But They're Suited!

g3poker has a post about a player doing 26 SnGs at once on Stars. Links to video included. Check it.

I played about 3 hrs. on Poker.com tonight. First I played the First Depositors $500 freeroll. Played about 45 minutes and went out 34th out of 76. Oh well. At least it didn't cost me anything to enter.

Then I went to the .10/.25 tables. Did fairly well there. Bought in for the max of 25.00 and cashed out for 55.xx. Not too bad. I've also earned 700+ of the 1000 points I need to qualify for the PokerSavvy points. I still need around 15k or so to qualify for my deposit bonus, but less than 300 to get my 750 PokerSavvy points. I'm thinking I may cash them in for a $25 and $50 Amazon gift certs. Get some books on pokerin' or sumpthin. Maybe learn to play good pokerin.

Until next time........

I went out 7th out of 36 total entrants in the PokerSavvy freeroll. The top 5 places paid, with first getting 400 and 5th getting 40. The big dogs like BoobieLover, Mookie, and some others. I did way better than I thought I would, but it never feels good to be put out after being the 86% favorite on a hand going into the turn (river?). Anyway a good time was had by all. Or at least it seemed that way.

I still need about 550 Comp points on Poker.com to qualify for my PokerSavvy points. The jury is still out on whether I'll continue to play there after that. Yeah, there's this whole bonus thing, but whatever....I don't like the site that much, but I like it better than some others I've played.

My ring game seesaw continues. I managed to go up $38.00 playing .25/.50 at Poker.com, took a break for dinner, then managed to go back and give it all back before the start of the freeroll. At least most of my losses were bad beats, which at least means I'm not playing poorly or playing bad hands. Always have to look on the bright side.

That's enough pokering for tonight. Check you tomorrow.

I joined Poker.com tonight in preparation for the freeroll tourney tomorrow. I joined through PokerSavvy and got a 100% matching bonus, and as soon as I earn 1000 comp points (3 points per raked hand at the .10/.25 table) I'll get 750 Savvy points. I can then cash those Savvy points in for a $25.00 and $50.00 gift cert. at Amazon or Target. Or I can save them up, register at more sites, and get better prizes. I kinda like this. This is the first time I've done this with PokerSavvy, so I'll let you know how it goes.

I played some .05/.10 before I realized I wouldn't get Comp points for it. Lost a couple dollars. I moved to the .10/.25 table to earn the comp points. I bought in for the max and made approx. 5.00. But since the place has the -EV blackjack, which is a soft spot for me, I ended up about $2.00 down on my overall bankroll. But I think the blackjack bug is satisfied for now, and the next several times I play I'll be able to avoid the blackjack.

Another thing to like about Stars - no stinking blackjack!

So, go sign up for PokerSavvy, then sign up for the tourney and stuff. It'll be fun.

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Play Poker. Get Free Stuff. And send a blogger to Vegas. Check out PokerSavvy

I'm back. Nice break. I haven't played any poker yet, but I started reading blogs again today. Watch out poker bloggers - comments are coming your way.

The next time I actually get to play may be the PokerSavvy blogger tournament on Wednesday night. For details email matt at pokersavvy (dot) com. If he verifies that your a blogger, he'll hook you up. It's a $1000.00 freeroll, so check it out.

Also, check out PokerSavvy in general. They manage things well, and seem to take good care of people.

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Play Poker. Get Free Stuff. And send a blogger to Vegas. Check out PokerSavvy

Last night I played in a 2 table Sit and Go on Stars. Went out 4th, so I went out in the money, but at the bottom. It was the result of yet another river suckout by someone playing cards they should have just thrown away. For about 5 seconds I wanted to throw my laptop against the wall. Luckily I realized how stupid that would be before I did it.

Anyway, that made it clear - it's time for a short break. Though I know the river suckouts are part of the game, and I've been on the giving end of my fair share of those, right now they just seem to be getting to me. Ao I'm gonna step away for a week (including both of the next two weekends). No playing, but even worse no poker blog reading. Reading the poker blogs just makes me want to play, so I'll stay away from those. That'll mean I have a lot of catching up to do when I return, but that's the breaks.

