Results of August

Two games ago, I had a net profit of $1599. It was of course very tempting to try and play just one or two more games and finish the month above $1600. This had the predictable effect that I am now down to $1555. Oh well! It is nice to lose some games, check your bankroll and find that it is still well above $500 :-)

This also means that this picture is no longer accurate, since my ROI has gone down now, of course. But I wanted to preserve it for posterity ;-)

My profit for the month August is a respectable $297. In fact, this is my second highest monthly profit ever (behind the month in which I finished 3rd in a Steps tournament, of course), and more than $100 more than the third highest profit.

Today I found out that such results place me in the top 5% of all SNG players, at least if I manage to keep it up for the remainder of the year. But all I have to do is to not have less money four months from now than I have today: you can see here that the average yearly earnings among the top 5% of all SNG players is $1150, and I have already earned substantially more than that in 2007.

Nevertheless, Sharkscope does not put a little shark next to my name yet. Perhaps that is too much to ask after such a short time of playing succesfully :-) but I cannot help but wonder what exactly the requirements are to get that icon. I did already get the form "Hot" once which was nice to see (I got it after cashing in four consecutive SNGs). I suppose I will have to sustain this form for a longer time before being considered as a possible shark. Certainly, my current ROI would appear to be unsustainable over a longer stretch, as you can see from this graph.

Another interesting statistic from SNG Planet is that the top 5% take in a whopping 85% of the profit, whereas over 70% of all SNG players are losers. If I look at just the $22 games that I played in, I won $920 in them (ignoring the fact that I had to pay a $22 buyin to get in). There was 30 x 10 x $20 = $6000 available to be won in those games, so I took 15% of that. Nice! (Of course, the maximum possible winnings in a set of SNGs are not 100% but 50%, since the best you can do is always finish first.)

Yeah

Turns out I have just enough time for another post... and another game. I finally won a game again! This time I needed quite a bit of luck at the start, some of my bets did not work out and I dropped to 555. I went all-in on Q7 in late position (the level was 25/50 I think) and the BB called with A4s... There was a 7 on the flop and he did not recover.

After this I slowly worked my way up, helped at one stage by the neighbor to my immediate left, who thought that top pair was gold. It was no match for my top pair top kicker!

Then I won a huge pot when I went all-in with AK to isolate on an early raiser (and possibly get him to fold). A short stack behind me called and the original raiser called as well. They turned up AT and AQ!! There was a K on the turn so that the Q on the river did not hurt me. Shortly afterwards, I started the heads-up phase with a 2:1 advantage and amazingly, I actually managed to hold on and win it, thanks to an unlikely rivered straight on the final hand.

For the $20 games, my return on investment and in the money percentage are now both 50% :-) This is after 28 games. It is quite incredible, really. I sort of expected the level of the players to increase at some buyin, but it does not seem to be happening, at least not yet...

Number 12

Yes, ANOTHER second place. (I still did not finish 3rd once in any of the 27 games!) It is always annoying when there is a complete idiot at the table who just keeps getting lucky. He won two all-ins with A9... Eventually we got it heads-up, and it was long clear to me that this would be another second place for me. The final hand, I went all-in only to have him flip up QQ and leave me with two outs.

This is just one of those things that you have to learn to accept. It would be nice if the idiots always got what was coming to them, but on the other hand, if they always lost, they would not keep coming back for more...

This will be my last post for a while, I will be traveling again. Thanks for dropping by!

Ten Eleven second places

It is surreal. I have won one $20 SNG and have now finished runner-up TEN eleven times. Just now my opponent started the heads-up phase with 1300 and had 700 left after posting the blinds. Nevertheless, he easily beat me... Of course he was very lucky a few times. Oh well, my ROI is now 37% 42% at the $20 level. I could not have dreamed of such numbers just a few short months ago!

PS Despite my $700 win at Party once upon a time, my total winnings at Pacific have now overtaken those at Party! Over the last 30 days I have earned $300 net.

Some numbers

I had a look at my won hands percentage at the various levels at Pacific and Party (with many thanks to the indispensable PokerOffice!).

Won hands percentage

Site	Pacific			Party
Level	5.50	11.00	22.00	Level	6.00	11.00
10/20	11	8	7	20/40	7	8
15/30	8	8	11	30/60	8	9
25/50	13	16	13	50/100	14	15
50/100	21	20	14	100/200	24	14
75/150	25	22	17
100/200	33	29	22	200/400	35	32
150/300	34	35	31	300/600	37	40
200/400	39	40	37	400/800	43	30
250/500	32	47	40
300/600	33	46	45	600/1200	12	56
400/800	22	31	48
500/1000	33	32	25
750/1500	12	18	-
1000/2000	7	18	-

For Party, I skipped two rows because the levels increase faster there. I wanted to have equivalent levels on the same row each time (the starting stack at Party is 2000, so roughly twice the starting stack at Pacific, at least at the level $11 and below).

