Pushing to Save the Month (5/28/2012)
Monday, May 28, 2012 at 5:09AM In an effort to save the month I put in 22 hours of play this weekend, up $2250. All of the winnings basically came from a 8.5 hour session Friday where I finished up +$2090. The 13.5 hours played on Saturday and Sunday combined resulted in a mere +$160. I really liked the way I played. I wish the wins were more consistent and steady, but it doesn't always work out that way, you obviously can't control the immediate short-term when it comes to live poker.
If I ended the month now it would be enough to pay all bills/expenses and add a fractional amount to my bankroll. This isn't bad considering I was down -$1300 in the first 60 hours. Also considering, I've only logged 102 hours total, there was a week vacation in May. So I should feel fortunate.
I've logged sessions the last 5 nights in a row, so I'm taking the next two days off.
I'm trying to set myself up to put in solid volume for June. This means working out more, keeping a schedule, being healthier, binge drinking less, and just increasing my dedication to the grind. The next real break I take needs to be EARNED or I simply won't feel right taking it.
-bag
Reader Comments (3)
Nice $100 hourly to close out May. I love session savers.
Is the 5-10 game a pretty small pool of regs? Seemed like it to me. If that's true, I wonder at what point it sort of turns into a neutral EV game once you all have a pretty good understanding of each other's game.
I played about 30 hours of it, and the good news I saw is that no one adapted to anything I did. I cold 4 bet like 5 times and got away with it every time lol...
FK,
The 5/10 is a rather small pool of regs. If you broke the player pool down there are a wave of meh regulars, and a handful of good ones. It's a good idea to know who the good ones are. Even if you aren't around a lot you can pick up on this easily, most of them are stupidly chatty and all buddy-buddy with each-other. You DO NOT want to be on a table where 3 of the "buddy" 5/10 regs are on the same table unless your roll is massive, most people have no idea how to recognize when this happens. There are also some 10/25 guys who drop into the 5/10 when the 10/25 is bad or not going.
I wouldn’t go so far as saying the game turns close to neutral. I know people who have been beating that game for a LOOONG time for nice money. The casuals and fish are just as bad with more money, you just have to fight better regulars to get to them. I wasn’t impressed by the skill level of most of the 5/10 regulars, I saw a lot of mistakes as always. If you’re sitting in a game with all regs, that’s a different story. But even then a top player should be able to easily grind a higher hourly playing a 5/10 as opposed to 2/5. It’s a cleaner more non-showdown game because of the deep stack sizes. This allows you maneuverability to take many additional spots that would probably just be spewy on an average 2/5. It’s a different game in a good way.
Good news is if you can beat Borgata 5/10 over a large sample size you should be able to beat it anywhere in the world really. If I ever make another push at high stakes I plan to be table selecting obsessively and traveling when necessary to build the bankroll to stabilize. There’s no reason to sit in the toughest 5/10 games on the east coast when nothing is going on, I don’t have an ego for that kind of thing.
And lol at the cold 4-bet five times. Yeah you can get away with some murder if no one has seen you around and all the regs on your table are 'meh'.
I definitely had some meh regs who were giving far too much credit to me since I was a random. I didn't push it too mich, though - picked my spots well and those cold 4 balls were spread over two different sessions.
What I noticed for sure is that they never adjusted their playing style vs. me. I saw two of the better regs attempting to level each other and another player, but they basically stayed away from me unless they had a hand. Not sure what that says.
It also helps to be 30 and look like an accountant. You can play LAG for a while without anyone thinking you are.
I wore a shirt and tie at the table and said I was on a business trip haha... little white lies get you so far.
Doesn't surprise me at all that some regs might be friends and softplay each other, or worse. That's the part of live poker I can't fucking stand.