A 1 post poker blog.

[jyms]

I'm posting this in the beginner forum because I'm not sure that alot of beginners read all the other forums. I thought maybe a little thread on how some of the beginners ( a year or so and under) are doing, might help with the Noobies to gage how things can go, a time line of sorts. I'll start by saying that I picked up poker just after new years when I got a chipset for christmas/05. Signed up at pokerstars on the play money tables, to learn a little about the game before playing a home game. (didn't want to lose in my home court). Was getting my ass handed to me trying to play "semi real" poker but the idiots were just all-ining (if thats a word) all the time. So I decided to read a little instead. Found FTR in February and never looked back. Started with a $50 deposit on stars, and after going over to party to play the beginner tables and then ultimatebet, to loose my roll chasing a never clearing bonus at 2NL and 10NL I now have $250 in my neteller account. I did get down to $8 bucks after tilting off $300 bucks at Ultimatebet's 25NL while I was trying to clear the bonus and get out. I haven't played online since the beginning of May and will be back at it this month. I'm now reading HOH1 and have HOH2, Holdem for advanced players, lee jones winning low limit and wallaces advanced concepts in my computer to read before I redeposit. I have already read SSHE, TOP (I gotta re-read that one), SS 1 and all of FTR's stickys and threads. I have by no means improved my bankroll like some here but that's my process thus far.

How 'bout some of you guys? How you doin'? What's your time line? what's the roll? Where ya playin'? And this doesn't have to be a feel good thread, tell us about the bad too. I'm kind of interested in how the up and downs are going and will go with me.

Oh I forgot, this is a one post blog, so details, details, details.

[dzeanah]

I watched some poker on TV in December, thought "that looks fun," saw a pokerstars.net ad, played in some play money tables, entered a tourney that first day (whiole scrambling desperately to find a guide telling me how to play), made the money, and was hooked.

I've been playing at money tables for less than a month now, but it's made my game improve quite a bit. I started by seeing pretty high variance as I played a bit above my level trying to clear a bonus, then foubd AOKrongly's 19 hands and that brought me back to even. That was enough that I was staying even even after doing donkish things like refusing to fold an overpair consistently while others told me they had a set, so overall it seems to be a cheap way to learn.

Somewhere in there I started doing 1-table SnGs only and lost everything but my original buy-in -- it turns out my short game sucked. More recently, I put $10 of my $61 bankroll into the FTR game for fun, and found 6-max that same night.

Since then I've been playing micro-stakes 6-max, as it seems most profitable for me. Have also been tinkering with limit HE while reading some Sklansky, but it's still a losing proposition for me...

[DaHorror]

Late May 2005 - invited to a home game with some friends from a former employer of mine - hadn't played poker since college (10 years back) - and had never played Texas Holdem or even watched it on TV. The home games were set up like a crapshoot (though I didn't know the difference at the time) with few starting chips and quickly rising blinds 6-max. Even so, just playing conservatively I managed to pick up a 2nd place (paid) and 2 3rd places (bubble so no money) and felt pretty good about it given my experience.

After this I loaded up some play money tables at party poker just to get a feel for the interface, etc. I quickly bored of this and decided to quit playing World of Warcraft and instead to throw $50 (birthday money with nothing better to spend it on) into online poker. I figured that I would bust out pretty quickly and then give it up.

June 2005 - deposited $50 at Pacific Poker, so not much bonus - $15 or so. Played 5c/10c limit holdem, and got bored out of my skull. Switched to $10 NL holdem, and had lots more fun and success. Just played a tight ass game - probably folding too much pre and postflop - but my big hands were getting paid off in general so it worked out.
Didn't have a lot of hours to go at it though so the bankroll climbed ever so slowly - though without a ton of variance. Also, pacific didn't allow for multi-tabling at the time which probably slowed my progress as well.

October 2005 - Pacific bankroll at about $400...still 1-tabling there I decided to plop in another $75 out of the bank account into Ultimate Bet. Played the $10 NL there for a few months with good success.

January 2005 - let's bonus whore a bit and see how that goes - pulled some money out of pacific and UB to move it to party - $500 deposit for the full $100 bonus. Whored that quickly, though with some bad luck I came out with just the extra $100. I repeated the process with PokerNow and Empire, and the party IGM Pay bonuses.

