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

Subbed, gl.

I decided to start playing less like a robot 4 tabling, and more 'real' poker. I limited my tables to two 6max tables today. I played relatively tight until I developed player reads. Instead of relying solely on HUD stats, I really tried to exploit players based upon reads.

Example: V to my left was a 65/5. Called almost every preflop raise. I started raising premiums bigger to 3-4x. He still called. Flop bets he was calling with any piece of the board. I stopped betting 60% of pot. I started betting 75-90% of pot, he still called every bet to river any piece of the board.

I did win my biggest pot ever tonight. 450BBs at 25NL 6max. Flopped a set with 77 vs AA on 479r board V could not get away 210BB deep. I did slowplay to the river and he kept firing, and ultimately called my shove.

Here's where I stopped at 25NL. Combination of run good and playing well.


I am starting to get more comfortable being 200BB+ deep. I like seeing flops vs inferior players, in particular those with such narrow preflop ranges. Seeing high implied-odds hands vs these players is very profitable. This is one reason why I stopped playing the SnGs. I feel that a lot of my edge comes from being deep vs fish. If we are both 10BB's deep my edge is dramatically reduced.

I plan to stick with 2 tables for now and focus on exploiting players leaks and building reads. No more auto-pilot robot. That might make a few bucks per hour but will stagnate the progression of my game.

+155.38
Bankroll: $693.15

I've been playing on my iPad the last few days and aside from the occasional freezing or program crash I really like it. Ran it up a few buyins only playing a few hundred hands on there.

Started with an $850 BR today 3 tabling 25nl 6max today. First hand, got it in with KK on a 833r flop vs JJ for stacks, J river. Pretty tilting. My goal is to not allow this sort of stuff to bother me. Then ran set into set and lost another BI, and QQ into KT AIPF for another 50BB. I know these games are crushable, I just need to get in the volume.

I definitely have identified what sets me off, and it's the 2-4 outer suckouts. In particular, if a fish makes a terrible play(such as shoving $20 into a $5 pot with JJ) and hits 4% equity.

I also need to resist the urge to get back money after these sort of suckouts. My mind tells me to get back what was rightfully mine and do it fast. Otherwise I have to work hard for another 10 hours of playing to get back what I should have made.

I am hoping the point in time comes where I can take multiple 1 outers for a significant amount of money with the same smile on my face as if I won every one of those pots. After all, if I get my money in as a favorite the vast majority of the time, it is almost guaranteed that I will make money in the long-run, assuming the volume is there.

+81.85
Bankroll:$775

Ran 6 buyins -ev tonight in about 2 hours. Managed to keep my cool and recover.

Finished up the month tonight. Overall I am very pleased. Aside from my $600 tilt spew blackjack session I played very well. I recently read some old posts by WCGRider where he discussed the importance of raising or folding with hands that are not pocket pairs. I've tightened up overall and almost eliminated my non PP calling range except in LP with exceptional pot odds. It helped reduce variance significantly. I am seeing flops w/ high-implied odd hands cheaply and eliminating seeing flops with high reverse implied odds hands. I'd like to reduce my calling range with suited 1 and 2 gappers as well.

I finished up tonight with a nice 4buyin run at PLO. I really enjoy PLO more than Hold'Em- especially on the weekends. Just playing very nitty seems to be profitable. If I had any sort of rakeback there is no doubt I'd transition over to PLO. If I run this roll up I may deposit some on ACR if the games seem decent. Last time I checked, everything 25NL + was filled with regs. Certainly tougher games than Bovada.

Monthly NLHE graphs:

2/1/2015 - 2/28/2015:


$.10/.25 6max and 9max:


I'd like to lower my VPIP in full ring slightly, and raise my PFR in 6max. My game has changed in the last week or so after reading WCG's old posts. I'm folding more and calling less. It's reducing variance and increasing my winrate so far.

+201.37
Bankroll:$976.37

Following, Good luck

Do you have a link to those posts?

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/se...rchid=46893873

Go back and look at his old serious (non bbv4l) threads. This one is the one I was referring to:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32...sively-166132/

Ha those winrates are so sick lol. I miss 25 NL. Enjoy the wave man.

Three days of horrible run bad. Seems like every time I flop K47r with AK V has a set. Ran KK into AA a few times. Then switched over to $10 SnGs and lost a ton of coin flips and AIPFs with 70/30 equity. Ran deep in the nightly deep stacked $7500gtd. Ran KK into 99 AIPF and busted around 50th.

Planning on taking a break until the weekend. I always play well after a few days off. It seems like I am doom-switched with these runouts. It's definitely making me scared to play and I am folding too often to aggression, even from maniacs.

Although it is boring, it seems that my bread and butter game is 9max 25NL just being a super nit. When I come back Friday the plan is to get back to grinding 25NL.

One thing that I have learned these last few days is that a 5bet in FR 25nl from a low PFR player means AA. Maybe I could have found a few folds with KK facing a 5bet. Then again, they sometimes show up with QQ, JJ, in that spot so I generally never fold KK preflop to anyone unless they have a PFR of 0 over a large sample.

-149
Bankroll: $826

Subbed, GL!

Gonna keep it short since I am off to bed(not that I'll be able to sleep any time soon), but this just happened. I cannot describe how good this feels. I'll update tomorrow with details on how it went down, and why I now realize how poor my nitty endgame MTT strategy was.



