Beginners Winners Circle

Thanks to a lot of help and advice from the guys on the forums as well as the strategy section on FTR, I have finally taken my BR over $500 after starting with $200 some 6 months ago!!! No biggy for most but for me a major achievement!! Most of this has happened in the last 3 weeks since i discovered this site, so it really is a beeeeg thank you to all who have helped. I normally play 6 handed $11 NL HE SNGs with the odd low buy in tourney.

Oh and I finished 3rd in a 5o seat $6 sng NLHE today too, my best ever tourney finish!

Next target, $1k and a step up to $22 sngs........watch this space!!!

Well I figured I'd post up here seeing as I've had my best win to date.

I still count myself very much as a noobie so have been generally playing $2+.20 Sit and Go games to try and get some experience. I've been doing alright no them and have generally made a bit of cash.

Anyway, for a bit of variation I thought I'd enter a $3+.20 qualifier. Anyway, I did ok in that and got a free ticket for a $20 event that I ended up playing yesterday evening.

The tournament allowed buy ins for the first hour and then the option to buy another 1500 chips for another $20, neither of which I was keen on doing so I wasn't expecting to get too far.

Anyway, to cut long story short I ended up coming 18th out of 420 entrants and walked off with $140, which is a big improvement on the $20 I was winning in the Sit and Go's.

There's still a lot of room for improvement though as I did get very lucky on a couple of flops and I found myself tightening RIGHT up once we got down to around 50 players which didn't do me any favours. I'm putting that down to the fact that it was the first time I'd been in with a chance of winning around 100 bucks ... that will presumably change as I get more experience of playing at that level.

For the moment though I'm chuffed - it's given me the kick up the arse I need to push on and try to improve my game.

I'm sure Lee Jones will throw the doomswitch if I post this, but here goes...

decided to build a micro-roll like setzy and terry toma... deposited $40 into Bodog, for shits and giggles, trying new tactics and in less than 9 days it has now become... $279.56 Not bad at all...

Can you tell me where you guys manage to generate these graphs from?

Is it from the website itself or in software packages like Poker Office?

I'm a long time lurker and very infrequent poster here on FTR. I think I've only posted one time. But I find this to be the Absolute best site for poker discussion/strategy advice out there. Lots of it has been incorporated into my own game and this week it's really paid dividends. I'm now stepping into the fast lane of $25NL.

I've been playing "seriously" for a little under a year now. I made a $100 deposit in January and grinded it out on $5NL, SNGs, and MTTs. The $100 grew to $200 over time. Most of that came from grinding it out with $3-$4 profit sessions in the ring games and those wonderful 3 hour marathon small stakes tournament profits of......$1.50. I've stuck with it though - satisfied to proceed slowly and gain experience using the bankroll prinicples preached here on FTR.

Well, last week, I struck gold. TWO tournament wins. Last Sunday a cool $265 for finishing first out of 90 players and this past Wednesday $210 for beating out 209 players. My BR has ballooned to nearly $600 and I'm ready to step into the $25 game.

Thanks to all here who have shared their advice, strategies, and experience!

Hello everybody, just registered. I've been lurking for about 2 weeks though. I decided to post here, cause I didn't want to start a new post outside of this thread.

First of all... Big Thanks to every single member of this forum for help. If I had time, I could read it all the time and get better at poker day after day. The biggest thanks have to go to RENTON, it was after reading your 3 threads in beginners digest when I started to know what I was really doing at the table. Before I was a losing/break even player... at micromicrostakes. Now I can be proud of a slight change in my results.

The money I won may sound funny to most of you, but I care much more about improving my skills than money for now. So, about a month ago I found some freerolls on Bet365 and Expekt Poker. Started playing from time to time and accumulated a "huge" amount of $3,5 at Expekt. I decided I would give it a try at FR $5NL. Got $10 pretty fast (still I didn't know what I was really doing - minraising, minbetting, getting outdrawn b/c of not betting and a lot more) and moved to Party Poker, since on Expekt you cannot really find tables to play. On Party I managed to get to $20, and then slowly dropped to $5 or so.

Then I found FTR.

