"..where she stops nobody knows"

Back again with another update. Managed to play a little this week, about 2,400 hands and even showed a profit of $9. BR is sitting at $833 now.

I've been playing 4 x tables of NL10 trying to get back into it again. Can't say I've been playing particularly well, the focus has not quite been there. I could say I played a few hands well, put my opponent on the right range and made the right bets to extract as much value as I thought I could get. I even made a thin value bet, knowing it was thin value, with 2nd pair and got a call from 2nd pair slightly worse kicker lol.

I found a $10 satellite ticket one day when I logged on. Never did quite figure out where it came from but I played it anyway. the satellite was to a $150 tourney and 2 tickets were guaranteed. By the time I made FT there was a 3rd place prize of $75 and I decided that I would be quite happy with that. I got down to 7bb and there was little chance of my folding to cash so I shoved with AKs only to get called by A6os who rivered a 6 and it was bye bye me. Poor call on his part I thought but that's how it goes sometimes. I finished in 6th so not bad but I would have liked that 3rd place.

Take care out there all

Fagin

Back again with an update.

Played 1600 hands and finished up $0.96

Not sure of the hourly rate over those 1600 hands but it wasn't much lol.

I found that I was winning a few hands I shouldn't have cause I definitely did not have the best hand, however I did have the right bet at the right time to fold out everybody else.

I was also losing hands I should have won by letting villain get to the river and hit his 1 pair to beat my A or K high that missed but that's poker. I've enjoyed playing so that's been important, actually looking forward to a session while I've been walking the dog. Still struggling at times with the "I have AKs or KK again, how much is it going to cost me this time" sort of thinking. Difficult to shift away from it when it gets reinforced time after time, although I did manage to win a reasonable pot today with KK so that was nice.

All this working for a living is not all it's cracked up to be. Nice to be able to pay the bills but it does seem to get in the way of a lot of things!

Enough for now.

Take care all

Fagin

Another Sunday evening update incoming!

Only played 590 hands this week and managed to drop $10. BR now stands at $832.97. Little to say about the poker this week, just been a couple of sessions and really the only hand of interest was the only one where I got it AI and I split that one (we both had AK on an AK high board), Probably cost me about .40c or so but hey, that's poker!

It feels like a shame I dropped $s this week as I felt I played ok, made a few good plays and a couple of good calls, just really struggled to make even a pair and even when I did all I could get was folds.

Hopefully be back again next week with some better news.

Cheers all

Fagin

Back again with another Sunday evening update. Looks like I missed last week completely

No real movement in the BR to report, up only $4.29 over 1400 hands. BR now stands at $828.26. According to PokerCraft I'm on a "bad run" but at least it's not showing "worst run" which it has before.

I played a freeroll on an untracked site on Thursday. Managed to finish 24th out of over 700. Shoved my last 13bb with AKs and got called by A6os. Naturally he rivered a 6 and that was that. I was happy with my play, felt a little frustrated by losing that hand but the $3.27 ish really made up for that lol.

Enough for now.

I'll catch you all next time.

Take care out there

Fagin

Classic 6 on the river. The time that you know you bring it in good - but no matter what you get called with, it sucks out. However, don't go allin and blind out...

Back again with another Sunday evening update.

Not managed to play much this week, just 374 hands and managed to lose $19 in the process. Nothing special, just the usual coolers. I really must get out of the nasty habit I have of getting it in good and losing.

I've 4 days off over the coming festive season so hopefully I'll get some more hands in this week.

Cheers

Fagin

Back with another update, looks loke 3 weeks since I last managed to get an update in here.

Nothing good to update with, I played about 2200 hands since the last update, mostly chasing the hands for the New Years Giveaway at GG. The issue with this has been playing when I'm tired after a long day at work and thus making poor decisions. This has cost me about $50 leaving my BR at $751.

I seem to be getting chips in the pot when I'm ahead then they hit the river and suddenly I'm behind and losing the pot. Being tired I'm betting then or calling a bet and just throwing $s away like its going out of fashion. Been playing 4 tables of NL10 and today dropped $30 in about 400 hands. Just not sustainable!

