Hoardin' Tha' Booty!

[AdamThePirate]

Ok guys, so I've been interested in poker since about July 2008 - my brother got me into it, and I was really interested. I had just come back from travelling around Australia and Japan so had no monehs to deposit (good thing really I guess, I would've gone busto so many times haha, I sucked). So after winning a few freerolls but donking them away I decide to deposit $50 on Titan Poker in November.

Got a job the month previous though, and found a lady, forgot about poker until this month, man came back to it and it's still so awesome.

So I joined up to Grinderschool (I don't want to donk away this $50), started reading up on a lot of beginner strategy, and started grinding!

After 13k hands at 19bb/100 i've got 25BI for $4NL so that's where my next game is.

I've played a few hundred hands of $4NL, and it seems just as bad as $2nl, but i'm not mass multitabling like I was at $2NL yet... only playing 2 tables until I get my groove on, it's weird to suddenly having a 16c raise instead of a 8c one, heh.

So here's my obligatory graph from the start of this month...



I'mma start grinding $4nl now - and want to put in at least 20k hands between now and 01 June, it's an easy enough goal but I've just started a new job so we'll see how it goes.

As for my goals... well, I guess I'd like to get to $10NL by the 01 August this year, which I think is definitely achievable, and $20NL by 01 January 2010. (iPoker, bleh, I might move my roll to PokerStars, or somewhere else, I really don't like the software, although it's not as tilt inducing as Everest or Cake, lul.)

Yeah they're pretty solid goals I think, I just want to keep on learning too. My tilt control is pretty good so far - but we'll see how it is when we're playing for more than $2 BI.

Later yo.

Adam.

[Benoso]

Repping the North West like w00t. I'm in Liverpool, myself. Seems to be a few FTRers from Manchester though. Good luck.

[AdamThePirate]

Ok so if I had done the 20k hands then I would have been up to 10nl at the start of June it seems! Haha.

No worries, a few things have happened in my life, the job I'm in turned into something big, and the project I'm working on has taken over my life it seems. I quit poker for a month and a half, I just couldn't find the time to play and I didn't really want to. However, the project is nearly over so It's back to the grind!

At least I achieved my goal of getting to 10NL by 01 August. I now have $250 sitting in my account, and want to turn that into $600 by 01 December 09. That gives me 3 months to learn it. If I'm not making any progress by the end of this month I'll have to reconsider what the hell I'm doing, ey, these guys are fish!

Here's the graph:



I still have some leaks to plug (and more I don't know of, I'm fairly certain).

Main one is not folding when you know you're beat, and not folding when you don't have the pot odds to call, flush draws, OESDs, etc. It's horribly -ev and I really have to stop it. I'd have saved myself a few buy ins already.

Wish me luck!

[AdamThePirate]

Quick update:

10NL is going well so far. I had a pretty rough start to it, playing spewy, but it's very similar to 5nl. I'm learning about pot control more, following hands that aren't the nuts, but are decent-ish to the river, if it's profitable to do so, learning more about blocking bets, they are very cool.

There are a ton more short stackers at 10nl - to be honest I don't even remember there being any at 5nl, but there seem to be many 20bb ss'ers. They are easy to handle though, i'd say our all-in range should be about AQo+ and JJ+, varying depending on the laggness of the player. I've noticed short stackers like to ship it after the pot has been limped around, their range is usually fairly wide here, so you can possibly drop down to 99+, dependant on reads obv.

Stealing is much easier due to more nitty players, i'm currently running at 25% ATS, but i'm working at getting it up to 30%.

I just need to put some more volume in to be honest, this month i've only played 3k hands, which is terrible.

---

1. Are we ever good here? Villain was SUPER NIT.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($3.35)
Hero (SB) ($10)
BB ($1.30)
UTG ($10.35)
UTG+1 ($3.70)
MP1 ($9.65)
MP2 ($9.40)
CO ($6)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, K
UTG calls $0.10, 1 fold, MP1 calls $0.10, MP2 bets $0.40, 2 folds, Hero raises to $1.20, 3 folds, MP2 calls $0.80

Flop: ($2.70) 3, 5, Q (2 players)
Hero bets $1.80, MP2 raises to $3.60...


