A Review

I got to thinking about this project and started wondering why I was keeping to one poker site. Didn't seem to make much sense if I really want to expand by ability. I realized I still had like $9.54 at PokerStars and said why not play at FullTilt too! So I deposited another $50 there. I'm still keeping the project to minimum level buy-in sngs with the 45 buy-in aspect. The only one that is diffrent is Stars. I've played a couple $3.40 sngs there because that seems to be the lowest realistic level. I think if I bust out there, I can reinvest later in the project. I pulled up my numbers for all three sites at SharkScope. Because these include all of my efforts since the inuaguration of my hobby, I thought it would be beneficial to record them now. This is how we stand to date:

Site Games Ave ROI Profit
FullTilt 278 -18% -$217
PokerStars 97 2% -$5
Cake 462 19% $800

These are the numbers that SharkScope has tracked for some while. I believe if you look up my SN on FullTilt, you'll see a goldfish jumping in his bowl!! Of course I hope to change that eventually(for now, I want the hunters to believe it!). We must also keep in mind that these numbers only reflect sng tournaments. I have played numerous MTTs since this endevour began which I don't believe I have completely tracked to date. I can't say for sure that I lost much(if any) cash to them. Obviously, I must have or I wouldn't have started the project, right?
I will stand behind my original estimates of how much I started the hobby with, so I don't think I have lost much. There is one very interesting note that hasn't been addressed. How much am I spending to learn?

Books, training sites, computer programs. How far can it go? Well, let's nail some numbers down. I am a member at PXF for $25/month and have been there since January of this year. Was a member at PokerFox before that for three months or so before that(Thanks Chris and all the Foxers!! Great community IMO!!). I have PokerTracker in all it's versions and SNGWizard for watching my game. Books, books, and more books. I still believe that reading is becoming a lost art. I look at ten titles as I write this, knowing I have more in my truck and my wife took more than I have home to put in the library(our bookshelf...library-someday). So, to just put a rough guesstmit on it, I'd say close to $1,100 in training materials and a $400 training session with an exceptional MTT coach. Leads us to a wiggly total of around $1,500. I just noticed something very important. I'm not a winning player!!!

Wow. I actually thought that I was getting somewhere with this thing. Oh well, there's always tomorrow for fantasy and fiction. I need a nap!!! Good luck at the tables everyone!!!

The Wall

OMG!OMG!Oh My God!!! Please understand I am not a hugely religious person. The last week has caused me to question whether I should be. I have read much of late about people having "cold" cards. I have read about the proper way to play sngs. I admit that I didn't think that it would happen to me this quickly. I'm playing at the wee levels of the game, for Christ's sake!! But between cards being very cold and making some silly mistakes, I've had a severe drop the last week or so. This is what it looked like daily:
Date Games ROI
Aug 14 16 29.38
Aug 15 5 -90.20
Aug 16 31 3.06
Aug 17 22 -2.73
Aug 18 18 -14.44
Aug 19 17 -58.67

As you can probably tell, these numbers don't lead to a very confident attitude when you know that you're playing at the lower levels. During this run, I've read a couple of poker pschology books and went hard core after the sng videos at PXF. While watching the videos, it dawned on me just how little I know about sng math. I do think that those factors had a lot to do with my play and may be the reason for the downfall. It's hard to make decisions when a chorus of "you don't know what you're doing" is playing over and over in the back of your mind! The problem is knowing that I do have a good handle on the game. The other thing bothering me is the sample size of the run. Still not huge by any means but it does represent almost 20% of the total. This doesn't mean it's time to give up hope but it does open my eyes to the reality that is grinding the sngs.

Well, Tropical storm Fay is about to hit SW Florida, so I should have some free time on my hands to play. My crew can't work during these types of weather conditions. I always find it amazing to watch the news coverage of these events. For anyone who has ever been through a couple, the event known as a Major Hurricane is something to be concerned about. Our society has become so shock orientated, the news can just roll over people during these things. Sort of sad when you wrap your brain around it. Oh well, more time to deal the cards! Good luck at the tables everyone!!!

