Day 2 of Steps Grind

Well last night I played some SnG's - I tried several 18 man 6-Max $6.60 and $5.50 turbos. I also played a regular $5.50 9-man. All but one ended in defeat. Sigh. The one ITM was only third place.

I just don't understand why I am losing all of a sudden.

I then decided to play some heads up matches - 3 $21 and 1 $10.50 - lost them all. Holy Moses!

Terrible night.

Lately I have just been getting outplayed. Pretty sad at the micro limits too.

Perhaps I am the fish and not the shark.

Well I reloaded my poker account and now it sits back at $400.

I still want to grind some Step 4 tickets. I want to play some $215 MTT's. Not sure why - considering my luck lately. But as I tell my wife, it is our little lottery.

The CA lottery is a crapshoot. So is playing the $215 MTT's on pokerstars. But someone has to win and you can only win by playing.

So poker is my form of the lottery - maybe, just maybe I will win big one day. It is a heck of a lot more fun than buying a lottery ticket. At least in the poker lottery you have more control and it is not just relying on luck.

Well any ways - I will figure out tonight what I will be playing. I could go back to the $11 SnG or I could continue trying my luck at the $5.50's.

Day 1 of the Step Tournament Grind

Yesterday was day 1 on my new poker goals of grinding the Step Tournaments.

If you read the previous post, I am grinding $5.50 & $11 SitNGo's and using the profits to pay for a total of 180 Step 1 Tournaments.

Yesterday I played 8 $5.50 SNG's. Two sets of 4.

The first set I lost three and got third place in one. That was a bad set.

I was a little taken back with the level of aggression at this buy-in level. These guys are very aggressive. I was also surprised that we hit the $100/$200 level and still have 5-6 players left.

Several times I called someone's stupid all in bet and lost. The pattern is if there was heavy betting preflop and they hit top pair good or best kicker - they went all in. Or they hit the nuts and over bet by going all-in to confuse you.

Either way - I was calling these dumb bets and losing with second best pair.

I had to adjust a little to that.

All I can figure is these $5.50 buy-in SNG's must be profitable for grinders and so good players are playing? But what is more confusing is I only noticed 1 player in only 1 of the two sets that was at more than one table.

So apparently - non of the players were multi-tabling!

The good news is I can win against aggressive players - I just need to adjust my calling ranges.

Any ways - the second set of four I won 3 out of 4. Two first places and one second.

Overall I made a $20 profit from all 8 tournaments - or about 45% ROI. Not too bad!

I look forward to playing some more at this $5.50 buy in level.

My bankroll started last night at $268 and ended at $288.

In order to move back up to the $11 buy-in I need my bankroll to get up to around $385.

So another $100 and I can start playing that level again.

The question is do I wait for the $11 level or do I start playing the Step 1 tournaments.

Time will tell.

I'll see how I do at the $5.50 level. It may take no time at all.

New Poker Goals

So instead of grinding out the SnG's for monthly income, I decided to put that on pause. I will come back to that later.

New goals are to still grind the SnG's for cash, but then to use the profits to grind the Step Tournaments.

I did some estimations and I figure for around $1350 I could win at least 1 Step 6 tournament package. If I win a step 6 tournament package then it would be a paid vacation for me and the wife to some other country - China, Philippines, Bahamas, Australia, etc.

I've been pretty successful with the step tournaments.

Here are my assumptions:

I should be able to take first or second place at a step 6 tournament 10% of the time. The other attempts at a step 6 tournament would result in other prizes - or losses - but not the big prize.

That means I need 10 Step 6 tournament tickets in order to win at least 1 big prize.

Here are the percentages I believe I can win at each of the step levels:

Step 1 - 75% = 180 Tickets needed for 134 Step 3 Tickets
Step 2 - 75% = 134 Tickets needed for 100 Step 3 Tickets
Step 3 - 50% = 100 Tickets Needed for 400 Step 4 Tickets
Step 4 - 50% = 50Tickets Needed for 100 Step 5 Tickets
Step 5 - 20% = 25Tickets Needed for 5 Step 6 Tickets
Step 6 - 20% = 5 Tickets Needed for 1 Big Prize

So that means I need to play 180 Step 1 tournaments to eventually win 1 Step 6 prize package.

