O-Poker

Loopy's bi-millennial post!

Yes, I've decided to chime in with some hopefully witty and valuable insight on the world of poker.

First things first... I love Poker Tracker. Cmitch has been using it for a while now and I finally bit the bullet and purchased it at the beginning of the year. It's a MUST HAVE tool for online poker as it keeps track of every imaginable stat and helps you to understand your game in much more detail. Wanna know how often your ACES get cracked? No problem, just look it up. (I win with AA 90.7% of the time to this point). Need to plug that leak of pushing too hard in the SB? PT is a great reality check that gives detailed results for making the necessary adjustments.

That being said, there is nothing worse than checking your stats and seeing a long list of RED numbers! In the last 30 tournament entries (including MTT's, S&G's and sats) I have cashed a whopping 5 times :( It's gotten to the point that I am expecting to get drawn out on and that is NOT GOOD. How does one get out of a funk when it keeps happening over and over? QQ runs into KK or AA (7 out of 10 times holding QQ in the last 27 online sessions), AQ flops top two and runs into a set, middle set runs into top set, and so on. These situations I can actually live with a little more as I'm a dog post flop, but the seemingly endless 2-5 outers on the turn and river are getting tough to swallow.

I know I know... Bad beats happen. Every poker player knows this and expects them from time to time as it's part of the game. But variance is raining down on me like I lost a bet and had to get in the ring with Tyson circa 1987.. wait, was he in jail in '87? Anyway, you get the picture. Anyone have suggestions for knocking out Tyson, or better yet getting back on track after a rough few weeks?

F-Variance... and Mike Tyson!!!

My 4 year old daughter goes to a Catholic Preschool. I don't ever discuss poker with anyone at the church and or the school. I have always had the attitude of "Don't ask, Don't Tell" is best when it comes to poker in a religious setting. After all for some, "Gambling is Evil!" and poker is often associated with pure gambling.

The Catholic Church subscribes to everything in moderation, so I suppose poker/gambling wouldn't necessarily always been veiwed as wrong as long as it didn't effect yourself or your family in a negative way. It is kind of along the same lines as drinking. They always have a beer garden set up at the fall festival.

Imagine my surprise when we looked in our daughter's backpack and it had information about Casino night. I knew they were having a Casino night. My wife had even signed me up to work the event. (We have to volunteer for a couple of events each year while our daughter goes to school there.) What surprised me was that they are having a NLHE tourney with 1st place getting a trip to Vegas and entry into a WSOP Super Sat. I think my wife is going to work the event and I am going to play the tourney.

The whole idea got me thinking about things that will happen at this event. (Hopefully, no one will be offended. It is all in fun.)

What kind of chips will be used? Communion wafers?

Do I get in serious trouble if I check raise the preist?

Do I have to go to confession after running a huge bluff?

I have to be very careful not to yell, "JEEEEZUS!!" after I get sucked out on.

Will I win my races if I pray harder?

If I win the tourney and win the Super Sat and go onto win the WSOP, will the Catholic Church use my likeness in a new promotional campaign to get all the young guys to go to church? Will this lead to a lot more praying at the poker table?

Feel free to add anything that you think might happen at the tourney that I may have missed.

cmitch

I played a live $100 tourney on Friday night. There were 13 players and the guy running the game allows one rebuy/player during the first 3 rounds. There were six rebuys bringing the total buy-ins to $1,900. The tourney paid the top 3 spots with the house taking a 12.5% rake. The payouts were as follows:

1st place (50%) - $950
2nd place (25%) - $475
3rd place (12.%) - $237.50
House rake - $237.50

When we got down to 5 players the blinds were pretty high and I offered a deal for a save for 4th and 5th. It was take $200 off first and give 4th and 5th $100 each with 1st still getting $750. One guy refused and we played on. That guy was eliminated a couple of hands later and the rest of us agreed to a save for 4th place of $200. (The interesting thing about the final 4 players was none of us had rebought.) So the adjusted payouts were as follows:

1st place - $750
2nd place - $475
3rd place - $237.50
4th place - $200

After the fourth place guy busted out, one guy had all the chips and the blinds were ridiculous. The chip leader wanted $700 and for us to split the rest. I told him that deal was incredibly lopsided in his favor. After some back and forth, I offered $400 for each of the short stacks and the remaining for him ($663). After about 10 minutes, he offered to take $675 leaving me and the other guy $393/each. I agreed because I was planning on heading to another game that night, the blinds were crazy and I had no chips.

