Select Page
Poker Forum
Over 1,291,000 Posts!
Poker ForumFTR Blogs and Operations

Grinding for Santa Claus and Jesus Month

Results 1 to 20 of 20
  1. #1

    Default Grinding for Santa Claus and Jesus Month

    Random Past

    I’ve been playing poker for 10 months now and approximately the last 6 months as a serious and profitable player.
    I spent the last 5 consecutive months leading to September playing higher and winning a good bit more each month without increasing volume. September I earned the same amount as August playing the same 13.50 KOs. October Stars backs out of Washington and I cash out my whole role except 300$. Had a small roll on full tilt that I built up a little, moved to Europe and back to stars and the usual


    This is a 1 month op and I will be grinding to make some money (for santa and jesus) as well as to decide how serious I am about poker, what games I want to play, and feel out next year.

    Plan for December
    Roll to open will be ~840$
    Hours
    · Will play 20+ hrs a week
    · Generally 5 days of 4+ hours each
    · Take at least 1 day off per week
    · Play 2 hours starting before 9 a.m. days I am playing (games are softer)
    · Play continual sets more often
    · 6 or 8 table depending on how I feel + quality of games
    Vpp
    · Make 3000 vpp and stay ahead of pace the ENTIRE month
    Moving up
    · Main game will be 13.50 bounty 9 man sngs on Stars
    · Will play higher if following conditions are met
    o A 27 ko is loading that is soft (sharkscope + known fish/reg ratio)
    o I feel at the top of my game + my br is healthy (25 bi +)
    · I will move up 4 tabling 27s when my roll is 1400+ and I feel confident in my game on the weekends / soft games
    Others
    · Work out 3 days a week
    · Go snowboarding (does not count^^)
    · Have a decent breakfast and shower before a.m. sessions.
    · Experiment with 6max turbos (3.25s), 5nl FR, mtts, and 10+ tabling 6.75s to avoid burnout and to become decent in other games (1-4 hours a week depending on how that goes)


    I will be keeping a written poker journal this month with daily entries instead of daily lame entries to this blog. I will post a couple hands, a few thoughts, and general weekly updates here.






    Happy December Grind FTR!
  2. #2
    congrats on your success so far, you look really organized and if you can stick to your plan no doubt you'll make plenty this month

    good luck!
    Quote Originally Posted by Carroters
    Ambition is fucking great, but you're trying to dig up gold with a rocket launcher and are going to blow the whole lot to shit unless you refine your tools
  3. #3
    fulksy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    1,412
    Location
    Edmonton,Canada
    Good Luck!!!! looking forward to hearing how it goes.

    FWIW 6 max turbos on FT are very soft.

    later
  4. #4
    Getting Crushed!!!!!! I'm like 13 buyins below ev now over 30 some games. Not that awesome. Somehow I only lost a little bit of money and turned a euro step 82€ ticket into a 215€. I only need to win 3 more steps and I get a 7000€ package. Optimism is good right? I would actually snap cash that ticket if I could but the whole point of steps and satellites in general is to get weaker players to into higher games and soften them. It would be awesome to get a ticket to EPT snowfest which is here in Austria in some alp town.

    Thanks for dropping by guys and the heads up about the 6max games fulksy. I have 75 left of my deposit bonus that I need to clear in next 6 weeks so those seem like a good opportunity to do that. I suppose I'll see for myself but are you talking about 5s or 10s?

    I think I'm going to go on a rant about fold equity because it is the most important part of sit n goes and it's really dawned on me since I played live more. That game plays like a hyper turbo so its fold equity > "poker". My games are knockout out tourneys and the is a .25 bi bounty for each player. Here I often find myself folding hands on the button like 87s 4 or 5 big blinds deep because I know most unknowns are calling very wide and everyone should be calling a little bit wider. Same goes for shoving 7 big blinds or so in the sb with crap, not really profitable when they call over 50% of hands. On the other hand in the live game I ship atc from utg 5 handed for just UNDER 2 big blinds because guy in bb is tight. He literally thinks about it for awhile and mucks some hand like Q or Jx.

