Hi, firstly here’s a quick introduction about myself and how I found this beautiful game

I’m 19, about to turn 20 and I live in the south of England. I’m about to start my second year at Loughborough University where I study sports technology. I first started playing poker when I was 15 at a friend’s home game. Needless to say I sucked but somehow managed to fluke my way to victory and immediately became interested in the game. I started playing for play money online shortly after on PKR which I thought was the nuts, man I was wrong. I made my first deposit on full tilt ($250) when I was 16 and tried to dedicate myself to poker. I read a lot of book, watched a lot of videos, did everything really but play much poker. No wonder I sucked. That being said I always thought I was good enough to beat the game and continued trying to learn. When black Friday rolled around I still had my initial deposit and was very fortunate to withdraw my whole bankroll 2 days before the site fully went down. I realise that my bankroll was just pennies but to a 17 year old kid it felt like a fair amount to lose. My parents had always hated the fact that I played poker, so when black Friday hit I started to wonder if what they had always thought was true. I pretty much stopped playing until January of 2012 where I decided to put my bankroll on stars and grind sng’s. My goal was to play 1000, $1.5, 45 man sng in a year (what I thought was a monster challenge at the time), after 400, I switched to 180 turbo’s to play the final 600 tourneys. I finished the challenge in September with pretty horrible results (15.9% Roi over 1000 games).



So why make a thread?

Firstly I believe online poker at least as we know it is on the verge of death. With more and more countries excluding themselves from world player pools the games are getting harder every day and the opportunity to make any sort of money in poker is dwindling. The future of online poker is very uncertain and therefore if I was ever going to make a thread like this, now would be the time. Mainly though, I suck. I’m hoping that this thread will motivate me to get better as well as play a lot more. I promised my girlfriend a holiday to turkey next summer and without a job I need this. So here goes....

Until Xmas I want to switch from SNG to 6 max cash to improve my deepstack and postflop game, I think this could add a few % onto my ROI when I eventually switch back to 180’s in January.
Current Bankroll – $609.09

Until Xmas

-Play at least 15 hours a week, 12 tabling 0.02/0.05 6max NL
-Study for at least 5 hours a week

So first day didnt go so wel, i only played for about an hour but managed to lose just over a couple of BI. I was however $10 below EV but i still played horribly ( A mix of being rusty, adjusting to a slightly different format, and being tired. i only slept for 5 hours the night before i was too buzzing after the ryder cup and had to be up at 7 for a lecture, sick life lol). My ranges are way off so far and really need to spend a while looking at opening ranges in middle/early position, as well as flatting ranges in lp and the blinds.

Heres an example of how bad i was playing...



In hindsight. I feel pre is fine, i 3 bet here like 40% of the time. C/R the flop, lead the turn and hate life when he shoves lol.

A quick threadsaver and gl at the tables...

Far better session today, my volume at the minute is incredibly low but its still freshers and im no where close to being in a routine where i can set aside time to play poker. On top of that Fifa 13 is just too sick so im playing more of that then i should be.

Today i played 721 hands winning $8.61, the session was relatively trouble free apart from losing a BI with AKo to AA but what can you do. I spent a long time reviewing my play yesterday and tried to work out my default opening range for each position. Im still not wide enough though i dont think playing at 17.6/15.9 and feel as if i should be opening UTG+1 slightly wider. I also managed to plug some serious leaks which carried over from 180 mans such as no one 3bets light let alone 4bets light so folding is so often correct against peoples ranges.

Hopefully things continue to get better...

I also witnessed one of the most disgusting things ive ever seen on a night out this week. Whilst clubbing in the union 2 freshers stood next to me decided to take their balls and nobs out and clap them together like some strange genital high 5. But thats loughborough for you lol.

On that note good luck on the tables.

How times have changed since I was a student, there was no way I had 600 bucks lying around to play poker with lol. Gl with the challenge.

