Is PartyPoker rigged?

I very much doubt it, in the sense that there's any intentional cheating going on to make players lose.

In short, No.

However, there does seem to be something odd going on with it's random number generation.

• if you flop a high pair, you can expect someone else to have one too. AA, KK and 88 flopping simultaneously is rather common
• When multi-tabling, you can get a lot of instances where the card numbers are the same in several tables, although often of a different house.

To me, this tells me that there's probably something a bit off about the random number generation. Most random number generators aren't that random, after all. 

It's really no big deal - it doesn't change the game one bit - but it is something to keep in mind, especially if you get a high pair.

Scared Money

The kind one shouldn't play with.
I can handle 2 and 4 cent blinds by now, but that's about it.

I did indeed give my bankroll a 150$ injection, and so far, it's been worth it.
Basically, I don't want to LOSE any of it, so... it's sort of silly, I might as well be playing with a single buy-in, or so...  However, I've been doing swimmingly on the $6 double or nothing games, and when I hit $220, I can reasonably start playing $11 games. At that point, I gain a reasonable hourly wage  from $11 games, even if I lose 1 in three or so.

I'm technically still down from the beginning of my money play, since I lost a bit early on lacking bankroll management, emotional controll and skill.
Of course, Double or Nothing games are not that good a guideline for measuring one's skills, as it's very nearly possible to fold one's way into money with those.

There's a Spring Million qualifier game costing 50 Party Points today. I am missing about 40. Oh dear...

The boons and perils of multi-tabling

Playing multiple simultaneous poker tables... sometimes it goes well, sometimes... yeah.

So, let's do the traditional list of what is good and what is bad.

Good:

• Staves away boredom 
• Easier to throw away bad and semi-bad hands
• When one's good enough, more games means more money, without unduly increasing risk.

Bad:

• I can't get a read on other players, which can be devastating. 
• When there's lot of action, I can get distracted and end up screwing things up badly, folding good hands or raising bad hands. 

So... goods would seem to outweigh the bad. However, the first two 'good' things are really issues due to my inexperience as a poker player... I guess the last 'good' thing increases in value eventually and the bad things lessen in weight?  Ugh. I need to think about this. 

Hey, I found a lot of interesting articles at this site. 

Bad, bad beats.

On this one tournament, in a really short time span, I got my hands on pocket kings twice, pocket tens, and pocket queens.

All those hands lost. The fact that the queens lost when I went all-in was the end of that game.... also, partially due to frustration over the kings - I did have a good idea from the size of a raise from an earlier player, that they had a top pair - which could only be JJ, KK or AA. It was AA.

However, the person who won that pot had J9 suited, as he hit his flush.
*sigh*

Wow. Interesting two hands.

Okay, so I missed the start of the Facebook Fan Spring Million game, and came in to find blinds at 300 and myself at 2000 chips. Needless to say I didn't last long.

So, I'm wondering if I'm playing horribly and I try my hand at a 0,80 $ buy-in 1/2 cent game.
I still don't know if I'm playing any good, since I hit the big blinds, I get A6s, so I check... Flop comes something like Q46, so I bet half the pot, 7 cents and get a single caller. Turn is a 6 and I raise to 14. The opponent re-raises, I go all in, opponent calls, river is an A and I double up. Okay, wow.

Small blinds, I get something like J4 offsuit. There's plenty of callers and no raises, so I pay that 1 cent. I get the bottom pair, and one high card - jack, I think. I throw in a 2 c feeler bet and get three callers. Turn is a 4, and I get a premonition of victory. I raise by 6 c, 2 per each caller, and I'm left with two. River is a 4.

I check.

First caller raises to 33c, second re-raises... I go all-in. I guess one of them had the top full house, since I get called, and hit 3,20$.

Wow. Admittedly, all that wasw pure luck.

It's easy to lose when you're winning

A quick observation from today -- Two examples from today.

The first one was from a $50 Freeroll. I had about 30K chips, which was probably 2-3 times the mathematical average distribution at that point. Very soon, within 10 minutes or so, I was back down at  22000 chips.

On a $2 buy-in 1/2c ring game, I managed to win a big pot and went up to about $2,5 or so. Soon enough, I was down to $1,2.

This seems to be a trend for me. There's clearly something I'm not handling very well about being on the lead.

Tips?

What's going on with me and Sit & Go turbos?

I didn't know Chris Ferguson had a video about the bankroll management tips he did.

In any case, SnG Turbos --- I used to always fail on those, so I tried the normal speed $3 games, and did rather okay on those. Then, I went on a winning streak, I guess, and won like nine in a row relatively effortlessly. Then, just as I began my Bankroll Repair, I could hardly win anymore. Huh.

Well, at least all that tournament playing, which really hones the importance of being careful with one's chips, has made me a better Cash Game player, although I start feeling kind of scared outside the 1/2 cent games - which don't seem like real money all that much, or perhaps the fact that the small buy-ins remind me of $1 SnGs, so I can consider the money I bring to the table to be already "lost" unless I "place".

