Setzy's 2008 (COMPLETE!): Setzy's 2009... Goals up!

Goodbye Party!

Well, I suppose a lot of people got royally fucked on the whole Monster deal, but this guy was not one of them. According to my PT I paid $540 in BBJ drop money, but I was on a table with a BBJ ($2200), and I got to cash out my Monster Freerolls today for $1150! Man, Party drops players and the Bad Beat Jackpot is sitting at 600k, haha. Good luck to whoever hits that! This new money puts me over my monthly goal...but now I have a decision to make where to take my cash game.

Stars seems the likely choice, as they will probably absorb a lot of the new traffic. I also think I'm going to soak up a few refer-a-friend bonuses and make a little money that way.

I'm withdrawing my Party money today, so this blog is especially important to remind me how much actual POKER money I have, because I'm mixing it in my bank account. I may be keeping some out forever and taking a hit in the BR, but I doubt I'd change my game and move down. I'm using like 10% of my BR in any given day, which I suppose is sound BR management, but I don't think it's neccessary as I'm a pretty stable player Smile

For now I'll be playing on Stars with my little micro-roll, until the money comes through!

BR - $9787

Call me silly, but the micro games hooked me. I went on a tear and a half at 6-max 10NL one night, and started multi-tabling FR 25NL wayyyy out of my bankroll (not total, but this portion of it). Party gave me $60 more from the Red Carpet promotion, and I cashed out $25 I had in Paradise from forever ago, and have put that into Stars as a nice cushion.

Tentatively I've decided to prove to myself (and to anyone else), that it's still quite possible to build up a brand new roll from basically scratch after Party let go of U.S. players. I reached my BR "Goal" for October, so this is my other new side project. I still consider this Stars money my "fun" money, and I'm playing Razz, a little HORSE, cheap MTTs and HU tourneys out of it also.

What I want to do with this whole situation is what I've dubbed an "express grind", make as much money as possible out of the micro-limits in a short amount of time. I'm not going to set dollar amounts, but I'm having a lot of fun doing it anyway. I've started a new database in PT called "The New Adventure!", which is precisely what this is.

Stars BR: $417 <-- none of my "Real" BR

I just got back from my first live casino cash game. Let's see how we did!

The game's 1/2NL..lowest the casino has to offer. There's a $6 fee every half hour, to be expected I guess. I buyin for $200 (my dumbass wasn't aware $300 is the max), make my way to my seat after an 18 person wait list, and proceed to donk it up.

"Standard" is quite different here. Online, UTG you'd be like, ok "standard" 4-5bb looks good..oh, 3 limpers this hand, let's jack it up to like 7bb so I can narrow the field down. Lol at "narrowing the field" at this table.

I played for some 2-3 hours, tight as a drum. I once raised a pair UTG to $12, got something like 6 callers. Are you fucking kidding me, lol. Couple of my really nice hands were in the SB..crappy position, but the flops came that made me some nice money.

I really only have 2 hands to speak of...AJh in the SB with a few limpers, I make it $17 to go and get about 3 callers. Flop the freakin nuts, bet $40, 2 folds and a dude with a mountain of money (prob like $800, but he wasn't bullying or anything, table was pretty weak-tight) asks me if I have the flush, I shrug, and he calls. Turn comes some other face card, but I still have the nuts and check (still iffy on if this was right, but I guess it wasn't bad), he bets $40 more, I call. River is an Ace but my nut flush is still the Absolute nuts, I put the rest of my money in, like $90 into about a $180 pot, but he folds. He said he misread his hand and thought he had a straight (possible because he looked like he'd been there a long time and was tired, but whatever..still won the hand)

My other hand was AKo in the SB, several people limp and I bump it to $20 and get 4 callers. LOL. Flop is Kxx, I bet $80, and everyone folds.

I tried to figure out how loose players were in the first orbit..I tried to stay out of pots that could be bleeding off unneccesary chips (like a dude straddling, is that spelled right?), and think the session went fairly decent overall...+$150! Never even showed down a hand, though I did show on my nut flush.

My little micro-roll is slowly growing..I'm glad I didn't finish down at the casino and have to take out of it!

