Poker Forum

Hey all!
I deposited $20 on full tilt around the end of september. I previously primarily played on absolute, I deposited $10 and eventually got up to $274. I withdrew $90 then tilted hard and blew my entire roll on freaking blackjack, then my check got sent back so I once again had $98, I worked that back up to $132, but decided full tilt was a better deal, since I am getting rakeback and all there. So bottom line is I have a check on the way to a different address, where the mail man isn't a dick head, and my new home is at full tilt. I thought a blog would be a good way to lay out some goals and rules, to hopefully speed up my climb through the limits.

I'll start with a couple rules

1. I must have at least 250 big bets for limit games. I'll try to stick closer to 300, but 250 will be the min.
2. I must have at least 20 full buy ins for a no limit ring game.
3. I must have at least 35 buy ins for full table sit and go and 30 for a heads up sit and go, and 40 for a mtt. (As of now I hardly ever play tournaments or non heads up sit and go's)

Some might be a touch on the loose side, but I'll adjust as needed if I'm flucuating too much.

I started with $20 and after the first month I was up to about $85, I've had a good run in the past week and I'm now at $133, I'm sure my win rate will slow down as I move up to higher limits, but with that being said I think some reasonable goals are as follows.

1. Have fun and improve my game every session, if I'm not having fun, then there's really no point, and I'm not good enough to beat the higher limit games yet, so I need to develop my game a lot before I get there.
2. Get my bankroll to $2000 by late September of 2010 (one year)
3. Eventually make an average of $40 an hour playing poker, this one will probably take a while, so I'm not going to put any kind of time on it.

I'll leave these as my tentative goals for now, but I'll probably add some as I go!

cheers,
Chad

It seems like I find a new game every week. When I was on absolute I started playing no limit, then moved to limit for quite a while, to sit and go's, then heads up sit and gos, to private mtt's, and then to blackjack tournaments, and now on full tilt I started with limit and heads up limit, and have started to find that its easier to make money at the mixed games, I'll probably be on to something else by next week, but I've been making money at each new thing, it keeps it interesting, and I've learned a lot about stud, razz and omaha, so I suppose its not a bad thing.

cheers,
Chad

Sounds like a solid plan.

I agree the mixed games are softer. A lot of players don't play them a lot and since most are limit, it takes the preflop all in out of play.

Heads up limit is a tough game. What stakes are you playing?

I'm currently playing 2c/5c no limit 6-max, 2 dollar heads up horse sit and go's, and a little bit of everything 10c/20c or 25c/50c limit, I'm kinda close between limits there, but I've gone on tilt a few times playing 25c/50c so I should probably stick to 10c/20c till I can handle a 6 or 7 dollar downswing and not worry about it.

nah what your doing is normal for a player looking to make money actually. This is gonna pay off in the long run if you do go bust. Because its allowing you to see what your best at making money at now. I bounced all over the place and now i no my strong points and weak points.

and when i say bust i dont mean your gonna go bust dont take it that way ive gone bust a lot. Im just stating t hat by bouncing around your gonna c a lot of different views

Thanks, I think that's a good way to look at it.

I took a little study break last night and played for about an hour and a half at a 20c/40c 7-game table. I played pretty well, I think I need to pick better spots in limit holdem, and my plo game is awful. I found myself in a couple situations that I really shouldn't have gotten involved with out of position with marginal hands in holdem, and I think I'm just too inexperienced at plo, I never really know where I'm at in the hand. It seems like omaha hi/lo and stud hi/lo are the most poorly played games in the 7-game things, people are usually going one way or the other and I was able to scoop or 3/4 a couple key pots. I think I'm going to watch a couple sessions on full tilt poker academy for plo and see if I can't get the basics down. (sidenote: The sessions on the full tilt poker academy are awesome! If you don't have an account on full tilt I think its worth it to put a little money in and accumulate enough points just to get access to the sessions, even if you never play on ft again after your 50 points.)

But, all in all I made 12 something, so new bankroll is $145.70.

