Hey guys,

I've played for the last couple of years and have posted in the microstakes forums here for the last couple of months and figured this would be the best place to put my crap about grinding the micro stakes.

My current bankroll is around $900, and is from a mixture of grinding $10NL and $25NL and clearing a bonus on Full Tilt. I worked my way up to $1,300 at one point, but moved up to $50NL and got annihilated. Moved back down after losing around a 1/3 of my bankroll and have been there and thereabouts ever since.

The last couple of months has led to a pretty big reduction in volume for me. I was only getting in around 15,000-20,000 hands per months before, but I'm currently sitting my final year exams at University so I've had to cut back. As of 1st June, however, I'm free! As a result I'll be putting in a ton more volume.

Here's the plan:

• Initially play $10NL, reteaching myself to play ABC poker and cutting out the fancy play which costs me money
• Play between 6 and 12 tables at a time (8 is usual)
• Play between 1,000 and 2,000 hands per day
• Move back to $25NL when I feel that I'm playing my A game again and still staying away from FPS
• Quitting if I lose 30 buy-ins at $10NL

The reason I've decided to go back to $10NL is because I'm certain I can beat it with a fairly robotic approach to the game, and with this knowledge I will hopefully be able to prevent myself from resorting to 3 barrel bluffs which I convince myself can work despite evidence to the contrary. Once I get my confidence back in my own self-restraint, I'll move back to $25NL, probably reduce the number of tables and start moving up again.

Hopefully I'll have the motivation to keep posting graphs (winning or losing) weekly and monthly and lifetime to show progress.

Luckily I have rakeback and free access to Cardrunners through TFPT, so hopefully I'll be able to push on and make something of this. Otherwise, the plan is to cash out my remaining $600 and think again.

Everything looks good, wish you the best of luck.

I'd make one small suggestion about this though. Instead of moving when you "feel" you are playing your A game, perhaps set a bb/100 target over x number of hands that you want to achieve at the 25NL. I think being a little more specific, saying I want to beat 25NL at 4bb/100 before I move up, will be more beneficial to you in the long run. Obviously, it's your challenge and we wish you the best, just think that may help .

BAEVentures

That's sound advice, BAE. I'm not sure which way I'll go yet. I think I could apply different advice to myself on the basis that I've been playing for a couple of years now and have a vague clue of what's going on, coupled with the fact that I have the bankroll to support a move up fairly quickly. However, If I'm telling myself that losing $300 means I quit, does this mean that my bankroll is truly $300? If so, perhaps I should stick around for a while.

I think I'm going to set myself the goal of playing 30,000 hands this month and if I can win at 4BB/100 then I'll be up $120. I should be able to beat the micros pretty easily if I stay solid, though. So I'm going to aim for 8BB/100 over a 30,000 hands sample

First day's graph to come...

GL op hope you hit the right side of variance

So this was my first session, and I have to be pleased with how it went. I started off playing 8 tables in a first session of around 900 hands and then played 12 tables for a second, shorter session.

My All-in EV suggests I ran really well, but it was just a case of winning flips. I did get AKdd in against AKss later and he went runner-runner flush which sucked, but still.

Not really sure if there are any hands to note. Looking back there weren't. I generally went to showdown with TPTK+ hands and didn't try hero-calling.

However, having said that...


Full Tilt Poker $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 4 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (SB): $11.08
BB: $11.20
CO: $10.77
BTN: $5.76

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is SB with 3 A
1 fold, BTN calls $0.10, Hero calls $0.05, BB checks

Flop: ($0.30) K A 5 (3 players)
Hero bets $0.20, BB folds, BTN calls $0.20

Turn: ($0.70) T (2 players)
Hero bets $0.40, BTN calls $0.40

River: ($1.50) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.50, Hero calls $1.50

Final Pot: $4.50
Hero shows 3 A
BTN shows K 9
Hero wins $4.20
(Rake: $0.30)

I time-banked and called here. It just didn't make any sense for him to be able to call two streets and then bet a board that needed a Jack for the nuts. No raise = no two pair or better here? Beaten by a lone Jack or Rivered two pair, with only KJ probably making any sense. His snap-calling of my bets led me to call. Should've bet pot on Flop and then more on the Turn really. But still. edit: Looking back it was the pot sized bet he made too...

Couldn't get myself motivated to play in the evening. Just wanted to book a winning day. That's not how I usually think, but I hadn't played in a while and it's always nice to see green in HEM.

Moving on...

Oh, and thanks for various 'good lucks'. Appreciate it.

