More variance

Session on Prima network, today:



Since wednesday, both Prima and Boss:


I will have to reread Stox's book tomorrow. I feel my game got worse in the last few days although I'm absolutely certain I'm in a downswing and running awful at the moment. Whenever I play with morons, like the ones on Boss network I forget how to play properly.

I hate variance

Since wednesday 15th july (on the graph, when downswing started), I've had AKs and AQs 13 times and hit a top pair on the flop exactly 0 times. Flopped a set with pocket pair 1 in 11.8 times. Total won on the button: +€0.10! Nice.

My first impression of Boss network was great. Plenty of loose fish and out of all TAGs and sLAGs, there is not a single player who is really good postflop and doesn't have some leaks eventhought his preflop stats are almost optimal. But I still don't like playing here.

Here is the graph for entire sample, since the beginning of july, 7.7k hands.

Disgusting day on Boss network

Flopped a set but only pocket pairs with a flop. Amazing isn't it.


In afternoon session I've lost with 4 straights with almost 50 BB's in those pots. I've also missed countless 10+ out draws and after more than 1k hands, I'm losing from the cutoff. CO won when seen flop % is smaller than from the blinds, hahaha. I guess it's one of those days when nothing goes your way.

BossMedia, €0.5/€1 Limit
5max
Pre-flop: (1.5 SB, 5 players) Hero is SB KQ
1 folds, Button calls, Hero raises, BB raises, Button calls, Hero calls.

Flop: J 9 J (9.0 SB, 3 players)9d Jd Jc
Hero checks, BB bets, Button calls, Hero calls

Turn: T (6.0 BB, 3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, Button bets, Hero raises, BB folds, Button calls

River: J (10.0 BB, 4 players)
Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls

Final Pot: 12.0 BB
Hero shows: KQ
MP shows: J 6

This hand perfectly describes my day. This opponent is a regular fish, biggest loser in my database but I guess this was his/her day. Well, not exactly since he lost overall but against me, he was unbeatable.

Prima or Boss?

This month I play on BossMedia and over 6k hands I have +2.63 BB/100 on €0.5/€1. On the same tables on Prima, I've been running awful and have -0.66 BB/100. I talked to my friend over skype yesterday, he's playing the same stakes as I do and he asked me what do I think, which network is better, Boss or Prima. I told him that I feel they are close, but then I checked my pt3 stats and calculated rake, bonuses and other promotions all in terms of BB/100.

Rake
Prima - 3.36 BB/100
Boss - 2.36 BB/100

Bonus
Prima - 3.4 BB/100
Boss - 0.33 BB/100

Rakeback/races
Prima - 3.82 BB/100
Boss - 0.67 BB/100

Total (bonus+rb-rake)
Prima - +3.86 BB/100
Boss - -1.36 BB/100

Although the rake is higher on Prima, the bonuses and other incentives are also much higher. If you want to make the same amount of money by playing on Boss network, you need to have a 5.2 BB/100 better win rate than on Prima network.

While winning by playing is much better than losing and it's easier to win on Boss, it's obvious that financially, Prima is a better choice for micro stakes fixed limit player.

Stars VIP store order

I had 4.4k FPP's in my Stars account and just ordered the following items:

Limit Hold'em: Winning Short-Handed Startegies by Terry Borer and Lawrence Mak
2x Black Tee Shirts with small logo
Donkey

Items should arrive in 4-6 weeks.

Hand that saved my day

BossMedia, €0.5/€1 Limit
5max
Pre-flop: (1.5 SB, 5 players) Hero is BB 8 7
MP calls, 2 folds, SB calls, BB checks

Flop: 6 9 T (3.0 SB, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, MP calls, SB calls

Turn: 2 (3.0 BB, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, MP calls, SB calls

River: 9 (6.0 BB, 4 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, MP raises, SB folds, Hero raises, MP raises, Hero raises, MP raises, Hero raises, MP raises, Hero raises, MP raises, Hero raises, MP raises, Hero raises, MP raises, Hero raises, MP raises, Hero calls all-in

Final Pot: 38.0 BB
Hero shows: 8 7
MP shows: K A

This hand turned my session from awful to break even. A hand before this one I lost with AA to some garbage that hit a flush after which I've got angry and wrote something stupid in the chat. I guess fish thought I was tilting because his aggression factor is 0.27 even after this hand.

My third royal flush

This happened a couple days ago on Prima network. It was my third royal flush. My first happened in june or july 07 also on Prima and my second was 2 months later on Stars.

Boss Media

After some thinking I decided to try Boss Media network. Bonuses are bad compared to Prima and some other networks but I expect the quality of games will be much better. I played there when I started playing poker and its probably the only reason I'm still playing. If I started on another network I would have probably lost my entire starting bankroll in a few days, whole $20.

Played few hands yesterday and ~650 hands today on €0.5/€1 5max tables. Some interesting stats:
-hit flop with pair: 2/20
-hit flop with AK, AQ and AJ: 2/28 or 7% (should be ~33%)

I even lost with AA and KK once, lost with a full house in a 3way multiway pot, a flopped straight also in big multiway pot and missed almost all flush draws in big multi way pots. I should be losing with these stats but amazingly, I've made a 106 BB profit.

This really is a great way to start playing at a new site. If only I could have these results when I move up a level..

Oh joy, I hit a set

Prima, €1/€2 Limit
6max
Pre-flop: (1.5 SB, 6 players) Hero is CO 8 8
2 folds, Hero raises, BTN calls, SB calls, BB calls

Flop: 6 8 5 (8.0 SB, 4 players)
SB bets, BB calls, Hero raises, BTN calls, SB calls, BB calls

Turn: 3 (8.0 BB, 4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets, BTN calls, SB calls, BB calls

River: 9 (12.0 BB, 4 players)
SB bets, BB raises, Hero folds

Final Pot: 15.0 BB

BB had T7o, of course and SB had 65s!

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Played a short session earlier today on Prima, 1/2 and 0.5/1. 215h, had 18 pocket pairs and hit only 1 set. You can see how that hand ended. AK and AQ had 5 times, hit something on the flop, 0 times. Can't wait for the rest of the month to see what disgusting things it will bring me.

June 09

FL heads up:FL 6max:

Thank god it's over! June was brutal. I was running way way under expectation in 6max games, I can't believe I still managed to make a profit this month. I've made a few days break at the end of May and decided I will move up to €1/€2 at Prima in June. Finally. This time, I was mentally prepared so I started playing without fear, confident in my game. When I started, everything was fine except the fact I was running awful as always when tried to move up. I was calm and most times played really good but just wasn't allowed to win. After a few days I stopped because tables were not good enough and were infested with Russian bots. To be honest, maybe they aren't bots but their stats are almost identical, they always play 2 tables, never more than 2 and never play with other bots at the same table. It is impossible these players aren't connected in some way. What's more surprising, Prima can't detect them or they don't care.

I don't know what to do next month. Plan was to stay on Prima and clear their bonuses but its impossible to find good tables at 1/2 limit these days. I would like to move up but I won't play with 5 regulars no matter how good bonus they give me. Maybe I'll move to Cake or Ongame. Or even BossMedia. Or I'll quit poker for good.