You are certainly more talented than me. I try to stick with nlhm most of the time and other games I only play the freerolls or the forum games until I get the hang of them. I play holdem fairly well but have trouble getting my bankroll up there. I did better last year playing in tournaments mainly, and I managed to get my carbon bankroll over $300 and withdrew it than lost the rest. I have started with nothing though, playing mostly forum freerolls and then buyin's after i get in the $$. I admit this year I have lost my patience and started playing to many hands. Most of my $$ is less than min buyin at most sites now except carbon where I continue to break even. Hope to see ya in the next game. Checkermate

Thanks, I still haven't hit the $300 mark, I like the tournaments on other sites, but the privte games on full tilt have too big a fee and not very many cash added. I think depositing a little bit definitely helps get the ball rolling. It seems like making money at poker is kind of a exponential growth type deal as long as you can beat the next limit before you get there.

I played a little today and yesterday and have been down 15 and then back up 5 from my previous bankroll, I started running really bad at all the draw games, couldn't make a pair in stud and couldn't not make a boat when I started good in razz. I need to be less results oriented at the table and I'd save myself some money when I start running bad. I got outside my rules that I set out, and yeah all in all not a smart day and a half.
But, new bankroll is 150.58

Pretty awesome turn of events today! So I deposited my check from absolute a couple days ago and today I got a notice saying the check was being held for insufficient funds, but it will be available on the 18th. I find it pretty ridiculous that whoever absolute does there checks through has insufficient funds to cover the checks they write, but anyway I talked to the live chat help about it and they put my 8 dollar check processing fee back in my account. I decided I'd try and see if I could get that back up to $58, the minimum withdraw amount, so I put the 8 dollars in my account on a $1/2 shorthanded table and got it up to $25, then I jumped over to a $2/4 8 man horse table where only one person was sitting and ended up taking 25 off him to get it up to $50, then lost $20 at stud h/l. I really just want to focus on full tilt so I put my remaining 30 on the line at black jack and hit ace 10, so now I have a check for $68 on the way from absolute because my $8 processing fee got refunded!

Also made 11 dollars this morning on full tilt at 20c/40c horse, so all in all awesome day, I played for an hour and a half in my probability and statistics class and an hour and a half before my first class this morning and made $79! New bankroll 161.36 and I've got 5 or 6 bucks coming tomorrow from my rakeback for the week!

My hot streak continues! I took a stab at the .50/$1, 7-game, I'm just barely rolled for 25c/50c so probably shouldn't have, but I was feeling really good about my game this morning and decided I was okay if I lost my $15 buy-in, but ended up winning 18 something, plus got my rake back for the week!

New bankroll 182.53! I feel like i'm playing extremely well right now, I've learned a lot about plo in the past few days and that's actually the game i've made the most at the past 2 sessions! I suppose time will tell whether the last two months are a true representation of my play or if I've just been running above average, but I'm definitely pleased with turning my money over 9-fold in 6 weeks, and hopefully I can continue to improve my game and beat the new levels as they come!

cheers,
Chad

Played heads up 7-game, 10c/20c, and won 7 something, then 20c/40c 6-max and won a good bit over 2 sessions. New bankroll 200.31!

cheers,
Chad

I am in fact immature, lacking discipline, and dumb. Once I learn how to bring my A-game to the table every time I play and quit when I don't, I'll make some decent money at poker and have more fun.

Well I'll give y'all the run down, I bought in for $10 at a 7-game, and I'd just made my active challenge on full tilt poker academy jennifer harman's sizing up your opponents, one of the challenges was to win a pot preflop without a pair, or an ace. A couple hands in, I'm in the bb, the button raises 3x, I decide 34 off is prolly good enough to complete the challenge, I re-pop him, then oh crap he calls, flop comes 456, I have bottom pair and am open ended on a board he is likely to have missed, if I remember correctly I check raise him, long story short I'm an idiot, he had pocket queens and i missed my straight, I lost my ten, def not on tilt yet, but 3 or 4 bad beats and 40 dollars later, I'm steaming. I quit for the day, come back the next day take another bad run, don't move down limits, lose another almost 50 dollars, down to 107, take a break then decide I'm going to win it back playing $1/$2 no limit (did I mention I lack discipline) I buy in for 100, 4 hands in I have A 5 in late position, I make it $6 button calls, two to the flop, comes A 5 4, button checks I bet 10 or so, button calls, turn is a 7, button checks I bet about pot, button pushes all in, I call without considering what they could have, they have 6 8, river is a king. New bankroll 7 something! I took a break for a bit, turns out you get a lot of rake back when you play games so far over your bankroll, so after rake back I was basically back to my originial 20 dollar deposit.