I'm not sure if I made a bad deal, but I could have easily finished 3rd for $237.

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I played one WSOP Step 3 on Party from the freeroll that I had and finished 5th or 6th moving me back to Step 3. I am convinced that I will be trapped in this Step SNGs forever.

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$50K Challenge

Things have been kind of stagnant lately in the $50K Challenge. I have been playing 4 tables at a time and have loaded all the hands in pokertracker. I usually take all the pokertracker sessions and input them in an Excel Spreadsheet. I have about 2 weeks worth of hands that I need to put into Excel right now. The number of sessions is going to take me forever to input because every session is 4 tables and I usually start and stop a couple of times a night - so there are at least 8 sessions per day times 2+ weeks (over 100 sessions to input in Excel.)

I was up for the week but took some brutal beats last night. Below is where I currently stand.

$50K Challenge Status - $12,832

I probably won't be able to play much this week since my Mom is coming in town. I plan to try to analyze my stats and re-focus my efforts hard starting April 1st.

cmitch

The simple answer is Yes. Sometimes I am Loose Aggressive (LAG); Sometimes I am Tight Aggressive (TAG). I will often switch back and forth from a LAG to TAG style on the same table. Somtimes, I will be playing TAG on two tables and LAG on two tables. It depends on several different things. (Most of this refers to cash games, but a lot it is the same in SNGs and Tourneys.)

1. Position, Position, Position - Position is extremely, extremely important. I can't emphasize that enough. I will often play LAG on the button or cutoff and TAG in the blinds. Depending on the other players at the table, LAG can be very difficult out of the blinds. Suppose you have AQo (NL game) and the flop is a rainbow A102. You bet or check-raise and your opponent re-raises. You really don't have much of a choice but to fold or put your entire stack on the line with only top pair, 2nd kicker. This won't be profitable in the long run unless you have a really good read on your opponent or he is a maniac capable of putting all his chips in with a draw or a weak ace. It is best to play a lot tighter out of position and give up to major resistance.

2. Table Image - If I have been raising a lot without showing down my big hands and have a LAG image, I will switch to a TAG image. People will start to think you are playing less than premium hands if you have been raising a lot and may start to play back at you with marginal hands. By switching from a LAG to TAG style, you with get paid off by some of the guys that decide to "take a stand" against you. The opposite is also true. If you have been playing TAG at the table for a while and have only shown down monster hands, you can switch to a LAG style and re-raise (in position) with some draws and get others to lay down their hands.

3. Do they think you are tilting? - I love it when I have just lost a big pot (that's not the part I love) and get dealt a big hand the very next hand. Some players will think you are steaming/tilting if you make an overbet after losing a big pot, especially if you were sucked out on. A recent example of this for me - I was playing in a tourney and was dealt KK. I was top 10 in chips and got all in preflop against a medium stack with AJ. The AJ made a 5 high straight and I lost more than half of my stack. To my pleasant surprise, I was dealt AA the very next hand. There was a raise by the time it got around to me. I immediately went all-in hoping he would think I was steaming. No tricky AA plays here. A very solid player called my overbet with QQ without hesitation. The same player may have laid down that hand if it didn't look like I was steaming. (probably 50/50 for him instead of insta-call.)

4. Stack Size - I will play more of a LAG style with a big stack whether it is in a NL cash game, tourney, or sng. You can put a lot of pressure on the smaller stacks and take down more uncontested pots. Also, Your bets usually get more respect if you have a big stack.

