Well, i realise now that asking for the doomswitch to be lifted results in it being pressed down even harder. In a 200 hand session at lunch I just dropped 4 buy ins, thanks to the following:

AA - 10/6 nit decides to call with 54o oop against a UTG raise, chases a straight draw and stacks me when i river top set.

33 - i flop a set, raise the flop, villain can't fold 1010, which is good for him because he then turns a set of his own.

AJ - i call a 3bet ip from an agro 3bettor, and hit trips. Of course, on this one occasion he has AK.

Does anyone else reach the stage when you literally want to cry because you cannot win a single pot that's more than 5BB? They just NEVER EVER have worse. Anytime they raise, i am ALWAYS dead, no matter what i have. Why can they butcher every hand, make any number of mistakes, and ALWAYS HIT THE NUTS WHEN I HAVE THE 2ND NUTS. And whenever i make a mistake, i always get ****ing punished for it. i never hit runner ****ing runner when they have aces. No, i just river ****ing trips when it gives them a full house. I just river a straight when they have the higher ***ing straight. I flop the nuts, they don't even ****ing cbet, they just check/fold when they normally have a 90% cbet.

I ****ing hate this stupid ****ing game. I might just take up ****ing bingo, i'd have more chance of winning.

Bankroll: ****ed

Tilt decisions: about a million.

good try though.

Ok, well I’ve had an hour or two to calm down and think through my last couple of sessions, and think about where I go from here. As usual, I hate poker with a passion for about half an hour, and then have a real urge to get back on the horse.

My bankroll is now $60. So realistically, I’m only rolled for 2nl. So, 2nl it is. I don’t see what else I can do, as I’m not re-depositing and throwing good money after bad.

I’m going to set out a bankroll structure here, which I’m going to force myself to stick to.

2nl: Move up to 4nl at $80, move back down to 2nl at $40.
4nl: Move up to 5nl at $100, move back down to 4nl at $80
5nl: Move up to 10nl at $200, move back down to 5nl at $100.
10nl: Move up to 25nl at $700, move back down to 10nl at $300.

I tried to make it more aggressive for the lower stakes, and then give myself more of a bankroll cushion for 10nl/25nl.

If anyone can tell me/put a link on here showing how to post graphs, I’d be really grateful.

First session completed at 2nl.

Starting bankroll: $60.20

Current bankroll: $62.21

Total P/L: +$2.01.

VPIP:21
PFR:16

1st experience of 2nl was more or less as i expected - lots of open limping, lots of players seeing the flop, playing any two suited, etc etc. They fold a little more post flop than i expected though - on the right boards, cbetting does work. You can abuse the betsizing as well - 1/2 pot on an A high board when u have air always gets a fold if they whiffed, but then you can go 3/4 or pot for value when you hit.

There were a few reggish players on there so once or twice i left a table as it wasn't overly fishy - no need to sit at a tight table when there are a million fish elsewhere.

The main thing i need to do at this stake is not to overvalue top pair - and be prepared to fold when they raise, they always have it. it's easy to get into the mindset that it's ok to stack off with tp just because they're a fish and they're bound to have worse - but they play so many random hands they can show up with all kinds of 2p/trips/straights, and when their betting pattern says they beat top pair, most of the time they're not bluffing.

I think i've worked out how to post a graph - if so, i'll put one up shortly

Attempting to post graph, i hope this works:



Man i hate computers. I'm not computer literate at all. My internet on my netbook has totally screwed up, couldn't play at all this lunch. Did the same last night on the way home. I hope this isn't going to be a regular problem.

Wow, look at that, it worked.

See, this is why i hate computers. Why has it deleted the graph?? I'll try to post it again. It only shows about 200 hands so it's not exactly a great graph, but it's a matter of principle now - i want it to work!

So here is my graph for the first (nearly) 3k hands at 2nl.

Without checking the exact stats (I’m at work so can’t at the mo), my stats rougly read:

Hands: 3000
Profit: +$10

= 16.7 bb/100

Starting bankroll: $60.20
Current bankroll: $70

It’s going ok so far. I’m trying to resist the temptations of FPS – it’s just not a good idea at these stakes, there are plenty of spots for fat value, and you never know which villain just won’t fold 4th pair when you’re repping the flush.

