Summary: The first two months

It’s been approximately two months since I started the Challenge and after having a week of no poker due to spending the week in Lincoln for a wedding, I decided now might be a good time to do a summary of my overall progress.

(Also, my Poker Tracker runs out in a couple of days, so I’m trying to get as much use out of it as I can, although I’m pretty sure I will end up buying the software as it is invaluable for improving your play).

The Challenge

Total profit so far: $52.10

Since my last post I’ve actually played very little for the Challenge. I’ve been playing in $1.20 tournaments at Bwin and apart from a few small cashes I’ve not achieved much progress, resulting in a loss of around $5.

Annoyingly, due to my wedding commitment I also didn’t get the chance to participate in the World Poker Tour Freeroll Qualifier which I had landed a ticket for. The top prize was an all-expenses paid trip to a WPT event in France – a package worth around €15,000 in all.

While it is supremely unlikely that I would have won, it is still irksome that I could have potentially cleared the Challenge, won entry into a huge live event and potentially won a WPT title to boot! Admittedly, this is pretty far-fetched but stranger things have happened.

Overall, just over $50 isn’t bad for the first couple of months, although I’m keen to increase the number of tournaments I’m entering, as well as securing a far more lucrative first-place finish. I may have to consider attempting cash tables as a more flexible alternative to multitable tournaments, as I’ll be pretty busy again next month.

Non-Challenge poker

Total profit so far: $74.96

To keep myself sane during the early days of the Challenge, I decided to dedicate some funds to a separate bankroll for recreational play. Originally, I intended to deposit between $50-100, but instead I used $8 I got free from 888 Poker when I signed up to start me off and I’ve not actually had to dip my hand in my pocket since!

I’m way more liberal with this fund, entering tournaments that are way too expensive to be considered sound bankroll management, as well as playing a variety of different games to keep my brain occupied while trudging my way through the day’s itinerary of freerolls.

I’ve not been keeping a proper running count of this particular bankroll and have arrived at the winnings total by simply taking my overall tournament profits from Poker Tracker ($127.06) and taking away the Challenge money. I think it might be slightly lower than my true total (for some reason, Poker Tracker doesn’t track winnings at Bwin, you have to manually enter them yourself, which I haven’t been doing for piddly placements).

Anyway, here is a graph of my total online winnings exported from Poker Tracker

This is my online profit over the last two months

Live poker

Total profit so far: £151 ($250)

I’ve only played live once over the last two months, so this section is pretty short, although it is by far my most profitable one.

I’m not really setting a bankroll for live poker, as I’ll just use money I would usually be spending on beer. Although keeping tabs on my winnings/losses should be pretty easy due to the lack of frequency in live tournaments.

Despite this, I am keen to play in more casinos, primarily because my style has always favoured a reads-based approach and I had a number of leaks in my play that need to be plugged as much as possible.

I’m setting my sights on entering the Genting Poker Players’ Championship next month, with the onus being on me qualifying online through a satellite in order to gain the extra 2,000 starting chips – not to mention bypassing the rather steep £165 buy-in.

Overall profit across all poker: $377.06

Looking at my profit over the last couple of months, I can’t be anything but pleased. Especially as I’ve not deposited a single penny to achieve it (apart from $10 to clear bonuses in my Bwin account).

August has also been a particularly busy month, as I’ve had lots of external commitments with work, travelling, weddings and applying for my Masters course in journalism, which has prevented me from putting in any solid sessions.

However, by the end of September I want to have achieved these targets

• The Challenge: Stabilise at $100 (around 3 months quicker than Ferguson)
• Non-Challenge: Win at least one tournament
• Live poker: Play in the Genting Poker Players’ Championship (buying straight into the tournament is going to be tough for me, so qualifying may be my only chance)

I’m confident completing the Challenge is possible, I’m just concerned about how long it may take … particularly in light of me starting a Masters in September, meaning I will be back to doing almost a 9-5 day during the week, peppered with freelance work to keep me in booze and skittles.

My original timeframe was to have it completed within a year, so July 1st 2012 is my tentative target. Ten months to turn $50 into $10,000? Piece of cake…..

