November results

ITM Finishes 1st 2 1st ties 0 2nd 3 3rd 2 4-10th 10

MTT Avg. Finish% Early 3% (10%) EM 12% (20%) Mid. 46% (40%) ML 29% (20%) Late 9% (10%)

HU/STT/MTT * Prizes Profit ROI ABI AFS R/A ITM ITM Heads-Up 2 player $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Single Table 3-10 $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Multi Table 11-45 $453 $31 7% $4.36 45 0% 17/97 18% Multi Table 46-180 $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Multi Table 181- $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% $453 $31 7% $4.36 45 0% 17/97 18%

I mentioned in last month's recap that my business was coming in to peak season and I wasn't sure how much poker I'd be able to play ... and if you look at the total games played above, it seems I was spot on. 97 is the lowest games I've played in 2 years, except for July this year which was just 96.

Despite not playing that much, I've been happy with my game when I do. I had two brutal nights (23rd and 26th) where nothing went right for me but recovered well to finish with a profitable month (albeit a small one).

Work is still flat-out at the moment, so I doubt I'll be getting too much time on the virtual felt for a while. Once things settled down after the 15th, I may be able too get back to the grind. I'm still yet to get my bankroll over $1500 and once I do, the sooner I can get over $2000 the better.

World Series of Poker catch-up

I know the November Nine is underway as we speak but I'm doing my best to stay off Twitter and Poker News so I don't hear what happens. I don't have Foxtel which shows the World Series in Australia and have been so busy of late that I hadn't been watching online.

I had a poker weekend, without actually playing that much. I started watching the Main Event on youtube on Friday and pretty spent all weekend catching up on the action. I also had my first "poker wedding" on Saturday. No, not a poker themed wedding, but two poker friends that got married, so the only other people I knew at the wedding were also poker players/friends.

Anyway, as for the Main Event, I'm now half-way through Day 7 so I'm not far from the end. I'm not sure if I should be surprised but the first few days was so focussed on the big name live pros in the field. Despite being a chipleader on day 4, Tony "Bond18" Dunst only got a brief mention in the coverage and wasn't sighted until day 5. Nick "MI_Turtle" Rainey also came in to the coverage on day 5 sitting at one of the feature tables. I didn't realise Christian Harder was still in the tournament as I swear he was first sighted late in day 5 or early in day 6.

Its fair to say that Tony Dunst stole the show over the last few days. Not so much for his play, but for his trademark suit, cool demeanor and his working of the room (read: the ladies near his rail). Bond's charming style won over Norman Chad and Lon McEachern and after his performance on the coverage, it was no surprise that he was picked to be the new correspondent for the WPT. Unfortunately Dunst couldn't make it to the November Nine, but he'll be seeing plenty of face time on poker TV from now on.

I'm off to Longreach (outback Australia) on Wednesday so it could be possible to miss the Main Event winner, if so I can watch it without knowing the result when I get back on Saturday. Let's see how it goes.

I heart PokerStars

In my recap of what's been going on last month, I forgot to mention a few things that improved my love of PokerStars.

First they had a sale in the PokerStars VIP store and I grabbed a fleece zip-up jacket (pictured right) for about half (I think) the normal FPP's. As usual, it arrived much sooner than I expected and it was great value ... although being Spring here in Brisbane, I won't get to actually wear it for a few months.

Then, later in the month after playing a number of the $6.50 45 man games, I unlocked my next Stellar rewards bonus. It was last $10 level so I'm now working towards unlocking a $50 bonus which is a little more meaningful for my bankroll.

Considering I originally deposited just AU$20 which at the time was US$12, I've since received more than $100 worth of bonuses, a PokerStars black t-shirt and now the fleece jacket.
I <3 PokerStars

Life ...

So its not that I haven't wanted to play poker over the last month, I've just been busy with everything else, so cards has taken the back-seat.

I guess the main reason I haven't been playing is that work has been really busy. October was the most profitable month we've had in at least 2.5 years. We're coming in to peak season work-wise so I expect the next 5 weeks to be pretty busy and hopefully November can be somewhere close to last month. Its already off to a very good start so my fingers are crossed.

Last weekend I spent 4 days up at Hyatt Coolum for a friend's 40th. I had a great weekend catching up with some old friends, spending the days by the pool getting a bit of sun (not that you could tell), watching double-header NBA games and reading "The girl with the dragon tattoo". Nights were spent eating, drinking and just hanging out.

