The Maui Mantra

Without giving too much away about my Maui strategy I try to follow this poetic approach:     STAY OUT OF TROUBLE     GO FOR A DOUBLE       MANAGE THE BUBBLE       BE LUCKY LIKE BARNEY RUBBLE (His wife Betty is hot!)

Full Tilt Pro defeated

I play occasional sit n gos on Full Tilt and when I get the opportunity will test myself against the sites pros if they play at the lower value games. In a recent $11 game a was sat to the right of South African Pro Ryan Dreyer and managed to win with the pro knocked out on the bubble. To be fair he outplayed me significantly on one hand but I played it safe (retreating in the face of strength) and fought back well in later hands.     Full Tilt Poker Tournament Summary $11 + $1 Sit & Go (Turbo) (240034847) Hold'em No Limit Buy-In: $11 + $1 Buy-In Chips: 1500 9 Entries Total Prize Pool: $99 Tournament started: 2011/06/06 18:48:47 ET Tournament finished: 2011/06/06 19:26:19 ET 1: Kartajana, $49.50 2: jimmyforreal, $29.70 3: break_evan, $19.80 4: Ryan Dreyer 5: Maria_Lupita 6: calmon 7: Logonat 8: Vins10 9: leo452 Kartajana finished in 1st place Following my recent holiday I have started June well. My Maui progress is somewhat volatile as usual but heading in the right direction.

$500 Freeroll Win

As part of a Betfred May sit n go promotion I qualified, along with only twenty nine others for a $1000 freeroll which was based on playing over 150 sit n gos in May. The payout structure was very top heavy which initially was a concern with only the top three getting paid. On finding myself at the final table with an average stack I needed to get lucky to be in the money. And I did. I hit a flush with an aggressive semi-bluff move against kings and more critically on the bubble won a 99 v AA battle by hitting a flush on the river. Once in the money I played really well and held my nerve to take the first prize.

 

Sit N Go Chase $1000 Freeroll 2011-06-05

 

1. Kartajana $500

2. Eviit $300

3. Zufallsgenie $200

 

Significantly I have now won nearly the same playing freerolls as I have playing the Maui games themselves. Of course without playing the Maui games I would not qualify for the freerolls. I should play the higher value ones as often as I can. This particular type of opportunity is rare but there is a weekly £1000 freeroll that attracts a couple of hundred players. I should play this game as often as possible to boost my Poker earnings. 

 

Long live the freeroll!

May Result: +$430, YTD: +$1136

Hola,    My May result includes year to date rakeback as per my last post and was generally a better month. It ended with a week of no poker as I did not play whilst on holiday in Majorca (though I did win a sit n go on the outbound flight via interactive in flight entertainment software - if only my Maui opponents were that passive late on!) If anyone wishes to discuss Maui games on an ongoing basis and perhaps improve each others games as a result please contact me via my profile e-mail. The advantage of sharing information, experiences and hand perspectives is significant I believe. Good Luck Jason

Rakeback - Have your Cake and eat it!

Over the last few weeks Sharkscope has missed some games over a few sessions meaning my figures are not spot on. This is fine as I keep my own monthly figures based on totals in my poker accounts. Upon investigation I have been undereporting my progress as each month I receive a bonus which equates to a small rakeback cashback amount. This represents around 10-15% of my fees. Year to date I have received over $120 which I will add to my May total for my year to date position. I have also cashed a few of times in freerolls I qualify for based on my level of activity (On Maui games only). In truth I play them rarely but have amassed around $70 so far this year. From now on I will report my progress based on the overall year to date increase in my Betfred account, though I will still use Sharkscope figures as a reference point.   In general terms Rakeback can be significant in Poker. The year before last I played a lot on Cake Poker and earned 40% rakeback which added a lot to some reasonable profits I made on the site. In the end I ditched Cake as it was low on sit n go traffic and both me and my computer did not like the software. I am quite proud of the fact that two years later I am still ranked 17th on Sharkscope for average profit at the $5 sit n gos based on my Cake activity.     Kartajana   1,024 $0.88   $6   18% $900   - 69 Cake As I get closer to the halfway point in my challenge I really need to step up a gear.

Five wins on the trot!

Five wins on the trot as recorded by Sharkscope below. Bonus at $34,500. Unfortunately Ipoker pay on game start times. Sharkscope record on game end times. A small matter of moments, a large matter of $34,500! Oh well, good to have some wins, though I am only bouncing back following a volatile spell. Not even a consolation bonus to talk about. Recent Results Show Last 50 Results (1 Search) GameID Date (UTC+0100) Type EntryFee Position Profit  541811941   20-May-11  00:22   NL Holdem    $5 1/10 $19  541812901   20-May-11  00:21   NL Holdem    $5 1/10 $19  541810171   20-May-11  00:16   NL Holdem    $5 1/10 $19  541786631   19-May-11  23:00   NL Holdem    $5 1/10 $19  541784711   19-May-11  22:51   NL Holdem    $5 1/10 $19  541788821   19-May-11  22:51   NL Holdem    $5 4/10 -$6  541787571   19-May-11  22:49   NL Holdem    $5 2/10 $9  541528351   18-May-11  23:23   NL Holdem    $5 7/10 -$6

Last chance to vote in my latest poll.

One Thousand Games

Yesterday I completed my one thousandth Maui game this year, leaving two thousand more to play this year. Overall I am disappointed but I am already ahead of my profit total from last year which gives some comfort. My challenge was partly to enable more focus and generate more profit after a poor year.

 

 

At this point my position distribution looks like this. Whilst I need to turn some of the fifth, sixth and sevenths into higher cash positions I am happy overall. The fact that third and first are my top two positions is great. Generally I play to cash and once in the final three go for the win. I am pleased with more firsts than seconds as I always worry about my heads up game though luck is a massive factor at the bigger blind levels.

 

Good Luck.