Operation Don't Donk My Roll

Ok, my operation is probably a little diferent than most. I do have certain goals, such as making more than $3k/month (since I have promised the wife that this is how much I will withdraw each month), but I know that if I stay focused and within my roll that will happen.

More importantly for me is staying focused and within my roll. I have tried making my roll public before, but I just stopped posting when I went on a busto phase. So I will promise to update my roll daily.

At this point I am sticking to MTTs, but playing other games helps my MTT game so I am not going to say I will never play anything else. However, I am going to stick to no more than 2% of my roll at risk on any given night. So with that as my intro, let me try and make one of those fancy sig banner things and start this thing off.

Well, I thought I followed all the instructions in the sticky, but no banner yet....

[edit] wheeeeeeeeeeee there it is.

GL Chardrian. Hope it turns out to be a great success

GL Char. I suggest adding lotsa SnG's to your repertoire. You'll keep your FT skills sharp this way too.

What's the variance on MTTs like? I can't see how it can't kick your ass unless you go apeshit and play 8 tables over 3 clients.

variance at MTTs is huge.

I play 4 at a time max.

Usually between 6-8 a night.

I played the Sunday Warmup on points today so it was like a freeroll and got pretty deep finishing in like 30 somethingth for 1.2k.

Had a race late that didnt hold up - otherwise another big payday was in the future.

Still not a bad day's work tho.

Ok, so far so good.

I got very deep in two tourneys tonight and although I'm disappointed I didn't make more (and I easily could have). I am still well above my monthly goal even though I've only played 45 hours online since Aug. 23.

Made my monthly withdrawal today so the roll took a 3k hit, but I'm still up so that's good.

Withdrew another $900 from UB since I never play there anymore.

Got deep in madness last night only to have AA lose to 66 and then I semi-tilted and went out against the big stack who never ever folded to me preflop on an 889Q board when I had QK and he had A8 but we were still both deepstacked enough for me to get away or control the pot and he was making retarded minbets and I fell into his trap and blechhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Is your roll still not donked?

amazingly...

withdrew another 5k for closing costs on the house.

Still have about 25k to play with...

Ever since I've had the opportunity to play "fulltime" I really haven't had the chance to play that much.

Between frequent visits from family and lots of time spent on buying a house I have only played something like 80 hours total since I started this post in late August.

I have also withdrawn more than I had promised so my roll is down to 25k after my last withdrawal to make sure we have enough for closing costs.

Once we actually move in at the end of this month, I think I'll finally get my first couple of weeks of 40+ hours per week in.

I had my worst night in a long long time Tuesday night going 0 for 12 in my tourneys.

Then I realized that my stake had ended and I had to repay people. So I lost like 2k of my roll in one night which is way over what I want to be risking on a nightly basis.

I did get 5th in a 100 FO tonight tho to win a little back and I'm back to just under 25k.

One nice win and I'll feel real good again...

wheeeeee I got my win.

The highs and lows of MTTs play major mindfucks. Last night I got 14th in 3 different tourneys and thought I was gonna gouge my eyeballs out. Tonight I win madness and I'm on top of the world.

And I still haven't played any 10/20 limit heads-up

Another 3 k withdrawal and my roll is back down to 32545.

It's frustrating in that I am continuing to make money but it doesn't really show since for the first time I am actually consistently withdrawing money as well.

But it's a GREAT sign that after all these withdrawals I am still up from when I started.

And even more encouraging is the fact that I have only played a little over 150 hours. Quick math - I've netted about 14k. So I am making just under $100/hr.

So far, so good. Now I just need to keep it up...

How'd November go for you Chard?

Staying away from the cash games still right???

I will occassionally play some shorthanded limit still but nothing over my roll.

I was actually on vacation for a lot of November so it didn't really go anywhere.

I just won the $10 rebuy on Tilt tho so my roll is boosted back up a bit.

Came close to a big score last night... but got kicked in the balls instead. 14 left in the $163 FO on Tilt.

