June In The Books

June ended up being a great month, my best of the year.  Looking back at the previous thirty-six months, it ranked sixth in terms of money won and I believe second or third in terms of big bets won.  I was up 1000 big bets after twenty-six thousand hands this month which I believe is the shortest amount of time I've ever reached 1000 BB's since playing on Stars.  I was playing a lot of heads up earlier this month against several regulars including Jama-Dharma, whom I'm sure many of you are aware of our public feud.  The added heads up hands were probably the single biggest contributor to that stretch, I ran at close to 10 BB/100.  Considering how dead the high limit games were, I'm extremely happy and fortunate with the results - 61% of my hands came at 15/30 and lower.

This will be the last month I post any results in my blog aside from posting losing streaks and perhaps an end of the year recap.  I'm finding a lot of the regulars are employing my strategies against me and it's undoubtedly due to me making my success public.  I've made three major changes to my game over the last year or so and there are several regulars now that have implemented the same or similar changes to their games. It's really quite frustrating because I put a lot of work and thought into my game and I almost feel like my ideas are being stolen. So I don't think it makes sense to keep publicly posting about my success and having people copy my strategies.  I realize people are still going to copy my strategies regardless of whether I post results here but I do think it will help the situation somewhat over the long run.

I've had several people either write in the comments or email me that they really enjoy reading about my downswings, my mental state during them, and fighting through them.  So I will continue to post those along with my thoughts.

On the VPP front, I'm up to about 535K and need to average 4400 a day for the rest of my time in Cabo.  That should be very doable.  I'm going to shoot for 5,000/day so that I have the flexibility to take time off if necessary.

I hope everyone has a profitable July, good luck at the tables.

Halfway Home

I mean that literally, I just earned my 500,000th VPP of the year and am halfway to heading back home to California and hopefully taking the rest of the year off.  I've been on an incredible tear this month and am on pace to break my single month big bet record.  As of today, I'm up about 1100 BB's and at one point was up close to 1300.

This month in terms of games has been the slowest of the year.  This is undoubtedly due to the World Series.  Some good comes with this though as most of the top tier regulars aren't online and this certainly has contributed to my success this month.

Looking back at the first half of the year, the games on a whole have been a lot more active than I anticipated.  It's still nothing like it was even two years ago but given what I expected particularly after my post about the death of limit hold-em late last year, I'm quite encouraged.  It's very fickle though, all it takes is for two or three of the higher volume recreational players to stop playing and suddenly the games are near dead.

In terms of my play at the tables, I'm very happy overall with my game.  I'm ahead of last year's pace in terms of money won and big bets won though still off my pace of two and three years ago but that's largely due to the lack of high limit games.  My game has continued to evolve and improve particularly the mental side. I've had incredible emotional control all year and it's likely the single biggest contributor to my improved results.

We've extended our stay in Cabo San Lucas until October 15th and I'm planning on making SuperNova Elite by then.  I believe I have to average around 4600 VPPs a day which is about 500 per day less than  I've averaged over the last six weeks.  Barring the games completely drying up, I should be able to make it in time without much problem.  I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to that last three months of the year where I can play pool, relax, and not worry about grinding every day.

On the subject of the end of the year, I am giving serious consideration to offering coaching this fall.  The price will likely be $500/Hour and would include follow up conversations and emails in addition to an hour lesson.  I haven't ironed out all the details yet and am not positive I want to make the commitment but it's more likely at this point than any point in the last few years.  If anyone is interested in receiving coaching, please email me at tony.pirone@gmail.com.  I'd like to get an idea of the type of interest before I make a decision.  My guess is that I could take on two or three students a week.  Ideally I'd like to work with serious, dedicated players who love the game and want to take their game to the next level.  If I do decide to offer coaching, I will be sure to post here with all the details of what it would include.

Good luck at the tables everyone.  And this is what my year has looked like so far, I will be thrilled if the second half is as successful.

Merciful End to May

This is what my trip has looked like so far:

After winning about 770 BB's in 16K hands, I went on an 770 BB downer over my next sixty thousand hands.  I'll skip the obvious, I ran extremely bad.  But I also played about as bad as I ever played for a 5-10K hand stretch.

I say this every year and I'll probably continue saying it every year.  Do not underestimate the variance in poker, particular in limit hold-em.  However bad you think it can get, it can get much, much worse.  And don't underestimate the impact it will have on your game.  Every time without fail when I go through one of these extended stretches of run bad, my game completely deteriorates and I start making all kinds of errors I'd never make otherwise.

