Who WTF is this chick?

The year is 2006. I’m playing a .25/.50 NLHE game with my college friends in my dorm room. We are playing on a folding poker tabletop I just bought on a whim for $20 from Target. I know nothing about poker and other people have to explain the ranking of hands to me.

It’s 2007. I’m getting a master’s degree at another school and live within striking distance of Atlantic City. Some friends take me to Atlantic City. Remembering that one time I played poker in college, I sit down at a 2-4 LHE game and flop a set with QQ. I leave +$65 for the night. Poker is easy! I proceed to take myself to Atlantic City alone, repeatedly over the next few months. I don’t know how to play this game and I’m not studying, plus I was a young woman so everyone already assumes I don’t know what I’m doing and in this instance they are 100% correct. I’m basically just paying for poker lessons. And boy, did I pay for poker lessons. I remember being up a couple hundred in a LHE game right around the time I needed to leave to catch the last train back home. The guy next to me talked me into staying in what I now know to be the most transparent keep-the-fish-at-the-table move (something along the lines of “But you’re winning!”) (poker lesson: if people are trying to keep you at the table, you’re the sucker). I obviously lost both my winnings and my buy-in that night and was stuck waiting in front of the train station at 5am dejected and despondent. Not the first time that happened that year and it wasn't the last.

I finish my master’s. I move two hours further away from AC for a job. There are no casinos in easy distance. I start studying poker. I join a cheap home game with a bunch of smart people from my undergrad who are also studying poker. I start playing free bar poker to practice what I’m learning. I get into a relationship with another rec poker player who has a much healthier attitude towards casinos and gambling than I do. He teaches me to enjoy time in a casino without gambling and to walk away from a losing session without trying to chase my losses. We make periodic trips up to Atlantic City where I mainly play $65 tournaments at Harrah’s and Showboat. I bink one here and there for small paydays, enough to keep the bankroll going.

I take my first trip to Vegas in 2010. I love it there and vow to come back every year.


Popping my WSOP Cherry

Things continue like this for several more years. More studying. More playing. At-least-annual trip to Vegas, mostly for fun and to play small <$150 tournaments at the Aria and in Old Vegas. Eventually I am assigned to a case in Vegas during the WSOP. The case takes about 100 hours a week, but I’m in one of my favorite cities, living out of one of the nicest casinos, and it’s all paid-for. I could not be happier. I jog to the Rio one morning to check out the glorious madness that is the convention center during WSOP time. The series is ending in about a week and I fantasize about getting enough time off work to play an event. It’s impossible; the case is too all-consuming.

But then, suddenly, unexpectedly, the case ends. Just like that. Our team is told not to come into the office for at least a week and I suddenly find myself with time and money on my hands with a few days left in the WSOP. Eff it, I’m playing the cheapest bracelet event I can find. Call it a bucket list item.

A poker friend of mine encourages me to play and offers to stake me. My then-boyfriend puffs his chest and stakes me for more. I reg a $1k NLHE event. I show up to the Rio for day one in shorts and a T-shirt because I’m a n00b, but my excitement keeps me warm all day. I sit with Olivier Busquet and Frank Cassella in the first few levels of the day. Man, the WSOP is cool. I play the tightest game I’ve ever played. I chip up on solid hands, build my stack to about 4x starting, and eventually call two starting-stack-all ins with a flush draw and hit it. I kept my stack rolling into the money late in the day on Day 1. There’s nothing quite like the excitement of a room of hundreds of poker players making the money of a WSOP event.

I managed to make Day 2 with ~45k, up from the 3k starting stacks. I’m around or a bit below average stack at that point. I’m seated with Matt Salsberg. Have I mentioned how cool the WSOP is? I continue to play super tight poker. I double up with KJ out of the bb after flopping two pair and getting called by AJ. I double up again with AA against a worse ace. I miss a chance to take that ace-rag guy out when he shoved the next hand; I had KJ and folded pre (would have flopped trips --- the dude doubled on someone else instead). Eventually make it down to the last two tables and Day 3.

Day 3 rolls around. I am getting picked on by a young British pro to my immediate right who keeps stealing my blinds. I take a stand and shove 44. He calls with something like J7s and I hold despite him flopping straight and flush draws. Eventually the ace-rag guy I DIDN’T knock out with my KJ calls my ~12bb all in with TT versus my AQ. (This always happens to me! Whoever's life I spare ends up destroying me.) I get no help and I’m out in eleventh place and a low five-figure payday.

I hate AQ to this day.

The WSOP Aftermath

The WSOP was such an amazing experience that I’ve gone back every year since then. I haven’t come close to repeating my performance, although I have one other cash and a few deep deepstack runs. I’ve had losing trips each time since that first one, no matter how well I’d been playing locally pre-trip; bad mentality, not adjusting to longer WSOP structures, and generally letting Vegas put me on life and poker tilt. I love my time out there, but I always come back way in the red and stay tilted for several months afterwards. I still play locally and I’ve binked a few tournaments here and there.

