Ever have one of those sessions where after an hour or so, you find yourself pretty much where you started? Not that I’m complaining; it’s better than losing. Still, it’s pretty weak to net $1 after playing for a bit over an hour.
Thankfully I switched tables and won a decent pot that pushed my daily rate to 11.06BB/100 hands. 49 hands to go.
Played on Empire again today for a couple hours. My account now has $55 in it. I still need another 90 hands or so to be able to withdraw the whole thing, but I’m feeling pretty good at this point. After losing nearly $20 early in the evening, I came back later and won $45 or so, netting $25 for the day. 140 hands at 20.69BB/100 hands. Not bad.
Anyone who’s been keeping up with this blog will know that I haven’t said boo about poker (with the exception of announcing the winner of the World Series) since I lost my bankroll back in April and May.
In case you’ve been wondering, I haven’t played a single ring game for a month. I did play a few freeroll tourneys on PokerStars, and actually came in second in the qualifier and the weekly, netting me $50. That went straight into my Neteller account. And while that was fine and all, it took about ten hours of play for me to get that $50, which really wasn’t worth my time.
The other day I got an email from EmpirePoker alerting me to the fact that I had $10 sitting in my account. All I had to do was play 300 raked hands to claim it. Given my experience in April, I wasn’t sure I was going to last an entire session. But free money is free money, so I played it. Now I’m up $20 after 102 minutes of play, 119 hands, at a rate of 16.81BB/100 hands. Got another 251 raked hands to go before I can cash out the whole thing.
This is nowhere near recovery of my bankroll. I’m hoping, however, that I’ll be able to cash out another $50 and then rebuy for $100 when they send me a 50% deposit bonus. $150 should be enough to give me a fighting chance.
Wow.
Raymer started as chip leader and when I “tuned in,” it was down to him and Williams. Raymer had many many times the number of chips Williams had.
Here’s the final hand:
Dealer: Starting new hand: #109
Administrator: Stand by for the next hand….
Dealer: Raymer posts the ante 10
Dealer: Williams posts the ante 10
Dealer: Williams posts small blind 40
Dealer: Raymer posts big blind 80
Dealer: Williams raises to 300
Dealer: Raymer calls 220
Dealer: Dealing Flop: [4d 2d 5s]
Dealer: Raymer checks
Dealer: Williams bets 500
Dealer: Raymer raises to 1600
Dealer: Williams calls 1100
Dealer: Dealing Turn: [2h]
Dealer: Raymer bets 2500
Administrator: David Williams calls immediately.
Dealer: Williams calls 2500
Dealer: Dealing River: [2c]
Dealer: Raymer bets 12615 and is all-in
Dealer: Williams calls 3790 and is all-in
Dealer: Raymer shows [8d 8s]
Dealer: Williams shows [Ah 4s]
Dealer: Williams mucks hand
Dealer: Raymer collected 16400 from main pot
Administrator: David Williams is eliminated in second place.
Dealer: Williams finished the tournament in 2nd place
Raymer wins $5 million. He was a PokerStars player: “Administrator: Greg won his way in through a $150 shootout right here at PokerStars!”
Expect a lot of fish to swamp PokerStars in the coming weeks.
Just finished reading Lee Jones’ excellent Winning Low Limit Hold’Em. In my opinion, the book doesn’t necessarily make any huge breakthroughs. What it does is it formalizes a lot of the internal rules you will develop while grinding at the low limit tables (if you’re even remotely a serious player) in a clear, concise way without going through the pain and agony of losing your bankroll. Even if you have gone through the pain and agony, it’s a good idea to read and reread this book so that you can use its lessons on conscious and unconscious levels.
You can get Lee Jones’ advice for free at CardPlayer.com.