I’ve been sucked out on horribly a few times (obviously it’s going to happen a lot at these stakes), but so far I haven’t tilted as a result. I felt some monkey tilt coming on once when my AA got cracked by 85o and QJo in the space of a dozen hands, but I told myself to stop being a moron and just to play sensibly and I’d get my money back sooner rather than later. It worked, but I have my doubts that I’ll be able to control it as easily if it happens at 25nl (past experience tells me so!).

I’m also trying hard to fold more – there’s just no real need to make thin hero calls. My red line is slopping down more than I’d like (I’d post another graph showing this after my next session), but I don’t see any way to avoid that really. All the value here comes from showdown, not from getting people to fold marginal hands, so at the moment I don’t care too much about my red line as long as my overall winrate is healthy.

Next target is getting my roll to $80, at which point I’ll move up to 4nl. Hopefully I can do this within the next few thousand hands.

I have my first $10 bonus due soon. I’ve read that I can unlock this bonus for the cost of just one FPP – is this correct? If so, should I unlock this straight away? I’ve read other ppl talking about using their FPPs for tourney entries rather than cash bonuses when you are a bronze/silver star (I’m bronze) but is my $10 bonus a separate bonus to the other cash bonuses that can be purchased through the store?

I’d appreciate any advice on this.

I’m now wondering about volume. Currently I’m playing mostly on a little netbook (going to/from work) and if I tile 6 tables i can just about get them all on screen whilst still seeing HUD stats. I’m concerned that if I start going for 8-10 tables (stacking) it might overload the poor little thing and make it spaz. Thing is, I’m not really bothering to take notes or focus big on reads at 2nl, I’m just playing ABC and trying to make standard decisions. So it’s not going to affect my reads if I add a few tables, and it would mean I could get more volume in, hopefully therefore meaning more profit, and moving up quicker. It will also make it more likely I can get to Silver VIP on Stars, which I’m keen to do – Bronze offers u nothing.

I used to play 8-12 tables of 25nl/50nl, so it’s not like I’ve never done it before.

My concern is, if I start playing more tables, I’m more likely to get out of control and tilt because I have lots of decisions flying about at once, and as soon as I start tilting, it’s much harder to take a breath and calm down if you’re playing lots of tables.

Hmm … this is where it always starts to go wrong. Impatience … I want to move up quicker …

I might try a short session of 8 tables and see how it goes (see if my netbook can handle it). If my graph resembles a train wreck after this I will be very annoyed with myself.

im on a netbook too - same setup acer aspire one. 6 tables max is fine. runs HEM too. ~

Dude. BANKROLL MANAGEMENT. You are tilting because when you lose a stack its a big chunk of your roll. Play 2nl and learn some patience.

This is too true, patience is not one of my virtues at the poker table. Have to say from reading your own thread that (although I think your BRM is too conservative) I admire your discipline for sticking to your own BRM and acknowledging that that is what works best for you and will get you the best results.

I did try adding a few more tables for a session last night – I upped it to 8, stacking them. Found it was not a good idea – although I had a profitable session, I just felt slightly out of control – the HUD stats are very small on my netbook, and as each table flashed up it took a moment to focus on stats, stack sizes etc, and I just felt each decision was slightly rushed as a result, and I wasn’t able to think as deliberately as I’d like. It was worth a try but I won’t be doing it again, at least not on my netbook – my laptop has a bigger screen, so I could probably do it more comfortably on that.

So here’s my 2nl graph.



2nl stats so far:

Hands: 4271
P/L: +$15.70
Winrate: 16.63bb/100

Starting bankroll: $60.20
Current bankroll: $75.90

According to my post a few days ago, I said I’d move up to 4nl when I hit $80, so I’m only a couple of buy ins away now.

Feel like I haven’t run great in the last 1k hands or so – had a couple of big coolers, flush over flush etc. That big drop on the graph was my AA getting cracked by KK in a 450BB pot. All in pre, he rivered a K – what made it worse was that it was a one outer, as the other K would have given me a flush. I’d rather it happened at 2nl than higher though!! What was good was that I didn’t tilt after, just stayed patient. Got most of my money back off that guy when I flopped a set and he spazzed with a gutshot (no miracle river that time lol).

I’ve had a few spots where I feel like I might be betting the river a little thinly – it’s always tempting to go for value as they call so wide. I guess if you don’t value cut yourself a few times you aren’t value betting thinly enough.

Here’s one where my instinct said to check fold the river, but I actually bet (I won’t say whether it turned out to be a successful bet or not). Do u bet, c/c or c/f this river? If we bet, I think it’s a snap fold if we get raised.