I think it is quite interesting. At Pacific, starting from level 3, the numbers in the central column are always higher than in the other columns, except for level 400/800 and higher. However, at level 400/800 I have played only 33 hands so far with buyin $22, so that does not say much. (Similarly, I only played 21 hands at the 500/1000 level with buyin $5.50.)

Of course I played the $5.50 games quite a while ago, I stopped playing them entirely in May. Still, the uniform decrease over all the levels from $11 to $22 does suggest that the opposition at the $22 level is noticeably stronger. I suppose it is surprising that I have done as well as I have (ROI is still 31% now). That reminds me, I reached a milestone in that Sharkscope finally draws a graph of my ROI also for the $22 buyin level. Here is the graph:



At Party, it is noticeable that at the $11 level, on the one hand I underperform in the middle stages when compared to the $6 level, but I actually have more success at Party overall here than at Pacific! There are strange dips at the 400/800 level at $11, and even more so at the 600/1200 level at $6, but these results are based on relatively few hands (33 and 24, respectively). Now that I actually look at the numbers, I notice for the first time that my $6 results at Party are actually better than at Pacific! This is quite surprising, since the rake at Party is twice as high, so you need to perform better at Party to even reach the same ROI as at Pacific.

Well, that's enough statistics for today :-)

FINALLY (2)

I finally managed to win a $20 SNG, on the 19th attempt! (Counting the game that was interrupted due to network problems). Finally, after no less than 7 second places, no third places and out-of-the-money finishes in my last three attempts, I actually ended first.

It was not easy, I lost two all-ins when it was heads-up, but both times my opponent had far less chips than I did.

The start of this game was actually extremely embarrassing. I played it like an idiot. I got 99 on the very first hand, raised to 100 and got reraised to 300! I called, and went all-in (for reasons unknown) on a flop consisting only of low cards. My opponent did not hesitate to call with his pocket aces, but the river was a 9...

After that it was relatively plain sailing. I survived a scare midgame though. At the level 50/100, one player raised to 400, got called, and a third player went all-in. I was behind him with KK! Though I was worried about AA of course, I had to call. To hopefully push the first two players out, I went all-in over the top (it was not much extra chips anyway). The original raiser thought for a while with his 99 but folded them, and the first caller folded as well. The all-in guy showed 77... The scare continued when a four-straight appeared on the table, but thankfully it did not fill up and this more than doubled me back up.

On the bubble I stayed mostly constant, made a small profit by bullying the other stacks, until two opponents went all-in and the short stack was eliminated. This left two big stacks (me and one other player), and a shorter stack, who however managed to get very close to me as the game went on. Eventually I eliminated him though, when I called his all-in with AQ. He held K9 and nearly made a straight, but fortunately again it did not quite work out.

The heads-up phase lasted 22 games, I had the upper hand throughout, despite my two all-in losses. One of those losses actually put him ahead of me, but I soon reached parity and then went ahead again when I went all-in on middle pair and he did not call. Afterwards as I said he won another all-in, but this only took him up to 5000 from 2500, and I still had 10,000. Eventually he went all-in when I held 88, I called and he showed 33. My eights held up and finally, finally, after 19 attempts, my first $20 victory was a fact. First place scores $100 at this level :-) My total net profit is now $1454.

Jetlag

I was right - I should not have played on Saturday ;-) However, the good news is that I made up for it by placing 7th in a MTT just now, earning me $50 (minus $11 buyin). I am jetlagged and decided to play some poker (but not for $20!) to pass the time during the night and hopefully to adjust to the new time zone. Other good news, as you can see, is that I actually have an internet connection here.

Guess what place I finished in...

That's right, ANOTHER second place! I still have 0 wins and 0 third place finishes, it is quite amazing. It seems that no matter how many chips I have when the heads-up phase started, I always find a way to lose. Just now I lost with K7 against Q2 when a queen came on the river...

I have now played 12 of these games, so I finish in the money exactly 50% of the time so far. My ROI is 36% (today).

Anyway this last game was actually a lot of fun to play, there was quite some chatting going on. This does not happen that often at Pacific because you have to open the chat window separately (and then resize it and move it out of the way....), and not everybody bothers to do that. One guy called me an "all-in monkey" :-) I had only gone all-in three times or so at that point! I think it was time for it too, the blinds were already getting relatively high. Anyway it was quite funny to be called that, I certainly did not mind and hoped that my all-ins would upset my opponents.

