Ah ha. Thank you. I was considering trying that as elephant has mysteriously failed on me. Is there a free trial or do I need to pay for it?
Will go investigate!
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Got it working and its being useful already. Plus I seem to be having a bit of luck recently/I'm making the right moves again. 
Will update my bankroll/graph soon. Unfortunately yesterday my pc crashed and I lost the previous data so the graph starts again. Will have to remember to back it up in future.
Also been exploring a bit of maths behind cbets in the strategy forum. I think its helping my understanding of when to cbet. I might keep working on it and possibly form some sort of 'rules' as to when to cbet and when to call a reraise etc.
Phil
Ok I made a lot of money today using the SSS bankroll up to $180. Tightened up just slightly and got lucky once or twice and it paid off. Considering moving to 'Poker Heaven' and bonus whoring a little bit. The software seems useable and the p/flop values are high. Just considering how much floating cash I actually have available to open up the bonus.
Also I will lose my iron man status at Full tilt if I do this. But I think its probably worth it. Iron man isn't that good. Also as an added problem I don't think I can use Holdem Manager there either. I will of course have my bankroll to tell me how I am faring financially and I don't use many stats so I figure it will be worth it.
Ok I've taken the plunge and moved to Poker Heaven. Deposited £300 but will still remain in the NL10 and NL25 games despite a bigger bankroll. I am not ready to move up and have realistically just deposited more to open a larger bonus. I will withdraw around £150 of it as soon as I can.
So I opened a £600 bonus. Very nice. My new aim is of course to clear this before the 60 days are up and hopefully make a little bit of profit out of the SSS in the meantime.
Have begun cashing out of Full Tilt although I will await rakeback before I remove the last dregs because of the minimum withdrawal of $50. I also have a lot of FTP that I may use. Around 2k of them to be precise. I noticed you can enter the $1 tourney for 200ftp so that may be a fun use.
Unfortunately Pokertrackers in general are unsupported at Poker Heaven so no more graphs but I will update my bankroll and deposit clearing as usual
The Bonus Whore is here.
Note: £ is actually Euros. But due to not being able to find a euro sign easily I am writing £. Its essentially the same anyway.
HI phil
As far as I know PokerHeaven belongs to Boss Media (IPN) and therefore the bonus you cleared is the amount of rake you pay yourself. This is different than on FullTiltPoker, Titan, Mansion, PartyPoker & Pokerstars where if 2 opponents go and rake $3, you benefit as well.
But now you have to put money into the pot to receive points
I hope this is clear but to make it more clear:
Contributed - Rake per person is determined by your actual contribution to the pot
Best regards,
Gerv
hi fellow shortstacker! nice blog. i hope you'll turn the corner soon. if you watch xarry's video in bronze section (about equity), you can actually see him use the charts in the gold section.
what's profit like as a BSSer? why did you decide to switch? i havent tried it but i am curious if it is more profitable.
playing SSS has been profitable and relaxing for me. but i guess this includes bonus and points which stack up really fast.
@Gerv:
Yes I am just beginning to notice the FPP are not coming in very quickly whatsoever. However the site seems very fishy in general. Plenty of limpers every pot and people calling my SSS pushes very lightly indeed.
I guess the bonus is fairly useless then tbh. I have unlocked 8FPP in around 500 hands today and I need 150FPP to make £5. Its a shame because at the rate I accumulated FTP I was fairly sure I could clear the whole thing.
Which other sites have easy to clear bonuses?
@Purplefizz:
The BSS strategy is more profitable in my opinion but is much less relaxing because any mistake you make is amplified so much more. As such it is more prone to 'tilt' moments because of the judgement calls you often have to make. It is also much harder to multi-table as the strategy is more complex and you need to concentrate on each hand. A good BSS player will also play more hands (all pairs, most broadway and suited connectors) in the right circumstance.
Today I made 8 stacks at Poker Heaven. So it was a good day. I don't like the software as much as full tilt but with the bonus and the fishy players I think I will stay for a while.
Switching back to full tilt.
Reasons:
- Software crashes often.
- No preferred seat option (makes multitabling much harder)
- Fewer players makes finding tables harder.
- Bonus is realistically impossible to clear.
- Can't use Holdem Manager/elephant.
The only upside really is that the tables are a bit fishier. But when I can only play 1/2 at a time and it is hard work its hardly worth it.