I've also been really disciplined with exercise over the last month or so and have been working out at least 4 times a week. As well as the normal mix of cardio and weights, I've also started going to a boxing gym once a week that is run by a friend of a friend. I've done boxing in the past, but it was more social-cardio based, this is a lot more serious training, focussing on actual technique and uses a lot of MMA style training methods. The sessions only last 30 minutes but I'm stuffed by the end of them ... actually I'm usually stuffed about half way through! The hard work is paying off tho and the abs are not that far off.

Movies wise, I saw Wall Street 2 earlier in the month and then The Social Network on Sunday night. Wall Street 2 was great because its one of my best friends favourite movies so we made a day and night of it by watching the original at his place and then seeing the second in Gold Class. My best friend has a very successful business so we had a delicious meal while at his place, Louis Roederer champagne and fois gras for entree, duck for main and then chocolate souffle for dessert. In Gold Class, we shared a bottle of Moet (which as you might guess wasn't cheap at the movies) had some nibbles and then some more sensational food once we got home.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Social Network, it was always going to appeal to me when its about Facebook which I use often, its essentially about the origins of an online business and is based on the book written by Ben Melzer (author of "Bringing down the house").

With the November Nine about to resume to find out who will be the new world champion, I just started watching the World Series of Poker coverage today. I've only just started watching episode 2 so I have a lot of catching up to do!

Oh, and probably the coolest thing from this month, my wealthy friend that I mentioned above, made my day/week/month by calling me rather excitedly to tell me I had helped him make $400,000 in the space of just 12 weeks! While I would have rather made the money myself, it was extremely satisfying to know that I've helped my best friend like that.

October results

Period Full Tracking Last 120 days Year 2010 Year 2009 Year 2008 Year 2007 ? <> 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2009 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2008 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2007 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2006 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January with estimated RA expenses (and bounties in FTP Knockouts) without estimated RA expenses (and bounties in FTP Knockouts) View by Game Game Size All Holdem NL Holdem L/PL Omaha Omaha HiLo Other Games

ITM Finishes 1st 2 1st ties 0 2nd 3 3rd 3 4-10th 23

MTT Avg. Finish% Early 3% (10%) EM 8% (20%) Mid. 45% (40%) ML 33% (20%) Late 11% (10%)

HU/STT/MTT * Prizes Profit ROI ABI AFS R/A ITM ITM Heads-Up 2 player $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Single Table 3-10 $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Multi Table 11-45 $930 $205 28% $5.49 45 0% 31/132 23% Multi Table 46-180 $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Multi Table 181- $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% $930 $205 28% $5.49 45 0% 31/132 23%

The obvious number from the above tables is the games played, just 132. I'll talk about it more in the next post but as you can tell, I really didn't play much.

Despite the small number of games played, the rest of the numbers are ok. ROI is solid and the finishing percentages are fairly standard for a month of just 45's. What you might notice is the average buy-in which is a little higher than usual. Even tho I'm not getting that much time to play at the moment, I'm frustrated that my bankroll has essentially just hovered around the same mark for the last few months. With that in mind, most of the games I played last month were the $6.50 45's and I even played a few of the next level up, the $12's. I played 3 of them and had a 2nd (for $77) and an unlucky 7th, so that certainly helped the bankroll.

As mentioned in my last post, I was on a bit of a heater for a while but unfortunately the last day I played in the month, I got nothing going and blanked (no cashes) all 15 games. I didn't feel like I was playing badly or making many mistakes, luck just wasn't on my side and I couldn't win a hand inside the final 2 tables that would've set me up for a solid finish.

With work in peak season at the moment, I doubt I'll get too much time online this month either ... but December/January is just around the corner and that's when I get to play the most.

Heater

After running bad for what feels like the last few months, its nice to come across a bit of a heater.

It started on Tuesday, after the normal slow start to the session failing to cash in the first 8 games (although the very first was a bubble), I made a final table with a decent stack. I messed it up tho by not playing aggressively enough with tens in the big blind verses a big stack's min-raise. He ended up rivering a straight with 8 10 suited and I was gone in 7th.

Furious at myself, I grabbed some dinner and cooled down. Thankfully I knew what I had done wrong and vowed not to make the same mistake again. I came back after dinner and final-tabled all 4 of the games I played, with no worse finish than 4th. I was on 3 final tables at once which was a nice change from failing to cash and bubbling. My best finish was a 2nd but I didn't feel too bad since the guy I was playing against was a very good player. I sucked out on him once or twice when I was well behind on the flop but couldn't do it one more time when I shoved with ace 5 and he had 7's in the big blind.