There are several other factors that lead to playing a LAG or TAG style, but I think there is a key them. In cash games, if you are going to play a pot you have to be Aggressive!! Without aggression it is very hard to tell where your hand stands and you will also let them catch a hand a lot.

Feel free to comment and shoot holes in my thoughts above. They don't always apply to all situations, especially if you have some tricky players at your table that have played against you a lot.

cmitch

...beyond that which in known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is in the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and supersition, and it lies between the pit of man's fear and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination (and frustration). The signpost up ahead - your next stop the Party Poker WSOP Step Zone!!

I am trapped and can't get out. I now remember why I stopped playing the Party Poker Step SNGs even though I had great results. I feel like a rat trapped in a maze - every time I make a few turns I wind up back where I started. There is no way out without just climbing over the wall at the side of the maze.

I decided to try my luck by playing two of the WSOP Regular Step tourneys on Party Poker. They are SNGs that advance the top spots to the next step (sng), some players replay the same step and others move back a step. The winner of the final step (step 5) wins a WSOP package. Click this link for more details.

I have invested $430 in the Steps by playing two WSOP Step 3 SNGs. I played both $215 Step 3s at the same time. I haven't been able to break into Step 4 yet. See my results below and you will understand why I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone.

WSOP Steps
1st Attempt
1st Game - WSOP Step 3 - finished 3rd; Repeat Step 3.
2nd Game - WSOP Step 3 - finished 4th; Repeat Step 3.
3rd Game - WSOP Step 3 - finished 3rd; Repeat Step 3.
4th Game - WSOP Step 3 - finished 3rd; Repeat Step 3.
5th Game - WSOP Step 3 - finished 4th; Repeat Step 3.
6th Game - WSOP Step 3 - Pending

2nd Attempt
1st Game - WSOP Step 3 - finished 6th; Move Back to Step 2.
2nd Game - WSOP Step 2 - Pending

I'll spare the bad beat stories and the coinflip losses. At this rate, I may make it out of Step 3 sometime around the start of the World Series in 2010!! I don't think my play has been poor at the end of these Step SNGs - I really have just gotten unlucky.

I think I will start to play one of these every other day until my brain is completely numb. (Playing one everyday would probably put me in the loony bin.)

Anyone else have any experience with these? How do you deal with the monotony (sp?)? Anyone reading this actually win one of these yet - maybe give me some hope?

cmitch

I'm back from vacation and it sucks. (back to posting on the blog regulary also) I have so much to do. I have a week's worth of work to catch up on. We had a great time at the beach. Now that I'm back the beach seems like a distant memory hidden behind the pile of work I need to get through.

As far as poker goes - I played some over vacation but not a whole lot.

I tried out the WSOP steps on Party and will try to post about that later today or tomorrow.

No update this week on the $50K Challenge since I didn't play a lot and haven't updated any of the spreadsheets. I think I am right around $15k (+/-$500) - so about the same as last week. I will provide a more detailed update next Monday and get back to regularly updating every Monday.

The heads up challenge 3 started while I was on vacation and I'm a little bummed that I didn't get in it. I entered the HUC2 right after I started blogging and had a blast. I'll be watching and rooting everyone on. Good luck to all that are in it.

I have a lot more thoughts running through my head, but I'm swamped at work right now and my sunburned brain is a little numb, so I'll post more as the week goes on.

cmitch

Two completely different NLH tournament situations and how they were handled

March of 2004 was my first “big” live tournament cash. It was downtown in Vegas at Binion’s Gambling Hall and Hotel (yes, that’s what Harrah’s calls it now) in their daily $70 with one $40 rebuy tourney. I lost a big pot early with KK to a young college kid to my right holding AQ when he spiked an A on the river. We had been talking in the early stages of the tournament and he was moved shortly thereafter saying “I’ll see you at the final table” as he walked away.