Progress

It's been about ten days since I posted last. Working nights can be a drag when you're in charge. Some folks don't seem to realize that you need the day time to sleep, which I'm not getting much of lately. That being said let's get to the more fun stuff. The project is coming along just fine. Last weekend, due to my time/sleep constaints, I started playing 3 sngs at a time. It didn't hurt my play as much as I thought it might. Currently, the bankroll is up to $611.86. That number also includes bonus money as well as winnings. Here are what the current stats look like:

Level Games ITM ROI
$9.20+.80 Turbo 86 46.51% 18.78%

Of course, all these stats are from a very small sample of games and I'm sure over time they will change. I have read a couple more books in the last week and watched a video series at PXF that have made a rather dramatic effect on my play. Sngs are really a far cry from real poker in it's truest sense. It is more a game of survival and intimidation revolving around the prize money. You still have to know the game but the structure takes it into a diffrent direction. I hadn't thought of that until watching those videos. By understanding this, you can really get into the math of the game and figure out the proper play at any given point. Fasinating stuff!!
I'm hoping to use this weekend to really delve into understanding how all the numbers come together. The wife will be staying home so I won't have much else to do. I really believe that doing this study is going to improve my game immensely. I also read in one of these books( The Tao of Poker) how it is possible to take your playing to a level past good to bad. It really does make sense to me. You still have to play within the level(or one step up) of the opponents you are playing with. If you play 2 or 3 steps ahead of the group, they don't understand what you're doing and costs you money. I have finally been getting shouted at by some of the "professors" that I play against, so I must be making some type of improvement.
I'll be trying to make these posts more frequent so I can keep up with my thoughts. For now, good luck at the tables!!

Some thoughts

It's been a couple of days since I moved up and things haven't gone extremely well. I'm not in the hole by much, so I'm starting to count varience as a factor. The level of the game really hasn't changed much. People do seem to play alittle tighter and there are a few more "good" players here. What I have been learning the most is about the diffrence between raising ranges and calling ranges. The more games I play, the more this sinks in. There are alot of things that you can read about, but it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense until you understand it through experience. What a long road!!
Just before I switched levels, I started two-tabling my sngs. It did have alittle effect on my timing but I think I'm getting the hang of it and it keeps me from being distracted by other things in the surrounding enviroment. I'm actually having fun with it because it also points out who some of the other players are. Very helpful!! One other thing I've been learning at this level is the art of folding. I watched a short stack earlier go from fourth to second by doing nothing but folding(he pushed the blinds three times in around 22 hands). There is definately something to learn from that.
Well, off to work. Just wanted to post some current thoughts. Good luck at the tables!!

Welcome to stage 2

After 15 days of playing at the $5 level, I now have enough in the fund to make the next step. With earnings, bonus cash, and rakeback, the bankroll sits at $403.36. That gives us enough to step up to the $10 game and continue on the journey. So the numbers this far:

Level Games ITM% ROI%
$4.60+.40 161 45.34 19.19
$9.20+.80 2 0 -100

As I continue with this I will keep to the plan. If the bankroll drops below 25 buy-ins, I will be forced to drop back to the previous point and continue on. I will also gather my thoughts and make some observations after a bit. Good luck at the tables everyone!!

The Project

Now that we know how we got here, let's get started with the bankroll! The plan details still haven't been created because I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the bankroll theories. Mainly having the most problems with understanding growth using the Kelly criterion. There is a great deal of literature about it out there, I just haven't got there yet. The goal of the project is a bankroll of $10,000(ie. Fergason, Wallace, & other poker gods). A couple of basics to the plan is to move up levels as the roll allows for 40 buy-ins and drop back down a level if it drops below 25 buy-ins. I will be playing 10 man sit-n-gos almost exclusively. I have allowed myself the freedom to play an occasional MTT as long as no more than 1 buy-in at the current level is used per week. This will help keep my brain from freezing up and hopefully keep my eyes on the real goal. That probably needs definition at this point also. The actual purpose of this project is to become a major MTT player and start with a roll that can handle some variance. As I sit and think about the goal, it comes to mind that even that my change as my game changes. We'll just have to wait and see what the future holds!!!

