dr_razz

Things haven't been going my way on Full Tilt. Still running pretty bad at $1/2 razz, lost a $120 pot in hu hold'em .25/.5 while flopping a straight, other guy having higher straight. (97) vs (9Q), didn't help the guy was a lunatic. I seem to be steaming money off now, I think I need to put something in place so I don't go broke on this tilted downswing. Oh, another sick hand, losing with a set of kings on the flop dry board, only to have the guy call my all-in with Ace Jack suited, and hit runner runner straight flush... I'm going to implement a system that Phil Hellmuth currently uses, where if you win a certain amount in a day, you're done for the day. Also applies to losses. This magic number for me will be $40. If I win/lose $40 at any point, I will stop playing and refresh for another day. This will mainly help me not tilt off my money. 

Bankroll - $485.55

'09 .25/5 Razz


'09 .5/1 Razz


'09 1/2 Razz


'09 .25/5 Heads Up NL Hold'em


'09 6.50's


Games played: 328
Avg. ROI: 3%
Total profit: $58



Bankroll - $637.82

Played the 80NL blinds 1/3 table today for a couple hours. Made a profit of 600. My past three casino visits, (last two at bike, 3rd at morongo) have been all very successful. I am now up +$1500 the past three visits. And to add on top of that, all of it is from playing blinds 1/3. I'm not usually cocky but those stats are sick. The highlight hand today was a huge pot. At least 25 or 30 people were around the table watching the preflop action!

Crazy Hand:

So there is a straddle, and three limpers. I am on the cutoff and I decide to raise it to $35 with my AA. You may be wondering why such a unique amount or may be saying it's standard. But I assure you, it was VERY calculated. The guy to my right was a huge risk-taker, and I knew if I made a raise, he would put the rest of his chips in ($75 total). 6 people call my $35 raise and the guy to my right pushes as planned for $75 total! I have around $220 in front of me. I push all-in with so much money in the pot and wanting to narrow the amount of players I'm against. A guy who had around the same amount pushes as well! Another guy with $500 was thinking for at least 10 minutes. I didn't put him on that strong of a hand, because he limped with a straddle aboard. So many people were watching, it was such a crazy hand! The guy to my right had 65o and the person who had about the same amount of chips had A3s. Board comes clean and I take down the $600+ pot. 

Other hands:

This was really early on. I limped with KJ of diamonds. A board of Q T 4 with two diamonds came. This was a huge flop for me, having an open ended straight draw for the nuts and a 2nd nut flush draw. This guy who was really tight kept barrelling every street so I flat called to induce behind players to call. I eventually bricked out and went from $80 to $40. He turned out to have the aces.

In another hand after the crazy one, I limp with kings under the gun. Little sneaky on my part, and preflop, I get two people with about $80 each to commit their stacks. KK vs JTo vs 99. A very good scenario as the JT's chances of getting a straight is very minimal. 

As for online, rakeback will be coming weekly instead of monthly now. I just received $17.56 to cushion my bankroll.

Bankroll - $540.09

I have been running poorly at the 6.50's. I've never felt so good about my playing, but have never been this unsatisfied with the results!

2009 $6.50 Stats:

Games Played: 192
Avg. Profit: $0.28
Avg. ROI: 4%
Total Profit: $53



A little taste of what I went through today alone:



I'm not in any mood to share more info, other than mentioning razz $1/2 is going extremely well. As soon as the link is up for the "SNG Luck Analyzer," I will post what the software finds about my luck in SNG's. It should be interesting to see if I've made more or less from luck. 

Bankroll - $532.53

I moved up to the $6.50 Sit and Go's the other day. I have been having some good success at this level. So far, here are the results for this year's 6.50's.