Catch y'all later.

I'm going to miss the blogger tournament at Stars. I really want to play, but will be out of the house and no where near a computer. And I can't change my plans. Drat!

Sorry to disappoint all of you that were planning to push me off pots with your big stacks! :-)

I've been fairly busy the last few days and I missed all the comment action on my last post about buying in for the minimum. I didn't even have a chance to check the email account tied to my blogger account. I get comments emailed to me but since I never checked the account I didn't see them. Thanks for all the comments everyone. Imagine how blown away I was when I see comments from the authors of the blogs I read regularly. I had no idea they even knew my puny little blog was around.

The comments can be best summarized as follows:

• Buying in for the maximum maximizes your leverage, particularly against the smaller stacks at the table.


• If you are trying to avoid risk, then move down in levels

Let me address the second issue first. I am playing the .05/.10 and occasionally the .10/.25 NL tables with a total bankroll of 150+. A cpmmon theory of bankroll management says that you don't risk more than 5% of your bankroll at one time. 5% of my current bankroll is approx. 7.50. The max buy-in for the .05/.10 table is 10.00. So I either need to go down to the .02/.05 tables (ouch), or be willing to risk more than 5%. I am not uncomfortable playing at the .05/.10 tables. But if I'm trying to build my bankroll management discipline, I should move down. I'll have to think about that. I really don't want to play at the .02/.05 tables again.

I think there is a valid argument for buying in at the minimum. By buying in at the minimum and playing only premium hands, I've had people try to push me off hands purely because I was the short stack (best I can tell at showdown) and end up doubling me up. And lately at the tables I've been seeing, I've been either the only player or one of maybe 2 players that had stacks less than the maximum. If every one at the table is over the max, then even when I bought in at the max I would still be the short stack and still be pushed around. It seems to be that buying in at the max in this case is no help to me.

Another suggestion was to try tournaments if I wanted to play like that. I've been playing tourneys and doing fairly well in them (see some previous posts for details). I used to have a decent cash game and I've been trying to get it back.


And a little background about me is probably due. I've been playing for a couple of years, have won money and transferred most of it out - not huge amounts, but a few hundered extra dollars is fun to have. I started over with 50.00 and have been trying to build up the bankroll agian. I've never gone over the .50/1.00 table online and 1/2 live. I always have bought in for the max in the past, but lately (last month or two) I decided to try this min buy-in strategy I'd read about somewhere. I'll try to find the source again and post it here.

Another thing about the minimum buy-in is that when I win a hand, I've won the hand outright. I didn't just push someone off a hand by using a big stack. I know I like that aspect of it.

Oh, and the last couple of times I played I bought in for the max. Even before reading these comments. :-)

Thanks for stopping by everyone, thanks for the advice, and keep it coming. I'll probably cotinue to mix up the min buy-in vs. the max buy-in and see how it goes.

Oh, and Waffles, it's all good man! I must say that had I expected you to read my post, then that's the kind of reaction I would have expected. :-) I've been reading you for quite some time, and I can tell how you've matured some, both in your attitude and your writing. That definitely makes the occasional flame-fest easier to take. :-) I'm not unsubscribing yet.

g3Poker posted a comment on my last post that said:

Im not that much of a NL player, i play it sometimes on stars on the micro limits but if then i always buy in for the maximum. It happens twice that i had the nuts in one of the early hands and could put it all in and got called by an player that got me covered and thinking i was trying to buy the pot - its a very rare situations but it happens so: Why do you block that opportunity for you and buy in with just the minimum?

I've been buying in for the minimum lately to limit my risk when people try to put me all in to push me off a hand. If my risk is minimal (minimum buy-in plus whatever I've made at the table so far), then there is little risk to calling their big push when I think I have the best hand. It seems to me that situation comes up more than the situation g3Poker described when he managed to double up.

Any thoughts out there on this?