$7.5 X 180 = $1350

If I give myself 6 months to win a step 6 prize, that means I need to play 494 step tournaments.

6 months equals 26 weeks - so that is 19 Step tournaments a week.

That is actually quite a lot!

Now grinding out SitNGo's is what is going to pay for the step tournaments. So I don't need to pay for all 494 step tournaments - just the original 180 step 1 tournaments.

I will dived the 180 Step tournaments equally among the 26 weeks - which means I need to pay for 7 Step 1 tournaments a week - which equals $52.50.

I will be playing both $5.50 & $11 SnG's - depending on how my variance is going. So lets assume I play just $11 SnG's and if I end up playing more $5.50's then it will take longer or I will need to play more at a time.

Assume a profit of 12% for $11 SitNGo's. That means I make on average $1.32 per game played.

So I need to divide $52.50 by $1.32 = ~40 tournaments a week.

I would have to play 40 $11 tournaments a week plus about 20 Step Tournaments a week.

That is 60 tournaments a week or 12 per day (playing 5 days a week).

That is theoretically possible - assuming I can maintain a 12% ROI and play 2 hour a day 5 days a week.

So in reality it may take 8-10 months to truly win one step 6 tournament package.

But I could also do better at the steps than I plan and win a step 6 even sooner than planned.

The idea is to save up 10 tickets at each step before trying that step level.

For example - once I get 10 Step 2 tickets, then I will grind the step 2 tournaments.

An additional caveat. This could cause this grind to take even longer.

Whenever I have the chance to play the Sunday Million on Poker Stars - I will use a step 4 ticket to do so.

Potentially that is once a week.

So based on my estimates, one in every 4 step 1 tickets will result in a step 4 ticket.

I am playing 20 Step tournaments a week - that means I will earn about five step 4 tournament tickets per week.

So this is acceptable.

The idea is one day I may get good enough to go deep in the Sunday Millions and win some serious cash.

In one year I think I may be able to win $5000 at least once in the Sunday Million and one Step 6 Big Prize.

So that is the goals.!

I Won A Step 4 Ticket on Poker Stars

It has been a rough couple of weeks in poker. I went on a bad run and my bankroll is down to $275. That is a big loss of 50%. I just couldn't win. I did play about 12 $22 Buy In SNG's - losing all of them. I also lost most of the $11 SNG's I played.

So I took a week off.

Still losing - but this time around I didn't play any of my normal SNG. I played satellites to the Sunday Million and some big field tournaments. Mostly I broke even.

I did manage to convert my FPP's into a Step 4 tournment ticket. I had about 2000 FPP's and flip flopped back and fourth until I finally won a step 3 tournament - on my last 500 FPP's.

All weekend I tried to play the cash satellites to the Sunday Million. My plan wasn't to actually play the Sunday Million - but to trade the ticket in for cash. My bankroll needs a stimulus shot.

But in the end, I got my Sunday Million ticket but cannot cash it in. The step 4 ticket can not be traded in for cash or Tournament dollars. It is only good for playing a step 4 tournament or any $215 level tournament.

So - looks like I will be playing the Sunday Million soon!

I must say the Step tournaments is a very easy way to convert FPP's into $215 buy in tickets. I was able to do it with 2000 FPP's - which equals 4 tries.

There are other tournaments besides the Sunday Million I can play. I may look into that as the Sunday Million is sort of a crap shoot. But, assuming I can start winning again in my SNG grind - I will be able to play the Sunday Million at least once a month - perhaps more.

I did play 3 or 4 Sunday Million satellites that I came close to winning. The $8.80 double shootout turbo - 6 max. If you make it to the final table - top 5 places is ITM. Only the 6th place on the final table gets nothing.