I was able to double up three times before the first break and won a huge pot shortly after break-time marching into the final table with a solid stack in the top 4. As if it were scripted, I look over and the kid from my first table is once again directly to my right and this time has a HUGE stack. He bullied the final table from the get go and was able to build a healthy 2 to 1 lead on his nearest competitor in the first 30 minutes. He was raising nearly every hand preflop which allowed me to sit tight and wait for premiums. Long story short, I ended up busting him when we were three handed by going over the top more than a few times and finally catching him with QQ against my AA.

I was then heads up and we decided to chop based on chip counts which gave me a nice $1,900. Even though I feel I could have won the tournament, the decision based on a few factors. First place was somewhere around $2,300 and second was near $1,400. With the chop I was assured $500 more than a second place finish. Second, we had been playing since noon and it was now almost 7pm. With plans for the evening it unfortunately became a time issue as well. Did I make the right decision? Did I make the decision too quickly??

On the other side of the (MUCH LARGER) coin

The weekly Sunday night $1,000,000 guaranteed tournament on PokerStars has become a complete monster. 5,000 plus entries is a regular occurrence and you can count on at least 10k when reaching the final table.

Last night Roothlus made the final table finishing third for 56k. This sounds great, right? Well, the question is; how good is 56k if you’re assured 95k? Roothlus turned down a 4 way chop that assured him of a 95k finish with a chance at winning 115k as PokerStars requires 20k to be left on the table.

With four players remaining, the group agreed to discuss a deal based on chip counts. The chip leader (bsbarber) was guaranteed 97k, Roothlus would have made 86k and the other two were near 80k. All agreed immediately except Roothlus who said no deal unless he was given 95k. The others were not happy, but reluctantly agreed to give up 1k each while bsbarber would make up for the rest. Everyone agreed until Roothlus had a last second change of heart and forced the others to play on.

The first hand back Geoeng went out 4th and Roothlus went out soon after holding AK vs. 99. The final two (bsbarber and Huck Biggins) immediately chopped based on chip counts and went home with over 100k each. Roothlus explained later, “I lost a 50k coinflip but honestly these 2 players were the WORST I'VE EVER SEEN this deep.” on pocketfives. Here's the rest of the story: ABOUT THE CHOP

I'm interested to hear what others think of chopping in either of these situations.

Loopy

I'll make this a quick post since I'm at the beach with a weak wireless connection and the kids are napping.

Yesterday afternoon, after a morning at the beach, I found myself saying, "Life doesn't get much better than this." Everyone was taking a nap, both kids and my wife. I was sitting in a recliner with the sliding glass door open listening to the waves crash, watching the action in the pool, watching the Florida Gators win the SEC Championship on TV, playing online poker and tossing back a few beers. What more could you ask for?

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Quick $50K Challenge Update - haven't logged everything yet.

Current Status in $50K Challenge - $15,716
Profit Since last update (1 week) - $1,477

Time for another beer.

cmitch

I won't be posting much for about a week because we are heading to the beach for a much need vacation. Woohooo!! Also, I probably won't be able to update the $50k Challenge until after we get back - so no Monday update this week. For now let's just say that I LOVE PARTY POKER. :)

I have asked Loopy to pick up the posting slack while I'm gone. Hopefully this will be the catalyst that gets him back into posting.

May your Aces never get cracked. May your suited connectors turn into the nuts.

Good luck at the tables,

cmitch

Sometimes I feel sorry for them. They aren't even giving themselves a chance. I guess they are "taking their shot." I'm talking about the players that are obviously sitting down at a NL cash game with the last of their bankroll.

I have mentioned this before but I got to thinking about it a lot yesterday. I was playing a couple of 3/6 NL shorthanded tables with max buy-ins of $600 and a player sat down with $204.70. Why not $600, $300, or even $200? It was obvious to me that this was his remaining Party Poker balance. A guy that sits down with his entire remaining bankroll fits into one of two categories 95% of the time. He is either playing scared or is just gambling (double or nothing attitude). Either way, the rest of the players will get all his chips most of the time.

