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Virtually nothing to something? A journey
Well here goes.
I have recently taken a long hard look at my game, what i play, what i love and what i am good at. It was not pretty viewing at all but has allowed me to focus my mind more clearly.
Have never been good at tournaments, though i do like them, and my results reflect this. I absolutely love playing cash but it is probably my weakest form of the game and has cost me a lot. I find DYMs to be boring and quite a drudge to play, but they are by far my best format and i think i have a pretty good understanding of the format. And it is in this form of the game that i have gotten the best returns. But i usually use these to build up my roll for a bit before donking it all off on the cash tables.
So have decided that to keep playing this lovely game then i have to start winning more regularly. I think i can only achieve this by restricting myself to playing DYMs. And hopefully with a more focussed mind then i will begin to love this format more.
Now which game to play. I love all 3 variants available but my favourite would be PLO. But i feel that i would have more edge playing PLO8 though as i understand the nuances of the game well. So decision made then to play PLO8 DYMs. This combined with an occasional freeroll game as a potential bankroll booster.
Well i came up with all of this this morning when i logged in and looked at my balance. For a while BRM will be out of the window until i can build up enough. I would love to move up the levels but cant see it happening for a while though.
Am sure nobody will care but will post up occasional hands in here as a talking point. And feel free to pass comment/ berate me as appropriate.
Now the bit that makes this even harder than i would like.
50p DYM 20% rake
£1 DYM 15% rake
£2 DYM 12.5% rake
£5 and above DYM 10% rake.
So the rake will be a killer for quite a while even if i do really well. But the goal is to be playing the £5 games on a regular basis. But that will be a very long time in the future and only with a large chunk of help from lady luck.
So now to the bit that will make you all laugh. Bearing in mind that to play £5 DYMs properly will need about £200.
Starting balance 8th december £1-19.
So as you can see even losing the first one would have finished me. But luckily the results have been.
60p PLO8 DYMs. Played 5 Won 5 Lost 0.
Closing balance day one £3-19.
Have the feeling that this challenge could go either way. Either totally epic or epic fail. Only time will tell.
Good luck to all at the tables
Comments
I wish you the best of luck with this and will try to follow this thread.
I did something very similar in March or April 2010 (though you have a 19p start on me). It took me about a month to get to £30, three or four months to get to £100, which was the original target, and I'm still living off the same bankroll, now well into four figures. Before that, I was a small losing player.
It was a bit easier back then with the 30p DYMsa, so a little bit more leg room, but I'm sure your challenge is achievable. Again, good luck with it.
W
Funnily enough I've still never seen seen a diary/challenge OP that includes games in which a loss was incurred before launch, you continue the 100% record of diary launches that were already in profit before they even started!
Still, best of luck, I'll be rooting for you and reading with interest.
I think Gary has a good point about the starting with a win bit. Normally i would agree with him there. But for me because it was a lose the first one and its over i left it until it was up and running before posting. If i had been able to do proper BRM strategy from the beginning then probably would be just a bit on the braggy side to have started it that far in.
PLO8 DYMs dont run that often and i am usually the one who starts them off and then i have to wait quite a while but needs must.
I know my win rate will not continue but breaking down into groups of 5 we can see the way things are going. win 5-0 or 4-1 is nice profit, win 3-2 means break even and anything else is a loss.
peter27 spun a low BR right up recently.
i'm certain this will be a good follow, be sure to post some of your non-poker musings too mate. your posts are nailed on to be a good read.
Many poker players say they least like the format that they make the most profit from.
I know many people say DYM's are dull and boring but do you think it is also about getting a sense of achievement? ie there is more of a buzz from winning if a format is unfamiliar
OK here is a hand for you to look at. Didnt play it all that well to be honest. Thought i stood a good chance of a split the way the board fell so went for it. Feel free to flame if you want.
bit embarrassed to comment on your hands as I think you know a hell of a lot more than me
but don't understand why you choose to take a stand with a lo only hand
ok there are some hi hands there but not very good
without reads on the bb I would probably wait another orbit or two
but what do I know
ps it's a fair point from gary
but your answer is reasonable
just you won't get quite the same kudos when you take it down
glglglglglgl
xx
Daily score P6 W6 L0
Running total: P6 W6 L0
New Total £3-59.
Could not have hoped for anymore from my first day.
I don't know if maybe they don't have them at PLO8 for some reason (I never play so I don't know) but the 10% rake starts at £3 games on NLHE DYMs, so you should hopefully get to 10% rake before too long
I seen you playing cash on one of my tables last week. I've no idea about omoha, but for holdem at 4nl,playing tight and aggressive, I would say it is very beatable. If someone re-raises you fold your top pair good kicker type hands.
Not that I ever played tight, but it's generally accepted as being the best way to play at this level.
Over a period of months I won a good amount of money playing no higher than 4nl.
All the best with your challenge, definatly worthwhile playing the timed freerolls, they would always be good for a couple of pound a night, which would soon add up.
Over this week, the freerolls top 6-9, get entry into the Main events, would be worthwhile trying to get into a main event for free to get a nice bink!
Good luck with your challenge, if you have any questions about NL Holdem cash just send me a message.
Well not been a great day so far.
Started badly when i went shopping for a christmas present only to find that nowhere in plymouth city centre was a store with a copy of Metallica's Black album. Makes you wonder what these places actually sell at times.
