Sunday, February 12, 2012

Bahamas in the Books

It ended up being a very successful trip poker-wise. I had one of my best 60K hand stretches in terms of big bets won and have run at 2.25 big bets/100 over my last 100K hands or so. I'm definitely running above average but I think a lot of the work and changes I put into my game are paying off as well. In terms of money won it wasn't my greatest month but that was mostly due to running poorly at high limits for a week. I'm not in any way disappointed with the results though. I actually went through one of my worst stretches ever in terms of money lost, losing over 40 thousand. Amazingly, over that same stretch I broke even in terms of big bets.

I feel like I played my A+ game for about the first week and a half and maybe my C+ game for the rest of the trip. The drop off in my level of play coincided with playing much longer sessions for the purpose of earning VPPs and maintaining SNE status. Almost all the sessions early in the year were very focused short sessions where I was motivated to play. This is the major drawback to going for SNE but the obvious benefit is ~80% rakeback. I'm still struggling to determine which of those things outweighs the other. For now the plan is to continue the SNE pursuit. As it stands I'm at about 130K VPPs, ahead of pace and have met the monthly minimum for January and February.

It's back to the US tomorrow, we are visiting my family in Florida for a couple days and then heading back to California. I'm planning on doing a lot of work on my game when I get home. Mostly I'll be reviewing long sessions and analyzing hands where I think I've made mistakes along with taking notes on regulars. HEM is great for this. And of course, I'll be playing a lot pool while I can.

I also have my yearly Vegas trip with best friends planned for early March and then it's off to Costa Rica for three months. We have a great apartment on the water in Jaco so I'm really looking forward to that.

Good luck to everyone playing.





7 comments:

  1. What other progam(s) do you use when analyzing hands? Pokerstove?

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  2. PokerStove, FlopZilla, and CardrunnersEV. Mostly the first two programs but if it's something really complicated, CardrunersEV.

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  3. Really to bad you gave up on the Cardrunners series, loved those 3 episodes you made, but i understand you gave up to much making those videos in comparison what you got back from it. Out loss.

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  4. Hi Tony,

    I've read numerous books and watched some videos but still its hard to beat the games on 0.5/1. What do you recommend to get level higher?
    Myself i was think about memorizing and studing the equity i have against my opponents range which might be a good idea, but then again thats requires some studies and lots of time so thinking about doing PLO too :)
    Ideas?

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  5. I think you're on the right track. Books and videos are two of the best ways to learn. I'd continue watching videos, subscribe to as many sites as you can afford, and specifically watch videos that are geared towards lower limits.

    Aside from that, look at the players that are the biggest winners at your limits and try to determine what they're doing differently than you and incorporate some of those things into your game.

    Lastly, I'd look into getting a poker coach. Someone who has been successful in beating the limits your playing at and that has a good reputation as a teacher.

    Good luck.

    Tony

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  6. Tony, why did you choose LHE over NL? Or any other game

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  7. It's what I started playing. I didn't really choose it, it was the primary game when I started so I just never switched over to NL. I have a pretty obsessive personality - once I starting doing/playing something, I don't want to quit until I feel I've mastered it. I still don't feel like I'm at that point but if the day ever comes, I'll probably start learning another game.

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