Hey 2+2!

First, thank you all so much for the incredible help this site and 2+2 publishing provides. A quick background to begin. I first started playing cards with friends in home games....all kinds of poker. Stud, draw, crazy games like no peek, criss-cross, Jacks or better trips to win (huge pots of quarters, lol.) I learned early on that if I folded my garbage hands when all my buddies would call down every street of every hand, I could profit by losing less.

This was during the start of the poker boom. I enjoyed the recreation and was drawn to the big score like most fish are. That said, I didn't take it very seriously and was more interested in skateboarding, playing music, and partying. I lost several deposits at my first attempt at online games. ...thought they were rigged, lol.

Years go by without playing much aside from the occasional crazy drunken home games, and I get the urge to play again. I plunked down $200 on Stars and played mostly micro MTT games. At first I could hardly cash. I found this website by googling 2+2 publishing after reading Harrington on Holdem Vol 1. The abundant wealth of knowledge I found on here opened my eyes and turned me from a straight up loser to a break even player. I studied a bit more and started to make deeper runs. HEM, MTT forums, tourney replayers, plugging leaks like a boss. Turned my ROI positive and grinded out a few decent scores before Black Friday. Shipped a big field rebuy and couldn't even sleep that night.

Black Friday happens and I quit. I went to play live once, but was so accustomed to playing 10 tables in my pj's that I was bored and frustrated at the pace of the game.

I have a stable career now and have been doing fairly well financially. Nothing crazy, but I can pay my bills. I decide to dip a toe in the pool at the local card room last month and get smacked with the deck. Everyone was so bad at this game...limp every hand, folding every scare card, station down, station down, calling off a third of their stack then...you know the games. I had my fair share of getting aces cracked, coolers, getting it in waaay ahead and runner runner whatever, but I was still profiting big time. This was mostly playing 2/5 NL.

I stuffed some money away, bought a new vehicle and now I want to play with a $2,000 roll. Without completely disregarding proper BRM, I plan on moving down to 1/2 with ten buy ins. So here's my poker goal:

Over the next 6 months I will grow my roll to at least 6k before I move up to 2/5 on the regular. A weekend night here and there I will take shots when the tables are deep and soft...like I said, I have a job, so I don't think that's unreasonable.

If I can make even of a fraction of my heaters win rate I can do this by playing about 50 hours per month. Thats 10bb per hour. Harrington says 10-20bb is a quality win rate and that is my goal. I will fund a sweet Vegas trip out of this roll and play a $1,000 WSOP event as a reward next year. I plan on doing this almost exclusively by playing cash 1/2 and a few MTT's here and there when I have time.

As I mentioned up top, this site and 2+2 publishing has turned my game around over the years....so I understand the value of study and review. If anyone has a book to recommend, or a training site that has added value to your game, please share. I plan on posting spots that are tough for me and hopefully continue to plug leaks.

I will update this thread at least weekly with session profits and losses. $2k roll about to grow, GL to me!

Rough evening. I sit at 1/2 with the max buy in of $200 and don't recognize anyone. I go the first few orbits without playing a single hand, then loosen up and start 3 betting and people are chucking their cards into the muck like crazy. I get up to $250ish when I look down at QQ everyone limps and I'm in the HJ. I pop it to $15 and get 4 callers. Flop comes AQ7 rainbow. EP leads with about $85 behind folds to me, I ship it, he snaps and tables A7 and I hold for a nice pot.

I'm only there for about 2hrs, and up to $415 when UTG opens to $10. The regular open has been $8 and it folds to me. I look down at 2 red aces, sweet!!! He's an old guy, so I put him on a big pair as I block AK combos. I reraise to $35. He makes it $135 and I'm mentally high fiving myself and he has me covered. He's looking directly at my stack....I ship, he snaps with KK and binks a K on K84. Turn 9, river 2.

Day one results:

2hrs logged, -$200. Bankroll $1,800.

Variance is character building. I have a busy schedule the next couple days and might not get back to the tables until Sunday night.

Embarrasing post...but I have to put this out there in order to punish myself, be honest and to avoid such a stupid move again.

The opponent that I basically gave my stack to previously opened to $14 from early position with 68 suited after 2 limpers, flops a combo draw and shipped his $75 remaining on the flop, hits his flush and was up to about $220. He did that against and old guy with one foot in the grave and I lol'd. I took a note of his play and was licking my chops to get a hand against him.

Here's the hand where I went brain dead: Everyone limps to me on the button and I raise to 12 with KK. Several callers and we take a flop of Ax8c9c. Everyone checks to me and I put $20 over the line. Terrible sizing, I know. Folds to villain and he min raises to 40. Ignoring the bells and whistles going off in my head I convince myself he has a hand that looks like 67, JT or a couple of clubs. I had been raising a lot and cbetting very aggressively so I thought he might see that and wanted to bring me down a level. We'll, I leveled myself and shipped my buy in his was and he turned over AQ.

