Hello Everyone,

In an effort to develop a relationship with the 2+2 community, I am doing a PGC thread.

I came back to online poker after years of not playing. Was all about it from 2004-2007 but I hit a wall where my game did not improve. I quit playing and only began again during October of 2014. Played HUSNGs for a few months but I sat in on a .05/.10 stud 8 game one day in December and it was a blast. I dusted off my old copy of Super Systems 2 to find out the basics of the game. Since then I have been playing Stud 8 almost exclusively. I very much enjoy the game on a level that I haven't had in other hobbies. Before, when I thought about HUSNGs it was all about my hourly and profit, not the actual game. With Stud 8, I just want to play because it is fun.

Currently, I am sitting on 65.00 dollars in my bovada account. Figured the nice, round number would be a good one to start this thread with. I have 16 bucks on Carbon, but rarely play there. I play .05/.10 games with any number of players and .25/.50 games that have 6+ players. I am a beginner, so I am trying to learn HU and short-handed play without subjecting my roll to major swings. At .25/.50 full tables I nut peddle and play ABC Stud 8. I will move up in stakes when skill permits, not necessarily when bankroll permits. Generally I will play full tables with 120+ BBs and short handed/HU games with much more. I know this is a bit overkill but having a large bankroll relative to my limits keeps the tilt away.

Study wise, I piddle with ProPokerTools and check key hands with it. I am going to purchase Ray Zee's high-low book in the next month. The Stud forum on here is all but dead, but I still post a hand or two hoping for some help. Overall, it seems like playing the game and ProPokerTools is going to be the main sources of improvement.

Goal wise, I just want to enjoy a fun hobby and reap the personal growth that poker can provide. I plan on moving up in limits just like I would in a video game while remembering that poker is just a hobby. I hope to have just as much fun playing HU .05/.10 as I would playing the 50/100 game that runs during the WSOP.

Hope y'all enjoy following along.

Not too much to report. Played a bit HU and short handed at 5c/10c and did well only to drop that and a bit @ .25/.50. It is kind of a bummer to have such a large jump between BB .10 and BB .50. Last session was win win win low and then lose a standard hand or two at the higher limit to wipe out $ wise what was a great session game play wise. Oh whale, it shouldn't be long before I can sit at BB .50 and keep all my action there.

In other news, I "accidentally" bought a book yesterday. While browsing Amazon's books on my iphone, I fat-fingered the 1-Click purchase button and unknowingly bought The Education of a Coach which is a bio on Bill Belichick. I am anti-patriots, but Bill does seem to be an interesting character; not interesting enough to merit buying a bio but ALAS!!! When the purchase button takes up 1/5th of the screen you might accidentally hit it! Thankfully, the book is well written (at least for me, I am ignorant as far as great writing) and the subject is turning out to be pretty intriguing. Might post more about the book on a later date. One tidbit that was interesting was the idea of not trying to find an opposing team's weakness and then exploiting that, but finding their strength and taking it away from them. This forces them into doing what they are not use to/uncomfortable with. Interesting idea that could be applied to a host of different situations.

I do enjoy stud. I sometimes play lowest micro games for fun on Bovada. Is traffic enough to actually grind these? I imagine the games would be soft. GL. I have a thread on here as well

Hey!

Traffic at the lowest stakes is good enough for having fun. When I open sit at .05/.10 it isn't but a few minutes before I get action. Bovada is kind of sneaky in that full tables are hidden. So there are times when I think nothing is going on but there are 3 tables of .25/.50 games that are full.

The games are soft at the low levels; much softer than a comparable level of NL. edit: The issue is that while the games are softer, I suck much more at stud 8 vs NL. So it is nothing to play with total donks but then I seem to blow 7 BBs with one of the standard trap hands like a worse 2 pair. Also, multi-tabling is much harder. So it isn't exactly a honey-hole, but it a lot of fun.

Nothing too much to report. I am treading water at the moment, table starting at .10BB and playing full ring at .50BB. Currently sitting on 64.33 bucks in the account. It is all just a matter of getting in some hours at .50BB where I can get the roll moving and leave .10BB for good. Short handed stud 8 is a great game and I feel like I have pretty good ev in the .50BB game but the swings are too much for my baby roll. Soon though!

