It’s the 2nd of March which means it’s time for a February recap. There is however one person who already wrote a really sick February recap and that is azntracker. He already managed to get Supernova Elite by the 28th of February, something that took me a whole year in 2010. You can read more about it on his blog, congrats Andrew!
February was a pretty good month for me. If it wasn’t for the last day of the month, it would have been a top3 month lifetime. I’ll start with the raw numbers and graphs:
I’m very happy that I’ve managed to win across all stakes. I lost about $1.700 yesterday at the $10/$20 tables, so imagine what my winrate was before yesterday at $10/$20. I really see that as variance and the current winrate is probably closer to my true winrate.
My graph is a lot prettier then I’ve seen in a long time:
Comparing this year with 2010 is just such a huge difference. In stead of leaking money on a daily basis I now have the feeling again I’m a winner in the game. Sure I’m not the best and there is still much to improve but I’m on my way up and I’m of course planning to keep that up for the rest of the year.
Some other random stats:
Hours Played: 80,47
Hands Played: 81.067
VPPs Earned: 61.644,18
Hands/Hr: 1007
VPP/Hr: 766
Last year I averaged 1327 Hands/Hr and 847VP/Hr, this year I’m not focusing on trying to play 24 tables. I nowadays play all tables between $3/$6 and $10/20, sometimes I even skip the $3/$6 tables. There are moments I’m playing 10 tables since that’s all there is and there are moments I don’t even have to play $3/$6 to get up to 24 tables. The best thing is that I just like not to be playing in “hyper-mode” all the time. My best sessions are all sessions in which I’ve played 16 tables or less, nothing more then common sense of course but it gives reason for thought. It’s pretty hard to calculate what to do best, as VPPs & Milestone bonuses are worth a lot as well of course but I think it at least was a good decision to not play the $2/$4 tables any longer to fill up to 24 tables. Playing just 10 tables is often harder then playing 20 tables since it’s a lot easier to get distracted, so for now I’ll just keep doing what I’ve done so far this year. I do however would love to become better, maybe move up a little more in stakes and always play 8-12 tables. I think that would be something as I see as the “next” step but I’m not talking about next week or next month, more like the end of the year.
I’m currently 3.000 VPPs behind on my own schedule and that schedule already left some room for slacking. Not bad considering I’m not fully optimizing the amount of VPP/Hr I could get. I am however slacking on my work-out schedule. I had a pretty okay flow going but due to some issues with my back I couldn’t do anything for more then a week. Now that things are better I’m a little careful to get back to the gym again, I’ll keep some more rest for this week but I’ll definitely have to start working out next week again to be able to cycle the Amstel Gold Race on the 16th of April. After this weekend there are only 5 weekends left for training!
Back to poker 🙂 Last weekend I had my monthly tournament weekend. On Saturday I managed to bust all tournaments. Not that shocking as I only played 8 of them but still not really happy as I wasn’t doing really good in any of them. I did however try the Fixed Limit SNG’s as well and had a good laugh. I just fired up a bunch of them while playing but along they way I found out that it’s not exactly the same as playing a cashgame. Of course I was prepared to play short(er) handed, which I normally don’t do a lot but you also have the normal tournament experience where you have shortstacks which creates some weird situations where some hands have to be played different. Also the bubble creates some bizarre moments which made it a lot different to cashgames but fun! I fired up 8 of them between $5,50 and $22 and managed to get in the money in all of them 🙂 I got 1st in the very last of them and with 3 2nd places and 4 3rd places it was not only a fun experience but also a profitable one. Now they don’t run that often and at the stakes I played them I doubt it’s really something worth the effort. I did however want to check them out because they also offer higher limits and I’m not sure if the players are any better then at the level I tried them out. The level of play was scary low, I’ve never seen so many people trying to bluff in some many bad spots. It might not be that profitable but it is maybe a good way to practice my tournament Limit game a bit more often. I would love to play the $215 Weekly Fixed Limit Tournament more often but it’s a shame it runs on Saturday, as I still like to go out on Saturdays while I’m still young 🙂
Sunday I played some more tournaments and started out with the Sunday Warm-up. After folding AJ in a 5-way pot on the river at a AQJ5Q board I got my money in with KQs in a 5-way pot vs 99 at a 9K23 board. I think the lesson here is to play less 5-way pots 😉 Then I managed to ship a Sunday Million ticket which I was playing later and was still running in the Turbo Takedown, a $11 100-seats GTD SM qualifier for next week and our $11 Home Game. I managed to bust in all 3 of them losing a 50/50 flip in the exact same minute and since I’m not used to playing tournaments I again remembered how frustrating they can be. It’s probably something that happens in my cashgames every 10 minutes but when it happens in a tournament I still freak out. At that moment I was also down about $900 at the cash tables so it was time for some rungood in the Sunday Million. Now I’ll be really honest: “I have never cashed in the Sunday Warm-up or Sunday Million in my life!” There I’ve said it…. When I think about both tournaments I just love to play them but each time I’m playing them I remember why I hate them. Sure I’m not a tournament beast, I don’t think based on my level of play I should have already won one but c’mon, finishing in the money just once? That should be possible right? Well, last Sunday was the moment! With 1450 left I had a 47.500 stack which was 15k under average at 1250/2500/250 blinds. Sure I could have folded myself in the money but I got a perfect spot to add 11.000 to my stack. Most people were raising to 5.000, each time picking up 6.000 in chips. The most active player at the table raised again, I put my AQ in MP in the middle and KK calls. 1350 places paid, finishing 1443rd, sigh! It’s not about the money, it’s really not. I just want to finish ITM just once so at least I can break that curse and maybe work my way up from there! Sure this is all standard, sure this is all variance but c’mon how can I be playing $10.000 live tournaments when I never even made the money in a $215 online tournament? Now some people might think it’s indeed a bad idea then to play a $10.000 live event and maybe I have to agree.
I might really have to stick with playing Fixed Limit and as I already had discussed during my last blog, I think I’ll might just do that 🙂 I’ve discussed my WSOP idea with my best mate and I think we already past the idea stage. I think I’m 75% sure I’ll be playing the following tournaments coming WSOP:
– June 8, 2011 Limit Hold’em (3 day event) – $3,000
– June 11, 2011 Limit Hold’em / Six Handed (3 day event) – $2,500
– June 15, 2011 Limit Hold’em Championship (3 day event) – $10,000
I would love to play the $1.500 tournament on the 3rd of June as well but I don’t want to stay in Vegas for 2,5 weeks. The idea is to leave for Las Vegas on the 6th of June and to fly back with some extra money on the 18th of June. A perfect schedule as I will have some color on my skin when I will attend my mother’s wedding on the 24th! No more $10k NL tournaments, Limit here I come 😉
I won’t stop playing NL tournaments online however, but once a month is more then enough. Also I’m already looking forward to the SCOOP but first I’ll just have to play the Sunday Million coming Sunday!
I’ll see you there and I won’t just settle with finishing in the money. I have a parking spot reserved already because that Lamborghini is mine!
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