Hello there. I'll keep it fairly short.

I'm a 21-year-old idiot from northern europe trying to get something going in poker again. I used to be a semi-regular on $10 - $50 MTT's, then moved over to NL50 HU and proceeded to move up to NL100 from there. I was a regular there for a while, tried NL200 once and ran horribly, kept grinding and then took a short break from poker.

During this break I realized that I wanted to do something special in life, so I cashed out a big part of my roll to pay for a 3 month trip to Tanzania to do some volunteer work there. Then I bought a new computer and went into the biggest downswing of my life so far, ending up with just $250 left to play for. So after doubling that in $20 HU SnG's practicing some Isildur like bankroll management, I've now decided to get serious again.

I'm going to grind $6.25, turbo HU 4-player SnG's on Stars for a start. Hopefully I'll move up from there fairly quickly and then probably transition to MTT's or cash later on when the roll is big enough.

Some graphs and stats to validate:










Cheers!

There is a staking forum for stuff like this. If you'd like to recreate your blog without all the graphs and the staking talks, you're more than welcome to, but please keep the staking talks in the staking forum.

re-opened!

Alright, so the thread suffered some early misunderstandings but now we are LIVE again and ready to roll!

To clarify, I am playing heads up sit-n-go's with 4 entrants, meaning there is semi-finals and then a final in which the winner takes all of the money. This means that winning these two straight matches gives you an ROI of 284% (at $6+0.25), whereas winning two straight regular heads up sit-n-go's will only give you slightly under 200%. Of course, winning the first and then losing the second will result in no profit at all in these 4-mans, but in the long run if you are good enough to comfortably beat the player pool, you are going to show a better profit than you would in the regular heads ups.

I have started the climb, although slipping down a bit at first with only one cash in the first ten tournaments. However, for the rest of the session the curse was lifted and I ended slightly up for the day. As I expected, the opposition at this level is beyond terrible and I'll be very surprised if we don't move up to the $11.50's quickly.

While progressing through these lower stakes, I'll apply a slightly more shallow bank roll management as the risk is clearly not that high when the opposition is so much worse than me. The plan is to move up when I have 75 buy-ins for the next level, and then move back down if I go under 50. Normally I have learned that it suits me best to have around 100 buy-ins for sng's and 150 or so for mtt's, cus of the importance of not backing down when you feel like a high variance move is the way to go in a certain spot. Basically, don't play for scared money. Basic stuff.

So, we're gonna move up to the $11.50s when we hit $862.50. As I said, that shouldn't take too long.


THIS SESSION & TOTAL

Tournaments played: 27
Total buy-in: $168.75
Amount won (net result): $192.00 ($23.25)
ROI: 13.78%
Bankroll: $517.03


HAND OF THE DAY

There was no particulary interesting spots, so I'll just illustrate the level of play with this one:

PokerStars, $20/40 Hold'em Tournament, 2 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
BB: $3,390
Button: $2,610

Dealt to Button 8 A

Pre-flop:
Button raises to $120, BB calls $80

Flop: ($260) 8 4 9 (2 Players)
BB bets $40, Button raises to $280, BB calls $240

Turn: ($820) 3 (2 Players)
BB bets $120, Button raises to $690, BB calls $570

River: ($2,200) 3 (2 Players)
BB checks, Button bets $1,520 and is all-in, BB calls $1,520

Results:
Button Showed 8 A
BB Showed 4 7
Button wins $5,220

Sick beat bro.


***

Alright, fire away if you have any questions or feedback on how I can make it (even?) more interesting for you to follow my journey towards the baller pic.

Cheers!

Update-time! It's been a busy week and I've not even been at home since saturday, so I haven't gotten around to playing much but when I've played at least it's been going pretty good. I'm not gonna bore you with a bunch of letters this time cus there's really not much to say, so let's get to the numbers.


SINCE LAST UPDATE

Tournaments played: 24
Total buy-in: $150
Amount won (net result): $216 ($66)
ROI: 44%

After a bad day yesterday, I certainly turned that around today and won 7 out of 13 tournaments. It is fun to play when you feel as if you can simply request community cards from the dealer, isn't it?


TOTAL

Tournaments played: 51
Total buy-in: $318.75
Amount won (net result): $408 ($89.25)
ROI: 28%
Bankroll: $583.03
Left until level-up: $279.47 GOGOGOGOGO!!!


HAND OF THE DAY



To symbolize how I ran today

Peace in the middle east!

So sick, GL bro

how many u play at a time?

Thanks

Right now, 3. I'll try 4 at some point and see if I'm comfortable with that, but I feel it's so much harder to multi-table a bunch of unknowns heads up than it is 6-max, fullring etc. The action obviously gets around to you much quicker and you also need to be more wary of the meta-game. It is SO frequent that players - especially at lower buyins - overreact hugely to everything you do, so if you load up a lot of tables and reduce your ability to be one level ahead of your opponent at all times, you are also reducing your ROI severely. For me, I feel that it reduces much enough that I make more money playing 3 than possibly 4 and almost certainly 5+.