The hot streak continued when I played a short session on Friday night, cashing 4 out of 6 games (and one of the misses was a 10th), again my best finish being a 2nd place. So with the two sessions combined I went on a streak of cashing 9 out of 11 games, which was extremely satisfying. Not to mention good for the bankroll as I went from around $1150 back up to $1370. I'm probably going to play again tomorrow night so hopefully this current heater continues for a bit longer.

September results

Period Full Tracking Last 120 days Year 2010 Year 2009 Year 2008 Year 2007 ? <> 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2009 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2008 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2007 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2006 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January with estimated RA expenses (and bounties in FTP Knockouts) without estimated RA expenses (and bounties in FTP Knockouts) View by Game Game Size All Holdem NL Holdem L/PL Omaha Omaha HiLo Other Games

ITM Finishes 1st 1 1st ties 0 2nd 1 3rd 2 4-10th 14

MTT Avg. Finish% Early 2% (10%) EM 11% (20%) Mid. 55% (40%) ML 29% (20%) Late 4% (10%)

HU/STT/MTT * Prizes Profit ROI ABI AFS R/A ITM ITM Heads-Up 2 player $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Single Table 3-10 $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Multi Table 11-45 $375 <$0 -36% $4.88 45 0% 18/120 15% Multi Table 46-180 $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Multi Table 181- $0 <$0 -100% $1.23 690 0% 0/2 0% $375 <$0 -36% $4.82 56 0% 18/122 15%

The above numbers basically speak for themselves, September wasn't pretty. I didn't play that much as I was working on a few other things, my month got off to a bad start and I couldn't dig my way out of it. It finished as badly as it started last Tuesday when I went 17 games (all 45's) with not one single cash. And that didn't even tell the whole story as I didn't even look like cashing with my best finish a 12th and after that a few 18th's.

The good news to come out of that terrible display was that I had a think about the way I was playing and realised I was trying to mix it up to early on in tournaments without premium hands. I thought I needed to loosen up my game a bit but I was doing it at the wrong time, instead I need to open up within the final two tables. Since Tuesday, the changes have been going well and I've had a few winning sessions and October is off to a solid start so far.

Back to the numbers above tho. Not enough games played and not enough late finishes both lead to a bad result. The late finishes % is way down because I basically only played 45's and therefore to finish late you need to finish top 4.

Bubbling ...

... sucks

Played a few quick games tonight after dinner and as you can tell by the title, spent the night bubbling 45's. Was sitting in front of the TV so just played the $3.25 games ... played 6 (I think), came 5th in one and money-bubbled 3 ... groan.

I had good stacks in a few too which was the frustrating part. A couple of times I'd go to the final table with a top 4 stack, go card dead and no one was getting knocked out. Suck-outs all over the shop, the bubble would go on forever and all too often it ended up being me.

Exhale ...

PokerStars' 50 billionth hand

With my absence from the tables of late, I haven't really been taking interest in PokerStars' 50 billionth hand celebrations. Being the biggest online poker site, these milestones are coming around a lot quicker these days. The next really big one will be the 100 billion, so that's one to keep an eye on.

Here are the details of the milestone hand, click on the title below to read the full story and see how the action played out. Great to see it on a micro-table where the money will certainly be a huge payday for the winner.

tbvle wins $56,140 with PokerStars' 50 billionth hand - PokerStars Poker Blog

Oh my. We knew it would be big, but even we were surprised at the intensity of the 50 Billion Hand climax. As the moment drew near, there were 220,000 people on PokerStars playing on 33,000 tables, all hoping to win the milestone hand. Of that lot, it was player tbvle who bagged the jackpot.

At 10.37am( ET) on September 22, 2010, tbvle collected $56,140 for winning the 50 billionth hand ever dealt on PokerStars.

That's an incredible return for one hand at Ornamenta (fast), the $0.02/$0.05 NL Hold'em cash table where the hand took place. As Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier pointed out in the chat box, the $26 pot for the winning hand was 'not too shabby' for these stakes, either! Also happy were the other five players at the table, who each scooped between $2,990 and $3,070 just for being there, a sum based on the number of VIP Player Points they had amassed at the table over the previous 50 hands.

And for good measure, PokerStars threw in a $5,200 WCOOP Main Event ticket for everyone at the table as well.

Return to the tables

I returned to the tables on Tuesday night for a quick session on PokerStars. I checked OPR and it had actually been 10 days since I've played last, and before that it was another 7 days ... so I've played twice in the last 17 days ... ouch!

