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

WTF does this shit ever end...

5th time I've dropped below $0 now at $25nl over the last 7k hands.

PokerStars Game #27393256850: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2009/04/23 1:02:07 ET
Table 'Nephele' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: thop5574 ($24.15 in chips)
Seat 2: Márcio GCM ($13.55 in chips)
Seat 3: joshil3 ($25 in chips)
Seat 5: newguy89 ($25 in chips)
Seat 6: maniac49 ($25 in chips)
Seat 7: Chuck474 ($29.75 in chips)
Seat 8: ProfKev85 ($25 in chips)
Seat 9: zarzoin ($6.75 in chips)
joshil3: posts small blind $0.10
malik3k: is sitting out
malik3k has returned
newguy89: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to newguy89 [As Ah]
maniac49: folds
Chuck474: folds
ProfKev85: folds
zarzoin: folds
thop5574: folds
Márcio GCM: folds
Márcio GCM leaves the table
joshil3: raises $0.50 to $0.75
newguy89: raises $2 to $2.75
malik3k leaves the table
sebipokert joins the table at seat #4
joshil3: raises $4.75 to $7.50
nezlee joins the table at seat #2
newguy89: calls $4.75
*** FLOP *** [3h 2h 6d]
joshil3: bets $17.50 and is all-in
newguy89: calls $17.50 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [3h 2h 6d] [Kd]
*** RIVER *** [3h 2h 6d Kd] [2d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
joshil3: shows [Ks Kc] (a full house, Kings full of Deuces)
newguy89: mucks hand
joshil3 collected $47.55 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $50 | Rake $2.45
Board [3h 2h 6d Kd 2d]
Seat 1: thop5574 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Márcio GCM (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: joshil3 (small blind) showed [Ks Kc] and won ($47.55) with a full house, Kings full of Deuces
Seat 5: newguy89 (big blind) mucked [As Ah]
Seat 6: maniac49 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Chuck474 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: ProfKev85 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: zarzoin folded before Flop (didn't bet)

considering I got 2 outered the first hand of my session I suppose there's just nothing I can do.
GG me.

Wonderland: if you read this sir, this is an actual example of running bad

I seriously feel like killing some sort of small, cute animal right now.

PokerStars Game #27394426704: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2009/04/23 2:11:40 ET
Table 'Bruwer II' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: LawCrane ($26 in chips)
Seat 2: severiana11 ($8.30 in chips)
Seat 3: BQuintaine ($19.05 in chips)
Seat 4: värräs ($6.45 in chips)
Seat 5: newguy89 ($25 in chips)
Seat 6: McManigal357 ($24.20 in chips)
Seat 7: albolineata ($24.15 in chips)
Seat 8: muck__you123 ($25 in chips)
McManigal357: posts small blind $0.10
albolineata: posts big blind $0.25
schroeder57: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to newguy89 [9d 9s]
muck__you123: folds
LawCrane: folds
severiana11: folds
BQuintaine: calls $0.25
värräs: calls $0.25
newguy89: calls $0.25
McManigal357: folds
albolineata: checks
*** FLOP *** [9h 6s Ad]
albolineata: checks
BQuintaine: bets $0.50
värräs: calls $0.50
newguy89: raises $1.50 to $2
albolineata: folds
BQuintaine: calls $1.50
värräs: folds
*** TURN *** [9h 6s Ad] [Ks]
BQuintaine: checks
newguy89: bets $4
BQuintaine: calls $4
*** RIVER *** [9h 6s Ad Ks] [Qs]
BQuintaine: checks
newguy89: bets $12.80
BQuintaine: calls $12.80 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
newguy89: shows [9d 9s] (three of a kind, Nines)
BQuintaine: shows [As Js] (a flush, Ace high)
BQuintaine collected $37.30 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $39.20 | Rake $1.90
Board [9h 6s Ad Ks Qs]
Seat 1: LawCrane folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: severiana11 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: BQuintaine showed [As Js] and won ($37.30) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 4: värräs folded on the Flop
Seat 5: newguy89 (button) showed [9d 9s] and lost with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 6: McManigal357 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: albolineata (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 8: muck__you123 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

It's amazing how I actually feel fine.
I think I get more pissed off from playing bad then getting sucked out on.

