October Review

After a pretty good September, October wasn't very good to me. While it was by no means a complete disaster, I spent the bulk of the month losing pots repeatedly with 90-99% flop equity. The games got a little better towards the end of the month thanks to the 70 billionth hand promotion, but I've gone milestone handless so far. I can't complain in this respect as I've been dealt into three(?) before. The real number could be four, I'm too lazy to double check. As planned, I did reach the 400k VPP milestone bonus this month for a quick $3000.

As I want to reach the 500k milestone bonus at the end of December (which means ~40k VPPs in each of the final three months of the year), volume was low again this month. I'm putting in 20-25 hours a week these days, which really isn't a lot. I hope to remedy this some in the new year and get back up to a solid 30 hour work week on a more optimal post-Black Friday schedule.



The bottom line:
$6426.03 table winnings
+$2316.21 FPP value (41,361 VPPs * 3.5 FPPs/VPP * 1.6c/FPP)
+$3000 400k VPP milestone bonus
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$11,742.25 USD total profit.

Like October, I expect November and December to be pretty uneventful from a volume/hours perspective. At least I'll have lots of time watch sports, with every league I follow closely being in full swing currently (NHL, NFL, CFL).

Overbets and You

This weekend I had a couple spots facing overbets that I wanted to post. One for pure hilarity value, the other because it's kind of interesting.

Funny hand first, obviously it is just donk uberspew with the river being incredibly ridiculous:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed)
UTG ($114.25)
MP ($141.30)
CO ($170.65)
Button ($46.60)
SB ($100)
Hero (BB) ($100)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 10♦, Q♠
2 folds, CO calls $1, 2 folds, Hero checks

Flop: ($2.50) Q♥, 7♦, 2♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $3, Hero calls $3

Turn: ($8.50) 7♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $6, Hero calls $6

River: ($20.50) Q♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $160.65 (All-In), Hero calls $90 (All-In)

Total pot: $200.50 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had 10♦, Q♠ (full house, Queens over sevens).
CO had 9♠, 3♠ (two pair, Queens and sevens).
Outcome: Hero won $197.50


The next hand is against a typical TAG reg in a spot where I almost always have middling showdown value and he knows that. Unfortunately for him, given his flop check he can never have flushes or A2/AJ/22/JJ, and once he bets the turn he really can't have 66, which means no boats. So his river overbet range is basically {air} that really wants my marginal SDV to fold.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed)
Hero (SB) ($133.20)
BB ($158.75)
UTG ($103.60)
UTG+1 ($106)
MP1 ($151.80)
MP2 ($103.40)
MP3 ($134.35)
CO ($101.50)
Button ($100)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A♥, 3♥
7 folds, Hero bets $3, BB calls $2

Flop: ($6) A♠, 2♥, J♠ (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks

Turn: ($6) 2♠ (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $4, Hero calls $4

River: ($14) 6♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $25, Hero calls $25

Total pot: $64 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had A♥, 3♥ (two pair, Aces and twos).
BB had Q♣, K♥ (one pair, twos).
Outcome: Hero won $61


Flames have won two in a row for the firs time this year, and are playing good but not great. Looking forward to being in the stands for the game against the Canucks on Tuesday. Patriots/Steelers tomorrow should be a great game, hope the Pats can take a win out of Steeltown.

Crippled

Two days ago I went to bed feeling 100% fine and woke up barely able to move my neck and in a fair bit of pain. I've been to the Chiropractor since and it's a pretty standard case that shouldn't be anything serious, but it certainly hasn't been very much fun. I still don't have my full range of motion in terms of turning my head.

Despite not being anything close to a baseball fan, I did watch Game 6 of the World Series tonight which was damn entertaining. The Cardinals just wouldn't die. Would be pretty sick if they lose Game 7 now after the miracles in 6.

I played an early (for me) session of poker today and the games at 100NL were pretty decent for a weekday. The games at 200NL and above were utterly dead however, as bad as I've ever seen them ever. Kind of odd. The month as a whole is shaping up to be pretty mediocre (>1bb/100 below AIEV as usual), but not terrible.

