Spring Break 5/10 Personal Challenge

[krishanleong]

My poker odyssey. I've been playing since June of 2004. I got to 2/4 in August and met with enourmous success. I made ~3K per month from August to December. I took stabs at 3/6 but didn't like the table texture of the tight games. I probably was only barely a winning player at 3/6 if at all. So in December I decided to try my hand at 6 max. After a number of starts and stops, I was down a couple hundred at 5/10 at the end of February. It wasn't the money that made me gunshy. I could see that the short game was very different to what I was use to. I didn't read hands as well as I needed to. I was overagressive in spots and passive in spots. I spend a couple months playing at pokerroom, paridise, and stars learning the 6-max game at lower limits. At the end of March, I played a couple thousand hands of 5/10 and did okay. So I decided on my spring break (I'm a teacher, not a student) I would dedicate myself to 5/10 for the week. My goal was to play 6 hours a day or ~2K hands. I would play between 3-6 tables depending on how I felt. Part of the reason I want to do this was to familiarize myself with a 40hr poker workweek. I know it's tough, but I want some first hand experience with it. I'm planning on playing pretty heavily over the summer and this will make it easier for me to estimate what kind of hours I'm capable of putting in.

Day 1 - April 1
I played for 2.45 hours. Felt pretty good with the hours since I worked a full day.

Daily Totals
$146.50
1.68 BB/100
870 Hands


Day 2 - April 2
Long day. Probably the longest I've every played in terms of hours. I've done close to 3K in a day before, but that was 12 tabling 2/4. Much less intense and many less hours. I'm happy with the results. If I'm a 1 BB/100 winner at 5/10 I'm a pretty happy man. I know I've got leaks to plug. 1 BB/100 will just be a starting point.

Daily Totals
$236
1.00 BB/100
2358 Hands
7.08 Hours

Weekly Total
$382.75
1.19 BB/100
3228 Hands


Day 3 - April 3
My fiancee's parents came into town today. I got a couple hours in the morning and a couple in at night, but wasn't going to make my goal without pressing myself. I went to sleep around 11pm. Part of the fun of playing poker is being able to set your own hours and quit when you want to. Oh, and I ran well. Really happy so far.

Daily Total
$1304.75
6.68 BB/100
1900
5.17 Hours

Weekly Total
$1687.50
3.29 BB/100
5128 Hands


Day 4 - April 4
Starting to feel the grind. Still running well but I don't feel like playing as much as I did earlier in the week. Up to this point I always enjoyed my time at 5/10 SH since it's a new limit and a new game and there is so much to learn. I haven't posted many hands either. I think this is a big -EV move. I should be working on my game all the time, not just when I'm running bad. Human nature is a bummer sometimes.

Daily Total
$709.50
2.89 BB/100
2453
6.17 Hours

Weekly Total
$2397.00
3.16 BB/100
7581 Hands


Day 5 - April 5
BAh, what a tough day. Woke up at 2am and couldn't get back to sleep. Played myself down 900 and then got to down 450 by 6am. Played good poker the whole time. Just got beaten. Law of averages equaling out some of my hot streak so far. I played a bit in the late morning and got hammered back to 1K. This is my largest downaswing yet. Late evening I played my last session and dropped another 500. I was definitely tilting a bit. I called down too much and wasn't agressive enough. In particular I had a hard time, someone had turned better than TPTK again. So I kept calling down in some spots where I'm sure a fold would have been better. Folding to turn raises and turn check raises is one of the most important adjustments at 5/10. It was also hard to get the hours in today. I played a couple MTTs to cool off before bed. I actually placed 3rd at a limit tournament I joined accidently.

Daily Total
($1525)
(6.77)
1716
6.08 Hours

Weekly Total
$871.75
0.91 BB/100
9562

I'll try and finish the rest of the week up later.

Krishan

[MyssGuy]

Nice post. I'm actually just joining the realm of 5/10 6m, as I've worked my way up through full table play.

Good luck and keep us updated!

[Grisgra]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I think that playing 3+ tables of a limit before you can beat that limit for at least 2.5BB/100 playing 1-2 tables is profoundly stupid. Maybe that's changed a little bit because of rakeback, but . . .

I have seen sob story after sob story on here from 4+ tablers saying that they ran good for 10k or 20k hands, but now, over the last 40k or 50k hands, they are barely breaking even. The fact that you're satisfied making 1BB/100 reflects to me that you might very well end up in that group.

Sure, if you can win 1BB/100 while 6-tabling you'll do better than the guy making 3BB/100 while 2-tabling, because of rakeback. But I very much doubt that your game is going to improve to the point where you'll be ready to move up anytime soon.

