Posts
On the way, I listened to a couple of DC podcasts to break the boredom of miles and miles of snow covered fields and found the interview with Krantz quite interesting. I just signed up there and think it will compliment my Stox subscription quite a bit. Can't go wrong for $29/month amiright?
When I got there I stopped in at their Staples store and picked up a new Acer 23.5" Widescreen LCD which is perfect for multitabling with less overlap and got a nice deal. Everyone else was sold out and I think this was the store display model but, meh, got a good deal at $229. 24" and up are $500+
Had some interesting spots come up in the homegame so I’ll write a report. You all love reading about home games don’t you? =)
General Rules:
A non-reg and I decided on 1000 bb stacks and 5/10 blinds which is much better than the normal 38bb or some odd shortstack number we usually start with after dividing out all the chips in the case and assigning random chip values. Fortunately everyone else thought that NASCAR > figuring out optimal structure this time.
Blinds normally increase whenever we feel like it, but we managed to put in a ½ hour time limit this time, yay this game won’t take 6 hours.
Each table starts with 5 and runs until they are down to 3 people and then waits for the other table, which freezes blinds at that point, to combine. Sort of a shootout I guess.
There’s 1 rebuy allowed until the tables are merged and all rebuys get tacked on to the winner’s payout.
$10 (lol) buyin. $70 / $20 / $10 payouts.
My table:
Out of 10 people total, there is 1 reg that understands the game, and from what I can tell early on, there are 2 non-regs that do as well. As we are getting set up, 2 non-regs request the hand ranking card out of my deck, lol. Both of them are at my table. For some reason after 2 years of home games, no one realizes that I actually play quite a bit and play online. Even when we use my chip set and a deck from Stars or FTP.
So to my left is a nitty weak-tight non-reg that would actually do well at 25NL imo. Next is one of the donks (Donk #1) that requested the hand rankings, he has apparently played 1 time. Next is the other hand ranking donk (Donk #2) that has absolutely no clue. Last to my right is the host, a tilt-prone reg.
Tilty reg, weak-tight nit and myself take on dealer duties obviously.
We try to explain the check/fold/call/bet/raise situations but Donk #1 absolutely can not grasp the fact that he can check and starts firing random sized bets into the pot with anything whenever it’s checked to him. Not so surprisingly this actually works out for him. Plus he starts to river weird 2 pairs in large pots where most of his money went in as a 4:1 dog. Donk #2 continues to call down with 9 high until he runs out of chips.
Donk #1 manages to get the host on tilt fairly easily after A9o no pair no draw rivers an Ace vs host’s QQ.
Very next hand, I pick up KK after running card dead for the first 45 minutes and generally avoiding the gong show of bottom pair call downs.
Homegame – Blinds 10/20
Donk #1 UTG: 1700
Donk #2 CO: 400
Host BTN: 700
HeroSB: 900
Nit BB: 1300
Hero is dealt KK
Preflop: Donk #1 raises to 40, 1 fold, Host shoves 700 all-in, Hero calls 700, 1 fold, Donk #1 folds
Host shows QQ and gets up to go get money for a rebuy before flop is even dealt
A few hands later after Donk #2 has busted out with J high, saying “This game is all luck, this happens every time I play.”:
Homegame – Blinds 20/40
Donk #1 BB: 2100
Host CO: 1000
Hero BTN: 1600
Nit SB: 1300
Hero is dealt Ad 8c
Preflop: 1 fold, Hero raises to 100, 1 fold, Donk #1 calls 60
Flop: As 8s 4s (220)
Donk #1 bets 100, Hero raises to 350, Donk #1 calls 250
Turn: 4d (920)
Donk #1 bets 100, Hero shoves 1150 all-in, Donk #1 calls
River: Tc (3220)
Donk #1 shows AJo, no spade
I busted him a few hands later TT > 99 AIPF and we went to the final table. Someone found a chiprack to help me carry all my chips to the other table. I laughed but said ty.
to be continued in Part 2...
I stumbled across your blog via Doug Polk's blog, I think. I can't really remember. I've enjoyed reading your take on the game from a scratch start.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the midst of a similar bankroll grind at the moment, and I had a question for you regarding FPPs, if you don't mind me asking. Given your experience, what level and total hands per hour rate did you have to achieve before you started earning enough FPPs to earn Silver Star? I've only recently started playing at PokerStars and have no real frame of reference for estimating FPP rate since 2c/5c and below aren't high enough to earn points each hand.
Either way, thanks for the great read, and good luck.
Hey Zachary.
ReplyDeleteI think 5c/10c runs at something like 0.05 VPP per hand but I'm not sure.
25NL = 0.11 VPP/hand
50NL = 0.20 VPP/hand
Under the new requirements at Stars, I think Silver is 1200 or 1400 VPP?
So at 1200 VPP at 25NL you're looking at 1200 VPP/ 0.11 VPP/hand = 11k hands.
And then for FPPs you obviously take your multiplier and multiply that by how many VPPs you earn. So once you get to Silver, the next month your multiplier will be 1.5. If you earn another 1200 VPP, then you'll be getting 1800 FPPs to spend.
If you are looking at trading FPPs in for the 5000 FPP-$50 bonus you are getting a value of $0.10/FPP. So 1800 FPPs is equivalent to $18 worth of bonus for the month.
Hope this helps!
btw there is a thread over on 2p2 that addresses VPP rates.
ReplyDeletehttp://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28/internet-poker/pokerstars-vpp-per-hand-per-limit-390624/
Thanks for the response and the link. I'll check that article out this evening. From the initial numbers, though, it looks like I have a ways to go before FPPs become a lucrative business.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the VIP program isn't worth a whole lot until you are at 50NL. Once you become Supernova, 50NL on Stars actually works out to be a better deal than FTP if you save for the $1500 bonus - equivalent of 33% rakeback iirc.
ReplyDelete