Operation: $2NL to $200NL [PHASE I: Microstakes] - COMPLETE

Im really impressed with your work ethic M2M.
The Goals you are writting down is good and is just a matter of time before you crush 10NL.How many hands do you get in per month?

Well I got about 25k of cash games in this month, not sure about heads up SNGs/tournaments, though I played mostly cash. In the summer I'm probably hoping to get 40k-50k/month (6-8 tabling I guess..although I haven't worked out the numbers yet to determine whether or not that pace is doable, I'll post volume goals later in April some time).

I'll post the monthly graph here too, since afterall this is part of my operation: This is mostly 10nl, with a couple hundred hands of 25nl, and a couple hundred at 5nl.

Total profit is $311ish, plus $160ish in tournaments/heads up, for about $470 on the month. Bankroll is now $750 and I'll be shifting into 25nl real soon. I'll probably grind 10nl for another week or so and get more hands of 6-max in. I've been playing/running really well at 6-max and I want to go through a couple downswings at it first so I'm not overconfident moving up to 25nl. I think I might have a better feel for 6-max than full ring, mostly because when I play full ring I feel like I'm autopiloting, whereas 6-max the game is a bit more fluid and paying attention is more crucial (imo).

Gratz on a fine month. GL at 25NL.

[x] jealous

Damn M2M...you KILLED it. Congrats buddy. I wish I could do the same...but I'll definitely use you as a model of IT CAN BE DONE. Hopefully I'll be able to replicate your March success in April. Good job!

Thanks guys

Update:

Well it's a new month. I don't really know how much poker I'm going to get in with all the school shit going on and whatnot, however, I'm going to attempt to take care of a few things:

1) Achieve Silverstar - yes, I don't have it but will at 25nl for sure.
2) Move up to 25nl officially no later than April 30th
3) Clear some more viewings on the GS videos
4) Regularly work on my log book - a little something I use to do EV calcs, take notes from videos, articles, discussions etc. I got the idea from spoon so I'll give him credit for the motivation.
5) Get a new poker book - Theory of Poker is on the list, will be ordering this with FPP's at the end of the month.
6) Grind 30+ $5 HU SNG's on top of cash games.

These are more like tasks than goals, but I want to get them done, so I'll list them off here and anything that isn't complete will be deemed as an epic fail.

Update:

I just had a sick grind. I started off with 6-max and was running like shit, made a couple bad calls, and just overall sucked. I took a breather to reorganize my thoughts and then got back in front of the computer. Bankroll had dropped to $721 after being over $760.

So I said fuck that shit, I'm grinding it back playing full ring and I'm not letting anything bother me. 3 hours later my bankroll is at $790. Heaterments FTW. Also the first time I played an average of 9 tables for such a long time and I had a nice groove going where I sorta found my 'spot' when it comes to basically autopiloting - since I don't really do it that often. I think I'm gonna get some hardcore volume in this summer, depending on how well I do at 25nl.

I don't mean to brag, but I think this is a sign of my discipline making positive progress. I used to suck at digging myself out of holes since I'd just sulk about it and put in shitty ass volume and be stuck forever. I've sort of changed my outlook now. This is the second time in two weeks I've started a session horribly and managed to turn it around into a nice score by just forgetting what happened. I try to always think in terms of EV's now, and it helps alot.

When I break $800 I will start merging my sessions with some $25nl. Updates to follow.

merge? you mean play two levels at once? Don't do that IMO. Just move up, clean break from 10 NL. sit at less tables at first.

yeah good idea speedcake, I tried that at 5nl-10nl and it actually didn't work out that great. was going to give it another chance, but I think I'll take your suggestion.

I'm 9 tabling $10nl right now, mostly to grind out some more profits and work on a couple things before fully switching to $25nl. When I play $25nl I play 2-4 tables now instead of strictly 2 only. Reason is boredom sets in at only 2 tables of full ring and $25nl isn't much different than $10nl, so I don't see why I need to worry. Stop losses however, are still in full effect.

