Ramble's Ramblings

So no live game last night, but that's ok - I was pretty tired and left a bit early. Had a good night's sleep and woke up with a lot of motivation. I started on the treadmill again this morning - just shy of an hour, worked up a bit of a sweat and burnt some calories. Then made a nice breakfast for the family before they went out to the park. I stayed home and worked on something I had been putting off for most of the year - all done except the very last step, which will be done tomorrow. Feels good to finally have it taken care of.

The tables are dead again tonight - only 6 games currently running. I registered in 4 new ones and waited - after 5 minutes one table had 6 players registered and the other three tables were still just me. Not worth the time so I unregistered. Out of curiosity I checked the $15's and only 4 games running there. (This is all for KO's of course, the regular games had about 12 tables each running). I'm thinking I might start playing the non-KO's again just so I can load more tables. I'll probably drop down to the $3.50's for those games just to adjust to the non-bounties and slightly tougher field again before hitting the $7's.

Since there is no action at the tables, maybe I can find some action with Mrs. Ramble... wish me luck.

Originally posted by Ramble
maybe I can find some action with Mrs. Ramble... wish me luck.

:coolface::appl:

The tables were much better tonight but I started late so only got 12 tables in for the session. Another very good ROI for the evening.

I had to take a good chunk out of my bankroll recently and I'm looking forward to building it back up so I can start taking shots at the $15 KO's. I've been watching the traffic though and tonight there was only ever 1 or 2 tables running at a time. This should be fine though as I'll be looking to very gradually mix them in to the line-up probably starting in January. I've been looking at the players in those games as well and many of them are the regs I'm seeing at the $7's and I feel pretty confident playing against them so we'll see how it goes.

I'm not kidding myself though - I know there are going to be some much better regs out there - and that's the point. I want them to exploit me and expose the leaks in my game.

Originally posted by Ramble
The tables were much better tonight but I started late so only got 12 tables in for the session. Another very good ROI for the evening.

I had to take a good chunk out of my bankroll recently and I'm looking forward to building it back up so I can start taking shots at the $15 KO's. I've been watching the traffic though and tonight there was only ever 1 or 2 tables running at a time. This should be fine though as I'll be looking to very gradually mix them in to the line-up probably starting in January. I've been looking at the players in those games as well and many of them are the regs I'm seeing at the $7's and I feel pretty confident playing against them so we'll see how it goes.

I'm not kidding myself though - I know there are going to be some much better regs out there - and that's the point. I want them to exploit me and expose the leaks in my game.

I was reading the first few pages of your blog and it's amazing to see how far you've come in a year. We'll be changing stakes at around the same time so cheers to that:deadhappy:

Originally posted by maythany
I was reading the first few pages of your blog and it's amazing to see how far you've come in a year. We'll be changing stakes at around the same time so cheers to that:deadhappy:

Thanks Man! I really appreciate the nice comments. Good luck with your move up in the cash games... Do you miss SnG's at all?

I actually decided to take my first stab at a single $15 game tonight... This was the big hand of the game for me:

Poker Stars, $13.89 Buy-in (50/100 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 8 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: 1,907 (19.1 bb)
BB: 1,335 (13.4 bb)
UTG+2: 968 (9.7 bb)
MP1: 2,480 (24.8 bb)
MP2: 1,280 (12.8 bb)
MP3: 2,640 (26.4 bb)
Hero (CO): 1,495 (15 bb)
BTN: 1,395 (14 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with J J
2 folds, MP2 raises to 280, MP3 folds, Hero raises to 1,495 and is all-in, 3 folds, MP2 calls 1,000 and is all-in

Flop: (2,710) 2 J A (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Turn: (2,710) A (2 players, 2 are all-in) ♠_drink:
River: (2,710) 9 (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results:

So another day with very little traffic, but still managed to get 33 x $7 KO tables in for a grand profit of ... drum-roll please... -$0.07

A lot of hitting top of people's ranges, split-pots with better hole cards, and SB shoves into BB who wakes up with a monster.
I'm pretty confident my play was good in most situations. I'll be doing a review soon to verify (hopefully with ICMizer 2.0 when the beta-testing starts)...

Think I'm close enough to give my 200-Game update for the month so far...

Games Played: 193
ROI: 8.19% (pre-RB)
ITM: 40.4% (52.3% adjusted for Bounties)

I'm really glad the weekend is coming... feeling exhausted this week - looking to recharge.

I bought sharkystrator today - I found the initial set-up a little frustrating (for some reason the PokerStars Lobby had to be full-screen - found that out just by accident), but once it started working, I really liked it. I'm not using the filters to table-select, just allowing it to keep my tables maxed for the whole session. It ran really smoothly and will definitely improve my volume going forward.

The past 3-4 days haven't been very good results wise - I'm down about 15+ buy-ins in the past 100 games. Lots of review to do.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Sharkystrator continued...

So with the help of Sharkystrator and a pretty wide-open day I managed to play 69 games - I think this is a record for me.
I actually managed to dig myself out of the hole I was in earlier and have finished with an ROI of 9.2% pre-RB for the day.

Anyone reading this that uses sharkystrator for table-selecting? I'd be interested in what you use for your points assignment for each type of player and then what your minimum points are for registering? Right now I just have everything set to 0, and had many tables tonight with 4 Good Regs + a couple other regs.

(ignore where it says 6-max, I just grabbed this from the web...)

Originally posted by Ramble
Sharkystrator continued...

So with the help of Sharkystrator and a pretty wide-open day I managed to play 69 games - I think this is a record for me.
I actually managed to dig myself out of the hole I was in earlier and have finished with an ROI of 9.2% pre-RB for the day.

