Just to show that I have been doing something, even though I haven’t really been playing much the last couple nights here is pic of my “poker spreadsheet”. You can click on it to get a better view.  The only thing on it that you don’t get a good idea how it works is the graph, which is obviously empty at the moment.  I could have shown my limit 5 card draw one, but I don’t want to give out too much info .  I definitely suggest you make something like this if you don’t currently know your winrate (or losing rate) in a specific game.

Since there really isn’t a pokertracker for 5 card draw.  This is what I use for keeping my stats.  I have always had this for my 5 card draw game.  But I also made it recently for PL 5 card draw, NL HU SNGs (which looks a little different), and for Triple Draw (which you see now).  PLUS, I made some to get ready for when FullTilt adds their draw games as they have talked about and supposedly will have them sometime around the turn of the year.

I did this, also changed the look of my tables.  I used to play on a red background table on Pokerstars for 5 card draw.  It was something that I created.  Now, it is purple.  I just felt like staring at the red for an extended period of time was not easy on the eyes.  Purple is much better.  I also made a green one for TD, and blue for NLH.  All are cool colors (in terms of shade) and are supposedly easier on the eyes.  As with the table color, everything matches.  For instance, imagine the above table in a purple color scheme to match the tables I play on.

Plus, I spent some time working on some 5 card draw math.  I picked up more on some things that I was doing wrong than things that I didn’t know.  But I did learn a few things here and there.  I still have much to learn.

Will post again later tonight when done playing for the night.

I haven’t had the time to play as much poker as I would like as of late.  But when I do, I have been consumed with attempting to win a seat to the World Series of Poker via the PokerStars steps.

What are steps?

If you aren’t familiar with the steps, they are basically a way to qualify for a live major poker tournament for as little as $7.50.  They are a group of single-table (9 players) tournaments that consist of 6 different levels.  Starting at step 1, in order to get to step 2 you would need to finish in the top 2 spots.  The same for each level until you get to step 6 where you play for a prize often around 10k+.

My attempt to get to step 6

I have played these steps in the past, and have made it to step 6 a couple of times starting from step 1.  Thanks to some pretty poor luck, nothing big materialized from those step 6′s.  So this year I was hoping to take another shot at the steps with hopes of making a 10k+ score.

I had been accumulating step 2′s over the year as I would use my frequent player points (FPP’s) to play in step 1′s.  You can actually play in step 1 for 500 fpp’s instead of $7.50. I ended up spending just over 50,000 fpp’s.  To make a long story short, I am left today with one step 6 ticket ready to be played.

If I could cash out the step 6, which unfortunately you can’t, I would be $2,100 richer (the cost to buy in directly into step 6).  I really wish I could just take the cash and reinvest half of it back into the steps.  But it is what it is, and I am stuck here pondering what to do.

To play or not to play…….

…..that is the question.  Should I hold it for a later date?  Should I try to get more step 6′s first?  I really just don’t know what I am going to do as of yet.  Something is telling me to wait it out thought instead of playing it now.

The plan is to just gradually play more and more steps until I am left with about 5+ step 6′s.  This way I would feel confident in my chances of winning at least once.  The pressure would really be relieved, I would think.

Confident to win

I am confident that I will eventually win a step 6.  I just don’t know when.  I am just trying to pave the way to see to it that I can be most likely to succeed.

How can I be so confident that I will even get to another step 6?

Well, this is when record keeping comes in handy.  I have an excel spreadsheet that I use that keeps tally of the number of steps that I play and what place I come in.  It is really great to know the “chances” of getting to step 6.  Though there is such a thing as variance, I feel like keeping stats does give me some idea as to my expected value of playing these steps.  Below is a picture of the “totals section” of the spreadsheet, with my stats:

I am happy that I was able to get a step 6.  But to be honest, I am disappointed at the same time.  I really ran wayyyy below expectation in the step 3′s.  I was really getting discouraged.  At one point, I was starting to doubt that I would ever get to a step 6.  According to previous step attempts, I normally come in 1st/2nd place in those around 27-31 percent.  This year I only came in the top two spots 15 percent of the time!

Somehow though, I was able to turn four step 4′s into a step 6.  I will let you know when, if any time soon, I decide to play it.

If you are interested in getting a similar spreadsheet, then I have made it available in the NoMeNot E-Store for free.