8 week challenge: Week 8 update

To motivate me to stick with this plan, I'll be posting results and a week recap here after midnight Tuesday night for the next 8 weeks.


Party is starting to do a pretty good job of taking care of its high volume players, which is why I'm doing this 8 week challenge. Sign up for Party Poker, and you can get an extra 20% on your first deposit (up to $100) if you click this banner, or use sign up bonus code ADSPAR. Party compensates me with a percentage of your rake, so you're helping support this blog if you sign up through me.

I've kind of abandoned this plan around week 5. But I guess I'll keep updating it just to see how far plans can change in 8 weeks.

Week 8 (3/29 - 4/4)

overall: 14 hours, 3578 hands, +$726.20 cash

This was another week where I didn't end up playing very much. I didn't feel much motivation to hit the tables, and I guess I at least made the smart move not to play when I wasn't feeling it.

I played a strange mix of NL and limit, but by far the most notable characteristic of this week is that I took a handful of astonishingly bad beats. I posted the statistical grandfather of all bad beats - losing to runner-runner perfect with a flopped set of Kings against an overaggressive pair of Jacks. I also flopped sets 2 other times and ended up losing 2 large pots to bigger sets on the turn. And I lost a $500 pot after getting all the money in on the turn with only 2 outs to beat me. Except for the 989:1 shot with the KK, there was nothing particularly spectacular about these beats, but I'm new enough to no-limit that losing massive pots after I'm all in as a huge favorite is new to me.

Anyway, I'm very happy that I managed to finish positive this week. This marks a strange end to my 8 week "challenge." Maybe I'll write an insightful introspective review, or maybe I'll let the changes in this running journal speak for themselves.

NL: 1068 hands, +$179.70
Limit: 2514 hands, +$306.50

Week 7 (3/22 - 3/28)

overall: 15 hours, 2540 hands, -$953.67 cash

Last week, after winning $2400 playing NL, I wrote "If last week was the recovery week, I don't know what this was." Now I know what it was: a lucky first shot. I took a couple days off to start the week, and then picked up where I left off, winning $500 on Friday. But then the bottom fell out and I proceeded to lose 7 straight buy-ins leaving me down almost a grand for the week. My NL winrate is now a much more realistic ~6bb/100. Its funny how far I am from where this plan started.

$5/10 6max stats:
87 hands, 13.45 bb/100, 22.99/10.34/1.35, 41.67% wtsd, 80% w$sd, 1.0 MT ratio


Week 6 (3/15 - 3/21)

overall: 20 hours, 2926 hands, +$2436.05 cash

If last week was the recovery week, I don't know what this was. I played exclusively no-limit this week, which I've never done before. So far it has worked out, but 2900 hands is not much to judge on. I'll write more about it in another entry.

$5/10 6max stats:
0 hands

Week 5 (3/8 - 3/14)

overall: 25 hours, 4694 hands, +$950.24 cash

So this was the recovery week. The key was not trying to make up for last week's heavy losses all at once. I made an effort to cut down on the number of tables I played and work on concentration and hand reading. I didn't bother trying to meet my target number of hands at Party, so I missed the bonus promotion there, but I'm fine with that. I played a lot at Full Tilt and Absolute this week. I also played some lower limit, and worked in a bit of $1/2 NL as well.

$5/10 6max stats (I started a new database for FT, so this is an estimated combination):
3160 hands, 1.2 bb/100, 24.57/15.0/2.07, 35.23% wtsd, 59.52% w$sd, 1.5 MT ratio

Week 4 (3/1 - 3/7)

overall: 25 hours, 5758 hands, -$2677.90 cash

I'll remember this as the worst week of my poker life. I hope. I've had 1 week where I lost more money, but it wasn't as emotionally devastating as what happened this week. I started out bad, and it only got worse. After losing $1500 playing the usual $5/10 6max on Party, I decided I wanted a change of pace so I fired up some $10/20 full. A $1000 win in my first session lulled me into a false sense of security. By late Saturday/early Sunday the carnage looked like this:

$10/20: 1542 hands, -$338
$5/10: 3025 hands, -$1878
$3/6: 116 hands, - $34
$2/5: 539 hands, -$217
SNGs: 279 hands, -$173

I was beyond tilt. I'm still shocked sometimes how unbelievably cruel poker can feel. So I ranted. I made the same kind of grand plans I've made before. Hopefully this time I actually stick with them. So far I've shown some signs of following through. I've also started rereading a poker book and generally thinking critically about my game.

