Operation: Get in the Ring(Finished)

The mission: Get good at fullring

Starting Point: $330 BR at 10NL at Pokerstars

Short-term goal: Beat 10NL

Long-term goal: Grind my way through the micros.

Background: My names Carl, I'm from that small country off the coast of Australia known as New Zealand. I'm currently second year uni doing a BSc majoring in Computer Science. Well... not technically second year but I will be in a month or so. I've liked poker for about a year and a half. But didn't get into online poker till about June this year. I broke my knee and had to move back in with my parents for a couple of months, where I clocked up a few weeks learning the basics. Starting with SNgs and then after finding FTR moving onto cash games. I grinded up to 25NL through a few kickback bonuses and was pretty much breakeven over a few thousand hands.

Then my leg got better... I resumed second semester and withdrew my roll to pay some overdue rent. Haven't really played since, till....

...A couple of weeks ago, I deposited $150 onto Neteller, and cleared a boogster kickback bonus at Hollywood poker playing DoNs(Yawn) getting my roll to its current state and also paying for my Small stakes edition of Holdem Manager.

Today I started playing cash games, and I'm following Robb's first 5k of NL guide (here) to ensure I take things nice and slow. I'm in no rush to jump up through the limits, I'm going to ensure I can comfortably bet 10NL over a reasonable sample before jumping up to 25NL and I'm going to be following good bankroll principles.

Well since thats all been said...

Todays progress:
Nitting it up!
772 hands, $-2.70, -3.50BB/100, VP 11%, PFR 8.5%
trouble hands Homework posted in Beginners Circle.
Thoughts: It was good been back playing Cash games after grinding those frikn DoNs for the last couple weeks. Even though I was down a few dollars for the day I felt I played reasonably well and didn't get into too many awkward/stupid spots.
I'll keep ya posted on my progress.

Thanks guys

Carl good luck buddy. I'll be checking in on your progress. I to want to follow Robbs plan and see how I can do. Not sure if I'm upto writing a "Blog/Operation" on it or not.
Play smart and win lots!

Originally Posted by nice_aiau

The mission: Get good at fullring

Starting Point: $330 BR at 10NL at Pokerstars

Short-term goal: Beat 10NL

intermediate goal: Grind my way through the micros.

long term goal: move up to mid stakes as a winning player, keep winning

fy goals

Originally Posted by nice_aiau

I'm from New Zealand.

nh
i'll follow with interest, taking a look at those hands you posted shortly. Comment on the ones I posted today - two in full ring, one in short handed - explaining your reasoning. Good training.

two days in:
2725 hands, $-1.75, -0.64BB/100,
VP 10.9%, PFR 7.9%

Still nitting it up but slowly adding more hands to my button/cutoff range by following Robbs noobie guide. I'll post my homework hands later on tonight.
edit: Here

Not running hot, not running bad. Had a few too many sets over sets(here which kinda sucks... but still a small sample size.

After Another small session:

3450hands, $22.50, 6.5bb/100
Ev adjusted: $41.40 12.1bb/100

VP 11.2% PFR 8%

My graphs finally going up hill...
Which I'm quite pleased about.

Note: I'm only playing 4-5tables at a time at the moment thats why my hands are small. In no hurry to add more tables, that'd be a bad idea I think.

I'll post a screenshots of stats when I reach 10k hands.

Nice rather deep hand against ATM,

I normally don't stay at a table if my effective stack is this deep, I don't feel comfortable in alot of OOP spots etc. So try and avoid.
But I think leaving was definetly -ev.

Hes running 88/14/1.6 over 88 hands.
With a 95% limp call range.
Seen him show down with numerous mediocre hands for large pots. He also tried bluffing me off NFD with third pair. So I wuuuuv this guy.

I checked the flop to ensure I got more value from hands that his range would be 88-jj. I mainly put his range completely on pocket pairs to be calling a 35bb 3bet PF. But now that I think about it this was a mistake and I should have just lead the flop. Hes so bad that hes practically calling with any overpair.