FullTiltPoker Game #4626785630: $55,000 Guarantee (34969133), Table 16 - 1500/3000 Ante 400 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:47:44 ET - 2007/12/26
Seat 1: chardrian (131,142)
Seat 3: allornottin9 (82,099)
Seat 4: OKathyO (168,141)
Seat 6: USCphildo (139,777)
Seat 7: tk420919 (110,896)
Seat 8: StevoL_7 (43,895)
Seat 9: beaversandducks (235,921)
allornottin9: ty lucky
chardrian antes 400
allornottin9 antes 400
OKathyO antes 400
USCphildo antes 400
tk420919 antes 400
StevoL_7 antes 400
beaversandducks antes 400
beaversandducks posts the small blind of 1,500
chardrian posts the big blind of 3,000
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to chardrian [Js Jd]
allornottin9 folds
OKathyO folds
USCphildo raises to 7,500
tk420919 folds
StevoL_7 folds
beaversandducks folds
beaversandducks: best hand won
chardrian has been disconnected
chardrian has 15 seconds left to act
chardrian has reconnected
chardrian has 15 seconds left to act
allornottin9: true
chardrian raises to 22,222
USCphildo has 15 seconds left to act
USCphildo raises to 139,377, and is all in
chardrian calls 108,520, and is all in
USCphildo shows [Ad Td]
chardrian shows [Js Jd]
Uncalled bet of 8,635 returned to USCphildo
*** FLOP *** [5s 2c 6h]
*** TURN *** [5s 2c 6h] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [5s 2c 6h 8c] [Ac]
USCphildo shows a pair of Aces
chardrian shows a pair of Jacks
USCphildo wins the pot (265,784) with a pair of Aces
chardrian stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 265,784 | Rake 0
Board: [5s 2c 6h 8c Ac]
Seat 1: chardrian (big blind) showed [Js Jd] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 3: allornottin9 folded before the Flop
Seat 4: OKathyO folded before the Flop
Seat 6: USCphildo showed [Ad Td] and won (265,784) with a pair of Aces
Seat 7: tk420919 folded before the Flop
Seat 8: StevoL_7 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: beaversandducks (small blind) folded before the Fl

USC went on to win for 17k, I took like $500.

waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Roll is still intact tho.

Well my operation is now on hold for the next two months.

I took the bar exam here in Cali in July but didn't give myself enough time to study so I failed, which means I am retaking it the end of February. So I am taking these bar review classes which basically have me scheduled to be studying/going to class for like 8-12 hours every day from now until the end of February which means no time for tourneys until then.

My current roll is just under 32k. I will have to make my two monthly withdrawals without having a way to add to my roll so when I get back to playing in March I should have 25-26kish which is fine but it also means I want to kick ass right when I get back to ensure that I start re-adding back to my roll.

On another note, I punched some end of the year numbers last week and figured out that in MTTs I had an ROI of over 400% last year but even better (and somewhat surprisingly) was the fact that even when my 155k score was taken out of the equation my ROI was still at 80% (I was expecting it to be more like 50%) and it was over enough MTTs that I expect to continue to do well.

My goal for this next year is to increase volume when I get back to playing in March and for my ROI to stay above 50% (with the goal to keep it between 80-100 - but I'm not sure if that's realistic). In order to reach 6 figures again next year that means I'll need to average 10k a month which means I'll need to be entering close to 20k worth of tourneys (10k profit would then be 50% ROI). Unfortunately, to play 20k a month that means I need to play $700-800/day which is more like 3% of what my roll will be and more than what I want to risk on a given day (no more than 2% a day is my goal). So, basically I need to hit it large my first couple of months when I get back to playing....

I look forward to updating my progress and getting back to my operation in a couple of months. Until then, wish me luck at studying and passing the stupid bar (because so far I am hating the studying process).

Good luck with the bar.

Good luck with variance in March!

Originally Posted by chardrian

Well, I thought I followed all the instructions in the sticky, but no banner yet....

Having the same problem ...lol
so i gave up.

I don't know how you deal with playing mostly MTT's,
seems like self imposed punishment to me.

Good luck with the exam..

I cheated on not playing and took a day off from studying and played today and won a big tourney so I think it was a wise choice.

I goosed the roll up to just over 40k today.

Since I am not going to play anymore until after the bar and I will be withdrawing 3k for this month that means I will have just over 37k when I get back into the swing of things.

yay!!

wish me luck on the exam!!

CHEATERS NEVER WIN.

Or wait, what?

Good luck on the bar! (again)

gl Chard. Cheating clearly works for you, maybe try it in the exam?

