Unfortunately, I just haven't played enough poker this month. My goal was 30k hands of 3-6, and it looks like I will finish around 10k. That sucks. I have to find time to play more poker. My stats for the month are phenomenal. I am running really hot, and I think I'm improving my game. I've been studying hard watcing Schneids vids and reading, and going over my hands on Poker Tracker. I suppose if I had dedicated all my time that I have done that to just playing, I would be closer to my goal for # of hands played, but I think I'm better off taking this approach. Here are my numbers to date:

Total Hands: 7042

VPIP: 26.82

PFR: 20.32

Went to SD %: 37.75

Won $ at SD: 51.20

VPIP from SB: 32.47

Folded SB to Steal: 80.10

Folded BB to Steal: 50.94

Attemtped to Steal: 41.11

Total $ Won: $1768.50

BB/100: 4.19

I have also played $2100 playing about 1600 hands of 10-20 through 30-60 that I shouldn't have played because they could very easily have busted me, but I got away with it. I cashed the money out though because I needed to take care of a few things, so my BR stands at about $3600, or 600 big bets. I'm also close to a $650 bonus for 50,000 FPP's on Party, so I might be able to push my BR to $5000 by the end of the month, in which case I may opt to try some 5-10 on a regular basis next month and see how it goes.

Well, eight days into my experiment, and I've got good news and bad. I'll start with the bad: In eight days, I've managed to play only 3K hands so far. My life outside of poker has exploded with activity, and I've had little time or energy to play poker at the end of the day. To catch up, I'll have to put in some marathon sessions and probably do some 4-tabling, which I'm not that comfortable with yet. I may lower my overall goal for hands played, but not quite yet. There is still a chance I can catch up if I don't slip any further behind............

The good news is I am running absolutely sick so far (as in really good)!!!! Psycological question: Does anyone fear the game a little when they are running hot, because they know the inevitable downswing that will bring their win rate "back in line" is sure to hit? I have a tendancy to think this way, and it's a mental hurdle I know I have to overcome if I ever want to make consistent money playing this game. I must learn to focus only on making good decisions and let the rest take care of itself. It's just a difficult thing to do. Results so far:

VPIP: 27.25

PFR: 21.02

AF: 2.42

Went to SD: 37.00

Won $ at SD: 52.84

Att. to Steal: 40.65

Folded SB to Steal: 74.62

Folded BB to Steal: 55.36

VPIP in SB: 32.19

Total Hands: 3064

Total Money Won: $1076

BB/100: 5.85

I still think I am probably defending too much from the sb given the blind structure, but so far I'm losing only .08bb from the sb, where as it would be .16 if I folded every hand. Anyway, the best part about my run is that combined with one 322 hand session of 10-20 (can't help it sometimes) that netted $133, my BR for 3-6 is now 500BB which is a much more comfortable place to be than where I started!

I can already tell that it's going to be tough logging 1K hands per day with all that's going on in my "real life" right now. Three days in and I've only logged 1900 hands. Nevertheless, I'll do my best, and try and catch up on the weekends. More observations later, but here are my stats so far:

Hands: 1904

VPIP: 27.78

PFR: 21.32

AF: 2.32

Went To SD: 35.56

Won $ At SD: 48.62

Att. to Steal: 40.00

Folded SB To Steal: 73.13

Folded BB To Steal: 51.97

VPIP From SB: 32.70

Total Amount Won: $247.50 (2.17 BB/100)

According to those that post in the SSSH section on Two+Two, I should be jumping for joy with a 1bb/100 over the long hual in these games. In their opinions they are too overpopulated with tough multi-tablers and the rake is too high to expect any better. I guess we'll see. If anything, I guess I won't feel as discouraged if my numbers end up in that range, but mentally I'm still gunning for the 2bb/100.

I just got done playing my first 500 hands. I think I will usually try to play two 500 hand sessions per day, which takes me roughly 90-100 minutes to do. Today I'll only get 500 in because it's late and I have to work in the morning. I may play some longer weekend sessions to compensate. Here are the results:

Hands: 509

VPIP: 26.52

PFR: 21.02

AF: 2.63

Went To SD: 34.92

Won $ At SD: 52.27

Att. to Steal: 39.09

Folded SB To Steal: 73.33

Folded BB To Steal: 53.85

VPIP From SB: 34.04

Total Amount: $194.00 (6.35 BB/100)

Obviously I'm happy with these numbers. If I felt ultra-comfortable with 6max, which I don't yet, maybe I could get my VPIP a little higher, but for the most part I like these numbers (especially the win rate!!). Obviously, I ran pretty good this session, and I can't expect to win 6BB per hundred, but it's nice to get off on the right foot.....Any comment are appreciated.

Hi all. My name is Shawn K. and the purpose of my blog is to lay out my limit hold-em goals and subsequent results for everyone to see, in an effort to both motivate myself and to improve my game Hopefully, I'll receive a lot of good feedback from you guys either here or in the forums or wherever. I'll tell everyone a little more about myself as this gets rolling, but for now I'll just lay out my goals:

In the month of October, my goal is to average 1,000 hands a day playing $3-6 6max limit hold-em on PokerStars. I will post my results here every few days, along with my Poker Tracker stats and any hands that gave me trouble or I found interesting. I usually 3-table while playing, although eventually I hope to feel comfortable enough 4-tabling.

My starting BR for this experiment is $1800. I know 300bb isn't ideal, but it's what I've got and I just can't force myself to play lower (I used to play a lot of $30-60 and above on Party back in the day, for what it's worth).

I'm hoping to win 2bb per 100 hands over the life of this experiment. I guess my first question to anyone and everyone is do you believe this win rate is attainable in todays lower level 6max games on Stars? I've played probably 15k or so hands at this level before this experiment, and my sense is that there are enough fish in the sea, so to speak, but there are also several multi-tablers playing this limit who play a good tight, aggressive style. So what do people think about expected win rate in these games nowadays???

If anyone is interested, I play at stars under the screen name seasonedho......later.