Since then I've tried a few different sites. I finally got PokerTracker through a freebie deal + bonus at Paradise Poker, a site at which I had some pretty good times - netted the bonus ($100 I think) + $75 playing around 2-3k hands at $25 NL.
Tried a couple of other bonus sites - Interpoker was insanely slow to clear - but managed it and ended up +$50 or so on top of the bonus but boy that was a horrid grind - don't bonus grind Interpoker at $25 NL - it's probably $100 NL minimum decent bonus.

Now - I'm fairly stagnant - haven't been playing as much recently due to other time commitments and lack of new bonuses to whore or interesting sites to play at.

My roll is at about $1650 now in June 2006...and I'm still playing some $10 NL at 1-2 sites and $25 NL at others. Most of my BR is still in neteller at the moment - I'm trying to find a good place to lay it down and gather up a decent bonus at the same time but it appears that I have used up a lot of the good bonuses already.
I may need to look into casino whoring for a bit if I can get the blackjack, etc. games down - but I really enjoy the poker so casino whoring would just provide me with some bonus money that I could probably take up to $50 NL and give it a run there with some buffer.

I am still pretty much a beginner I think, even with a year's experience under my belt.

I forgot to mention that I was fortunate enough to come across FTR within the first month of my play - and wow what a difference - I was completely informationless on how to really approach the game before reading a huge amount of info on FTR. Love the site and really haven't paid much attention to any of the others. Thanks FTR!! You prevented me from busting out my first $50 deposit and it's been going up slowly but steadily ever since.

[Reidak]

Feburary 05- I had been watching poker on tv for a couple months prior, wasnt like scheduling myself to watch it but if it was on i loved to watch. I had friends over to play, lost the first few tourneys. Anyways i signed up at pokerstars and played lots of play money tournies.

March 05-Jan 06 - This is when i developed my game. I noticed i was consistently beating my friends in games. We played 5$ buyin tournies and my win rate was about 3-4 out of 5, rarelyplacing worse than 2nd. I thought i was fairly good since i had won a few hundred dollars.

Feb 06 - Deposited $100 into pokerstars, started playing micro tournies (1$ 45's) alot just to test it out. I liked it, and found that my game worked well.
I won about 50$ in a few weeks, which was fine since all i wanted to do at that stage was learn.

March, aprile 06 - This is when i started dabbling in the higer stakes games, towards the end consistently playing 5$ 45's and 18's.

May - I had about $250 so i cashed out my principal (100). Cashout curse is real. I lost almsot all of my money.

Early June - Since losing my money in mid may I started e bumming, i had around 20$ in my account, started to play lots of micro MTT"s and plaing 1/2c tables to sustain my habit.

Around June 10th - After having a good run at ta table i had $30, felt like crap and felt i was the worst player ever cuz i lsot all my money. Started to think i just somehow fluked the money i had. I tried a 3$ 1 table turbo, and won. Joined a few more and got a 1,2. I was ecstatic.

Recently (past week and a bit) Ive been plaiyng purely 3$ 1 table turbos, and 6$ 1 table turbos. Ive made my money back and then some. I beleive ive found the game thats for me.

[magneticskull]

Started out in some home SNGs with friends. Was basically an idiot until I had a revelation one day... you can't bluff if you don't fold alot.
Using that basic theory I was able to crush the next couple of Home SNGs and decided to look into my options. I like the tourney format, so I went to AC and entered an MTT. Had no clue what I was getting into (what is a REBUY?), but made it about half way into a 100 man field or so and was happy that I was conscious of which mistakes led me to the rail. (big raise against a clear bluff with Ax out of position and got called by someone with CARDS I forgot was to my left... dumb)

Decided to try online. Did some research, settled on PS as my site due to micro limits and level of play.
Dropped $50 in and played a mix of micro MTTs, Micro Ring and the $1/45 man sngs... took down a couple of those, but was down overall. dropped another 150 to catch a bonus, blitzed out on 5+.50 sngs and .5/.10 ring to cash it and ended up nearly even.
Since clearing the bonus, I've been on a bit of a downswing, mostly because I've been switching games too often.

