The Aspiring Stacker

9 BI upswings at 10NL - racing through the limits! GOGOGOGO!

Originally Posted by Carroters

9 BI upswings at 10NL - racing through the limits! GOGOGOGO!

Hahaha, thanks for the brag, so nice to run good!

I don't know what happened, but I suddenly feel as if I am finally understanding this game! Carrots and I spend a fair amount of time discussing poker, or rather he usually rants while I go uh huh, yea, ok, ic. Now though I'm actively participating in these discussions and I actually have an opinion with (not always) solid arguments to back them up. I have also started critically thinking about shit rather than just lapping up everything I read or hear. Dunno when or how any of this happened, but I'm loving it! Must beware of falling into the ego trap however: Iz still stoopid feesh.

Basically, I have jumped from knowing jack all about poker to knowing something, albeit a minuscule amount. This paired with mega upswing translates to $ and totally motivates me to work harder, get better and make even more $$$. Must add however that money is merely a bonus and not my reason for wanting to improve - my roll actually has no monetary value in my head; it's just play money. Dreams of cashing out to buy Les Pauls in future do lurk however...

So I'm solidly grinding 10NL now and I absolutely love it! I'm really enjoying the challenges of playing against folk that actually have any brains. The first difference I noticed when moving up was how people adjusted to me. I steal pretty damn wide and usually I can get away with it, but the 10NL nits and regs catch on quickly and don't shy from what must be 3betting lightly. So I've had to adjust to their adjustments (4bet bluffing?! Bit creepy to start - that's a whole lotta monies hoping on a fold!) and it's been awesome to see them automatically readjust and tighten back up. 5nl fish would just be like 'oh, this chick wants to mess with me huh? I'll show her' *spaz jam 72o* So yea, keeps me on my toes, actually forces me to concentrate and improve my game and it leaves me completely shattered by the end of a long session. Have moved towards more frequent shorter sessions now ftw.

I also played my first online tourney yesterday. 240th out of 1600 odd is no bad methinks. Whew, what a rush! It was pretty fast paced and I felt so pressured for time while I was trying to figure out the optimal approach - I totally entered the table as the mega aggro cash chick. I quickly adjusted however and started limping loads of implied odds hands and with the blinds and antes going up so quickly I came to appreciate my stealing skills. When I returned to the cash tables afterwards I was all in blind stealing mode! Good fun though, even with the constant feeling of pressure from blinds and not being able to rebuy, I'm defo having another shot sometime soon. A brief discussion with Carrots on tourney strategy also has me feeling more confident for the next one (and confident in my adaptation skills! A lot of what he said I had picked up while playing!) and eventually I aim to crush some live tourneys. Bring on HU Carrots vs Pet!

Last but certainly not least is WinoBalla. One of my best mates shall be joining this great community soon. This girl has spades of potential to be one bad ass grinder. I'll leave her to do her own intro, but I will say that now she's finally got tracking software set up I suspect she'll be skyrocketing through the limits soon as well. Anywho, keep your eyes peeled for her, she's one cool chick.

Behold...I have brought you girls.....PLURAL.

race ya to 100nl? you've got a headstart

Oh wow, cheers for the response guys! Chuffed youse are following, even if it is for the gurlz, haha. Speaking of which, sounds like another lady is very intrigued...

Originally Posted by daven

race ya to 100nl? you've got a headstart

You're on, daven I may be ahead but I'm feeling severely disadvantaged...still, I'm always up for a challenge!

Time for my bed. I blame the WinoDegen for it being so late. We're developing a worrying habit of 4 hour sweats in the middle of the night. Even more worrying since we plan on trading poker lessons for wine lessons and they'll likely take place simultaneously. Night all.

Originally Posted by Petulie

wine lessons

wtf?

here ya go:-
1. Get Wine
2. Open Bottle
3. Drink Wine

[/lesson]

now...teach me how to play poh-kitz...