I read all the articles in Beginners Digest (thx aokrongly) and much more. Made notes about Renton strategy and went back to playing $5NL. The only thing I knew I was doing really bad was br management. $5NL with $5 br - LOL. But since I won that money and didn't deposit a single dime I wasn't worried. I know I had to be very lucky at the beginning, but somehow, after a week of playing I managed to move past $100 yesterday. Finally I'm properly bankrolled for $5NL Smile

. I know I still suck at poker, but I suck a bit less, and that is what really matters.

My next goals:
- reach $200 and move to $10NL
- buy Poker Tracker and poker ace hud at some point (I'm using trials right now)
- get better and better
- start posting hh after I register PT

I noticed that there is a huge variance in the level of players even at 5NL. You can't find Americans here anymore (which is bad I guess) and I'm still struggling when playing during the day. Best time to play at Party 5NL is 9PM-1AM GMT. In the mornings and afternoons I'm still a break even player. Actually in the mornings I can see the same players all the time, and lots of them seem to win the game at these stakes. I also hope that Rentons strategy will be more appropriate when (or if) I reach 25Nl.

Do you think I should play only on FR? I didn't even try any S'nGs nor 6max, but I really wouldn't have a clue right now how to change my play accordingly. Maybe there are better rooms to play these micro stakes. I don't have any bonuses at Party.

That's all for now. Once again THANKS, I love this forum.

ps. I'm Polish, so sorry for my English :].
ps2. I suppose I have the highest WPP at the forum right now - hope you didn't fell asleep.

Last night I won $200 at Doyles Room at the FTR freeroll and at the same time was playing a 1K freeroll at dream poker and placed 25th out of 6000. Beating 5975 people only got me $3 but I really play for the competition more than the money so it felt pretty good. Closest I've ever been to a final table on one of those freerolls.

Ok... I started playing poker 2 months ago. Today I played a $2 rebuy tournament at Everest.

Well I managed to get first place! Very Happy

And I would not have gone to that place without reading all articles on this board.

I started 2 months ago with $95 BR... now I have around 1350$.

Many thanks go to all of you!
Greetz,
C_S

YAY!

Just came 2nd in a $10 6-player table donkament. I'm normally a $20NL cash player but just felt like a break.

It took a fair amount of luck to be honest, I had to win 3 coinflips, got it in as a 3/1 dog once and hit my lower card (It was a dominated situation), and only got a 4/1 bad beat once..

It's just a pity that I got my money in good headsup and lost.. Meh, it's just a 60/40.. Seeing as I got my money in good I feel like I pretty much won that, despite me winning that 60/40 would just mean I had a 2/1 advantage. Donkaments are crazy shit.

Oh yeah, the final hand for the hell of it...

2500/5000 blinds

Villain - 105k
Me - 55k

Villain raises to 25000
Hero Pushes
Villain calls

Villain shows King of Clubs

Hero shows Ace of Diamonds

Flop:

Turn:

River:

I won $330.

In one day strictly following the 19 hand strategy I went from my initial $20 deposited at AP to $105 a few minutes ago. I am fairly new to the game, a few months, and decided to follow that strategy simply for building a bankroll from very little. Working great so far.

Not very impressive I know but it is simply one small milestone on my way to much larger ones hopefully.

prolly the toughest hand i've played in recent memory.

ever have one of those days? you know the kind where ALL your semi-bluffs get picked off? where all your sets get sucked out on? when you try to drive a villain out of the pot, and they seem to be "floating" on you? you know, the kind of day where everything that can go wrong...does?

well, this was one of those. VILLAIN WAS VERY PASSIVE POST FLOP, from what i had seen. a lot of calling, no raising. so, that just added to the "degree of difficulty" in pushing here, as i cannot call his raise here, it is push over the top or fold due to the stack sizes. when called, i figured to be behind, but i pushed in the first place figuring i was ahead.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

SB ($22.75)
BB ($38.95)
UTG ($22.45)
UTG+1 ($8.90)
MP1 ($12.45)
MP2 ($21.65)
MP3 ($24.95)
Hero ($19.35)
Button ($10.65)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Q

, K

.
2 folds, MP1 calls $0.25, 2 folds, Hero raises to $1, 3 folds, MP1 calls $0.75.

Flop: ($2.35) J

, K

, 4

(2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $1.5, MP1 calls $1.50.

Turn: ($5.35) Q

(2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $2.5, MP1 raises to $5.5, Hero raises to $16.85, MP1 calls $4.45 (All-In).

