Holdem Dog’s

When I redesigned HoldemDogs.com, I decided to make it less of a poker strategy site and more of a personal reflection of my ideas and experiences.  The emphasis would still be on poker, but from my point of view.  Initially, I published a few of my original articles from the old HoldemDogs and a few new pieces, but I had yet to get the “blog” really rolling.  So, here it goes…the beginning of my poker journal.

For my first post, here’s a little about my poker background.  I’m not a professional player.  I work a regular 9 to 5 and play online 3 or 4 times a week.  I began playing holdem in 2004 after watching Greg Raymer win the WSOP.  Before watching ESPN that day I had never seen the game of holdem.  Like a lot of you, I had grown up playing 5 card draw, not seriously, but enough to know a flush beats a straight.  On this day though, I was mesmerized by what seemed like such a simple game, and I was hooked.  Before long, I was playing $5 tournaments on the weekends at Poker Stars.  I had read a few books, but was playing mostly for fun.  In that first year, I cashed a few times but never hit the big money or even a final table.  My interest in playing would come and go, usually as my $100 deposits would come and go. 

In 2006, during a trip to Vegas, I played in a couple of live tournaments.  This peaked my interest again.  I placed 12th in a field of 100 and felt that was a pretty good showing for my first shot at live poker.  Fueled by my new found success, I decided to try smaller tournaments online.  My new game of choice was 45 player sit-n-goes, and for the first time, I made some final tables.  I even won a few, but it was still not enough to keep the bankroll going and soon I was back to making occasional deposits and playing sporadically.

In August 2007, we made another trip to Vegas, and I entered 4 tournaments during our stay.  In my first outing, I took 3rd in a 50 player tourney at Planet Hollywood.  My first cash in Vegas.  Two days later I took down 5th in a 70 player tourney.  Now I was psyched.  Two final tables in the same trip…cool!  As we flew home, I read an article about a high stakes cash player, Brian Townsend, in Card Player Magazine.  It mentioned his affiliation with CardRunners and how he had used their videos to improve his online game.  I decided it was time to get serious and I signed up immediately when we got home.

For the next few months, I tried to emulate what I was seeing in the videos.  The focus was on 6 max cash games, something totally new to me.  I started with a $500 bankroll and began playing at .10/.25 NL.  With a max buy-in of $25, that gave me a 20x bankroll (a multiple I saw recommended in their forums).  I had intermittent success, but once again I didn’t seem to be able to string anything together.  My current Poker Tracker stats have me down $63 in cash games.  I’m not broke, but definitely frustrated. 

As the grind of the cash game yo-yo started to wear on me, I decided to try a few 1 table sit-n-goes to break up the monotony.  I remembered watching a SNG video by ActionJeff on CardRunners, so I applied his basic strategy.  I cashed!  A couple SNGs later, I cashed again.  A 1st here, a 2nd there.  This was fun!  In the beginning, I was just playing $3 and $5 SNGs, but I’m now playing primarily $10 and $15 turbos.  It’s still a yo-yo, but one that yields positive results.  I’m up over $250 for the month in SNGs. 

So that’s where I’m at today.  You’ll still find me playing a few cash games (I’m determined to get back in the black), but my current focus is sit-n-goes.  If you’ve never played in a single-table SNG, I would encourage you to give it a try.  The results might surprise you.