Am I missing out on $ by playing on Stars?by EXCELED, March 17
I was talking to John Galt the other day and he told me that he doesnt play on Stars because he has Rakeback and stuff on FTP and that for the limits I play I should be playing on FTP with rakeback because I would be making so much more.
Ok so lets just say Im a NL50 grinder. I play 5 hours a day and 6 tables. If I had 27% rakeback on FTP I would on average be making:
On Stars you dont really get a good rakeback unless you are a Nova... so is it +EV for me to play on a site with rakeback since Im still grinding micros? PLUS I would be getting a deposit bonus on FTP for $600. I mean $685 a month extra would just be sick.... plus the bonus... fml. I really need some advice here guys.
Busted out of a Live 60man tourney in 11th, missing the Final Table. FML
I must say, it is one of the shittest feelings going out in the bubble, but every player has to experience it. It does make you feel sick. But the reality is I probably should have not been in the situation I was to get busted. Here is the round up; I will try to keep this shorter, as previous Blogs seem to be too long for the most casual readers, and I really do not get much feedback
Full house tourney 60man. £60 buy in total incl addons. Pretty fast blinds of 20minutes. Played pretty solid. First few levels picked up trash. I have learned alot in past few weeks, that there is just no point trying to play "small ball" style poker early on in these live donkaments. People will call you with any face card, no matter what the kicker. So if you gonna play early on, be sure you got a decent Ace or a pocket pair. Picked up few standard hands first few levels, and made some chips etc. After first break I was over average. Pivotal hand was this. I had just won a couple of reasonable hands, and I now had double the average stack (was around 70k, average was bout 30k). I was feeling good after taking down a few hands, and i was dealt several good hands in a row. I picked up AJo UTG. Prob should have folded this, but I opted to raise it 3.5xbb (blinds 500/1000) Folded round to the small blind, who re raises to 10k This guy, likes to re raise from blinds alot, and not many times have we seen his hands. Stupidly I call. This was a big -EV mistake. AJo is a horrible calling hand here, right? I should have folded or shoved him (he had around 17k left after his raise). I of course miss the flop, and he shoves all in, forcing to me to fold and donate him 10k. This did annoy me. I knew after I called, it was a shit call.
Later on, I had A8clubs on button, and raises it up 4xbb. I didn't realise the big blind was short (my position at table made it difficult to see him) Mental note #2 - make sure u know who you are raising into when its getting late in tournament! He shoves an extra 3bb to go all in, and i have to call. He has ATo and I miss flop, and again donate to the short stacks.
Picked up 99 at the cut off. So the UTG guy, who had just moved from the other table, and had folded few hands, rasied it up 9k (1500/3000 blinds). I knew this guy from past few weeks, and he plays pretty solid. I was 90% convinced he had a strong Ace, AK or AQ by the way he thought about his bet and how he made the bet. (This is one of the things I love about live poker rather than online!) It folds to me. So I got about 45k left. I think quite hard about it. I run through the possibilities of what could happen. if I call here im left with 36k and he is first to act over me, and he has around 32k left. So high possibility he will shove on flop no matter what. If i get 1 or 2 face cards on flop, im fucked. If i shove all in, he is left with difficult call to force his whole stack in. I knew he wouldnt call wrecklessly here, but I also knew that I was ahead, and he prob would call and it would be a race. I decide, that I have to go for it, and push all in. He says "that was one hell of an acting job" lol. Thing was, I wasnt acting, I was just thinking, and running through all the possibilites through my head. He thinks looong and hard. Looking at his cards, sighing, counting his chips, looking at his cards again, thinking more, murming some words. I gotta say, my heart was racing and I was sweating, but was keeping cool. He asks "if i fold, will you show me?" and I say yes with lots of confidence, because right now, i was starting to wonder what he had, TT JJ?? i was getting worried, surely if he has AK, he gotta call? Anyway HE FOLDS, and shows AK. I feel smug inside as my first instinct was correct, and I show over 99. Alot of talk round the table about the hand, with the usual "i would have insta called with AK there" etc etc. I felt I made the right move here. and woulda been happy to go out there or double.
