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

Good luck with your OP.

Better wait for higher stakes before you start applying a Scandinavian style approach, and rather stick to American style TAG poker until then.

The more aggressive you are the more annoying the stations are.

Heh..funny you should mention that Sir (are you railing me on Stars!? lol)

One of the things I'm working on right now actually is toning down the aggression. Everyone says that a good AF is between 2-3 or 2.5-3.5 or something. I think 2-2.5 is all that's necessary for this level, anything higher is overkill. Like you said, the stations become less of an annoyance when your not bluffing chips over to them.

My 6-max game is a bit more aggressive though, I just need to remember to cool it a bit for the full ring nut-camping.

Thanks for dropping in.

I would have dropped in earlier if I knew you had an OP going on.

I do not play at PS or FT- mainly because I feel that play is way too tight for my liking. I am happy with fullring and 6-max tables with 50%+ VPIP and pots of 40bb+.

Only people I rail is durrrr, OMGclayaiken, Patrick Antonius, Ivey and a few others which I respect.

But yeah, it would be fun to rail friends here at FTR. Maybe Ill get a Stars account just for that, and to rail the top players at Stars. I guess you have some of the very best players in the world playing at Stars.

Aggression is good as long we know when to back off. You certainly know in theory- now its just to apply it.

durrrr is pretty much my idol.

A side note: I think I'll break my operation into Phases considering I've got alot of ground to cover. I will copy/paste the initial thread of the post into each successive operation thread, but each will be new phases.

Phase 1 will cover microstakes ($2nl-$25nl)
Phase 2 wil cover small stakes ($50-$100nl)
Phase 3 will cover 200nl, anything I'll be doing to improve my game at that point, probably workout+diet etc etc and any other poker goals I will have at that time, although right now it's too far to map that out yet so I'll be focusing on Phase 1.

Nice to see you realized "the secret" of winning at Micros. Luckily for me I had read a post about that before I started playing.

You need to step it up- my mini roll has surpassed yours (200 to 388) after a total of 20 hours of super intensive A+ game. Edit: 418 after another hour. Edit: 454 after 3 more hours.

When you stop bluffing stations your win rate will get a nice boost. Just do not forget to punish pushovers though.

durrrr is fantastic, but so are Patrick Antonius. It is very exciting to follow the durrrr challenge. When Ivey steps into the ring it will get bloody. Anyways I think durrrr made a bad proposition- but if he wins he will be crowned the King of online poker.

Maybe we will see "the Macro challenge" in 2020?

Haha, yeah I've decided to step it up all right. Good thing you're here to motivate me Sir.

Past 3500 hands I've been running well, about 8ptbb/100. I think this rate is pretty sustainable if I keep picking my spots well, table select, and so on. I'm going to log like 2000 hands today 4-5-or 6 tabling today so we'll see how the roll is after that.

I plan on working my heads up game once I'm at $50nl+ so I figure you're right that I'll be able to take on durrrr by 2020...hahahaha.

It's amazing how unbelieveably tight I played tonights session. It wasn't planned or anything, just happened to be an adjustment to the super-fishy tables I selected on Stars. (Gotta love Saturdays, seems like the weekends cater to the fish). Bankroll is up to $375ish now.

On one table I had the hugest fish ever to my left, so I really had to tighten up and tone down c-betting etc and just play for value mostly, while picking up the odd pot where he's shownweakness. I was trying to control the pot being oop and managed to set-up some decent bluff-catching situations due to all the busted draws he bets. Bit of a different pace compared to the other weekly nit-regs.

Anyway I probably won't be playing poker tomorrow except maybe a donkament or some 2nl 6-max to get some hands in for my sample I'm trying to get. I'm running 20ptbb/100 at it so I want to log more hands to find out a more true win rate.

don't type cents into your operation banner
so if you type 375.62 it will just show 37562 and would show your OP being complete

Upate:

Bankroll is now $420

On the most disgusting downswing ever.

