Sixth Street

I was cruising around YouTube the other day, looking at some poker-related clips (as you do), when I came across a link to a very interesting article by Tommy Angelo. It was called 'Reciprocality' (www.tommyangelo.com/reciprocality/) and it was basically about the different ways that you can get an edge over your opponents. It covered a number of different areas but the thing that really stood out for me was the section on 'information reciprocality'.
   The author contended that the toughest poker players he ever came across were those that  knew how to play sixth street well. To clarify; the flop is third street, the turn is fourth street, the river is fifth street, and sixth street is what happens after the hand has ended. This is when many players give away a lot of information that is available for anyone aware enough to take advantage of it. And this is when the best players keep their mouths shut and just listen.

   I have been aware of this basic principal for a long time but came to the realisation that there was a big difference between knowing the theory and actually putting it into practice. In the pub and club games that I usually play, I know that I have been guilty of 'joining in the fun' and utterly failing to keep my thoughts to myself. The players in these games typically have a great deal to say about their and other people's hands both during play and after the hand is over. Even when a hand is still in play people will talk about what they think their opponent has, call for a particular card on the next street, comment on the size of the pot, declare that they are 'chasing' and more. Then, when the hand is over, the full scale post mortem begins and everyone has a go at dissecting the hand while they wait for the next lot of cards to be dealt.
   I have tended to contribute to this torrent of free information far too often. I don't know how many times I've said things like; 'so my ace is no good anymore? or 'how can I not call with those pot odds?' or 'Ace King misses again' and on and on. The worst part about it all is that a lot of the time I'm just showing off. I can't resist the urge to correct someone on some miss-stated poker stat or defend a particular line on the basis of the pot odds offered. And the more I display my superior knowledge of poker theory, the more I reveal my lack of understanding of correct poker strategy. It's time for me to learn how to play what Mister Angelo calls 'Mum Poker'.
   From now on I'm concentrating on not giving away any information about my hand: no more showing cards after everyone folds, no more sighing and muttering when faced with a difficult decision, no more talking about how many big blinds I have left or discussing strategy in any shape or form. It's not that I'm just going to sit there like a rock. I'm perfectly willing to discuss the prospects of the Warriors in next year's competition, the horrors of Auckland's rush hour traffic or the likely winner in the current season of Survivor. I'm just not going to talk about my cards, my chips or anything related to them.
   Some might argue that the typical pub/club player is not particularly aware of what I or anyone else is revealing. However I know that this is not true of at least a few players that I regularly face. But even if it's true of most of these players (and I don't think it is), I don't always play in these types of games. Occasionally I'll play in what might be called 'more serious games'. And in those sorts of games leaking information is potentially very bad. So it's time for me to cultivate some good habits. Time to close the mouth and open the eyes and ears. Time to do some serious information mining. To paraphrase the old World War Two posters, 'Loose lips lose chips'.
 
 

