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.

PokerStars 40 Billionth hand

The buzz in the online poker world today was the announcement from PokerStars is that they're getting close to the 40 billionth hand. Here's what people were saying about it at the Two Plus Two poker forums.

PokerStars are having PLENTY of giveaways and promotions to celebrate the milestone. The only question now is how will they top it when they get to 50??

Here's the official announcement:

PokerStars to celebrate 40 billionth hand

by Brad Willis on February 10, 2010 8:28 AM

Ah, it seems like just yesterday we were celebrating PokerStars 20 billionth hand. Those were heady times, weren't they? And, my, how time flies when you're winning your monthly nut.

After several failed attempts with an abacus, we hired a math major from the local university to do some counting for us, and we've just discovered that PokerStars is not far from hitting its 40 billionth hand.

Forty billion. It's a number that you can't visualize. It's a ridiculously large number of poker hands to be played. In fact, I'd be curious to know how many live poker hands have been played worldwide in the history of the game. Anyone wanna try that out? Send me an e-mail to blog@pokerstars.com.

In the meantime, PokerStars is getting ready to throw a big ol' 40 Billionth Hand party, including everything you have come to expect from these promotions: Multi-table tournaments with big guarantees, milestone hand rewards, special Sit & Go tournaments, first-time depositor freerolls, and a VIP Club instant cash credit.

If you've seen these kinds of promotions before, you might notice a little difference in how you get paid. Instead of winning a specific dollar number for being dealt into a winning hand, you will earn $40 for every VIP Player Point you earned in the previous 40 hands played on that table. When it comes time for the 40 billionth hand, you will earn $400 for every VPP earned in the previous 40 hands at that table. Depending on how many VPPs you're raking in these days, that could end up being some pretty serious cash. Oh, and if I didn't mention it, if you happen to win the milestone hand, PokerStars will double your prize.

As if that wasn't enough, PokerStars is going to host a $4 million guaranteed Sunday Million on February 21st with $1 million guaranteed to first place. There will also be a special $1 million guaranteed $40 buy-in event and other smaller events to celebrate the 40 billionth hand.

Still want more? Well, there will be a series of 40-player SNGs with some bigtime payouts, freerolls for people making their first deposit, and a one-time $40 cash credit for 2,500 FPPs in the VIP Store.

That's how PokerStars celebrates. So, strap on your caffeine IVs and get ready to hit some milestone hands. The next few weeks are going to be very interesting.

For more information and all the details you will need, check out the F40 page.

Back in the game

Well, after almost two weeks of not playing on PokerStars, I got back in the game yesterday.

I felt I was playing well but didn't have the results at the start of the session. From the first 20 tournaments I cashed just twice and had a number of bubbles. Thankfully I then hit a purple patch cashing 4 straight games. The only downside was that I couldn't get any higher than 6th in any of them.

After a few more blanks, I finished the night with a 5th in a 180 which was a little better payout. I felt like I played it really well and it was the sort of tournament that in the past I may not have made the money or min-cashed but made some moves at the right time that got me on to the final table with a chance of a decent finish.

I played for a fair few hours yesterday and with the 5th placed finish probably only broke even. With the slow start, my bankroll actually was under $400 for the first time in months. Not good ...

After getting up early and doing some stair-running this morning, I jumped online around lunch and have pretty much played ever since. OPR hasn't caught up so I can't see all of my results. Thankfully I can see my bankroll and its back over $500 ($510 to be precise).

I played really well in another 180 man and had a considerable chip lead on the final table. I was a big chance to take it down but had some unlucky hands. Four handed I ran ace ten suited in to pocket aces and then I called a small blind shove with ace jack in the big blind, he turned over pocket 4's, I flopped a jack, fist-pumped ... and then a four on the turn, ouch! I ended up finishing 3rd which was a little disappointing.

