Hi 2+2,

like many other OPs in this Forum I´m just another broke loser on an attempt to get something going in poker, hoping to find motivation and support here.

The Difference between and the other guys is basically that this is my last attempt.

I´m about to finish my University Studies in fall, and I´m still not sure what exactly will follow, but its very likley that it will eat 40-50 hours of my week,which means that my spare time will be severly limited compared to now.

So the Deal is easy: I have this couple of months from now on to finally reach a point where I make enough money with poker and expirience enough excitement to justify keeping to play to my familiy/friends and myself.

Otherwise I´ll just drop it, leave the Dream of beeing succesfull at poker behind and play probably small live donkaments from time to time for fun or sth. like that.

I could live with this scenario, but I won´t go down without a fight


The first and most important lesson I have to learn is that my current mindset (result orientated massmultitabling tiltmonkey, afraid to move over nanostakelevel because he has no confidence in his game) sucks ***** in hell and is the main obstacle I have to overcome if I want to become a "real" pokerplayer.


The second thought is that it makes no sense to buy every pokerbook available and browse hours on 2+2 a day if I read the books just for entertainment and troll around in NVG instead of discussing my game in the strat forums.

This forum is pure gold, with some of the greatest contemporary pokerminds in the world assembled, its free for anyone, but still I don´t use it for anything but entertainment, because I´m an idiot.

This is about to change now, I will keep this thread alive, try to put the main focus on strategic discussion instead of documenting my monetary developement only, post in the strat forums etc.

If I manage to actually get good at heads-Up Pokerz, the money will come from itself, so I try not to be worried to much about money and just play and try to improve.


My current Roll is at about $220, but to get rid of my result-orientatedness (is this actually a word?lol) I started out at the very bottom ($2.09 4-Man Shootout SnGs) where I intent to stay until I feel that I´ve mastered the fundamentals of HU SNG Play and emotional control when things don´t turn my way, then I will proceed to to the $6.25s 2 Mans


I played my first session yesterday, HEM says I logged 30 Tourneys with an ROI of 110% for a Profit of $69.30.

I don´t know where my roll exactly was before I started (I had a part of my roll sent to a friend who returned some of it while I played) but this seems a little bit much, should be more around 40ish.

maybe HEM screwed up there, I´ll go over the results again as soon time allows.

No Games today, and probably no games tomorrow, I first want to skim a bit over Colin Moshmans HU book first, hopefully eliminating some basic mistakes. I want to have a couple of hours to play


Ok, that was long, thank you for reading so far


Games played total: 30

Games played today: 0

BR: $192.68 + about $30 I m still about to receive from friend

Ive found this somewhere in the forum a while ago and I think its that good that as many people here as possible should have the chance to read it. I for my part just hope it will put things into the right perspective for me.

Sorry Author, have not noted your nick


1.You must read this every time you start a session and end a session.


2.Poker is about self control, discipline, and making the right moves, the goal in poker is not towin, not to prove others you are better then them, but to make the best decisions you can with theinformation available and to make yourself better each time you play.


3.Bad beats happen, nobody cares, accept them and move on. Variance/luck are part of the game,if you desire to do well in poker you must accept this and control your greed!



4.Each style of play has flaws, no style of play is the best. Each style can at times win, accept it!
Analyze why it happened (variance/luck, miss-read? Over-estimation/under-estimation of skill)
accept that it happened, and through this you will become a better player.



5.At the end of each session go over the game you went the farthest in of each type you played(win an 18man, study it, win a 27 man, study it…ect), you must go over the HH from thatmtt/sng/cash-game see if you made the right moves and if you are uncertain ask someone/post.

6.Winning does not matter.


7.Did you make any bad plays? Why was it bad? Why did you make the play?
Trust your reads.


8.Did you tilt? Why did you tilt? Did you let your emotions control you? Greed controls anddestroys if you let it, there are many great examples from pros and history, do not make their
mistakes.



9.Your emotions are your greed, if all your desire is money and winning then you are not worthyof it. Desire to be a better player and a more true/honest/noble person and you will obtainhappiness.


10.You owe no proof to others, it is you whom is most important, it is your thoughts on your actions that matter and how your actions affect others. Affect those around you positively and their happiness and respect will give you happiness.

11.Bragging to others of what you have done proves only your insecurity and weakness in your game and life.

12.Have balance in your life! Workout a few times a week, work, hangout with friends when you can, work on your hobbies! Poker is a part of your life, as is everything else. The sum makes up the whole.

13.Control your greed, your anger, the world owes you nothing! You have gifts of intelligence and the means to use it!

14.Poker is not about winning!

15.Look at each day, each game separately, the past cards do not affect the future cards! Accept it and realize it. The better you play the more you understand about poker and yourself the better you will do.

16.BAD BEATS HAPPEN! THERE IS LUCK IN POKER!

17.When you become angry that is your greed that is controlling you, if you let it control it will consume and destroy you.

18.Accept flaws in others, nobody is perfect, people make mistakes and let their greed control them (Greed and ego come hand in hand). If you can accept your own flaws and mistakes and do what is needed to fix them and understand why you did them then you can become the man you desire to be and who you are capable of being.


19.You must read this every time you start a session and end a session.

zomg im such a effin tiltbox!

lost a couple of "final tables" in those shootout matches and already went on my first monkeytilt, spewing and tiltovershoving.

I really really really have to manage this somehow, otherwise I m pretty lost.

Sickness here is that i´m still up on the day, because most of my opps could not take advantage of my tilt and started calling me all-in with stuff like 95s for 20bbs etc.

I found that I handle myself better at 2 man tourneys, so I switched to the 2 Euro+14c tables and went on a nice streak.

Rake of more than 5 percent sux badly though, so I will try my next session at the $5.25cs, and if Ill find them to longlasting and slow, ill just hopp into the 6.25s, I have 30-40 BIs for those stakes and swore to myself to stop beeing a a bankroll nit, I can still drop back if ill drop 10 BIs.


I probably will work out a kind of spreadsheet for preflop ranges, in order to get a guidline for TAG game, which seems to be the best style for the micros. Ive still found myself brought into trouble by calling preflop raises with stuff like k5 if I felt like it.

Don´t know if beeing to predictable is a problem at these limits, even the regulars seem to play more or less readless (they get their edge through more solid preflop play and less tilting)


Can´t give exact stats as HEM doesnt work proberly and spits out ridiculous numbers, the BR is at $236


thank you for reading

You should edit manually the results of those you reach the final table and finish second - HEM sometimes gives you 4$ for this finish. GL with your goal.

Ok, logged a short first session today,started out with 3 tables of 2.14ers, went 2-1,.

I said yesterday that I want to play the 5.25cs but I decided that nonturbos suck and are prone to tilt me so I took a shot at the 6.25s, went 4-2 for a profit of $10.50


Games played total: 62
Games played today: 9
Total Winnings:$ 72.58

BR: $249

thx for the hint and the encouragement btw

I put in another Session yesterday, I started out with HU SnGs, had an Break Even stretch over about 20 SnGs, then I decided to put in a small session of $3.25 6-max SnGs.

I ran pretty good and banked a profit of about $25 for a bankroll of total $272

I´m currently wondering if HU SnGs are the right way to go for me, I use to be semitilted all the time even if I run good as I did over the last days, it would feel somehow impossible to me to grind out a downswing of several hundred dollars there.

I might look for another main game, better now than later when I ve put more time into studying.

My best Game is certainly 1 or MTT SnGs, but they are all about volume grinding, and 30tabling multiple hours for rakeback is not my understanding of fun, so they are not really an option for the future.

8-Game would be the coolest thing, but I would have to learn at least 5 games totally from the start to be able to play there.

I don´t know if NLHE Cash is still worth the learining process, PLO is great but tilting as hell...mhm...might have to think about it a bit.

thank you for reading so far.