My best month ever

2007 couldn't have started any better then this. Starting February 12 I will be playing poker full-time (playing at least twice as much hands as I'm doing now) so this is a great start of this very exciting new year for me.

Two reasons for this great month are probably a good game selection and also some important improvements I'm currently making into my game. Studying my game is very important and I'm always looking for leaks that can be fixed and even when I'm winning, I probably have lots of leaks that can be fixed easily at the stakes I'm currently playing (NL200/NL400).

I don't want to go in great detail about the things I'm changing to my game, but it's mainly based on position, dealing with 3-bets and check-raising on turn with different kind of hands.
I also notice that my reading skills are getting better and better which is obvious when you're playing more, but it is just nice to see that it improves your winrate over time.


Below some hands from yesterday when I had a nice session on Party:

#Game No : 5624047286
***** Hand History for Game 5624047286 *****
$200 NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, January 28, 17:43:26 ET 2007
Table Table 125784 (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 1: Sumpfbeeba ( $524.85 )
Seat 3: rol1111 ( $23.03 )
Seat 4: helena21 ( $118.17 )
Seat 2: PayStation4 ( $228.60 )
Seat 5: IneedPot_ ( $215 ) -> regular standard TAG
PayStation4 posts small blind [$1].
rol1111 posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to PayStation4 [ Qh Qc ]
helena21 folds
IneedPot_ raises [$8]
Sumpfbeeba folds
PayStation4 raises [$25] -> standard
rol1111 folds
IneedPot_ calls [$18]

** Dealing Flop ** [ Jh, Qd, Kh ] ->drawy flop, but I think I'm ahead of his range which I think is 88+ (22-77) / AQ+ / some SC's (T9)

PayStation4 bets [$36]
IneedPot_ calls [$36] -> I don't think he has a set here, but probably has some outs with his A/T or he flopped the straight.

** Dealing Turn ** [ 8h ] -> completes flush, but I'm not to scared here about a flush because there are not much possibilties on the flush here as the J and K are out already and I think he would have raised a combo draw like AhQh.

PayStation4 checks -> this looks really weak, and when he bets (which I think he does on this board) with some draw or a pair with a draw he will be comitted to call if I C/R.

IneedPot_ bets [$80]
PayStation4 raises [$160]
IneedPot_ is all-In [$73]

** Dealing River ** [ 7c ]
PayStation4 shows [ Qh, Qc ]three of a kind, Queens.
IneedPot_ doesn't show [ Th, Ts ]a pair of Tens.
PayStation4 wins $7 from side pot #1 with three of a kind, Queens.
PayStation4 wins $430 from the main pot with three of a kind, Queens.

Stacking the same (dutch) fish twice in 12 minutes....

#Game No : 5624154404
***** Hand History for Game 5624154404 *****
$200 NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, January 28, 18:18:46 ET 2007
Table Table 125784 (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 4: helena21 ( $243.07 )
Seat 2: PayStation4 ( $494.88 )
Seat 6: Paddo80 ( $93.40 )
Seat 1: SelfSaboteur ( $209.95 )
Seat 5: EatTh1s ( $398 )
Seat 3: maykel33 ( $237.05 )
maykel33 posts small blind [$1].
helena21 posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to PayStation4 [ Td Kd ]
EatTh1s folds
Paddo80 raises [$4]
SelfSaboteur folds
PayStation4 calls [$4] -> On the button I'm calling this
maykel33 calls [$3]
helena21 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3d, Jd, Ts ]
maykel33 bets [$15]
Paddo80 calls [$15]

PayStation4 calls [$15] -> Raising here against a fish (and shorty) is not necessary, you don't have fold equity when they have a hand and when you hit they pay you off anyhow

** Dealing Turn ** [ 6d ]
maykel33 bets [$50]
Paddo80 folds
PayStation4 raises [$100] -> A nice mini-raise to suck him in
maykel33 calls [$50]
** Dealing River ** [ 6h ]
maykel33 checks
PayStation4 bets [$100] -> by min-raising turn I now can get his whole stack without overbetting

maykel33 calls [$100]
PayStation4 shows [ Td, Kd ]a flush, King high.
maykel33 doesn't show [ Th, 3h ]two pairs, Tens and Sixes.

No comments needed on this one.....

#Game No : 5624186549
***** Hand History for Game 5624186549 *****
$200 NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, January 28, 18:30:23 ET 2007
Table Table 125784 (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 4: helena21 ( $201.57 )
Seat 2: PayStation4 ( $704.88 )
Seat 6: Paddo80 ( $93.20 )
Seat 1: SelfSaboteur ( $200 )
Seat 5: EatTh1s ( $392 )
Seat 3: maykel33 ( $198 )
Paddo80 posts small blind [$1].
SelfSaboteur posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to PayStation4 [ Ah Jd ]
PayStation4 raises [$8]
maykel33 calls [$8]
helena21 folds
EatTh1s folds
Paddo80 folds
SelfSaboteur folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jh, Js, 4c ]
PayStation4 bets [$10]
maykel33 raises [$25]
PayStation4 calls [$15]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]
PayStation4 checks
maykel33 bets [$100]
PayStation4 calls [$100]
** Dealing River ** [ Kd ]
PayStation4 bets [$67]
maykel33 is all-In [$65]
PayStation4 shows [ Ah, Jd ]three of a kind, Jacks.
maykel33 doesn't show [ Td, Ks ]two pairs, Kings and Jacks.
PayStation4 wins $2 from side pot #1 with three of a kind, Jacks.
PayStation4 wins $396 from the main pot with three of a kind, Jacks.