I just had a look at my profit graphs, it has certainly been going up and down over the last few days. Indeed, for the last five days, I have had a pattern of winning $40 and losing it the next day! Today was a win day so perhaps I should not play tomorrow :-)

Posting will be light or possibly non-existent next week, I am going on a business trip. Just so you know...

Idiots everywhere

Sometimes I feel like I am still playing on the $2.50 level instead of on the $20 level. The kind of idiocy you see sometimes is breathtaking. Just now I saw somebody calling an all-in, postflop, with 77, after his opponent had already checkraised preflop. (The flop was 962 or something.) Of course his opponent had KK and won. However, the loser had a lot of chips before this game, and this only put him down to 1300 or so.

On the very next game, I was SB and hit top pair tens on the flop (I had AT). I raised to 3BB and the idiot from just now went all-in. His name contained the word tilt, and it seemed safe to assume that he was indeed tilting at this moment. At best I put him on a flush draw, making me 70% favorite, so I called. Of course he did indeed have the flush draw, and got rewarded for his idiot move by a heart on the turn and for good measure another heart on the river...

This actually did not cost me all my chips, so I had the joy of trying to play on with 160 chips (level 15/30). I went all-in with my first Ace, which happened to be A5, and got called by A4. Unfortunately there were too many high cards on the flop, so we shared the pot. Then on the next game, the idiot from above was already in the hand but I decided to go all-in anyway on Q9, knowing he would call. He did, with A4, and I got a queen on the flop but of course there was an Ace on the turn.

What can you do...

Yet another second place

This is getting ridiculous! After my previous posting (see below) and a little break, I decided to play one more game. And yet again I finished in second place! This time the heads-up phase only lasted a single game, my opponent went all-in with A8 right away and I decided to call with KT. He did not pair anything but instead made a 9-high straight...

Of course, like I wrote below, nothing to complain about, but it is really strange. I have now played 9 games with the following results:

• First place: 0 times
• Second place: 5 times
• Third place: 0 times

It sure would be nice to win one of these games, but it is very nice that I have already earned $300 playing these games (net profit $102, ROI now 51% - one game can make a lot of difference at this stage!).

Beware of flopped sets

This time I played it correctly... This was the second hand of this game. Fortunately it was "only" a $10 SNG.

Blinds: t10/t20
10 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: t1200
UTG+1: t1180
UTG+2: t900
MP1: t1020

Hero: t1200
MP3: t1200
CO: t1180
Button: t1180
SB: t1740
BB: t1200

Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is MP2 with 6♦ 6♠

2 folds, UTG+2 calls t20 (pot was t30),
MP1 calls t20 (pot was t50),
Hero calls t20 (pot was t70), (let's see a cheap flop)
MP3 calls t20 (pot was t90),
CO calls t20 (pot was t110),
Button folds,
SB calls t10 (pot was t130),
BB checks.

Flop: 6♣ 9♣ Q♦ (t140, 7 players) (very nice)

SB checks, BB checks, UTG+2 checks, MP1 checks,
Hero bets t60 (let's see how much I can make on this hand. Actually I am not betting enough here because there is a flush draw on the board, and there are too many opponents),
MP3 calls t60 (pot was t200),
CO raises all-in t1160 (great. Probably some idiot with a flush draw),
4 folds,
Hero calls all-in t1120 (not folding my set here),
MP3 calls all-in t1120 (erm. What??).

Turn: 5♦ (t3640, 0 player + 3 all-in - Main pot: t3620, Sidepot 1: t40)

River: 7♥ (t3640, 0 player + 3 all-in - Main pot: t3620, Sidepot 1: t40)

Results:
Final pot: t3640
Hero shows 6d 6s
MP3 shows Qs Qh (lovely. Just lovely)
CO shows 6h 9h (still an idiot, but he actually did have a hand)

Afterwards I played two $22 games. I bubbled out of the first one when everyone refused to call my all-ins until the bubble, at which point I only had about 1200 and the others all about 3000 or more. Now somebody did call my all-in and that was it.

In the second one, I managed to reach yet another second place. This time my position as the heads-up phase started was quite good, and I survived for quite some time although I never got any really good hands. I had gotten QQ on the final hand of the 3-player phase, enabling me to eliminate the nr.3 when he went all-in and all I had to do was go all-in over the top.

But on the next 16 hands, I got nothing suitable. Nevertheless I went all-in preflop several times, but never got called. When we played a hand, he would inevitably show down the better hand, it was very frustrating. He would get hands like KJ or make his flush on the river, while I was facing hands like a pair of 2s with 4 overcards on the table. Also he would never fold to my post-flop bets, making life extremely difficult for me.

