A man walks into a doctor's surgery on Monday morning. The doctor says, 'I have good news and bad news".
'OK', says the patient, 'give me the good news'.
'Well', says the doctor, 'according to these results, you have two days to live'.
'Oh my God', says the patient, 'if that's the good news, then what's the bad news!'
'Well', says the doctor, 'I got these results on Friday.'
Well, the good news is that I actually came out ahead on my Fixed Limit Holdem games; just barely ahead. I played six of these games in July, losing four and winning two, although some of the losses were quite small. Of the last three FLH games, I won 2/3 so maybe I'm beginning to get the hang of it. But let's not jump to conclusions just yet.
As for Multi-Table Tournaments, I only managed to play in three of these this month and got knocked out pretty early in all of them. My best result was 29th place. So that amounted to a moderate loss.
And now for the bad news. I played in 23 SitnGo Tournaments in July, and cashed in four of them, two of those being first place. That's right: 4/23. The worst part is, I don't know why I've been doing so badly in SNGs this month. As far as I'm aware I haven't been playing any differently than before. I have a pretty straightforward strategy that I employ when I play in these single-table tournaments, and it has been pretty effective in the past. But not this month.
Overall, I've lost about 20% of my bankroll in July. In fact my bankroll hasn't been this low since the end of April. So all the gains I've made since I started reporting my monthly results have been lost. This is what you might call a significant setback. My plans for domination of the poker world may have to go on hold for now, so Phil Ivey, wherever you are, you can relax.
So I guess I need a recovery plan for August. Thinking about it though, it really amounts to more of the same. I can't see any glaring holes in my SNG strategy, and I am still ahead for this game type for the year overall. What I will be doing though, is going through my game notes for the year and trying to identify weaknesses in my game. And of course if I can continue to improve in FLH games, that would be a big help. Another win or two in this game type and it'll be time to move up to the next level.
So the final verdict is; down but not out. I'm looking forward to August and Everything After.
Post Script...
As expected Sky Sport's poker coverage is all over the place. Last year they showed a lot of the World Series of Poker Main Event live, and then replayed edited highlights of the whole thing over several months. This year, they've shown a big money tournament called the Big Drop, but haven't showed a single minute of the Main Event. Now that it's over, they've started showing repeats of last year's highlights! LOL!
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Monday, 23 July 2012
Mid-winter Nosedive
I've got those mid-winter poker downswing blues...
My results have gone from encouraging to discouraging since the end of June. So far, for the month of July (as at the 23rd), I've played in 16 poker games and had a positive result in two of them. This is very bad. All of a sudden I find it virtually impossible to reach the money in a Sitngo game. And as if to confirm my reversal in fortune, I actually won in a Fixed Limit Holdem game!
This is the first time I've hit such a sudden and comprehensive downswing and it's really bugging me. My 888 balance has sunk so low that I'm going to have to make a deposit, something I haven't had to do since I started playing on that site. My old reliable Sitngo strategy no longer seems to be working and I can't seem to get any traction in MTTs.
Ok, so I know that there will always be ups and downs, but the dramatic nature of this change has got me wondering. Have I just hit a downswing, or am I actually coming off a lucky period and returning to my true form? Surely not.
I guess the only thing to do is to keep plugging away. Only time will tell how well or how poorly I'm really playing. The point is that poker is a fun and challenging game, even when the results are depressing. At least that's what I keep telling myself as I watch my chips slide away across the table. Oh well, back to the grind...
My results have gone from encouraging to discouraging since the end of June. So far, for the month of July (as at the 23rd), I've played in 16 poker games and had a positive result in two of them. This is very bad. All of a sudden I find it virtually impossible to reach the money in a Sitngo game. And as if to confirm my reversal in fortune, I actually won in a Fixed Limit Holdem game!
This is the first time I've hit such a sudden and comprehensive downswing and it's really bugging me. My 888 balance has sunk so low that I'm going to have to make a deposit, something I haven't had to do since I started playing on that site. My old reliable Sitngo strategy no longer seems to be working and I can't seem to get any traction in MTTs.
Ok, so I know that there will always be ups and downs, but the dramatic nature of this change has got me wondering. Have I just hit a downswing, or am I actually coming off a lucky period and returning to my true form? Surely not.
I guess the only thing to do is to keep plugging away. Only time will tell how well or how poorly I'm really playing. The point is that poker is a fun and challenging game, even when the results are depressing. At least that's what I keep telling myself as I watch my chips slide away across the table. Oh well, back to the grind...
Friday, 13 July 2012
Increasing the Luck Factor
You might think, for someone keen to find a live poker game, that the situation at my club would be ideal. I go up to this local RSA (Returned Servicemen's Association) Club most weeks, usually on a Thursday night or Saturday afternoon, to play a bit of pool and have a few beers. As it happens, there is a poker tournament on every week on Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons. While it's true that I've played in this tournament a couple of times, I have no intention of playing in it again, except possibly as a bit of a diversion from time to time, like going to put a bet on the horses.
