Veteran Player Attempting Comeback After Black Friday

qattack · Veteran Player Attempting Comeback After Black Friday

I was inspired by brokerstar's $50-$10k challenge and deposited $50 through his link about ten weeks ago. I haven't played much on betonline since then until yesterday when I started my Seven Month Challenge.

I tried live poker for a few weeks, but was on an extremely short bankroll and had one ultra-bad day (basically two huge pots where Villain called huge allins on the turn with flush draws and hit and another hand with QQ<JT on Q98). 200NL was the smallest NL game available and I knew the risks. I made a bad call with KQ on a KQJ board as well.

Anyway, back to online poker where I feel safer!

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My poker history:
I started playing limit poker in 1996 and quickly moved from 3/6 to 15/30. I started playing on the Internet on Planet Poker in 1999, moved around sites a few times, and found PokerStars in 2003, where I settled in for the next eight years until Black Friday.

I earned half of living most years from 1996 to 2005 from poker (online exclusively after 2002), and 100% of my living from 2005-2011. I had the privilege of spending three and a half years playing online in the Philippines (the first and only time I'd been out of the country). I loved it so much that it has been my goal to move back there.

Since Black Friday, I kicked around a few ideas for making money with no success. The fact is, I really have no marketable skills in today's economy and little motivation to get a "normal" job working for someone else. I also want a job I can do from anywhere (so I can move back to the Philippines).

I tried Internet marketing, writing articles for websites, with a small amount of success. My articles were first-class, but I'm very slow at writing, as I am a perfectionist.

I also missed poker, so I decided to try to take a stab at playing live. I spent about six weeks slowly building my bankroll from $300 to $1100 at 4/8 fixed limit. I was spending every day, all day, at the casino and had to take out daily expenses. It was definitely better than a real job, but it was time to take my shot at 200NL, even on the short bankroll. As detailed above, it didn't work out.

Internet poker is much more enjoyable, as I don't need to worry about travelling, waiting, smoke (YUK!), and other people.
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My Seven Month Bankroll Challenge

I need $20,000 to confidently move back to the Philippines. $8K is for savings/living expenses/moving; $8K-$10K is for a 50NL bankroll; and $2K-$4K is for travelling to five or six places where I may want to live so I can select the place I like best.

I will be using a semi-aggressive bankroll strategy. Anything over 40 buyins at my current stakes I will use to buyin to tables at the next higher stakes. For 25NL, I will require 50 buyins before advancing to 50NL and at 50NL I will require 80 buyins before moving to 100NL. I will not advance beyond 100NL.

I have spent the last three weeks studying my game from the ground up. I still have a long ways to go with my learning, but I've learned a ton these last few weeks.

I've also played quite a bit recently on Carbon Poker, where I won some freerolls. I was surprised at how aggro the smallest stakes were. One of my previous flaws was handling aggro players. I am starting feel very comfortable against them now, though.

The only aggro players on betonline are REALLY bad aggros. Light 3-betting seems non-existent (except the bad aggros). Players are mostly either very passive or horrible-aggressive.

I will be playing five to six hours on average per day. Below 25NL, I will be playing a lot of fullring, as there aren't enough 6max games going. 6max is my specialty. I should hit 25NL around Day 15 into my challenge.

I played about six hours yesterday and made a little over $29. My goal for Day 1 was $23.64, so I was happy.

I'm not doing quite as well today. I have played for 1 1/2 hours and I'm up $2.88. It's been very uneventful. But that's the short-term luck factor. Of course, this whole year will be the short-term luck factor, as seven months is nothing in poker terms. But I still expect to be successful.
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I am eight-tabling and it presents some huge problems, because this software is so crappy. But the bad players are worth the struggle against the software. It's hard to tell what tables require action and the bet box does not accept a decimal point ("."), so you cannot enter bets with cents amounts without using the bet slider (which is also a horrible pain in the a**!).

Does anyone have any suggestions for any betonline-compatible software? At least a HH convertor and/or a win rate tracker/grapher?

ThanX!
John

qattack

Day 2 goal: I came up 30 minutes short on my play time, but made $35.52 at 2NL and 6NL. My $$$ goal was $23.64.