Ok fuck, im ranting bit too much here. Anyway to cut long story short, I wasnt picking up much and blinds were so steep. Had around 80k and blinds were at 5k/10k now, with 2 tables running, and a few places to the final table. Lots of trash, and if I did pick up a hand, I raelly just had to go all in, I was so short, that I cant play poker with my stack. Its all in or fold. Down to bubble time, and sigh everytime i was BB and SB, i was getting the worst cards. J4o, everyone folds to SB, who rasies it up. FML. Have to fold (got like 35k left now. Next hand im SB with 56hearts. Everyone folds, and for some strange reason I think this is best hand im gonna get. Bit wreckless considering the BB had big chips, he was bound to call. I forgot about mental note #2 here. I guess under the pressure of the bubble and being so low, I had to go for it. He called blind, and what did he have? KK. FML. rofl Busto in 11th.
I am gonna win one of these tourneys soon. I know it. Each week I am playing better and better and gaining more and more confidence.
Anyway, regard online poker this month, it has been amazing. I was basically back to my initial $200 on stars, and last week was really focused to grind hardcore on tuesday, after my exit in the live tourney night before (went out with AK vs AA). Over the course of Tuesday (which I was off work) and Friday I grinding just over 9000 hands;
Needless to say, I absolutely dominated NL10. I just found the secret to beating it. it felt so good to demolish NL10. I think the most imprtant factors were, playing a comfortable amount of tables on the SAME SCREEN. before I would have played 6 tables on TWO screens, but this is not as comfrtable, as you have to move your head around quite a bit, and it actually gets a little dis-orientating. Instead playing 6 tables on the one screen, is waay more comfortable for me. I also disabled chat, and wow I find myself way more focused. This is a big +EV move. You dont get distracted by all the moaners of the day.
So I have grinded at NL25 before, but tilted and lost alot on it before. But I know I can grind it. On Sunday I decided to start NL25 now, but I didnt run so good, running into some fish, that stacked off me with some shit beats;
I made some spewy calls when I should have folded. I am now on $401. Should I grind up NL10 again, or persevere with NL25? Think im gonna grind NL10, and maybe open 1 or 2 NL25 tables.
Thanks for reading if you have managed to last this long!
Hey thanks everyone for the support really helps when i hear words of encouragement......
so over the weekend i went back up to the old stomping grounds cuz Binghamton was on there way to making there first NCAA tournament bid and also cuz our yearly kegs n eggs party, which i havent been to in ages.
i had mixed feelings about going back since there were some really good and really bad times there.
so basically i got a ticket last minute and was able to go and it was pandemonium!
well we play duke in the first round and were a 22 point underdog........just glad we made it in
so anyway im close to doing same exact thing i do last month with the 50k vpp thing. but im gonna bust my ass and try to bang out it out asap. just not in any kind of mood to play these days
put in a small session today......
im continuing to run the same way but oh well just gotta push through it
NL25 is going pretty good for me. The game is pretty easy and the regulars are just tight pussies who I can run over with position which is great. I had a good day thought today as you can see. I played really good today but there was a couple of spots where I made some mistakes but I think I lost the minimum in them which is fine.
I wnat to be able to cash out $100 for this weekend so theres a little challange Im making for myself. 4 BI's by Wednesday. Should be easy. (knock on wood)
Anyways... fuckin 8am class tomorrow so I gotta crash.
Played 4 different sessions today 95% of it was NL 50 for a total of about ten hours. Got absolutely no where. Why is my play sooo swingy? I looked over my hands in PT3 and I am trying to cut out the usage of hands getting me in the most trouble and avoiding being OOP at all costs but wow... this is hard to handle - Only because it's pretty much an every day thing.
I'm running a bit hot but I don't think I'm on as big of a heater as it looks... it's a combo of being more aggro, folding more, value betting thin, and game selecting better.
im new here and looking to meet some new people and better my poker game...as for may....im not sucessfull at all..all 200nl with -2400 in 400nl headsup
Yeah today I came after training and went to taste NL5. I played a solid game, stole many many blinds and got EZ C/bets and then...
Spew. I became very very tired and I started what I do when I am tired... Multitable nit.
But I suddenly was sitting with 100bb instead of 250bb, and I started to feel reluctant to just correctly let go hands after C/bet as I found myself with pots worth of 1/5th of my BI. A mistake obviously.
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5176/nl2.jpgYeah, those two hours were enough to bounce me back to my 30BI at bb100 NL5 limit.
I can easily say I beat NL2
I learned that multitabling nitmode doesn't make sense with 100bb deep for me, as I got the feeling like shortstack when not paying attention to evrything (I was tired too).
Now I will only play NL5 4 table, play it like 19/14 and own as I did before starting gridning mode- Blind Steals, careful cbets against right opponents and making notes on those NL5 Pussies.
