Friday 6 September 2013

August, my daily routine and 16tabling

Hello!

The first week of September is almost gone, so I thought I should hurry up and upload a post with my overview of the past month. Results-wise, it was not quite as great as July, but it was still a pretty good month. Here's the graph for the month of August:


I played a total of 9.684 games, which is more comparing to the 6k I did in July. However, if you take into consideration that those 9,6k games where spread over the period of a whole month, then the volume is not so satisfying (I played 6k games in a matter of two weeks back in July). I do blame the weather (partially) for that. August is the hottest month of the year and let's be honest, even if you decide that you're not taking any time off you still don't get super excited over working. Looking at the beautiful weather outside while you are stuck in front of your computer screen is not very motivational. Personally I'd rather be outside in the sunshine enjoying an ice-cream instead!

I've also been practicing a new schedule this past month and a half. As you probably know, most of my time as a poker player has been spent on the vampire shift or at the best case scenario gravitating towards working in the afternoon. Nowadays I wake up around 7.00 a.m. (8.00 a.m. tops). I'm the kind of person that cannot get out of bed right away, so I need to snooze at least 10 minutes. Once I'm out of the bed, I need a coffee asap. I used to spend around an hour drinking my coffee and having breakfast which is a huge waste of time, yet it's essential to get me up and going. I used to spend that time checking random stuff on the Internet (like Facebook and other time-consuming, useless yet enjoyable things) cause I could not focus on anything that requires me to use too much of my brain right after waking up. These days however, I make my coffee and go straight to open Pokerstars lobby. There aren't many games running that early, which is actually the perfect warm-up to start my day. At least it's more useful than facebooking and since it's only a few tables and most of the decisions are automatic, I don't need to sweat thinking about every hand. It usually takes about an hour for the games to get busier and by the time they do, I'm fully awake and ready for some serious grinding. I've been thinking of switching that warm-up session with an hour of studying, but I don't know if I can focus on studying that early.



I play until 11.00 which is when the Big $33 starts. Then I go to the super market or the grocery store, come back home and prepare lunch. I know this probably sounds mundane to you since most of my readers are male, but I am the woman of the house and I have to take care of that kind of stuff. Plus, since André is busy playing the MTTs and only gets a 5-minute break every hour, he couldn't really cook anything for lunch even if he wanted to. We used to eat out a lot more before, but eventually I got sick of eating out all the time and found myself longing for some home-made cooking. We eat around 13.00-13.30. Sometimes I eat in front of the computer while playing, sometimes I eat first and then go back to the tables. Either way, the plan is to play util 17.00. 

And that's where it gets messy. Theoretically, after five is the time that I have attributed for studying or physical exercise. But I've done very little studying during August and I haven't been exercising as much as I should. Most of the days I either go take a nap, or take the rest of the day off. I seriously need to work on that during September. I hope that the weather getting colder will help. I'm much more of a winter person.

Anyway, I've been mostly grinding the $12s. Sometimes I play a little lower, depending on what games are available but I never play lower than $6. As for the higher stakes... I gave some $38s a try cause they were super soft thanks to the upcoming WCOOP but they didn't go very well so I had to give up on them.


I do understand that 164 games is nothing with a capital "N" in terms of volume and that the variance is so high that this graph really says nothing, but I couldn't keep playing them for bankroll reasons. I actually think I had a pretty good edge at those games cause I was table-selecting them like crazy but I run bad so I had to take a step back. If there's one thing I'm very strict about that's bankroll management and even though it's a debatable subject as to what is optimal and what's not, I think we should all stick to whatever plan we make for ourselves and not deviate. Maybe if I run good at the $12s I'll be able to take another chance at the $37s-$38s before the WCOOP is over. Let's see...

Another novelty of the past month was 16-tabling. I've been writing this blog since I first started playing poker pretty much, so I have documented how I moved from one table to two, and then to three and so on. My general guideline was "if you get bored with the number of tables you are playing, then add one more". And that seemed to be working fine, until I reached 12. I've been 12-tabling since November 2012 if I'm not mistaken. That's almost a full year with no progress. Whenever I would have a 13th table accidentally popping up cause I did something wrong with the Table-Ninja settings, I would go crazy. So for a long period of time I thought that 12-tabling was the limit of my comfort zone. I thought I had reached the end of the line. 

Yet during August, I found myself opening facebook on the side screen while 12-tabling. I didn't have time to type or anything like that, but I would scroll down the home page and look around. I remember talking about that with André and he told me to try out 16-tabling. Of course the logical thing would be to go from 12 to 13, not 16 but I was really curious to see if I could actually do it. So one day after I finished my regular session of $12s I opened up some lower stakes. Not sure if it was $6s, it may have been $3.75s just for the occasion, after all I didn't want to blow up too much money in case the experiment went wrong.