River: ($32.15) 5

(2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $32.15

just thought i'd take a minute and gloat a bit.

results: he showed KJ. thanks for the call on the flop, and the chance to catch my top two...sucker.

Wow...forget cash games, looks like tournament Hold'em is my forte. In 5 SnG's the last few days I have won a 100k qualifier and 3 $10 buy in SnG's.

I only started playing online a little before my last post in this thread and had only played a couple of live games with friends prior. This site and Harrington on Holdem have become my hold'em bible.

I posted this elsewhere but as of this weekend I have made a profit of $10,000 playing online poker. BIG SMILEY FACE Smile

(and I still consider myself a beginner, fwiw)

Normally SNG player but thought I would give low buy in MTT a go and after reading chardrians guide, fired up a $2 rebuy NL HE on AP and ended up winning it - $290, felt like I'd won the WSOP final table!!!

Was a real rollercoaster ride tho, got lucky when i was getting short stacked about 2 hours in - two hands running my pp's flopped quads so i quadrupled up in 2 hands. Got to final table as shortie, all in on TT first hand, 3 callers, luckily they held up for me. From there it was just a case of being patient while all around committed hari kiri until the HU!

Chardrians guide was invaluable for me here, so a big thanks to him for posting it!

Yay! My BR finally hit $1k!
I'm ready to conquer NL50.

Your ganna luagh but I have actually played 2 freerolls t DV8Poker which is a skin on UltimateBet and came in 3rd place for $9.75 which in turn I',m building on it playing in the $1.10 Sit&Go's and have built it to $50.00 my plan is to build to $100.00 then move up to the $5.00 sit and go's then build to $300.00
and go up to the to the $10.00 sit and go's and then build to 1500 and go up to the 30.00 sit and go's and then $2500 for the $50 sit and go's and then $ 5000 for the $100 sit and go's I feel if I have 50 buy-in's then I should be ok once I reached a comfort zone and win consitent at the top sit & go level then I will spread my bankroll into some MTT's and Ring games that's is my plan and I never plan on having to deposit a dime to do this I feel I have the skill to do this becuase I have logged a bunch of time as alive player and have saw many situation in tournament's sit and go's as well as live ring games.

I will let you know my prograss

oops: double post.
note to self......learn how to use forum.

*Last edited by paws on Wed, 21 Feb 2007, 2:04pm; edited 3 times in total*

I've been playing Poker for a month and started playing SnG tournaments ten days ago.

Initial Bankroll: 25$ at Pacific Poker
SnG levels: 1$+10c (triple up), 2.50$+30c (5 seated), 5$+50c (5 and 10 seated), progressing to 10$+1$ now, two-tabling.

Tournaments: 77
ITM: ~55%
ROI: 36%
Profit: 127$

I'm a microstakes player (10NL) and rarely play tourneys, so this is a big deal for me.

PokerStars freeroll, 10 FPPs. Total 4812 players and I finished 5th. Prize was about $7-8, which is not a big deal to me, but I was just happy to play that deep and make final table.

Blinds went up so fast (turbo), and I don't know the advisable strategy for dealing with that, but I resisted the all-in mentality that nearly everyone else was showing as blinds became imposing. If I had at least 5-6 times the BB in the middle stages, I felt like I could wait a bit, having basically 4-5 orbits to catch a good hand (better than A or K with low kicker that so many were all in with) and then I was able to stack off quite a few players with good hands. Even on final table, I was short stacked I waited for others to go all in and get knocked out, while I still had 3-5 times BB (which by then was 100,000), and that got me up to 5th.

I don't usually have time to play MTT's, but boy was that fun!

wp Deacon and paws!

Just come third out of 1114 in a $6 party donk a ment. Winner was awesome mind, anyone know him guy's a machine, $403.08 not bad for the evening's work. Any thoughts on this hand, the one I ultimately blew and is it just me or is the difference between 1st and 3rd astronomical $800 odd quid.

