Supernova!

Its hard to believe I am finally Supernova for the first time. In case you don't understand how big this is, it basically adds about $4/hr or so to my hourly rate at 50NL.. which at the volume I currently play, means another $600 in my pocket each month... the gains are even higher as I move up.

I ran like ass today and was down $400 at one point. I did recover a lot of it and ended up -$100 after rakeback. I was afraid for a bit there it would be my most epic one day downswing ever. Woo f'ing hoo 50NL, kiss my big white ass.

I do think I am getting a better handle on the play at 50NL.. I think I succumbed to fancy play syndrome during my first days of the move up. Its time to get back to basics going forward.

Anyways, I'm off to have a beer to celebrate! I will post my goals for the rest of the year soon.

What is it about 50NL?

I am not one to complain too much but variance, but this is getting really old. Every single time I move up to 50NL I get instantly doomswitched. Luckily, this go around has caused minimal damage to my bankroll.. most likely because my skill level is much higher now than it was earlier in the year. Also, I don't tilt off money after taking beats anymore.

Every day since moving up I have instantly dropped 6-8 buy-ins at the beginning of each session only to grind it back up by sessions end. I am now about break even for my move up to 50NL after rakeback and am 8 buy-ins under all in ev. I was absolutely crushing it today and it was once again cooler city. I was only able to play a short session due to it being turkey day. Here is the graph.

And here is the last 50k hands at 50NL.

I am not going to post any beats from today but I lost my first 5 all-ins in a row with 85% equity at worst. I am also 39 buy-ins under all in ev lifetime at 50NL (250k hands) but still up 22 buy-ins overall. Is this even friggin' mathematically possible? lol

I am now 1,800 vpps from Supernova. I will likely get it Saturday.. that is if variance allows me to stay at 50NL.

Running bad this month

So I am running bad this month.. not a big deal. I am at about 1.8ptbb/100 still which isn't too awful. The past Friday was the worst, 1 outers, 2 outers, preflop/postflop coolers galore.

What I try to do in times like this is just remember that over the course of a poker career there will be horrible stretches and all we can do is just focus on staying with our game and trudging through it.

So for the next week I will focus on the basics and try to prepare myself for the move up.

I have 3.9k VPPs left to achieve Supernova for the first time.. I will get there on Friday, Saturday or Sunday... depending on how much I get to play during the holiday week. Of course if I run really hot on Monday/Tuesday I could conceivably get there a lot faster as I am at about $2,300 in raw cash in my poker account. I am making the move to 50NL at $2,500 so we'll see what happens.

I am still very nervous about 50NL. I have played over 200k hands at that level and had two terrible downswings in that period. I am .53ptbb/100 lifetime so far at 50NL, however, so hopefully I have learned something in the past 9 months since I last spent significant time there.

If the month were to end today I would have my all time best month at around $1,800ish.. my previous best was $1,600. I still have 9 days to go, so unless something horrific happens, I will post my best numbers ever.

By the way, this is the first week I have successfully made it all the way through without looking once at monetary results. I am proud of myself for that fact but still find myself glancing back at an all-in table to see if I won or lost the hand. This is a big no-no and I have to break myself of it. My best stretches ever involve me not knowing or caring how I am doing and playing each hands separate from all of the others. This poker "nirvana" is something I am striving for.. its the hardest challenge to overcome for me.

For the next week I will look at my daily dollar results since I am so close to moving up. I will instead focus on not paying attention to how I am doing on a table by table basis. For example I have a bad habit of clicking back on a table to see if my big bluff worked or whatever. All this does is piss me off when someone calls me with bottom pair or cause me to get behind on my tables and start timing out. Another thing that is surely hurting my win rate.

October Review

I was out of the town most of the month but for the few days I was home early this month I was pretty happy with how things went. I am adjusting my poker schedule to about 36 hours a week starting in November. At 1600 hands per hour that should be around 240k hands which is plenty. I have heard of players burning out, so I want to settle into a schedule I can mentally sustain for the long term.

Monthly Review- October 2010
Cash winnings: $793.92
SNG/MTT winnings: $30.50
Rakeback: $179.47 FPP value (4486.65VPPs * 2.5 FPPs/VPP * 1.6c/FPP)
Stellar Rewards- $0
Current Bankroll- $1,063.78+21,439.14 FPPs x1.6c= $343.03= $1,406.81
Hours played|$/hr: 36.75| $27.32/hr
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$1,003.89 profit

My only goal this month is to not check the cashier until I hit Supernova as I am less than 15k vpps away. At that point I will hopefully be moving up to 50NL.

I am back from out West

I had a job to work in Phoenix since the 7th as there was a hail storm out there on the 5th. I work on a Catastrophe team for insurance companies as an auto damage appraiser. I got 15 paid days at $450/day in so that should take the pressure off of my poker play for a bit. I was hoping to make at least 4k this month at 25NL but instead will make at least 8k between my job and my play. This extra 4k chunk is definitely welcome as we usually don't get big storms like this late in the year.

It appears pretty hopeless that I will maintain platinum star this month. Not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, I am only 15k away from Supernova anyways. I would have to put in about 7 hours of play a day for the rest of the month, and since my daughter's birth day is on Saturday, that makes it just about impossible. Instead I will put in at least a couple of hours a day and then start fresh on Monday and try to get Supernova in November.

I tweaked my bankroll management plan a bit since I now play the 50bb tables full time. I will move back up to 50NL at $2,500 and 100NL at $5,000. My ultimate goal is to be a reg at 100NL by years end and then possibly take a shot at SNE in 2011. It is a lofty goal but hey, no one ever got anywhere by taking the easy way out.

I will wait and announce my goals and such for next month for Sunday when I post my meager poker results. But here's a hint. No more cashing out until I am at least a reg at 50NL and my cash out allows me to actually stay at that level!

I also want to start working out again next month. I am getting old and its going to catch up with me if I don't get back into decent shape. I used to bench almost 300 pounds and I doubt I can even do 150 now. I made a millionaire out of Mr. Frito Lay, but he made a Fat Mutha FU@#A outta me. :) Not really, I am 6'2 and 215 but still.. I need to be 215 with 30 pounds less fat :p

On top of a PTR leaderboard

This is my first month ever grinding a ton of hands and its nice to see it pay off. I ran like ass the last two days or I would have left 2nd in the dust. I am going off on a business trip for a couple of weeks and my playing time will go way down, so I likely won't be able to hold onto first. Maybe I can get a badge next month.

Fun hand today

This kind of stuff usually happens for my opponents, it was nice to suck out for once.

No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em ManagerConverter Tool fromFlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($20.73)
UTG ($4.43)
MP ($3.20)
CO ($14.71)
Hero (Button) ($13.20)
SB ($5.10)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 7, 6
2 folds, CO calls $0.25, Hero calls $0.25, 1 fold, BB checks

Flop: ($0.85) 5, 4, 7 (3 players)
BB bets $0.75, CO calls $0.75, Hero calls $0.75

Turn: ($3.10) 5 (3 players)
BB bets $1.25, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.25

River: ($5.60) 3 (2 players)
BB bets $2.25, Hero raises $10.95 (All-In), BB calls $8.70

Total pot: $27.50

Results:
Hero had 7, 6 (straight flush, seven high).
BB had 5, 4 (full house, fives over fours).
Outcome: Hero won $26.14

On another note, this month is going well so far. I have put in a ton of volume and although I'm not exactly running like God, I am doing okay. Here is the month to date graph. Its the fastest I have ever gotten to 1k in a month by far. Hopefully this trend continues.