A Modest Proposal

I enjoy the taste of a fattened Irish child as much as the next alien, but I had something a bit different in mind. 

SBC II

Would anyone be interested in doing another challenge, but this time start completely fresh on a site none of us belong to? Everyone starts with the same initial deposit with rebuys if you hit zero? Or top offs if you go below the initial amount? Up for discussion - also initial amount up for discussion. 

I'm guessing no one here belongs to Lock. (I know I don't!). There is a pro here in Brooklyn that just got signed, and in order to drum up signups is willing to deposit for you. If it makes things easier for everyone, I'd be willing to make the initial deposit through him + collect blogger mobneys afterward. If anyone not from the initial group wants in, I'd have to know you, or at least have good references, or you could deposit yourself. I'm sure he gets some sort of kickback, so to be fair, lets use his code if we can. Right now Lock does not have rakeback, but they promise that when they do get it up and running, they will offer it to everyone, not just new signups.

I'm up for any other site if this one doesn't appeal (cake, maybe?). 

Does this idea float anyone's boat?

CINDY IS BACK!!!

*BLAARGH note: It looks like cindy was here all along, but couldn't figure out blogspot. I'll help her along in the future, but for now here's her latest email + screenshot. MHG, I'll leave it to you to decide wither the 'licious mobneys shalt flow.

I didn't think to post during the two months prior to August 20 -
there wasn't much to post other than the slow shrinking of my
bankroll.  I ended up down 55%, from $67.75 to $31.50.  I did manage
to keep myself from playing king-nine unless I really, really, really,
REALLY had a feeling, but I found other ways to lose.
Did anyone else play in PokerStars Guinness challenge?  I went out
about 2000th and won myself a whopping $2.40. (Which was practically
the only win I booked!)

DOOM SWITCH OFF, GOD MODE ON!

I don't want to jinx myself (I probably just did), but I just might be getting the hang of 25NL. Wish this could of happened a couple weeks ago, but better late than never.

A couple really bad plays on my part with me sucking out early on (you can see I'm waaaaay above expectation), but I snapped out of it and played the rest of the hands to perfection, or at least reasonably well, which I can most assuredly tell you I was not doing before.

The ev line goes straight up at about hand 173.... that had to be one of the worst suckouts ever. I'm watching a donk at my table agro shove and basically run over anyone that gets in a hand with him. He was up to 90 bucks at one point, but I took a bunch off of him and we were about even with 40 bucks each. I have his patterns memorized and I'm waiting for my spot. I get AA, limp (he had been tilt raising weird amounts), he raises big as I expect, I rr, he 3bets, I get it in and he calls... with Ace.... Jack.... offsuit. I'm 92% to win this hand and take his last 40 bucks, which it seems he was dying to give away. Flop comes 234.... you see where this is going? Yep, 5 turn and we chop. I lose a buck 50 on the fucking deal. I know this crap happens, but to be so patient for so long and get the perfect setup... guess it could have been worse and he hits JJ or a four flush, but still... :)

Around hand 340, I jump into 2 new tables, first hand on table 1 I have 33, someone min raises, a bunch of calls and more min raises and all kinds of stupidness where I was priced in to set mine... we get to the flop, I hit my 3, get all in on the turn and river another 3. DQB!!! Didn't even need it - I was up against Q9 and AQ on a Queen high board for a $63 pot. 2 hands into the second table I get AIPF with another dude putting in half his stack then folding and square off with AA vs QQ and hold.... what a good night that was...

Even without those monster hands, I feel like I'm getting a grip on 25 NL. I went through a long stretch where I was overplaying draws, trying to bluff too many pots, and getting myself into stupid situations. I know how to fold now. That's major.

Hopefully I can continue this BR rebuilding. I blame the challenge. Let's do it again :)

The End This is the end. Beautiful friend. This is the end. My only friend, the end.

Since I completely missed the boat on closing the deals on any prop betting as it related to the Summer Bankroll Challenge but played poker any ways cuz well, it's what I do, I figured I might as well get this up late. I could still win a gold star sticker...right?

I finished up, as was my goal and strategy all along. I figured I could grind it out while the others swung for the fence.

I ended up $31.51. The really sad part was I was up a bit more then this with 2 days to go...friggin' Full Tilt and their $100 bonus offer. Gawd I hate bonus chasing...but I did see free money and lost my mind. I should never multi-table limit cash games...never. My peak was $1,189.31, but peaks don't count. Damn it.

If I did my math correctly, this means I finished up 2.77% which, had a I completed any of the prop betting, would have made me the champion and the collector of some mighty fine blogger moolah. I love blogger moolah. It's the best kind of moolah.

