PimpinDonks's blog

So far in 2010 I have been playing mostly 45/90 mans and some larger mtts. I think so far this is what I am going to mostly keep playing. My results have been pretty good in the 45 mans and 90 mans but terrible in the mtts.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this. First, I play way more 45/90 mans so the variance evens out in fewer days. Second, every time the number of players in the field doubles the variance goes up also by about the same amount. Twice as many coinflips and 60/40 situations increases the chances of a bust out.

I have been 16 tabling full ring $200/nl and $400/nl cash games on fulltilt for the past few days. I like to mix up the games I play for a bit of variety and I have not played cash games in a while so I though I would see how it goes.

I played a big hand and wanted to share it with you. I had played one other pot with this villian and he won it by betting me out of the pot on the turn. After the hand was over I noticed he typed in the comments "pimp this". So I figured if I play a pot with this guy again he is not going to give me much credit for having a hand.

From an investment point of view this staking deal massively outperformed any other conventional investment product you would find like a stock or bond. Here are some of the interesting stats below.

Total Profit of the group from sharkscope.com. So this doesn't include rakeback and bounties = $31,068

Total # of games played from sharkscope.com = 17,199

Average Stake played = $17.73

Average ROI = 10.19%

Average $$ won per player = $3,452

As a group I am very happy with the ROI number. When you have an open invitation and don't have much screening for poker skill you never know what kind of group you are going to get. They are all smart guys though. They caught on very quickly. If I do another poker training group though I will do more screening on the applicants to make sure we aren't wasting each others time.

I am not real happy with the number of games played though. They played 40 days while here. The average number of games played per day per person was 48.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this. First, some of them would stop playing for the day if they were taking a lot of bad beats. I tried to prepare them for this in the initial training but it takes experience also to cope with it. Next, I did not push them as hard as I could have. I was pretty laid back with them and we had a pretty flexible schedule. Lastly, some of them could only play 2 tables at the start so it took a while to multitable effectively.

Personally, it was fun for me to do something different than playing all the time. It is rewarding for me to teach someone how to make a great living from their home playing poker. I enjoyed hanging out with the guys also. We went to an NBA game, played American football, played live poker at my house and enjoyed a few meals togeather.

Some of you may be wondering if I will do it again? I think I probably will. If I do it again though I would like to do it with a bigger group and another trainer. For a couple of weeks though I am going to take it easy and play a little.

Finally, an update on how I did at the tables. I played 1347 games while doing this and made $16,566.

I will try to post updates on the leaders of the group a couple of times a week. All of these stats are from sharkscope.com so they do not include rakeback or bounties. Also, some of the games may be missing so these are not completely accurate. I may also post results while they are in middle of a session so the numbers can change quite a bit from day to day. Here are the latest results.

Total Profit Leaders:
1. dexterj911 $19,697
2. changethief8 $3,396
3. claygavin $2,525
ROI Leaders:
1. dexterj911 33%
2. jockmybluff 20%
3. peke2008 17%

Number of Games Played Leaders:
1. Max The OG 2948
2. changethief8 2345
3. hrc99 1919

dexterj911 has final tabled 5 mtts. His largest payout has been $5,675.
bad_boy_les has also final tabled an mtt.
Updated November 3rd 2009

We have completed the initial training with the group of 9 players and I have been very impressed with their play. My wife Keli sat in on the training as well for a total of 10. I went around and watched each of them play for a half hour and they must have paid attention because the play was very good. They played for a full day for the first time yesterday.

I told them to email me all their results. I have not gotten emails from all of them yet, so I sharkscoped them and amazingly enough all 10 had winning days on their first day! Each of them started at different buyin levels based on experience and ability. They made $4187.40 as a group, not including rakeback and bounties from some of them that haven't emailed me yet. This includes one player (changethief8) who made $2283.15 playing the high stakes multi-table sngs.

I have already been contacted by others who want me to do another poker training group. This is a strong possibility, but I want to see how the group does as a whole over the course of the final 5 weeks these guys are here.

I will post updates on the group as the training goes on.

