| Archive for Tagpoker Forum A friendly place for winning poker players to share their strategy to making money playing poker. |
| JamEaze |
JamEaze's BR BuildI deposited £50 on Betfair a few months ago, lost £45 of that playing cash games, and moved to HU with a £5 ($8 ). Managed to grind that up to around £190 ($300) by breaking even but unlocking a ton of deposit and store bonuses, by 4 tabling the $5 games.Early this year I found TagPoker, switched to Full Tilt (had an old account with Rakeback still activated) and taking the Brokerstars full course at the moment. Playing the $10 at the moment, initally had no success and dropped back to $250 but switched to deepstacks around the same time as my first lesson,and got it back to $282 (at time of writing). Feel like im learning tons, my game is improving and I am close to really smashing through. Playing sets of 5 $10 (singletabling) at one time before taking breaks. Keep scoring 3 for 2 when I feel like my play in a session deserved more (like a 4 for 1 or even 5 for 0). Just need a touch more end game patience and a touch more luck (taken a few beats, and last night got my read spot on when villain 4bet shoved preflop with Q10, only to suck out on my A10). Trying to go back over Hand Histories at the end of each set of games, I think from the couple of hands I have posted in the small stakes threads that I have an issue with trying to pick up pots on the turn when the board is arguably too wet, so trying really hard to iron it out. Would post my SS graph, but its got a load of old SNG results from a few years ago distorting it, and dont have a full subscription to reset my stats. Playing with kinda conservative BR, moveup level of 35 buyins (so wanna have 735 to play the $21s), move down at 20. |
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| JamEaze |
So only played 4 games tonight. Played 2, one against a trash talking nit, and one against a non trash talking nit. Beat them both. Showed a lot more patience with the tight players than I perhaps have previously (Lesson 2 working well!!)
Stopped, had dinner, went to a mates to watch the football. Came back, played two after. One guy shoved on a KK4 flop with a flush draw and my K9 held. Second guy put it in with second pair on the turn after I smooth called his cbet on the flop with a set then put in a bluffy looking raise on his small turn bet. Always nice when your opponent puts their money in drawing dead! So 4 for 0 for the evening, and gonna stop now as I feel a bit sleepy. Feel like I wanna put some more volume in but trying to avoid playing at less than optimal conditions. Roll up to $320. ROI is 9% over 63 games at the deepstacks. Wanna push my ROI to more like 15% though. |
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| JamEaze |
Today not gone so great. Couldnt get the volume in I wanted as one of my matches took well over an hour. Got in a set of 5 but was 2 for 3. Not overly happy with my play, but was pretty card-dead throughout. Only so many times you can steal before someone starts to wake up to what you are doing. Played some really spazzy opponents, couldnt even classify them let alone adjust.
How do you cope when one minute someone punishes your limp by raising to 25bb, then the next minute folding his small blind? |
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| JamEaze |
Decided to switch to playing reg speeds rather than deepstacks this weekend, my thinking being along the following lines:
If you are running bad and gonna take beats/end up in coolers, better for games to be shorter rather than grind through like 45 minutes for the same outcome? If I can minimise my own mistakes, and exploit my opponents effectively, then I only need 1 or 2 spots where I can outplay them to have them crippled. Against a complete nit, it takes so long to grind them down at double stacks, that games can take over an hour, this is not good for an hourly rate or more to the point when I also hold down a full time job and only 2-3 hours per evening to play. Any thoughts? As for how my weekend went, ended up like 6-7 due to 2 very annoying bad beats, one opponent who ran like god, and one where I completly misplayed a pair of 9s. |
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| kierkegaard1 |
your variance will increase in reg speed games. switching to a higher variance form of poker when already not running optimally is illogical.
also, luck has no memory. you are not running good or bad right now. just because you ran bad yesterday does not mean you will run badly today. good luck |
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| JamEaze |
Now you have got me confused kierkegaard - you say I shouldnt switch to a higher form of variance because I am not running optimally, but that luck has no memory.
In which case it purely comes down to my ability to exploit opponents? In which case "running optimally" is referring to my ability to play my A game on a regular basis? ??? |
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| kierkegaard1 |
there is going to be more streaks of 'running bad' in reg speeds compared to deepstacks. if that is what you're trying to avoid then moving to regspeeds is counter-productive | ||
| JamEaze |
Until I found Tagpoker, I would have said that was exactly what I was trying to avoid. However, I am aiming to a) become less results (i.e. money) orientated and b) learn to deploy the strategies I have learnt from taking the course, and result in better decision making.
