I do like the bingo though, it feeds my inner degen

And you cant beat that final table feeling.

Ive had a few donkament final tables over my online poker life, never taken one down before, I got close and took 3rd for like 1400 in the big 5.50 a while back but that was my biggest.
I would love to bink a huge one, there are enough bad players in them so for a decent player its only a matter of time.

But they take to long, you really have to be in the mood I think.

I received very good news today, I don't have to pay any taxes more because I was moved to pokerstars.eu . I was sooo emotionally happy that I played a very aggresive game and 3-bet a lot pre with borderline hands and flatted to outplay my opponents. But then I suffered huge bad beats and coolers so I called it a day and quit lol, anyways I don't feel angry at all. I am more confident in my game but I don't know if I would keep being aggro in late stages which I am aiming for, obv a ft would be nice since it was a long time it happened.

Bingo it is. But on the other hand, if it wasn't I probably wouldn't be here posting today.

I saw some people posted about how they got into poker here, so perhaps this is a good opportunity for me too.

First played only play money sng's back in 2005-2006 and had decided that I would never deposit (shame now when I read about how soft the games were back then). After this only home games with friends a couple of times a month. Then last fall I opened my poker client again for the first time in years and made it deep in some freeroll and won 80 cents. Next played a 0,1€ rebuy and final tabled it for 8€. Signed up to a 2€ and a 5€ mtt with rather small fields (around 50-60 players), finished 2nd in both and my roll was up to 80€. After 3 consecutive final tables I was of course convinced I was Phil Ivey and that I would be rich in no time.

Unfortunately, this was not the case. Played a lot of mtt's and busted my roll quite quickly. But after the initial success I of course had to deposit a small amount, since I "knew" I was so darn good and only had been unlucky in the last few donkaments. So I deposited, busted again, deposited and busted a third time (this time trying out plo and other games that are very smart to play underrolled). After the third deposit I started playing nlhe cash tables. There, for the first time, my roll was steadily increasing. About 25k hands later (lol samplesize) I have earned back everything I've deposited plus some more. Currently playing 25nl with 20bi bankroll and tunning goood!

tl;dr
If I hadn't boosted my ego by being an extremely lucky fish in my first donkaments, I wouldn't play today.

I remember making a few final tables a few years ago on full tilt.

looking back i must have ran like god, I dont think I was very good at all.

But yeah these are vital for new players I think.

Just flopped quad jacks and killed an aggro monkey :-)

you are right, I only started my online poker grind after cashing in a live donkament (end of last year). it is indeed a driving force to keep pursuing the dream lol

and I also got really lucky cause I realize now I wasn't aware of so many basic NLHE concepts I would only learn after reading 2p2 threads

Why kill him? You want him to rebuy!

I'm gonna post in here as well until I complete my goal of having a roll of $1k+ and being able to play 50nl.

Today's graph - recovered somewhat after losing to a 2 outer getting it all in with KK against K5 on 5xx board

I think my strategy in the first few tournaments that I final tabled was mostly to get it in with qq+ and AK pre and fold the rest. Perhaps opened the range a bit late game for blind stealing. I remember being very surprised that a simple strategy like this could make so much money easily. But you are right, it's a good thing it can. Gives a real boost to new players when they feel they have a chance of beating the game.

wI havnt spent much time on 25nl, whats the ratio between good and bad players. I have a mental image of it being very TAG.

Lol, not my fault, he disappeared :-)

since I lost a chunk yesterday, I have taken today off. Licking my wounds. Not playing HU until I have like 100BI for it /nod

Ok so I've played live 1/2 about 8 times now at various casinos (Harrah's AC, Caesars AC, Borgata, Sands Bethlehem) and haven't left with any winnings in all 8 trips.

Now I would say 7 out of those 8 times I was up (usually up a buy in) at some point but just stayed around too long and eventually spewed it all away. I play smart when I'm just starting up but then a switch flips a couple of hours in and I stray away from my style and start making absolutely stupid mistakes. It might be my ADHD but who knows...I guess I just get bored playing tight and start playing hands out of my range and end up spewing.

So now I'm trying to save up $$$ for a usable bankroll to play 1/2 at...I'm also reading Harrington's Cash Game books and taking notes while reading. I'm also going to keep a journal of my play and see if that helps me to finally make some money in these games.

I'll keep track of it in here instead of flooding the boards with an entire topic dedicated to it. I'm going to go back and read all the posts in this thread and get to know you all a little better.

3pidemic, i've played 25nl on both stars and FT before but that graph is for 10nl with a bit of 20nl thrown in if a good table opens up.

Main difference at 25nl (at least on stars) is the amount of regs that begin to 3bet light. I know people state lol 25nl ez monies, but it's not as easy as it used to be. That being said, long as you table select and can adjust both your 3bet calling / 4bet range you shouldn't have a problem. Not many LAG's, mainly nitty players that only wake up when they spike a set or have QQ+.

At least you know why.

