For the past while I've been playing poker for about a month ever year or so. I recently became quite ill, enough to end up in hospital for a week and need a long recovery time. I had to leave college (trying to reskill into a different area) and I couldn't do much having to go to hospital every day. My current situation means I can't work, so I'm bored out of my mind and genuinely going crazy.

I spent a month after I was in hospital taking photos all day and editing them all night (I'm not a bad photographer.) I spent a month writing poetry (not getting them accepted anywhere.) I spent two months writing smutty fiction (earning €50 in the process from Amazon sales.) And now I'm turning to poker.

I am a terrible poker player. I can often grind my way on the $0.01/$0.02 tables to getting 20/30c up, but then I do something completely boneheaded and throw away a dollar, at least. I've played 1,142 hands since Saturday night and I'm at -$0.02 of where I started. And that's after being up three dollars and down three dollars.

If I have a goal, it's to win enough to pay for some poker tracking software. That way when I spend a month or two every year playing poker I can have the software to go with it.

This isn't a ludicrous goal, but for someone who regularly drops their winnings on not seeing (or even ignoring) a better hand it's still quite tough. Maybe with this thread I can stick to proper play.

I'll give you some horrific play for entertainment, one of me winning and one of me losing. Both with different ends, but terrible.

So I'm pretty pleased with how I handled this. I had lost half my buy-in and was a little annoyed but trying to stay calm. I didn't seem to be getting hands and when I did get something the flop didn't come my way with some weird aggression going on, from a few players before and from the guy I'm going to talk about here.

So this guy joins the table. I have no hand history on him. He plays with the very first hand he's dealt with posting a BB.
Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $1.27
BTN: $2.00
SB: $1.89
BB: $2.47
UTG: $2.00
UTG+1: $1.22
UTG+2: $2.34
MP1: $2.00
MP2: $2.00

MP2 posts a big blind ($0.02)

Pre Flop: ($0.05) Hero is CO with 7 7
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.02, 2 folds, MP2 raises to $0.06, Hero calls $0.06, 3 folds, UTG+1 raises to $0.10, MP2 calls $0.04, Hero calls $0.04

Flop: ($0.33) 8 8 A (3 players)
UTG+1 bets $0.02, MP2 calls $0.02, Hero raises to $0.14, UTG+1 folds, MP2 calls $0.12

Turn: ($0.63) 2 (2 players)
MP2 bets $0.30, Hero folds





The same guy is playing here.

Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (UTG+2): $1.03
MP1: $2.00
MP2: $1.88
CO: $2.56
BTN: $2.00
SB: $1.03
BB: $2.32
UTG: $2.00
UTG+1: $2.37

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is UTG+2 with T K
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.02, Hero calls $0.02, 4 folds, SB calls $0.01, BB checks

Flop: ($0.08) 2 K T (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 bets $0.08, Hero raises to $0.16, SB folds, BB folds, UTG+1 calls $0.08

Turn: ($0.40) 3 (2 players)
UTG+1 bets $0.02, Hero raises to $0.10, UTG+1 calls $0.08

River: ($0.60) A (2 players)
UTG+1 bets $2.09 all in, Hero calls $0.75 all in



And that one hand meant I had $0.03 profit after being almost a dollar below my buy in at that table.