The Guy Playing Scared

• He won't call much of a bet preflop.
• He will fold to any raise or re-raise preflop or postflop if he misses.
• You can almost always force him to fold any hand that isn't the nuts or pretty close to it.
• You know where your hand stands against him 90% of the time.

Example - $3/$6NL Cash Game - You call Scared Player's min-raise preflop in position and everyone else folds. (Your hand doesn't matter at this point.) The pot is now $33. The flop comes all low cards and he bets $12 into the $33 pot. You can find out pretty fast if he has a high pair or just two big cards. A raise to $30 should do the trick. The scared player is folding almost every time he misses. With a flop containing all low cards, he is going to continue only with a big pair or set. You are betting $30 to win $45 and he is definitely folding more than 50% of the time. You only need to win 2 out of 5 hands like this to break even (if my math is correct) - any more wins than that and you show a profit. Some of those hands you may have a monster which increases your positive outcome even more. Against Scared Player, you are definitely coming out way ahead. Eventually he may take a stand but it will be too late.

5 Hands - Win 2 out of 5. Win 2 = +$90; Lose 3 = -$90; Net = $0

Win 3 out of 5. Win 3 = $135; Lose 2 = -$60; Net+$75

• It won't take long to figure out if the short buy-in guy is just there to gamble or if he is just playing tight trying to double up.
• The gambler will start going all-in a lot. Pay extra attention to what hands he goes all-in with.
• He usually won't be paying attention to your play. You can tighten way up and set him up for his whole stack.
• He usually goes all-in or check-raises all-in with Top Pair ANY Kicker or Flush/Straight Draws.
• You almost have to view them like you would a short stack in the late stages of a tourney. He could be taking a stand/betting all his money with anything all the way down to 22. That is why it is very important to see how he is playing.
• Most ideal situation is to have someone else double up the gambler. He won't change his style and his deeper stack will allow you to play a lot more hands against him.
• Like the Scared Player, eventually you or someone else at the table will have all his money. The only difference is that it won't take much time for this guy to lose it all.

A lot of times some of the minimum buy-in guys will also fit into these categories. Loopy was telling me about a guy we know that bought into the 3/6NL game on stars with $400 of his $1,000 bankroll. He knew I was doing well at the NL cash games and thought he could also - good thought. Instead of sitting down at $0.25/$0.50 NL or even 1/2NL, he decided to sit at the 3/6NL because I had just won a $1,200 pot ($600 net) in one of my 3/6 games. I didn't watch him play but I'm sure he fit into one of the categories - he had 40% of his bankroll on the table.

Pay attention to how each player is playing and the games should be more profitable.

Good luck at the tables,

cmitch

I usually play no more than two tables at a time, but lately I have been experimenting with playing 3 or 4 tables at a time. I think that I have discovered that I am best at playing two tables at the same time. When playing two tables I can still get a great feel for all the players at the tables and how they play particular hands.

I have a theory about Multi-tabling. I commented on Poker4Peace's blog about it a while ago.

My theory is that the amount of tables you can multi-table comfortable is related to your age - specifically which video games that you grew up with.

I am old by online poker standards (33) and can easily handle 2 tables, sometimes 3 if the TV isn't on. I grew up playing Atari and I played a ton of video games when I was young. Atari had 1 controller with 1 button (see picture). Some of the games were more complex than others but basically you moved around with the controller and used the 1 button when necessary. In the arcade I played games like Pac-Man, Galaga, Kung Fu (very complicated because it had two controllers), Space Invaders, etc.

When I was in college, video games started to get a little more complicated. We had Nintendo and Super Nintendo and played games like Techno Bowl and Super Techno Bowl. The Nintendo Systems had a controller that was four buttons (up, down, left, and right) and a couple of buttons if I remember correctly. Some of the moves started to get a little complicated but weren't that complex.

A few years later Playstation 1 game along and more buttons started to get added.

I purchased the Playstation 2 when it came on the market a few years ago. I immediately discovered that some of the games had way too many things going on for me. It has two controllers (or 3 depending on how you look at it) and eight buttons. There were several games that I just didn't enjoy playing because they had way too many things going on and way too many buttons to use.