2009 $6.50 Stats:

Games Played: 64
Avg. Profit: $1.01
Avg. ROI: 16%
Total Profit: $65

Place Finishes:

1st - 10($270)
2nd - 9($145.8)
3rd - 6($64.8)
4th - 9($0)
5th - 11($0)
6th - 10($0)
7th - 4($0)
8th - 4($0)
9th - 1($0)

I'm pleased with how I have been playing so far. Overall, I feel like I make very few mistakes in my early and mid game. I play the bubble almost to perfection. Most of my almost neutral mistakes come in the money. I want to focus more on maximizing my profits and not on results per session. I want to change my mindset from "I'm in the money, this is a close push but I'll do it" to "Over the long run, what is most profitable?" 

The razz cash games have been going well. I have moved up to the $1/2 games playing full ring and heads up. I feel like I have a special edge in heads up games. Just today, I played about 30 hands and made $25. Hopefully this trend will continue.

I am going to be completely honest now, I did jump the gun on moving up in stakes. I played a few $1/2 sessions while my bankroll floated from the $350 to $375 mark. I am a little disappointed, and hope I can be more disciplined in the future. 

I received my rakeback from January totaling up to $59.56 which gave my bankroll a good boost. 

Bankroll - $506.03 

Last Saturday, a friend of mine took me to Morongo. 5 hands into the 1/3 40-200NL game, I pick up pocket deuces on the button.  I bought in for $120 and had about $115 in front of me. 

CO ($300) raises to $13
Button ($115) calls $13
BB($500) calls $10

FLOP: 2h, 4h, 9h ($36 after rake)

All heart board  very scary, not quite as much if I were deeper. My opponent to my right (CO) has been very aggressive in the 1st five hands I observed. And my opponent in the BIg Blind was a solid regular. My plan was to bet if checked to, and call if bet into. I wanted to see a turn card before I considered investing my entire stack.

BB checks
CO bets $25
Button calls $25
BB calls $25

TURN: 2s (about $110)

This was the absolute gin card. My hand can not be beat, if it were to get beat, I get the bad beat jackpot. What better position could I be in? 

BB checks
CO checks
Button bets $35
BB calls $35
CO calls $35

I bet small obviously to induce action and not to scare any heart chasers there may be.

RIVER: 8h

Wow! Now 4 hearts on the board, all I could think about was stacking up over $300 in chips. 

BB checks
CO checks
Button bets $42 and is all-in
BB calls $42
CO calls $42

I turnover my deuces right away and rake in the pot. The BB had A5 hearts flopping the nut flush while the CO had the King flush! Only if I bought in for the full $200! What was more amazing was if a 3 of hearts came one river..... JACKPOT. It's not very often where one is drawing to the losing end of a bad beat jackpot hand with one card to come. 

We played about 5 hours at Morongo before heading back home. Took down about $475 to $500 in profit and was very satisfied how I played. I should be playing more online poker starting tonight, will update more regularly now. 

Haven't put in any SNG's since last update, just a few short brief sessions of .25/5 and .5/1 razz. It has just been very chaotic here at school, I can't wait for it to cool down once again. I have a recording in 30 minutes or so, and I thought I should update this while I have the time. Of the few sessions I played, they went well, winning 65% showdowns over some 500 hands. Looking forward to my rakeback early next month which is almost at $55. For the next couple days, I will be playing very few sessions, but who knows, I always seem to make time for poker. And shit, I can't wait for my birthday tomorrow, going out with the group to all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ, I'm so glad I have the fastest metabolism on this planet.

Bankroll - $381.22

2009 $2.25 Turbo SNG Stats:

Games Played: 517
Avg. Profit: $0.33
Avg. ROI: 15%
Total Profit: $169

I've been 16-tabling very comfortably now. I am going to play approx. 160 more games of $2.25 to see if I can get a run at the Average Profit Leaderboard for the $2 and under. I am currently ranked no. 8 in the Total Profit Leaderboard (9-10 Hold'em Turbo, $2>). Everything seems to be going well, I feel like I'm playing at my peek, making no mistakes in most of my games. I feel like I make a couple mistakes every session. These games are very easy to beat, and it's all about exploiting them to the max. After the 160 games at $2.25, I will move up to the $6.50's! An interesting note - in the 2.25's, the rake was 1/8 of the buy-in. In the 6.50's, the rake is 1/12. Over time, this amounts to a lot of money! To give you an idea how much that is: 

If the rake of the $2 was 1/12 of the buy-in (like the 6.50's), the buy-in + rake for that game would be $2.166666666666...