Does anyone hate the way I played the last hand? Regardless of the result, like pre - post. I had no reads on anyone.

I would have raised to $2 pre, but I think your still getting beat on the hand.

I like your blog btw =)

Hooray! We're both running like ass!!!

Originally Posted by dranger7070

Hooray! We're both running like ass!!!

keep it up homey, it'll turn

Hit da Silverstar!

I also played really, really good poker today. Swongy as fuck but manged to grind back a ton after a dissapointing start to the sessoin.

I only made one call down that I was terribly unpleased with, for -$11 :/

No biggie though, I was super-focused today and made some solid plays.

Congrats on hitting Silverstar and sorry to hear about the variance. It's amazing how these beats come in bunches, isn't it?

One questions about your 99 hand though. Why is it that we don't raise preflop here (especially with the button)? I think I may have raised to 5x-6x here.

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

Originally Posted by dranger7070

Hooray! We're both running like ass!!!

Hey, me too! Let's hab partay with beer and chicks to sell-a-brate!

The way we're running, the beer will turn out to be ram's piss, and the wimminz will be tranny's.

Originally Posted by dranger7070

The way we're running, the beer will turn out to be ram's piss, and the wimminz will be tranny's.

Best night of partying I ever had ended up this way....

It was the best nitght ever up until that point.

once it hit that point... however.

Also +1 for running like crap.

I really don't want to hijack my operation into a bad beat thread.
All I'm going to say is you don't even know....

Good news is I'm not tilting anymore and I'm playing good. Now where is that massive heater.......

Well I'm gonna stop playing 25nl for a bit, even though I'm well rolled.
It's just so, so sick...

going to be studying like crazy for awhile, likely only will play a few donkaments, some 10nl, and HU sngs for a change.

NYC May 1st, going to be a nice vacation.

I'm sure you'll come back with a vengeance brotha! NYC on the 1st, huh? Well, WELCOME! If by any chance you feel like checking the poker tables at Atlantic City while up here...let me know!

Originally Posted by BooG690

I'm sure you'll come back with a vengeance brotha! NYC on the 1st, huh? Well, WELCOME! If by any chance you feel like checking the poker tables at Atlantic City while up here...let me know!

im only 20 and i look about 17, so I don't think I'll be able to get into any casino's lol - it's 21 there right?

It's 21...but the Tropicana doesn't care and lets just about anyone in!

Hey buddy keep your chin up. BTW thanks for playing HU with me tonight. It was fun just for the shits.

this break really feels good

ill be mostly studying/playing a bit of 10nl this week, but that's it - study 60% play 40%ish.

25nl after I get back from nYC. will be fresh and ready to own everyone.

for now I'm just going to focus on learning a ton. building a bankroll isnt that big of a concern right now, im almost at $1000 anyway which is plenty to maneuver around the microstakes and play some donkaments. im going to have all summer to grind away so im not really in a big panick to get past 25nl.

probably wont do much updating this week, just gonna take it easy. im in absoultely no rush to build a roll anymore, so i think ill just enjoy myself and discover more and more about this interesting game away from the tables.

FUCK THAT!!! MUST BUILD ROLL!!! PLAY MOAR POKERZ!!!!

lol jk dude. thats probs a good idea, but i wont be doing that lol. i got boot in less than a month so im trying to get it up so i can come back and comfortably start out playing 25nl (after warming up for a few thousand hands at 10nl to shake off the rust ldo). But yea, I need to look into studying more myself .

Have fun in NYC dude!

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

this break really feels good

Great move by you. Clear your mind a little bit and focus on mackin' hoes in NYC

Dranger: thanks man, when do you get back again? I think I've asked this like 10 times already so if you just post it in my operation I can go back and look lol. keep the grind on till you leave or else it'll feel like you're away from poker longer haha.