Hands played in January: ~42,000
Won in cash games : $ 10,300
Bonus received : $ 450
Winrate @ NL200 : ~ 6 PTBB/100

Current Bankroll : ~$35,000

Short update

Just a short update for now wth some nice stats and a very nice graph...

Stats since 27/11/2006 (2 screens / 8-tabling)

Played hands: 70,342
$ won : $11,730.55
PTBB/100 : 4,78
MT Ratio : 6,18
Hourly rate : $94,77

Current Bankroll : ~ $31K

Most Profitable 10 hands: Biggest losers
1. AA 6.33 BB/hand 1. 97s - 0.98 BB/hand (not my favorite anymore...)
2. KK 3.05 BB/hand 2. 87s - 0.97 BB/hand
3. QQ 2.87 BB/hand 3. 76s - 0.67 BB/hand
4. JJ 2.37 BB/hand 4. KJs - 0.55 BB/hand
5. 98s 1.54 BB/hand 5. A7s - 0.42 BB/hand
6. KQs 1.48 BB/hand 6. 54s - 0.38 BB/hand
7. AKs 1.45 BB/hand 7. 64s - 0.33 BB/hand
8. AQo 1.25 BB/hand 8. A4s - 0.32 BB/hand
9. 66 1.24 BB/hand 9. A6s - 0.31 BB/hand
10. TT 1.23 BB/hand 10. 86s - 0.31 BB/hand

So yeah....I love suited connectors....

Then a real nice graph on which you can see how stable my profit is growing in the long run. This is a graph of my last 100K hands.

Another new site...

Finally an update again. This weekend I decided to give Everest a try. Heard some good stories about it, but I always hated (and still do) the software and hate the fact that you can't use pokertracker/gametime there. They also don't have any bonuses or rakeback so I wasn't expecting much....but wow Everest is just total different poker.

I started with $2500 on NL200 and there are just no good TAG's at all. You have some regulars, but most of them suck and are probably only winning because 60% just don't understand poker at all. I think I played around 6,000 hands there the last 2 days and there are maybe 3 to 4 players at most that would be winners at PokerStars NL100.

The difference is just huge. The main thing on which you notice it, is the betting sizes. No one seems to know what a proper raise is even though there is a bet pot button. Some people also don't have a check button, but just keep betting $2 in a $40 pot. The funniest thing was when the pot was about $35 on the river with 3 players (including me) in it. The board was something like AQ877 and someone betted $2, I called with 33 (im never ever folding for $2 in such a pot) and the third person made it $4 (woohooo scary), so the first person folded and I (offcourse) called. and he showed KJ....well I think this sums it all up.

I also was all-in (for about $150) with AK vs A7 (he called my all-in).
So there is a big chance I will play some more poker on Everest.
I ended my 2 sessions with just over 2 times my buy-in on Everest ($5020).

Current BR: ~$27,500

First session of 2007 and some BR management

In my first 2007 session I had a terrible start.
Lost $500 within 10 minutes. The first pot was wit AKs against KK pre-flop all-in.
I knew this player was verry agressive and so I called his all-in after my 4-bet,
this time he had a hand. The second big pot was with QQ pre-flop all-in against AK.
Again against a very aggressive player who pushed all-in after my 4-bet and with A and K on the flop my queens were no good.
And the last one (50BB) was with KK vs AA which went all-in on the flop.

After that I made a huge comeback and ended the session up $1100 in about 2200 hands.
Biggest pot ($700) was one were I had AA and my opponent AK on a A high flop.
I also had a AA vs KK again but this time in my advantage. Overall I was pretty happy with my game although I noticed that there are some tough players on Stars. I tend to have the most problems with the 22/20/6 type of players. When they enter a pot it's almost always with a (re) raise, they probably are re-raising almost any pair on the button, which is very tough to play against, especially OOP.

Bankroll management and winrate

Another topic I was thinking about lately was BR management in corresponce with your winrate.I read a lot of forums and then it's very common to hear players say "I'm a 6 PTBB/100 winner". Most of the time those players, played about 50,000 hands and they think the winrate they had during that stretch of hands is 'their winrate'. In fact, when you've been winning 6 PTBB/100 over 50,000 hands you're longterm winrate is with 99% confidence between 1,38 and 10,62!
So the only thing you can conclude is that your at least a winner, but that's about it. Another example: you can tell with 99% confidence that you're winning between 3 and 4 PTBB/100 when you have a winrate of 3,5 PTBB/100 over 4,5 million hands!!

What has this to do with bankrollmanagement? You always hear that you need at least 20 buy-ins so you have little risk of going broke. But to get this to work you at least need to be a winner, otherwise a 100 buy-in BR is not even enough offcourse. But when can you say that you're a winner?? As told earlier it takes 50,000 hands of 6PTBB/100 winning to be sure you're a winner AT THAT LEVEL, but it takes 100,000 hands of 3,5 PTBB/100 winning to be 99% sure.
Also a winner at NL50 doesn't mean that you're a winner a NL100. Even a winning player over the past year, might be a loser this year because this year because of the much tougher games....

So a sufficient bankroll might not be the reason to move up, for me it's time to move up when I have shown over enough hands that I'm a more then normal winner (3+ PTBB/100) at a level. Yes this might take me 100,000 hands per level, but at least gives me the confidence (99%) that I'm a winner at that level.

ps: Calculations have been done with StDev of 40 (my Stdev), but this is somewhat on low side (some people I heard of had one of 60). You can look your StDev up in Pokertracker BTW.