My biggest problem right now is setting aside the time to play my strongest game, which is the big SNGs and MTT's. A few months ago, I finally realized that although I was consistently placing in top 10% of MTTs, I was never FTing because I didn't budget my time/energy properly. I'd be playing well, in decent position, and then get tired and donk my self out with dumb plays (about 2 hours in, usually right after 2nd break).
I do ok at 1 table SNGs (which I have time for) but getting a positive ROI there is TOUGH. Essentially, 1st place gives you 4 buyins, 2nd gives you 2. So unless you get 1st/2nd over 50% of the time, you lose money.

I still look at all of this as an investment in what is essentially practice for when I DO have time to play in MTTs and larger SNGs, where the payoffs compensate for the long term investment. As long as I remember that, I don't mind being a bit down on the roll for now.

I am currently playing the 5+.50s because of the time issue. BR wise, I should be playing the $1/45mans, but the extra hour always makes it tough.

I did try another MTT the other night (I WILL STAY UP TIL 3 AM... I promised myself)... got 42 out of 1011, (not bad, but only 3x buyin... crap for 3.5 hours of work). Busted out pushing AKo against a BIG Reraise from BIG stack preflop... (at the time, I thought "resteal" but he flipped over AA naturally). HEeHaw.

Tonight I'm playing a home SNG. We shall see. GL all.

[jackvance]

March 8, some friends told me they were playing poker, and directed me to a website. I went there and ended up playing playmoney limit.. didn't know there was actually a limit/no limit/pot limit difference

A few days later I joined my friends again for a home game, and to my amazement it was "no limit" they played, and advised me to play too, as it was "real poker".

March 14, I got one of those friends, the one who is very good at poker, to come over to my place and show me the ropes. So he played online and I watched. That was very inspirational, even though I couldn't follow it all too well.

March 15, started playing online on prima, 6max 10NL. First the MTT freerolls in anticipation of my $60 deposit to come through. I also registered here on FTR that day after googling poker strategy guides.

At first I freaked on poker, calculating all the odds etc.. I just wanted to get good at it fast. I got on the brink of bankrupcy at one point, as I was down to $10. This was three weeks in or so.

After that, I've been on a very bumpy yet steady upward road. I ended up playing rather infrequently, basically waiting for a time when I feel I can play my A game. Sometimes this means no poker for days. Recently I've played very little, mostly due to exams.

June 21, I've made over $1k from my initial $60 "learning money" now. Biggest problem is still my utter lack of self-control. But yeah, it's been profitable, I've been able to buy some nice stuff with my winnings, etc. So I'm gonna stick with it.

[cardsman1992]

My story:

Never played much outside of home games with wild cards and such. I would do okay one time, lose the next, but never thought much about it. Then I saw this Texas Hold'em on TV in 2003 and I would watch it and I would be fascinated with it!! I arranged a couple of home games and would do okay there, playing tourney style for all the marbles.

Then some of the bars in my area starting running these poker leagues where you played for points but not money. OH BOY!!! I can play and not lose money, but still feel like one of those TV guys!!!! So I would play in these "point" tourneys and do okay sometimes, and not so great at other times. This was the second half of 2005. I also discovered FTR, read posts when I should have been working, soaking up knowledge of this game I love.

So around Christmas, I scooped up $50 and decided to try my luck at online tourneys for money. I clicked on a limit tourney by mistake and by some freak of nature took first place. So I thought "this can't be hard" and started playing tourneys with a little cash game mixed in. I only had my in-law's computer (and dial-up to boot), so I got frustrated with the seemingly endless disconnects and eventually busted. Finally decided to buy my own computer and start a career in Feb with $200 given to me for Christmas for that express purpose. I also got a couple of poker books to read, making me pretty dangerous.

