Hanging in there

Well, the last week or so has been decent as far as sngs go. Last Sunday was a pretty bad day though, as I lost over $250. I wrote down a couple of bad beats I took, (I know nobody likes to hear bad beat stories, but this is MY BLOG!!..... lol).

Once I had 1010 in the first level and raised in LP (late position), and was called by someone who had limped in MP (middle position). The flop was 6 2 5 rainbow, a beautiful flop for me.... Well he checked to me, and I bet about the size of the pot, then he raised big. I put him on a mid pocket pair, A6, or maybe even just AK. I pushed, he had 77, and the turn was a 7. Bye bye me.

Another time I had AQ pretty early in a sng and someone in MP raised small, I believe about 2.5X the bb. I was 2 seats to his left and felt like I could take control of the hand by reraising here, so I bumped it about 2 or 3X his raise. The flop comes Q x x rainbow, (x = rags), and he bets out about half my stack. Of course I push all in here, and he calls with KQ. Yes, you know what the turn was, and bye bye me, again.

I was bummed out for a little while, but bounced back and then some the next day. Monday I had a decent day, winning right around $300. It was just what I needed after Sunday, and it felt good. I also played in the $33 CPC qualifier Monday, and I got 10th when top 9 got the seat to the next tournament... this was extremely disappointing, but I didn't let it get to me. I was shortstacked with 10 left and all folded to me on the button. I had A10 clubs and pushed, only to get called by KJ in the bb and he caught trips and that was the end of me. I went ahead and cashed out $600 Monday too. Tuesday was an alright day, as I won about $150 or so.

I didn't play any today, and won't tomorrow on Thanksgiving either. I'm sure I'll play a good bit on Friday though, because I need to catch up. And oh yeah, what about Auburn dominating Alabama last Saturday??? Wow, that was sad. I mean, we only sacked Brodie 11 times... haha. I actually saw a bumper sticker online somewhere that said "Honk if you sacked Brodie"..lol. Its only funny if you saw the game, but it was rediculous.... thats 4 in a row baby!!!!!!!! WAR EAGLE!

Ok so here's the deal with my stats... instead of showing them everytime I update, I'm just going to show my weekly stats. Also, starting in January, I'm going to keep up with weekly, monthly, and of course yearly earnings. I will show also show my cashouts and current bankroll. Well I'm out for now, everybody have a great Thanksgiving!


Cashed Out = $600

Current Bankroll = $1,500.05

Update.... and tomorrow is the big game!!!

School is killing me... I've been busy workin on school stuff all week long. I'm SO glad this is my last semester, and that in a month I'll be out. Well I didn't get to play any poker at all Tuesday or Wednesday. I had a short session yesterday and a short session today, (by short I mean a couple hours or so) which I'm just going to combine in my stats as one session. It looks like this:



SNGS

played = 23

1st = 1
2nd = 6
3rd = 4
4th = 4
5-7 = 6
8-10 = 2

ITM = 47.83%
ROI = 22.53% (including rake)

PROFIT = +$400 - $115(rake) = +$285



I didn't play any multis or qualifiers, just the sngs. I'm pretty happy with this session, although I'm still disappointed about my lack of 1sts. Having only 2 1st place finishes in 50 sngs is terrible, but I guess I've just been having some back luck HU (heads up). I think I'm being overly aggressive when it gets to 3-handed and HU, because the blinds are so high and it makes me feel I need to make bigger decisions preflop, and pushing is sometimes better than just raising. Sometimes this is true, but I think I can be more patient. I need to realize that I'm not safe just because I'm in the money, but getting first place is more than twice the money of third, and $100 more than 2nd. To put it into perspective, if just 5 of my 2nds of the week were 1sts, I'd have $500 more. That's huge. I think I need to practice more shorthanded and play some HU matches on stars.