#Game No : 5707578495
***** Hand History for Game 5707578495 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:31945128 Level:19 Blinds-Antes(15000/30000 -700) - Saturday, February 24, 20:32:01 ET 2007
Table Regular (928191) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 3
Seat 2: pinkfloyd110 ( $965273 )
Seat 10: Ace_Spectre ( $473644 )
Seat 7: Jahouwe ( $1903083 )
Trny:31945128 Level:19
Blinds-Antes(15000/30000 -700)
pinkfloyd110 posts ante [700].
Jahouwe posts ante [700].
Ace_Spectre posts ante [700].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Ace_Spectre [ Qd Kd ]
pinkfloyd110: same to u Smile

Jahouwe folds
Ace_Spectre raises [75000]
pinkfloyd110 calls [60000]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6s, 2h, 7h ]
Ace_Spectre bets [120000]
pinkfloyd110 raises [270000]
Ace_Spectre is all-In [262944]
pinkfloyd110 calls [112944]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Js ]
** Dealing River ** [ Jd ]
pinkfloyd110 shows [ 8s, Ah ]a pair of Jacks.
Ace_Spectre shows [ Qd, Kd ]a pair of Jacks.
pinkfloyd110 wins 947988 chips from the main pot with a pair of Jacks with Ace kicker.
Player Ace_Spectre finished in 3 place and received $403.82
gg

my first second place ever in a small sit-n-go (i'm seeing some progress in my play)
my first time to play seriously in the money
it's not about the money it's about the play itself

PokerStars Tournament #43970713, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $1.00/$0.20
45 players
Total Prize Pool: $45.00
Tournament started - 2007/02/26 - 12:42:06 (ET)

Dear q8moh87,

You finished the tournament in 2nd place.
A $10.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 52.03 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/tlb_tournament_rankings.html

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

I'm not really a beginner as such but I have probably only played 40 MTTs ever, and this is my highest placing to date (and I bust after pushing while ahead fwiw):

PokerStars Tournament #44306987, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
180 players
Total Prize Pool: $1800.00
Tournament started - 2007/03/02 - 15:21:51 (ET)

Dear efil4elbmow,

You finished the tournament in 4th place.
A $144.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

I won a $3 turbo at Full Tilt last night for $290. Took 3 hours and I was behind 4 to 1 when heads up play started.

Fun stuff.

Finally back to the $22 sngs after not playing them for several months due to having to cash out large amounts of my br. Im now up to around $800 after winning the $225 in the $750 freeroll on AP about 3 and a half weeks ago.

Meh, broke the $1000 mark again after a good run at the 22s.

Working my way up, two Sundays ago, got 3rd in a 2.50+.25 2000+ person tourn and last night 2nd on a 4$ 180 sng. $405 and $145 respectivley. Played about 8 in between those games and mostly lost to bad beats. I am pretty happy with my gameplay.

Hi, another Eurofish here.

Playing HE for two months now, just playing for pocket money and trying to learn.

Original BuyIn round 60$ (plus 50$ for Miller and Sklansky Wink

), lost 30$ picking here and there, decided to play the lowest FRlimit tables seriously (thats 02/04 at PS) until I beat them. Done that and with 32$ I started the .05/.10 FR limit tables. Actually around 38$, my sessions end up around -10BB/100 to 20BB/100. Feels like winning atm, and winning through improving thats why I dare to post it here.

Expect me to burn some of my weeks earnings at one of the gauntlets just as a way to thank you for all the valuable info I found here.

Just started playing about a month ago. found this forum and have been implementing the advice in my game. Played in my first SNG today and Won. Laughing

Thanks

usually a cash game player, decided to venture into a MTT on my day off work. was a lot of fun, but a tough last hand as they always are.

PokerStars Tournament #48310967, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $20.00/$2.00
950 players
Total Prize Pool: $19000.00
Tournament started - 2007/04/24 - 12:00:00 (ET)

Dear pgil,

You finished the tournament in 3rd place.
A $1,653.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 410.43 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/tlb_tournament_rankings.html

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

*Last edited by aokrongly on Tue, 22 Jan 2008, 1:57pm; edited 1 time in total*

I took second in a $2 1200 man tourney at PokerStars.
it paid $317
I Felt it was my best played complete tourney to date, and, of course, everyone should know.

Thanks FTR.

I have been been reading all the articles and strategies on this board. Also I bought two Howard Lederer dvd's (saw those abouth 4 times already) and bought Harrington volume 1 and 2. Further I purchased Poker Tracker and Calculatem pro.

I play tournaments mostly and a few months ago I reached a few final tables keeping my bankroll at about $ 500 during the first four months.

