After doing loads of writing and staking during the past few months, the amount of poker that I have been playing has dropped through the floor. It seems like yesterday that I was playing $25-$50 NLHE last year and it also seems that the levels that I am playing at are dropping like a stone. I was having a discussion with a psychologist last week (informal) and he was telling me about how risk profiles alter as a person ages and how that affected attitude to risk.

I am starting to think now that I simply don’t have the stomach to play meaningful stakes anymore. However this does not mean that I am done with poker…..far from it. I have too much desire and love for the game. But it has got tougher over the past few years and the last year or so has seen the online middle limit levels become very tough. However I will be looking to start a new project this year and that will be to mass table NL50 (possibly NL100) with The Vulture system.

I started this nearly two years ago and was doing very well making about $25/hour on Cake Poker and this could be a great way to make money playing online poker. At NL50 then there are enough bad players at full-ring for a player to make money if they have a very strong default system in place and that system is conducive to mass tabling. I really don’t see why $100/hour cannot be achieved and this is something that I want to do towards the back end of the year.

I don’t think that I would need to use Poker Office (www.pokeroffice.com) at these levels even though doing so would increase bb/100. I think that there would be too much time lag to do this properly and there has to be a serious trade off somewhere. I am slogging away with my Poker Challenge where I am trying to turn $100 into ten large. I do love my challenges but this is one challenge that I will find very difficult simply due to the low stakes. You can follow my progress on this site so keep your eyes open and I am currently $36 ahead so far.

See you soon

Carl

Recently I have undertaken to do a $100-$10k challenge starting with $6 buy-in games. I am ahead by $23 so far after spewing millions of dollars or what seems like it. I don’t know why I do these self imposed challenges but I am just a glutton for punishment I guess.

The latest results for the Jackal and Vulture road tests have continued to be positive and The Jackal now stands at a profit of $1375 and this equates to 6.11bb/100 after 45,000 hands.

The Vulture is $679 ahead after 17,000 hands and this equates to 7.99bb/100. I have been disappointed that the sample sizes have taken so long but my guinea pigs have their own lives to lead and I don’t have the time to do this. A few people will have been wondering what has happened to my posts but I have still been very busy, too busy for my liking.

All of my spare time has been devoted to working on these systems and playing the $100-$10k challenge which for me just could well be the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life. Trying to keep discipline when you are playing poker for such small amounts of money is very tough. In fact these are the smallest stakes that I have EVER played in online poker.

In terms of average dollar pot size then the $6 games have smaller pot sizes then the $1-$2 limit games that I played when I was testing The Fox a few weeks back. I have not played any serious poker for meaningful stakes for ages so I have not had any reason for using Poker Office.

Actually the 10k challenge is starting to grip me but my own indiscipline is my own worst enemy and I always knew that it would be. I have also lost four big $12 pots (200 big blinds) on the river to two out hands and when you are trying to claw your way up then these really hurt.

I will try and keep you updated with the challenge but the challenge was to show how a player could turn $100 into $10k playing carefully and using bankroll management. My bankroll philosophy is very cautious and not my usual aggressive style but then again this isn’t for me but for you out there. If I can pull this off then anyone can do it and I really do mean that.

So three challenges on the go……Jackal….Vulture and Me reaching 10k. Oh and nearly forgot……I have a fourth challenge……trying to lose three stone in weight and this was something that I started over two months ago…….result so far……lost 17lb so good news on that front. Now if I can make it to 10k then that should be a great grand slam to win!

Sorry for not posting for what seems like ages (again) but I have been away on business and also tying up some loose ends. I have also been sorting out some of my stakes as well as I have had to drop a couple of players who were not performing including one who I thought was on the take……..it wasn’t the money but the principle as it was only about $500.

Anyway, enough about that and I have some more news on The Jackal. My guinea pig Richard has only just reacked the 30k hands mark as our original estimate of hands was way off……..he simply can’t find the time either and especially now he is trying to be a big shot and is playing NL400

Anyway The Jackal stands at 7.27bb/100 after 30k hands and that equates to roughly $1090 in profit or nearly 22 buy-ins.

The Vulture has been having another road test as well and I have results on 8000 hands to report and more good news as that has been performing even better at 8.13bb/100 and that is $325 ahead. I am expecting The Vulture to get a bigger bb/100 to The Jackal anyway as the players in full-ring can get pretty bad and there is more dead money to be found and the minimum stackers are less of a hindrance.