Oh man, I am on a 10NL rollercoaster! It has gone something along the lines of 10BIs up, 6 down, 9 up, 7 down, 6 up, 8 down....Blegh.

Valuable lesson learnt: I am a tilty spew tard. Works out well when I run awesomely and bulldoze fish and regs alike. When I run like ass, however, my spewiness just amplifies the losses and I have actually been watching myself tilt. It hasn't happened to such an extent before and it has made me more aware of what causes me to tilt, both on and off the tables. Unfortunately, one of the causes won't be back for another 2 weeks so I'll need to figure out some coping mechanisms. Either that or he needs to get on Skype more, hint hint, wink wink

I haven't actually had much time to grind in recent days. Well, relatively less time anyway. And with this race on I've been feeling the pressure to get hands in and as a result I've totally neglected my development. I haven't been reviewing sessions and posting difficult spots (although I have marked a few that will be going up very soon) and I certainly haven't been studying. Terrible. I have at least been discussing poker with the Wino, but I'm not convinced that cuts it as revision.

One of my problems is that I have been making adjustments to my game with little knowledge or understanding. My biggest downfall is check/raising as a (semi)bluff. As mentioned, when the poker gods are kind, this works an absolute treat. Cash it in with my set/when my draw pulls through; take down the pot when I've got utter shite. Folk have been catching on, however, and I've become aware of my image as a spaztard and have tried tightening up to just cash in on stronger hands, however the cards haven't been falling in my favour of late and when they do everyone bails. My approach needs some serious tweaking, I feel like people see my hole cards through the ethernet cables, so I've been watching some videos and jotting down some pointers and had a wee think around my strategy. Hopefully this will help.

In other news, my dinky laptop is total busto so a 27"er is on its way! so So SO excited! I haven't had a desktop computer in like 10 years, seriously looking forward to it, it's a beast! 3.4GHz, 8GB RAM, 2TB harddisk - it's sick! I remember upgrading to a 486'er with 128MB RAM and how 'ahead of the times' we were then. Christ. My dad would cream his pants if he knew what was on the market these days. Anyway, only splashing out so much on this cause it'll have to last me the next 10 years/until the pokers can finance the next upgrade. Money well invested imo. Bring on the ultimate grinding experience!

Also, flathunting commences tomorrow. 3 weeks I've got to battle it out with all the other students to find a decent place near the university before this lease is up. Wish me luck!

enjoy the rollercoaster
think about where money is made at 10nl
decide whether you want to embrace uber-variance
forget about races
post some hands
comment on hands in the bc that other people have posted - read the op and write a reply BEFORE reading what other people have written.
check-raise less often - actually, how on earth are you check-raising anyway? how do you end up playing many hands oop?
be careful vs overbets
be careful overbetting
be a little bit careful targeting the 19-15-4 at your tables (it's me)
find a nice flat
drink wine
sort out time differences and skype >> tilting away money

don't do too much of this shit:

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

UTG+1 ($10.15)
MP1 ($16.34)
Hero (MP2) ($24.42)
CO ($9.05)
Button ($8.85)
SB ($5.25)
BB ($4)
UTG ($20.18)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with J, J
2 folds, MP1 calls $0.10, Hero bets $0.55, 4 folds, MP1 calls $0.45

Flop: ($1.25) 6, 3, 9 (2 players)
MP1 bets $0.40, Hero raises to $1.80, MP1 calls $1.40

Turn: ($4.85) 5 (2 players)
MP1 bets $1.20, Hero raises to $4, MP1 raises to $13.99 (All-In), Hero calls $9.99

River: ($32.83) Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $32.83 | Rake: $1.63

Results below:
MP1 had 8, 7 (straight, nine high).
Hero had J, J (one pair, Jacks).
Outcome: MP1 won $31.20

Originally Posted by daven

race ya to 100nl? you've got a headstart

daven are you seriously rebuilding from 10 - 100NL + again? wouldn't it be like the 8th time you make it? heh heh