First few steps

(admins, I started a blog with the following post. I hadn't realised the blogs were an admin-offering only so I've copied/pasted it here)

This is a starting post to basically give a background to my poker life, philosophy and goals for the future beginning in 2008.

Having been around cards for 1/2 my life, it actually took me a long time to truly get into poker. I was a typical fish, having instincts and a knack for being a serious loose-aggressive player. However when you are just starting out it’s not a good idea to use the wife’s bankroll as a way of “learning life’s lessons”. My ups and downs hit me hard, going from $5 to $300 and back again within days sent me completely on tilt and I took a leave of absence from poker for almost a year. Now I’m back and I plan to be a lot more disciplined - well, as much as possible.

So now I’m using Party freebies as a way of building up a BR totally created and run by poker. This means working from 1,000s of players just to reach the money starting at a few cents but this will teach me the patience of grinding. I’ve decided to focus on making sure to always get ITM, building my patience and skills so that I can pretty much make the final table. It’ll take some time to build up the BR to what I need to move over to cash tables, but it’s something I feel is the right way for me to go about things. I’m looking to go from $0 to $50 within a maximum of two months using the freerolls. If I don’t make it by then I need a lot more work to my game.

A.

There are a few players I could name off the top of my head that are/were FTR regulars who went from $0 to $xxxx+ with poker. Good luck.

Since my aim is to be on cash tables within two months I'm going to be updating this every Sunday after a week's worth of Freerolls.

Playing these tournies is showing me a lot about my game. I've always played very loose-aggressive, mixing up my hands to the point I've (seemingly) put other players on tilt. Today I've played a lot tighter, basically trying to rock my way into the money on some of the tournies. It's tough having a field of 2,000 players+, with some getting up to 7-8,000 players, especially when most of them have a huge range of hands.

My goal is to win money. My tournament play needs work so that I can get onto the final table but I'll be working on that more once I start the $1 MTTs. Free rolls are just a completely insane beast. I played 6 tournaments today, 5 NL and 1 limit and I'm using Siknd's bankroll management spreedsheet.

Stats for today:

Played 6
ITM: 2
Earnings: $0.69
90+ Percentile finish: 4
BR: $0.69

Goal:
MTTs: $14.31 remaining
Cash: $74:31 remaining

A.

Your first goal should be a mind towards adaptation. Stating that you are just "A loose aggressive player who tilts everyone", is ok if you understand that it's not the most effective style to beat low levels.

Loose aggressive + Low levels = Spew (generally speaking of course)

Tight aggressive and semi-tight passive will hammer the competition you face right now in the general sense. Eventually you will find all styles work in tandem as a dynamic fluid movement against the full spectrum of players at all levels. Lag against tags, loose passive against laggs, etc.

Originally Posted by Rondavu

Your first goal should be a mind towards adaptation. Stating that you are just "A loose aggressive player who tilts everyone", is ok if you understand that it's not the most effective style to beat low levels.

Loose aggressive + Low levels = Spew (generally speaking of course)

Which is exactly what finally sunk into my head today during the tournaments. I've been able to get deeper into the field because of exactly what you was talking about here.

Tight aggressive and semi-tight passive will hammer the competition you face right now in the general sense.

That's why I said my goal is to make money. There's no point in me bullying the players around me if I'm spewing away the chips I'm winning just as fast.

Eventually you will find all styles work in tandem as a dynamic fluid movement against the full spectrum of players at all levels. Lag against tags, loose passive against laggs, etc.

That's my hope and why I'm focusing on getting enough BR to start on the low-limit tables.

A.

Since last Sunday things have been a roller coaster. I've tried to force things to happen faster than the grinding was allowing due to financial constraints. Bad. Idea. Period.

Results:

Played 43
ITM: 12
Total Earnings: $0.45
90+ Percentile finish: 13
BR: $10.76

Goal:
MTTs: $4.24 remaining
Cash: $64.24 remaining

If I had stayed away from the $3 S'n'Gs and Cash tables I would have been up to over $20 in BR. This week is all about me focusing completely on the Free Rolls and Bankroll management. I can't afford to take myself over to the main tables yet.

A.