The summer was a blast! The Summer Bankroll Challenge was fun even though I missed out on most of it. OK, all but the blogging part of it and the grinding out a profit thing.

Until the next missed opportunity...

Blaargh is Da Man!

My post honoring Blaargh is up.

-DrC

The Results

Alright friends, this is what we've been waiting for. To whom do we ship our money and side bets?!?

Here is a list of the bets and entrants from last month. I've copied and updated the list below, and at the very end is a tally of money owed.

1) Most gained as a % of bankroll from beginning to end of challenge ($10 into pool, winner take all)

MHG (up 0.09%)
Dr. Chako (up 1.74%)
Blaargh! (down 29%)
Aposec72 (down 100%)
Katitude (down 511%???)

Winner: Dr. Chako

2) Largest score ($5 into pool, winner take all)

MHG (15.75 - 7/29/09)
Dr. Chako ($96, damn doctors)
Blaargh! ($21.50 - 2nd twice in $5.50 sngs - that's pretty pathetic that that's my biggest score this month btw...)
Aposec72 ($7.95) ($13) ** Aposec - is this with the buy-in subtracted?
Katitude ($278, !@#$)

Winner: Katitude

3) Slayer of Donkeys ($5 into pool, smallest fraction: finish place / # of entrants)

MHG (4.03%)
Blaargh! (2.76%)
Dr. Chako (1.11%)
Aposec72 (0.052%, wtf!)

Winner: Aposec72

4) Funniest post on this blog (Losers post an entry bowing down to the winner, to be voted on secretly by participants)

MHG
Blaargh!
Dr. Chako

Outcome: The way I see it is that I got outclassed, and it is a two-horse race between Blaargh! and Dr. Chako. They each vote for themselves, leaving me with the only vote that matters. They both made plenty of worthy posts, but I will have to give the victory to Blaargh with his latest Youtube upload. Dr. Chako and I will have to post bow-down entries on our blogs to the one... the only... blaaaaaargh!

5) Katitude / MHG horse bet (Vanity picture on motorcycle)

Katitude has Dr. Chako (shaking in her boots)
MHG has Cindilicious (liking my chances!)

Winner: Katitude. If Dr. Chako had been negative I would have tried to steal this victory from you, assuming Cindi didn't play and broke even--but since Dr. Chako came out positive I am screwed. Vanity picture will be up on the blog within the week, and lucky for you my bike just got out of the shop this afternoon!

All told, here is what people owe each other:

MHG: I owe Dr. Chako $10 for #1, Kat $5 for #2, Aposec $5 for #3, Blaargh a post on my blog for #4 and Kat a moto picture for #5. Good God.

Dr. Chako owes Blaargh a post on his blog about how funny and good looking Blaargh is.

Blaargh! owes Dr. Chako $10, owes Kat $5, owes Aposec72 $5.

Katitude owes Dr. Chako $5 (#1-#2).

Aposec72 owes Dr. Chako $5 (#1-#3).

TO MAKE THINGS (a little) SIMPLER...

Instead of paying $5 to Aposec72 and him paying that to Dr. Chako, MHG can pay that directly to Dr. Chako (agree in the comment section Aposec72 if this works for you)

Instead of paying $5 to Katitude, and her paying that to Dr. Chako, Blaargh can pay that directly to Dr. Chako (agree in the comment section Blaargh/Kat if you agree)

If agreed, here are the payouts:

MHG: $15 to Dr. Chako, $5 to Kat
Blaargh: $15 to Dr. Chako, $5 to Aposec72

CONGRATS YOU GUYS

Blaargh, let's go get crunk, we suck.

If you see any errors in the results, go fuck yourself... I mean, please let me know!

Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Let's end this challenge in style--Pacific Standard Time style.



1119.09 to start

1138.15 to end

1138.15/1119.09 = 101.70%

Winner!!!!!!!!!!

Well, crap, we have to add in the "others"
+2 to Dr. Chako
-20 from bonus release

1120.15/1119.09 = 100.09% for a whopping 0.09% increase!

So, it doesn't look like I'm the winner, but I am positive, and I am going to pour myself a big gin n' tonic for that feat. OK, done and drinking now, time to dive into the challenge.

Things I learned from this challenge:

This is the second bankroll challenge I've done with Dr. Chako. Our first challenge was just the two of us, and we both failed miserably. This time around I was almost certain we'd all be negative again, unless someone hit a big score. Maybe even if someone hit a big score. I am shocked and amazed that Dr. Chako and I came out on top, even if it is a fraction of a percentage on top. And that fraction of a percentage only came chasing a positive total in the 12th hour playing happy hour poker...

Chasing bonuses or challenges leads to bad play and lost money!!

