Operation: Do it right!

[mieczkowusc]

Hey everyone,

I've been here for a few months, still suck at poker, but have been slowly getting better as I play more and hang around the forum.

I started back in May with a deposit on Full Tilt of $50, although I wish I would have found FTR so I could have known to build my roll at PS before going to Full Tilt to get the bigger bonus. However, I wasn't totally clueless and somehow was smart enough to sign up for rakeback. So that will be helpful someday.

I messed around with limit ring, went on a huge upswing, then a huge downswing, back to $50. Then I tried $10NL with half-stack buy-ins. Had a huge upswing, then a huge downswing, back to $50. I didn't understand necessarily why I couldn't get the hang of it, but then realized that my bankroll was not nearly large enough to be playing the games I was at. So I picked a game that I thought I could afford, the $2.25 SNG's and began playing those.

I had some limited success at the 2.25s, built my way up to $80, then had a drought of cashes that knocked me back down. Time to get serious. I still had $60 and was going to grind it out, so I dropped down to the $1.25s, which are pretty much a joke, but allowed me to build my roll up to around $120. For some reason, I couldn't get back into the habit of the $2.25s, and I started messing around with tournaments and ring again. I did decently in the tournaments but no major cashes. With ring, I had a huge upswing and a huge downswing like usual.

After all of this, I was getting frustrated and felt in a rut. I read some of the articles and after seeing some people who followed Spoon's advice of starting with $40 or $100 at PS and grinding it up through the micro-rings, I felt like I should start over from the beginning.

My goal is pretty simple:

spoonitnow wrote:

When you have $100, play 5nl. (20 buy-ins)
When you have $250, play 10nl. (25 buy-ins)
When you have $750, play 25nl. (30 buy-ins)
When you have $1750, play 50nl. (35 buy-ins)
When you have $4000, play 100nl. (40 buy-ins)
When you have $10000, play 200nl. (50 buy-ins)

I made my $50 deposit on PokerStars, and I still have my $100 roll on Full Tilt that I am putting on hold until I can fund it and play without the ridiculous rake.

Here is what I want to accomplish in the short term:

1. Build up to $5NL by January 1st. If I hit $5NL before then, I want to hit $10NL by February 1st.

2. Get on IRC.

3. Read Slansky this month.

I probably won't be updating this too often, because its probably not that interesting to read how exciting and glamorous the hands are down at $2NL, but for my own sake, I want to check in every week or two.

I want to thank everyone who has written articles on FTR, and people that made some of the videos. They have been really helpful and have really pointed me in the right direction about learning poker the right way. It also adjusted my expectations to me much more rooted in reality rather than fantasy.

[hagscel]

good luck to you

[mieczkowusc]

After a frustrating session this morning and some sessions over the past few days, I'm back down to my initial $50 after being up five buyins earlier in the week. Overall there were a few hands that I made a mistake on that accounted for around 1-2 buyins, and the other 3 were from variance.

Biggest Mistakes:

1. Called a weak 3BB raise with AQo, shoved the turn when I hit the A and ran into AK. I nearly got the villain to fold, called me down at the last second.

2. Not firing two bullets against the right opponents. There were some hands that I could have taken down had I fired the turn instead of checking after cbetting.

Best Plays:

1. Raising with 66, getting two callers then a reraise, calculating the implied odds for a set and calling the reraise. Hit the set and then got check raised, which I shoved to crack someones Aces. Very standard, but it feels so good!

2. Taking down a ton of pots in position with cbets with pocket pairs.

Write down the money plays:

1. Raising to 8x the BB with Aces in the SB in a limped pot, getting two callers. Bet full pot on a decent board (4h, 8h, Js) with only a flush draw, and get shoved by an unknown. Fist-pump call. Turn Q and river 2 both appear to be blanks until the villain flips up 42o. He shoved with bottom pair and no draw and gets my stack. Luckily I knew to stop playing after this because I was a little tilted.

2. Raise with 10s, get shoved by a bad player with half a stack, I call. 4 junkers, then then an A hits on the river, villain shows A5o.

Best Lessons:

1. At $2Nl, there might be one player whose range isn't the whole deck, and it pays to know who that is.

2. Learning to identify the calling stations.

3. Learning to muck big cards in the face of a raise, even if you have been waiting many orbits for them.

4. KJo is frustrating to play, and KJs is not much better.

5. I can fold 50 hands in a session, pick up one big pot, and be better off than if I had played 5-10 of the 50.

It's back to the grindstone!

[mieczkowusc]

Ran into a tough situation. Tough to get a read on either villains, as they had showed down absolute junk one hand, and some premium hands on the others.

