Learning Texas Holdem Poker

Unibet Poker

2017-04-21T17:09:00.000+02:00

First set of 100 $1.5 18 seater SNG Turbo completed

2016-12-20T13:16:00.002+01:00

Well the first set of 100 has been completed.

The goal I did set was to make a profit. But I did end up in red figures. A loss of $7.5.

The idea was the end on each paid place at least 7 times.

With the fourth places I did came close with 6, I did very well at the second places with 10 times.

But only won 4 and also got 4 times the bronze medal.

$1.5 18	Target	Actual
Wins	7	4
Second	7	10
3rd	7	4
4th	7	6
Pay-out	150	142,5

I never was ahead of the actual target, which has a strange impact on confidence.

I did not only had a loosing streak but also a very cold streak, where I did 5 times on an evening with pocket kings all-in pre-flop. Once a ran into aces, on the other occasions the board gave the villans the wins. It is still hard to overcome this. At such times you are always looking at situations where lady fortune was on your side, but for some strange reason you can’t find them.

But besides bad luck that are many areas for improvement, which is a good thing.

I should be capable of decreasing my early exits and improve the number of FT.

The good thing now is that we have a benchmark, also we can now also indicate where I do want to improve. I’m not talking about making a profit, cause I do hope that this will be the result of this.

I want to increase my FT% with 5%.

I do want to decrease my early exit (places 18-15) with 5%.

I doubt that I can improve my number of second places.

We will see how it will go with the second set of 100.

Cheers,

Dremeber

November recap

2016-12-09T09:20:00.001+01:00

November was my first complete month back at the online poker tables.
Well how did I do?

Total:
Played 95 SNGs.
Profit/Loss: +$8.55
ITM: 23.16%
ROI: 6%.

18 seaters $1.5:
Played 63 SNGs.
Profit/Loss:-$11.38
ITM: 22.22%
ROI :-12.04
Avg result: 8.71

45 seater $1.5:
Played 32 SNGs.
Profit/Loss: +$19.93
ITM: 25%
ROI: +41.52
Avg result: 23,63

Not really what I did expect. The most important thing is that I did made a profit and that I did enjoy myself.
On the 45 seater field I content. Made a profit and a more than decent ROI. The sample size is not big enough to make real conclusions, but the start is there.

On the 18 seater field it is a real disappointment. Not enough cashes, not enough wins. Only 3!!! I did had my share of bad luck, my KK for example never won!!! Aces were cracked.
Not all of these bad results can be related to loosing races of getting one outers against, but to be honest at least 15 or 20 games, were just played badly.

Also came pretty close to achieving Chromestar but missed it by 5 or 6 SNGs. I could have achieved it, but this would have meant that I should have skipper my biweekly live game.

But now I do have a benchmark and can work from there.
The idea is to improve on the 18 seater tables and aiming for the same results on the 45 seater.

Next post will be about the first set of 100 18 seaters.

Good Luck,
Dremebe

Status update

2016-11-08T16:21:00.002+01:00

To be honest, it is not going according to plan.
So far, I have played 31 18 seater's and writing red figures. I'm down $1.35. Momentary, I'm running a loosing streak of 8 games. Only 6 times ITM, the good thing is that these are 2 wins and 3 third places.
Strangely I don't have the idea that I'm playing badly, when I'm pushing I'm always the favourite but rarely winning these pushes. When I'm racing I'm always loosing. I can remeber a faulty push where I did ran into a better flush, should have played this hand more conservative.

I'm disappointed however over the final tables I'm reaching. Not even 50%. Work ahead.
So the plan was to get 27 cashes in 100 games. Which is till possible, 69 games left.

But I did add the 45 seater's to my game plan. Each time when I do fire up 2 18 seaters, I also start a 45 seater. Already played 8 of them, 2 cashes, good for a profit of $3,29. So for the moment it was a good choice to add these to the gaming plan.

	Actual	Target	Completed	Left
Played	31	100	31%	69
Wins	2	7	28,57%	5	7,25%
Second	3	7	42,86%	4	5,80%
Third	1	7	14,29%	6	8,70%
4th	0	7	0,00%	7	10,14%
Pay-out	45,15	150	30,10%	104,85	1,52

I really need to improve in result, otherwise the challenge will quickly become a mission impossible.