Feb was the beginning of the Newbie Circle of Death. I got my roll up to $900 by mid-March and thought I was a GENIUS!!!! Looking back, I realize how fine a line I was walking. J8 SOOTED!! OMG you can make a str8 with that !!11!!!11!!!1!!one!!! LET'S RAISE!!!!! I would get paid off with a miracle card and reinforce my behavior. In the middle of March, my luck ran out and varience ran in, along with some horrible decisions, like playing at a $100 table just because I thought I could get lucky for a session or two, and going on tilt after losing a stack or two to three..... I went almost broke, but $25 tables were the lowest I could play on my site, so I pressed on. Finally got my roll back to about $350 after getting down to my last $25 and deciding I gotta play better or quit. Then I saw a bonus to chase at another skin (200%), and moved my roll over to it. It was a blessing in disguise. Another few days of tilt and bleeding my bankroll brought me to the sad conclusion that I had to drop down a level (they actually had $10 tables) and work out my horrible play. Those sessions at $10NL in April and May were probably the most beneficial poker I have ever played. I played 10K hands and increased my BR with a decent winrate, and cleared my bonus there! With it I took a better perspective on hand selection, playing tighter, trying to figure out when your beat. Overall I felt my game has improved by playing against those guys. May and June have been good to me so far, but I have not forgotten the dark days that were not so long ago during the Circle of Death. I am far better now at BR management, and make far better poker decisions than I did. So as I work my way toward $50NL, I think I owe a debt of gratitude to everyone here, those who have posted hands to study and those who have answered my ridiculous questions. My goal for the year is to be playing $100 NL full time. I have a long way to go, but I am confident I can get there. I love this game!!!!!

[gobbledygeek]

Have played very casual and friendly poker games with family and friends for years. Used to have a regular Saturday night low stakes poker game for a couple of years with friends (big winner/loser of the night would be around $50.00) but game fell apart when some of them moved away. Still play these types of casual/friendly poker games on camping trips, family reunions, etc. and even though I haven't kept track I think I'm definitely ahead.

Then started playing $1-5 7 card stud whenever I had a business trip to Vegas. Probably only played a couple of dozen sessions but I think I'm definitely ahead.

Then a bad thing happened: a casino opened a mere 7 minute stroll from where I live. It only has texas hold'em games but this game always seemed like such a fluke game to me so I wasn't very interested. But then before another business trip to Vegas I decided to read up on blackjack, another game I thought was total fluke, and to my surprise I found that there actually was a method to the madness. I memorized the basic strategy for blackjack and actually found myself enjoying the game (still up money even though I know I'll eventually go broke eventually if only playing basic strategy). I found the counting theories interesting and even count for fun (my bankroll can't handle the betting spreads required so I just flat bet the minimum amount). But finding out there was method behind blackjack got me interested in looking into texas hold'em.

So off I went and read up on texas hold'em; wow, was I ever amazed at my total lack of knowledge regarding hold'em and even poker in general! All my positive returns on the poker I had played up to this point, all played on instincts and total lack of knowledge, were total fluke! Very humbling.

So with my new found basic knowledge of texas hold'em, plus my instincts which had proved very reliable in the past, I went off to the local casino to crush everyone at $2/4 limit. I had been playing a negative expectation game (basic strategy at blackjack) and flukily been ahead, I could hardly wait to rake in the cash and have fun playing texas hold'em!

So after my first 60+ hours of $2/4 limit I'm -3.4BB/hour, which works out to being down over $800, not quite the crushing I had in mind. My original plan was to play 2 or 3 times a week. Then with the losses piling up I limited myself to 1 a week, then once every two weeks and now I'm down to limiting myself to $100 loss a month (as soon as I lose the $100 I don't allow myself to play again until the next month). I can afford the losses (I make over 60K/year at my job) it's just that I can't really justify this expense for this type of entertainment.

So far, I've found the game very frustrating. I wish the casino had lower limits to play at so I could still entertain myself without it being this expensive. I only have internet access at work so I can't play cheaper games online. I know the rakes at this limit are hard to beat, but sitting at -3.4BB/hours seems horrible to me even with the rakes. I know 60+ hours is a drop in the bucket, but so far the game has pretty much been what I originally thought it was: a total fluke. I know that might be insulting to some of the more experienced players but that's the way I feel right now. I know I've still got a lot to learn. Maybe things will get better. We'll see.

(cripes that was long winded, better get back to my 60K/year job)

[zook]

I'll tell a beginner success story, but try to stress how important study and luck have been in it. I've done a lot of the former (FTR, 2+2, poker books) but the latter has probably been just as important in building my roll.

Summer '05 - Started playing $10 buy-in NLHE tourney home games with friends. Got hooked pretty quickly, started seeking out strategy tools, luckily found FTR. Over the next six months lurked at FTR, occasionally read some SNG and MTT strategy articles.