Winter 2018

     The Kowhai trees in my neighbourhood are a riot of yellow blossoms and the All Blacks have put the Rugby Championship trophy back in the cabinet, so I guess it must be springtime. A good time to look back at my winter season of poker games. So first up, a quick review of the results.
    Typically winter is a bad season for my poker bankroll but this year I've actually managed to come up with a positive result, showing an 18% return on investment for the months of June, July and August. My best result came from one particular one-off game I played in August. As far as my regular games go, I came up with a healthy return from my weekly Friday night freeze-out, something that is mildly surprising to me as I had the feeling that I wasn't doing all that well in that game. Most of the other regular games I play were hovering around the break-even point. The worst result came from the online tournament that I play on most weekends, showing an ROI of -43%. Although this looks bad, the buy-in is significantly lower than it is in the live tournaments, which is why I still managed to make a profit overall.
   Most Wednesday nights I head down to the Landmark Bar to play in the $20 rebuy tournament. 'Rookie', the new organiser has been doing a good job but player attendance has been inconsistent. Usually we get two tables of players but we don't always get the full $500 maximum  into the prize-pool. It all depends on how many players turn up and how willing they are to re-buy. There are still about 5 or 6 regulars, myself included, and then a colourful assortment of semi-regulars, occasional visitors and newbies. Although I showed a loss in this game type, it only amounted to one buy-in, so that's okay. Looking back at my records, I can see why this is the case; I haven't won a game outright in 17 games. That's a long time between drinks.
   When I gave up running this tournament last year it was my intention to play at most, twice a month in this year's games, staying home and playing online the rest of the time. But Rookie thwarted my plans by introducing a points scheme. Players accumulate points based on their finishing positions over a 13 week season and then the top 8 go into a playoff game. $20 comes out of the prize-pool each week and then that cash is used to boost the prize-pool of the Top 8 game. I found this too tempting, so I decided to play 3 weeks out of 4 in an effort to qualify for the Top 8. Of the two seasons played so far, I've managed to qualify for both, usually just clawing my way into 7th or 8th position. Considering that I've played fewer games than all the other qualifiers I'm pretty happy with the fact that I've still been able to make it into the Top 8 Tournament not once, but twice.
   In August I went to the last game of the current season knowing that I had to make at least 4th place to have any chance of qualifying. As it happens, I did very well and ended up heads-up vs Rookie at the end of the night. He got first prize and I came second, and I ended up qualifying 6th for the Top 8 Tournament. This is a single table tournament where the 8th qualifier gets 10k chips, 7th gets 10.5k and so on up to the top qualifier who gets 13.5k. To complicate things further, players get 2/3 of their stack at the start of the game and then the remaining 1/3 as an add-on at the first break.
   I usually play freeze-out tournaments so I felt I had a bit of an edge over those who normally play only in re-buys. Sure enough, some of those with the high risk playing styles got knocked out and I managed to cruise into the money without too much trouble. In the end I was heads-up with Rookie again but this time the cards fell my way. So I made a nice collect but, more importantly, I was awarded the fabulous Top 8 Trophy. This is a gold (coloured) card protector inscribed with the words 'Tournament Winner'. It probably cost about $2 from some online emporium but it's worth a million in bragging rights. So I'll be putting my trusty $1 casino chip back in the drawer and using this as my card protector on Wednesday nights from now on.
   The other one-off tournaments I played in this winter were at the annual Clubs New Zealand North Island Poker Championship. This was played at the Petone Cosmopolitan Club in Wellington and about 8 members of my local club took a trip down to play. We flew down on Friday and this time we were staying in a motel about 10 minutes walk from the club, which was very convenient. We all played in the Friday night 'Welcome Tournament' but I got ABSOLUTELY DONKEYED by someone who called my massive pre-flop raise with K 5 offsuit and (of course) hit two pair on the flop. But Ham, one of our crew, ended up winning the whole thing and got around $600 for his trouble. Nice. This was the first time I've ever played in a bounty tournament and it's always interesting to try a new format, even if only for less than an hour.
   Like the other clubs I've been to outside of Auckland, the Petone Cossie is pretty flash and also had ample room to accommodate a field of 192 poker players from around the North Island. I had a bit of trouble in the first qualifier on Saturday, so had to wait around for the Second Chance Tournament later in the day. We still had 141 players in this group but I managed to crawl across the bubble and make it into the last 24 qualifiers after about 4 hours of play. So once again I managed to qualify for the 'Main Event', which makes for a 5 out of 5 record so far. I'm pretty happy about that.
   Four of my group qualified to play in a field of 72 on Sunday while the others went into the consolation event. I was knocked out after 3 hours but some of my club-mates went deeper. One of these, Ros, made it onto the final table and ended up coming third. The final table was set up in a different room, with spectator seating and a video viewing screen, similar to what the Weymouth Club had done the previous year. This set-up worked better than the one last year although it definitely still needs refinement. In the end it was a player from one of the other Auckland clubs that won the prize. It was yet another great weekend event and I'm already looking forward to next year's tournament, which is in Hamilton (only an hour's drive from home).