Scarily, I'm considering bringing in a non-trivial amount of money - like, 150$ - to get access to bigger games sooner. Mostly, this is a foolish idea... however, as mentioned, the cheapest games  can get pretty random, as people may call you no matter what... It's manageable in ring games, since the blinds don't go up, but in SnGs as well as tournaments, the randomness can really eat you up.

Bankroll Repair, Day five - Uh oh, I'm in trouble

Day five:
Starting wealth USD 6,33 $

Up to 15 games allowed. Single at a time to maximize concentration.

1: -1 Another loss in an all-in situation - Flop was Q2J, I had Q2, a larger
stack went all-in... I did consider they'd have QJ - which they did, but...
Mmm... dunno, stupid risking all-in at that point, I guess.
Next game, I shall avoid all-in even with presumably favorable hands, as long
as they aren't the nuts.
Reminds me of my early tournament woes. I really do badly at all-in and
showdown situations.

2: -2 fail.
Thewho07, tough opponent. Raises a lot. I'm having trouble with the speed the
blinds rise, which was my initial issue with playing $1 turbos in the first
place. Not sure how I managed at one point, any more, I used to win these all
the time, a few days back.
Oh, yeah, Thewho07 was fifth to be eliminated.

3: -3 10-seater, to see if I can fold my way to third place.
*edit* Nope, can't.

Time for a break, for some reason or other, I suck.

I'll try my hand on a 80c cash game --- I can handle those emotionally.
Rules of engagement:
- game continues until time, taking all money, or losing half of winnings,
minimum winnings being 40 cents.
Or, going broke, naturally,

Playing less, getting worse.

I've been sitting on a min 1/2 cent table, since I won't get blinded to death there.
I've played less, over the easter, which has been nice, but I feel I'm getting worse. I guess that's a risk from having only played for such a short time... I feel a lot of my knowledge is still sort of short-term, and... really not  digested.


I borrowed David Sklansky's Hold'em Poker  book from the library - there's hardly anything there that I don't already know --- or at least, nothing I haven't read elsewhere already. Still, it has a lot of stuff in it, which I DID need to learn from somewhere.

I'm not very good at cash games, because I find money... a bit scary. 0,80 buy-in 1/2 cent cash games are cheap enough that I can play normally... Unfortunately, the players themselves are rather random - I've seen people raise with 63 off-suit. It's crazy.

In any case, that's why I prefer tournaments and such - I can deal with hundreds of thousands of abstract 'chips' much better.

However, seeing as how I'm not doing too good in 'turbo' games, it does make me wonder, if I just should multi-table some really tight minimum-bet cash games.

Bankroll Repair, day four - Problems, technical and otherwise.

So, Partypoker wasn't really working properly, but then, neither was I.
I'm on some prescription medication, which I forgot to take with me, so I believe I was suffering some withdrawal symptoms yesterday.  Regardless, I did log what went on yesterday.



Today, I'm going to examine the effect of twin tabling on my concentration.

So, I'll apply the following gaming pattern:
single table->twin table->single table.
so, 10 games would be 1-2-1-2-1-2-1, which should be nice.

1: -1,00. Everyone was playing super-tight so I was picking a lot of pots by
just putting in a min-raise. However, as I got a big raise, I chose to call it,
despite knowing it was a tight table, and ended up losing vs. a pair of jacks.

I _may_ have tilted, but I called a big bet with ATs, and the opponent had AQo,
and that was all she wrote.
I was lucky early on, and ended up playing without consulting my brain.

2: -2,00 4th place, Total loss.
3: -1,08 2nd place, okay run.
Felt kind of distracted, the games felt very fast, and it felt I was constantly
switching between the two games, without really paying much attention to either.

4: -2,08. Ran out of chips. I couldn't get a read on my opponents. Busting out,
however, was self-inflicted. I had KTs, and after I raised to about 40% of my
remaining chips - two bets - an opponent went all in. I called, in despair, and
ran into cowboys.
Observation: I bet too much - or not enough - when I have the top pair. I end up
losing chips when a caller hits a higher pair, or a draw.

5: -3,08 - in trouble with 800 chips remaining, , went all-in with a8s,
ran into KK. Again.
6: -4,08. Lost. Three-way all-in, I had QQ, others had KJ and 99.... river card
was 9. I was doing well at that point, so it's questionable if I should have
participated in that contest, even if I did have the third strongest starting
hand.

Bad day so far.

Then, some stuff happened, such as partypoker maintenance and updates, and I didn't have the time to play rest of the games, which may have been for the best.

---
Daily Spring Million Giveaway NL Hold'em:
* My timing sucks, and I'm getting pushed around by the bigger stacks.
1450 players, 1150 to go for the money.... At this point I pretty much need
a huge hand. TODO: Figure out correct timing.
* 5 min break, 1324 players remaining, 6 bets remaining and about to hit the
blinds.
* flopped 2 pair on the blinds, managed to get to 7 bets. dodged small blind,
thanks to table change. 1201 players remaining. I'm considering delaying 'til
the money comes. Especially considering my bad success in SnGs.
*And I'm out. I had pocket threes, the flop was J-5-Q, Pot was about 1400...
and the opponent bet 3200 chips. What the hell?  I considered it a while, and
concluded they were trying to buy the pot. I totally failed to consider they
might have had pocket fives, or a jack-something, and were trying to scare
someone off a top pair or somesuch. In any case, a foolish risk - I still could
have survived a few more hands.