That is over 8 cents each game! Over the 517 $2 games I played this year, that accumulates to over $43! That would increase my total profit by 25%... yikes!

I anticipate the $6.50's to be tougher to beat, although still very beatable. I will start out 10 to 12 tabling to get a feel for the difference. I hope to maintain a 15% ROI at the 6.50's, and plan on doing a minimum of 500 before moving up to the 12's. 

I am going to make some minor tweaks to my bankroll management restrictions:

SNG's
$2.25 SNG's - $56.25 (min 25 buy-in's)
$6.50 SNG's - $325 (min 50 buy-in's)
$12 SNG's - $1200 (min 100 buy-in's)
$24 SNG's - $3600 (min 150 buy-in's)
$36 SNG's - $7200 (min 200 buy-in's)
Higher SNG's - (min 200 buyin's)

I felt it wasn't necessary to have such high "min buy-in's" for the lower stakes, but for the higher one's, I feel it is necessary to go with the "professional standard" and eventually have a min 200 buy-in rule. And holy shit, I just realized how often I say "feel." I'll try to cut down on that, sorry. 

I am anticipating my free membership to stox poker. They have a program where if you simply acquire a certain amount of Full Tilt Points, they will give you so many months of memberships. Sounds like a great deal and I look forward to studying each video by Collin Moshman and Sippin_Criss. Both are fantastic SNG players and teachers. 

As for razz, I have played about five or six sessions, all but one being negative. Just can't seem to run well in razz these days, I don't even know if I'm going to continue razz, the sng's are very profitable, and there's just way too much variance in razz, especially in lower stakes where players kind of know what they are doing but like to see multi-way pots of 3 to 5 people every other round. 

Rakeback for the month is at $50.35 thru Jan. 21. 

Bankroll - $340.47

Played two more quick sessions of the 2.25 SNG's. Every decision takes me no more than two seconds to make. My general strategy in these micro SNG's is to survive early. I only call all-in's with AA or KK, and usually push with AA, KK, QQ and AK. I'm not looking at too many places early on to double up, as I'm just trying to avoid the donks stacking off their chips with bottom pair or a gutshot. As the bubble nears and the bubble climbs, I completely change gears and attack attack attack! I'm very relentless, and bully people around who fear busting out early. This strategy played out well for me the past two sessions. Here are the results:



Games Played: 32
Avg. Profit: $2.02
Avg. ROI: 90%
Total Profit: $65

As stated in my 1st entry, I will be moving up to the $6.50 SNG's once my bankroll hits $325, but I am deeply considering playing at least 500 2.25's (2009) before moving up to see what kind of average ROI I sustain over a larger volume. I have been playing a little razz here and there, but for now, it seems more profitable to 16-table the juicy $2.25's.

When Sharkscope.com updates their Sit & Go Leaderboards, I should be placed 6th for Holdem 9-10 Seated Turbo, $2 and under, Total Profit(2009)! I will be 2nd on Full Tilt! For me, sharkscope really motivates me to stay focused and to concentrate from the beginning to the end of each session.

So for the future, the plan is to play two sessions a day of 16-tabling, and to play razz if I don't have enough time for a full session. I will most likely move up to $6.50's after 500 games this year but am not definite on that yet. It's time to practice, hope everything is going well with you all.

Bankroll - $303.42

I have been comfortably 16-tabling the $2.25's, with some good success. Here are the overall stats thus far for 2009 on SNG's:


Games Played: 284
Avg. Profit: $0.27
Avg. ROI: 12%
Total Profit: $76


All-time stats:




Bankroll - $238.62

 I played just 31 sng's the past couple days, experimenting with 12-tabling (stacking) and non-turbo's. Here are the results:

Games Played: 31
Avg. Profit: $1.23
Avg. ROI: 55%
Total Profit: $38

I also finally got windows installed so I am up and running Hold'em Manager, SNG Wizard, and Full Tilt Shortcuts! I feel like I will be able to consistently 21 table soon, which should be fast paced and lots of fun.