Don't want to be a hater but isn't that exactly what running good means?

Good luck with your challange

raise pre here always.

Hey all - nothing new added yet but I'll be catching up on the last few days of play today.

I haven't done very well for myself. Played looser than I should have and tried to find spots to make moves which weren't there. Today for example, I was two buy-ins down after about 1,000 hands and decided that I should tighten up. I played as well as I ever have really and managed to make some money just playing ABC, only to run bad and get cold-decked in the following few hands. You'll see what I mean later.

I also feel I'm losing a decent amount of money in BvB situations. I'm going to take a look at my HEM stats to see if that is the case. I'm raising up the SB with A4/K9 etc. and c/f a lot of flops. Need to play fewer hands from blinds, methinks.

Proper day-by-day reports coming soon...

you should cbet bvb a lot

and you should widen your openingrange to any A, any K, Q5+, J7+, T7+, 97+, 87, any connector, any one-gapper, and a couple of suited hands more

8bb/100 over 30k hands sounds very high, but it's 10NL so I'm not sure about that. GL and do put in some volume.

Is this range still BvB?

At 10NL I'm worried about getting stationed by players. It does feel weak, but I kinda justify it.

Does your advice fit with 10NL, or is the higher micro stakes?

Ok, so here we go.

This is my chart of hands from 03/06/2010-05/06/2010. I haven't bothered with a graph, I'll probably make a graph for the entire week at the end of it.


I ran fairly bad but I'm willing to hold my hands up and say that there were some hands that I played pretty badly which I didn't need to. However, one hand which I played badly resulted in me stacking a villain.

Here's the first hand, which was needless spew:

Full Tilt Poker $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (CO): $11.42
BTN: $10.11
SB: $3.75
BB: $14.53
UTG: $5.16
MP: $11.14

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is CO with K 7
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.30, 2 folds, BB calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.65) J 5 7 (2 players)
BB bets $0.45, Hero calls $0.45

Turn: ($1.55) Q (2 players)
BB bets $0.95, Hero raises to $3, BB raises to $13.78, Hero folds

Final Pot: $7.55
BB wins $7.05
(Rake: $0.50)

I felt I could push him off a Jack on the Turn, but turns out I was wrong. Think he probably had a Q and a flush draw in the end. Unnecessary at 10NL.

And the second, which was entirely based on reads taken from the session.


Full Tilt Poker $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (SB): $10.95
BB: $11.47
UTG: $6.20
MP: $16.23
CO: $10.00
BTN: $10.00

CO posts a big blind ($0.10)

Pre Flop: ($0.25) Hero is SB with T T
1 fold, MP calls $0.10, CO checks, BTN calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.80, 1 fold, MP calls $0.70, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.70

Flop: ($2.60) 8 K 2 (3 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $1.25, BTN folds, Hero calls $1.25

Turn: ($5.10) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $2.25, Hero raises to $8.90, MP calls $6.65

River: ($22.90) A (2 players)

Final Pot: $22.90
Hero shows T T
MP shows 5 3
Hero wins $21.38
(Rake: $1.52)

He'd been pretty active all through our session. If he decided he was going to win a pot, then his money was getting in the middle. And this hand just didn't make sense to me. With his style of play, it made no sense to me that he would limp-call with a King in his hand. I felt some suited connectors were much more likely. My check on the Flop kind of turns my hand face-up too. I should probably bet sometimes, but with 3 players in the hand (two of which were pretty loose), I didn't want to take that chance. My plan for the Turn was to CRAI any non-heart, which is what I did. He snap-called and I held.

The only other hand really worth mentioning was this one. I went into calling mode because his hand didn't make much sense. Don't think he would be bombing the board indiscriminately with an overpair. When I Turn a boat, I'm pretty certain I'm ahead. However, I know if I jam I'm getting called by better hands only. The River sucked, and I think I can easily fold. It's pretty obvious I have a boat here, and a Queen will usually make the effective nuts.


Full Tilt Poker $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BTN): $10.40
SB: $10.00
BB: $10.00
UTG: $10.46
CO: $3.65

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BTN with J J
UTG raises to $0.35, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.35, 2 folds

Flop: ($0.85) T 9 T (2 players)
UTG bets $0.85, Hero calls $0.85

Turn: ($2.55) T (2 players)
UTG bets $2.55, Hero calls $2.55

River: ($7.65) Q (2 players)
UTG bets $6.71, Hero calls $6.65 all in

Final Pot: $20.95
Hero mucks J J
UTG shows K Q
UTG wins $19.56
(Rake: $1.39)

Of course, everything is much easier if I 3bet pre. This player was 26/10, though and I used a pretty poor line of thought to decide it was a bad spot to 3bet. Easy spot to 3bet, and I can probably dump JJ to further action.

