i once made 2 buyins in like 5 hours without ever going to showdown.

Aggression works well live, only if you use it right.

Break-even last 150 hours at $1/$2 and $2/$5. Hate my life.

How many total hours have you logged/what is your average win rate?

Thats like ~3000 hands and if you were a marginal winner than this is completely standard variance.

I mean realistically this is to be completely expected over a long enough period of time.

then what the hell is the point of trying to be good player? its like, we have to question our integrity as being a "good player" throughout our whole lives.....even when things are going well. I put a lot of time and effort into becoming a better player every day.....and now youre telling me, that no matter how good i get at this game, i can still actually lose money over my entire lifetime? so in other words, some people actually ARE more lucky than others. nothing evens out.....its all hogwash.

It is an issue of how many hands you play and when playing live if you don't play enough its possible you can run bad your entire life if you are a marginal winner. Not probable, but possible.

My advice though is: deal with it

So why are you even posting when you are literally saying that this entire thread is pointless.

Okay

I been going through this forum for the past couple of days and I like what I've been reading so far. I'm trying to play full time and just see how it goes. I have had plenty of live experience and online and feel that I can make at least 10bb/hr at 1/2. I'm gonna post my stats here in about a month. I've read several posts here about talking about how much I should buy in for or how much I need to make it worth it. I really just wanted to ask what you guys think of my buy in strategy.

From past experiences, I've noticed that table selection is very important more than anything in a live scenario. I hate playing against LAGs n maniacs and usually make most of my money from call stations from playing TAG. Because of this, I usually buy in for $100 at 1/2 and after an hour if I like the table I add-on to table max which is $200. I've heard other people reply that you should always buy-in for the max but does anyone think my strategy seems OK? thoughts on this...

Where and when do you play?

horseshoe in hammond, IN tryin to play 6-10 hr sessions throughout the week and I found a juicy house game and looking for more...

Looks like a pretty good venue; 7 1/2 tables on a Monday night.

If you're a decent enough player, you should be able to grind that room for a decent return on a daily basis.

As for 10BB/hr, it's a pretty tall task in most LLSNL games, especially when you're short-stacking it at 50BB.

I'm not short stacking 50bb. Like I said, to me table selection is very important and that's what I was commenting on my buy-in strategy.

Buying for short and then adding-on when I feel that the table is good to play in which like in rounders, "If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour of the table than you are the sucker."

If I feel uncomfortable, then I feel that I can easily change tables n only lose at most 50bb from the table where I started initially. When I use to play often this was a huge whole in my game was just staying at the same table that I didn't feel comfortable in. Staying to the right of a LAG and staying in a game where I would never be able to see a flop unless I invested like 10% of my stack on one hand for example.

If you're scouting the table, it would make more sense to sit with as much stack as possible as oppose to as little as possible.

Bigger stack means that you're less likely to get into awkward spots and other players are less likely to make weird plays at you for whatever reason.

Let me rephrase that rounders quote for LLSNL "If u cant spot the many suckers at every LLSNL game, u r an idiot"

the reason why you stay with a smaller stack is so that it is "always" profitable to stack off with an over pair

I have been using a similar buy-in schedule. It works pretty well. I buy in for $120 (helps me keep from chipping below 50bbs. Often, if the table is good enough, i wont even have to top up b/c i find myself in good spots during the first hour. Lots of SS haters will call you a fool for doing this, but I find it is an effective way to manage risk while evaluating the game.

I play in a small cardroom and am very familiar with the player pool, and I still buy in for $100 when I first sit down. This allows me to see how everyone's playing today before I get in a sticky situation. It also allows me to easily jam draws against passive players to either stack up, or start to cheaply create a gambol gambol image. I like the 50-70BB initial BI.

I assume a majority or people use poker journal yes?

I was wondering where you factor in expenses like gas and especially chip fees. Is there any other way to include this besides not factoring it in altogether or adding it to my recorded buy in?

I don't use Poker Journal, I was an excel spreadsheet

I use Session Logger (droid app) then transfer it to a spreadsheet so I can calculate other things and make fancy graphs, etc...

I don't count gas, though as the price of gasoline goes up I guess I should consider it. But I'm a hobbyist so I don't really need to figure out my expenses down to the penny.

Tips and meals and such just come out of the profit. If I win $150 and tip out $20 during the night, my profit is $130.

I factor in the cost of gas and travel time (it is an hour trip to the casino and an hour trip back for a total of 115 miles)

Any commerce grinders itt?

Didn't mean to kill the thread



Let me revise, any LA grinders itt??

I factor in gas and tolls and parking. It KILLS my meager hourly I currently have going. $3 and hour at 1/2 over 67 hours. I kinda hate myself. I was a winning online player but I think having to play as a hobby since I don't have a nice 10BI bankroll is killing my game. Hopefully that changes around spring this year when AC picks up more as well. Plus I realize my sample size is tiny. I just see how bad people play and wish I could have more hot sessions.

I used to do the 100 initial buy in. I have strayed from it lately but in the midst of a slight downswing it seems like a good idea to go back to.

I also use an excel speadsheet. I dont factor in gas (the casino isnt that far from where I live) but I do factor in tips and food.