The journey has begun
03-06-2015
, 05:56 AM
I was introduced to online poker at a fairly young age. By the time I was 14, I had the privilege to quite often observe my uncle at the poker tables. He was back then, and still is a fulltime, winning online poker player. I would ask questions, and he’d answer. Sometimes he would invite me over, and I’d watch him play. I got really interested in poker, and I instantaneously fell in love with the game. He taught me some of the “fundamentals” of poker I believe, and he did a great job.
I was skeptical at first though, but he showed me his enormous hand samples, his cash graph, bb/100, VPIP, PFR stuff like that. I sort of understood variance and I observed how he played his profitable game at the tables. It was quite obvious to me that this is not a game of luck, it is not gambling, it is a game of skill, even though variance is a part of it. I had real life evidence! The theory mixed with him playing poker and commentating was enlightening.
He told me the strategies he used and I understood many of pokers concepts to a certain extent, +EV, Variance, Pot odds, hand ranges, value betting. Being pretty good at math back then probably made all these a lot easier and fun.
It didn’t take long until I started reading poker strategies, articles on the web myself. I was really into poker, but because of my age I could not play poker legally. At the age of 15 I moved to Denmark, and those fun poker nights came to an end.
As I turned 18, I made my first 50 dollar deposit, and guess what? I failed. Big time! I lost my bankroll in a couple of days. I gave it a couple of other shots, in the past 2 years, but the outcome was no different. I went broke again and again. This hurt my ego, and I did not even consider playing poker ever again.
2 weeks ago, I decided that I will give it another shot, an honest shot this time. I bought BlackRain’s E-book(Chrusing the micro stakes) on the internet, and gained some new knowledge. I also bought HEM2, made the 50USD deposit, and I started playing.
This is how far I got:
20K hands at NL2 on Pokerstars.
VPIP=13.8%
PFR=10,6%
WTSD%=21
W$SD%=48,5%
Agg=2,2
bb/100=0.07
After these 20K hands I sat down and reviewed my sessions. I have been playing poor poker in my opinion. However not losing my entire bankroll in a couple of days, after a couple of thousands hands is definitely an improvement not to be overlooked.
I am not satisfied with my result, so I set some new poker goals for myself, My purpose is to become a good poker player, not to win money. And with enough time, and effort I’ll become good enough to make money. But if making money is the main goal at the moment that won’t get me anywhere, it is just going to blind me, and it won’t allow me to play my best poker. Instead of playing poker without thinking on 12 tables, I’m going to increase the quality of my game, and decrease quantity.
I’m nowhere near being a good poker player yet, and I just realized that, I had to. Otherwise my bankroll would be vanished soon, once again.
The main goal right now is to learn as much poker as I can, and apply it at the tables. When I sit down and play, I’m sitting down with the mindset that I’m giving the tables my full attention, and I’ll make the best decisions, regardless of the outcome. The ups and downs I have no control over, but neither should they have control over me and my game.
I’m also going to learn poker every day in some kind of way. Books, session reviews, videos etc…
I ordered Theory of Poker and The Mathematics of Poker a week ago, but they haven’t arrived yet
. I’m pretty much going to read everything I can get my hands on, and play as much as I can.
I’m going to learn and play my best quality poker, and make another bigger review after 100-150K hands.
Have fun people
I was skeptical at first though, but he showed me his enormous hand samples, his cash graph, bb/100, VPIP, PFR stuff like that. I sort of understood variance and I observed how he played his profitable game at the tables. It was quite obvious to me that this is not a game of luck, it is not gambling, it is a game of skill, even though variance is a part of it. I had real life evidence! The theory mixed with him playing poker and commentating was enlightening.
He told me the strategies he used and I understood many of pokers concepts to a certain extent, +EV, Variance, Pot odds, hand ranges, value betting. Being pretty good at math back then probably made all these a lot easier and fun.
It didn’t take long until I started reading poker strategies, articles on the web myself. I was really into poker, but because of my age I could not play poker legally. At the age of 15 I moved to Denmark, and those fun poker nights came to an end.
As I turned 18, I made my first 50 dollar deposit, and guess what? I failed. Big time! I lost my bankroll in a couple of days. I gave it a couple of other shots, in the past 2 years, but the outcome was no different. I went broke again and again. This hurt my ego, and I did not even consider playing poker ever again.
2 weeks ago, I decided that I will give it another shot, an honest shot this time. I bought BlackRain’s E-book(Chrusing the micro stakes) on the internet, and gained some new knowledge. I also bought HEM2, made the 50USD deposit, and I started playing.
This is how far I got:
20K hands at NL2 on Pokerstars.
VPIP=13.8%
PFR=10,6%
WTSD%=21
W$SD%=48,5%
Agg=2,2
bb/100=0.07
After these 20K hands I sat down and reviewed my sessions. I have been playing poor poker in my opinion. However not losing my entire bankroll in a couple of days, after a couple of thousands hands is definitely an improvement not to be overlooked.
I am not satisfied with my result, so I set some new poker goals for myself, My purpose is to become a good poker player, not to win money. And with enough time, and effort I’ll become good enough to make money. But if making money is the main goal at the moment that won’t get me anywhere, it is just going to blind me, and it won’t allow me to play my best poker. Instead of playing poker without thinking on 12 tables, I’m going to increase the quality of my game, and decrease quantity.
I’m nowhere near being a good poker player yet, and I just realized that, I had to. Otherwise my bankroll would be vanished soon, once again.
The main goal right now is to learn as much poker as I can, and apply it at the tables. When I sit down and play, I’m sitting down with the mindset that I’m giving the tables my full attention, and I’ll make the best decisions, regardless of the outcome. The ups and downs I have no control over, but neither should they have control over me and my game.
I’m also going to learn poker every day in some kind of way. Books, session reviews, videos etc…
I ordered Theory of Poker and The Mathematics of Poker a week ago, but they haven’t arrived yet
. I’m pretty much going to read everything I can get my hands on, and play as much as I can.I’m going to learn and play my best quality poker, and make another bigger review after 100-150K hands.
Have fun people
