Evolution of a gambler » Robert http://www.flopturnriver.com/blogs Follow my development from lowstakes grinder to a thinking midstakes player Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:40:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 en Starting out http://www.flopturnriver.com/blogs/starting-out-27 http://www.flopturnriver.com/blogs/starting-out-27#comments Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:04:18 +0000 Robert http://www.flopturnriver.com/blogs/archives/27 Just read this old post by soah from 2+2:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=5121718&page=0&fpart=all&vc=1

It’s about varying flop bet sizes - it’s nothing advanced or groundbreaking, but posts like these (including the other posters comments) helps me to think activily about my game. I think we all know the situations where we mindlessly just throw out a 2/3-3/4 potsized bets without even thinking about why we are betting this exact amount. (like stated in Professional NLHE Volume 1 page 27  it’s almost never a big mistake to bet 2/3 of the pot postflop, but other bet sizes will often be more +EV).

Played only 700 hands today and I’m starting out being down ~1 buyin. Pretty bad considering that I could well be up over $300 if I hadnt been doing a lot of retarded plays and calls. Especially on the calling side I do waaaay to many retarded things. The thing is, I feel I’ve become a very competent pokerplayer over the years and I have the skills to make a lot of money in this game (at least at NL100/200), but my mindset isn’t right. I make to many retarded plays and calls, and it’s because I often don’t think the hand through before calling or because I’m on slight tilt and just say “FUCK IT, I CALL/RAISE”.

To combat this I’ve decided to do a little ritual before every session I play. I will stand in front of the mirror and say to myself:

  • I will play the best poker possible in this session
  • I won’t make any calls before thinking the hand through and making the right decision
  • I wont make any fancy/tricky bluffs unless I have a very good read on my opponent

This might sound a bit stupid, but I need something to get my mindset right when I’m playing, and this might just be solution. I will update you later on how this works out.

Hands played: 677.

Bankroll:  $2907

]]> http://www.flopturnriver.com/blogs/starting-out-27/feed Introduction http://www.flopturnriver.com/blogs/introduction-24 http://www.flopturnriver.com/blogs/introduction-24#comments Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:56:22 +0000 Robert http://www.flopturnriver.com/blogs/archives/24 Hi, and welcome to my new blog here at FTR. You might not know who I am, but I’m one of the older posters here and I havent made a post for over half a year. I started out posting on the boards about 2 years ago. Originally I was a SnG player who grinded out the $6 and $16 turbo SnGs on PS and the $10 SnGs on PP. After about one year of playing on and off in these games I got bored by the very robotic approach to low stakes SnGs (push/fold approach when the blinds got big), and I decided to try out NL 6-max after being inspired by reading gabe’s old [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/blogs/]FTR Blog[/url] (awesome guy, who - though he probably doesn’t know this - has made a big impact on my poker game both when he posted in the SnG forum years ago and in the shorthanded forum afterwards). I started out playing NL25, but quickly moved up to NL50 and later on NL100. And this is the level where I’ve been stuck ever since. I’ve had shots at NL200 and bigger, but with no great succes, but thats mostly because of variance and because I was frightened of the bigger money. Since january I have only played very little. Basicly I’ve had a 8-month break from both poker and the boards here on FTR.
Well I’ve decided to change this now. I’m more motivated about this game than ever before and I’m very motivated about improving my game and moving up to higher stakes.
I will use this blog to write about my results, to analyze my play, to post some general thoughts on poker and to post links to usefull poker articles (mostly from 2+2).

I will start out on this quest with a meager bankroll of $3.000, which should be enough for NL100 for now. I’m normally a bankroll baby who likes to have at least 50 buyins for the level I play, but I had some student loans I had to pay back, so I was forced to cash out 2k of my roll. But 3k should be plenty enough for now.

I wont set a money goal for the rest of this month, because such money goals are stupid because of variance, wrong mindset etc etc. Only goals I will set for myself are:

  •  To play as close to perfect poker as possible. Think about and plan every hand you play, so you maximise your EV (should be any poker players goal)
  • Play 10.000 hands for the rest of September.

With these goals in mind I will start out my poker adventure tonight.

Good luck at the tables.

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