I made it ITM at least twice. Both times I made it to 4th or better and made $20. I think once I made it to heads up (same pay - $20). I almost won that one - but lost to a coin flip - which is common with heads up matches where the blinds are so high.

I think I started the weekend out with $297 and ended up at a loss with $275. But I did play a lot of poker - so overall I am okay with that. Plus though I lost about $25 I also won a $215 step 4 tournament ticket. So really I am ahead all considered.

I want to get back to my SNG grind this week. I did not make Silver VIP at poker stars due to taking time off. Preserving my bankroll is more important than making Silver VIP.

But now I must decide whether to play the $11 SNG or step down to the $5.50 SNG. At $11 I have about 25 Buy-Ins. 25 Buy-Ins is the recommended bankroll for SnG's. But I have experienced losing streaks of 21/24 tournaments. Lose 7 win 1. Repeat. Repeat. Bam - not hard to be down almost 20 Buy-Ins. I can do that and still have a small positive ROI. Of course that positive ROI is based on not having that Lose 7 Win 1 pattern over a hundred tournaments.

The first 100 tournaments I played I had 7 in the row losses 2-3 times. I had a couple 7 in the row wins too - which balanced it out.

Lately though - it has been loss after loss with a win in between just to mix it up. I still have not lost more than 7 tournaments in a row.....yet.

So with $5.50 I will have 50 Buy-Ins. That seems to be a much preferred bankroll for my luck lately.

So I will probably step down to the $5.50 SnG until my luck changes.

$11 STT SNG Campaign

Well things could be better. I am up to 150 tournaments and my ROI is down to 4%! Holy Moses.

Not sure why but I have been losing 3/4 tournaments. Lately that one ITM has been 3rd mostly and sometimes second. My 2nd place ITM is now higher than my 1st place. Sheesh!

Well last night I played 4 $11 tournaments. I placed 3rd in one and out of the money in the other 3. I really need to rethink my 5-6 handed strategy. I seem to get taken out in 4-6 place.

I did play two $22 heads up matches. I won both and ended the day profitable. I think I made $12.

I did the same thing yesterday. After losing overall in my $11 SNG's I played a few $11 & $22 heads up matches and ended ahead by $10 for the day.

I seem to do well in Heads up matches. Mostly though I use them to chase my losses (usually successfully). I don't know how successful I would be at them long term. Would be a nice campaign one day.

Well as bad as my ROI is with the $11 SNG tournaments, it only takes a profit of say $120 to be back in the 12% ROI. Really I have just been on a downswing. I have heard people playing 150 tournaments in a month and ending up in the negative. It happens.

This is why I like to have a 50 Buy-In bankroll.

Ironically, my bankroll has more than doubled this month - but of course not due to my $11 SnG campaign. I made $200 on a $22 Buy-In 27 Man MTT and I won several other $22 Buy-In SnG's.

Had I stuck just to my $11 tournaments my bankroll would sit a a palsy $250 instead of $555.

But I will continue my $11 campaign until I hit the 12% ROI at least. I need to know I can beat the $11 before I move up.

I also cannot really move up until I hit 50 Buy-Ins for the next level.

Now I can choose to move up to the $16's instead of the $22's. But for some reason I prefer to jump straight to the $22's. I have always played well at the $22's and I have never played the $16's much.

Of course I also have a desire to play MTT's - but my complaint is they do not fill up as fast and the ITM is less. I have always done very well at the 27 man tournaments.

There are really two main goals with my $11 campaign.

1. I need to know I can beat the game at some level! I have played over 5 years and have no idea if I really am beating any particular style of play or level.

2. Assuming I can beat the level with an ROI in the positive over several hundred games, I need to figure out how profitable they are. I want to make at least $15 an hour. I need to know how much I make per game on average and how many games I can play at once and still maintain at least $15 an hour.

These two goals requires hundreds of tournaments to get any dependable statistics. Preferably probably 2000 tournaments would suffice.