I've decided not to comment on $25nl progress at all untill I've played at least 10,000 hands. The reason is I want to avoid being results oriented, especailly when first moving up - as this can have the effect of basically stalling progres (which I learned from breaking even over my first 7k hands at 10nl :/)

April hasn't been great so far. On top of that, I'm running bad + busy with a ton of other things right now besides poker which doesn't help when it comes to trying to focus.

I find that when I run bad + not into it, I make alot of dumb plays. I don't really go on tilt, I don't really spew either. I just end up missing alot of value, or bluffing at bad times. In other words, playing bad + running bad = alot of money lost. It isn't lost too quickly, it just sort of drains away slow. Like for example, I'll just do the wrong thing at the wrong time - call when I should fold, fold when I should call, call when I should raise, raise when I should call, fucking around with bet sizing and blah blah blah.

My mind is in a huge mess right now so I'm going to take a bit of a break from playing and do some reading. Theory of poker it is, along with reading a few articles on the basics of things. I'm also going to get a shit load of studying done this week so I don't end up cramming so much before my finals. Basically I'm burrying my face in books for the next week or so, even though I'd like to get working on winning back some money sooner.

Looks like it's time to bring back the stick man avatar, sorry ALF.

Goals:

-Start b/f'ing scare cards more.
-Start folding when you plan on b/f'ing, no mind changing.
-Pay closer attention to the board and don't get too carried away with betting. For example, if it looks like villlain will only call when you're crushed, go for a c/c instead. Give them a chance to bluff.
-Stop c-betting oop multiway no matter how tight you've been, no one pays attention.
-3-bets aren't usually weak, give them respect until proven otherwise.
-MAX 4 tables for the time being.
-Don't rush into $25nl, save it for when the leaks are fixed. No more shots until May.

Oh and actually think about bet sizing more rather than just autopiloting it. I've been doing better at this, altering bet sizes based on reads/board etc. but I feel it still needs work. Less tables will help with this one.

$25NL is much weaker than you give it credit.

I found $25NL to be about the same if not weaker than $10NL.

Hoooray for the stick man - he is awesome and makes you run good!

I think you should give him weekly themes to portray how the week has been going. If you are doing a lot of studying for example and less grinding replace his laptop with a book etc etc.

When you are a 400NL reg, you can upgrade his seat to a comfy chair and give him a crown.

As for the poker, clear your head and come back refrsehed. I find sometimes that when I'm studying, posting, grinding playing all the time, I actually become temporarily worse at poker. This is because all the new concepts and ideas are overloading my mind and making it into a poker mush. Sounds similar to what's happening to you with the doing everything at the wrong time. Sometimes when our minds are scrambled with so much new information and ideas, we overlook the basic and most correct reasoning to make a play.

I think you'll find more has sunk in when you start grinding heavily again since the stick man in your head will have had time to process all the gunk thats currently fucking you over a little bit.

Wow good point dranger, that actually makes alot of sense.

I have my moments Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

<---sorry i just <3 this emote lol

Peanut butta jelly time!

Update:

I've come to realize that FPS has leaked into my game. To combat this, I'm going to take the following approach:

Play solid ABC poker.

That's all.

Oh and I'm also shooting for Silver Star this month, followed by Gold in May. I'm not going to watch the pace too closely, but I'll be monitoring it.

Update:

Finally had a solid session - been long overdue for this. I finally felt like I didn't make a million dumb mistakes, though I found a spot where I missed an obvious value bet :/

Highlights:

-$10nl full ring
-4 tables
-2 hours
-381 hands
- +$14.10

Played good, ran good, but didn't really get paid off whenever I made a hand since all the tables were fairly weak-tight.

Two things:

1) You're a complete animal. $746 bankroll already? DAMN!
2) Link your banner to your OP! Noticed it wasn't linked up...figure you should link it so my lazy ass won't have to go looking for it.

