yay for me!

[Hawk]

A month ago or so I made my first deposit, $95, to a poker site.

I've been playing 2NL on stars since then, and doing OK at the FR games making a small amount of money, but also transferred some money to my wife's acct and some to a friends acct so they could play on their own instead of on my acct, and screwing with my stats. I also went on to lose a big chunk of my money playing the $1 SnG's (I stink at those right now), so after 2 weeks I was down to under $50.

I recently decided "enough screwing around" and got PT.

At first I didn't change how I was playing, and after 1k hands I saw that even in that small sample, I was a poor player, but sill managing a small profit. I was running about 45/5/1.2.

Once I noticed this I started playing proper ABC poker, or as close as I'm able at this point, playing much more aggressive, and no more SnG's. I was going to get back to even.

Almost right away I started seeing a difference, coming away with a decent profit on at least 80% of the tables I sat down at, only making the occasional fish moves.

Last night, after getting up to $85, I tried my first stab at 5NL, I remember reading that the skill of opponents is the same, and performed just as well as I had at 2NL, and in the process got myself over $95 and officially makes me (ever so slightly) profitable over my short poker career.

Now, after about 4k tracked hands, my primary stats are about 30/10/3.

Basically, last night I really saw how much I've improved in the last couple weeks since I really started applying myself. I know that I need to guard from being overconfident to the point of changing my game, but I'm feeling excited today. I know the dollar amounts aren't exciting, but my progress recently has me feeling like I can actually do this and if I keep up the focus I will get to the point where I'll have a bit of money coming in on the side, which was one of my main goals when I started playing.

And yes, this is a clear case of phase 2 of the newbie circle of death. I am fully aware that I'm not as good as I feel, but YAY FOR ME!!

<pats self on back>

[taipan168]

Well done! Keep up the good work.

[poker_pup]

Congratulations!!

[Robb]

I also went on to lose a big chunk of my money playing the $1 SnG's (I stink at those right now), so after 2 weeks I was down to under $50.

I recently decided "enough screwing around" and got PT.

At first I didn't change how I was playing, and after 1k hands I saw that even in that small sample, I was a poor player, but sill managing a small profit. I was running about 45/5/1.2.

Now, after about 4k tracked hands, my primary stats are about 30/10/3.

First congrats. Awesome job.

I screwed around a lot, playing omaha, stud, stud 8/b, razz in pot limit, limit and no limit formats. Heck, I even played crazy pineapple. Of course, I played SnG's in most of those formats, too. Never enough hands to get good. I like your focus on one game, at one limit. Since I've focused 99.87% of my poker time and energy on NLH, I've made big time improvements.

Second, are your PT stats 30/10/3 from full ring games (9 or 10 players) or short-handed tables (6-max)? And is 30/10/3 overall, including the first 1k loose of hands? Or is it what you've played since? The reason I ask is that I play about that range (31/17) on my 6-max tables, and would play tighter still on full ring.

Also, Excession's articles on analyzing your game with PT comprises about 10 chapter-lengnth articles on how to use PT.

http://www.bet-the-pot.com/poker-tra...ne-page31.html

I don't do everything he says, but I do most of it. And I learn from he suggests how to analyze potential leaks.

[Hawk]

Those numbers still include my first 1k loose hands, so that is still dropping, and it's been 100% FR so far for the reason you mentioned. Once I have a better handle on this game, and a bankroll to support me learning another game style, I'll probably try some 6-max.

And thanks for the links on analyzing yourself w/ PT. Thats something I was going to be looking for pretty soon.

[Jack Sawyer]

thumbs up!