Since then I've played within my bankroll and discovered the art of multi-tabling, and realized that if I'm ever going to build a decent bankroll I have to gain some maturity and discipline. Twice now I've got to around 200 dollars on different sites and just drove my bankroll off a cliff. It seems like thats about the amount when I start caring about the money and seeing that I can actually make something at poker, then a downswing is more upsetting and I hardcore tilt. I need to learn to be less results oriented and more focused on strengthening my game and consistently making the right plays, win or lose.

But ya, lately I've been reading a lot and multi-tabling 5c/10c limit hold-em, I'll generally open up 5 or 6 tables and play in 30 minute or so increments so I don't get too mentally exhausted, the bad beats tend to get evened out and a lot of times I don't even see them happen which has kept me off tilt in my losing sessions so far, but I haven't beenr really tested with a bad run. Playing 5-6 tables also tends to even out the variance, so most sessions I win $4-6, take a couple bad beats and hit a couple monsters, then take a break. My bankroll now stands at $64.98.

I play almost no live poker, but last night one of my friends was headed up to Blackhawk (in Colorado thats where the casinos are) to play some poker and I decided to tag along, I figured it'd be a good time, win or lose and I just turned 21 a month ago, so I hadn't been up yet, so I decided I would have fun, if I lost $150 then I'd be done and it wouldn't be a big deal. I sat down and was a little nervous. I took about 2 revolutions to kind of figure out the table, and with every single player at the table my initial evaluation of how well they probably played was lessened. Everyone was awful, the standard raise was 5-6 times the big blind but went up or down from there based on their hand strength for the most part, aces or kings would often raise 7-8 times the big blind, and any pocket pair would open limp from any position and then call the huge raise by someone in position on them to see the flop. Sometimes they hit and it was easy to put them on a set, but mostly they missed and kissed their 12 dollars they paid to see the flop goodbye. I could go on and on about how bad they played, but all in all it was fun I played for 4 hours, couldn't catch a decent starting hand to save my life, won 5 pots and made 72 dollars. I think it'll be quite a while before I go back, I really don't want to lose 150 dollars until my online winnings can justify putting that much on the table or I graduate and get a job as an engineer and 150 doesn't seem so steep. Phew, long post, thanks for reading!
Cheers,
Chad

Yeah man I liked reading through your blog. I skimmed the first part and read your final post word for word. I felt like I could be writing the same thing dude. You've got alot going for ya! Especially youth and wisdom to follow through with school. As far as poker goes I'm about where your as far as bankroll fluctuations. I do the same thing and need to learn to go down in limits when I'm losing. When I'm best is at .05/10 mult-tabling(4) nlhe or plo. Although variance in Omaha is brutal. I talk about tilting after the fact but am working on establishing discipline during. I've only been at it a year so I've got a lot to learn. I reread Chris Ferguson's bankroll management post alot and think if you are tilting stop long enough to go there and reread. I'm telling myself this as I type it to you. Even bad beats can be lessons learned for future money saved.
Good luck to you bro and I enjoyed your blog.

Thanks for the post! Yeah, Chris Ferguson's bankroll stuff is great, especially if you're like me and tend to tilt fairly easily, i think its too tight to be optimal, but its definitely good for someone such as myself.

In my mind I took a huge step forward in the past couple days! I was up just over 60 which is more than 300 big bets for 10c/20c so I jumped up, then I took some really sick beats and my bankroll dropped back down to 58ish, so I moved down to 5c/10c until I got back up to 60, took more bad beats, moved back down, took more beats, took a break, then made it back up to 60 something again and went back up! Haha, prolly seems dumb but for me that is a huge step! I watched ali nejad's 10/20 and 8/16 limit hold em sessions on full tilt poker academy applied a few things and its amazing how quick you see a difference when you're playing several tables at the same time! I decided to ease back my aggression with ak or similar hands when I airball the flop in multi-way pots, before I'd fire a hopeless continuation bet when its clear that I'm behind someone that came in with a ragged starting hand and found at least a pair or two, really big leak in my opinion, instantly saved me a good bit. I also jumped my tables down to 4 and I think that or 5 might be my magic number for now!