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

MP2 ($17.15)
MP3 ($19)
Hero (CO) ($19.70)
Button ($14.05)
SB ($10)
BB ($7.45)
UTG ($13.25)
UTG+1 ($6.40)
MP1 ($30.10)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A, A
2 folds, MP1 raises to $1, 1 fold, MP3 calls $1, Hero raises to $4.50, 3 folds, MP1 calls $3.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($10.15) 7, 2, 5 (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($10.15) 9 (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $7, MP1 raises to $14, Hero raises to $15.20 (All-In), MP1 calls $1.20

River: ($40.55) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $40.55 | Rake: $2

Results in white below:
MP1 had 5, 5 (full house, fives over sevens).
Hero mucked A, A (two pair, Aces and sevens).
Outcome: MP1 won $38.55

i like to see someone with a bigger bankroll than the average 50 dollars i've seen on other operations. If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take you in micros to get where you are. I am actually trying to track multiple people trying the same thing that i am. Which is the Ferguson (as its so well known now). Freeroll into big money and i have yet to discipline myself enough to do it. I get my roll to 50-100 bucks tops and go crazy with it playing big games. Is there any tip you can give me on limiting that sort of activity or thought of getting big fast. I appreciate the info and it's good to see a grinder busting things up a little and not talking about the same ole crap of 1 cent two cent as the rest of us.

Carl I think that is why they tell us not to try and get to sneaky with the fish, less we remember we to have a few fins about us. With that said from the sounds of this guys previous plays I to would have been tempted to slow play him. But still best to try and get it all in preflop!
Keep grinding away buddy and keep following the plan!

Originally Posted by chadherczeg

i like to see someone with a bigger bankroll than the average 50 dollars i've seen on other operations. If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take you in micros to get where you are. I am actually trying to track multiple people trying the same thing that i am. Which is the Ferguson (as its so well known now). Freeroll into big money and i have yet to discipline myself enough to do it. I get my roll to 50-100 bucks tops and go crazy with it playing big games. Is there any tip you can give me on limiting that sort of activity or thought of getting big fast. I appreciate the info and it's good to see a grinder busting things up a little and not talking about the same ole crap of 1 cent two cent as the rest of us.

Cheers mate, Ummm I deposited 100bucks on hollywood poker using a boogster kickback bonus, and grinded out about 400 $2 double or nothing sit n gos. Which combined with the deposit bonus gave me a 300ish roll. Then went to pokerstars and thats when I started this Op.
So I never grinded 1c/2c or 2c/5c. Freerolling to start a roll like Ferguson done, would take incredible discipline and be extremely frustrating. I suggest making a deposit(if you can) and slowly grind it up from there, playing well within your bankroll. I know its tempting to play bigger games, but poker isn't a quick money making scheme, and you'll just go broke.
U cash or SNG?

Originally Posted by HarleyGuy13

Carl I think that is why they tell us not to try and get to sneaky with the fish, less we remember we to have a few fins about us. With that said from the sounds of this guys previous plays I to would have been tempted to slow play him. But still best to try and get it all in preflop!
Keep grinding away buddy and keep following the plan!

There was no slow playing PF. I 3bet a pretty standard amount there, especially both been this deep. I slowplayed the flop that was pretty stupid. But anyway you look at it. I was essentially losing my money whatever I done.

After another 2 two hour sessions:

5321hands, $43.65, 8.20bb/100, 11.7%VP, 8.3%PFR.

Have been aiming at doing alot more stealing recently. Still needs alot of work, currently at 18.9%. For the first 3000ish hands it was single figures.
I'm also working on 3betting obvious cutoff steals from the button.

I think I need to start getting up early(here in NZ) because I'm currently playing most of my sessions at offpeak times where its alot more nitty.

A day or two before I move on from Robbs noobie guide to Rentons. I've read the first part, which I'll reread in about 30seconds.

Haven't updated for a few days.

Started running quite bad, and also doing stupid payoffs with flushs on paired boards etc.
Graph dropped back down to pretty much breakeven.

total profit of $5.45(0.73bb/100) over 7.5k hands. If I use the EV adjusted figure it makes me feel better, $44.61(5.97bb/100)

I subscribed to grinderschool and watched a couple of videos. Only got a micro subscription at the moment. But quite pleased with the content.

Earlier today I thought I'd give 6max a try as I downloaded quite a few of the grinderschool videos, and also have gigs of Deucescracked ones which I downloaded a while ago.

