I wanted to share with you my poker journey over the last few months and get some advice from those with valuable insight on the subject matter.

Firstly, let me introduce myself - my name is Andy and I have recently graduated from university after completing a degree in marketing. I have been playing poker for 3 years and I used a substantial amount of the spare time I had at uni to read poker books, watch poker on tv and play poker on a daily basis in order to progress in the game.



Financially, poker got me through my final year of uni and the site that I was using was FTP. My aim was to stop withdrawing the money to spend on food, nights out and holidays when I graduated, so that I could get to an advanced level in the game with appropriate bankroll management, which would allow me to enjoy the finer things in life. Everything was going well until FTP got shut down, which froze the funds that I had in my account, and after learning that I would be lucky to ever see those funds again, I had to start over.

After trying out a few sites that had poor software and spurious terms and conditions on withdrawing, I decided to start playing at Pokerstars because they have a good level of traffic and a well established brand in the market.

I deposited $50 in my account and start playing one table $3.50 SnGs. Initially, I found it difficult to adapt my strategy from the types of players I was playing at $10 SnGs because the players are a 'different kettle of fish'. I was struggling to be ITM and when I finally adjusted my game, I hit a downswing - my strong pairs were being cracked despite demonstrating strength pre flop, I was losing all of my coin flips and I thought I was going to go busto (I know it has happened to many of us).

I was down to my last $10 and I was playing $1.10 SnGs, and I stuck to my game because I believed I was doing the right things, as I was nearly always getting my chips in when I was ahead, despite the bad form.

I had finally settled, recaptured form and after my bankroll got back to $50, I started playing $3.50 SnGs. When my bankroll reached $220, I started playing $7 SnGs. The next stage was to jump up to $15 SnGs, which I believe is a big jump. I have dabbled in this area and have shown a good degree of success, but I want to strengthen my bankroll further before I establish myself regularly at that level. I have also played a few cash games in NL25 and made approximately $200 profit, but I believe that my style is tailored to accomodate 1 table SnGs, so I think I will stick to this level.

My bankroll is currently $1150, and this comprises of bonuses offered by Stars, as well as money from cash games & SnGS (see graph). I also had to withdraw withdrew $280 to help me cope finally before I secured a job a couple of weeks later.




The reason that I am posting this thread is to welcome all advice and constructive criticism on how I should accomodate the transition from $7 to $15 one table SnGs. What kinds of targets should I set myself in order to help move up?

Furthermore, are there any sites that I should consider playing on in order to benefit from their rakeback systems?

Good luck at the tables, maybe see you there!

Andy

To be brutally honest, there isn't going to be much of a difference really. There will still be fish there who go broke with any top pair and still people who are just on there to donk-around. The only big difference (imo) will be that there may be a few more regs, and that they'll be playing a tonne of tables (and therefore playing a very rigid and set style). Note take as much as you can on regs, and adjust your game accordingly, as there will always be fish around, and you'll always be able to beat them. But if you can beat the regs, and find ways to just be +EV against them, you'll have no problem beating the $15 level.
Sorry that my advice is vague, just woke up lol.
GL out there sir.

Carlos, I see what you're saying. I feel like I'm currently one of the regulars at $7 and I do adjust my strategy vs the other regs. Although this took time to identify and evaluate their strategies, I certainly feel that analysing their play has paid its dividends and I will attempt to recreate this at the $15 level.

Fish will pay us for their rest of their lives, so I have no problem if they suck out every now and then to keep them hungry for more, but that's why I want to ensure that my bankroll can absorb these losses.

Thanks for your insight.

Does anybody else have any recommendations?

You are very lucky you didn't go busto. Your BRM sucks.

Hi hater

It amuses me how you say I'm 'very lucky' that I didn't go busto.. I would have just reloaded. People who add value to the world actually get paid money (believe it or not), so it would have been a minor bump in the road, you piece of trash.

Consider yourself lucky that I am replying to you.

Back to the trailer park you go.

I think the jump your talking about is a minimal change in the quality of players... they just have more money thats all. The real change will come when you get up above $22, now your talking about more capable players that are smarter about how they put in.

Maybe fill everyone in on how many tables you currently play. Are these reg. or turbos? If I was you I would try to add more tables at the level you are currently beating. Even at the 7's with enough tables you can make an ok hourly. Gl!

np Duck, nice to see an OP who thanks people trying to chip in! (not that i'm asking for gratification mind! :P)

But yeah, as said by 3sixes, the skill level won't change too much just yet (imo).

And with regards to BRM, it's not something i'd worry about too much unless you're winning and losing lots (% wise) of your BR a day. It's all about what you feel comfortable playing and what you can get out of yourself, and the money you have in front of you.
Bigger edge, Regular Sit+Go's, Playing a low variance style, all examples of how you can play with a smaller BR (assuming you're a winning player ofc hehe)
GL out there sir and keep the forum updated on how you do.
Cheers.

To be fair, the guy above is right (strictly in terms of BRM), and you didn't really specify that you had the ability to redeposit if necessary, especially since you mentioned the fact that you had to withdraw $280 for expenses. That doesn't sound like somebody who's "swimming in the money".