Boog: oh yeeeah, new york is going to be sick. where around there do you live? (you mentioned you live around there amiright)

Well, I get out of Recruit Training (boot camp ldo) in late August (like ~21st) but I turn around go to my MOS (job in the Marines) training 10 days after that, and thats 7 weeks long, so I'll be gone until just before Halloween. (Not sure if you have Halloween in Canada lol. Its on the 31st of October )

hahaha of course we have halloween in canada

ill probably still be stuck between 10nl and 25nl by then

god help me, i need to get my game back on track

been thinking about withdrawing down to $300 and regrinding up from $10nl again.........................................

Wat up micro. Like you I’ve had a hella swingy month (although I can’t really put mine off to variance) and I highly recommend pwning 10nl for a couple thousand hands. Just switch between the two depending on your mood. It does wonders for your confidence and still helps the BR (lol +10BI sessions). Remember there is always next month.

Also trip report on NYC I’ve only ever had the chance to check out the west coast and am looking to do some travel in the not too distant future.

Originally Posted by dranger7070

(Not sure if you have Halloween in Canada lol. Its on the 31st of October )

Haha, I love that quote. I'm not even sure why...but it's hysterical. Do you guys celebrate Christmas up there too?

ANYWHO, I'm in Long Island. That's about 20 minutes to Manhattan. Atlantic City is about 2 hours away via bus and an even shorter distance via train. *wink wink* I say we get some other people from FTR together, hit up the Trop (in which you can get in being that's where I played since I was 18), and take the place over.

Originally Posted by Pig_Vomit

Wat up micro. Like you I’ve had a hella swingy month (although I can’t really put mine off to variance) and I highly recommend pwning 10nl for a couple thousand hands. Just switch between the two depending on your mood. It does wonders for your confidence and still helps the BR (lol +10BI sessions). Remember there is always next month.

Also trip report on NYC I’ve only ever had the chance to check out the west coast and am looking to do some travel in the not too distant future.

Hey man thanks for stopping by my operation.
Good advice on always being next month, and it's just around the corner. That's the way I'm looking at it right now. After I get back from NYC I'm going to change gears and work on curing my spew.

I'll definately update everyone on my trip. I'll make sure to post pictures etc. and probably take up an entire page or so on it. Hopefully that will be entertaining and informative to anyone interested in going to NYC.
I know I'm experiencing a bit of variance, however, I really hate blaming it just on variance. I know I have leaks in my game and I know I'm probably not playing that great, so I'm gonna have to work on that to turn things around.

Originally Posted by BooG690

Originally Posted by dranger7070

(Not sure if you have Halloween in Canada lol. Its on the 31st of October )

Haha, I love that quote. I'm not even sure why...but it's hysterical. Do you guys celebrate Christmas up there too?

ANYWHO, I'm in Long Island. That's about 20 minutes to Manhattan. Atlantic City is about 2 hours away via bus and an even shorter distance via train. *wink wink* I say we get some other people from FTR together, hit up the Trop (in which you can get in being that's where I played since I was 18), and take the place over.

Oh sick. We should definately organize something FTR related for those near the East Coast in NYC sometime. Like next spring perhaps.

Dude, that would be facking ballin! I don't have anything long training wise for next summer either so we could something then if the spring don't work out.

I'll be in Canada by then son I'm in

what the fack
why cant i just play good
what the fuck is wrong with me
running bad doesn't help, but every session is just spewing, really really bad spewing.

im so close to withdrawing and starting back a 0.

k w/e im done with poker entirely until I get back from new york. until then all ill do is review hh's and study shit i guess

I hate to hear you're struggling Micro...but it does happen. Don't withdraw everything...leave the roll as is. Study, look over some hands, and take a break from poker. Hit up the self-exclusion and don't allow yourself to play for a week. You seem to know your shit inside and out...but maybe you've done too much too quick? I know it may sound dumb...but you RAN through the microstakes. Take a break...it won't hurt and will only help. Come back to with a strong craving for poker and with an empty mind. You'll definitely come back stronger. Good luck bro.

yeah good points BooG.

im going through my hands of the last couple days where I'm -4 buy ins at $10nl and I can't really see much other than what looks to be poor bet sizing and just consistently running into the f'ing nuts (Though 1 buy-in was for sure certainly a major tilt spew)

I'll have to work on the bet sizing and planning for future streets thing more.

i think i might just 2 table for a bit and focus on pure quality + strong reads and fix the bet sizing problems. if that fails, ill avoid poker for awhile.