    Another crucial thing I wanted to rant about really quick is getting beaten down early to a really short stack. Say 200-500 at 1500 starting chips. This might be less of a problem for multitablers but it's crucial that you don't just think <<aw well f*c* it>> and start making -ev plays. The session I just played was pretty devastating but ended up being a moderate winner and easily could have been a big loser If I gave up when I lost multiple 80/20 70/30s etc and had a short stack or busted tables early.

    More grinding to come, will probably play life tomorrow again too.
  5. #5
    nice job sir. sexy garph. ride hard, grind hard. as for your goals i say riding should count as a workout. i've been hurtin after november, gettin my lazy summer ass back into shape.
  6. #6
    fulksy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    1,412
    Location
    Edmonton,Canada
    for running bad! i think I'm finally starting to run better, so good luck!!!!

    their. i play the 11+1 Turbos on Ft. and they can be pretty sick soft, i don't table select or anything (which i should, and will when i get a chance to play more) but if u did decide to table select you should be able to kill those games.


    Quote Originally Posted by dneureiter View Post
    I think I'm going to go on a rant about fold equity because it is the most important part of sit n goes and it's really dawned on me since I played live more. That game plays like a hyper turbo so its fold equity > "poker". My games are knockout out tourneys and the is a .25 bi bounty for each player. Here I often find myself folding hands on the button like 87s 4 or 5 big blinds deep because I know most unknowns are calling very wide and everyone should be calling a little bit wider. Same goes for shoving 7 big blinds or so in the sb with crap, not really profitable when they call over 50% of hands. On the other hand in the live game I ship atc from utg 5 handed for just UNDER 2 big blinds because guy in bb is tight. He literally thinks about it for awhile and mucks some hand like Q or Jx.

    ^^^^^ very very true, Live donks have no clue about push/fold ranges
  7. #7
    go go go go go
  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by WeaselT View Post
    nice job sir. sexy garph. ride hard, grind hard. as for your goals i say riding should count as a workout. i've been hurtin after november, gettin my lazy summer ass back into shape.
    Yea I agree it's a workout. I just want 3 other workouts in addition. So excited for sunday, probably going here 8 seated heated chairlifts :d

    Breaking even at poker is such hard work right now :S I have 400 vpp and I just can't get out of this rut. Just getting so so crushed. Before every actual decision I'm just like "well this is going to be ****ed no matter what I do". Realized I was running 11/8 over a decent sample for the whole sitngo including shorthanded + high blinds which is just uber exploitable nit. Been playing actual poker again but it's so depressing, I literally run into hands 1 step better than mine so often. AQ AK, AJ AQ etc vs wide ranges. Which is fine but the opposite happens so rarely (and these are fish who have worse aces in their range 10 bb deep) and then I just get crushed. Brutal Game. This isn't to say I don't have leaks but I can point out so many exploitable mistakes that other are making but the opportunity for me to exploit them just isn't there given card distribution / action / etc. I guess the point of this grind is to prove this games are still beatable and regain some confidence. Anyways, tomorrow is anther day and it will be late u.s. time on Friday night when i wake up.

    I played a couple 27s today that were softer than most of the 13s but alas no cashes.
  9. #9
    When you run bad it is important to entire tournaments worth 25% of your bankroll. I know ftr will not understand this as well as hands like the one below, but it is crucial! But seriously I cant cash out my 215€ ticket and the game has 2 regs, 1 nit, and a few unknowns and 2 or 3 absolute fish. So I wish me luck. .. Meh only 6 regged now, 2 fish/unknowns unregged :S

    edit: gah, free vpps/fpps I guess. I got 3rd which is another 215 ticket. 77 AT bvb, but I won a flip earlier. Hmmh, I guess I just flipped for like 700 us dollars equity which is almost the size of my roll, well, that's interesting. Funny how at 13s every flip is stnd and here your heart starts beating :S

    Grabbed by Holdem Manager
    NL Holdem $30(BB) Replayer
    SB ($1,520)
    Hero ($1,390)
    UTG ($4,760)
    UTG+1 ($1,430)
    UTG+2 ($1,385)
    CO ($1,590)
    BTN ($1,425)

