My journey to becoming a winning player
06-15-2016
, 05:12 PM
Hi guys, so I thought maybe I'd put up my chart here and do the thingy thing and see if I could get some advice about how to continue my poker journey.
I've been playing poker for a really long time, actually--I first remember my Grandpa telling me that you folded bad hands on a free Hoyle computer game we got with our Gateway computer when I was about 5 or 6. This annoyed me and I didn't really listen. I started playing a little more on some dumb game called Puzzle Pirates when I was about 12 (where nobody actually knows how to play), but I was never actually good--though I did pick up some concepts such as raising with AK. I dicked around with Juicy Stakes for a little, and actually managed to win a couple $100 prizes, but I never made any money.
Anyway, it occurred to me last summer that I could actually learn how to play and beat the games. My first real poker strategy came from watching BlackRain's "How to Crush the Micros Videos" which actually really helped. I met a couple guys actually through Puzzle Pirates (while I was honing my skills) who played online, and they introduced me to Bovada. Since then, I've played probably around 800 hours online. The only live experience I have is a weird $50 buy in cruise ship sit n go quasi-live digital apparatus thing with 10 minute blinds or so. I lost jamming 10
9. Didn't know what I was doing then.
This chart shows the last 541 hours I've logged on Bovada. In the beginning I was playing more mtts because honestly they were more fun, and I thought they had a lot more strategy--something I thought came more naturally to me than all of the math side of poker (of course, that's only because I had never looked into the theory). I was actually doing reasonably well as you can see and had built up about $600 in profit after I placed 3rd in a $1K. My stats were about 20% cash and 4% winning (but unfortunately the app I use doesn't have an ROI calculator). I think winning put me on an 'invincibility tilt', and I had a downward spiral from there where I was playing in games that were out of my bankroll. I won a $4 tournament for $70 after that, but haven't won anything major since.
Clearly variance had a lot to do with my early success as well, but I was also playing the mtts differently than I am now. I switched to cash games, playing mostly 25nl, and am now consistently beating them at about $10/hour 4 tabling (ie about 13bb/100 if 75/hr/tbl). I read Theory of Poker (which had some interesting concepts in it, but overall wasn't too helpful), and am in the process of reading Harington's series on tournaments. Overall, I've spent hours off the table as well in analysis of my own hands, as well as on YouTube videos, and programs like PokerSnowie.
Along the way, I've had a series of epiphanies that have seriously strengthened my game. Funnily enough, the biggest one came from playing on Puzzle Pirates (realizing how poor players will almost tell you exactly what they have). Basically, in cash games, I've stopped fighting like a moron for pots without value. Unfortunately, I think this may be the underlying problem with my failure in mtt games due to their poor structure (ie shortstack play).
I apologize for rambling, I just wanted to convey all that I could behind the story of this chart. I'm curious as to what your interpretation might be. Currently I'm about -$60 in total on Bovada and actually just had a terrible 6 hour losing swing the other day. What I would really like to do is get back into mtts, because I enjoy the skill that goes into playing them. Has anyone experienced anything like this? Let me know what you think!
I've been playing poker for a really long time, actually--I first remember my Grandpa telling me that you folded bad hands on a free Hoyle computer game we got with our Gateway computer when I was about 5 or 6. This annoyed me and I didn't really listen. I started playing a little more on some dumb game called Puzzle Pirates when I was about 12 (where nobody actually knows how to play), but I was never actually good--though I did pick up some concepts such as raising with AK. I dicked around with Juicy Stakes for a little, and actually managed to win a couple $100 prizes, but I never made any money.
Anyway, it occurred to me last summer that I could actually learn how to play and beat the games. My first real poker strategy came from watching BlackRain's "How to Crush the Micros Videos" which actually really helped. I met a couple guys actually through Puzzle Pirates (while I was honing my skills) who played online, and they introduced me to Bovada. Since then, I've played probably around 800 hours online. The only live experience I have is a weird $50 buy in cruise ship sit n go quasi-live digital apparatus thing with 10 minute blinds or so. I lost jamming 10
9. Didn't know what I was doing then.This chart shows the last 541 hours I've logged on Bovada. In the beginning I was playing more mtts because honestly they were more fun, and I thought they had a lot more strategy--something I thought came more naturally to me than all of the math side of poker (of course, that's only because I had never looked into the theory). I was actually doing reasonably well as you can see and had built up about $600 in profit after I placed 3rd in a $1K. My stats were about 20% cash and 4% winning (but unfortunately the app I use doesn't have an ROI calculator). I think winning put me on an 'invincibility tilt', and I had a downward spiral from there where I was playing in games that were out of my bankroll. I won a $4 tournament for $70 after that, but haven't won anything major since.
Clearly variance had a lot to do with my early success as well, but I was also playing the mtts differently than I am now. I switched to cash games, playing mostly 25nl, and am now consistently beating them at about $10/hour 4 tabling (ie about 13bb/100 if 75/hr/tbl). I read Theory of Poker (which had some interesting concepts in it, but overall wasn't too helpful), and am in the process of reading Harington's series on tournaments. Overall, I've spent hours off the table as well in analysis of my own hands, as well as on YouTube videos, and programs like PokerSnowie.
Along the way, I've had a series of epiphanies that have seriously strengthened my game. Funnily enough, the biggest one came from playing on Puzzle Pirates (realizing how poor players will almost tell you exactly what they have). Basically, in cash games, I've stopped fighting like a moron for pots without value. Unfortunately, I think this may be the underlying problem with my failure in mtt games due to their poor structure (ie shortstack play).
I apologize for rambling, I just wanted to convey all that I could behind the story of this chart. I'm curious as to what your interpretation might be. Currently I'm about -$60 in total on Bovada and actually just had a terrible 6 hour losing swing the other day. What I would really like to do is get back into mtts, because I enjoy the skill that goes into playing them. Has anyone experienced anything like this? Let me know what you think!
Last edited by goldFishshark; 06-15-2016 at 05:36 PM.
06-16-2016
, 11:48 PM
A good update (to the nobody who is reading this thread). Today I had another couple good winning sessions in 25nl, capitalized by a 2nd place cash in a 1K for $156, bringing me back into the black! Guess I can still do well in mtts after all
Unfortunately, I couldn't beat the guy who was running like a god--need to work on my short stacked heads up skills. Earned the chip advantage back from a 700-400 lead, but ended up losing it next hand to AK vs 1010 (he hit a 10), and eventually to KK.