---

So, that was my day. Hopefully, today will be better.

Chris Ferguson

Interesting fellow, I gained a further interest towards him from the Full Tilt podcasts yesterday.

Here's one starting point to browsing his dotcom page.

Bankroll Repair, Day three - Insert Witty Quote here.

Double-tables...

1:+0,92. all-in bluff with jack ended up a loss of 1st place.
2:+1,88. Was a serious underdog and wasn't getting many good hands.


3: +0,88. Ran out of chips, all-in with 33, other had 10-7 , river ten.
folded T9o against a raise, turn would have made a straight.
4: +1,80. A2 all-in heads up vs. A9. Probably a bad call, but just having an
ace is supposedly pretty good.
folded 93s from SB vs. all-in. 993 flops on the board. Of course.

5: +0,80 bad play with just top pair cost game.
6: +1,72. Bad, bad play in the final hands.

I may be playing a bit too tightly - I ended up being too loose near the end,
last two games.

7: +0,72 loss,
8: +2,60 won 1st place, got a LOT of good hands, including 2 AAs.

9: +3,52, things were moving fast, not sure what happened. Need to review.
10: +2,52, running out of chips, all in with QJ, got 2 pair, opponent got set.

Today's final saldo: USD 11,97 $. A bit better han yesterday's before my
adventures with cash games. about 25% increase in bankroll.

I'm also doing fine on a $250 Freeroll right now, we'll see how that goes.

How I made it through Nordic Spring Million Qualifier second time

I was cooking, so I barely played - I was down to maybe 2200 chips from folding, with blinds at 150ish, and about 130 players remaining, when I began playing. I'll need to check the records from pokertracker when I get the opportunity

I doubled up quite soon, which was a coin flip, more or less - I think I tried to steal the blinds with AK suited, and ended up getting called, and flopped KK. After that, I just played my normal game, although I wasn't very eager to really play any hands - So I guess I was a bit tighter than average. I doubled up a few further times, when others insisted going all in against me when I already had the nuts. I tried to steal the blinds when I could, but not consistently - maybe twice per three rounds or so, I had a decent chip stack, so I wasn't panicking.

Rest was natural. My biggest loss was the second to last hand, as I had just dropped from first to second place at about 137K chips, and I wanted to try stealing the blinds to reach number one spot before the game ended. I ended up losing maybe 50K chips, and finished fifth.

If anyone's interested, I could be persuaded to check the details with pokertracker.

Bankroll Repair, day two - this and that.

Start: USD 5,68 $

two-tabling --
1: -1,00; All-in pocket 10s, ran into AA, AK, flop KK.
2: +0,88; All-in at river, KK win.

3: -0,12; 3rd - lost - iffy all-in with K4os short stack.
4: +0,80; 2nd - J10os. probably should have folded instead.
These two games were badly played.

5: -0,20; early loss vs. All-in at turn with AKs; Had ace pair turn;
river flopped 2 pairs for the opponent's A7. Bad beat.
Maybe I should have raised more pre-flop to eliminate A7, I did bet pot on both
flop and turn.
6: +1,68; Won nicely.

7: +2,60... 2nd - Okay play.
8: +4,48... 1st. Okay play.

Should hit rakeback soon.

9: +3,48... 4th. Short-stacked, went all-in with 88, ran into a set of aces.
10: +2,48... 4th. Ran out of chips, chip leader kept betting all-in, was getting
blinded to death, took a chance with T9s.
I was very distracted with these games as WPT Barcelona tournament began and
such.

BONUS STAGE: To hit my rakeback, I need to play one more game, so I'll try my
hand at a 10-hand $1 set-and-go.

Made it to fifth... need to analyze that game. I didn't feel I was playing poorly - I got blinded to death, more or less.

+1,48...

Oh well, a bit of 1/2 cent sit & gos, plush rakeback, puts my bankroll at
USD 11,53$.

Oh, and won a 50 Seat Frenzy buy-in, worth $15, apparently. Or was it Spring Million Special? I do know I'm on Spring Million Special, but I definitely placed on something...

Update: I just got a visceral reminder why I decided not to play cash games, as I just went and plain lost $2.00, in the most stupid fashion, ever.  Cash games just don't suit my personality - they're too direct.

Bankroll Repair, Day one - results.

Games numbered, then bankroll net effects. Scary stuff. I also lost  $1,60 on a ring game, which went up and down so much --- My personality is ill-suited towards them.

1: -1,00; 3. place
Winnable, made TWO stupid calls where I knew I would lose, but didn't want to
give up the pot.

2: +0,88; 1. place
Knew the opponent had a flush draw, and still paid him off. Had AAA.
Recovered. Won.

