RipperJ's Operation 1K

A bit of history: I would definitely call myself a beginner even tho I have been playing off and on for the last 2 years (online that is). I began like a lot of other fishies, where I saw some NL Holdem on tv and just had to play! I won some money in freerolls and as many do, I played way out of my BR and quickly lost it. Over the last 2 summers I had made deposits and lost probably ~ $400.

This May I was craving some more poker and I signed up for FTR (I had seen/known about it b4). I had never really had much luck in cash, so I turned to SNGs and read alot of the articles and went through alot of the material on the SNG forum. This time I was actually being successful and grinded my initial deposit up to about $680. Although I was winning with a decent ROI, always above 25%, I sort of found SNGs boring and I always hear that cash is where the money is at. Also, I am interested in MTTs, but don't have the time to make them my main game.

After my SNG success I fluxuated between $400 and $600 while dabbing in cash and playing some MTTs and SNGs when all else failed. Now I am playing 20NL on iPoker, with the occasional MTT and want to become a winning cash player and get to $1000 and begin 50NL.

I have PT and have already played 1500 of FR and am down about 3 buy-ins. My current BR stands at $350, but am going to continue at 20NL unless I drop below $280.

In this thread I hope to guide myself to success by forcing myself to analyze my own play through posting hands, and hopefully have others examine them too. I don't want to set a hard timeline for reaching 1k, but I would like to get there by next year, even tho that is very far away (sort of).

I know that the first thousand is the toughest thousand and I can't wait to get there!!

Wow!! I have lost $100 playing 20NL... I know its a small sample. I just don't feel like I am getting any luck. Everytime I got a nice pf hand every1 folds. I try to select good tables.

I was -$38 in my last session. Here is one of my losing hands:

CD Poker Invincible 0.10/0.20

Button bechir ($34.23)
SB Winischi ($3.70)
BB Number8899 ($28.75)
UTG avavah ($18.62)
UTG+1 Hero ($20)
MP bbbuzzed ($20.80)
MP Jasucri999 ($10.23)
CO-1 MrMardyBum ($69.38)
CO NeryArg ($19.87)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with K K
1 fold, Hero raises to 0.80, 1 fold, Jasucri999 calls 0.80, 5 folds.

Flop (1.90) 9 2 6
Hero bets 1.20, Jasucri999 calls 1.20.

Turn (4.30) 6
Hero bets 3.40, Jasucri999 moves all-in for 8.23, Hero calls 4.83.

River (20.76) 5

Hero shows K K
Jasucri999 shows 6 4

Jasucri999 wins 20.76 with Three of a kind, Six's

Now my BR is down around $310.
I really feel that I am playing well sometimes and not as well other times. When I am playing on top of my game and being patient and being true TAGG then I usually do well, barring bad luck. I really need some breaks to get my confidence up and I need to play consistently well and not fall into tilt or allow my attention to draw away from the tables!

First of all good luck with this.
Reaching 1k is probably the best feeling for a beginning player.

I wont comment on the hands because I'm not exactly a cash game expert, but with regards to choosing cash over sng's:

I think it might be best to be bored for a while and grind your roll up to 1k playing sng's, and then make the switch to cash at the $50NL level.
Many may disagree with this but I think that the style of play you need to beat the $20NL games isn't really teaching you good poker in general. You'll learn how to set mine and play big pairs, but all the smaller aspects will generally go unseen.

Plus it's probably safer and lower variance to play the lower level sng's.

Just my two cents.

Thanks for the advice! I played some $11 SNGs today and i bubbled out a couple of times and only got 1 second place.

I also played some MTTs and am currently still in 2. Assuming I bust out of all MTTs my BR will stand at a mere $275!

I think I am going to grind it out at the $5 SNGs for a while because they should be easy to beat. I was trying to play the $11 turbos but the structure is awful on iPoker imo. I don't know why they have to give less starting chips for a turbo (1000 instead of the usual 1500).

-Ripper

Haven't had much time to play in the last 2 days. I have play 7 $5.50 SNGs and I decided to try the 6 man ones. I got 1 first and 2 seconds for a profit of $0.50 (lol). I think the real SNG money is in the full table or multi-table SNGs? Any suggestions on this? I know I can beat the 6-mans for a 20% ROI in the long run, but are they more profitable than the others SNGs available. On iPoker the blinds are shorter in the 6 mans than in the 10 mans (i dunno if it is like this every where), so they play fairly quickly. Most 6-mans finish in 30-40 mins!

I won about $7 in 100 20NL FR hands.


Current BR - $283

Grinded my BR up to $295 yesterday, with only time to play 4 SNGs. I played 2 of the full table (10-man) tournies and 2 6-man tournies. I continued to run bad in the short handed tables, but finished with 2 ITMs in the full table ones. I got a 2nd and 3rd tho and could not pull out a win. One second out of the 2 6-man tournies also helped contribute $9 to my BR and was an ok result. I am done with the 6-man tournies now, as you really need to come first to win a prize. $9 for second is crap.