I am especially looking forward to moving up in stakes where I don't have to use a decimal point in my post! 1/2 is much easier to type. Woes of the rich, eh?

Finished the Bill Belichick book. A great read even for someone like me who is not a Pats fan or a big football fan. I love football but I feel worthless when I watch 4 games a week when I could be doing more productive things. So I keep away from the game until the playoffs. Started reading the Professor, Banker and Suicide King book but not really getting into it. Have read it a couple of times before. I might switch over to Caro's LBJ bio. That is suppose to be one of the all time great bios. Started it once but you literally can't stand LBJ by the time he is 5 years old. He was such a prick. So the idea of going through with 4 books with a main character I loathed was too much to undertake. But, maybe I can make a better go of it this time.

Hope everyone is having a great new year!

30BB upswing just happened! CHARLIE MURPHY!!!! Now I can open sit these pickle-sniffers at .50BB!

Hit a nice little upswing! I am still playing atm but last time I bought into the game I was sitting at just shy of 84 bucks. I am extremely happy with that. Up almost 40BBs since starting the log.

Some highlights were scooping a huge pot that ended up 3 way on 6th with me having lock on the low, 7th street I make a random pair of tens to go with my low, I bet, one player folds (missed a draw I guess) and somehow the other person had a worse low with no high so I scooped!

It seems more and more that at these lower limit full ring games, you tread water until you randomly scoop some huge hand. There is very little stealing or outplaying folks. Just a waiting game until you hit some huge hands. I am sure this will stop to a degree once I play more short handed and for higher stakes.

As far as working on my game, I am trying to learn how to navigate playing two pair hands. I feel that is my biggest leak currently. I realized that you can't just "oh, got tooo pears!" like in holdem, but you have to pay a lot of attention to your high pair vs theirs.

I also have been neglecting ProPokerTools, and need to start piddling with that more.

That is about it. Just going to grind in the next few weeks. bovada is having tournament series and there are 3 or 4 stud 8 tournaments. I hope they have some satellites to try but not for sure yet. Even at how poor I am at this game, I am sure I would be at least even money vs the field.

update: dropped a decent amount in a game while writing this Back in the high 70s but still, very happy about the results overall.

Hola!

Been busy settling into the swing of the new semester of school. It is a little stressful and I try not to play when I am not feeling at least neutral.

Got in a decent session just now and won a few BBs. Had some success a few days ago HU at the .50BB tables. Pretty standard stuff really. Hope to get in some quality hours so as to mayyyybe have the bankroll to play some satellites into bovada's upcoming tournament promotion. I want to play the 15 dollar stud 8 tournament pretty bad.

In other poker, I have been playing some plo. There are a few home games around Austin that I have found but they are all plo. So trying to learn the game a bit so I could splash around in them. Nothing too serious at the moment.

Also may play in a little free bar tournament tomorrow. Just looking to goof around and maybe meet some people who have a low stakes home game to play in. If I play I will try to post some pics.

Broke the 100 dollar mark!!! Now I can sit full ring .50/1!

I haven't been playing much because of running around with school. I played earlier today and scooped a huge pot which sent me over 100 bucks in the bovada account.

With the big hand, I played it pretty poorly. Listening to all these people say "OOOOHHHH the ante is so big, gotta play more hands!!!" had me playing too loose. I have been a decent winner (despite my poor understanding of the game) at full ring .25/.50 with tiiiight play but for some reason I tried to change things. But anywho, in the hand it was my low, another low, and a high hand or two, but by 6th, the high hands had folded. The river brings a 7 low with a pair of twos for high which was good enough for the scooooop!

Still playing a little plo. I literally looked up starting hand ranks this morning! I know it is a little douchy, but I buy in for 30bb and if I get past 60 then I leave on my next bb. I have no clue what I am doing, I am under-rolled for even the smallest stakes, so I have to be pretty cautious. I hope to be able to cut out the rat-holing before too long when I get a basic understanding of the game down.

WHEE!!! Got 8th in the 5k Player Point freeroll!!! 165 dollar ship!