   Meanwhile, I keep playing in the Friday night freeze-out tournament at my club. Player numbers have picked up a bit recently and we always get three tables now and even occasionally have four. For years I've had a basic 'Green Zone/Amber Zone/Red Zone strategy in place to help me decide at what point I have to change my playing style based on my relative chip stack. I've been tinkering with this a little recently, partly as a result of reading about Dan Harrington's 'M' concept. But it was starting to get a little too complex, so I came up with a more simplified version and I've been using that through most of the winter. I intend to  keep following this scheme for the foreseeable future, provided nothing dramatic happens to my results.
   The other game that I regularly play up at the club is the monthly Deep Stack Tournament. As the organiser of this tournament I've been trying to get the player numbers up all year. Usually we have only two tables (up to 16 players) and in June we were playing with just 9 entrants, leaving me to wonder if it was worth continuing. Then I guess my advertising of the game finally started to pay off. In July there were 24 entrants, then 19 in August, then we hit an all-time high with 32 players last month, allowing for a nice healthy first prize of $600. Now my problem  has become managing the pre-game tasks such as registration, setting out the chip stacks, allocating seats etc. It's become increasingly obvious that I'm going to need more than just my wife helping me out before the game starts. I may even have to put an upper limit on the allowable number of players so that the game doesn't run too late. Still, it's a good problem to have.
   I haven't cashed in this tournament for a while and I'd like to be able to blame the fact that I'm concentrating too much on organising the game, especially with all the extra players. But I don't think this has that much effect. Although it's true I've been away from the table a fair bit in the early stages, I still get to see the majority of my hands and I'm a pretty tight player anyway. Once I get some help organising things should get easier anyway. After coming up with a positive ROI for the winter period, having the Deep Stack Tournament finally come together is definitely the highlight of the season for me. Fingers crossed it continues.
   Meanwhile, I try to fit in one online session every week. I've been playing mostly in a low buy-in Pokerstars tournament that typically has up to 1000 players. I've had a few small cashes but, after playing in 17 of these so far, I'm yet to make the final table, let alone score a win. But it's still early days and I plan to keep playing in this game at least until the end of the year.
   The other online game I've been playing over winter is cheap SitNGos, once again mainly on Pokerstars. I came up with a -3% ROI in this game type over winter, which is actually not bad given some of my earlier results. I've been studying articles on how to play these games over the last year and my new strategy is still a work in progress. More on this later.
   So that's been my winter season; a good result overall but still plenty to work on in a number of areas. The work continues and the story goes on.

 

 

How Not to run a Tournament

   I've been playing in live poker tournaments for quite a few years now and the vast majority of these have been pub or club games. These tournaments are run by amateurs who typically also play in the tournament they are directing. The individuals who run these games are generally volunteers who get no reward for the hours of work that they put into running these events and should be applauded for their efforts. However, having said that, I've been to quite a few tournaments that have been poorly run and some of them have been totally shambolic.
   What follows is a list of some of the worst examples of bad organisation in tournaments I've seen over the years. If anyone wants to ensure that they run an event that puts people off ever wanting to play there again, they should use this list as a guide. Implement as many of these suggestion as possible and you can pretty much guarantee that no-one will want to return to your poker tournament any time soon.

