A bit of an update ...

Eew, I can hardly believe how long it is since I updated my blog! ...

Since my last entry, with the exception of playing in some "coolers" (single-table SNG's with ten players and five equal prizes for 1st-5th, known at PokerStars as "double or quits", and really very easy money indeed - at least for the lower-stake games, if approached with patience and discipline and without bluffing), all I've been playing is triple-draw.

Mind you, I have played over 10,000 hands now, and shown a profit (mostly when I'm "supposed" be writing up my PhD thesis!). After playing 10,000+ hands, I've now re-read Negreanu, realised I did not understand most of it on an initial reading, and started to understand it. So the plan now is to play about another 10,000 hands and then re-read it for a third time ...

The standard of play in this game at PokerStars is, shall we say, "very mixed".

I'm playing $2/$4 limit when I can, sometimes $1/$2 or $3/$6 if that's what available.

It's really a wonderful game, much more intricate and skilful than it looks at first, second or third glance, and very interesting. Meanwhile, I will - as they say - "draw to smooth hands"!

More Triple-draw

Since my last post nearly a week ago, I have played nothing but triple-draw and a few holdem SNG's (with nothing much to report from the latter: progress continues).

Triple-draw is a brilliant game, far more complicated than it at first appears. Like the best new plays, it has a bit of everything: twists and turns in all the right places, suspense and excitement galore and sometimes a devastating dénouement.

I've made little financial progress overall, but I'm learning the game.

The standard of play in the low-stakes PokerStars games is absolutely dreadful, and in the higher stake limit games seems excellent. Ideally I'd like to be playing $2/$4 limit, but there isn't always a game at the times of day I can manage. When the choice is between $0.25/$0.50 limit and $30/$60 limit, what can you do?

A minor triumph

I have not been playing quite so much for the last few days, but at the weekend I played in one of those 180-player SNG's at PokerStars (NLHE). $20 + $2 entry, 20 tables. With a lot of luck and a following wind, I managed to achieve third place (and was actually in the lead at the point we were down to the last 9-player table). Obviously the variance with these events will be enormous, but meanwhile the $428.40 third prize will pay for another 19 entries, and they're very enjoyable events (albeit that they take over 3 hours!), so I will probably try some more ...

Small update

Not all that much to report, here. I am back at home/work, and will probably work now until nearly Christmas without more than some weekend breaks, but I don't normally work on Saturdays or Tuesdays. Poker continues: I am playing almost entirely $16-entry "turbo" ("fast"-moving) single-table 9-player sit 'n' go's at PokerStars. They take typically about 45-50 minutes each. The prize-money is: first place $67.50; second place $40.50; third place $27.00.

I can play two at a time, by starting a new one each time the most recently entered one is reduced from nine to five or six players. That said, I have once been knocked out first, in 9th place, when I went all-in with KK and lost to a player with AJ who flopped an Ace, as can easily happen. I'm actually slightly surprised this sort of thing has not happened more often, but I do play very, very few hands until three people have been knocked out and the blinds have gone up two or three times.

At the moment, I'm getting into the prize-money 48% of the time, so my account-level is gradually increasing. If that figure stays steady, then over a series of about 600 events, mathematically there "should" be only a 5% risk of my losing 11 consecutive times, and less than a 5% risk of my hitting a longer losing patch equivalent financially to 17 consecutive losing events.

I'm hoping not to play as many as 600 of them, though. If I keep going steadily enough, I'll move up to the $27-entry events at some point, and am wondering to what extent the overall standard of play is higher in those. My guess is that whereas there's no discernible difference between the $11 events and the $16 ones, the $27 ones may be a rather different proposition.

Coming up soon: brief reviews of Collin Moshman's book, and the SAGE system!

Sit 'n' go ...

Greetings from France!

I have decided that the "significant accident" in my previous entry was perhaps not quite so significant after all. I could have bet less than going all in, something like $50 or so to deny the opponent the right odds to continue with, for instance, a straight draw, then going all in on the turn anyway ... but mostly I think this was just a "bad beat" and one should not dwell on them, irritating though they are.

I have been playing more $200NL at 6-max tables with small profits but nothing much else to report. I am wondering whether it's a good idea to change tables after every half-hour or so, unless I particuarly like the opponents, in an attempt to make it harder for them to "work out my style". There's certainly no shortage of 6-max tables. I've also been re-raising pre-flop a little bit more, in late position (on the button) with mostly good effects.

Late last night I played in two $16 sit 'n' go's, and won both of them ...

I've also played in a couple of those bigger 180-player (20-table) events, but I think single-table sit 'n' go's are much more suitable for my purposes. The variance is obviously going to be far lower. Those bigger events take about 3 - 4 hours and only 10% of the players are in the prize money (and the prize-money for 10th to 18th places is only twice the entry-fee anyway, so only 5% of the players actually win anything worth having). An ordinary sit 'n' go takes 30 to 70 minutes and 33% of the players are in the prize-money, so one's pattern of results will obviously be far more consistent for the hours put in. I said originally that I would play 100 of the $10 sit 'n' go's and then review the results, but I've been making steady profits from them and have moved up to the $16 games now, which are a little faster-moving as well (they are what's called "turbo tables" at PokerStars, so you get in a bit more play for your money, overall.)

In Paris now for the weekend, and will be home (and back at work!) early on Monday morning ...

Poker Tip of the Day ...

In the early, low-blind stages of a sit 'n' go (typically the first three levels), to fold some hands you should play is, overall, a very small mistake; but to play some hands you should fold is, overall, a huge mistake and certainly the difference between being an overall winner and an overall loser. I have learned this from some websites, from the "2 + 2 Forum" and from Collin Moshman's book.

Play continues. I am still in profit (slightly) ...

At PokerStars, they also have 180-player (20 tables) multi-table sit 'n' go's, available at 4$ (+$0.40) and $10 (+$1) entry-fees, with prizes down to 18th place (last two tables), and with over 100,000 players online there, they fill up pretty quickly, too. Whether or not they're worth playing in I have no idea, but they look like great fun. To be investigated!

PokerStars again ...

I really like this site very much indeed, so far. My only two reservations about it are ...

(i) The sit 'n' go's have only 9 players rather than the more usual 10, which makes the prizes slightly less (though arguably it should also be slightly easier to win one?)

(ii) From my limited experiences there, I do think the standard of play is possibly rather higher than elsewhere (which, as observed below, has both advantages and disadvantages)

I have played in 3 sit 'n' go's there today, coming 6th, 4th and 1st, so I'm a fraction ahead at the moment ...

A huge site: late last night there were over 100,000 players online there ...

PokerStars

So ... I have become a member of PokerStars and am so far pretty impressed with it. The software is really the best poker-room interface I've ever seen, and well worth playing around with (options/customisation), all very nice. I'm going to play $10 sit 'n' go's there (some seem to cost $11 and others $12, have not yet worked out why and/or what the difference is). The prize-money is about 10% smaller than at other sites, because they have 9 players rather than the usual 10.

In accordance with "received wisdom" I have paid in about $340 (30 entry-fees), and I will play through that once (i.e. play in 30 of them) and see how I do. This will take me longer than it normally would, because I'm going to London today to see my father, and then on Monday to Greece. Normally, when I'm working, I will be able to have one event running almost all the time, I think (but certainly not two or more at the same time as many people do), so from September onwards will get a lot more play in. But in Greece it will perhaps be too hot and sunny for Baltic blondes to be out much during the day anyway, so I will get some play in anyway ...

No blood spilled yet: so far, I have played limit (1$/2$) and no-limit (50c/1$ blinds) just for about half an hour each, to get a feel for the virtual tables, and am level.