Bad news is that The Fox hasn’t even started yet as the player who I had to road test it has pulled out so I have lined up someone else but unfortunately they cannot start until the 1st April. I have barely played any poker at all this month apart from a few sessions at heads up NL200 where I won about five buy-ins about two weeks ago.

Both of the systems have been used whilst multi-tabling so being able to play on more tables should be something that one can build up to. Personally I think that 60k hands a month for a big multi-tabling pro is feasible……wouldn’t like to do it though

See you soon

Carl

Apologise for not posting in a while but this may be all I can manage these days. I have promised to keep all informed about my three systems. Firstly the Jackal and while I do not have an up to date report…..I do have the figures after c25k hands. Richard is $1234 dollars ahead which equates to $4.93/100 hands. It is good to give a $/100 hands figure as this allows for differences on poker sites where the software isn’t as fast or they have extra players.

But this is 9.87bb/100 which seems high to me although once again the 25k hand mark is short. But both The Vulture and Fox systems started on the 1st March but I don’t have any details of the results yet. Been really busy of late and the bad news is that it will simply get busier. I will be revealing details of these systems this year and how to get them so do keep a look out for that in the coming weeks and months.

Did manage to play some PLO over the weekend at $200 and lost four buy-ins so not too great. Anyway speak soon and take care.

Carl

Ok so I promised a few weeks ago to write a daily blog but this month has just not been possible for me. I have undertaken even more work and I haven’t even played poker in ages as well. Although starting 1st April I will be doing a 100-1 challenge in which I try to turn $100 into $10,000. I may even start as low as $50 yet but I have pencilled this in time wise so it is likely to happen.

This will run alongside the Vulture, Jackal and Fox systems so April should be a really exciting month. I am also in the process of trying to lose a couple of stone in weight as well so I am having to tough things out. The challenge won’t be to win 10k, it will be to keep my control whilst playing for tiny amounts. Seeing as I have no history of doing this for long periods in the past then it will be tough.

Anyway, we have reached the 20k hand mark with The Jackal and we have come on since the last post and we are $749 ahead. So we are $3.745/100 hands which is an excellent 7.49bb/100. I am very pleased with this and we have been running well over the past week or so.

The Fox six handed limit system starts on Monday as does The Vulture re-run so keep a look out for those results. One small downside though, Richard may not be able to play The Jackal after April as he will be moving so getting the originally intended 100k hands may be a problem. He has though offered to increase the hours played so I am hoping for about a 75k-80k sample size.

If we can replicate 7.5bb/100 after that many hands then I will be very happy. I was going through my Poker Office data yesterday as I intend to play against a couple of players who I have targeted this week providing that they turn up. They tend to be weekend players anyway mainly but they fit very nicely into the unthinking LAG category. If you can catch them when they don’t hit flops then you can get them in spew city.

Anyway fingers crossed, will try and play some heads up or PLO this weekend but starting 1st April, any poker that doesn’t involve the three systems or my $100 challenge will be very thin on the ground. I wish that there were more hours in the day.

Anyway, see you soon

Carl

I know I keep saying that I will post every day but you know how it is. I cannot seem to bring myself to find the time to write long posts. So what I plan to do is write short snappier posts and make them more often. That way they will not be boring and it should reveal everything that is going on.

Right enough of that, what is happening with The Jackal? Well we have slipped back just as I predicted and the results after 10k hands is that we are ahead by $312. That is $3.12/100 or 6.24bb/100. We haven’t actually done badly but 10k hands is starting to get to be somewhat significant.

Good news on The Vulture and Fox systems, I have managed to get two players to road test these. One is starting on the 1st March but the other is hoping to get started at the end of the week. Now you can see why I haven’t been posting…….too damn busy.

March should be a great month having all three systems playing side by side and me being the nervous parent looking on

Fingers crossed……..as for my poker results…….you seriously have to be joking…….there are only 24 hours in a day you know. Which gets even worse when you have to watch the football, looking forward to Milan vs Man Utd tonight.

See you then.