   How not to run a poker tournament:
   1. Don't provide any information. Anything that prospective players want to know before handing over their money should be kept secret. Information about the game structure (the starting stacks and blinds), whether or not there are re-buys or add-ons, how many places get paid, how much, if any, comes out of the prize-pool; all this should be on a need to know basis and let's face it, the players don't need to know. It helps if you yourself don't know all the details because you're making it up as you go along. But even if you have it all worked out, keep it to yourself if you can.
   2. Keep them guessing about the start time. Advertise a start time for your tournament but actually start at a different time, preferably earlier than advertised. Or advertise conflicting start times. One of the best examples I've seen of this was at a bar where they had two blackboards outside advertising their tournament, each showing a different time. Another way to go is to start much later than advertised because you are waiting for more players or you can't find some vital piece of equipment or because you just don't care. If you are running a regular event you should try to start late consistently.
   3. Change the structure at the last minute. If you do give out information about the game, you should change it just before the start, but after everyone has paid their entry fees. Decide to make your freeze-out tournament a re-buy or if it's a re-buy tournament, change the re-buy cost or the number of re-buys allowed. Or if your mate turns up late, change the cut off time for registration and let them play. With this one, it helps if you vary it from week to week; be strict about the cut off one week and then relax the rules the next week. Keep them guessing.
   4. Treat the players like naughty children. Start the tournament off by making a little speech where you berate the players for their shortcomings. Pick on some aspect of the rules that you think has been neglected in past games and give everyone a piece of your mind about it. Be as blunt as you like when you do this; you know they deserve it. This is particularly effective when you have a lot of new players who weren't even at the last game. They won't be at the next one either.
   5. Don't have written rules or procedures. Apart from following the general principal of 'keeping them guessing', this is also useful if anyone challenges a ruling you make: if there are no rules to refer to, there's no dispute. The rule is what you say it is. This is a great way of keeping players off balance. You can change your rulings from tournament to tournament and there's nothing anyone can do. The look on their faces when you make a ruling that is the opposite of what you said last week; priceless.
   6. Obscure the tournament clock. Most venues have tournament software that displays important information on a big screen. This should be obscured as much as possible. Try to situate the screen in a place that makes it visible to as few players as possible. Failing that, spend as much time as you can fiddling with the data entry screen so players can't see the clock. You can do this before the game starts and during breaks. It may be a relatively minor irritant, but every little helps. Another thing you could try; if you're using a TV screen, switch the tournament clock over to the computer screen so you can watch your favourite sporting event on the main screen. And turn the volume up, just for fun.
   7. Avoid transparency during the chip-up. When it comes time to change up players' chips, the messier the better. Do it as quickly as possible to maximise the possibility of errors and don't let players see what's going on. You should throw a player's chips into a container first and then give out the replacement chips. That way, no-one can question your accuracy because there's no way of checking it. If you have more than one person performing the chip-up they should work on separate stacks but preferably on the same table to maximise the confusion. And don't forget the golden rule; if you are playing in the tournament you should always chip-up your own stack.
   8. Have no set procedure for moving players. If you have to move a player to a new table, be as vague as possible. Just make it up as you go along. Ideally, don't even specify who has to move. Just say 'I need one player from table two over here', and let them work it out. And if you do have a set procedure and someone is reluctant to move, let them be and pick someone else. Also, when someone comes to a new table, don't use the tournament rule where they play straight away: use the cash game rule and force them to sit out several hands if they are seated in the blinds. Moving players should never be a fair and impartial process; ideally it should be at the whim of the tournament director and put the players who are moved at a disadvantage.
   9. Be a bad loser. If you are playing in a tournament that you are also running, your attitude towards the other players should be a reflection of how well your game is going. If you start losing, let everyone know that you are unhappy. Start telling people off for various minor infractions and try to make the atmosphere as unpleasant as possible. Choose a player at your table (preferably someone who is taking your chips but not someone who will stand up to you) and start picking on them. Be rude. Argue. Throw your weight around. If you are eliminated, do not, under any circumstances shake any-ones hand when you leave the table. Use the spare time that you now have to continue berating players for their poor behaviour. After all, who do they think they are?
   10. Waste players' time. Time is precious in a poker tournament. You should try and use up as much of that time as you can moving players, setting up tables chipping up and so on, but without stopping the clock. Let it run. I've only seen this once but it's a particularly inspired example of time wasting: have a dealer run the final table and then decide that you need to chip up during the game. But don't get someone else to do the chip up. Have the dealer stop dealing and perform the chip up while the clock runs on. Brilliant!
   11. Change the pay-outs. Most tournament management software works out the payouts and displays them on the screen. But when that's not the case, there's a potential to create confusion by keeping the information close to your chest. If you must let players know what the prizes are, scrawl them on a scrap of paper and pass it around the tables. Do this just once. If they can't remember, that's their problem. The 'bubble boy' ploy is also a good one. When you reach the point where the next player out will put the rest in the money, change the payouts and pay the player on the bubble a prize, reducing some of the other payouts. But only do this if the player on the bubble is a friend or relation or club-mate of yours. Otherwise, stick to the advertised prizes.
   12. Speed it up at the end. You don't want your tournament to run too long when there are only a few players left, especially if you've been knocked out, so speed it up. You can create a structure where the blinds suddenly start increasing massively towards the end, or you could just reduce the blind interval. Hell, make them 5 minutes long if you have to. Turn it into a craps shoot. Don't worry about the fact that these players have been working for hours to get to the big payout at the end, just roll the dice and see who comes out the winner. Then you can go home and get some rest.
   13. Have no dealer. When it gets down to the final table or the last few players some tournament directors will start dealing for the remaining players, or get a volunteer to do the dealing. You should avoid this. Let them keep dealing for themselves, even when it comes down to heads-up play. So it slows things down. So what? They're going to get paid. You're not.
   14. Let the game run late. If you're running a tournament that is played on a weekday evening, this is an ideal chance to make people stay out later than they'd like. Structure the game so that it runs well past midnight to cause the maximum inconvenience. Failing this, at least have it run after the bar closes so that players are pressured into pushing the action or making a deal. A good way to achieve the late finish is to fail to accommodate a larger than usual number of players by changing the blind structure. Just let it run as usual and to hell with the complaints.
   15. Blame the players. If the game does run late due to your inadequate planning you should blame the players for this. Stand over them and tell them that they should stop wasting time or that it's time they started pushing all-in instead of just calling. Tell them that they'll have to split the cash if they don't hurry up. In particular, make sure that they are aware that it's all their fault that the tournament is running late and that it has nothing to do with the way that you structured it. Of course, if you happen to still be playing in the game, you can always try to persuade the bar manager to stay open a bit later so you can finish.