    Dealt to Hero J 3

    fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, SB calls $15, Hero raises to $1,390 (AI), SB calls $1,360

    FLOP ($2,780) Q Q J

    TURN ($2,780) Q Q J 3

    RIVER ($2,780) Q Q J 3 6

    SB shows K 9
    (Pre 62%, Flop 30.9%, Turn 31.8%)

    Hero shows J 3
    (Pre 38%, Flop 69.1%, Turn 68.2%)

    Hero wins $2,780

    Idiots went allin with j3s and k9s, sooted for the win. Wait a sec, I'm one one of those guys... targetting wrong table when shove hotkey... this was 13 btw, not a 215
    Last edited by dneureiter; 12-05-2010 at 11:20 AM.
  10. #10
    So I've thought about going for supernova next year. I mean supernova in itself isn't going to get me rich or anything, and I don't want to masstable and be a rakeback grinder at the 10$ sit n goes (these exist... and suck). I want to get better at poker, make some dough, and then get supernova. I just really don't have the motivation at this point. *see rant* I would essentially play 3 times the average stake and 3 times as many games to get 100K vpp. that assumes I play about 3400 games this year and the average stake has only been 6$. 10,000 games at the 20s next year is certainly possible.

    **
    I just get frustrated so easily. Maybe frustrated is the wrong word but I just dont want to play. Today I played a session and was up 60 bucks or so and got 1st in a 27 for 110 and was just completely frustrated and did not want to be there even though I was only playing for less than 2 hours overall. And my evening session (now 1 tabling wee), went similarly where I didn't really feel like playing and decided to boot a table since it was soft (was watching lobbies), then I boot a second and realize I feel like shit. I bust one table with QQ where I could have made better decisions postflop, Then I shove KK pre on the other hoping to lose, I mean how fucked up is that? Anyways poker is not about getting rich quick, you have to grind a steady profit and put in hours and games (or hands). For some reason I just get angry when the wins and the $$ don't produce themselves. Or more stupidly when they do.
    **

    In happier news:
    -That douchebag who has pichaku as his avatar and says "piikkkaaa!" in the chatbox when he sucks out on you. Yea, that might be me. (only rarely do this )
    -I got a star on sharkscope for the 3rd time this year (lost first 2), for average profit over 500 games at the 6.75s where I ran ridiculously hot at almost 35% roi.

    I'm going to play a 215€ Qualifier to a 1000€ event in madrid plus expenses + hotel with my ticket that I cant cash. If I bubble the packages I get 215€ as a rebate (unless exactly the right amount of people enter) and that would be a win for me too (although less sweet). Field is softish too and very deepstack format with about 35 to 40 people. Gl me

    how its going:
    9:10 I brought some run good with me, won 300 bb pot with AA vs JJ + some dead money.
    10:00 first break, had 7K chips, jesus christ stax are deep (3.5K average with 25/50 blinds that are going up hella slow). 41 of 51 left, I plan on being top 5 and going to madrid the first week of february optimism
    12:00 missed last break had 12K now down to 6K with 15 left, 6-9 get their money back, 5 qualify. Need to remember not to try and back into the 215 since its only 11% of 1-5 is worth. it's go time. The next hour will be crucial and we might even be done by next break. gl me.
    12:30 busteod in 12th. had the shortest stack at one point and rode it out, doubled up, stole a few blinds and busted KK to AQ preflop for average stack size ie 215€ and freeroll for 1850. Pokerz :S
    Last edited by dneureiter; 12-12-2010 at 06:36 PM.
  11. #11
    Toying with the Idea of trying to turn 5$ into 5 stars (supernova), and 5 figures (more like 2x,xxx) next year.

    Also for my own eyes :


    For Some reason I seem to be thinking there isn't a significant amount of money to be made in sitngoes and am unmotivated to play. Well these 2 fellas are certainly doing it right and both are mostly 9 man regspeed players. I have considered getting coaching from thrash at some point but it is 180/h.

