Playing online for a living week 46

[davidross]

Well, it’s been a character building week, and one of the strangest I’ve had. I played lots of hours and feel like I just treaded water all week. No big wins, I’ve now gone 11 days without a $400 win, and no big losses, it’s over 2 weeks since I had a $500 loss. I seem to be going overboard on this low variance idea. Clearly I’ve been spoiled with my recent success. Playing 2,000 hands and winning $100 feels like losing after the run I’ve been on.

I started out on the right foot with a $398 win on Sunday. Monday however, I began a trend that lasted all week. I would have a nice afternoon session and get up anywhere from 200 to 400 dollars. Then I’d start out hot in the evening before giving most of it back. Monday I ended up ahead by only $90, Tuesday it was $64, and Wednesday I lost $366. Thursday was another loss, only $16 though. So I headed into the weekend up less than $200. Friday was a little better, winning $393, although I was up $1,000 at one point, and Saturday I won another $278. That put my final win for the week at $841.

I played some long hours this week because I’m going to Montreal for a couple of days this week. My kids are on March Break so we’re going to visit and get some skiing in. I’ll miss a couple of days of playing and I was hoping to bank some extra. Oh well. I must admit, if this is a bad week, it sure beats losing. It has never felt more like a grind than it did this week. I think because I was determined to play extra hours, but somehow it is easier to mix big wins and big losses than to just stay even all week as I did. I never seemed to get on the kind of roll that usually happens a couple of times a day.

One revelation from this week is that I’m still paying off too much when I’m losing. Turn raises from players that don’t bluff, when I’m holding just overcards, or the river bet when the flush card hits. I think I threw away a lot of bets. It’s an interesting phenomenon actually. It’s almost like I want to see what I was beat by this time. There isn’t much doubt I’ve lost, its just a question of to what. And I still pay it. Definitely something to work on.

I didn’t play any tournaments this week. I never got an answer from support as to whether they gave a seat to the WSOP last Saturday when I finished 4th. There is another semi-final next Saturday and I’d like to know before I enter if there will be seats up for grabs. I think I’ll play qualifiers while I’m at my sister in laws this week. It’s hard to play multiple tales on her old machine (dial up too).

Empire has a VIP promotion on. You earn points by playing ring games or tournaments, and they have some pretty good rewards. As of Saturday I have 8535 points, and I’m making around 2000 per month. They offer $1 for every 100 points so I could cash them for around $20 / month, not really worth it. Instead I’ll look for a place to use them in an auction. In 2 weeks they have a free roll for the top 100 point earners. The prize is a $25,000 seat in Bellagio’s 5 star tourney. Right now 100th place has 6800 points so I’m comfortably in the top 100. The other reward that caught my eye is a $2,000 WSOP package that includes 5 days in Vegas and a free entry into a WSOP satellite. No indication what kind of satellite, but it might be fun to just be there. I’m pretty sure I’ll have enough points to be competitive with the bid.

It doesn’t look like my wife got the job she interviewed for. She didn’t think the interview went well, and she’s been pretty miserable since then. There is a huge demand for nurses, but she specifically wants to work in Labour and delivery, and that’s tougher to get into. I hope she finds something soon. As my son mentioned the other day, “someone in this family needs a job”. I do wonder sometimes what my kids think about me playing poker all the time, and whether there are any long term repercussions associated with it. I sure love being home all the time, but I’m a little uneasy about the image that I’m just ‘playing’ and not working. I can talk about it with the 16 year old, and she told me she thinks it’s “cool”, but the others are too young to put it into context.

Report cards came home this week for the 3 younger kids. My older son is finding it much tougher in grade 7 than he did in elementary school. I need to spend more time reviewing his work. My younger son continues to amaze us. He got one B+, and everything else is straight A’s. He’s my future poker player. He loves to sit and watch, especially the tournaments. We have a meeting with the school administrators to determine what we want to do with him next year. He was identified as gifted this year and is eligible for special programs, but that would require changing schools, so I don’t think we want to do that. But I do want to make sure he stays challenged. His teacher this year is letting him do algebra (he’s in grade 4) to keep him interested and I hope we’ll get a teacher who will do the same next year too. My baby did very well too, almost all B’s, so it was a pretty good report card day.

On a personal note, I’m getting very fat. I’m almost 20 pounds heavier than I was when I ran the marathon 5 years ago. Sitting in this chair 8 hours a day is not helping my fitness level any. Since soccer season ended last fall, I’ve done very little to stay in shape, and it’s really starting to show. I think I better get down to the ‘Y’ and join up. The tricky part is figuring out when to fit a workout into my schedule. Right after the kids go to school, lunch time, or after school would seem to be my choices. I usually sleep from 9 to 12, so I would have to change that somewhat. I don’t know if it would be better to sleep before or after a workout. 4:00 PM might be the best time, but that’s when I run errands etc. and I’m afraid it would be too easy to keep skipping the workout.