Oh, and one last thing...I'm quite jealous of your success. All in a good way, I wish you all the best. Hopefully I can have the success story you've had!

I just luckbox my way through the stakes imo. Wink

Much easier to win that way. No but in all seriousness, Micro is dead on the money with virtually everything he has said. I recently bought 4 books on poker about 2 weeks ago and I've already read through 3 of them. I look through most, if not all posts/threads in the BC. Constantly look through the BC digest, even stuff I've read before. Each time you read something, you learn a little bit more each time. I watch videos, I make videos of myself playing, with commentary, and watch those.

One thing I picked up on in one of the books (it doesn't say it outright, I just kinda get that feeling) is that you have to be the meanest, hungriest, greediest, money-grubbing SOB out on the table. When someone sits down on your table you have to be thinking, "those chips are mine," and mean it. The way you actually GET the money is making the most +EV plays at all times. Laying down a hand here, raising here, betting for thin value there, etc. Be aware of EVERYTHING at the table ALL THE TIME. No time to relax.

Cliff Notes:
- Be a greedy son of a bitch on the table.
- +EV plays ALWAYS
- Pay attention
- Micro is probably a much better player then me.
- Hard work pays off in poker, unlike many things in life. (From what I've seen so far)

"Hard work pays off in poker, unlike many things in life. (From what I've seen so far)"

As many people would disagree with the statement, to be honest, I really don't. I've seen people go to school for 5 years for almost $100k and end up working in a library making $9/hour - after getting a Master's degree. I've also seen coaches pick the banker's son for the team, who is possibly the worst athlete in the state. Don't forget all the dumb people who can hardly spell their own name who work their way up in a company...hmmm. And let's not forget that mentally challenged person who makes more money than you because they get special checks from the government. So like I said, disagree as you will, but this isn't really the focus of the thread, just an interesting point that was brought up.

Ok enough with the rant, time for a poker update:

Played 4 MTT's this weekend, cashed in all of them. Baby cashes more less, but still ran good + played good. I find paying attention helps quite a bit, considering I don't really bother alot of the times I fire up a tournament. I went deep in one, finished 14/3500 or something for a decent cash. Made a ballsy, questionable re-steal at the end and busted out. Oh well, I'm happy with the finish, I just can't believe I lasted over 6 hours, there's no way I would have been able to play another 2 more. Tournaments get so difficult to maintain focus once you've been staring at a screen for that long, I dunno how guys like mcat and them do it.

Cash games have been going good, and they're going to be my focus for the next 2 weeks, meaning no more donkaments. I'm not far off from recovering my roll again for $25nl, so hopefully that'll go alright. I've found I just need to really focus on playing solid poker, and forget about the bankroll, swings, heaters, coolers, or anything else that affects the way our mind functions.

As for this week I have an exam on Friday, so I've been doing a ton of studying. I probably won't hit $25nl this week, but that's not a big deal - it can wait. I'm just hoping to get comfortable there by May, at which point I'll be free from school work and be able to do some serious grinding.

So I'll leave it at that for the week, though I'll check back in and maybe do another update. I'll gaurantee one by the end of the week though, at the very latest.

My only comment on the "hard work" issue is that the people at the very top of their profession, the ones recognized by everyone as being the best, always combine an unnatural talent with indescribable determination and preparation. And I mean always.

I hate to post on something other than poker in a poker thread...but this has a lot to do with what you were touching on in the first part of your post. It is quite an interesting article and I urge you to read it:

http://www.slate.com/id/2215830

It's about advanced education not paying off as well this day in age.

Anyway, game on!

To continue on this "hardwork" topic...

The reason a lot of the super successful are indeed super successful is because they had the opportunities to be so successful. Bill Gates just so happenned to go to a highschool where there was a computer (in his day and age it was very rare). He spent all day on it, it also just so happenned that there was a computer club in his school because in that day and age computers were friggen ginormous things that couldn't store anything... But Bill Gate's fascination with this machine gave him the opportunity to use his fascination to get him rich. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and the co-founders of Microsoft and Apple all have birthday's which are less than 4 years apart... coincidence?!?!

