Well, thought it'd be a nice time to take stock and put down some of my results so far. It's been a pretty slow January, but at least I've not taking a battering as in December of last year. So far my winnings are about par for the month, though my winrate (a little over $20 per hour including bonuses) is not what it should be; really, i'm looking to be in the $40/hr range this year so it's a bit mediocre so far, but I have a bad run at Empire to (in part) blame for that!

Month started with a bang with a couple of big days at Stars running me up beyond £200 (~$400) pretty quickly. I placed third in a SnG and had the rub of the green on the PLO tables, racking up a few nice pots (including one slightly misplayed one where I made a semi-bluff re-raise, got called, and ended up winning about $200 on a fortunate runner runner, as well as another pot where a wonderful one-outer gave me a huge hand on the turn to defeat my slow-playing opponent for over $100). I felt my game was solid and I had control again after my woeful December.

Empire (see rants in this section!) hurt me badly though, and a few bad days on the 25NL (which I had taken to as a setp-down with great success in mid december) covering me in a string of garbage beats. I won some back playing the loose and very poor 25PLO8, before trying out some SnGs again. I just HATE the SnGs at party, try as you might the weedy stacks turn it into a ridiculous crapshoot and my usual problem of finishing 5th through 2nd reared its head again and I shipped about $110 on 12 SnGs (30 and 50 buyins) despite only finishing outside the top 5 on two occasions. Frustration with Empire reaching melting point, and along came the reload bonus. A horrible start at the 25NL (looking to release in three days) but ultimately I managed it with a fine run at the weekend (ANOTHER break-even session permeated with some yucky suck-outs at NL but 5 buy-ins won double quick at PLO8) and I'm up at Empire for the month by about $130 including the 200 bonus.

Add this to the $150 Stars bonus I released earlier, and it's looking OK. I had the self-control to remove my BR from Empire until the next bonus comes along or until I decide to hit up the 100PLO8 again to avoid any more gruesome runs on the NL tables and assorted other games.

Anyways, two solid nights on stars in the last 4 (mixed in with a couple of small losers) and I've added another $150 to my stars bounty. Tonight I FINALLY made some scores in the O8 games, dragging about $230 in the 200 buyins. Earlier this month, a few bad hands and a couple of bad mistakes from me cost me buyins in the 200 games which really set me on a bad run, and so far this month i'm fractionally above break-even in all )8 games, and a tiny bit down on Stars (about 20 bucks mind you). My real salvation in this indifferent run has been $100PLO at Stars, always a great game for me, and although my winrate of only around 20 BB/hr is quite good enough for me, so far I've put in a lot of hours (about 34 TABLE hours, ie. time at EACH table) and played pretty well, excepting one or two loose and FPS moments. I'm especially happy that i've basically had NO huge hands (the big 3 or 4 buyin type situations) that come around now and again and had to make most of my money from solid play in hands of 1 buyin or less. Still, with the tables being generally tight I've turned over about $620 at the PLO tables (which, with my poor run on the SnGs, indifferent cards at PLO8 and bad beat extravanganza in NLHE, is almost exactly the amount i've won at the tables this month).

With my Empire rake rebate money to come I'm looking at a current monthly subtotal of around £520 (just over $1000) which is a nice comeback after a shitty December and a mediocre November where I failed to clear $2000. If I can hit $2000 for the month I will be very happy, and consider it a good return to form. If I can keep hitting the Stars omaha like tonight where I felt I played EXTREMELY well to make nearly $200 from a fairly average night of cards, then I think this is within my abilities.

So far some assorted figures from my records:

Pokerstars hourly rate including bonus: $10.41 per table (I usually play 4 or 5 tables, so my PS rate is about what I will be generally aiming for this year).

Empire hourly rate incl. bonus: $4.46 per table, minus bonus it's slightly negative!

$100PLO winrate per hour: $18.11 per table (factor in about 30-40 hands per hour and this works out at around $40/100 hands, or 40BB/100). Played about 35 table hours.

Total bonuses this month including reload AND rake rebate: $495 which is about half my total winnings (just under).

£520 won so far. Hourly rate per table played is £2.81; factoring in the fact I usually play 4 or 5 tables, my REAL hourly rate is about £12.50 (about $24 per hour) including all bonuses but NOT rake rebate. Want this figure nearer £20 per hour ($40 per hour) given my current career plan.

Monthly plan:

1) stick with omaha at Stars.
2) get some NL going on gaming club poker and absolute poker, including rake rebate and/or signup deals (some bonus whoring will do my BR good!)
3) try to keep my money out of UB and empire/party until the next reload bonuses; as I withdrew most of my online bankroll last year, I am keeping only around $4000 online at present, and dont want this to exceed $6000.
4) pick up a further ~$250 from various bonuses, leaving me about $700 required to win at the tables to surpass my $2000 goal.

OK, thats a wrap! I'll post some more come the end of the month and let you know how i'm getting on.

Monk
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Nice post. Is there a particular reason you don't want to have over $6000 in your bankroll?

Nah, just rather have it in the bank where I can keep an eye on it

At times last year my online accounts exceeded $10k, and I don't think it's great practice to have quite so much spread around. Certainly, I'll keep my empire and party accounts empty when I'm not playing there as it takes about 5 minutes to make a deposit or withdrawl and they occasionally give you a bonus if u leave them empty for a while

Monk
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How about you Ice?? What is your long term goal???

I was thinking about it today..and my dream in a few years would be playing 20 hours a week and living well. but that's the dream scenario

Ice - if they ask you to babysit some rookie in the those last 10 days before your well-earned and idyllic retirement just run ok!

I've seen to many cop movies not to know what happens to grizzled veterans asked to babysit rookies just before they retire !

You'd have more chance being a baddie in an Arnie movie trust me

OI! Stop hijacking my thread, you

Anyways, had a good night poker-wise today, racking up a big pot in the $200PLO (see omaha section) and turning over $600 for the night, comfortably my best night of the month so far by nearly 3 times. Well on track to make $2000 well before the month's end with the bonus whoring session i'm currently eyeing up.

All seems a bit futile though when on the same night the one you care about says she doesnt want to see u anymore

Monk
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damn monk..that sucks. i hope you find a much better woman for yourself! I know I need too...congrats on the great money day though!


We just gotta remember that "in the poker game of life, women are the rake"

Sorry to hear about that, Monkman.