Poker: Financial results for April 2012

Plan

My monthly targets are:
- Play 600 hands of cash on NLHE $0.50 Full Ring, 700 cash hands on PLO $0.50 6-max, all with target of breaking even
- Play 20 NLHE STT hoping for +10% ROI

Monitor

Overall results for the month:-

Pokerstars      :  +$ 67.65
Black Belt Poker:  -$ 21.44 (-£13.19)
Live play       :  -£330.59

My Pokerstars results consisted of 3x STT of 8 game, with 1 cash seeing +$1.95 total profit.  Also played three cash sessions of 8 game.  One session of $2 gave me -$22.46, but the two $4 sessions gave me +$79.84 and +$55.72 profits, so a total of +$113.10.    In preparation for SCOOP, I also played satellites and won seats into Event #40 (8 game) for $9.90 and NLHE Main event for $37.50.   These games are being played in May so something for me to look forward to :)

Rolling 3 month total for 8 game cash is +$206.08

Live play was what my whole month was geared towards in April, the BBP Live event at Aspen Casino in Stratford.  Sadly, not only did I not cash in the tournament, but also dropped £91 in Hold'em cash and £100 in PLO Cash as well.  This makes a total loss of -£330.59.  Luckily this was offset by my 10% stake swap with Jon, so thanks for the good result there Jon :)

My BBP results break down as follows:

Cash results (+£60.21 overall)
 
NL Hold' em ($0.50)  198 hands   +£  8.68
PL Omaha    ($0.50)  104 hands   +£ 51.53

For the last three months, my cash results are:
NLHE 50    -£0.013 per hand
PLO 50     +£0.014 per hand

Tournament Results (-£73.40 loss overall)

8x MTT            -£  3.44
3x   2 seat STT   +£  5.24
20x  6 seat STT   -£ 54.47
2x  10 seat STT   -£ 20.73

Reflect

I am very happy with my form and results on Pokerstars 8 game at the moment, so plan to carry on and play as much as I can fit in.

For BBP, most of the 6 seat STT was my attempt to qualify for WSOP via the $10 Jackpot STT, which I didn't get anywhere near.   From 18 games I won 2, was second once and third three times (-£63 in total)  I was quite surprised as I play $20 Jackpot STT regularly and normally do well.   I played 2 $20 Jackpot STT just to re-assure myself I could play this format and actually cashed in both attempts, so still perplexed what went wrong.   This gets filed under "seemed like a good idea at the time" and is the one main leak from April's results.   Apart from that, I'm pretty happy with my online game this month.

The live tournament was great fun and glad I went, but not financially fulfilling.   In the main event NLHE I was playing a bit tight/weak to start with, but did accumulate a few chips before my A-A got cracked by 4-3o flopping two pair, putting me down to below starting stack.  I stayed at the same chip level for the rest of the day... until the blinds were such that I was shoving if playing a hand.   On the button with A-8c, the table serial raiser put in a raise and got called by CO.  I decided this was a good spot to squeeze but sadly the raiser had Q-Q this time and it was game over.      After a suitable break (playing Blackjack mostly :) ) I wanted to have a PLO cash game, but they were playing some weird dealers choice combination and went to NLHE instead.   I didn't play too poorly but managed to get all-in with a made str8 and also a flush draw, against two players one with a higher flush draw and the other with trips, only for the board to pair and so decided to call it quits.   After another small rest, went back to the PLO table where they were playing "normal" PLO now.  Had two maniac gamblers to my left, so didn't play many hands and was basically always gonna be all-in if I played a hand (being short stacked)   After dropping one buy-in I settled down a bit and left the table with my second buy-in intact.   Was a fun table to be at and lots of action going on.

Adjust

Looking forward, May will be focussed on Pokerstars SCOOP, so BBP numbers will be a bit low again I expect.   It may be tricky to fit in a live game as well, with a SCOOP game on my normal Casino trip night.

June should be back to my normal Poker schedule.

Performance against 2012 targets

* Keep to my revised Poker Plan
Didn't achieve the numbers for Cash games in April, but was due to focusing on Tournaments.

* Play BBP London Live and UKIPT Brighton tournaments
BBP Live was fun, and am now excitedly looking forward to the next BBP Live event at DTD in August.

* Aim for break even month on month on all cash tables
NLHE near enough, PLO yes

* Use learning tools and resources to learn and improve my NLHE, Omaha and PLO8 cash and tournament play
Am putting in the effort to do some learning, PLO8 is the main worry at the moment but also need to improve PLO as well.

* Avoid entering any BBP grading process !
Managed it this month !

* Win a BBP league :-)
Not doing great in League XIV after seven legs.  Roll on League XV...

References
January 2012 results http://sceaga.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/poker-financial-results-for-january.html
February 2012 results http://sceaga.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/poker-financial-results-for-february.html
March 2012 results http://sceaga.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/poker-financial-results-for-march-2012.html