bingomatic

09:44 am: First SNG of 2006
Went ok, 9 player $10+$1 on 'Stars. Lost a handful of chips when trying to draw to a third-nut flush (would have lost everything if I'd hit it, the guy I was playing against had the second-nut).

I managed an awful suckout when I was pretty low on chips ...

I had T9o and the flop came;

JT8 all suited.

Heads up and the other guy checks. I put in a fair bet (which with hindsight I was so pot-committed at this point I would be all-in no matter).

We end up all-in (he has twice my stack) and he tosses over two more suited cards.

Turn : 9
River : 9

Wow, it's a great feeling when it happens to you!

Managed 2nd after a few more slightly less probable suckouts - but I was really getting awful cards and my play, in general, wasn't toooooo bad.

12:02 pm: New Year's Resolutions
Aims for 2006;

1) Play $2/$4 limit.
2) Play at least 2 $20 SnG a week.
3) Play one 'major' (prize fund > $2000) tournament a month.
4) Finish both Harrington books.

Overall aim;

Starting with a combined total of around £2862.49. Increase this to at least £3500.00

11:43 am: Xmas Presents in December
Opened an account with virginpoker - bit of a mistake, there's very few players and I haven't seen any reasonable tournaments yet.

The Christmas figures ...

Site	Bonus	STT	MTT	Ring	Total
PokerStars	140.00	-83.00	195.00	-43.75	208.25
Party	75.00	0.00	0.00	7.37	82.37
VirginPoker	0.00	0.00	0.00	-21.25	-21.25
Total	215.00	-83.00	195.00	-57.63	269.37

The Christmas present came in the form of a top-9 finish in a 500FPP satellite to the big PokerStars 500k tournament. Over 3 hours of playing left me with an entry worth $200+$15. I chickened out of the tournament and converted it to $195 (could have got $200 if I had held out!)

Probably the most depressing part of this was that the New Year's Day tournament is probably one of the few I could actually enter (Monday is a Bank Holiday).

And the full figures from June to December are;

Site	Bonus	STT	MTT	Ring	Total
PokerStars	520.00	-19.00	195.00	7.80	703.80
Party	335.00	-77.00	-44.00	279.94	493.94
WilliamHill	0.00	0.00	-37.00	-24.34	-105.50
UB	28.81	-22.00	0.00	-37.50	44.31
PokerRoom	0.00	-33.00	-38.50	6.80	-64.70
GamingClub	0.00	-11.00	0.00	-13.50	-24.50
Paradise	0.00	-11.00	0.00	0.00	-11.00
fulltilt	10.00	0.00	0.00	-62.50	-52.50
Absolute	0.00	0.00	0.00	-20.75	-20.75
VirginPoker	0.00	0.00	0.00	-21.25	-21.25
Total	893.81	-173.00	75.50	189.70	941.85

12:59 pm: SNG
My SNG play has definitely improved as of late. I'm sticking to the $10+1 SNG on Stars;

1 1st
2 2nd
1 4th
1 5th

Which is pretty good for me. Not sure it's worth the approx. 1 hour commitment, but at least I can only lose $11 in the hour !

I've decided to try for a shot at the PP $500k tournament - but only if I can get the buy-in from a $5 satellite - I've looked at the Stars $500k and it's far too big a field.

10:15 am: Blue November
Okay, it's only a profit because of the bonus figures. But hey, I was looking at a pretty sizeable loss at one point...

Good news on the STT front, played in 2 and got a first and second (both at Stars). Will try and win the entry fee in the ring games and then play a quick STT if I have the time (seems to take around 1 1/4 hours!). Thought I played quite well (modest huh!) and only had to suckout once in the one I won. Went heads-up with 20% of his stack and quietly took the lot ! He was pretty passive though.

Site	Bonus	STT	MTT	Ring	Total
PokerStars	120.00	50.00	0.00	-172.50	-2.50
Party	70.00	0.00	0.00	120.69	190.69
William Hill	0.00	0.00	-23.00	-14.59	-64.28
UB	0.05	0.00	0.00	-2.00	-1.95
PokerRoom	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	12.30
Total	190.05	50.00	-23.00	-68.40	134.26

Note : The William Hill figures are in GBP, converted to USD for the total column.

07:39 pm: The Importance of Fold Equity
Any time I come across an interesting link I'm going to start posting it in the blog;

http://pokernerd.blogspot.com/2005/04/importance-of-fold-equity-if-i-had-to.html

If I had to choose one bit of knowledge that separates winners from
losers in SNG's, it would be understanding the power of fold equity.
Fold equity, for the layman, is essentially the value gained from the
possibility that an opponent may fold if you bet in a particular
situation.