MP1 had been 3 betting a little strange in position, but not strange enough to think he wasn't showing up with a hand this time in MP1.
Range: 55+, AJs+, KQo

UTG hadn't come in with a raise before, and then decided to open which made me think
Range: 66+, A9s+, KJ, QJ

I called with the Jacks hoping to hit a set or have an overpair to the board and take advantage of the position if it was checked to me. I don't think I could've four-bet Jacks here...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP2 ($2)
Hero (CO) ($2.97)
Button ($0.95)
SB ($5.25)
BB ($6.09)
UTG ($9.65)
MP1 ($1)

Preflop: Hero is CO with J, J
UTG raises to $0.06, MP1 raises to $0.18, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.18, 3 folds, UTG calls $0.12

Flop: ($0.59) 8, Q, 2 (3 players)
UTG checks, MP1 bets $0.46, Hero?

The flop bet screamed missed AK, and normally I would flat the flop and re-evaluate on the turn, but I still had UTG to worry about acting after me, and I didn't want to price in a call for him; and he might have hit his queen. From the way he was playing, MP1 wasn't going to fold AK to a raise, so its either all or nothing.

[mieczkowusc]

(Deleted tilted whine gripe)

[mieczkowusc]

Stuck in neutral and on a 10 buyin downswing. This is where it always ends with me and ring games. I can't ever get past the downswing after the initial upswing. Maybe i just don't get it.

I know that I suck at poker, but am I really that hopeless that I can't even beat the micro-stakes?

[a500lbgorilla]

"The flop bet screamed missed AK" when you become a better player, you'll stop putting people on 2 cards and put them on a range of cards. AK might be representative of his flop cbetting range, but it isn't how you should be thinking. Is he incapable of 3-bet, cbetting AQss here? AA, KK?

[mieczkowusc]

I read Ed Miller's Small Stakes hold' em over the weekend, and I have to say that it really helped get my mind on the right track about my game. Obviously the concepts and play was not that new to me, but it was good to read through the postflop play and understand why you should be raising or folding.

I had only few sessions over the past two days, but although I am only slightly better than break even, I feel as though I am playing better and making smarter plays. Part of the problem I was running into was cbetting against too many opponents, and the wrong opponents.

The other concept that was help to think about was trying to maximize your EV. EV is talked about ad nauseam, but I didn't totally get it as it related to preflop raising and getting callers. If you are 3betting AK and you get two callers of KQ and A5, you are making money in the long run even if a 5 or a Q hits (provided you get away from the hand)

[mieczkowusc]

I got completely hosed this morning, but I actually don't feel badly about how I played. Its frustrating, but I am still plugging away. Down to around 18 buyins of my initial 25.

Hopefully things will turn around for my ring game. I have been studying my hands and getting feedback, and I feel like I have been improving, but my bankroll says otherwise right now.

[chadherczeg]

good to see somebody is doing this with tourneys. That is what i love about my profession. You can play poker and never get board. It is such a diverse game. You can play holdem one day and PL omaha the next then limit razz on an off day when catching crappy cards. I usually don't meet too many sng bankroll builders. Everyone wants to build there rolls with ring then play big tourney's later. Good to see someone picking a road and going down it. Good luck

[mieczkowusc]

good to see somebody is doing this with tourneys. That is what i love about my profession. You can play poker and never get board. It is such a diverse game. You can play holdem one day and PL omaha the next then limit razz on an off day when catching crappy cards. I usually don't meet too many sng bankroll builders. Everyone wants to build there rolls with ring then play big tourney's later. Good to see someone picking a road and going down it. Good luck

Wow reading pwns you...

[RakebackArmy]

Hey everyone,

I've been here for a few months, still suck at poker, but have been slowly getting better as I play more and hang around the forum.

I started back in May with a deposit on Full Tilt of $50, although I wish I would have found FTR so I could have known to build my roll at PS before going to Full Tilt to get the bigger bonus. However, I wasn't totally clueless and somehow was smart enough to sign up for rakeback. So that will be helpful someday.

I messed around with limit ring, went on a huge upswing, then a huge downswing, back to $50. Then I tried $10NL with half-stack buy-ins. Had a huge upswing, then a huge downswing, back to $50. I didn't understand necessarily why I couldn't get the hang of it, but then realized that my bankroll was not nearly large enough to be playing the games I was at. So I picked a game that I thought I could afford, the $2.25 SNG's and began playing those.

I had some limited success at the 2.25s, built my way up to $80, then had a drought of cashes that knocked me back down. Time to get serious. I still had $60 and was going to grind it out, so I dropped down to the $1.25s, which are pretty much a joke, but allowed me to build my roll up to around $120. For some reason, I couldn't get back into the habit of the $2.25s, and I started messing around with tournaments and ring again. I did decently in the tournaments but no major cashes. With ring, I had a huge upswing and a huge downswing like usual.