I am at 150 so far. That really only gives me a 12% reliability factor. Hardly dependable.

Although after playing with the statistics after 150 tournaments I can see where certain things are important. I have always been a numbers guy.

I used to keep track of every cent when I was a food server. I had my averages down for every table, every day of the week, every month. I knew how much I made as a food server over the long haul. As you may know, a food servers income is 90% tips - which fluctuate daily.

So calculating statistics in poker comes second nature for me.

I have noticed that even a 1% ITM can greatly effect your overall ROI after hundreds of games. Additionally, your ROI can change dramatically with the same ITM% if you win more 1st places or second places than third places.

For example - After 150 tournaments my average winnings $ for an ITM is higher than average. To get the average winning $ you take the total prize pool and divide it by the places it pays. For a $11 STT you have $90 in prize money divided by 3 paying places = $30 average. Generally speaking a winning player will average at least $30 per ITM. You win some third places, more seconds, and hopefully even more 1sts. But they all average out to about equal.

For a $11 STT the average is 33% of the prize pool. So far I am averaging 36% or $32.40 per ITM. That number is important because it can increase or decrease your ROI even with the same ITM %.

Basically a key is you can increase your ROI by either having a higher ITM % or by having a higher prize pool percentage through winning more 1st and 2nd's.

Lately my prize percentage has been going down. My Target ITM% is 40%. My target ITM is:

1st = 45%
2nd = 35%
3rd = 20%

This means that for 100 tournaments, I will place ITM in 40 of them. Of those 40:

1st = 18 = $810
2nd = 14 = $378
3rd = 8 = $144

Total Prize = $1332
Total Cost = $11 X 100 = $1100

Profit = $232
ROI = $232 / 1100 = 21%

What is interesting is if you increased your ITM from 40% to 50% but only placed 3rd in all 50 tournaments, you would make less money and your ROI would be less.

If you placed in 3rd place in 50 out of 100 tournaments:

3rd - 50 = $900

Total Prize = $900
Total Cost = $1100

Profit = $200
ROI = 18%

So those 1st and 2nd place finishes really make a huge difference.

Another FPP Trading Option

I realized there is another great option for the Poker Stars FPP's. You can trade 500 FPP's for a $7.50 Step 1 tournament ticket. That comes to $0.015 per FPP. That is about the same rate as trading in 13500 for a Sunday Million ticket. But with Step tournaments they are all 9 Man tournaments. And what is even better is they pay top 2-4 spots. I believe for the Step 1 you need to be in the top 2. Top two get Step 2 tickets.

Then once you have made it to the step 2 tournament, first two places get Step 3 tickets; 3rd place gets a Step 3 ticket; and 4th place gets a step 2 ticket.

It offer excellent chances of eventually winning a step 3 tournament. You can either win a ticket to the previous step, the current step, or the next step. If you win the first or second in a step 3 tournament, you get a step 4 ticket which can be traded in for any $215 tournament - which includes the Sunday Million.

For 13500 FPP's you might be better off playing the Step 1 tournaments. You get 27 Step 1 tickets to try for a Sunday Million Step 4 ticket. I believe you will be able to win a lot more than one Step 4 ticket. The only Sunday Million I played I won the ticket through a step 3 tournament.

The rakeback is the same, but Step tournaments offer much greater odds.

And what is even better is you don't have to trade in all your step 4 tickets. You can try to win a step 6 tournament and win a $13500 live game package. That might be worth grinding out! Imagine parlaying your FPP's into a poker tournament in Manilla or Macauu or Sydney...even the big one in Vegas.

Trading Poker Stars FPP's for a $215 Sunday Million Ticket

I did some quick investigating on what to use my FPP's for. Keep in mind Poker Stars doesn't have a cash rakeback, but it is rumored that their VIP program rivals most rakebacks.

I must say I agree. For 13,500 FPP's you can purchase a Sunday Million Ticket, which is worth $215.

