I’ve continued to play pretty well, if I evaluate my play honestly, but my bankroll has not shown it. I assume this is a lull, but I’m taking a hard look at my game.
I’ve been hovering around $45-$46 dollars. I had a few bad beats late in Sit & Go’s, which have cost be quite a bit, but eventually that should even out, and I’ll be back up. Heh, I hate losing races late in SNGs where I have a 2:1 or better shot, and it seems like I’ve gotten a string of them going here.
I’ve really been playing well recently (obviously I can recall a few hands I would have played differently, but overall pretty well). I now have a bankroll of $53.62! Yes, that means I’ve finally recouped my initial deposit of $25.
I’ve started to really like Sit & Go’s. I bumped up the stakes to the $3.00 buy-in games, which have the added bonus of a smaller fee ($.40, which is smaller by percentage). I should see a bigger ROI as a result. So far I’ve won three times, taken second twice, and placed third three times, which is pretty good, considering I’ve played a total of 13 of these.
I’m taking a shot at the next level, the $.05/$.10 Limit Hold’em game. While I know I can beat this game (because I’ve beaten much higher limits in the past), this is still a bit of a gamble, since I don’t have the recommended bankroll for this limit yet. 300 Big Bets is generally recommended to play in a game, which in this case would mean $30.00. I had just over half that, but I was willing to chance one losing session.
Luckily, I did not have that losing session (which I tend to have 1 out of about 5 sessions). I increased my stack to just over $17, and then again later to over $20, which is where it stands now.
I’m excited to be moving up, and I told myself, if I should ever go below $15, I must move back down. It could very well happen, and I need to have the discipline to accept it.
After two weeks of playing, my bankroll stands at $13.31. It’s highest point was $17.10, and recently it’s been hovering around $15.50 until recently dropping to $13.31.
Unfortunately, I took a shot at a tournament with a $4 buy-in and $.40 fee when my bankroll hit $17.10, or I’d probably be at $18 something by now (I would have saved the big buy-in and probably played a few Sit & Go’s in that time). This has been the only time I’ve stepped outside of proper bankroll management, and unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I didn’t hit.
How much work has been involved so far? To take my bankroll from $5.07 to $13.31, I played:
I keep track of Sit & Go’s and Multi-Table Tournaments on the same spreadsheet, so I can see that I’ve made $3.21 profit from these (it really hurts to look at this number and know I blew that $4.40 on the other tournament). I made $4.74 from the Limit Hold’em Tables, and I’m up $.29 so far on the Omaha/8 tables.
Well, it’s time that I learn a completely new game. Hold’em is great, and I’m building my bankroll, but I want to learn another game that I’ve had my eye on: Omaha Eights-or-Better (Omaha/8 for short).
Omaha/8 is a great game. It’s generally played Pot Limit or Fixed Limit, and it is a split game. In split games, if there is a qualifying low hand, the pot is split, half to the high hand and half to the low hand. Omaha/8 requires low hands to have five cards of different ranks that are 8 or lower. The best low hand is A2345, also known as a wheel.
I like the complications hi/low games add. If multiple people have the nut low (which happens frequently) they split the low half of the pot. That means you can actually have a winning hand and lose money, since you only won a quarter (or even a sixth) of the total pot. This means you need to have draws at the high and the low end of a pot to win in the long run. If you take both halves, it’s called a scoop.
Besides the added mental challenge of added cards and the hi/low potential, I’ve had my eye on Omaha/8, because I think people don’t understand it. Hold’em is so popular that many people play fairly well, considering they’ve never read a book or a single article on it. It’s on TV all the time, and thousands can see the hole cards and actions taken by world-class players. Omaha/8 doesn’t have this problem. And, with added cards, Hold’em players who migrate to Omaha/8 play far too many hands, since they see a lot more potential in the hand.
Playing Omaha/8 means two things to my hourly rate. First, because I think my opponents will make far more mistakes, I should earn many more Big Bets per 100 hands. Second, because I’m new to the game, my moves are not automatic, so I won’t be able to play as many tables at once. I consider this a learning experience, and perhaps as I get better, I’ll be able to multi-table with Omaha/8 like I do with Hold’em.
I’ve been reading Winning Omaha/8 Poker, and I’m trying my hand at it for the first time tonight. Once I hit 1000 hands on those tables, you’ll get an update. Wish me luck!
