So we made this bet.Starting on the 22th of April and ending on the 22th of May I have to make 20k playing only 10/20 and 15/30 single table. Whoever lose has to pay a trip with all included to a game in the next Champions league with either Real Madrid or Barcelona.
I honestly think that its possible, but I dont think its gonna be easy, and I think its gonna be very time consuming.
Anyways im gonna try to update on how its going. Wish me luck :D
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Day 1: Got up pretty early to play some poker. Was sort of hungover from the night before, but that didnt stop me. Decided to play most of the day to get a good start on the bet, and get a good feeling of how much I could make an hour.
Started out by taking a $500 dive, but ended on, after approx 10 hours of play/waiting heads:
Day 1: +$2332
So things are looking pretty good for the bet.
The action seems incredible at these tables, despite having to wait a good while for it sometimes. Its great how people seems to recognize me from higher stakes tables. I was asked twice what I was doing at playing these 'low stake' tables. It seems almost impossible for me to get an opponent while waiting heads up, and if I do they come only to play a few hands then leave. I also experienced sitting down at a 3-handed game making it 4-handed with 10k, just to see all players leave after 1 hand :D
Day 2: Woke up around 12 and played until 18:00 (I had to stop to attend a birthday party) with a few breaks in between, making it about 5 hours of sitting in front of my computer playing poker.As yesterday the level of play at the tables I played on was pretty low. It often felt like I was the only one betting, and the only one folding my inside straight draws on the turn and that sort of things.
What really annoys me is that this server doesnt just open up new tables as the other ones fill up, you simply have to be lucky and fast to catch a 15/30 0/6 player table before its closed, or you can sit and wait until a 4/6 tabe becomes 3 handed (I only play 2-4 handed)
Day 2: +$1191.
Day 3: Being sort of hungover, I decided not to play before going to work ( I do infact have a normal job). I got home at around 20:30 and started to play right away. The action seemed good with a lot of shorthanded tables running. I lost a few keyhands to begin with setting me a few hundred back, but after 4 hours of play I was well up, and decided to call it a night.
Day 3: +$2441
I feel like im getting better and better for each session at playing and reading the type of players on these tables. Its always hard to determine how much luck you've had, but I think and hope that the following days will show that I have had about average luck or maybe a little above average.
Day 4: Started out well by getting up a little over 1k. My friend asked me to come over and play with him and my brother at my brothers appartment. He wanted some new inspiration on his game, and I thought it would be a good idea to get a little away from my own place.
Now the problem is that when your trying to concentrate and commentate on poker tables thats not your own 3-handed game, your level of play goes down. Adding to that, I ran in to a streak of bad beats, and was sometimes too eager to prove my points of being agressive all the time to my friends.The thing is: the difference in your own mind between being overagressive and healthy agressive is very tiny, but rather noticeable to the other players. Thats when they start to get creative against you, and you actually raise their level of play quite a bit.
Being down 1400 for that session and 400 for the day I decided to call it a night - but not a pokernight I returned home and quickly found my game again, and in about 1½ hour (totaling 6 hours of poker for the day) I was up:
Day 4: + $1183
A little too much rollercoaster action today, and im just glad that I'm up.
Im thus far at + $7047 for the first 4 days, which looks promising
Quick Day 5 summary: Started out with a bad luck streak and ended, after about 4 hours of play, with a good luck streak. Didnt feel like playing all night and stopped for the day with a decent plus.
Day 5: + $872
Just rasing my overall to a new thousand: + $8019
6th day: Now this day would prove to be the hardest day so far. I started out pretty well by winning about $300 in very few hands (a royal flush helped me some of the way;)). I had dinner with my roommates, worked out, then later went home to my brother to watch the UEFA Champions league semi final.
Now last time I was there I lost a good bunch of money while playing from one of his computers. So I had decided not to play this time around. When the match was over, my brother and our mutual friend both sat down to play some. They were enjoying themselves and I once again ignored the fact that this was crappy laptops with a crappy connection and not the best poker atmosphere (grrr!). It didnt take me long to lose $1300 dollars, and I realized that I had to play from home.
I got home and quickly broke even for the night and an hour or so later made another thousand. I was about to call it a night when some of the boys from the higher stake tables joined my game. Now about these kind of players: they are the ones who will reraise you with hands like QJ Ax any pair and so on all the time. The types who will, if they sense weaknes, raise you on the turn with close to nothing, the ones who truely know the art of isolating an opponent, and who knows how and when to milk their cards.
Now its not that I normally dont beat these guys, but their way of play (which is pretty close to mine actually), creates this crazy action with a lot of check raising, reraising and capping. So couple hours and a lot of bad beats (bad beats is a part of shorthanded limit, but everybody needs to whine about from time to time ) later, the table broke up and I was down $1300 for that session.
