Hi, I'm Tal Shiar and new to posting on the forum but I'm a reader for a while now.

I play poker for over a year and in that year I played a lot of online and live poker and I've read a lot of books, articles, magazines and fora. In that year I became a winning player at the 50NL cashgames and at the MTT's with buy-in's from $10 to $30. Recently I cashed out almost my complete bankroll to finance a trip to the US (I'm from Europe). I didn't mind killing my bankroll since I'm a recreational player and not a pro. Actually I am quiet proud at the fact that within a year I won that much that I can finance a holliday like that.

Now I need to build a new bankroll. In my opionion I had two options. Depositing a few hunderd bucks and start playing at my old level again or grinding my way up, starting with a small deposit. Last option sounded nice to me. I would like to see if I'm capable yet again to grind my way up to a decent bankroll with playing the microstakes.

When I first started playing I played cashgames and MTT's at the microstakes. This time I want to grind the $3,4 SnG's at Pokerstars. This way, although I'm back at the microstakes, it's a new thing to me so I do51 can find some challenge it.

What I plan to do is the following:

1- Deposit $60 to PS. I know it's probably not enough if I would apply strict banroll management, but hey I want to give it a go.
2- Start grinding the $3,4 18 players SnG's
3- When I have a 100 BI bankroll for $3,4 I want to move up.
4- Keep on posting my progress, things I notice and posting the hands I have trouble with at this thread hoping to get feedback from you guys.

Why write about it? To keep myself grinding and not moving up too quickly. Maybe it's even an inspiration for some of you to give it a go yourself.

UPDATE:

Played 3 $3,4's, I won 1 and came 4th at another. So $27 - $10,20 BI = $16,8 up. BR = $76,8

Here's a short update:

I played about 8 more SnG's today and finished in the money twice, 3th and 1st. All in all a little profit.

However what struck was me the next. When we were playing 3 handed in the last game of the day, the two other guys were from Spain. They kept talking Spanish to each other and every hand they went all in. First the one guy and then the other. They made playing poker absolutly impossible. Since they were talking Spanish I had no idea if they were trying to push me out and play HU together. After asking friendly for a few times if they please could chat in English and they did not respond (expect with the one word Spanish I do understand....) I contacted the MOD but all he said in the chatbox was that they have to speak English. The rest he just ignored. It smelled like collusion......

Other things I noticed so far at these $3,4 SnG's is the fact that if you play decent TAG you can beat the game. A lot of guys keep calling when they hit anything. Even with bottompair. So you just have to wait for a good hand and they almost always pay you off. Offcourse I'm not sure yet if this is the way it goes at every SnG because my sample is far too small.

So today, again a little profit for my bankroll!

Two weeks now I am grinding the $3,4's at PokerStars. Some of you might disagree with the term 'grinding' because I do not have the time to play tens or even hunderds of SNG's on any given day. But almost everyday I get to play a few of the SNG's. Since I'm new to Pokerstars I thought I would needed some time to adjust. But so far so good.

My first goal was to reach a $100 bankroll within 2 weeks. And due to a 'streak' I reached my goal a bit sooner than expected My Sharkscope stats after two weeks are:

GP: 78 Av. Profit $2 Av. Stake $3 Av. ROI 49% Total profit $129

If you take a peak at my graph it's quiet a straight line up. I have no idea how to incorporate a picture from my computer onto the forum (if anybody can help me with that, please....). As said, especially the ROI isn't what I expected or even dreamt of. BUT, 78 games isn't really what you can call a decent sample

In these few games I already noticed a few things that keep comming up. A lot of players seems to suffer from what I call the 'Less then Thousand Chips Stress Syndrome' (LTCSS). What I mean with LTCSS is that whenever a player has less then a thousand chips they start shoving a lot of hands. They do not seem to have any regard for the amount of BB's they have or what their M is and how to play accordingly. A lot of the times, even with blinds of 25/50 players shove when they still have a stack of for example 950 and it's folded to them. Because of this a lot of players start calling the shoves with a wide range. And this happens a lot during the first 3 levels! Which means in turn you can use the shove whenever you have a good hand.