Hah, I had a bad day today with my micro-roll.

Yesterday I made it a goal to get to SilverStar on Stars, so I played a lot. And by a lot, I mean 3982 hands, according to PT. At the beginning of the day I forgot to say my prayers to the poker gods, and promptly lost 3 buyins to set over set, KK vs AA, and boat vs boat. Basically the rest of the day was breakeven. Then I uploaded my hands and went over them, looking at hands over 20bb. Everything appeared fairly normal, and then.....

I clicked on the Misc. Stats tab at the top, went and looked at each type of hand and how many I made, and how much was won or lost. Including flopped full houses (1), I flopped seven sets. *Screeching brakes* Seven sets. 3982 hands. 1 set per 568 hands!??? That's not right!

No shit that's not right. I've been raising my PPs, and I think I've been driving people out of hands, winning hands with a lot of postflop value preflop , and losing out on some winnings. Of course it's easier to say these things when you're on the losing end of things..but comparable to my large statistical sample from months ago, I'm winning less NOW than I was THEN, with a higher VPIP, PFR, and aggression rating?? Blah.

Today I got on and again promptly lost two buyins to TPTK vs set, overpair to OESFD that hit a flush. Yesterday I did make Silverstar, so I've considered basically the rest of this month to be playtime. The micro-roll is still play money, so I shot up to 50NL! Dropped another buyin to KK vs a set. Whoops! Ah, ya can't win 'em all, but I did decide to quit once I hit the $300 mark.

Mentally I think I'm ready for a short hiatus. I have already met my overall BR goal for the month, and I want to be sharp for when I start the "serious" playing again. Grinding the micro-roll is fun, but I think it's very easy to forget how much of a grind it really is. I went into it with the mindset of "oh I've played higher limits, so I must be miles ahead of these players". This is true I think in the experience portion definitely, but you can't change what people hold..and when they have a better hand than you, you can't change who wins if there is a showdown. You can try to bet people out, but it over-extending yourself to players who aren't thinking about what YOU have is a very -EV mistake.

Micro-roll: $294

The past two days I've decided to mess around with some 25NL 6-max. The first day I was up about 3 buyins, today I was down about 3 buyins. I'm still not sure how I stand on 6-max, of course because the last time I played I lost at it I have a worse frame of mind, but I do like the increased action that goes on, and the more actual "poker" that is played instead of camp camp camp, wait wait wait.

I wanted to bust through with the micro-roll and start kicking some major ass, but I've ended up running in a big circle. The worst part about it all is at this point, I know I'm a competent and winning player (especially at higher levels than this), but I'm still having trouble. I tend to have very little respect for the players at this level, which I guess is a problem.

I like to write about emotions and mindsets because I think at this point they are more important than the mathematical portion of the game. I know how to raise, I know how to bet, I know how to be aggressive...but it's not always easy to know how to deal with losing. Another problem I'm faced with is that as of this point, I'm winning less than when I was playing full-time at 25NL full ring. I think overaggression may be partly to blame here..much play at 25NL is weak-tight, and betting scares off players that might take a stab with a worse hand given the chance.

I'm going to keep at it, and try to end the month well before I go back to my regular game.

I'm glad I wrote that last entry. I went back and evaluated as to WHY things have not been going my way, and I did conclude that I was overplaying too many hands vs. weak-tighties. At 25NL people don't pay attention to their surroundings enough for it to matter. So, I've been on fire since then..I had a nice weekend, visiting with my parents and going to a friends wedding. Got my car back too, so I can go do a bunch of the things I've been needing to do.

I think ..for now anyway, I'm going to keep going into November with the micro-roll. We'll see how it goes!

Micro BR: $617

Good work, keep it up. $25NL is tough at 6max. Especially if it's the lowest limit on the site. Some bad players make it swingy as hell. Easily beatable but once in a while they get your stack with the most unlikely of calls, wiping out an hours work.

Love the thread.