Only 1 more day of waiting for a pp and then back to normal.

Cheers

Fagin

Back again with another update, a positive one this time!

I managed to win C$148 in the Flipout that I spent all that time getting the chips in so that was a result.

I've been ill for about 12 days so not played until yesterday and today. I saw 890 hands and managed to turn some of those C$ into cash with a boost of over $75 to the BR which now stands at $826 and I still have C$ 76 left.

No real hands to note just one lot of quads which I checked to the R OOP and then put in a small bet which just got a fold, so only a small pot.

Felt that I'd played reasonably well, picking up a few pots I shouldn't have and making a few good folds too.

Take care all

Fagin

Sunday evening update time again. Another positive week as far as the BR is concerned with $56 profit meaning the BR now sits at $882.50.

I only managed to play 273 hands this week, all in 1 session this morning. I have been put onto the new Ocean Rewards system and I think about $22 of the profit this week is from previously earned rewards being automatically paid into my account. That still leaves me with $34 profit from only 273 hands so that is fine.

I also still have C$58 in my account so looking good for a change. Perhaps the long downswing has finally come to an end!

Only 1 big hand worth mentioning - Playing NL10 I had AKos in the BB and a tight player opens UTG (I have history with him). There is a 3 bet from MP to .80 and it folds to me. I can just call here but I then open myself to a 4 bet from UTG to which I would likely fold putting him on KK+ from my knowledge of him. I decided to take the more aggressive route and cold 4 bet to $2.70 looking to get rid of most of his range and either win the pot there and then or get HU with the MP who I felt was a bit loose.

UTG folds thankfully and MP 5 bets to $6.40. I had already decided to shove or call a shove from him so I shove and he calls with AKos. The flop comes A high, all hearts and I have the Kh, he has no hearts. I now feel like I'm freerolling the turn and river and when the turn is a lovely red heart I have to give a little fist pump as on the flop I was half convinced I would split the pot.

That was a nice double up to start the session off well and the session just kept going well from there.

That's enough from me

Take care out there all

Fagin

Yes! Good run! ♠_drink:

Sunday evening again so time for another update. I managed to play 594 hands over yesterday and today, playing for just 45 mins to an hour at lunchtime. BR now stands at $930 which is up about $48 this week. I'm down to C$3.15 so doing well converting it to cash.

I have been wondering about the C$. If I take C$10 to a cash table and put C$5 in the pot and win taking $10 out of it my table balance stands at $15 (I'm ignoring rake etc for convenience here). When I next put $ in the pot do they come from the C$5 in my stack or the $10 in my stack. I have a feeling it is from the $10 but not sure on that.

Managed to lose a big pot with QQ vs AK and then an orbit later managed to lose another big pot with AK vs QQ. Just how it goes sometimes.

Saw a very strange hand play out on one table. there is a raise in MP and a call from the Hj, I fold rubbish on the B and then the SB shoves for $13 (on NL 10). It folds around to the Hj who calls. The SB had QQ and the Hj had 6♥:T♥: ... I was more than surprised at that call but then he lost and left the table so no chance of playing any further against him.

That's all til next time

Stay safe

Fagin

Back again with a Sunday evening update. Managed to play 660 hands this week but dropped about $7, partly at least to losing most of a BI with JJ vs KK on a 10 high board this morning.

No real hands worth talking about other than that. While I was looking forward to playing this morning I think I was a little mentally tired from the week at work, yesterday in particular was exhausting. I can't honestly say I was playing my A game and decided to quit shortly after I realised that and sussed that I wasn't in the right mindset to improve my game any.

I've been thinking about the new rewards system at GG. I'm not in favour as it seems designed to give me less back than before. They will argue that when I exchange "gems" I'll get a higher percentage of rake back, and that may be correct. The issue is that I have to collect 5k gems in order to get anything back at all! At present I have about 3k gems and will have to play a lot to get it up to a point where I can cash them in. If I end up with 6.8k gems then when I cash them in I'll still have 1.8k uncashable gems left! In order to get the most value out of the gems I should hoard them but then they lose value as I'm not actually getting anything back.