Another examples are athletes. Check the DOB of many hockey players, one thing in common: Most of them are born in the first 4 months of the year, why? Because the cutoff age is January first and the older you are the more physical advantage you have (when you're still in primary school). Because of your small physical advantage, you'll be selected by the better teams which gives you more practice, and what was once only a small physical advantage becomes a huge advantage not only physically but also skillfully.

Why is it that the business tycoons wee all in the right place at the right time in the booming years? How come nowadays you don't hear of any new business tycoons? It's because the countries' economy is in such shambles that businesses cannot work to their full potential, whenever the country gets into a booming stage again, we'll see some new business tycoons...

But yea, I could go on and on, my point basically is. That yes, these people were indeed very hardworkers to get to where they were, but they also had to be in the right spot at the right time and they still needed the opportunities to get to where they were.

In poker it won't be any different, the ones who rise to the top are the ones who will have the most opportunity. I mean look at all the current superstars. Durr was still a highschooler and had all the time in the world to hone his poker skills... Raptor became Durr's roommate.

Basically, if you're some kid who's got a lot of free time and decides to spend it on poker, then you've got the potential to make it big. Now if you're father to 3 and have to take care of your family and go to work, well then... in that case, it will be increasingly hard to ever make it big.

To be worldclass in anything... you need to put in the hours, no matter how "naturally talented" you are... 10,000 hours is a good number to try and reach, should take you a few years at least Very Happy

Wow nice post! Welcome to FTR

Update: NEW LIFE GOAL

New goal for me, and it's an interesting one. This time I'm going to take a more 'life' theme instead of just directly a poker theme, though I'm sure this will benefit my poker game indirectly, as +EV things in life seem to translate to +EV in poker.

From now on every time I announce a new goal regarding something that isn't directly form poker, I'll use the same title that I've used for this post.

Okay so first I'll fill you all in. I'm a huge sucker for soda. It must be the combo of sugar/caffiene, and the fact that I think I have a carb' additiction. But whatever it is, it needs to stop. Not cold turkey stop, just stop as in not an everday thing. I drink at least a can of the stuff everyday, and I've decided to take a step to improving my health (and mental focus after doing some research) and cut the drink. No iced tea, coffee, or pop at all for the rest of the week.

The 'challenge' started Monday night at at 7pm after I finished my last can of cola. I'm going till Saturday night before having any, and it'll be a rum and coke since Saturday is my birthday, so I figure the wait and the reward works out nicely. It's going to be a good way to train myself not to drink this garbage unless it's on a special occasion, although after I complete this little 'challenge' I'm thinking of cutting back my intake and saving it for weekends only, or the odd weekday if I'm traveling. The point is, I'm going to set a goal to reduce current consumption to help train myself out of consuming so much in the future.

Anyway, something like this probably wouldn't be a big deal for most of you, but for me it is. I've pretty much sucked ass at setting goals my whole life, but I'm starting to realize it's not too late to get at it.

I'm basically going to be setting goals like this throughout my entire operation so I can improve my lifestyle/health. The operation thingy really helps with these things I think, I know it's helped with poker. It sort of keeps me on track, and if I fail at this little 'challenge' I'm not going to hide from it, I'm going to post my honest results, that way I learn to succeed next time - but I plan on making it.

Okay sorry for the long post, and the probable spelling/grammatical errors, as I'm tired as hell (especially without caffiene Razz

) so if if the terms of my challenege don't make sense...welll too bad. I hope it was entertaining/motivating/interesting for some of you, though I doubt any of the above were likely. I'll let you all know how 'non garbage-juice' week goes later.

By the way, I hit 100k hands of cash today, which is something I've promised to post.

This 100k hands is strictly cash games, and does not include donkaments, which I'm standing at about +$150ish in. So that + $50 deposit + the cash game stuff works out to my $800 roll. $25nl is just steps away.