Divide $200 by 13500 and you are receiving $.0159 for each FPP.

I earn my FPP's currently by grinding STT SitNGo's. These numbers change based on your VIP status because you earn FPP's faster if you are Silver or Gold or Platinum.

Assuming I am playing the $11 SitNGos - 90 a week, I earn about 5640 FPP's a month. If I save them up and trade them for a direct entry ticket into the Sunday Million, I am getting about 24.8% rakeback.

The numbers are like this. I play 360 tournaments a month and earn Gold VIP. This is aggressive as I need to play 90 tournaments a week. That is 18 tables a day 5 days a week. Either I 9 table for two hours a day, 6 table for 3 hours a day, or play 6 days a week and sneak in 15 tables a day.

But I end up earning 15.66 Fpp's for each $11 tournament. At $.0159 per FPP X 15.66 = $.248994 rakeback per tournament. For Rakeback percentage you divide $0.248994 by the $1 entry fee. That is a simple calculation of almost a 25% rakeback.

My cash rakeback at Full Tilt Poker (FTP) is 27% - so that is darn close.

If I play the same amount of tournaments, 90 a week, but at the $22 level, I end up earning almost a 30% rakeback by trading in for the $215 Sunday Million Ticket.

Needless to say, that is a good rakeback.

Of course the deal can be even sweeter if you gamble with those Fpp's and trade them in for a satellite tournament for the Sunday Million. I haven't done those numbers, but they might be even better.

However, I prefer not to try to gamble into the Sunday Million. No need to get greedy and chance missing the tournament because you lost all the satellites. 25-30% rakeback is good enough for me.

And then imagine if you place ITM in one of those Sunday Millions - which is inevitable. I think a good player will place ITM in the Sunday Million 1/3 of the time. At the $11 level I can play the Sunday million 6 times a year, roughly every other month. At the $22 level I can play once a month.

ITM is not much - around $220 - basically getting your money back. But that is cash. That would be at least turning your FPP's into a cash rakeback.

But if you go deeper into the tournament, you could double the Rakeback into $530 cash or much much more.

So I am happy to discover this opportunity.

I currently have about 1900 FPP's. I have a chance of making Silver VIP this month (September). I have about 50% of the needed VIP points so far and the month is a couple days away from half over. If I stay on track I can make it and get an FPP multiplier.

The other alternative is you can use 500FPP's to play a 27 man sitngo. First place gets a ticket to the sunday million. Or I think it is around 2000 FPP's to play a 9 man Sit N Go for a Sunday Million.

It definitely is worth considering. I can play 6-7 tournaments and if I place 1st in one, I break even. If I win more than one, I am doubling my Sunday Million tickets. But, it is also easy to play 7 tournaments and not get the needed first place.

For STT SNG's, I place ITM 35-40% of the time. Of those that are ITM, first place is around 35%. So running those numbers I will, on average, win a first place less than 1 times out of 7.

I probably would be better off grinding the 27 Man 500 FPP satellites to the Sunday Million. I would have 27 tries to win first. I don't have statistics on the 27 man MTT's. So I don't know what my averages are. I suppose I would get those averages by grinding them for Sunday Million Satellites. All I know is in the last 5 years I have only won 1 of those Sunday Million Satellites.

I actually have a good record of ITM for 27 Man MTT's - but maybe 5-6 first places overall. But those were cash tournaments - not satellites.

I have played 140 Tournaments So Far

I logged 140 tournaments in my Sit N Go grind so far. These are all $11 STT. It has been a ride. At 100 tournaments my ROI was about 24%. At 140 it is now at 8%. Quite a difference.
I have just been losing a lot more. My overall ITM is 37%, but if I looked at the last 40 tournaments I imagine it would be more like 20%.

This is what they call variance.

I remember distinctly having 6 tables opened and my bankroll was at $377. I really thought I was going to probably have a losing session. Then somehow I won 3 of those 6. One of those 3 was actually a $22 STT. I did not log that in my tournament sheet because I am strictly tracking my ROI for $11 STT, but that $90 first place really helped the bankroll.