Think I might play 2 hours of deepstacks followed by 2 hours of regspeeds tonight and see which is better in terms of my overall play. |
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| JamEaze |
Deviated somewhat from my plan in that I didnt play any DS tonight. Still at $10 level.
Played 10 reg speeds tonight, winning 7. The 3 I lost, 2 were beats (aces got cracked by 10-9 having got it in on a 10 high flop, and the other one I bluff shoved a pair cos he was taking a very aggro approach, he called on a double belly buster and hit it) and one was a cooler (AQ vs AA on Axx flop) Happy with how I played, kierkegaard been thinking about wha you said regarding "luck has no memory" helped me stay focussed instead of constantly worrying I my hands werent gonna hold up! Roll up to $345. |
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| JamEaze |
So last night didnt go so great. My first 3 games I took a lovely beat with Aces then ran into two guys who were TP but both were running like a dream - I just really struggle against these kinda guys at the moment.
Ended up 4 for 7. Have a feeling im gonna be stuck in a this kinda up down breakeven stretch for a little while. Feel like there are bits of the course I am still working into my game, that said I really wanna be making some consistent profit. Dont feel like I played overly badly, but there were a few spots I could have played better against the god mode TPs. Roll back down to about $310 |
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| JamEaze |
Not updated this in a while, so here is a summary
Dropped down to about $210 or so, as discussed in my thread "run bad". Wasnt running especially well, but was also not playing overly well. Have been working a touch more aggression into my game and now feel more in control, due to two main things 1) Im more comfortable playing without a hand now than I was against before against tight players 2) Iv stopped looking for monsters under the bed all the time Roll back up to around the $250 mark. As our servers have been playing up this week, been watching lots of videos at work. Have even cheekily shot taken at the $20s (last night actually) To my amazement the villain that sat me I had played in a $5 match about an hour earlier!! Haha! |
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| Simba |
Wow, a shot at the $21s with only 10 BIs? Hehe, far more aggressive than me  . Hopefully your luck will turn soon and you'll be able to rack up some more wins once again  .
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| JamEaze |
Was a one shot - not something I plan on repeating regularly mind
Really wanna have around $600 in my roll to properly play them |
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| icemanv6 |
Just remember not to rush, I'd say at the 50s and above the level of villain's get slightly harder but as long as you get the experience before hand at the lower level's you can prosper..which is why not rushing is so important.
P.S Nice work!
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| JamEaze |
I hear ya buddy! One of the things Im trying not to do is put the level above on a pedestal. Before I joined TAGpoker I was playng at Ongame, and for some stupid reason had put the $10s and the $20s on some sort of insane "OMG the players at the level up are soooo much better" when this simply wasnt true. The result: I played scared (and ran bad just to compound it) and flopped it at the $10s when I was crushing the $5s. Iv been watching a few matches at the $20s and $30s too - obv you dont get to see too much but its hilarious watching the showdowns at times! Needless to say that fear factor is dissappearing... but I am very much aware of the need for good bankroll management and not exposing myself to variance and busto |
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| YATHINNK |
They're literally a piece of piss, don't worry about finding anyone better, if they're marginally better then I'd be suprised. |
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| JamEaze |
Quick update, last night I was naughty boy, after making about $40 profit playing the $10s, I did another shot take at the $20s.
Won 4 in a row (then lost one) for a cool $60ish. Including my rakeback that came through yesterday, makes it a $100 day! Back to the $10s this morning though. Roll recovered from downswing. Onwards and upwards!! |
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| arabicdre4m |
Really inspiring read for a nub like me
Keep up the good work and good luck 
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| JamEaze |
Cheers man! Update. This week I have essentially broken even after I dug myself into a 7BI hole then dug myself out again. Had lost my way a tiny bit, ended taking non-standard lines in some spots and getting burnt accordingly - am still juggling with the fine line of adding aggression into my game in the right spots. Had my leakfinder with Dom last night which really helped (cheers buddy) felt like I played really well afterwards (double barrelling in particular!!) winning 5 out of 6 which was nice. Roll still on about $340, about the same as last Friday. ps - hjbear if your reading this, watched through the video last night, wanna watch it again over the weekend to make some more notes then we can go through the leakfinder on Monday night. |
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| hjbear |
cheers jam
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| JamEaze |
Quick update, after not playing over the weekend and only getting a couple of games in last night, got a few games in tonight. After winning a few, took my first shot at a $20 in a while...won it, then won 6 in a row
Roll up to $456  Not sure if I should stick to the $10s with random $20 shots or just absolutely go for it... hmmm decisions...