    Also am I the only one who opens the pokerstars lobby and then continues to find other things to do than play? I've been sitting here for an hour now :S
  12. #12
    Maybe I should not have made fun of santa and jesus. I either suck horribly at this game or am running bad. either way it is not very fun and I just suck at manning up. Been playing various games / not winning at any of them but not losing either. Playing 10.70+1 satties to the sunday million right now. Pretty damn soft and the two I have played had like 10-15% overlay which is a nice freebie. Either way I think I am going to withdraw my roll except for 5$ and either quit poker or grind that up next year. Want to get another 1400 fpps to play the turbo take-down and clear last 60$ of fulltilt bonus this month though.

    also f**k poker, yay snowboarding
    Last edited by dneureiter; 12-20-2010 at 10:48 AM.
  13. #13
    Seems like you're in the same spot that I was in recently. Trying to build a roll sucks ass (still trying myself). I dabbled in cash, MTT, HUSnGs, STT. Just bouncing around looking for an easy way out with maybe a few quick scores. The fact is, there isn't an easy way to go about it. Pick a game you know you have the ability to beat despite what results may be dictating over the last week or whatever and stick to it. I recently busted my roll through tilting and stuck on another 50 deposit despite promising myself I wouldn't.

    However, this time I looked for some help from some FTR members and began the grind again. Well, one month and around 900 SnGs later I am playing 25NL fully rolled. Even during that stretch though there were times when I'd load up and bust in 20 straight tournaments (18,27, and 45 mans) and often this would be when I'd be moving up in stakes.

    Variance happens. There's no way around it and sure there's always that chance of hitting a big score and suddenly having a roll but you're really way better off and much more likely to be successful actually focusing on a particular game. If you're not feeling the motivation to play well and are just dicking around with your roll playing random tournaments that don't further your cause then I'd take a break.

    PS. F yeah snowboarding!
    [00:29] <daven> dc, why not check turn behind
    [00:30] <DC> daven
    [00:30] <DC> on my hand?
    [00:30] <daven> yep
    [00:30] <DC> because I am drunk
    [00:30] <daven> nice reason
    [00:30] <daven> no further questions
    [00:30] <yaawn> ^^Lol

    Problem officer...?
  14. #14
    fulksy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    1,412
    Location
    Edmonton,Canada
    variance blows, but look back at your graph, its pretty sick. you know you can easily beat the games, i say take a bit of a break (snowboard) then reevaluate. ive been playing MTT's and feel the same way but i just go back to my bread and butter to finance my dabbling's in other games (cash/MTT).
  15. #15
    Just grinding 6max 12$ turbos on fulltilt. I like how the games play fast and there is no ep 75 bb deep. Only have a sample of 120 games but I have a 12% roi and rakeback + deposit bonus is my friend.



    Quite a lot of variance in there, nice random mess, at least they mostly stay above 0. red is aiev and blue is profit plus 56% combined rakeback / deposit bonus.
    Plan is to deposit 500 more (100$ limit on first deposit) and grind 1000+ of these for at least 400$ bonus + 170 RB + about a 1$ / game which I think is possible 6 tabling.
  16. #16

    Default Fulltilt support did something promptly omg.

    Hah, was going to suggest an over / under on whether or not fulltilt would respond to my email asking about still getting the remaine of my deposit bonus this year but they did it in 1 day! So I guess I can say something nice about them every once and again. So going to deposit 500$ and see how much bonus I can clear.

    Ty for dropping by guys. DC, yea I kindof have that personality type where I like to bounce around between tasks when things are not going so well. Usually this is -ev.

    I really don't have much of an idea what to do next year with poker and everything really. I realized withdrawing my account down to 5$ was the stupidest idea ever as it will just hinder growth and I will get super jaded playing .25 games for a long period of time. Just going to try and play 1250 games by Feb 3rd when the bonus expires primarily 6max turbos because they play really fast and are pretty beatable. I may shot take the 22s once I have over 1500 which is 400$ away once I include the deposit. After January we will see but I will prob go back to stars <3
  17. #17

    Default Why does hero calling feel better than hero folding ?

