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SwingSwingSwing's Poker Journey
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Woo Hoo! Sharkscope Stats are in the Black |
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Written by SwingSwingSwing
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Friday, 06 February 2009 19:04 |
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 Well, it's only February and I have achieved my solitary concrete poker goal for 2009. As of 6.50pm today Sharkscope has me as being $4 in profit. So I'm hanging up my poker gloves. I've achieved all that I wanted to in poker. Nobody can take that away from me. Best to retire while at the top of one's game.
Only kidding! It is quite satisfying though, knowing that you have improved and that this is starting to show through in the results. Since my last post, I've switched from the $5.50 regular 9 mans to the $6.50 turbos. I probably should have done this a while ago but it I foolishly believed that I had a bigger edge with the regular format. What tosh. With turbos, you get into the push/fold stage faster and this is better for a player like me who has got a reasonably good knowledge of ICM and push/fold strategy. Since the switch my ROI is 13%, although my sample size is exceptionally small. I've even managed to win a few. I've managing to keep up with my other targets too. Lots of videos are being watched, live coachings are being attended and I've been reviewing my hands and taking quizzes. Long may this continue.
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Written by SwingSwingSwing
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Tuesday, 27 January 2009 14:25 |
It's been quiet couple of weeks on the poker front, mainly because at this time of year, I find myself knee deep in doing my other half's tax return.
This would go a whole lot smoother if my other half actually updated her accounts on a monthly basis....but she doesn't. So January becomes an ordeal with me trying to make sense of her spreadsheets, asking awkward questions about transactions over a year ago to which she doesn't know the answers to. Next year, it's going to be different. Mind you, I've been saying that for the last 5 years.
Getting back to poker, I've not played that much since the last posting. I did watch a couple of PrimordialAA's HU SNG videos on The SNG Academy and I followed it up by playing a few low buyin tournies. So far, it's played 3 - won 3. Apart from that I've played a grand total of two regular SNGs. One was a $5.50 regular on Stars in which I bubbled, the other a $1 turbo on Party which I got second with my usual heads up luck - all in with KQs against opponents QJ. He makes a straight on the river. Sharkscope now track SNGs on Party and that one was the first to make it into the database. I've got an ROI of 140%!
Now, although I haven't been playing, I have been keeping up with the learning. I've been attending the coaching sessions on PokerStrategy with Chenny888 and Unam and I've been watching the videos on The SNG Academy. But I do need to do some SNG ICM quizzes before the end of the month to keep up with my 2009 targets.
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Written by SwingSwingSwing
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Wednesday, 07 January 2009 11:16 |
2008 has now passed by and I suppose I should do the obligatory 'yearly summary' post.
So how have things gone? In financial terms, I haven't a clue! My record keeping hasn't been brilliant this year. But I haven't deposited any fresh money on any site and my balances on my current sites look healthy. I've probably made a small loss over the year but I'm not too fussed. I do promise, however, to improve my record keeping this year.
My regular reader may recall that I had set myself two specific poker goals for the year. One - to get my Five Card Draw winnings back into positive territory and Two - to get my Sharkscope winnings into positive figures.
Target One was achieved in October but Target Two has been a bit more elusive. The revised target was to win $177 in SNGs before the end of 2008 and last month I had resigned myself to missing it and falling some way short. But I had a late rally after I discovered the "mother-lode" of SNGs - the 20man 210FPP qualifier to the Sunday Hundred Grand. Earlier on in the year I had a go at the 70FPP single table satellites to the same tournie. In these, only the winner got the tournie ticket. My performance in these was pretty poor - only two wins out of 70 attempts. But in the 20man tournies, the top 6 get tickets. This combined with the generally terrible level of play and my improved SNG skill level meant that I was able to accumulate $110 in 23 tournaments, finishing in the money 43% of the time and having an hourly rate of $9. Easy money indeed. I just wish I had more FPPs!
This $110 plus the $11 I was up in my regular SNG play brought my total winnings to $121. So I was $56 short of my target which was a lot better than I was expecting.
So what are my poker goals for 2009?
As I missed the 2008 Sharkscope goal I'm going to carry it over into 2009. According to Sharkscope today, I'm only $48 down so this should be fairly easy.
And that's the only concrete measurable goal I'm going to set. Other woolly goals are to continue with my poker education. I've currently a member of StoxPoker, The SNG Academy and PokerStrategy and I'm going to commit more time to watching videos on StoxPoker and The SNG Academy, attending "live" coachings on PokerStrategy, more post-game analysis using SNG Wizard and to do more quizzes on SNG Wizard and PokerStrategy's ICM Trainer software.
So, in summary.
