Most hands in a day ever

Can you guess why?

And without the confusing stuff:

Beware the ides of March and all that.

I was happily chipping up and then bam, AA cracked twice, set over set and a set v str8 and bingo 5.5 buyins gone in about 4 minutes.    I actually dropped 11 buy ins from my high point and 9 buy ins on the day before getting it all back for a $7 profit.

Note how the red line dropped towards the end when I started playing getting a bit gun shy as I got nearer even.  Oh and I didn't tilt at any point, although you'd never know (well maybe just a little).

Another thing about Rush poker

22 You can earn a lot of rake if you '4 entry'  - its like playing 12 tables at once
23  And did I mention the swings?  Today's NL50 rush graph - had to 4 table to get out of this one - guess where I had my aces cracked after a loon 4 bet shoved over my squeeze like 3 bet 200BBs deep with KK (any other hand other than aces going to call there? The shove might look like AK or JJ 100BB's deep, but not 200, at least not to me):

Why would you bother?

Doing some random trawling around the Cardrunners forums and came across a post asking who has played the most hands online.  It seems this guy may have played the most since tracking began.

ZOMG 4.47 million hands in 18 months at NL100 for a $17k rakeback profit, why would you bother?

And whilst I'm here, what has happened to Stoxpoker? IMO pretty much every coach worth watching has left over the last few months for Dragthebar (including Fat Frank favourites Hunter Bick and Stosh McConnell).  That was followed by the Jason Ho stuff and now Stoxtrader himself has quit following this

Clearly Stox isn't popular amongst the higher stakes players and two plus two NVG community, but I have always been a big fan of his videos.  He might not play NLHE like a Nutedawg style valuehound.  But there is a certain calmness and clarity of thought to his low variance style decision making that I think pretty much every low stakes aspiring grinder should seek to incorporate a little bit of into their game.

Belated thoughts about Rush poker

Last month worked out pretty well.  I finished the month with a roll of $11,894.25 for a +$1,488 month which was awesome, not least because the vast majority was at NL50 and specifically NL50 6 max Rush poker, which is an awesome game. 

Being generally resistant to change, I only discovered RUSH poker on 6th Feb when it had already been running for a couple of weeks I think.  Some random thoughts about 50NL Rush poker

1. Generally the players are softer than regular games - if you were a fish where would you play?
2. Fish have a chance - because they are more inclined to fold and wait for bigger hands than they would at a regular table.
3. Fish had/have a chance - for the few days it wasn't possible to use hold em manager and I think a lot semi reg Card runners types really struggled.  Even now the stats are much less useful than when part of a package of information (meta game etc, observed complete hands) that you have in a normal game. 
4. The games have already changed.  When RUSH came out Cardrunners etc put videos out which basically said: its a one off situation, people will give you credit, so all the C runners members started 3 betting every button and cut off open when in the small blind.  Things have calmed down a bit since hold em manager caught up, but still there are certain players who are 3 betting 20% of the time from the SB - so tag em and bluff em.
5. You can make more moves - no one sticks around to see your gigantic bluffs exposed - your table image is probably better than it usually is (and it is still true that people give you more credit for credible post flop moves).
6. Fish (and bad taggy regs go berserk post flop - I have seen so many non credible post flop B/S check raises etc - raise em.
7. You can play more hands per hour optimally against weaker opponents.  You can play two tables perfectly whilst getting in the hands you would normally get playing six.
8. It was refreshing playing poker (all be it only for a few days without stats).  My game has improved.
9. People play tighter, but they aren't waiting for aces. I have played more than 150 hands with 88 players whose average VPIP/PFR is 17.2/13.4.
10. If you don't want action - wait a couple of seconds before opening - only the big blind will still be watching by the time your chips go in.
11. People open from the small blind if folded to them 90% of the time - which means people open to wide a range from the SB.  Crush em.
12. You can steel a lot.
13. People respect UTG opens (and insta fold generally) - you can steel a lot from UTG - first in wins.
14. You can call-to-crack - people play tighter and average stack sizes are often bigger, if you open UTG and get 3 bet from the C/O by a guy playing 14/12, he's has it, you can crack it.
15. You get monster stacks - you have to be comfortable playing 200 and 300 BB stacks - because a lot of people have them (they don't leave and they are playing the equivalent of six tables but with two entries, so their stacks aren't spread out).
16. People are afraid to play with 200 to 300 BB stacks - pots actually get smaller (people check more post flop and flat more pre) and big pairs become more vulnerable (normally you win a small hand or lose a big one etc with aces, with deep stack Rush you win an even smaller amount, or lose an even bigger amount than normal). 
17. 160 to 240 big blinds is optimal - you can C2C.  More than 240 BB stacks are sub optimal (you win less money).
18. There is a lot of shenanigans generally.
19. There needs to be at least 120 players in the player pool to maximise the advantages of the randomness of the  RUSH format (less than that and you basically see the same players all the time).
20. Its probably bad for your game in the long run - you only have to consider 1/3 of the information/things you normally have to consider, it encourages fancy play syndrome, you can't move up easily beyond NL100 as there aren't enough players at the 200 six max games, and once you've had speed poker its hard to go back to the slow stuff.
21. There probably less fish in the regular games at the moment.  