I finally got a win in a tournament also, a $3 45 man game. Despite facing a 5:1 deficit when heads-up play began I fought back to parity and then got paid off with two pair vs middle pair. I had OPR'd my opponent, saw they weren't good and picked up they were playing very tight. So I took advantage of it, got aggressive, hit a few flops and got the win. I can't even remember when I last won a tournament so it was nice to get that monkey off the back.

I finished the night playing a few of the $2.20 satellites to the Sunday 1/4 Million. Since the tournament starts at 5am in the morning my time, the plan was to just get the win and then unregister and take the tournament money. The games are fairly soft and I'd read on the Two Plus Two poker forum that they were a good way to grow a bankroll. I qualified in three of them and was unlucky not to go 4 of 4. The only problem with them is that they're not turbo so they take a while and slow down even more near the bubble.

So it was nice to have a profitable day again. I think I probably made $70 which is ok but mainly it was good for the confidence again after poor results of late. I had a look at my SharkScope graph yesterday and it was big downward slide. Its looking a lot healthier now and my form is even listed as "hot".

Back on track

After my last post about getting some respectability back I played the next night on PokerStars and things continued to go poorly. I played 11 tournaments and cashed just 1 ... a very crap night in what had been a horrible week.

I was a bit concerned with the way things had been going and tried to think what I could do differently. I thought about the way I had played a few hands and posted one on the Two Plus Two forums. I got a few comments, did a bit of reading and decided to change things up a little for my next session. I was going to play just two or three tables at a time (instead of 4), focus in a bit more, look for exploitable spots and generally be more aggressive in the mid and late stages of the tournament.

I was out last night for a function at a hotel but was home early enough to put in a few hours of play. Things started quite well with a cash in a $2 180 man, bubbling the final table. A tournament or two later I got a 6th place in a $3 45 man before bubbling the next one finishing a frustrating 8th. From there things really picked up with a 2nd in a 180 man and another 2nd in a 45 man to finish the night. So all up, 8 tournaments played, cashed 4, bubbled the money once and had two second place finishes.

I was pleased with the second in the 180 man because its a good score for the bankroll but I'm yet to win one and had a GREAT chance to do so last night. I was well stacked down the stretch and in a comfortable position. When it was down to 3 handed I took down a large pot to gain the chip lead. I then lost a sizable pot and found myself in third before fighting back a bit. I OPR'd the other players and neither were very good and this could be scene in the way they were playing. I think one took out the other and I was in to the heads-up battle. I won a couple of pots early to narrow the gap between us and then the turning point came. I called from the small blind with jack 6 suited and he min-raised so I called. The flop came queen, jack, rag with two hearts, he min bet I called. The next card out was the 6 of hearts, he min bet I raised strongly ... and he called. The last card out was the king of hearts which is not what I wanted to see as there were four hearts on the board and I didn't have one ... he checked and I checked. He turned over ace 7 off ... the 7 being a heart and took down the pot. I was basically crippled and while I did manage a few more hands, I was eventually knocked out when he called with crap and hit.

The heads up of the final tournament lasted one hand I believe. He had a big stack after taking out the last player, he raised first hand from the small blind, I had king queen off and re-raised all-in. He called turning over 6 9 off and I was in front until a 6 hit on the turn, I had plenty of outs still (straight draw and over cards) but couldn't find any of them.

After a week of basically losing every night, it was great to get back on track, cashing regularly and having a profitable night. I think playing only two tables at a time really helped and I'll do this again over the next few sessions.

As you can see from my graph below, the week-long downswing was my sharpest and biggest fall to date. Just before it happened I was at US$630 so I would like to get back above that again soon.

2M2MM

I read a while back on one of the blogs I sometimes look at about an upcoming poker show called Two Months Two Million or 2M2MM. Its essentially a reality show about 4 young top online poker players and their challenge to win two million dollars in two months basing themselves in Vegas.

While on the Two Plus Two forums the other day I read that the show had started and there were a couple of threads of people discussing and reviewing the show. When I first read the comments the links to the show on YouTube had been disabled but I found some today that work.

