I've decided to take a short break from poker playing. Nothing too major. Maybe a week at most. I've been analyzing my play for April trying to figure out some of the leaks to explain why I seem to be losing more than winning this month.
Well, basically, my own analysis tells me that I have been far too impatient with my online tournament play. I've been willing to gamble with coin flips early in the tournaments and sometimes even calling when I already know I'm behind.
Now this impatience seems to be a result of some kind of tilting. The 1st quarter of the year was ok with positive profit but the first 2 weeks of April were kind of bad and I attributed this mainly to variance. I know that I played optimal the first few weeks but the results were not there. This is quite normal and will happen to every poker player. But this has resulted in me being in semi tilt mode and I may not have realized it.
So just to be on the conservative side and to make sure that I don't waste any more of my bankroll playing catch-up. Let me just take a short break with no poker to clear my head. I've been playing almost everyday in one form or another the past year so I guess some burnout is to be expected.
Again, for those people who have been following my blog and who know me personally, its actually no big deal. I am not busto. My poker bankroll is actually quite healthy. But relatively speaking, the amount I lost from end March to April is significantly higher compared to any losing month before. And considering I only play a couple of SNGs and MTTs a day.
For some, the amount may just be a small blip on the radar, but since I did not increase my playing levels. I find it highly unusual. I pretty much play the same buy ins and frequency that I played last year. So the only logical advise that I can give myself is to take a short break just to refresh my mindset a bit. I cannot really advise myself to lower my playing levels since I did not increase it in the first place. I'm also playing in the same poker rooms with the same sharks and donkeys for the past year or so. In short, nothing changed except I can't seem to win. =(
May 2 will be my self imposed deadline. I'm hoping the break will do me good and enable me to play better come May.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Rebuy 101
I've been playing a lot more online Rebuy tourneys lately and I've realized that there are some unique aspects in the game that are worth discussing in a post. Let me just share some of my thoughts and some of the things I've read and up to you if you find it useful.
Just for reference, the rebuy tourneys I refer to are the normal "buy in with unlimited rebuys during the 1st hour and one add-on after the 1st hour" tourney. These are the most common ones I see around and these are the ones I refer to in this article.
The 1st and most important issue in rebuys is with regards to buy in management. How many rebuys should you spend for it to be cost effective? Should you just keep on rebuying if you bust out until the rebuy period ends ?
The answer to this question is a qualified NO. There is actually what I would call the "break even" point for lack of a better word. The standard budget you allocate should only be something like 3x to 4x the buy-in. Anything beyond this is no longer cost effective because the poker sites actually use this rough guide to determine the last place cash.
An example would probably illustrate this better. Let's say the buy-in is $10 and the tourney starts with around 180 players. So if you follow the rough guide of buy in management I have stated above. The most that you should spend is around $40. This is equivalent to one buyin, maybe 1 to 2 rebuys and finally the add on.
How is this relevant? Well, if you would apply it to the 180 player tourney in the above example and assuming that 40 places get paid. You will notice most of the time that last place cash meaning places 31 to 40 will pay you slightly above $40. YEP.
Of course, I would like to reiterate that this is not a clear cut rule. Some sites may offer some varying amount. But I have noticed that this is the most common payout. In rebuy tourneys, last place cash is usually a little bit more than 4x the buy in. So in order to avoid negative wins (this is where you ITM but you actually lose money), then your total buy ins should be below that range. Sounds logical ? Of course, if you have cash to burn and you're aiming for 1st place anyway, then feel free to rebuy 10x.
OK. Now that you know how much budget to allocate. The other common question is should I take the add-on ? The answer is yes. Unless you're like the bad-ass chip leader with a humungous stack. Otherwise, always take the add on. Why ? Because it usually offers good value for money. Whereas a rebuy is the same amount as your starting stack. The add-on is usually something bigger in amount. Also, you need all the weapons you can get as the real tourney starts after the add-on period. There is no reason not to take it since you've already allocated it as part of your budget and you will be automatically disadvanatged if you don't since everybody gets it.
The other important aspect in rebuys is your play during the 1st hour. You should be extremely tight and play only premium hands. This way, you take advantage of all the loose play, calling stations, and hail maries that go on. Everybody is justifying playing stupid because they always think that they can rebuy anyway. Take advantage of this retarded thinking by playing tight ass poker. Your objective is to pad your stack before the rebuy period ends by playing basic poker and finding a spot where you're way ahead and then double or even triple up.
The worse thing that could actually happen even if you play no hands is you rebuy and you add on and you would actually find yourself still with an average stack after the rebuy period ends. This is true and that is why tight play is correct. One valid strategy that I actually see is players only buying in during the 1st hour break to conserve buy-ins and avoid all the mayhem. It's quite a good tactic but you should be well-versed in short stack play to pull it off.