Its not that I haven't wanted to play, I've just been busy with plenty of other stuff going on. I had a quick trip to Darwin for work, my full-time employee has been in hospital, I had a date Friday night and most importantly I've been working on a business proposal for Two Plus Two (tell you more about it if it goes ahead).

While I haven't been playing of late, I have been following the WCOOP quite closely. None of my guys have had any scores of note but the most well-known pro to take one down was Jason Mercier who won a 2 day $1050 buy-in event, taking home just under half a million dollars. Like Shaun Deeb who I mentioned last week, Mercier got the win despite being short-stack with 8 or 9 players on the final table.

So, back to me ... September started very much like August did ... not well. I put in a decent session back on the 2nd, mostly playing the $6.50 45 mans and blanked all but one. I played 22 games that night so the bankroll took a substantial hit. My last 4 sessions have all been profitable, but not enough to dig myself out of the early hole I've found myself in. This is what happened last month so hopefully I get some time on the tables over the next week to try and bring back some respectability.

Shaun F'ing Deeb

Although he retired from grinding tournaments like he did for from 2006 to the end of 2009, Shaun Deeb stills plays poker. He's played a number of live events over the last few months and warmed-up online prior to the WCOOP.

I logged on to PokerStars yesterday afternoon to see him deep in the 2 day event 28. At the time he was struggling as a short-stack, sitting 14th out of the final 15 players. He waited, and waited and his break came when he got it in against 2 others holding queens. One had 6's and another had jacks, the flop brought a 6 but with the flop all hearts, Deeb had the only heart, although he wouldn't need it when a queen came on the turn tripling him up and putting him right back in the tournament.

From there Deeb did as Deeb does ...

WCOOP Day 11: Shaun Deeb Wins His Second WCOOP Bracelet | PokerNews

Another day of the 2010 World Championship of Online Poker at PokerStars, another big name winning a bracelet. The biggest event of the day, the conclusion of the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em two-day, did not disappoint as several big names navigated through the field to meet at the final table. WCOOP all-star Greg 'DuckU' Hobson was there, along with Shawn 'buck21' Buchanan, but in the end, it was Shaun Deeb who emerged victorious. He earned $243,610 and his second WCOOP bracelet, having previously won his first in 2008. ROMES_HOME and Brryann also took down events on Day 11, both earning their first bracelets.

PokerStars WCOOP 28 - $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Two Day

Buy-in	Entrants	Prize Pool
$1,000+$50	1,433	$1,433,000

Place	Player	Prize
1	Shaun "shaundeeb" Deeb	$243,610
2	Tjollerboy	$179,125
3	Iulian-Georgian "Ruxandescu" Ruxandescu	$135,991.70
4	Shawn "buck21" Buchanan	$97,444
5	Maximilian “HotKarlMC” Heinzelmann	$70,933.50
6	Vladimir "VLs85s" Vorobiev	$56,603.50
7	Greg "DuckU" Hobson	$42,273.50
8	insanocut	$27,943.50
9	Jin "jhwang21" Hwang	$15,476.40

August stats & numbers

Period Full Tracking Last 120 days Year 2010 Year 2009 Year 2008 Year 2007 ? <> 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2009 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2008 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2007 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2006 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January with estimated RA expenses (and bounties in FTP Knockouts) without estimated RA expenses (and bounties in FTP Knockouts) View by Game Game Size All Holdem NL Holdem L/PL Omaha Omaha HiLo Other Games

ITM Finishes 1st 4 1st ties 1 2nd 7 3rd 6 4-10th 26

MTT Avg. Finish% Early 2% (10%) EM 9% (20%) Mid. 49% (40%) ML 29% (20%) Late 11% (10%)

HU/STT/MTT * Prizes Profit ROI ABI AFS R/A ITM ITM Heads-Up 2 player $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Single Table 3-10 $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Multi Table 11-45 $1,164 $46 4% $4.54 45 0% 43/246 17% Multi Table 46-180 $11 $2 25% $2.93 122 0% 1/3 33% Multi Table 181- $59 <$0 -34% $4.50 4109 55% 7/20 35% $1,234 $17 1% $4.52 348 4% 51/269 19%

The numbers above are relatively unexciting ... August was a grind. As I mentioned, the month started badly so the last week or two was a fight to get back to profitability. Thanks to a particularly good day on the 29th I got there.

I know shouldn't be too focussed on my OPR record but I enjoy having profitable months. Its been somewhat frustrating tho to have been floating between $1200 and $1500 for the last few months.