Update: Sub-Operation: Rebuild And Renew

Okay so I've given it a bit of though, and I've figured out a strategic plan to get myself back on track. First and formost, confidence is important in poker, and I just don't have the confidence to play 25nl anymore - I don't even have it to play 10nl. So I'm going to be grinding 5nl to regain confidence, while at the same time grinding the roll back up and working on some things.

My current bankroll is about $725. I will grind 5nl till I have reached 10 buy-ins ($50). At this point I will grind 10nl till I have made $100.
At this point I will be back at $875 and will hopefully have patched up some leaks, stopped spewing/tilting, and be ready to move back to $25nl.

My main concern right now is protecting my roll and putting an end to any spew. While this could be done at 10nl, I feel it's best to drop even lower, since I blew a number of buy-ins at 10nl as well as 25nl.

Operation Rebuild will take place only at full ring tables.

So until $875 this operation is taking a detour from the original plan. I'll keep you all posted. There will be no shortcuts or shot taking. $875, that's it. No ifs, ands, or buts.

I will post statistics and graphs for each phase of Operation Rebuild.(5nl and 10nl). The way I look at it is this is only a bump in the road I'm driving on. Sure it might take me till the end of May to be back on track, but I'm not conerned with time right now - just as long as it gets done.

Obviously I'm overrolled for the stakes that I'm playing, but that's beyond the point. Bankroll mangement is taken care of, now I just need to get back to playing quality poker.

-m2m

GL w/teh new Op goals. You have great discipline and I don't think it will be a problem for you to regain that confidence. The deck will lay off your nuts soon enough!

Solid dude. Fucking solid. I think a lot of people should take a look at this this last post, and see that playing poker isn't ALL about the money (it just gives us more incentive ). The goal in poker is to play as close to mistake-free, perfect poker you can; moving up and making money is just a by-product. Having the confidence to play at your current limits is also key. You can't play scared.

Good luck on the regrind man, and even if you don't get there til the end of May, like you said, theres no rush. (Besides, gives me a lil slack to catch up after boot, even though ull be pwning 50-100nl by then )).

Later buddy! Keep ur chin up, it only hurts for a lil while. Also, post ur monthly graph if ur not gonna be playing anymore this month? At least before you go to the big apple.

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

I'm going to be grinding 5nl....

OMG, not 5NL. That's where I play! Well, at least your playing FR and I'm at 6-Max. I guess I'm safe, lol. There's probably enough fish for both of us.

Are you playing differently at 25NL than you did as you crushed 5NL & 10NL? I know your game must have evolved along the way or are your stats similar?

GL with the rebuild.

I don't understand the drop to 5NL.

You have 72 BI for 10NL. Over Double Rolled

'splain please

Good luck on the rebuild, rooting for you micro!

Originally Posted by PlayToWin

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

I'm going to be grinding 5nl....

OMG, not 5NL. That's where I play! Well, at least your playing FR and I'm at 6-Max. I guess I'm safe, lol. There's probably enough fish for both of us.

Are you playing differently at 25NL than you did as you crushed 5NL & 10NL? I know your game must have evolved along the way or are your stats similar?

GL with the rebuild.

At first I think I played 25nl differently. I played too aggressively and I constantly 3-bet steals and 4-bet anyone 3-betting my steals without giving proper credit. This led me to losing 1-2 stacks with QQ/JJ preflop that I otherwise shouldn't have.

After the first 2k hands or so I realized I was being spewy, so I backed down to 10nl for a few k hands to work on some things. I felt great after toning it down a bit so I went back to 25nl and I was playing SOLID poker. Like, really solid. I reviewed my sessions and I was making some decent moves without getting too tricky, betting for fat value, making some thin bets in position vs the fish - all the stuff I wasn't doing right when I first moved up.

Then I run into a series of 2 outers and huge coolers. I lost 4 buy-ins with AA, one being a 91% favourite, the rest 80% (all in preflop).
Everytime I had QQ I'd town myself against 2 pair - I even had set/set for 100bb on the flop on top of all that. So I lost maybe 5 buy-ins to coolers, but THEN I tilted off 2-3.

