November Recap

Strange feelings about this month. I only played on Titan this month. Trying to do the impossible and clear my deposit bonus. If you are a microstakes player forget the Titan deposit bonus.
I made a profit which feels great but it should have been more, much more. I donked away 50$ at their Caribean Stud Poker table. Lesson learned. Even without this my profit is decent and probably the biggest month profit ever. A stunning 81$.

Let's take a look at my stats:
SNGs played: 82
ITM: 31 times (39,02%)
ROI: 18.05$ (not good enough)

1st places: 7
second places: 10
Third places: 14

I'm surviving the bubble enough times but I feel that I should get more wins or at least second places.

The things I learned this month:
- I should not always call all-ins.
- Be more aggressive.
- And on the other hand keeping my patience.
- I should stay away from the turbo games and the multi table SNGs. Not ready for both of these SNG types.

Also satisfied with the blog. I'm very satisfied with the redesign of my blog. It looks like a regular template but it is not. If you take a deeper look at the background you will see that the dots are replaced by the spade and heart symbol.
A look of thanks to Mair38 (aka Pokerlass) for designing my banner, I couldn't have done it better (or without u). I hope this layout change will increase my number of hits.
To improve my blog even further a opened a playground blog, where I can try everything out before uploading it to this live blog without screwing it up.

Good luck at the tables,
Dremeber

The ultimate goal for the remainder of the year is to get break even

The end of the year is getting closer. So it is time to set one final goal for the end of the year.
This year was my first year as amateur poker player. So in the beginning of the year the goal was simple. Try to learn the game and minimize the losses. In total I have funded my online bank account with around 240$. So the goal is pretty clear. At the end of the year I want to have at least 140$ in my online bank account.

The online bank account at the moment is 115$ and I also have 115$ in my Titan account. If I wouldn’t have donked away 75$ at a online casino and 50$ in the Titan Casino my goal would have been reached already. But unfortunately I did. What happened happened. So my combined online bankroll is 230$. The problem is that I may not withdraw all the money from my Titan account due to their bonus policy. According to their rules I should always have a BR there of at least 50$, which was my deposit, until the bonus period ends or I reached x iPoints.

So the more realistic calculation at the moment is: 115$ + 65$ = 180$
So my goal is to win at least 60$ in the last part of the year. According to my results @ Titan so far it should be feasible. It won’t be an easy job but there is no use is doing a challenge if it isn’t challenging.

I will try to achieve this in phases.
The idea is the withdraw once 50$ when the BR @ Titan hits 150$, bringing my online bank account @ 165$. And another withdrawal of 75$ when the Titan BR hits 150$ again.
If this last goal fails I will withdraw anything above 50$ (with a maximum of 75$) from Titan at December the 30th.

Whish me luck,
Dremeber

Improving

I guess I'm breaking my loosing streak. It is to soon to already profit from my SNG analysis but still. I'm playing much more relaxed with never ending patience.

Played 3 SNGs in the past two days.

SNG1: 9th
The result looks awful but his quads where so well hidden. Never expected that. Still I should avoiding going all-in in the first 20 hands without having an absolute monster. Lesson learned I hope.

SNG2: second
Lost heads up when my pockets 33 already where beaten on the flop when a 7 gave him the higher pair. He called with 87s.

SNG3: Third.
Lost against a pocket pair of Jacks. Cannot complain about my play just didn't get the cards.

As you can see I also updated my template again. I changed the background from a well known template. I hope you can see the spades and hearts symbols. Hope you like it.

Good luck at the tables,
Dremeber

Update

Not running well. Don't what is hitting me. I even tried some money tables with some small success!

My tournament stats from the previous post:
7 played and only 2 ITM.
Even one 10th place and 2 9th places. Results to be ashamed on.

SNG 1: 4th.
Card dead!

SNG2: 10th place.
Not even worth discussing.

SNG3: 4th place.
Doubled up only after 51 hands. When my A8 was good enough against K10. Got cripled in hand 67 when I decided a call an all-in with AJ in the BB running into 22, which made has set on the turn. 10 hands later I went all-in with J7 to run into the mighty 10 6s. He hit a 10 on the river.

