My September Goals on Full Tilt

I will have a little less time to play than I had in August. In fact September should be more along the line of a typical month for me. By the end of the month, I should have a fairly good idea of what kind of Ironman status I should be striving for in future months.

1) Ironman One-A-Day – Earn a minimum of one FTP each day to qualify for the Ironman One-A-Day promotion.
2) Take 2 – Earn of minimum one FTP each day for 25 day by double tabling cash games to earn the $50 maximum for the Take 2 promotion.
3) Ironman Bronze – Earn a minimum of 50 FTP a day for 20 days to qualify for Ironman Bronze status.
4) Full Tilt Academy Credits – Get to 8,000 Full Tilt Academy credits.

Note that if I accomplish goal number 3 I will certainly do it at least double-tabling cash games and will accomplish 20 of the 30 days needed for goal number 1 and 20 of the 25 days needed for goal number 3.
Note that if I accomplish goal number 1 by double-tabling cash tables I will accomplish goal number 2 by accomplishing goal number 1.

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Why I Am Not Playing MTTs exclusively

I've been asked the question of why I am playing ring games since I built my freeroll winnings through MTTs. I'll try to answer that questions and give my overall thoughts in this post.

One of my blog followers (Jason) said "I read your free roll challenge and kept up with it Tony. But I have to ask why you are playing ring games when you made your money playing mtt."

Well this really has a multifaceted answer to it.

First of all, there are no freeroll SNG or ring games on Full Tilt so the only way I could build a freeroll bankroll was by playing the MTTs.

Second, while most my reporting during Project Freeroll was oriented to my real dollar winnings (and therefore the freeroll MTTs), I built my play chips that I used to enter the $40 500K daily tournament almost exclusively through play chip SNGs and play chip ring games. Playing play chip SNGs and play chip ring games was an integral part of my overall strategy.

Next, I will be playing MTTs. I think part of being an overall well-rounded poker player is being able to play all varieties of poker. I'll be concentrating on NLHE holdem but I'll also be trying to work in others varieties (Omaha, Stud, Razz, etc.) as time goes by.

Next, MTTs take a major time commitment. While it might be possible to cash a freeroll MTT in 2-3 hours, a buy-in MTT takes more of a time commitment. The current week is an exception since I'm on vacation all week, but most week days I only have 2 - 3 hours a day to play without disrupting my schedule. It is much easier to play SNGs or ring games in a limited time frame.

Next, the key to making money in buy-in MTTs is to go deep in them. Over the course of Project Freeroll I cashed around 30% of the freerolls I played. But, the vast majority of those cashes were in the first 2 or 3 pay out levels. If my exact finishes were applied to buy-in MTTs, I probably would have been right around break even (as opposed to being up $310). I need to work on my bubble and post-bubble play to be a winning buy-in MTT player.

Next, I really believe that one of the keys to being profitable in the long term is take advantage of bonuses and special promotions by the poker rooms. This generally means earning frequent players points. You can earn frequent player points much more quickly play ring games than you can any other way. Right now I am really working on trying to earn some of the bonuses and rewards on Full Tilt. The Biggest Bonus ever is basically a free $100 if I can play break even poker over the course of 30 days. With the experiments I've been conducting I think I can earn 50 FTP almost every day of the month with some effort. 50 points per day times 30 days would mean 1,500 points and I need 1,667 to clear this $100 bonus. If I earn the bonus while playing even marginally profitable poker, then it will be a major bankroll boost.

One final point, I'm a bit burned out on MTTs with the quantity of them I played over the last year. I will get back to playing MTTs soon, but I'm enjoying the break from them and enjoying the variety of play right now.

Believe it or not, prior to Project Freeroll, I really used to consider myself a SNG specialist. Now, I want to be an all around good poker player and that means playing more than MTTs.

Thanks for the question Jason.

Keep the questions coming and I'll do my best to answer them as honestly and fully as I can.

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Weekly Bankroll Update

This week I've really started trying to do a lot of things in on-line poker. This is my play this week and the impact on my bankroll.

