the first 10k are the hardest...

So this thread will be nothing but smooth sailing imo.

It's almost a year of recorded poker history for me now.
My last OP started with a 4k BR and got lost somewhere after I cracked 10k, so I'm restarting this.
In the meantime I cashed out a lot. Bought gta4, had to get a new mainboard and graphics card so I could play it, then I bought a car, a new drumset, an iphone... so in short: I suck @ money.
Last month I cashed out most from FTP because of the alleged account hijacking gayness... some went into a bwin account, but I didn't play because the software is absurdly bad, so I cashed that out... 1k is still on my MB account, and some money on Boss.
Like it goes with that sort of stuff, the cashout was followed by a 2k downswong @200NL which left me with 3k online in total. Instead of redepositing I decided to rebuild from 50NL which is now going on for about 25 days and 40k hands because I suck @ running hot. Will go back to 100NL when I'm back to 5k

Anyway... doing fine... long break even strech, but no drama.

This is it so far:
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3117/lifetime.gif


This is just 50NL, you can guess where the rebuilding started, lohlz:
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4517/15751386.gif

I'll be playing tons of PL and NLHE with ante on FT. Will add in some heads-up and plo as long as I'm down there.

Got a prop bet with someone on volume for october... I forgot who. If you're reading this, pls remind lohlz.

gl dude. I've done the rebuild a couple of times due to impulsive spending also, im such a douche. If i'd not spent most of it i could have made way more $$$ by now. ohwell, my guitar was worth it.
Nice 10 month grafff btw, mine looks strangely similar.

thx antman.
idk... I feel like if I hadn't spent it, I might have donked it all off while moving up before I knew I was beating the current level.

I tried to make some adjustments the last couple of days... trying to barrel less and defend less when I face agression. I didn't feel like I was overcompensating there, but my redline took an abysmal nosedive that can't possibly be good... will go back to barrelling and check-raising tons asap.
Prop bet is with Illfavor... he needs to make 75% or more of my volume to win. Ten american dollars at stake.

I was playing two decent 50NL regs HU yesterday and today, and it was kind of an eye opener why I'm not doing as well as I could at 50NL. - With those guys I knew what they were trying to do, I could anticipate it, and I knew what to do against it - and it's pretty semilar with the '''reg''' """""infested"""""" 100nl games... they're all very very straight forward and easy to play against. I was just taking way too much from my 100NL game and applying it to the lower stakes where I just constantly kept shooting myself in the foot.
I need to just be way more patient with weaker players.

gl oskar. I didn't realize there were so many FTR musicians, hearing about drums and guitars, etc. I also dabble in music.

Good luck with rebuild. Remember this: SAVE MONEY.

I missed an opportunity to rake in the biggest hand ever in bb/100:
squeeze size pre is not standard, but should have been even bigger against those two.

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
4 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
CO ($101)
BTN ($187)
Hero ($180)
BB ($44.60)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75, 4 players) Hero is SB :jd: :js:
CO raises to $1.50, BTN calls $1.50, Hero raises to $7.50, 1 fold, CO calls $6, BTN calls $6

Flop: :3s: :ts: :5s: ($23, 3 players)
CO checks, BTN bets $7.50, Hero raises to $25, CO goes all-in $93.88, BTN calls $86.38, Hero folds

Turn: :7h: ($235.76, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: :ks: ($235.76, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $235.76
CO shows
:8s: :4s:

CO wins $234 ( won +$132.62 )

Hero lost -$32.50
BTN lost -$101.38


btn and CO are both complete monkeys, and they donk/call a lot with almost anything. But when CO c/r the flop I'm pretty sure I'm drawing really thin aginst his range for 200bb, even though I think I'm way ahead of the btn for 160bb more. At the time it was a painless fold with almost 400bb relative stacks, but I would have gotten there, so... :(

here are two hands with the same villain:

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($118)
CO ($161)
Hero ($152)
SB ($37.22)
BB ($48.85)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is BTN :td: :th:
UTG calls $0.50, CO calls $0.50, Hero raises to $3.50, SB calls $3.25, BB calls $3, UTG calls $3, CO calls $3

Flop: :6d: :jc: :jd: ($17.50, 5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, CO bets $8.75, Hero calls $8.75, SB folds, BB folds, UTG folds

Turn: :3s: ($35, 2 players)
CO bets $8, Hero calls $8

River: :6c: ($51, 2 players)
CO checks, Hero checks

Final Pot: $51
CO shows
:qd: :5s:
Hero shows
:td: :th:

Hero wins $49.73 ( won +$29.48 )

SB lost -$3.50
BB lost -$3.50
UTG lost -$3.50
CO lost -$20.25





At that point I had only realized that btn was c/r c-bets a ton... but he stopped doing that and went into donkbet/call mode soon after. - That's why I made the flop so small, I wanted to make it easier for him to raise, so I can ship it comfortably.

I like to leave him with a little on the turn... it gives the illusion of implied odds, even though he's not going to fold a missed draw for a million to one on the river.