3: -0,12; 4. place
Called too big an all in, couldn't recover chip stack. Was too hasty and
impatient.

4: -1,12; 4. place.
Lost most of my chips when on the big blind, after flopping bottom pair and
trying to push the opponent off their hand; Went all in soon after with JT.

Part bad play, part bad luck.

5: -2,01 3. place.
Played an okay game, this one goes to the cards.

6: -3.01 5. place
I think I played okay -- My straight draw ran into a flush draw. I was aware of
it, but was unsure if my opponent was on a straight or flush draw.  My chip
management was bad, though, I was not careful enough.
I had AK suited, I lose most often with AK.

7: -4.01. 3. place
I got nervous - other than folding a pair of fives - which I probably shouldn't
have played in the first place - I played an okay game. Hard to say how much
I was affected by my nerves.

---
Realization : I've been playing scared poker today.
---

8: -6,61; 4. place.
 What is going on? I played pretty good... Was Outplayed by AllInDom.

9: -4.69; 2. place.
Played okay for the most part. my last loss heads-up should have been avoided.
I had a straight draw and a mid pair. At  least it's more towards my rakeback,
without further bankroll loss. Partypoints shall help entering sunday bike ride.

10: -3,71: 2. place
Played okay, except heads-up I still made a bone-headed move with a straight
draw, when the other guy had a set.

Today leaves my bankroll at USD 5,20 $, which is bad, but not horrible -
I can sort of recognize my failures and I played better as the evening
progressed. I did win a place at Spring Million Special, which is nice. Also
scored enough party points to participate in the Sunday Bike Ride.

Placed 46th on WSOP Freeroll, would have lasted longer - my last call was bad.
Someone 4x raised from early position, I had AQ so I called. Flop came out as nothing, and the opponent went all-in.

I should have put him on ANY pair - at that point I only had 6 outs. Calling was bone-headed.

Granted, with 16K chips remaining and blinds hitting 8000, I wouldn't have lasted very long, but at least there would have been a chance...

Won an entry to Spring Million Special.

It's a $6.4K game, also granting entry to, well the Spring Million game. It wasn't an elegant win by any means, though. Basically I limped through the final table, trying to survive the chip leader's stack bullying.

I've done quite badly on my $1 games, fortunately I'm getting close to a bit of rakeback, so it's not that... okay, it's bad, but not completely horrible. I've been losing a lot. Just started playing a bit better. Hopefully I'll get to final table at the $250 freeroll, that would recoup some losses.

Bankroll Repair, Day one - Introducing the plan

Okay... I have a tendency to lose money.
I win a lot when playing $1 SnGs, but I also very easily tend to put that money into $1 -- $6 tournament fees, or try to play more expensive SnGs and end up losing.

My losses are often quick crashes, as I have been playing too much of late, and at some point in the evening I always stop asking, what hand could my opponent be on, and why am I playing this hand.

To sum up, my current bankroll is USD 9,81 $.

So here's the plan: I shall ONLY play a grand total of TEN SnGs per day, and maybe one or two tournaments, depending on the desirability of those tournaments and favoring ones which are either free, or which I have a high chance of winning.

This will also give me a nice metric to evaluate my successes. I shall publicize the results of my ten games, and my bankroll at the end. Also, limiting the game count means I'll have a bigger reason to focus better on each and every single game.

Daily Spring Million Giveaway NL Holdem

Okay, about 7000 participants,

Busted out, as per usual, 367th.  At my best I was  ranked 70th or so.
I was doing very well - stayed within top percentage most of the time, the game was down-right EASY---
But, then there was a 5-minute break. Somehow I came back to the game all on tilt.

I had four to a nut flush and river card to come. An opponent with about 50K chips pushed all in, while I had 80K chips or so - I would have had about 75k left after folding.

I
Called.

Okay, I'm down to 22K chips -- few hands later I'm back at 37K. EASILY back at play with blinds at 2000.

I get QQ on hole. I trip-raise to 6000, and get two callers. Flop has nothing better than QQ and no draws.
The two other players go all in.

I could have --- SHOULD have walked away, then and there.

Instead, like a total jackass I called. AA and JK. Thus, I was out.

...Huh.. Turbo Sit & Gos.

I used to think I was no good at them, but I seem to win 9 out of 10 times, when I play. That's only on the $1 level right now, though. I need about $75 to play $3 games. sanely.

Further, I almost always win the 6-seated games, but rarely the 10-seated ones, although I used to place in top-3 practically always on those.

From the $3 six-seated games, If I'm playing normally, I place four times out of five, and win one out of five.

I've never won on the $6 level.

quick math gives the best win/loss ratio for $1 games, but it takes me five hours to process $20 of my bankroll... not an issue right now, since I'm short again, but when I have more than that, it becomes less effective. However, my profit is about $15 per 10 games...

So, if I play 10 $3 games, my profit will be about $2.4 per game...
Hm. That's slightly more profitable, but if I play on some level of tilt, I also LOSE money a LOT faster at that level... I guess that's why I should have a large enough bankroll not to suffer too much from the downswings.