Villain is typical loose passive, 50/10.

2nl

Dealt to hero (UTG) AK

Hero ($2.40) raises to .06c
1 fold
CO ($2) calls .04c
3 folds

Flop ($0.13)

K103

Hero bets .10c
CO calls .10c

Turn ($0.33)

6

Hero bets .25c
CO calls .25c

River ($0.83)

J

Hero bets .45c

Thoughts?

Quick lunchtime session.

Approx 500 hands.
Profit: + $1.91

No particularly interesting hands. Got it in with AA vs QQ, he flopped a Q, i hit runner runner straight. There is justice in the world lol.

Bankroll just shy of $78, getting closer to the step up. I had a brief look for 6 max 4nl tables but couldn't see any. Are there not many running generally?? If there aren't i'll have to step up to 5nl instead. Was planning to do that at $100, may amend my bankroll structure slightly and do it at $90. Not sure yet.

Played 3 short sessions since the last update. 2 of these were standard 6 table sessions, and the other was a 12 table session – I was at home and managed to grab an hour in the evening on my bigger laptop, so I thought I’d just try to put in a bigger chunk of hands to take a step towards Silver VIP for the month. Ended up a BI in profit for that session, but it’s not shown on the graph below, as that’s taken from HEM on my netbook where I do most of my playing at the moment.

So, total results at 2nl so far (excluding laptop session last night):

Hands: 6182
P/L: + $23.29
Winrate: 18.84 bb/100
VPIP: 21
PFR: 16

Starting bankroll: $60.20
Current bankroll: $86.22

Here’s the graph:



Also, graph with redline.



Pleased that I’m keeping the redline reasonably stable considering I’m not pushing any big bluffs. I think it’s cbetting or not cbetting in the right spots mainly.

For some reason I can’t find any 6 max 4nl tables on Stars, so I’ve had to put back my move up. I’ll wait til I have $100 and then move to 5nl. I’m getting closer to the $10 Stellar bonus so that will hopefully speed things up a little.

Generally pleased with how I’m playing. I’ve just been trying to play conservatively, avoiding marginal spots where against better players I might look to get more agro with a semi bluff or whatever. Here I’m just trying to back off in any marginal spots, knowing there will be much more straight forward spots coming up soon. I’m almost never 3bet bluffing/squeezing light, I haven’t 4 bet bluff at all, and I’m just trying to keep pots small unless I have a big hand. I’m also almost never slow playing.

I don’t think I’ve run badly (I’m a couple of BI above EV) but don’t think I’ve run great either – a lot of the ugly spots I’ve faced have been where I’ve bet/folded and so these aren’t reflected in the EV calculation. I’m actually break even with AA in the 35 times I’ve been dealt it, so I’ve been coolered a number of times with it (got it in twice vs KK and lost both) and had to fold it before showdown a number of times. So I’m hoping my results so far are reflective of playing well rather than just run-good.

Here’s an example of a wtf spot this morning where I thought it was just better to fold and lose a small pot rather than go the higher variance route and get the money in. What would you do here?

Villain is basically unknown, over 10 hands he’s 50/30 with agg factor 10.

2nl

Dealt to Hero (Btn) JJ

2 folds
CO ($2.50) raises to $0.04
Hero raises to $0.20
2 folds
CO calls $0.16

Flop ($0.43)

873

CO bets $1.10
Hero is baffled … Hero folds

Maybe too tight but there are easier spots to get the money in – he can have AA-QQ, sets, 2pair, 1010-99, top pair, flush draw, straight draw, pair+draw, total air. The point is I have no idea, so I thought I’d wait for a better spot against him.

Here is the sort of spot I like (different villain):

2nl

Dealt to Hero (BB) QQ

UTG ($1.50) raises to $0.04
HJK ($2) calls $0.04
3 folds
Hero ($2.50) raises to $0.24
UTG calls $0.20
HJK calls $0.20

Flop ($0.73)

QQ3

Hero checks
UTG bets $1.26 all in
HJK folds
Hero calls $1.26

UTG shows 102

Thank you fishy.

good luck

hey man, thanks for the reply! just read through...

for the graph, u can just right click and save as 'png'.. then upload it as usual.. no need to print screen then... and as we are doing something similar, maybe we can do some kind of sweat session or something... let me know!!

good luck.. will be following..