Anyway, after my changes I made it back to 60 something at 5c/10c and took another stab at 10c/20c, absolutely crushed the game, new bankroll $82.42!

Tried playing 6 tables of 10c/20c went well for a couple sessions, new bankroll 101.00. I'm definitely getting better at taking the inevitable bad beats in stride!
cheers,
Chad

I played a tournament for the first time in quite a while, I finished 12th of 687 and got $16.49, I was bouncing around the top 4 spots for quite a while, I was in 4th I raised on the button with queens, the bb was in 3rd and had been very active, they pushed I called they had tens, caught a set and went on to win $293 with my chips , even when I do well in tournaments if I don't win I'm upset afterward so prolly will continue to avoid the tournaments, but I feel like I played it very well. I also released 10 of my holiday hundred promotion! New bankroll $133.20. I'm excited to move on to 25c/50c shortly, I think multitabling that should turn some decent profits!
cheers,
Chad

Tried multi-tabling some 3.50 9 man ultra turbos, combo of me sucking at em and a horrible horrible run of luck took a chunk out of my roll, also hit some bad streaks at 10c/20c limit, Bankroll 108.65, I feel like I'm playing extremely well, I've found a pretty good multi-tabling groove for limit, the vast majority of the time I lose a hand its because I got drawn out on after the flop, I feel like my game is pretty strong, just gotta keep doin what I'm doin and learning along the way, and i'll be on to 25c/50c in no time.

This situation often arises in limit, but I'm not sure exactly how to handle it. I flop top pair good kicker on the flop, bet out, get flat called on the flop, bet, then get raised on the turn. I'm generally beat at this point in a hand, but if I make a habit out of folding top pair in this situation I feel like I become highly exploitable, I think at 10c/20c i can count on people not being observant enough to start making this play with weak hands against me, but what do you guys think? Is this a fold situation in limit when its only going to cost me 2 extra bets to get to showdown or am I right in seeing it through, although I seem to be beat often enough to make it profitable to fold?

I wasn't on a bad beat table unfortunately, but I just saw quad queens get beat by kings!!!! Wow, def never figured I'd see a bad beat actually happen, the odds against it are insane. Thought it was kind of weird that nobody said anything about it in the chat, but everyone was from some crazy country so yeah.

cheers,
Chad

Like most of poker, it depends on the player raising, the preflop betting and what hands you could put him on.

If he's an agressive player and thinks he can buy you out of the pot or a tight player that may or may not have you beat with 2 pair or trips or an agressive chaser if there are draws on the board, or a loose player who overvalues mid or bottom pair, it just depends.

I don't think making a "rule" about folding top pair is the right move. There are too many variables in poker to do that.

callmenuts56 I love your fucking blog. You have great shit keep on posting man keep on posting!. I love it I love it I love it. Finally a player who is thinking on my process not like all the way at my brain but ur about 70% to where my brain pattern is finally someone else who has a brain pattern like me.

I like your thought process so much from what Ive read so far. You defintly got a monkey brain like me and I like it!

haha, you're a crazy bastard despise! I'll def keep posting!

Thanks for the input Frost! Its kind of tough to categorize players that well while multitabling, but I'll def have to think through those things with my limited information next time the situation arises. It seems like poker tracker or something might help establish those categories when paying close attention isn't an option, I haven't used one before, but I can definitely see how it could be a useful tool, especially while multi-tabling.

I 5-tabled 10c/20c limit during my study breaks today and made a good profit. New bankroll 138.74! I'm $2.50 away from releasing another $10 of my holiday hundred, so I should be taking a stab at 25c/50c really soon! I've got a final in Probability and Statistics and Differential Equations tomorrow, then Mechanics of Materials Tuesday, and Macroeconomics Thursday, then Christmas Break! I've got a break from wrestling and school so I'll probably be playing a lot of poker in the next few weeks, hopefully I can improve my game a bunch and beat 25c/50c pretty well in the upcoming weeks

cheers,
Chad