going for the gold
28 February 2007
So while looking through my PokerStars account the other day I noticed that was only about 1100 or so VPP’s away from achieving Gold status for the month of February. This seemed like a fairly achievable number, so I decided to give it a go, even thought I only had 3 days left (sidenote: If you don’t know what VPP’s are, they are essentially frequent player points you get for playing raked pots on PStars. Gold status is achieved when you reach 4000 for any given month. Had I been thinking clearly, I would have realized that it took me 25 days to get 2900 points, or about 116 per day. I decided to try to average 3x that amount for the remaining three days… yeah, that’s smart.)
Anyway, after deciding to go for the gold, I booked a little over 1000 hands on Monday night and ran 2 marathon sessions last night for another 2100 hands. Combined I banked about 5 buyins, which isn’t bad at all. I now have about 250 VPP left to go before achieving my glorious bling bling status, and am on my way to becoming a true balla. Here are last night’s stats and some hands that were amusing and/or frustrating:
Today: $167.95
Total Bankroll: $2,077.25
To Go: $13,922.75
Hands: 2132
bb/100: 7.88
Hand 1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?863117
Villain: 75 / 27 / .74
Nothing I can do here but say “wow.”
Hand 2: http://www.pokerhand.org/?863122
Villain: 42 / 22 / 9
Another jaw dropping display of “wtf are you thinking?”
Hand 3: http://www.pokerhand.org/?863120
Villain: 77 / 14.8 / 1.26
I need to get away from this hand, but I’m not quite sure if the turn or the river is the place to do it. I knew he had the straight, but sometimes I’m just crazy stubborn when I flop sets. Can we say “leak”?
Hand 4: http://www.pokerhand.org/?863121
Villain: 32 / 20 / 1.43
How does everyone feel about a check behind here? I was going for some value, and was really only worried about him possibly having 33. As played, do you fold to his reraise on the river?
i amM0NIKER at 9:36 AM 1 comments
i love the fishes cuz they're sooo delicious...
27 February 2007
Well it’s been about 3 weeks since my last post, and I’m feeling rather neglectful. Not really “Oh my God, Daddy just hit Mommy” domestic abuse neglectful; just “Oh, Billy had soccer practice tonight... oops we forgot him there and ate dinner without him" neglectful. Don’t worry thought, I’m back and have a lot to talk about, namely: why I hate auto mechanics, why I hate landlords, why the game Crackdown for xbox360 is probably the most fun you will have in a long time, and how I’ve managed to double my bankroll in about a week (*edit: on second thought, the first two topics will induce a rage infused tirade and would probably be best left unelaborated on).
Why is Crackdown so great?
It’s no surprise that everyone loved Grand Theft Auto for the sheer audacity of some of the things that you could do in it – I mean, who doesn’t like running around a huge sandbox city stealing cars, shooting up people, and generally causing mayhem? Well, Crackdown is just like that, but - no pun intended - on crack. How, you ask, can this be possible? Well, in Crackdown, your Agent of mayhem and destruction builds up superhuman powers (level up, bitches!) and can jump like mad, toss cars, blow up city block, etc. like he’s Bruce Banner. Nothing helps you get over a bad session at the poker tables than drop kicking a bad guy across the screen, then picking up his body and tossing it at another bad guy. Except maybe tossing cars on top of each other, amassing a large pyramid, blowing them up, and juggling them in the air with repeated shots from a rocket launcher. That might be more fun, I’m not sure… it’s close.
In poker news, I decided to take a stab at 50NL again once I had built my bankroll up to $1250, which happened about a week ago. I had played a decent number of hands at 50NL (~25k or so) back in the November timeframe, so the play at that level didn’t really scare me. Suffice to say I’ve been crushing, with profitable days such as $301.25, $196.50, and $264.75 thus far. Obviously I’ve been running hot and getting into good situations, but the big difference in my game over the whole month of February has been my ability to limit big losses. I’m probably missing out on some higher variance, +ev spots, which is something I plan on working on with FruityPro once he gets his flat set up and has some time for some sessions, but in general the fact that I’m not losing big pots has had a huge impact on my attitude towards the game and built my confidence at the tables. I also feel that making some lay downs in the larger pots has given me the image that I can be bluffed out of pots, which pays huge dividends against aggressive players when I’m holding a premium hand. Anyway, I don’t have the exact stats for my session last night handy (up a little over a buyin), but here’s what Sunday looked like… weekends are fun:
Today: $264.75
Total Bankroll: $1909.30
To Go: $14,096.01
Hands: 1003
bb/100: 26.40
i amM0NIKER at 10:13 AM 0 comments
lazy moniquer
06 February 2007
So yeah, I've been quite lazy since my last post about my valiant return to the tables. I've had a couple of good sessions since then, and am slowly building back my roll, but most importantly my confidence. I'm stacking off in marginal situations less, and taking people to Valuetown, baby. Anyway, I played a quick session tonight before Jack Bauer killed some people and tortured his brother on 24. Results as follows:
Today: $41.65
To Date: $(208.56)*
Bonus: $160.00
To Go: $15,048.56
Hands: 439
bb/100: 18.79
* for the record, negative ~15 buyin downswings are a bad way to start off goals
Some hands I'm looking for some analysis on:
Hand 1: http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/142723
Hand 2: http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/142724
Hand 3: http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/142725
i amM0NIKER at 12:29 AM 2 comments