Collusion

I got some money back from pokerstars because they found out some players were colluding in a SNG. This is the second time it has happened in the past few months. I wonder how often they catch people cheating or "colluding?"

Let me say that I think pokerstars runs a tight ship and I am sure they have the problem under control. However, I understand why people try to cheat. If you have enough people colluding, it could be hard to track. Plus, since Pokerstars operates in the Isle of Man and is technically "illegal" in the US, I doubt there are any repercussions other than pokerstars suspeding your account and taking the money.

Thanks for the money back pokerstars. I'm always glad to hear when you catch cheaters.

Bigger is Better

I play on a 23 inch screen. I also use my laptop monitor (15 inch) as a secondary screen. However, I find it very annoying to use both screens for poker. I primarily play on the 23 inch, then run lobbies and iTunes on the laptop. I play 6 games at a time, but I want to do more. The problem is that if I go up past 6 games, the size of the games shrink considerably... to the point where it is annoying and I'm constantly squinting. I'd be curious to know what monitors people use and how many games they multitable on those screens. After staring at a computer monitor at work all day, it's hard for me to squint at tiny poker tables...

Poker Now

I'm still just plugging away at the bonus grinding. Haven't played too much, but hoping to pick it up until the end of March.

Last weekend I tested out some cash games. The outcome was fine, but the VPP clearing rate was drastically lower. I hope to garner some more cash game experience in the future.

February Results

I'm going to start doing monthly results.

BR on Feb 1 - $320
BR on Feb 28 - $607

These numbers include bonuses... I should start taking the bonuses out. I probably cleared like 70 in bonus...? I felt like it was a bad month, but I actually did pretty decent. I've been playing less lately, but still on track to get my bonuses, which is the main goal.

I wanted to start playing cash games this weekend, but I got busy drinking, watching hockey, eating, and playing Modern Warfare 2.

I'm also finding that weekend nights are fishy, but weekend days are much less so. I get killed on weekend days but crush it on the nights... My worst days have been when I put in long weekend days. That is going to change.

Cash Games

Bank Roll - $606

I'm going to test out playing cash games this weekend. I like Double-Or-Nothings when clearing bonuses, but I need to become a cash game player if I'm going to really make money. I like that I can leave whenever I want to.

I'm going to start low, just to get a feel for it and take it from there.

Free Fall

I feel like I'm in complete free fall. I got a 50$ bonus today or else my situation would be even worse.

I may have a bit of fatigue because I play every day. I think a bigger problem is that I noticed the games have been very reg filled, which makes it very difficult to win. When I recognize every icon at the table and cannot spot a single fish, that's a problem. I'm a decent player, but not great. My solution is to go down to $5.2 for a little bit. Maybe they will not be as reg filled. It'll limit my losses.

It's very frustrating to lose so much so quickly, especially when my play hasn't changed dramatically.

On the plus side, I'm up for the month.

My super long term goal is just to climb the stakes to a high enough level and become a break even player (profit will come from the bonuses). I'm very far away from this goal.

Bank roll - $513.

Great Week, Worse Day

I had been playing really well and was up to above 700, then yesterday I had teh worst losing day I've ever had. Nothing could go right. I lost about 130. I had been doing so well that I'm still up and doing okay, but it's still frustrating.

On the plus side I'll clear 50 in bonus today or tomorrow which will pad the loss.

Doing Well

Bankroll - $619

I think I was at about 700 when I took a shot at 20.8, which was a mistake. I'm going to wait until I have $1000 until I take a shot. I'm more concerned with staying at $10.4 and clearing my bonuses.

Things have been going well. I'm glad that I managed to rebound from losing a lot of my bankroll in early December. Multi-tabling 6 tables has become the norm (it was 4). I got a new 23 inch monitor which helps a lot. I might be able to do more but I don't really have the monitor space.

I've been playing well. I am not using any tracking software but am table slecting (I just avoid the games that are overcrowded early). I'm also playing more at night, which I think helps.

New Goals

It's nice to be back at 10.4 and actually have some money in my bank roll. I'm not sure exactly but it's somewhere above 500.

Since my last goal was to get back to 400 and play 10.4, I guess I should make a new goal.

My real goal is to just finish grinding off my bonuses on pokerstars. After I get my bonuses finished, I'll take out my 600 in seed money.

My long term goal is to make $1000 and move to $20.8 games.

I'm glad that pokerstars upped the VPP's awarded for SNGs (it's up 10% from last year). It helps.

Better but Rough Day

I'm doing much better. Playing 10.4 dubs. Was up to almost 600 but now I'm at 500.

Today sucked but overall, I've had a good week. I went out on six straight sucks outs in a row, which was gut wrenching. Here are five of them.
1. I got all in with Aces, someone calls with 5, 7 and hits a straight.
2. I go all in with Kings and someone calls with 10, Q and hits a straight.
3. I got all in Kings, someone calls me with Kings. Four spades hit the board and I lose to a flush.
4. I go all in with two pair, someone calls with nothing and gets a flush.

Arg. I know, it's poker. I'm glad to be doing much better overall. Part of the rough day is I was playing with a ton of regulars, which makes the games much harder.

Poker

I haven't posted for a while. I played less and lower stakes over christmas break, due to my parent's sketchy connection. I basically just continued to break even. After playerin $5.2 DoNs, I got back to $400 and started playing $10.4's... but quickly fell to $294. I'm back at $5.2 and almost back up to $400 to give 10.4's another shot.

What is interesting to me is I have basically played 2000 DoN's. For the first 1k, I played 10.4 and made a pretty good profit and ROI. I had a bad streak and then went down to $5.2's, where I basically just broke even. You'd think my ROI would increase when I dropped down.

One thing I have noticed lately is that the time of day makes a big difference. I play mostly in the mornings (6:00 - 8:30 AM - California Time). The competition is much easier on the weekend and at nights, so I'm going to shift my schedule.