At $18 a day, I could make it to $80 in five days, at which  point playing $3 games would be safe. Need about $160 to $200 for $6 games, then.

The thing is, I do like to play tournaments - the whole win big aspect is very enjoyable.....

Self-control

Okay, here's a fun thing - playing three tables, plus a game of Go on KGS, completely confused all around....


Anyhow, the Go game ends, and I find myself doing quite well in the tournaments I'm playing at.

Three hands later, when I'm actually focusing on the games, I bust out of one of the tournaments - it was a $50 freeroll, so no big - and.... maybe I still play clearly better while distracted.

Or maybe it's the sugar - I've been on low sugar of late, and I bought some candy bars today, so this is my brain on sugar.

I found an interesting forum for poker players, by the way, called Cardschat.

Here's an obsevation I wish I'd made a few seconds earlier:
When an opponent makes a "hey I have high pair" - raise and you have a big hand, and you call, and the flop gives you nothing --- FOLD!


So yeah. It was the 1 Party Point Daily Spring Million Giveaway, I had a good stack too.

Tilt Cooldown / Sick Hand

Lost a showdown, I likely should have won... If I'd played more slowly, perhaps I would have read the other guy better.

What happened was, I had QJ Offsuite, and the flop came down 3QJ. Very few hands beat that. So, there's pushing and I go all in.

the turn and river card come down, a 3 and a J  - I get a full house. Imagine my surprise and dismay as I lose -- the other guy had  a pair of threes.

At first, I think, okay, a bad beat. Then I'm reminded of another hand where I folded in a correct spot - I had QJ suited, and the flop came down something-5-J, and I think I have the hand. I put in one raise. Others call. The turn card comes, and is a 5, and the guy on the other end raises. I put him on A5, and fold - and he had A5 offsuite.

Here's the thing - WHY do I let someone with a pair of threes, or a A5 offsuite stay in on the hand? Stupid...

I need to work on my shoves...

Bankroll Management

Found a nice article on the subject. I've had a bad morning, so I decided to play some 2/4 cent limit, since I should profit by just sticking to top 24 hands.
Anyhoo, link to the article.

My current bankroll is $16, not counting the borrowed seed money. I could play 5/10 cent limit with the seed money...

Today's main tournaments will be the Facebook Fan game, the Daily Spring Million giveaway, and if I can fiddle with the seed money, the Daily Depositor game, which is awesome. If my bankroll does well, I might enter a $3 --  $6 tournament which only has few participants.

I'd really like to get to the $36 range today, at least... 'easy' with a tournament win.

I'm gaining a liking towards limit holdem. Less risky.

Yesterday....

Okay, I won four out of five sit & gos I played at $3 tables. I lost nine out of ten at $1 turbos, so not playing those.

Today, I've played a 10-seater speed game, from which I got a net gain of $9. I tried playing two tables at once, but lost both - other entirely due to missclicks, so basically --- I can't multi-table. Not at this point, at these bet sizes, anyway.

Cheap daily GTDs are pretty good --- while one might only get back their initial investment with tight play, but with a bit of luck, you can get up to or better than 600% ROI. They do take at least three hours, so if you don't make it big-ish, it's effectively a loss, though....

A Disaster Strikes!

Okay... I found a tournament I liked, but I accidently miss-clicked, and registered into a wrong tournament.
The disaster? This tournament had a buy-in cost of $33!

What could be worse? Let me tell you what's worse:

Starting the final table as the chip leader and being busted out as the seventh.
Sixth place would have scored $110.

Aaaargh!

The feeling of loss - especially after having daydreams of the $640 - was incredible.

I'm still up by about $15, which means I've lost $41 out of $60 I won. I've found out I do really poorly on the 'Turbo' Sit & Gos, as I play too tight for those games.

I have a theory about one's bankroll, and that is that one should "process" all of it - or at least half of it - every day. Basically, you should win more than lose, and if you have, oh, a bankroll of 100% but you only utilize 10% of it per day, most of it is "dead money".

Of course, it's not quite so black and white - for an example, you shouldn't risk as much on 'training' in new game types and such.

Risk and Reward

Borrowed money to seed my bankroll. put in $40ish. Partypoker has this $1,000 Daily Depositor Freeroll NL Holdem for those who deposit using a certain bonus code. Placed 5th, won $60. Cool.

Should have played better, though.

Seriously, I had a shot at the top position, too.  That would have been $260.

Anyway, sit-n-gos.... I CAN win, but not easily. Too sleepy to put proper effort into them today.

Flaws in my most recent game.

All in busted out at 1101th place. I was getting short-stacked, and only placement that counts is the top-25.

First, the things I did correctly:

• I called more raises, and raised more often
• I played good hands most of the time

Things that were a mistake:

• I chased hands through minimal raises
• My timing in All-In was bad - I could have lasted up to three more full rounds, trying to get a better hand to do it.
• My raises were probably on the small side.
• I tried pushing people off their pot with raises while having no hand, a few times.