SNG4: 9th
Got cripled in hand 26. I called an all-in with again AJ. This time the villain had 88. No help for me. I should incorperate the advice of Rob into my game and not so often call an all-in.

SNG5: 3th
Needed this one for my confidence. Got kicked out when my AQ failed to beat K10. K on the turn, Q on the river.

SNG6: 9th
Getting frustated. This hand really pissed me off.

SNG7: 3th

Cheers,
Dremeber

Tuesday and Wednesday results

Like posted I will my post my result and analyze my play when I did not end ITM in a SNG.
During the last 2 days I played only 6 SNGs. Today I watched Azer - Belgium and England - Croatia. Unfortunately both England and Belgium did not qualify for the EC.

The Tuesday session:
SNG 1: 3 place

SNG 2: 4 place.
Hate it to be the bubble boy but overal I played well. Was very quickly short stacked due to this hand. I ran into a set made on the flop. Stupidly enough I keep on placing c-bets and luckily I did not go all-in when I made my second pair on the river. Doubled up 20 minutes later when my 55 held up against AJ. To get crippled again when my steal attempt with KJ ran into KQ. My all-in story stopped on the bubble when my AK was beaten by a fucking 58s. Even making the FH on the river.

Profit of the day: -1$

The Wednesday selection:
For long time it looked like it was going to be my second losing day in a row but a win in my last SNG whipped out the losses of today and Yesterday. In my first 3 SNGs I played like a real donk.

SNG 1: 7th place.
And again a c-bet failed and for or the other reason I could not lay down my hand. I should have know that I was already beaten but I kept hoping on the straight. So within the first 11 hands of the SNG and I already donked away one third of my stack. WTG fish. So I managed to stay alive for another 19 hands when this happened.

SNG 2: 10th.
Not even worth of analyzing. Did not know what I was thinking. Hand 19 of the SNG. My pre-flop raise is OK. The call of the SB should have ringed some bells. But why the hell do I go all-in after the flop? Still a mystery!

SNG 3: FIRST. Phew

SNG 4: 5th.
Pretty much card dead during the complete SNG. Only saw 54 hands in this SNG. Won some small pots, lost some small pots. Did not even have hands to do serious steal attempts. So when I decided to push all my remaining chips into the middle I ran into a straight. Tried to post it on Pokerhand.org but I always got back the error: that this is not a valid hand history.
Starting a new hand (#1202269141)
Texas Holdem NL 150/300 - 2007-11-21 21:53:28 Server
Table Tallinn, 109885651 Trny: $5+$0.50 ID: 929154791 Place: 5 Win: $0
Seat 2: tom111185 ( 661 )
Seat 3: maik1492 ( 2,190 )
Seat 4: Dremeber ( 830 )
Seat 8: elvis68 ( 9,689 )
Seat 10: kks2007 ( 1,630 )
Dremeber posts Small Blind 150
elvis68 posts Big Blind 300
Dealing cards
Your cards Ad 9d [Dremeber]
kks2007 folds
tom111185 folds
maik1492 folds
Dremeber goes All-in 680
elvis68 calls 530
Dealing Flop Tc Ah 6d
Dealing Turn Tc Ah 6d Js
Dealing River Tc Ah 6d Js 3s
elvis68 shows Qs Kd
Winner is elvis68 1660
#EOG.

Profit of the day: 3$.

Good luck at the tables,
Dremeber

Weekend and Monday update

Time to look back at the weekend. First lets start with the bad news. I donked away 50$ in the casino of Titan poker. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Due to this I wanted to withdraw my initial deposit but this was refused by Titan cause this would have brought my BR under the amount I deposited. They explained that I may withdraw money but I may not go below the amount I deposited during my bonus period. So I browsed their web page and nothing can be found explaining this rule. So bad points for Titan Poker.

Now back to the Poker front. I played 21 SNG in the past days. Most of them are 5$ 10 seater, one 10$ 10 seater and 2 5$ 30 seaters.
My ROI is decreasing but my overal profit is climbing. So far I made over 100$ profit, so I may not complain but there are still many leaks in my game and it is time to discover them. So from now on I will evaluate each SNG where I did not end ITM and place my explanation on my blog. This way I'm forced to think about it.

