JUNE 2006 ANALYSIS

The month started incredibly as I took down two moderate tournaments back-to-back for a combined payout of $5283. You would think that would ensure a profitable month, but not so, as the well ran dry for weeks afterward. I used up the proceeds chasing a monster payday in the Sunday events with no quality cashes forthcoming. It would have been an ugly, ugly month if it wasn't for my resurgent cash game.

TOURNAMENTS = ($484.50)

Two wins, five other petty cashes, eight times on the friggin' bubble and a net loss. The tournaments I won were $50 and $69 buy-ins; the events I lost were $300, $200, $100, $69, $50, and $24 and I lost them often. I played 59 events, cashing in fewer than 12%, though I did make the top 20% of finalists in 25% of the events, which is pretty much my goal. I figure in the long run, there will be bubble finishes but gambling in that spot should enable me an occasional victory. The victories came early this time and were followed by numerous bubbles. I finished in the bottom half of runners 23 times, 39%, which means I did a better job overall this month of getting through the early stages and into the top half of finishers. Now I need to work on the biggest flaw in my game - the middle/late stages, so I can get past the bubble and into the payout structure. I played five STT and moneyed in three of them for a profit of $157. I lost $20 in heads-up battles by winning only two of five.

CASH GAMES = $2901.50

My crappy tournament play thankfully didn't affect my cash play, as I continued to make steady profit in the $2/4 NL and $3/6 NL short-handed games at Full Tilt. I banked over three grand there, added another $32 at limit HE, a few bucks at seven-stud, and donated nearly $200 to the Omaha boys. Omaha is my game of choice when I'm not entirely focused on the action, since the hands pretty much play themselves and there isn't much bluffing going on. I just choose which hands are worthy of taking a flop, then I see what I think of the flop and I push some money towards the middle if the odds look favorable. I played some limit, some pot limit, and some no limit. Fun game, but I don't win in the long run. Hopefully I'm getting better at it from the effort. Earned $40 at Full Tilt to close out my initial deposit bonus.

Overall, I have no idea how I am even profitable for the year, because it seems like all I do is bust out of tournaments. I suppose a .300 hitter probably feels like all he is doing is walking back to the bench, since that is the result most of the time. I guess it beats working weekends at Disneyland. The most I ever made there in a year was $13k and I've surpassed that amount already. I'm still hoping to hit one of those Sunday tournaments for a real payday.

JUNE TOTAL = $2457
2006 TOTAL = $13,415.50