Statistics

 These I play the most

Table:    MTCTs
Game:    Hold'em
Hands played:    12103

Your actions:
Fold:    45%
Call:    23%
Check:    11%
Bet:    13%
Raise:    5%
Re-raise:    0%

Where you fold:
Pre-Flop:    66%
Flop:    6%
Turn:    2%
River:    2%
No-Fold:    22%

Hands won:    17%
Showdowns won:    6%
Flops seen:    28%
Win % of Flops Seen:    43%

 In these I lose money

Table:    Ring games
Game:    Hold'em
Hands played:    3869

Your actions:
Fold:    33%
Call:    26%
Check:    14%
Bet:    18%
Raise:    7%
Re-raise:    0%

Where you fold:
Pre-Flop:    53%
Flop:    8%
Turn:    4%
River:    2%
No-Fold:    30%

Hands won:    23%
Showdowns won:    6%
Flops seen:    42%
Win % of Flops Seen:    47%

In these I win the most, really

Table:    STTs
Game:    Hold'em
Hands played:    907

Your actions:
Fold:    31%
Call:    23%
Check:    24%
Bet:    14%
Raise:    6%
Re-raise:    0%

Where you fold:
Pre-Flop:    45%
Flop:    11%
Turn:    4%
River:    4%
No-Fold:    35%

Hands won:    26%
Showdowns won:    7%
Flops seen:    48%
Win % of Flops Seen:    42%

$1.5k New Player Freeroll today

By just playing tight-aggressive, I should get enough to start playing sit-and-gos. Hard to say how those will go now, but I've yet to not place in no-money games.

I do have some trouble betting large enough, a lot of the time - I like to have 100x big blind in chip stack, to play my normal game, more or less.

Update: Won a bit, but...
 - Sit and Gos with money are a bit tougher than play money ones. I was expecting that, but still...
- Sit and Gos don't give the +2 PP bonus that playing an actual tournament does, so I missed on the $2 bonus I have coming up. Grr.

In other news, placed 27th on the WSOP Freeroll. If I'd switched to total fold mode when I had 300K I probably would have made it, too, as I was only about 1 round short from top 25.


AAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Okay, my early tournament game is pretty good

In several games now, I've managed to gain the chip lead relatively effortlessly in the first two tables, then died somewhat early after the blinds got bigger.

My basic strategy has been simple - close to the button, call any suited connectors or any two high cards, unless there's a raise - the basic idea is to see a lot of flops. Now, after practically any flop, especially if you're heads-up, throw one raise at it. A lot of opponents fold right there. Throwing another raise after the turn is also good - most opponents fold there. So in total, you pay about 3x BB per hand you play. If your opponent has a strong hand, they often re-raise you.

... I think there's a flaw in that I'm not necessarily winning that much money - my biggest wins were when I had the nuts, or something very close, and others just threw themselves all in at me - I never risked going all in myself, since that's when I tend to bust out.

Ideally, one could be in most hand - say, if you only risked about 1/100th of your chips to see the flop. Then, you can just fold anything that doesn't hit something.

The problem is, I tend to end up short-stacked when the blinds start going up, and people from other tables begin replacing those who drop out in the table I'm in.

Running into Trouble

This happened in today's WSOP Freeroll:

I had J9 suited, and flop came up with two nines, thought I had it - I had a set, and a moderately high kicker. A loose player was betting against me, and I ended up all in.

Nothing good ever happens when I go all in.

You can pretty much guess what happened - the other guy had a full house, which I completely missed, and I was out. Was that something I should have read, or should I chalk it up to bad luck?

I really wanted to win, and as a consequence, I was TERRIFIED when playing. I don't want to see my chips go away, so betting felt rather scary. I managed to steal the blinds a few times, which helped, but still, it's worrisome...

How To Get Better at Poker?

Okay, so I got my 40 cents, which I put into a ring game - my goal was to build up to $1,40 so I could enter a tournament or a Sit & Go game, while retaining enough to rebuild again and again.
I got up to $1,30, and foolishly continued, eventually going to tilt, and lost everything. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I wonder, is there a training menu, outside just playing lots and lots of games, to improving one's game? A quick google search got me these links:

About - WikiHow - PokerTips

Okay run on Limit tournament.

I placed forty-somethingeth. Would have done much better by playing tighter in the late game, but I got a suited AK and a pair of jacks in a row, which I just had to play. With blinds at 20000, it didn't take long to run down my stack of 400K.
Especially as a pair of nines flopped when I had the jacks, and I just couldn't put the heavy raiser on a set. Stupid of me. I'd go so far to say that I was on Tilt.

My top placement with 40000ish chips was 12th, at one time, which isn't that much in a $50 tournament.

Update: I took a stupid risk early on, in the NL $50 freeroll. I had 13 outs, meaning about 52% chance of winning... but I missed it, and was out.
The thing is, I shouldn't have even taken that risk in the first place - if you risk falling out of a tournament, it's a stupid risk to take.
One of the benefits of NL Hold'em is that it exercises my self-control.... but, my self-control is still insufficient.