   Hopefully this is a useful guide for the best way not to run a poker tournament. If you follow these simple rules it should be easy to irritate, annoy and alienate the people who come to your tournament. If you consistently follow this guide you can be sure that people will go out of their way to avoid playing in your game and word will spread quickly that it is the last place that anyone would want to play. Good luck.

Poker Holiday

   I'm back at work now after the summer break. It was a pretty relaxing three week holiday with my wife and I just hanging around in Auckland and enjoying the summer. At the start I decided that I'd try to play at least three sessions of poker each week, even though most of my regular live games were not being played during the break. As it happens, I was able to achieve this, so in between other holiday activities I got to play a fair bit of poker:

Tuesday 19th Dec, Ye Olde Bailey pub, $30 tournament.
This was actually two days before the start of my holiday but as my regular Wednesday night game had finished for the year my wife and I went to check out this evening tournament. As it happens, several of the Wednesday night regulars were also at this game, as well as a couple of others that we knew. After late entries they had five full tables. These were oval tables that sat on bar leaners and the players sat around them on bar stools. My wife and I both got about halfway through the field before being eliminated, which was probably just as well as I had to go to work the next day. 16/39.

Friday 22nd Dec, Onehunga Workingmen's Club, $30 tournament.
This was the final game for the year at the Workies and included the prize-giving. I put on my bright red island shirt for this game but couldn't find my reindeer antlers so we had to stop off at the $2 shop to get another pair, along with some flashing Santa earrings for my wife. I received a $200 prize for coming first in the final Ten Week Challenge but came nowhere in the over-all yearly points. As for the game, I finished 11th out of 20 players.

Sunday 24th Dec, PokerStars, US$11 tournament.
I couldn't find my favourite 888 tournament on Christmas eve so I entered this one on PokerStars. Two hours into the tournament, with about 50 BBs I got dealt Aces. Player1 raised, I re-raised, he went all-in and I called. He showed pocket Kings, a King hit the flop and I lost most of my stack. A few hands later, with 12BBs I was dealt KQs. Player1 min-raised and I pushed all-in. He called with pocket Kings. I hit a Queen on the flop but that's it. 106/548.

Tuesday 26th Dec, Mangere Cosmopolitan Club, $50 deep stack tournament.
Instead of joining the crowds at the Boxing Day sales my wife and I went to this game in Mangere. These guys love re-buys so I was surprised to find they were running a freeze-out tournament. But the starting stack was 100,000 with the blinds at 100/200 so there was plenty of scope for loose play with a 500 BB stack. Sure enough, I lost most of my chips to a donkey who called my initial raise with Q5 when I had JJ. He then went on to call my substantial bets with nothing but Queen high until he finally hit the Queen on the river. 26/31.