Carl

I have to say sorry for keep promising to make this a daily blog and then I keep dropping days. I just seem to have too much work and not enough time to do it in. But you wanted to know about The Jackal right

Well at the end of week 1 we are ahead by $314 after exactly 22 hours of play so $14.27/hour so far. However this isn’t what we need to be looking at and this is the bb/100. By the way, do not confuse this earn rate with ptbb/100 which isn’t the same thing. These are merely bb/100 so in $0.25-$0.50 this means $0.50/100 hands.

We have played near as damn it 5k hands so the rate is 12.56bb/100. This is even bigger than the last check and according to Richard, he hasn’t got exceptionally lucky. Although luck can be measured in different ways and you don’t always see your good look. For instance, you raise with K-K and get called by 10-9s and the flop comes 10-6-2 rainbow and they pay you off all the way to the river……this is good luck and it isn’t always having your aces against kings or flopping a king when its the other way around.

I am convinced that this is still too high. I think it would take a million hands for the earn rate to smooth out but 100k will do. By the way, we are not counting rakeback either in with these earn rates. So the bottom line is that I am very pleased after week 1.

I played some $2-$4 and $3-$6 six max limit hold’em over the weekend and won just over $100. If you think that I have taken leave of my senses then fear not. This was the maiden session of my even later system The Fox which is my low-stakes six max limit system that I have been working on. If I can get someone to road test this then I may get all three running side by side, now wouldn’t that be something

see you soon

Carl

I have some upto date figures after five days of The Jackal and we are ahead by $211 after 15 hours of play and 3749 hands. So it is $5.62/100 hands at the moment but that is four tabling. So we are at 11.24bb/100 which just HAS to be too high due to the small sample size.

Richard wasn’t always four tabling because because he was playing at relatively quiet times of the day. My sources tell me that 1-4bb/100 is solid and 5-9 is very impressive. I asked about 10bb+ and have been told that it is very rare and indicative of small sample sizes so we have been fortunate so far but I will settle for 4bb/100 at this stage.

So even though we have dropped around $50 since the last post, we are doing very well and I am pleased. Shame that I cannot say the same for my own poker play, I dropped 50 big bets at 10-20 limit the other days after swearing to myself that I wouldn’t play the game.

Actually though I was dumped on and lost two huge 20+ big bet pots when my K-K was rivered by a Q-Q hitting a set in a huge multi-way pot. This just shows that my boredom levels are rising. Still though I have to say that I played well and single tabled and I really zoned in but the muppets got away

See you soon

Carl

We are into day 4 of the Jackal trial and I am pleased to report initial success. We are already five full buy-ins ahead at +$256. This seems too good to be true and seems way ahead of what our Sklansky Dollars should be although I haven’t seen any data yet so you are as much in the dark as me.

I have seen 10ptbb/100 in six max so its possible I suppose but early days yet…..very early days. Apparently though it has been swingy so far and we were ahead by over $300 at one stage and down to $100. Or maybe its me, maybe the swings in six max really are that normal. I have only ever played NL50 full ring and so has he.

I think that it is in safe hands though and is why I gave him the job. Been no poker for me as I was busy on the exchanges yesterday and then watched the Leeds vs Tottenham match. Will struggle to get any work done next weekend with loads of live cup football and me taking the missus away for Valentines, lord knows what I am going to do during the World Cup

See you soon

Carl

I did say that I would give daily reports on the progress of The Jackal but unfortunately that means often having nothing to report. I didn’t get an update last night so the Jackal is as it was yesterday and is ahead by $144.

However I will be talking about my own poker play today and I want to have another modern sample size with The Vulture. I fully intend to do what I should have done last summer and that was to get The Vulture down into print. I want to see if I can still maintain the earn rate that I made in 2008-2009 when I was on Cake Poker.

I don’t see why not but sources have told me that the NL50’s have tightened up so I may have to adjust. What I don’t want to do is end up writing stuff that is out of date so hence the trials. I am trying to get Richard to agree to doing both although that would mean him playing full-time. The problem is with the Vulture is that I need to be there in person actually doing it.

I am once again going to pick the softest site that I can find that has decent enough action on NL50 and see how it goes. My scheduled start date is 1st Mar which is a full month after the Jackal but I intend to get them both running side by side in about four weeks time.

So look out for that, ideally I would like to expand these systems to mass table them. With the right rakeback scheme in place, the right discipline and if you can find enough tables even if that means playing several different sites at once then I think that $100/hour is possible. But anyway, that’s all pie in the sky as it stands so will just have to see over the coming weeks.

see you soon

Carl