Bar exam is over, and I'm playing again (at least for a couple of weeks and then I go on vacation).

My plan for this week is to risk around $700 a night. Last night didn't start too well (-$617 after moneying just 1 of 10 tourneys), but I played fine.

I always seem to have my doom switch on when I get back froma break.

Down like 2k the last 3 days.

Only moneyed 2 out of 26 tourneys.

Even lost money playing stupid 3/6 limit.

Blech.

Plus you were first out of the FTR500!

Stick with it man, you'll get your groove back soon.

Another 0 fer session.

5 tourneys - no cashes.

Can't win races, can't hold with big pairs, blah blah blah.

I have been going over my hands every morning to make sure I am playing fine and just running bad, and I am, so that's good.

It will come around - just frustrating.

The other thing I need to realize is that my roll is still up even after not playing for 2+ months and withdrawing 3k per month. So it could be much worse. I just hate the downswings.

small afternoon session.

13th in the 129 FO on Tilt and semi deep in the $10 rebuy on stars.

Frustrating not final tabling (especially on a cooler late on one hand), but good to money 2 out of 4 tourneys.

I've only played 35 tourneys this week. Moneyed 4 and only one came close to paying out big. But I'm still on target and for my first week back it's not horrible.

I'm like 5k points away from a $1000 gift certificate to some online electronics store on Stars, so I'll prolly be grinding some Limit to get there.

still frustrating.

21 tourneys this Mon-Wed and only 3 cashes.

I have been making some donk moves but more than anything I am just not winning races/running into monsters. Today I started getting bad beats, which sucks but is actually a good sign cuz I am getting it in ahead again.

It'll turn around - I'm just pulling out my hair waiting for it to happen.

just a bad 2 weeks.

After my monthly 3k withdrawal I am now just under 30k.

I am going on vacation for a couple of weeks and I'll be back with a vengeance in April. I did get enough points for a $1k gift card on stars so I'll be getting a new tv also.

got back to playing tonight.

played some limit, some NL heads-up, and my tourneys.

won a little at everything.

Made the FT of a $109 FO on Stars but got 9th which always blows (especially when I had a deep enough stack to make the FT and go semi-deep but blew it up).

I dont know how much I'll play the rest of this week cuz my family is coming. But next week I should get in a ton of hours.

after a major downswing (was down to like 27.5k), I am back to 29.5k thanks to winning a small $100 FO on UB.

2nd in a $75 FO on Tilt brings the BR back up in the positive.

Looking back and seeing that I've made money even after withdrawing $3k/month since August and not playing that much volume gives me confidence that I can actually succeed at this.

I am finally getting in some true volume this month, so we'll see what happens.

Bad downswing + 3k withdrawal = BR down to just under 25k.

Hang in there she-male! You know how swingy these things are! I expect to see a big win posted in the next month!

well after a very difficult April and May, June has been a-ok.

+10k in the last two days = br back above 32k.

I go to the wsop next week and am playing really well, so I am definitely looking forward to it.

Originally Posted by chardrian

+10k in the last two days = br back above 32k.

I go to the wsop next week and am playing really well, so I am definitely looking forward to it.

nice one.

hope all flips go your way, and that you stay on the right end of set<set and KK<AA...

wheeeeeee

winning is FUN!!

br goosed over 36k

What are you playing? Congrats on the recent success.

tourneys, tourneys, and some more tourneys (with the occasioanl foray into cash games to keep me sane).

Originally Posted by chardrian

the occasioanl foray into cash games to keep me sane

No shit.

I dunno how you grind MTTs

cuz winning is FUN!!

mmMMm.. This is true.

I started on MTTs, and I can still remember the high of winning the 4.40/180 a few times when I wasn't even close to rolled fer it.

...then came the brutally long dry patch
see: sharkscope graph for '4.40'.





I dream of oneday being rolled so I can donk around in the sunday million like I do now in the 11/180 turbos

back from vegas.

I got 3rd in a caesar's event for like 14k and made my first WSOP cash as well in a 1.5k event. Things could have gone even better, but I am pleased with the results.

after paying my backers back with online funds my online roll is now just under 32k.

Since I deposited my caesar's victory I am not going to withdraw any online funds for a couple of months tho, so if I run decent I should be able to juice the roll back up.