February '06 - Finally decided to take the plunge into online poker after watching a friend play some SNGs on Party. Played $11 SNGs and made some money, but had trouble when they got short-handed.

March '06 - Got an account on FTR, bought HOH1 & 2, decided to become SERIOUS about poker Read everything I could on FTR, posted some hands in the SNG forum and realized how much I had to learn. Kept winning at $11 Party SNGs though, I guess there were much bigger fish than me. At the end of March I entered my first MTT on a day I was home sick from work, a $33 regular at Party, 430 entrants and I chopped 1st/2nd for ~$2,600. Freaked out of course. Withdrew about half, set the rest aside so I could be safely rolled for bigger games.

April '06 - Started playing $22 SNGs at Party, did not do well. Lost over $200 in a couple of weeks. Decided to try my hand at 25NL ring, also didn't do well. If not for clearing two bonuses, I would have been down there too. Took some time off, read a lot of articles in the FTR NL strategies and hand histories forums, posted some hands, realized I had a lot to learn. Got another Party bonus offer, decided to work on it playing 50NL, so it would clear faster, but playing, much tighter, ABC poker. Not exactly AOK's 19 hands, but close. In retrospect, this was a BAD idea. Moving up in stakes before proving you can beat the previous level = not very smart. But I was rolled, and still overconfident from my MTT win. Luckily, my study and discipline seemed to pay off and I started winning at 50NL.

May & June '06 - I've been playing 50NL ring exclusively and averaging ~8BB/100 over my first 8,000 hands. I started out two-tabling, but now I'm up to four-tabling comfortably. I only play about 5 hours/week (~1000 hands) which is nothing compared to a lot of FTR'ers, but I try to read about poker and study HH's another five hours/week, and that's all I can manage. I just bought Sklansky & Miller's NLHE T&P and can't wait to read it as soon as I finish Sklansky's ToP. My short-term goals are to finish those books and log another few thousand hands of 50NL before moving up to 100NL. If I can beat 100NL for more than 6BB/100 while four-tabling, that will be a significant side income for me and I'll be happy. I'd like to find time to squeeze a few MTTs in, but 6-hour blocks are hard to come by.

My advice to beginners is to read, read, read... books, FTR stickies, hand histories, whatever you can find. Study and post your hand histories, and not just your big losses, but also your wins. Sometimes you make the bad decisions and win a lot of money and those are most dangerous mistakes, because you'll probably make them again. If you have a bad run at the tables, take some time off, not just a few hours, a few days, and instead of playing read, read, read.

Thanks to FTR and good luck to all the beginners.

[jyms]

I was hoping to hear from some of the guys that made it out of the grind to a grander scale as well. Or maybe some more stories to keep me on the path like the mistakes that have been made that kept others from getting out of the Bankroll blues and still grinding 10NL or 25NL after a year because of the stupid " If I could start again I wouldn't" mistakes. Come on guys, give us beginners your stories, we don't all have the time to read all the blogs (I do, but that's just me)

[flomo]

i'll make this as short as possible

+ aug 2003 started at party playing free sng's in
+ sept 2003 first deposit of $50 at party
- played $6 sng's with the money(ugly rake)
- early nov 2003 busto first deposit(playing out of br)
+ late nov 2003 deposit another $100
- played more $6 sng's(ugly rake)
+ feb 2004 was good enough to build br to $350
- feb 2004 withdrew $300 and thought i was cool(do not take money out of br until it is sustainable)
- played more $6 sng's(ugly rake)
- may 2004 br is busto again(playing out of br)
+/- july 2004 found a place to play for free bugsy's club
+/- earned points that converted to real money
+ nov 2004 build br to $1,200 at bugsy's playing sng's $5.50, $11, and $22
+ dec 2004 transfer $200 to party to play $11 sng's
- feb 2005 complete cashout $1,500=br to 0 (do not take money out of br until it is sustainable)
+ jan 2006 find FTR
+ march 2006 party bonus of $50 for playing some raked hands(convert from sng's to ring)
+ finish party bonus br= $250
+ start on EasyT's 25NL bonus guide
+ whore paradise br= $450
+ whore casino.net br=$570
+ whore pacific br=$700
+ whore riverbelle br=$1,100
+ whore B2B br=$1,100
+ party reload br= $1,300
+ currently whoring trident(prima) br=$1,350

lesson
bankroll management is a very important tool
and i'm still grinding

[biondino]

February 2005. I'd been watching with interest the TV poker while channel-surfing, so when some people on an internet forum I frequent talked about starting a little friendly online game, I was very much up for that. We only played a few times, $25NL ring, and I was maybe down $30 or so before the guy who'd started it up (a bit of a shark in those fishy waters!) explained to me how SNGs work.