Thursday 28th Dec, PokerStars US$11 tournament.
Another PokerStars tournament. These games are on at 10.30 am. The one I usually play on 888Poker
is on at 12.30 pm. But for some reason the 888Poker games weren't on during the holiday period so I played PokerStars instead. In this one I lost my stack bit by bit and only managed to last for an hour. 309/442.

Saturday 30th Dec, Sky City Casino ring game, $180 buy-in.
I took the bus into town to play in this game, which started at about 6 pm.  I checked out the timetable for the return trip and it turns out there are a couple of late buses going my way, with the last of these at about 2 am. This is very convenient if I happen to end up playing late on any of these trips when I don't have the car. As for the game, there was an awful lot of limp-calling and I ended up doing okay. I called it a night after about 5 1/2 hours and got home not long after midnight. $197 profit.

Monday 1st Jan, Mangere Cossie, $30 re-buy and add-on tournament.
New Years' Day and another deep stack tournament at Mangere. After nearly 5 hours play my wife and I both found ourselves in the money. When we were down to just 3 players the chip leader, Aroha, suggested a deal, but I declined. I was aiming for the 1st prize of $400. My wife was eliminated in 3rd place and Aroha and I ended up with similar stack sizes. Not long after that we were both all-in. I had the better hand pre-flop but she hit and I didn't. I got $200 for 2nd place. 2/22.

Wednesday 3rd Jan, Sky City ring game, $180 buy-in.
The character of the table was different this time, with much more pre-flop raising and very little limp-calling. Two players in particular were quite aggressive before the flop. I wasn't getting good cards and decided to push the action a bit, losing $50 in an ill-conceived bluff attempt. After that I was still card dead and short-stacked as well, making for a slow night. After 4 hours I decided to quit while I still had some chips. $115 loss.

Saturday 6th Jan, Mangere Cossie, $30 tournament.
I was told that MCC planned on running two games a week this year. A $30 freeze-out on Saturdays and a $10 unlimited  re-buy and add-on tournament on Sundays. My wife and I went to check out the first of the Saturday games. Along with a handful of others from other clubs we were becoming regulars at these holiday season games. Deep starting stack, very loose play, steep blind structure. 14/30.

Tuesday 9th Jan, F Bar, $20 unlimited re-buy and add-on tournament.
This one had a strange structure. It was $20 for a 20k starting stack, with an additional 5k 'earlybird' bonus. There were unlimited $10 re-buys for 20k before the first break. Then there was a $20 add-on for a stack of 160k! And also bonus chips for bar purchases. It was basically an all-in-fest for the first hour or so with players re-buying multiple times. I just waited it out, made my add-on at the break and started playing after that. In the first hand after the break I picked up pocket Aces against a player with a monster stack. He flopped a set of threes and I made a very bad call, refusing to believe that he'd outdrawn me, and was eliminated. 13/15.

Friday 12th Jan, PokerStars US$11 tournament, 888Poker US$3 Sit 'n' Gos.
Another early finish in a PokerStars tournament, lasting for just an hour. I lost half my stack after flopping two pair with 34s and failing to stop a chaser from hitting his flush. Then I spent the rest of the time trying to stay alive with a short stack. After that I tried a few single table tournaments on 888Poker, but came out behind. 338/510. 5/9, 2/9, 7/9, 5/9.

Saturday 13th Jan, Sky City ring game, $180 buy-in.
Went home after about 1 hour of play and making bad decisions in two hands. First up, I raised with KJs and got 1 caller. The flop was Q x x, he checked, I bet, he called. The turn was another blank and we both checked. He checked the A on the river so I bet at it and he called with his Q 5, taking about $56 from me. In the second hand I had ATs and raised in position, getting 2 callers. The flop was T T J and we all checked. The turn was a K. I bet at it and got one caller. When the caller checked the river K, I foolishly bet again and got called by the player with K x. I was only ever getting called by a better hand. Another $60 thrown away. Total loss $143.