Still, I should remember that I have no cause to complain! The important thing is that I am not losing money at this new level. My ROI has dropped to 36% but that is still great (of course it does not mean anything over only 8 games).

I started playing $5 games (again) on April 22nd. I started experimenting with the $10 games on May 12th, cashing for the first time (first place) on May 16th. I started playing them almost exclusively on June 4th. I stayed there for two months, playing about 70 games in that time and making a profit of about $300 (only at Pacific, I mean). All things considered, I think that I am playing at the right level for the moment.

How NOT to play a flopped set

Let this be a warning to all...

Blinds: t15/t30
9 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t1585
UTG+1: t3690
MP1: t1415

MP2: t850
MP3: t1270
CO: t1370
Hero: t1685
SB: t1290
BB: t1845

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is Button with 3♠ 3♣

UTG folds, UTG+1 calls t30 (pot was t45), 4 folds, Hero calls t30 (pot was t75), SB calls t15 (pot was t105), BB checks.

Flop: 3♦ Q♥ J♣ (t120, 4 players)

SB bets t60, BB folds, UTG+1 calls t60 (pot was t180), Hero raises to t120, SB calls t60 (pot was t360), UTG+1 calls t60 (pot was t420).

Turn: T♥ (t480, 3 players)

SB checks, UTG+1 bets t300, Hero calls t300 (pot was t780), SB folds.

River: 9♠ (t1080, 2 players)
UTG+1 bets t270, Hero calls t270 (pot was t1350).


Results:
Final pot: t1620
UTG+1 shows 8d 9d

ROI > 100%

I don't expect to keep this up, and I apologize again for bragging, but you have got to enjoy times like this: I have now cashed in my fourth $20 game as well, bringing my return on investment to over 100% for these games. I paid 4 x $22 = $88 to play, and with three second places earned 3 x $60 = $180...

The heads-up phase was again HARD! My problem is that when the heads-up phase starts, we usually both have large stacks, so that I cannot play SAGE yet. I try to follow the guidelines of Harrington, but it is difficult, and I usually bleed off my money until I can play SAGE. However, by that time, my opponent usually has so much more chips than I do that my position is quite hopeless.

Still, 2nd places also pay :-)

$1324

My net profit as of just now :-)

I finally managed to break the $1300 "barrier". I reached $1200 already on June 18th, and $1289 on July 6th, but due to various excursions (Titan...) I never broke $1300 until now. And the way I did it was also quite nice, because I cashed once again in a $20 SNG - another 2nd place. That makes two cashes in three attempts, and an ROI of 61% ;-) Actually I made a small mistake here, I messed up the calculations due to the game where I was disconnected. For three games, I paid $66 and earned $120, so a net profit of $54, or 81%.

I almost managed to cash in a simultaneous $10 SNG as well. I had started to play that game because it seems that you always have to wait some time before a $20 game fills up. In this case, it took one level of the $10 SNG until the $20 game started.

In the $10 game, after thirteen hands on the bubble I hit top pair Aces at the same time as my opponent hit two pair - 89...

In the $20 game, I had dropped to 1000 after only 11 games. I kept getting reasonably good hands that however refused to work out. Then I got AK, and though I missed the flop, my sole remaining opponent in that hand fortunately folded to my c-bet. Two hands later I got AK again, and this hand went even better as my opponent refused to fold to my c-bet... with KJ! We checked it down and to my lasting surprise, the money came my way.

That brought me back to 1600. Ten hands later or so I got AQ, raised and got two callers. The flop was AA2... It was checked round to me, I bet, and one opponent went all-in. I obviously had to call, though I was quite worried about him having AK, but instead he had... K4. 3000!

The game remained exciting, some hands later I had to c-bet with AT on a missed flop, bringing me down to 1600. Fortunately my opponent folded to that bet, so I ended that hand with 3000 again.

I managed to remain about constant until I tried to steal as SB with 84 and got called by the shortstacked BB. The flop was 873 and I decided to go all-in, he actually called me but had only J9 or something. 5000!

Shortly afterwards I got my best hand of this game, KK, but actually had to lay it down after three clubs appeared on the flop and another one on the turn. Oh, and there was also an ace. Fortunately I lost only 1100 on that hand.

On the first hand with three players, I got QJ and raised preflop. BB called, flop QT8. He bet. Now I had noticed early on that he was very aggressive, so I decided to go all-in with my top pair. He folded after some thought. This however brought him down to only 1600 (level 200/400) and he did not recover from that.

The heads-up phase was again tough, I did not get any good hands and was quickly eliminated.