As I said when I started this journey, I want to be more than a winning player at one game. Well, I started spreading my wings by playing No-Limit Sit & Go’s. While the game is still Hold’em, No-Limit is very different from Limit, and tournament strategy is quite different from ring game strategy.
So far, I’ve had good results with 2 wins, 4 second places, and 1 third. That means I’m cashing half the time, and usually for a first or second place prize. Sweet. Although I recently heard about one player who can play 43 at once.
I also entered two Multi-Table Tournaments. One was a No-Limit Freeroll with 5,051 players, where I barely cashed (ended up in 737 place). The other was a low buy-in Limit Tournament with 432 entrants. I ran out of steam and ended up 213. I really don’t understand Limit Tournaments, I think, but I want to learn.
The other advantage of playing sit & go’s and tournaments is that I’m actually raking up Frequent Player Points. The .02/.04 Limit cash games don’t build a rake high enough to earn FPPs, but the entry costs for sit & go’s and tournaments do. I’ve created a Goals page, and you can see that one goal is to earn 2,000 FPPs to get a book I’ve had my eye on.
I’ve hit the 1000 hand mark in my quest, and I’m happy to report my bankroll has indeed gone uphill. I now stand at $9.64.
Most of that income has come from sitting at the $.02/$.04 limit hold’em tables. What’s really nice about those games is the amount of hands you can play. Since the games are so loose and passive, you can play about a third of the hands you’re dealt (I played 29.1% including the blind positions). You’re guaranteed to get handsomely paid on your flushes and straights, and with so many people playing every pot, usually for only one bet, you almost get giddy over your 76s. I averaged 7.7 BB/100 Hands on these tables.
I also played one sit & go for $1 + $.20 (20 cents goes to the house). I took second for a winnings of $2.70. I’m keeping track of these tournament sessions in another spreadsheet, which I’ll share in a future post.
Small stakes games are characterized by players that play too many hands and go too far with them. Because of that, you’re guaranteed to get “sucked out on” a much higher percent of the time. That’s ok; without their mistakes you would never make a profit. But, they can drive you crazy.
Pre-flop:
Our hero is in late position with AK, and an early position player raises. Our hero re-raises, the big blind calls, and the original raiser also calls.
Flop:
The flop comes KT2 rainbow. Our hero really has this pot nailed. The pre-flop raiser bets after the blind checks, and our hero re-raises. The blind calls, and the pre-flop raiser 3-bets it. Hero just calls (the other player could have pocket tens).
Turn:
The turn brings another ten. It is very unlikely the pre-flop raiser has pocket tens now (looks like he has KQ), and he bets again. Hero raises, blind cold-calls, and the pre-flop raiser calls.
River:
The river brings an innocent looking 2. Both players check to our hero, who bets. It seems the pre-floper raiser has KQ (and the blind was probably on a draw). What’s this? The blind raises, the pre-flop raiser calls. The hero makes a crying call.
Result:
The blind wins with 52 off-suit. For some reason the pre-flop raiser decided to do all that raising with a QJ off-suit.
It’s hands like these that have the potential to devastate your bankroll. Not because you lost money on that hand (remember, these obvious mistakes actually increase your long-run earnings). No, they have the potential to drive you crazy, causing you to play carelessly to make up the deficit. Yes, this is “tilt”.
After some time and work, you’ll be able to shrug off these lost big pots and continue your normal solid play. For those times that you can’t, you must have the discipline to stand up and walk a way (or close the window, for you online players).
Or, you can distract yourself and write up the hand in WordPress 
.
How many things in life do we start and never finish? I could probably fill a book. Honestly, I often get very excited about something, work hard for a short time, then drop it for a new hobby or interesting activity. I’ve already done this once with poker.
Junior year of college I probably spent more hours playing online poker than I did in class. If you’ve read my About page, you know I’m a web developer and not a professional poker player, so you’ve already deduced I didn’t make a ton of money (although I did make a reasonable amount). But, I did learn a lot about discipline and patience, the two necessities for this journey.
I’m inspired by Chris Ferguson’s experiment. He turned $0 into $10,000 at FullTilt. For the sake of having an initial goal, I’m declaring my bankroll goal to be $1,000. Also, I’m starting with an advantage over Chris, since as of right now I have $5.07 in my account.
While I’m primarily a limit player, I may venture into NL Sit & Go’s and Omaha/8 games from time to time. Perhaps I will even try my hand at a few multi-table tournaments and stud games. This journey is more than a quest for cash; it’s about becoming a better, more disciplined, well-rounded player.
Let’s go!
