All good things come to an end

Some of this was summarized in my last email...

Well, that magical SNG run that I was on it definately not a positive one anymore. Here is the chart from the last few days:



All told:

$625.50 of entries
$522.60 of cashes
Loss of $102.90

Not exactly what I was looking for, but hopefully I have leveled off and am ready to make a serious run with SNGs again.

Last night was light, played mostly on Stars. Played a 16-man $5 tourney with some friends from around the country and won it for $37.50. Then played one of them head's up 25c/50c NL and got pwned for $60+. Hopped on 3 cash tables and hit 2 nut flushes in about 5 minutes and got paid off on both. Ended up about $55. Also played 2 $4.40 180-man SNGs and got bounced in 30-35th place in each. It alwasy seems like I make it that far and then get bounced, rarely am I out in the first 50ish people.

Also played a 2300-person $2 MTT donkeyfest and managed to limp-cash for a whopping $3.96. Sweet profit there!

Through all of the last week or so, I have managed to donk off $150 in satellite tries for the $100k on PS, $750k on FT, with no successes to speak of. Due to this factor, the bankroll has dipped to $2,579.

Newest development is a site called www.reeferpoker.com. Great site, just got up and running. They have a $700 guaranteed tournament every day at midnight for $1. Yesterday, they had 63 people, so that is quite a nice overlay. Winner gets $175ish. Not bad for a $1 63-man tourney. Check it out. They have a nice deposit bonus and all that great stuff as well. The blind structures are very slow, which allows for good players to do well.

I know on of the guys who helped develop the site and he managed to get me $500 on the site for nothing. See where that takes me. Obviously, no traffic like Stars, but I do want to try it out some more and see what it's all about.

Anyways, talk to you soon, thanks for reading.

Ryan

Quick update

Well, it was a pretty shitty weekend. Recap (as I don't have much time right now):

Played 4-5 Sunday Million satellites, got heads-up in on for the seat and lost with flush vs. higher flush on the river. I actually had a pair on the turn, and was happy to see the flush, but if it doesn't come, I probably win the seat. Ick.

Played several qualifiers for the FTOPS main event with no luck.

Was down over $100 playing SNGs that I had been killing.

Cashed in a $24 90-man KO tourney, finishing 9th with 9 paying. Knocked 3 people out, so it was good for a total of $45+$12=$57. Not bad. Cashed in a 180-man $4 on Stars, finishing 15 or 16 I think. Was short-stacked and limped into the money, busting a few hands later.

Played a couple of random tourneys with no success.

Bankroll dipped under $2,700 to somewhere around $2,650, although haven't checked it to see exactly. My wife is gone for the next 9 days, so I will be playing a lot. But after yesterday (played 20-25 tourneys/satellites/SNGs in about 3 hours) I am kinda tired and almost want a break. But that will have to wait until she gets back.

Oh, also wasted 3000+FPPs on Stars trying to qualify for that 10,000FPPs $2MM tourney, with no success as well. Satellites suck. For me anyways.

The only satellite that I really like is the $8 36-man D.S. on Stars, but they only run it on Saturdays and Sundays. What's up with that?

Either way, will be a poker-filled week and a half, and I will keep you updated as I go. Just take a deep breath now while at work, and think positive thoughts for the evening session.

Also watched the final table of $2,500 FTOPS event. Some sick, sick play. To think that the 9th place guy got $35k or something like that, and the winner got almost $500k, it's just crazy to watch. Some sick calls, with some 3-betting and 4-betting with cards other than AA and KK, was crazy. One hand, a guy raised, was re-raised, and another guy re-raised and it got back to him and he pushed his whole stack in. Both of the other guys tanked forever and folded, and the original pusher showed 99. I am sure he was behind, but FUCK!, that takes balls.

Talk to you guys later, thanks for reading.

Ryan

Pretty Sparatic Today

I am actually down over the last 24 hours. Ick.

Summary:

$6.00+0.50 6-man turbo SNGs: 20 played, total cashes $82.80
$11.00+1.00 6-man turbo SNGs: 13 played, total cashes $132.00
$22.00+2.00 6-man turbo SNGs: 1 played, total cashes $85.80 (won that one)
Also played a $2.15 HU turbo SNG for shits and giggles, as well as a $5.00+0.50 45-man that I made the final table short-stacked and finished 8th for no money.

