Chip Count for August

After a sizzling July, I had, by my estimations, a decent August. Not great but not bad either.

This was the month it seemed like I did less poker playing and tried to enjoy the last remnants of summer by hanging with friends and family. With such a busy social schedule there was not a lot of time for poker but I did get some in.

I made out with a $77.45 profit in 3,056 hands. That comes out to just over 5BB/100 hands playing 25NL. I had two lousy sessions where I lost two buy-ins but they were balanced out by having 4 sessions where I doubled my buy-in. The rest was just typical grind it out type of poker and hoping my made hands held up.  Nothing sexy but effective, solid poker is how I would describe it.

I played in 4 poker league tournaments this month and managed to cash in all of them. That’s the good news, the bad news is that I finished 3rd twice and 4th twice. A few breaks here and there, I could have easily finished higher in two of those tourneys. I definitely need to work on my end game a little more. It just seems like I make one or two really bad moves towards the end of tournaments which ultimately costs me the game. If I can fix that part of my game then I am confident that I can finish 1st more often.

My live game has improved a lot. Playing live really hones your skill in a lot of ways. When you watch other players and listen to them talk you really pick up a lot of information that can be used against those players. Watching their reactions is also key. I really enjoy playing live more than online. It’s a different game. I can talk other players out of calling or talk them into calling. More importantly, I have a mental record of styles and tendencies for most of the regular players in my poker league. I know who loves to bluff, chase and who plays passively. I know who’s a super rock and I know who will stack off with overpairs. I’m currently sitting 2nd in my poker league standings this quarter so I hope I can continue to play well in September and maybe take one or two tourneys down finally.

Whether I think I played well or not doesn’t make a difference because the bottom line is, did I win money or did I lose money? This is the only thing that really matters in my opinion. Results.

For the month of August I won $673.

$77.45 online.

$187 in my league tournaments

$399 in AC.

Minus $350 in expenses (subway rides to and from tournaments, hotel, gas and meals in AC), I netted $323, which I promptly put into my live poker bankroll (which stands at about $550). I stared this bankroll last month when I officially kept track of my winnings so I’m looking to build this BR to over $1,000 by the end of the year.

I also cashed out $650 from FullTilt. Roughly $275 of that is from deposit bonus and rakeback.  

So all in all a good showing for August. I really wanted to keep that money in FullTilt and take a shot at the higher levels but I’m going to put it into a special account that I created which will hopefully help offset the cost of the engagement ring I’m planning to buy next year. I doubt I’ll win enough to pay for the whole ring but hey you never know….lol besides every little bit helps (anything to make the ring a little less expensive is gravy in my mind).

I could’ve left the money in FullTilt and try and move up to 50NL but after some serious thought I decided that creating a ring fund with my meager winnings would be better. Perhaps next year when the I screw up enough courage I’ll move up to the 50NL permenantly but for now I’m comfortable at 25NL.

Well that’s my story for August and I’m hoping that September will continue to be kind to me and allow me to stay on the positive side of things.