Winning small pots here and there helped keep me around even, until my final session where I refused to leave a table where I KNEW there were 2 colluders (won't get into the details), just because they were huge fish I wanted to stack them, but all I did was chase my losses and ended up feeding them 2 stacks.

So yeah you could say -variance had something to do with it, but the way I handled it was horrible. I take full responsibility for not being above $0 at 25nl because I've gone back and added up numerous calls I shouldn't have made and numerous value bets I failed to make - in other words, I made too many mistakes to possibly dig myself out of the hole I was in.

My stats have actually gotten 'better' if anything. I ran about 13/10/2.8 with a 3.1% 3-bet at 25nl, was c-betting less (too high right now) and stealing was OK (27%) though I'd like it to be 30%. (it's alot higher at 6max :/)

I just ended up spewing in a few spots postflop that I shouldn't have, which ultimately caused me to move down to 10nl.

This is was put me on mega-tilt. Here I am at 10nl thinking I have to win back $100+ that I lost. So I start playing too loose/too aggro, trying to steal too many pots postflop..and well there goes 6 buy ins.

"I don't understand the drop to 5NL.

You have 72 BI for 10NL. Over Double Rolled"

I hope you understand a bit more now. Because my skill of maintaining composure has deteriorated, I'm unable to play where my bankroll says I can. I basically will just continue to lose until I fix my spewing problems and I feel the only way to do this is to move down to a level where the money is completely meaningless so that I just focus on playing good poker. This will allow me to regain the confidence I had before and prepare me to play my best. I'll also build my roll back up the way I should - slowly. There is no quick fix in this game, I'm going to do the best I can not to rush things.

Hope that all makes sense. Thanks for the support guys.

Operation rebuild is going well so far.

Aside from running really well at 5nl, I feel a sense of renewed focus and my thought process throughout each hand seems to be running better than before (i.e. less autopiloting). I find studying ranges really helps sometimes.

I'm making more time to review hands after my sessions, and I'm also playing only a maximum 4 tables (for now) to focus on the game harder.

I'm attempting to play as perfect as I can, and it seems to be a good mindset for me so far. I'll continue on striving for perfection and hopefully this will reduce my level of spew to a lessor extent of what it was before. I understand as a human, and also a noob, I'm going to make mistakes. But my main goal at the moment is to minimize the amount of mistakes I make, rather than make as much money as I can. The latter is more of a long term side effect I suppose.

lol wow I run so sick hot at 5nl.

Being focused and playing well helps minimize any mistakes though.

Getting paid off is also easy since the players are so bad. I'm running 50bb/100 on my first 1k hands - basically just making hands and getting paid + sucking out here and there w/ equity - I'm actually winning flips!(I'll use bb instead of ptbb since you guys seem to like bb better, though I usually prefer ptbb/100 for some weird reason)

Now if only I couldnt run this hot at 25nl :P

Don't give in Micro. Ptbb is the way to go. And good job...you'll be up in 10NL in just a few hours (5NL is so friggin easy). Hopefully I'll be up there with you by the time you get there.

M2M I gotta tell ya buddy you really seem to have your shit together. I commend you for stepping back and being honest with yourself. You took responsibility for the problem at hand. Devised a solution to that problem and now you are working the solution. Good job. We all should posses the ability to be so brutally honest with ourselfs!

Keep up the good work my friend!

BooG: thanks man, and welcome to the ptbb/100 club :P

Harley: well it took me awhile to get my shit together, but I finally came to. stepping down limits isn't easy, especially for me. I think I made probably the strongest move of my poker career so far my doing it. It's already given me a new perspective on things, especially playing poker to play good poker, and not just to earn money. Thanks alot of the support.

Now for a quick update...

I'll be grinding out a few more hands tonight and then I'm off to New York City! Should be a fun trip, I'll post some pictures if I get around to it while I'm there. I'll be back on Tuesday, and ready to kick some ass. Until then, good luck on the grind everyone, and keep working hard.