On the hh above, I don't like the call on the flop and would check raise to take down the pot or to get it all in on the turn. As played, getting it in on the turn is fine. I assume he turned over jacks for a cooler?

Any stats or reads on villan? Are you using a HUD?

Hi Sportymat, good luck with your challenge.

I'm 21 years old myself, and I'd love to talk strategy (if you need it) and RL stuff (we're same age/location) so that would be pretty cool if you're up for it. Just send a PM my way if you are.

lol i dont have any money so nothing has changed in that regard. When i was 15 i got a electric penny collector thing for christmas. That whole year i saved up any change i had and by the end of the year i had over £150 (250$) which i used as my initial deposit. I still had pretty much the same amount when i deposited on stars this year, I just managed to run it up to 600 since january. With the hh i completely agree, and no he turned over Q10 for the nuts, (not great for my EV line lol). Erm yeah i use Holdem manager 1 still, i think my gf is geting me hm2 for my birthday and as stats go i dont really use it often, Mainly to check how fishy the oponent is and go from there, at this stage having only played a few hands of cash i have such a small sample of hands on regs and stuff so the data is pretty useless.

Yeah sure, i definietly need the help i dont think im in a place to offer any advice just yet though but definietly once im more used to the games it would be a good idea. Until then please feel free to comment on hand histories that i post etc.

As i said previously, volume is a real issue and so it continues to be. This weekend was another example of that. My gf came down to visit so i didnt play any poker until just now. However im sure ill be able to turn this around, my uni timetable is fully underway and im starting to get into a proper routine which will really help me with putting in some volume. As far as actual play goes i feel like im playing well. Im slowly removing any SNG tendincies i had most notably always stacking off with QQ and AK pre (other standard examples), and whilst often against the right opponents i feel this is the right play sometimes it is not. Also ive stopped getting stacked apart from the example below and this is helping my bb/100 a ton. By bet folding rivers and avoiding AIPF sitiuations like the ones mentioned above. Postflop im still terrible but its getting better and im starting to make less mistakes with my defualt opening ranges which has got my vpip/pfr to around where i want it 19/17.

Thats all for now, thanks for the comments sorry for long post.
Finally Heres a hh from todays session and a thread saver.







what do you think? at the time i was really happy with my call but looking back vilains range is at worst the hand he has so its probably a -EV call.

Small update....

Been playing a little more recently and things are going well. Since i reviewed my preflop play ive had only 1 losing day and the past 5 days have all been profitable. Im currently beating the game for 6.02bb/100 over 7571 hands. Obviously the sample size is ridiculously small but im still fairly happy. Im not sure about micro win rates as ive played such little cash so if any one could provide guidance on what i could expect that would be useful.

As for how im playing, things are starting to get better having played mainly 180 mans im not used to remembering the action on previous streets and this is something im getting bettter at. Other things i need to improve on such as stop making stupid miscliick folds pf as well as general post flop play like cbetting fish is essentially pointless etc.

Hopefully things will continue to go well....

Well running good didnt last long lol. Was officially bent over and abused all weekend Losing 7 buy ins in like 5000 hands which is obviously not ideal. I seriously struggle against fish and always have and need to improve on this. Some of the **** they do just makes me literally lol as i play but then they rake in the pot from me so i quickly stop smiling.

Was mega pissy by the end of the weekend losing in 2 days what it took me a week to make but SILVERLINING i reviewed a lot of my play and found some big leaks. Mainly blind defence and how i need to 3bet more. Watched some videos and am starting to understand what polarising your range means at last after hearing the term for like a year and realise why you should do it etc....

Tried to carry some of that into my play today and made 1.5 BI so semi back on track. Realised i need to make about 46vpps a day in order to get silver star on stars which is the absolute minimum amount i want to attain by the end of the month so no more excuses!!!

Weekly Goal

Review all my 'could 3bet' hands in holdem manager and decide why it was better to 3bet/flat/fold in each situation

Monthly Goal

Hit that baby rakeback target of 750 monthly vpps woop.