Now the bankroll sits at $522. Yesterday it sat at $555 but then I had a losing session.

Out of these 140 tournaments my bankroll highs and lows were $250 / $602.

I want to break the $700 barrier. In order for that to happen I just need a couple good sessions.

Looks like I will hit 200 tournaments by the end of the week. I am not sure how many of these I will play before moving to the $22's. For certain I want to have 50 buy-ins at the $22's which equals $1100.

While my ROI is not what I want it to be and my ITM has slipped to 37%, I must say that at least after 140 tournaments I am still ahead. That still speaks volumes.

I certainly am not crushing the $11 STT SitNGo's. I am dangerously close to breaking even. I cannot leave the $11 level until I know I am beating it. I need to be ITM 40% and average profit of $2.25 per tournament. Of course some will say that is unlikely. It would require a 20% ROI. But I'll keep playing until I at least get a 15% ROI. Heck if I get to 500 tournaments with a 12% ROI I think I will accept that as my correct average.

Some good news I discovered is I can make Gold VIP at Poker Stars by 9 tabling 10 hours a week. Which I think breaks down to about 90 tournaments a week.

Once I move to the $22 I can 9 table 10 hours a week and make platinum VIP.

At the Gold VIP that is around 5640 FPP's a month and at Platinum it is 13500 FPP's. Not sure what I will do with those FPP's, but I do think I will save them up for a while. Of course I want to parlay them into satellite tournaments to the Sunday Million.

$11 STT SitNGo Campaign Update

Last night I successfully 9-Tabled $11 STT SitNGo's. I placed ITM in 5 out of 9.

I am going to continue playing the $11 Single Table Tournament Sit N Go's until I am confident my ROI and Hourly Rate is accurate for this level.


My Stats so far.

Let's see, I think this is Week 3 of the $11 Campaign SitNGo's.

Starting Bankrol 3 weeks ago = $240
Bankroll As of Yesterday = $605

** Some of the $605 came from winning other tournament types, such as the $200 profit from a 27-man sitngo that I took first in.

91 $11 SitNGo Tournaments
37 ITM

41% ITM
24% ROI

1st = 46%
2nd = 35%
3rd = 19%
X = 59%

Total Profit from ONLY the 91 $11 Sitngo's = $241

Profit per game = $2.65

9 Tabling hourly rate = $23.85

Poker Grind Status Update

I played about 30 $11 SitNGo's over memorial day weekend. In total I have now played 82 SitNGo's.

When I started this SitNGo Grind about 2 weeks ago my bankroll was $240. Now my bankroll is $585.


*** As a side note, I have played a few tournaments outside of the $11 SitNGo's. These tournaments have both added and taken away from my bankroll. Overall I have added $140 to my bankroll in addition to playing the $11 SitNGo's. I specifically won a 27-Man $22 MTT in First place that added $200 in winnings. However, nothing is included in the results below except the $11 SitNGo's. I want to keep the $11 SitNGo's tracking pure so I know how profitable I am at this particular level.

My bankroll is back to where I started about 6 months ago.

Here are the stats for my $11 SitNGo Grind:

I am now playing 6 tables at a time. Soon I will be playing 9 tables at a time.

Profit Per Hour:
6 Tables = $15 Per Hour
9 Tables = $ 22.50

Winnings								Buy-In	Profits
$1,107								$902	$205

ROI		Profit Per Game
22.73%		$2.50

GAME

1ST

2ND

3RD

X

TOTAL	16	11	5	50
ITM	32		Place	Prize $	Total		Winnings	Buy-In	Profits
GAMES	82		16	$45	$720		$1,107	$902	$205
			11	$27	$297
ITM%	39%		5	$18	$90
					$1,107
1ST%	50%
2ND%	34%		Games	Cost	Total		ROI		Profit Per Game
3RD%	16%		82	$11	$902		22.73%		$2.50
X%	61%

My Biggest Tournament Win So Far

After playing Texas Holdem online for over five years now I won my biggest tournament yesterday. It is not much in comparison to others, to be sure, but we do have to count all of our successes.