-m2m

ptbb's are nice because the number can be smaller and you can still feel good about yourself

Have fun dude!!!

Have fun, and please WASH YOUR HANDS - no joke. We've talked about how dirty that city is, and now there's that fake public health crisis aka swine flu -.-

Ok just finished my last session before I go to NYC. Looks like I'll be playing 10nl when I get back :O. I can't believe I burned through 5nl this fast. 10 hours of playing an average of 3 tables or so.

The sickest heater I've ever experienced. I was also extremely focused on playing well, so that made things easier. Kinda hard to play bad when you run this good though...now only if I can run this hot at 25nl haha, enjoy the graph....



I only stacked off light once, but it was one of those wtf pot odds call type stack offs. Be sick if the heater continues for a bit, but I'm going to brace myself for some gross suckouts now.

Damn this is a great start for a fresh page. Seemed like the entire last one was horrifying :/

[x] $50 at 5nl -------COMPLETE
[ ] $100 at 10nl -------Begins Tuesday

Update:

Alright so I made it back from New York. I had a good time even though it rained all weekend. I'll be back to grinding + study this week. Might throw up a couple tables tonight but I'll most likely start tomorrow. I have 4 books on my list to read so I guess I better get to it.

Good to hear you had a good time dude. Was hoping to catch you on MSN once I seen that your back, o wells. We gotta set up a sweat session some time soon. I need to hear someone bitching me out for trying to double barrel fish lol. Pwn teh 10enels and move up to 25nl already!

lol I have an $820 bankroll playing 10nl. But I'm trying to work out some kinks - it ain't for the money it's for the game.

I'll be lurking the IRC and MSN all week and I'll definately be down for a sweat session.

Yea man, I know why you're doing it, just saying hurry up and make that $100 there so we can beat the shit out of stupid TAGfish!

Aw crap. You're back. I guess that means I'll be seeing you around 10NL? That's definitely not good. GO UP TO 25NL WITH THE QUICKNESS!

Oh yeah...and welcome back. Sorry it rained here all weekend.

Originally Posted by BooG690

Aw crap. You're back. I guess that means I'll be seeing you around 10NL? That's definitely not good. GO UP TO 25NL WITH THE QUICKNESS!

Oh yeah...and welcome back. Sorry it rained here all weekend.

O come on BooG, Micro is like the BIGGEST fish ever. So easily exploited. When you are playing him and you have air (or a monster, either one) flip a coin. Heads = shove or a massive overbet; Tails = tiny bet/less than half pot. Shit gets him EVERY time.

just gay bet like $.40 into a $3 pot and I'll fold

Update:

Operation rebuild is going well. I seem to have my focus back and am playing much better. 5nl is complete thanks to a massive heater, and I'm now grinding 10nl for awhile.

May is a busy month for me outside of poker, but I think I might be able to get on pace for a new goal.

I'm not going to go out of my way to put in the volume, however, I think I may have a pretty decent shot at hitting GoldStar this month. Doing so will give me a nice boost for grinding in June since my FPP multiplier will go up (and in June I expect to get in more volume, so more volume=more fpps = more money ). Plus I want to gain entry into the GoldStar tourneys since they're of great value.

Anyway, this isn't really an official goal but more of a loose target I guess. I don't want to have to increase tables and let my play deteriorate just because I'm shooting for a certain # of FPP's. I'll see how it goes and determine whether or not it's probable as the month carrys forward.

I don't understand why I run so hot at 5nl yet constantly get sucked out on at 10nl.

http://weaktight.com/1065043 - just a sample

Originally Posted by Micro2Macro

I don't understand why I run so hot at 5nl yet constantly get sucked out on at 10nl.

Word. I feel there are more calling stations up here than there were at 5NL. It's either that or the stations have a wider range at 10NL. We're just going to have to charge these stations a whole lot to draw out on us.

yeah, well I haven't played nearly enough hands in May to worry about the results. I pretty much laughed about yesterdays session since I was coolered a few times and had a few 75% edges all in preflop that wouldn't hold, yet still only managed to be down a buy-in

So no big deal really, the math will catch up eventually.

The hand vs QQ is funny because I imagine he'd probably just call down unimproved to the river for stacks anyway - notice how he limped preflop.

