Hey and thanks for reading. I will try to not make this a tl;dr but apologies in advance if it gets that way.

Working and family man who plays evenings and weekends and gets in about 20-25 hours a week or about 15,000-20,000 hands per month usually 2-3 tabling.

Really want to get rolled to consistently play at 50NL and perhaps higher. Used to be there a few years back but cash outs and poor decisions have held me back past 18 months or so. Patience has been problem #1 (get sick of grinding 5NL, 10NL etc to rebuild where I used to be). A month’s grinding often gets wasted when I get bored/inpatient and try my hand at a higher level I’m not rolled for. Hey, I can play there but that’s what BRM is all about. Doesn’t matter if it’s a bad beat…..you lose a stack it cripples you. Problem # 2 is a severe case of tilt. All kinds of tilt – the angry bad beat version, the “I’m getting no hands version” etc etc….

Essentially what does this mean? It means I have re-deposited too many lots of $100-$200 over the past 12 months and generally grinded well for a time before blowing it all in one or 2 sessions of poor BRM or monkey tilt.

GOALS:

Long Term Goals

• Progress from 5NL to 50NL ($2,000 BR) – by end of 2012 would be great but we’ll see.
• Control tilt and accept variance. Adopt a “**** happens” mindset, rather than a victim mindset. I realise I will still get angry/frustrated….the goal is to be able to maintain control and stop playing immediately if I feel that’s not possible.
• Progress through the levels passing through each level maintaining disciplined BRM. Move up when rolled and move down when required.

Short Term Goals (April)

• Start with $150 @ 5NL. Will make a deposit at a site later on tonight. Any thoughts on Black Chip Poker? Have had accounts at many sites but feel like a fresh start.
• No tilt. Log off when frustrated. Log off if a bad beat gets the better of me. Don't even think of venting in chat. Keep playing if I feel I am playing well.
• Mainly play 6 max and increase my opening range, especially from CO/Btn.
• Lose the ‘they can’t have it’ and the ‘they’re playing back at me’ mindset. They generally have it at these levels when you hit aggression. Go for value from value hands and learn to fold turn/rivers when the action tells me loud and clear I’m beat
• Profit. Sure, why not! Not putting a $ or BB/100 on it though. Play well is the goal.

Bankroll Management

Start at 5NL with $150.00
$250 – Move up to 10NL (Back to 5NL if drop back to $150)
$625* – Move up to 25NL (Back to 10NL if drop back to $375)
$2000 – Move up to 50NL……….and hopefully stay here.



* Depends on site and limits available. May be 16NL, 20NL etc and will adjust to 25 BIs for those levels.

So that’s it. Thanks for reading. Chip in with your thoughts anytime.

Australian I assume... Whereabouts you from? Swans for premiership this year? Have you thought about Euro sites such as NoIQ Poker. Really good site.

first! black chip is a good site, i play on carbon, i like hero the most i think


nvm about being first...

How'd you guess I'm an Aussie From Victoria mate. South of Melbourne.

All Hawks this year mate, as soon as we actually realise we can beat Geelong. Swans are a good team this year (usually are) and I have a soft spot for them. Old man grew up in South Melbourne and was in the cheer squad in the Bobby Skilton days. Was over the moon for him in 2005.

How's the traffic at that site at the micros? Don't want a site where there are only half a dozen tables of regs.


Welcome mate. Will probably start with Black Chip and see how it feels. Thanks.

Haven't tried Black Chip but looking at their site you should be able to get 150% deposit bonus and 10% instant boost (+$15 for you) so that should help you move up a level a little quicker.

Anyways, just wanted to say good luck on your goal. Cheers.

Thanks Reaper. Appreciate it.

Yeah, the Black Chip deal looks good but I couldn't deposit because of locaility. Apparently they don't take deposits from Australia?

@ IttyBitty - NoIQ Poker - Are all tables in EU or do they have US$ tables? Not sure how PT3 goes converting EU to $ so makes me hesitant.

Interesting spot v villain who has only been at the table for 5 hands and this is the first hand he's played. I had AA previous hand and got into a bet/3b/4b scenario with another player.

Maybe he thinks I'm just splashing around, even though he has as little info on me as I have on him. The size of his bet really threw me though. Why so large? Is he trying to protect a small PP or just trying to 'stack the fish' with something bigger? Is he just a donkey? Not really happy to 4b here because it essentially commits me for 160BB but calling out of position feels yuk too.


PokerStars - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

Hero (UTG): $8.19
MP: $4.24
CO: $12.43
BTN: $5.00
SB: $9.08
BB: $2.29

SB posts SB $0.02, BB posts BB $0.05

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero has Q Q

Hero raises to $0.17, fold, CO raises to $1.45

Ummmmm yeah its fine. Well it works with HM.

Thanks mate.

As the HH above suggests, I have decided to stick with Stars. The volume of players and games available makes it the best choice (for now).

I would fold the queens for now until we get more reads on villain. If you have an aggressive image then I doubt he'll 3bet that large with small pocket pairs, he'd be more inclined to call behind and set mine. He's mroe likely to be doing this with JJ+ which we would only have 40% equity against. Even if we throw in AK we are a slight dog.

A good read on tilt:
verneer on losing sessions
The youtube link in the post is dead, but this one works

Also, do you plan on reading any books and studying during this challenge?

Subscribed and good luck

Yeah, folded the ladies. I may have been ahead but I don't know this guy and thought a fold here was the less variance move which I think is important for me at the moment trying to control the tilt.

I generally always have a poker book open and own quite a few so no worries there. Verneer is excellent. I have his 2010 challenge pdf version and also his new book. Also have Harrington Cash (and Tourney) books and his 6 max online book. Have the Theory of Poker, Professional no Limit Holdem, Poker Blueprint, Dynamic Full Ring Poker and quite a few others.

Had a faily solid first session: 446 hands, profit $6.54.

qq is ez call at nl5, villain could be 3betting all pairs, not to mention probably AT+, and nl5 villains are way more likely to minraise/flat with aa/kk. unless you have a read on villain that says hes a supernit, folding qq for 30bb is laughably nitty in this spot

That big 3 bet looks to me like AK or something he dont wanna play postflp with but ragher get in pre.

you should be basing whether or not you call purely on whether or not you think you are ahead/have equity. folding to minimize variance is just being scared money. and we all know what they say about scared money

Thanks bjsmith.

In isolation I agree. However, as I said, reducing tilt is one of the goals of my thread because I often donk off my entire roll based on a big bad beat or cooler. So yeah, folding QQ here, in isolation, is -EV, but for my BRM it was probably +EV in this point in time to not flip for 160BB.

However, your point is valid and the goal is to make the right decision and then move on to the next hand regardless of the result of the hand.

Thanks.