Road to $500, Update 1

I have been writing this blog since Sunday. The reason for the lack of updates is not because I face writers block; instead I’ve been facing an upcoming trip, raise, and whatever else that can deviate my time away from blogging and poker. But without further ado it’s been (over) a week since I posted the blog entitled “Road to Recovery”. In that post I mentioned that I wanted to take $100 and turn it into $500 by following certain bankroll management rules. I promised to keep everyone informed on my progress, and true to my word, this is the first of many posts on where I stand in attempts to reach my goal. I would also like to discuss PokerTracker, as well as poker books Small Stakes Hold’em: Winning Big With Expert Play (Sklansky), & Sit ‘n Go Strategy (Moshman).

PokerTracker

I mentioned in my previous post that I was always against such programs because I felt today’s players are more focused on doing what a computer tells them to do rather than play “poker”. Recently I woke up to the conclusion that if my opponents are using such programs and I am not, then I am the one playing with a huge disadvantage. Since purchasing PokerTracker I have noticed that in certain blind levels I have leaks that cause me to go broke more often than not. However, if I make it to level ‘X’ I usually win the tournament or finish second.

Along with looking for leaks in blind levels I have been analyzing my most successful and devastating hands. When studying my hands I have been looking to see if my play is accurate on all streets regardless if I won or lost a big pot. I want to ensure that when I win chips it’s because I am doing the correct play rather than sucking out for a big score. In hands that I have lost chips I look for where I went wrong and try to correct my mistakes for future games. While I would like to discuss this in detail I have not fixed all my leaks to a point on where I am comfortable revealing them publicly. I would like to save this for a future post and go more in detail about certain hands and where I made mistakes and how I corrected them. Thanks to PokerTracker, I have found leaks in my play that will make much more than the $55 USD it cost to purchase the program.

Aside from PokerTracker I have been evaluating PokerAce HUD. For those unfamiliar with PokerAce HUD, it’s a program that can overlay statistics captured by PokerTracker right on your poker table. You can customize information you’d like to display on the screen, as well as add more in-depth information available about a player by clicking on their name. While I am still using the trial version of this software I do feel confident that I will be purchasing this program once my trial expires. I strongly believe that if you are willing to spend the money on PokerTracker but not the additional $25 USD for PokerAce HUD you can not be serious on using the information captured by PokerTracker to your benefit. The program has aided me in making some key decisions based on my opponent’s habits allowing me to capitalize on opportunities that I might have missed. Further discussion of these situations would make for an excellent article in a future blog. Right now I wanted to highlight on the product and put my recommendation to purchase both PokerTracker and PokerAce HUD. They are a must buy if you are truly serious on working to strengthen your game.

Road to $500

It’s been about one week since I have posted my challenge of taking $100 and turning it into $500. I have not played many games this week due to a wide variety of reasons as mentioned before. With that in mind here are my results:

Tournament Count: 6
Total Buy-in Amount: $33
Total Payouts: $64
Total Won/Lost: $32Average Won/Lost: $5
ROI: 51.5%
Current Bankroll: ~$132

It’s a slow start, but it’s a positive one. I know many fellow bloggers reading this post might look at a $32 gain and shrug at it, but keep in mind these gains are from $5 plus $.50 Sit ‘N Go’s. It will take some time to build up enough money to see greater gains, but with playing 6 games and making a 51% return on investment I believe it’s a great start.

Fun with Paperbacks

Recently I finished a book titled, “Small Stakes Hold’em: Winning Big With Expert Play” written by Ed Miller, David Sklansky, & Mason Malmuth. The book retails for $24.95 and is over 350 pages in length. This book focuses on micro-& low-stakes Limit Hold’em and presents the reader advice on dealing with the players and their actions in these low-stake games. If I can sum up the advice in this book in one sentence it would be: when the pot is small, fold if you have any doubts; if the pot is large, and call even if you’re unsure. The book does repeat a lot of theory already found in other poker literature; however, there are a lot of ‘new’ concepts in the book that are surprisingly refreshing. These concepts are custom tailored for the small-stakes game and shouldn’t be applied to the bigger games. In one example the authors have you call a River bet with Ace-high even though “you are most likely beat”.

Being a No-Limit player it’s hard to put all of the concepts in this book to use. Often the authors will tell you to call bets or make bets in situations because it’s only a fraction of the pot. The problem No Limit players face is that in the small-stake games this is rarely the case. Most players have no concept on proper betting and will usually over-bet the pot with their draws and made hands. Furthermore, since the book is based on Limit Hold’em, and not No Limit, it does not have any advice on dealing with players who abuse the all-in bet, or players who constantly raise 10x BB with any two pre-flop. To the book’s credit it does provide very informative information for the Limit player, and with enough thought, a No Limit player can modify the concepts and integrate them into their game with profitable results. Whether it’s Limit or No Limit the book has provided some interesting ways of looking at situations and many of them worth revisiting for further discussion. In the future I plan to re-read this book and take notes on some of the key topics & concepts and discuss them in a blog.

With that note I’d like to introduce you to the latest book on my bookshelf entitled, Sit ‘n Go Strategy by Collin Moshman. This book retails for $24.95 and runs just over 280 pages in length. A search on Amazon doesn’t leave you with much information; and while I have not yet began the book, I will attempt to give you a brief introduction on what the book is about.

The book is of course about Sit ‘n Go tournaments and it’s written in a very similar style that compares to the “Practice” sections of the Harrington books. Each lesson follows a hand history that constantly challenges the reader to answer, “what’s next?” followed by the actual course of action and an explanation. The book advertises its key points as:

- Master expected value, tournament equity, and fundamental poker concepts
- Distinguish between earning chips and earning money
- Develop an ultra-aggressive late game strategy to steal all the chips when the blinds are high and your opponents are tightening their play
- Play multiple tables, incorporate tracking software, and seize online-only edges
- Exploit recreational players in your table selection and game-play strategy, and
- Maximize your sit ‘n go profits by treating each game as a business investment

With only briefly skimming the book I am really anxious to dive into the material. This will be the first book I am going to take notes on, and when I am finished with the book I plan to share some of them with you. If I come across any concept that grabs my immediate interest I will be sure to post it up for discussion.

Wrap Up

That’s it for now, mainly because it has taking so long to get this far. I will continue to update this blog with my status and look forward to hearing your comments as I attempt to reach my goal.

Until we chat again, Cheers!