Update:

Been doing a shit load of study relative to play lately.

But I did manage to get in some hands! Though this was a change of pace actually...

I played 31 $1 regular DON SNG's today :/ - Won 22/31 lol. I'm going to play about 100 or so regular speeds at the $1 level till I get a good grasp of them, then depending on how I do at the $5 I'll just make the jump to $10 quicker since I've got the roll.

So today I made a shitty bluff for -20bb.

I called off 55bb in a marginal spot where I was in doubt and probably should have folded.

35bb called in 1 other spot that has been confirmed to be a poor call.

So that is....110bb's that could have been saved. I'm not too impressed so I wrote this note above my workstation and played pretty well since:

"A bet saved contributes to your earnings and improves your win rate."

Played 3k hands today. It's been awhile since I gave it a really good grind. The roll is creeping up. Played some 25nl today for the first time in awhile, more to come later next week/possibly earlier depending on how I feel.

This summer is going to be a huge grindshow for me. I've been doing alot of studying lately to prepare myself for the challenges that are ahead.

Mike Caro has a pretty sick write-up on this in his Fundamental Secrets book. He writes that any money you DON'T lose is JUST as good as money you don't win. This seems obvious...but a lot of players don't see it that way. They treat their wins and losses differently.

Another way of putting it:

Originally Posted by Mike Caro

$2875 my actual loss
-$2050 worth of bad cards
= $825 I could have save

I'm sure you've seen all this before but I figured I'd post it up for others to see. Good luck bro and thanks for the help (with ranges and such)!

It's hard b/c we see folding as losing the money in the pot, not realizing our stacks are much larger lol.

Citizenwind on Cardrunners calls folding a shit-ton in small pots "dodging bullets." Ideally all our won pots would be medium-large and our lost pots would be small/genuine coolers (so not TPTK on a dry board vs. c/rs at the micros lol) and folding in small pots is the easiest way to ensure that.

The pot is never ours. The pot is shared between all the players in that pot. Once we make a bet...it's a sunk cost and we must forget and not make future decisions based on that sunk cost.

I like Illfavors note on the small pot thing, I need to keep that in mind as a priority when it comes to facing resistance postflop.

Also Mike Caro writes some pretty good stuff regarding tilt etc, I'm definately going to be re-reading his book soon to keep up the momentum.

Just some words for my mind to think about and get me into gear for playing well. I thought I might as well post here and share. Read them over slowly and let your mind embrace them. It's amazing what a difference it can make to just read through this list before a session.

Discipline,

Focus,

Control,

Calm,

Careful,

Confident,

Endurance,

Positive expectation,

Talent.


(I swear I'm not some weird psychotic arts student or anything on acid, lolz enjoy)

Keep going bro. I'm impressed by your dedication, many would be given up on some of the really nasty downswings you had. Out of curiosity, I know you are playing cash games and some MTTs, but what about SNGs?

Also: Gotta update us with a graph. What average no. hands are you playing per day? Just curious.

Originally Posted by dragntail

Keep going bro. I'm impressed by your dedication, many would be given up on some of the really nasty downswings you had. Out of curiosity, I know you are playing cash games and some MTTs, but what about SNGs?

Also: Gotta update us with a graph. What average no. hands are you playing per day? Just curious.

I got into DON sng's for a change recently.

I used to grind SNG's on a second rate site without knowing much but still owned because the players were horrible, that and some small MTT's.

My 'downswings' have been not only a product of 'variance', but mostly poor play. I take full repsonsibility for it as well. I had alot of shit going on in April IRL and as a result I played shit ass poor poker and make like $11. Probably should have cut the volume but I decided otherwise. The 'true variance' probably only lasted for 5k hands or something really.

This month my volume has increased, despite taking a week vacation. I've played about 2500 hands a day for the past 3 days. About half of those hands were DON's though, the rest cash. I'm going to be grinding cash more this week though. I'm aiming for GoldStar this month so I need to get my ass in gear. I also have to move this week so that will cut into the grind time.