These tournaments are run by an outfit called the National Pub Poker League (NPPL), and they can be found in pubs and clubs all over New Zealand (and, I believe, Australia). They bring along the tables, chips cards etc, and someone to run the tourney and in return they get paid a fee. They are providing entertainment designed to bring in customers in much the same way as that provided by quiz nights or karaoke.
There are a number of reasons why I don't want to play in NPPL games. Firstly, there is the entry fee. You can actually play in these competitions for free, but then you don't qualify to win the cash prize and you start with a small chip stack. If you choose to pay, you get more chips. You can pay from $5 to $20 at the start and get a correspondingly larger chip stack. What's more, there is an add-on at the first break where you can pay from $5 to $20 and get even more chips. Whenever I play in a tournament I always aim to buy in for the maximum amount, to give myself the best advantage in the game. This means I'd have to pay $40 to enter this tournament, which is way beyond my buy-in range. On top of this, you get extra chips when you buy stuff over the bar, which is not that big a problem for me, but it's another factor that goes towards creating an uneven playing field.
Another problem is that there is only one cash prize, second and third being bar tabs. While it's nice to have a bar tab, it's nicer to have the cash, especially if you're paying in cash to play the game. There are a couple of other things that bug me about this format. One is the 'bounty' on the head of one player on each table. If you eliminate this player you get more chips; yet another way of increasing the variance in the game. The other is the fact that the blinds are increased much faster as the end of the tournament approaches and the number of players dwindles. This hardly seems fair to the players who have made it to the end and suddenly find themselves playing in a turbo (quick-fire) tournament.
While all this is enough to keep me away anyway, the thing that really gets me is the 'lucky draw'. If you pay to play, you get to pick numbers for the lucky draw. The more you pay, the more numbers you get. The draw is done just after the start and the winners get even more chips. Then the same procedure is carried out after the add-on. More lucky chips! In effect, the person with the most chips at this stage is likely to be the person who paid the most and/or got luckiest with the chip draws. It turns the whole affair into a giant craps shoot. If I want to shoot some craps, I'll go up to the casino. If I want to play in a poker game, I'll go somewhere else.
OK, I understand that this is a pub game and the aim is to get the punters in and buying drinks. Obviously, these guys are interested in a fun night out and a bit of a gamble. The tourney is structured to appeal to them, not a po-faced poker wannabe like me. But it still bugs me that a live poker game is going on right under my nose, but I cant play in it as a matter of principle!
We all know that poker is a game that incorporates a subtle and at times downright scary mixture of skill and luck. Even the best players (and I'm certainly not in that category) can be beaten by the luck of the cards. The last thing the game needs is to have the luck factor increased. However, it's a sad fact that this is often the case.
When I used to play in a local Friday night tournament it was usually run in a straightforward way. But occasionally the organisers would throw some extra chips into the pot for a 'bonus round', another way of increasing the luck factor. I also played in a special one-off Saturday tourney that they ran where chip raffles were sold. These raffles were sold to the players through most of the day, and the prizes were extra tournament chips.
This is also the reason why I don't play in turbo tournaments online. In any poker game or tournament there are bound to be up and down periods for every player. In tournaments, the bigger your starting stack and the slower the blind increases, the greater is your ability to ride out these fluctuations. In turbos, the luck of the draw becomes more important, pushing the balance in favour of the less skilled players. That's why I prefer deep-stack tournaments when I can find them.
Basically, what it comes down to is increasing your edge. We can all be knocked around by the fall of the cards, so we need every advantage we can find. They say that game selection is one of the most important poker skills. Call me fussy if you like. I prefer the word 'selective'.
These tournaments are run by an outfit called the National Pub Poker League (NPPL), and they can be found in pubs and clubs all over New Zealand (and, I believe, Australia). They bring along the tables, chips cards etc, and someone to run the tourney and in return they get paid a fee. They are providing entertainment designed to bring in customers in much the same way as that provided by quiz nights or karaoke.
There are a number of reasons why I don't want to play in NPPL games. Firstly, there is the entry fee. You can actually play in these competitions for free, but then you don't qualify to win the cash prize and you start with a small chip stack. If you choose to pay, you get more chips. You can pay from $5 to $20 at the start and get a correspondingly larger chip stack. What's more, there is an add-on at the first break where you can pay from $5 to $20 and get even more chips. Whenever I play in a tournament I always aim to buy in for the maximum amount, to give myself the best advantage in the game. This means I'd have to pay $40 to enter this tournament, which is way beyond my buy-in range. On top of this, you get extra chips when you buy stuff over the bar, which is not that big a problem for me, but it's another factor that goes towards creating an uneven playing field.
Another problem is that there is only one cash prize, second and third being bar tabs. While it's nice to have a bar tab, it's nicer to have the cash, especially if you're paying in cash to play the game. There are a couple of other things that bug me about this format. One is the 'bounty' on the head of one player on each table. If you eliminate this player you get more chips; yet another way of increasing the variance in the game. The other is the fact that the blinds are increased much faster as the end of the tournament approaches and the number of players dwindles. This hardly seems fair to the players who have made it to the end and suddenly find themselves playing in a turbo (quick-fire) tournament.