Here is an interesting hand that I also posted in the SNG forum from my session:

Tallinn 20/40, hand converted by the iPoker Converter (http://www.talking-poker.com/hands/converter.aspx) at Talking-Poker (http://www.talking-poker.com)

Button moessmer00 (1580)
SB chiboulinette (3710)
BB tabbadonna (3000)
UTG Hero (1470)
UTG+1 winder1 (1790)
MP quiz2 (1270)
CO-1 bixenteo (1030)
CO totoallin (1150)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Qs Kd
Hero raises to 120, winder1 calls 120, 1 fold, bixenteo calls 120, 2 folds, chiboulinette calls 100, tabbadonna calls 80.

Flop (600) 5c Kc 9s
chiboulinette bets 120, tabbadonna raises to 240, Hero calls 240, 2 folds, chiboulinette calls 120.

Turn (1320) Kh
chiboulinette bets 120, tabbadonna calls 120, Hero calls 120.

River (1680) Js
chiboulinette bets 200, tabbadonna moves all-in for 2520, Hero moves all-in for 990, chiboulinette calls 2320



I almost puked when the 3rd guy called !! :P


Current BR - $295

I had a nice boost of $121.50 to my BR tonight by finishing 3/110 in a $5.50 R&A MTT. I was disappointed in not getting 1st or at least second because at one point I had the chip lead 3 way. I lost on an AI pf with AJ vs. AQ.

The payment for second was double what I got, but thats ok! Not bad imo for my first MTT FT. It really feels good!

Current BR: $411.54 !!

So, I have been sticking to SNGs and MTTs the last 2 days and moved up to the 11s. I have been very successful so far and have won 2 out of 3 that I have played. I have had a minor cash in a MTT and a couple losses. I also had some losses at the 5.50s b4 I decided to move to the 11s. Since I have beat the 11s before, once my BR got over 400 I knew that I should move up. Last time I played the 11s with 300 so I am more than ok now!

I really want to post some hands but its hard to find a good converter (or any converter for that matter) for iPoker.
Here are my stats straight from sharkscope. They summarize all sngs I have played so far obvioulsy...

Games Played - 18
Av. Stake - $7
Av. ROI - 39%
Total Profit - $71


Current BR- $450

I am really all over the place with my poker game... going from ring to sng and playing the odd mtt here and there. Well, once again I am moving to ring from sngs. I will continue with 20NL on iPoker. It is just a lot funner for me and it makes bonus clearing a lot faster. I have already put in about 1000 hands over the past 3 days.

I started with FR but it has really turned into a rock garden even with good table selection. I won a buy-in, but then while browsing through the 6-max tables and seeing the much higher avg. pots and ppf I had to switch to 6-max. I have really tightened up my game to reduce variance and it has worked. I re-read all the articles on 6-max and I feel that I am ready to beat this incredibly soft game. So far, over 300 hands I am +35.26 in 6-max and also received a $10 bonus payment.


Current BR: 446.24

lol... as u can see it went down... this is due to some SNG losses b4 my swich and the occasional $5 - $10 mtt that I have played.

I will post some of my interesting hands here later.

yay!!!!!!

iPoker 4k guaranteed FO
Buy-in: $5.50
Entrants: 973
Place: 4

WINNINGS!!: $243.25

I am very happy for myself for my second mtt final table in the last week, but the money rly goes up in the top 3 places and I wish i could have made it up there!!


Current BR: $689.78

Nice job bro! Best of luck w/ this... I just switched to NLHE a month or so ago, playing solely FR. Learning lots, making a little, it's all good. Glad to hear u r well on your way!

A very nice afternoon for me because I won 2.5 buy-ins in just over 100 hands of play. I am free to keep playing but decided to take a little break.

One hand accounted for 2 of these buy-ins, where I tripled up !

GAME #627728080: Texas Hold'em NL $0.10/$0.20 2007-08-15 19:59:42
Table "TURBO" Kouts
Seat 1: jellisimo ($30.52 in chips)
Seat 3: DocMacke ($29.59 in chips)
Seat 5: carpmaster11 ($17.44 in chips)
Seat 6: GregorZamZa ($33.53 in chips)
Seat 10: TDoTfishy ($21.74 in chips) DEALER
jellisimo: Post SB $0.10
DocMacke: Post BB $0.20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TDoTfishy [4h 4d]
carpmaster11: Fold
GregorZamZa: Raise $0.80
TDoTfishy: Call $0.80
jellisimo: Call $0.70
DocMacke: Fold
*** FLOP *** [Jc 5c 4s]
jellisimo: Check
GregorZamZa: Bet $1.00
TDoTfishy: Raise $2.80
jellisimo: Call $2.80
GregorZamZa: Call $1.80
*** TURN *** [As]
jellisimo: Check
GregorZamZa: Check
TDoTfishy: Bet $8.00
jellisimo: Call $8.00
GregorZamZa: Call $8.00
*** RIVER *** [Kd]
jellisimo: Allin $18.92
GregorZamZa: Call $18.92
TDoTfishy: Allin $10.14
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $81.98 Rake $1.00
GregorZamZa: wins side pot $17.56
TDoTfishy: wins main pot $64.42

lol... the first guy who pushed AI on riv had a busted flush draw that turned into a pair of Ks and the guy who called b4 me had AK.


Current BR: $742.10