Operation Rape FullTilt Limit Cash

This wont be the most detailed blog ever, but I think writing down my progress and reviewing hands or situations may help me improve my game.

So basically for a long time Ive been messing around in small stakes, mostly Full ring limit from .10/.20 to .25/.50 and a little 10NL and 25NL (improperly rolled) without putting in many hands clearing small bonus amounts. Playing more when ahead and less when behind, very streakily (if thats a word) reading the forums and keeping up with my learning. Ive decided to put more time and effort into poker and continuous learning for awhile to see where I end up. I definately enjoy playing poker both online and live.

Starting situation for the blog: Depositing 300 on FullTilt playing .50/1 Full Ring limit. I want to grind up a roll to a thousand by summer to win a side bet with a friend and to continue to raise limits . My guidelines are to move up in limits when I have 300x the big bet, and I buy-in to the tables at 20x a bb. I also have $50 on stars for a micro MTT experiment Im doing to see if I can get a positive return on investment in MTT's under $3 BI, so youll hear progress on that as well.

A little background for my first post. As stated before Ive dabbled in NL, 6 max, SnG's and MTT's to try and find my favorite grounds and I always seem to levitate back to FR limit HE. The last several months Ive been grinding at .25/.50 on Titan to finish a bonus and I am moving over to FulLTilt because of the increased traffic and better high times for traffic. My poker learning so far as consisted of reading: SuperSystem, SSLHE, Caro's book of tells, Helmuths play poker like the pros, TOP and Im currently working on HOH v1.

I guess I can summarize some goals to end it off:
-Bankroll reach $1000 by summer
-Beat .50/1 on FullTilt
-Finish HOH v1 and dont blow my stars roll on micro MTT's
-Figure out a sustainable # hands per week I can handle
-get something cool with FullTilt points off the website
-Continue to post on here and read the forums, continuous learning FTW

So first update, put in two smaller sessions so far total 988 hands. Started a little up then swang down and up a little at the end. Heres the PT stats:

http://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?i...tejan25lq8.jpg

So couple things of interest so far has been the crazy aggression at the low stakes. Several times Ive gone into c/c mode for the turn and river with 2 pair, set, or big overpair to ssee someone had capped preflop and the flop with the most random of hands (23s, 85o). Im not sure how effective this strategy is but it definately led me to paying off a few too many hands when I should have folded. An example:

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...al-t66252.html

Other than that just starting to get comfortable at this higher limit. Ive decided to set my floor of losses before i drop back down to .25/.50. Once my roll hits 200$, meaning if i lose 100, aka 5 buyins. I dont think at that time I will feel safe playing this level and ill drop back down to build up and try again.

The play at FT feels alot different from Titan, the players are more aggressive and attentive to your table image (barring several mental exemples).

I also discovered that I was given the 100% deposit bonus and i cleared $20 of it tonight. I dunno how considering I had an account here way back in the day but bonus moneys always good.

So so far:
Beat; -26.05$ (missing some hands in PT cuz i didnt click to save HH's at FT at first)
Brag; $300 bonus that Im gonna clear to make up for .50/1.00 newbage so far

Just a quick update, im officially about to puke from the session im having right now. Ive had the sickest run of cards today and nothing from AA to top two has held for me. Its been the most brutal day on my bankroll Ive ever had. I understand variance and that there are swings but this is the most insane session ever. Im down $30 (which is nothing for many people, but its also 10% of my roll) in under an hour. Im just heated right now and Im gonna take a break and work out a bit to cool down.

Ive never seen soooooo many second best hands before in my life, its incredible. At this pace I will be dropping down to .25/.50 within a couple of days. I just dont know what to say, Its feeling almost like a crap shoot at these tables, with players capping ATC preflop, flop and turn.

After taking a quick look at my pokertracker stats aparently (including the blinds) Im losing the most from the SB and BB, when Im very much out of position. From every other seat Im actually doing very well. Overall im down ($54) from the BB and ($67) from the SB. This is definately something Im going to attempt to work on. My VPIP and PFR from SB are 15.10/4.9 and from BB 10.58/5. My folded SB to steal is 100% and folded BB to steal is 70.59 so I dont think im overdefending with weak hands.

Brag: Nothng im tilt hcore right now, need a break after under an hour of play
Beat: Everything

Quote:

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Originally Posted by snowboard_31

After taking a quick look at my pokertracker stats aparently (including the blinds) Im losing the most from the SB and BB, when Im very much out of position. From every other seat Im actually doing very well.

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This is normal for everyone. The blinds should be losers in the long run for pretty much every player. A BB/Hand of -0.375 when putting money in out of the blinds would indicate that you were no better off putting money into the pot than if you had folded. Check to see if your blind stats are better or worse than that.

My BB/Hand from the sb is -0.14 and -0.17 from the bb.

