DC's New Blog

[xDiamond_CutteRx]

No one seems to use the blog tab anymore, and Ciso blogs here, so I figure why not add some more whining to the mix?

Just an update for everyone on my game lately. Since July, I've been playing almost exclusively PLO online, and pretty much all NL Hold'em live, despite my alleged commitment to play more limit. What can I say... limit is like watching paint dry to me now, unless it's a good mixed game.

Anyway, I started playing PLO at $0.10/$0.25 level, and I've been very conservative with my bankroll. I had moved up to $0.25/$0.50 at one point, and have taken shots since, but I've had trouble in that game, I think because of adjustments I've failed to make. At the $25 level, I can get away with c-betting more, playing more hands, and making some thinner bets and bluffs. At the $50 level, many of the (bad) players call too much instead of fold too much, so I need to tighten up and value bet a larger frequency of hands compared to my bluffs. All part of the adjustment phase I guess.

So far, I'm up $1355 at the $25 game, and about even in the $50 game. I was on a very solid heater up until last weekend, when I took another shot at $50 PLO, and proceeded to lose 9 buy-ins, by far the worst single day run in any game I've ever had (fortunately, I'd won 4 the day before). Since then, I've moved back down to $25 PLO, and rebuilt pretty much everything I had since before I took the shot. I'm still working off the $250 bonus on Stars, and I've made Silver for this month, so I'll probably just keep building slow, playing the game I can beat, and taking small shots at the next level to improve my play.

I would play higher, but I don't think I could play comfortably and still have enough outside pure "Poker" funds to pay my bills, pay for school, etc. I'm OK with this, though. On average, I can make about $20-25 per day, and this is enough to go out for a movie or a meal now and then, and be a little more comfortable with the somewhat Spartan life my girlfriend and I share. It's like college all over again... well, I guess I am in college, but it's somehow different.

No real plans for any Poker trips atm. I am comfortable enough to play at home, hit an occasional tournament, and play live when I feel like it. Would be nice to finally make a big tourney score, but I don't enjoy the tournies that much to be honest. Not all of us can grind like Ciso does, but I give him props for doing it day in and day out.

[xDiamond_CutteRx]

Boo ya. Second one.

PokerStars Game #25218816897: Omaha Pot Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2009/02/22 4:46:44 ET
Table 'Pumma V' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Turn_Prophet ($25 in chips)
Seat 2: anasha88 ($32.60 in chips)
Seat 3: _ikh ($90.85 in chips)
Seat 4: turkopizzero ($1.50 in chips)
Seat 5: Kryckz00r ($12.55 in chips)
Seat 6: omgilost ($24.15 in chips)
omgilost: posts small blind $0.10
Turn_Prophet: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Turn_Prophet [Qc Ac 3d 6d]
anasha88: folds
_ikh: folds
turkopizzero: calls $0.25
Kryckz00r: folds
omgilost: calls $0.15
Turn_Prophet: checks
*** FLOP *** [Kd Jc Tc]
omgilost: bets $0.25
Turn_Prophet: raises $1.25 to $1.50
turkopizzero: calls $1.25 and is all-in
omgilost: calls $1.25
*** TURN *** [Kd Jc Tc] [9s]
omgilost: checks
Turn_Prophet: bets $4.75
omgilost: calls $4.75
*** RIVER *** [Kd Jc Tc 9s] [Kc]
omgilost: bets $13.80
Turn_Prophet: raises $4.70 to $18.50 and is all-in
_ikh said, "oh actually"
omgilost: calls $3.85 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($0.85) returned to Turn_Prophet
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Turn_Prophet: shows [Qc Ac 3d 6d] (a Royal Flush)
_ikh said, "i was dumb"
omgilost: mucks hand
Turn_Prophet collected $43.05 from side pot
omgilost said, "nh"
turkopizzero: mucks hand
_ikh said, "i had 53,90% equity in that hand"
Turn_Prophet collected $4.30 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $49.80 Main pot $4.30. Side pot $43.05. | Rake $2.45
Board [Kd Jc Tc 9s Kc]
Seat 1: Turn_Prophet (big blind) showed [Qc Ac 3d 6d] and won ($47.35) with a Royal Flush
Seat 2: anasha88 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: _ikh folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: turkopizzero mucked [3s 2c 4d 6c]
Seat 5: Kryckz00r (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: omgilost (small blind) mucked [Jh 7d Jd Kh]

[xDiamond_CutteRx]

Short update: +$300 for Feb. Not much, but it's 12 buy-ins I guess, even after a couple yucky downswings, including one where I was taking a shot. Not terrible. Made Silver for all of March, and I might be able to make Gold this month, since they lowered the VPP requirement, but I'm not going to push it, since school will demand more of my time this month. In any case, hopefully they'll leave the new VIP structure in place, since once I move up it should be pretty easy to make Gold each month. The biggest question will be, when to start withdrawing money instead of just running it up online?

A little over 40% finished working toward my $250 bonus. Should get it either end of this month or near the beginning of April. Free money is always good.

[MrDarling]

IMO if you're even semi series about poker, playing with out Rake Back is simply hating money. Especially low levels, where the Rake is a bigger portion of the pots.

[xDiamond_CutteRx]

IMO if you're even semi series about poker, playing with out Rake Back is simply hating money. Especially low levels, where the Rake is a bigger portion of the pots.