Nvm, forgot you play at FT, where you can't use hud (wrote few things how to use hud in SSS, that's why I edited the post....)
Gl with your blog & play
You can use HUD at full tilt. I try to keep it minimal because my screen gets too cluttered with the small tables + stats.
Had a nice breakeven day today. It was nice because despite playing consistantly with the rules I came up against some nasty bad beats and some awful coolers. I guess it is part of poker and I am not worried but I would've liked some profit for my time. Nothing you can do though I guess.
Gonna keep my Iron man status at Full Tilt hopefully since I wasn't at Poker Heaven for too long. Would be nice to unlock some form of bonus there somehow though. Unfortunately I've used the first deposit one long ago.
Anyone know how often they have reload bonuses?
I also heard there is a summer Iron man bonus? Not seen this confirmed anywhere though.
Ergh horrible start to the day. Within less than 100 hands I'd lost 5 buy ins. Had aces cracked twice. Lost every coinflip I was in. I followed the rules clean and clear. Just getting unlucky. Nearing the mark where I have to move down to NL10 which I really don't want to do because there are lots of short stackers down at that limit.
Heres the hand that really got me!
Known players:
[tg]Position_Stack:hands/vp$ip/RaisePreflop/AF/WTS/ORL/BBvsSteal/W$SD;SB$4.97:08/38 /0 /2.0/33 /0 /-/100 ;Hero$5.35:///////;[/tg]
0.1/0.25 No-Limit Hold'em (8 handed)
Hand recorder used for this poker hand: PokerStrategy Elephant 0.67 by www.pokerstrategy.com.
Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A♣, A♦
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.00, 3 folds, SB calls $0.90, BB folds.
Flop: ($2.25) 8♦, 2♠, 6♥ (2 players)
SB bets $2.25, Hero raises to $4.35 (All-In), SB calls $1.72 (All-In), Hero gets uncalled bet back.
Turn: ($10.19) 4♥
River: ($10.19) 7♥ (1 players)
Final Pot: $10.19
Results follow:
Hero shows a pair of aces (Ac Ad)
SB shows a straight, eight high (5c 5d)
SB wins with a straight, eight high (5c 5d)
Learn, Learn, Learn.
Still in the problems of a massive downswing. 
I have begun to play shorter sessions and am reviewing every problem hand after I play it. Hoping I can work through it.
My bankroll currently looks like it has bad BRM but it is realistically because I moved a chunk of it to Poker Heaven and have not been able to move it back yet. Rest assured it is not as bad as it looks!
Looking forward to rakeback fridays as well as the silver freeroll on saturday that will hopefully make my bankroll look a bit tidier. The top 1/3 of players get at least $20 and I am imagining there will be a decent chunk of the field afk. Should be a good time.
Playing 1 hour sessions 6 tabling and then reviewing the hands in elephant. I have decided that I was too cavalier about leaks in my game and will have to really tighten up in freeplay situations - I do go a bit wild with TPDK and they almost always beat me. 
;)Hi Phil,
Sorry for delay in responding to your last question, have been away for a week and the old mobile connection was only working on one bar out of 5, so struggled a little to load the site.
Yeah I've been short stacking since October last year and yes it's always a rollercoaster. You can play 2x identical sessions and one will be up, the other down or break even.
Taking a long term view it does work, like I said, I took a slightly aggressive stance, but got great help/guidance from Gerv. Managed to grow the $50 up to $800, but now down to $400 again due to various reasons... variance, tilt, too aggressive, temporarily switched to Matrix/sng's etc. but not least I moved up to NL50 & struggled. Don't know why, maybe the quality of players are slightly better and they exploit your weaknesses more. Had massive downswing on 50 and soon dropped back down. Of NL10, NL25 & NL50, NL25 was and still is by far & away the most profitable for me, hence rebuilding now on NL25.
If you play it by the book, the variance is a lot more manageable, just give it time.
Bart
Btw, would strongly recommend sticking religiously to the sss criteria until your BR settles down a bit, my main weakness is straying over the line and playing hands I shouldn't 
For now I am abandoning the SSS and am going to play BSS at NL5 to rebuild a bit of a bankroll.
It will essentially be a very simple strategy involving sets and overpairs! Those fishies at the lower limits just can't get away from top-pair-top-kicker. If I ever come back to the SSS (I may do) I will revive this thread but I think it is just too marginal for me.