After the rebuy period ends and the tournament resumes, then you can just play it like a normal freeze-out. Find your spots, be aggressive, etc. I would still advise patience as because of the rebuy, there are still tons of fishes remaining in the tourney. You wouldn't want to bust out because you thought you could bluff stupidjoe out of the pot and he kills you with middle pair against your busted flush draw.
And that's basically it. Rebuy 101. Thanks for reading.
Just for reference, the rebuy tourneys I refer to are the normal "buy in with unlimited rebuys during the 1st hour and one add-on after the 1st hour" tourney. These are the most common ones I see around and these are the ones I refer to in this article.
The 1st and most important issue in rebuys is with regards to buy in management. How many rebuys should you spend for it to be cost effective? Should you just keep on rebuying if you bust out until the rebuy period ends ?
The answer to this question is a qualified NO. There is actually what I would call the "break even" point for lack of a better word. The standard budget you allocate should only be something like 3x to 4x the buy-in. Anything beyond this is no longer cost effective because the poker sites actually use this rough guide to determine the last place cash.
An example would probably illustrate this better. Let's say the buy-in is $10 and the tourney starts with around 180 players. So if you follow the rough guide of buy in management I have stated above. The most that you should spend is around $40. This is equivalent to one buyin, maybe 1 to 2 rebuys and finally the add on.
How is this relevant? Well, if you would apply it to the 180 player tourney in the above example and assuming that 40 places get paid. You will notice most of the time that last place cash meaning places 31 to 40 will pay you slightly above $40. YEP.
Of course, I would like to reiterate that this is not a clear cut rule. Some sites may offer some varying amount. But I have noticed that this is the most common payout. In rebuy tourneys, last place cash is usually a little bit more than 4x the buy in. So in order to avoid negative wins (this is where you ITM but you actually lose money), then your total buy ins should be below that range. Sounds logical ? Of course, if you have cash to burn and you're aiming for 1st place anyway, then feel free to rebuy 10x.
OK. Now that you know how much budget to allocate. The other common question is should I take the add-on ? The answer is yes. Unless you're like the bad-ass chip leader with a humungous stack. Otherwise, always take the add on. Why ? Because it usually offers good value for money. Whereas a rebuy is the same amount as your starting stack. The add-on is usually something bigger in amount. Also, you need all the weapons you can get as the real tourney starts after the add-on period. There is no reason not to take it since you've already allocated it as part of your budget and you will be automatically disadvanatged if you don't since everybody gets it.
The other important aspect in rebuys is your play during the 1st hour. You should be extremely tight and play only premium hands. This way, you take advantage of all the loose play, calling stations, and hail maries that go on. Everybody is justifying playing stupid because they always think that they can rebuy anyway. Take advantage of this retarded thinking by playing tight ass poker. Your objective is to pad your stack before the rebuy period ends by playing basic poker and finding a spot where you're way ahead and then double or even triple up.
The worse thing that could actually happen even if you play no hands is you rebuy and you add on and you would actually find yourself still with an average stack after the rebuy period ends. This is true and that is why tight play is correct. One valid strategy that I actually see is players only buying in during the 1st hour break to conserve buy-ins and avoid all the mayhem. It's quite a good tactic but you should be well-versed in short stack play to pull it off.
After the rebuy period ends and the tournament resumes, then you can just play it like a normal freeze-out. Find your spots, be aggressive, etc. I would still advise patience as because of the rebuy, there are still tons of fishes remaining in the tourney. You wouldn't want to bust out because you thought you could bluff stupidjoe out of the pot and he kills you with middle pair against your busted flush draw.
And that's basically it. Rebuy 101. Thanks for reading.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Seat of the Pants Blogging
Lately I find myself blogging just for the sake of blogging. Meaning I don't really have a good poker topic in mind. It's just that I haven't written for a while, so I make a new post without really knowing what I want to write about.
This post is a very good example of this kind of blogging. I am just winging it from whatever weird idea that's currently swimming on the top of my head. Hehehe. Let's call it seat-of-the-pants blogging for lack of a better word.
Actually, I think the reasons behind it are quite simple. April for me is a busy month both in terms of the things that I have to do in the office, the trips abroad that I have to make, plus the fact that April is also the period where we would usually schedule family and company outings. So it's just less time for everything.
I would also blame the evil XBOX 360 for some of this lethargic writing. I'm currently in the middle of Resident Evil 5 and its taking quite a chunk of the usual time reserved for poker and blogging. (DIE ... you motherfucking zombies). Add to this the fact that my brother would also suddenly drop by for extended NBA 2k9 sessions.
