So I deposited $50 on Ignition last week and after playing everyday 5NL and 1.10 sitNgos, I'm up to $65.

Here is my graph of 5NL so far:



I play around 1,000 hands a day and so let's see if I can go somewhere with this and not just end up another boring failed challenge thread. My plan is to move up in stakes to 10NL at around $200.

good luck

good luck!

Thanks for the support!

So I stopped tracking my hands with poker tracker because I kept getting errors and the hands couldn't be uploaded. I'm now tracking my results by session simply with excel.

Here's what I have so far:

My bankroll right now is at $104.34 after depositing $50 without any kind of bonus (stupid, I know).

At 5NL, I've recorded 121 table sessions and am showing a profit of $34.55. At SNG, I've played 19 of them at various stakes am showing a profit of $7.53. With tournaments, after coming in second place in a $1.10 tournament, I'm up to $16.89. So here's our totals:

$50
$34.55
$7.53
$16.89
= $108.97

I don't know where the other $4.63 is, but oh well. Also, here are some hands at 5NL that I can remember playing that kind of confused me:

Remember that because I'm playing on ignition, all the tables are anonymous and because I'm also not using a HUD, it's an overall bad situation and I have to go with my gut instincts most of the time.

The first hand is five-handed and stacks are 100bb effective. UTG makes it 3bb and the next player calls and it's folded to me in the BB with ATo.

This should be an immediate fold and it's not even suited but I decided to call to see if I could take away the pot on a later street. One of the things I'm trying to work on is folding marginal hands, so take that into account.

The flop comes something like QhAx4h and I lead into the 9.5bb pot for 6bb. The UTG player calls and the other player folds. It's heads up and we go to the turn.

The turn comes an offsuit jack. I'm pretty sure I'm beat here most of the time and so I check expecting the UTG player to check back all hands that I beat and all hands that I don't beat to bet.

The player fires a 3/4 bet and I folded. The reason I'm explaining this hand is because I'm hoping maybe I can get some other opinions on this and also hoping that no one just mentions I should just fold preflop because I know I should have to avoid situations like this in the future as it could be a leak.

The next hand is 6-handed with 100bb effective stacks. It's folded to me on the button with QcJc and I raise to 3bb. The small blind folds and the big blind raises to 10bb. What I know for sure is that big blind was being one of the more aggressive players at the table. I call to see a flop with my 40% of a royal flush.

The flop comes Qh 3c 7h

The big blind fires a 3/4 size bet and I of course call to see a turn, expecting to fold the turn if I don't improve because I don't want to become a POW against a player that I don't have that solid of a read on.

The turn comes a deuce or something and the big blind fires another 3/4 size bet. I folded because I didn't want to have to pay him off on the river after thinking I would be pot committed and I wanted to stick with my plan of folding the turn if I didn't improve.

Both these hands are kind of worrisome to me because I don't know if these are standard plays are not or if maybe I should have called the turn.

I won the daily $1.10 tournament for like $33 and a few stacks at 5NL and so now my bankroll is up to $147.66, putting us up to a total profit so far of $97.66 at the micros.

Feels pretty good.

Tournament binks are always nice looks like you're doing a solid job so far.

Thanks!

So my bankroll is at $166.36 after playing and losing a $1.10 tournament, winning $7 after taking a shot at $10NL and winning some at 5NL. Sorry I don't have any graphs to post (I couldn't get it working).

My peak is $171 but I lost with a flush over flush and so f*** me I'm the worst.

I think I'll take another shot at $10NL once my bankroll reaches $180.

Here's what I know so far:

--Bankroll started at $50
--Have played 157 sessions of 5NL and up $53.67
--Have played 2 sessions of 10NL and up $6.83
--Have played 20 SNG and up $8.23
--Have played 11 tournaments and up $48.10

So I folded a straight today on a 4x Qx Jx Tx 6x board. Feel pretty sick about it.

Though I'm winning pretty consistently and it feels good, but maybe it's just a fish on a heater. I don't know.

Here's what I know so far:
--Deposit: $50
--198 sessions at 5NL and up $69.16
--2 sessions at 10NL and up $6.83
--22 SNG at $1.10 and up $10.53
--12 tournaments at $1.10 and up $47

Bankroll currently is at $183.87

I know I said I would move up to 10NL at $180, but I think I will just wait until I reach $200 and then take a 20% shot.

