Update

As many of you know, my goal was to be playing $1/$2 NL by June 1. I have been taking shots now and then and have played just under 2,500 hands. Here are my stats:

Hands: 2,456

VPIP: 22.07

Amount Won: $538.06

BB/100: 5.48

W$SD: 45.86

PFR%: 16.45

Aggression: 3.24

I’m OK with most of those numbers. I want to get my W$SD up, but after 2,500 hands its too early to jump to conclusions just yet. I think I can improve my BB/100 as well. 7-8 is pretty doable I believe, but maybe I am fooling myself. I have lost some brutal all in’s where I was way ahead when the money went in, so those numbers could be much better IMO.

I’m still not totally comfortable playing at this level. I do feel I am outplayed sometimes. I don’t think its enough where I should drop back down, but it is something to watch. I am going over hand histories quite a bit lately after playing and learning a lot, so that is good.

One thing that I am doing different then .50/$1 is, I am only playing 3 tables instead of my normal 4. This allows me to pay a little more attention and not feel so rushed. I get better reads on my opponents and this leads to better decision making on my part I feel. I have no doubt I will soon be back to my normal 4 tables, and eventually the goal is to 6 table over at Party.

Week In Review

Well, It's only Saturday night so it is a bit early for a week in review post, but I don't see myself playing much tonight or Sunday. If I do, it will probably be omaha or $200 NL and not $100 NL, so here we go:

Click Chart to enlarge. 

I'm a little disgusted I only got 3k hands in. I was shooting for twice that to be honest, but I had some stuff come up and well, I'm pretty lazy too.  It was a wild week.  It included a $500 day on Monday, and me losing about $410 between Tuesday and Wednesday.

Overall, I am obviously happy with the results. But I am not happy with some of my numbers. My VPIP is way low, I would like to see it up around 25% and my PFR% is low too, I want that over 15%. Those numbers were rising as the week went on, so maybe I am heading in the right direction.

I don't know if I can sustain a 12 PTBB/100 win rate, but I believe a 10 PTBB/100 win rate is sustainable over the long run. If I could double my hands, I think a $2k week is doable including bonus and rakeback money.

Oh yeah, I also scored $120 in bonus money at Full tilt bringing my week to $950. I think I also got about $50 in rakeback, so that is a $1k week. That is right about where I figured I would be, but with a lot more hands. So, I am more confident about my weekly prediction now then I was before this started.

How Did My Day Go You Ask?

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.50/$1
5 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: $51.10
CO: $102
Hero:  $108.95
SB: $76.30
BB: $157.65

Pre-flop: (5 players) Hero is Button with ac ad
UTG raises to $3.5, CO folds, Hero raises to $12, 2 folds, UTG raises all-in $51.1, Hero calls.

Flop: 3h qc 4c ($103.7, 1 player + 1 all-in – Main pot: $103.7)

Turn: kc ($103.7, 1 player + 1 all-in – Main pot: $103.7)

River: js ($103.7, 1 player + 1 all-in – Main pot: $103.7)

Results:
Final pot: $103.7
Hero showed Ac Ad
UTG showed 9d Td

My First $500 Day

Well, May 1st marked the first $500 day in my poker career.  It was all won playing $100 NL and it was done in less then 400 hands, not a bad days work at all.

Why I Switched To No Limit

Bull made a comment in my last entry about some insight into the differences of Limit and No Limit, so I thought I would start from the beginning. First, some background on me.

I started out at the .05/.10 full ring limit tables over on Royal Vegas. I continued to climb the level ladder by winning and bonus whoring. Honestly at first, most of my winnings were from bonus whoring as I was not really a winning player until later. I have beaten $3/$6 full ring for 1.88BB/100 for around 50k hands and moved up to $5/$10 where I was a loser, but only over 1,500 hands. I then made the jump to 6 max because I felt I could get more profit from them and rakeback was better. I started out at about -4 bb/100 for my first 5k hands as I had a had time adjusting to the aggression and reading people. Over the next 10k hands I worked that up to where I am just about break even at 6 max tables. Then I made the jump to NL.