The project is being played at Cake poker. There's a number of diffrent reasons for that. First and foremost is the rakeback concept. I first learned about this from the people at PokerFox.net. Because I already had accounts at all the other sites the U.S. people can play at, Cake was my only option. I love the idea of a poker room sharing it's profits that I help in creating! Although it isn't a whole lot compared to playing cash games, it will still help the project. The second reason for Cake is a suggestion from Chris "Fox" Wallace(poker instructor/pro/god) in an article about bankroll building and where the soft tables are at. Thirdly, because the traffic volume is smaller, it keeps a little closer to the pace I'm used to at this point. Another bonus I've noticed over the past couple weeks is that there isn't the childish brattle of young professors pounding away in the chat boxes. I now I can turn it off but I do like to compliment good play when I recognize it. For those who can't read between the lines, that last statement means I'm still a donkey myself.

So, here is the present situation. I started the project on the 21st day of July, the year of our lord 2008. It began with the amount of $205.42. That has allowed the project to begin at the $5 sng level(per the perameters). You will notice that the data that follows doesn't necessarily follow the rules, but we'll discuss that afterwards. Here are the current stats:

Buy-in Games ITM ROI
$4.40+.40 117 44.44% 18.97%
$9.20+.80 2 0% -100%

With rakeback and deposit bonuses, that brings the current bankroll to $349.86. We have been running the project for 12 days and had total increase of 70.3%. Not a bad start in my opinion once you understand some of the outstanding circumstances surrounding the project, which we will get into now.

I started the project while working in South Carolina. Two days into it, the job completed and I was sent to Orlando, Florida for the next one. I travel with a fifth wheel R.V. that takes a day to wrap up or set up properly. Because my house is only about 1 1/2 hours drive time from Orlando, I went home for the weekend. I hadn't been there for about 2 months, so it made for a nice weekend. Then back to Orlando. The job I'm currently in charge of is between two bridges of the FL Turnpike, which we can only work during the night time hours. Tracy, my wife, and Jax, my dog, decided to come over for a few days because my rig is set up in "Old Town" while I'm here. It's a great place to hang out if you enjoy some overall fun. I like the part where I can carry my beer into while walking town without someone giving me shit!! So, all of this leads to some interesting observations toward bankroll building and poker in general.

#1- heavy drinking and BR projects are NOT a very good combination!!! I reiterate, NOT a very good combination!!! Especially if you can't remember how many games you've played. Fortunately, I've gotten to the point where even my subconcious knows to record my results on paper, no matter how bad they are. That being said, I did play some live, free sngs Wensday night at a local bar and DOMINATED!! Drunk and fun to boot. WOOHOO!!

#2- sleep deprivation and BR projects are NOT a very good combination!!! I have found that playing when well rested and not extremely fatigued allows for better player recognition and situational understanding. The funny part is that I have graphs that dramatically show these effects. All I have to do is view these graphs to understand where I was physically and mentally. I love technology as much as I hate it. It's hard getting older sometimes.

I am using program called Pokerscore to track all of my results. Very simle, accurate and free. I do suggest a small donation cause the program is sweet and simple. I would like to say thanks to all the people who have helped my growth to this point. PFox, PXF, the wonderful authors of poker knowledge every where. The poker community in general has been wonderful. Mayhap someday I'll be able to say I've gone from donkey to full grown ass!! Gotta go to the pool, so I shall pick this up another time.

Good luck at the tables!!!

Caisson