Well, this year decided I wasn’t running/playing well enough to justify a trip. I realized I never stay on budget in Vegas and that I wanted to actually keep my tax return in my savings account this year. So I was determined not to go.

Then I took second in a small WSOP-C event and chopped a local tournament and suddenly my poker bankroll was above 2k and was two thirds of the way to a Vegas trip after all. I decided that if I could make up the remaining $1k playing poker, plus $1k extra to come home to after the trip, then I’d go to Vegas after all. I played several tournaments a week and won a few, but I week of major tournament tilt damaged my bankroll and left me needing to earn the last $800 in the final week before my decision deadline. I couldn't make that goal, so I'm stuck at home while my other poker friends enjoy my favorite city at my favorite time of year.

The Challenge

Cool story bro. So where does this leave me? Why am I here?

Every summer, June rolls around and I’m absolutely useless in the office all month. I check twitter and WSOP.com for tournament updates, check in with friends who are playing events, read old trip reports on 2+2, and head out for a week at a time myself. It’s my favorite time of year! I figure, if I’m already mentally in Vegas for the entire month of June, why not be physically there as well? I’m single, no kids -- might as well do it while I can, right?

My goal is to make enough money over the next year to spend the entire month of June playing poker in Vegas next year. I sketched out a preliminary budget assuming I play everything I want to and lose everything I play,* and it’s $12k. That’s about $8k in tournament buy-ins and $4k in living/travel expenses.

* I'm obviously not trying to lose everything I play. But I'll play better if I know I have all of the cash I need for buy-ins. I may end up being staked for a small percentage of my action.

$1k/month is a lot more than I made playing poker last year, but I only played casino tournaments every two or three months last year. What will happen if I really invest the time? I rise to the occasion or I go busto, I guess. Is this a coin flip? Underpair versus overpair? Time will tell. If I fall short of my goal but still end up with 4k+ in June, I’ll go out to Vegas for a shorter trip.

My playing goals for the next 12 months:

• Play local casino tournaments 2x a week. No minimum buy-in.
• Build my bankroll to $12k.
• Spend all of June 2019 in Vegas.

Note: I know with a ~$3k bankroll I'm underrolled for at least some if not most of the tournaments I plan on playing. My plan is to play mostly $150-or-less tournaments, but once a month I'll take a shot in a local $350/$50k guarantee with a nice slow structure. I've final tabled it before and I know it's a beatable tournament. I've also got plans to play a couple of $230 tournaments in AC next month as a Vegas consolation prize if my bankroll stays above $1.5k. If my bankroll dips below $750, I'll stick with $60-or-less tournaments until we get it back in the four figures. FWIW, I've got a small amount of side income that will add $200-$500 a month to the poker roll.

My studying goals for the next 12 months:

• Read three books on low-stakes cash games. Suggestions welcomed. I’m a terrible cash player (see the stats/my abysmal hourly rate) (first, I never know when to get up; second, I don’t know what hands to play/where/when; third, I am terrible about calling big bets and do exactly the wrong thing almost every time) (so I'm basically terrible in every way) but I’d like to start making money in cash games. I'm going to need help with this.
• Spend at least two hours a week studying tournament play. I currently have a paid membership to Jonathan Little’s training website but I haven’t used it much.

Bankroll

I think I'm pretty open to suggestions and feedback, especially w/r/t managing a bankroll while playing almost entirely tournaments. My bankroll and liferoll are mostly separate. The bankroll pays for tournament buy-ins and cash game buy-ins, and it will pay for Vegas expenses as well. Hotel/travel expenses for smaller local trips (e.g. to Atlantic City or WSOP-C events) will come out of my life roll.

Starting Bankroll: $3003
Deductions: $388 (I booked a Southwest flight to Vegas for this year's WSOP, which I cancelled when I failed to make my bankroll goal. I got a travel credit for the cancelled flight, but I'm still out the cash I spent on the ticket, so I'm taking that money out of my BR.
Additions: N/A
Total: $2,615

Stats on tournaments and cash games starting from February of this year are below.

Good luck OP. I'm doing the same right now on Stars.

Good luck to you as well! I only have access to ACR; I wish I lived in a state with more online poker options. :-\

Bankroll Update

Money In:

• I had a 10% stake in a friend who made a deep run in the WSOP Monster Stack. The stake money came from my liferoll, so after paying that back (plus another $50 I staked a different friend who didn’t cash in his event), I put a profit of +470 in my bankroll.

Money Out:

• -$200 in Tuesday night casino cash game. The game was pretty good, but I made three atrocious bluff-catching river calls with TPGK to give away all of my profits in spots where my opponent’s range had me way crushed.
  
  1. This is a major leak in my game; I love the satisfaction of sniffing out a bluff, but indiscriminately calling big river bets is not the same as making a disciplined, difficult call based on a solid range analysis and physical read.

  2. The rest of my losses came from giving up on AK/AQ hands on the flop, missed draws, and one pricey/gambly call with pair and flush draws. I would really love to hear from people who plugged this leak --- how did you make the mental shift?

• -$42 in a Wednesday night casino cash game.