Well, yesterday sucked.

I wasn't playing horribly-horribly, but for some reason I got really sleepy, I ruined my dinner and... yeah, stuff happened. On the upside, I did manage to watch about half of Breakfast at Tiffany's, so it wasn't a total loss. Maybe.

Oh, an observation I do not recall mentioning off the top of my head:
I play at my worst and lose the most when I'm on the blinds, for some reason. I just got eliminated rather ignobly, from today's WPT Barcelona Freeroll, due to trying to force others off the pot by going all in at the river. I had a pair of sixes, but I had missed the fact that another player had made a pair of eights on the turn. I really should have read that, too, seeing as how they raised one blind on the turn. after having checked the flop.

Rounders and $1.5K New Players Freeroll

Matt Damon, that movie. So far entertaining.

As per usual, I'm doing remarkably badly since actual winning is involved. I had a decent sized stack, but went very nearly all in with A8s when there was AKT8 on the table. The other guy had AT, which I really should have spotted earlier, and I went down to... either 40 or 60 chips, while blinds were at 80 chips. Now I'm back to a bit over 2000 chips with blinds at 400 - I expect they're either 500 or 600 after the break.

A remarkable recovery, but regardless - I'm doing rather badly right now. I'll update afterwards, regarding my final placement.

Update: Finished 356th, meaning a gain of $1.05

Any suggestions where to invest it? I could go for the 2 cent blind NL table, I guess...

I'm also playing two other tournaments right now, a $50 Freeroll, and a 10 PP spring million special, in which I'm not doing too well right now. I'll do another update on those two...

Update: Finished 10th in 10 PP Spring Million Special. I haven't played the final tables very much, so I'm probably  not all that good at them.

Update: Finished 32nd in the $50 Freeroll, gained $0.05, probably my best placement on the $50 Freerolls. Lost a showdown with K7 vs. something-8, flopped both two sevens and two eights, so...    Currently playing on a $250 Freeroll, just started.

Update: Finished fourhundred-something, gained 12 cents. I lucked into about 80K chips early on, but I kept on losing whenever I tried to play later, most often on the big or small blind. At least twice I folded winning hands.  Current balance $1.26. I'd be way up if... oh well.
But, that's it for tonight. a $1500 game tomorrow, and we'll see what else.

Oh, finished watching Rounders. All in all a decent movie, although the lzherusskie accent was ridiculously fake on the main "bad guy".

56th today's WPT Barcelona Freeroll and chocolate pancakes

Cooked while playing. Did okay for the most part. I mean, cooking was awesome, but I ended up being sort of short-stacked in the WPT, and I went all in with king-high spade suited cards with two spades on the flop, so I thought I had a decent chance - I seem to recall I had 13 outs at that point.

Turn and river brought two clubs, and that was it for me.

Also got eliminated early in the $6400 Spring Million Special - I ended up short-stacked when betting heavily on a QQ, with another player having ace-something, and ace flopping onto the table... I recovered partially with a pair of AAs, and thought I might get back into the game as I made a low, unlikely straight on the turn when I was the big blind... unfortunately, another person made a flush on the river, and I was all in.
*sigh*

The competition was WAY tougher on the spring million special.

Anyway, pancakes good. Wheat flour, semolina, an egg, water, some cooking cocoa, vanilla sugar and coffee went into the batter. I'm thinking of adding some shredded carrot for sugar.

I tend to ramble.

I prefer chips to cash, just because looking at money going up and down is a lot scarier than looking at chips. Also, the risk-reward ratio is potentially much better in tournaments - while one might, in four hours, turn one dollar into, oh, ten, in a tournament, there's a chance of turning that into seven hundred, for an example.

Of course, you can't beat the profit ratio of free tournaments.

My concentration doesn't really handle four hours too well... sure, you're mostly folding, but still, tracking position, chip stacks, play styles and whatnot is very helpful...

Regardless, I have a habit of either reading or watching something simultaneously... while it does keep the stress levels down, it does distract me just a bit, which worsens my chances.

Sometimes, I write blog posts, too.

So yeah, currently playing a $250 freeroll, in which I usually do ridiculously badly. They typically have more than ten thousand participants, which means they're really long, meaning I've never gotten within top 100, and I've often failed to reach top-1000, even.

There are two reasons for this, first being the aforementioned issue with concentration. The second is that my cowardly nature has a tendency to resurface, and the fact that to make it to top ten, you need around 30 million chips. That's a lot of chips to gather.

Hmm.

Some newbieish bad habits I retain:

• Paying just to see follow-up cards
• Trying to scare people off winning hands with a badly-timed raise
• Not listening to my intuition. I sometimes seem to have nearly supernatural intuition regarding what's going on in the table. It's probably just subconscious pattern recognition, but it feels pretty cool when it works. 
• Missing opponent's flushes, straights and full houses way too often.

Update: Finished at position 3352. I tried to figure out if a high-stack opponent trying to put me all-in was bluffing or not, but I only figured he didn't have AJ, so I didn't put him on a set of threes. 