So other than cash I've been playing some 2.20 turbo's here and there, and a few low buy-in ($2) MTT's. ROI isn't spectacular or anything, but on OPR it fails to take into account an FTR tourney I placed 2nd in for a nice prize.

Speaking of MTT's I'll be playing some of those this week as well.

Graph will be posted when I hit $1k and I'll explain how I got there/what held me back etc. I'm running hot this month so I'm going to ride the momentum and make some dolla's.

As for progress on GoldStar I have 2,765 VPP's to go. Looks like quite a few at this point but I expect the growth to take off as I'm now rolled (again) for 25nl.

Oh and I still try and learn stuff while I'm away from the table, despite the fact that it looks like I've turned into a grindbot. Thanks for stopping by

Update:

Just had a pretty decent 25nl session. Lost KK>AK and had a fish suckout on me a couple times to pad the heater a bit but other than that pretty good session overall, managed to get the money in good for full stacks a couple times so that helped. Nice to actually run good at this level for once

I've come to realize that 25nl isn't all that different from 5nl. Just a few less fish, and the regs are a bit taggier as opposed to being so weak tight at 5nl.

I notice the blawg audiences like to see reults so I'll post some, though I'm not a huge fan of doing it.

I've collected 490 VPP's this month. I'm going to hopefully rake in 100 or more tomorrow (I always say this yet it never happens lol), and get that $16 cash credit before the weekend.

Roll is @ $933

Going to play some DON's tomorrow after I grind cash for a bit. I'm going to finish off my series of $1 games and if I'm still profitable (lol) I'll hit up the $5 ones. By grinding 25nl and DON's I'm hoping to exceed 100vpps on the day.

Alright I'm going to post a couple hands that I played during the week from $10nl 6-max.

Hand 1: Villain is unknown as this is his 2nd or 3rd hand at the table and he hasn't done anything till now. Okay so given villains turn raise, I think his range is actually crushing me here if he has 2 pair broadway combo's, made straights, and sets in his range. However I don't think a set is very likely since we could assume he'd 3bet JJ+ most of the time preflop I guess, and to be even nittier QQ+, so assuming this we sort of knock sets completely out (or use as a small weight to his total range). Thus it looks like his range has alot of 2pair+made draws+unmade draws in it. Probably KT and possibly QT in there as well with some Axs 'some of the time'. What do you guys think? In the heat of the moment is this a crying call or perhaps a fold?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (4 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($3.25)
SB ($4.60)
BB ($5.95)
Hero (UTG) ($10.10)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, K
Hero bets $0.40, 1 fold, SB calls $0.35, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.90) Q, J, K (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.60, SB calls $0.60

Turn: ($2.10) 6 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.40, SB raises to $3.60 (All-In), Hero...




Hand 2: Okay this hand was interesting because the way it played out I sort of came up with more reasons to bet as the streets progressed, to the point where I fired off 3barrels. I feel a bit meh about it though as I'm reallly dealing with some imperfect information but I ended up making assumptions anyway.

I think I'll explain my thought process on the street(s) that get the most questions and criticism on after you guys see the hand. I think this may be a bit of a spew, though I don't think he has any sets in his range since I probably would have heard about them before the river, and flush draws didn't get there, so I imagine that's a big chunk of his range that can't call another bet.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($29.80)
MP ($10)
Hero (CO) ($20.40)
Button ($7.60)
SB ($16.35)
BB ($11.40)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 7, 8
2 folds, Hero bets $0.40, Button calls $0.40, 2 folds

Flop: ($0.95) 2, 5, 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.60, Button calls $0.60

Turn: ($2.15) J (2 players)
Hero bets $1.20, Button calls $1.20

River: ($4.55) Q (2 players)
Hero bets $2.60

I'm actually quite unsure what range to assign him on the river, so if there's any thoughts on that I can run the calculations on whether the river bet is profitable or not once I get some more input.

Thanks guys,

-m2m

H1- We need like <25% equity here to call. Do you have it?, etc.

H2- Meh, I think this is probably spew. 2barrelling w/o an idea of the villains calling range is like burning money, except you don't get to see the fire so it's even worse. Meh, his range. Some ideas about rivar ranges: 44,66-99, Ax/Kxss.