Cheers,
Dremeber

Looking back part and forward part II

2016-11-03T15:41:00.001+01:00

I do have 964 SNGs in my database. Most of them are 18 seaters, but also 36, 40, 45 and 180 seaters all at different buy-ins.

My total results are:

SNGs played: 964

Total buy-in: $2269.95

Total Pay-out: $2309.89

Profit: $39.94

ITM%: 23.96%

Profit per SNG: $0.04

Seats	Number	Profit/Loss	ITM%	Profit per game
18	844	$-87.82	25%	$-0.1
36	1	$-2.2	0%	$-2.2
40	2	$-2.2	0%	$-1.1
45	52	$38.16	25%	$0.73
180	65	$94	10.77%	$1.45

Based on this table I should be focusing on the 45 and 180 seater. The profit @ the 180 seater, almost completely comes from winning one with a buy-in of $2.2. Good for a pay-out of $108. So it is strange to see that I did choose the 18 seater. The reason behind this is unknown to me. Maybe I should try to include some 45 or 180 seaters in the SNG I intend to play before the end of the year? But I do firmly believe

In the rest of this post I will just ignore the 36 and 40 seaters.

Lets analyze first the 18 seater, my favorite playground.

Buy-in	Number	Profit/Loss	ITM%	FT%	Profit per game
$1.2	1	$-1.2	0%	0%	$-1.2
$1.5	358	$-59.55	16.67%	33.33%	$-0.17
$1.75	277	$60.65	27.8%	53.79%	$0.22
$3.4	134	$-50.6	23.88%	53.73%	$-0.38
$3.5	6	$-15.32	16.67%	50%	$-2.55
$6.5	66	$-7.8	22.73%	40.91%	$-0.12
$7	2	$-14	0%	0%	$-7

The $1.5 and $1.75 should be analyzed combined, just as the $3.4 and $3.5. Cause these are more or less the same SNGs, but changed in buy-in level after the changes in Pokerstars.

I should avoid the higher buy-in levels, these are costing me money meaning that I’m not ready for these levels. In this prospect it is good that I did choose the $1.5 as my habitat.

The SNG above $1.75 are good for a combined loss of around $87. So all my loss at the 18 seaters can be related to these levels.

If we look at the 45 seaters, we have the following table:

Buy-in	Number	Profit/Loss	ITM%	Profit per game
$0.25	14	$-2,52	14.29%	$-0.18
$0.5	8	$11.38	50%	$1.42
$1.1	2	$2.8	50%	$1.4
$3.25	6	$-4.5	33.33%	$-0.75
$6..5	22	$31	18.18%	$1.41

The only buy-in which can reflect a little bit my level of play on the 45 seater is that $6.5 buy-in. And even this sample size is way to low to base conclusions on.

Still we have a combined profit of $38.16. At the $6.5 buy-in, I did have 4 cashes, but they represent a second place, 2 third places and a fourth place.

The sample size on the 180 seaters is also to low to analyze, but for completeness here it is:

Buy-in	Number	Profit/Loss	ITM%	Profit per game
$1	1	$-1	0%	$-1
$2.2	53	$70.6	5.66%	$1.33
$2.5	8	$-20	0%	$-2.5
$4.4	3	$44.4	33.33%	$14.8

Only the $2.2 can give me some insight. Sample size here is above 50, which could give some direction. Compared with the 45 and surely the 18 seater, the ITM% is of course much lower.

Most part of the profit is based on one 1. Without this win I would had to write red figures.

So where does this bring me?

I do know the following facts:

- I should avoid playing on Monday or Saturday. Both are loosing days.

- Most games are played in October and November. Days are getting shorter, so much time available to play poker.

- I’m a winning player. Not by much, but a fact is a fact.

- I’m not ready for higher buy-ins.

- I should not only focus on the 18 seaters.

The plan of attack:

Like said before I do plan to play 100 18 seaters before the end of the year. Hoping to make a profit.

But based on the stats I should not neglect the 45 or 180 seater. Based on the difference in duration between these 2, I will add some 45 seaters to my game plan.

When I do start a season I will fire up 2 18 seaters and 1 45 seater. Still have to look at the buy-in level available these days. If still available I will go for the $1.1.