Had some guy who was running 95/25/2.5 tell me he's the king of poker so that brighted up my day. LOL

i havn't read all of your blog and there aren't any HHs on this page so idk but from a lot of your posts it seems like you have a decent understanding of a lot of the basics and a good approach to learning - a winning combination.

don't let the downswing get to you (the day i follow my own advice there is a good day - im looking forward to it) and just take a break for a couple of days if you need it. the worst thing to do is convince yourself you need to play more to get through a bad patch.

gl, and keep up the good work.

Went on a gross swing due to playing bad a shit ass beats.
Thinking about just withdrawing the bankroll and starting from 2nl again..:S

UMEHU4ROLLZ?

Or just HU4TOURNEY?

Lol don't withdraw. You're doing great, your BB/100 stats are good and you understand what you're doing. Take some time off, read ein buch and fuck variance.

Sil mentioned this in a post somewhere in the BC:

"even thinking about levels of thinking at microstakes will more than likely result in you leveling yourself. think of ranges ranges ranges.

ABC all the way."

I will be re-reading this statement until Friday evening.

Yesterday I had a very bad downswing- 6BI. I guess it happens to everybody...

Funny thing is that I got paranoid and thought maybe the best players on FTR had ganged up on me in an attempt to crush me because of my cockiness.

Well, today I can honestly say that I played my best poker ever. Variance sucks- but it keeps the fish playing and should make you a stronger, more dangerous player.

As I usually say- the poker Gods are testing you and if you pass the test they will reward you.

Sir P

Sorry to hear about your downswing Sir.

I like your analogy about poker gods testing us. Although it may sound cheesy, anything to help get out of a rut is good.

dranger sent me this video the other day, I recommend everyone to check it out for some poker humour. It's also got a great lesson in it despite the fact that it's intention was not educational:

http://www.xtranormal.com/xtranormal/episode.php?aid=103870&mid=20090222182227485

Definately a must watch for ANY poker player, lol.

Now for the best update this thread will ever see:
TODAY IS THE BEST DAY OF MY POKER CAREER.....why is that you ask?

Because PokerStars just shipped me Professional No-Limit Hold'em by Ed Miller, Matt Flynn, and Sunny Mehta - I picked it up from the mail room on my way home today. I plan on reading this shit multiple times, and getting through at least 50 pages or so before getting back to grinding. This has to be the most +EV thing I've done outside the tables besides getting PT3. I've been anticipating this read for too long now so I'm going to get started as of immediately after I finish this post.

And I'm done with this post. So you all know exactly what I'm doing right now. I'll let you know how the read goes, and I'll probably participate in the discussion forums about the book.

That video was hilarious. The contrast of what he is saying and the emotional calmness he shows make up for some great comedy.

LMHO!

this comment made me lol

Update:

Confidence has been regained. Played roughly 500-700 hands yesterday, avoided doing stupid shit. Was very focused, a bit tired I must admit, but not as bad as the other day. I think I finished break-even which is cool, I didn't check my bankroll before or after though I subconsciously glanced at it when I checked my VPP progress. I'll be hitting silverstar by the looks of things at the end of the month, and then I'll be getting a new book with my FPP's (sweet). Going to put in another session today and possibly add in some 6-max, though I'll see how full ring goes. I'm still not techinically out of my downswing according to my PT graph, but as far as my play and mood goes, I am.

Oh yeah, I changed my PT graph display to show only my total hands played in my database across all limits. So I pretty much can't tell how skewy my 10nl portion of the graph is because it's results make up a small percentage of my total experience. This way I won't be so focused on how much I'm up or down, I'll just see the line steadily pointing towards the sky, and that will be all.

Until next time, I be grinding.