It was getting late and I had planned on going to bed a little lot earlier, but my stuborn will to win kept me playing. After taking some poor guys (poor as in little money) stack at 10/20 heads up, I found this great 3-handed game at $15/$30. My notes told me that one of my opponents was weak conservative and slightly passive: I have played with this guy for a long time and know that he also makes a living playing poker, but while his 'solid' conservative and easily predictable style might work against the majority of players, it gets totally crushed against a player like me. The other player at the table had a loose passive note on him, and those two combined made the table just great!
After an hour of play I had taken $1500 from the table, winning the most from the other pro there. And I decided to call it a night and get some sleep, still being a little reluctant about leaving the table tho - oh well
Day 6: $1197 after about 6 hours of play
I have cleared my entire schedule tomorrow for the sole purpose of playing poker - its gonna be great!
Day 7-10: Been very busy the last few days, and I havent had time to post results. On day 7 I made it to 10k, meaning I was half way through the bet. I thought it would give me comfort to reach that milestone, but instead it made my game shake a bit, fearing to go below 10k again. Day 8 and 9 I did go below that a few times and I only made $500 in those two days. I felt like a plane that wouldnt take off and just kept on crashing.
Day 10 The plane finally took off, winning by far the most playing heads up, and only in a handfull of hours. Had a long session with the person who im guessing is making a little less than me whos supposed to give me the most trouble on those tables, tearing him totally apart
Day 7-10 + $3787
Day 11: Got home from a busy day rather late, and didnt play before around 23:00ish. Wasn\'t in much of a poker mood, and decided that I would stop as soon as I hit +$1k for the day. After 4 hours of passive and active playing time and after taking like 5 different people's last money, I was at my goal and decided to stop for the night.
Day 11: + $1077
My plan is to try and make the bet in a half month rather than a full one. This will require a lot of hours of play, and im not sure if I wanna invest that much time. But it would be a nice way to finish off the bet tho.
Day 12: Had an appointment at 11:00 which is pretty early for me. So I didnt sleep a lot and went on the whole day being pretty sleepy. I started to play as soon as I got home, losing around 500 with some sloppy play and bad luck. The championsleague semi final was showing and I went to a bar with a couple of my friends to go watch it. I'm not much of a bar person (clubs > bars at anytime) so I went home not long after I had seen the weaker team beat the stronger
I got home started to play, and started losing. I felt like I kept on losing and losing, but at the same time I felt like my opponents werent really playing their cards right. Another person that werent playing well was me. At one time went I went -$1000 for the day, and strongly considered to just call it a night and go to bed. But stubborn as always I kept on playing.
I began slowly winning some of my money back, and I took an extra 10k to the table (I usually enter a table with 15k unless im first or second to join it) to scare them even further - and it seemed to work perfectly! They folded and checked all the pots I wanted them to fold and check and called the ones where I didnt want them to fold. After an hour or two of play a fifth person entered the table and I left, having turned a losing day to a winning day.
Day 12: $+491 with about 4-5 hours of play
The day didnt go as well as I had planned, but it didnt go as worse as I at some point feared it to go. I didn't want to play half a sleep, and I feet like it was the right decision to quit when I quit.
Day 13 I decided to take this day off and spend it on other things than poker.
Day 14 set me back around $250 dollars.
Day 15 would prove to be even worse. I started out by losing a lot of key pots, which seemed to trigger a whole streak of bad beats. The thing is that when you lose on these tables you dont really lose a lot. But it seemed like everytime I got close to breaking even the bad beats rained on me. At one point over six hands I lost trips with top kicker, two flopped sets and a KK. I normally dont really have emotional outbreaks, but this one really set my temper on fire. So bad I might have to go out and buy a new desk one of these days after I smashed a big hole in it with my hand (IKEA ) I took a long break and picked it up later regaining some of the lost ending up at -$353 for the day
Day 14 and Day 15 -$603 after a good 10 hours of play
Day 16: I had a good nights sleep, and woke up with fresh courage and motivation. One of the first games I got into was a heads up game with a pretty passive guy, who didnt really make any moves or tricks. Was clear that he wasnt a heads up player, and I just outplayed him by beíng more agressive. After about an hour or less he was down $1300 and left - good start.
I quickly found another person to play heads up. This guy was even more passive, but a little bit trickier and slowplaying. He had a $400-500 stack, which I took in 15-20 mins with no big problems.
I finished up the day with some 3-4 handed and a little bit of heads up, which went rather well with good cards and poor opponents
Day 16 + $2998 after about 6½ hours of play
So far + $16966