Ok, I finally got this thread in the appropriate location lol...

Back Ground
I have been playing poker for a few years but only VERY seriously for over a year. I had lost a significant amount of money (about -$1000 mostly online tournies and some live) learning what I know now. I focus on live low-stakes cash-games ($1/$2 $100 max bet at the casino and $0.25/$0.50 NL house games). The $0.25/$0.50 is way tougher than the casino for sure, because some of the players are pretty damn tough and most others aren't stupid. I'm 25 years old, have a full-time career that I love, a chess player and a poker player.

Bankrolling Myself
I saved up $2000 to bankroll myself for the $1/$2 game at the Ameristar Casino, and I told myself "If I lose this money, then it's probably because I'm a bad player and it's time to give it up." Now that I have a bankroll, I don't feel scared of losing the money, and I can now play to win. I started a session logger on my phone to record my live games. So far, for the past 67 hours of play, I have accumilated +$804 dollars playing the $0.25/$0.50 and $1/$2 games.

Purpose of Thread
I have read many people's threads about them "taking shots" and "trying to make it pro" and it's exciting to me. Also, I feel that there are a lot of talented people out here and you guys could teach me a lot through discussion. My goal isn't to go "pro" but I do want to make some money. Money is not an ideal ultimatum to have, but to be specific, I am going to use poker to pay off the $20,000 in student loans and to supplement my work salary. I play poker twice a week, so there will be two reports a week.


Tonight, I play a local house game of $0.25/$0.50 NLHE. It's not a big game, but it's really good practice and it's like being with my comrades. Plus, I think the play is a lot more advanced, usually because we tend to play back at each other and level one another. There are probably around 50 players on our local poker list.

Thank you all for reading my thread and I hope you follow it and give me your feedback. I welcome ALL criticism. Tell me I suck. Tell me I'm good. Tell me I played the hand wrong. Tell me a poker joke.

Salud,
Ruy

So, I played the tiny $60 buy-in, $0.25/$0.50 NLHE game for a seven hour session. I was stuck -$110 within the first hour due to calling with top-top and two pair to villains' straights made on the turn. After the third bullet I was getting good hands and action.

Unfortunately I don't remember the details of some of the key hands because I played while being extremely tired. I ended up going from $180 deep to being at $240 at one point (+$60). I ended up making a couple of bad calls and paid off my opponents. I ended the session with $184 for a +$4 dollar profit, which i tipped the host with because it was his birthday.

A lesson I learned from this session:
Don't play when my mind isn't clear and rested.

I found another local game that's $1/$2 NLHE through one of the $0.25/$0.50 guys. I got on the list and I can now play there Sundays and Wednesdays. But for now, I'm planning on going to Black Hawk Colorado (a 1.5 hour bus trip away) on Saturday.

Session Logger Report:

Hours:72
Profit:808
$/hr: $10.9/hr

Good luck! Subbed

Thank you, sir!

Hey, good luck up on the hill. I live in Denver metro too. I used to live in Golden a while back and made trips up there all the time. Damn 1 1/2 hr bus ride sucks...Does it make a lot of stops?

Hey, thanks! It's really not too bad considering I live in Cap Hill and it gives me time to read on the way. The bus makes a couple of stops on the way there. It's my only option in getting there since I don't have a car.

Living in Golden must've been a pretty nice setup for going up this hill. Do you no longer play there?

Cheers

Well, my eight hour session last night costed me two buy-ins (plus some). I played fairly solid, but got into some tough spots, coolers and a fold that costed me about $100 dollars. I wasn't playing my absolute best and the tables I sat down at were not ideal. I should have just walked away, but we live and learn.

I played at the Ameristar Casino's $1/$2/$100 SLHE game.

Let's jump to the epic fold I made. I want to believe it was a good fold in the long run, considering the read I had on my opponent and the position I was in.

H: AsJc
V: Ah5h

Hero bets pre-flop $8 mid-position to isolate and remove limpers. Villain calls with position on me. Heads up.

Flop: AcAx2c

At this point I raise $12. Villain calls.

Turn: 8c

Hero Checks. Villain Checks.

River: 6x

Hero bets $30. Villain raised $130 (max raise). I have seen him chase flush draws and slow play it a lot until the river. He limps a lot and I didn't know what I would be beating. Perhaps he could have flopped the boat, had me out-kicked or hit the flush.

Hero folds and villain shows his A5...

It was kind of a bad lay-down and then he left the table. It really felt like I was being trapped.

I feel like I should have bet out on the turn to see where I was at, but playing out of position is not my strongest point in poker.

I lost a huge pot against this young Asian guy who ended up going all in in a hand (~$150 total), which I KNEW he was on a flush draw, so I called him with top-top and sure enough, he was. But he hit his nut flush on the turn. Then I lost another $300 pot with two pair vs better two pair.


session result: -$415
hours played: 82
total profit: +$393
$/hr: $4.78/hr

Despite results and bad play, I didn't tilt, which is something to be proud of lol

I took a week off of poker and forgot to update my thread from this past week.

Here it is.
$0.25/$0.50: +$63

$1/$2/$100: +$28 (lol was a VERY swingy session)

Total profit: +$484
Total Hours: 92 hours

I haven't been able to play much lately unfortunately due to crunch-time at work. However...

About a month ago, I deposited $100 in bovada. I just wanted to play a tournament. So I bought into a deep stack tournament with $60 buy-in. After a couple of coin flip hands and 5 hours, I busted. With $40 left in the account, I decided to use it to practice heads-up at micro stakes.


Playing against the players at microstakes heads-up is like taking candy from babies... most of them play pretty badly. Even players who seem decent eventually start to crack.

I raise about 99/100 of the time with the button. It can vary depending on the opponent's style.

So after a bunch of $0.02/$0.05 and $0.05/$0.10 heads-up games over the course of a month, i'm at $112 dollars. I play one game at a time. I think my online speed chess experience gives me an advantage heads-up, because I have a good intuition about patterns and my focus intensifies one-on-one.

Them being relatively bad players makes it really easy to win.




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I Played a 0.25/0.50 live house game on Thursday. I played pretty good and won a couple big pots.

Session Profit: +$156

Total Hours: 101
Total Profit: $623

I'll be going up to the Ameristar on Easter Sunday. I hope there's a lot of cash game action due to the WSOP...

I just experienced the worst session ever. Lost $200 with top two pair against a rivered straight. Last hand, I lost $300 with pocket aces against a set of sevens. I added on $100 inbetween and that went due to bad play probably. All of this happened within 3 hours. I

Total hours: 104
Session result: -$600
Total profit: $23 (although u had to spend this to get gome. )

My bankroll is back to $2000, square one, but I'm contenplating quitting and using the money to travel somewhere. I am ok with losses but this one got out of hand. I feel good about everything in my life except for poker right now.

I just need to cool off though. I wonder how Dwan feels when he loses $5 million...

I'm going to continue playing heads-up on bovada at microstakes. I actually had a downswing there I forgot to mention where I kept getting rivered. My online bankroll is $80 right now.

We'll see what the future holds...





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