There's very little chance of me meeting any of the goals of this challenge, and I don't even know if I'm going to keep playing the Party $5/10 6max. That game is my fucking archnemesis. After taking a couple days to cool off I played on Absolute tonight for about an hour and lost $300.

There are a million different thoughts running through my head about this week, but I don't feel like writing any more of them. Hopefully this latest disaster will be the kick in the ass I needed to get me moving in the right direction.

Here's the graph of the entire abortion of a week; I'm not bothering with a breakdown graph.





Week 3 (2/22 - 2/28)

overall: 23 hours, 7047 hands, +$93.36 cash

Such a "blegh" week. I started with my 2nd 150bb downswing in the last 3 weeks. So that was my Wednesday and Thursday. Friday I had a good day and got a lot of it back, but then I had to help my grandfather move on Saturday, so I missed that day entirely. Frankly though, I needed the break. I've been feeling a bit burnt out on the $5/10, so I barely played at all Sunday through Tuesday. I got in a fair amount of hands at other games and limits, and managed to basically break even for the week. I didn't play a tournament.

$5/10 6max stats:
4676 hands, -0.67 bb/100, 21.98/16.08/2.36, 35.71% wtsd, 59.15% w$sd, 2.62 MT ratio



other stats:
2193 hands, 1.92 bb/100



Week 2 (2/15 - 2/21)

overall: 20 hours, 6866 hands, +$1922.91 cash

The big story this week was a major update from Party. Their software no longer allows me to grab hand histories from tables unless I'm dealt in the hand, which makes my game selection process a lot more challenging. This has had the effect of shortening my sessions (the mechanism being I can't scout out games to add more tables when one of my tables breaks, so I tend to quit sooner since it doesn't feel like there's an immediately obvious opportunity I'd be leaving behind). Between the shorter sessions, down time for the software update, and some social plans, I only got in 20 hours this week. I partially made up for it by 4-tabling more often. A good sized rakeback payment also came through, which was a nice bankroll boost.

I did another tournament Tuesday afternoon and busted out early when I got caught pushing too hard too early against an opponent who I had seen fold to big raises. He sniffed out my play and called my K9o all-in bet with his A2s. Good call for him. I had the right idea, but I was just a little bit off with my execution. I'll learn.

$5/10 6max stats:
6696 hands, 2.07 bb/100, 21.26/15.37/2.15, 37.42% wtsd, 58.01% w$sd, 3.31 MT ratio



Week 1 (2/8 - 2/14)

overall: 30 hours, 7722 hands, +$112.95 cash (doesn't include this week's bonus from the Party promotion)

The week started with a terrible nosedive, but I recovered nicely after deciding to play tighter preflop, and easing up on the preflop aggression. I think I probably pulled back a bit too far, but I think that helped me calm down a bit after the tough losing streak. I actually made it back into the black for the week after being down over 150BBs, but lost a few hundred bucks in the last couple sessions of the week to finish slightly below even in the games. I got a rakeback payment from Absolute for last month, so I had slightly positive cash flow this week. A rather crappy start to this thing, but at least I know I can climb out of a big hole.

I did a tournament Tuesday afternoon, but lost most of my stack when I got all in on a 932 flop w/AA vs K9. 9 on the turn, oh well.

$5/10 6max stats:
7590 hands, -0.25 bb/100, 22.73/13.85/1.82, 38.96% wtsd, 54.40% w$sd, 2.56 MT ratio




Preaseason Week 2 (2/1 - 2/7)

overall: 26 hours (AC + online), 4677 (online) hands, +$1339

Another dud day in AC, but good online results when I got back, including a 240bb uptick in 3000 hands. But then there was a 100bb downswing at the end of this week that worsened in Week 1 of the challenge. Week results are padded by $472 of bonus money.

$5/10 6max stats:
4544 hands, 2.94 bb/100, 26.19/19.43/1.80, 42.33% wtsd, 52.51% w$sd, 2.28 MT ratio



Preseason Week 1 (1/25 - 1/31)

overall: 27 hours (AC + online), 3373 (online) hands, +$1405

Good week online, then headed up to AC on Monday and didn't win anything up there. Ran hot online.

$5/10 6max stats:
2605 hands, 5.14 bb/100, 24.95/17.66/2.03, 40.87% wtsd, 58.2% w$sd 2.32 MT ratio