Chronicles of a Noob's Grind to $25NL

I'm going to use this thread to help track my progress as I grind through $10NL to $25NL and hopefully get some useful feedback along the way from more experienced players on FTR. I will play almost exclusively full-ring no-limit hold'em, with the only exception being a low-buyin MTT here and there.

For the past year, I've been bouncing back and forth between different levels, different sites, and different variations. But after all the money won and all the money lost, I've come to the realization that I'm just not that good. I don't want to be a break-even player any more! It's time to get serious and actually learn the game from the bottom up. So I'm basically starting over from scratch here, following Robb's Noobie's First 5k Hands of NL10 post. However, I'm going to try to stretch Robb's strategy over at least 10k hands, if not more.

This will be a slow-moving climb as I typically work 50-80 hours per week. My goal is to get in at least 1k hands in per week. I will try to fit in more like 2-3k but I'm not going to fret about it if I only manage 1k. I know many FTR grinders play that many hands in a day and then some. I could play more, sure, but I've told myself I'm not going to play when I'm tired, sick, hungry, or when the house is loud with hyper kids and a needy wife.

So anyway, follow me if you will, and feel free to give suggestions along the way. I plan on posting an update every week, which would be around every 1,000 hands. I just finished my first 1k hands following Robb's Noobie $10NL post and I will post results/stats/trouble hands in the next post.

Thanks in advance to anyone who gives a rat's ass and/or feels the need to call me out on anything I post here.

Stats taken from PT3

1,011 hands for 8.53 BB/100
VP$IP: 10.29
PFR: 4.65
AF: 2.6

Overall I played a super tight game, which was actually easier than I thought it would be. There were a few hands that I should have found the fold button and a few where I just held a very good second-best hand. One very cool thing that I've noticed now that I've purchased PT3, is that I stopped measuring my results in money won and how each session went individually. I'm now setting short-term goals however I'm measuring my results over a longer period of time. It seems really stupid that I just started doing this but WTH there's no time like the present.

Hands posted in BC (2)
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ps-t81723.html

Airles good luck on the mission my friend!

Stats

2,000 hands for .84ptbb/100
10.9/5.5/2.7

Okay so I've had a bit of a downswing in the win column and I'm barely breaking even for my first 2k hands at $10NL. I assume this is normal when moving up in limits and I guess it could be worse. The good thing is that I'm finding leaks in my game. I am bleeding money from the blinds and I need to stop c-betting into villains with air when I have very few hands logged on them. I also need to be a tad more tight post-flop, especially without a solid read.

Here's a screenshot of my stats from my first 2,000 hands at $10NL. Still a small sample, but if anything jumps out at you, let me know.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/i...0NL2khands.gif

Just a few things regarding stats...

I know this samples are small of course, but so far some things look like they could use some improvement.

Your pf raise seems a bit low, but of course your V$IP is low too, so that makes sense. Your ATS is too low. If you work on stealing and isolating limpers more often, you'll notice that ATS, PFR, and V$IP will ALL go UP.

Do keep in mind that the sample is small so things could really pick up later on. Also you rarely ever 3-bet, but I think it may still be too early to decide whether or not you're 3-betting enough.

Anyway I'll let others disect the stats thing a bit more. Good luck with the grind!

Something that helped me alot was "Don't Limp". If you're going to play in the hand then bet. You would be surprised at how many pots you take just by doing this. When you open with 44 UTG your hand gets alot of respect.

Good luck

I think 1k hands per week is just fine. You have to really log some time and make it a priority to get more than 2k or 3k a week. I think playing too much poker and neglecting real life can negatively affect your poker in both the short and long term. And, even though your first report is a only a marginal winner, being a break even player is much better than being a losing one. :)

From just glancing @ this snapshot of your stats, some things that stand out to me are that your VPIP% is too low. If you just played 50% more hands than you are now, you'd only be @ 15% VPIP% total and that's still pretty tight and low. Also notice that you're winning over half of the showdowns you go to which, like your VPIP%, implies that you ONLY play premium hands and only get to showdown when you have it. Both those things tell me that you're not extracting enough money or value from your hands. You would probably need some really loose, unsophisticated players to pay you off. Anyone with a HUD or just half-way paying attention and half-way knows how to play is going to proceed very cautiously when you suddenly wake up and play. Next, your VPIP% by position is HIGHEST in the blinds - that should be close to the lowest. Also notice that you're a big loser in the small blind compared to other positions and a HUGE loser in the big blind compared to the small blind. We do expect to lose more money from early position, but I don't think there should be that much of a discrepancy. You need to evaluate your play from the blinds and make some kind of adjustment - probably play less hands and then play the few you do more aggressively earlier.