Meeting my play time is actually more important than meeting my $$$ goal from day to day, as I can control that. So I guess I'm a 1/2 hour in debt.

Tomorrow, I can only play a couple hours. I'm busy much of the day. I'll need to make up my time on the weekend.

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Day 2
Bankroll Goal: $147.28
Actual Bankroll: $171.75

Two days down, 212 to go!

BetMagicMoney

GLGL

Brokerstar

Yes very best of luck.

I posted in another thread about you having issues using decimals in the bet box and it worked fine for me unless it's something else that I'm not getting??

Broker

qattack

Apparently, the problem with the decimals is relatively new, since the last update is what players have been telling me. I only really started playing more on the site a couple weeks ago and started playing mass volume three or four days ago.

qattack

Today was a short day...I only played for one hour. I actually calculate my time from when I get six or seven tables going and there can be quite a wait sometimes for some of the tables.

I've been making somewhere well over 20BB per table per hour at 2NL and 6NL in my small sample size.

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Day 3 Goal: I didn't meet play time or $$$ goals, but it's OK. I owe some time over the weekend, but some days will be lighter volume. I hope to make up the lighter days in advance from now on.

Day 3 Bankroll Goal: $170.92
Actual Bankroll: $179.49

Day 3 Daily Goal: $23.64
Actual Daily $$$: $7.74

Day 3 Play Time Goal: 5.0 hours
Actual Play Time: 1.0 hours
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I'll need to adjust my daily goals to fall in line with what I'm able to do; Mondays and Fridays will be lighter volume days. I play volleyball both those days and visit my Grandmother on Fridays.

Overall, I'm very happy with my first three days!
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3 days down, 211 to go!

Reseal

Good luck with this.

You're playing with a seemingly rather deep bankroll, and have no plans to go higher than 100nl. Any reason for these? The player pool on this site doesn't get much tougher as you move up, so I think you might find yourself reconsidering these decisions in future Wink

GreenEyez826

sandman369

qattack

LOL, well I very well may reconsider in the future. However, my most important goal is the climb to $20,000 by September 1st.

From what I've seen and my hypothetical spreadsheet calculations, I don't think it will be any problem.

I've watched some of the play all the way up to 1000NL, and it seems so soft. I've always been a bankroll nit, though, and my "aggressive" bankroll strategy I'm using here probably seems normal or overly conservative to many.

I am restructuring and refining my goal a little bit to ensure I attain $20k in the time allotted. I'm increasing my play time to an average of six hours per day, calculated from the time I get six or seven tables going until I start quitting the tables.

I have generally been playing in one hour or one-and-a-half hour blocks, taking a thirty minute break, and resuming. In the past, on PokerStars, I have put in sessions as long as five hours. On betonline it's harder to keep focus so long due to their software.

It's great to hear others saying that the competition doesn't get much tougher as you go higher. I will definitely keep my options open.

cdm

man you sound like you could be making $20,000 a month (jeah bra)

now listen

IMHO

structuring your goals around a daily avg. is going to eventually cause you to tilt even if you're playing at the tiny stakes.. search your feelings... you know this to be true.... trying on any one day to achieve your 'daily avg' will cause you to put in more/less time than you normally would

as a veteran and an expert poker player i suggest using time as your goal.

gg bra.

qattack

LOL, I just finished a 15 minute response and hit the wrong button, so it was all erased. I hope I play better in my poker session today. Smile

My daily $$$ are mainly a guide for me to know if I'm on track for my overall goal. The playing time goal is more important (assuming I'm playing well).

qattack

Did really well yesterday. I was too tired to post my results, but made a little over $40. My goal was around $24.

However, I played only a bit over four hours (seven hour goal!). I had a couple excuses...I know, not good, but I spent two hours with customer support trying to figure out my problem entering a decimal in the bet amount box.

I just now finished up a four hour session. I lost a little over $13 after an hour-and-a-half of some guy pushing allin every hand on 2NL and me losing nearly every 55/45 or better flip.

Had a couple really bad beats, too. And one hand where the sole caller beat my QQ on a 442QT board. Yay!