Then got back for some poker and in the first DYM I put in a pot committing preflop raise and was called for about half of the opponents stack and he was holding the mighty JT62. Of course he binked and i was gone. Surely things can only get better after this start
Remember the fun you had trying.........(assuming you kept all loses within an afordable buget).
Your challenge is an affordable bit of fun, and you won't lose more than you can afford, and even AA is a flip all in preflop no matter what the odds/books/videos tell you.
In a DYM why would you go all in preflop? You're risking your "tournament life" but you only need to come third to cash. DYM does not need heros. I crush DYM's or there equivlant (apart from on here) so take my advice.
Hi Colin,
Just seen this.
Good start - it needed to be! - it'd be quite something if you could build up from such a low starting point.
None of us, doing our various Challenges, will ever match GaryQQQ's nothing to £1,000 affair, it was extraordinary, but if you can build from here, it won't be far behind.
Good luck, I hope the journey is a long one.
Im sure i'll be along to donate in the coming days/weeks.
1) We have a VERY awkward stack size.
2) Because we are in the SB, we can't get full "leverage" with our raise. MUCH better to raise from Button or earlier, as you can get full leverage. It is only around 15% (?) of BB's stack to call, too.
3) Once we make that awkward sized raise, we become pretty much pot-stuck, & have to follow through no matter what the flop.
4) I really dislike - a lot - these middly-diddly cards in PLO8. If we get looked up, we are likely to be stuck in the middle of a dominating sandwich (A-K-2-3, A-Q-J-2, any overpair + A-2 or A-3) & we are dominated at both ends, & need to be super lucky to scoop. 4-4-5-6 must be in the bottom 20% of all PLO8 hands, at a guess - it is truly horrible. I used to have a chart which listed all the top 5,000 PLO8 hands, I'll see if I can find it somewhere, then we'll see. The only thing I do like about it is that it is a 2 way hand. When I make my move, it is almost always with a 2 way hand, I think that is super important. It gives me 2 ways to win - well, 3, if we count the probability of a pre-flop fold from Villains. I like 3 ways to win, I'm greedy.
5) With 1,530 behind (1,265 after passing our SB?), we have TONS of time before we have to commit. Even at 150-300, I'm not ready to push the panic button yet, but this was 75-150, & 100-200 is yet to come. I'd be quite comfy with 1,265 at 150-300, & it makes decisions so much easier - we can get a full stack bet in, & we know we are committed, so no headaches.
6) I prefer to wait a good while longer for a better spot. If none arrives, fine, as long as we have 900 to 1,000 @ 150-300, ANY bet from us takes a bit of calling. I am only guessing, but I estimate that 75 - 80% of full pot bets (when 4 handed) get through un-called. That buys us a whole orbit.
7) Whilst we are sitting & waiting for our optimal "spot", maybe someone else will do the work for us, & bust themselves by clashing heads. It happens an awful lot.
In short, I think that is the wrong hand, wrong position, & we made our move much too early.
We all play the same game differently though - & just as well! - but at least you committed by Raising, which is mandatory if we intend to play the hand at all. Limping in these spots is THE biggest way of stack degredation. Limping in such spots is utterly dreadful, imo.
Interesting hand.
As far as that hand is concerned. My play was dictated a lot by the number of players left in and the way the table had been playing.
If it had been on the bubble then i would be folding there and waiting for a better spot. But with 5 still in and me sitting short i felt the need to chip up a bit to keep me going. I took the opportunity because i could get a fold and had a hand that if i was called had a reasonable chance of flopping nicely. Perfect play, far from it. Overp[layed for sure, but at least when i got my chips over the line i had outs and sometimes that is all we can hope for.
Slow day for me today.
Results are not good either.
Today Played 4 won 2 lost 2
Overall Played 10 Won 8 Lost 2
Closing balance £3-19.
Could have been worse was playing catch up. But good job my balance could withstand a not so good day
a) that you're short - 10BB is a very playable stack in these (even half that isn't that short), and
b) you think there's a reasonable chance of flopping nicely with that hand.
£3.19? That's plenty!
Chip & a chair & all that.
I know it sounds really really daft, but in your spot I might just gamble, & enter a £2.25. Win that, & we have given ourselves some breathing space. Lose it, mind, & we have a proper headache......
Or maybe if your not wanting too risk it going for the 2.25 try the 1.15.1 lose at that still £2.04
good luck
Interesting idea about taking a bit of a punt. But one of my main reasons for doing it this way and charting my progress is to give myself the discipline that i have been lacking. So have set myself strict amounts to reach before i can step up and have even built in loss levels for when i will go back down.
Well the final results are in. After a day where it seemed every mistake i made cost me and every mistake my opponents made cost me as well.
Results Played 5 Lost 5
Balance 19p.
Challenge over and thread closed.
Turned out to be epic fail in the end .
Rotten luck Talon, this isn't what I expected. Though on reflection I suppose it was always going to be very difficult with so few buy-ins to fall back on, one mini-downswing at the start and it's all over.
I blame DrRunGood, he stole all the challenge run-good when he shipped the Primo.
To be honest it was much easier for me to get off the ground because I had enough poker points to enter 40 freerolls before I needed to risk any real money.
This thread sparked a lot of interest and had great potential. I think you should make a small deposit and try again.