Starting Balances (as of Monday 7/27/09)

Full Tilt Poker
Real Money: $322.53
Tournament Dollars: $0.00
Total: $322.53
FTP: 110.05

Pokers Stars
Real Money: $22.52
Tournament Dollars: $0.00
Total: $22.52
FPP: 54

Walker Poker
Real Money: $42.33
VIP: 91.31

Total Bankroll: $387.38


My Play This Week
• Walker Poker (Up $1.51)
o 10NL – Up $2.61
o 4NL – Down $1.10

• Poker Stars (Even)
o No Play This Week

• Full Tilt (Down $6.61)
o $0.30 turbo Satellites to the Daily Dollar – Down $0.95
o $1.25 6 seat SNGs – Down $1.25
o $1.25 9 seat SNG s– Down $0.25
o 10NL – Down $6.90
o 10NLCap – Up $3.17
o 10PL – Down $4.67
o 2PL – Up $0.19
o 2NL – Up $2.64
o 2NLCap – Up $1.41


Ending Balances (as of Sunday 8/2/09)

Full Tilt Poker
Real Money: $315.92
Tournament Dollars: $0.00
Total: $315.92
FTP: 371.72

Pokers Stars
Real Money: $22.52
Tournament Dollars: $0.00
Total: $22.52
FPP: 54

Walker Poker
Real Money: $43.84
VIP: 97.67

Total Bankroll: $382.28


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August Full Tilt Challenges

The purpose of this blog is to keep track of the challenges I have set for my self of the month of August on Full Tilt Poker. I'm not going to call them goals because some of them are a little too open ended to be called goals. Some of these I started late in July and I am carrying them forward into August.

1) Full Tilt's "Biggest Bonus Ever" - I don't think I can gain 1,667 Full Tilt Points (base points not modified by happy hour), mantain good bankroll management, and maintain my low multi-table comfort level all at the same time. But, I will be playing a lot (particularly in the first week of month while I'm on vacation.) I'll be tracking the FTP I've earned toward this promotion and the amount of the $100 bonus cleared as well as the impact on my bankroll.

2) Full Tilt Poker Academy Challenges - I'll try to clear at least 3 of the challenges (meaning complete them 10 times) as well as make progress toward several of the others (meaning complete tasks related to them.) I'll be tracking my challenge clearance, Academy Credits earned, and the impact on my bankroll.

3) Ironman One-A-Day - Earn a minimum of one Full Tilt Point (base not modified by happy hour) per day to qualify for the one-a-day challenge. I'll be tracking daily progress as well as the impact on my bankroll.

4) Ironman Bronze Status - Earning 50 Full Tilt Points (base not modified by happy hour) a day for 20 days may be beyond my reach given that on days I work, I can only play for a couple of hours maximum. Earning 100 Full Tilt Points a day for 15 days may simply be beyond my bankroll. However, I am off work on vacation for the first 9 days of the month and plan to play a lot on those 9 days. I'll be keeping an eye to my daily points earned and then trying to determine if it is possible to take a shot a Bronze Iron Man Status.

5) Overall Full Tilt Point Count - Not really a clear goal on this, but I would like to take this total and run it up a good deal this month. After all, I need to get started on earning the 6 million points for the Mini-Cooper!

Note that the bankroll progress calculations may well overlap and my play in a single session may count toward several different categories. I will try to keep all calculation accuarate to the challange so I can know the impact of that challenge on my bankroll.


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Testing Out a Short Stack Strategy - Day 5

Day 5 of testing out a short stack cash strategy. Multi-tabling on Full Tilt

I ran across this Beginner strategy for No-Limit Texas Hold'em. This was compiled by one of my twitter followers. I also follow them.
This is basically a short stack strategy and can be applied to cash, SNG, or MTT play.
Day 1 was single table on Walker Poker 10NL - Down $2.50
Day 2 was single table on Walker Poker 10NL - Up $5.23
Day 3 was double-table on Walker Poker 10NL and 4 NL mixed - Down $1.22
Day 4 was double-table on Full Tilt 10NL - Down $3.87
So, after 4 days I'm down $2.36.
For Day 5 I'm going to try to do a couple of things to the cards on Full Tilt to see if I can get more comfortable going beyond 2 tables.
I jumped in with about 20 minutes left in early morning happy hour. I decided to 4 table and try to maximize the double Full Tilt points. Total I saw 138 hands, earned 12.53 Full Tilt points and was up $1.00.
In this first session I was up $1.40 on one table, even on another table, down $0.10 on one table, and down $0.30 on the last table.
I misread cards on the board once and it cost me $.60. I would have folded the hand had a read the board correctly.
So now I am off to research some card skins to see if I can make the boards clearer to me when I am multi-tabling.
I downloaded a card mod and I think it helps a lot, but it's not perfect. The black for clubs to tend into my limit color vision. I might have to take a shot at making something of my own.
So back to 4-tabling NL on Full Tilt for the last 1:15 of Happy Hour.
And down on all 4 tables. Went broke on two pair versus set on one table minutes before the end end of happy hour. On the other tables I was down $0.89, $0.59, and $0.23.
That's down $3.64 for this sesson versus up $1.00 in the morning session.
As of right now I'm down $5 overall using this srtategy. I'll probably give this strategy one more session and see where it goes, then I'll look at some modifications to it or using a different strategy.

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