This includes all limits I've played, including about 2k hands of fixed limit, and 25k hands of a short-stacking experiment I did, so it's really only 75kish hands of 'real poker', but o well. The end of the graph where there's a huge downslope isn't as bad as it looks, it's just a 3 buy-in swing at $25nl. [x] standard. Once I pass the peak around 90,941 I'll be back at $25nl.

GL with your life changes. I eliminated caffiene from my diet about 2 months ago for health reasons and it was easy b/c I really had no choice, but I think you've got what it takes to get this done. You're obviously trying to get as good as you can, and making great decisions in general will benefit you (and everyone) immensely.

Nice graph, and I'll see you at the 25NL in no time flat. I look forward to bumping heads when I'm back on Stars, and I wish you the best of luck when you do move up!

Nice garf sir. As for the pop, seems like a good enough life goal to me. Simple to accomplish, yet will make you feel better about yourself.

Managed to get through the week without soda/iced tea/coffee etc.

Life goal success. Now I'll be permanently reducing my intake to weekends and special occasions only.

Shiiiiiiippppp!

wtf. am I ever good enough here? villain is 44/2/1.4 limp calling raises is his specialty.

how's my bet sizing?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 ($16.40)
MP2 ($35.05)
Hero (CO) ($31.15)
Button ($11.50)
SB ($34.55)
BB ($25.55)
UTG ($25)
UTG+1 ($18.05)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A

, K

3 folds, MP2 calls $0.25, Hero bets $1.25, 3 folds, MP2 calls $1

Flop: ($2.85) 10

, Q

, J

(2 players)
MP2 checks, Hero bets $2.50, MP2 calls $2.50

Turn: ($7.85) 2

(2 players)
MP2 checks, Hero bets $6, MP2 calls $6

River: ($19.85) Q

(2 players)
MP2 checks, Hero bets $11, MP2 raises to $22, Hero calls $10.40 (All-In)

Total pot: $62.65 | Rake: $3

Thoughts on a river range? He's terrible, so I'm thinking Qx, JJ, TT. We smoke that range hardcore. And even if it's tighter, you can't really change his range here to make it not a call. He needs to show up with just a Q here like 1 in 6 times for it to be profitable. Think he does?

Um, how do we smoke JJ, TT lol. He would have a FH. Although, I think he could have 89, K9, KQ, AQ, and other Qx hands that it would make it an ok call, if slightly marginal. The pot odds pretty much justify it all day, so I mean, you can't really get away from it.

Ah my bad lol, you are saying compared to the WHOLE range lol. I was just isolating the JJ/TT. :/

Thanks for the input guys. After going over this hand again it looks like an easy call. I guess I was just a little frustrated from being rivered alot by the top of everyones range whenever I have the nut straight (this situation happened more than once lol).

I'm running sick hot at $10nl 6-max though, so I basically just use that to level out my bankroll from my $25nl losses, so my roll doesn't dip below the point I want to keep it above. I still feel like I'm playing $25nl better now than I was before, and I'm picking some damn good spots in 6-max + running well.

So I'm currently playing $10nl 6-max and $25nl full ring. Almost hit Silverstar this month, should be done by the end of the week as I'll be getting a few more thousand hands of $25nl in. Will be aiming for gold, possilbly platinum as early as May, since I'll be doing some insane grinding then. I wanna get like 15-20k hands of $10nl 6-max in before I start playing $25nl 6-max. I figure when my roll hits the $1k mark I'll be there.

Had a real swongy night. Fatigue and tilt started to creep in late in the session, so my 3 buy-in rush diminished pretty quickly.

I won't be returning to the tables till my mind is clear.

Nice job showing discipline. This is an under appreciated part of the game and it's good to see you've got it.

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Operation: $2NL to $200NL [PHASE I: Microstakes] - COMPLETE

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FTR Blogs and Operations

Operation: $2NL to $200NL [PHASE I: Microstakes] - COMPLETE