  1. I raised a few AQ/AJ hands that didn’t connect with the flop and I gave up when faced with aggression.
  2. Doubled back up to starting stack + 20% against a drunk guy who would raise 100% of the time if the pot limped to him in a blind and would call enormous bets very wide. (And when I say he was a drunk guy, I mean he was a totally stereotypical drunk dude who was slurring his words, berating everyone for not knowing how to play poker, and loudly talking about how money was meaningless and he was inheriting $80 million so none of it mattered.) I woke up with AA in his SB and limped for $3 (with two limpers ahead of me). After several more limpers, the drunk dude raised to $13. A few of the original limpers called and I shoved for $117. Only the drunk guy called (with KJs) and I held.
  3. I didn’t make any enormous mistakes to lose the profits from this hand, just two unlucky (I think) situations; (1) I raised AJ in the hijack and got calls from the button and the small blind. I c-bet for half or two thirds pot on a ten-high flop and both called me. Checks around on the turn. Checks to the button on the river who bet 1/3 pot. The small blind called and I folded. Button had a set of tens. (2) I limped fours in early position. Flop comes K4x all hearts. Short stack in the big blind goes all in for $32 and I call after looking around and seeing that the remaining players appeared to be telegraphing folds (which they do). Turn is a heart and he had a heart. Should I be raising or folding fours UTG preflop instead? Once I see the flop, I’m okay with the call, I think. I know he’s most likely drawing for hearts and I have outs to his flush anyway...Although if there’s ~$15 in the pot preflop should I be folding because it’s not a big enough upside?
  4. Left while down because a friend and I agreed we would not stay super late and it was 12:30am at that point, plus the drunk guy had left the table. I award myself psychological points for not chasing losses until 3am.

• -$130 in a $20k guarantee local poker tournament. One bullet. I was willing to reenter, but I busted with only a few minutes left to rebuy and the starting stack would have been 12bb.
  1. The hand that crippled me probably could have been avoided. I had an average chip stack and completed the small blind with Q5o. There was one EP limper at UTG + 1. Flop is 345 all spades. I lead out, bb folds, UTG+1 calls. Turn is a Jc. I’m putting UTG+1 on high card hands with a spade, any suited ace (because of straight draw), any unsuited ace (he was a fairly loose player), suited sixes, and middle suited connector cards. I figure there are a ton more draws in his range than made hands. I check the turn and he puts out a bet for about 1/3 pot. I call. River is an 8d and given that none of the obvious draws came in and that most of his range consists of draws, I put him all in, which is about a 1/2 pot bet. He calls and shows 34dd, which I did not see coming.
  2. I think I could have either folded the Q5 hand preflop (although the blinds were 1k/2k/2k bba and there was a limper, so folding a high card for an extra 1k when there is $7k in the pot seems ridiculous, right?). I could have also saved myself the all in river bet, but if I don’t put him all in there I’m probably sigh-calling his river shove so I might as well get some fold equity? I don’t know, what do people think?

Bankroll total: $2713

Studying Update:

• I spent more than 2+ hours studying this week. I took a number of interactive hand quizzes on Jonathan Little’s poker coaching site and started reading Ed Miller’s The Course.
• Do we think any poker books are good value anymore, or is all of the worthwhile teaching on the internet now?

Upcoming Play:

• I, like probably a lot of people here, tend to have a somewhat addictive personality when it comes to poker. I’m taking the next few days away from casinos to focus on fun life stuff and to get some exercise. I don’t anticipate playing any cash games this weekend, although I might stop in the casino on Friday night if I’m feeling focused.
• My next tournament is a big $350/$50k guarantee on Sunday, which will be the most expensive event I play in July.

Good luck, QQ!

I'm trying something similar...

Proving to myself I can beat 1/2. Then 1/3. And hopefully 2/5, at some point. Somewhere in there I will start taking some tourney shots. Again.

Semi-long-term goal will be to do a month in Vegas next summer. Mostly cash but hopefully I'll be comfortable enough to play a few tourneys.

Books for cash...Definitely Harrington on Cash Games. Anything by Ed Miller.

Well, I see you found Ed Miller. Just as I was typing that you posted your update. I'd say yes on the books. But I like to read and I think I learn better reading than watching, so...

Just posted a similar drunk guy story in my thread as well. Wish they could all be like that.

Good work! Not chasing losses is sometimes hard to do. Nice discipline.

Bart Hanson - Crush Live Poker and Upswing are some good resources. Both have some free content on YouTube that is worth watching. Doug Polk’s earlier YouTube videos (watch his tournament videos) are great for building a bit on a foundation.

Awesome! Hopefully I will see you in Vegas in the summer.

I've read Harrington on Hold 'Em, but not on cash games. I'll check that out. I'm working my way through Ed Miller's The Course right now and I really like it. I'm still getting used to raising every hand I enter, since I have that bad mentality that I want to see lots of flops for cheap.

For sure. If my friend had not been there to keep me honest, it would have been hard to resist the temptation to stay, even though the table dried up.

Thank you! I will add these to the list.