Also, there's another balance you have to be wary of. Let's say for example that I make a little bit more playing 4 than 3, but go into some kind of robot mode when playing 4, and thus not being fully capable of thinking of every situation properly. Then I will improve my game more while playing 3, enabling me to make more money long term, even if I make less short term.

It's all individual though, but for me I feel like 3 suits me best right now.

I kinda agree with u about the issue of 4tablin/getting into robot mode although i always play sets of 4 but always end up to 2-3 ft's and then i focus better on the play.First level i always play kinda tight till blinds go up and i start shovin but it works good.I used to play the 6's aswell but now i play the 11's

See you there then!

Jesus christ do I lack discipline. Since last update I've only played 2 fairly short sessions for a total of 28 tournaments, and I have a feeling that the rest of june is gonna be somewhat the same cus the world cup is gonna take up a LOT of my time. I also need to put in some time at the gym at least 3 times a week (but probably more), so I don't know how I'm gonna have time to grind. I've been thinking of down-prioritizing one game á day and dedicate that time to grinding, but we'll see... The fact that the weather is really nice is not gonna help either.

In other news, a buddy of mine hustled me into buying 20% of him in a $11r PLO tournament the other day for $10 (he didn't rebuy, only added on). To my defence he had built up a 4x starting stack. Sure enough, he ended up making the final table and I profited like $13. If he took first I would've pocketed like $260...that would've been nice.

So, onto my own excuse for a grind. The second of the two short sessions I've put in was pretty unreal. In 14 tournaments, I made 11 finals and won 8. That's pretty unbelievable and good for a ROI of 119.43% and a profit of $104.50. Puts me a good bit closer to leveling up, fo sho. And I don't even feel like I'm running godlike or anything (though I'm sure I'm running over expectation), the play is just insanely bad. See hand of the day and just imagine that kind of **** going down over and over again, you'll see it's not that hard to crush this level.


SINCE LAST UPDATE

Tournaments played: 28
Total buy-in: $175
Amount won (net result): $288 ($113)
ROI: 64.57%


TOTAL

Tournaments played: 79
Total buy-in: $493.75
Amount won (net result): $696 ($202.25)
ROI: 40.96%
Other*: $13.20
Bankroll: $709.23
Left until level-up: $153.27 ... I can almost smell it!

*Buying pieces, propbets, etc


HAND OF THE DAY

PokerStars, $30/60 Hold'em Tournament, 2 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
Button: $2,050
BB: $3,950

Dealt to BB 3 2

Pre-flop:
Button calls $30, BB checks

Flop: ($120) 5 3 2 (2 Players)
BB bets $120, Button raises to $240, BB raises to $660, Button raises to $1,990 and is all-in, BB calls $1,330

Turn: ($4,100) 8 (2 Players)

River: ($4,100) 5 (2 Players)

Results:
BB Showed 3 2
Button Showed A K
BB Showed
BB wins $4,100

***

The climb has gained some momentum. Stay tuned yo!

$500 in 2 days? Sick heater or your a hell of a player...

Gl in your quest and i hope you get back to your original turf sometime soon m8

Best regards
Swire

Hmm, don't know where you got $500 in 2 days from...

Thanks though!

Alrite y'all, time to update this thing.

After the last one I didn't play for 5 days cus I was away 3 of them and lazy in the remaining 2.. Then I got back on the horse yesterday and apparently, godmode doesn't get disabled due to inactivity. I played only 12, but won 7 (and final tabled another 2), good for a profit of $93.00 and the standard ROI of 124%. That meant my roll was now over $800 and it seemed like I was closing in on the level-up at a much higher pace than I anticipated, even though I stated in this thread that I figured it wouldn't take so long.

Then today, I decided I have to get serious about this if I want to go somewhere, and so set a goal for the day to play 30 games for the session. Said and done, and while godmode lasted like 5 tournaments into the grind and I experienced a cold streak towards the end of it, I still digged out a profit of $70.25 (36.26% ROI). Add the numbers together and we have.....LEVEL-UP TIMEEEEE!!!

I'll say with some certainty that I have now played my last $6 sng, cus I can't imagine that the opposition at the $11.50's are so much tougher...of course they're not.

MrGeros, here I come. What's your sn on stars btw, if I happen to run into you?


SINCE LAST UPDATE

Tournaments played: 43
Total buy-in: $268.75
Amount won (net result): $432 ($163.25)
ROI: 60.74%


TOTAL

Tournaments played: 122
Total buy-in: $762.50
Amount won (net result): $1128 ($365.50)
ROI: 47.93%
Other*: $13.20
Bankroll: $872.48
Left until level-up: $852.52

*Buying pieces, propbets, etc


HAND OF THE DAY

During my spell at the $6.25's, I played one hand of the 7187 total where I feel like there's something to talk about.

PokerStars, $20/40 Hold'em Tournament, 2 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
BB: $2,240
Button: $3,760

Dealt to Button 4 3

Pre-flop:
Button raises to $120, BB calls $80

Flop: ($260) 9 6 T (2 Players)
BB checks, Button bets $160, BB calls $160

Turn: ($580) 5 (2 Players)
BB checks, Button checks

River: ($580) 5 (2 Players)
BB bets $160, Button raises to $425


Note on opponent is that he's a huge station, and has shown a tendency to bet weak when bluffing. Never seen him go out of line in terms of aggression.