I felt like gambling last night. Sometimes you just get that itch. Actually I felt like playing a tournament where I could win some serious dough. After thinking what I would be willing to risk and what reward would be sufficient, I came to decide on MTT's. My normal STT $11 9-man's were too boring for that night.

My bankroll was $250 or so. I fired up three tournaments:

$11 27-Man MTT SitNGo - I placed 12th.

$16 18-Man MTT SitNGo - I placed 8th.

Neither were ITM. I did well all considering. I lost each tournament with the best hand, but was outdrawn.

I also made the mistake of playing the $16 Turbo instead of the regular. I may have done better in that tournament if it weren't a Turbo. The blinds go up quickly and by the time I made the final table it was all-in or fold.

The tournament I did place ITM was:

$22 27-Man MTT SitNGo - I placed 1st. WooHoo!

That payday was a sweet $200!

It cost me $50 to play those three tournaments and I made $200. I could easily have not placed ITM in all three tournaments. So it was a lucky day for me.

Now my bankroll sits at a very much improved $400. Another $140 and I am back to where I started 4-5 months ago. Doh!

This weekend is a three day memorial day weekend. I plan to play a lot of poker - assuming my wife lets me....lol. I wear the pants in my house...but my wife chooses what pants I wear. Ha!

Anyways, I plan to stick to my $11 9-Man STT's. I need to know if I am a overall winning STT tournament player. Even with my sick losing streaks of losing 7 tournaments in a row three times out of 50 games - I am still +ROI with 37% ITM. If I do well this weekend I should be able to push that ITM up to above 40%.

Yesterday was the first day of the WCOOP (World Championship Of Online Poker) at poker stars. I don't really have the bankroll or time to play in the WCOOP satellites - but I think I may try a couple any ways. If I win a seat in one of the $215 NL games that would be awesome.

I have a lot of work to do with my poker bankroll. I am still looking for the right fit for making consistent profits. There are so many ways to play Texas Holdem and each way requires a different skill set and the players have different skill levels.

My immediate goal is to have a bankroll that supports a specific level and style of Texas Holdem that I can win at that allows me to consistently withdraw $100 a week.

The way it will work is once I determine a level I can win consistently at, I will withdraw $100 a week regardless of if I win or lose that week. It all averages out after a few months. My bankroll needs to be large enough to stand the swings in variance and allow me to withdraw $400 a month.

That is the goal.

I may be able to reach that goal with the $22 9-man STT's. I would need to play at least 45 a week at at least 10% ROI. That should be attainable 4 tabling. I do think I can consistently beat the $22's. I did good a few years ago at this level.

Of course $400 a month is just the first goal. Once I know I can reach that consistently, I want to find a more profitable game for my time. I would like to grind the $11 or $22 27- man MTT's. I have had a lot of success at placing ITM in 27-man MTT's.

The overall goal, I think, is to be able to withdraw $1000 a week. That would be awesome. Some people do that 20-Tabling $16 9-man SitNGo's. So the goal is reachable - but I don't have that kind of time - or skill level - yet.

Another goal would be to consistently play in the Sunday Million on Poker Stars.

Of course what I need to do is get a bankroll over at Full Tilt Poker. I get a 27% rake-back paid weekly at FTP. FTP's software is soooo fast. Poker Stars has a great VIP program that can be converted into cash. But I prefer the cold hard cash of a rake-back. A 27% rake-back easily converts into 15-30% of my winnings overall - so it is a big addition to my winnings - currently which I am missing out on.

$11 STT's on Poker Stars

I went through a bad run for a while. I cannot say it was all the cards either. Probably a bad run of cards as well as a bad run of impatience resulting in bad decisions.

So I took some time off.