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| z1s6arn |
You won 6 in a row! That must feel awesome! | ||
| JamEaze |
Did go to bed pretty darn happy - gonna review them tonight though and go back over my play and make sure it wasnt just a "fish on a heater" moment. Although inducing the last guy to shove on me with Q high when I had flopped the nuts felt pretty epic! |
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| JamEaze |
Update: yesterday I played 4, won 2 lost 2.
Tonight, played seven matches at the $20s. Chopped one against a nit, won 5, lost 1. Roll up to $510 If someone could post my SS graph filtered for 2011 HU only (dont have SS subscription) would really appreciate it. Still reckon Im a fish on a heater though... Full Tilt, $20 + $1 NL Hold'em Tournament, 10/20 Blinds, 2 Players LeggoPoker.com- Hand History Converter BB: 1,540 Hero (BTN): 1,460 Pre-Flop: (30) T  5 dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero calls 10, BB raises to 40, Hero calls 20 Flop: (80) 4 K A (2 Players)
BB bets 20, Hero raises to 100, BB calls 80 Turn: (280) 3 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets 200, BB calls 200 River: (680) 2 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets 345, BB calls 345 Results: 1,370 Pot BB mucked A 8 and LOST (-665 NET)
Hero showed T 5 and WON 1,370 (+695 NET)
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| hjbear |
whats your screen name? | ||
| z1s6arn |
Brother enjoy the heat!
I just shoved AQ into QQ and hit an A. I felt like such an idiot when I saw his queens. Hahah. Keep it up! I'm just looking forward to trying the 10s and your at the 20s good on you bro! |
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| JamEaze |
Doh should have included that. SuperBoyFly on FT |
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| JamEaze |
I had something similar last night when I shoved A9 into QQ and sucked out. So when he shoved A7 into my JJ I was rooting for him... and he sucked out. Karma restored. |
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| hjbear |
this is a graph for the last month not sure how to do it from the start of the year |
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| z1s6arn |
Hey this is his total HUSNG with rakeback since the start on FT 
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| JamEaze |
Cheers guys for posting those up... not a bad start but not loving my 3% ROI. Definitley wanna push that higher! Problem is getting the volume in... though staying with a poker buddy this weekend and gonna put in some massive grinding sessions (he does 5-10 hours a day of Rush!) so fingers crossed!! | ||
| JamEaze |
So I guess everyone (or noone lol) is wondering how the weekend grind went... Friday we didnt start til about midnight as we were playing a load of team tactical on COD, but played through till about 6am and went from $517 to $589.
Saturday I did play pretty much all day, but after winning my first one, went on a sick 8 game losing streak, followed by a 9 game winning streak to make it back!! Pretty ridiculous swings. Didnt play Sunday, Monday or Tuesday (due to work commitments mainly) so roll still just shy of the $600 mark. |
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| JamEaze |
My graph for HU in 2011
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| BetMagicMoney |
gogogo
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| JamEaze |
Im such a sick degen/fish on a heater. Last night I put in barely any volume as my brother was round for dinner.
After he went, won a $20, shottook a $30, won that, shottook another $30, won that as well. Then went to bed cos I wasnt happy with my call in the final hand (even though I won lol) Before anyone expresses horrorat my shallow shot-take, a friend sent me some money on FT as Im helping him do a cash out. Transferred the money via bank transfer but left the funds in FT (for now) so meant I had about $740 in my roll when I took the shot. Roll now $800 and its rakeback friday!!! |
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| JamEaze |
This weekend I have mainly been....breaking even :-/
Withdrew the $120 sent to me by a friend (as explained above). Roll now $680. |
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| JamEaze |
So things havent really run my way this week, spent the whole week pretty much breaking even only to then drop 4 buyins last night. Pretty damn sick... I keep getting beats, running into the top of peoples ranges and as a result I am not playing completly optimally. Im not tilitng as such, but can feel those feelings starting to slowly inch up inside me.
As Im away this weekend and then early next week (mums birthday and then 3 days solid of uni lectures - bloody compulsory credits for my doctorate) am gonna take a break, and not play again until wednesday or thursday night. Roll sits pretty much bang on $600. Still aiming to get it to $1k by the end of March |
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| JamEaze |
I come bearing exceptionally bad news.
