Bickmat's Razz Poker journey

Well haven't made a post in a while. I've been still been playing razz off and on for the last few months. I win a little, I lose a little -- I'm an break even poker player. Well at least it feels that way.

My game right now is fairly conservative right now and that may be the issue. I've been good about not having large swings. Having large swings may be more profitable down the line but I just don't have the stomach for it.

I've been playing the holdem 3.40 sit and gos. For me it usually comes down to one hand. I'm folding everything early game and waiting for a premium hand. Then I go all in with good hand and then either win/lose. If I win I've got a fairly good shot of placing. But overall I'm a loser at these.

Played a bunch of razz over the Christmas holiday. Lost 500 and got so cheesed off that I withdrew 500 from PS. This left me with 1000 which is the bare minimum for the 2/4 game so I hunkered down and started grinding away again.

Got back to even and then ahead $100 just this weeks.

I also had a bad run at the 1v1 Razz sit and gos. I'm not even sure if it's worth doing those any more. It always seems to come down to 1 hand as the blinds get big. Coin flips with the rake just isn't profitable.

Had a lot of downtime over thanskgiving so played a bunch of poker. It seemed lik the holiday brought out all the beginner players as I won a lot and got called a fish a lot.

I tried to play in one of the cheap razz tournaments ($5/10) but the timing was never right. I may have some time to play in december. We'll see about that.

Took a break due to work and other extracurricular activities. But am starting to play a little again.

Been doing ok on the cash tables which have always been hit and miss for me. Also playing the razz heads up sit and gos with a fairly good win percentage.

When I play a good player it is basically a 50/50 shot which is not profitable because of the rake. However there are enough bad players to tilt the odds to my side.

One tip I've learned is that 90% of the players sitting in the heads up que are good players. So they trick is to always be the first to sit down. That way your odds of catching a fish go way up.

Well new job and some other projects have been keeping me busy lately. I made my first game/puzzle using flash last week - Flip Flop (www.cheesygames.com/flipflop) that I'm fairly happy with. I have a bunch of other puzzles to convert and then I have some ideas for some games I'd like to do.

Anyway on the poker front this loss is a hold over from that last mega tilt session. I do well for a bit and then it seems I get a swelled head and think that I can never lose. Of course this hubris always does me in.

I actually played 2/4 last night and won $120. Just played very straight tight poker. I just check called for the most part till I had the nuts then raised and bet out. Pretty much let everyone else bet for me and I did pretty well with that strategy. I don't think this will work with the better players but I didn't see any of the usual regulars around at that point

Ugh getting killed in the last few weeks. Had some unreal sessions where 3/4 of my made hands on 5/6 streets got sucked out on the river.

Needless to say I've dropped back down to playing just 2/4 instead of the 3/6 tables. I'm finding the 3/6 tables hard to beat. It is really frustrating when I'm getting my ass handed to me by other people playing any 2 low cards and I'm playing 3 low cards.

Got some new books so will do some mini reviews next time when I have a chance to sit down and do justice to them.

I started playing the 3/6 tables based on the feedback I got about how much bankroll I should have. With $2000 as my bank roll I have 333xBB which is more than sufficient and also gives me a healthy cushion. I'll peg $2000 as my line in the sand for the 3/6 tables. The 3/6 tables isn't alway running on Pokerstars and I generally play more than one table so I am still playing a lot of 2/4 tables as well.

The next level would be 5/10. I'm thinking that $3500 will be my next goal to level up. this would be 350xBB which again gives me a very healthy cushion.

As always grinding these levels out can get a little boring. I like playing the ultra cheap sit and gos $3.40 and lower which helps me from playing 789 hands out of boredom. I usually have my filter set to only show NL holdem and Razz sit and gos but the other day the filter had disappeared and I have been to lazy to reset it up. I went to the sit and go tab to load up a game and noticed there was 5/6 players sitting for a $2 pot limit 5 card draw sit and go. I figured what the heck this should be fun or at least different. I ended up having a lot of fun playing and easily won the game. So far I've played 3 of these and won 2 and lost one when my fullhouse lost to a bigger boat.

Hit $1900 last night when I finished out a $120 bonus on PokerStars. Still playing the 2/4 tables mostly because when I've been on either the 3/6 tables have not been running or I'm multitasking and don't want to get in to a high stakes game in that frame of mind or lack of.

Not even close to the gold vpp level. I'll see how close I get next month. If I'm still far away I'll just cashout the vpps to the silver cash rewards.

Been on a roll lately on the 2/4 tables. I hit silver vpp award level on Pokerstars as well. I don't anticipate hitting the gold level at the 2/4 level based on the hours I play. This is more of icing on the cake rather than any goals I have.

I've taken a shot or two at the 3/6 game but haven't started playing it regularly. I haven't officially set my 3/6 boundary level yet. For 2/4 my goal was $600 which is 150 * the BB. For 3/6 - 150 * BB (6) would be 900. This seems a little low to me. I'm thinking of setting my 3/6 boundary at $2000. Anyone have any recommendations/suggestions.

Holdem sng are basically he same. I play them now and then and am a slight loser in this category. I only play the $3 and under so I consider it an inexpensive education.

Well had this week off so had time to play more than my share of razz this week.

Razz has been working out well for me. Ironically things seem to have switched for me. I used to do well in playing heads up and sucked badly in a full ring game. Now I am doing well playing in the full ring game and suck heads up. I think this mostly because I have toned my aggression down a bit.

For holdem sngs I had a winning streak of 4-5 sit and gos in a row. But since then have struggled. At this point I'm a slight loser with sit an gos but I think I'm getting better. I keep watching the sit and go videos over on StoxPoker.com which have helped a lot. I almost always end up in the top 5 positions unless I get sucked out horribly on.