Also the calling ranges preflop seem to be pretty wide. A lot of players call down 2, 3 or even all streets with hands as J3, Q5 or A4. Which is great because when you have a good hand they will pay you for sure if they connect with the board. Also, if you miss and you make a c-bet and get any resistance you know to quit the hand.

Last thing is that, as in a lot of other MTT's and SNG's, around the bubble is where you can build a big stack. A lot of players then tighten up, so you can open up a bit an steal a lot of blinds.

So my overall tactic so far, and it seems to work, is to play TAG and wait for a good hand. Then when you reach the bubble, open up and steal a lot of blinds.

At my last update my bankroll was $76,8. Now it's at $146,9. It could or maybe should have been higher. But I couldn't resist to play a few MTT's as well, so a part of my bankroll went to the tourneys. Overall I'm satisfied that I got to my first goal sooner then expected so I treated myself with some MTT's

My next goal is to reach a $200 bankroll before October 1st. Please feel free to discuss and criticize my experiences and my observations.

i'm doing the exact same thing as you at the moment, "grinding" $4-$6 KO SnG's on Stars.

keep the updates coming.

cheers.

gl

Gl with the grinding! I hope you'll reach your goals and enjoy the game.

A short update:

For me it's time for a party I have already reached my goal of wanting to reach a $200 bankroll before October 1st. Yesterday I reached a roll of $203.03!! A lot faster then expected I reached it.

My new sharkscope stats are:

Games played 89 Av. Profit $2 Av. Stake $3 Av. ROI 64% Total profit $194

I'm very happy with the results so far. I know that it is probably impossible to keep having a 64% ROI over every 89 games I play. To be honest I'm aming at a ROI of about 10% and then I would be very happy. But as long as it lasts I'm enjoying it. Let's see what happens the next 1k games

But now I'm having problems adjusting my goals. I want to have at least $550 before I step up a BI. I'm at $200 now and hoped to be at $550 at the end of the year. If I keep up this pace I'll make it much sooner. But I think it's important to take small steps and don't adjust your goals to soon. So my new goal is to reach $300 before October 22th.

I'll keep you posted!

Tal?! thats an Hebrew name, Israeli?

I moved from the 2/180 to the 1.75/18 ,im learning the game watching vids, im thinking about my own challenge.

Good luck with the grind.

Nice going Tal, impressive stats and great work on achieving your goal so quickly! I am in a similar position to you, trying to move up to the next level of sng. I've played about 2k games at the $3 level and have since started $5 9man sng's.

I've also noticed the 'LTCSS' thing. It seems a real psychological barrier that once they fall below 1000 they start to panic and make extreme moves just to get some chips back, which often end in them getting knocked out by better hands. There's so much value in the first few rounds, as you mention in your post, bad players will call you down with junk and you always get paid off.

When I first started playing the $3 sng's I remember reading loads of guides which all said to play tight the first few levels and let the donkeys knock each other out. I am glad I went against the grain though and I always get involved in lots of pots with them at the start because this is where the easy chips are, not later on trying to squeeze chips out of the nits. This way you have a nice stack by the bubble and can happily steal the blinds while tighter players are just trying to fold into the money.

Gl with your new challenge, keep us posted.

Hi Perdanny, my name is not Hebrew. The Tal Shiar is the name of the Romulan Secret and Intelligence Service of the Romulans from the Star Trek series

I watch video's as well and read a lot of strategy forums and books. Besides that I think the best way of learning is playing as many hands a possible. Good luck with your challenge and let me know how it works out!

How are your $5 sng's going?

I indeed play the opposite from how I play at MTT's. Then I do start tight and lose up a bit later on when the blinds get up. But at these Sng's I find it quiet easy to double my stack early on and that way it's much easier to play ITM. It's a combination of donk opponents and the LTCSS, which is kind of curious but I like it!

I've been playing the $5 9 man sng's for 2 weeks now and have managed to get in 78 games. I feel like it's gone ok so far and even after a string of sick beats my stats seem decent. I'm up $102 with an roi of 23.8% and I feel competent enough compared to the competition to stay at this limit now. To be honest there isn't that much difference in the quality of the players to those in the $3 9mans. Action is ever so slightly tighter and maybe some players are better at bubble play but other than that it's not much different.

How's your challenge going?