No other way to say this, I dropped the best part of $400 this afternoon. After having some success multitabling the $33 turbos, I then proceeded to put in a 3-4 hour session where everything that could go wrong did. I think the worst was Q3 hitting running 3s to crack my Aces. Il attribute a couple of buyins to poor play, but I ran like shite while my opponents proceeded to run like god. Iv withdrawn about $250 of my roll to protect it, and thus left myself with about $20 or so to play with. Gonna make it my mission to grind it all back up. Just wanna puke right now tbh. Il take some lessons out of this, take a break from poker for a little while, and hopefully come back stronger. Not gonna post the SS graph cos it is pretty embarrassing, but screen-name is SuperBoyFly on FTP. |
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| ChrisB |
Ugh...well I hope that you learnt a lesson by this in that bankroll- and tilt management are by far the two most important qualities of long-term success!
Good luck rebuilding, and try to stay on the conservative side of brm this time! |
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| forced |
i totally feel your pain dude.... i did roughly the same thing.... cashed out 400 (I think) after a sick $450 downswing that literally drove me nuts... some bad plays... mostly sick beats. I left $50 in my account. I dont play much hu anymore as im grinding 6max... when i get tired of that i go play the hu..... anyways it's up to $175 now.
keep your head up.... good luck! |
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| z1s6arn |
Im sure if you add a few more naughts others have lost far more under similar circumstances. Having this experience now in the early stages of your career is worth its weight in gold over doing this at the high stakes!
Gl mate! |
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| JamEaze |
Thanks for kind words guys, really dont expect any sympathy!! Needless to say, Im focussed more than ever on building up the roll now, to prove to myself I wasnt just a fish on a heater! | ||
| U Cook Socks |
You don't have to listen to my advice, but from what I have picked up from this thread, I will offer you some words of wisdom.
You seem in a rush to get to the top. I don't think there is anything wrong with that as such, we would all like to, but I really think it would benefit you to slow down a bit. You seemed to go from the $10s, to the $20s, to multi tabling $30s, within the blink of an eye. I feel your pain, I have lost $800 in a week before, but I can honestly say, it would have been a 10th of that at the most if I had played my best game the whole time. My advice is take the break you need, however long you need, a day , a week a month, or whatever you want, until you are refocused. Forget the money you lost, sounds easy, but if you want to move forward, you have too. I am still regaining all the money I lost a few weeks ago, I refuse to look at graphs etc now, I just play my game, if I constantly thought about what I lost, it would drive me insane. Start again at a stake you are well rolled for, and take your time, have a plan , a move up and move down plan, so that this doesn't happen again. Good Luck, and don't worry about it to much, it happens to the best of us. |
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| JamEaze |
We really should collect your posts from various threads into a sort of bible of advice... you seem to have really hit the nail on the head. I have dealt with the loss already, it wasnt that hard, although a difficult pill to swallow, easy bit out the way. Reflecting on why this happened, I think I can contribute a number of factors, in relation to HU generally, and the way I was playing yesterday afternoon (bit of a painful HH Review lol) HU Generally. 1) If there is one thing I have learned from being on this site and taking the course, is that $20, $30 etc really arent as difficult as I had imagined. For a long time, I had put the players at these stakes on some sort of pedestal, thinking they would be good. They arent clearly. 2) I had a plan to move up, move down etc, but seeing how bad the players at these games are made me deviate, got $$$ in my eyes which obviously clouded my judgment. 3) More of a life point. There is great uncertainty at work at the moment, for reasons I wont divulge, but for the last few weeks there has been a high probability the company would fold. This would not only lose me my job, it may also have doubled whammied me in that I would lose the research council funding for my part time doctorate. In my head I was thinking "I need to be beating xx stakes to make the same money" which resulted in me being far more aggressive with my BRM than I should. The way I played: 1) Reviewing my play, I was pushing very thin edges preflop, on the basis that these turbo clowns would call it off very light. It worked, I got some horrendous calls, but is a high variance style of play that clearly bit me in the ass. Had I played a small ball style, these losses would have been limited. Wouldnt have stopped the beats, but I undoubtedly would have lost less. 2) Multitabling clearly doesnt allow for proper adaptation to your opponents style. Sure I was classifying my opponents, and recognised which were loose or tight, but wasnt then exploiting the holes in their game, and probably leaving value on the table in a number of spots. 3) There were a few crying calls in there, spots where "He cant possibly have called both streets just to hit his flush... oh apparently he has" moments, where clearly If I had more focus or was single tabling I would have recognised that the lines my opponents took could only mean that. So I will be taking the time out to refocus, make sure my head is straight. The reason I withdrew the money is so I can protect it, and put it back in when the time is right to go again. About the only sensible thing I did yesterday lol. Not sure exactly when that will be, but reckon a couple of weeks or so. Will wait and see |
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| U Cook Socks |
You are correct, the $20s and $30s really aren't that hard at all. You get the odd decent player every 5 games or so I would say, and even then they aren't that great, just have half a brain.