This choice is based on the current bankroll I have. I do aim to play 25 of these day before the end of year.

Good luck,

Dremeber

Looking back, looking forward

2016-11-02T15:42:00.001+01:00

We are back at the online poker tables.

First my idea was just to have some fun, but this is a hard thing for me. I did made a plan to play 100 $1.5 18 SNG turbos at PokerStars. Thinking that I’m an above average player it should be easy to make a little profit from this set of 100. But this was before I decided to extract some statistics from the past. These stats did demolish my faith but also my plan.

So what do these stats say?

Looking back:

The most important thing is that I’m a loosing player on these type of SNGs.

I have 633 of these SNGs in my statistics (also includes the $1.75 18 seater). The point is that I’m only reaching the final table in 56.4% of the games, not even near the prospected 60%. Only 25,5% ITM, also way below the desired 30%.

Resulting in a loss of $0.65 over 633 games.

If we look at these stats per year:

Year	Played	Profit/Loss	ITM	ITM%	FT	FT%
2009	214	$52.1	59	27.57%	114	53.27%
2010	63	$8.55	18	28.57%	35	55.56%
2011	92	$11.58	33	35.87%	53	57.61%
2012	150	$-27.73	30	20%	67	44.67%
2013	24	$-12.28	6	25%	12	50%
2014	5	$-7.5	0	0%	2	40%
2015	76	$-35.63	13	17.11%	33	43.42%
2016	9	$10.26	3	33.33%	5	50%

Based on the early years it should be possible to make a profit, but the online poker field was completely different compared by these days. Now there are no Americans left on Stars, which apparently makes it a lot harder. But also players are better compared to the old days.

If we look at the places I’m ending I’m also getting a wake-up call.

1	35	5,53%
2	49	7,74%
3	36	5,69%
4	42	6,64%
5	41	6,48%
6	46	7,27%
7	32	5,06%
8	40	6,32%
9	36	5,69%
10	45	7,11%
11	47	7,42%
12	43	6,79%
13	35	5,53%
14	27	4,27%
15	25	3,95%
16	18	2,84%
17	21	3,32%
18	15	2,37%

I’m glad with the number of second places, but disappointed to see that in 8.5% of the games that I play, I’m not giving myself a chance by getting eliminated very early in the SNG.

This should be brought back to around 5%.

Based on weekdays I’m getting the following results:

Weekday	Played	Profit/Loss	ITM	ITM%	FT	FT%
Monday	119	$-77.03	19	15.97%	64	53.78%
Tuesday	94	$66.73	34	36.17%	50	53.19%
Wednesday	119	$-15.6	30	25.21%	70	58.82%
Thursday	118	$-16.38	29	24.58%	65	55.08%
Friday	82	$31.88	22	26.83%	44	53.66%
Saturday	57	$1.41	16	28.07%	37	64.91%
Sunday	44	$8.34	12	27.27%	27	61.36%

For some reason I should avoid playing on Monday.

Looking forward:

I have the intention to play 100 SNGs before the end of the year.

I should reach at least in 55 SNGs the final table and cash in at least 28. With the reminder to myself that a 4^th place is worth nothing.

Let’s divide this 28 evenly among the paid places. So 7 wins, 7 second places, 7 third places and 7 fourth places.

This should be enough for a small profit. ($16.32)

I do have a little of a head start. Already 9 are played, with 3 cashes. One win and 2 second places.

Good Luck,

Dremeber

Bugger!

2012-11-19T20:52:00.000+01:00

Did only play 15 SNGs last week. Due to time constraints, bad mood and the SNG results.
Only one cash in these 15. I'm ashamed. I know that loosing streaks are there and always hope to postpone or dodge them, but it did hit me hard. Some of these looses \re the results of bad choices but in my eyes most of them due to bad beats.

5 bad beats: rockets vs AK, queens vs AJ (lost against a flush with 4 whole cards), tens vs nines, AQ vs A9 (9 on the river) and another one which I cannot recall.
Ran 3 times into rockets.

Happy that I did decrease my play and found some motivation to turn these around this week.
The results of last week in figures: played 15, a loss of $15.38, a ROI of -%68.38 and a miserable ITM% of 6,67.