I stopped playing ring games for the moment. I will go back to it later. Right now I need to build my confidence back up...and my bankroll. I started this road with a $600 bankroll - $60 of which I gifted to my dad to try his own poker luck at the ring tables. That bankroll grew at one point to about $800. Now it is down to about $215. Ouch!

So...I am now playing 9-Man Single Table Tournaments (STT) on Poker Stars. I am keeping track of where I place on an excel spreadsheet. So far I have played 50 tournaments. Here are my stats:

Tournaments = 50

ITM = 17

ITM % = 34%

1st = 7

2nd = 7

3rd = 3

So when I make it ITM (In The Money), which is the top 3 spots of 9, I place it in either first or second 80% of the time and third 20% of the time. I like those numbers.

What I do not like, however, is losing 66% of the tournament's I play.

I have had one great run where I won 7/8 tournaments in a sitting. That was my first 8 tournaments of the 50 - started out wonderful!

But I have had at least 3 sessions where I literally lost 7-8/8 tournaments. Ouch. Those are bad runs.

However, I have adjusted my strategy to compensate. I now pretty much do the following:

1. Until it is 5 handed I only play AA-QQ, AK. When I do play those cards - I played them aggressively. BUT if I have pocket KK and the flop has an A - I bet the pot and fold to any resistance. Basically even on those good pocket cards - I am willing to fold to dangerous flops.

Additionally, in late position I will limp in or call 3Bets with Ace-suited or pocket pairs. Then it is fold or flop a set or flush. If the price is right I will call a raise to the turn on a 4-to a flush.

Additionally, limping in with set or flush potentials is only valid if I expect there to be 3-5 people at the flop. I need those implied odds to justify the 7 times I won't hit the set or flush.

2. Once 5 handed or when the blinds become 1/10 of my stack - I go into phase two. This is where I begin blind stealing. Blind stealing for me is defined as open raising. It is not blind stealing if someone limps in ahead of me. When I blind steal I will either do 3X BB or double the BB and add $75 - really it is whatever is effective.

My blind stealing range is: Any A, any Pocket Pairs, any two Broadway cards (face cards).

If I get called, it is flop or fold. I only continue after the flop if I think I have the best hand.

Additionally I will continue limping in late position with Ace-suited, K-suited, or 77+ pocket pairs hoping to flop a flush or set.

3. Also - during phase two I try not to get involved in multi-way pots without monster hands. If I open raise the pot with AK or QQ and get two callers who start betting the flop - I probably am folding. No point fighting with what may be the second best hand or worse.

4. Once we get to the bubble - we go into phase 3. Basically here the bubble is about blind stealing. I avoid calling any All-Ins that can take me out of the tournament - unless I have AA-QQ. I will go all in myself with less than 10BB with Ax, Pocket Pair, or two Broadway cards. I will only call an All-In if I have A7+, AA-QQ and at least 150% of whatever short-stack is going all in. Basically I want to survive if I lose calling a short-stack's all-in with at least 10BB.

5. ITM - this is where the gears change. I am looking to win small pots and avoid calling All-Ins or going All-In myself. Of course I want all the chips in with AA-QQ. 3 handed is about cat-and-mouse.

If 3 handed gets to the point where I have less than 10BB or more than double a short-stack's going ALL-IN - I will go All-In or Call an All-In.

6. Heads Up - again - cat and mouse game. I am looking to blind steal pre-flop and continuation bet the flop if I catch something. I am looking to set up a trap when I catch Pocket AA-QQ or flop two pairs or better.

So far this strategy is resulting in more finishes ITM. The most valuable part of this strategy is playing very tight until it gets 5 handed.

Currently I 4 table $10+1 9-Man STT. Once I get my ITM back above 45% I want to increase this to 6 Tabling. Eventually I want to be 12 Tabling at 40% ITM+.

The basic idea is to start taking a profit once my bankroll gets above 100 Buy-Ins. I want that 100 Buy-Ins to protect against the inevitable major downswings.