Tonight I wanted to play a bit, but I didn't want to enter any tournaments or anything. I was getting started kind of late relative to the amount of time I had left to play so I figured a cash game was in order.

I sat down at a .10/.25 table at PokerStars. I bought in for the minimum (5.00), and after playing 90 minutes I managed to triple my buy-in. I was starting to feel a little tired so I decided to call it a night while I was up a bit.

I believe I have found one of the problems with my cash game. I can get pushed off by aggresive players. People raising big with second or even third pair. In tournaments I have a little different attitude - if I call them, and lose a bunch of chips, the actual money invested does not change. If I call at a cash table, and lose a bunch of chips, my bankroll has taken a hit. I think I just need more confidence in the hands I play and I need to watch my opponents more closely and monitor the hands they play. If I watch what they play I may have a better feel for when they are just trying to buy a pot.

It feels good to get back to the cash game again. Maybe I can keep some balance in my play moving forward and do both the cash games and tournaments.

I'm continuing my slow and steady trek up the mountain of progress.

Wow, did I actually write that? Well, to punish myself I'll leave it and let the world mock me.

I've been plugging away at my quest to improve what I do best (besides complain, that is) - tournament play. I've been hitting the 1.00 + .20 /45 person tourneys at Stars. I've finished first once (14.00 payout), and 7th once (2.00 payout), and out of the money about 5-6 times. Since I've been using PokerTracker, it shows my ROI on the 1.00 /5 table tourneys at > 100%. So those seem to be working ok for me, too. Once I can place in the money consistently in those, I'll take a shot at the 4.00 / 180 tourneys.

Now on to the cash game. I don't want to get away from it completely, so I've been playing a little here and there. Last night I played the .10/.25 no limit table. Well, actually, on two of them at one time. Overall a nice profit. I turned $5.00 into $20+ on each table in a little less than an hour. I still can't believe that people will call a post-flop pot-sized bet (3.00 - 5.00) with second pair, low kicker when paint is on the board. Oh well, keep doing it. Once in a while you'll suck out on me, but most of the time you're money will be mine.

I've also set a new rule for bankroll management. For cash games, I'll never buy in for more than 5% of my bankroll, with a stop-loss limit of 3 buy-ins. For tournaments: If I take a shot at something like the 4.00 / 180 and don't finish in the money and still want to play, I'll move down to the 1.00/45 or something. That way I get to keep playing, keep practicing, and hopefully keep building my bankroll.

Not a ton of pokering the last couple of weeks. I've played a few tournaments here and there, but the old regular, non-virtual-felt life has intruded a bit. Sorry for not posting for two weeks. And thanks to Bloody P for calling me on it - I really do appreciate the wakeup call. I've still been following everyone else's adventures via Bloglines, but I've just failed to update here.

I've gotten pretty consistent with the micro-buyin single table tourneys (ROI > 50% per PokerTracker), so I've decided to branch out a little into the small multi-table SnGs. I think I'll start with the 1.00 + .20 / 45 person ones at Stars. I played them some back in the day, and did ok with them. And I've gotten my bankroll to a comfortable enough level that I can finish out of the money in several of those before I start feeling pressure to money. Actually I could finish out of the money in several dozen before feeling real pressure, but it just bugs me to see my bankroll slip by more than 10-15 percent without some kind of recovery when I'm playing tournaments.

I dabbled in a little NL cash game play here and there, too, mostly at the .05/.10 tables. I think overall I've been break-even. One night, after almost doubling my buy-in, I stupidly tried to push someone off of a pot by overbetting and lost. This person had been calling down with bad cards, etc. for quite some time so I guess I thought it was time for me to make a nice profit. Well, it didn't quite work out that way and I was felted. Oh, well...back to the tourneys.

The thing that really confuses me about this is that when I started playing poker online, I did MUCH better at the cash games. And for the time invested, the cash games are much more profitable. But it seems that I've recently completely flip-flopped. The cash games are sucking me dry, but the tournaments are treating me right. What is that all about?

Until later, good luck at the tables. And I'll update more. Promise. :-)