Why the jump to NL you ask? I totally blame one person for the switch, Titans. OK, I don't blame him, I thank him. We were talking on IM one day and I asked him about his NL challenge and why he switched from limit. He basically said, in limit if you hit a hand and a fish comes along, you win a few BB's. In NL if you hit a hand and a fish comes along, you get his whole stack. No truer words have ever been said by someone then that. It made so much sense when you think about it. Of course, if you are the fish, watch out.

One downfall to the NL switch is bonus whoring. It is much harder to do when playing NL. That didn't bother me much because I had grown tired of going from site to site chasing the bonus dollars. Playing at small sites with no table selection was really starting to wear thin with me. So I picked two sites to play at as my "home" sites. I play on Full Tilt for their rakeback and Party for the fish. Full Tilt is a very under rated site IMO. The software is nice and the games are soft. Toss in a nice 27% rakeback deal and it looks even better. Plus, you can datamine on Full Tilt, something you can't do on Party. Now Party does not offer rakeback, but the fish more then make up for it if you ask me.

So that is why I switch in a nutshell. I am now playing $100 NL 6 max and my goal is to be playing $400 NL 6 max by July 1. Not sure if I will make it, but you need to set goals.

I wanted to add this HH to show what Titans means when he says you can take someones whole stack as opposed to a few BB's:

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.50/$1
6 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: $30.90
UTG+1: $41.65
CO: $62.60
Button: $101.90
SB: $117.70
Hero:  $267.10

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is BB with 3c 3d
2 folds, CO calls, 2 folds, 2 folds, Hero checks.

Flop: 3s as 7d ($2.5, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $2.5, Hero raises to $5, CO raises all-in $61.6, Hero calls.

Turn: jd ($125.7, 1 player + 1 all-in – Main pot: $125.7)

River: js ($125.7, 1 player + 1 all-in – Main pot: $125.7)

Results:
Final pot: $125.7
Hero showed 3c 3d
CO showed 9c Ah

In limit, I slowplay the flop, raise the turn, bet the river and make what? 8-9 BB's?  Instead, I got to take  $62 off of him.

Patience Is A Virtue

With my new love of no limit poker, I have found that patience is the best attribute to have at the tables.  Sunday is a good example of that I think.

I was playing 2-3 tables of 6 max $100 NL for about 6 hours on Sunday.  I never really got many cards to play and with blinds and some pre flop raises that missed the flop, I ended up losing around $60 for the sessions.  No big deal, everybody loses now and then, and I didn't make any stupid plays to push the action.  Well on a whim, I sit down and play an hour before going to bed, just two tables.  It was after midnight and I wanted to see if Full Tilt was accumulating points for the May version of their Iron Man challenge.

The deck was slapping me in the face big time for those 45 minutes I played.  On top of that, I made a very good read on someone and took his stack with just 77.  Overall for the 45 minutes I won about $295 and wiped out my previous losses and ended the day up $235.  Patience is the key.

Wow

So I sat down tonight to play what I figured to be a long session of $200 NL6 max on Party, man was I wrong.

First orbit in the small blind I pick up AA. Raise about 5x the BB because 2 had limped. One calls and I flop a set, yay me! I bet about 3/4 the pot and he makes a pot sized raise. I come over the top and he pushes and I gladly call, he has me covered. I figured he had AK or something and sure enough he did, except it was AKs and he caught runner runner for his flush, gg me.

I rebuy laughing it off, it happens. Not two hands later I again pick up AA. One raise to me and I re-raise, he re-raises me and I push and he calls. Now Party does not turn over the cards on all in situations. Flop comes TJQ and I am praying for two things, he has KK and not QQ or a K comes on the turn/river. Of course the K didn't come and he had QQ, gg me.

That folks, is how you drop $400 in less then one orbit. After that hand I just punched out and called it a night, I felt major tilt issues coming on after that.