With that aside, good luck to you. Did you get a job related to your degree? What are your aspirations in poker?

In terms of advice, you do need to consider some things before you move from $7s to $15s:

How much are you actually willing to lose? You say you can redeposit if necessary, but are you willing to dump a whole $1000 dollars more if necessary? If not, then I think you might consider staying at the $7s for a little while longer. You might not have a big enough sample size to know approx. what your true ROI is, and everybody can get a bad distribution of cards over the course of a month (or longer)--don't think you are immune.

Also, how many tables are you playing at once? If it's less than 10, I would strongly recommend adding tables before going to a higher buy in. Think about it--if you're 12 tabling the $7s, you're still investing more/hour than if you 5 table the $15s. You will also reduce variance, increase your $/hour, earn more rakeback, and develop into a more finely-tuned player.

I guess that's some good starter advice to you. Good luck to you.

Oh yeah, stay with pokerstars for sure. They are the best. I hate not being able to play there right now..

Admittedly, my BRM was insufficient at the start of my career with stars, but there are constructive ways to present points of view. Of course after being a reg on FTP at $10 it would take real discipline to follow strict BRM starting 'afresh' on Stars, down to no fault of my own (FTP).

I play regular games, as I believe that turbos force people into make moves and this contributes to an increase in variance (this is just my opinon). During the week I usually play only play 2 or 3 games at a time because I find it difficult to concentrate more after a long day at work. At the weekends, I often play 4 or 5 games at a time during the day, but this is only for a few hours, as I like to go out clubbing.

Carlos, I do try and maintain a consistent playing style, and a large part of this is down to not allowing bad beats to affect my play. There are periods of time when I can't seem to win, even though I get my money in good and runs of good/bad form always seem to come in patches, but I was reviewing my stats on FTP and I was ITM 39% of the time, and I do make consistent profit, so I do like to think I am a winning player . Out of interest, what game and level do you play?

Zack, I did get a job relating to my degree, and I am lucky that my university pushed me to gain experience in a variety of different sectors of marketing, which provided me with a range of different business opportunities. I certainly am not swimming in money, but I work a lot because I like to travel abroad a lot and this needs money to be maintained - I had to withdraw $280 for holiday expenses. My aspirations in poker are to reach a significant level where I can live more comfortably, if I make $600 a month from poker I would be content, over the last 2 years it averages at $200 per month.

I know I am not immune to a bad distribution of cards, and the points on my graph where they decrease are examples of this, but I acknowledge things can get worse. I have been playing for a few years, I am not a 'happy go lucky' guy who has enjoyed a short spell of good form. What would you say is a sufficient sample size to increase the validity of my ROI on Stars? Indeed I am not willing to invest $1000 on my BR, so I will increase the number of tables I play. I often feel that when I play too many tables, I find it more difficult to read betting patterns and make a decision on where I am against a player (maybe I'll start using software again), what do you find helps most with multi-tabling?

Thank you all for your advice, if anyone has any queries, please don't hesitate to ask.

I wish you all luck at the tables.

Wrong forum -> STT Strategy
(Can a mod move it?)

Definitely the wrong forum, which is why it stood out enough for me to comment on it in the first place Either STT strategy or PG&C would be more appropriate, but whatevs.

Back to OP: It's hard to say what a good sample of games is. I'm sure that since you play reg speeds it's considerably less than the games I play. The actual number isn't important--I was merely suggesting that it's possible that you're running somewhat hot. That doesn't mean I'm suggesting you're a bad player. A person can have a 20% ROI over a sample, when in reality, the are only like a 12% winner or something.

I totally agree with what you said about reg speeds/turbos. The highest ROIs are definintely sustainable at the regular speeds. The reason why people play faster games is to potentially increase their hourly rate by playing more games. I play super turbo sngs, for example, and I average about 110 games per hour, with the average sng lasting about 6.8 minutes. Do you know what my ROI is? Right around 0%. Do you know what my hourly is? Between $30-45 an hour. Rakeback pro FTW You should always be looking to maximize profit. If reg speeds are where you can do that, then obviously that's your game, and you should stick with it. I personally love the high-paced games. People still make plenty of mistakes, and while I experience large swings, these are the games at which I am best.

As for software, I would just go with HEM, it is the top of the line. My PERSONAL favorite is actually using a tool called Tournament Indicator. Instead of actually being a HUD, it's an attatchment to the bottom of the table. I like it because it doesn't look nearly as cluttered, and it's what I used back when I was a donk and didn't know there was a such thing as HEM. With that said, if you are gonna get HEM anyways, you would have to realllly like this other tool to spend the extra money on it, so probably HEM would be sufficient for most people.

Sorry if I rambled a bit. I just woke up, and I'm therefore certainly not in a mood to edit. gl again.

-Zack Ryan

How much did you pay for TI? The current price of 79 Euros or over $100 is unreasonable, given that PT4 and HEM2 are less than $90. Is there a better or cheaper pot odds HUD available?