$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($41.49)
CO ($11.41)
BTN ($39.48)
Hero ($50)
BB ($89.48)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is SB :jc: :jd:
1 fold, CO raises to $1, BTN calls $1, Hero raises to $4.50, 1 fold, CO calls $3.50, BTN calls $3.50

Flop: :4c: :5d: :9c: ($14, 3 players)
Hero bets $8.50, CO calls $6.91, BTN calls $8.50

Turn: :2s: ($37.91, 3 players)
Hero bets $17.50, BTN calls $17.50

River: :3c: ($72.91, 3 players)
Hero goes all-in $19.50, BTN calls $8.98

Final Pot: $90.87
Hero shows
:jc: :jd:
BTN shows
:2h: :as:

Hero wins $10.52 ( lost -$39.48 )
BTN wins $89.37 ( won +$49.89 )

CO lost -$11.41

Making lots of mistakes due to playing too many tables lately. Way too often I'll just look who opened or who limped, but don't bother to look behind me for habitual squeezers or regs who will 3b my iso raises very wide from the btn... I would just time out if I did.
I also need to start respecting the cent games more... playing when I'm rested, and not doing anything that will distract me during a session.

gl man! seems crazy that there are still hudge fish 50nl+ still lol. Always good to have the reminder. :)

The fish are always there. At least up to 200NL... And I know some of the 200NL fish also play 400NL. It dries up a bit when you move up and the regs get better, but they're always there... just watch High Stakes Poker.

Still break-even @50NL. Pretty much all adjustments I've made were pretty bad. I'm going back to playing shorthanded and fewer tables and will resume making them play for stacks when their range is weak. I've played way too timid, and it hasn't done me any good.

Since I have most of my rollz in my real life bank account, I've gone back to playing live a bit. This will prolly save my month.
Today started out pretty gay. flopped trip aces wif toppest kicker the first hand on a monotone board and got minraised by an old guy - fml!. payed off a 1/4 psb on the turn, and luckily he shut down on the river, and of course I'm no good.
Isolated with K6s after a straddle and 3 limpers, got one caller who c/c a smallish c-bet on Q24 2-tone. It left him with less than a psb behind so I shut down after turn and river came blank, and he took it down with A5o.

2-outered some unlucky dude 150bb deep at the end for boat-over-boat to end the session in the black.

The live games are back to normal now... there were tons of semi-competent tourney players because we had the EPT here, and right after that the greek championships - I think poker is illegal over there so they came here.
Got into some pretty tough spots with some young guys who play deepstacked like they play their 50bb stack in a tourney. That was uncomfortable, but it worked in my favor.

I'm really interested in this. Guys like you who moved up pretty fast (compared to my slowass pace) interest me, and this rebuilding and actually playing some breakeven poker should be inciteful. GL!

I think I have identified some bad changes that I've made lately. One was that I stopped betting in position when I'm rarely getting called with worse and I don't fold out better, like checking behind AK on 346 after opening from the CO and getting called by one of the blinds... or checking 9T on TQK... or 77 on AT4
The theory behind that makes sense, but it allows an opponent who even remotely thinks about my range to play pretty much perfectly against me. I don't think it would be very wise to balance my checking back range there in any way because it's loosing me value with my better hands, and I want to keep betting with air and all my draws because I think I can take it down a fair bit on the right texture - but maybe more importantly because I can keep my value range very wide and make it hard for them to play their bluffcatchers because I might just be bluffing with a hand that beats their bluff catcher.

So basically I'm committing two huge internetz poker no-no's. I'm betting for protection (from bluffs as well as draws) and information... makes me feel dirty, but in this case it's the best I can come up with.

A semi-good example of this was a live hand today... two young guys to my right. The CO was isolating limpers and c-betting what I would consider with the right amount and the right frequency and the BTN was loose-passive, pretty nervous and definitely out of his comfort level. Blinds are 1/2 with 1 limper (old guy, timid, fit-or-fold) - he raises to 10 from the CO, btn calls, sb folds and I make it 35 from the sb - which I think is fine because I'm not going to have a bluffing range there... they have too much imagination.
BB folds, CO calls, btn folds
- flop comes A48 rainbow and I bet 30 into 80 - he has about 120 left.
And the reason I bet there is mostly because I'm making my life that much easier by betting. I can't imagine he'd bluff shove worse, he can't really have a draw, and if he peels I feel like he'll shut down a lot and I can take it to showdown for good or worse.
So maybe this is not the best example, but I would cbet the same if he opened from HJ and I squeeze from the btn and he checks to me on the flop...
I meant to bet 40, but I accidentally made a string bet. - didn't correct that because I think 30 is fine for live poker in most cases because they don't really keep track of the pot size most of the time, so it doesn't really matter, and because of stack sizes it might even look scarier to him - I just asked him to take his hands off his chips so I could see them before I made the bet. - so maybe a little level making it look like I'm milking is also fine. I certainly don't mind him hero-folding QQ.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by oskar

So basically I'm committing two huge internetz poker no-no's. I'm betting for protection (from bluffs as well as draws) and information... makes me feel dirty, but in this case it's the best I can come up with.

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No, what you're doing is playing your range rather than your hand.