So, I started playing $5.50 SNGs at Pokerroom, and after 20 or so I had broken even, and after 70 or so I was about $100 up. I decided to have a quick go at ring, and discovered, to my amazement, that I could make $30 in about 10 minutes! Of course, I soon realised this wasn't actually how it worked, but my SNG game gave me a decent grounding so I played a small amount of breakeven $25NL ring before going on holiday.

On my return, one of my poker buddies told me he'd found a site where you could playing in £ but which was fishier than PR's $25NL! So I signed up (to Crypto), quickly made and lost £150, then started on an upswing which took me to the heady heights of £800 (= $1,500, and was largelt thanks to Crypto's introduction of 6max games, which I seemed to adjust to quicker than most others)) before I lost almost half of it in the inevitable downswing.

But I plugged my most obvious leaks, put a brave face on and started heading upwards again. I also decided to join Party to take advantage of the fishy tourneys there - MUCH fishier than Pokerroom, I thought - and started 2006 making $500 at the Party $11 SNGs with a ROI of like 70%. Ah, good times!

The luck didn't last, of course, and since then I've had a lot of ups and downs, though my upward momentum has continued, if erratically. As at June 2006 I'm about £2,000 up and am in the process of moving to $50/£50NL. I'm currently enjoying SNGs again, so my ring game is temporarily on hold; but after the summer I expect to be playing $50 regularly with occasional stabs at $100, as I think my game is probably just about strong enough and my BR certainly is.

[flomo]

whatssup?

thread necromancy

[Sup3rM4N]

Nov 06 - played my first $5 tournament in skool, no idea wat a flush or straight was
Nov-March 07 - played a buncha home games for $5/$10 tournaments
Aplril 07 - made my first $50 deposit to FTP, lost $600
Jun 07 - found FTR = Profit
Oct 07 - moved to SSNL from SNGs
Nov 07 - crossed the 1k BR barrier
Feb 08 - withdrew roll for personal reasons
July 08- deposited 600 cuz of the 2x WCOOP bonus
August 08- moved to .25/.50
Sept 08- moved to .5/1
Nov 08- moved to 1/2

[jyms]

LOL at the OP 30 months ago. I had no clue where I was or where I needed to be. Never thought things were going to turn out like this.

[Robb]

LOL at the OP 30 months ago.

Thought I'd opened the FTR twilight zone forum when I read OP. Took a second to check the date. Good stuff, though, lookin' at where peoples were at.

[jackvance]

Lol I have an old post in there too.

Anyway, funny story. I hadn't played poker in well over a year (since I started working) but 2 months ago I moved to a different place, and a buddy of mine (the guy that got me into poker in the first place) called me up and he said he was having a downswing for over a month now, and he needed my help to turn it around. He's a very aggro player with tilt issues and my nittier self would have to be the calming effect. So he came to pick me up in his new car that he just bought with his poker earnings (which depleted his BR) and we played some poker, 3 guys on the couch half watching the big screen TV too. I was just playing some 10NL to get back into the mindset (twas my first contact with poker after more than a year).

Now, this guy likes to play tournies, so we signed up for a tournament on prima together (we play on his account but we sit next to each-other and split cost and any possible profit), but we struck out, np. Then he wants to sign up for another tournament, but I say he can do this one alone I'm just gonna stick to grinding cash games. I ended up staying over at his place til 4 in the morning watching him take first for €3000.

So because I was too much of a nit to coop the €8 sign up, I lost out on €1500..

Oh and at this very moment he's in the final 13 in the Belgian Poker Championship (below average stack now though).. so he's already got €8k, if one more drops out it's €10k and then it just goes up all the way to €315k for first. Sick stuff. If he makes it to final 9 I'm gonna go rail him tomorrow. But regardless, instant new bankroll for him.