09:39 am: Red October
There's a lot of excuses for my first monthly loss;

1. Holiday.
2. Trying to play off the stars bonus.
3. Everyone is getting better.
4. Playing when tired.

But the main one is that my standard of play was pretty poor, when I get the chance I'm going to run each of the last three months through Pokertracker and see what it says about the play.

Here's the damage.

Site	Bonus	STT	MTT	Ring	Total
PokerStars	0.00	0.00	0.00	-127.50	-127.50
Party	30.00	-22.00	0.00	98.02	106.02
William Hill	0.00	0.00	-3.00	-9.75	-3.00
UB	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
PokerRoom	0.00	0.00	-5.50	0.00	-5.50
Total	30.00	-22.00	-8.50	-39.23	-49.42

07:39 pm: Pretty quick with the September figures though :-)
Pretty traumatic, only the bonuses kept me in the black. I wasn't playing at my best whilst trying to clear the bonuses and I should probably calm down a bit when trying to clear them in the future.

Site	Bonus	STT	MTT	Ring	Total
PokerStars	120.00	0.00	0.00	-91.20	28.80
Party	100.00	-11.00	0.00	-95.66	-6.66
UB	1.37	0.00	0.00	-17.50	-16.13
Total	221.37	-11.00	0.00	-204.36	6.01

07:39 pm: Very, very late August figures
Only realised I hadn't posted August's figures when it came time for me to post the September ones.

Hope to increase the posting frequency soon - will probably try and jot down a few thoughts whilst at work - not that I'm getting the time to think much recently.

Site	Bonus	STT	MTT	Ring	Total
PokerStars	0.00	0.00	0.00	96.50	96.50
Party	0.00	-11.00	0.00	-0.65	-11.65
UB	9.46	0.00	0.00	44.50	53.96
fulltilt	2.50	0.00	0.00	-30.50	-17.50
absolute	0.00	0.00	0.00	-17.50	-17.50
PokerRoom	0.00	-22.00	0.00	-6.50	-28.50
Total	11.96	-33.00	0.00	85.85	64.81

09:23 am: Total Eclipse of the Postings
Work, Work, Holidays, Holidays, Work.

Managed to scrape through the month in profit (unless I lose a lot tonight) and so I will be making the transition to $2/$4. In anticipation of the change I will be ONLY playing at;

pokerstars, party and ultimatebet.

All other accounts will be cleared back into neteller, the plan is to have at least $500 in each of the three accounts. When (if!) an account reaches $1000, $500 we be returned to neteller. When an account reaches $200 it will be reloaded with $300.

Of course, these plans will be altered if there is a large bonus offering (and indeed, if I manage to get the party bonus I will revert back to $1/$2 in order to multi-table and clear it quickly).

07:09 pm: July
Just enough time to post July's figures

Site	Bonus	STT	MTT	Ring	Total
PokerStars	60.00	0.00	0.00	315.00	375.00
Party	60.00	-11.00	-33.00	86.46	102.46
UB	12.57	0.00	0.00	-12.50	0.07
fulltilt	7.50	0.00	0.00	-32.50	-24.50
absolute	0.00	0.00	0.00	-3.25	-3.25
PokerRoom	0.00	0.00	-22.00	8.00	-14.00
Total	140.07	-11.00	-55.00	339.71	435.78

10:19 pm: One week to go - all the stats since the start of the month !

No Hands	2283
VP$IP	20.81%
BB/100 hands	9.07
Pre-flop aggression	0.46
Flop aggression	1.57
Turn aggression	1.63
River aggression	1.64
Total aggression	0.98

03:12 pm: The Pokerstars Bonus
Currently trying to clear a pokerstars bonus ($120, so it'll take some time). Still plugging away at $1/$2. I'm going to stay at this level until the end of August. If I can show 2 monthly profits, then I'll move up. I have the bankroll to support the move and I'll be trying only a few MTT (max buy-in $20) every month. I'm cutting out STT until I have finished both Harrington books (which should mean no STT until Christmas).

Slowly getting through Sklansky's Hold 'Em Poker (half-way through part 5). Once I've finished it I'm going to re-read it with making notes (which hopefully I'll post here).

July's figures aren't looking too bad so far, but I'll have to take a look at my aggression figures, I have a feeling they still are nowhere near sufficient.

09:46 pm: Second Running Commentary
Again, from the $10+1 PokerRoom crapshoot.

Start : 9:00pm, 151 players top 10 payout, 12 minute rounds.

Stack : 1500, 10/20

2 away at my table - both to my right :-( 1 of them comes back after 3 minutes. The other is just to my right.