6max is awesome
Could I run any hotter...

1389Hands, $114.05, 82bb/100; EV adjusted 78.56, 56bb/100
Also my wins without showdown was positive which I haven't seen on one of my graphs before. I was only running at an agression factor of 3.5. Obviously people just weren't picking up hands.

People happily stack off with tpwk, and all sorts of garbage. I can't believe I haven't tried it seriously before. I like the fact that Your playing in position alot more. Cause I fkn suck OOP.

Anyhow, Im going to play alot more hands, as this obviously a ridiculous heater and see how things go.
heh, I might even have to change the operations title.

So far so Good.

Edit: Hands

Carl sounds like you're on a good roll, keep it going. Hey would you give as much feed back on GrinderSchool as you're comfortable doing. I'm really thinking that may be what I need to get to the next level. Your opinion would be appreciated!

Hey Harley, how ya doing.

Well the micro subscription is pretty good value. I don't know really any other places on the net that have many 10nl videos. So its an excellent resource.

Heres what cash videos are avaliable:
http://grinderschool.com/grinderschool-poker-strategy-video-listings.php?stakes=&sort=&tag=$10nl#sub

I'll only keep my subscription valid for the rest of this month to download the 10nl videos. I'll probably fully subscribe once I move up. Cause theres alot more videos at higher levels. I've watched a couple of spendas videos and one by jyms.
Both cover excellent concepts.

For a more complete review and comments from other people, check this:
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...te-t78487.html
(rilla does quite a good review on it about 2/3rds down the page)
You should have a look brosive.

Haven't updated In a while...

I Shifted my roll to partypoker to clear a PSO kickback bonus, Realising when I got there, that there was no 6max 10nl tables. So currently grinding the bonus playing FR 0.5/1.0 Limit. I did play about 20hands of 25nl 6max, which ended up me losing a full buyin by been an idiot.

I'm pretty rubbish at limit, but won't be playing it for long:
1780hands -$5.64 -0.63bb 12.2VP 7.6PFR
Ive paid 37dollars in rake for a bonus of $135. I deposited 150 onto party so I think I might clear the whole lot. Its only taking this many hands to clear about 30% of it.

Also, after clearing this bonus should I go to fulltilt or keep clearing random kickback bonuses and wait till I'm playing like 50nl?

once you got $600 and feel solid at 25nl you should probably give FT a shot.
keep on grinding up, and nice work on the party bonus

Haven't updated in a while.
Still clearing some kickbacks. After they all come through roll will be at about 1k(plus withdrew 300dollars for new years festivities). Which is when I'll make the move to Fulltilt and start grinding 25nl, So should be in a few weeks.

Pretty fricking excited about playing at fulltilt, haven't been using HEM on the ipoker and ongame skins Ive been kickbacking. So Itll be good to run on some nice software etc again. And also play some real poker. Rather then donkaments.

Does the 10nl rake suck real bad at FT? Cause I wanna play about 10k hands of 10nl before playing 25nl so I know I can beat the lower step before climbing.
I was thinking if the rake was really a killer, I'll play the 10kish hands at pokerstars.

Thoughts?

I'll begin a new Op when I shift to FT

Ops pretty much finished, just started a new one which can be found here

Hope everyone had a good Xmas & New years, and good luck for your goals for 2009.

Originally Posted by nice_aiau

Haven't updated in a while.
Still clearing some kickbacks. After they all come through roll will be at about 1k(plus withdrew 300dollars for new years festivities). Which is when I'll make the move to Fulltilt and start grinding 25nl, So should be in a few weeks.

$150 - $1300 in 6weeks?!?! vnh!

Yer bro,

Kickback bonuses are nice. especially a couple I found on ipoker that were like 2000 hands of 0.5/1 LHE for about 200bucks.
Hpefully see you at the tables soon, heh

here's hoping that those bonuses are still alive and kicking by the time May rolls around!
2k hands of limit for $200, that's like $100/hr!

Check out boogster.
What's happening in may? You leaving FT?

Originally Posted by nice_aiau

Check out boogster.
What's happening in may? You leaving FT?

will do
check my op-thread