Previously I would already have rake back available to collect even if it was a lower percentage overall. I think that lower volume/level players will lose out overall with the new system and it will simply reward the higher level and higher volume players.

Just my opinion and I'll be happy if anyone can show me to be wrong there.

That's enough for now.

Take care all

Fagin

Sunday evening and time for my update -

Bankroll challenge completed

I only played 231 hands this week but played the most important one of all yesterday morning. Losing a relatively small pot with JJ vs KK on an AAA board got me the losing Bad Beat Jackpot of $685.28!!

I can remember a few months ago while going through that long downswing thinking that hitting the bad beat jackpot would solve the downswing issue and looking out for hands that might qualify (which never happened of course). Then yesterday morning I had not long folded K7 on a AAA73 board to a river shove for about 3 times the pot and not being able to decide if it was a good fold or a very nitty one. Then I get JJ and in a 3 bet pot we get to the river and I call his bet only to see his KK and then all of a sudden I'm over $680 better off!

So after all that I can declare the BR Challenge finally completed after 216,000 hands played over 106 weeks. For a while I had been thinking that I was never going to get there.

Feeling quite happy at the moment. Not only did I win the BBJ, Ireland thrashed England in the 6 Nations yesterday :f_drink::f_drink::f_drink:

So I'm going to sign off there with a current BR of $1,613.71!

Not sure if I will set another challenge in the future but I'm going to take a break from challenges for a while.

I'll probably play poker as usual and will most likely keep this blog going, mostly for myself just to keep track of thoughts etc.

Take care all

Fagin

Originally posted by Fagin
Bankroll challenge completed

Way to go!

Hi all,

Thanks for the reply Vorpal, it was a long time coming but I got there.

Wasn't sure I was going to be here this week but decided to give an update as a sort of last minute thing.

Played a fair bit this week, about 900 hands and thanks to a couple of coolers I finished down nearly $1 with a BR of $1,612.94. Can't honestly say I played well, a couple of sessions I definitely played poorly but I was enjoying the play and I think at times that can be important too.

Not much else to say this week, I'm hoping to get some more volume in this coming week as I'm off work for the week so hopefully I'll have something to update with next Sunday.

Cheers all

Fagin.

Originally posted by Fagin
Sunday evening and time for my update -

Bankroll challenge completed

I only played 231 hands this week but played the most important one of all yesterday morning. Losing a relatively small pot with JJ vs KK on an AAA board got me the losing Bad Beat Jackpot of $685.28!!

I can remember a few months ago while going through that long downswing thinking that hitting the bad beat jackpot would solve the downswing issue and looking out for hands that might qualify (which never happened of course). Then yesterday morning I had not long folded K7 on a AAA73 board to a river shove for about 3 times the pot and not being able to decide if it was a good fold or a very nitty one. Then I get JJ and in a 3 bet pot we get to the river and I call his bet only to see his KK and then all of a sudden I'm over $680 better off!

So after all that I can declare the BR Challenge finally completed after 216,000 hands played over 106 weeks. For a while I had been thinking that I was never going to get there.

Feeling quite happy at the moment. Not only did I win the BBJ, Ireland thrashed England in the 6 Nations yesterday :f_drink::f_drink::f_drink:

So I'm going to sign off there with a current BR of $1,613.71!

Not sure if I will set another challenge in the future but I'm going to take a break from challenges for a while.

I'll probably play poker as usual and will most likely keep this blog going, mostly for myself just to keep track of thoughts etc.

Take care all

Fagin

Congratulations!! ♠_drink:

Back again with an update on how things are going.

Thanks for the congrats sebadread, it took quite a while longer than I hoped and took a bit of luck too but I learnt a lot on the way and that's probably as important as getting there.

As for today - well the BR stands at $1,636.78. It did drop to about 1,575 last week for a day or two but some good play (and a little luck) got me back into profitville for the week, or perhaps I should say fortnight! I've played 1,677 hands this week and about the same last week. Had a few days where I felt I was playing well, in the right mindset, focussed and feeling good about my game. Those days produced profitable sessions. A couple of sessions where I was not so focussed or playing as well were losing sessions.

