Let's get this started then:

• I'm 32 years old, living in Nottingham, UK
• I have a full time job that I actually like. (Network geek guy)
• I'm not a pro, nor will become one anytime soon.
• I've never played poker at a Casino either.

So what the hell am I doing here?

Well, I've floated around from thing to thing. I've been a card game player for some time playing other things like Magic the gathering and what not. I've also been a pretty big online gamer for stuff like StarCraft 1/2, league of legends, etc. Basically a lot of stuff that can be skill intensive, require training, and has zero payoff or future prospects. (when compared to my job)

So poker seems to fit the bill for something I could get into and actually has a payoff (or payment). It was back in September when I read one of those click bait articles in boredom "Why poker is NOT the game for you". At the time I'd always just dismissed poker as degenerate gambling, having previously worked with a guy who used to spend 70% of his wage gambling on horses, football, roulette, whatever and having terrible debt problems.

So this site told me that poker is all about maths (oh now I'm interested), learning ranges and probability (sounds good), and reading spreadsheets and books all day (ok I'm in). I hit Reddit/google and started reading. I'm also a big fan of incremental games (cookie clicker anybody?) and the idea of starting at microstakes and just working my way up is weirdly appealing to me.

Since then I've done about 1k hands, broke just above even and read a load of stuff and bought PT4. Right now I'm on about $80 between stars and 888, and I'm going to make a go at this.

My goals are going to be monthly, and very small at first, because I have no idea what sort of balance I'm going to be able to make between life, work and this. I'm under no illusions like planning to quit my job and buy a house within the year. I'm just planning to get a bankroll going, do some live poker and study like crazy.

Also I get pretty anxious about playing a lot, and have a tendency to get consumed by things until they burn me out. I'm purposely going slow so that I have some chance of actually sticking with this. I can't promise I'll be here in a year, but you don't find out unless you try right?

January Goals:

[ ]400 hands played (6max, cash, sometimes zoom)
[ ]Study 4 chapters of my current book with notes (proper study, not just skim reading)
[ ]Come up with a method for hand analysis (any suggestions)
[ ]Keep PGC thread going

frist

gl sir,

posting hands on here for analysis should be fine

400 hands played in the whole month?

Sent from my SM-G925I using Tapatalk

yeah i know, its so little. I'm not even sure how to gauge it just yet, I'm planning to split it like 70% study/analysis vs 30% playing. It'll go up though

400 hands is probably like 2 tabling for 3 hours and won't give you any indication of your skill level.

Sent from my SM-G925I using Tapatalk

If you're starting at the micros and the money doesn't mean anything to you, don't be afraid to try to put in a little more volume than that. Nobody's expecting you to be a multi-tabling beast out of the gate but you should be able to play more than that. 400 hands is like 4-5hrs of playing one regular speed table. All the book learnin in the world ain't gonna mean **** if you don't get to apply it. Good luck!

Congrats on your journey. I'd recommend spending MUCH more time at the tables in comparison to study initially. You need to get in a good amount of hands to have a better idea of your baseline.

in, gl. hope you support the red team in nottingham haha

Balance: $50.22 (+$2.02)
Hands: 437

Well I promised myself I'd update this at least once a week. Sorry it's not an exciting one.

You guys were right though, the hands goal was wayyy too low, considering I've only managed two short sessions, I still met it. I've had 2 birthday parties, a couple of late ones at work (IT/Networking people will understand), and 2 all-day tournaments for a different card game.



Things seem ok though, I haven't had chance to review hands yet, so nothing to post in that regard. I do have an embarrassing hand of way overbetting a 2 pair into 4 of a kind; I'm sure it'll give you guys a laugh once I've gone (or got) over it.

400 hands isn't enough of anything yet, but initial signs point to my aggression being ok, but I lose showdown alot, going to have to keep an eye on it.

Next update will have some hands to see what people think, and some to just show you the crap that new players do sometimes

Subbed gl. RE: hand analysis have a look at Ed Miller - How to read hands at NLH for a starter.

Balance: $50.83 (+$10.61, had -$10 due to a promo expiring)
Hands: 1039

So January is done. Smashed all my goals except coming up with some hand analysis process.

I feel I still need to do some work on combinatorics, I don't fully understand everything I've been learning, so I'd prefer to go over that.

Still seem to be doing ok; balance is still going up even if my graph seems to be backwards lol. I'm purposely exploiting players with high VPIP and low PFR, at this stake they seem to telegraph what their cards are. There's been a few times where they've beat me at showdown, but its when they do weird stuff like slow play KK and check the turn and river. I'm not too fussed about losing less than 10BB to that, because there's the 20 other times where they will fold with the better hand.

I'm specifically learning about balanced play, as I know I'm going to hit a wall at some point. I'm still waiting for a downswing to happen too lol. Oh and my balance got messed up, as it turns out I had $10 as promo money and didn't do something with it before it gets taken back by 888. There's a few threads around about it and I cba arguing with them.