Update:
Well I decided to play a Sunday at full ring for a change. I'm usually against it for some superstitous reason as I always seem to do crap, but I've decided to drop the 'I'm not lucky on Sunday's attitude' and just play poker. All along I probably haven't been adjusting properly to the extraordinary amount of fish that seem to be running about. I just can't believe how you can play nittier than ever and still make a killing. I'm used to playing during the week so the games are alot nittier, thus I open a bit more and bluff a bit more. I had a hard time adjusting to the super-looseness at first, then I remembered that no ones paying attention and the regs are scarce, so I tighten up even more and do a bit more limping as opposed to raising in later position when multiple stations limp in front with awesome potential hands like SC's and gappers etc.

Anyway, I figure I'd post some of the biggest highlights as a touch of celebration that my gross looking graph finally turned around. I decided to stick around even though I was deep, mostly because these villains were the grossest fish I've ever seen. It's just too nitty to leave after doubling with this much potential EV in front of me.

This first hand is weird. I kind of hate the way I played it so passive preflop, but I think it's generally correct to call the 3-bet given the huge implied odds. The fact that I was in position made calling a no-brainer due to the fact that UTG+1 will stack incredibly light.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($9.85)
UTG+1 ($23.45)
MP1 ($10.90)
Hero (MP2) ($12.85)
CO ($9.10)
Button ($12.20)
SB ($9.40)
BB ($1.30)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with J

, J

1 fold, UTG+1 bets $0.40, MP1 calls $0.40, Hero calls $0.40, 2 folds, SB raises to $1.60, 1 fold, UTG+1 calls $1.20, MP1 calls $1.20, Hero calls $1.20

Flop: ($6.50) 6

, J

, A

(4 players)
SB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP1 checks, Hero bets $7, 1 fold, UTG+1 calls $7, 1 fold

Turn: ($20.50) 4

(2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $4.25 (All-In), UTG+1 calls $4.25

River: ($29) K

(2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $29 | Rake: $1.40

Results:
UTG+1 had Q

, 5

(high card, Ace).
Hero had J

, J

(three of a kind, Jacks).
Outcome: Hero won $27.60

This is just next one is just sweet.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($10)
Button ($21.15)
SB ($13.35)
BB ($17.30)
Hero (UTG) ($27.10)
UTG+1 ($10.40)
MP1 ($11.75)
MP2 ($9.50)
MP3 ($9.85)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A

, A

Hero bets $0.40, 7 folds, BB raises to $1, Hero raises to $4.50, BB calls $3.50

Flop: ($9.05) 3

, 6

, 2

(2 players)
BB bets $3.20, Hero raises to $13.50, BB calls $9.60 (All-In)

Turn: ($34.65) 4

(2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($34.65) 7

(2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $34.65 | Rake: $1.70

Results:
BB had J

, J

(one pair, Jacks).
Hero had A

, A

(flush, Ace high).
Outcome: Hero won $32.95

Anyway, I'm done with the brag. Talk about running hot for a change Smile

. Hope the hands are entertaining for you guys and a reminder that there's still fish around in the microstakes post UEIGA. There are plenty of damn fish out there to pay you off - TABLE SELECT! (I gotta work on this a bit more as it pays off)

And LOL at the cashaments.

Micro'

H1 preflop is pretty standard IMO. Maybe I'm a bigger nit that you (doubtful) but I tend to not 3bet UTG raisers with less than QQ. Lol wtf is the SB doing?

H2- Stacking off w/the effective nuts 170BB deep is niiice.

Nice job in the match the other day. That was the first poker I've played in 3 weeks Razz

. Can't wait to get back to the tables!

Ill: Thanks man. The utg guy in H1 was a huuuugggge fish, but the dude to my right hadn't played a hand in like 30 so his call was really suspicious, so I pretty much played to set mine if he became too active postlflop. Also gotta love stacking off with effective nuts deep. May have considered 3-betting to isolate if the super-tight guy didn't call the raise.

