August Results and Review of This Month’s Goals
What a month. First 22 days were the most trying and difficult of my poker career easily. Then I took a break, played in a live poker room (cleaned up!), and switched to 6max cash game poker. That changed everything.
AUGUST RESULTS:
August 6max Results (final 8 days of the month):
Hands: 3918
Profit: +$240.95
bb/100: 12.3
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Overall August Results:
Hands: 17,254
Profit: +$268.94
bb/100: 3.19
As you can see I made 86% of the month's profits in the last 23% of the hands played. The 25nl 6max stretch seemed pretty sustainable at or around 8 to 10bb/100 and I've been playing in the 12 to 16 neighborhood for most of the time. I've also got 26.5 buyins for 50nl ... and I still have FPP things to turn in for more tries at the Russian Roulette turbo game to see if I can eek that $21 out, as well as the outstanding $240 deposit bonus which should unlock at the middle or end of September if I keep my hand-rate up.
REVIEW OF AUGUST GOALS
- 10,000 hands played in the month of August.
- RESULT: PASSED. I played 17,000+ hands, a new career high.
- Re-Read "Harrington on Holdem Book 1" and take notes throughout the book
- RESULT: FAILED. Instead I joined Stoxpoker.com and have been studying there.
- Make 1 "The Ocho ESPN8" funny poker video
- RESULT: FAILED. Real life work got way too much in the way of that happening.
- Participate regularly in the Hand Analysis for ring game thread on CardsChat.com
- RESULT: PASSED. I read and posted about hands. Heck - I even posted some of my hands ... and I found it to be VERY helpful.
- No more than 5-tables during 1 session maximum for the entire month, no exceptions.
- RESULT: FAILED. I actually kept playing 6-tables at fullring. Now that I am at 6max I just play the 4 tables and that keeps me plenty busy.
- Get my interview with Bryce Paradis (StoxPoker instructor) up on Gaming Illustrated, post around for people to watch. Email link to Bryce.
- RESULT: PASSED. I got it up, it led to some great conversations at Stox, and some exciting things in the future. You can watch the interview right here.
FINAL COMMENTS + GRAPH
Well, I can say I hate full ring now soley because I love 6max so much. For a TAG player like me my play is totally rewarded at 6max since I get value for most if not all of my hands, and I put in more hands per hour (and thus bring in more money). I enjoy 6max because it doesn't feel like a grind, it feels like a party to me, so that's always good when you enjoy something that you appear to be successful at.
I'll post my September goals tomorrow and I've tried to put more thought into them than I did for August (since I failed a few of them!). I think mainly it'll focus around two things - getting hands in and studying videos at Stox and HA threads. That's it really.
Okay, so enjoy the graph. What a way to end the month!!!
Running Like a Jamaican [704 Hands / +$53.45]
First, before I talk about my last 3 cash game sessions I have to say something about the 210 FPP turbos. I've been reading the advice that playing in these and finishing in the top 6 out of 20 (and then selling the $11 ticket for cash) is the best form of rakeback. I'm here to say it's the WORST. The level of play in this turbo is ridiculous and not even poker. Obviously, I've done poorly (cashed in 1/5 now) and I've always gotten my money in with the best hand ... but when you do this and people call you constantly with trash, you realize you're playing a bad game and essentially resorting to pure gambling. I have to cash in 1 more in order to get any sort of money since the $11 isn't enough ($22 apparently is enough to get the 98% value). After that I am totally re-evaluating what to do with FPPs.
So, my last three sessions. I said running like a Jamaican because in the 704 hands I made 100% of that money in about a 4 hand span. Just a mad sprint this afternoon as the tables were WILD and crazy. Wild swings. I had KK busted by Qx (again) and I had a flopped set busted by a runner runner straight which didn't feel great and I felt I needed to bet more on the flop.
Anyways, I am happy I came out on the winning side big time, as the run at 6max continues to be extremely profitable, and through 3,795 hands I'm running at a 12.4bb/100 clip (+$234.85). I also have my 26 buyins for 50nl ... but I want to wait until the first of the month, I dunno, maybe I am pussing out or something.
Some hands ...
Was QQ No Good Here?
Villain is relatively unknown and at this point only played 3 hands ... he played 2 of them very aggressively. Anyways ... I just didn't feel comfortable here and didn't feel like I could be sure I was really ahead.
AA Cracked by K2 with a huge raise PF. Yikes.
With great fish (78/11/1.4) comes great danger sometimes, ironically enough. Sure they will call down any preflop raise, and usually just fold to any cbet. Then again sometimes they totally draw out on your monsters and there's nothing you can do.
QQ Wins
Yeah ... lucked out on the river ... was a 77-23% dog on that one ... thank you.
Ladies and Gentleman the RIGHT way to crack AA
Standard and textbook.
Wildman Gets Destroyed
Villain is 100/0/3 over 9 hands (denniz_gr). Trust me this was by no means an insta-call. If he was open ended I do call, but I was really worried about the set. 88 and 66 are reasonable hands for this situation ... but I figured as a new player that had been in every hand he probably just had a weaker A ... which wasn't true he had a pair of sixes. Yeow, and thanks for the stack.
read moreI Guess Kenyans Get Cramps [890 Hands / +$4.95]
Put in 4 more sessions today ... pretty boring. Ran very break even ... sad to see my 16bb/100 move down to 11.5bb/100 , but I knew 16 obviously was not sustainable. I had some big hands crack, some flops go my way only to see the turn blow me away ... regular "crap" stuff that happens, no biggie though. Tomorrow I hope to put in at least 4 sessions which should be really juicy due to the holiday weekend. Wish me good luck and good skill!