Update: Ive lost almost 80% confidence in my game. Ive continued to post and read off the forums. Ive done a complete reread of SSLHE and I have dropped limits but my steady (and FAST) decline while on FullTilt has continued. Im not sure what is contributing to this but the only thing that is possible is a several MAJOR spew areas in my game.

Its so strange because of the i guess somewhat success on other sites. Im not even playing close to break even right now, as I am continuing to drop buy in after buy In. On top of dropping limits not even 2 weeks into fulltilt ive also dropped to only 2 tables at a time and Im still a steady steady loser.

Im not going to let this deter me from playing or continual learning. I will continue to push forward and find these leaks, but Im afraid my major loss of confidence will eventually lead to my bankrolls decline to 0.

Has anyone else ever experienced this before? switching sites then just dropping cash like crazy? Like even at the micro limits I wouldnt ever expect anyone playing under 20% VPIP with a decent PFR to lose money like this its ridiculous. I dont think people have swings like this ever unless they wanna call every hand for excitement or something.

Beat: 80 BB downswing (being favorable to myself and referring to .50/1 when really ive dropped probably a 1/4 of that on .25/.50 as well)
Brag: There are no brags its all beats right now

Alright first post in awhile. After researching my game a little and reviewing my stats briefly (Im going to go into more detail very soon when I have them with me) Ive found what I believe to be several leaks and Ive started to tinker with them to see how things go. So far I can report that things are looking good.

So what are these leaks you ask? (93 views W00t) these include: 1) Too low VPIP, 2) Not taking the "training wheels" off preflop, 3) going too far with weak made hands

Now I know the first one prolly isent a leak per say, BUT after checking PT stats my VPIP has dropped to 10%. I dont my stats by me right now so I dont know per position but no matter what thats tight....exploitable tight.......retarded tight.....who plays too few hands? At small stakes I dont think that happens too often. So its my goal to increase that number to somewhere in the 15% area. Honestly, its been tough so far.

Now that Ive started to get somewhat of a notebase on fulltilt Ive also begun to take the training wheels off and start playing the player and less my cards/position. My blind defence has definately improved, as has my stealing. I hope to still further improve in this area.

Finally, I think going too far with weak made hands Is somewhat but not too big a leak for me. It doesnt occur as often as my preflop mistakes (every hand I have a chance to make one preflop) and they usually consist of c/cng down in big pots with top pair or better. I still think this is an important are I need to look into though, so that i can play as according to the theory of poker, in that every time i make a decision its as if i saw my opponents cards. somewhat formatted for my own situation, haha.

Brag; -gaining back confidence and expanding my game
-my birthday on sunday
-university winter break in 1 week
Beat;
-hungry

ps- also looking for people to converse with on a regular basis over hands and general theory. I really want to improve my game and Ive heard alot of the benefits of this. If anyone else is playing micro stakes LHE or even NLHE (cash and tournies) add me to msn @ [email protected] Im currently a loner with no poker players to frequently converse with. I also dont even no what the hell AIM is, ha.

Quick update from recent short session.
Statistics for 113 Hands
Street Saw Saw/Total
Flop 19 17%
Turn 11 10%
River 8 7%
Showdown 7 6%
Street Won Won/Saw Won/Total
Pre-flop 3 3% 3%
Flop 2 11% 2%
Turn 1 9% 1%
River 1 13% 1%
Showdown 4 57% 4%

I know thats a short session for most but thats just 2 tabling. I was able to increase my VPIP as the biggest positive of the session and finish up 9 BB's.

Update: Played in two 70FPP single table satelites to the sunday Hundred grand and won a seat. To this point ive had a -30% ROI on micro MTT play so far, lol, so i was skeptical to use the seat. I know this isent very FTR friendly, but I posted in the 2+2 marketplace to sell the T$ and add $10 to my MTT bankroll.

So thats a 1/5th boost to my Stars MTT bankroll, although that venture hasent shown to be too profitable. Ive finished my first reading of Harrington on Holdem (didnt find it to introduce many new concepts after having read SSLHE, TOP, SS) but definately plan on a re-reading and posting in the tools of poker forum.

Ive been finding the increasing my VPIP not too difficult and mostly favorable results in the short term, I plan on posting once i reach 10,000 hands (should be within a few weeks) and maybe some more PT stats comparison.

Goal: Break VPIP of 15, play more hands
Brag: single table satelite win for 11$
Beat: Getting Kings cracked 4 times in one session (in limit forum)

Interesting, when you posted that you were losing and werent sure why, my first thought was that you were probably playing too many hands (easy to do in limit I'd think).

Nice job finding the problem though.

I'll add you to msn, I dont play limit and only some mtt (mainly stts atm), but someones better than noone :).

Bud you can just unregister from that Sunday Hundred Grand donkfest and the cash sits in your cashier as tourney dollars you just use them first every time you register for an event.

I'll add you to my msn aswell I've been playing a fair amount of 0.25/0.5 full limit and 6 max on stars lately - not with profit but hey I've been grinding lol.