Brings my monthly stats on:
41 played, 17.07% ITM, -18.83% ROI and a loss of $11.58.

It only can get better!

Cheers,
Dremeber

Looking back at week 45

2012-11-12T20:18:00.001+01:00

Strange title if you consider that my blog was in hibernation but I decided to follow the week number of Outlook.

Well I mad a profit, period. A miserable one but a profit. Played 26 SNGs (only the 18 seater $1.50 turbo) and only managed to cash in 6 out them. Luckily 3 of those were wins. The other 3 dived over 2, 3 and 4 place.
Giving me a ROI of only 9.74% and a profit of $3.8.

I'm happy with the 3 wins but disappointed with the ITM%, which is only 23%. The aim is around 30%.
I do have the feeling that I did play a little bit to much. I should try to stick to 4 each evening.

Overall I'm not at a ROI of 23.93%, a profit of $19.74 and a ITM % of 27,27. But this is with only 55 SNGs. So way to early to make conclusion.

Due to the transfer of my Full Tilt account (had to do this cause Full Tilt is not legal in Belgium, while Stars is) my FPP increase to above 600. So halve way there.

@dD: Thx for the warm welcome back!

Cu next time,
Dremeber

Here we are again

2012-11-06T14:16:00.000+01:00

Just a post to inform the world that I'm back on the pokertables.

Started with playing some SNG's last month. Just the 18 seater turbo $1.50 SNGs. Trying to build up some bankroll so that I can upgrade the ante to $3.50. Currently the bankroll is just a little above $47. So a long way to go.

I don't have any goals besides going bankrupt and crazy. I have a little goal to buy some golf related stars item from the VIP shop. Also a long way to go.

We will see where it ends.

I don't have the intention to write on daily base on this blog anymore. With 2 kids, a wife, work and other hobbies this isn't feasible. I will try to update my stats at least once a week.

The stats of October arn't that great but also not bad. Played 29 of those, with a profit of $15.94 and a ROI of 36,64%.

The goals for November is to achieve an equal ROI. But for the moment the results are bad: Played 9, a loss of -$1.94 and of course a negative ROI of -12.07%. Which makes the challenge even bigger.

Greetings,
Dremeber

Is the winter sleep of this blog over?

2010-03-04T20:07:00.003+01:00

Yes and No.
No, cause I don't have the intention to update this blog on a fixed schedule. I will post when I want to post.

Yes, cause I did start playing poker again! Not much, but now and then I kick off a $2.20 180 seater at Stars. The idea is to play a set of 50 and see how far I do get.
I did deposit $25 in the beginning of the year, but the initial deposit is already banked, together with a small profit. At the moment the bankroll stands on $110.47.

Since the beginning of this year I already have played 7 of them. In 2 of them I did finish ITM. And first and third place.
In stead of keeping detailed stats I will trust on pokerprolabs. You can follow my stats here.

Curious if I can make a profit with these.

The stats at the moment:
Played: 7
ITM: 2
Best result: 1
Worst result: 121
Total money cashed: $150.84
Total profit: $135.44

Yep, you are correct. For once I doing a challenge with the knowledge that I will make a profit due to my great start.

Cheers,
Dremeber

Hibernation

2009-12-17T18:31:00.000+01:00

The tittle says enough!

Back to Stars, Back to SNG

2009-12-11T18:46:00.002+01:00

Well I have to admit my defeat. Cash games are not mentioned for me. It took $125 to understand this lesson.
Also a big downside of Doyles is that it is not possible to withdraw an amount below $50.

So it is back to Stars and back to SNGs.
I did convert some FPPs into $11 via a satellite. So that will be my BR to start with.
Let's how far it will bring me. I will start @ the 17 seater @1.75.

Cheers,
dremeber

A lot to learn

2009-11-25T20:35:00.003+01:00

Well ring games are more difficult than I expected. I did know that it wasn't easy, okay, but it never crossed my mind that SNG play will cost you a lot of money at ring games.

In the first week I did play 1849 hands. Most of them @ NL10. The result is shameful. A loss of $49.2. If I add to this the rakeback I did have a net loss of $41.56. Luckely, I made a profit of $6.34 @ NL20.