Funny hand of the day:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (7 handed)
SB ($100)
Hero (BB) ($100)
UTG ($78.35)
MP1 ($76)
MP2 ($95.75)
CO ($54.40)
Button ($101)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K♦, K♣
1 fold, MP1 calls $1, 1 fold, CO calls $1, Button calls $1, SB bets $7, Hero raises to $18, MP1 raises to $76 (All-In), 3 folds, Hero calls $58

Flop: ($161) 6♦, 8♥, 4♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($161) 2♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($161) Q♥ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $161 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had K♦, K♣ (one pair, Kings).
MP1 had 8♣, 10♠ (one pair, eights).
Outcome: Hero won $158

Got to watch out for the old limp/4b shove with T8o.

A Premonition

Weekend poker was swingy and not as profitable as I would have liked, but by no means a disaster either. On Friday I was up a sizable amount early before hitting a large downswing back to breakeven, before finally closing out a meager profit. On Saturday I began with a nasty $800 downer, but ended +$800 on the day.

The Saturday comeback had two major contributors. The first was a whale who was open shoving preflop/flops over half the time at a E200 table who I stacked twice (AK vs junk AIPF and KT vs 32 on KQT). The second was a fish who I've played with some before. I first stacked him in the first hand below. My flop play is unconventional but I had my reasons against this villain (basically he's betting his whole range when checked to and is going to peel any gutter to a small raise and might spaz out with his complete airballs).


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed)
Hero (BB) ($101.15)
UTG ($37.50)
UTG+1 ($78.50)
MP1 ($290.45)
MP2 ($58)
MP3 ($100)
CO ($78.45)
Button ($107.60)
SB ($100)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A♥, A♦
2 folds, MP1 bets $3, 5 folds, Hero raises to $12, MP1 calls $9

Flop: ($24.50) 9♠, A♣, Q♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets $11, Hero raises to $29, MP1 calls $18

Turn: ($82.50) 8♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $60.15 (All-In), MP1 calls $60.15

River: ($202.80) J♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $202.80 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had A♥, A♦ (three of a kind, Aces).
MP1 had 8♠, A♠ (two pair, Aces and eights).
Outcome: Hero won $199.80


Nothing special there. One hand later, the same fish (who was 290bbs deep at the start of the first hand) opened from EP and I as I called with KQ on the button I thought to myself: "It would be funny if I flop the nuts and back to back stack him". Of course, I figured the potential for such an occurrence was decent due to the tilt factor. Lo and behold, I end up flopping the nuts and stack the bastard in a near 400bb pot that was actually quite a cooler. I felt a little bad about it given his hand strength.


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed)
Hero (Button) ($199.30)
SB ($40.50)
BB ($40)
UTG ($189.30)
UTG+1 ($58)
MP1 ($100)
MP2 ($78.45)
MP3 ($107.60)
CO ($100)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q, K
UTG bets $4, 5 folds, Hero calls $4, 1 fold, BB calls $3

Flop: ($12.50) 10, J, 9 (3 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $11.90, Hero raises to $38.50, 1 fold, UTG calls $26.60

Turn: ($89.50) 5 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $58, UTG calls $58

River: ($205.50) 7 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $98.80 (All-In), UTG calls $88.80 (All-In)

Total pot: $383.10 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had Q, K (straight, King high).
UTG had 10, 10 (three of a kind, tens).
Outcome: Hero won $380.10


I finished up Disgaea 4 last week, including a bunch of the optional post-game content which in previous Disgaea games I haven't been motivated to grind through. I found it a lot of fun this time around though. Definitely the best game in the series. I'm now probably a little half way through the remake of Persona 2: Innocent Sin for the PSP. It's similar to the remake of the original Persona which I couldn't endure the whole way through, but does a lot of things better so I would guess I'll be finishing this one. I wasn't expecting it to be in the same league as Persona 3 or 4, so I'm not disappointed.



Finally, the Flames have been an uninspired bunch and are already well on their way to digging (another) early season hole. The Stampeders aren't any better. It seems like every year the Patriots are my bright spot in the sporting world, until the playoffs at least!