The sweetest feeling in poker. At the same time, on two different tables last night, I had the absolute nuts, and got bet into and 3 bet on the river. On one table I had quads, and the other I had a straight. Both times the other guy had AA, and waited for the river to get aggressive.

Reviewing my rake numbers has me wondering what percentage of players can actually win. Since I started with poker tracker, I’ve won $15,350, and paid $14,600 in rake. Assume an imaginary 6 player table, with all of us paying 14,000 in rake, plus my 15,000 in winnings, that’s 100K that the other 5 have lost in total. Unless I’m missing something, those are pretty spectacular losses. It’ll take a lot of opponents to make up that 100K. Clearly I need to look at moving up in stakes if possible to reduce the rake as a percentage of my earnings.

Have a good week.

[James282]

Those rake numbers are startling. But those games are just so good that they can be devastated. Like I said to you last night, sometimes it just feels like the only way a given table could end is if 1 or 2 players had every red cent. Good luck.
-James

[1800GAMBLER]

Hey.

Very surprised you haven't meantioned the Poker Tracker update as it's ideal for multi-tabling players. So i'm guessing you haven't downloaded the patch yet. It allows you to export whatever notes you want from poker tracker to every player in your database. Welcome to another BB/100h.

[HavanaBanana]

[ QUOTE ]
Since I started with poker tracker, I’ve won $15,350, and paid $14,600 in rake.

[/ QUOTE ]

I havent read all your weeks, so please someone tell me how many hours we are talking about here.


[ QUOTE ]
On a personal note, I’m getting very fat. I’m almost 20 pounds heavier than I was when I ran the marathon 5 years ago. Sitting in this chair 8 hours a day is not helping my fitness level any.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have seen people on threadmills watching their personal Tv in front of them, maybe you can set one up with a laptop, and lose no time at all? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

ToT

[SpaceAce]

[ QUOTE ]
ToT

[/ QUOTE ]

Um?

SpaceAce

[Kenrick]

For those small wins over big wins/losses, for me, as long as I don't lose anything during a session, I am at least content. If I only win $1, that's ok, because it sure beats having a losing session. I'd rather be in a stalemate for awhile than to see my bankroll go backwards.

It can be hard to kick the payoff-raises habit. For awhile I was paying off turn checkraises just out of shock more than anything else. I think a thread on here has given the same reason as to why it's such a powerful play. If someone who you know doesn't bluff raises your top-pair on the turn, you're probably beat. I'll usually pay off the one bet on the river to a possible flush, though. Most players lately never have the flush anyway. They're betting into me with middle pair or something ridiculous like that. Trying to bluff, I guess. I think they watch too much TV.

For the kids, maybe it's too late to just tell them you do computer work from home and leave it at that, stressing more of the "work" part and less of the "poker" part.

I could go into it further if wanted, but if you have a set of barbells, dumbells, and a jump rope or something at home, that's all you need to be in decent shape. If you cut out most sugar and crap, it doesn't take much weightlifting to be decent. And a couple 15-minute sessions of jumping rope a week can really help for being so sedentary otherwise.

For weightliftng, I used to think squats and deadlifts were just for powerlifters and all that. Squats truly are the king of all weightlifting exercises. Even three sets of ten of 40-60 pounds will get most people huffing and puffing and feeling good pretty much all over the next day. Believe it.

I've been digging around the archives again lately and thought these were amusing:

From David Ross, 05/01/03: "btw.. I will be going back to work no matter what. I don't want this life, I just want to see if it's feasible."

From David Ross, 07/06/03: "I wish I could do this forever."

Thanks for the updates, David.

[nykenny]

[ QUOTE ]
Clearly I need to look at moving up in stakes if possible to reduce the rake as a percentage of my earnings.

[/ QUOTE ]
i am surpprised you have not done this already.

[ QUOTE ]
I usually sleep from 9 to 12, ...

[/ QUOTE ]
i admire you as being truly professional. as much as you play poker you still take care of everything for your family, good job.

may the winning force be with you.

Kenny

[Robk]

Havana is also known as TuristonTilt.

[MicroBob]

the rake numbers are indeed eye-opening...but i guess we shouldn't be TOO surprised.
there was a thread awhile back where most people reported that their p-tracker stats showed that 40% or so of the players on their tables are overall winners for the hands they have played against them.

but if just 1 or 2 winnings players are taking that much of a given table ...and the rake is taking that much off too....that doesn't leave a lot of room for any other winners...and the money you are winning has to be coming from somewhere.

interesting to think about.

[GuyOnTilt]

Just another GoT wannabe. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

ToT means TuristOnTilt. We had a Battle of the Tilts in the first 2 SS vs. Zoo Tourneys.

GoT