Playing online for a living week 40

[davidross]

Well, with the volatilility of the last several weeks this week was surprising in just how unspectacular it was. Continued frustration to be sure, but at least I’m moving in the right direction. Started Sunday night with a decent win of $244. Then Monday another couple of unspectacular sessions netted me another $233. Both days were 6 to 8 hours of break even poker with a small rush just before quitting time. Much better than last weeks losing, but a mental drain to keep playing hour after hour and getting seemingly nowhere. On Tuesday I spent most of the day in the hole, but again had a rush at the end of the night to get just above break even and post a $27 win. Wednesday I had two solid sessions and managed to win another $350. It has now been 13 days though since I had a win bigger than $500. The games have been unusual this week. There have been numerous hands where I raise and get 4 callers. Although this is great when you make a monster, having 4 people chase you in a big pot usually means top pair doesn’t win. You get a sinking feeling when you raise with JJ, get 4 callers, then see a flop of T 9 2 and have everyone call again. Except for a J or maybe another 2, there aren’t many cards you want to see come off the deck now. Inevitably the overcard seems to river and now you’re out of position and completely unsure of where you are. Finally on Thursday, I had a bigger day. My 5th straight winning day where I won $400 in the afternoon and almost $400 more at night for a $791 win. The average week had now turned into a good week. Friday turned that around though. A frustrating loss of $150 in the afternoon, then an evening where I lost $200 almost right away, then bounced back and forth for most of the night before a real bad run at quitting time pushed me down to a $643 loss for the day. Suddenly I was back in the position of a sub-par week. Then Saturday was another about face and after 4 days of no variance poker, I had my 3rd straight wild day and life had returned to normal. I won $1,386 in less than 5 hours of play to give me a very respectable $2,388 week.

It’s been a weird week. The first half there were no big runs either up or down, but I was still losing almost every big pot I participate in. Disregarding Saturday, most of the time I was ahead until the river, which usually means you’ll win more than your fair share, but it just didn’t happen this week. It is a test of your patience to keep winning small pots and building your stack, then seeing it all go away to a rivered flush, or 2 pair, or trips. And although averaging $200 a day will give me a nice week, when you get to Friday and haven’t had a losing day yet, you know it might still be a struggle. Then you have a day like Saturday where everything goes right and you wonder why you were so frustrated just 24 hours earlier. I’m a pretty patient person, and I find myself getting frustrated during the bad runs, I can’t imagine how someone who is short on patience could manage the swings.

I’ve got a week of Pokertracker data now which is around 17,000 hands. I think I’ll wait one more week, then I’m going to post all my questions. I need to combine my 2 usernames so I can see all my hands in one place. Then I need to figure out how to use it while I’m playing. Any wizards with the software that could help me out would be greatly appreciated.

I’m thinking about taking some lessons. I don’t know if any of you out there have done this before, but I know my game could use some work. Even just to have an expert confirm that some of my play is solid would be welcome. No to choose someone will be the next step. David, Mason or Bob Ciaffone are the big names that come to my mind. Any suggestions?

I had two interesting work related calls this week that might lead to another contract. After the last few weeks of poor poker results I’m much more receptive to potential employment than I was before. The first call was from the company that I worked for last January through April. They ended the contract when a full time person became available after a layoff at their head office. He didn’t work out and now they need help again. The catch is that they want to dole it out on a project by project basis. They will call me for instance with 3 programs they want written and ask me to bid on the work. Then payment will only be made upon completion and sign off. In some ways this would be perfect for me. 2 or 3 days work every couple of weeks would be a nice guaranteed income to go with the poker earnings, but I’m skeptical about the feasibility of such a set up. First of all, I’ve worked with these people before, and getting them to give me detailed enough specifications to bid properly will be difficult. And even worse getting them to test and sign off could be very difficult, meaning I might wait forever to get paid. Plus it would put me in the position of telling people who stop by my desk to ask for help, that I can’t help them because I’m not getting paid for it. I would really hate that. The second call came in on Friday. There is a company changing their software from JDE to SAP, and all their staff is now working on the SAP side. They need someone to keep JDE running until the conversion is complete. They have tried two intermediate people who didn’t work out so now they are willing to pay a senior person just to get the job done. In all honesty, it sounds perfect for me. But…… it’s in Scarborough which is on the other side of Toronto from me. I think its around 80 km from me (50 miles for you Yanks) which would take me nearly and hour with no traffic. For those of you not familiar with Toronto, that means at 3:00 AM I could make it in 50 minutes, but any time between sun up and sun down it’ll be 90 minutes. Put a little snow on the ground and we’re talking 2 to 3 hours. That means 3 hours minimum a day commuting in the car. Yuck. I’m not sure I’m ready for that. I guess I’ll see if they actually make an offer.