Sunday 14th Jan, 888Poker, US$12 tournament.
My last game before going back to work, back on 888.  I started real slow, hardly getting any playable cards, but towards the middle things changed and I chipped up a bit. Then I went into a decline again and spent a lot of time nursing a short stack. After a couple of hours I was approaching the bubble but had only 7 BBs left. I was desperately hoping for a hand I could go all-in with. I was dealt the following hands: 94, 64, 64, 62s, 92s, T3, 63, Q6, J6, Q3, 43. By the time I was dealt J3 I had less than 4BBs so shoved and lost to pocket sixes. I finished 5 places from the bubble. 20/110.

That was my summer holiday. Now that everyone is drifting back into town I guess some of the regular games will re-start. So I look forward to playing some more poker.

The New Year

   I'm in the middle of a three week holiday and the weather in Auckland has been pretty good so far. But a storm hit yesterday and it's raining and blowing a gale outside. So this is as good a time as any to look back at last year's poker results and consider how things might shape up in the coming year.
   I hit a couple of milestones in 2017. The first of these was when I had my biggest ever payout in a poker game. In late May I split first and second prize in the Clubs NZ Friday tournament and came away with a $580 profit. I also went deep in the main Saturday/Sunday tournament, coming 17th out of 172 players. So it was a pretty successful long weekend. The second high point came when my bankroll reached a level that allowed me to play in the Sky City Casino $1/$3 ring game. I'd been hoping to reach this level for a while and it finally came to pass in August of 2017. Another pleasing aspect of the last year is the fact that I was able to reboot the Wednesday night rebuy tournament at the Landmark Bar. When it became obvious that no-one was going to step up to run this game I took it over. It had a bit of a slow start but eventually it was running well and  hitting the $500 prizepool level through most of the year.
   The same success didn't come to the 50/50 Deep Stack Tournament, a monthly game I was running at the Onehunga Workingmen's Club. Although it started out okay, at least getting enough players for two tables, it went into a bit of a decline in the second half of the year. In the last two games of the year I only had enough players for a single table, which is pretty disappointing. I'm going to have my work cut out for me this year to keep this game going. Another aspect of the end of 2017 that was not so good was my performance in online Sit and Go's. I decided to give this game type another shot for the Spring season (September to November) and once again failed to get any traction. My ongoing struggle to work out a successful Sit and Go strategy continues.
   Playing in the Sky City ring games and reviving the Landmark game are two of the goals that I set myself at the start of last year ('2017', 13/02/17) so I can tick those two off the list. The other goal that I've been able to at least partly achieve is the promotion of the 50/50 game. Although I wasn't able to build it up as I'd hoped, at least I was able to keep it going all year, which is something. I guess promotion of this game is an ongoing project for the coming year.
   A couple of the goals that I set myself at the beginning of the year actually changed part way through 2017. I originally intended to try out all the available local live tournaments in my search for the optimal game, and to then aim at playing four poker games each week. But I ultimately came to the conclusion that this was just too much poker and it was time to give other aspects of my life a little more time. So I abandoned the optimal game search and just stuck to the three games per week that I'd been playing. I think this was a sensible move and I plan to continue with this level of play in the coming year.
   The one goal for 2017 that I failed to complete was to read 'Harrington on Hold'em Volume 2'. When I realised that I was approaching a bankroll level that would allow me to play at Sky City I thought I'd better read up on ring game strategy. So I bought both volumes of 'Harrington on Cash Games' and read them instead, leaving me no time to read Volume 2 of the tournament guide. That goal is now moved forward into 2018.
   As for my overall results for last year, they've been pretty good. The category that I call 'other live tournaments' covers the tournaments that I play during the year that are not part of my regular schedule. This was my most profitable game type for the year, showing a massive 123% Return on Investment (ROI). However, this was due mostly to the single big win that I had in May, and is not representative of the rest of my results, which show a more modest return. Of these, my best results came from the OWMC Friday nighters, with a ROI of 36% and Sky City ring games, with a ROI of 27%. It should be noted however that the results from Sky City are from just three games played towards the end of the year. I also had positive results for the Landmark game and the 50/50 game.