I just lot a pot that if I had won would be up to $200. But now I'm at $181. This is the biggest downswing I have had so far. I was so close to moving up in stakes and now it will take like a week to win it back. I don't know what to do. How do other people deal with downswings or just stupid variance like this?

I think I should treat this like a blog (as I read on another one of these threads). I'm feeling really down and so I think it would be good to get some of my feelings out and express to the the poker world who I am and what my history and background is with the game.

This is going to be very long.

It all started when I was 12 years old and played a game with my sister and her friends. That was a long time ago and I am 27 years old now. I got hooked and started playing the play money games on Full Tilt as I think I realized even then that I wouldn't be good enough to play real money.

I played on the Full Tilt play money games for at least eight or nine years until I discovered I could sell my chips for about $8 a million. I didn't make much but it was cool to be bringing in some money.

Before I get into other poker stuff, let me explain a little about ME.

I have a twin and was born three months premature, so I think I have some kind of mental disability that I'm not aware of but that everyone else is. Do you know that saying what if I'm ******ed and everyone's just pretending I'm not? That's what my life is like.

I dropped out of high school in the tenth grade. I think it was either because I couldn't take the social pressures of not fitting in or just not caring about school anymore. Either way, I quit and played play money poker instead. Also, for a time, I was addicted to Diablo 2. Poker and that game was my entire teenage years growing up. I should say that I really enjoyed playing play money and moving up in stakes, practicing bankroll management and learning how not to tilt.

I don't have any friends and really never have. I have never had a girlfriend and have quit at least 10 minimum-wage jobs, one just recently a month ago at McDonald's. I eventually got my GED and went to community college for two-and-a-half years to then transfer into a university to major in Accounting. However, I dropped out again after switching to English and failing both majors. Two years later I went back a second time and dropped out again. I'm $20,000 in student loan debt.

When I was 22, I quit one of my early jobs and drove down to Vegas with $1,000 cash and $3,000 worth of credit cards. For some reason, I thought my play money experience would be enough for me to win at the live games down there because I had heard how easy live was compared to online. I thought it would be a piece of cake. Oh, how wrong was I.

I lasted about three weeks. I slept in my car every night, spent a lot on hotels, and ate comped food. I made a lot of stupid plays and got very lucky in other spots that made me last as long as I did.

For example, I would cold call with a lot of hands and not 3-bet enough. I would overplay top pair and over pairs. I simply wasn't aggressive as I needed to be and I think it mostly was because I was scared and inexperienced against these guys who were much more comfortable than I was.

All in all, I lost all of my money and am now a further $3,000 in debt. Thankfully, I had enough money to drive back home.

Fast forward like 3 years later and I started playing play money again, though this time on Poker Stars, since Full Tilt had closed down. I worked my way up the stakes all the way to the top where I met this guy nicknamed Strongwill. He was impressed with how I played and asked for my Skype name. I gave it to him and we got to talking. He said he knew people that I could sell my chips to. I had around 23,000,000,000 play money chips at the time while playing 1m/2m and sold most of them off for around $2,500.

It took me about a month and a half to make that amount of chips.

After I sold the chips, I spent all on community college courses to get back into school and I dropped out a month later. Just couldn't take it anymore. I'm probably an idiot. I tried to play more play money but I couldn't do it anymore and was break even for like 3 months straight. I think also they increased the rake.

Anyway, Poker Stars then banned my state for play money games and now I can't play anymore at all. Poker Stars was the best because at least at the top there were SOME decent players. You could tell that a lot of them spent money on those play money chips. I would actually see the players that I sold my chips to.

So that's my poker story. I deposited $50 a few weeks ago after taking a long break from poker (about 2 years) onto Ignition and am running it up. Hopefully I can make it.

Got my bankroll up to $200 playing 5NL and so I moved up to 10NL and have already won like $60. Everything seems to be going great. My bankroll right now is at 262.95.

Here are the stats:
--Deposited $50
--236 sessions of 5NL and up $91.80
--18 sessions of 10NL and up $65.47
--22 SNG and up $10.53
--13 tournaments and up $45.90

Hopefully this run good can continue.