Fast forward to today. There are a lot of online poker players that are young. They may have heard of Atari, but it is something ancient to them like the Black and White TV. They grew up playing the games that have 18 different controllers and buttons that can be used to perform 1,540 different functions in a given video game. The complex video games are simple to them since that is all they ever knew. That is what they played from the beginning.

Playing 8 tables at once is no big deal to a lot of these young video gamers. It is only 1 mouse click in eight different locations - a lot easier than pressing up, up, left, left, down, X, Triangle, Square all within a split second to peform that "Kill" move on the latest death match video game.

I am not saying that older (over 30) players can't multi-table successfully. I am just saying that it takes a lot more work for us, older guys/girls, to get used to playing several tables at on time.

How many tables do you play? Do you think it relates to the video games that you grew up with?

Maybe one day I will be able to play 8 tables at once, but for now I'll stick to Ms. Pac-Man and two tables.

cmitch

We are heading to the beach next week for a well deserved vacation. It couldn't have come at a better time. I have been working like crazy lately and all of us are finally getting over our colds/flus/ear infections/etc.

The strange thing about a vacation is that you always seem to work the hours that you take off before and after your vacation. I am going to be busting my ass this week to get some things out the door before the vacation and again the week after we get back. I will probably wind up working more extra hours than the 40 hours that I am taking off.

I will definitely forget all about work while I'm out the beach though, so I guess that is what it's all about.

I'll try to post regularly but it may be a little tough this week due to the extra workload.

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SUCKOUT CITY

I was grinding along pretty well last week and was up over $1,600 when I ran into the biggest run of suckouts that I have seen in a while. I looked back through the hand histories and it was all just bad luck. I got all-in 5 times with the best hand only to lose to anything from 2/3 outers to flush draws. This was all in the course of 2 nights. At the 3/6 NL tables this added up to a suckout downswing of $3,000 (not my net for the week because I was up before the suckout run and won a few a couple of big pots after the suckout streak)

I am very aggressive at the short handed NL tables so I guess that accounts for the big upswings and downswings. A lot of times the other players don't believe that I have a hand and I usually get paid off. I've got to take the good with the bad.

Example 1 - 3/6 NL stack around $750 - Dealt QQ. Raise. Hyper Agressive player calls. Flop comes 722 and we get all in after Hyper Aggressive bets into me on the flop. He has been checking his big hands and betting pretty much all others. I am in great shape, he has K7o. The turn is a King and I lose $750.

Example 2 - All in preflop with AA vs QQ - Q hits the board.

Example 3 - On Saturday night a (I'm guessing drunk) Maniac came to the table with $300 and doubled up when he sucked out on anohter guy at the table when he hit his Ace high flush. My first hand vs. the maniac I flop top two pair and there is a flush draw on board. We get all in and he catches his flush.

Example 4 - Same drunk maniac (DM) a few hands later. I get JJ and bet big preflop. DM calls. J high flop we get all in and he makes a straight on the river. DM then immediately leaves the table. I did a search for the guy and he was playing 2 $225 turbo SNGs and finished in 8th and 9th respectively.

Blah, Blah, Bad Beat, Blah, Blah, Blah

OK. No more sobbing suckout bad beat stories today. I promise.

My good week turned into a bad week after my rotten weekend. I haven't input all the pokertracker stuff in my spreadsheets yet, but my standings in the $50k Challenge (taken from my balances) is shown below.

Current Standing in $50K Challenge - $14,238
Loss since last update - $926

Good luck at the tables,

cmitch

Guess Who's Back
Back Again
Pokershare's Back
Back Again
Run Away
Don't Tell a Friend
You created a monster
And He's back again

OK - I'm not quite Eminem, even though someome once tried to give me that nickname long before anyone ever heard of Eminem. (since everyone calls me Mitch and my last name is Mitchell)

Pokershare is coming back. Lock the doors. Hide the children. Hit the liquor cabinet. Put down the pipe. Actually, make that pick up the pipe. You'll need to smoke a lot to put your faith back in Pokershare again. For those of you that don't remember the debacle that was the UltimateBet.com/ Pokershare feud you can read all about it along with my feelings on the issue by clicking here.