The last big jump on the graph was pretty amusing for me. A guy was very specifically targetting me with 3bets every time I opened, literally 100% of the time; I think I'd stacked him once already this session. Took a pot 238 BB big off, felt pretty good lol.



Cheers for the recommendation, it's on the list. I had a quick scan through and it looks something like what I want to do

Anyway, February goals will be delayed as I'm away next week and possibly the one after. I'll put some half month goals up when I eventually get back.

Congrats! Your red line is nuts lol. Good luck going forward.

I honestly have no idea lol. I guess I'm being overly aggressive at these guys with 73/10 for their stats. As soon as I'm in a hand with somebody with more in line stats, I play a bit more balanced and carefully. I still feel like I'm a bit rubbish on the turn/river and end up getting into too many showdowns with bad hands.

What I'm doing seems to be +EV at the moment, but I don't think its the most efficient route. Especially if I eventually move up stakes it's probably going to just end up being a pretty unbalanced and bad way to play.

What do the different color lines represent?? Which color line is the actual earnings??

Ahh forgot about the key lol.

Green: BB Won
Yellow: All-in Adj BB
Blue: BB won with showdown
Red: BB won without showdown

Balance: $45.18 (-$5.65)
Hands: 1376



Well it's been a lot longer than I expected, this may be a big post of crap, sorry if it all bores you to death

Real-Life

I went on a trip to eastern Europe to do some skiing (first time) with my girlfriend to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. That was half of February stopped me from playing; awesome time, but managed to get food poisoning while I was out there, was a rough week and flight home. Overall it was awesome, fully recommend it for anybody who thinks skiing is just broken legs and medical bills

Back home, I decided to take a couple more days off from everything and recover, only to get the same thing again. Still not got test results back, but I was completely unable to do anything other than sleep or the other things you'd relate to food poisoning Anyway, its more likely to be some sort of stomach bug, especially with the fact that I work in a hospital, stuff like Noro-virus goes around alot this time of year. Basically, between the holiday and this bug, I've managed to do nothing in February. I think I did two short sessions and had some painful losses (more on that to come).

I'm Feeling ok now, but still got a few niggling issues, suspected lactose intolerance after the bug is what is now hitting me. If you ever get a really bad stomach bug and the worst passes but you still have a rough stomach and struggle to eat, it's worth looking into it further, as some people seem to put up with feeling like crap when eating for years.

So now you're well versed in my life and internal organs; you're welcome.

Poker

As the graph and balance shows, I've had a really rough time. I'm still working through my results and hand reviews, but I'm interested in opinions and thoughts about what I'm doing and going through.

1. Playing is actually stupidly important
You guys made me aware of this at the start of all this, but its something I'm coming to understand. I've been going through some books pretty hard, and there's all this talk of balance unless you have a reason to exploit people, but be careful to not get exploited. Polarizing 3-bet ranges to keep balance and all that, based on bets and villain's range equity, etc. I'm very interested in learning more, but at $0.02NL, this **** just doesn't apply. It's really basic poker at this level, and I just need to learn how hud stats equate into play and betting frequencies so I can just start exploiting them. I'm only going to learn this through playing, so thanks for the heads up; I got there in the end.

2. Red line and general play
I'm happy overall with my small pot play. I'm typing this pre-google and research, so I'm sorry if I ask stupid questions (seriously, I have to google floating every now and then to remind me specifically what it is!), but my red-line is usually a good indication of me taking blinds and just doing well in small pots without going to showdown? (as the pot can't really get too big without showdown happening)
I feel really comfortable putting people onto ranges, and also abusing the plethora of players at my stake that have their VPIP/PFR on things such as 80/12, or 50/3. It's so rare that these guys raise flop and don't have a piece of the board, it's also pretty funny how far they'll take any pair in betting; they don't seem to care whether the pair is top or under, just that its a "pair". They usually get really nervous when I continuation bet as well, so that seems to be a good exploitation here.

I've been BB in a pot vs a limper with a hand I wanted to fold, but saw the flop for free, I missed the flop completely, checked every round met by villain's checks. I chuck a pot sized bet in (because pot was only 2BB anyway), and he calls with a full house. I have no idea what they were thinking.

3. Showdown
So far, I sound like somebody who thinks they know what they're doing, but for the last month I've been a losing player. I'm going to chuck some hands below, but my biggest weakness is getting into big pots, with crap hands. Again, it's something I'm going to annoy PT4 with extensively, but my biggest losses are just chucking top/two pair, top kicker into 3 of a kind or even straights and flushes. It's a weird mix of me just thinking I've got them on a crap hand incorrectly, and also the strange ways players will just check/call these hands. I know if I'm throwing money at them, then it's a good strategy against me, but I can't help but feel their line is -EV in the long run.

