Target Reached

Today I managed to reach my first target, reaching the point of being up by $400 in $1/$2 limit full ring games. Next time i sit down to play limit I'll be playing $2/$4 which will be very exciting stuff. Unfortunately we haven't got the internet connected on the desktop computer yet so I haven't been able to do any casino bonuses, so my target of finishing all the sticky bonuses before the end of the year looks all but impossible to acheive. It also means that I can't transfer my hand histories from my laptop to the desktop in order to analyse my play in pokertracker. However, I have started recording each of my session's results in a little book and also on excel, so I do have a solid record of my basic win/loss stats.

My next goal is to try and make it to $3/$6 by the end of the year, which is only about 2 weeks away. It looks to be a difficult task as I need to win $1000 at $2/$4 in order to move up. In light of the internet problems and my inability to do casino bonuses, my bankroll target of at least $5000 by the end of the year is looking more and more unlikely, let alone my optimistic target of $8000. My short handed game is going very swingily at the moment, but that was to be expected as its the nature of the beast.

I've been thinking more and more about playing live poker at the casino on a regular basis and longing for the time when I will be able to do it. This is still a long way off however, because I need to reach a bankroll target of $7000, so I can withdraw US$3000 to form my offline bankroll of AU$4000. If I can keep at it, then hopefully I'll get there before the end of the holidays, which gives my about 10 weeks.

Lately, and during my exam period, I have been finding what a good resourse youtube is for poker videos. I have spent many hours watching poker clips on youtube, mostly High Stakes Poker which was created by GSN. Its different, and in my opinion, much more interesting than televised tournaments, because of the range of hands that are played and how they are played, along with the fact that its REAL MONEY and all the table talk and antics that go on in a cash game but not so much in a tournament. I'm going to put together a youtube poker movies directory soon, because one thing I found was navigating all the movies to find the right ones I was looking for.

In other news, I've finally started to sign up to the rest of the affiliate accounts that I need to for my affiliate program. Its a big job, because theres something like 50 different accounts I have to sign up for, but at least the ball is rolling now. Once all the affiliate links are in place I'll start promoting the guides etc on various forums to get some traffic. I think I'll try and focus mainly on the Australian market, because its a relativly young and untapped market and its one that I know more about than any other because I am an Australian.

In non poker/ website circles, I got my Uni results the other day and although I got my first two distinctions so far for my course, I also got my first fail, which I was expecting but was still quite dissapointing. I did well with that particular subject throughout the semester without trying particularly hard and missing a lot of tutorials and most lectures which meant that I was way behind when it came to the exam. I just simply didn't put in the required time for my revision and with the exam paper being quite hard this semester, I had almost no hope. Hopefully I'll learn something from this and it will ensure that I don't slack off and fail any more subjects. On the good side of things, Christmas is right around the corner. I've just about finished all my x-mas shopping and I think everyone will like the gifts I have got this year, probably becasue I was able to splash around a bit more this year than other years as I now have an ongoing job. I get good satisfaction from seeing my family enjoy seeing what I've given them, its great.

Just in case you're wondering, I'm aware that the description of this blog says "marking poker and casino bonus swindling my SOLE source of income" and quite soon after I've openly told how I got a real job and I'm making far more from it than I am from poker, however having no where near as much fun.

Monthly Report: November

Stats:

Limit Poker: +$35

Short: -$62
Full: +$97

Tourny's: +$39.25

MTT: -$16.50
SNG: +$55.75

90 Player DS: +$51
9 Player: +$4.75

All Poker Total: +$74
FTP Bonus: +$80

Grand Total: +$154

November was a hectic month because I had uni exams PLUS we were moving house. My exam period was from the 12th to the 22nd, and for a week or so before that I was in SWOT VAC studying so it left much less time for poker, but I managed to squeeze some in here and there when I needed a break from study. As can be seen from the stats summary above, the most rewarding aspect of poker for Nov was my tournament sucess. I've just started getting back into tournaments and I played a lot of 90 player Deep Stack SNG's, which seem to be my prefered structure and size, throughout November. I managed to make it to the money a number of times including a 2nd, 5th and 8th. Ironically, of those three final table finishes, I thought I'd played my best poker in the one where I came in 8th, I just couldn't catch any cards at the final table there.

As can also be seen, I lost a fair bit playing short handed which I'm not too fazed about because thats simple that nature of short handed play, high variance. The fact that I made back the money and more in full ring games also blunted the impact of my short handed loss.

These stats are really only from the first half of Nov because from the 15th to the 22nd, it was getting into the meat of my exams so I had less time to play as I was studying so much. Also, from the 22nd till the end of the month, I had planned to cram lots of poker in and try and get my targets into range, however, we moved house on the 23rd and the internet wasn't connected until Dec 2nd so I ended up missing the whole 2nd half of November.

Due to the loss of the Internet and exams etc, I didn't play ANY casino bonuses for the whole of Nov, infact, if you remember, I only played one bonus, Intercasino, in October, so hopefully I'll be able to get onto them soon. In terms of my goals, the next one in my sights is to reach the mark of being up by $400 at $1/$2 full ring games so I can move up in stakes to $2/$4. I've only got to win about $70 more to do this.