I would hop online and play for a big score to boost my bankroll and lose, then I would say "fuck it" to the challenge and grind my way back up to even playing solid poker and concentrating on making good decisions instead of focusing on results. This happened about five times over the last two months.

The second thing I learned was liking limit poker again! If you had told me at the beginning of this challenge that I would make most of my money on 2/4 and 3/6 limit hold'em, I would have spewed my gin n' tonic all over your face. Limit. Hold'em. Online?!? I don't think I've ever played limit hold'em online. I got sick of losing money playing live at casinos and getting sucked out on years ago--but I found myself back at a local casino playing 4/8 bingo. F-Train definitely has something to his post about limit hold'em not being in the lights and glamor the past few years, and as no limit hold'em tables have gotten tougher over the past five years, limit tables have not.

All in all, I really did not play as much poker over the past two months than I anticipated when we started two months ago. Part of the lack of poker was due to the fact that I thought break-even poker might win me some money on side bets! I look forward to reading up on others' experiences with the challenge and tabulating who wins on the bets!

It was fun (but I owe a ton!)

483.33 cash, 22T, $26 Token and $20 I let a friend borrow = 551.33

With a starting balance of 814.75 (including $11T) means I'm down (32%)

* just won another $5/18 -  which puts me down 29% - still pretty pathetic :)

I came close to the donkey killer early on, and went out 600 out of 9000 (JJ <>

Who had the biggest score? Most I could do was winning a few $5 18's. Does Aposec have that one as well?

Tried a last ditch effort tonight to catch back up by using another token in a $26 90 KO, but to no avail... out in 22 (with only 1 KO ).

Hopefully I at least get honorable mention in the post category...

Nevertheless.... had a blast with you all....

Who's up for "SBC: THE FALL VERSION"?

The End for Dr. Chako

I'll blink first in this game of "Who'll Posts Last."

I'm in the positive territory, which is far better than last time. Even subtracting the $2 prop bet I won from MHG, I'm still up $1.31 which by my calculation is +1.74%

What you got?

Proper Bubble Play

Wrap up - Katitude

Here's my finishing screen shot:



It looks super impressive when compared to my first one that showed a balance of $6.74.

But we all know, as with the supermodel body that sheathes a shrieking harridan of a woman, looks can be deceiving.

Once you take away the injections of ad money, $460 in total, then you can see that yes, I truly suck at poker.

Start balance: 6.74
Ending balance: -27.72

Now, I have a head cold that is making me all woozy and I am math challenged when it comes to percentages (I was sick that day), but by my calculations, I show a loss of $34.46 or 511 percent.

Five hundred and eleven percent. Good grief. So much for the Most Gained as a % of Bankroll bet. Let me know who I have to ship the tenner to.

Well, I suck at poker about 98% of the time. I did have one good cash for $278 from an initial $8.80 investment. I went out 14th of 448, so I think this gives me a win for Largest Score and Slayer of Donkeys (0.0311%).

I could be wrong though.

Unless dry, self-deprecating sarcasm can be classed as humorous, I certainly fail in the Funniest Blog Post wager.

Oh wait. I don't think I was in that bet. Never mind.

Not sure how the horsie bet is going with me and MHG. I know how my pick is doing, but I have no idea how Cindylicious is faring. Maybe I should wash my bike anyway in preparation of having to take a photo. It looks a little grimy after a few days on Northern roads.

Closeout

I already posted my entry regarding the best donkey-slayer finish, but now I'll post my results for part 1 of this little prop bet.

No screen shot included, because it's easy to include.

Starting balance: $31.05.
Ending balance: $0.00.

Down 100%.

I was tempted to re-deposit, but I've had enough junk-kicking on Full Tilt to decide against it. So, I'm pretty sure I take the Gigli for this part of the bet.

At least I hit the other part of the prop.

Meh.

Motorcycle

At one point, someone mentioned vanity pics on a motorcycle. I doubt these count, but it gives me an excuse to post these pics and solicit opinions. I'd like to know:

1. What you think of the bike
2. What you think of the size of the bike in relation to me.

I drove up to Bellingham today just to test drive the thing. That's where the only authorized dealer in the Pac Northwest resides. It's a British bike common in India. I'll post my thoughts after you give me yours.

-DrC

Telling Screencap

This is an interesting screencap, I believe (feel free to click the picture for a larger image of my desktop). Not only does it show a weird hold 'em hand at the final table of tournament #1, but it also shows a little of my strategy for winning this bet. Here I'm playing two tournaments at the same time; an 18 player SNG and a 27 player SNG. In the first I'm 2nd and in the second I'm 3rd. I ended up taking 2nd in both and I'm happy with everything but my heads up play. In one case, the chip leader called me an "f-in donkey" and he was right. I called an all in with K-2 and river the wheel. His 6s were no match.

