My Grind Story to 1K Challenge This Month! I Will Not Fail
10-17-2010
, 06:38 PM
I am a pokerstars grinder and I have been playing for about 6 months. When I first started I did not know what I was doing.
Month 1: I hopped onto HUs $5/$10NL with $200. I was eager to play and was excited for winning $20 a hand in less than a minute. Eventually, I lost all of it in less than 30 mins. I was ****ing mad because I kept getting donked with garbage. Before I went back to poker, I did a self assessment on my game and myself. I was never good at anything in life but purely studying for school. I attend the University of California, Berkeley. My life is very routinized. I wake up everyday, exercise, get my ass to class, and don't come back home until late at night. I began to invest some of my time to study poker, read the books, and watch all kinds of poker videos.
Month 2: Before I made the decision to play poker again, I needed to work to build a BR. I uploaded $600 so I could get the bonus deposit from pokerstars. I started to play 6 hand .10/.25NL and made couple of dollars here and there. I didnt feel like I was making much for my time. My charts were up and down mostly breaking even.
Month 3: I started to move away from .10/.25NL to DoN $5. I played these for a while and I was running good with a profit of $100. The more I kept playing DoN $5 I felt like there was too many donkeys call me with off suited 2-3 gapper cards. This pissed me off and my card ranged was a bit more wider because I was either getting burned during bubble or getting donked like a whore.
Month 4: This month was the worst of all. I kept playing usual sessions of DoN $5 and none of my tables hit at all. I was running 10 tables and it was either i hit 6 to win a profit of $10 or lose 5 tables to break even. I admit my game is not great, but I was taking shots and it was upsetting. I was going to quit because poker was bringing me nowhere. I was down to $170 and I was going to just withdraw my remaining BR. But there was this one night, I heard Doyle Brunson's motivational words,
"There's an old saying, the only thing you need to play this game is a chip and chair, but to sit down and win against the best you need a whole lot more. Poker isn't actually about wining or losing, poker is about making the right decision, you gotta know when to call, when to fold, and when to push all in. When luck is just the door, you gotta come in through the window. That's where the skill comes in. You gotta have the courage to bluff, courage doesn't mean the absence of fear, but you gotta swallow that pride and you gotta throw your hand away when you know your beat. When your really on your game, you can look your opponent in the eye and you know if you got him or you know if his got you. It doesn't matter how good you are, everything can change when thoses cards are in the air. We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing. That's poker folks."
Month 5: I began to experiment playing different game structures. To be honest, I really enjoyed HUs because it requires a lot more skill. But I do not have the BR at this time that can take the hits. I learned how to better my game by playing DoNs. I kept the power of position in mind and stacking short stacks and waiting for them to burn out during bubble. Waiting for SS to burn out made me much more disciple when I was avg stack with premium hands. I also tried playing $1.10 90 players which was not as stressful compared to cash games. Hitting first for $1.10 was not playing enough for my time, so I decided to stick with $2.20 180 players. I was able to hit 2nd for $2.20s several times and things started to change. I also tried to play those guaranteed tourneys and I hit 5th for one of them. My BR was coming back to normal. This gave me the power to continue playing poker.
Month 6: Now I am still playing $2.20s. I do tilt here and there due to variance only because I see the most ridiculous donks like one card flushes against my premium pairs such as runner runners, getting gut shot, and the river ripping on me. And it's just not one time, but many times. I be getting Jack sh*tted on by button shoves. How do I deal with it? I just tell myself "That's poker." I just pick myself up again and would play another session later or tomorrow. You know when your tilting when you hop onto cash games. I tell myself there's always tomorrow to play poker.
I believe I came a long way in 6 months. I admit I am not a pro, so I will kindly ask for help from you guys, especially gals
.
My BR was down to $170 four months ago. Now it is at a healthy $825. I am trying to reach the $1000 mark before I start playing $12 180 tourneys. I have been play poker as a hobbie, but recently I have been playing a lot more. Most of my friends do not believe poker can be life changing and always say it's a gamble. I believe differently. This thread is about finding those who have similar struggles to mine.
I would like to hear how you started and hopefully we can help each other out. I am going to post my challenge of trying to reach the 1k mark. I will also be updating this thread with the hands people donk me with, so I can manage tilt better. You guys will laugh at it and I will too.
