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As the world turns: bad to worse to better

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  1. #1

    Default As the world turns: bad to worse to better

    I want my own space to track my progress and thought process as it changes through out my poker play. Combined with my blog I want to start figured this would be a good place to settle in. I forewarn you this post will be long and boring to most but hopefully I can look back on it in a few months, or years and remember where I came from.

    I started playing online Nov. of 2009 steadily. Before that I had played only Sit -n- Go's online and cashed out a few. At the time I was playing purely for enjoyment and because I had always done well playing live and didn't see what the difference would be. I figured I could jump in with a little bit of money and hopefully build up a big old stack of cash to withdraw.
    Hmmm... plan 1 failed. Lost deposit for November. Lost deposit for December. Lost deposit for January Ok.. slow down.. what's going on here? I thought I knew how to play poker? My first couple days I was up so much, how did I lose everything? Why do I keep depositing money just to piss it all away? Something is not right here, it must be this stupid site. JokerStars is so fixed. It sucked me in and now it's taking all my money and giving it to these fish who are hitting flush's and straights. Fine, I'll just limp in every pot and hope my hand turns into a monster! That's what they're doing anyway.
    Well, I'm sure you can imagine, plan 2 failed.

    So it was sometime near the end of January I thought to myself, there isn't anything I have done in my life that I didn't study for. I'm big into guns and I read all the books and internet information I could on building AR-15's and working on Glocks and I had always done this for every hobby my whole life. Went all out and did all the research I could.
    Why haven't I read or studied poker? If I did, I'm sure I could get better and then I could kill these damn fish.

    So I read and searched and read and searched. One day I happen to stumble across FTR after searching for information on how to play suited connectors I believe it was. And it brought up a post from this forum. So I started reading EVERY post on this forum. I signed up but lay in the shadows as I watched everyone else post hands and have discussions. I was nervous at first to even post a hand cause I knew my play was horrible and seen how the members had responded to other new players posts.

    But I finally bit the bullet and started posting. It didn't take long for me to grasp a much better understanding of Poker in a whole. Odds, Outs, EV, it all started to come me. I actually started making a profit! A nice fresh slate and my bankroll was finally climbing. Now even though I did in fact read on bankroll management, I hadn't been following it. I decided one night after losing only 2 buyins that it would be much quicker for me to jump up in stakes. I mean if I can play and make money at 25nl, why can't I make 3x as much playing 100nl. So a few beers and a couple hours later and BUSTO. I was back down to a measly $97. OMG, wtf did I just do.

    That happened in the early weeks of March 2010. It took me a long time to climb out of that ditch. It seemed like no matter what I did I could not get back to playing the way I had when I first started to read and figure out a game plan. There was a point in the start of April where I almost figured I was done and was so close to just saying F it. Poker must not be for me. But I love playing so much. Maybe it's time to take a break and do some more reading.

    Bank roll management was my biggest leak. And it was time to plug it up. There is a post floating around that shows the mathematical side of having a bankroll and playing with in it. After reading this a light went off in my head and I realized what a stupid move I had made.

    It has been time consuming. It has been overwhelming . It has brought me to my knees and made realize how horrible of a poker player I actually was. But once I was willing to admit how bad I was, I think that was the very moment I realzied just how much I had to learn. I realized why these guys posted what they did in response to threads. They were letting us mear earthlings know just how bad we actualy are.

    Now that I can listen and absorb what is being said and what I am reading I feel like I have a whole knew light on the game. Treating my poker like a buisness instead of "playing" was probably the best idea I picked up thus far.

    I have since started the climb to get myself out of the negative and hopefully will have a prosperous journey from here on out. I have earned back what I lost in that one stupid drunkin night and I feel like I actually have an edge. There is so much to still be learned and I can only imagine how my outlook of the game will change in the months to come.

    Hopefully I can post back here with good outcomes. So now onto plan 3. Respect the game, treat it like a buisness, and play with a plan. Read, study, and learn. Ask questions and respect the answers of the mighty online gods. After all, if it wasn't for them I'd still be on a gradual downswing to hell.

    Thank you FTR for all you have brought to my game and will continue to bring.




    Last edited by Santo2True; 05-31-2010 at 12:13 PM.
    "Those who say it can't be done, shouldn't interrupt those who are doing it"

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