I play in tile, which means that I see all tables I'm at at all times. In order for me to have 16 tables where there used to be 12, each table would have to be a lot smaller. The first impression was actually shocking. Everything seemed to be too small for me to see clearly. I literally had to stand up and move my face closer to the screen in order to see what was going on. I was sliding my face across the screen following the action of the mouse and probably looked like an idiot. That bad. André did not really get why I was acting so crazy or why I was laughing to myself about it afterwards. But then again, André's vision is at 100% while I use glasses. I have a small degree of hyperopia, which is not a big deal and I don't need to wear glasses when I'm outside or driving or anything like that. They really do make a difference when I'm in front of screens or reading though. If I play poker without my glasses on, my eyes get tired super fast. And 16-tabling... This was the first time I was challenged from a vision-point-of-view while playing poker.


Eventually I did get used to the size of these new, smaller tables. Now the only thing that I worry about is playing fast enough. Surprisingly, my first attempt went pretty well. I did sitout a couple of times, but I don't think I missplayed that much. Unfortunately during the hours I play and considering I don't have such a big variety of buy-ins, I don't get to 16-table all the time, so that slows down my practice a bit. I haven't gotten the hang of it yet, but at least I'm not horrible at it and I feel like it's possible. I didn't think it was possible for me one month ago, so that's an improvement!

Overall I really enjoy the morning schedule. I feel like it's a lot... healthier! I just need to be a bit more disciplined about how I spent my time in the afternoons and I think it will be fine. That's all for now... See you guys at the tables!

35 comments:

  1. Nice volume , you play only satellites ?

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    Replies
    1. Hi zenpokerlife,

      Yes, I only play the hyper-turbo satellites.

      Delete
  2. Hi Katerina!

    I have just found your blog and I am very excited to see a great regular at the hyper satellites share so much cool information and advice as I also share your interest for these misunderstood games. Thank you so much for the great work!.

    PS: I have played over 5k hands against you at the 3.75$ on stars. You're aggression (or range of hands from each position) is crazy :). Never saw any other regular with such a high SB shoving range :).

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    Replies
    1. Hi NBenitus,

      Thank you for your kind words! I really appreciate it and I'm happy that you like my blog! You play with the same nick at PS, right? Sounds familiar! Anyway, thanks for stopping by and see you at the tables! :)

      P.S.: I am not crazy! :P

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    2. Thank you for such a great blog :). Yes, that is my PS nickname as well. I am starting your blog from the beginning now and I am surprised at the many resemblances our poker debuts have. I started around the same age, read the same books, then turned to turbos. Your experience is given me a lot of motivation.

      PS: I didn't mean crazy as pejorative, just as "a lot". :)

      PS2: As I read more and more, do you mind if I ask questions about older posts? For example, on the post of Wednesday, 29 August 2012, I am wondering what the villain had against QQ :).

      Delete
    3. Sure, you can ask as many questions as you like! I just can't promise that I'll remember to answer all of them... For example, I honestly don't remember from a year ago what the opponent had against my queens. But in any case, I didn't mention it back then cause it didn't really matter whether I won the hand or not. What matters is what range you put him on when you decide whether to call.

      If you write your questions under the post you are reading it's more convenient, then I'll know what you're talking about.

      P.S.1: I got it, was just kiddin'! :)

      Delete
  3. Hi madam,

    As I read further, you mention coaching a lot. I have seen you mentioning discussing strategy with other hyper players.(like Roy4l Pl4yor who comments on some of your blog entries). Would you know other fellow low stakes hyper players that would like to discuss strategy and get better? Would you also know a good coach for these games?

    Thank you very much for your time.

    PS: Let me know if I start to ask too many questions, I don't know any other poker player and I might be exaggerating.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi NBenitus,

      I only got coaching from my boyfriend, and he doesn't normally coach people on hypers. (I got coaching one time with somebody else when I started playing SNGs but I don't count that cause it wasn't hyper-turbo related). As far as I know there isn't anyone that gives hyper-turbo coaching. And I don't know low stakes players that want to discuss strategy either. I suggest you approach them at the tables and ask them. Sorry I can't be of more help on this one.

      Playing the hyper-turbos is a pretty solitary occupation cause you don't get books or a big community to help you improve, you need to do all the work by yourself.

      P.S.: No problem about the questions, I told you you can ask as many as you like, but... Madam?!? I don't think I'm THAT old! :P

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the quick answer.

      That is what I feared :(. I looked at your stats on sharkscope and they are pretty impressive. Would you offer coaching perhaps? I did a lot of study by myself, but I think someone with your experience and a different perspective could really speed things up.

      While most pros wouldn`t want to coach someone they would have to face later (you could be too good of a coach ;)), I have no problem making sure to never play against you. I live in a different time zone (eastern time) and can only play around 3-4 hours per day.

      Let me know :).

      PS: Sorry, I didn't want to offend you, it's not about age, it's an honor to talk to a supernova player ... :)

      Delete
    3. Thank you for your interest, but as I have said before on this blog, I'm not interested in coaching. If I ever change my mind about that I will make a post though :)

      Delete
    4. Hi NBenitus,

      if you wanna get in touch write me your e-mail address.
      Btw great blog Katerina ;D

      Delete
    5. Hi master-kame! Thank you! :)

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    6. Nice to talk to you master-kame!