After all of this, I was getting frustrated and felt in a rut. I read some of the articles and after seeing some people who followed Spoon's advice of starting with $40 or $100 at PS and grinding it up through the micro-rings, I felt like I should start over from the beginning.

My goal is pretty simple:

spoonitnow wrote:

When you have $100, play 5nl. (20 buy-ins)
When you have $250, play 10nl. (25 buy-ins)
When you have $750, play 25nl. (30 buy-ins)
When you have $1750, play 50nl. (35 buy-ins)
When you have $4000, play 100nl. (40 buy-ins)
When you have $10000, play 200nl. (50 buy-ins)

I made my $50 deposit on PokerStars, and I still have my $100 roll on Full Tilt that I am putting on hold until I can fund it and play without the ridiculous rake.

Here is what I want to accomplish in the short term:

1. Build up to $5NL by January 1st. If I hit $5NL before then, I want to hit $10NL by February 1st.

2. Get on IRC.

3. Read Slansky this month.

I probably won't be updating this too often, because its probably not that interesting to read how exciting and glamorous the hands are down at $2NL, but for my own sake, I want to check in every week or two.

I want to thank everyone who has written articles on FTR, and people that made some of the videos. They have been really helpful and have really pointed me in the right direction about learning poker the right way. It also adjusted my expectations to me much more rooted in reality rather than fantasy.

You and I are kind of following the same mantra.

[mieczkowusc]

I am completely done with Small Stakes Hold' Em, and I am about half way through Harrington on Cash Volume 1. I would recommend the later, but I think it was good to start with SSH. Although Miller focuses on things more from the a limit perspective, it is a good book to get your mind on the right track about certain hands and the general preflop strategy is pretty solid.

Things I have accomplished recently:

1. I got on IRC and have started to talk and not just lurk all the time.

2. Read through SSH, and am powering through Harrington on Cash. Slanksy is waiting for me at home to read when I get back.

3. Stopped the downswing and have made about a BI's progress back towards my initial deposit on Stars.

4. i had a huge boost to my playing energy by taking third place in the FTR 5 year anniversary freeroll, for a nice cash of $42 and my choice of FTR gear. Although this was at Full Tilt, it balanced out the losses I had taken at 10NL when I was screwing around over there without a big enough bankroll. My rakeback for the previous month should also be coming in, so I should have a nice boost to my bankroll when I someday move back to Full Tilt to play 25NL. I'll probably play the occasional sng or cheap tourney as well.

5. I finally feel as though I am starting to turn a corner with my understanding and play. I am not just raising and calling raises according to a chart, but more with a plan in mind.

6. Hands that I avoid playing now if all possible:

KJo and KJs. Too many times have I been dominated with these hands. Top-pair doesn't do it for me, for me to really want to continue I need top-two, the nut-flush draw, or nut-straight.

A10o. I'll maybe play this on the button or CO, but rarely. I also tend to play A10s more like an A-rag-x hand, just because you can be easily dominated when raising into the blinds. This took me a while to figure out, but here is my logic.

Suppose I am playing myself and my own typical hand range.

If I am in the SB or BB, I will likely call a raise with AQs, or AJs, and will reraise with AK. I am probably folding A9s and below until there are some limpers who I think will come along.

So what does that mean for A10o? You either pick up the blinds, get called and are dominated, or get re-raised and have to lay it down. Not a good result right? Obviously, there are looser players who call from the blinds with much less, but that requires more reads.

7. Keep the pots smaller with smaller hands like TPTK, and try to build big pots with big hands like sets, straights, flushes, and boats.

TPTK doesn't do it at ring like it does in tourneys. Expensive lesson for me at this point.

[mieczkowusc]

Ladies and Gents: Here is why you shouldn't min-raise.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 ($2.32)
MP2 ($2.63)
Hero (CO) ($2.32)
Button ($3.36)
SB ($0.80)
BB ($6.82)
UTG ($1.18)
UTG+1 ($4.84)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 7, 7
4 folds, Hero raises to $0.08, 2 folds, BB raises to $0.14, Hero calls $0.06

Flop: ($0.29) 7, Q, 8 (2 players)
BB bets $0.20, Hero raises to $0.60, BB calls $0.40

Turn: ($1.49) 3 (2 players)
BB bets $0.40, Hero raises to $1.58 (All-In), BB calls $1.18

River: ($4.65) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $4.65 | Rake: $0.20

Results:
BB had 10, 10 (one pair, tens).
Hero had 7, 7 (three of a kind, sevens).
Outcome: Hero won $4.45