Yeah, it's like I know I'm doing something stupid and do it anyway. If anyone plays Madden it's like when you see the receiver you want to throw to is totally covered and if you throw it to him it's going to get picked and you throw it anyway and it gets picked.

Think I'm going to deposit like 40 onto Lock Poker and grind NL2. Is this good to go for US players?

$495 after losing the 7-stud today . You'd think coming 1st in eight $5 and $11 tournaments this month would pay better, but most of my first places are in 7-stud, limit holdem and 5-draw, and those tourneys usually have 12-30 players only. Still happy with the results though!

Good luck everyone!

Down 1 BI today, but cleared a bonus so its ok.

Running horribly below EV tho so gotta change sometime right?! :-)

Just out of interest dunna, what's your flop cbet% on everleaf? I'm so much more careful on everleaf because of the number of loose players that I think my cbet% is slightly on the low side.

Well after yesterdays horrendous sessions i decided even though i am rolled at 5nl atm i will Do a day of 2nl to really focus and see where leaks are and how i should be maximising profitablility. It also gave me some perspective on how much if any was tilt yesterday. Good for me that it didnt feel any different so it wasnt tilt.

Lost a couple of all ins early no biggie. Aimed for 1500 hands this session and finished back in profit for the session up by 2.25 BI at 14bb/100. so pretty decent going.

Turnaround point made me smile i got it in with 87s on and A87 board, guy calls with a set of 7s ... turn 8. Now i know how the rest of these 2 outing muppets feel... Still i got the money in good and outdrew at least it wasnt an ATC runner runner that did him in.

Quick break for a read and coffee then im back for another 1500 hands. Probably going to stick at 2nl today just to get the confidence back. No shame in sucking in the pride and using a lower level to evaluate your game with no pressure.

man...I knew NL5 was different from NL2 but not THAT different

played around 400 hands, and I noted that
- villains aren't afraid of making moves
- was check-raised on the flop more than I was in a week of NL2
- no respect for cbets or 2nd barrels...sometimes they would fold on the river

dunno if this is common or I just went to some weird tables. btw despite that I managed to win 3 BIs got AA two times to stack 'em. but one was just ugly, A8>AK against a monkey who was going all-in preflop 50% of the time and dropped 25$ in two tables

wow...that was another game. sure I'm on a heater, hope it'll last some time more...

Ok So i cut session 2 short cuz im pretty pissed. The left of this graph is a nice upward trend. No flips just me getting people pot committed and calling with second best. The right hand downtrend is me losing the profits getting in ahead with hands like KK and having hands like 55 and TT calling and catching.

Now heres my thinking. I know everyone says get it in ahead or get in in on a flip and eventually youll win a lot of money. I havent come out ahead in a flip in over 10k hands and I have lost nearly every preflop all in where i am ahead to some monkey catching up. The worst being AI with AK called by a shortstacker with J4 and of course the 4 hits....

So i figure that my graph heads upwards when i play postflop poker and down when i play preflop ( except for my insatiable habit for stealing blinds) So for now unless I have AA or KK Im not gonna play flipaments and even then only if they jam the pot first. . I think id rather have a steady upward profit and small stretches of flatline where im just taking blinds and small pots and waiting for the big hands.

Good start for me, lol. Not even an hour into my first deposit playing NL4 I run into set over set. Gotta love it. Other than that I was playing solid on one of the two tables I was playing. Gonna call it a night because the cooler is still affecting me but going to get right back into it tomorrow.

Just came 7th in the $11 shorthanded $1k guarantee tournament at bwin, so I bubbled the final table. Still, it's about a $50 cash, so I guess that's not the end of the world.

I lost with pocket 9s four times today! Every time I had the dumb things, and this is all at six-handed poker, where in theory 99 is a monster. Three times it was blind v blind! I ran into TT once, JJ once, and at the end of the $1k guarantee, the SB shipped AK and I called with 99 in the BB and the river comes an ace. Hello FT bubble.

So my only suggestion to everyone is to just open fold your 9s for the rest of the day.

On an incredible heater past 2 days on 888.

Boosted my BR to $61 from $41 through cash and tournaments.

Crashed a tournament in 14th for 9.99 1st was $232.

Cash is just free money atm..

Cassava Poker $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $2.84
SB: $2.00
BB: $0.77
UTG: $1.90
UTG+1: $1.76
MP: $2.00
CO: $1.95

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BTN with A A
UTG calls $0.02, UTG+1 checks, MP raises to $0.10, CO calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.48, 3 folds, UTG+1 raises to $1.73, 2 folds, Hero calls $1.25

Flop: ($3.71) Q 4 7 (2 players)

Turn: ($3.71) J (2 players)

River: ($3.71) 2 (2 players)

Final Pot: $3.71
Hero shows Ad As
UTG+1 shows 3s 4h
Hero wins $3.53
(Rake: $0.18)

Everything going well so far, avoiding sticky spots and not being sucked out against.

I think my game is definitely stronger now..I'm an active member of PokerStrategy and choose to post my hand histories there because of their paid professional community and just the lack of trolls. The hand judges really help out to the extent that it almost is free coaching.