This is a nice addition to a fairly good run over the last couple weeks, both live and online. Earlier today I made the final table of the local 45 person tournament at Freddie's in Fife (money back only) and doubled my buy-in at the 8/16 game that followed.

That said, I'm not certain any of us have a chance of catching Kat after her big hit.

Winding Down!

This Thursday marks August 20th, the end of the Summer Bankroll Challenge. Please remember to take screenshots before August 21st and post your finished bankroll amount!

I have a lot of work to do in the next four days!

Poker Update from Dr. Chako

Well, I'm living the life of a bachelor. This means:

1. I get to walk around the house nekkid,
2. I will be playing a lot of poker.

Heck, I may even do both at the same time.

I moved the fam down to Palo Alto last weekend (update here) and I'm staying here in Washington while I wait for my California medical license (which just got rejected because my internship, which happened at a hospital that doesn't exist anymore, sent my certificate with a copy of my photo, but they only accept original photos. Hello? The hospital doesn't fucking exist!)

Anyway, I had some free time last night so I headed to my favorite stomping grounds, Diamond Lil's in Renton, WA. I've been on a good run lately with 7 consecutive sessions where I came out ahead (counting live and online).

It was not the 8th.

The table was very loose and I played way too many pots. I started right away at 8/16 and won my first two hands, nearly doubling my buy-in. I should have walked away, but it was early, dammit. Don't judge me.

The next two hours saw me piss away my early win, plus the original rack. And the next rack. Fortunately, I only brought enough for 2 1/2 racks, otherwise I would have pissed away the rest, I think.

Instead, I came home and decided to chase my losses online. Great plan, right?

Actually, it was! I tightened way up and concentrated on position. I was playing 6-handed .05/.10 PLO with a $4 cap. Within one hour I doubled my buy-in and this time I DID cash out. I also played a 9-player PLO8 SNG and took second. I finished with 6-handed .25/.50 LHE and almost doubled my buy-in there.

So, to recap... I killed online for a profit of about $30, but I pissed away nearly $500 playing live.

I'm calling it a win.

Where hath thy challenge gone?

In my case, down the shitter. Been playing a few $5 18s and either throwing them away on stupid moves near the bubble, or when I do actually concentrate, getting 3 outed or running big pp into bigger pp. (My pp is bigger than yours, btw).

Last night I felt pretty good about my play for once, and got rewarded by shoving 99
QQ < KK - I could have folded that one, the other dude was super tight and I had enough chips to not call the tight asses shove, but not sure if that would be a correct move - meant to look it up - hang on....
I give him these cards only: JJ+,AJs+,AKo
And stove says it's 50/50
Fold. There were better spots. I still had chips. At best this dude probably had AK for a flip, at worst I'm completely dominated.

A9 < A5 - psycho to my left throws 2k at my 150 BB. I can read that idiot like a book and have him on weak ace + almost nothing else. I put him all in for 2k more. Fucker hits a 5 on the river to knock me out, again on the bubble. Shoving on him might seem a bad play, but I stand behind it - he may as well have had his cards face up, he was that bad.

Anyway, for the most part I'm getting more confident with my reads, but getting frustrated with all the coolers + beats I've been taking. These hands are nothing special, but it seems like I'm getting an awful lot of them. I know... variance, small sample size, yadda yadda yadda... still sucks.

My BR last night dipped into the $480 range... getting close to -50% in the challenge. So of course I did the prudent thing and jumped into $50NL HU cash. Which I've never played before. And which I'm woefully under bankrolled for. And if I get stacked I will be very sad. And if I'm sad, all electronics within tentacle's reach are sad.

Luckily (collective sigh of relief from all manner of throwable objects) I was somehow able to frigging own the tables I sat at. It helped that I was hitting cards. It helped that I had spent a bunch of time at 25NL full ring. It helped that I had been playing HU sng's lately. It helped a great deal that I didn't think about the $$ and tighten up. I played about 5 different people in about an hour, and every one of them quit me. Some were smart and realized within a few hands that it wasn't going to be profitable for them. A couple weren't so smart and let me have their $$. I was patient. I was aggressive. I played position. I played small pots with small hands + built big pots with big hands. I picked at any weakness I could find.

I wish I were better rolled for this, it was fun. I know that there are huge swings with HU, and I'm not able to withstand a bad session. I may have to dabble in it again though. Hope it wasn't a fluke. Need to look at my HH and make sure I just wasn't getting super lucky. Or maybe it was because it was late sunday night and all the drunkies were out. I have no idea. I am fairly certain that 850BB/hr might not be sustainable over the long term.

BR 8/10/09 $582.25 + $33T = $615.25