Oh Party Poker, How I love Thee

Things are going well for me on Party these days.  Monday my account was at $185 on Party and today before cashing out some, it sat at $740, well $940 if you count the $200 transfer someone sent me.  All of those winnings occurred in about 3-4 hours of play, so things are going rather well right now.

I wish I could attribute it to good play, but I can't really.  I have been getting some good cards and people are making big second best hands against me, so that always helps.

Last night I sat down at a $200 NL 6 max table and I flopped a set of Kings and bet out, got raised, I re-raised and he pushed, then I scooped.  He had made bottom set and I beat him set over set.  Things like that don't happen all that often, but when they do it sure is nice.

Omaha 

I mentioned that I was going to start playing Omaha on a regular basis a while back.  I started out very good by winning 3 buy ins at the $25 pot limit game.  I realized I really didn't have much of a clue as to what was going on, so I stopped and purchased 3 books from Amazon.  I have been reading those books the past week or so, and I am anxious to try out what I have learned.  Maybe this weekend I will sit down and play some.  If not, next week for sure.

Anybody looking for a good O8 book should check out Winning Omaha/8 Poker by Mark Tenner and Lou Krieger.  I have found it to be the best out of the three I purchased and I am learning a lot from it.  Well written and very easy to understand.  Highly recommended.

I bout TJ's book as well, and well not as good, it does have a great chapter where he tells stories from his old days of rounding in Texas.  This chapter alone was worth the price to me, as there are some great stories in it.

One he tells is about Doyle.  TJ is sitting next to Doyle in a tournament at Ceasers and they go on dinner break.  Instead of eating Doyle heads off to play some high limit hold'em.  Doyle comes back from the dinner break and sits down and says, "Well, if I win this $51,000 first prize, I will only be down $14,000 for the dinner break".  Classic stuff. 

Good Suggestion

Well, I have been playing most of my poker at Full Tilt lately.  I must say, I really like the site.  I had never played there before until I joined up with PokerFox.  Nice software and some pretty good games.  The limit traffic is a little low, but you can always find games.  The NL side of things offers plenty of games and the traffic is great.  I also like that I get 27% rakeback, paid directly into my account and that I can data mine tables.  All good things.

The other day I was shooting the shit with Titans, and he suggest giving the Party NL tables a shot.  So last night I sat down to record a session on Party playing $100 NL 6 max.  Let me just say, what a wonderful idea.  First hand I hit the nut flush on the turn, but didn't get much action.  Then in the SB I pick up AA and UTG raises 3x and two call.  I raise to $12 and UTG calls.  I bet out $15 and he raises to $30 and I just call.  We both check the turn and 6c falls on the river, putting 3 clubs on the board.  I bet out about $40 and he pushes, and it costs me another $30 or so to call and I do.  That 6 made his set, so it was a very good card for me.

Few hands later I pick up TT and the flop comes T high, I bet and some guy pushes with AKo and I call, taking down another good size pot.  So about 12 hands played, and I'm up about $190.  I cut the session short at about 30 minutes because I was recording it and finished up about $185, not bad for a half hours work.

I need to start playing Party more.  I have always liked the site with great table selection and an abundance of fish.  So I will probably be splitting my time between Full Tilt and Party for now on.  Full Tilt for rakeback and maybe if I play enough on Party, I can get into their VIP program which is  kind of like rakeback in a way.

5 Card Draw

I had some time to kill last night, and always looking for a new game to give me fits, I sat down to play some 5 card draw over on Poker Room.  I sat at a $1/$2 table and there were only 3 of us on the table.

I'm not quite sure what I am doing to be honest, but after about an hour of play, I was up $23.  I would equate this to beginners luck more then my superior knowledge of the 5 card draw game.  OK, so I had no clue what I was doing and got lucky a few hands, big deal.  I was actually dealt a full house one hand.  I was actually shocked that after I didn't draw one card, someone raised me after the draw.  I figured he had trip A's or K's, nope, middle two pair.  Way to pay attention donkey.

It is time to pimp Titans site for a bit.  He has a pretty nice 5 card draw guide that you should go check out if you are interested in playing the game.