Absolutely crushing the games. Maybe it's just an insane heater, I don't know.

My bankroll is up to $345.48 and I'm up $146.55 at 10NL over 50 sessions.

You gotta get that Poker Tracker working... we love graphs!!!
Keep running hot!

Hey!

I think tracking would make me too results oriented, but I will give it a shot.

As for how poker is going... I ran my bankroll up to $345 playing 10NL, but then lost like $57 due to run bad finally and so cashed most of it out.

However, I'm going to deposit another $50 and see if I can run it up again. This time, though, I'll track my results and post some graphs.

Again, the poker tracker doesn't work and so I'll have to resort to using excel to track my results. Like I've said, I withdrew my previous bankroll and am starting from $50 again.

Today I played 36 sessions of 5NL and have a profit of $16.35 while I also took a shot at 10NL and lost $5.91 because some idiot open shoved for 100bb with AJo while I had KK and lost.

Poker's not dead, folks. It's very much alive.

Graphs (not complete):

5NL



10NL



I'm still waiting for other hands to be downloaded

I wanted to post some hands that I lost and played horribly in the hopes that publicly displaying will help me play better. These are quite embarrassing to say the least.

Hand #1

PokerStars - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 66.4 BB (VPIP: 27.59, PFR: 13.79, 3Bet Preflop: 5.26, Hands: 35)
BB: 102 BB (VPIP: 39.39, PFR: 30.30, 3Bet Preflop: 23.08, Hands: 33)
Hero (BTN): 111.2 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A 2

Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, BB calls 1 BB

Flop: (4.4 BB, 2 players) 8 T 8
BB checks, Hero bets 3 BB, BB calls 3 BB

Turn: (10.4 BB, 2 players) T
BB checks, Hero bets 7 BB, BB raises to 24 BB, Hero calls 17 BB

River: (58.4 BB, 2 players) 5
BB bets 73 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 73 BB

BB shows T 9 (Full House, Tens full of Eights)
(Pre 41%, Flop 83%, Turn 100%)
Hero shows A 2 (Two Pair, Tens and Eights)
(Pre 59%, Flop 17%, Turn 0%)
SB shows 7 J (Two Pair, Tens and Eights)

BB wins 194.2 BB

My turn bet here was to actually call a raise as I thought he would turn floats into a bluff but I was very wrong.

Hand #2

PokerStars - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 101 BB (VPIP: 83.33, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)
CO: 19.6 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
BTN: 90.8 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
SB: 63.8 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)
Hero (BB): 125.2 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has J A

fold, fold, BTN calls 1 BB, fold, Hero raises to 3.4 BB, BTN calls 2.4 BB

Flop: (7.2 BB, 2 players) 5 8 J
Hero bets 6 BB, BTN calls 6 BB

Turn: (19.2 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero bets 16 BB, BTN raises to 32 BB, Hero calls 16 BB

River: (83.2 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, BTN bets 49.4 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 49.4 BB

BTN shows 9 6 (Straight, Nine High)
(Pre 36%, Flop 22%, Turn 100%)
Hero shows J A (Two Pair, Jacks and Sevens)
(Pre 64%, Flop 78%, Turn 0%)
UTG shows 4 T (One Pair, Sevens)

CO shows 3 4 (One Pair, Sevens)

SB shows 8 K (Two Pair, Eights and Sevens)

BTN wins 173 BB

I think I should have folded the turn and definitely have folded the river.

Hand #3

PokerStars - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 236.8 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
Hero (BTN): 133.2 BB
SB: 89.8 BB (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 100.00, 3Bet Preflop: 100.00, Hands: 2)
BB: 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 4 5

fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, SB raises to 5 BB, fold, Hero calls 3 BB

Flop: (11 BB, 2 players) 4 2 T
SB bets 5.4 BB, Hero calls 5.4 BB

Turn: (21.8 BB, 2 players) 6
SB checks, Hero checks

River: (21.8 BB, 2 players) 9
SB bets 79.4 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 79.4 BB

SB shows T T (Three of a Kind, Tens)
(Pre 79%, Flop 98%, Turn 90%)
Hero shows 4 5 (One Pair, Fours)
(Pre 21%, Flop 2%, Turn 10%)
CO shows A 6 (One Pair, Sixes)

BB shows 6 A (One Pair, Sixes)

SB wins 171.6 BB

I should have turned my hand into a bluff on the turn and the river is absolutely disgusting. I play so bad omg.

