Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Trial by Fire
What I'm Reading - Phil Helmuth: Play Poker Like the Pro's
What I'm Drinking - Sam Adams Light
I caught a Empire signup bonus from Grubby and bought in for their August special which is 100% match up to $100. It cost me $10 to deposit because I couldn't wait for the checking account to clear, leaving me with $110 in to hopefully break even and clear my bonus. This bonus is great, though you only have 10 days to clear 10x bonus dollar amount in raked hands. The good news is that the minimum $0.05 rake counts which happens anytime a hand goes to the flop in the $25.00 NLHE game.
I bought in for the $25 max and started to play. A few hours later I was down a buy in and had only 100 raked hands in my bonus account. Not too good of a start, but I thought that I would call it a day. 100 hands a day clears the bonus, if I could afford it. The next session I played a little bit of $0.50/$1.00 limit and broke even for a bit and cleared a few more hands. This is VERY boring when just trying to clear bonuses and lacks the speed and action to keep your attention for very long. After a bit more $25 NL I was down $40, 5 beers, and 200 raked hands. Hmmm... I need to rethink this strategy.
Day three I played 2 table $25 NL and was down another $20 for the session. I drank most of the rest of my beer and cleared a total of 400 raked hands. At the end of the session I chatted with a guy who only bought in for $5 every time and seemed to be doing all right. When asked he told me that he plays 4 tables at a time and only plays the strongest of hands. He also buys in cheap to not be afraid to go all in pre-flop, sinces his chances of getting one caller are decent and usually has better than a coin flip. I figured I'd try this approach in a few days, since I had other obligations.
Day nine. I sat down on my couch on football Sunday for the early game (which in California is 10am... Way too early). I set up four games of NL and got to work, $5 each, leaving me with a pathetic $20.xx in my account. I figured I had to make this work otherwise I would have to buy in for more just to get my bonus. Guess what? I did pretty well. I played 600 raked hands in less than 4 hours, drank about 7 beers, and went to the bathroom about 10 times without going broke! I actually finished up for the day and had about $45 in my account when I hit 1000 raked hands! Sweet!
Total Deposit - $110
Total Payout - $145
Total Profit - $35
Breaking even drunk when your football team is up and you can finally go the bathroom without pushing 20 buttons - Priceless!
I withdrew everything and banked the $35, waiting for my next chance to strike again!
What I'm Reading - Phil Helmuth: Play Poker Like the Pro's
What I'm Drinking - Sam Adams Light
I caught a Empire signup bonus from Grubby and bought in for their August special which is 100% match up to $100. It cost me $10 to deposit because I couldn't wait for the checking account to clear, leaving me with $110 in to hopefully break even and clear my bonus. This bonus is great, though you only have 10 days to clear 10x bonus dollar amount in raked hands. The good news is that the minimum $0.05 rake counts which happens anytime a hand goes to the flop in the $25.00 NLHE game.
I bought in for the $25 max and started to play. A few hours later I was down a buy in and had only 100 raked hands in my bonus account. Not too good of a start, but I thought that I would call it a day. 100 hands a day clears the bonus, if I could afford it. The next session I played a little bit of $0.50/$1.00 limit and broke even for a bit and cleared a few more hands. This is VERY boring when just trying to clear bonuses and lacks the speed and action to keep your attention for very long. After a bit more $25 NL I was down $40, 5 beers, and 200 raked hands. Hmmm... I need to rethink this strategy.
Day three I played 2 table $25 NL and was down another $20 for the session. I drank most of the rest of my beer and cleared a total of 400 raked hands. At the end of the session I chatted with a guy who only bought in for $5 every time and seemed to be doing all right. When asked he told me that he plays 4 tables at a time and only plays the strongest of hands. He also buys in cheap to not be afraid to go all in pre-flop, sinces his chances of getting one caller are decent and usually has better than a coin flip. I figured I'd try this approach in a few days, since I had other obligations.
Day nine. I sat down on my couch on football Sunday for the early game (which in California is 10am... Way too early). I set up four games of NL and got to work, $5 each, leaving me with a pathetic $20.xx in my account. I figured I had to make this work otherwise I would have to buy in for more just to get my bonus. Guess what? I did pretty well. I played 600 raked hands in less than 4 hours, drank about 7 beers, and went to the bathroom about 10 times without going broke! I actually finished up for the day and had about $45 in my account when I hit 1000 raked hands! Sweet!
Total Deposit - $110
Total Payout - $145
Total Profit - $35
Breaking even drunk when your football team is up and you can finally go the bathroom without pushing 20 buttons - Priceless!
I withdrew everything and banked the $35, waiting for my next chance to strike again!
Monday, August 01, 2005
The (Mis)Adventures of a Begining poker player
I have been playing poker for about a year now, which is mostly limited to my $40 buy-in NL home game that we play almost every other week. As the only full time job carrying person there I find it hard to play very aggressive, as I don't want to win all of anyones money. This may be why I usually break about even, as I doubt that I am that good at money controll during a game. It could also be that I am a break even player... I do occasionally leave the game double or triple up, and once or twice (OK, maybe 3 or 4 times) I left down my buy-in. If I were to guess, up $350 for the year.
Oh yeah, I also drink when I play. Sometimes a lot. I play poker to relieve stress, a fun social setting, and to win a bit of cash.
But I digress. On to the theme. I have been lurking in the poker blogging world for about 5 months now and I feel that there is something missing. We have players trying to make it in Vegas (Grubby), New York poker Vetrans touring the world (Pauly), High Limit Vegas players (Threebet33), and pro's all talking about their highs and lows. But what about us newbies that want to build a bankroll? Or dominate the $0.05/$0.10 tables? We need a voice! I nominate...
Well, me of course!
So here is the plan. I am going to put my hard earned cash on the line long enough to make $100 profit. Then I am going to cash out my original buy in and turn this $100 into ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Well, not really. I do however want to turn this into a decent bankroll to continue playing online and maybe a few trips to Vegas. I hope you all join me on this trip!
I have been playing poker for about a year now, which is mostly limited to my $40 buy-in NL home game that we play almost every other week. As the only full time job carrying person there I find it hard to play very aggressive, as I don't want to win all of anyones money. This may be why I usually break about even, as I doubt that I am that good at money controll during a game. It could also be that I am a break even player... I do occasionally leave the game double or triple up, and once or twice (OK, maybe 3 or 4 times) I left down my buy-in. If I were to guess, up $350 for the year.
Oh yeah, I also drink when I play. Sometimes a lot. I play poker to relieve stress, a fun social setting, and to win a bit of cash.
But I digress. On to the theme. I have been lurking in the poker blogging world for about 5 months now and I feel that there is something missing. We have players trying to make it in Vegas (Grubby), New York poker Vetrans touring the world (Pauly), High Limit Vegas players (Threebet33), and pro's all talking about their highs and lows. But what about us newbies that want to build a bankroll? Or dominate the $0.05/$0.10 tables? We need a voice! I nominate...
Well, me of course!
So here is the plan. I am going to put my hard earned cash on the line long enough to make $100 profit. Then I am going to cash out my original buy in and turn this $100 into ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Well, not really. I do however want to turn this into a decent bankroll to continue playing online and maybe a few trips to Vegas. I hope you all join me on this trip!