I wish you all the very best of luck.
Ok I had a downswing but after a day off playing a few small tournaments and a few micro limit omaha/razz games I decided I would definitely like to try the SSS again except this time I am going to do it properly. I have updated the first post to reflect my new goals and aims.
I will start at the very lowest limit so that I am not worried about whether I make a profit or not and I will also be reviewing my hands much more often. I am also going to watch as many videos as I can. There will be less emphasis on profit and volume and more emphasis on making the right move in each situation.
hey smileyphil. why don't you try Everest? (or other pokersites which give points just for being dealt in a hand?) using SSS you could just fold your way to $300 or $1000. software leaves a lot to be desired though. but for that money, i can handle it.
i had same experience as Bart btw. also built $50 to $800+ but struggled with NL50 as well with 2 big downswings. quite comfortable again on NL25 and have built BR back since. (once i hit the realization that i just have to make the right move in each situation... something you seem to have realized as well...) i'm very hesitant to move back up to NL50 though. thinking to try BSS instead and start from the lowest limits again where i'm sure plenty of fishes play.
Presenting the first LEAK-HUNTER review:
This review is for the first 150 hands. Hope you like the picture. It is of course a leek. Hopefully having one already will inspire me to find more within my game. I've also done a bit of colour. Just for my own enjoyment.
Non-playable hands:
Ok everything not on the starting hand chart first. Selecting them in elephant shows that I haven't got involved with any of these hands. Hoorah! All good so far. ♦
Playable Pairs:
My only confusion so far is how to treat minraisers, here I went by the method of treating it as two limpers but perhaps with a marginal hand T♦, T♥ I should've just folded.
Preflop: Hero is BB with T♦, T♥
4 folds, BU raises to $0.04, SB folds, Hero raises to $0.12...
Luckily he folded but I am unsure whether this is a long-term-profitable move.
Playable Non-Pairs:
Again another marginal decision. I am not sure here whether this is a situation to push all in or to fold out of the way.
Preflop: Hero is SB with K♠, A♦
6 folds, BU calls $0.02, Hero raises to $0.10, BB raises to $0.18, BU calls $0.16, Hero raises to $0.40 (All-In)...
Final Pot: $1.28
I certainly cannot call because often I will miss the flop and have to check/fold with two opponents. I think probably I am best to push here against the low limit players but against TAG's at higher limits I am unsure.
@Purplefizz:
Well on Fulltilt (where I currently am) I earn a lot of points by folding. Unfortunately I have no current bonus but I am working my way through the loyalty scheme and the rakeback is very nice. However I am obviously looking for a strategy that makes money via the actual playing of poker as well as the gimmicks!
I still have a lot of leaks and that is why I believe my new system of reviewing will be very useful! Good to hear it worked for someone else though. It seems people do make a lot of money with this strategy.
Leak of the day:
Failing to fold to a re-raise! I need to change my mindset so that instead of looking for reasons to call with marginal hands I instead look for reasons to fold!
Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Q♦, A♦.
UTG2 folds, Hero raises to $0.10, 2 folds, CO raises to $0.18, 3 folds, Hero raises to $0.40 (All-In), CO calls $0.17, Hero gets uncalled bet back.
Final Pot: $0.73
Here is a line that I find slightly too frequently at the low limits. He min-reraises me and instead of consulting the chart and finding the correct fold. I immediately go into overdrive; reasoning that a minraise must be weak.
Instead I must think about which hands I would make this raise with. It would be something like AQ+, TT+. He can't imagine much fold equity against a player with 1/4 of his chips in already. Against this range I have very poor equity and should definitely fold.
Possibly against a very loose player this could be a shove but I think without stats to back it up I should always find the fold button. However this is a more advanced SSS than I am currently playing.
Moving up to NL5
Ok after receiving my rakeback on friday my bankroll is starting to look a little more healthy and after 1k hands of NL2 I cannot see many leaks at all, I was fairly shaken by my downswing while I was playing NL25 and I think dropping down and playing less tables (4 instead of 6) has begun to rebuild some confidence.
From today I will begin playing NL5 and will assess how this goes. I intend to move back up to NL10/NL25 fairly quickly but probably not much further until I have a much larger bankroll.