My Story So Far......

Hi,

I'm a noob poster to the forum although I've been browsing here for about a month. I also very new to poker. I've been playing about 2.5 to 3 months now ever since I downloaded an WPT episode and then watched all of the first season within a week. I started out at PP playing for play money. As most of you probably realise play money is a terrible game because you'll have all 10 players making huge bets and raises with no fear. But it was good for me to play and learn the game and I quickly became the dominant player at these play money tables. I got up to over $8,000,000 in play money when I decided I wanted to give real money a shot. I was smart enough to realize that it would be a completely different game but I also had a feeling like for the small amount that I had played that I had some kind of a knack for it.

The next month of playing at the $25 NL 6 ring tables were fun but non profitable. In fact I lost several hundred dollars. I was ready to quit playing entirely a few times but I always came back the next week and bought in for another $50.00. I had actually gotten to the point where I could play for 10 hours on $25.00 but I couldn't seem to increase the bankroll and eventually after a couple of bad beats I'd be busted again.

I was really going to quit after about of month of losing when I found this site. I read all of the Essays and starting hands and I realised a few things. First of all I realised I should be playing much tighter with the starting hands and second that I should be playing the 10 player ring games and not the 6 player ones where the maniacs hang out. My biggest mistakes were that I was seeing too many flops but I was being very conservative when my flops didn't hit. So I was spending 0.50 almost every hand and throwing it away the majority of the time when I didn't hit anything on the flop. And when I did hit top pair on the flop many times the maniacs at the 6 player tables would bet into me heavily and I would sometimes fold out the best hand.

This site has saved my poker career so to speak. Since I started with my new "gameplan" a little over 3 weeks ago I have been very profitable. I also switched to the 10 player $25.00 NL tables. I went from about $12.00 in my PP account to having cashed out $925.00 in the past 3 weeks at both Empire and Party along with a $150.00 bankroll that I plan on building up in the next few days. It sounds more impressive than it is because I have played literally a ton of poker in the past 3 weeks. I almost had to prove to myself that the first few cashouts were no fluke so I played I'm guesstimating about 29,000 hands in the past 3 weeks (I'm playing 3 and now up to 4 tables at once).

Bottom line is that before I adopted my new strategy, I still was doing some good things right it just took a few changes to get things on track.
I still am brand new to this game but I believe I am playing very good poker these days and I think I've played enough hands now to say with confidence that I will be profitable long term.

Some things I need to work on...... When I get a good flop: ie top pair or 2 pair or trips I sometimes have a hard time letting it go when someone is is showing signs they have a better hand. It should be evident that I am beat. If I can weed out more of these hands where I waste alot of chips when I call re-reraises I should really be able to increase the profit/hr. Unfortunately we've all seen the dumbasses on PP raising big with nothing or on a draw and I've caught them in the act enough times that now even when I think I'm beaten I'm always thinking its another fish and that I should call.

Ah poker....what a game.


Any thoughts would be appreciated. I'd love to learn anything you guys can teach me.

Cheers


Joe Canada

Oh and one other thing I wanted to mention that I read in a golf magazine a while back that stuck with me. A golf instructor was asked what kind of young teenage prospect he would like to work with to develop him into a great player. He responded that he would rather have a kid that made 7 birdies a round but shot 79 than a player that shot 72 and made 1 birdie.

The reason being is that its alot easier to teach a player how to stop making bogeys and turn them into pars and make saves than it is to teach the other player how to make more birdies.

I may be crazy but I think this can relate to poker. I seem to have a knack for getting alot of value out of good hands by getting guys with nothing or the 2nd best hand to call. I'm also good at feigning weakness and sucking guys all in when I have the nuts. Thus I think I'm like the golfer that makes alot of birdies but is undicipled and wild on other holes. I need to learn to identify when the other guy has me beat and lay it down rather than being stubborn and thinking my top pair is still good after he's called 3 times or re-raised me big on the river. If I can do that then I think the other "birdies" I'm making so to speak with help me shoot much lower under par (profit $$$)....lol

Nice going Joe, welcome to FTR, I'm sure one of the NL players will be along to try to help with any Qs you have.

I am getting better and FTR has a role in making it so

I use the hand charts a lot and how Ty bets

Whats up fellas.

Hi Joe Canada, another success story, glad the site has helped you out, so much to learn and practice, but it's a lot more fun when you're winning, right?!! Now it's just how to win MORE FASTER!!

Anyway, glad you found us, feel free to post any questions you may have here. Sounds like you may already be at a point to help other newbies.

Hey, and Choco, I know you got some game, keep it up!

Catch you guys later.

Joe Canada,

I'm sure your story is helping people out there. You should consider entering it in our next Poker Thoughts Contest. It would help the site and you might get a free FTR shirt out of it.

Wow... Great post. Good luck in keeping it going.

Wow, helps to log in before posting.... Guest = Me in the post above.

I have to say that this forum has helped me out also. I've been viewing this site for several months now. Even before I found FlopTurnRiver, I considered myself to be a relatively proficient poker player. However, I think if I would've discovered it sooner, it wouldn't have been as expensive of a lesson for me to learn to be a consistently profitable player. On top of that, I'm still learning and often times find the threads on this site to be helpful; whether it be exposing me to something I hadn't considered or just giving me varying perspectives on things I had previously thought about. So, thanks to all who have contributed to this forum and helped me to improve my game.