33... 33... 33... (thirty-three)

Now, like all good people in this world, I love beer. One of my favorite pales from the college days (ah, the good ol' times. I wonder where I would be now if I started playing online poker in college instead of after getting a regular more than full-time job, marrying, having kids and responsibilities... but I digress) was Rolling Rock. On the bottles, they have imprinted the number 33. It saddens me to say that I actually did not know what the 33 meant, so of course it is off to wikipedia, which has answers for everything.

The number 33 is printed prominently on all bottles of Rolling Rock. A widely-held belief is that it marks the repeal of prohibition in 1933. However, according to James L. Tito, former CEO of Latrobe Brewing, the "33" signifies the 33 words in the beer's slogan: "Rolling Rock - From the glass lined tanks of Old Latrobe, we tender this premium beer for your enjoyment as a tribute to your good taste. It comes from the mountain springs to you."

A founding executive is said to have written "33" at the end of the slogan to indicate the number of words it comprised as a guide for the bottle printers. However, they thought it was part of the text and incorporated it into the label graphics. Hence, the first batch of bottles carried the number "33" and they remained that way since they were continually collected and reused (also, during the Great Depression, there was no reason to throw away perfectly good merchandise and start over). This tradition has been sustained by the company as the wording on the labels has changed over the years, and the verbiage is carefully structured to retain a length of 33 words. There are several other lesser-known theories or urban legends about the "mysterious" number 33, but none have been verified.

So I guess that clears it up. :)

Anyways, the reason for the link is that I was just noticing that my bankroll has gotten to be above $33. Whoo-hoo!

Back on track...

Well, although I was lucky enough to hit that royal flush that I posted last time, my bankroll continually went in the wrong direction... (Cue the sad music).
I am back in the game and trying to play much better. In an attempt to do this, I have been reading quite a few books on the topic, including the quintessential Harrington on Hold Em series (Vol. I and II) and David Skalansky's Tournament Poker for Advanced Players. These books are great for tournament strategy and have been quite useful, especially in the sit and gos (SNG)...

As of last night, I was sitting with about $17 in the account, after taking 2nd in a 45 person SNG, netting me about $11 and 1st in a 9 person SNG (giving me $4.50). I am significantly happier with my play as of late, and have a good feeling going into the tables/SNG tournaments tonight.

Why can't this happen everyday?

Sigh... the bitter end of week three...

Well, it has been awhile since my last post. The reasons for this include: 1) Went to Vegas on my first ever experience (which promptly including having aces cracked on my first hand) and 2) The Full Tilt experience is not treating me so kindly. As of today, my bankroll is cut to $15, making it a 50% reduction since the last post. Very, very sad. I am thinking it is mostly luck, but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I seem to be getting bad breaks on flops and outdraws to the river, both in the ring games and the SNG tournaments that I have signed up for. I think the next $5 is going entirely to SNG tourneys, with a hope of booming the bankroll back up. If that fails and I end up down at the $10 range, it is back to grinding it out at the micro stakes tables.

On the plus side, the FTP are accruing nicely. Am still in line for that hat in 2012...

End of week 2- nice gains (after some sad losses)

The second week of the frugal poker journey started off pretty well, doing decently still playing at the micro stakes tables. I was somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 about 5 days ago, but then I started playing some $1 45 person sit-and-go (SNG) tournaments, which technically break the Chris Ferguson approved buy in maximums for proper bankroll management. Oops... Anyways, I played a number of these, ending up at the final table in most cases, but with only the top 6 being paid out, it actually is a little difficult to end up in the money. I had two 6th place finishes and this morning, at about 2:30 AM, I ended up winning a tournament and taking home the grand prize of $17.10. Man was I excited.

So here is the bankroll heading into the start of week 3:

End of week 1- a good week all in all

Starting today, I think I might change it up to be weekly updates, instead of daily, unless something of profound interest happens. This week ended up on a good run at the table and I stepped away after losing a pot I should have won. However, for the week and my $2 investment, playing the micro stakes tables treated me kindly for the most part, and I am sitting with over $10 in the account right now. Hopefully I can continue this run and not lose too heavily in the coming days/weeks.

Day six- back into the positive... thankfully!

After playing again with ohcaptain and being called "aggressive" by pokertracker, I ended up being in the positive for the night again, and recouped all the loses from yesterday. Yippee! That's all I can really hope for on a night like tonight I guess.