(Note: I'm referring to the SH games here, and limits below 10/20. What them there experts do at 15/30+ is their business [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ).

[krishanleong]

Grigra,

You bring up lots of good points. I understand the "you shouldn't play lots of tables" mentality. One of my competative advantages amoung poker players is that I multitable really well. Playing 4 tables is large cutback for me. To some degree it's an income thing. I can make ~40 an hour playing 2/4. I'd like to make close to that at 5/10 knowing that the move is ultimately more profitable because of being able to continue to move up.

[ QUOTE ]
I have seen sob story after sob story on here from 4+ tablers saying that they ran good for 10k or 20k hands, but now, over the last 40k or 50k hands, they are barely breaking even. The fact that you're satisfied making 1BB/100 reflects to me that you might very well end up in that group.

[/ QUOTE ]

Couple of points. I won't be satisfied until I'm making Nikla type money. When first moving up to a limit, I think setting reasonable expectations is a good thing. 1 BB/100 over my first 20K would be fine by me.
[ QUOTE ]
But I very much doubt that your game is going to improve to the point where you'll be ready to move up anytime soon.

[/ QUOTE ]
The second HUGE thing is that I will always be working on my game. I'm a regular in the forums and will post hands a couple of times a week, reading everything and responding to as much as I can. I doubt the 50K break even players are working on their game as hard as I'm planning on working on mine. I think this ameliorates my multitabling as far as improving my game is concerned.

Krishan

[J.R.]

[ QUOTE ]
I can make ~40 an hour playing 2/4. I'd like to make close to that at 5/10 knowing that the move is ultimately more profitable because of being able to continue to move up.

[/ QUOTE ]

OMG, u could be clearing around $100/hour 4-tabling 5-10 6-max if u get really good (about 300-350 hands at @ 3bb/100, plus another 15-20 bucks form rakeback, so maybe even closer to 115-120/hour). U will "get good" so much faster if you just play 1 table and really focus and consider your actions.

Glad to know you are studying and working hard away from the tables, but the move to 5-10 is profitable not because you can continue to move up (which won't be a profitable move unless you can beat the 5-10 6-max for a much greater margin than 1bb/100), but because you can make 3-4 times your 2-4 earn if you learn to crush the 5-10 game.

You're throwing away money now and considerably hampering your expected future earn by 4-tabling and barely squeaking by, and for somone who expects to put in major hours this summer and hopefully move up in stakes, this compromise of your future earn is even more pronounced. Get good now so you can make some real dough this summer. listen to what more experienced posters say, experience teaches wisdom.

[Grisgra]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I can make ~40 an hour playing 2/4. I'd like to make close to that at 5/10 knowing that the move is ultimately more profitable because of being able to continue to move up.

[/ QUOTE ]

OMG, u could be clearing around $100/hour 4-tabling 5-10 6-max if u get really good (about 300-350 hands at @ 3bb/100, plus another 15-20 bucks form rakeback, so maybe even closer to 115-120/hour). U will "get good" so much faster if you just play 1 table and really focus and consider your actions.

Glad to know you are studying and working hard away from the tables, but the move to 5-10 is profitable not because you can continue to move up (which won't be profitable move unless you can beat the 5-10 6-max for a much greater margin than 1bb/100), but because you can make 3-4 times your 2-4 earn if you learn to crush the 5-10 game.

You're throwing away money now and considerably hampering your expected future earn by 4-tabling and barely squeaking by, and for somone who expects to put in major hours this summer and hopefully move up in stakes, this compromise of your future earn is even more pronounced. Get good now so you can make some real dough this summer. listen to what more experienced posters say, experience teaches wisdom.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know if you can make 3BB/100 4-tabling the 5/10 game without incredible game selection (where you have solid reads in advance on half the table) but I agree with everything else here. (I'd put it more at 2-2.5BB/100 playing that many tables, but that's being a little nitpicking. Point is that I don't know you'll ever get there without slowing down a little up front.)

Some people never get to where they beat the 5/10 game for 3BB/100, the idea you can get there starting out 4-tabling . . . well, you better be as good as you think you are [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

[turnipmonster]

listen to JR and Grisgra [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

[krishanleong]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if you can make 3BB/100 4-tabling the 5/10 game without incredible game selection (where you have solid reads in advance on half the table) but I agree with everything else here.

[/ QUOTE ]

Look no further link

[THEFUDGEREPORT]

[Grisgra]

[ QUOTE ]
krishan btw listen to J.R. he knows his chit-

[/ QUOTE ]

God you're an idiot -- you attacked me, and I said I agreed with everything he said.