The fact that my roll is still up from where I started even after all of my monthly withdrawals keeps increasing my confidence level that I might be able to pull this playing as a pro thing off.

I am off to So. Cal for a couple of weeks so I won't be playing much until mid July.

Nice man. Good luck building that roll up in the next few months .

final tabling the UB Sunday major boosts me up to just over 40k.

doesn't really change much, except now instead of "taking shots" at the $163 FOs on tilt and stars I am actually rolled for them w/my 200 buyin roll management theory.

I also will continue to take my shots on Sundays if I get a chance to play (Sundays are often my wife's day off from work, which means it's my day off too). I have been setting a monetary limit on Sundays, topping off at about 3% of my roll. Basically this just means that instead of playing 4 tourneys on Sundays, I can now play 5-6.

I rarely if ever get pm's

won another small tourney and am up to 42k.

Nice going! If you take down another big cash, do you think you'll leave it in the roll this time?

it depends how big. we'll cross that bridge when it comes...

It'll be a good dilemma to have .

3rd in the 100k nightly guarantee on stars for $16k.

wheeeeee

Congrats on that! Going deep is fun. I wish I had the time/BR to support playing these sometimes.

I am 0 for FTOPs and am getting frustrated even though I shouldn't be. My ROI for the year is now over 100%, I have profited over 50k and I am playing super low volume. I still expect to win everytime though...

Grats on that finish, very nice.

How are the plans going re: upping your volume Chardrian? do you have a set number of extra hands / hours you want to get in? or is it a little less formulaic than that at the moment?

As always I enjoy reading the blog and look forward to your next success.

2 week downswing has brought me back under 50k.

But more importantly, it has been one year since I started this thread and I am still alive and kicking. Wheeeeeeee.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...70.html#741552

up, down, up, down, and back up again today.

wheeeeeeeeeeee.

If I can get on a hot streak, I might break thru.

Hard to get on a hot streak when you don't play. I should be playing again much more frequently starting tomorrow.

I withdrew my monthly 3k so the roll is back down to 50k.

Hopefully I can get some nice scores this month.

got down to about 43k. But have had 2 good days and back up to 56k.

variance is a bitch.

Originally Posted by chardrian

variance is a bitch.

QFT. At least you are still raking it in... next big score comin up soon!

I finally passed the 1000 tourney mark for the year today. For those that don't understand playing tournament poker professionally, that's an awfull small number. Considering that I can put in 12 tourneys a day (which is also considered a small number), that means that I've really only played like a little over 80 days this year. And for a fulltime job, that's obviously not many days. We talked about it last night, and I really just need a way to light a fire under my ass so that I can get more volume in. I feel like I should be at double this amount (at least 2000 tourneys) and even if I made just 50% as much as I did over the first 1k, I'd be at $100k profit for the year now.

As far as the stats go - I'm super pleased with my ROI which is at 73%. My itm is at 14.4% which seems low, but a lot of that has to do with my double up or go home mentality - I am working on relaxing a bit more w/15-25 BBs, so hopefully that will increase. My FT percentage is 2.5% - I don't know what to make of that. It seems low, but it also seems to be working. I think when I do make a FT I get a top 3 score a huge percentage of the time, so I'd like to increase my FT percentage in case I start picking up some more 4-9ths rather than 1-3rds.

I was at your table in the FTP Nightly a couple of days ago and you didn't say hi back to me .

I might not be the best person to ask about playing well, but I've played 2500 tourneys this year so when it comes to volume I think I can give good advice.

First of all, I don't think 12 tourneys a day is that small of a number. I play a little more than that, but definitely under 20 unless it's Sunday. So you need to figure out how to play more sessions.

One of the annoying things about being a tourney pro is that there are only certain times of the day when good tourneys are starting and your schedule is pretty much locked in to those times. We don't have the freedom to play whenever we want, that cash game players have. On California time, most of the good daily tourneys start between 10 AM and 2 PM, or between 5 PM and 9 PM. I have no idea why, but there's very little value to speak of between those times, so when I play a session it's basically always one or the other. FWIW here is what my session schedule looks like.