I've played a few short sessions of razz, nothing too dramatic happened. I don't know how to take pictures of the screen on windows with a mac keyboard because there is not print screen button! So I can't put any screenshots up right now. Hopefully I'll figure it out.

I also got $12.87 worth of rakeback today. 27% goes a long way.. School started today, everything is back to normal, should be a great semester.

Bankroll - $194.87

lol, played for about 30 min of .25/5 razz 4-tabling, all full ring. Just a little break from my practicing :) I had a good session, thought I would update it on here.





I love the showdown statistic, that is the place where you really want a high win percentage. That's where all the big pots are, and how you make your money. I ended the session up around 22, 23 big bets.

Bankroll - $147.15

As promised, today will be a short day at the office. One quick 6-table session of SNG's and 74 hands of Razz. I felt a lot more comfortable 6-tabling then 9-tabling, especially on bubble decisions. I think from now on, I will be 6-tabling, and after I feel 100% comfortable, I will add table by table. Anyways, I'm all about the stats so here it is in full display (finally found out how to make it bigger w/o clicking on it)



1-9-08 SNG Session

Game Played: 6
Avg. Profit: $1.65
Avg. ROI: 73%
Total Profit: $10

Cashed 4/6, the two I failed to cash were both on the bubble (4th place) Here are the last hands of those games:
 

With Hand 1, I'm going to be pushing there 100% of the time. In Hand 2, I felt this was really close, Q9o is a very good hand with one person left to act, and I'm even in chips with the other short stack. Once I get windows, I'm going to plug this hand into SNG wizard, and hopefully I get a satisfying answer. Obviously I regret pushing after the turn and river, but I think I would be more regretful when the blinds increase after it passes the shortstack and I'll be left with 740 in tournament chips which won't be good.

As for the "74" hands of razz, I was 3-tabling the .25/5 games still (1 heads up, 2 full/semifull ring) Made a few 4th/5th street mistakes, wasn't entirely focusing, I probably shouldn't be watching sxephil or kevjumba on youtube while playing a stud-variant game (lol). Here were some interesting hands:





I raised it up here with a smooth 9, standard play with an 8, 3, and 5 behind. Calling eliminated the possibility of winning the hand right on 3rd. I barreled every street except 7th, I thought for sure I lost, but that fish called me down with a rough 9! I guess it was a good call on 3rd, but in the long run, it won't be profitable at all.




This is why I only made 4 or so big bets during my good run. Got it all-in by 5th street with my 34689 vs. his A478T.

Hand	Pot equity	Wins	Ties
34689	65.87%	442,362	81
a478T	34.13%	229,137	81

The 34.13% bit me in the ass, and took away most of my profit. That's okay though, I will get him another day :) Wow, I just looked out side my window and it is snowing like there's no tomorrow. I'll be heading out to SoCal tomorrow morning for school. Which reminds me, I gotta practice like crazy now.. thanks for reading.



Bankroll - $135.90

Didn't run well today, ran into aces about 4 or 5 times when pushing a standard 7 to 10 BB stack with AJ - AK. KK got outdrawn three times, once to A4o, another to QQ and TT. I did suck out with JQo against A7o... lol. This is how it went the second half of the day.. the first session I played (9-tabling, 9 games) I had a sick 80%+ ROI. Everyday I play sng's, it reminds me of the huge variance it auras.




1-8-09 SNG Session:

Games Played: 31
Avg. Profit: -$0.16
Avg. ROI: -7%
Total Profit: -$5


I played a little razz (200 hands), 4-tabling the .25/5 tables. Ended up making 30 big bets ($15).





Plan is to play very little tomorrow and Saturday, I'll probably continue playing more volume starting on Sunday, hopefully I will be less emotional about the bad beats.

