April Wrap-Up

Whew... it's been another crazy month on all streets.

We'll start with the bad first. April just never got off the ground for me on the SNG front. The numbers are pretty terrifying:

ITM: 17.14%
ROI: -41.92%
SNGs Played: 35
Profit: -$166.00
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1st Place: 3
2nd Place: 2
3rd Place: 1

I'm not going to even try and dissect this too much... it was a bad run, that's for sure. I know my game still has leaks, and in a lot of ways I feel that I should have settled more into a groove by now. March was so solid, and I felt that I played largely the same for a good portion of April, but with opposite results. I think a big key that I'm not putting into practice well enough, is adapting to table conditions... and often playing too tight, too late into the game... or playing too loose in the wrong spots. ...And I fell quite short of my 50 SNG/month goal... it's tough to want to put in the hours when things are going bad.

However, despite my horrible SNG results, I still logged a positive month, cashing in on two Empire bonuses, and scoring some good NL wins in the bonus-clearing process. This is a theory that I've long felt strongly about, but until recently haven't put into practice very well:

Just like any investment, when playing poker it pays to diversify your investments and have an overall strategy.

When one game is going bad, or doesn't interest you, you'll have another to fall back on. Having an overall strategy for managing your bankroll can only benefit you. For myself, I want to really become a small tournament specialist, so I set the goal of trying to play 50 SNGs per month, but I also watch for the bonuses and move my money around to take advantage of that, which allows me to play a very tight/aggressive style in NL cash games to clear the raked hands. I also do generally well in the local home tourneys, and am planning on further padding my bankroll with any profit I can manage making and selling custom poker tables. I think having something on the side like this (poker related or not), which will allow you to toss a little money at your bankroll now and again, is a really underrated and not-often-talked about strategy for the serious intermediate poker player. Having many opportunities for profit just makes good business sense, allows you to stay interested, and should significantly dampen or even offset potential overall losses.

In other news, the local league I've started with a few others in my town is set to kick off on Tuesday night, and we held a little pre-season warm-up/ new table inauguration on Saturday at my place. We ended up with a good group of 12 players, and even a new face or two. I ran into pocket Queens in each of the two tournaments that we played, but managed to rake a few monster pots in the side cash NL game to put me "up" on the evening.

The table was a hit, and fared well through 7 hours of play. I was excited and surprised at how easily we sat 10 players around the 7'x4' table... I had figured it would be a little tighter than it actually was, and we even had a few big guys. My new Copags remained as good as new after a whole night of play, as opposed to the traditional paper decks used on the second table, of which one deck had to be tossed at the end of the evening, and the other has few hours left.

The league excitement is growing and our message boards are seeing good daily activity... and I just have a feeling that eventually our small one-or-two table affairs are going to grow beyond the scope of what someone's basement or apartment can handle. I have mixed feelings about this possibility... I'm excited to finally have a regular local game, and the bigger the group of people that can attend = the more that will attend, which is good. But I also am hearing stories from poker friends of mine who started leagues with 6 people and have grown to 40 or so attending every event... one guy brings his friend... and that friend becomes a regular, and then he invites someone... and pretty soon it's like the classic college party that starts small and ends with people you don't even know having an orgy on your bed.

Well see what happens!