July Review and August Goals

July Review

At the start of July, I set myself two goals:

1. Continue winning at mid stakes
2. Have a sufficient bankroll by the end of the holidays to regularly play 5/10 NL

I think I can say that I achieved the first goal but not the second. I finished up $14,500 for the month which is comfortably my biggest month ever. That said, it could easily have been a lot better as not only did I not run very well ($10,000 below equity for the month) but I also lost several very soft buy-ins towards the end of the month (I was playing too many tables in an effort to hit $20,000 for the month and stacked off really poorly in some spots as a result). In terms of having a sufficient bankroll for 5/10 NL, my goal (rather ambitious I have to say) was to hit $60,000 by the end of the holidays. Due to lack of time and general laziness I didn’t put in anywhere near the amount of hands that I imagined I would and consequently I didn’t get anywhere near that goal. Even when I did have time to play, oftentimes I’d see that I was up $1,000 or so and think “oh well, that’s enough for the day I think” and just stop. Secretly, I think I was just trying to lock in a profit and that probably hurt my winning potential. Though I think, as raptor says, it’s not always about playing on whenever the games are good; locking in a winning session has its merits too (in raptor’s words, +Happiness EV). Anyway, here’s the graph and stats for July.



This means that I’ve now put in two consecutive $10,000 months. As I said at the end of my June Review, I really feel like I’ve finally figured out how to beat mid stakes and am feeling very confident in my game. Here’s the combined graph and stats for my last two months at mid stakes.

August Goals

I won’t be putting in many hands this month due to university so I’m not going to try to top the amount that I made last month. That said, I’d really like to make another $10,000 this month and make it three $10K months back to back. So I guess my monetary goal for August is to win $10,000.

I’ve been mixing 3/6 and 5/10 tables this month and I have to say that it is a lot more difficult than mixing 2/4 and 3/6 tables. For the most part, 2/4 and 3/6 play almost identically so you don’t have to make any big adjustments or switch mindsets as you move from one table to another. While I don’t think 5/10 is a massive jump from 3/6 in terms of skill, I do think the games play very differently and it’s therefore quite hard to play 3/6 and 5/10 at the same time. Thus, I’m going to try to play exclusively 3/6 this month until I hit my $10,000 goal and then play 5/10 exclusively after that. I doubt I’ll be able to stick to this goal, especially if I see a huge fish at a 5/10 table, but I hope that I’ll be able to stick to it for the most part.

My final poker goal for August is to stick to the poker timetable that I’ve made for myself. Basically, it involves playing only on weekends (to ensure that I don’t chase on weeknights) and studying during the week (watching CardRunners and Deuces Cracked videos and reviewing hands).

$8,700 Pot

To finish, I thought I’d post this hand that I played yesterday. It’s completely standard and pretty uninteresting, but it does qualify as the biggest pot I’ve ever lost. If my hand had held up, I’d already have reached my August goal!

Party Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter


UTG: $640

MP: $5,625

Hero (CO): $5,983

BTN: $4,380

SB: $2,440

BB: $2,399

Pre-Flop: K K dealt to Hero (CO)

2 folds, Hero raises to $70, BTN raises to $280, 2 folds, Hero raises to $930, BTN raises to $3,540, Hero raises to $5,983 and is All-In, BTN calls $840 and is All-In

Flop: ($8,790) J T A (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Turn: ($8,790) 6 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


River: ($8,790) A (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: $8,790 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed K K and LOST (-$4,380 NET)
BTN showed A Kand WON $8,787 (+$4,407 NET)