Overall:

Total Entries: $317.65
Total Cashes: $300.60
Profit (Loss): -$17.05 (I don't understand)

Again, thank God for the win in the $22 SNG, or I would have been down a hundy.

Visual proof:



Sharkscope stats to date:




Anyways, not the greatest of days, but could have been worse. Lots of 3rd place finishes, not winning the races that I was before, and got sucked out on plenty of times. Various bubble hands include:

KK loses to A3
AK loses to AJ
KJ loses to QJ
99 loses to 55

I won a few races as well, but overall, I was shocked at how many races I lost, as well as how many times I got sucked out on. Oh, forgot to mention the AK vs. A9 when we got it all in PF and my opponent flopped trips. Had to laugh at that one.

Anywho, not going to complain, variance sucks, but I was due for some losses I guess. I continue to put my money in good for the most part, and that's all I can ask for.

Thanks to anyone reading this blog, and I will have an update by Monday at the latest. Hope to qualify for an FTOPS event, and will be spending a little bit of money trying to do that in the next few days.

Good luck to everyone!

Ryan

SNGs, Eve of 2/13, Morn of 2/14

Played strictly 6-man turbo SNGs again last night and this morning. Overall, it looked like this:

24 played, cashed in 12, 5 wins, 7 seconds.
Total entries: $240.50
Total Winnings: $327.60
Profit: $87.10
ROI: $36%

Visual Proof:



Played in 2 of the $22+2 SNG, and was lucky to place first in 1 of them for a cash of $85ish. Take that one out, and I was about even for the lot of SNGs. But alas, I managed to win it and keep my streak of positive days going.

I want to get in a few FTOPS qualifiers in the next few days, but Valentines Day throws a kink in things as far as poker goes, but improves things in other areas. :P

Bankroll update: $2,746

Gradually moving up since I started this SNG deal. No big swings to speak of, which makes my conservative brain feel much better.

Anyways, back to work, and probably no poker for a couple of days, but starting Sunday, 10 straight days of grinding baby!

Talk to you all soon.

Ryan

SNGs - Eve of 02/12, Morn of 02/13

General Recap:

14 games played (All 6-man turbos)
8 x $6.00+0.50
6 x $11+1

$6.00+0.50
Total entry fees: $52.00
Total won: $48.60
Profit: $(3.40)
ROI: -$6.5%

$11+1
Total entry fees: $66.00
Total won: $132.00
Profit: $66.00
ROI: 100%

Overall Profit: $62.60
Overall ROI: 53%



Threw in a FTOPS main event qualifer, and played that like a donk, for an overall nightly profit of $53.80. I want to throw in a few more of those qualifer, perhaps the $24+2 qualifier, as I have a few tokens to use. Part of me thinks though that if I get in, I will play too nitty.

I just want a shot though...

Next update soon.

Ryan

SNG update

Sticking with these... Here is this morning's stats:

Games Played: 14
Total Entries: $136
Won (Profit): $200.40 ($64.40)
ROI: 47%

Interesting SNG stats so far:

All SNGs

Games Played: 211
Total Entries: $1,681
Won (Profit): $2,370 ($689)
ROI: 41%

February SNGs by type:

$11.00+$1.00 6-man turbos

Games Played: 27
Total Entries: $324
Won (Profit): $620.70 ($296.70)
ROI: 92% (Wow!)

$6.00+$0.50 6-man turbos

Games Played: 68
Total Entries: $442
Won (Profit): $559.8 ($117.8)
ROI: 27% (Not as good, but still good)

Needless to say, no more cash games for me for a while. Gonna try and mix in some MTTs here in the next week. My wife is gone on Sunday, so I will have 10 days of nightly MTTs. Hopefully, I can run as well as I have been in these SNGs.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan

A weekend full of SNGs...

Throw in about 30 mins of cash games and a couple of MTTs, and that was my weekend. My wife had a friend in from out of town, along with her two kids, and they spent a lot of time together. Eventhough I had the kids with me most of the time, during naps and early bedtimes, I was able to get quit a bit of poker in.