Adios for now

 

Worst play of all time?

I was going over some hands in Poker Tracker recently and I came across a hand that could possibly be the worst played hand I have ever seen. Fortunately, it wasn’t me! I remember at the time that my opponent played it badly, but having had time to reflect I have decided that the mind-numbing incompetence of the player in question is worthy of highlighting in particular.

This took place in a Bwin freeroll (which you would think excuses idiot plays, but in this specific instance it only makes it worse).

Here is the hand history, I have changed the user’s name to DONK to avoid any confusion:

Seat 1: Klik4 (1500)
Seat 2: fcvs_4ever (1490)
Seat 3: Mace_Kyle (1480)
Seat 4: Nibnobbly (1500)
Seat 5: AnutaGabriel (1500)
Seat 6: djcelas (1550)
Seat 7: _PokerGodXXX (1500)
Seat 8: bazsakun69 (1500)
Seat 9: xaris23_x (1480)
Seat 10: DONK (1500)
Mace_Kyle posts small blind (10)
Nibnobbly posts big blind (20)
—
Dealing pocket cards
Dealing to Nibnobbly: [Jh, 5c]
AnutaGabriel folds
djcelas folds
_PokerGodXXX folds
bazsakun69 folds
xaris23_x calls 20
DONK calls 20
Klik4 folds
fcvs_4ever folds
Mace_Kyle folds
Nibnobbly checks
— Dealing flop [Qs, 9d, 5s]
Nibnobbly checks
xaris23_x checks
DONK bets 20
Nibnobbly calls 20
xaris23_x calls 20
— Dealing turn [5d]
Nibnobbly checks
xaris23_x checks
DONK checks
— Dealing river [7h]
Nibnobbly bets 80
xaris23_x folds
DONK calls 80
—
Summary:
Main pot: 290 won by DONK (290)
Rake taken: $0
Seat 4: Nibnobbly (1380), net: -120, [Jh, 5c] (THREE_OF_A_KIND FIVE)
Seat 10: DONK (1670), net: +170, [Qh, Qc] (FULL_HOUSE QUEEN, FIVE)!!!

***** End of hand T5-157292266-2 *****

Now, I’m not usually one to criticise other people’s play (their loss is my gain), but this is a truly astounding example of how to brutally mess up in every stage of a poker hand.

Let’s summarise

1/ He flat calls in middle position with pocket queens when the blinds are miniscule, encouraging pretty much any hand to limp in and catch a flop (shockingly everyone folds, even the small blind who is getting 7:1 on his money, which is pretty much a call with any two cards, but one fool at a time)

2/ He flops top set and minimum bets. This not only gives anyone with a draw the chance to suck out, it isn’t exactly massaging the pot, which is already looking downright anaemic because of his limp preflop

3/ When he hits his absolute monster, he checks again. Good stuff, keep that pot nice and small. Just what you want when you have an essentially unbeatable hand. Not to mention dishing out a free river for anyone who might be willing to pay for a draw

4/ After I hit my trip 5s, I’m keen to put in a small bet on the river (I’ve put him on a missed flush draw, but either player could have a pair they might call with). And this is where he manages to transcend poor play and reach a level of utter stupidity that I had to look on Thesaurus.com for an adequate synonym for ‘idiot’. I finally decided on ‘cretin’. He flat called my raise on the river with the second nuts! The only hand that was beating him was pocket fives for quads.

Now, I should probably note that I don’t necessarily disagree with some of his plays in isolation. Slow-playing top set/a boat isn’t a bad play on its own, but when you combine it with the other horrific plays in the hand, it only emphasises his cluelessness.

In a freeroll this is even more unforgiveable as he’s not risking any actual money by re-raising me with his nut boat (however, a flat call would be a ludicrous play in this situation regardless of the buy-in/risk).

I was just happy to escape with minimal losses, but I think this example definitely highlights the difficulty that can be encountered when trying to win freerolls. It is almost impossible to put people on hands because nothing they do makes sense.

Oh well, I can only hope that a solid and persistent style can continue to edge me ahead in these micro and low-stakes tournaments until I reach a level where decent play has a real effect.