So anyway, I'm up $467 after 50 sngs, which is about right, maybe just a little bit lower than my goal. I'd like to have an average of $1,000 profit after 100 sngs, but I know I won't be able to keep it super consistent, but hopefully in the ballpark. I still have 50 more to play between now and Sunday, which I may or may not get done. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY I am playing any tomorrow, because its the big game!! That's right, the South's most bitter rivalry, as ESPN puts it....... Auburn vs Alabama. We beat Georgia last week and they lost to LSU, which puts us at 11th and 8th in the AP polls. We have won the last 3 in a row, and its at home and we're favored by 7. This is my LAST game I can attend as a student and sit in the student section, which I have to go in an hour and a half early to just get a decent seat!! They overbook our student section by about 2k people, so there are people all over the stairs in the game... its packed!!

The game starts at 3:30 PM est, but I'll be up there at 7:00 in the morning getting my Red Bull and vodka on, you know how we do! I love tailgating, and we will be there all day tomorrow before the game. WAR DAMN EAGLE!!

Ok so where was I... I'm going to play as many sngs as I can Sunday, but I don't know if I can squeeze in 50. We will see. I have no school next week, we are out for Thanksgiving holidays, so I'll play AT LEAST 100 next week, and hopefully squeeze in some multis and qualifiers. I want to qualify for the CPC so bad. I'll update again by Monday, but probably Sunday night.


Weekly Profit = +$467

Current Bankroll = $1,948.55

No poker today

Today was another long boring day at school...(I'm there pretty much all day on Tuesdays and Thurdays). I watched the final table of the WSOP when I got home, and haven't really felt like playing any sngs. I did play some yesterday though. My stats looked like this.....

SNGS

played = 27

1st = 1
2nd = 7
3rd = 4
4th = 4
5-7 = 7
8-10 = 4

ITM = 44.44%
ROI = 15.93% (including rake)

PROFIT = +$350 - $135(rake) = +$215


OTHER

CPC (Canadian Poker Championships) qualifier = -$33


Net Profit = +$215 - $33 = +$182





I failed to place in the CPC qualifier, which shows a loss there of the $33 buyin.

Yesterday's play was somewhat below average. Of course, the fact that I made money is great and is the most important thing, but only having 1 first place finish really hurt me. The good thing is that I had far more seconds than thirds, but I really need to win more of these things. I was running bad and taking a few bad beats and unlucky breaks along the way, but hey, thats poker. I put a couple of bad beats on others too, so I can't complain. My ITM% was what I would consider very good. I would take 44% any day.

Overall, I think I did fine for my first day at the $50 level. I had to get used to the fact that you start with 1000 instead of the usual 800 at the $30 and below level, but I see that as an advantage as far as variance goes. Having more starting chips can only help the players who know what they are doing, it can't possibly hurt.

I plan on playing around 20 or so tomorrow, so hopefully I can get back on track. My goal is to play 100 sngs this week and make as much money as possible, so I really need to get on it. I'll update every couple of days or so.


Current Bankroll = $1,663.55

A brief intro

My name is Brandon Holloway and I am 22 years old. I'm a student at Auburn University, where I commute twice a week from my home in Phenix City, Alabama (which is about 30 to 40 minutes from Auburn). I am a senior in Information Systems Management, and am set to graduate in December.....FINALLY!!!!

Well, to make a long story short, I play poker online, mostly at PartyPoker. I started playing almost solely sngs a couple months ago, and found it to be profitable. I worked my bankroll up from playing $10 sngs, then to $20, $30, and just today I started playing $50. I find that I am comfortable using the 30 buyin rule for my bankroll, which is $1500 for $50 sngs. When I started today, I had $1,481.55 in my account, and figured I was safe to move up.

I don't have a job, and still live with my parents, but only for the next month until I graduate. I am planning on moving out with a friend and making money being a full-time online poker player. Some of my friends think I'm crazy (ok, almost ALL of my friends), but I'm lucky to have 1 or 2 who think I can do it, and a girlfriend who totally supports me. Also, it will be nice having an MIS degree to fall back on if necessary. I've been using poker money to do everything I do for about the past year or so. I also qualified for the PartyPoker Million 4 and the WSOP via online play in 2005 (on PartyPoker and FullTilt). I didn't cash in either, but came close on the cruise. It was still a great experience though, and it gave me some much needed confidence to continue to play and get better.