Rakeback

(above: me before rakeback)

Rakeback, what is it? It is not when you lend your neighbor a tool used for gathering leaves, then request its return (although that would make sense, wouldn't it?) Rakeback is actually a payment you receive every month for playing poker. Woohoo. Here's how it works: any significant pot you play, the house (the online site you play at) takes a cut of the action. So if you play a $5.00 pot, the site might take say 10 cents. I don't know the exact numbers, this is just an example. The point is, it adds up over the long term. Rakeback is when you get a portion of that money back. If you have a rakeback deal, at the end of the month, you usually get somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% of the rake you paid that month back. At the site I was playing at, I had no rakeback deal, and I could not get one despite my efforts. I did secure a rakeback deal at another site and thus I have moved my roll. Before I moved I had $129.43 in my account. I withdrew $125.00 and deposited $100.00 into my new home. As of today, I have $153.03. No rakeback paid yet as most of any I've made so far has gone towards clearing a fee of 10% on my deposit. Also $10 of which I have made has come through my deposit bonus. Yes this shit is rocket science.

To make a long story short, I'm "in" for $75.00 after my cashout. My new roll is 153.03. So I am now up $78.03 and a t-shirt :)

The last few days at the new site have been pretty juicy. I've found myself actually playing limit poker, as opposed to no limit, and tearing it up. Yes they are small profits, but they represent pretty large percentages of my total roll.

profits:
April 26 $18.16
April 27: $3.90
April 28: $18.82
April 29: $12.15]

current roll: $153.03

Swingy session

Swingy, though it could have been worse. I took a beat early in the session where I had Ace King (AK). I raised preflop to 17 cents, villain reraised to 39 cents...I smooth call. Flop comes A 7 A and I'm thinking how I can get this guys stack. He leads out for 75 cents and again I smooth call. The turn is the 9 of clubs and he bets out 4 dollars, so I happily push the rest of my stack in (raised to 4.96) thinking I'm about to go buy myself a steakhouse burger. He calls and shows Ace Jack. Of course I have him crushed. The only way he can beat me is to catch one of the remaining THREE jacks in the deck. He has 3 outs. The river: jack of hearts. Mama said there'd be days like this.

A few months ago when something like this would occur, I'd get pissed off and play bad afterwards (tilt). Now I just get pissed off but don't play so bad :) Soon I will be Mr. Miagi like and not even bat an eye. Anyway, it may not seem like much of a pot...but these swings are tough when you are trying to build a roll. I had started the hand with about $140....so instead of having $145, I have $135 and have to spend my time just working to get even! But thats exactly what I did and about an hour later I had grinded it back. All's well that ends well.

Current Roll: $146.86

The Goodies

So here is my graph to date. I've played about 20,000 hands this year. While my stats are going to be slightly off (because I've just started to use this program) for the most part they should be relatively accurate. You can see the giant downswing there in hands ~4800-6600. Yeah, thats what they call tilt. From wikipedia: "Tilt is a poker term for a state of mental confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in the player becoming over-aggressive." That pretty much sums it up. What causes tilt? For me, it is outplaying opponents in huge pots and having them crushed, only for them to draw out on me. (Get lucky and catch one of the few cards that can beat me) Obviously this is part of the game of poker, and as evidenced by my graph, I think I have corrected my minor tilt issues. But just as important in avoiding huge downswings is playing within your limits. If I take a couple bad beats (getting your money in good and losing anyway due to getting drawed out on) while I am playing OUTSIDE my limits, then I'm also prone to huge downswings. That is why tilt and playing the proper limits go hand in hand. I personally believe BR management is one of the biggest, if not the biggest part of winning poker.

A Quick Intro

I've played Texas Hold Em years ago. While I found it interesting, it didn't become one of my "hobbies," that is, until this year. I deposited $50 on February 7th 2009 onto an online poker site. The problem is, I didn't know anything about bankroll management. Bankroll management is simply the concept of protecting your money. By only playing in limits you can afford, you don't "put all in your eggs in one basket." To make a long story short, within about two weeks I ran the $50 into about $138 dollars, only to go broke in one tilty session. Lesson learned? Sort of.

I made another $50 deposit that same night, February 24, and vowed to never play outside my bankroll again. While I can't 100% say that I've done that, I have learned some valuable lessons and play much smarter overall. I will continue to learn and grow as I proceed. My current roll is at $140.09. I am playing mainly .02/05 cap no limit. My short term goals with poker are to grind through the limits and keep studying. I'm not interested in depositing more money to "take shots." I believe that if I cannot beat the micro stakes, I shouldn't be playing poker. So I don't plan to be depositing money. My long term goal is to make ONE MILLION DOLLARS. *cue pinkey finger to corner of mouth* Seriously though, I need an intermediate goal. Let's make it 10k for the sake of this blog. I plan to keep this updated with my status, some fun hands, and also some miscellaneous things that may not be poker related.

Current roll: $140.09
Currently invested: $100.00
Profit: $40.09 (and a nifty t-shirt)