The second week was a little bit better. Combined with the rakeback and a part of the bonus I did clear I did made a profit of $12.94. But here again the dreadful story @ NL10. 1436 hands played and a loss of $12.94. @NL20 the results were better, played only 83 hands good for a profit of $9.98.

Trying to find my leaks I downloaded a trial version of PT3.
With the small size of hands it is maybe to early to pull some conclusions. But the first one is that I need to play a significant amount of hands from first position. I didn't realize that first position is good for 25% of my losses.
Another rule I did set for myself is that when I increased with 50%, I will leave the table. For some reason or the other I'm capable of building a stack to loose it when a smaller pocket pair made their set. So to prevent this, this rule is in place.

Will let you know on friday how week 3 has ended.

Cheers,
Dremeber

I moved to Doyles

2009-11-13T15:42:00.002+01:00

Unfortunately, the SNGs they are offering are my cup of tea. So I decided to learn the pure art of poker: cash games.
I will start @NL10. Why NL10. I have a rakeback deal via rakeback.com. A rakeback deal @nl10 and with 300 hands will give me an advantage of a dollar per day. That's around 25 to 30 per month which means a big deal for me.

Also it will allow my clear more parts of my bonus. At the moment Doyles is giving out a 110% bonus up to 600$ for a first deposit. While the SNGs are not my cup of tea, the cash tables at lower limits seems pretty soft. There is also enough crowd fill up plenty of tables. Multitabling is also not a problem. It is not as fancy as @ stars but I will give it a 7 out of 10.

I you decided to also go to Doyles. Do yourself (and me) a favour a sign up via Rakeback.com. It will give the same rakeback deal as I have, which means a 33% rakeback with the dealt rake method.
The dealt rake back method means that the rake per pot is split between all the players who did het hole cards.

Cheers,
Dremeber

set 8: completed! Who am I kidding?

2009-11-05T22:00:00.002+01:00

Maybe the better question is: What the fuck is wrong with the Stars SNG.

I'm just having it @ Stars. Giving me one bad beat after another. The pricks. In set 8 I had a loosing streak of 11 SNGs without a cash. Getting bubbled out, getting 2 and 3 outers against me. I know that bad beats are part of the game but it almost reached a point where it starts to have an impact an my mental state outside of poker, which is ringing an alarm bell.

So for the moment I will clear my Stars account. Don't know when I will return to there. Maybe I will try the Doyles room. For sure, this time I will sign up to a room via rakeback.
Titan, where I once started with online poker, sounds appealing. The problem is that I don't have rakeback there. I did close that account some months ago, will have to contact there support team.

Let's quickly sum up the stats of the 200 sngs I played:
Money collected: 418,15
Profit: 68.5
ROI: 19%
ITM: 56
Wins: 16
Second: 18
Third: 13
Fourth: 11

Cheers,
Dremeber

Stepping up, stepping down

2009-11-02T23:22:00.002+01:00

Well despite the good luck wishes of Amatay I have to step down after only 1 set at the $3.40 level.
Only 6 cashes and a loss of $20.2 sealed my faith.
It could have gone different but I did get bubbled out on a few occasions with the correct push but no luck. This evening I also ran twice into KK and once into AA, just bad luck. In the last 2 I did get eliminated with AJ vs KQ and KQ vs K10. Especially this last one was a hard one to swallow. The other one, despite being ahead after the push it was a correct call from the chipleader.

I'm confident that I can make a profit on this level, no question about it, I just do need some more luck. But I have to follow my BR management. So, stepping down I will. The good thing is that I only do need a profit of $20, so after a set of 2 I should be capable of stepping up again.
The BR is still above $100, so no real harm done.

I guess it was just the wrong moment to step up again.
Back to square 1. Here we go.

Cheers,
Dremeber

Change of plans

2009-10-31T14:16:00.001+01:00

Did not play for 2 days and still I did made a profit. The guys from RTR did pay-out the syndicate members. This pushed my BR above the targeted $125.

This means that I now have a BR big enough to play at least one set of the $1.75 one and one set of the $3.40 one. So according to my BR management I should step up a level, which I will.

It feels strange I can tell you. While the $1.75 one were a minefield it felt like home. But I hope that it just like moving, while mostly it feels strange, you normally make a step upwards in the real estate level and quickly the new residence feels like home.

