Hi 2p2 my name is Richard and this is my journey through the stakes.

I have tried and failed, fallen but I am getting back up. I am beginning to get to grips with the game and really start to analyse my decision and thought processes. My aim over the next 1-2 months is to improve my game as much as possible and secure a coaching for profits deal at the end of it. I am beginning at 2NL again with $50 and aiming to build my bankroll up as quickly as possible rather than just depositing and jumping straight in at 10NL which I have beaten in the past but have struggled to replicate the same results after returning to poker following a short break away from the tables.

My journey actually started a few days ago and already I am rolled for $5NL so here we go....

Here's a hand to get things started!



Easy Game!

Hi 2p2 its been a few days now since I have updated my blog. And well.... success! I am now rolled for 10NL again and have proven my profitability over 25k hands to date. I stand before you (figuratively speaking of course) five days after having gone from 2NL and a $50 bankroll to 10NL and a $250 bankroll. Not only would I like to share with you you my successes but also my story and how I found hope for success and a future with poker it may yet be early days but I have a passion for the game and a real desire to learn, more than ever and I hope I can inspire a few others to follow in my footsteps.

I first found the article that lead me to these forums quite by chance actually, I was playing a £25 tourney at my local casino and whilst on break I spotted a copy of bluff magazine...

Inside I found an article by a certain Ike Haxton who was talking about a guy by the name of Doug Polk whom it seems had shared my struggle and strife and whom too had to come to the place where it seems like it just wasn't sustainable and despite my utter exasperation poker and I just weren't meant to be. I couldn't win.

So I read his blogs and his success inspired me to try one more time. No more depositing and just burning money. I was resolved to use good bankroll management which seemed to be instrumental in any attempt at climbing the stakes. I have now realised that moving up through 2NL an 5NL again has helped me immeasurably by helping me re-learn the basics of good play. I too noted that 5NL had a much better standard of play which people squeezing and bluff 3betting, using quite advanced strategies.
My advice to anyone starting out again is re-learn the basics. Don't go 4bet bluffing someone who you don't know or squeeze a loose passive! Play good abc poker and pick off bluffs by your opponents. Most importantly of all play ONE TABLE at a time. (at least in the beginning) I just couldn't grasp the importance of being able to analyse situations properly. Playing too many tables was my downfall, don't let it be yours!
I can only hope with some coaching I can replicate some of Doug's success and maybe play for living one day....

My graph for the last 20k hands;



And in keeping with the sick hands theme I leave you with this...



........................

Ok so its a been a while since I've updated my blog and I have some ups and downs that are usual with poker. I am starting to understand more and more where my faults are and how to avoid the pitfalls that befallen me in the past. It probably doesn't help that I'm playing zoom, 'that must be the umpteen bloody time I've been squeezed now! ah but then its the 50th bloody table too!'
I have a desire be better. I want be able play all the edges and exploit the good regulars at the tables but I have been struggling to find these spots or rather to justify them and estimate the success rate of them due to lack of stats. However I feel that the volume of hands that I can achieve and thus the amount of profitable situations I can play and set myself up for off sets this, at least to some degree. This coupled with the fact I can play one table and focus on that hand really helps.

I have some time on my hands now having just left the army and feel like I can commit a great many hours to poker outside of any work commitments or other time constraints. I also like to keep fit and I feel physical fitness should be a priority of mine in order to have a healthier mind and body and to mitigate any feeling of regret and remorse but to also allow me to play my best.

I have played a few thousand more hands over the last month than the graph shows but I had to reset my laptop and stupidly forgot to backup my database, I just copied and pasted the files without realizing that holdem manager must make a backup database itself for it to be of any use whilst restoring it following a hard drive wipe. To make things worse it turned out I didn't even need to do this. We live and learn.

Ok so for the last 5k hands or so.



Admittedly not a pretty as my last and I certainly have some improving to do as my non-showdown winnings are pretty rubbish but it is only a small sample and I hope to show an improvement over the next 20k.
I hope I can make some real headway with poker over the coming months and year. I should be able to play small stakes 25NL + by the end of the month and hopefully be a tough winning regular at the mid stakes by the end of the year. Perhaps with the right guidance and help I could even make a career out of it but it is early days.

I guess im closing down my blog for the moment. I'm sure this blog is pretty unread anyway but the it never was for others really more for my own accountability. I keep getting these delusions of grandeur and sense of entitlement which is just plainly absurd.
I built my bankroll up to about $360 and then in the space of around 2500 hands and 24 hours proceeded to lose almost a third of it and now have a roll of around $275.
I can see from my graph that my play has been spew added with poor decision making and light calls which looking back are really bad.
I'm not quite sure why but it seems that history keeps repeating itself for me, last time I built my bankroll up to around $550 and then went on a downward spiral (withdrew around $450 and then after a few months I deposited a few hundred dollars and tilted away the lot.
I just dont know how I turn into a bad player almost overnight. Its not just variance, I mean I should be breaking even or thereabouts over the last few thousand hands due to suck outs or coolers but I am down.
My non-showdown winnings are horrendous which is clearly due to my bad play.
I really struggle to walk away from the tables and find myself playing because i'm bored! If I really wanted to succeed I would be studying more than playing so that's what i'm going to do. I am going to set in place a disciplined routine as best I can and force myself to stop playing after a certain time period probably 2 hours and study before and after each session. I just don't find poker fun anymore as I keep losing but I am determined for this to be at least an income on the side.
As for my dreams of a career (lol i got ahead of myself there a little) they are obviously in tatters as are my hopes of playing small stakes by the end of the month (I don't see this turning around any time soon) and I seem to consistently fail to recognize the fact that everyone else is learning, trying to be better while i'm just sat at my computer feeling sorry for myself trying to play my best c-game and hoping to print money. I need to wake up.