Hand #4

PokerStars - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 98.6 BB
SB: 49.6 BB (VPIP: 29.41, PFR: 11.76, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 17)
BB: 93 BB (VPIP: 16.85, PFR: 7.87, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 91)
UTG: 48 BB (VPIP: 9.09, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 11)
MP: 85.8 BB (VPIP: 85.71, PFR: 4.76, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 22)
CO: 64.6 BB (VPIP: 30.00, PFR: 10.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has T K

fold, MP calls 1 BB, fold, Hero raises to 4.4 BB, fold, fold, MP calls 3.4 BB

Flop: (10.2 BB, 2 players) 4 Q 5
MP checks, Hero bets 7 BB, MP calls 7 BB

Turn: (24.2 BB, 2 players) K
MP checks, Hero bets 16 BB, MP raises to 32 BB, Hero raises to 87.2 BB and is all-in, MP calls 42.4 BB and is all-in

River: (173 BB, 2 players) A

Hero shows T K (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 58%, Flop 8%, Turn 19%)
MP shows 4 Q (Two Pair, Queens and Fours)
(Pre 42%, Flop 92%, Turn 81%)
SB shows J 8 (Flush, Ace High)

BB shows 3 T (High Card, Ace)

UTG shows 8 3 (High Card, Ace)

CO shows 7 2 (High Card, Ace)

MP wins 164.4 BB

It turns out I should have folded the turn and definitely not have shoved. This is looking like all the hands I have lost are the hands I've played really badly.

On a $97 downswing.

H1 - Not a big fan of the min raise preflop, check back on the turn. You're looking to get to showdown with your hand as cheaply as possible. As played fold turn.
H2 - Fold turn
H3 - Standard until the river, what are you beating on the river? Flush draw has come in, almost every straight draw has hit.
H4 - Check back turn, as played fold turn. By jamming over his minraise you are only getting called by better.

Is your $97 downswing across 5nl or 10nl? Gl anyway.

Went busto.

I think years of play money has ruined me for real money. I think how I think I should play hands is much different than how I should be playing them. For example, I cbet too much just in general in all spots and only really check when I have the nuts (because I always feel I need to win the pot right now when I have nothing and want them to fold). Also, I don't three-barrel enough, not even most value hands and especially not bluffs. I think this is because at play money you don't ever want to three barrel bluff but at real money it's a necessary tool to master. I think this is mostly why I went broke because I started messing around with three barreling, thinking how exciting it was to finally have that in my arsenal, but I wasn't picking my spots and was just firing away expecting they would fold. I got outclassed.

My downswing was mostly 5 NL and 10 NL. Pretty crazy.

Also, play money has ruined me for bankroll management. At play money, 20 buy ins was more than enough, but now that I'm playing real money seriously for the first time, I'm realizing I can't handle the swings, like when I lose 20% of my bankroll. I think 50 buy ins is more for what I'm comfortable with.

Preflop hand selection. The hands I play right now preflop all are premium suited connectors and the top 15% of hands. I don't deviate from that even when I'm in position and I think that's a big mistake. At play money, you can use this strategy and of course you're going to win but at real money I think you're missing out on a lot of opportunities.

Calling too many turns with middle pair or draws only to then fold the river too often. This is a big mistake I'm realizing I have. At play money you can obviously get away with these chasing hands because you make up for it so much in other spots. For example, here's a hand that I feel I should be folding.

JJ open
SB or BB 3 bets and I call.

Ah Th 3s

villain bets
I call

Blank turn

Villain bets

Here I would call again but I think I should fold unless I'm also considering calling the river. Whether we consider this to be a tight player or a loose player makes all the difference, though, of course.

The same is said for draws and unless you have position or are considering turning your hand into a bluff most draws on the turn should be folded, too.

I don't know if I should re-deposit again. I'm kind of scared. Right now I'm still up $138 from since starting this challenge and so it wouldn't be terrible to redeposit again with this new perspective and knowledge. And I think I want to start at 2nl with the $100 because that would give me 50 buy ins. But do I really want to play 2nl until I reach $250 for 5nl? I don't know.

What do you think?