There are a few things I want to share with you but first I want to let you know how I have been doing on the tables. I won the $109 mtt on full tilt that starts at noon eastern time yesterday. That is also the same tournament that I made a video about. It is the second time I have won it.

I also finished 3rd in another mtt a few days ago. We made a deal at the end and I must say I love the new deal making feature on full tilt. It reduces the variance that is left at the end of big mtts. A coin flip at the end can cost you thousands and the deal making feature makes it more attractive for me to play mtts more often. Overall, I have made $8200 profit for the month so far.

I have been lazy with updating this blog, but I stay on top of answering the questions you guys have almost everyday.

I talked with Stinko_Mikko about staking/coaching in great detail a few days ago. He has started a program to train and stake poker players that want to get better. I have been thinking about doing this and I want to gauge the interest. If there are enough people interested I may do it. Here is how it works:

You will move to the city I live in for 6 weeks (just outside Grand Rapids MI). A group of you could rent a house togeather. I will train you to crush the 90 man sngs on fulltilt everyday. You will be expected to play poker 12 hours a day everyday for 6 weeks. I will provide you a bankroll to start playing. We will split the profits you make 60% for you and 40% for me. Stinko has done this already with a group of 6 players and he said most of them were fish starting out. 3 of them made $5,000 for the 6 weeks. 2 made $10,000 and 1 made $20,000. So if you would be interested in applying to train with me for 6 weeks let me know on this blog and if there is enough interest I may do it.

So I just finished reading Mike "The Mouth" Matusow's autobiography "Check raising the Devil". It was very entertaining. Mike has had a lot of similarities to Stu Unger. This book is not a poker strategy book, but he does go over a few key hands he has played. If you are looking for an entertaining read I would recommend it. Also, I ordered my copy on fulltilt with my points and Mike signed the inside of it, which is pretty cool of him to do that.

As for poker I have been playing alot of cash games lately and mixed games also. I have been doing very well at the 7-game tables on fulltilt ranging from $4/$8 upto $12/$24. At these tables we play limit holdem, limit omaha hi/lo, stud, stud 8, razz, no limit holdem and pl omaha. I am very comfortable with the first 6 games but I do not like the variance and aggression I see in plo.

I have also played some sit n gos this month, but I have mainly been playing cash games. I will put my sit n go graph down below for the month. There is about 200 missing from when fulltilt updated their software. I was about break even during that time.

I have been thinking about staking lately and if any of you have had any success or experience staking people let me know. I would be interested in what you have to say. (I am not looking to stake people right now, just looking for information and possible roi that could be expected.)

I have been running extremely well so far in July! I have only been able to play 98 sngs so far but have a sick roi of 49.32%. I know this won't continue for the whole month but it is nice to be on the upside of variance.

I played an interesting hand with another online pro today in a $75 45 man sng. The villian is Stinko_Mikko, who some of you may have heard of. Anyways, I wanted to share this hand with you and hopefully you can learn something from it.

So the blinds are at 20/40 and stinko min raises from early position. Another player calls and I have 88 so I call in late position. The button, SB, BB all call also so there are 6 players to the flop.

The flop comes 8,2,6 with two hearts. SB,BB check and stinko bets 264 into a pot of 480. One player folds and it is on me. Here is were it gets interesting. I have top set and alot of players would call and slow play. However, there are still 3 players to act behind me and I don't want to give them good odds to draw. Also, I know that stinko is not betting into 6 players and raising from early position without an overpair here, so I know exactly what his hand is here. So I could raise small but I think raising small here looks so strong with all the players left to act that he will fold hands like 99-JJ pretty easily.

I elected to shove all in for a couple of reasons. First, I want any draws to pay the max because the pot is getting quite large. Second, since I know stinko has an overpair, when I shove he is going to put me on a draw I estimate 90% of the time and a set 10% so I think he is very likely to call an allin but not a smaller raise.

Everyone folded to stinko and he thought for quite some time and called. He showed 99 and the turn and river bricked off and I took down the nice pot. So to beat other professionals you need to use all the information you have and stay one step ahead of them. I included the results for July for me and the hand history text below if you want to check it out.