Thanks for reading
-IronmanMK0901
Month 1: I hopped onto HUs $5/$10NL with $200. I was eager to play and was excited for winning $20 a hand in less than a minute. Eventually, I lost all of it in less than 30 mins. I was ****ing mad because I kept getting donked with garbage. Before I went back to poker, I did a self assessment on my game and myself. I was never good at anything in life but purely studying for school. I attend the University of California, Berkeley. My life is very routinized. I wake up everyday, exercise, get my ass to class, and don't come back home until late at night. I began to invest some of my time to study poker, read the books, and watch all kinds of poker videos.
Month 2: Before I made the decision to play poker again, I needed to work to build a BR. I uploaded $600 so I could get the bonus deposit from pokerstars. I started to play 6 hand .10/.25NL and made couple of dollars here and there. I didnt feel like I was making much for my time. My charts were up and down mostly breaking even.
Month 3: I started to move away from .10/.25NL to DoN $5. I played these for a while and I was running good with a profit of $100. The more I kept playing DoN $5 I felt like there was too many donkeys call me with off suited 2-3 gapper cards. This pissed me off and my card ranged was a bit more wider because I was either getting burned during bubble or getting donked like a whore.
Month 4: This month was the worst of all. I kept playing usual sessions of DoN $5 and none of my tables hit at all. I was running 10 tables and it was either i hit 6 to win a profit of $10 or lose 5 tables to break even. I admit my game is not great, but I was taking shots and it was upsetting. I was going to quit because poker was bringing me nowhere. I was down to $170 and I was going to just withdraw my remaining BR. But there was this one night, I heard Doyle Brunson's motivational words,
"There's an old saying, the only thing you need to play this game is a chip and chair, but to sit down and win against the best you need a whole lot more. Poker isn't actually about wining or losing, poker is about making the right decision, you gotta know when to call, when to fold, and when to push all in. When luck is just the door, you gotta come in through the window. That's where the skill comes in. You gotta have the courage to bluff, courage doesn't mean the absence of fear, but you gotta swallow that pride and you gotta throw your hand away when you know your beat. When your really on your game, you can look your opponent in the eye and you know if you got him or you know if his got you. It doesn't matter how good you are, everything can change when thoses cards are in the air. We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing. That's poker folks."
Month 5: I began to experiment playing different game structures. To be honest, I really enjoyed HUs because it requires a lot more skill. But I do not have the BR at this time that can take the hits. I learned how to better my game by playing DoNs. I kept the power of position in mind and stacking short stacks and waiting for them to burn out during bubble. Waiting for SS to burn out made me much more disciple when I was avg stack with premium hands. I also tried playing $1.10 90 players which was not as stressful compared to cash games. Hitting first for $1.10 was not playing enough for my time, so I decided to stick with $2.20 180 players. I was able to hit 2nd for $2.20s several times and things started to change. I also tried to play those guaranteed tourneys and I hit 5th for one of them. My BR was coming back to normal. This gave me the power to continue playing poker.
Month 6: Now I am still playing $2.20s. I do tilt here and there due to variance only because I see the most ridiculous donks like one card flushes against my premium pairs such as runner runners, getting gut shot, and the river ripping on me. And it's just not one time, but many times. I be getting Jack sh*tted on by button shoves. How do I deal with it? I just tell myself "That's poker." I just pick myself up again and would play another session later or tomorrow. You know when your tilting when you hop onto cash games. I tell myself there's always tomorrow to play poker.
I believe I came a long way in 6 months. I admit I am not a pro, so I will kindly ask for help from you guys, especially gals
.My BR was down to $170 four months ago. Now it is at a healthy $825. I am trying to reach the $1000 mark before I start playing $12 180 tourneys. I have been play poker as a hobbie, but recently I have been playing a lot more. Most of my friends do not believe poker can be life changing and always say it's a gamble. I believe differently. This thread is about finding those who have similar struggles to mine.
I would like to hear how you started and hopefully we can help each other out. I am going to post my challenge of trying to reach the 1k mark. I will also be updating this thread with the hands people donk me with, so I can manage tilt better. You guys will laugh at it and I will too.
Thanks for reading
-IronmanMK0901