Day two results:

1hr logged, -$200. Bankroll $1,600.

I'm running like I just hobbled out of a wheelchair. A couple nights ago I bought in for $200, had to make a tough fold, felt like it was the right laydown cause guy rarely shows up there without the goods. I'm sitting on ~$140 and get AKo in the sb when brazilian opener makes it 20, half the table flats and I jam preflop. Low board, he flips tens and holds.

Session 3: 2hrs, -$200. Bankroll $1,400.

Last night I check out a local traveling charity game. I buy into the 1/2 game for 200 and everyone's short stacking. Trying to table select I can't find another full stack, and the 2/5 game looks soft, so I sit in with about $225 at that point.

I proceed to run the game over like a bulldozer, betting my draws and stacking people left and right growing my stack to about $900 within 2hrs. The table is so float happy and just folding every turn to my aggression. I pick up 67 and take a flop against the tightest player at the table. Q66 board and I'm running in godmode. He leads, I raise small, he jams. He would never do this with QQ I'm sure so I call and there's $700 in the middle. He flips over AQ and hating life. Turn is a brick, then the table explodes as the Q rivers. I wanted to leave at that point, but the game was so good and I didn't tilt after, so I ended up playing until about midnight when all the tables broke down and I left with $56 profit. Whoo!

Session 4 results, 5hrs, +$56. Bankroll $1,456.

cliffs - op is running bad

gl

Bought in to 1/2 for $200 today, then saw some 2/5 regs that are serious stations, so I took a shot. Plus the starting stack at 2/5 is 60bb, not a huge difference in games. Made a set, dragged a huge pot. Got it in with 2 pair vs. a flush draw and he got there. I left shortly there after to enjoy the rest of today and book a nice profit.

Today I played extremly solid and the only mistake I made was 3/bet folding when eff stacks were 60bb. I was fairly card dead all day, made a couple moves here and there when the opportunities came up, but mostly made all my profit for the day with my set.

Session 5 results, 5 hrs, +$500. Bankroll $1,956.

Wow. I'm not going to list the hands, but ran like I had 2 broken legs today. $65 live MTT turbo, could not get the best hand to hold up, 3 outted back to back to back to bust.

Sat in a cash game, get a live one trapped to 3 outs for a $600 pot and he binks the turn. Out of frustration I told him that I'd rather be lucky than good, and that he f#cked up on every street yet still got there. Then I left. I should not have said all that to him, even though this downswing has been very frustrating...no excuse to bad talk the fish...or anyone for whatever reason for that matter.

Session 6, -$365, bankroll $1,591.

I'm not going to play until next tuesday to get away from this bad run.

Played in a $65 charity tourney and a $25 SNG, busted both.

Roll is at $1,501

Played a 3hr session today. I made a few mistakes like b/f a river on a super drawy board w/2 pair when c/c would have been better.

Overall I felt I played solid and maxed value the few hands I hit, and semibluffed / took it down a couple times too.

$229 profit, roll is at $1,730.

Good luck OP. 10 bb p/h is tough in most games. In the smaller games because of rake and tipping, and in the bigger games because of the players. I think there's no one around beating games over the long run for anything close to 20 bb p/h. You won't find them, because anyone crushing that much is going to keep moving up to a point where the game is tougher and their bb p/h is lower.

Thanks for wishing me luck buckminster1!

I went back and played from about 9pm to midnight tonight. $328 profit. I ran up a stack pretty quick. No big notable hands aside from when I was sitting on about $725 and got it in 3 way with AJ on JsXsX vs 99 vs flushdraw...it was just over a $500 pot and dude makes his flush, sigh.

+$328. The roll is outta the red and sitting at $2,058. I can't wait for Sunday..juiciest day of the week, imo.

GL to me!!!

-$400 on Sunday. Its still frustrating to me when I get my stack in as a 80 to 90% favorite and they hit. I'm taking a 2 week break and won't play until 9.16.12.

I'm going to read up on theory, play with pokerstove, and join some discussions to work on my game during my break.

Roll is $1,658.

dude it's rough being a part time player Bad swings are going to effect you so much more since you can't put the volume in to recover. Just enjoy playing as much as possible.

I went to play last night because a friend wanted to go that never plays, I won $253 in a 4 hr session without getting deal anything. However I got lucky in a bb special and stacked a fish.

Today was one of my quickest busto sessions yet. I got my stack in with 2pair vs an over pair and he hit his 5 outter, then I got it in with the nut straight vs 2 pair and he turned a boat, lol. -$300 today.

-$47 this weekend so far. BR @ $1,611.

I read a bunch of zen articles and other shiz and the beastly beats didn't even phase me today. I might go back after watching some foosball.