    Dude is a button mashing fish.

    NL Holdem $240(BB) Replayer
    Hero ($5,365)
    ($3,635)

    Dealt to Hero 2 4

    calls $120, Hero checks

    FLOP ($480) 8 7 3

    Hero checks, checks

    TURN ($480) 8 7 3 8

    Hero bets $305, calls $305

    RIVER ($1,090) 8 7 3 8 2

    Knew I had to barrel blank rivers when I bet turn but I pick up a bluff-catcher and tons of draws missed. c/c ftw.

    Hero checks, bets $720, Hero calls $720

    Hero shows 2 4
    (Pre 34%, Flop 23.5%, Turn 13.6%)

    shows A K
    (Pre 66%, Flop 76.5%, Turn 86.4%)

    Hero wins $2,530

    So obviously I pat myself on the back and feel pretty good about the way the hand played out. But here is the thing I wouldn't feel anywhere near as good about a hand where I an equally good fold. Obviously that's dumb and I realized that today.

    Got deposit bonus all squared away and ready grind for January (starting now). Getting a 24" Samsung tomorrow that I will set up vertical. Also getting a few games reviewed from "fthater" on stars who is a big 6max winner and makes videos for Sharkscope in exchange for helping him out with some web design. win-win.

    I think I played pretty well today even though it was just two short sets. I ended up about 10 BIs over 20 games and that was my ev as well. Fish on a heater !! 15% roi over 160, not really enough to prove myself as a winner but certainly in the competition. I feel like alot of regs are way to nitty early and don't steal wide enough in general late game. Just 6 tabling and want to keep it that way.
    Last edited by dneureiter; 12-28-2010 at 05:01 PM.
  18. #18
    Wow, running like jesus again, sorta like printing money.. Guys are playing pretty horribly at these 12$ games. Like there are regs making .07 per game over 2000 games that just fold, unless they have the nuts, in which case they minraise all streets. Not quite that bad but there are some awful regs. There are a select few worth avoiding because you will start wars with them and get confused and both lose ev. And that's not even counting the fish, who play worse. Hand of the day by far:

    I shove King-hi for value here

    NL Holdem $200(BB) Replayer
    Hero ($3,865)
    BB ($2,690)
    BTN ($2,445)

    Dealt to Hero Q K

    fold, Hero raises to $455, BB calls $255

    FLOP ($910) J 8 7

    Hero bets $525, BB calls $525

    TURN ($1,960) J 8 7 A

    Hero bets $2,885 (AI), BB calls $1,710 (AI)

    RIVER ($5,380) J 8 7 A Q

    Hero shows Q K
    (Pre 66%, Flop 81.8%, Turn 86.4%)

    BB shows 3 4
    (Pre 34%, Flop 18.2%, Turn 13.6%)

    Hero wins $5,380

    Graph of past week, all 6max except one 6.75 90 man which i binked for 155$
  19. #19
    fulksy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    1,412
    Location
    Edmonton,Canada
    FU at being a Luckbox, lol JK. Awesome job that's an unreal graph. i'm running like death so if you want to send some rungood my way, i wont say no. anyways good job, told you they were soft, Keep er' up.
  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by fulksy View Post
    FU at being a Luckbox, lol JK. Awesome job that's an unreal graph. i'm running like death so if you want to send some rungood my way, i wont say no. anyways good job, told you they were soft, Keep er' up.
    Hey! Don't be touching my luckbox anymore. Ran over 10 bi bad to lose quite a bit yesterday, ran a good bit better so far today.

    2010 is over! pretty good year. Want to get 5 figures and possibly supernova in 2011 if I decide to continue playing on stars after January.



    Ty FTR for all that I learned this year! Also posting this because it's from when I was an awesome player (read fish) at the 3.40 10 mans and was "running bad" at the beginning of the year.



    So funny, seeing it for the first time today because last night I was wondering how bad I really ran to break even. I remember thinking wow I am so unlucky while playing these too

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •