I love Poker

Playing poker is so freaking exciting. I love it. I am doing O.K. only up about one buyin since last week but that O.K. too, it's just how the game goes. Overall I'm happy with my play I did get alittle spewy late Friday night. I shouldn't have played I was alittle to tired. But my bankroll is growing ahead of schedule which is spectacular. I was suppose to be at $500.00 plus 100 from rakeback by the end of the month. But right now my bankroll sits at $582.00 without rakeback.

I am always looking for more friends who play poker. So if you happen across this blog and you wanna connect and discuss everything related to poker then leave me a comment and let me know. We can chat via IM, Email, ect about poker. Also if you have a blog, let me know I would love to link to it.

See ya on the felt,
Brandon Mark

Life is good poker is great

I went out of town this weekend for a business seminar. Therefore, I have played very little poker compared to last month. None the less, I am off to an amazing start. I have already earned a profit of $161.22 at $20NL exceeding my goal of $100 net profit this month. I have quite a ways to go before I hit my goal of earning $100 in rakeback. However, there is still a lot of time left this month. I hope I continue winning this could be a big month for me.

Thanks for reading,
Brandon Mark

What a month in Poker

January was a wild month and I am going to count it as a month of victory but it was barely so. If you have been reading my blog then you will remember this post, where I discussed my goals for the year. I have them broken up by each month. The month of January I was playing $20 NL at Cake Poker, with a plan of earning $200 profit. Half of the profit from poker and the other half from rakeback. According to plan my bankroll should be at $400 after rakeback and it is.

However, I didn't hit that goal till just now which is actually the 2nd of Feb. I ended up with $60 profit for the month from my play. The first week I was way ahead of plan but my bankroll has flactuated up and down from 120 up to 380 since then. So it has been crazy to say the least. Although I only earned $60 from my play I have earned approximately $150 in rakeback. So that total will take my bankroll over the $400 total where it should be. My goal remains the same for February so let's see what happens. I suspect I should hit the same goal again, let's just hope this time it's not as stressful.

Thanks for reading,
Brandon Mark

It's all about the poker swings

So last week I had hit my goal of earning $300 by the end of the month. This week I swong all the way down to $115 and am now back to $188. It was ridiculous, most of that swing was down in a 48 hour period and then back up over 24 hours. During that 48 hour downswing it was like I could do nothing right. I played tight and all my hands were called and eventually out run on the river by very loose opponents. I tried to combat this by being alittle more aggressive and it didn't matter they still called and I got out run.

I held myself together for the most part and I am proud of that. It was very frustrating and nerve racking. I probably didn't play quite as well due to frustration and aggravation but overall I can't complain. Part of my issue was I should have just continued to play very tight. I got alittle loose trying to play back at these loose calling stations. I still would have had a big downswing but most likely could have slowed it down by at least 30 to 40 percent.

I have a week to get my bankroll back up to $300. This is possible, but even if I don't hit $300 in earnings I will hit my goals overall for the month if I can at least get to $250 because I expect to exceed my goal on rakeback. I should be pretty close to $150 in rakeback versus the $100 I had planned on.

Keep winning big pots,
Brandon Mark

My comments on another's blog

This was a response I just posted on a buddy's blog. It was in response to this post http://vizer02.blogspot.com/2009/01/to-stay-pro-or-notthat-is-question.html . As you may read below I was alittle passion about what I was saying but similar questions to this come up often on poker forums. I think people go thinking about it all wrong.


If I may... when making decisions like this you have to look at what is it you want to accomplish? In 1 year, 3 years, 5 years etc. If you goal is to quickly settle down and get into some sort of a routine then so be it. Take the job, but in the end you have to ask yourself what are you looking to gain ultimately from that job? You have to look at the same thing with poker and ask yourself the same questions. I often hear online pros make BS comments like, "I need to do something that is more fullfilling or I need more social interaction or I need to be impacting the world more".

Then somehow they come to the conclusion that a job is the answer? I can promise you one thing the guys who like playing poker and have jobs are probably saying something like, "I never have time with my family, I work way to much, I'm underpaid and unappreciated, I need to play poker professionally".

It's the classic 80/20 rule. We spend so much time focusing on the 20 precent we don't have we never really appreciate the 80 precent we do have. This is true if you are playing poker already or have a job.I think the most important question is what do you want to do in life. Travel the work, make a boatload of money (I know thats prob not you) or get married have 2.5 kids and the picket fence. Then you have to figure out what avenue will be best for you. Some jobs will get you there and some poker pros can get there with poker. Once your mind is made up. Then I would focus hardcore on that path with a singularity. Start reaching your goals and dreams as fast as you can. Live by design not by default.

Oh and back to the BS about poker not being fulfilling and not impacting the world... this is true of most people's jobs. Besides its not what you paid to do that has the most impact it's what you do with the time you aren't being paid and what you do with the money that is being paid to you. On the same note.. it's not what you for a living that defines who you are; its what you do that defines who you are...

I hope I helped bro,
Brandon Mark

Current Progress

So far I am running ahead of expectation. My bankroll is at $329.02. Hopefully, I can widen the gap alittle further by the end of the month but only time will tell. Also I am on track to reach my target for rakeback. Currently my rakeback is somewhere between $60 to $70. I am excited to be running ahead of expection but I don't want to get too comfortable. One thing is for certain anything can happen in this game.

See you on the felt,
Brandon Mark

New Year's Goals and Updates

My apologies for not updating in over a month. The reason I haven't updated is because I had really been unsure where my future in poker was headed this year. I will explain; I was in talks briefly with a friend and professional poker player that I admire quite a bit. He is a small stakes player who averages between $5000 to $10,000 a month. I had offered him a profit sharing deal where he would earn a generous supplement to his poker income. This would have been a very time consuming relationship between coach and student. However, due to time constraints on his side we decided against it. So I have adjusted my goals for the year accordingly. One change I made after a brief conversation with him was switching back to Full Ring instead of 6 Max.

I also purchased a discounted version of Hold Em Manager from Stoxpoker. I have no idea what has been my hold up. This may end up being one of the very best investments I have ever made in my poker career. Just being able to look at the numbers and now I am learning to make sense of all these numbers. Although, I will admit, I am just barely scratching the surface. I have so much more to learn.

So here are my goals for the 2008 and my projections for my bankroll through the year:

January -- playing $20NL
$200 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$400 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

February -- $20NL
$400 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$600 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

March -- $20NL
$600 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buyin win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$800 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

April -- $20NL
$800 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$1000 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

May -- $20NL
$1000 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$1200 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

June -- $20NL
$1200 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$1400 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

July -- $20NL
$1400 (starting bankroll)
$100 (5 buy in win)
$100 (from Rakeback)
$1600 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

Once I cross the $1500 mark with my bankroll I will take a shot at $50NL because I will then have at least 30 buy ins for that limit. Before stepping up to higher limits beyond $50NL, I will seriously consider having 40 buy ins or more.

The rest of this projection is assuming that I can continue to beat $50NL at the same rate as previously projected with $20NL.

August -- $50NL
$1600 (starting Bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (Rakeback)
$2100 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

September -- $50NL
$2100 (starting bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (Rakeback)
$2600 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

October -- $50NL
$2600 (starting bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (Rakeback)
$3100 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

This is where further discretion will come in. My biggest goal is to take shots at $100NL by the end of 2009. November and December, may be used to make up my goals if my bankroll is not up to at least $3000 or in this instance we will assume that I use the remaining two months to build my bankroll at $50NL.

November -- $50NL
$3100 (starting bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (Rakeback)
$3600 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

December -- $50NL (at some point this month will also take my first shot at $100NL)
$3600 (starting bankroll)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$250 (5 buy in win)
$4100 -- Total Bankroll at the end of the month

This is obviously just a projection. In a lot of ways this is a very conservative plan. I should be able to at some point learn to beat my limits for more than 5 Buy Ins. However, the single biggest challenge may been that I haven't been a winning player very long if at all. So it will be interesting to see how the next 3 months shape up and if I can maintain this track. Another factor that makes this plan very conservative is that I am not using BB/100 goals or X number of hands per month goals. This is for two reasons, the first is that I don't have a problem averaging at least 2 hours a day playing poker and on the weekends I can play much more up to 6 or 8 hours a day. So if am at least a winning player and not on tilt I can simply play more to hopefully help me hit my goals. Second, I have not had Hold Em Manager long enough to know what my current BB/100 or monthly hand totals are.

So far this month I have won $100. The first ten days or so I was only up about $27. Today I seem to have run well and my bankroll has just tipped over the $300 mark. However, I'm only at about $50 in Rakeback. The good news is I have 2 weeks to go. So lets up my bankroll continues to hold up. Maybe I can start out ahead of plan the first month that would be great.

Thanks for reading,
Brandon Mark

Bankroll at $204

You read that correctly. I am currently learning a money management lesson. It has led to a downward spiral of my bankroll. A couple of nights ago I started playing 8 tables up from my max of 6. Also, I could not find many good 20NL tables but I saw 4 really loose 50NL tables. Well before the night was out I lost 4 buyins at 50NL. Two were really bad beats one was clearly misplayed and the other I was just out played by the villian.

Since then I have been on the wrong side of variance mostly this A.M. at 20NL my AA was cracked by QQ when he made a straight on the river??? But that is all part of this game we call poker. The good news is, I know I can handle the mechanics of 8 tables. I will most likely continue to play 8 tables but I am now playing back at 20NL and 10NL if I can't find enough good 20NL tables.

Also playing more tables does allow the chance to earn alittle more rakeback. That may be my silver lining for the month. I had a goal of earning $250 this month with rakeback. Now my goal is just to do damage control. Stay tuned... this might get ugly! :)

Brandon Mark

Back from seminar and playing poker

I am back from my business seminar. I played no limit poker tonight, just finished up a 1.5 hour session, playing six tables. It went well. I am up and my bankroll is at $625.11. I am headed to bed. Just wanted to give you a quick update.

Brandon Mark

I will be out of town this weekend so I will not be playing poker

I will be down in Atlanta, Georgia this weekend for a business conference. I am excited about the conference but unfortunately I will not be able to play poker all weekend. That part sucks. I ended up playing for about 2.5 hours last night though and I broke the $600 mark. My bankroll is currently at $602. If I can maintain this momentum I should have no problems hitting my goals this month.

It's getting time to start thinking about my goals for no limit texas holdem next year. I will have to do a blog post. Just on my poker goals. I will focus on being conservative and creating goals that I feel are very realistic. I write goals often but have usually been very aggressive with goal setting. This usually leads me to either get burned out quickly or to get frustrated and give up before I am done. My focus with poker is a marathon approach where I consistently get better and improve. Yes, I want to be playing at the nosebleed stakes tomorrow but I realize that is not going to happen and may not happen for some time. I have resigned to the fact that I will just focus on my game and have good bankroll management. I will work to improve and understand that given enough time I will reach any goal I could aspire to in Poker.

On another subject, I love reading poker blogs. If you have a poker blog leave me a comment, let's exchange links, I would love to follow your blog. I just ask that you update regularly or I will eventually stop reading. You will notice all of my blogs on the right hand side of this page that I link to are active blogs that I follow. If you are looking for other blogs to read I would HIGHLY recommend checking them out!

Have a great weekend,
Brandon Mark

Great start so far to the month

Each month on poker blogs you will often see everyone's new goals. This post will be no different. Today, I received my rakeback of $156.00 and just finished up alittle in a two hour session. My bankroll currently sits at $553.11. My goal for the month is to end the year with $700 and to earn $150 at least in rakeback. That will give me a total of $850 before the end of the year.

Wish me luck,
Brandon Mark

Just finished up at the tables...

I just finished up playing poker. My bankroll didn't move much. I am at $411.84, but I could have been down instead of up. I just wanted to give you a quick update! Have a great night.

Brandon Mark

Back in the game!

Poker is such a tough game. I am loving it right now. I have been playing the past several days as much as I could. I have not posted on this blog because I had some poker goals I wanted to hit and was running out of time to hit them. I adjusted my goal from getting to $600 before rakeback to only $400. I should get over $100 in rakeback. I had to adjust my goals obviously due to my massive downswing before my previous post.



I could easily get frustrated or discouraged by slow progress. The truth is, I have to celebrate each step forward. Each sprout shows improvement. I will continue to focus on improvement. I am going to go back and hit the tables as soon as I am done with this post. Hopefully I can earn alittle bit more rakeback. Each dollar counts!

Current Bankroll: $402



on the felt,

Brandon Mark

Back down ...

This is very frustrating mentally. My bankroll is back down again it's at $270. I have played several sessions without posting on here. It has just been horrible. I started out running bad, then got impatient and started playing bad. I am going to be positive and say that I am on my way back, my bankroll was all the way down to $225. My old plan for this month was to hit $600 before rakeback. Now my goal is to get to $400 before rakeback. I am about to log on and play for a few hours. If I am not too tired I will come back and post to let you know how I do.

Brandon Mark

Building a Bankroll With Rakeback

As I mentioned in a previous post. I will go into more detail on rakeback. I know that I have readers on this blog who are very new to poker. Some may already be playing without rakeback and are unaware of what it is. I can give you one piece of advice before we go any further. Do NOT open another online poker account until you finish reading this article. In this article we will review:

- What is the Rake
- What is Rakeback
- Why you should have it and how to get it

So let's assume you go open an online account over at Full Tilt. You sit down at a No Limit cash game. You start playing with the people at the table, you win a little they win a little. Have you ever wondered how the poker site makes there money? After all you are not playing against the site you are playing against other players all over the world. This is where the Rake comes in. The Rake is a small fee charged by the online poker rooms for hosting the games. How they charge this fee is really genius and most often goes unnoticed by you the player. This fee comes from every pot won. Usually it ranges from 3% up to 10% ( I would not recommend playing at a site that charges more than 5% ). The reason this fee is undetected is because it's so small and it is taken from the pots so the losers don't care because they didn't win the pot and the winners are usually focused on how much they won so they never detected that small rake being removed. It is a great model for the players and the casinos. We as players have a place to come together and play and the online poker room has an incentive to provide us a good place to play.

Now that we know what the Rake is let's discuss what Rackback is. Most new players have no clue what Rake is much less Rackback. If Rake is the money that you are giving to the online poker room from each pot that you are placing bets in. Then Rakeback is when the online poker rooms give you some of that money back. Of course they do not give you all of this money back they give you a precentage that usually ranges from 27% up to 35% of the money that you have paid in rake fees. Online poker rooms do not have to give you Rakeback. In fact if you are new to poker and you go straight to the online poker room and sign up for an account chances are good you will NOT get Rackback. How can you get Rackback? We will discuss more about that in a moment. First up, most people wonder why are the online poker rooms giving you a precentage of your money back? That is a great question the primary reason is because they are in competition with each other. Giving you part of your money back each week or each month is a great incentive for you to keep playing at their online poker site. Getting 30% back of your 5% that you have contributed to the racked pots may not sound like much. However, most online players play 2 up to 24 tables at a time. This quickly adds up to a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars a month. I know of a player playing $20NL 4 tables at a time about 20 hours a week and earns between $100 and $300 a month in Rakeback. There are even players who earn a living from their Rakeback. These players are known as Rakeback Pros. This is possible when a midstakes player is a breakeven player but at the end of the month has earned $2000+ in Rakeback alone. So basically Rakeback is just a rebate given back to your from the money the poker room has earned from you.

To get Rakeback you just have to sign up through a Rakeback site like www.PokerBankrollClub.com. Pokerbankrollclub, has specifically negotiated rakeback deals. Once you are signed up then you open a new online poker account start playing and you will be earning Rakeback as you play. Now there are a few things you want to look for when signing up with a Rakeback site. You want to make sure they have plenty of rakeback deals. Let's face it you will most likely play at more than one online poker room over the course of your poker career. If you move to another online poker room you want to make sure you can get Rakeback there as well. Something else to look for, see if they offer rake races. This is another great perk which can help you build you bankroll as well. A Rake Race is a competition among the players of a particular online poker room. Where the player who generated the most Rake thus earning the most Rakeback wins. It's not usually too difficult for small stakes players to at least get into the money on these races. This means you have the oppurtunity to win more money for doing what you already plan on doing playing poker. You prefer to find a rakeback site that offers weekly races instead of monthly races. This gives you more chances to win. Something else to consider when looking for a rakeback site. Be certain they offer good accurate statistics throughout the month. If they have a members area where you can view how much Rakeback you have earned throughout the month and at which sites that is a plus.

A final word, it does not make sense for someone looking to build an online poker bankroll not to have Rakeback. Rakeback, will help you leverage your bankroll if you are a winner and it will insulate it if you are a losing player.

Recommended Rakeback Poker sites: Full Tilt
Full Tilt is a good poker site to earn rakeback if you play $100NL and up. Their rake gets to be pretty expensive if you play below that level. Although they only offer 27% rakeback they have the best selection of higher stakes gaves over all of the other poker sites that pay rakeback.

Recommended Rakeback Poker sites: Cake Poker
Cake Poker is recommended for the player playing $10NL up to $100NL. They offer a great rakeback at 33%. They have plenty of games running most of the time at the lower stakes. The higher stakes don't have has many games to choose from.

PokerBankrollClub.com, is the recommended Rakeback site. This site has one of the largest selections of online poker sites that offer Rakeback. They also have weekly rake races you can participate in. They have accurate real time statistics in your very own members area where you can view how much Rakeback you have earned at all of the online poker sites you play at. They will even give you a bonus if you refer friends who earn Rakeback. PokerBankrollClub.com, will help you mazimize your bankroll growth.

Build your bankroll,
Brandon Mark

Such a Mental Game

Poker is such mental game. It really is not even funny. My Bankroll feels like it's in a full on stall. I am not upset, angry, or tilted. It just a matter of knowing you have to do your best to make the right plays. Even the right plays can cost you money in the short term. However, in the long run you will come out ahead. My bankroll is currently at $412.52. I still have a goal of getting to $600 by the end of the month plus rakeback. I hope to earn at least $100 from rakeback. When you are working to build a bankroll I don't think there is anything else more useful then having a good rakeback deal. I will discuss that more maybe in the next post.

Hope poker is going well for you,
Brandon Mark

Biggest swing so far in my bankroll

Yesterday my bankroll dropped all the way down to $320 and 5 hours later when I quit playing I was back up to $449. It was unbelievable! I went to my favorite cigar lounge and enjoyed a Blanc Cuvee while playing 4 tables. I just finished and I am up to $515.00. I am not sure if I am going to be playing anymore tonight. If I do I will post again and share a couple of interesting hands with you. I am in a hurry right now... so I got to run.

Brandon Mark

Taking dip

You know taking a dip is fun if it's in the bath tub, in a pool, or maybe skinny dipping in a lake. On the other hand it is never fun when it's your bankroll. I played a short one hour session yesterday and now my bankroll has taken a dip to $406.00. Ouch! If I don't get interrupted in the next few minutes I will be firing up another session. My fiance is making plans for us this evening so I will play until she comes back with some plans. Hopefully I can make a recovery.

Brandon Mark

Short sessions didn't go so well

I played a couple of short sessions since my last post. My bankroll has dropped to $430. It's very frustrating but in some ways I still realize. I am missing the basics. I am on the waiting list for 4 tables at $20NL. I am going to spend this session just focusing primarily on my Pre Flop Play. I will keep you posted and give an update on this session. I should have about an hour to play in this session.

Brandon Mark

Comeback and Rakeback

Bankroll at $450

Since my poker marathon I have played two session that have gave me two more buy ins plus I got my rakeback. My current bankroll is at $450 and some change. I am still frustrated with my game and see my self making some major mistakes. I have some leaks and I think the past could of sessions my biggest leak has been not adjusting to the table play. Some times the tables are super tight or super loose. There hasn't been a whole lot in the middle lately. The good news is that I can easily exploit these if only I would adjust quicker to the table play. Also I have to take note if the table changes and I have to be certain I change up my play as well.

A side note I recently added my blog to the poker directory www.pokerweblogs.com. If you haven't go check em out.

See ya at the felt,
Brandon Mark