Moving to PartyPoker

Finally, after having my first withdrawal request declined (not enough raked hands to withdraw the $50 I got for free when I registered), I withdrew $110 from UltimateBet to deposit on PartyPoker.

I’m looking forward to playing on a more popular site, with plenty of little fishies!  I played 5 MTT’s this weekend.  I made a decent cash in a standard $3 MTT, and utterly thrashed a $2 500 dollar guarantee with huge 504 entries.  I came in 3^rd for $81, missing out on the top spot when my rivered broadway ran into the big stacks flush.

It wasn’t a bad beat, it was a mistake, plain and simple, I stacked off without holding the nuts, and provided decent enough odds for him to draw to the flush.  Annoyed at first, but I did suck out on the same guy on the river earlier in the tournament which would have ended my run at $8, so really, hats off to Karma, I cashed well, and gave the chip leader a massive run to win.  As it was 1:30am my concentration had dropped off.  I would have called, not re-raised all-in.. mistake born of an over eagerness to take the chip lead.

Nice feeling to withdraw a huge chunk, and then win most of it again.  This win is going into the “poker” cash isa, just in case something horrible happens on PartyPoker and I lose it all.  I think its unlikely, but I found that UB players played differently to Full Tilt players.  I know that shouldn’t be the case, but it really feels like it, so there may be some adjustment needed.

As always I’m going to stick to my very tight bankroll conditions, which.. works out okay if I stick to it.  Although I find it easier to do so when there is less on the account.  Sometimes I get over excited when I get too high.  Each time I hit the $200 mark on UB, I’ve blown up to $140-$150.  I’ve rebuilt to $200 twice now, and this latest win puts me at $240 as a total bankroll.  Hardly tons of money, but as I started with $50, I’m happy with this as it means I am effectively a profitable poker player, which is more than 90% of online poker players can claim.

Checking my stats on SnG’s compared to MTT’s thou, I was shocked to see I am down $18 in total.  A lot of this is to do with my aforementioned blowups, and playing HU SnG, where I KNOW I’ve lost a few more than I’ve won.  Some of it was stupidity, some of it was variance.  

Several times I was unable to close the deal with 2700 chips against 300, for them to double up twice and go on to win.  Obviously something is lacking in my technique against a shortstack.  

Obviously I need to pay more attention to SnG’s, and I think I know what the problem is.  I’m typically quite aggressive around bubble time in a MTT, and I tend to do the same in SnG’s, but I have observed that I am going out on the bubble in SnG’s far too often, so I am going to have to examine these spots too, maybe I should be playing more cautiously than I would in a MTT.  Since its easier to join another SnG, its probable that they aren’t tightening up as much as they do in a MTT.

I am determined to get my SnG profits back in the black as MTT’s and supposedly SnG’s are my speciality, so I was shocked that it was a losing game for me.  I refuse to let THAT stand. 

I will put some time into my cash game as well, but that is taking a back seat until I am consistant at both MTT’s AND SnG’s, so that I am freerolling experience in cash games (eg, win money in tourneys to play and probably lose in cash).