I've had some interest and played poker for around a decade now on and off (with some breaks from poker of a couple years at a time).
My first experience with Poker was one day when my boyfriend at the time was watching some tournament on tv. I was amazed by how much money they were playing with (I later found out that it was chip counts, but still the buyins and the top prizes were huge!) and decided I wanted to give it a try! I made a small deposit of around $10 on pokerstars which I quickly lost, and for a week or two I kept making small deposits and losing it over and over. I was down about $100 in total.
I started reading a little and watching some training videos, I think it was DeucesCracked I was watching back then with their free trial, and decided to have another try, this time with actual bankroll management. I made another small deposit onto pokerstars of around $20 and over the next couple of months I managed to grind it up to around $200, playing mainly NL2 FR and then some NL5 FR after I got past $100.
I was a student at the time, money was a bit tight and so I ended up cashing out the money. This happened quite a few times. I'd make a small deposit, grind it up into a quite nice amount and then the money seemed more real and I felt there were more important things to spend it on.
My worst experience with Poker was probably about 5 years ago. I felt confident, I'd beaten NL2, NL5 and NL10 and was ready to set my sights higher. I had no money on pokerstars at the time. It was yet another time I'd cashed out the money for something more important. I had a little bit of spare money so made a much larger deposit than usual. I deposited $200 and decided to take a shot at NL25, even though I didn't have the bankroll for it and $200 was a lot of money for me.
Things went well at first. I was playing great, the cards were all coming, and in around a month I was up to almost $1000. It felt great. I felt unstoppable and it was inevitable that I'd soon be moving up even higher and perhaps Poker could be an income for me. That's when things changed.
There's one hand in particular that sticks in my mind as the start of the downward spiral. I don't remember all the cards now (I'm sure I have the hand saved somewhere but would take some time to find), but there was a player on my table who was in every pot, losing stack after stack with awful hands and I wanted a piece of it. I got AK and got into a 3bet pot with him. There was a K on the flop and I knew it was my turn to get his stack. I bet large because he would always find his way to the river. The turn came and we got the rest of the chips in. I saw his hand. K8 vs my AK and I was way ahead. He only had 3 outs and I was waiting for the chips to come my way. The river came and I saw an 8. He took my stack and quickly left the table. I felt very frustrated. I felt like I was supposed to have that money and now the guy practically giving away money had run off with my stack.
Things only got worse from there. I continued playing, knowing I was tilted but didn't want to finish a session being down. I was lucky that almost all my sessions up to that point I had been in profit by the end of them, so a big red number in HM2 was the last thing I wanted. I kept playing trying to win back what I'd lost and the losses only got bigger. Over the next few days I'd lost my confidence, kept trying to chase the losses and by the end of it I only had $100 left in my stars account. It was then I decided it's time to move back down and I went from NL25 down to NL5 and felt humiliated. Over the next few weeks I managed to grind it back up to my initial deposit but my confidence was gone and I withdrew the money and stopped playing for a while.
I did come back a few years ago and started grinding SnG's. Ever since my experience with NL25 I've gone off cash games. I did well in the SnG's but after grinding my way up to from the $0.25 45 mans to the $1.50 45 mans and having a small losing streak I decided to cash out again with a small profit.
And here we go again. I don't know how things will end this time, but I feel like I'm ready to get back to the grind and just see what happens. I don't expect I'll ever be a top pro. I imagine I'll stay a recreational player forever, but I'd like to be a recreational player that wins, even if it is just small amounts.
I'm starting again with $0.25 45 man SnG's with an initial deposit of $40.
My bankroll currently stands at: $41.35.
I've played a little NL2 cash and some slightly higher buyin MTT/SnG's, so although I have a profit of $5.97 currently in the $0.25 SnG's I'm only slightly above my deposit with the other losses.
I'm mainly planning to use this thread to track my progress and help motivate myself to play more. I'll post results in here regularly
My goals for the next few days:
- Try to play 30 $0.25 45 man SnG's per day (Maybe not every day if I have other things to do that day)
- Remember to mark hands that I feel I played badly and review them
- No more MTT's apart from maybe the $0.55 and $0.11 Women's MTT's on stars (Since they're small fields and it's fun playing a tournament with only women!)
Last edited by DramaQueen; 05-24-2018 at 12:10 AM.