If I feel like tired and want to grind some more I will simply start NL2 and enjoy the ride.
So! I find weekends difficult.
There are many few tabling fish and I like 16 tabling.
They spew, I have ace high, I fold and curse.
Sometimes I call, I lose, I curse.
So I quit the blawfs.
I must be running goot, but I am so close to 50nl!
My nonshowdown winnings went down - I was up against unbluffables, but set mining is so easy vs these guys. I did tilt a few buy ins away vs some fish who just tilted me. Bah, I regret that now. A lot of those dips are tilt plays.
I coulda done better, but I feel really confident at 25nl. I really did spew away about 5-6 buy ins I coulda saved. Those add up, 1-2 tilt plays a day. Hopefully, I stay rock solid and valuetown the fish to 50nl!
I am realy frustrated last couple of days so last 5k hands are 100nl.
Clearly I am doing something wrong.
I guess it could be my turn play.
Need comments and advices on my stats:
i never believed in any conspiracy stuff but i been pretty up to date on economy and shit since i've been involved in the markets
im watching this unfold, a 1 world nation.. starting with giving more power to the world bank and stuff to rescue possibly all the defaulting nations. we're seeing the 1 world currency going to be introduced.
i sent PMs to tenbagger telling him that i been very bearish (think stocks will go down) since 730 mark on the S&P 500. today is a gigantic bull trap and my account is 100% short. my short positions has nothing to do with conspiracy theories as i never believe it in. i just start seeing a bit of evidence unfold. maybe the market will crash this week to spread panic to get world agree to get the world bank more power. thats just a wild guess.
but i has no clue if there's anything bad about a 1 world nation or a 1 world currency. i never watched alex jones crap tho i heard of it. maybe its problem for poorer people if we become some sort of police state..
So I finally was able to get back into the green for March, although I don't know how long it'll last. I'm currently running at about expected allin EV for all of 2009 which is pretty good by LP standards I guess. Not sure how long this will last. Here's my upside down bell curve of a graph:
My red line is suddenly killing me, I'm not exactly sure why. I used to be break-even in non-showdown but now it's just a consistent drop. I haven't changed my game much if at all, so it is a mystery.
Also in response to those who said I'm overplaying AK and it's not a pf allin hand, I really don't think I'm playing AK that badly. AK is never the hand that initiates my downswings.
As you could read in my previus post I made my 30BI to play NL5 (I am going to buy-in for 100bb).
I plan to start 8-12 table today and tomorrow to get used to the weird bet sizes (2c SB FREEEAAAKKY) and to see how many regs there are and to get some starting stats on them.
But then I will start 4 tabling as usual and open my range to about 16/13 (I plan to play wayy more hands from LP now) so my questions to all you grinders who started from the bottom on Stars:
How much is NL5 different from NL2?
What is the difference between playing 100bb deep and 250bb, I kinda got used to the higher number.
Are there enough not too nitty regs which would justify close following and extensive attempts at reads of all my tables?
(So far I focused only on my game and correct play of hands, and just was paying close attention to PF and C/bet behavior)
How 'Logical' the limit is compared to retarded NL2, do people play more rationally?
All i wanna do is BANG BANG and take your money :)by GP.Xelnaga, March 16
Hello fellow lpers.
I really like this song from MIA paper planes, from the movie slumdog millionaire. A film that u must see!!!srsly
Poookerwise, i played a bad session, but i've learned a lot!
I paid off too much obvious losing hands with my overpairs, wich sucks, need to learn to fold them when i basically can only beat a retarded bluff.
Also for ipoker users, i posted something in the general forum for minimaxmod, a usefull mod i use at ipoker, check it out, BUT i hate the way some fellow lpers look at me like i'm trying to commercialize it! I'm not it's INFORMATIVE for the lpers that want to use it and cool help them play more clearly while multitabling.
Contact Users: 1863 Active, 0 Logged in - Time: 10:18
I just found the secret to beating it. it felt so good to demolish NL10. I think the most imprtant factors were, playing a comfortable amount of tables on the SAME SCREEN. before I would have played 6 tables on TWO screens, but this is not as comfrtable, as you have to move your head around quite a bit, and it actually gets a little dis-orientating. Instead playing 6 tables on the one screen, is waay more comfortable for me. I also disabled chat, and wow I find myself way more focused. This is a big +EV move. You dont get distracted by all the moaners of the day.
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