Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Status Report, Level 3 Pimping and Just Wait a Week

The good news - I hit a peak this year. The bad news of that is there was a downward slope on the other side of that peak. I had mentioned this peak before, but now I'll give you, Wayward Searcher, more details. I built my 'fortune' through limit poker and bonus chasing. Occasionally, I would spend money on MTTs for fun, but not expect any profit. I ground my way up to around $1500 this way. With the bonuses thrown in, I don't think I can say I'm a winning player yet, but I have some room to maneuver. I had $100 left on Titan, and was working on spending that on $10 to $20 MTTs. Then I hit one for $500 or so. Score! Then I hit a second one later that week for about the same amount. The next week I hit a third. My bankroll had doubled to nearly $3000. Had I found my sweetspot? I figured I'd do best to keep trying these. I played one a day until I lost about $600. I don't think my attitude or strategy or ability changed, but those are the results. Since then, I have not embraced the return to limit, and have lost another $500 or so trying out Omaha8 and NLHE. I think I'm ready to start the grind again and continue the climb. That's where I am right now, looking for my grind on AbsolutePoker or UltimateBet. I tend to start a table and look for loose players using PokerTracker. That determines if I stay or not.

Another interesting note, I've tried some Felicia advice when I'm joining a limit table. I've done this 3 times on the $1/$2 UB tables. I'll join and wait for the blinds. After the blinds pass, I'll raise the next five hands preflop. This buys me a loose/aggressive image. If someone else is PokerTrackering me for the first time, my VP$IP will be 50 after the first round. It'll then stay in the 30s or so for a while, taking time to truly reflect my tight play. I'm buying this image with those 5 hands, however, the three times I've tried it, I've made money. After those 5 hands, I've been up $10, $30 and $2. Usually, no one else plays back at me, and they'll fold on the turn, possibly because I am new. I've usually got position, since I'm doing it on the button through middle position. To aggression, I'll give it up, but if the reaction is passive, I'll throw another bet or even a big bet at it. It's an interesting ploy. Also, as Felicia recommended, you get to see how others react to a maniac sitting down at the table, and then see how you would react to the same situation.

As you, Wayward Searcher, can see to the right, I've started accepting PSO advertising. I had actually posted a banner of theirs prior to their asking me, but I've pulled it down to put up this one, which, you know, they actually pay me to post. I've tried them out and feel they are worthwhile. I'll leave it at that for now, as I've had 2 recent posts completely dedicated to them.

I considered following DoubleAs in pimping PokerSavvy in a post in exchange for a freeroll entry. I put the post together and published it. Then after realizing that the are the same type of service as the official poker site of MeeksPBR, I removed the post. If you are a non-Wayward Searcher, and you are reading this through the RSS feed, you saw the post. (Reading this site through an RSS feed is akin to using a High Def video image bounced off of three satellites in order to read bathroom graffiti in East LA, in my opinion.) So what does not posting for PokerSavvy accomplish? That I'm pulling level 3 pimping moves? (What am I pimping, What do they think I'm pimping, What do I think about what they think I'm pimping?) That I like to end sentences in question marks? I don't know. It is what it is.

A chat room colleague recently tipped me off to a very local, very legal cardroom here in Ohio. I think I'm going to try it out. It seems on the up and up, from what I can gather. However then the chat room colleague tried to talking me into driving up to NW Ohio about an hour away to play in a 5/10 game. I need about a grand for that I'm thinking. I'm not degenerate enough to cash out $500 to a $1000, drive an hour away for a maybe illegal activity with someone I just met on chat. Maybe come April I'll be up for it, but not the very same week . . .

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Rebirth of a Blog

When I created MeeksPBR blog, I wanted to do something I felt was interesting. I would be more apt to keep it going. You can see where that got me, big archive gaps. It was an interesting concept, I thought. Having my bankroll be the author would ensure that I posted(1) only about poker.
(1- I'll use posted here and not wrote. I don't to confuse what I do with writing. For that you can see other blogs and links)
However, that was also it's downfall. I handcuffed the blog to only be about the results and the grinding. Maybe a better writer would have gotten more out of it.

I am ditching my mask, and posting as me. Will this save me from being a shill? Is it too late? Will Meek drop his roll chasing flushes? Or will he cash it all out to get snookered in an underground 5/10 game in Lima, Ohio? Tune in next week for 'As the MeeksPBR Turns.'

For this do-over, I am going to give you guys a few things: a status report and a name. The status report I'll save for the next post. The name I'll knock out right now. I need a nickname to address my audience. I'll steal this from Stephen King and his 'constant readers.' Not that it is stealing if I reference Mr. King, and not that I have readers, constant or otherwise. The majority of my traffic comes from two sources, web crawling search engine bots and the searchers who accidentally get misled to this site by those bots. From here forward, I'll refer to you affectionately as 'Wayward Searcher.'

So until the next post, Wayward Searcher . . .

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Poker Source Online

I've told you guys before about the semi-secret Poker Source Online. You know how friend referals go. You have a friend refer you to a poker site, and you split a reward with the friend. The friend usually gets the bigger share. Well, with Poker Source Online, you get to keep both of the rewards. Most players don't refer others here, because they want in on the action. However, I say it's the players account, you should get as much back as you can. Hence, I'd rather have a player sign up for PSO under me once, than sign up under 5 sites under me. It's all about you! Anyway, PSO has reached 25,000 users! quite a milestone check out their Poker Forum to see the talk of the users of this service. You can see what the other people say before you get into it. If you do, sign up under PSOMeek.

Update on MTT success

Well, I'm back for my update. Last post, I'd mentioned good results in Titan Tourneys. I ended up getting 1st or 2nd in MTTs on Titan in January! I doubled the bank roll with those wins. However, that lead me to play more of these MTTs, exclusively. In February, I gave half of it back, all on Titan. So now I'm trying to hit Party SnGs as well as grind on UB, with the occasional Aruba shot. Nothing newsworthy, past the four tourneys in two weeks. I'll see you guys on X-Chat, Yahoo, and the tables.