Empire has launched a VIP program where you earn points for playing. Some of the announced rewards are a year end tournament with a Porsche as the first prize, and entry into satellites for the $25,000 entry WPT tournament. They also say you can redeem the points for cash, which would be like a rake rebate program I guess. I have to believe that with my volume of play I will be in their top 100 which seems to be the number for some of these rewards. Could be an opportunity to either make a little more money or take a chance at a big prize.

I posted this hand in the shorthanded section earlier this week but thought I’d post it here too. This was the biggest 5/10 pot I’ve ever been a part of.

Regular line up. EP limp and I'm on the button with 9s 9h. I raise and the SB 3 bets and the BB caps it. EP calls 3 cold, and I call 2 cold. 4 to the flop.

Flop Td 9h 8s.

BB bets and EP calls. I raise. SB 3 bets, BB calls, EP calls and I cap it. At this point SB is the only one I consider I could be behind.

Turn (Td 9h 8s) Th

SB bets out. I'm not ready to consider quads yet so I think I'm looking real good. BB calls, EP folds and I raise. Moment of truth now. SB 3 bets. Hmm. Still could be a T or a straight. EP calls again. I don't know what he has but it looks like an overpair. I cap it and they both call.

River (Td 9h 8s Th) Kc

SB checks and now BB comes to life and bets. Oh No!!. I just call. Now the idiot in the SB raises and BB 3 bets. There is $338 in the pot right now and it's 2 bets to me. Is there a 1 in 17 or 18 chance I'm good here?

I called and so did SB. SB had the horribly overplayed AT, and BB had KK of course.

In contrast this hand is from Saturday when everything I touched turned to gold.

I have Js Ts in the cutoff. UTG raises and UTG + 1 cold calls. I call too and now the button 3 bets. The button and I have hooked up twice in the blinds lately with me winning both times when he horribly overplayed his hands. One time he played 99 like AA on a board with a couple of overcards, when I had TT, and the other when he had A7 and I had AK when an A flopped. So I wasn’t necessarily convinced his 3 bet meant a big pair. Of course with his recent history nothing short of showing them down was going to convince me. Anyway, the blinds folded and 4 of us saw the flop.

Flop Th 7d 6s. Checked to me and I bet, pretty sure the raise was coming, and hoping to get heads up. Sure enough he raised, but the two others called 2 cold and I just called.

Turn (Th 7d 6s) 4s. Again checked to me, and I decided to bet it again. Sometimes when I pick up a draw I like to check here, but I still thought I might be best. Again he raised me, and this time, the other 2 guys folded. Despite his history I’m now wondering if I’m behind. The big unknown in online poker is emotion. How pissed was this guy that he had lost 2 big pots to me in the last few hands? Was he tilting? I called.

River (Th 7d 6s 4s) 3s. Of course. When you’re running well you know it’s coming. I briefly thought about trying for the check raise, but there is a 1 card straight, and a flush on board, plus someone who has bet into him twice and I really wanted one more bet so I didn’t mess around, I bet into him hoping he might raise me again. He just called. Then he left the table.

Have a good week everyone.

[bunky9590]

Well done David.

I admire the patience and discipline you have been maintaining throughout the year. Keep up the good work.

[ZeeJustin]

Yet another nice post David.

As for Pokertracker, I play the 6 max on Party too, and I'm kind of lazy, so I don't watch every single showdown like I used to, but that's ok because of PTrack. For each player, I write down 3 numbers, Flops seen % / PFR % / Went to SD when flop was seen %. These 3 numbers tell me just about everything I need to know.

If flops seen is above 35%, they are loose preflop.

If PFR% is under 10%, they are very passive (at least PF) and if it's over 20%, they are overly aggressive.