A side note on 3betting: I think it's a highly overrated skill and stat @ full ring in general and even more so @ low stakes. I know everyone loves to go ape poop crazy over 3bet strategy and stats, but odds are MOST players would benefit much more from mastering all the other mostly basic concepts before they worry about dotting that last "i" on more advanced and less useful ones like 3betting. When I was playing two or three years ago, I never heard the term unless it was used in limit, now it crops up in every other no limit conversation.

Long story short - you need to get a higher sample and you need to plug some leaks. It looks like you have plenty of places to start. Good luck.

Thanks for the replies guys. For some reason I opened up PT yesterday and got some error saying database not found or some shit. Not a HUGE deal with only a few thousand hands logged but still.

I won the FTR free roll on Stars last night for $90. Thought I played pretty well throughout except I did suckout on Badgers at the final table. Meh, behind every tournament win is a good suckout at some point. *cough* Jamie Gold *cough*

That should help pad my bankroll a bit as I work through 10NL and give me a bit of a cushion for the variance/learning curve I've been going through the past week. I'd still like to shoot for $700+ before taking a full shot at 25NL. My roll is around $350 currently and I'm still learning the basics, like opening up more from the CO/BTN, putting villains on ranges, calculating odds and equity, etc.

It might take 50k hands to reach 25NL, maybe more, maybe less. But I'm going to attempt to not really worry about that too much and focus on learning the game, eliminating bad habits and improving on spotting strength/weakness tells of villains.

I'm also dropping from 4-6 tables down to just 2 for a bit and really focus on reading my opponents.

Sometimes I find myself in spots where I just have no idea what to do, so I just fold. I'm afraid I'm losing value for my premium hands.

Like the hand below. I'm OOP and really have no idea what villain is flatting with so I check and fold the turn. Safe play or too nitty? In hindsight I feel he may have had a smaller pp, floated my cbet and bet light on the turn. Was a check-raise in order here? And then again I have no idea if this dude can lay down top pair or not.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($10.15)
SB ($10.20)
BB ($2.10)
Hero (UTG) ($10.85)
UTG+1 ($6.65)
MP1 ($4.80)
MP2 ($1.85)
MP3 ($4.45)
CO ($12.15)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Jhttp://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...iles/heart.gif, Jhttp://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...es/diamond.gif
Hero raises to $0.40, 1 fold, MP1 calls $0.40, 6 folds

Flop: ($0.95) Khttp://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...miles/club.gif, 4http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...iles/spade.gif, 6http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...es/diamond.gif (2 players)
Hero bets $0.50, MP1 calls $0.50

Turn: ($1.95) 7http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...iles/spade.gif (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets $0.60, Hero folds

Total pot: $1.95 | Rake: $0.05


Then in this hand, I bet my draw on the turn and fired a river bet on a scare card. It worked against this villain but I have a habit of doing this shit and called down with middle pair. :?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP2 ($10.10)
MP3 ($10.45)
CO ($1.70)
Hero (Button) ($9.85)
SB ($7.25)
BB ($6.70)
UTG ($4.90)
UTG+1 ($3.40)
MP1 ($8.45)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Qhttp://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...miles/club.gif, Khttp://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...es/diamond.gif
UTG raises to $0.30, 5 folds, Hero calls $0.30, 2 folds

Flop: ($0.75) 6http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...iles/spade.gif, 7http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...es/diamond.gif, 9http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...iles/spade.gif (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($0.75) 10http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...es/diamond.gif (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.70, UTG calls $0.70

River: ($2.15) 2http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...iles/spade.gif (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $2, 1 fold

Total pot: $2.15 | Rake: $0.10

Reads would help on both hands.

Hand 1: Kx isn't a very big part of his range, here. I'd probably call the turn bet (it's only 1/3 PSB), and bet any blank on the river. He could play this line with any 5 or two spades, a couple of pp's we beat and Axss that picked up a draw. If the FD/SD don't hit, I think you're well ahead of his range.

Hand 2: Make a note this guy floats. You turned your hand into a bluff, which was it's only value on the river. But why? Honestly, you were probably ahead anyway if he was willing to fold it. I would just check behind here.