Wednesday, October 29, 2008

0 to 1,000,000 - 6th Update

2 days ago I went through the worst run on this challenge. I went from $350+ down to $122 in a span of 2 days. I was so disappointed and heartbroken that I stopped playng for 2 days. Now I'm back to playing $0.10/$0.25 ring games when I was already at $0.50/$1. I may have moved up too fast but I wanted to see if I could reach the million by November 30. Seems I can't. Well, I'm still up and that's what matters.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

0 to 1,000,000 - 5th Update (Back On Track)

After writing the previous update I went on playing and the day ended at $219.90. But today, I was able to recover my losses and I'm back on schedule. It took 7 hours of play but now I'm at $308.10.

I got rid of that tilting feeling by playing FPP tourneys and it did the trick. I got to play without sacrificing more of my bankroll. So now I can continue with what I was doing.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

0 to 1,000,000 - 4th Update (My First Setback)

I've been religiously following my plan to get to my 1,000,000 goal. And today I was my first losing day.

I started the day with $240.10 and it's currently $233.25. It's a small amount but it's major setback as far as the greater scheme of things. I can't play ring games today because I'm still thinking about my loss. Instead, I'm playing a 10FPP tournament and a $2.20 MTT. Hopefully I place in the money in one or both of these tournaments to get my confidence back.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Pokermanila EB

I've been a member of the only poker community forum here in the Philippines for a while now and the community is growing. Members of Pokermanila represent the bulk of visitors on this blog. I've met a few of them in person but the site has never had a grand EB before. Or at least not while I was an active member. This also doesn't include eyeballs online playing freerolls.

I'm really hoping we get to have an EB soon. (Guys, this is a call out that we need to have an EB)

If you want to be a member of Pokermanila, just go to http://pokermanila.com.

Friday, October 17, 2008

0 to 1,000,000 - 3rd Update

I'm still on my 0 to 1,000,000 challenge and it's looking good. I've been sticking to my plan and I've never failed to meet the 3% daily for this last week. I've often exceeded the target because the pots I win is more than what I'm actually targetting.

I currently have $156.65. If I was getting only exactly 3% daily, I'd only be at $101.79. Luckily, I've always exceeded my target. The only downside to my plan thus far is that the 3% target can be met in just a few minutes. a couple of days ago, I only played 2 hands for the entire day. It's the only downside but it's a very major one. I don't get to play anymore. However, I'm still sticking to it. I think it's a good strategy and I'm experimenting on how far I get doing it.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Poker Acronyms

For the benefit of readers who feel that the poker acronyms used in my posts are jargon, I’ve listed some poker acronyms I often use throughout the blog. I’ve listed them alphabetically.

APPT – Asia-Pacific Poker Tour
BB – Big Blind/Big Bet
FD – Flush Draw
FPT – Filipino Poker Tour
FT – Final Table
FTD – Final Table Donkey
GL – Good Luck
ITM – In the Money
LHE – Limit Hold’em
MTT - Multi-Table Tournament
NLHE – No Limit Hold’em
OESD – Open-Ended Straight Draw
PLO – Pot Limit Omaha
PS - PokerStars
SB – Small Blind/Small Bet
SNG - Sit and Go
STT - Single Table Tournament
UTG – Under the Gun
WSOP – World Series of Poker

Sunday, October 12, 2008

0 to 1,000,000 - 2nd Update (Daily Strategy Guide)

I've written about my 0 to 1,000,000 challenge 5 months ago and I've never forgotten about it. I've only just began building my bankroll and now I can start working towards my goal. The challenge is to get to Php 1,000,000 by May 26, 2009. I was supposed to start from $0 and work my way up but it was taking forever to build so I had to deposit $23 last month. I wasn't cheating. The money I deposited came from the money I earned from selling my poker chip set. It was sort of still related to poker anyway. I was supposed to use the money from ads to fund this challenge but that too is taking forever.

Anyway, now that I have a bankroll, this is my planned strategy. Each day I play, I'll just aim for a net profit of 3% of the current bankroll. 3% is nearly nothing and it'll be (theoretically) easy to get that 3% without risking a lot. I also need to limit playing ring games with a BB that's 0.5% of my total bankroll. I'll only limit myself to buying in 30x BB for that ring game in order not to risk too much. If I'll play an STT, the buyin should not exceed 5% of my bankroll. For an MTT, buyin should not exceed 2.5%.

I currently have $85.25. I need to earn $2.56 for the first day through playing a ring game with BB not more than $0.43. As the days progress, I'll be playing on the bigger table but still trying to win only 3% of my bankroll. It's estimated that I reach $22,085 (Php 1,000,000+) by the 189th day or April 18 if I play daily and I always reach the 3% target.

Sounds simple enough. Now I just have to play. Wish me luck.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Good run

Just last month I was online broke. Then I had a friend transfer money to my account.

I've played SNGs, tournaments, ring games and now I've built my bankroll to $75. It actually went up to $100 but the last couple of days were bad. But generally, it's still not all that bad.

I'm still aiming to be a millionaire by next year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Poker Bigotry

In the hand below, there were only 3 players left in a $5.50 STT. Everyone was ITM. I am in Blue, villain in Red.