Went to SD % depends on flops seen %. The higher the flops seen %, the lower the went to SD % SHOULD be. For a tight player, 33-35% is generally good.

As for me, my numbers are 29.5 / 15.9 / 34.6

[ QUOTE ]
No[w] to choose someone will be the next step. David, Mason or Bob Ciaffone are the big names that come to my mind.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't rule out the people on this forum. There are amazing players like Ulysses, Daryn, etc. that are crushing the same games you are playing, and a little higher.

[NotReady]

[ QUOTE ]
I need to combine my 2 usernames so I can see all my hands in one place. Then I need to figure out how to use it while I’m playing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure if this is what you're asking, but go to the main screen(File/Ring Game Player Statistics) and click on "Aliases" in upper right corner.

[thetman]

Keep em coming! I look forward to your weekly post!

[GuyOnTilt]

David,

It's been a while since I've responded to your reports, but I feel the need to reiterate myself this week.

You're still thinking of your work in a very results-oriented fashion. I think this has a lot to do with the frustration that you're experiencing, and, as a result, your game may be suffering as well. I know I don't have as much experience as you do playing professionally, but IMO, if you're going to continue to do this successfully, you're going to have to change your outlook on the game. Looking at your results session to session and week to week and using those numbers to determine your success and, more importantly, psychological well-being might end up being your downfall.

Your JTs hand was played horribly, btw.

GoT

[umdpoker]

damn guyontilt-120k for 2004? that would be pretty sweet. i see that you are ahead of pace too. i hope you make it! also, david- is your bankroll too small right now? it seems to me that you have been playing long enough to know that you will end up winning, yet you stress over every day. look out for the ulcer right around the corner. seriously, stressed out is not the way to live.

[richie]

First off, I just want to say I enjoy all of your posts and wish you the best of luck.

Are you saying you play 17,000 hands in a week? OMG [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

I dunno, maybe if you played less hands could you do better?
Might be less stressful also. Just a thought [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[bvaughn]

GoT, I am very new to this board, but how would you have played his J10s hand differently? Personally I would've folded preflop, but I am not quite yet a winning player and perhaps I play too tight preflop to raises. I just want your opinion.

[GuyOnTilt]

GoT, I am very new to this board, but how would you have played his J10s hand differently?

First, I would fold this hand preflop and not think twice about it. Second, I would not have bet the turn. You're just asking to get raised here. Looking at it from the Button's perspective: I absolutely LOVE it when players on my right make these types of turn bets, where it's very obvious they haven't improved to anything but a draw, but still allow me to clear the field AND charge them more for their drawing hand. It should also be noted that these same players will check-call on the river unimproved almost all the time with their top pair/busted draw despite my turn raise.

As I said, I don't usually respond to David's posts (in fact, this is only the second time I have), but if I did respond every time I saw a hand that I thought was grossly misplayed, I'd be spending a lot of time in these threads. I'm not saying that to disrespect David in any way, but that's just the way I see things. When I read his weekly reports, I don't see the journals of an expert poker player; I see a guy who is obsessed with the day-to-day fluctuations in his bankroll and who is so stressed out over said fluctations that his play seems to suffer pretty badly. Either that, or he's not as good as I thought he was to begin with.

Personally I would've folded preflop, but I am not quite yet a winning player and perhaps I play too tight preflop to raises. I just want your opinion.

You're on your way! Keep playing tight versus preflop raises, especially when they come from EP. I'm not a big fan of cold-calling, except in the most extreme of circumstances. If my hand isn't good enough to 3-bet with against an EP raise, I muck it unless there's a bazillion cold-callers to me and I have a good implied odds hand like 44 or 98s. JTs versus a UTG raise after only 1 cold-caller should be an easy, easy fold. It surprises me that after all the table hours David has logged, he think this cold-call is a reasonable play. Calls like this are the reason players are down an extra .4 BB/hr/table and are left wondering why they end up losing so many pots with second best hands as they reload an extra 25 BB's.

Keep up the honest inquiries and you'll be a winning player very soon.

I know there are a thousand or so davidross mega-fans out there so again, nothing here is meant to disrepect David. I hope it will be taken for the honest opinion that it is.

GoT