It's not like riding a bike....

[Laeelin]

Hello all my FTR friends. After a break of several years, I have started playing again.

For those that do not know (or have forgotten) me...

I was never even close to a great player, but when I needed to work from home my family lived on my poker winnings for a couple years grinding. I started at the micro stakes and moved slowly up to $100NL. I took shots at higher stakes, but never really had the skill to be a winning player there.

I plan on NEVER living on poker again, way way to stressful for me. Thats the main reason I stopped playing. When your playing to pay your bills and have a brutal month, it's very very stressful. *cough* Unless your smart enough to play in bankroll, and have several months income available to cover bad times. *cough* I've played a few hours every once in a while, but it just wasn't fun anymore.

It's been long enough. The wounds have healed, and the idea of having a hobby that makes money instead of costing money is nice. Looking back on my poker past with a couple years of perspective it's easy to see what my biggest mistake was.

Bankroll management.

Pride/Greed made me want to move up and take the risk. I thought it was OK because I wasn't leaving myself short for the level I normally played at. I forgot to take into account the fact that poker was supposed to pay my bills...

For example - I'd have a $12,000 bankroll and would take a shot at at $200NL. Everything looks very reasonable, anyone would say it's time to try higher stakes.... I'd take a shot, but really didn't have the skill to win at $200NL, so I'd make a couple bad plays, get hit with a bad beat or two, and lose lose 3K and have $9,000 left. My bankroll was in great shape right?

The problem was that I was trying to pay my bills with my poker money. And to make things even worse I always counted the money I needed to pay bills with as part of my bankroll until I actually made a withdraw. So I might have $12,000 in my bankroll, but I needed to pull out $3000 at the end of the month to cover bills. When the end of the month arrived I had actually lost 50% of my "bankroll". $3000 to bills and $3000 to $200NL.

Suddenly I'm looking at my bankroll that I thought could cover 4 break even months thinking "If I break even this month, I cant pay for groceries next month - unless I withdraw my entire bankroll!!!!"


This time I'm going to stick with proper bankroll management. I will only move up when (a) my bankroll can support it and (b) I have at least 50k profitable hands in at the previous level. The exception to this will be before $10NL. I will move up to $10NL as soon as I have the bankroll for it, even if I do not have a enough hands played.

Just to make things nice and ironic, I'm going to try to start with my leftover FTP balance. It's only ~$10, so I'm going to be playing .02NL... without the bankroll I just said I would stick to

Edit: Umm, wow, I just realized it's been about 4 years...

[Galapogos]

At first I was wondering how this freetroller has so many posts.

[donkbee]

wanna make this a blog? I'll move it to the blogs forum. Nice to have you back!

[Laeelin]

That sounds interesting, and will help keep me honest I actually had a blog here long ago, but it's not listed any longer - or at least I didn't find it.

[oskar]

Woot!

Welcome back!

[Renton]

I remember talking to you in irc and stuff, nice to see ya back.

[donkbee]

{moved from commune}

now you can update us regularly on your progress

[FlyingSaucy]

Yea I remember you too. Sounds like an interesting experience you've had, glad to see you back.

[Laeelin]

Hey - Galapogos, courtiebee, Renton, and FlyingSaucy - I remember all of you

Today was my official start.

Starting Bankroll: $11.48
Ending Bankroll: $5.04 (-6.44)


I only played about half an hour today. I played two 6-Max $2NL tables. I figured that would be a good place to start. Only 10 players to work on reading while still having fairly fast play. I lost 3 buyins, but I believe I played well. Today was a good example of why you need a bankroll. It looks like I'll be needing to make a deposit to keep playing... Unless I get super lucky tomorrow.

Reviewing some of my hand history I did see several mistakes. The biggest mistake I made was calling a super aggressive fish when he shoved all in oop on the flop with no pair and no draw.

I watched him call large reraises preflop with hands like T7o, so I wanted to get in as much as possible preflop. I'm happy with my preflop play against him. I had already saw him shove the flop oop with a random 2 pair once - and had made notes on it. I knew he liked to open shove with good hands and I still called. I was the fish in that hand.

The first hand below is the one I'm talking about.

Most of my other losses came from a fish that was tilting badly. He was MP in the other two hands listed below. Table selection was the key skill in playing against him. I had the best seat in the house.



Overall, I'm happy with my play except for that one hand. I don't think I've forgot enough to become a losing player, but I have a lot to relearn. Two tableing was actually faster than I should have been playing. I think I'll start with 1 table tomorrow, then move back up to two when I feel comfortable with it.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

MP ($4.35)
CO ($1.94)
Hero (Button) ($2.07)
SB ($7)
BB ($3.72)
UTG ($6.27)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, Q
3 folds, Hero bets $0.08, 1 fold, BB raises to $0.14, Hero raises to $0.58, BB calls $0.44

Flop: ($1.17) K, 4, 5 (2 players)
BB bets $3.14 (All-In), Hero calls $1.49 (All-In)

Turn: ($4.15) 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($4.15) A (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $4.15 | Rake: $0.27

Results:
Hero had A, Q (one pair, Aces).
BB had A, K (two pair, Aces and Kings).
Outcome: BB won $3.88


Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

UTG ($4.55)
MP ($2)
Hero (CO) ($3.81)
Button ($2.10)
SB ($3.80)
BB ($6.02)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A, Q
1 fold, MP bets $2 (All-In), Hero raises to $3.81 (All-In), 3 folds

Flop: ($4.03) 4, K, 9 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: ($4.03) 7 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($4.03) 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $4.03 | Rake: $0.26

Results:
MP had A, 3 (flush, Ace high).
Hero had A, Q (flush, King high).
Outcome: MP won $3.77

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

UTG ($4.45)
MP ($1.71)
Hero (CO) ($1.78)
Button ($3.88)
SB ($3.77)
BB ($6.14)

Preflop: Hero is CO with J, J
1 fold, MP bets $1.71 (All-In), Hero raises to $1.78 (All-In), Button calls $1.78, 2 folds

Flop: ($5.30) 5, 2, K (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: ($5.30) 6 (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($5.30) 3 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $5.30 | Rake: $0.35

Results:
Button had A, J (flush, Ace high).
MP had K, A (one pair, Kings).
Hero had J, J (one pair, Jacks).
Outcome: Button won $4.95

[Laeelin]

Starting Bankroll - $11.48	
Date		Hours	Bankroll	Change
05/01/2010	0.67	$5.04		-$6.44
05/02/2010	4.17	$11.93		+$6.89

Relearning poker, having fun

I did subscribe to grinderschool.com, listening to podcasts and watched a few videos. Good reminders so far.

Nothing else to report today.

$0.09/Hour so far...

[donkbee]

that's more than I'm making per hour so far this month

[EasyPoker]

gl

with BRM ull be back up there in no time it seems

[Laeelin]

Just a quick (but late) update...

I've been enjoying multitable turbo SNG's so much I've kind of stopped playing anything else... I had forgotten how much fun a 3+ table turbo SnG is.

It's also nice to hit a lucky streak lol. I'm now sitting at a $500 bankroll.

[lolzzz_321]

Games are tougher now, but the turbo SNGs on Full Tilt are soft. The only thing I hate about them is they don't have antes.

I think you'd enjoy the 90 man KOs on FTP. They take about 2 hrs to ship. GL!

[Donachello]

Wowza! 5 dollars to 500 in 10 days? Well played sir! I agree that the little SnGs are pretty fun just remember not to try and fancy play vs teh fishies

[Laeelin]

just remember not to try and fancy play vs teh fishies

Way to true, and way to tempting... Like calling a river re-raise with your AA... You know better... But you want to sooooo bad.