Some hands ... enjoy ...
KK Cracked
Villain here is 57/14/3 ... flop is good but the turn's filling the flush concerned me. Stupid call on the river on my part. No way was I ahead, was I?
Set Cracked On Turn
That little crap raise on the turn scared me ... this was one of those situations where I figured I might flat here and draw to one of my 10 outs. Then I figured screw it because of his stack size and shoved because I totally lost my brain completely. Blew it here, really bad play. WTF. I'm disappointed in myself on this one.
read moreOMG Am I Allowed To Say This? "I’m Running Like a Kenyan!" [733 Hands / +$66.95]
Haha, I've always wanted to write that as a post since I've seen ChuckTs do it once upon a time long ago. I think that line is hilarious. Anyways the 6max switch continues to apparently be the best decision I made since getting married. Here are the sessions and numbers since the last post...
Session 1: +$52.80
Session 2: -$32.05
Session 3: +$23.75
Session 4: +$22.45
Totals:
Game: Pokerstars / 25nl 6max / 4tabling
Hands: 733
Total Duration: 130 minutes
End Result: +$66.95
Since making the move to 6max I am +$176.45 and running at a 16bb/100 ... and that number just seems to stick over the course of the last 6 days. I made some great adjustments in my game when I moved to 6max thanks to the Stox videos. Basically I'm giving no action to my opponents and I've made big value bets with monsters (that apparently get called at 6max). Its a good formula to lose small pots and win big ones. Occasionally I'll hit a cooler (Session 2!) but the ability to rebound is easy in this level and game.
I've also hit the 25 buyin threshold for 50nl. I think I want to stick it out and get 26 and then maintain a "stay unless I get down to 21" ... that seems nutty but it seems safer to me than the 25 to 20 rule. I'm also close to another 210fpps (I actually have like 2770 right now) and every time I hit 2810 I am going to play in that freeroll for $11 and hopefully I can win one (I am 1/3 so far, man those things are shaky...) and get some extra money for it.
Some highlights ...
Flopped a Monster, AND got paid.
There was just no way I was folding JTs to a min raise. I was playing it for drawing value and I flopped it with a chance of a straight flush (nuts) if the 8s fell. I just kept betting and he didn't let go so I shoved the river and he called.
QQ Holds True
Some history ... Winnythepoo here is a 69/50/inf maniac. I opened with AK on the button to $1 in a previous hand and he shoved, I folded, and he showed 44 and started talking smack. Then he just was shoving here and there at really random times but at least once every other hand. He shoves on this shit board so I call without hesitation.
JJ Gets Paid?! Wow!
The villain in this hand is 100/29/inf over 7 hands. I was wary of getting it all in with a potential 3way pot with JJ so I flatted it preflop. All unders ... and I am happy to get it in with all unders ... and my overs are better than his overs. Bit of a nice heater but surprising that he just stacked with 99 as overs.
read moreRedemption Song [323 Hands / +$60.75]
I had Redemption Song in my head today for some reason when I was driving around getting some stuff done for work (banking mainly). Seems appropraite that today I title it for my AM post here in my blog. After last night's bloodbath (and some good debate on the CC forums about the hands) I was able to put together 2 solid sessions.
Game: 25nl 6max , Pokerstars, 4 tables per session
Sessions: 2
Hands: 323
Duration: 64 minutes total
End Result: +$60.75
Good stuff. The running total since I moved to 6max on 8/23/08 ...
Hands: 1,468
Profit: +$109.50
bb/100: 14.92
Some hands from the 323 hands ...
Jedi hand reading skills at work ... aka I learned my lession from last night.
Villains in this hand are 41/6/1 (30 hands) and 67/33/inf (3 hands) ... I make a raise (not so big) but it's flatted (interesting to see that it was the AA dude) and then shoved. Yeah obviously my QQ is no good ... I figured SOMEONE had me crushed. Good thing I was right. Just ridiculous at 6max that you see AA vs KK vs QQ. Crazy odds.
AA Holds ... aka my ass saved on the river.
Yeah. Got my assed saved on the river when I made a brutal read. I put him on something like AK or KT or TT but not KQ or QJ or KJ for some reason. Yet again I see a player at this level make a min raise at the flop (or turn) with a monster. Crazy. Anyways I figured even if he had 2 pair I had any A or T to give me the win (6 outs) and potential outs in the board pairing that didn't give him a boat but gave me a better two pair (3 more outs) for a total of 9 outs. So I stack, and my worst case scenario was true, but I hit one of those outs and won.
Good solid read here, wasn't buying what he was selling.
This guy called me down to the river. Hard to explain but I figured with this kind of flop he was floating me with some sort of sexy over cards like AQ, AJ, KQ. I put no faith in him having 79. The brick hits on the river and he check-raises all in. How on earth does that make any sense? 88 wouldn't have done that, no set would have (especially on the turn with the potential flush draw). I just wasn't buying it, I had to call and I did. I win.
Why You Should Raise PPs in an Unraised Pot Preflop.
Such a gorgeous flop ... I was so happy to see it. I had that one sexy over card flop and had middle set. Someone would be stupid out of 3 villains. My bet sizing was a little low on the flop because I was hoping for a raise and to get it in there. At the river I decided not to get cute and considering the 3rd spade hit I am kind of surprised he called this shove.
read moreAbout Me
My name is Sean Gibson and I am a poker journalist and part time poker player. I work full time at PokerNewsDaily.com where I host a daily news show called "The Daily Deal" and also handle the bulk of the live player interviews. In terms of poker you will find me playing $1/$3 No Limit Hold'em in Vegas or in Los Angeles (or San Diego) and online playing small stakes games.
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