Bankroll - $124.30

Today was a good day. I played within my bankroll restrictions and made all the correct decisions (i think). Once I get windows xp installed on my comp, I'm going to get a lot of programs to help me play SNG's, including Hold'em Manager, Sit n Go Wizard, SNG Pro Tools, and maybe a subscription to SNG icons. All these programs will help me hone in on my skill. As for razz, I did not play a single hand, it just felt really good to grind the 2.25's for some reason. Here are today's results:

1-7-09 Session
Games Played: 49
Avg. Profit: $0.51
Avg. Roi: 22%
Total Profit: $25





Bankroll - $114.75

I will first let the pics do the talking:







1st half of the day was kind of brutal. 2.25 sng's for me are very tricky. I am the type of player that gains chips from steals, resteals, and dominating hands. The problem in my opinion is that players at this level are so loose that I lost that edge of mine. Every time I re-raise all-in a late position raiser, they always call with junk, and suck out. Maybe I'm just still spilling out my frustration, but I won one coin flip in that entire session and won zero 40 60's.. I can't even say how many times I went out with AK or AQ being called by pocket threes or fours for there entire stack of about 12bb's or more. I think I need to develop a better working strategy. I feel like my strategy is optimal at the 11+1 and 22+2 levels.

After that bad session, I quickly took it to the razz tables and just started to 3-table the .25/.5 there. After a little over 80 hands, I already covered what I lost at the SNG tables. I think it might be better for me to just grind the micro limit razz tables, rather than stay tilted at the 2.25 sng's for at least a little while.

Bankroll - $102.25

I always thought it would be +ev to keep a poker journal but was always too lazy to start one. Thanks to seeing a friend's poker blog, I've finally come up with the much-needed courage to go through with this. How about a little information about me, I am currently in college as a classical musician. Being a musician is extremely time consuming, from the lessons, the rehearsals, right down to the practicing. Yet, it is a rewarding pursuit. I love and enjoy playing classical music. I can't imagine doing something other than music as a profession (i admit, poker has come up plenty) ... but I truly love it and want it to be apart of me.

As for poker, I started when I was around 14 or 15, occasionally playing in the $5 buy-in home games my older brother had going. I wasn't very good, but was intrigued by playing cards for money on a skill base. I played during the partypoker era, and lost my bankroll three times ($50 each time) before taking a break. I didn't start playing poker seriously until February 2008. By then I was already a winning player at my home games and had pretty good knowledge of poker. I started to read many books on Hold'em and felt confident in my playing. I put in $100 on Full Tilt under the name "Dr Razz." No, I'm not the guy from stoxpoker, I'm a big fan of his videos now. I did not know about him until after I created the screenname. Anyways, using fantastic bankroll management, I entered a 24+2 Knockout Turbo with 90 people in it and placed 1st. This gave my bankroll a good boost and helped me gain momentum the following months.



I started getting in a nice rhythm of 4-tabling 22+2 SNG's and obviously went on a really nice run. After running dead even from games 350 to 550, I decided to foolishly cash out and spend the 2.5k on food and alcohol. Since then, I've been slowly trying to build my bankroll back up, unfortunately having to deposit a couple times. Hopefully with this blog, I will be more strict on myself with bankroll management, and therefore can slowly but surely build my roll.

Currently, my balance is at $101.75.

My poker goals for 2009:

Increase 4-tabling to 12-tabling (Tile)
Build bankroll to 5k
Read more books
Post 500 on Two Plus Two


Bankroll Restrictions:

I've read many books and posts about how many buy-in's people should be playing. I am going to start out playing by these rules:

SNG's - minimum 50 buy-in's($2.25 min)
$2.25 SNG's - $112.50
$6.50 SNG's - $325
$12 SNG's - $600
$24 SNG's - $1200
$36 SNG's - $1800

CASH GAMES (Razz) - minimum 200 big bets
.25/.5 - $100
.5/1 - $200
1/2 - $400
2/4 - $800
3/6 - $1200
5/10 - $2000

If all goes to plan, I will be updating this journal almost every day, and hopefully by doing this, will deter me from playing outside my bankroll.

It's time to hit the sack. Night all.