   There were two game types that showed negative results for the year. The first of these was online Sit and Go tournaments. I played these at the $3 level for three months and racked up an 11% loss. That was a failed experiment. The second loss came from online tournaments, which I played through the other nine months of the year. My ROI for these games was -24%. On the face of it this a bad result but I'm not actually too concerned. I did so well in this game type during the summer season that I decided to move up a level in terms of buy-in. I played two seasons at this new level before trying my hand at Sit and Go's in the spring. As a result, I've only actually played eight online tournaments at the new level; the jury's still out on this one. I'll have to play more games of this type before I can get an accurate indication of my progress.
   I'm very happy with my overall results for the past year, showing a 24% ROI for all game types. I also added a new stat to my Poker Summary for 2017. I went back over the last five years' results and worked out an average ROI. It turns out that my average for the last five years has been 24%. That's a great result and I'm very keen to at least maintain that rate of return, and preferably improve on it.
   That brings me to my Poker Plan for the coming year. I know that I will be continuing to play 3 poker games each week, but I'm not at all sure what those games will be. I'm no longer running the Wednesday night tournament and have decided that it's no longer an optimal game, so will be playing it less often this year. My wife is also reconsidering whether she'll continue playing in the Friday night game. If she decides to give up playing that game, then so will I, as I've really only be playing there because she likes (or liked) it. I've heard that the Mangere Cosmopolitan Club have now started playing a $30 freeze-out tournament on Saturday afternoon, so that may be an option. I'll also continue to run the monthly 50/50 Tournament and I will be putting a big effort into increasing the number of participants.
   The other live game that I'm looking at playing during 2018 is the Sky City $1/$3 ring game. My bankroll plan allows me to buy in to these games for $180 (60 big blinds) and I decided that if I lost the equivalent of 3 buy-ins ($540) then I would give it up. I've now played seven cash game sessions and am hovering below the break-even point. I figure that as long as I'm still in the red I'll just play one session per month. If I start making a decent profit then I'll play once every three weeks and if I end up doing very well then I'll start playing fortnightly. But for now, once I emerge from the holiday period, it looks like a monthly trip up to Sky City Casino. I'll either be playing these games on Wednesday night or Saturday night; that's yet to be determined.
   I'm intending to play two live games and one online game every week this year. During the holidays I've been playing in a Pokerstars tournament that starts at 10.30 am, but that will only be available to me on the weekends once I go back to work. There doesn't seem to be anything available at the right buy-in level and a convenient time on 888Poker so I guess I'm playing Pokerstars for the next year. Neither site seems to have evening tournaments at the right level, so Wednesday night (my traditional poker night) could prove to be a problem. In short, I know how often I want to play this year, but where and when I'll be playing are yet to be determined.
   Towards the end of last year I decided that I need to set some short to medium term poker goals for myself. The idea is to have a set of goals that should be achievable in a matter of months and then, when I reach one goal, I can add another to the list. The five goals I have listed so far are as follows:

• Play in at least 3 Sky City cashies over the holidays.
• Make a profit in the Sky cashies equivalent to 3 buy-ins ($540).
• Read 'Harrington on Hold'em, Volume 2.
• Play in at least 10 weekly live tournaments other than the OWMC Friday night games.
• Win an online tournament.

   I'm already 2/3 of the way towards completing the first goal and I should be able to tick it off next Saturday. I'm also currently re-reading the first Harrington book and will be getting a copy of Volume 2 in a few weeks. As far as the online tournament and Sky cashie results go; that depends on me playing well enough to achieve those goals. The fifth goal is more problematic. Whether this will be easy to achieve or not depends a great deal on what my weekly schedule ends up looking like. And that is yet to be revealed.

   Meanwhile, the holiday period has given me a chance to play a few different games, and I've been keeping up my  average of 3 games per week. I was up at the casino on Wednesday night (card dead for 2 hours, short stacked and no big hands for 2 more) and it looks like my wife and I are off to Mangere Cossie tomorrow. And so it goes. New year, same game.