So here is the deal, taken directly from their website. They are coming back as a skin to a different pokerroom. The concept has always been interesting and the fact that it looks like they will give you a no strings cash balance to try them again may get me to see what it is all about. From there I will have to see.

Statement on www.pokershare.com

I’m pleased to tell you that Playit Ownit Limited, the company behind PokerShare.com has announced that it has amicably settled the dispute with Excapsa Software and Game Theory Limited. This means PokerShare.com will be back, bigger and better!

I’d personally like to apologize on behalf of PokerShare.com for the lack of communication over the last few weeks and months, I can assure you that this was at our lawyers’ request, not because we’d forgotten about you!

PokerShare.com will be back in March 2006, I can assure you that we haven’t been sitting back with our feet up, we’ve been looking for ways to improve our software and we’ve found it! We have a great new partner, mouthwatering promotions and a WSOP schedule that you simply can’t afford to miss!

If you’re an existing real money player, you’ll have all of your existing Share Points and a cash balance waiting for you when you come home! For those of you that are new, I’m sure you’ll shortly find out that there’s no better place to play poker online.

We’ll be sending you further details over the coming weeks so that you know exactly what we’re up to!

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone for their messages of support, they mean a great deal to the team at PokerShare.com and we’ve tried to listen to every request. I look forward to seeing you all on the tables and hope that you’ll check back soon to play on the most generous poker website.

Kind regards
Max Wright
Poker Room Manager

It will be interesting to see how it is all set up. Max Wright seems like a very upstanding guy that got shafted by UltimateBet.com. To his credit he didn't pack up things and start over, he managed to possibly get things going again.

However this turns out, you have to have a lot of respect for him. He could have quit the tough gig and went on to something easier.

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It looks like there are about 483 different poker site running sats to the WSOP this year. I think that is how many online poker sites there are now. That number may be a little light after hearing Anna Benson, a pro baseball player's wife who is appearing in Playboy, pimping her new online poker site (skin) on the Howard Stern show this week. How long before we can all log on to Looney Tunes Poker.com? (Of course, it would be a skin of pokerroom. Those cartoon characters suck, so maybe a skin of Full Tilt)

I ran across an awesome article analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of each site's WSOP sats. Looks like everyone is starting to compete. Check out this link for all his analysis.

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I have been busy busy at work and everyone has been sick at home, so I haven't focused much on poker. I was in all day meetings the last two days and thought about poker about 50% of the time - kind of low % so I must be sick.

I haven't had much of a chance to read all the blogs this week and it sucks. I will try to catch up on all the great stuff out there this weekend.

I need to update the links on this blog desperately and am setting up bloglines as we speak, so the links should be up soon.

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I am a little burned out right now from work, sicknesses at the house, and grinding. We aslo rented a condo at the beach for a week starting 3/11. This all adds up to a little less poker this month. I'm well ahead on the pace in the $50k Challenge, so the lessened playing time won't effect things one bit.

cmitch

I managed to make a good showing on Tuesday night (last night of the month) to help make up for my bad week last week. I got back to basics, so to speak. I only played 2 tables at a time and actually closed one table that wasn't that profitable to focus on one table that seemed like it would be very profitable. This worked in my favor when I had a decent stack and got all-in with QQ on a flop of Q2K against a guy with AK and a short stack with AJ. Sigfried and Roy held up for me and I took down a nice pot.

Loopy posted a comment asking if I planned on changing anything since I am well ahead of the pace. At this point the answer is no. I may change my mind at the end of March, but I don't want to get ahead of myself right now.