As a closure some non poker information. It is time for me to lease a new Car. Currently I'm driving the old version of the Hyundai Santa Fe. But the new Santa Fe has become to expensive. The Dutch government is a real pain in the ass. Nowhere in Europe the tax on lease cars is so heavy and my problem is that I should add 25% of the Dutch catalog value to my annual salary. For the moment 3 cars are shortlisted and if the all appear to be too expensive I will probably fall back to the Ford Mondea Clipper.

First choice: The Dodge Nitro









Second choice: The Jeep Compass









Third choice: The Chevrolet Captiva









Still one month before I have to make my decision.

Good luck at the tables,
Dremeber

Nothing much to report. Didn't play a lot of poker. Many reasons for that but the most important one is that I didn't feel like playing. Yesterday evening I had more fun with chasing one or our escaped chickens than playing poker. Must have been a sight. Me in complete darkness chasing a chicken with a flashlight. Not an easy task I can tell you! If I put down the flashlight I could see where the chicken was running, if I kept it in my hand I couldn't catch the chicken. But in the end I won!!!

My BR @ titan is still very healthy. I almost tripled it in 10 days which is quiet an achievement for me. Probably cause I have more patience and start to get the guts to play more aggressive @ the bubble. The patience part is probably explained by the fact that I stayed away from the turbos. For the aggressive part I have to thank BurnleyMik and Biakkax who opened my eyes. Also some credit to MrPink. Guys thx for the tips. Don't forget to visit the blog of Biakkax to read his laptop story.

Also nice to read that Amatay is recovering, hang in there made. The table will turn your way.

Good luck @ the tables,
Dremeber

Going fine

I have hesitated a lot before depositing on titan but I don't regret it at the moment. Within 4 days I doubled my BR, which can be called a great start. The BR at titan is now 102,5$.

For the moment I only concentrate on the 5$ SNG 10 seater non turbo and this suits me fine. I tried one 20 seater and one 30 seater but without success.
So far I played 13 of these SNGs. I won twice, can second three time and third 4 times.

The only downside is that it takes more than an hour before such an SNG is completed and probable I can only free up 10$ from my deposit bonus.

To be complete:
SNGs played: 15
ITM: 9 times (60%)
ROI: 63%
Profit: 52.5$

Good luck at the tables,
Dremeber

No more stars, Titan here we come

As predicted in one of the previous posts my BR at stars dried out. This due to withdrawals and sloppy play. Overall it was a great time at stars and believe it or not but I made a profit! A small profit but a profit.

There were some options and one of them was to refund my BR a Stars but I feel that it is time for a change. Also that bad beats I took in the last weeks were at the basis of this decision.

I picked Titan cause some friends of my are playing there and it always fun to play in the same MTT. Also there are making a profit there and I want to see if also I can make a profit there.
The downside is that I don't have a rakeback deal (only a deposit bonus which have to be cleared before the beginning of February) and that I will miss the RTR games @ stars. But guys I will return you may bet on it.

Good luck at the tables,
Dremeber

Life as a consultant can be harsh

In the beginning of the year I was forced into consultancy because the development part of our company was put up for sale. My manager quickly found a customer who really wanted my. So I started there the first of april. Now more than a half year later I'm finally up to speed till the budget round hit me. From the first of december I will be idle again. So, it is not that I lost my job but I really like working there and the travel distance was a wet dream.

The Project leaders at the customer assured me that there was nothing I could have done, they were very satisfied with my work are sorry that they had to let me go. One, who was also an external consultant who so impressed by my work that he offered me a job at their consultancy firm which I consider a big compliment.

So, in stead of getting depressive it was a hugh moral booster.

On the poker side, it is really silent. Only played 2 SNGs yesterday. 1 3,40$ 10 seater, which I shouldn't have played due to time constraints and 1 5$ 10 seater in which I got third with good poker.

Yesterday we bought Buzz Mega quiz for the PS2. So yesterday evening was a quiz battle between me and Mrs D. As expected I got my ass kicked 3 times. Bummer.

Good luck at the tables,

Dremeber