February Results

Overall

NL 50 Rush 

January

I managed to get off to a flyer winning 7 NL30 buy-ins in 2 short sessions, only to give it all back in an even shorter session 3. Looking back, I can only assume the guy calling off his 210BB stack on a Q 8 4 7 board knew something I didn't about the relative values of J9 and KK.

After about a week, the urge to play returned but I just couldn't face playing cash. Dropping down is fine when crushing, but soul destroying when being crushed. I ended up playing a few $24 turbo sit and go's on Full Tilt for a bit of light relief. Turbo my arse.

When I last played a sit and go in June 2008, first hand multiple knock outs were the norm and if you found yourself still playing after 45 minutes it was because the site had crashed. Now these things are total nit fests/shove fests taking nearly an hour. I lost about $80 over 30 sit and go's before getting board.

I decided to hit the PLO tables and promptly won 5 buy-ins at PLO50 before crashing down to earth with a 4 buy-in loss the next day, followed by a couple of big losing NL50 sessions. After having a crack at a couple of tourneys and some limit hold em, I realised I had turned into a spewing recreational fish.

Fortunately over the last few days of the month I managed to regain focus and finished with a a few good NL 100 and 50 sessions to turn things round.

Cash summary

NL 100 - 852 hands +$489.09
NL50 - 4525 hands (-$112.28)
NL30 - 4008 hands +$60.11
NL25 - 243 hands +$23.89
1/2 LIM - 245 hands -$8
PLO50 - 727 hands +$44.30

Overall, bankroll $10,406.60.

Glad that's over

December finished poorly. Shortly after my last post, I had my worst ever day, losing about 8 buy-ins. I decided it was time to drop down two levels to try to get some confidence back. Since then I have put in about 6.8k hands of NL30 and won about $480 at 11.66PTBB (EV $481), which is encouraging. Most encouraging is that my red line is going up - I didn't realise quite how passive I had become over the last few months.

Overall I finished the year with $9,980.97, which is obviously hugely disappointing given where I was on 1 September. Goals for next year:

1) Win $18k.
2) Play 180k+ hands with a win rate of 5PTBB's+.
3) Move up to 1/2NL by 1 May.
4) Improve my hand reading (think about ranges and the best response every hand).
5) Get some coaching.
6) Final table a $200 buy in tourny (I played less than 5 tournys in 2009).
7) Go to my local card room (it turns out there is a dealer dealt poker club called Duffs nearby).
8) Make the best decision every time.
9) Have a winning year on Full Tilt (because I run like a 3 legged donkey there).
10)Run up a $10 free deposit to $5,000 on Party (strictly, continue where I left off - I made it from $10 to $338.39 last year).

I plan to start by winning $1,000 at NL30 and take it from there.

Good luck to everyone in 2010.