+1560.46
Bankroll:$2386.46

^ Nicely done sir!

Good job. Are you going to be grinding live 1/2 NL in Florida now? What is the structure and rake at the local live 1/2 NL games around you?

Nice score, huge bankroll boost.

I wish I could even cash in a ****ing tourney on Bovada I play a few every sunday with points I earn during the week and just brick everything.

GG Dude! Well Done!

Nice!

Still so pumped about my massive bankroll boost. I have a change of plans for now and plan on giving online a shot with my roll. I am not cashing out to play live yet because I can only get to the casino once a week.

I started grinding 50NL. Ran it up 4 buyins yesterday. I'm playing really well overall IMO. Ran roughly $-800 EV today in 6 hours of play. I got it in good in every single big pot. I almost wish I could blame this one on tilt and my mental game but I cannot. 2 outered on the river three times and lost 7 all in's with over 80% equity. Had a guy stack off 100BB deep with 22 on KQ7 board, 52o all in on 679 flop vs QQ, etc. Some of the suckouts were so puke-worthy I couldn't do anything but laugh. With that being said, I have never seen play like what I saw today. Not at 1/2 live, not at 5NL. I'm talking zynga play money material... seriously.

I have never experienced this sort of variance before. I'm starting to worry my BRM is too aggressive for these games. I know, over 40 buyins is a lot but if this run bad continues I could be busto in a week. I know I have the skills to handle 50NL but I am trying to make this journey as low variance as possible. So I'm torn between moving down to 25NL and gutting it out at 50NL and praying I run even remotely close to neutral EV. I was hoping the tourny bink was my opportunity to get out of 25NL for good and try and get out of the micro raketrap. I want to be able to run just about as bad as anyone has ever run and not go busto, so 44 buyins may be inadequate. I'm curious to hear some opinions on this.

I guess the good news today is that I repeatedly took the worst beats I've ever had and I'm not really tilted or overly upset about it. I know this is a part of the game. Dealing with it is probably one of the key factors separating the nosebleeds reg from the guy who tilts off his roll and quits poker.

-161.39
Bankroll: $2,225.07

I am pretty much in the same boat currently. Subbed, gl and see you at the tables. lol

Good job on the tourney bink.

I'm in a similar situation as you. I just moved up to 50nl yesterday, but I did it at a $1,700 roll. I like the 30 buy-in rule, and then moving back if I'm overwhelmed by losing X amount of buy-ins, which I usually determine before I start my shot taking. I told myself if I fell down to $1,400 I'd move back down and try again. You can't actually go busto at 50nl if you have a BR stoploss, right?

And I 100% agree with your last statement. I have a program that pops up little reminder messages every three minutes. I put in inspirational quotes or things I want to be reminded of. One of mine is "The only thing separating you from other good technical players is your ability to keep your head straight."

It definitely helps me refocus if I'm feeling off my A-game due to anything. Program is called Big Stretch Reminders if you're interested.

Hey BM, just take it slow man. The Br boost allows you to move up a level or two, but if you don't feel comfortable, nothing wrong with staying at a lower buyin level until you do. There's no rule that says you have to play a certain level when you hit a certain benchmark in your br.

Thanks bro! Are u on bovada?
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll check it out.

Full ring or 6max? If you are really conservative with ur moving down in stakes you should not busto ever unless you tilt.

Just took another rivered 2 outer all in on the flop. Did bovada doomswitch me after that luckbox tourney bink lol?

Good point Stuntman. I guess I am just confident at the moment- probably rightfully so with how well I have been playing at these stakes. I'm gonna stick with 25NL for now and try and get through this downswing. Being overrolled is not going to hurt me for now. It's irritating seeing how soft the games are and having to move down, though.
----------------------

BTW guys if anyone ever wants to talk poker or sweat each other in the micro/mid stakes feel free to message me, I am always looking to improve and hear others thought processes. I've only watched a handful of training videos and posted some hand histories so I know there is a lot to learn even from fellow micro/low stakes players.

6max... PM'd you

bm303, gl man. I think variance is a real issue, especially online. I'm a big advocate of the 100 or more BI for pro players; people running it up need different bank roll requirement and should be less risk averse. If you're trying to move up, maybe make sure you have at least 50 BI for the level below.

So if you say hit 52 BI at 25NL, take a shot at 50NL. If you loose your BI, you're back to 50 BI at 25NL, and that should hopefully be good. Or maybe save up 60 BI at 25NL and take a 5 BI shot at 50NL and try and go infinite.

I started grinding 50nl full ring last weekend and recently added in some 6max. I am really liking 6max. It's definitely improving my game and hand reading skills more than FR. I'm also exploiting my tight image in some spots and running the occasional bluff vs other tight, competent players.

I have started table selecting hard at 6 max and it is definitely paying off. It's nice to be able to isolate and play pots with whales. That is not really possible at full ring since almost every pot goes multi-way.

After a few days of really running badly with about a half dozen 2-3 outers I am finally making some profit. The games are good and I really believe I am improving every session. I'll start posting some hand histories and monthly graphs soon when I get in more volume. I plan on sticking with 50nl until I hit around $5k.

Having this nice bankroll is really helping my confidence and mental game. I'm not tilting anymore even after running terribly. I know I have an edge in these games and a few bad beats can't cripple me like it used to when I was underrolled. I'm really looking forward to crushing 50nl and moving up when I feel I am ready.

+260.97
Bankroll: $2486.04