Update:

Figured I throw up the graph from my 10nl 6-max session. Pretty nice to start off on a major heater. Won a couple big pots deep, other than that pretty much nit it up. I was really careful with my table selection and ended up against some really juicy opponents that just don't seem to come into the full ring scene.

Kind of reminds me of stairs :O

Also played a donkament today before I went to bed to sort of wind down. Pretty fun, even though I still suck at MTT's and play them at bad times.

gogogo! and wtf is up with your banner?

Well when I went to update the $ amount of my bankroll I typed in the cents, however the program doesn't read the decimal, so it ended up showing me have a $35K bankroll and my Operation was complete lol.

Update:

Bankroll just broke the $500 mark. Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

cant you just make a new one? or just edit the old one back to correct? and gratz dude!

Congratulations!

I know exactly what you mean about adjusting to weekend donkeys. Many of them play so bad its absolutely impossible to put them on a hand and FE is so low we cant do nothing but tighten up and valuebet.

Just had the Absolute worst night ever.
Set/Set villain turns his 2 outer, outdraw multiple times, pretty much pwnd by complete idiots, KK<AA all in preflop - did not improve and it didin't help that I made a really shitty play for my entire stack.
$500 is now in mid $400's...sigh

don't let it get you down. take all the hands you struggled with, lost stacks on or otherwise have questions about and post them. Get critiques and learn, then go pwn some more. Your roll is still hot and you'll recover.

e z game

How's my line here?
Villain is pretty much unknown, although judging by his limp/call to my raise from the cut-off, he's not good.

I don't really know where I'm at when he c/c's my c-bet. Perhaps c-betting here isn't a good play? As played should I be betting the turn here? What do you guys think, I considered checking behind on the flop but bet with a plan to check behind the turn, perhaps a better line would have been the opposite.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP3 ($10.75)
CO ($6.90)
Hero (Button) ($10)
SB ($5.80)
BB ($10.05)
UTG ($12.65)
UTG+1 ($2.80)
MP1 ($5.75)
MP2 ($2.15)

Preflop: Hero is Button with J

, K

5 folds, CO calls $0.10, Hero bets $0.50, 2 folds, CO calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.15) Q

, 9

, 7

(2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $0.90, CO calls $0.90

Turn: ($2.95) 2

(2 players)
CO checks, Hero checks

River: ($2.95) 8

(2 players)
CO checks, Hero checks

Total pot: $2.95 | Rake: $0.10

I don't think the cbet is good in a vacuum. If you check behind and he checks again on the turn you can bet there with more FE and a flush draw.

If we could say it's a thinking player than you could argue for a bluff on the river, but I'd just give this one up.

About the cbet, if he decides to get cute and c/r there then you lose your chance at a K or T coming. The turn can be really good for you, so check and give it a 100% chance to come out. TBH, I think so many turns are scare cards that you could almost bet it blind if he checks a second street.

Cool thanks for the input dev. Your analysis makes alot of sense, and I think I had my thinking mixed up on what the optimal play is. Now that you've laid it out I think the best line is probably what you mentioned: check flop, bet turn if checked to, give up on river - because to bluff here with air would require some reads since given his station-like line, he'll probably be calling with as bad as a low pair often.

Decided to put the shit swing behind me, stop bitchin', and grind it out like ive never grinded it out before. Made most back, played about a 2K hand marathon. And tomorrow is another day.

Update:

Cool. So I just remembered I have some money in my Full-Tilt account from playing 6-max turbo donkaments for fun/variation. Looks like I'll be using some of that cash to get a Ginderschool membership, since that's the hot thing these days to be doing, and I haven't played a donkament there in over a month.

Didn't play any poker today. Spent 6 hours reading about investments and the stock market, and to be honest I don't think I learned a damn thing :S ... I guess I'll do the same tomorrow and see if things start sinking in. Exams aren't for a month but I'm trying to push ahead with the weekly material stuff since I've got alot of things to take care of outside of school right now. I also finished up a project for school as well while I was on the train back to the city, so my day was extremely packed without any poker besides logging onto the IRC for half an hour or so. And I probably won't get around to grinding till maybe Tuesday unless I get a sufficient amount of work done tomorrow.

