A poker month to forget
Apr. 29th, 2005 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksLooking at my figures, I see that I am winning the grand total of seven quid this month. In fact it's better than that, because I haven't written any of the bonus money to book, and, because I do my accounts in sterling and am allowing for the steady depreciation in the dollar, I have to win about fifty quid a month just to break even in sterling terms.
Who would have thought it, the Birks books containing an explanation that profits would have been higher if it had not been for the deterioration in the dollar. Finally my books now actually have the dollar at a "worse" rate than reality. Not bad, considering that the assessed rate when I started playing in 2000 was $1.40 to the £. If it was still at that rate I would be nearly three grand better off (in sterling) than I am at the moment. Serves me right for never converting any of the money back into sterling, I guess. But since I am more than three grand up with FinSpreads on my short dollar bets in the past 18 months, I can't complain.
So, when we allow for the dollar deterioration and the bonus amounts (in other words, if Birks plc published its accounts in dollars and at a fair value basis) I'm actually about $300 up on the month. I suppose it's a measure of my progress over the past year and a half that I actually find this figure disappointing.
Andy Ward has talked about taking $5K, playing in bigger online games, and trying to spin up the money, without worrying about losing it (because it's all winnings anyway). David Young asked me when I was going to start playing in bigger games. But the difference between Andy, David and me is that Andy wants to give up his job and David doesn't have any other job. I, meanwhile, seem to have a bloody good job. Yesterday I produced the whole issue of the newsletter from home, linked to the office by the marvels of modern science. I wouldn't want to make a habit of it (because there is always that nagging fear that the link will break at a vital moment) but we now know that it can be done. As jobs go, therefore, it doesn't come much better.
For that reason, I don't really need the extra stress of higher stakes games, where I would need to work much harder on my game, pay closer attention to other players, and generally tire myself out even more than I am normally. That's not to say that it doesn't tempt me occasionally (since, just as a house can never have too much space, so a bank account can never have too much money) but I really feel that the mental preparation needs to be right.
Who would have thought it, the Birks books containing an explanation that profits would have been higher if it had not been for the deterioration in the dollar. Finally my books now actually have the dollar at a "worse" rate than reality. Not bad, considering that the assessed rate when I started playing in 2000 was $1.40 to the £. If it was still at that rate I would be nearly three grand better off (in sterling) than I am at the moment. Serves me right for never converting any of the money back into sterling, I guess. But since I am more than three grand up with FinSpreads on my short dollar bets in the past 18 months, I can't complain.
So, when we allow for the dollar deterioration and the bonus amounts (in other words, if Birks plc published its accounts in dollars and at a fair value basis) I'm actually about $300 up on the month. I suppose it's a measure of my progress over the past year and a half that I actually find this figure disappointing.
Andy Ward has talked about taking $5K, playing in bigger online games, and trying to spin up the money, without worrying about losing it (because it's all winnings anyway). David Young asked me when I was going to start playing in bigger games. But the difference between Andy, David and me is that Andy wants to give up his job and David doesn't have any other job. I, meanwhile, seem to have a bloody good job. Yesterday I produced the whole issue of the newsletter from home, linked to the office by the marvels of modern science. I wouldn't want to make a habit of it (because there is always that nagging fear that the link will break at a vital moment) but we now know that it can be done. As jobs go, therefore, it doesn't come much better.
For that reason, I don't really need the extra stress of higher stakes games, where I would need to work much harder on my game, pay closer attention to other players, and generally tire myself out even more than I am normally. That's not to say that it doesn't tempt me occasionally (since, just as a house can never have too much space, so a bank account can never have too much money) but I really feel that the mental preparation needs to be right.
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Dittoabou
Date: 2005-04-30 10:09 pm (UTC)I'll work it out after I've done my $20+2 in the RGP Championship tonight. A couple of cheapo S&G cashes (1&2) this evening while watching Hansen take out Devilfish have helped.
Re: Dittoabou
Date: 2005-05-01 09:45 am (UTC)I managed to find a couple of realy awful tables on Party this morning. One of them only lasted an hour as the other sharks descended in a feezing frenzy, killing the game stone dead. How much time do these people waste looking for and waiting to get onto "soft" games,only for te games to dies within an hour? I prefer the random "see how it goes attitude", leaving if the game is clearly horrible.
4 tables of 8ob? My god. ow do you play it at those levels? Just wait for A2 combined with Ax suited? That would seem to be a standard (albeit boring) winning strategy at low limits. After that the trick is knowing when it's right to jam and when it's right to draw the opposition in.
I know that people call limit a grind, but low-level 8ob is far worse!
Re: Dittoabou
Date: 2005-05-01 10:09 pm (UTC)I'm playing O8 very conservatively at the moment, mostly from the list in the Tenner/Krieger book, with some situational play to mix it up. A2, A3 with A suited, any 4 wheel, any 4 10/paint is about it. Still working on how to loosen up for shorter-handed tables, although I did finally win a S&G this week after bubbling 6 out of 11 (which tells me I wasn't loosening in the right "direction"). At $0.50-$1 pot limit that seems to work fine. Seeing about 20-25% of flops meant seldom playing mroe than 2 hands at once. And at that level there were 4-6 seeing every flop (couldn't find a softer game) and there was some sensational garbage going to the river. It took 900 hands to clear 700 raked and I picked up another $40-odd on the way. Not exciting by any means, but April was a crappy month.
Moving on Up
Date: 2005-05-01 08:21 am (UTC)As you seem to be playing 2/4 or 3/6 as your staple and judging by some of your writing to date, you already pay enough attention to move up to 5/10 quite comfortably.
There can quite often be a paradox that at 3/6 people are grinding out results, whilst at 5/10 there's a lot of gambling money because the "red-chip game" is a comfortable level for them. Thus, the 5/10 quite often plays poorer than the 3/6. There are also an encouraging number of players (over and above those at 3/6)that will put a hand down to a check raise bluff etc so all those moves that you have dreamt up and had waiting patiently in the drawer could finally be taken out and dusted off.....
Re: Moving on Up
Date: 2005-05-01 09:38 am (UTC)I have played some $5-$10, on a few sites, and I'm up a couple of hundred overall in about 1000 hands. My problem is not the quality of play but the mental attitude to the cash. I had this problem when I moved up to $2-$4 from 50c-$1. You get a couple of good hands and all of a sudden you are up a "big win" at the lower level. Then the temptation is to quit and do all the other things that need doing, like cleaning the house. When I first moved up to $2-$4 I forced myself to play for a set time before quitting. This is what I will have to do when I move up, even if I am $250 up after six hands! However, the good start to this month leaves me with a nice float for May, so, this could be the month!