As discussed previously, I am on a terrible downswing playing cash games. Yes, that is what brought my roll to where it was 30 days ago, and I did have a good run at one point, but right now, I am so timid, every time I play a hand, I think I am going to get beat. It has been rough, and an attitude like that, you never are going to win.

I am fiding myself checking down with TPTK, folding to semi-bluffs and then by the time the river hits, I would have won the hand. Not trusting reads or betting patterns, and just all in all playing horrible cash game poker.

Hence my decision to focus more on SNGs. I have always liked them, and the fact that going broke on a hand only costs you a buy-in is nice, although winning an all-in doesn't guarantee you any money either.

I posted my SNG history in the last post, and here are my results since then:








And then here is my overall SNG history brought to you by Sharkscope:





I have not kept track of cash games that well, or really at all since I have started playing, but these SNG stats are pretty decent. I guess the trick would be to move up a level and see how that goes. I have been playing mostly $6 and $11 6-man turbos. Would be really great if there were a $15ish turbo, but instead, I would have to move up to $22 turbos. I don't have any problem doing that, I am just a little bit of a bankroll nit.

What is usually the case is that, like right now, I would play three $6 6-man turbos and two $11 6-man turbos. With tourney fees, that $43.50 for those 5 SNGs. If I win one of the $11 SNGs, I break even and the rest is gravy. I know it is a nitty way to look at it, but I like to have 4-6 SNGs going at once, and the goal (obviously) would be to profit at least something on that round of SNGs. I have played about 13 "rounds" the last few days, and only ended up down on one occasion, so it has been working.

Crazy thing about the weekend, the summary of my cash experiences lately:

How does he call this?

Nice runner-runer donk!


Quickest $70 I ever spent. Really depressing after grinding it out on SNGs and then losing a bulk of the profit in 3 minutes.

Anyways, back to the SNG grind. Hope you are all well, thanks for reading, and good luck at the tables.

Ryan

Does anybody read this blog?

Not that I am really concerned about it, what I really want to do is look back 5 years from now, when I am consistantly playing higher and higher staked tourneys and cash games, that I see where I came from and the micro-stakes I used to play, and be thankful that I am playing for $1000's every day.

As far as today goes, things are good, I have been playing more and more sit-n-gos, less cash games. Didn't play much the last 36 hours or so, but have increased the roll slightly. Up to $2,454.

Hope to have a good long update with some interesting hands by the end of the weekend.

Good luck at the tables.

Ryan

Sit'n'Gos the way to Go?

Take a look at February so far in Sit-n-gos:



To summarize, I have paid $272.50 to play in however many sit-n-gos that is, and have won $420.90m for an overall ROI of 54%. Why am I playing cash games?

Now, I have been running pretty decent in these sit-n-gos, but still, I put myself in good situations, and I don't fear stacking off for $50 on one hand. I make a couple of good moves in a $10 6-man, and I can profit $30 if I win. I lose $10 if I get sucked out on. Somehow, I like the look of that better. Also, it seems as though in the levels I am playing ($5 to $12 sit-n-gos, with the occasional $22) people don't mind getting it all it with a shitty hand. I am a pretty tight player by nature, and have always felt that is why I am successful at sit-n-gos.

Barring passport problems, my wife will be out of town for 10 days starting February 17 in the am. That gives me a chance to qualify for the last 2 FTOPS events, which I will try to do, as well as play 10 solid days of poker after that. I want to try and start working out, as I am up 10 pounds since December 20th. But I have a long opportunity to play a lot of poker, and I will try and take advantage as much as possible.

With a solid run of sit-n-gos, my bankroll is back up to $2,400. Let's get to $3k by the end of February. Lord know I will have a lot of opportunities to get there.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support. Good luck at the tables!

Ryan

Quick Update - Not Good

Have been running like shit.
Busted out of the 5th round of the EPT qualifying.
Haven't had time to play tourneys.
Cash games have been awful. JJ running into QQ running into KK running into AA.
Bankroll down to $2,150.
Not happy right now.
Not happy at all.
Time to run better.
Please.

Ryan