Pokerstars VIP Dinner

Tonight I had the privilege of being taken to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for a Pokerstars sponsored dinner outing with four other Supernovas, one SNE I play against on a regular basis, and Rich, the VIP coordinator for western Canada.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and of course exquisite cuisine. The Ahi Tuna appetizer was particularly exceptional. One of these years I'll actually order the Ahi Stack entree at Ruth's - I planned to both of my last two visits, but ended up calling last minute audibles to the ribeye steak on both occasions.

Two of the older players in attendance recounted stories of a pre-casino poker scene (somewhat Rounders-eque) in Calgary that I had no idea ever existed. We had good discussion about things Stars could potentially improve, how awful FTP was/is, and reminisced about SNE sponsored live events. Of the six players, two of us were NLH grinders, two specialized in PLO, and one was I believe a limit holdem player.

When Stars started planning and hosting these types of events a few months ago, it got me thinking about just how far beyond other poker sites (or just about any other businesses in general) Pokerstars takes their customer service. In years past, I blogged about my horrid experiences with FTP support, contrasted by my positive interactions with Stars staff, both via email and in person at live events. Guess which site wasn't egregiously mismanaged and hasn't run off with player funds? On other sites, you're just grateful that you might actually receive your cashout even if it takes three or more weeks. At Pokerstars, I withdraw several times a month and Fedex is always at my door the morning of the second business day following with my cheque (now if only Stars could train Fedex drivers to consistently remember that the sticker on my door means to LEAVE THE DAMN PACKAGE regardless of signature requirements). It really is just appalling at how wide the gap in service is between Stars and other sites which range from average to laughable. Perhaps what is even more shocking is how Stars doesn't seem one bit complacent and is still trying to improve, even taking players out to dinner in the process. Maybe I shouldn't be telling them this, but they could get away with a hell of a lot less because they'd still be far better than any alternative.

Since Black Friday I've been asked by a bunch of people how worried I am about my future grinding and the bankroll I have on Pokerstars. I tell them I'm not worried, because it's true. I probably should be more worried than I am, because no organization is bullet proof when the DOJ is involved, but it is simply hard to imagine a company that does so little wrong and so much right experience a tragic fall. My only significant complaint in over three years which I discussed a bunch from mid 2010 to early this year on this was how long it took for adoption of a 40-100bb buyin structure on regular cash tables.

Call me a shill if you must, but I do like my poker site.

August and September Review

I mentioned earlier that I was considering cutting the monthly reviews from this blog (I missed August as I was on vacation for the latter half), but I've decided to keep them around for old times sake if nothing else.

August was a short month as I was sick, busy and on vacation. I managed around 60k hands, with a pretty monstrous downswing during the first half of the month - definitely one of my three largest ever. I did manage to recover and and put forth a mediocre number in terms of table winnings relative to the volume, so I was happy it didn't end in disaster.

In September I ran pretty well at stakes above 100NL (though pretty poorly at 100). This is much much better than the reverse, and the result was a nice chunk of change and pretty 3.25ptBB winrate. I only managed 100k hands during September which was disappointing. I talked in previous posts about game quality not allowing for 24 tables a lot of the time now, but more than anything I simply am not putting in hours. In September I put in 105 hours according to HEM, and some of this time is guaranteed to be with one or two tables open starting up/closing down sessions where I'm more focused on other things than actually grinding, so you could consider it an inflated figure. The problem is somewhat that I don't like playing when the games are bad, but have not adjusted my schedule to Euro primetime on weekdays which appears to be a good idea. It's time for me to get my shit together in this regard, and would actually result in a schedule that is closer to "normal" relative to the rest of the world.



The bottom line:
$14,586.80 table winnings
+$3620.90 FPP value (64659 VPPs * 3.5FPPs/VPP * 1.6c/FPP)
--------------------------------
$18,207.70 USD total profit.

Given the volume and the lack of any milestones and such, an entirely respectable number.

I'll work on fixing up my grinding schedule during the last few months of this year, but as I'm shooting to only hit the 500k VPP milestone I don't need to put in heavy volume to get there (only 40k VPPs/month or so). Next year however I plan to ramp things up some, so the adjusted schedule will be a big deal.