Maybe when I'm done with my PS bonus I'll think about moving over to Full Tilt. I just really don't like their software, but extra money might eventually persuade me, though. I won't even consider playing on any other site because I don't trust them.

[kingetje]

IMO if you're even semi series about poker, playing with out Rake Back is simply hating money. Especially low levels, where the Rake is a bigger portion of the pots.

i disagree... if youre serious about poker you want to play on a reputable safe site with perfect software that doesnt tilt the F out of you... and that site is pokerstars.

[Ciso_B]

FullTilt is good imo, I dont like the look of the site that much, but paid for new cards/table mods etc, and I like it much better now.

Pokerstars is better overall still but fulltilt is good too imo.

[xDiamond_CutteRx]

First week of March:

What can I say, it's been a great week, with nearly $500 in profit. I played 25PLO during the week, and again took some shots at 50PLO on Friday and Saturday when the games were good (probably again tomorrow). I'm feeling better and more confident about my game at 50PLO, and I'm adjusting to the majority of players' styles (the "culture" of 25/50c if you will)--people make more hero calls and bluffs after I check behind, so I'm making fewer bluffs and doing a little more bluff catching myself.

I'll probably continue playing 10/25c during the weekdays next week, if I'm playing at all, that is. Next week should be quite busy with school, as I'll have something on the order of 60+ midterms to grade, and further research and outlining of sources for a big paper due this semester. I'll muddle through it, and if I have to break until next weekend, I'll survive. If I can play a decent stretch of 25/50c, there's a good chance I can both make Gold Star and win my $250 bonus by the end of the month. That will really help rack up the FPP's, which while not quite as good as rakeback, do get me some nice things.

For the moment, the goal is just to keep building, beat 25/50c, and probably not cash out any money until I hit the $2000 mark in my account, at which point I might need a little for my expenses. When I have enough to move up to .5/1, I will probably stay at that level for quite awhile and cash out at regular intervals to pay myself a salary for expenses. I feel like I could grind a meager living at that stake until I finish grad school, and longer if need be (in case the job market is still that crappy). I don't care much about playing super high--this is for fun and for some extra pocket money to help pay the rent. My dreams of glory are past.

[xDiamond_CutteRx]

Poker Hiatus

And for once, it's not caused by a downswing. I simply have a ton of midterms to grade, and a paper that needs to get started for another class. I will probably just finish off the 150ish points I need to maintain Silver for March and just focus the rest of my time on school.

If all goes well, I should finish the bonus off in April, and maybe I'll be able to invest enough time to make Gold in May. It's looking more and more like I won't be doing summer school, so I may be playing full time over the summer and ideally making decent money once I can move up to $0.5/$1.

[xDiamond_CutteRx]

Awesome news: I'm gonna be a published writer! Granted, it's for an academic journal, but this will really pad my CV when I finish school. I was feeling kinda down about the whole process, but this has really re-energized me. This doesn't belong in a Poker blog, but I'm happy anyway.

[Ciso_B]

nice one , congrats. I rememer while back you saying you liked to write, pretty cool you get to do what you like.

[xDiamond_CutteRx]

Bleh, so I'm enduring another downswing, with the result that after about 35,000 hands of 25/50c PLO, I'm pretty much break even there. Not sure what it is exactly. I know I'm making some mistakes, especially the last few days, especially where tilt is concerned, but I feel like it might be something more, like not enough aggression, potentially too much c-betting, maybe just playing too loose overall (but I see the hands my opponents are playing, and I'm playing better hands than THAT). I'm pretty sure the rake is hurting a lot as well, because my points go up like 3x faster at PLO50, which means I'm paying that much more rake. Not that FPP's don't have their uses, but let's face it, I'm no Supernova and probably never will be. So maybe it's time I shifted over to FT so I can get rakeback. Then we can see how much of a difference it will make.

Including my $250 bonus, I'm still up about $600 for March, which is decent, but considering I was up like $550 after the first WEEK with no bonus, I'm a but disappointed.

So maybe I'll get a few more FPP's to build up 10,000 in my account (enough to play two Turbo Takedowns), cash out, and move over to FT with rakeback when I take it up again (April will be a busy month, so probably not too much Poker). There's a good chance I may break down and actually get Poker Tracker Omaha so I can analyze my game in more depth, and maybe split the cost of a Cardrunners or Deuces Cracked membership with a friend so I can get in some more game development.

I'm still up, have to remember that, but if I want more, I think I have to accept that I need to treat this like a business and do things I wasn't prepared to before.

[xDiamond_CutteRx]

A different kind of bad beat essentially wipes out my bankroll:



Yeah, I wouldn't have been smiling so much if I'd known my dental insurance would be next to useless in getting my reconstructive work done. I'm already looking at $2500 and counting, and that's IF the insurance picks up 80% of everything else that I for some reason thought they would.

How it happened? Lasertag gun to the face ftl. So yeah, I'm pretty much sunk financially (well, not sunk, but that does erase my cushion for school and most of my capital to play Poker). FML.

[Gunslinger]

Holy crap that incredibly sucks. Massive bad beat. To the face.

[Kemics]

Your in America, sue the guy who hit you in the face

Surely this sort of thing is what insurance is for?