Morning session:
10:00 Stars 100
10:00 FTP 75
10:30 FTP 50 cubed
11:00 Stars 100 rebuy
11:15 Stars 20 cubed
11:30 FTP 20 rebuy
12:00 Stars 50
12:00 FTP 150
12:15 Stars 50 rebuy
12:30 FTP 50
1:00 FTP 100 rebuy
1:30 FTP 30 rebuy
2:00 Stars 50
2:00 FTP 120 knockout


Evening session:
5:00 Stars 100 rebuy
5:00 FTP 150
5:30 FTP 30 rebuy
6:00 Stars 150
6:00 Stars 20 rebuy
6:30 Stars 50
6:30 FTP 50
7:00 FTP Big Double
7:30 FTP 50 cubed
8:00 Stars 100
8:00 FTP 100
8:30 FTP 50 rebuy
9:00 Stars 70 6-max
9:00 FTP 70 knockout

Lately I've been adding a couple of other tourneys in there like PCA super satellites but that's basically it. Anyway, I try to get in 4 of these sessions a week, and then obviously play the Sunday majors. If you're having trouble finding the motivation to even get 4 sessions in a week then maybe you should put together a schedule and stick to it.

Looking at your OPR, a couple of other things I noticed:

-You seem to be playing tourneys throughout the day, for example playing both the morning FTP 150 and the evening one. Seems like you'd be in front of the computer all day. Whenever I do that I get burned out and end up not playing at all for the next couple of days.

-I'd stop playing those FTP 26's. They are a waste of time for a player of your ability, especially when you don't play that many tables and you're missing other much higher value tourneys. The 20, 30, and 50 rebuys are great and you won't believe how soft they are.

Anyway I just thought I'd share how I manage to get in the volume that I do, hopefully you can find something helpful this long ass post. Congrats on your success.

I don't know how you MTT folks do it. "Know when the walk away and Know when to run" is pretty core to me. Also "Know when to glue your ass to the table until he busts, leaves or you're about to collapse."

I don't have the extended chat on tilt, so I miss a lot of chat there. I remember you at my table tho.

As far as 12 tourneys a day - I agree that it's not super small and it's enough for me, I just also realize that others are playing 20+ a day.

The reason I often play both 150s is that instead of playing one long session like you do, I basically always try and play two short(er) ones a day.

I like to fire up 6 tourneys that start in a one hour time frame and that's my session.

My aft session starts at noon pacific time and is:

Stars $55 FO at noon
Tilt $26 KO at noon
Tilt $163 FO at noon
Tilt $55 FO at 12:30
Stars $10 rebuy at 1
Tilt $75 FO at 1

I can then start another session at any time between 5-8 depending on how my aft session went.

Lastly, as far as the $26s go, I continue to add them both because their value is so damn good and to lessen my daily risk a tad.

The thing with my volume is that I have absolutely no excuses. No school, no job, no kids, a wife that works 100 hours a week - so I am just sitting on my ass doing nothing a lot it seems.

I juiced the roll a tad by FTing the 100k on stars. I had glimmers of the 20k first place in my sights but couldn't win any of 3 races at the FT and finished a disappointing 6th.

Well I am disappointed because I came super close to major moola by finishing 12th in the Sunday Brawl.

But I did juice the roll to over 60k for the first time, so that's sorta nice. Unfortunately it prolly won't last long since I will be making my monthly withdrawal soon but it's still progress.

Well after 2 withdrawals a small downswing and losing a buttload (10 k ish) playing cash I was back down to about 40k, but I took the 80k down today on stars. I also made my monthly withdrawal for December today so the roll is at 54k.

Isn't it odd that we seldom update unless we are winning?

Congrats on the take down!

5th in the nightly 100k on stars and the roll is almost back to 60k.

2 top 3s in the $163 FOs on Tilt = a good January even with my standard low volume.

I am going on vacation next week and will be on another vacation the first week of Feb., so I will unlikely get my volume in that month either. But the roll is still increasing, so no real complaints.

Oh - I've also made my first small step into backing by putting money into a well known, proven consistent winner. So I've taken that money out of my roll as a sunk cost but hopefully it will be a nice juice to the roll at some point in the future.

hope that works out well for you chard

time for some mojo.

I am on a bit of a downswing + Feb and March withdrawals + some more money put into staking = br down to 50 k ish.

So time to put my avatar of Javier back into play and turn things around.