Sometime late last night I decided to try and finish up the required VPP on Stars to become a Goldstar. Today I 9-tabled 50NL WAYYYY out of my micro-roll, lol, for about 7 hours. I made my Goldstar and I made a little money along the way! I guess I will be able to stick around 50NL fulltime now..might be pushing it a little with the BR, but I'm not too worried about it. So hungry, gotta fix some food and then I'm gonna watch the FTR table play some more Smile

November goal to come in the next few days...

Micro-roll - $1000

November goals -

Boost the micro-roll up to $2000.

Go play live 1/2 a couple of times.

Consider splitting some of the micro-roll off into a full-time "live" roll.

Try to get to PlatinumStar on Stars..that should be pretty hard.

I'm very lucky I decided to put in that obscene amount of hands on Oct. 31 and achieve GoldStar, because the Bonus was $100 more than it would have been had I only been SilverStar. Tonight I finished the GoldStar Bonus for $200, which is now part of my micro-roll!

Tonight was pretty swingy, in session 1 I was running absurdly hot, then I went back down in the second session and back up right as the Bonus finished clearing, I believe I finished up some overall on session 2. Lots of sets, lots of gettin paid. It's doubly fun when you are playing well (I feel as confident when I sit down as I ever have playing) and you're running well. It's easy to posi-tilt though (I think that's the word), and think you can beat anything at any time, so I keep that in check and just thank the poker gods each time anything good happens, and continue on.

With the new VIP Points system in place on Stars, I'm getting FPP like nobody's business. I enjoy their store a lot more than Party, which I still need to spend my Partypoints in. From what I understand gift certificates are the best way to spend points...the new cash back thing is not as much per point, so I believe I'm going to try and save up for the $1,000 travel gift certificate. Perhaps that will be a challenge for an upcoming month!

I'm 30% of the way to PlatinumStar.
Haven't been to the casino to play live, but I played a home game tourney tonight.

Current MicroRoll: $1782

Past 2 days have been on the negative side, which in all honesty I was starting to expect. Couldn't run hot like that forever. However tonight I did run into a couple of "non-standard" hands by my account. So let's check out some HH's.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

CO ($57.30)
Button ($29.25)
Hero ($49.45)
BB ($179.85)
UTG ($34.85)
UTG+1 ($54.70)
MP1 ($55.35)
MP2 ($41.75)
MP3 ($63.55)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K

, K

.
UTG raises to $4, 6 folds, Hero raises to $10, 1 fold, UTG calls $6.

Flop: ($20.50) 7

, 5

, 8

(2 players)
Hero bets $13, UTG calls $13.

Turn: ($46.50) 9

(2 players)
Hero bets $26.45 (All-In), UTG calls $11.85 (All-In).

River: ($84.80) 9

(2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $84.80

Results in white below:
Hero has Kc Kh (two pair, kings and nines).
UTG has Kd 6s (straight, nine high).
Outcome: UTG wins $70.20. Hero wins $14.60.

In that hand I was pretty much counting my chips before they even started coming my way. The weird part about it was the initial raise to $4. That's so much higher than a "normal" raise, which is why I raised just under 3x. I more expected him to push over it with a lower PP or AA, but I was ready to call anything.

Now in this hand, I have history with Villain. On another table earlier tonight I stacked him set over set and he left. He's pretty liberal postflop for a 50NL player, so I considered myself ahead with him having a weak A or being crushed with one of those sets. However, I didn't think he'd 3-bet with a set like that, so I immediately committed my stack to try and maximize fold equity.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (8 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

saw flop|saw showdown

MP1 ($53.70)
Hero ($80.65)
CO ($78)
Button ($48.50)
SB ($10.25)
BB ($50.80)
UTG ($30.20)
UTG+1 ($25.15)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A

, K

.
UTG calls $0.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $2.5, 1 fold, Button calls $2.50, 2 folds, UTG calls $2.

Flop: ($8.25) A

, 7

, 9

(3 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $6, Button raises to $18, UTG folds, Hero raises to $78.15, Button calls $28 (All-In).

Turn: ($132.40) 4

(2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($132.40) 8

(2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $132.40

Results in white below:
Hero has Ac Ks (one pair, aces).
Button has 4d 7d (two pair, sevens and fours).
Outcome: Button wins $100.25. Hero wins 32.15

So much of 50NL is totally ABC. These were just some nonstandard hands that made me raise my eyebrows. I still feel very capable and confident, just have to play out of this run of cards and back into something a little more stable.

MicroBR: $1470

Bad beats Setzy. I hope you reloaded and got a chance to play more hands with these fish.

Played a few more MTT's than normal lately, pretty much got all I wanted out of those for a while.

Yesterday I played a 4.40 180-man and finished 7th.

Today I played a 4.40 180-man, a 3.30R, a 3.30 triple shootout, a 1.10 HORSE and a 1.10 Razz, and cashed in none of them, lol. Needless to say after playing MTT's for some 7 hours straight, I've had enough! I can see how the variance would be killer on strictly tourney players. For me it's a great break from the normal grind, but jeez.

Anyway, the past few days of cash have been back on the upswing, which is nice. I read a few threads on 2+2 about this and that, and I think I'm going to take my first stab at 100NL with the microroll when I hit 2k. I'll give myself a 3 buyin cushion, go do my thing, and if it doesn't work out I'll go back, simple as that. I'm not going to make it official, but tentatively I'm going to say I want to be playing 200NL by New Year's, which will be higher than I've played before. Should be fun.

MicroBR: $1825

go ahead and move up. you've played at that level before. i moved up about that time as well and im glad i did. the play is actually softer at 100NL, 50NL was a nitfest for me @ FullTilt.

Setzy, you and I are running in parallel.. (with Martin alongside, but slightly ahead...) I started mini-bankroll at Stars.. and built up to about 1800 in the last month and a half. I don't think I'm playing quite as much as you are, but it cracks me up to read you blog being so similar to mine. I actually sat last night for a little 100NL.. and there was tremendous amounts of really questionable play at most of my tables.

It would seem Terry speaks the truth about 100 being softer than 50! (yeah!)... if you ever want to compare hands and such I'd be all for it.. we look to play somewhat similar...

Great Job and I'll see you at the tables.. (though, are you still using Setzy as your handle?)

I have an $8k roll and I'm still too scared to jump to $100 (even though I am playing at, and owning, £50NL which is like $97NL) - watching you youngsters with your little bankrolls and big enthusiasm is very tiring for an old poopyhead like me Smile

I got 7.5k BR and only dare to play 1 table FR of 200NL Embarassed

I'm closing in..

I'm 95% of the way to PlatinumStar, and I've been playing 100NL like mad. Today I ran on one of those extremely hot positive variance runs, hitting tons of sets in raised pots and getting paid every which way from Sunday. My evening session was good, but it went from really good to ok after I lost boat vs boat.

I still have not been back to the casino. Meh.

I'm considering camping out for a Nintendo Wii Saturday (day?/night), because it's released on Sunday. Was just talking to my roommate about how it would be cool to have some wireless internet and be able to play online poker while waiting, hehe.

Anyhow I've been running well at 100NL, and the players don't seem much better than the lower levels, so unless I crash and burn for an extended period I'm there full time now. Well, here's to a good month thus far!

MicroBR: $2675

Finally had a downswing today at 100NL. As to be expected, you can't run blazing hot forever. Today I knocked out 2k hands and some change and ended up down about 4-5 buyins, I forget exactly what I started at. Didn't have any true bad beats, a guy hit an 11-outer on the river for a stack (he went allin with bottom pair and nut flush draw on the turn), one time got minraised on the flop with TPTK oop, guy bets big into me on the turn, pushes river and hit a hidden runner runner flush (TPGK on the flop) to beat my two pair for a stack. Got reraised off several preflop hands when I lost pot odds to call, lost a QQ to KK allin for half a stack, lost about half a stack to a shortie with AK vs KK on a K high flop, lost a whole stack with AK in a reraised pot vs. AA (guy's first hand at the table) on a K high flop. Middle two pair was beat by top two pair for half a stack or so. I think that's all of 'em, or at least all the ones I can remember. My sets weren't getting paid, and my other hands weren't showing down well. It's funny how you can remember the bad ones, huh Smile

In a way I'm glad to go on and have a downswing, especially after running so well. I'm still in the black overall at 100NL at Stars, and I'm still over my monthly goal, which is all I really care about. The monetary goal wasn't so important this month, but I do want to try and get plenty of hands down by New Year's to try and play 200NL. Plus, now I know that even after losing more than I have before, I'm still looking to the future and more playing, not to the past with spite and disgust. I think this means I'm pretty hardened as a player, and even though there is still SOME emotional connect to losing, I can take it in stride.

MicroBR: $2250

Heh - I didn't play last night in the end but lost about $30 in the afternoon just 1-tabling $50 - downswing now roughly 7 buyins. Funnily enough, this chunk of negative variance is making me relax about things in the same way that an upswing makes me get increasingly worried about the inevitable collapse.

How looooooooooow can you go? Pretty low, I guess.

In a nutshell, I'm grouchy. The last few days of 100NL have been the finest in poker hell I've seen. I can't win for losing, basically. Sadly, I've come full circle, hit the bottom as far as buyins I was prepared to lose at 100NL, and now I have to go back to 50NL and try again. I'm right at where I was BR wise when I first loaded up 100NL. I've played an Absolute ton of hands lately; ran poorly, played below my A-game (I think), tried anything to get this mess to fix itself, and yet nothing seems to help.

It's just going to be time. I know from past downswings it's just going to take a couple hot streaks and I'll be back in the thick of things. But backtracking when I'm trying to move FORWARD to 200NL is not helping things at all. 100NL is not supposed to be that hard, and with the amount I have studied, read and played, I should be solidly beating this game. Yet at this juncture, I am not.

I'm disappointed in things. I suppose I will post some hands later after I go over them.

MicroBR: $1761

Sorry to here you are running cold... I appear to be the yin to your yang.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/forum/poker-46834.htm

Get the confidence back at 50 and you'll swing up again. You can beat this game.

Pretty much running in circles the past few days. Today I am down a few buyins after a few good sessions the past two days. I read Lukie's thread about not pulling the variance card and I don't want to do that. I'm tired of blaming things on beats and whatnot, but the reality is that a lot of it can be boiled down to the Absolute nittiness I'm finding at 50NL.

I've not worried that much about table selection at the limits I play, but I think it's becoming more of an issue. It's not altogether uncommon for me to run into one or two people on each table with VPIP/PFR in the 11/3 neighborhood.

I am also having trouble with AK hands, which I never have in the past. Over my entire sample at Stars I'm losing with AK, which is unacceptable. I have to figure out these problems and progress.

MicroBR: $1786

100NL can be a shitty jump because there aren't as much fish comparatively to 50NL, but there's nothing you have to do differently. So just keep at it and hope you start running better.

How utterly boring tonight was.

I can honestly say I've never seen a span of hands that were so mundane that I disliked it as much as these. Tonight I played roughly 2300 hands and never won an entire stack off someone, which I am pretty sure is the longest span I've never stacked someone that wasn't a full stack. I did drop a stack with KK vs a flush, but after that it was just like everyone stopped playing big pots with me (and I wasn't even on that table for much longer). It was simply one of those nights nobody plays when you hit, and when you don't hit they are playing back at you. Called plenty of preflop raises looking to hit sets, the few that came were in unraised pots and one that was on a monotone flop and it folded as soon as I bet out.

Didn't really end up down that much, just 2 buyins...very much in the normal swing of variance. I honestly don't think I could have ended up much more by playing any different than I did. It'll change...it has to!

MicroBR: $1900

And November draws to a close.

Been on a decent streak the past couple days at 100NL, though I just dropped a stack versus a very loose opponent in my very last hand. It happens.

November goals -

Boost the micro-roll up to $2000. - Complete!

Go play live 1/2 a couple of times. - Failed..I didn't go to the casino once. I'm questioning whether it's really worth the time to do it or just better for novelty value..I live about an hour and fifteen minutes away, so that's almost 3 hours drive round trip. So, live play is on the back burner for now.

Consider splitting some of the micro-roll off into a full-time "live" roll. - Considered, decided against it.

Try to get to PlatinumStar on Stars..that should be pretty hard. - Complete! Finished this about halfway through the month.

So I got the monetary part down, and the Platinumstar.

I've really been thinking about goals, more than usual..and I think I'm going to work towards a few more long-term goals. Namely to get my financial situation outside of poker back to zero, so I can start investing and possibly work towards buying a house.

Anyhow, here's my new set of December goals:

Get 100% comfortable at 100NL. I'm almost there.

Make a conscious effort to try and play a little 200NL Ring.

Get to 100,000 FPP on Stars. (48k currently)

Finish positive for the month, in any amount.

At the end of the year I will be posting annual goals for 2007, which should include a plan for paying off my student loans, and a profit goal that lets me use poker money as living expenses.

MicroBR: $2217

keep up the great job setzy... im sorta in the same boat... 100nl has been kicking my ass with variance and bad play on my behalf, so i've been building up my micro-roll in 10-25 nl... until im in the right mind frame to go play 100nl again...

And we swiiiiiing...

Earlier today I played some, dropped a few buyins, won them back after a time. Then I took a break, played some more later, and started dropping buyins..except this time the bounce didn't go back up, it just kept going down. 600 hands later, I'm down 4 buyins and some change. Ugly.

Bad play? People may seriously deny their bad play and leaks, but this time I can say it wasn't anything I did. Maybe I should have gotten away from the KK hand when the preflop minraiser reraised allin for a full stack after I reraised and there were 2 other callers. Maybe, but with the other people's money in the pot, I mean COME ON it's the second best hand!

Ugly hand #2 - Setzy puts in 80% of his stack on flop and turn with JJ on a T high TTxx board, river comes 3 and villain hits his 2-outer for the rest of my money.

Ugly hand #3 - Setzy gets AA in EP, raises and gets reraised by a full stack. I decide to flat call his reraise, and check a horrible looking TJQ flop. Villain bets, Setzy puts it all in and Villain calls. Turn comes an A and the river bricks, and a different villain scoops another Setzy buyin with KK. (Same table as my KK vs AA)

Throw in the loss of a few medium-ish pots and no big wins, and we have a bummer night. After talking with a friend, we've come to a realization that I think is going to be a pretty big problem.

I'm underrolled for multi-tabling 100NL. It's true that this is my micro-fun BR and I technically should be doing anything I want with it, but my plan was sort of to build my micro BR up to replace my old one. If you read the old parts of my blog, I used to multi-table 25NL with many buyins, way more than typical "Bankroll Management" guidelines. At 100NL I have practically half my micro BR on the table at any given time.

So now in the midst of trying to accumulate a mass of FPP, I've found that problem. Right now I think my best course of action is going to be to get to a level of FPP I can stop and acquire something at, then go back and start working with a lower level.

Current MicroBR: $1770

I decided that since I've been playing online poker for 6 months seriously and haven't done anything with it (including with my bad beat jackpot money), I went and bought a big screen TV and am withdrawing a large portion of my micro BR and moving back down again. New goals soon.

My new goal is to not set a goal for this month. I don't want to have any pressure...it's the holidays, and I've been playing so hardcore the past few months. I don't want to risk burnout when all it may take is losing a few buyins (not tilted, beats!) to make me really want to quit.

I respect a large amount of the FTR community, but there is something to be said about the skill level at Stars 100NL Ring compared to 25NL. It isn't easy. Practically all I do is study hands and try to improve my poker game, and I'm barely a winning player at 100NL. After that last set of beats, I believe I actually dipped a little below what I started at when I moved up. I felt I wasn't having fun. I felt too connected to what was going on. That was a recipe for some long-term disaster.

So I immediately remedied it, treated myself, and moved down to a level where I'm the tough player and know I'm capable of winning. I don't think that I'm only good enough to play 25NL, but I think that it's much easier for me to win at a long-term rate there. After playing higher limits, the amounts played for at 25NL seems paltry.

When I withdrew I started again with 20 buyins for 25NL, $500. A few days later I'm up several buyins. We'll see where it leads from here.

MicroBR - $692

Hey man, I hear ya loud and clear... after my sick morning of +9-buyins.. I've managed to float up and down and I currently find myself back where I was BR wise (~1800) and I have little confidence that my game can consistently beat the 100NL crowd. My past few sessions I typically had no idea whatsoever where I was in the hand... I either get outplayed or outdrawn.. and even though I suck out some and out play a few.. those occurences are definitely in the minority.

I'm not sure if it's best to go jumping back to 25NL (even though that does sound relaxing).. or if I should just try to cut back and try playing on 4-tables at a time at $100NL. What are your thoughts?

I was also curious about your FPP's.. I was all primed to land an LCD TV.. but if I kick it back to 25NL or even 50NL.. I'm not sure if that's ever going to happen. Do you have a rough estimate of the FPP/hand you earn at those stakes?

GL man... keep the thread going regardless, it's a good read.

I'm PlatinumStar, and now at 25NL I seem to be getting roughly 1FPP per 3 hands. At 100NL is was almost 1 per hand. I don't remember what it was when I played 50NL, but I would figure it's probably 1 point per 2 hands.

I got my TV today, and it's smokin' badass. Thanks to FTR, or I'd never have made the money to get it Smile

Now I just need to get some new stuff to play and watch on it..

On two separate occasions I have decided I was going to camp out and get me a Wii (biondino back me up!) and both times there were too many people in line...I loved Super Smash Bros. Melee on the Gamecube so I might just wait till the new one comes out for the Wii before I get one.

I love doing whatever I want, and taking it easy this month is making things really good. Grinding is okay, but we all know how mentally draining long sessions and taking beats can be. I am not winning a ton of money or anything, but I'm enjoying my sessions more than I have been in the past couple weeks..and I'm keeping them shorter, too.

For another change of pace I've been playing 25NL 6-max. I've decided I want to learn some poker and quit nutcamping..though it's not all huge bluffs and slim edges at this level, it's still pretty straightforward I've noticed, and it's looser than ring. Perhaps I can move up in this..but I'm not rushed, and that's something to think about at a later date. I may have an extended stay at 6-max, I may move back..I don't know, and at this juncture, it really doesn't matter.

I'm taking a new approach to keep my mentality stable. I have purposely not looked at my balance for the past few days. Whenever I play I purposely don't look, which is very very hard because I used to check so often, and I know that detracts from play. I think I'm up, but I'm not sure Smile

I may do something like check once a day or something, maybe at a fixed time. All I know is I don't want to be checking after hands, in the middle of playing and whatnot. Indivdual sessions don't matter, and with this much experience I should know that by now.

MicroBR: ???!

I'm also considering giving 25nl 6-max a shot. I check my balance at the end of the day/session, and don't worry about it while i'm playing. That seems to help keep my mind clear while i'm playing. I really messed up last month by checking my monthly net profit near the end of the month to see how close I was to my monthly goal. I discovered I was only 200$ away w/3 days left and overplayed way to much to try to clear it, which ended up costing me 700$.

I've run into a quandry.

Running pretty well at the moment, hitting plenty of sets and getting paid. I've been paying special attention to more of the 6-max threads being posted around here, and I have to agree that image plays a definite factor that it doesn't in ring, or at least, in the stakes I play/have played.

The quandry is that I'm not going to make it back to PlatinumStar status if I play as much as I have been. I haven't played too much, 1k hands a day or fewer (in respect to my average over the past few months, that's definitely lower). So I don't know what I'm going to do...let myself go back down to Gold?

I've run into a few ups and downs at 6-max, and in the past when I hit them I just went back to my normal ring game and nutcamped. Now that I've survived a downswing or two, I think I may be ready to stay there full time. I really want to increase my winrate. That will most likely be a goal for 2007.

Only time will tell.

I haven't left you 6-max!

But since Stars released that new Bonus, I've gone back to playing 50NL ring to clear it faster. Once I get done with it (about 40% done) I'll go back to 6-max.

Gone back to checking my balance a little more (way less than I used to!), so I know how things are looking a little more now. I've enjoyed this "take it easy" month, but come January I'm ready to get down and dirty serious again. I've played considerably more lately with this Bonus to clear, and I don't feel as lackadaisical as I have been in the past month or so. I will post some concrete poker resolutions in the coming days, which I hope to see through with some serious effort.

MicroBR: $1050

It's New Years Eve! 2006 has come and almost gone, and I have to say this was a good year. This post is going to be geared toward my goals for 2007, with probably a few thoughts and comments here and there.

Overall goals for 2007:

#1. ) Pay off my school loans entirely.

This will cost about 10k. I want to use a very solid approach to raising this money playing poker, using good, sound Bankroll Management and by putting in enough hours to get the job done within a reasonable amount of time. I have decided I will use a 25-30 buyin cushion to determine what stakes I will play at a given time, and not play terribly overrolled like I was at Party.

#2. ) Continue to fund bills with poker. I already have a decent amount set aside, enough to last me for a good while.

#3. ) Work on my tournament game. Even though it seems to be the concensus that the "real" money is in cash games, I have always felt like my tournament game was nothing special and I want to feel the magic of making final tables and hopefully winning a MTT. How exactly I will go about this I haven't decided yet..I may spend a full month on exclusively tourneys.

#4. ) Begin saving (post school loan payment), for a vehicle. What kind or price range is undetermined at this point. When I complete #1, I will decide more on this.

#5. ) Continue to track my progress as I have done, and increase my winrate by learning how to play against my opponents better.

And that's it. Here's to a new year!

Go dude

p.s. I'm back in the country if you're AIMin'...

I've gone back to 50NL ring for the time being. It's not especially because I dislike 6-max or want to quit, it's just I feel that's where I need to do my "serious" grind. In addition I'm in the range for buyins for 50NL now, and I would not feel comfortable playing 50NL 6-max at this point in time.

Ring is going okay, however my winrate has not gone up much. I oftentimes wonder if the majority of what people post when they post graphs are just upswings, and what people's all-time winrates actually are.

I've stumbled upon a great idea I think may help me pay for my school loans. Today I decided to do a search on "Stars Rakeback percentage FPP" or something like that on google, and ran into a 2+2 thread where a guy said he was able to use his FPP for the concierge service and Stars would make payments to his school loans. I believe I'm going to email them and see if they would be able to do this for me when I reach that amount. (180k FPP)

MicroBR: $1350

Hey Setz,

On my laptop, which is where I've played my last 70k hands (well over half of my all-time total), my PTBB/100 is exactly 6.

I've made another executive decision, and decided it's time to crank it up a notch. I'm assimilating the other money I put in Neteller with my MicroBR (originally to pay for my TV) and I'm going back to playing 100NL Ring full time. This will allow me to gain FPP practically twice as fast as I am now at 50NL, plus will make me well rolled to play 100NL.

I'm getting that itch to play tournies, but I'm purposely keeping away from them because when I get into them I want to get into them full time, not one here and one there. What I may end up doing is near the end of the year when I get all the FPP that I am striving for, make the switch.

All in all things have been breakeven lately. I posted a set of hands here:
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/forum/poker-49185.htm
Comments would be great, as I will be posting the results sometime later today.

Just as a final thought, it would be awesome to make that Elite Supernova on Stars.. I know it can't happen at the level I'm playing, but maybe next year.

Grinding has been okay. My final session tonight was a bit annoying because I was getting amazingly great hands, and no one would play with me. It happens.

It's no joke, Stars 100NL ring is seriously a rock garden. The players are extremely tight, and most of the postflop play is straightforward and aggressive. Just as a quick example of facts, I will list the VPIP / PFR of the players I have the most hands played with at 100NL.

16.3/7.8
12.4/7.6
18.3/4.1
10.7/3.5
9.6/2.3
12.9/7.1
16.5/6.5
14/4.7
15.4/8.3
14/2.7
11.4/3.5
10.5/5.1

That is all-inclusive, with no filters or anything...every player I have over 1,000 hands logged with at 100NL. No VPIP over 20%. No PFR over 10%. Insane huh?

I just got to Platinumstar today, so I'm gaining those FPP faster now. I'm on pace to make Supernova by the end of May, I think that will be just fine.

BR - $3000

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Setzy's 2008 (COMPLETE!): Setzy's 2009... Goals up!

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Setzy's 2008 (COMPLETE!): Setzy's 2009... Goals up!