UTG, AQs, 4BB raise, 2 callers, 5T7 flop. 50 bet, 1 call, 1 raise to 100, K on turn, I check and then fold to a pot-sized bet.
BB, 5To, flop 364, one bet of 20, i call (one other caller), turn 2, pot-sized bet, 2 callers, river 7, bet 100, 1 caller.
BTN, A9o, 1 limper, min raise, 3 callers, flop 5J3o, all check, bet 35, one caller, 6 on turn, J river, checked down, lose to 22.

Stack : 1605, 15/30, 144 players

BB, 95o, 1 limper, flop 533, pot-sized bet, turn 3, bet 100, river 5, bet 300, he calls and I take it down.

rayman2 (the absent player) comed back (after 24 minutes, 2 levels). His stack is 1425. It'll be interesting to see where he places.

Stack : 2115, 25/50, 127 players

UTG, KJo, 2.5BB, 1 caller, flop A45, bet 100, he folds.
BB, JTo, fold to a 4.5BB raise
SB, KJo, 2 limpers, raise to 2.5BB, flop 72A, all check, turn J, bet 1/2 pot, 1 caller, river 2, bet 100, he raises to 500. I call, don't put him on an A, he show K2o.

Get moved to another table, 2 on my immediate left are Away (both have bigger stacks than me!).

LP, KTo, min raise, in with the BB. Bad flop, he checks, pot-sized bet and he folds.

Stack : 1465, 50/100, 93 players

Will need to double-up soon, I'll be short-stacked with the next level of blinds.

SB, K9o, 2 callers, flop 788, try buying pot with 100 bet, eventually I get out, down 150. I'm 70th out of 77. So I'm going to get a bit reckless. Probably won't see the first break.

LP, JQo, 1 limper, raise to 3BB, 1 caller. flop AJ5, I end up all-in, he has the A. Told you I wouldn't see the break !

Finished 73rd.

10:07 am: The bankroll situation
I'm not quite sure what's going on with my bankroll. Accountancy has never been my strong point (in fact, despite being fairly numerate I'm pretty poor at keeping track of the figures and in making sure everything balances).

My monthly totals are fairly accurate. After all, I'm simply recording the balance of the accounts at the start of every month and at the end of every month (obviously, taking into account and deposits/withdrawals). My current monthly figure is showing a profit - however, my bankroll has actually decreased over the month ! Probably something to do with the dodgy exchange rate hacks that I've had to introduce.

So there we have it. An end to the bankroll information. I'll be keeping a monthly/6 monthly running account just using my summary information (already spotted an error with June's figures!)

10:43 pm: 11 hours at work.....
Has left me with only time for a quick bankroll update : $4590.45. Started playing at full tilt (pokertracker support will be along soon!) and already suffering more than my fair share of bad beats (can't wait to play through some of the hands in pt and check out the percentages)

10:57 pm: Feck, Arse, Girls, Drink. Father Jack had it right ...
Drink can really bugger up your game. After a few too many decided to up my game to $2/$4 (in strict contravention of my plan). Didn't actually do that badly - I still have some bankroll remaining.....

Starting to read Sklansky's Hold 'Em book. So, given that it's geared towards ring games, I decide to play in a couple of tournaments (aim 1 : I will not repeat the endless rounds of STT and MTT failures suffered in June). Get sucked out in a MTT $20+2 party poker MTT (an overpair, JJ, called by AQo, he gets a Q on the river).

My dream of playing live on tv has also faded. Ended 42 (out of >140) in the poker den satellite - not quite sure what I would do if I managed to win the entry into the tv qualifier and then actually managed to get a place on tv - probably shit myself.

03:52 pm: What I'm Reading
Basically, I'm not reading much. I'm listening to the very entertaining pokerdiagram podcast, along with the occassional lord admiral podcast.

Hopefully, once work tails off, I'll start to plough through Poker - Texas Hold 'em: A Complete Guide to Playing the Game (David Sklansky). Along with taking notes in my shiny new paperchase notebook (the one with notes from the first 30 pages of Harrington's volume 1).

Will update current bankroll when I've got home.

10:11 pm: Stats since start of July
Stats since the start of July are;

No Hands	1296
VP$IP	19.75%
BB/100 hands	6.05
Pre-flop aggression	0.44
Flop aggression	1.61
Turn aggression	1.52
River aggression	1.55
Total aggression	0.95

Slowly getting there with the aggression :-) grrrr...

09:02 am: Perils of work
Work is interfering quite a lot with the poker (probably explains why I'm going through a bit of a winning streak - much less time to think about what I should be doing).

Hopefully, in a couple of days, work will not be as intrusive and I can get back to improving my game.

If I finish this month ahead (including taking account of the bonus) AND I finish ahead in August then it's all steam ahead for $2/$4.