Windsor Winnings by Theedouble*d

I feel it is only fair to give some background on the story and not just the highlights.  I have only 2 months left in my thus far fruitless attempt to turn a profit playing poker.  I believe I told you that I would give it a year {Ed. Note: Not enough time. Experts say you need 5,000 to 10,000 hours at the poker tables for a fair analysis, providing you are not just bleeding cash. And a full time job is 2,000 hours a year, so it is a long-term analysis. A year is not enough time since I doubt you played even 500 hours.}

So far, I have turned a profit in only 2 of the 10 months I have played.  The productive months were not significant enough profit to offset the net loss from the other months.  I have recently altered the types of tourneys and games that I am playing to try and find a productive place for my style of play. {Ed. Note: “Altering” is the key word here. That is why the 10000 hour rule is in effect. You are still hunting and pecking for your best game. Experimentation increases risk and variance!}

I am playing cash games and am devoting most tourney play to $100 buy-ins and up.  This is based on my belief that the lower dollar tourneys have more draw chasers in any given tourney than quality players. 

{Ed. Note: You forgot your BIGGEST enemy by far – RAKE! Draw chasers are your long-term profit people. Rake is money lost to the poker universe. You cannot win RAKE, no matter how well you run. If the payouts are 80% or less of the total prize fund, Phil Ivey can’t win in the long run – FYI. If no-foldem holdem tourneys with 50% to 80% rake is your game, it’s not you – it’s them. You can’t beat the game.}

When you have 2/3rds of players that won't fold a hand that has 25 - 35 % chance of winning, (regardless of how strong I try to bet them out) it is hard for a quality player to dodge that many waiting suckouts to make it to the final table consistently.  I call it, "Diminishing Dividends due to Dire Disability to Dodge Donkeys".  (DoubleD has that one patented).  LOL {Ed. Note: Sextuple D? Sounds about right.}
The trip to Windsor was to play in WSOP qualifiers. There was supposed to be 2 on Friday with 70 dollar buy ins to win a $550 seat to a qualifier to the WORLD SERIES on Saturday.  The Friday @ 10 pm did not have enough players.  I went to cash tables and played 3 hours.

I bought in for 200 dollars and cashed out at $650 and took a break for lunch.  Post lunch I bought back in for 200 dollars and after 5 hours I cashed out at $720.  Took a dinner break and bought entry into 8pm 70 dollar qualifier.  That left me at $900 profit from the cash tables for the day. {Ed. Note: Not near enough time played to say for sure, but cash games are where players make money. Tournaments (with the rake structure we see around here) are a much higher risk and variance to profit.}

No individual hands stood out.  The day at the cash tables was characterized by the great majority of my hands holding up.  It seemed to me that my larger bets were more likely to be respected than they might be in the same game on the American side.  If I ten bet to open or bet twice the pot after the flop it was most often met with a fold, instead of 3 callers like in the charity houses stateside.  (Can you tell I am not playing small-ball anymore?)

{Ed. Note: Unless you are Negreanu, Hansen, Beerhog or K9isadog, small-ball is not usually a good long-term plan.}
The $70 dollar qualifier had 18 players.  This created a prize pool of one $550 seat and $440 for second place. {Ed. Note: Rake equaled 21.4%. There’s the problem!!!!}

I watched 2 high quality players at my table get sucked out on when they were dominant favorites.  I do not take much glory.  My hands simply held up when I got it in best.  We all know it don't usually fly that straight. LOL.

{Ed. Note: Short-term – luck is a HUGE factor! You are correct in not taking ANY glory for one successful tournament. For crying out loud, even FALDO has won a tournament.}

When there were 3 players left we chopped the $440 so 2nd and 3rd got $220.  My AsKs took out the 5s5c of the gal taking 3rd place when the four flush came.  The young gun that finished second and I went heads up for quite awhile until he crippled himself by shoving A7 into my QQ.   I kept the pressure on til he cracked calling with Q6 when I had AQ.  So I won the $550 dollar seat topping off a Devastating Day for players who thought they might Donkey Down on me.
I went back on Saturday for the 4pm tourney a little early and played a few hours of cash game.  Profited $350 in that session.  The 4pm qualifier for the Big Show in Vegas did not have enough players so the casino had to pay me the $550. 

Since I had $900 dollars profit in my hand, I decided to spend the evening with some of the other loves of my life.  So I took my wife, daughter, and grandaughter to dinner and indulged in the local mall play place.  Success can ring hollow if you do not share it with those you love.  I pray that the poker blessings continue, but as for me... I shall consider myself wealthy no matter how the future of poker profit plays out. - DD

{Ed. Note: Spending your poker bankroll is not a good plan either. A 10% payout or profit ONCE a year to yourself is a better plan. That way you have the cash for the inevitable swings in variance-luck-suckouts-and bouts of playing like Faldo.

Nice report DD. Faldo’s analysis: Play cash games almost exclusively. Play tournaments only with 2% of cash game profits as a “shot” at a big boost to profit, but know it is a risk. If you are serious about actually making money playing poker, build your bankroll. A big bankroll allows you the ability to play for higher stakes – assuming you can still beat those games – and lowering the RAKE factor, automatically increasing your profit.}