,000 hand pipe dream and I'll wake up as my true fishy self in February? Stay tuned.

Folding Kings Preflop

Here's an interesting hand where I ended up folding the second best hand in poker pre-flop. I'm pretty sure this is the only time I've ever done that. I think it turned out alright.

Full Tilt Poker $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
UTG+1: $48.59

UTG+2: $98.60

MP1: $60.71

Hero (MP2): $26.48

CO: $21.15

BTN: $47.45

SB: $17.10

BB: $29.90

UTG: $67.26



Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is MP2 with K K




UTG calls $0.25, 2 folds, MP1 raises to $0.75, Hero raises to $2.25

TIME TO POUNCE!!!



4 folds, UTG raises to $14, MP1 raises to $30

UTG limp, 4-bet, 5-bet?!?

Hero folds


I smell aces...

UTG requests TIME, UTG raises to $67.26 all in, MP1 calls $30.71 all in



Flop: ($124.02) 7 J 6 (2 players - 2 are all in)



Turn: ($124.02) 4 (2 players - 2 are all in)



River: ($124.02) Q (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $124.02

MP1 shows A A (a pair of Aces)

UTG shows A A (a pair of Aces)

UTG wins $60.51

MP1 wins $60.51

(Rake: $3.00)




Third best with kings preflop. What's the world coming to?

So remember, folks. A word to the wise. The UTG limp, re-raise, re-re-raise is ALWAYS aces. Maybe even double aces. You heard it here first.

I'm Alive!

Hey there! I'm still alive and kickin', haven't gotten hit by a bus or murdered by the wife yet :P.

My bankroll's about the same as my last update, but it sure dipped down by $300 at NL50.

Lucky for me, RUSH called my name in the new year, though, and now I've got it all back! I swear, it's like crack-cocaine, and every poker junkie known to man seems to be on and donating me their money :) Also doesn't hurt that I've been getting smacked in the head with Aces and Kings. Here's the year's pretty graph! Comment now before the downswing (That's right, I'm pre-empting you, karma)!

My wife also pointed out how I'm a short to medium term planner only. So I'm not going to set some sort of silly monthly or yearly goal for poker.

Next stop: Get to 50000 hands at NL25 RUSH and see where you stand. Have I finally cracked the NL25 RUSH puzzle?!? Stay tuned for more...

Wedding's a coming! Last Update For a Bit

Poker:

Running incredibly well at NL50 over a few thousand hands. Bankroll up to $1,100 already from $780 3 weeks ago. Never had to redeposit.

It's good to see how much better I've gotten at emotional control in this past year.

The wedding's approaching in just 2 and a half weeks. Wow.

Everyone keeps commenting how calm I am. I find that odd. Because I'm not really calm at all. It looks like I've just got a natural poker face. But it isn't that I'm worried. No, no, no. I'm just incredibly excited.

I haven't ever felt a rush like this. It even trumps when I found myself conscious, but with a hole in my brain in a neurosurgery ward. I was on the edge of that great unknown called death.

My excitement here is so far beyond that, my mediocre writing can't do it justice. I think half the reason people think I'm calm is that I don't know HOW to express just how intensely crazy I am about getting hitched.

I've gotten over all of my second guesses about getting married already. I've spent the last 4 years thinking about marrying this girl and the past year letting the engagement really sink in.

I'm beyond any reasonable doubts. Rationally, I think anyone seriously considering marriage SHOULD be beyond doubts by this point.

In poker terms, I'm putting my whole liferoll on the line here. As a conservative player, I'm of course sure as hell that I'm making the right decision. Of course, we never really know what life has in store for us.

I'm all in, until the day I die.

Thorn