Nearly done

So anyway, probably a lot of pointless self reflection, but I'm interested if any of the other starting out micro stakes guys have the same issues or feelings on this. I'm aware that I have a tiny sample size, but at the same time; if you see a guy go 80/10 VPIP/PFR within 20 hands, then you know quite likely what you're dealing with at micro stakes. Hell, it's fairly common to see guys limp 100%, and raise/fold based on their hand.


So anyway, a terrible hand for you guys:
888 Poker - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 57.5 BB (VPIP: 42.11, PFR: 5.26, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 38)
UTG: 70 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 8.33, 3Bet Preflop: 11.11, Hands: 38)
MP: 60.5 BB (VPIP: 14.63, PFR: 14.63, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 42)
Hero (CO): 61.5 BB
BTN: 54.5 BB (VPIP: 21.94, PFR: 12.26, 3Bet Preflop: 4.76, Hands: 156)
SB: 49.5 BB (VPIP: 48.65, PFR: 5.41, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 38)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has T A

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, SB calls 2 BB, BB calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (7.5 BB, 3 players) 4 8 T
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 5.5 BB, SB calls 5.5 BB, BB calls 5.5 BB

Turn: (24 BB, 3 players) Q
SB bets 24 BB, BB calls 24 BB, Hero calls 24 BB

River: (96 BB, 3 players) 7
SB bets 17.5 BB and is all-in, BB raises to 25.5 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 25.5 BB

BB shows K 5 (Flush, King High)

Main Pot [148.5 BB]: (Pre 32%, Flop 46%, Turn 100%)
Side Pot#1 [16 BB]: (Pre 41%, Flop 47%, Turn 100%)

Hero shows T A (One Pair, Tens)

Main Pot [148.5 BB]: (Pre 35%, Flop 30%, Turn 0%)
Side Pot#1 [16 BB]: (Pre 59%, Flop 53%, Turn 0%)

SB shows J Q (One Pair, Queens)

Main Pot [148.5 BB]: (Pre 33%, Flop 24%, Turn 0%)

BB wins 139.5 BB
BB wins 15 BB

I think SB calling with K5 suited is a little bit loose, but not something I'd say is crazy. Flop bet seems fine? top pair and top kicker, can't complain.

Turn bet from SB should've been stupidly obvious, like I said earlier, these guys do NOT raise big unless their hand is big, would you guys fold here? I'm thinking of two lines for this:
1. Decision based on the assumption that my hand is not the best hand anymore, I have what, 5 outs? (3 aces, 2 tens?) seems pretty bad, and I don't think anything like fold equity will make up for it.
2. Decision based on the assumption I still have the best hand? Not sure how this would work, call and raise just seems off the table at this point.

Rest of the hand is as expected. I think I'm good and they're bluffing, they're not. I just played this bad :\

Anyways, if you got this far, thanks for reading. Still loving playing, can't wait to hopefully get better and get up to some stakes where this required fold equity balance stuff becomes relevant

When facing that much action from two other players, middle pair is never good on this board. Most of the time you are drawing dead on the turn. The flush hit, several straights hit and least of all a Q hit.

Depending on how you best learn OP, I find that videos of commentary on live hands in real-time helps me the best. You can find these all over YouTube. Off the top of my head I would recommend Alec Torelli and Doug Polk for high-quality free content.

You are using fancy technical terms here OP, but I am not sure that you have spent enough time studying the fundamentals of poker yet. At the low limits, ABC simple poker is all you need and the way to go until you have enough experience. You will need to play 100,000's of hands before it becomes second nature.

Glad to see you're keeping the thread up bud. Hope the skiing trip was nice, something I'd like to do someday myself!

I think whenever someone posted a hand they think they played badly they deserve admiration. I myself probably don't do this enough so props to you for this.

Flop bet sizing was absolutely perfect, on this texture definitely scaling up with all my value hands so good job.

Turn I think is just a relatively easy fold. The SB's flatted 3-way out-of-position, the BB's cold-called as well and his bet sizing screams strength. On a minor point, our hand just blows as well with no real river outs.

Keep on playing bud - if you ever find some live £50 or so tournaments nearby I really can't recommend playing one of these every few months as a lottery ticket. You're going to go there really focused, there to win, and playing your absolute A-game. They're going to be extremely infuriating, but they're your ticket to playing £1/£1 on a half-decent roll and moving your way up the stakes.

gl!

Yep, exactly this tbh. I'm just one of those guys who always wants to learn more and run before I can walk, (which is probably a fallacy of so many people here anyway) it's funny that I'm reading about all sorts of stuff, but I can't regularly beat bad players at micro stakes. Basically means I'm a bad player too ^^ I've already got those guys followed on youtube and I do check out their stuff time to time, although I'm a little sad that Doug's recent stuff seems to become a bit more meme/news related than full on hand reviews.

Yeah, I was off way longer than I wanted to be, but I need to keep on plugging away. Badly played hands are probably the best though. I'm embarrassed by how bad I played that hand, but nothing sinks in deeper than somebody else telling you that was stupid too; sometimes I give myself too much of a break. Thanks for the replies though