A loss of $11,700

Don't worry -- it is not MY loss! This week I was playing a $10 SNG and I checked out one of my opponents at Sharkscope, after I noticed that I had played against him before (I like to have notes on the "regulars"). Previously I had sometimes seen people with an overall loss of $3000 or $4000, but what I found this time really took my breath away.

I just couldn't believe it at first: how do you manage to lose more than eleven thousand dollars and keep on playing? For $10 a game no less! I looked at a closeup for this player and saw that it wasn't even a question of ups and downs - only downs and further downs.

Indeed, the graph of this profit over time looked pretty much like a straight line - at a 45° angle downwards. It looked like he basically lost almost every game he was playing in, it was horrible to see.

I felt quite badly about playing against him and even thought about saying something to him, but what is there that you can say to such a player? I have been lucky enough to have been playing with my winnings for a few months now, having withdrawn my original deposits at around that time. But I just cannot imagine how you could keep on depositing so much money for such a long time. Of course I don't know how long he has been playing, but he must have made a LOT of deposits, or some very large ones.

Anyway, this really took out the fun of playing. I don't want to take the money of somebody who has already lost $11,000! But of course I know, if it wasn't me, somebody else would take his money. Eventually this player even managed to outlast me and I went out on the bubble, so at least I don't have to feel too bad about this particular game. (Although, it is results like this, I imagine, that keep him coming back for more....)

But enough about him. I played one more $20 game and this time I really had the feeling that I had risen to the level of my incompetence (Peter's principle). The opponents were quite good, and though I managed to survive at the bubble for a couple of rounds, I always had the feeling it was an uphill battle and indeed I did not manage to cash this time. So I played a few more $10 games, but without much success so far. But overall I cannot complain, my net profit at Pacific is approaching $500. Not bad considering it was all done with $10 games or less.

Results of July, and a second place

In July I eventually made a net profit of $38. Nothing spectacular. It would have been a lot higher had I avoided playing at Party, PKR and especially of course, Titan.

However! The second half of the title is much more interesting, though it may seem mundane :-) This is because that second place was obtained in a $22 SNG! Yes, a new month, a new playing level (not that I expect to move up each month...). Thus I placed in the first such game that I finished - you may remember that I played one a couple of weeks ago, but got thrown out and had my money refunded.

After I had joined, when 6 players had joined, I looked in Sharkscope to see what I was getting into. It said there was "just" one shark, so that was not too bad. Anyway, by the time I got this result the game was already starting, so there was nothing I could have done about it had there been more sharks.

This game went quite nicely actually. At the beginning I got some nice cards and won a few small pots, bringing me up to 1915. (At this level, unlike lower levels at Pacific, you start with 1500 of chips.) Then I had some trouble and could not really get going, mostly due to the high aggression around the table (there were often two limpers before me, making steals difficult and limping often unwise). Eventually I was forced to go all-in against a player whom I had observed to call every single preflop all-in. Fortunately I held ATs at this point and he only had A6, and did not get lucky.

After this it was again relatively plain sailing until the bubble, which lasted a bit longer than I am used to. However, fortunately for the rest of us, my idiot opponent from above (A6) had managed to get lucky more than once and was still in the game. Over the course of a few rounds, he slowly bled off his chips to the rest of us, and though he once made a comeback from a stack of only 600, eventually it was not enough and he was eliminated.

Then, with only three players left (and a payout of $40 already assured!), I got extremely lucky. After an immediate all-in on 22 that was folded around, a few hands later I got KK. The player to my right minraised to 800 and I flat called, and the BB called as well. On a flop of low cards, I bet 1200, and OTB went all-in! I called of course and he in fact showed AA. I was thinking that at least I had managed to make it into the money, when the river came a beautiful King... I guess this was one of the 20% of cases that the guy with the lower pair wins (though my odds postflop were no doubt a lot worse than that).

This brought us heads-up, and I in fact had a small lead. My opponent played quite well however, and although I managed to stay close to him early on, I lost a lot of chips when I tried to slowplay two pair. I held A2, flop was A24! I just checked, he did as well and the turn was an 8. Then I started betting, but the harm was done as he held in fact A8 :-( It probably did not matter that much, he most likely would have called a flop bet as well. Anyway then the river even brought an additional 8, and this brought me down to about 3000. He called my next all-in bet holding QQ and his queens held up.

Still, I am obviously more than happy with this initial second place, which paid $60, so after subtracting the buyin it paid basically the same as a first place in a $10 game would.

Let's see how it goes from here... Hah, I just noticed that the net profit from this game was almost exactly the profit that I made in the entire month of July!