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2011 Poker Summary
Dec. 31st, 2011 07:33 amI started out with relatively high hopes in January -- hopes which were, in retrospect, self-deceiving. With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that I kind of "stopped winning" sometime around the middle of 2010. This was followed in October 2010 by an accidental event that had large financial consequences. My second monitor blew up while I was in France (this was when you could stay play on Pokerstars when in France). So I experimented with "cascading" the tables rather than "tiling" them. This actually went rather well, and I stuck with that style because it is much easier to play 14 to 16 tables when you are cascading.
Well, it might be easier to play that many tables, but it isn't easier to play them well. With margins getting thinner, I was throwing away what margin I had (and then some) in return for a chase for Supernova status. Stupid.
However, I started 2011 overweight (too much sedentary poker play in December 2010) and at Supernova level on Stars. I experimented with some 6-max on Party Poker, which went badly wrong (although I learnt from my mistakes). I was still cascading the tables on Stars. It was all a mess, with my focus on the one important thing winning at the tables set aside for the goal of playing as many hands as possible.
The graphs speak for themselves. I sank to a 50 buy-in loss at 50c-$1, nearly all of which was down to playing on auto-pilot, calling too much, folding too much, and failing to exploit exploitable situations.
Half-way through the year it became clear that I needed to rebuild my game, so I went back to nine-table tiling 25c-50c NL. Then in August I was in Cyprus with just the Netbook, so I tried some $1-$2 three-tabling. That went well and pushed me to my peak for the year - up $1,000. However, I foolishly decided that this meant I could win at 50c-$1 NL when nine-table tiling. I came back from holiday, ran bad for two months, and sank way back into the red.
And then a particularly bad run at $1-$2 at the end of October got me to the "that's enough -- I retire".
And, in a sense, retire I have. I played 350,000 hands in the year, but only 22,000 in November and December -- a shift from an average of 33,000 a month down to 11,000 hands a month. I'm focusing on winning money rather than accumulating FPPs or VPPs. And I've succeeded (although I have also run well, and it can't be long before some of the regulars at 25c-50c whom I have been "exploiting" spot what I am up and start to exploit me back. That will necessitate restrategizing.)
For 2012 I intend to carry on in the same mould. Keep playing 25c-50c until I am back to "break-even" in total play on Pokerstars. Then dip my toe back in at 50c-$1 -- only four tabling to start.
Perhaps play some of the UKIPT League months -- these are low buy ins but are really an EV of £50 to £100 with virtually no downside.
I'm utterly fed up with Party, and the move to Weighted Contribution on Stars makes "playing to win" even more attractive. Stop worrying about the FPPs and the £250 Amazon vouchers. They will come in their own good time without effort. But pushing up the cash balance does take effort. I can't take that for granted any more (if I ever could).
Ambitions for 2012? None, really. To end up in front, I guess, and never to play if I don't feel like it but feel that I "ought" to play.
All rather pathetic compared with the past few years.
Party Poker was a disaster all year. I think that I ran badly there, that the opponents got tougher. I also suspected some collusion, but research in HEM was unable to verify this.
Full Tilt includes a write-off of the $250 that I still had sitting on the site when it vanished.
Pokerstars was a good year. Could have been better, I suppose, but I still ran below EV on the site for the full year (do I ever not?). We'll see how hard focus on 25c-50c NL works for a sustained period, but without playing so many hands that I go onto autopilot.
Tourney performances are nearly all freerolls, including $300 or thereabouts from the first "quarterly million" for Supernovas. On Party I just can't seem to crack the PAS/RTR freerolls, which have a huge EV - 60 runners for $5k sometimes. But I just haven't hit the right hands at the right time. My MTT strategy works better in the large fields, but I can adapt it for these smaller fields, and looking back on my eliminations and the cards I have been getting, I don't think that I would do a lot differemtly.
A graphic illustration of how Stars was the hero of the hour.
The really horrible line is 50c-$1. The lines at the top are rakebacks and bonuses. The two lines hovering around zero are 25c-50c and the total for the year. For 2012 the target is to win money in open play. The bonus levels will fall dramatically, but the total should be higher.
And, finally, a running total for the year (this is based on sessions rather than days, with a bonus or a rakeback sum counted as "a session") with annotations. This shows rather more clearly how much better I have been doing at 25c-50c NL.
Well, it might be easier to play that many tables, but it isn't easier to play them well. With margins getting thinner, I was throwing away what margin I had (and then some) in return for a chase for Supernova status. Stupid.
However, I started 2011 overweight (too much sedentary poker play in December 2010) and at Supernova level on Stars. I experimented with some 6-max on Party Poker, which went badly wrong (although I learnt from my mistakes). I was still cascading the tables on Stars. It was all a mess, with my focus on the one important thing winning at the tables set aside for the goal of playing as many hands as possible.
The graphs speak for themselves. I sank to a 50 buy-in loss at 50c-$1, nearly all of which was down to playing on auto-pilot, calling too much, folding too much, and failing to exploit exploitable situations.
Half-way through the year it became clear that I needed to rebuild my game, so I went back to nine-table tiling 25c-50c NL. Then in August I was in Cyprus with just the Netbook, so I tried some $1-$2 three-tabling. That went well and pushed me to my peak for the year - up $1,000. However, I foolishly decided that this meant I could win at 50c-$1 NL when nine-table tiling. I came back from holiday, ran bad for two months, and sank way back into the red.
And then a particularly bad run at $1-$2 at the end of October got me to the "that's enough -- I retire".
And, in a sense, retire I have. I played 350,000 hands in the year, but only 22,000 in November and December -- a shift from an average of 33,000 a month down to 11,000 hands a month. I'm focusing on winning money rather than accumulating FPPs or VPPs. And I've succeeded (although I have also run well, and it can't be long before some of the regulars at 25c-50c whom I have been "exploiting" spot what I am up and start to exploit me back. That will necessitate restrategizing.)
For 2012 I intend to carry on in the same mould. Keep playing 25c-50c until I am back to "break-even" in total play on Pokerstars. Then dip my toe back in at 50c-$1 -- only four tabling to start.
Perhaps play some of the UKIPT League months -- these are low buy ins but are really an EV of £50 to £100 with virtually no downside.
I'm utterly fed up with Party, and the move to Weighted Contribution on Stars makes "playing to win" even more attractive. Stop worrying about the FPPs and the £250 Amazon vouchers. They will come in their own good time without effort. But pushing up the cash balance does take effort. I can't take that for granted any more (if I ever could).
Ambitions for 2012? None, really. To end up in front, I guess, and never to play if I don't feel like it but feel that I "ought" to play.
All rather pathetic compared with the past few years.
Party Poker was a disaster all year. I think that I ran badly there, that the opponents got tougher. I also suspected some collusion, but research in HEM was unable to verify this.
Full Tilt includes a write-off of the $250 that I still had sitting on the site when it vanished.
Pokerstars was a good year. Could have been better, I suppose, but I still ran below EV on the site for the full year (do I ever not?). We'll see how hard focus on 25c-50c NL works for a sustained period, but without playing so many hands that I go onto autopilot.
Tourney performances are nearly all freerolls, including $300 or thereabouts from the first "quarterly million" for Supernovas. On Party I just can't seem to crack the PAS/RTR freerolls, which have a huge EV - 60 runners for $5k sometimes. But I just haven't hit the right hands at the right time. My MTT strategy works better in the large fields, but I can adapt it for these smaller fields, and looking back on my eliminations and the cards I have been getting, I don't think that I would do a lot differemtly.
A graphic illustration of how Stars was the hero of the hour.
The really horrible line is 50c-$1. The lines at the top are rakebacks and bonuses. The two lines hovering around zero are 25c-50c and the total for the year. For 2012 the target is to win money in open play. The bonus levels will fall dramatically, but the total should be higher.
And, finally, a running total for the year (this is based on sessions rather than days, with a bonus or a rakeback sum counted as "a session") with annotations. This shows rather more clearly how much better I have been doing at 25c-50c NL.