$50K Challenge Update (click for outline)

Starting Bankroll (1/1/06) - $2,592
NL Short Handed Cash Games (YTD) - Profit of $12,061
SNGs, MTTs, Donations, Misc. (YTD) - Loss of $224
Bonus (YTD) - Profit of $483 (plus a lot of Pokerstars FPPs)
Live Games - Profit of $250
Total Profit (YTD) - $12,570

Profit since last update (1 day) - $1,007
Profit for Feb. - $8,660

Current Standing in $50K Challenge - $15,164
Withdrawals - $700
Online Bankroll - $14,464

GOALS BY END OF EACH MONTH
Jan - $4,100
Feb - $5,700
Mar - $7,300
Apr - $9,800
May - $12,400
June - $16,200

STATS - cash games
(note: stats in pokertracker do not equal actual stats but they are close - hand histories weren't working on UB one night and some hands were played at Bodog which doesn't work with pokertracker)

ALL LEVELS (YTD)
Total Hands Played - 25,168
PTBB/100 - 7.76
VP$P - 32.59
Actual Hours - 173
$/Hr - $80.09
Won$Shwdn - 54.08%

ALL LEVELS (Feb.)
Total Hands Played - 13,404
PTBB/100 - 7.36
VP$P - 29.93
Actual Hours - 89.17
$/Hr - $104.93
Won$Shwdn - 53.96%

1/2 NL
Total Hands Played - 10,797
PTBB/100 - 7.44
VP$P - 35.90
Actual Hours - 76.97
$/Hr - $41.75
Won$Shwdn - 53.85%

2/4 NL
Total Hands Played - 6,187
PTBB/100 - 12.43
VP$P - 31.73
Actual Hours - 47.42
$/Hr - $129.71
Won$Shwdn - 53.68%

3/6 NL
Total Hands Played - 5,695
PTBB/100 - 7.08
VP$P - 28.95
Actual Hours - 40.55
$/Hr - $115.18
Won$Shwdn - 54.12%

5/10 NL
Total Hands Played - 2,689
PTBB/100 - (0.30) - yes that is a negative
VP$P - 28.75
Actual Hours - 26.15
$/Hr - Loss of $6.13/hr
Won$Shwdn - 56.08%

The stats for 3/6NL and 5/10NL would be higher if it weren't the bad run I had last week.

I found it interesting that my stats were fairly similar for all levels. It looks like I probably tightened up a little as I moved up to the next level.

I am suprised that I beat 2/4NL for a higher hourly rate than 3/6NL. I will be staying away from 5/10NL until I hit 25 max buy-ins (25K), so that I can play in more of a comfort zone.

Interesting Stat (I think at least)

I played a lot heads up against a very very aggressive player and came out as follows:
Amount Won Against- $9,132.89
Amount Lost Against - $9,702.70
Net Loss Against - $569.90

Talk about some major swings - that was in only 518 hands at 3/6 NL. I think I will steer clear of the huge swings at heads up NL for a while.

Hands that I won the most $ with (in order - no surpises)
(percentage is win% - some were folded without a showdown)

AA (87.41%)
KK (85.71%)
QQ (84.68%)
JJ (75.44%)
77 (43.08%)


Hands that I lost the most $ with (in order from biggest loss)

AJo - I've got to learn when I'm outkicked
56s - Most of it on a straight losing to a bigger straight
66 - Lost a lot of small pots. I guess I never hit a set with them.
A5o - Most of it on a straight losing to a flush on the river.

**EDIT** - I had a couple of requests to included my Preflop Raise % (PFR), so here goes:

I would consider my play to be LAG in late position and TAG in early position. Since so much of SH NL depends on position, I have a lot higher PFR numbers in late position and ridiculously low PFR numbers in the blinds.
My overall PFR is 13.50

PFR by position
SB - 6.84
BB - 5.12
Button - 22.75
Cutoff - 19.37
Cutoff+1 - 16.92


OK. I could keep posting stats all night, but I 've got to go to bed. Let me know if there is anything else you would like to see.

Good luck at the tables,

cmitch