Ran hot as is standard to go deep in a mtt; last hand my KK lost to AT. Talk about a bankroll booster. Now I can very comfortably sit .50/1 and take the occasional shot at 1/2 when the table is full. Pretty exciting development!

well moving up to .50/1 has got off to a rough start to say the least! After playing the games since Saturday's MTT score, I am down 60BBs! Also down ~20BBs in .25/.50!

The good thing is that I feel as though my play has been much improved. I have been working on trying to cut out a lot of the "peeling" I was formerly doing with rough hands. I lost many bets on 4th street with my 8532 vs a better low draw and a high hand. I am by nature a bit of a calling station and this just doesn't work out in low limit stud 8. With so many people going deep in the hand, and so much information about their hands clearly evident, peeling light seems pretty useless. Especially when there is little fold equity if I happen to catch a scare card.

So despite the poor showing with money won, I am excited about playing. I lost 30BBs short-handed to two players who were HORRIBLE but ran like the sun. I know if it is possible for me to lose 30BBs when playing well vs donks then the upswings are going to be monsters.

Bought Ray Zee's stud 8 book and I am reading that. So far a lot of good information for playing full tables. Going to read the omaha hi/low portion as well. I plan on going to winstar in the future and if the 1/2 nl players are mega horrible, I can only imagine what the play is like in the 1/2 PLO/PLOHL game. I think that game would be a nut-peddler's dream!

That is about all for this post. I am going to try to keep on top of/figure out Pokeit so that I can post some graphs. One of the reasons I do this PGC thread is so that I could possibly sell shares if I were to make it out to vegas/AC and stumble upon a juicy stud8 game. I doubt I will get many interested parties if there is absolutely no way to gauge my results.

Thanks for reading!

Hey hawk1ns keep it up bud. pm me. study that ray zee book! Excellent book

Hey it was fun playing with ya. Wish I could of ran a little hotter but what can ya do.

hah yea I know I ran in God mode. I played a bunch today. Broke even overall. Positive in stud8 though. I played holdem and 08 as well. Made a few mistakes gotta sharpen up a bit

Nice, If I make it to that 5/10 game then I am going to start playing 08 after that. No need for me to split my focus at this point though. Let me know when you get your pm opened up.

UPDATE: As mentioned before, I have been on a downswing. I think it is 100+ in .50/1, and a good chunk at .25/.50. So much so that I can no longer comfortably play short handed .50/1. But oh well, these things happen. I am happy with my play but just couldn't catch some cards at key times. So moving down to .25/.50 until I grind up a few coins and get back some confidence.

My volume has been low because of school and recently started a part time job. To somewhat make up for it, I have been playing around with propokertools. It is crazy what you can learn in a short amount of time with that program. Like 22A pre flop, I was totally screwing up with that hand. You can have all sorts of scary cards out, both 2s dead, and still be even money or a favorite vs multiple villains. I wish I had a tablet so I could run simulations on the bus during my down time.

That is about it poker wise. Just going to swallow the bitter pill and maybe next time at .50/1 I'll upswing all the way to the 5/10 game.

Played about 4 or 5 hours yesterday. Tried to put in actual HOURS regardless of how I did $ wise so long as my play wasn't garbage. Was hitting hand after hand so that is always nice. Ended up about 22 BBs at one point but lost two big pots towards the end.

In the first hand I got to 5th with two baby pair and a nut-low draw vs two high hands that looked like strait and a flush. Jam jam on 5th, 6th, i caught a 3rd pair and foolishly bet out. In hindsight, should of checked/called. Same result might of happened but still the wrong play. Bricked on 7th and for some reason called a bet only to lose to a strait.

Second hand was just a cooler. I had what I think was a strait or small flush with a 7 or 8 low, vs villain who had a good but not great low board. Surprise, surprise! villain had some hidden monster that skkkwwooooped me. My jaw hit the desk when the cards got flipped over. I was already counting that money!

About all to report poker wise. Looking at transferring to SMU soon. I currently go to UT Austin and it is a poor fit for me. Spent a year here and despite loving the city, the school just isn't for me. That is saying a lot, because I am extremely laid back and can usually trudge through most situations in life. Great school, but it is hard in a way that is infuriating to me. I don't mind a tough class, but I'd rather it not be tough because the book is an error-ridden mess, the teacher's english is so poor you cannot understand them, or a "conceptual" physics class's homework is 10x harder than the book or lectures.