Goal was to reach the 1K$ mark in may. The past three days I reached that and more:

04-29-07 came third in a 3 $ rebuy Winnings $ 400
04-30-07 came first in 22$ speed tournament Winnings $ 500
05-01-07 came second in 33 $ tournament Winnings $ 1250 Cool

Bankroll jumped to 2500 $ in just 3 days. Don't wanna brag but I am very happy and had to share it Wink

Will order Harrington volume 3 now and will stick to good Bankroll Management. I won't get carried away because I am nowhere near being a good player. I wil just keep studying the game to improve.

A big thanks to everyone posting these great aricles on this board, keep it up!

Very long and hard fought 3.5 hours, $1.1 PStars, 15/611. Silly stakes, but I've been gone for quite a while and didn't want to move up to the next stakes just yet even though my BR is ready for it.

Villan played very loose preflop and respected most of the table post-flop. However, with me, he enjoyed calling my preflop raises and followed that by re-raising AI over my cbets 5 consecutive heads-up hands (Many times a 10xpot bet). I finally call him down with MPTK and he's got TPTK. I'm not sure whether we both just kept getting hands at the same time or he thought I'd simply fold every time.

Didn't help that towards the end there I started to feel a little sick to my stomach. May have caught the flu from my roommate. Ugh.

I'm glad I got to play at 25NL... this is what I used to do in the past but I've cashed out and spent it all. This is a great way to gain my way back in the game Twisted Evil

finally fought through variance to hit a long upswing and break the 1k mark, not bad for starting with a $25 deposit in january Smile

I took my first first place in an mtt last night Very Happy

. Okay, so it was only a premium freeroll for a top prize of $50 but coming first feels goot!

Also, I just had to show y'all the super-cheesy e-mail I got....

Argh! How do you insert an image into posts?

Heres the text anyway. Funnier with the image

GHANDII
WINS BIG AT PKR!

Poker world thrilled as Ghandii takes huge $50.00 tournament prize. "Fame won't change me" says Ghandii
By Special Correspondent.
PKR NEWS - Ghandii fought a field of 388 tough competitors to take 1st place in the PKR $200 Premium Freeroll Tournament and $50.00. "It was an incredible display", said one observer, "everyone was on the edge of their seats".
The result marks another big step in Ghandii's meteoric rise to poker stardom. "I predict big things from Ghandii", said a poker insider, "all the ingredients are there; skill, determination, guts - and a slightly funny haircut."

I started playing back in September '06 with a $50 deposit on PS. I started with micro MTTs and then started playing the $5 SnGs. I bounced around in bankroll up to $185ish, but then tilted most of it away thanks to the noobie circle of death. I completed my circle of death in early May with a $60 roll.

After reading alot and analyzing my game, I found out that the tagg game I'd been fooling myself into thinking I was playing was actually TW. I opened up my game and started playing relative to opps' styles than pigeonholing myself to one playstyle. I not play an aggressive game erring on the side of tight usually, and it's helped my game enormously.

I started playing the $5s again with my new game and confidence May 22nd. Last night, I crossed over the $275 mark to play the $10s exclusively. My old ROI/ITM over 300 games was ~6-9%/41-42% respectively. My new ROI/ITM over the last 45 games has ranged from 75-90%/55-65%. I realize that the new numbers are gathered from a tiny pool, but I stongly believe that I won't be regressing back to my old mean. Now to continue on toward the $20+2s.

This is not a huge win for me money-wise, but it is a nice win considering I suck at ring games. Last weekend I sat down at my normal cash game, where I normally break even, and I walked out with 12.5 buy ins.

Sat with $20, left with $250. So, good for me.

good work guys

1st from 199 in Pacific $5 for $300 - Weeeeeeeeee!

I played in a 10 man game at my friends house with buyin/rebuys = $20 and walked out with $50 bucks! Stoked for positive results.

Thanks to the folks who have presented amazing articles for me to absorb :]

I had a little help with HHs from 2 members (bigspenda and bankitdrew)and studied quite a bit over the past few weeks to plug some leaks.

I took 4th/70 in the $85+$15 at the Showboat in AC for $500.

Suhweet, nice going dude

PokerStars Tournament #55801674, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $15.00/$1.00
9 players
Total Prize Pool: $135.00
Tournament started - 2007/07/18 - 14:04:14 (ET)

Dear Ripperfish,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $67.50 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

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