Anyway, time for a break, then I will recoup my losses and make some money!

qattack · 13 Tabling...betonline

Just finished ***attempting*** to 13-table betonline. (5@6NL, 8@2NL) It didn't go too well, but I did manage to turn a $12.51 profit in just under an hour. Much of time, I was on the waiting list for many of the open tables. I'd say I was actually playing more than ten tables about 40-45 minutes.

OMG it was STRESSFUL. Always "ding-ding, ding-ding, it's your turn to act, but I'm not going to show you which table!"

I have a 23" monitor, but cannot tile more than 8 tables on it. Stacking does not work, as the tables requiring action don't come to the front. So that leaves cascading.

The only way to know which tables require action is to leave the BET button area showing. When the BET button appears, then you need to click on that table. However, you can't click near the BET button, because it will BET (imagine that?).

The BET button is so close to the edge of the table that you need to be extremely careful if you do this. So I had to click on the opposite corner of the table that was showing, and often clicked the wrong table.

I will experiment with a slightly different table layout and see if I can do better.

Two of the funnier hands that ocurred:
1. 6NL fullring: I noticed a specific table needed action, so I clicked the table--only it was too close to the BET button, which cause me to hit it. I happened to be on the button and the cutoff had just raised to 4x. This caused me to minraise with a 52o. It must have been a good strategy, because everyone folded.

2. 6NL rullring: I had QQ and raised to 4x UTG+1. I had other tables requiring action and suddenly I heard "BEEP-BEEP, BEEP-BEEP", which means that my time bank has been depleted on one table and my hand is about to be folded. I found the QQ hand JUST in time to hit the BET button and save my hand. In the meantime, SB had raise...TO $2.25! So clicking the BET button minreraised...to $4.50! Lucky me. Hahaha. The really funny part was SB checked, I had $1.50 behind and shoved it on a T92r flop and SB folded.

qattack

Not a good night tonight...Got back from volleyball, mulled around, then decided I needed to get more volume. I got a two hour shellacking from a variety of fish and finally had to quit in disgrace.

I thought I was probably down $6 or $7, but ended the session UP 29 cents! I can go to bed in peace tonight. Haha.

I didn't meet my $$$ goal today, but that's fine. I made a whopping $13.79. My bankroll is now at $243.69 and climbing. I was hoping to be at $260 by the end of the day so I could play a table of 10NL tomorrow, but no such luck. It will wait until Wednesday.

I woke up this morning "early" at 8:30 and decided to get a jump on my poker volume. I logged into betonline, and only two 6NL tables were going. I decided it wasn't quite worth my time and that I'd wait a couple hours until at least three 6NL games were going. I made some comments on a member HUSNG video instead. It was fun to be back at HUNSGs, if only for commenting on someone else's game.

Only a couple 10NL games run regularly. Fortunately, I won't be at those stakes for too long before moving up to 25NL. There are always at least 6 25NL tables going, so I'll have plenty of games to play when I hit those stakes in eight or nine days.

qattack

Just a rungood session. I figured out how to (fairly) efficiently ten-table and played 4@6NL and 6@2NL. Players were just shovelling money to me.

I played for a little over one hour and made $25.99, which works out to 72BB/table. Now, if I can only maintain that winrate. (Yea, that's reasonable!)

My bankroll is now at $269.68 after seven days...just over my goal thus far. I still have some time left today to play.

I am only $0.32 shy of being able to add two tables of 10NL in place of two 2NL tables!

fishbones · !

Hey! ive seen you around on betonline in the 10NL games good luck man!

tried to PM you but i have to post more

qattack

Yea, actually I haven't figured out how to initiate a PM myself...my post count may not be enough.

If you're interested, I'd like to start a study group specifically for betonline games.

fishbones

yea i would be interested in that, i havent played much since black friday and just started up again a week or so ago. well have to work out the details. i gotta tell you i also deposited on merge and the difference in the games is ridiculous i really cant beleive it. I do miss the HUD a bit though Sad

qattack

Anyone interested in getting a betonline cash game study group going, please AIM me:

AIM: qattack2008

I will (re)get a Skype account soon, since this seems to be the preferred method of contact among poker players.

Reseal

c.grove · study group

Im down for a betonline study group for sure. Jus let me know when. I know with a few tweeks here and there, we can be crushing.

Veteran Player Attempting Comeback After Black Friday

13 Tabling...betonline

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study group