I did bank some money, so the BR at the $3.40 starts at $130. Meaning that a loss of less then 5 bucks will mean that I can stay at the same level.

Wish me luck,
Dremeber

Set 7: Acceptable

2009-10-30T00:08:00.002+01:00

Set 7 is finished. The good news is that it did bring my BR above $100. A little bit faster then expected.
Set 7 was good for a profit of $21.05, 2 wins, 9 cashed and 19 FT.
I donked away 2 SNGs in which I got eliminated within the first 2 hands. Twice with AK, trying to steal the pot. I still cannot explain why I did this.

The overall profit now stands on $74.45. Good for a ROI of 24%.

If everything goes according to plan I can leave the $1.75 behind me after set 7. I did hesitate to step up to the next level but to honest I don't see any reason not to step up. My BR supports it and I always can step down.
I do expect a drop in ROI but I don't expect a negative one. This expectation is based on the stats I have at the $3.40 level. Played already 218 games at this level, they were good for a profit of $81, representing a ROI of 11%.

Cheers,
Dremeber

Set 6: the zone?

2009-10-25T21:51:00.003+01:00

Set 6 did end with a bummer, 2 2 outers against and 5 non cashes but for the rest it was a great set.

16 FTs, that's 2 less then the set before. But a mighty 5 victories, add to this 1 second place, 2 third places and 1 fourth place and the result is a profit of $31.85. Good for a ROI of 72,8%. With other words, not bad.

Very glad with the 5 wins, which makes a big difference in profit.
The FT ITM conversion was 56,25%. Could be better but we cannot complain about everything.

With the pauout night at RTR this week, I hope that after set 7 I can move up a level.
BR at the moment is around $84.

The combined profit at the moment is a little bit above $50. A ROI of around 18%.

If set 7 is half as good as set 6, I'm a satisfied man.

Cheers,
Dremeber

Set 5: Not complaining

2009-10-19T21:55:00.003+02:00

Set 5 has been finished. While I did made a profit, it could have been better/bigger. I bubbled in 4 SNGs. If I did made it ITM in 50% of these the profit would have bigger. One I bubbled out with AQ vs A3, another time when my AK didn't get any help and lost against 99, more unfortunate was the preflop push with 77 when I did run into JJ. But I could live with this push. It was in late position.

I did reach 18 FTs of the 25. Not bad at all. My conversion rate FT into an ITM place is 38%. This should increase in the future.
The 7 ITMs were good for an overall profit is: $10.25. A ROI of 23%, which is good enough.

I only won 1. Not good enough. On the other hand 4 second places. I don't have the feeling that my heads up play is not good enough. I just picked some wrong time to push or call.
The fact that I didn't end on a fourth place is also a good sing. I hope it does mean that my bubble play is getting more aggressive.

The overall profit over 125 SNGs has increased to $21.55, with a still to low ROI of 9,8%.
The average ending position in this set was 7,24, which is excellent for me.

I also finally did came to the conclusion that the quantity of games played in the SNGs is important for and your profit and to wipe out variance.

Cheers,
Dremeber

Stats first 100 SNGs

2009-10-16T22:06:00.003+02:00

My stats of the first 100 SNGs I played:

Profit: $7.8
Final Tables: 57
ITM places: 27
FT ITM conversion: 47,36%
Wins: 7 (7%)
Second: 8 (8%)
Third: 5 (5%)
Fourth: 7 (7%)
Average finishing position: 8,3
Winning streak: 3 (2 times)
Loosing streak: 7 (2 times)

To be honnest not stats to be proud of. So, let's try to improve them!

Cheers,
Dremeber

Set 4: Incredibly bad

2009-10-16T21:22:00.003+02:00

Didn't see that coming for sure not after the excellent set 3. But set 4 delivered a loss of $14.10.
The strangest thing is that I reach in 17 occasions the FT. So I can only blame it on variance, not?

In did cash in 6 of them but not victory. Not even 1. 3 of my cashes were 4th places and that's almost the same as not ending up ITM. My average finishing position was 7,64. Almost the same as in set 3.
In 3 occasions I was the bubble boy, add to this 4 six places.

The good news is that in 80% of the cases that I pushed my chips to the middle of the table I was ahead. The bad news is that I did loose these pushes in 80% of the cases. Bummer. Nothing more I can tell about this. Also got my aces cracked twice in this set.