Anyone reading this that uses sharkystrator for table-selecting? I'd be interested in what you use for your points assignment for each type of player and then what your minimum points are for registering? Right now I just have everything set to 0, and had many tables tonight with 4 Good Regs + a couple other regs.

(ignore where it says 6-max, I just grabbed this from the web...)

so sick you're using sharkstrator lol. I was using that back in the day!

300-Game Update

Games Played: 297
ROI: 6.98% pre-RB
ITM: 39.4% (Adjusted for bounties 49.8%)

More Sharky...
I've definitely been getting more volume in with sharky then I would without it. One thing I noticed is that without it, when I had a bunch of tables that were ITM or Bubble at the same time, I wouldn't register for new ones until the pace of the action slowed a bit. With sharky though, it just keeps registering, so if I have a few close spots all at once and I need a couple of seconds to analyze each one, I can have tables start to time-out on me. One time I got to "sitting out" on a couple of tables, and I came close one other time.

99% of the time I'm no more than a couple of seconds per table and don't even come close to using the time-bank... I feel like I could increase table count from 12 to 14, but am not sure because of the above. I'm also considering starting to use the hot-keys in PokerStars instead of the mouse for most actions and don't want to increase tables while I'm trying to get used to that (I'll probably cut back a few tables for the first day or two).

Hand Review
I reviewed a ton of hands yesterday and for the most part am playing pretty solid with the exception of a couple of hands that were really obvious mistakes... My range awareness is definitely improving as I find most of the hands I'm looking at now are the bottom of the range pushes and calls. Of course that depends on how good I am at putting my opponents on ranges... I find I'm usually not too far off, although I do get the occasional whaaaaat? hand every so often...

Holiday Promo
I think I'm going to announce a little Holiday promotion idea this week for my readers... just need to work out the details first...stay tuned.

No games for me tonight, got a sick kid who needed some cuddling and who hasn't been sleeping well the past few nights. Just quick updates/teasers then on a couple of things on my mind:

1) I've just about got the details for my little holiday promo worked out and will be announcing it soon.
2) The past few weeks, a lot of my posts have been pondering my goals in poker - I'll be setting my goals and announcing my 2015 challenge soon.
3) I've got a new idea for my blog that I think will be both interesting and motivational - more to come on that as well.

Originally posted by Ramble
No games for me tonight, got a sick kid who needed some cuddling and who hasn't been sleeping well the past few nights. Just quick updates/teasers then on a couple of things on my mind:

1) I've just about got the details for my little holiday promo worked out and will be announcing it soon.
2) The past few weeks, a lot of my posts have been pondering my goals in poker - I'll be setting my goals and announcing my 2015 challenge soon.
3) I've got a new idea for my blog that I think will be both interesting and motivational - more to come on that as well.

I had the flu a couple weeks back. It really sucks!! Bought some Tylenol and it really helped. I was so sick I almost bought the $10 one and there was a $5 version behind me!:facepalm:

so... this holiday promo thing man... you got me very interested in it. I was pondering about it when you brought it up on your previous posts. Look forward to the announcement

Originally posted by maythany
so... this holiday promo thing man... you got me very interested in it. I was pondering about it when you brought it up on your previous posts. Look forward to the announcement

Unfortunately maythany, the promo probably won't interest you - I'm aiming it more towards SnG players.

Originally posted by Ramble

Originally posted by maythany
so... this holiday promo thing man... you got me very interested in it. I was pondering about it when you brought it up on your previous posts. Look forward to the announcement

Unfortunately maythany, the promo probably won't interest you - I'm aiming it more towards SnG players.

No Promos going for real poker then?

Originally posted by zachrina
No Promos going for real poker then?

Brilliant, just brillaint!

Early Thoughts on 2015 Goals

Another brief update today - only played 5 games (too tired - up with kid most of last night), but happy with play for most part. There were a couple of hands early on that I called way too loose, for a big chunk of my stack, but I quickly realized my play was off and adjusted back to my A-game.

Did a lot of thinking about my goals for 2015 today - all still in planning stages, but firming up the specifics.

• A volume challenge (nothing exciting compared to other players, but it will be a challenge for me - still bouncing the right number around in my head.)
• A blog challenge that will keep me motivated and learning (and hopefully you will find it interesting and helpful as well).
• A couple of stakes-related challenges/goals - I did some quick math today and think I'm ready to start the first one right away.
• A physical health challenge tied to poker to force me to stick with it.
• Finally, one other goal that I'm working on that I think will help with all the above goals.

Really look forward to all your goals in 2015 !

Promotion Now Live: Share and Win an ICMizer 2.0 One-Week Subscription

So I posted my promotion here: https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=1973375#post1973375

Basically, I'm asking people to share what they do to improve their game. In January I'll pick one poster to award the subscription to.

Hope it gets some interest!!!

Never Say Things Out Loud & Hotkeys...

In the "Share and Win" thread I gave an example of how I studied the bubble dynamics and said that it helped me greatly... NEVER SAY THINGS OUT LOUD!!! I then played a small session and bubbled in as many as I cashed in... very frustrating, but it happens.

I also tried setting up and using the PokerStars Hotkeys tonight, but it didn't work. I think I remember reading somewhere that HM2 may cause an issue if not configured correctly, so I am going to see if I can find that on the World Wide Internet thingy...

If you are using Hotkeys, please let me know what your set-up is. You can either post it in this blog or in the thread I started earlier: https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=1973673#post1973673

Have a good night all.