So less poker means less poker stuff to write about.
Anyhow, the Pokermanila regulars seem to be of the consensus that April is a bad month in terms of poker playing. I have heard numerous sob stories about variance rearing its ugly head this April. And for me it's no different. Haven't really won anything significant this month. Just when I think I'm on a roll and on my way to a final table, some weird thing happens. You know what I mean. Getting Aces and having them cracked by somebody who played Q2. Getting your stack way ahead and runner runner flush kills you. Mind boggling events that make you want to tear your hair out and punch a hole on the LCD monitor with your fist.
And so it happens to the best of us. We always feel we have enough skill to beat this silly 2 card game, but we still end up eating some donkey shit every few months or so.
So how does one deal with it? The obvious and most common answer is of course Bankroll management.
Bankroll management is an easy concept to understand and I'm sure most of you have read enough that you don't need another nerdy blogger like me lecturing you on it. Do not play beyond your means. Always make sure you have enough buy-ins to withstand variance, blah blah blah ..... It's been discussed to death by pros, semi-pros and pro wannabees. Nobody denies its effectiveness and there are different rules advocated from making sure you have 50 buy ins to staking only a small % of your bankroll.
Everybody knows it, everbody is trying to adhere to it, everbody believes its one of the golden rules of effective poker playing. But why do good players still seem to lose their bankrolls?
I think its because some poker players (me included) have big egos. After a certain number of years playing this game and more often showing good results, one tends to develop this kind of high and mighty ego. So even if you're losing big, you still think you're just being outdrawn. It never crosses your mind that you're actually being outplayed by smarter & better players.
And sometimes what's worse is you may say to yourself that Bankroll management is for sissy beginners. You're already too good to be affected by something as common and pedestrian as variance. So instead of realizing that you're way in over your head and humbly going down levels. You insist on playing at a level that in your mind you should be beating. But in reality is way above what your bankroll dictates. And much worse, it could even be beyond your skill level.
You may think you're good just because you won a big tournament before or cleaned up the same cash game level last month, but long term results is what eventually matters. You cannot proclaim yourself to be the best player in the world but show squat in your balance sheet at the end of the day.
So that's basically my convoluted point. A good poker player is humble enough to know when they're beat and will show willingness to go back to the drawing board to plug the leaks. More than bankroll management. Sometimes, it's actually more ego management that is needed by most of us.
This post is a very good example of this kind of blogging. I am just winging it from whatever weird idea that's currently swimming on the top of my head. Hehehe. Let's call it seat-of-the-pants blogging for lack of a better word.
Actually, I think the reasons behind it are quite simple. April for me is a busy month both in terms of the things that I have to do in the office, the trips abroad that I have to make, plus the fact that April is also the period where we would usually schedule family and company outings. So it's just less time for everything.
I would also blame the evil XBOX 360 for some of this lethargic writing. I'm currently in the middle of Resident Evil 5 and its taking quite a chunk of the usual time reserved for poker and blogging. (DIE ... you motherfucking zombies). Add to this the fact that my brother would also suddenly drop by for extended NBA 2k9 sessions.
So less poker means less poker stuff to write about.
Anyhow, the Pokermanila regulars seem to be of the consensus that April is a bad month in terms of poker playing. I have heard numerous sob stories about variance rearing its ugly head this April. And for me it's no different. Haven't really won anything significant this month. Just when I think I'm on a roll and on my way to a final table, some weird thing happens. You know what I mean. Getting Aces and having them cracked by somebody who played Q2. Getting your stack way ahead and runner runner flush kills you. Mind boggling events that make you want to tear your hair out and punch a hole on the LCD monitor with your fist.
And so it happens to the best of us. We always feel we have enough skill to beat this silly 2 card game, but we still end up eating some donkey shit every few months or so.
So how does one deal with it? The obvious and most common answer is of course Bankroll management.
Bankroll management is an easy concept to understand and I'm sure most of you have read enough that you don't need another nerdy blogger like me lecturing you on it. Do not play beyond your means. Always make sure you have enough buy-ins to withstand variance, blah blah blah ..... It's been discussed to death by pros, semi-pros and pro wannabees. Nobody denies its effectiveness and there are different rules advocated from making sure you have 50 buy ins to staking only a small % of your bankroll.
Everybody knows it, everbody is trying to adhere to it, everbody believes its one of the golden rules of effective poker playing. But why do good players still seem to lose their bankrolls?