I feel as though we are certainly raising the river here, but the question is what size it should be. I didn't have time to think it over a lot but I remember that I raised so relatively small because I was intending to fold to a 3bet, as I don't expect him to 3bet bluff and can't find too many hands in his value range that I beat. Thoughts on that?

And even so, should I raise more anyway? The only other counter point to that as I see it is that a bigger raise might scare away a nine, but that is just speculation on my part.


Cheers!

Garphield so far:

First session of the new level is in the books, and from 25 games worth of experience, the opposition isn't better at $11.50 than it is on $6.25. Unfortunately, I ran really bad and had to make a little rush in the last third of the session to make a profit. I was surprised to see it land on +$64.50 which meant a 22.43% ROI, and those numbers alone tell me it's gonna be a helluva ride. Having that ROI over 25 tournaments when you're getting outdrawn on and constantly being coolered is pretty sick. Makes me wonder what my expected ROI is...


SINCE LAST UPDATE

Tournaments played: 25
Total buy-in: $287.50
Amount won (net result): $352 ($64.50)
ROI: 22.43%


TOTAL

Tournaments played: 147
Total buy-in: $1050
Amount won (net result): $1480 ($430.00)
ROI: 40.95%
Other*: $13.20
Bankroll: $936.98
Left until level-up: $788.02

*Buying pieces, propbets, stellar rewards etc

sweet job, why not stick to hu sngs seems like you got some skills

Thanks!

Well yeah, I'm not sure I'll switch games, also depends on how much action and what the average player is like at the higher levels of these.. Plus playing a final table of a decently big MTT is about as high an adrenaline rush you'll get out of this game, so that's kinda appealing... (not to mention how it must feel to do it in a huge event, I can only imagine)

And if I'll play cash it'll certainly be HU cus everything else is insanely boring.

Where are you going in Tanzania and what are you doing out there?

And not that you'd be looking to play poker out there probably... but there isn't any. Closest game is Kampala or maybe Nairobi.

Nice job so far, keep on going!

BTW you can configure the graph´s information box so it won´t show your sn. Just double-click "Player"

Haha, nice bump. I was gonna let it die cus as with everything else I do, I overdo it and it becomes too much of a project hanging over me, and I just don't give a **** anymore. But oh well I guess I might keep it somewhat going then, if there's any interest.

I'm guessing you found the thread while searching for Tanzania related stuff? Have you got any experience from there or are you going there maybe?

I'm heading there to do volunteer work for 3 months in a remote village, lacking both electricity and running water. Closest city that has these luxuries is an hour drive away and looks like this:


Mafinga is so remote in itself that it doesn't even have a wikipedia page. I mean...

You're right, I'm not looking to play poker. Even if there was any I'd probably resist the temptation. Not the right place to pull a 2 outer for what to them might be a considerable amount of money, I'm guessing, but maybe I'm just being overly prejudicious. Either way those 12 weeks will probably serve as a nice break from the game.


Homer-Jay, thanks! About the SN, I don't even know why I'm hiding it. Guess I was paranoid about being hunted down by...shall we say guys with a bit more skill than the regular $6 player. I guess I was at a low point self-esteem wise. My SN on both stars and full tilt is Miracle Mule.


Since I last updated the thread I've gone on to the $23 level where I'm running like complete guano so far. I've also been away on a vacation trip and caught a stubborn flu which kept me out for a week or so. Not to mention the world cup... These are all more or less poor excuses for not putting in the volume. God I need a fire up my ass to do that... Dare I mention the word that got the thread locked in its early days, referring me to post in the marketplace instead? Ooooops... Anyways, that would do wonders.

Anyways. Bankroll is at $1876.50 after 346 games, giving me a 30.06% ROI. It has definately gone quicker than I first expected.

Fun fact: Leveled up from $6 to $11 after 122 games. Then leveled up from $11 to $23 in 121 games. Would be a shame to deviate from that pattern, wouldn't it?

Cheers

Nice thread, absolutely crushing man, keep it up.

Ive been to Tanzania four times now, most recently in March and will likely be back out early next year. I also go to a remote village - but not as remote as your place. My village is just outside Dodoma on the main Dar-Dod road. There is electricity most of the time, but water comes from a standpipe. I'm involved with several groups of blind, helping with things like education, building houses, starting businesses and a hundred-and-one smaller things besides.

I've been to Mafinga - but in 1999. I did a road trip across Africa starting in Tanzania and remember Mafinga cos it was so close to Iringa. That was probably funnier when I was 18. All I remember is it being very basic and staying in what seemed to be a guesthouse but the woman in charge was surprised we wanted the room for the night. When we got taken to our rooms the lightbulbs were red and there were small bins with 'condoms only' written on the top.

You probaly have a network of people involved in the sector to ask questions to, but if you dont, then feel free to ask me any stuff about Tanzania - not that I know much about the southern part of the country but I was back in Iringa last year.