Well, I've put in a whopping 6854 minutes of play this month according to HEM 2, or about an average of 8 hours a day with no days off. The heavy volume has been a result of my fractured ankle and me wanting to try and achieve SNE status by the end of the year. Fortunately, the results have been great at the tables so far and it's always nice to be rewarded for putting in a lot of effort because in poker, that's not always going to be the case.
Graph:
By Stakes:
By Day:
I often get asked what my daily swings are like, so that should give you an idea of how all over the map my days are. I could literally play no different from day to day and win over a thousand dollars on one day and lose that much the next. There's just a lot of variance in the short term but if you choose to focus on what you can control, such as putting in the hours, taking the best lines, working and tweaking your game etc. it will help you feel satisfied even on losing days.
Like I said, fortunately this month I've been running pretty well and playing fairly well overall thus far. It's been a bit of a struggle to stay sharp when playing so many hands each day and especially these last couple of days, I've found myself playing pretty awful from time to time and I think it's from mental fatigue. When I say "playing awful," I'm not spewing off stacks left and right or anything but am just not making some folds that I might normally or am not looking for good spots to steal pots enough. There was a hand yesterday where I cold 4bet a BTNs 3bet with AKo, planning to get it in against that player but then the initial opener in the CO jammed and the BTN folded. I thought the CO was a bit nitty and probably had only AA here. I think that a lot of people might just click call and chalk it up as a cooler anyways but I told myself about 4 times to fold and then just clicked the call button. They had AA and I lost. The outcome of the hand doesn't really matter, nor does the debate about whether or not folding or calling is even the right play...what matters is that my brain was telling me to do one thing and I was unable to listen, instead relying on the "standard play," all the while completely ignoring my reads and instincts. Anyways, I'm sure we've all been there and hopefully I can at least continue to recognize when I'm not playing my best and work around that.
As for volume, well my vpp/hand is probably the equivalent to the average 25nl grinder lol so my VPP count is not great. I was hoping to have close to 28K VPPs at this point but am instead at almost 23.5K, so not too far off but a bit behind my ideal target. I'll be looking to continue with 8+ hour days and hopefully get as close to my 60K month target as possible.
I said that if my profits were over $3,000 by this point that I'd add some 400nl+600nl tables into the mix so that is exactly what I'm planning on doing. I'm not sure if any sort of significant volume will come from these tables but they should help out with the vpp/hand rate a bit. I know that if I want any shot of actually making SNE that I'm going to have to eventually play all mid-stakes cash games (possibly including 6max) so if I stick to the plan of keeping as close to pace as possible, hopefully I'll be able to hold off moving up until I feel totally ready.
You also might see me grinding some micro+low-stakes MTTs while I'm grinding cash. I have some T$ (bit over $1k) and I'd like to use them to grow into a healthy MTT bankroll (like $3K+) so I might fire up a few tournies each day during my sessions. I've been playing both MTTs and cash games over the last few days and I've found that it can be overwhelming at times and my focus on both the cash games and MTTs can be lessened by playing both at once. Playing the tournaments does make the time pass by a lot faster for me though so I'll need to see if it's possible to find a comfortable spot on the spectrum between being too bored and too overwhelmed. I'll keep you posted on how the MTTs are going probably only if anything significant happens, otherwise my attention will be given to the cash game grind.
Biggest pot won this month: Pretty standard flop top set vs bottom 2 and FD and hold...;)
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (9 handed)
SB ($259.69)
BB ($83.38)
Hero (UTG) ($203)
UTG+1 ($100.47)
MP1 ($200)
MP2 ($118.64)
MP3 ($160.43)
CO ($220.47)
Button ($312.96)
Preflop: Hero is UTG with 9
, 9
Hero raises to $4.56, UTG+1 calls $4.56, 2 folds, MP3 calls $4.56, 4 folds
Flop: ($16.68) 2
, 4
, 9 (3 players)Hero bets $10, UTG+1 calls $10, MP3 calls $10
Turn: ($46.68) K
(3 players)Hero bets $32, UTG+1 calls $32, MP3 raises to $144, Hero raises to $188.44 (All-In), UTG+1 calls $53.91 (All-In), MP3 calls $1.87 (All-In)
River: ($424.33) A
(3 players, 3 all-in)Total pot: $424.33 | Rake: $2.80
Results below:
Hero had 9
, 9 (three of a kind, nines).UTG+1 had J
, Q (high card, Ace).MP3 had 4
, 2 (two pair, fours and twos).Outcome: Hero won $421.53
Biggest pot lost this month: Just happens to be a pretty sick bad beat, so I get to post it :D Super lame since their hand is so obv face up...to be fair it's a tough spot with kings since I usually fold all worse if they 4bet but I probably slow down with worse after the cold-call as well. Not sure if having a cold-calling range here is better than just having a cold 4betting range, I can see pros and cons to each.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (8 handed)
BB ($200)
UTG ($209.93)
Hero (UTG+1) ($216)
MP1 ($266.28)
MP2 ($207.84)
CO ($425.57)
Button ($145.70)
SB ($80)
Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with A
, AUTG raises to $6, Hero raises to $19, MP1 calls $19, 6 folds
Flop: ($47) 6
, 5, 8 (2 players)Hero bets $32, MP1 raises to $64, Hero raises to $197 (All-In), MP1 calls $133
Turn: ($441) 4
(2 players, 1 all-in)River: ($441) K
(2 players, 1 all-in)Total pot: $441 | Rake: $2.80
Results below:
Hero had A
, A (one pair, Aces).MP1 had K
, K (three of a kind, Kings).Outcome: MP1 won $438.20
I got possession of all of the photos that I did at the PCA photo shoot back in Jan! I've updated my twitter and facebook page to one of them and that's what that pic from the top of this post is from as well. I'll probably post a bunch of them in one spot once frosty012.com becomes my home base again but for now I'll trickle them out on various blog posts and spots to fulfill some of your creeping needs ;)
Man, there really hasn't been much else going on for me right now with this ankle besides poker. I've been watching the Olympics when I can, usually during poker breaks and my girlfriend has been stopping by occasionally to hang out and bring me groceries. Even the simplest things like getting food for yourself become difficult when you're carrying crutches around and it's a difficult task just to crutch to the store in the first place. My roommate and I went out together today to do a big Valentine's shop for our gfs...we both have similar nights planned and I'm cooking a nice steak dinner for my girlfriend tonight at my place. I also picked up the finest $20 bottle of white wine that the liquor store had to offer and a couple other surprises so I'm looking forward to a good night!
All right. I'll be back on the grind tomorrow and am looking forward to the first Supernova Freeroll of the year! I have a pretty decent cash % in these things I think, although to this point I've been left on the sideline to watch my fellow grinders take home huge scores at the Final Table. Nevertheless, the opportunity to make a deep run in the tournament is always exciting so gl to all those that are playing.
gl at the tables!
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