Seat 1: Don Chich (2,280)
Seat 2: boris36 (940)
Seat 3: PimpinDonks (1,395)
Seat 4: Giftedwon (2,720)
Seat 5: Mazinga09 (1,070)
Seat 6: just ouch (2,285)
Seat 7: gibsonf5 (1,670)
Seat 9: Stinko_Mikko (1,545)
Mazinga09 posts the small blind of 20
just ouch posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to PimpinDonks [8d 8c]
gibsonf5 folds
Stinko_Mikko has 15 seconds left to act
Stinko_Mikko raises to 80
Don Chich calls 80
boris36 folds
PimpinDonks calls 80
Giftedwon calls 80
Mazinga09 calls 60
just ouch calls 40
*** FLOP *** [8h 2s 6h]
Mazinga09 checks
just ouch checks
Stinko_Mikko has 15 seconds left to act
Stinko_Mikko has requested TIME
Stinko_Mikko bets 264
Don Chich folds
PimpinDonks has 15 seconds left to act
PimpinDonks raises to 1,315, and is all in
Giftedwon folds
Mazinga09 folds
just ouch folds
Stinko_Mikko has 15 seconds left to act
Stinko_Mikko has requested TIME
Stinko_Mikko calls 1,051
PimpinDonks shows [8d 8c]
Stinko_Mikko shows [9h 9s]
*** TURN *** [8h 2s 6h] [Ah]
*** RIVER *** [8h 2s 6h Ah] [Tc]
PimpinDonks shows three of a kind, Eights
Stinko_Mikko shows a pair of Nines
PimpinDonks wins the pot (3,110) with three of a kind, Eights
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,110 | Rake 0
Board: [8h 2s 6h Ah Tc]
Seat 1: Don Chich folded on the Flop
Seat 2: boris36 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: PimpinDonks showed [8d 8c] and won (3,110) with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 4: Giftedwon (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: Mazinga09 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: just ouch (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 7: gibsonf5 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Stinko_Mikko showed [9h 9s] and lost with a pair of Nines

I will start off with how I did in June. I did not meet my original goal of playing 1500 multi table sngs. I realized in the middle of the month that I could make more per hour playing high stakes stts in replace of the $26 multi table sngs. So I am going to have to wait to buy my SUV for another month

I did meet my secondary goal of 240 for the final week. So I took my wife and daughter upto Mackinac island for a couple of days

I have realized since starting this blog that I like to play all of the various forms of poker and that setting a monthly goal for one specific type is hard for me to stick too. So I am going to set an hourly goal for the month because I may decide to play cash games one day and multi table tournaments the next day.

For the month of July I will work for 140 hours. Poker Tracker 3 keeps track of hours played so I will go by that. Obviously, I want to maximize my hourly rate during that time. I also have to make videos for you guys to watch and improve your game and answer all of your questions on here. So it will probably be about 160 hours, which if you work a regular 40 hour a week job is a typical month. When I meet this goal I will purchase the new SUV I have been wanting.

I have not been able to play poker for the last 4 days now. I found out fulltilt ran sng madness too, so it really sucks that I missed that. When I play poker I like to have at least 4 hours in a row to play. I have had 2 graduation parties to go too. Also, my wife and I hosted a party at our house as well which took a lot of preparation. Also, I spent an entire day playing cash games. I like to play the different forms of poker just to keep it fresh and interesting to me.

When I set my goals at the start of the month I did not think about all of these unforseen days off. I have come to the conclusion that I need to readjust my original goals as things happen. Readjusting your goals is fine to do as long as the are realistic, attainable and will push you to work harder.

At the start of the month I was playing more of the $26 45-man and 90-man sngs. Recently though I have been playing $109 and $216 9-man nonturbo sngs. I have done the math on it and it looks like I will make more money per hour from those. So I will play the $75 45-men and the $109,$216 9-men on fulltilt. The problem with this though is they don't start up very often. So I am going to have to get used to playing only 4-8 tables at once, which can lead to boredom for me.

So I will be back at the tables on Tuesday June, 23rd. I do have another graduation party next weekend. So I have about 6 working days left. In that time I want to play 240 of the sngs I mentioned above. 40 per day with my win rate will generate $4500 in income if I run average.