I'm an American player who is still fairly bad at the game. I used to play a lot on Pokerstars, and for whatever crazy reason I had, I pulled my BR from there and deposited onto UB. I had quite a bit of money on UB that I know I'll never see again - but what can you do? I really missed playing poker, and the underground live games that we have here around town I'd rather not play regularly in due to sporadic fights over suckouts, games getting robbed by thugs or busted by cops. Maybe I'm just chickens**t and should take chances more often to play in them since they're really soft - I dunno.
I got a strong urge to play online again a few months ago, so I threw a little bit of money on ACR, and started playing 2nl. Man, was it exciting and fun - just as I remember it! So now I'm hooked once more to online poker and decided I'd start a thread to help me stay disciplined as I try to learn and cement concepts into my head.

I will be getting shoulder surgery done this Friday (11/1/2013) to repair an old rotator cuff tear. I should have gone with arthroscopic last year after it happened, but I didn't think it was that serious until I had an MIR a few months after the injury. So now, over a year after the injury occurred, the surgeon I decided to go with told me that the muscles have atrophied and are probably useless, and he'll have to redirect some chest muscles to compensate and hopefully get back most of my ROM without any pain. I will be out of work for the better part of 3 to 4 months and during this time, I want to concentrate on my game as much as possible. Probably won't be much playing in November due to taking pain meds and being doped up. For the month of November I want to read, watch videos and work on the math and theory behind the game. After I feel a little better, and am not loopy on pain crap, I'll start playing again. I just bought Poker Math That Matters by Owen Gaines from Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Poker-Math-Tha.../dp/061539745X and this will be the first book that I read and work on.

Here's my current graph:



This graph is after I moved up to 5nl. I'm missing about 50k hands that I played at 2nl where I won enough for 40bi's for 5nl. The laptop that had the 50k hands was stolen in a break-in at our house sometime around early September (2013 hasn't quite been good to me). I've gotten with ACR support and had the hands emailed to me, but I can't seem to import them into HEM2 for some reason. Not too concerned about them really, as 5nl is where I'll be until I get 40bi's for 10nl. I have 27% rakeback through thenuts.com for ACR, so that should help - unless there's a valid reason I should transfer to ACR's VIP deal. Need to research this a little I guess. I'm about to review my last few sessions, and will load some hands into the next post I make.
I'm not sure what more to include in this introductory post, so I'll just end it with this great quote:

Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.

good day,


I believe what is the most important for a poker player at micro limits, is not to build a big enough roll, but to develop a set of skills that are ahead of an average micro limits player.

IMHO, 40k breakeven at nl5 indicates you lack some very basic poker knowledge. My suggestion would be to put half of your grinding time into studying poker concepts.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69...hreads-430489/
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/78...ntents-397190/

poker player does not learn when playing poker. If you aren't studying, you are losing money.

Hope this helps, GL

You're right Watermelon, a lot of what's in that graph is definitely the result of bad play - no doubting. I'm attempting to be more positionally aware, and working on ranges that I should play in each position and adjusting those ranges to the player types that are at the table.

I used to read the hell out of the COTW thread leading up to when I stopped playing online. Thank you for both of the links!

Thank you Watermelon! Any advice given to me is fully appreciated and will definitely help. I'm going to be devoting a lot of time to studying in the next coming months. Once I'm able, I do plan to start a ratio of 2:1 study vs play.

Hi Riverburns.

Sounds like you have a good attitude coming in. One of the first chapters in PMTM is the two keys to good poker. One of the keys is accurate assumptions. You develop good assumptions through attentive playing experience, so don't discount playing in the learning process. I think your 2:1 ratio sounds good. You also have to allow some fun time with the game. It's a game after all

I wrote PMTM, so if you have questions or whatever, feel free to PM me. Also, there's a thread on the book in the Books and Publications forum.

Best of luck learning and here's to a quick recovery from your surgery.

Take care,

Owen

Subbed.

Good luck, and take care while recovering!

I read over the Table of Contents and the the Introduction today, and I've noted a couple of chapters that I will have to focus on more than others. I really wish that I would have purchased this when it was first published. I don't think my poker foundation has ever gotten any where near solid, so this book will definitely help to build it up.
Thanks Owen!

Thank you!

I'm really diggin hem2. I've been looking at my positional stats, and I think I'm going to spend the evening going over where I am for the month by position.
Leaving the blinds for last - that's where I need to make the biggest adjustments.

EP:



I'm playing somewhere around 11%vpip.

Hands:

Villain stats in 530 hands: 28/22 with 11% 3bet in BB
I think I'm okay calling here a good bit of the time



MP is very bad loose/passive player and there's no way I want him to fold. Btn is bad tag 19/17 out of 860 hands, I don't want him to fold either, and I'm hoping for any broadway card to come on turn or river. River was snap called, so maybe jam in the future?




MP:


Some coolers, but a lot of bad play here as well. 13%vpip

Villain is bad loose/agg player - 36/24 in over 2k hands. I have noted that he will play top pair as nuts.




Player on btn is 56/18 with 10% 3bet on btn in 400 hands. I have noted him shoving AK/AQ on the flop on simliar boards.



Will post CO/BTN later. Got to help my kid with homework.