I think its because some poker players (me included) have big egos. After a certain number of years playing this game and more often showing good results, one tends to develop this kind of high and mighty ego. So even if you're losing big, you still think you're just being outdrawn. It never crosses your mind that you're actually being outplayed by smarter & better players.
And sometimes what's worse is you may say to yourself that Bankroll management is for sissy beginners. You're already too good to be affected by something as common and pedestrian as variance. So instead of realizing that you're way in over your head and humbly going down levels. You insist on playing at a level that in your mind you should be beating. But in reality is way above what your bankroll dictates. And much worse, it could even be beyond your skill level.
You may think you're good just because you won a big tournament before or cleaned up the same cash game level last month, but long term results is what eventually matters. You cannot proclaim yourself to be the best player in the world but show squat in your balance sheet at the end of the day.
So that's basically my convoluted point. A good poker player is humble enough to know when they're beat and will show willingness to go back to the drawing board to plug the leaks. More than bankroll management. Sometimes, it's actually more ego management that is needed by most of us.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Quickie lang
I know I know ... haven't blogged for a while. So trying to make that up by writing a quick one. Let's do a top 5 things that happened during the time of my last post until now.
1. Played the $100K Guaranteed at Cake last Monday. Holiday so it gave me the opportunity to use the ticket. Should have stayed in bed as I busted out early when my pocket KKs faced the donkey god who played A10 suited and who then proceeded to luckbox the flush. I did make a huge mistake here as I had an opportunity to fold after the turn but I was too damn sleepy at 5AM and was not in the correct mindset. Heheh ... excuses excuses.
2. Also in the same time frame, played the $50K Guaranteed at Pokerstars and I did manage to ITM this one. Unfortunately, I was short stacked once we reached the money, and I busted out shortly thereafter when I made an all-in bluff in the big blind with K8 with 2 limpers in front. SB called with A9.
3. Couldn't resist a great deal that was offered to me on an XBox 360. Some guy won it in an office raffle and just wanted to convert it to cash. So I basically got it at almost 40% off retail. GTA IV, Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter 4, Karaoke Revolution. Enough said.
4. Just came from a 4 day trip to Hongkong with the wife and kids. Did the usual things there, HK Disneyland, Ocean Park and Shopping. And just to reiterate again why I play poker. All our expenses for the trip were sponsored by the Equus africanus asinus over at Cake, Pokerstars and Full Tilt. Thanks again guys. Sa uulitin. (click the link if you don't undertstand latin)
5. Finally, will be going to my favorite beach hang out this holy week so I might not be able to play any poker. In the years past, I would usually cram a lot of tournaments during the holy week holiday. But this year, my cousin got the early booking. So off to the beach we go. I'm definitely looking forward to the down time. The HK trip was supposed to be a vacation but with the kids in tow. It was more hectic than anything else. Now if I can just resist the urge to bring the laptop and the Smart Bro modem. =)
And with that I end another edition of Poking Fun at Poker. Seeya next time!
1. Played the $100K Guaranteed at Cake last Monday. Holiday so it gave me the opportunity to use the ticket. Should have stayed in bed as I busted out early when my pocket KKs faced the donkey god who played A10 suited and who then proceeded to luckbox the flush. I did make a huge mistake here as I had an opportunity to fold after the turn but I was too damn sleepy at 5AM and was not in the correct mindset. Heheh ... excuses excuses.
2. Also in the same time frame, played the $50K Guaranteed at Pokerstars and I did manage to ITM this one. Unfortunately, I was short stacked once we reached the money, and I busted out shortly thereafter when I made an all-in bluff in the big blind with K8 with 2 limpers in front. SB called with A9.
3. Couldn't resist a great deal that was offered to me on an XBox 360. Some guy won it in an office raffle and just wanted to convert it to cash. So I basically got it at almost 40% off retail. GTA IV, Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter 4, Karaoke Revolution. Enough said.
4. Just came from a 4 day trip to Hongkong with the wife and kids. Did the usual things there, HK Disneyland, Ocean Park and Shopping. And just to reiterate again why I play poker. All our expenses for the trip were sponsored by the Equus africanus asinus over at Cake, Pokerstars and Full Tilt. Thanks again guys. Sa uulitin. (click the link if you don't undertstand latin)
5. Finally, will be going to my favorite beach hang out this holy week so I might not be able to play any poker. In the years past, I would usually cram a lot of tournaments during the holy week holiday. But this year, my cousin got the early booking. So off to the beach we go. I'm definitely looking forward to the down time. The HK trip was supposed to be a vacation but with the kids in tow. It was more hectic than anything else. Now if I can just resist the urge to bring the laptop and the Smart Bro modem. =)
And with that I end another edition of Poking Fun at Poker. Seeya next time!
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