Sorry for the long post. I'll try to do smaller ones in future, but I can't promise.

05/06/2010

Sorry guys, missed the chart on the last post.



06/06/2010



Today has been swingy as ****, and I've generally come out on the wrong end.

I played three sessions - the first two cancelled each other out and the third destroyed me.

I've walked into some belters... managed to Turn 8s Full only for somebody to River two outs with AA. Also had 8-high straight walk into a 9-high straight.

I lost around $20 with two nut draws which missed - one guy made quads and the other managed to make a straight with the Q-high flush draw which held.

I haven't minded how I've played too much, except for this hand:


Full Tilt Poker $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BTN/SB: $10.15
Hero (BB): $19.71

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BB with 9 9
BTN/SB raises to $0.30, Hero raises to $0.90, BTN/SB calls $0.60

Flop: ($1.80) 7 7 Q (2 players)
Hero bets $1.10, BTN/SB calls $1.10

Turn: ($4.00) A (2 players)
Hero bets $2.50, BTN/SB calls $2.50

River: ($9.00) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $6.00, BTN/SB calls $5.65 all in

Final Pot: $20.30
BTN/SB shows K 5
Hero shows 9 9
BTN/SB wins $19.80
(Rake: $0.50)

The 3 bet pre was meant to end the hand. If I flat-call I lose 0.30 and leave the table. Flop bet is standard, and the Turn barrel is me expecting him to fold a Queen now. Then he calls and I make a mistake. I figure that on the River with around 2/3 of a pot bet left I can represent the flush. Actually, when he calls the Turn, there's not much he's likely to fold on the River. I think, in hindsight, it's more likely that he has a flush draw on the River than trips or the Ace. Should've check/folded. Also should've bet bigger on the Turn. This hand put me on tilt and I finished my session early around 5 mins later. Bad.

I'm hoping that this isn't a signal of several leaks in my game. But the bottomline is showing real problems for me. I'm only down 2.5 buy-ins over 8,600 hands but I can't afford to not improve.

Going to put some real thought into where I'm going wrong. I have some inclinations.

It depends on how good you play postflop (compared to your opponent) and how you handle the amount of tables that you play.

Just played a 500 hand session, with a +$18 result. Cushioned the blow a bit. Felt as thought I played pretty well. Put a bit too much money in some pots, though.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69.../#post19412482

The above hand came up and I'm not sure how well/badly I played it. Check it out and post in the thread if you think you can help.

In heads up situation, it's wrong to think that you are 3betting 99 preflop 'to end the hand'. You are definitely 3betting preflop for value.

Also, don't get into the habit of constantly checking the amount you win or lose on individual tables. I have ever been stuck 3 buyins on 1 table against a fish who runs insanely good, what matters is how you play for the session. As long as you play solid good poker, you'll show profits by the end of the week.

Gaisuke - Sorry, I have a habit of offering misinterpretations. I understand that 3betting a PP in HU play is for value, my comment was more of a rueful comment on the way the hand went for me.

I haven't updated in a while, but I'm still going. Had a couple of days off due to RL commitments, but putting in reasonable volume again.

Results-wise I'm doing well. I'm running around 7BB/100 over around 15k hands. Had a nice 3.5 buyin rakeback payment too, which is sweet.

BUT, I'm running around 12 buyins above EV! I've got to take a look to see if I'm mainly just winning my 40% draws or crushing KK > AA AIPF, or whether I'm getting crazily luckily in bad spots.

I'll post graphs and stuff shortly, not really got the motivation right this moment.

Why do you want to know why you're running above ev? Just enjoy as long as it lasts

Because if I'm getting in with too many 70/30 shots or if I'm putting my money in bad too often, I know that my winning is going to unsustainable and any move up will crush me.

Just because you're running above ev doesn't mean you're playing a losing strategy..

Just try not to lose 30 bi otherwise u will betry urself in thinking u could quit poker :P

I agree, that's why I need to go back and check my database

Good luck!

My little bit of advice for you would be about what you said here. It certainly shows a lot of discipline to be willing to drop down to 10NL but playing like a robot will not help you beat the higher limits. You need to really think hard, even at 10NL, about your game. If you do this I think you are well on your way!