Some of the negative comments about the show is that airs in 30 minute episodes including ads so its too short. Watching them on YouTube without episodes and back to back episodes took that complaint out of the equation for me. Check them out below and see what you think.

Back-to-back wins

Just a quick update tonight as I'm heading to bed shortly so I can get up and get to the gym again in the morning.

I played for a while on Saturday without any overly exciting results. The best was a win/qualification in a satellite for PokerStars' Sunday Quarter Million. I read on the Two Plus Two Forums that this tournament was good for building your bankroll. Essentially its a $2 but in and if you finish in the top 20% of the field you qualify for the Quarter Million but can unregister and take $11 in tournament cash. I played two of these and qualified for one. It wasn't too tough a game but it did take a while to play so I'm not sure its a great game for me, especially when the actual Quarter Million is on at 4am on a Monday morning Australian time.

I was online playing last night and had a very slow start to the night. I was in the middle of playing a few tournaments when I got a Skype video call from a friend of mine in Switzerland. She's hot and I don't get to chat to her that much so I certainly can't down the call ... but of course, not ideal when your 4 tabling tournaments. Later on in the night tho things picked up and after 5th place in a $3.25 45 man I ended the session with back to back wins in the same game. That was the first time I've ever won 2 tournaments in a row and it was a nice achievement ... not to mention the two $42 first prize payouts are good for the bankroll.

Tonight was a slightly profitable one with nothing too exciting to report. I finished the night with a 4th place in a $3.25 45 man and a 3rd in a $1.10 90 man tournament. I've been doing really well in the $3.25 45 man games over the last few days but struggling to put up results in the $2 180 tournament, failing to cash in my last 10 attempts. I checked out my graph on SharkScope and I'm over 30% ROI in $1 games, just under 30% ROI in the $3 games but am unprofitable in the $2 tournaments.

I set my goal this month at 5 wins but I've already passed that with 6 so far. The bankroll is now just over $550 and hopefully I can continue to keep it moving upwards.

PokerStars wins the world record contest

In case you missed it (like I did), the heavyweights of the online poker world ended up going head to head in a world record attempt recently to host the largest ever poker tournament.

I was in Melbourne at the time celebrating my birthday with friends so didn't even know about it until after the fact. From what I have read at the Two Plus Two poker forum, PokerStars was the better run tournament but Full Tilt Poker had the biggest prize and was seen as the better opportunity for a big score with a much larger first prize.

Here's the story from PokerNews.com about the event:

PokerStars Retains Guinness World Record Online Mark | PokerNews.com

The planet’s two largest poker sites staged a remarkable battle this weekend, as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker both attempted to settle the question “Who’s on first?” by laying claim to a new world record. The record in contention was for the largest-ever online poker tournament, and the previous record was set by PokerStars early this year in an event that featured an $11 buy-in and attracted 35,000 online runners. Last week, Full Tilt Poker announced its intention to break that record with a special massive tournament to wrap up its “FIVE” promotion in celebration of the site’s fifth birthday. Full Tilt’s event, dubbed The Record Breaker, was set for Sunday July 19th and featured a $5 buy-in, generous overlays, and a cap of 50,000 players.

Just days later, PokerStars decided to make an attempt to keep its own record intact, and scheduled its own mega-entry tourney to take place roughly an hour before the scheduled attempt at Full Tilt. The PokerStars tourney, called Guinness World Record, featured a significantly lower buy-in of $1. Initially, the PokerStars tournament had no limit on the number of players allowed to enter, but eventually a cap was set at 65,000.

When Full Tilt did not remove the 50,000-player cap from its world record tournament, this battle was effectively over before it even began. Both events sold out fairly quickly, so the previous world record was smashed to bits. But PokerStars, the holder of the old record, will retain the record with a new mark of 65,000 online runners — almost double the previous record.