PokerStars Game #20966644004: Tournament #112428543, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (100/200) - 2008/10/06 2:02:50 ET
Table '112428543 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 3: abaddon_ross (4310 in chips)
Seat 6: STEED11 (2390 in chips)
Seat 9: Defiance101 (6800 in chips)
abaddon_ross: posts the ante 25
STEED11: posts the ante 25
Defiance101: posts the ante 25
Defiance101: posts small blind 100
abaddon_ross: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to abaddon_ross [9c 7d]
STEED11: raises 200 to 400
Defiance101: folds
abaddon_ross: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [6d 7h 2d]
abaddon_ross: bets 600
STEED11: raises 600 to 1200
abaddon_ross: calls 600
*** TURN *** [6d 7h 2d] [9s]
abaddon_ross: checks
STEED11: bets 765 and is all-in
abaddon_ross: calls 765
*** RIVER *** [6d 7h 2d 9s] [2c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
abaddon_ross: shows [9c 7d] (two pair, Nines and Sevens)
STEED11: shows [Ac Ah] (two pair, Aces and Deuces)
STEED11 collected 4905 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4905 Rake 0
Board [6d 7h 2d 9s 2c]
Seat 3: abaddon_ross (big blind) showed [9c 7d] and lost with two pair, Nines and Sevens
Seat 6: STEED11 (button) showed [Ac Ah] and won (4905) with two pair, Aces and Deuces
Seat 9: Defiance101 (small blind) folded before Flop

The hand itself was not worth blogging about but after this hand, villain had this to say...

STEED11 said, "almost got lucky there"
STEED11 said, "the REAL players always prevail"
STEED11 said, "he was calling like he had cowboys"
STEED11 said, "abaddon is either drunk 12 yrs old, or from a country other than the us"

He had so much less chips than I did and his 2x raise on my BB was too small for AA. I had top pair when I led on the flop and his raise wasn't enough to push me out. I had my 2 pair on the turn and there was no reason to fold when he went all in. In retrospect, he was the one who got lucky. He only had 8 outs on the river.

I didn't answer him though. I let him tilt. But what does not being in the US have anything to do with playing?!?!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Filipino Poker Tour 6 - planning ahead

With the success of the Filipino Poker Tour 5, it's not hard to imagine that there will be a Filipino Poker Tour 6. I'm expecting it to have a higher buy-in because the main reason why FPT5's buy-in was low was to make people aware. They have been able to achieve that.

My fearless forecast is that FPT6 will be within 2008. It's going to have a buy-in of around 30k+3k and it'll guarantee 5 million.

And for me to be sure I get into this event, I'm planning ahead. I need to be able to raise the buy-in for the FPT6. On the right hand side of the blog, I've added a Donate button which you can use to help me. Thanks! :)

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Filipino Poker Tour 5

The Filipino Poker Tour 5 has finally arrived and it's the biggest FPT to date. More than 300 players came to take part in the event. There was even a need to have alternates as there were more players than the venue could seat. I was expecting to see some good poker plays and I wasn't disappointed.

My whole tournament started pretty well. Starting stack was 15,000 and I was up to 20,000 before the first orbit. I was planning on building it a little at a time just to be sure I could go the distance. However, as the tournament progressed, I was no longer hitting the board and my bluffs were being called. It came to the point in level 4 that I was down to only 6 times the BB (600). The tables were turned when I got a rush and I was able to rebuild my stack to more than 20,000 at the start of the 5th level. This made me one of the big stacks in my table.

In level 6, our table collapsed and I was transferred to a different one. What was considered a big stack in my table became one of the shorter stacks in the new one. I wasn't able to see the flop, even when I was BB. After the dinner break, I checked the stacks of the remaining players and found that I would still have a chance if I made a move in the next round.

Level 7 (600/1200, ante 100). I was at around 20,000+. I was BB and UTG bet 4,000 total. Everyone folded to me. It was the second time opponent on my left raised on my blind. I figured I was going to look at the flop just to see if my 87 suited would hit. Flop came 898, no flush draw. I felt there he couldn't be on a straight draw. I checked with the intention of slow playing my set. There was 9,400 in the pot, villain bet 4,000. I called. Turn was a King, flush draw now on the board. I still checked. Villain also checked. River was a Jack, no flush. Villain bet 12,000. I only had 13,000+ left so I pushed all-in. He was commited and called. He showed JJ for a full house Jacks over Eights. I showed my set and instantly felt remorse about not check-raising on the flop or betting all-in on the turn.

It may not have been my time to win a major tournament. But just trying to see it in a more optimistic point of view, at least I got a free dinner and a t-shirt.

Friday, October 3, 2008

FPT5 - Here I come...

I can't wait to play the Filipino Poker Tour 5 tomorrow. This will be my first major tournament ever. I've played other tournaments but none as big as this.

Man, I wish I still had my mohawk!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Mega-Satellites for FPT5

The Metro will be having mega-satellites for the FPT5 tournament. These satellites will be held in the new Metro card room. It's behind Duck Wok in Metrowalk. There's a door there that leads inside and to the back.

Oct 2, 6pm - 5 seats guaranteed - Php500+50 buy-in
Oct 3, 6pm - 10 seats guaranteed - Php1000+100 buy-in

They didn't mention if it's going to be a no rebuy, single rebuy/add-on or multi-rebuy tournament. I hope it's a no rebuy tournament.