Anyway, I'll let you all know how I like the GS videos. I plan on signing up sometime early this week, maybe Wednesday. Someone bitch slap me if I haven't by then - ty in advance.

-Micro

Oh yeah, next month (or whenever the time comes) I'm planning on posting my first 100k hands graph of my grind, which includes $2NL-$10NL, various microstakes fixed-limit games, and a short-stacking experiment which I conducted at $10NL and partially $25NL. The graph will not include donkaments, heads up SNG's, or MTSNG's, SNG's etc. Just cash games. So yeah within the first few months of my operation and I can almost say I've hit 100k..... Rolling Eyes

Yea, I'm interested in the GS videos as well. I'm currently getting coaching so I won't do both, but I'd really like to know how they are!

Quick update: Well nothing much to say really, haven't played a super amount of poker lately, though I've cut my volume back and been 2-4 tabling for a bit. Although I have grinded a fair amount since over a week ago and the roll is above $500 again which is cool. This time around I don't seem to care much about the number, I'm really just concerned with playing well. Fuck results, fuck what's in my bankroll - all that stuff is just aftermath from playing. So IMO playing good = roll go up. That all there is to it, swings occur, but they're just tiny little dents on the lifetime graph that just keep getting smaller and smaller.

Anyway, 15k more hands and I will post the epic 100k hand graph. Should be interesting, and it will also be around the time where I start taking shots at $25NL.

woot, looking forward to the graph. and I thought i was playing alot of hands, rofl

haha, the graph probably won't be ready till sometime later in April.

Micro did ya get that GS subscription yet? Get on it there are some good videos. Keeep up the good work and glad to hear you've put the downswing behind ya. I'm trying to do the same myself. I'm having one hell of a week in a bad way. SHIT HAPPENS

gogogo!

Harley I should have mentioned it sooner. I got the GS subscription, and already I can tell it's going to be well worth the investment. I've only watched 1 video so far, but I'll be spending more time doing so as the week goes on. Hope your week gets better man, and thanks for droppin' by the op!

Update:
So my bankroll hit $600 today and I feel pretty good about my game. I've been well focused lately and haven't done any stupid shit, so I decided to take a tour of $25NL with a stop loss. It's a bit early to get into it right now according to my nitty Bankroll Management stipulations, however, I have been planning to take shots somewhere in the $600+ range using the following conditions to ensure optimal play and minimal potential loss:

-2 tables max
-if the table isn't juicy, leave
-if a solid regular is sitting to your left, leave
-2 buy in stop loss
-quit after getting stacked
-quit if feeling the slightest bit tired/distracted/bored etc
-quit when doubled through if someone else matches the effective stack.

Basically I'm only playing when I feel my focus is at 110%.
I decided to take a shot early because I feel good about it. In fact, if I didn't feel good about taking a shot, I wouldn't have. The money didn't even change anything. It's just big blinds to me. My stop loss allows me to control my bankroll as I ease myself up. By using this secondary system, I will allow myself to move up quicker if I happen to run well in the beginning.

I'll be playing some more $10NL this week and hopefully get $25NL officially rolling in mid-April (one I hit $875 I'll be multitabling $25NL without dropping back to $10NL unless absolutely necessary). I played really well during my session, and was up about 1/2 a buy in over a couple hundred hands when I finished up.

Sometime later in the week I'll probably bum-hunt again using my restrictions when my mind feels up to it.

Update

Just finished 2nd in the FTR300 for a nice payout. BR now $750, woot!

Probably gonna just lay low at $10NL for a bit till I get the planning side of things regarding bankroll sorted out about my move up etc. and let the high from the tourney cash cool a bit.

GG BenTurpen (the winner) and GG to everyone else.

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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