But as is often the case with corporate rivalries, the real winner was the consumer. On Sunday, players were served up two separate chances to win a massive chunk of cash in exchange for a buy-in that was virtually nil —especially in light of the fact that Full Tilt’s event could be bought into with frequent player points, and both sites ran loads of uber-cheap satellites in the days leading up to world record tournaments. Even better, both sites doubled the prize pool with overlays. Full Tilt added $250,000 to the $250,000 guaranteed prize pool, for a total purse of $500,000, while PokerStars contributed $65,000 to its $65,000 guarantee for a total pool of $130,000.

The winner of the PokerStars event, ‘004 license,’ took home $13,000 for an investment of $1, along with the distinction of besting 64,999 opponents and taking down the world’s largest-ever online tournament. The champion of the Full Tilt Poker tournament , ‘breo40’, earned a whopping $45,000 in exchange for a $5 buy-in. Since this corporate rivalry shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, online players can almost certainly look forward to more great deals and copious overlays as these two poker giants continue to challenge each other for online poker supremacy.

June numbers and July goals

Here's a quick review of my Official Poker Rankings numbers from the month of June:

In The Money 24% (65/272)
Finish late 15%
ROI 4%
Profit $15

I had 1 first place finish, 4 seconds, 5 thirds and 45 fourth to tenth places.

Looking back at the goals I set for myself at the start of the month:

• In the money goal 25% - actual 24% (almost)
• Profit $150 - actual $15 (not even close)
• Wins 6 - actual 1 (not even close, way too many 2nds)

According to the OPR site, my tournament stats now rank me just inside the top 4% of PokerStars tournament players for 2009.

Summary:
I knew I wouldn't be playing quite as much I did last month (played 100 less games, 25%) and my bankroll and profit plateaued. With my reading and posting on the Two Plus Two poker forums, I've adjusted my play a little and have been happy with the results since.
I'm also focussing on the $1 buy-in games (the 90 & 45 man turbos) until I get the bankroll up and my stats up to a level where I feel that I'm dominating.

Again, I don't think I'll be playing a huge amount of games this month as I have a few things going on at the moment (including selling my unit) but here are some goals for July:

In the money: 25%
Profit: $100
Wins: 4

Work on this will begin tonight ...

PokerStars update

Since my last post updating you on my online progress its been a rough week or two of poker for me. I mentioned in it that I was going to stop playing over the weekend because I seem to struggle to do well on Saturdays and Sundays.

I of course played anyway and my bankroll got smashed as I played a lot more $2 buy-in events trying to get to the next level. I ran BAAAD! Over the next 4 days (after my Friday update) I played 61 tournaments and cashed in just 8 of them and on the last day went 0 from 9! That is unheard of for me and my confidence was questioned.

I have since righted the ship and had a solid day on Sunday cashing in 7 of 23 tournaments. I felt like I was playing pretty well and was unlucky not to cash in a few more. Of those 7 cashes, 3 were final tables with the best result being a 2nd in a $1 90 man turbo. I really should've won that game but lost a couple of costly flips heads-up. I went in to heads-up play behind in chips (as usual) but fought back to even and then got to a 2 to 1 chip lead. At this point the other player raised from the small blind and I pushed all-in with pocket 9's from the big blind. He called with ace ten suited and caught two pair on the flop and my hand didn't improve. Then when he had a dominant lead he pushed all-in from the small blind and I instantly called with pocket tens. He turned over ace 8 suited and turned the flush to knock me out in 2nd place.

It annoys me to lose in situations like this where I know I'm up against worse players. I usually check out my competition's results on Official Poker Rankings and that gives me an idea of who I'm up against and what sort of player they are. Most of the time, I get to these final tables against loose/weak players but can't finish them off. I've started posting hands and following the threads on the Two Plus Two Poker Forum so hopefully that helps to improve my game and develop my play a bit more.

Anyway, bankroll is just over US$300 after dipping under 290 a couple of times. I'm just going to focus on the $1 90 man games for a while until I feel like I'm really crushing them, improve my stats and hopefully get June back in to the black again (-2% ROI at the moment).