More Sycuan Notes

I'm 17 weeks into my WSOP main event qualifier tourney series at Sycuan.  I've racked up 6 final tables so far (average # players / tourney = ~35).  The first final table appearance gives me an entry to the semi-final of my choice (6 available days, I chose June 17th) with a 5k starting stack, and the next 5 entries have given me an additional 1k chips to start with.  You can max out your starting stack at 10k, which is what I have managed to do.  My next final table will give me a second 5k starting stack on a different day,

The tourney on its own has been profitable to the tune of $360, which has been an added bonus (one outright win, and several chops).  Here's the breakdown

-238 1/2 NLHE
+25 3/6 LHE
+360 Tourney
+200 Promos
-8.50 food
= +338.5 profit

Yes, I sat in a 3/6 limit hold'em game while I waited for my seat in the NLHE game.  I hate waiting and doing nothing.

The NLHE loss is deceiving because it doesn't look as bad as it did on Monday before I booked a 1k win in the game.  The previous 4 weeks had been VERY volatile and VERY negative: lose big, lose big, win big, lose big.

So this week, I set out to try something different.  I had seen poker pro David Williams talk about doing this once in a tournament: write down every starting hand dealt, and try and capture general information if you play the hand.  So that's what I did, and here are the results.

It becomes pretty clear why I was able to win as much as I did:

1. My hand distribution was good starting hand heavy.  I should have an average of 8.9 hands per 5% bucket, but I've got 10, 12, 10 in the top 3 buckets.
2. I got my good hands in good position.  I got AA and JJ (twice) on the button and was able to raise and create (and win) big pots with them.  Getting AA under-the-gun and raising and getting 4 callers, really makes it awkward to play against players who can have anything (unless you flop a set).
1. Conversely, I got a lot of my bad hands in bad position, and it was easy to muck.
2. I didn't have many middle strength hands that are "fun to play" but generally get me in trouble.
3. I didn't have a failed bluff.  I run a lot of bluffs.  Mostly because the players there won't call without strong hands.  I was fortunate that I never ran into that in this session.  Losing those bluffs makes future ones more difficult to run, and tilts me, because I still try and run them...
4. I had strong bluff catchers that were able to call raises out of position and bets on all 3 streets.
5. My opponents were not 3-betting much, and when they were, they almost always had AA.
6. I didn't suffer a bad beat or suckout (the JJ hand I win vs the flush draw is an example).  The week before I had AA and KK cracked in huge pots.

So, while I'm happy with the results, I see that I was fortunate: good hands in good position, good bluffs in good spots, and no tilt inducing events.

Looking at these stats, there are some things I need to work on:

1. I still played too many hands PF.  I should really trim some of my garbage holdings like weak suited cards or weak Aces out of my playing range.
2. In general, I don't tend to limp as much as I did in this session.  But the problem is, I was usually raising those marginal+weak hands and creating bloated pots.  At least I improved on not raising those.  Next is to simply fold them.
3. I defend from the SB and BB a tad too much.  There are very few outright folds.  And while it seems like it was profitable this session, it doesn't seem sustainable.
4. I'm not a good value bettor.  I am always afraid of betting too much and having people fold and so I feel that I miss out on cash here and there.

If any of you readers think I should examine any other pattern, let me know in the comments.  I'm going to try and do this again next week.