June Results, Guess this makes me a Rakeback Pro

June was kind of a retarded month for me. I ended up making under just 1K in game profits, but like 5K in rakeback, SNG Madness and leaderboard bonuses. My goal was to play a large amount of volume in the 55s and 110s and start putting together reasonable samples, and I did accomplish that.

440 $55+$5s at a 10.06% ROI for $2656.50 in profits (pre-rakeback)
609 $110+$9s at a 2.73% ROI for another $1977 in profits (pre-rakeback)

So apparently, if I had only played the 2 games I set out to concentrate on, I would have had a 9K month! That’s really not important though. To be results oriented about a particular month is just silly. It’s no more or less arbitrary than looking at a graph of my career results and analyzing any random 30 day stretch. I’m still going to do monthly recaps to track my progress, but I’m not going to shy away from playing higher buy-in games (like the $160+9s or the $220+16s) if the games look soft and therefore long-term profitable, even though a bad run in a small sample may screw up my monthly results.

So that being said, I took a beating in the super turbos again this month.

624 games (mixed stakes) @ -3.42% ROI for -$1806.80 (pre-rakeback)

Also played a baby sample of $220+16s, $265+16 Satellites, and some assorted MTTs that hurt my bankroll in the short term, but will be very profitable over the course of my career as a whole.

Discounting the Super Turbo results, my SNG results were actually quite good.

1170 Tournaments (mixed stakes) @3.34% ROI for $3764.20 in profits

Here’s the overall breakdown for the month:
1797 SNGs @ .93% ROI for $1548.40 in profits (pre-rakeback)
24 MTTs @ -41.24% ROI for -790.91 in losses
596 cash game hands (6-max $100NL) @ 11.64 Big Blinds per 100 hands for $171.20
$10,128.74 in rake post MGR deductions @ 27% rakeback for $2734.76 in profits
$1055 in SNG Madness Bonuses
$1100 In Full Tilt Leaderboard Bonuses
$475 in RakeTheRake Leaderboard Bonuses

$6293.45 Total June Profits

So all in all, my worst ROI ever, yet still somehow by best month in terms of profits. When I eventually run decent in the higher limit games (>$119,) I’m gonna to be ballin’. The one thing I think any aspiring serious player should take away from this is that running hot is all well and good, but you really can’t count on it. Volume and Rakeback have to be the cornerstones of your approach if you’re going to make a steady living from SNGs. I get people all the time telling me that they cannot get rakeback for a variety of reasons and that they just play without it. Might as well roll your joints with $100 bills, b/c you’re clearly high and you’re burning money; not to mention wasting your time. If you’re in the I-can’t-get-rakeback boat, shoot me a message. I have had good luck helping people overcome these challenges.

Even if you have a 5% lifetime ROI like I do at the moment over 7K SNGs, you can still have a month where you run significantly below that. I’m sure a negative ROI month is in my future at some point, and yours as well. I mean, it took me almost 600 $55 SNGs to get out of the red and be profitable in them, but now I’m at a 5.96% overall ROI and up $2500 in them. Running good and running bad is just part of the grind. Playing more volume can help keep your monthly or quarterly results a little more consistent, but it’s still gonna come in swings. My best recommendation is play an amount of volume where you can make a living from rakeback alone, and then even when you run bad it’s not the end of the world, and when you run at your expectation or above, it’s all gravy. Once you bank 6 months living expenses, you can probably adapt to playing enough volume to make a living from rakeback + your ROI expectation, but I’ve never in my life met someone who actually had 2 months of expenses saved, let alone 6. If you don’t need to win to pay the bills, it takes a lot of the stress out and will let you play better, and cope better mentally with the inevitable downswings and break even stretches.

IMO, you want to be under enough stress to keep you motivated, studying hard and playing, but not so much that it effects your game in a negative or desperate manor. That will change from person to person, but I think setting volume/stake goals (which are 100% within your control) is far better than setting ROI/profits goals which go beyond your realm of control. On that token, my July Goals are as follows:
1500 Regular Turbo Games - Mostly $55s and $110 with the occasional $220 or Satellite thrown in if games are appealing
1000 Super Turbos - Pretty easy to accomplish. I am focusing my studying time on improving in these games, but I want to keep my volume down a little so I can be more profitable.
Top 3 on the FTP Leaderboard - Good for at least $1540 (16 buy-ins @ $110)
Top 5 on the RakeTheRake Leaderboard - Good for at least $1200

If I meet those goals, I should have a great month no matter how I run. That being said, after last month’s .93% ROI, how about a little run good eh?