      My email address is benoit.goderre@gmail.com

      Your stats are amazing! How do you get a 6% roi???

      Delete
    7. Okay, I'll admit I got curious as to how someone could have 6% ROI at the hypers so I checked it out. His ROI at the hypers is 3,6% (if you exclude all the other games he plays) which is still impressive. But what I found SICK was the graph... It's pretty much a straight line up after over 100k games.
      How do you do that master-kame? Also, why stick at the $3s and not play a bit higher? You definitely seem to have the skills for it!

      Delete
  4. NBenitus, I send you an email with my skype nickname. Katerina, the graph seems like it's a straight line up, because it's a 100k sample size, if you would look closer, you would see that i regularly have downswings of 50-80 BI and breakeven streaks of 5k games. I am finally working on playing higher stakes. Also I am curious about your graph at the 12$ limit and your 4,3% ROI at them, would be cool to see if this is achievable after a bigger sample size, so keep the good work up! ;D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Master-kame, I know that you got downswings of 50-80 BI, that's normal. Yet in the bigger picture of 100k games, the graph DOES look like a straight like up and that's pretty rare. I think you are being far too modest. About the $12s, I don't know what my true ROI is in those games but 4% seems too high. 9k hands is not a big sample anyway so I'll have to wait and see...

      Good luck at the tables!

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    2. Katerina read my comment if you can please. Tks

      Delete
  5. hi Katerina. I enjoy reading your blog. I wish that I could play 16 tables at a time but I think it will be a while before im able to. I play the 3.75s and recently started 6 tabling after moving from a 17" monitor to a 23". I have played almost 9500 3.75s this year with an ROI of 6.8%.
    Did your ROI drop much as you increased the number of tables that play and did you see bigger swings in your bankroll as you increased tables?

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    Replies
    1. Hi SiliconDale,

      I'm happy that you like my blog! Multitabling is a slow process (unless you're a genius!), so don't worry about it, it will come with time.

      Your ROI could drop a little if you're multitabling but not by much if you're doing it right. The idea is to maintain your ROI and increase the number of tables, it's no use 20tabling if your ROI is so low that you're hardly making any money.

      That said, it is pretty much impossible to measure how much ROI you lose cause of multitabling. There is variance that's always involved. When you see swings, you can't know if it's because of luck or because of your play. You need a very big sample to be able to get some conclusions and even then you won't know for sure.

      I suggest you record your sessions or try to review some plays calmly afterwards, then try to decide if you are playing your A game or if you should cut down on the number of tables.

      My golden rule though is "If you are feeling bored while playing, add one more".

      Good luck! :)

      Delete
    2. Hi Silicon Dale,

      First of all, your ROI is pretty cool :).

      Many poker players focus on their ROI, but they forget that, at the end of day, what really matters is how much you make per hour. Playing more tables means more rakeback as well as achieving higher statuses, like platinium and supernova. Also, if you play your tables as stacked (like I do), it doesn't really matter how big your monitor is, you can easily play 20 games at a time on a laptop.

      Delete
  6. Katerina i talked with your boyfriend to ask him if he still buying Tmoney and he told me to ask you if u are buying. Thanks

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  7. *he told me to ask you if you are buying... tell me something then thanks

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    Replies
    1. Hi Rodrigo,

      I can buy $t for 99% of the price (that is 99$ for 100$t). If you're still interested initiate the transaction to katerina289 and leave me a comment here.

      Delete
    2. I´ve already sent you, 200$t for 198$ (Garrido509 is my nickname) . Thanks

      Delete
  8. I´ve already sent you, 200$t for 198$ (Garrido509 is my nickname) . Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rodrigo, you hadn't initiated the transaction but I did. Just log in on your account and transfer the funds. Thanks

      Delete
  9. Upsss!!sorry Katerina i opened some mtts and totally forgot that the Money come directly from the Tmoney =S such na idiot lol, i´m really sorry when i finished this session i send you a message saying the value...Thankss

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  10. Hello katerina, your blog is amazing!...

    I start playing Sit & Gos this month, wich book do you recomend me to read about Sit & Gos? :)

    Best Regards from México!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Gerardo!

      Thank you for your kind words! I'd start with "Secrets of Sit'n'Gos" by Phill Shaw. Good luck! :)

      Delete
  11. hello and thx for this great blog . i am just really intrested in those types of sngs i mean the hyper turbos and i was wondering where and how can i learn the right strategy and right play for them (on the long run ofcorse). and thank you.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Elie, I'm glad you like my blog! Learning how to play the hyper turbos can be tricky because unlike other formats of poker, there isn't much material out there. So you'll have to rely mostly on yourself. I suggest you read the earlier posts of my blog back from when I started playing the hypers, hopefully you'll find some useful information to help you get started. Good luck!

      Delete
  12. Katerina are u buying tmoney? i have some to change for cash tks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Rodrigo,

      Yes, I buy tmoney. What amount do you have to sell?

      Delete

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