Hi all,
I'm a 21 year old college student in South Florida living at home with my parents. I took up poker as a weekend hobby in March. My first time at the casino I was convinced three pair was the stone cold nuts. I came home up $400 off a $60 buyin. I was hooked.
I started playing live on the weekends. Late on Saturday nights. I'd go in with $60, play extremely nitty short stacked and come home a winner almost every time. Was it really this easy? I was folding every hand other than 77+, AQ+ and I was winning consistently. I started to realize the concept of implied odds. I got put into spots where I knew I could only get my remaining $50 in the pot and get called multi-way, even though I would be guaranteed to stack this guy for his $500 stack if I had him covered. I had to get a bankroll. I was winning most of my sessions by only playing premium monsters.
Foolishly, I was spending all of my earnings. I'd win $300, live off it for a few weeks, then go back to the casino with $60. I'd get put into more spots where I could have stacked deep fish but could only put in whatever I had in front of me. I am up $1,475 at live 1/2 so far.
I decided to play online to try and run it up. I busted a few tiny $25 deposits over the next few months. I finally deposited $50 in October and told myself I was not going to spew this off, and I was going to practice some form of BRM. I ran it up to $1100 in three months. Then, two days ago I took some shots way out of my bankroll, got coolered three times in an hour and spewed away $600. $300 of which was in blackjack chasing losses. I felt so sick afterwards. All this hard work and I had almost reached my goals of building a live bankroll.
The past month I have really been playing good poker. I've had a few sessions where I am in the 'zone' lately. Not as often as I'd like but when I am in the 'zone' I almost cannot lose. I fold more often, I play tighter, and I get my money in as a huge favorite. I was building up 4 buyin stacks on multiple tables almost nightly.
The big change is that I started playing 9max instead of 6max. It reminded me of the live games. My goal was to play tight preflop and make my money by value betting. No more bluffing bad spots or hero calling massive bets with marginal when villian check raises the river.
This thread is going to focus mostly on NLHE for now. I actually prefer PLO but I am not very good at it and the rake is particularly bad at the micros. I am down about $200 at PLO thus far.
I would like to play some more tournaments. I find that when I buy in early I do well. I am comfortable deep stacked. I just don't like the time investment of having to be at the computer for 6+ hours straight, with zero breaks at all, and it all coming down to a few 55/45 equity flips.
Graphs as of 2 days ago: (Micro stakes HM2, a few failed shot-takes missing)
Overall:
This month(Feb 1-15):
My goals for this year:
-Never ever play any house game ever again. Requested a permanent ban from all casino games on Bovada.
-Employ strategies to avoid tilting. Never play hungry, tired, or in a bad mood. Play less frequently and take more breaks. No more 10 hour straight sessions.
-Practice extremely conservative BRM. I am too attached to the money to not get frustrated if I lose a significant % of my bankroll. Taking a shot with 10-20% of my BR and losing it can force me to want to get it back right away at all costs.
-Build a $2k bankroll for 1/2 NL live. The online games are infinitely more difficult than live games. I am confident that if I can get a 10 buyin bankroll I can run it up live. I love live poker. I want to play live primarily, not online. I just don't have the funds for it at this point in time. Especially when I spend all of my earnings after each session. All live profits will be put away from here on out. I have no intentions of playing higher stakes online. I want to keep improving my fundamentals, make some small profits, and take it live.
-Enjoy playing poker! If at any point I feel like I am grinding it out and not having a good time, I need to take some time off. This only happens online. I don't get bored live.
-Improve my health. I have IBS. I want to get it under control this year. Going to see an acupuncturist this week on the recommendation of a friend with similar issues. I hope it helps.
Thanks for viewing my thread! I'll keep it updated every few days with bankroll, graphs and HH's. If I don't spew away my roll I am confident I can reach my goals this year. Most importantly, I believe that if I can overcome my physical issues I know it will enhance all aspects of my life, including my poker game.
GL everyone!
Bankroll:$537.77
Last edited by bm303; 02-18-2015 at 12:01 AM.