2. Just for fun: This was a strange hand, my first ever experience of the "bluff-call":

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

MP1 ($10.10)
MP2 ($11.55)
MP3 ($10.70)
CO ($3.80)
Button ($9.85)
Hero (SB) ($10.05)
BB ($13)
UTG ($3.10)
UTG+1 ($8)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, A
4 folds, MP3 bets $0.40, CO raises to $1.70, 1 fold, Hero raises to $4.80, 2 folds, CO calls $2.10 (All-In)

Flop: ($8.10) 10, 4, J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($8.10) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($8.10) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $8.10 | Rake: $0.40

Results:
Hero had A, A (two pair, Aces and fours).
CO had 7, 2 (one pair, fours).
Outcome: Hero won $7.70

[AdamThePirate]

Well, that took longer than I had anticipated!

In September I quit my full-time, secure, well paid job to study Computer Science, something I've wanted to do for a seriously long time, and fortunately I found the heart to fuck my job off and do it.

However this left me not playing poker for a good few months - I restarted playing again back in the middle of December, working my way up at 2nl, then 5nl and starting 10nl again in January (I still had my original roll, but felt like my "skills" (lololol) were probably rustier than usual).

So, moved up to 10nl in January, played "ok" I guess. Moved into February with a clearer mind, and did really well, well enough to build my roll up to $750.

A few things I've learnt since being at 10nl is not to overvalue TPTK, or overpairs against specific opponents, learning that checking-back isn't necessarily a bad thing (shock!), which tied in with pot-control, and seeing showdowns with marginal hands. These tactics have served me well at 10nl, and hopefully I'll continue to improve myself and my game at 25nl!

I'll play my first session tomorrow, should be good, just my same game, i've looked at a few tables for a few hours, just watching the play, and it's just as tragic as 10nl is, so wish me luck!

Laters.

[daven]

nice, try and avoid a tilt-inducing million hands of breakeven-ness is my advice
instead aim for the last 3% of such graphs.

[AdamThePirate]

I am clearly a retard. I guess I decided to rep a FD against a reggy player, ergh. And I played pretty well all session too.

Villain was 22/22 over 30 hands. No real interesting hands on him except one time he 5bet shoved from the SB against a button raiser.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (4 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($35.58)
UTG ($27.13)
Button ($33.05)
Hero (SB) ($30.92)

Preflop: Hero is SB with J, J
1 fold, Button bets $0.75, Hero raises to $2.25, 1 fold, Button calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.75) 3, 6, Q (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $3, Hero calls $3

Turn: ($10.75) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $6.50, Hero raises to $25.67 (All-In), Button calls $19.17

River: ($62.09) A (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $62.09 | Rake: $1

Please call me names. I hate myself when I play bad.

[Roid_Rage]

Disappear for 10 months, post one hand, ???, profit!!!!

Hey buddy, its your favorite Dr.

[AdamThePirate]

Hey buddy! Inorite. I've been playing back for like 2 weeks now, 25nl is ezgame (except when I play retarded). Not been playin much cos of school work but time off over the winter is perfect time to grind!

[AdamThePirate]

Villain is probably fishy, like 30/15 over 24 hands or so.

Preflop: Bad sizing is bad
Flop: I should bet
Turn: Bet sizing is bad

UTG+1 ($26.09)
MP1 ($23.95)
MP2 ($25)
CO ($25.38)
Button ($25)
Hero (SB) ($31.82)
BB ($19.71)
UTG ($26.30)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, A
4 folds, CO bets $0.75, 1 fold, Hero raises to $2.25, 1 fold, CO calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.75) 4, K, 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: ($4.75) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $3, CO raises to $6, Hero calls $3

River: ($16.75) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $17.13 (All-In), Hero folds

Total pot: $16.75 | Rake: $0.82