So looking to make a change. Cost of living is cheaper in Dallas, so that is a plus. I could work my part-time job in retail and easily cover the bills. Not to mention being 1.5 hours away from Winstar

That's about it. Hope everyone had a great week!

Just had a bit of an eye opening experience.

Sat down at a .25/.50 stud 8 table. Another player shows up with 2.50 bucks and we get after it. Within 7 hands villain is broke and I am sitting with only a dollar and something extra.

Another player sits with 5 bucks. We play heads up and towards the end of the match, I have villain down to pennies yet my stack is now around 5 dollars more than I started.

So over the course of less than 50 hands HU the rake had ate up 5 BBs. I honestly had no idea that it was this dramatic. I dunno about good players but this rake is probably killing me. Bovada's rakeback is non-existent even if you consider the whole 200pt sat --> 5k freeroll path that is about as optimal as it gets for spending your points as a low-limit player.

It is clear that sitting HU is not going to be a viable option until 2/4 when the reduced rake for HU kicks in. I still think the full ring games are profitable despite the rake. The stud 8 HUSNGs are an option as well.

Another more odd option would be to deposit onto bovada like I would playing a live poker game. I would gladly plop down 100 bucks every now and then to play a home game despite the fact that I do not have the "roll" to play LLSNL. I could just deposit 120 bucks randomly and play 2/4 until busto or bankroll. I would obviously not use my whole bovada roll up so I could still play full ring/husngs.

Not quite sure what I will be doing in the future.

How much more will it cost in tuition to attend SMU over attending UT?

Have you heard of this new card room in Austin claiming to be legal? At first I was skeptical but after hearing who was involved in starting it I have my fingers crossed because it seems promising.

http://www.texascardhouse.com/

Hola! I'm not exactly sure what the difference would be. I get a pretty cherry financial aid package from UT and odds are I would get the same treatment at SMU. The big difference would be rent. I would expect it to be around 3.5 to 4k cheaper to live in dallas. I am still not sure what I am going to to do with school. Taking the summer off and then hopefully come to a solid, non-emotional decision about what to do.

Yeah that card room is about a mile from me. I just don't think it is legal. Yeah, they don't rake the pot, and no tips, but they charge you a membership fee. So they are making money from running a card game. Maybe it is a loophole but it is such a gray area that the cops could kick the door in at any moment.

This state is so ignorant with the gambling stuff. You can degen to your hearts content at any convenient store, play bingo, bet the ponies, yet you cannot play a game of cards in a safe casino. We have to go driving out of state to spend our money elsewhere when it could be staying here.

Yes hawk1ns the rake is brutal. You know I table sit and wait to play people HU. I'm doing it more for the experience than anything. But I think I'm going to transition to sng's like you mentioned. Have done well in the ones Ive played. Hope all is well bud Im going to shoot you a pm. Peace

Have you heard of this new card room in Austin claiming to be legal? At first I was skeptical but after hearing who was involved in starting it I have my fingers crossed because it seems promising.

http://www.texascardhouse.com/[/QUOTE]

Was not expecting to get information like this in a stud 8 thread but thanks. Well if it is not been defined as legal they some brass ones then because they had news stories done on them so they are not trying to stay under the radar. I might have to check them out if I get to bored.

Yeah I know it. I get that they may of found a ever-so-slight gray area but it is like picking up nickles in front of a bulldozer. The cops could still raid it and tie them up in court for ages. Who wants to catch a charge over some piddly membership? I could see them starting off with a "club" type of a situation with drinks and such, then adding in the free poker. Then it makes it out like some folks all chipped in to have a little game. But this looks like a gambling operation.

Update: Have being getting whooped by my new job so play time has been limited. I have logged about 200 HU hypers with a 7ish roi. With being tired from work, hypers are great because they are over so quick. I can "win" at poker in less than 15 minutes. If I play stud 8 I really need to play for an hour or so to get that same feeling.

about all to report!