From experience, trying to push the thin edges is fine, if you are prepared for the high variance that goes with that. At some point if you plan to continue up the ladder, you will need to do that, but playing these jack asses at the $30s, in most cases there is no need, and making low variance + EV plays constantly will see you beating them quite easily. I too had a spell of over thinking things, and trying to outplay these guys in the wrong way, it cost me very dear. Back to basics the past few weeks and it shows in my results. You sound like you have a good handle on things, without what I said, so that's a good thing. I am sorry to hear about your job, it seems to be the way of life these days. I hope all that works out in your favour. Regardless of that, you can't just expect to make a living from poker straight off the bat, from playing $20 games. You seem like a good player, and no doubt you can do it in a relitavely small amount of time, this time will actually become shorter though, if you focus your efforts on good bankroll management, good decision making, and constantly trying to improve your game. Good luck anyway, I am sure you can do it. *edit* If I hit the nail on the head, it is because I have been there and done all the mistakes others make. I feel a bit patronising sometimes saying these things, but they are said to genuinely try to help people. I haven't really made it where I want to go yet either, but I am a much stronger person and player than I was just 3 months ago. Learn from your mistakes (and others) and you wont go far wrong. |
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| JamEaze |
Update: Have started propping on a un-named site, where the action at the $20s is pretty reasonable. Will post graphs and so on once I have got some good volume in (only played a few matches and motly one at a time to get used to the software) planning to play 2 or 3 at a time and build the roll up again. Will post my graph when I get to 100 games. Not gonna be able to accept people sweating me, but will be able to get involved in sweats with others again. | ||
| JamEaze |
Update so far, after 99 games (pretty close to 100 lol)
Things have been interesting since I moved site, have been playing 20s with the occasional 30 when the traffic has been slow. As you can all see, I have broken even to date, but with a high percentage rakeback offer it more than makes up for it!! Have been on a bit of a sick run lately, some pretty horrid beats, but Im not gonna start offering excuses, have to take them and deal with them i guess. Still working on my game, trying best to learn what I did wrong before, where my game has strayed etc. Going back over videos and so forth at the moment. See stats and graph below: 
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| ChrisB |
Didnt think you could play HUsngs as a prop? | ||
| BetMagicMoney |
on some sites you can! GL mate i rooting for you
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| JamEaze |
Yeah you can, although the TOS prevent you from rematching, which is pretty annoying |
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| JamEaze |
Well for anyone that remembers me - I am back! After a long run of playing Omaha (well more accuratley, losing at Omaha) I decided to come back to HUSNGs.
Things have been a-changing since I last played these back in May; in no particular order. 1) Split up with my missus of 4 years 2) moved house, from living on my own to living with a housemate who is into Poker, as are most of his mates (sheer luck as I randomly met him on SpareRoom) 3) FTP died 4) No longer on my prop deal. 5) Almost got chucked off my doctorate (nearly rectified it now) So Im back and the plan is to start grinding the 5.30 turbos whilst also playing some multi-tables, both on 888. I have constructed a spreadsheet to track results and track my ROI in terms of Standard Deviations from my target win-rate (20%) although its configurable for any target ROI. So at the 5s I have had some modest results so far, up about $30ish from 19 games. Lolsample but its a start. For sure, my main aim is to avoid forking it up like last time with my horrible underrolled shot at multi-tabling $30s. As for encouragement - I Sharkscoped a drooler who I beat then lost to a cooler in the rematch - he was -$7000 over about 7000 games playing at an average stake of $5!!!! Yum yum. Stats and Graphs to follow when Im not at work. |
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| JamEaze |
The newborn giraffe
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| ChrisB |
Nh sir | ||
| JamEaze |
and now followed by two giraffes headbutting each other
Put in rubbish volume due to insane amount of work and uni stuff - work still hectic but passed my 2nd year review at uni - a fail would have seen me kicked out - so thats the main thing. Probably not playing too well either as i have been stressed. Am leaving 888 a friend of mine has discovered that 888 does you over with hidden percetnages on top of the interday trading rate when going from £ to $ and vice versa. So its like an extra rake on the winnings - moving site should surely be +ev. Played some cash games at BetOnline - the software tilts the bejesus out of me, not least of all when it wouldnt let me call a shove on the river holding quads - cant think of anything that tilts me more. Anyways on the HU I am re-reading my notes from Doms course as its been a little while. Printed the Mersenneary e-book out a few days ago and wanna read throught that as well |