Operation Stairway to Heaven

Part 1 “How art thou fallen from heaven…”

I lost my first deposit of $100 in about three weeks, through impatience and complete disregard of all the rules and good tips one can find on “FTR”.

My first mistake was moving up, “to give it a shot” at $5NL and my second mistake was winning! I had managed to lose about $15 with $2NL and was frustrated with the couple of weeks I had spent playing and nothing to show for it. After just a few hours, BOOM, I’m back at my original deposit, and whoa, look at those VPP bonus points.

I’d been playing pretty much at every opportunity I can, every day up to that point. I came home from work the next day and got ready for another night with my restored bankroll and being such a “great player”, determined to make some money. After a couple of hours, “What the HELL!?!” I’m down to $55 now, from a high of $103!

I go to work the next day and beat myself all up for being such an idiot. “I’ve got to play better.”, I tell myself. That night I play nine tables of $2NL. I’ll just play tighter and get my VPP’s and bonus money. I still hadn’t gotten the first $10 yet! Two hours later, $45 left, “Why do I keep losing my money?”

Holy hell, I give up. Playing at this level sucks. I’ll just go up again. So the next night, I take my $45 and put it all down at a $1/$2 table, max buy-in was $50. Then the inevitable happened, you guessed it, I won. Worst thing in the world that could have happened! I now had $85 in a matter of minutes and I’m thinking, “Damn, this is easy! I knew it was better up here where people play “real” Hold-em.”

I logged off and went to bed with ~$211 in my bankroll and the knowledge that I really knew this game and would soon rule the poker world! Just over 27 hours later, I rolled off cloud #9 and descended to the underworld. I went to bed again, this time with $0 and determined never to play again. How art thou fallen indeed.

Part 2 “Disciplined Determination”

Goals:
Short Term 6 months - Obtain and maintain ptBB/100 => 5
Increase bankroll from $100.00 to $200.00 playing only $2NL tables (not including bonus money)

Current:
ptBB/100 = -4.84
Bankroll = $94.86

Currently I would grade myself as a break-even or slightly losing player. I tend to hover right around my initial deposit, +$2/-$8.

Areas that I must overcome or focus on this time around …

Honesty!
Understand that I am a novice at Hold-em. Understand that I will have losing days. My worst losses have been when I kept trying to regain my losses in one night. Invariably I would tilt, and I mean really tilt and just bleed money.

Discipline!
Follow the bankroll guidelines. I’m even being a little more conservative than the recommended 30 buy-ins. I won’t move up to .02/.05 until I get to $200 balance. Play tight poker. Right now I’m aggressively playing TT+, ATs+, AQo+, KQo, and limping with all other pairs, playing for the set on the flop. Maybe this is too tight.

Attention!
Play no more than two FR tables at one time. Don’t worry about getting my bonus money. Instead concentrate on playing sound Hold-em and paying much more attention to my opponents. I’m trying to use the PT Hud with more effectiveness.

Patience!
I’m sure there are superstars that played 2NL and reached my goal in days, but because I suck, this may take more than 6 months. This is a big problem for me. I get very frustrated when I have 3-5 days of winning $1.50-$3.00/day and then lose $8-10 on the next day.

Control!
I must control poker, not the other way around. For a bit, it completely dominated me. This is extra money. I want to have fun, get better at poker, and maybe make a profit along the way.

Education!
Read, study, evaluate hand histories. Do not attempt concepts I do not fully understand.

I plan to update this every week. This is mostly for me to vent/focus, but feel free to criticize my play, strategy, goals, decisions, etc. Thanks to everyone that makes this site possible.

Hi dude,

First of all, good luck.

Secondly, I dont know if you play full ring (9 handed) or six-max (6 handed obv), but there is a heap of must-read information in the Beginners Digest in the Beginners Circle.

Personally, I would start with the articles by Renton in the 'Strategy Overview' section and spoonitnow's articles on blind stealing and raising limpers. Try and implement the concepts in these articles as a priority. Wouldnt be a bad thing to aim to read them all at some stage though.

Thirdly, recognise that at $2NL, your best way to make money is to make a hand, and maximise the amount of money you make from these made hands. Theres no need to get fancy at all and there is a nice button called FOLD that will save you money in murky situations.

Lastly, post hands where you have trouble in the Beginners Circle for comment. Though make sure you follow the guidelines for posting (dont show results, provide reads and ranges for villians etc). Best way not to get your butt kicked (and actually recieve some knowledgable feedback on the hand) from dudes like spoon.

Welcome to FTR!

Don't play more than 4 tables. You will learn much faster if you stick to one or two and try to pay attention to everything... not just the hands that you aren involved in.

You're story has been told by many of n00bs so don't feel bad. Follow good BRM, commit to learning and don't over-extend yourself... meaning don't play 12 tables and don't read Sklanky's TOP and attempt to apply everything in a week. Good luck!

gl! will be reading

Thanks for all the tips and encouragement. I have read and re-read the articles mentioned and have been spending alot of time in the Beginner's Section. Since last week I have noticed that I am more patient and not nearly as tiltly as before. I have also incorporated spoon's blind stealing into my play, although my percentage of attempts are not as high yet as he recommends.

Goals:
Short Term 6 months - Obtain and maintain ptBB/100 => 5
Increase bankroll from $100.00 to $200.00 playing only $2NL tables

Current position:
ptBB/100 = 9.09 up from -4.84 last week
Bankroll = $105.96, up from $94.86 last week

Well I've had alot happen in the last week!

First of all, I won a tournament and got a nice $147.00 payout! This was only my third MTT and had 112 participants. I still don't know what to make of it, I don't think I'm that good of a player, so there must have been alot of luck involved.

Secondly, I'm still grinding away at micro's and my winnings and stats are increasing.

Goals:
Short Term 6 months - Obtain and maintain ptBB/100 => 5
Increase bankroll from $100.00 to $200.00 playing only $2NL tables

Current position:
ptBB/100 = 15.08, up from 9.09 last week
Bankroll (2NL only)= $114.85, up from $105.96 last week

Still grinding away at 2NL. Been an up and down week, this week.

Goals:
Short Term 6 months - Obtain and maintain ptBB/100 => 5
Increase bankroll from $100.00 to $200.00 playing only $2NL tables

Current position:
ptBB/100 = 9.62, down from 15.08 last week
Bankroll (just 2NL) = $117.61, up from $114.85 last week

Still moving along at 2NL, slowly working toward the goal.

Goals:
Short Term 6 months - Obtain and maintain ptBB/100 => 5
Increase bankroll from $100.00 to $200.00 playing only $2NL tables

Currently:
ptBB/100 = 11.97, up from 9.62 last update
Bankroll (just 2NL) = $159.17, up from $117.61 last update

Link to pics of my stats after ~12k hands
Yfrog - stats1k - Uploaded by Rock3r_4rm

Your called river raise % looks way too big. Use the filter for "called river raise = true" in the additional filters, and review some hands.

You should prolly raise quite a bit more and limp behind less.