BR now is at $43.95. Set 5 will have to point me again in the right direction.

Cheers,
Dremeber

The way to go?

2009-10-14T18:50:00.003+02:00

At the moment I was playing without a real goal. Like everybody the idea is to make some money but this is hard at the 18 seater of $1.75. I know I need to move up a level, but I had no idea when I should move up the level.

I did start playing the $1.75 stakes because my BR simply didn't allow me to play at a higher level. I do understand that the key in these games is simply patience. Even playing ABC poker can cause you to end up in a real mind field. It is not uncommon at these level that players do call a raise and re-raise of 500 chips with 57sm hitting the flop and crushing your mighty high pocket pairs.

Normal BR plans say that you should need around 20 to 30 buy-ins of the next level before moving up. Because I'm playing sets of 25 games I will alter this a little bit and create my own BR management.

First let's do some calculations:
2 sets of the 18 seaters at $1.75 costs $87.50
1 set of $1.75 and 1 set of $3.40 costs $128.75
2 sets of $3.40 costs $170.00

Every finishing a set I will look at my BR. If the BR is below $128.75 I will play at the $1.75 stake, if the BR is above $125 I will play at the $3.40 level. If after this set the BR is again below $125 I will drop back a level.
I know that a lot of people will disagree with this approach and if you do, feel free to post your ideas via a comment.

At the moment the BR is standing at $56. I expect to collect around $30 from the RTR syndicate. Lifting my BR around $90.
I hope that 1 can lift my BR above $125 after I finished 3 more sets. So this will be my short term goal.

And now a chapter with which many of you will disagree. At the moment I still have around $100 left on MB and around $30 on PKR. Besides trying to lift my BR at Stars, I should also try to lift my reserve BR. When I did reach the $3.40 stakes I will bank after each set of 25 games. I will bank half the profit, if made, of the set to MB.
There are several reasons behind this. One is described above, I do want to bank once in a while, and the other is that I don't know if I'm ready to move up another stake. I dont know if my level is good enough. I know that the only way to find it out is to play at the level but cause I don't feel the urge to do so.

Feel free to spread your ideas about this post.

Cheers,
Dremeber

Set 3: That's more like it

2009-10-10T11:24:00.003+02:00

While set 1 and 2 were coolers, set 3 was the complete opposite. It was good for a profit of $29.2, turning my figures from red into green.
On the overall I'm now having a profit of $25.40.

I did cash 10 times out of 25 and reached 15 FTs. I did win 3 of these, besides that I also had 3 second places.
In 3 SNG's I was out in place 17 or 18, which never should happen. All three of them I did get eliminated with high pair pre flop.
My average ending position was 7,48.

I tried to incorperate the advice in the comments, tightened my early game, loosing up when I did reach 10 BB or with only 5 players at the table.

Due to this great set, the BR is getting healthier. A little bit above $60. The mistake I do need to avoid is to move up to quickly in buy-in level. I should not do this without having a BR which supports at least 2 sets at the level, which are 50 buy-ins. Which is around $170. So a long way to go.

So, let's see how set 4 will evolve.

Some stats at the moment (probably all meaningless):
- set 1: -$0.55
- Set 2: -$3.25
- Set 3: $ 29.20
Overal profit: $25.40

Games played: 75
ITM: 28%
FTs: 53%
Average pr0fit per game: $0.34
Average ending position: 8.52

Cheers,
Dremeber

Set 2, did I lost it?

2009-10-07T21:13:00.002+02:00

Mmmh, very surprised about this result. Again a loss.
Played again a set of 25 18 seaters ($1.75) and I did record a loss of $3.25. Only 12 FTs, that's 1 less as set 1. One miserable win. And 4 other paid places.

Tried to tighten my game in the early stages. But this brings some problems later on in the SNG when staying card dead, resulting in push fold games. And if then lady luck does not want to support you it becomes really hard. AA crackes by QQ, KK by 99, 999 by a river flush and so on. But this can't explain it all. So I have to lift my game to a next level.

Let's hope that set 3 will be better. The start was promising with 2 cashes out of 4 games, but the next 4 were crap again.

Cheers,
Dremeber