I've had some luck, got it in today with KK on a Q high flop, in a 3 bet pot, against a set of 10s and hit a K on the turn which was nice.

Flopped a set of 2s against a reg OOP and the board ran out with 3♥s and then paired on the R. I bet 2/3 pot and got a call from the nut flush. A few orbits later we are heads up again, in a similar position with me OOP and I bet a similar size on the river as a bluff and got a fold from what must have been a better hand as I had air.

Still playing 4 tables of NL10. I have had the occasional thought of moving up to NL25 (I surely have the BR for it) but have stayed where I am largely because I'm enjoying playing where the money is less important. I'm able to focus on making the best decisions and improving my game. I have felt that if I move up the money takes on somewhat more importance and the "fun" lessens, the game gets a little more "serious" (in my mind anyway), and a poor session is likely to have a greater negative impact on my mindset for the next session.

I'm normally aware at any given point in a session if I am up, down or break even, but not generally aware of by how much. It's more an impression of doing well or not. I'll check my balance after each session, probably a poor habit but it's fairly ingrained now, so I'm very aware for the next session if my previous one was good or bad.

I'm probably about 2 sessions short of the next step in the "gem" multiplier ladder on GG. Still not convinced that this new system is any better for me. I have to hoard my gems in order to get the best return on cashing them in. Previously I could see my rakeback in $ and cents anytime I wanted. Cashing it in was just a matter of moving eg. $22.37 to my account. Now all I know is that I have x number of gems and anything over the cash in quantity are virtually useless unless I just continue to hoard them.

That's probably enough rambling for now.

Take care all

Fagin

Here I go again with another Sunday evening update, a positive one again!

BR stands at $1,704.32 now, that's up $67 this week after 2,524 hands played. Considering I've only played yesterday and today that's pretty good.

I found that I was playing well and with both confidence and a sense of freedom I don't remember having for some time. I went from 4 tables of NL10 to 5 and felt that my play remained good, I didn't feel rushed at all and was able to take some time when I needed to. I would normally only play 1 session per day but played 3 yesterday and today which accounts for the increased volume. Session length would normally be 35 - 50 mins and this weekend there was 1 session of 1 hour 47 mins. Quite a long session for me but only finished because I had stuff to do (the garden needed some attention after the 2 months of rain we've had and getting out in the sunshine was a must!!

I was thinking about the confidence and freedom I felt and I think some of that comes from having achieved the BR Challenge. That pressure is off me and there is no more obligation to report my BR. There is no cash pressure as the BR is really huge for NL10 and dropping a BI to some donkey calling a 3 bet OOP with 96os (happened yesterday vs my AA) is no big deal now. We got it in on the flop where I had top set and he had a double gutter so of course he hit runner runner lol.

That's about it for this week. Back again soon

Take care all

Fagin

Here I go again with another Sunday evening update. Another Positive one this week, with a gain of about $20 after 1,527 hands.

Quite pleased with this as I had dropped about $25 on Thursday over 2 sessions, playing poorly and not really focussed on my game. Played 2 sessions today and turned it around completely to make the $20 profit. BR stands at $1,724.14 now.

Been looking at the "Gems" on GG. I seem to be getting about 2/hand on average over the last week. Total stands at 23,197 today. Thinking I might be able to get to 90,000 over this year and so cash them in for $100. Doubt I'm going to get to 220,000 this year unless I move up to NL25 at least. I've not ruled that out, just happy with where I am and how things are going for now.

I've stuck to playing 5 tables of NL10 and may up that to 6 tables at some point. I used to play 8 tables back in the day so 6 should be manageable. I've been thinking about what is needed as a player for playing more tables. The first thing I feel that is required is a solid pre flop strategy. It's important that I don't spend a lot of time over pre flop decisions. Keep that time for post flop. I've got my ranges for each position fairly solid now and am able to make some adjustments depending on the specific table and how it's playing, opening a little wider on tight tables with few 3 bets and a little tighter on loose tables with a lot of 3 bets. Even with 5 tables I'm still finding time to make notes on some players over and above the simple colour coding that I use.

Enough rambling for now.

Back again next week with any luck.

Stay safe all

Fagin