I did some experimentation regarding my intuition. It seems to work relatively well when I'm absolutely calm. When I get even a bit excited, it goes out of the window. 

Bankroll gone. Need to experiment.

I'm not too devastated, as a single good freeroll game can net the meager amounts I had.

Still, I feel I'm not playing with my full potential, so I need to do some experiments in my next games tomorrow - there's a $50 freeroll and a $250 freeroll every day - both in which I have historically done really poorly.  Partly, I believe, it's a matter of endurance, as they may have more than ten thousand participants, and take more than four hours to finish - the Nordic X games I've done better in, start with a participant count in the hundreds, which makes a big difference.

In a sense, placing 26th on the WSOP freeroll is probably my best result, as it had 3500 participants.

Bad luck on the river.

While luck isn't a huge part of the game, it's still a part, definitely.
I just went all-in with AJ, when flop plus turn was 2TAJ.
I should have been more afraid of a KQ, but that's not what my opponent had. They had an ace-ten.
River card flopped a ten.

Nothing surprising, but the river card screwing me up on a critical spot has happened three times by now, so it's starting to look like a trend.
Mind you, I've been saved  by the river at least once, so...

Anyway, I'm almost out of having a bankroll by now. Here's hoping for less bad luck.

WSOP Freeroll 26th place - just a touch bitter.

Okay, I've discovered I tend to play better if I don't pay too much attention to extraneous stuff, like how many players still remain, what is the position I need to reach to get some sort of a prize, and so forth.

Still, the fact that places 1-25 got an equal reward, and I got eliminated as the 26th, does make just a teensy tiny bit bitter. I guess it was my fault - I could have survived 'til the next hand, and someone else _might_ have been eliminated instead, in that time.

Still, I'm a tad unhappy now.

Recovered my losses

in fact, I went up a bit - my bankroll is currently $5.88.
On the other hand, I've been doing horribly on tournament games, for some reason. I've been doing bad, risky calls even when having a good idea that I'll be likely to lose.  I'm not entirely sure why, but I think it relates to the reasons I've been doing so badly on the various freerolls where there's an actual chance of winning money.

Am I subconsciously sabotaging myself, perhaps?

$2000 Play Less, Win More Freeroll

Starts soon. Wish me luck.

Update: Had a really bad day today - not sure if I've been unlucky or if I've played badly, but nothing seemed to work for me - I even lost 80 cents on a cash game.

Last time when I won, I played a bit more loosely, especially in a late game. Combined with heavy petting it meant I won a lot, when I did win... I do think aggressive betting is a key factor, but I'll try being more conservative with the hands I play for a while.

Maybe it's the necessity of late-tournament loosening up which messes up my mid-early game. Hm.

Stupid distractions, grr. // Passed Nordic Spring Million Qualifier

I'm up to $4.19 from today. I feel like I could have done much better, but I'm not at home, so I've been pretty distracted all day long. Not feeling very proud or anything, as of yet.

You know, in fact, the way I really feel? These are sad, sad results, thus far. I want to win big, I'm just not good enough.

Yet.

Update: Nordic Spring Million Qualifier Speed:
Right now, there are 56 players remaining. Right now, I am number one. Yay!
Update 2:  Finished third place, gained entry to Spring Million Special, which has a $6400 pot. Placing within top ten in that one, would give access to Spring Million, which has... well, guess :)

Only happens in internet poker

I've often run into a situation where most of the players in the table are away, and automatically fold... which is nice, as you can steal most blinds. However, when there's another player in the table, it's easy to get terribly distracted, as playing a single hand takes often less than ten seconds, so my concentration goes all over the place, and I tend to make stupid, foolish mistakes.

Play Less, Win More

As noted, I managed to win 65 cents on the $500 dollar one, which I quickly doubled in a ring game.
Apparently, I could also register for the $750, $1500, as well as the $5000 dollar games,  so I quickly did so. They're all today, and winning significantly could help my financial situation - which is currently, well, bad.
Very bad.

My playing style in still in flux, very much. I did consider, that if a 4x blinds raise steals the blinds 3 times out of four, with the fourth one being a loss, you still make net profit. (earn 4.5x blinds, lose 4x blinds)

Gaining experience

Initially, my intention was to moan about how badly I've been doing, but today hasn't been so bad, perhaps as I haven't played too much in two days - only a couple of hours. So, there's a nice $500 "Play Less, Win More" freeroll game today, and I'm not doing too badly, yet... I'm short-stacked, but looks like I have a lock on at least $0.45, or somesuch... perhaps, if I'm lucky, I'll even hit something that doesn't start with a zero :)

More importantly, playing hasn't been too painful - I made one iffy call - I was the big blind with a bad hand, and lost nearly half of my chip stack running into an ace-high flush - I only aborted at the final round of betting during the river card, so I already suffered a significant loss.

But otherwise, I'm hanging on relatively well.

update: Made it to 65th or so, earning $0.65 appropriately. Then I doubled it up to $1.30 in a 2 cent cash game. I won't play higher cash games 'til I have more than 10 USD.