I've learned a couple things from this downswing.  One is that I need to start taking breaks.  I played 335 hours this month which took a severe toll on my game.  At one point, I misread the board three times in the span of an hour.  So starting next year, I'm committing myself to taking time off anytime I start to feel burned out.

The other thing I learned is that I can't wake up and jump into high limit games.  At least ten mornings this month I woke up, immediately sat in 4 high limit games and was down 5k in less than an hour.  I'm always groggy and can't think straight when I wake up.  It takes a while for my mind to get going and to be in a poker frame of mind.  What I was doing every day would be the equivalent of Ray Allen sleeping in the bleachers, rolling out of bed and immediately getting into a NBA basketball game with guys that had been competing for hours.  He'd have no shot of competing and neither do I.  Two days ago, I decided not to play anything higher than 30/60 until I'm confident I'm thinking clearly.

On the VPP front I'm up to 400K which I believe puts me right on SNE pace.  I'm hoping to finish by the end of September and will need to average about 150K/Month to accomplish that.

Good luck at the tables.

Off To The Races in Cabo

It's been a while since my last post.  I'm back in Mexico, Cabo San Lucas this time.  We got here about eight days ago and I've been on absolute tear playing.  It seems like every day I wake up to play and I'm up 5K before I know it.  It's really been an amazing stretch and I'm enjoying it as much as possible since I know it can and will turn at any time.

On the VPP front I'm up to about 280K, far behind SNE pace.  I want to be done playing by October and in order to do that I need to average about 5500 VPPs a day.  That's pretty ambitious considering it equates to about 10-12 hours of playing a day, every day.  So far so good, I've averaged that my first eight days here.  The plan is to stay here three months, head home for a week and then off to another destination for the remaining two months.

That's about it.  I feel like I"m playing some of the best poker I've ever played but I always feel that way when I run this well.  As always the goal is stay focused and make the best possible decisions at the table, each and every decision.

Good luck at the tables everyone.

Mexico in the Books and the Slow Death of Limit

This is what the year has looked like so far:

I started out the year running at ~3 BB/100 after my first 40K hands so it doesn't feel too good to end the trip on this note.  It's been quite a roller coaster so far, winning 1100 plus big bets, losing 750, winning 650, and ending on about a 250 downer.  I was extremely lucky to run well at high limits and run so poorly at lower limits: I ran at roughly 2.3 BB/100 at 30/60+ over 43K hands and (.38) BB/100 at 15/30 and lower over 83K hands.  My lowest win rates have always come at 10/20 and 15/30 and undoubtedly rake is playing a big part in that.  But there shouldn't be that big of a disparity, maybe 1 BB/100 or so which is close to the difference in rake. 

I played pretty poorly the last few weeks I was here.  I've felt really unmotivated and bored as of late.   This is partly due to the high limit games on Stars being exceptionally dead.  70% of my hands this month came at 15/30 and lower (the majority of those at 10/20) which is pretty scary.   In February, about 60% of my hands were 15/30 and lower and in January it was close to 50%.  Overall this year about 65% of my hands have been at 15/30 and lower.  Last year at this time only 45% were 15/30 and lower and I'd only played 17K hands of 10/20 compared with 51K this year.  Only two years ago at this time 90% of my hands were 30/60 and higher and 1% were at 10/20! 

What does this all mean?  Pretty much what we've known for a long time, limit HE is dying particularly high stakes.  It also means that I can't expect to earn anywhere near what I've earned in the past.  I've been very lucky this year to run good at my highest limits, reverse the limits and the variance and I easily could of broke even over this stretch.

Rather than sit idly and complain about it, it's time to learn a new game.  This is really something I should have done at least a year ago, the writings been on the wall.  PLO seems like the best money making opportunity, there are numerous games running around the clock at all stakes.  I've been reading, watching videos, and playing a little bit this past week.  I've got a long, long way to go to be where I want to be but I'm fully committed at this point to doing everything it takes to become proficient at PLO.  I'm playing 50 cent/$1 at the moment and won't move up until I'm confident I'm better than the vast majority of the players I'm playing against.  I'm hoping that within a year or so I'll be playing $1/2 and $2/4 and ultimately I'd like to play at least $10/$20.  So that's the plan.  I'll still be playing a lot of limit in the mean time to pay the bills and make SNE but nearly all my downtime will be spent on PLO.

I'm heading back to the US tomorrow for 3-4 weeks.  It's a much needed break, I feel burnt out with poker and discouraged at the lack of games.  I'm not sure where we're headed next but hopefully I'll come back fresh and motivated.

Good luck at the tables.