While all this is enough to keep me away anyway, the thing that really gets me is the 'lucky draw'. If you pay to play, you get to pick numbers for the lucky draw. The more you pay, the more numbers you get. The draw is done just after the start and the winners get even more chips. Then the same procedure is carried out after the add-on. More lucky chips! In effect, the person with the most chips at this stage is likely to be the person who paid the most and/or got luckiest with the chip draws. It turns the whole affair into a giant craps shoot. If I want to shoot some craps, I'll go up to the casino. If I want to play in a poker game, I'll go somewhere else.
OK, I understand that this is a pub game and the aim is to get the punters in and buying drinks. Obviously, these guys are interested in a fun night out and a bit of a gamble. The tourney is structured to appeal to them, not a po-faced poker wannabe like me. But it still bugs me that a live poker game is going on right under my nose, but I cant play in it as a matter of principle!
We all know that poker is a game that incorporates a subtle and at times downright scary mixture of skill and luck. Even the best players (and I'm certainly not in that category) can be beaten by the luck of the cards. The last thing the game needs is to have the luck factor increased. However, it's a sad fact that this is often the case.
When I used to play in a local Friday night tournament it was usually run in a straightforward way. But occasionally the organisers would throw some extra chips into the pot for a 'bonus round', another way of increasing the luck factor. I also played in a special one-off Saturday tourney that they ran where chip raffles were sold. These raffles were sold to the players through most of the day, and the prizes were extra tournament chips.
This is also the reason why I don't play in turbo tournaments online. In any poker game or tournament there are bound to be up and down periods for every player. In tournaments, the bigger your starting stack and the slower the blind increases, the greater is your ability to ride out these fluctuations. In turbos, the luck of the draw becomes more important, pushing the balance in favour of the less skilled players. That's why I prefer deep-stack tournaments when I can find them.
Basically, what it comes down to is increasing your edge. We can all be knocked around by the fall of the cards, so we need every advantage we can find. They say that game selection is one of the most important poker skills. Call me fussy if you like. I prefer the word 'selective'.
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
June Results
June's been a pretty busy month for poker playing and I'm pretty happy with my overall results. On the positive side, I played in 34 Sitngos, winning 6, coming 2nd in 3 and 3rd in 3. In other words, half the time that I was in the money, I won it outright. Overall, it was the Sitngos that really pushed my balance into the black.
My second-best results came from the tournaments. Although I cashed in 4 out of the 8 tournaments I played in, the pay-out wasn't that good. My best result was 6/86. The low pay-out reflects the fact that you really need to be in the top 5 or so before you start hitting the big money. I need to concentrate more on building my stack up early on to carry me through to the higher levels, rather than just 'crawling across the bubble'.
Having said that, I'm happy to see that I've increased my bankroll by 10% in June, significantly above my target. That's 4 positive months in a row; an encouraging sign.
The bad news is that I only managed to play in one Fixed Limit Game and one live game for the entire month. I am taking steps to remedy both these situations and I fully expect that I will be more active in both game types in July. Obviously I'm playing a lot of Sitngos; far more than I expected at the start of the year. This is simply because they are fast and convenient. I can almost always find a game at any time of day or night, and a single game only takes an hour to play.
I probably won't be posting results at the end of every month, but for now it's an interesting exercise. I'll do it again at least for July, just to chart my progress, but probably not beyond that (at least not on a monthly basis).
Oh yeah, I must check out Sky TV to see if they're covering the WSOP Main Event. Then again, what they advertise and what they actually show (and at what time) are usually two completely different things. I guess when you have a virtual monopoly in sports coverage you can do pretty much whatever you like.
My second-best results came from the tournaments. Although I cashed in 4 out of the 8 tournaments I played in, the pay-out wasn't that good. My best result was 6/86. The low pay-out reflects the fact that you really need to be in the top 5 or so before you start hitting the big money. I need to concentrate more on building my stack up early on to carry me through to the higher levels, rather than just 'crawling across the bubble'.
Having said that, I'm happy to see that I've increased my bankroll by 10% in June, significantly above my target. That's 4 positive months in a row; an encouraging sign.
The bad news is that I only managed to play in one Fixed Limit Game and one live game for the entire month. I am taking steps to remedy both these situations and I fully expect that I will be more active in both game types in July. Obviously I'm playing a lot of Sitngos; far more than I expected at the start of the year. This is simply because they are fast and convenient. I can almost always find a game at any time of day or night, and a single game only takes an hour to play.
I probably won't be posting results at the end of every month, but for now it's an interesting exercise. I'll do it again at least for July, just to chart my progress, but probably not beyond that (at least not on a monthly basis).
Oh yeah, I must check out Sky TV to see if they're covering the WSOP Main Event. Then again, what they advertise and what they actually show (and at what time) are usually two completely different things. I guess when you have a virtual monopoly in sports coverage you can do pretty much whatever you like.
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