1. Get my Sharkscope winnings back into positive figures.
2. Watch at least two videos a week from StoxPoker and The SNG Academy.
3. Attend at least two "live" coaching sessions a month on PokerStrategy.
4. Review all SNGs in SNG Wizard.
5. Do quizzes in SNG Wizard and ICM Trainer once a month.
Let's see how that goes.
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It was the worst of days, it was the best of days. |
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Written by SwingSwingSwing
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Monday, 12 January 2009 12:22 |
The story of my weekend - Saturday sucked. Sunday was great!
The Significant Other was off teaching at a yoga course leaving me all alone to play poker. I was knackered on Friday evening and fell asleep while watching a SNG Academy video. Not the best of starts!
Saturday was much of the same, nodding off during Soccer AM and the midday footie. In the afternoon I managed to keep myself awake enough to fire up the laptop and sign on to PokerStars. I wish I hadn't bothered. Played 6 SNGs. Bombed in the first 4 including a shot at a $10. Back down to the $5 and got a second and third. I had a quick review of my games and noticed that I was pushing too hard at the 10BB level, forgetting that I can wait until 5-6BBs before I really need to push things.
Sunday was much better. After walking the dogs and doing the weekly shop, I went through to the "office" and signed on to Stars while watching the Hearts-Hibs Cup game. Again, I played 6 SNGs but this time I cashed in them all. Three 2nds and three 3rds, making my form "Super Hot" according to Sharkscope. Woo Hoo! It was like night and day. My play on the Sunday was so much better. No pushing light at 10BBs, no pushing into the loose chip leader who's likely to call with any two cards.
One aspect that I wasn't particularily happy with was my heads up play. In two of my three second places, I had a substantial chip lead but was being totally outplayed, especially when the stacks were fairly deep. So this week, I'm going to watch some of PrimordialAA's HU SNG videos on The SNG Academy and perhaps play some low buyins for a wee practice.
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The WBCOOP and SNG Update |
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Written by SwingSwingSwing
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Monday, 22 December 2008 12:57 |
Following up from the previous post, I played in the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker on Pokerstars.
Rather than have one big tournie, PokerStars had arranged several qualifiers leading up to the big final on Sunday evening. I played in two qualifiers. In the first I finished 100-and-something in the first which wasn't good enough to win a seat in the final. In the second, on Saturday evening, I finished 35th, enough to win me a seat in the final and, unknown to me at the time, a step 2 ticket.
I had my fair share of good hands in the qualifier and was in the top two or three for quite a while. Unfortunately, I donked off a fair portion of my stack on a blind steal that I could stop bluffing at which brought me down a fair bit. I still had enough of stack to finish in the qualifiers so I basically shut down. I got a bit of shock when the bubble burst and the tournie didn't end. WTF? The tournie info said "72 qualifiers to tournie xxxxx". So after a quick visit to the Pokerstars site I realised that that there were various tournie packages available as well. Bollocks. I've known that I may not have donked off my stack in that blind steal.
Onto the final. Urgh. Didn't really get going. My table was fairly tough and I was definitely out of my league. My key hand was when I ran my pocket queens into pocket aces allin pre flop. Looking back it was a stupid play be me. I raised first in on the button. Small blind reraises me big. Looking at his fairly passive stats I should have known then that he had a monster. But no, pocket queens are the nuts I thought, so I pushed. Obviously I didn't get any help.
Overall I rather enjoyed the experience. It was great to recognize some of the names at some of my tables like Change100, BuddyDank and one of my poker blogger favourites the Poker Grump who I managed to show a 42o blind steal too.
What else have I been up to? Not much really. I don't think I'm going to make my SNG target by the end of the year. My target was to win $177 in SNGs before the end of the year. But my figures as of yesterday were:-
Played: 86. Won: $8. ROI: 1.7%.
Not very impressive. I finish in the money about 49% of the time but I've got too many third places and not enougt firsts. When I do get to heads up, luck seems to desert me. For example, I get to Heads Up yesterday. It's 200/400 blinds. I've got T6882 my opponent T6018. I'm on the button and raise to 1200 with AKo. My opponent calls. The flop comes 797 rainbow. My opponent pushes all in with his 5218. Now this guy loves to checkraise when he's got a hand so this doesn't smell right. I call. He shows A2 of spades and I'm about a 77% favourite. The turn comes the Jack of spades putting two on board. I'm still a 67% favourite. River brings the final spade.
Crippled, I push my A9o on the next hand and get called by Q3. I lose of course.
I'm going to carry on with the SNGs just now. I feel my game is definitely getting better. And to give me a bit more focus I've joined The SNG Academy, a new training site set up by DuderinoAB covering 9 man, 6 man, Heads Up and MTT Sit'n'Gos.
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