BigPapi's Road to Big Money

[BigPapi]

About a year and a half ago I stumbled upon a website about online poker and since I was going to Vegas (among other cities in the SouthWest of the USA) I decided to practice a bit and read a book or two about it. When I got back I decided to play for some money and got 50$ on Everest Poker. I started playing at 2NL, just some casual poker. I think it's about a year ago when I reached 10NL, but I had only played a month before I moved (I live in Rotterdam, Holland) and in my new house there was a problem with my internet connection, so everything sort of stopped untill april. During the summer I played occassionally, but when the weather got bad in September I picked it up again.

I subscribed to a couple of sites to learn and I set a goal to reach 25NL on Januari 1st. Somewhere mid October I managed to succeed and I started playing at 25NL. I was still playing Full Ring at this moment, but I thought it was a good thing to move to shorthanded/6max-games. It took a bit of adjusting, but mainly thanks to Sauce's Guide I managed to switch with some ease. My new goal was to play 10k hands per month (next to my job which is 40h p/w).

My girlfriend works in a restaurant and I work 9-5.30 so I have some nights off when I don't play football (or soccer for the americans). By now I'm reading even more on the internet and I'm really sinking my teeth into it. By the end of November I went up another level to 50NL and by now it's getting a bit more then just a hobby. I knew about the 600$ bonus from Full Tilt so I decide to move there to clear it. The first week of December I move part of my bankroll to Full Tilt and use a rakeback deal from a dutch site (their support is looking into it, because it seems something went wrong). The players at Full Tilt are very different from what I'm used to at Everest and I really get into table selection and using the pokerhud (pokeroffice) which they didn't allow at Everest.

At Januari 1st I made enough to move up to 100NL and yesterday I played my first session. It always takes me a session or 2 to get adjusted and mainly feel comfortable at a new level, but I hope to move up again as fast as possible.

At the moment I'm reading Professional No Limit Hold'em and checking this forum daily. By now I feel I might have something to contribute to this forum, so let's see where this thing goes... My goal is to keep playing 10k hands a month and reach the higher mid stakes like 2-4+ as soon as possible.

[BigPapi]

Well the big money has to wait a bit longer. Just finished my second session at 100NL and my usual slump when I move up is still here

I've dropped about 350$ in 2 sessions (1200 hands) which is quite a lot for me. I've lost most to loose players with 50+ vpip who miracouisly hit their 2p/flush etc in my allins against them.

So this kind of sucks, but I'm only moving down when I get to 2k, so I have some time to turn it around again. For now I'm just tightening up a bit and I think I'll drop a table or maybe 2. So 2, max 3 instead of 4.

[swiggidy]

Hey, welcome and gl.

I know a guy named papi and he's big. But it's not you.

[BigPapi]

thanks!

hehe, well the name came during one of our weekly homegames. When I raked in a big pot I said come to papi and my friends remembered that the next week, so when I won a pot some guy said "another pot for big papi". And that kind of stuck around. Also my real name is impossible to pronounce correctly in English...


Ok, so yesterday I lost about 250. My 2pair got beat by a loose (50+ vpip) guy who made is 2p after we went allin. QT vs QJ.

I made a straight on the turn in a blind battle. the other guy made his flush on the river after we went allin.

Well, I found a pattern that I seem to lose after I go allin while I'm ahead often. So it's not that bad, just have to sit this through and probably drop back to 2 tables tonight. It's just that I always have this when I move up, which is a bad time to lose a couple of buyins, but anyway making some adjustments for tonight and see how that goes. I know from moving up on the other levels that it usually takes me a session or 2, maybe 3 to figure it out (or maybe just get back into my normal game).

Some things I've been thinking about; limp/calling pp's from EP. dropping lower Axs, because when the A hits I might feel obligated to bet/call down. Basically toning down a bit to a lower variance type of game untill I get up to 3k. It might take a bit longer this way, but another couple of buyins and I'm back at 50NL and that will take even longer.

[daven]

come play at 50nl on FullTilt with me. Then you can tell me what my leaks are...

[BigPapi]

sure I'll play, what's your name there? I'm playing tonight, uhm in about 5-6 hours probably...

Good way to find leaks etc.

[BigPapi]

Ok, so much for 100NL. I've played 3 losing session of 200$ a piece and my roll is down to 2k, so back to 50NL for now. after only 1500 hands at -23 bb p/100 which is amazing after I beat 50NL for 8bb p/100.

losing hands of today include KK vs 45s. KK vs 99 (both against 50vpip+ players), AK vs 22 and KK vs AA (3handed). I really have a difficult time playing these guys, while at 50NL I made the most money out of them. They might be just lucky (or I'm unlucky atm) but I'm sure losing a lot of money to them...

can't get the handconverter here to work, so just a quick recap:

KK vs AA. 3 handed as table broke up hand before. preflop allin, standard.

AK in blinds battle. I raise 3.5, he calls. flop A92 rainbow. I bet 5 he calls. turn another 9. I check he bets 12. river 6, I check he bets 25. I call, he shows 22.

KK in SB. 1 limper I raise to 5$. he calls (vpip 50+). flop 45J, 45 of spades. I bet 8, he raises 35. I go allin, he calls and shows 45. turn is 8 and river a 2.

again KK, 2 limpers and I raise to 7.5$. 1 caller(also 50 vpip+). flop is 3,6,9r. I bet 12,5 he calls. turn is T, I bet 30 and he raises allin to 75. I call, he shows 99. river is a 6.

I feel that I should have layed away when they're raising. That's what I used to do, but for some reason I stopped at 100NL because I don't believe these guys. I think I must find my game again at 50NL and use this month to build my bankroll back up and maybe make sure I have a bit more behind me to survive temporary setbacks.

My stats have changed a bit, at 50NL I played 20vpip and 12 pfr. at 100NL I had 15vpip and 8pfr.my WWSF dropped from 41 to 39 but my showdowns won dropped dramatically from 51 to 42%. Bad luck or bad play????

[BigPapi]

my afternoon session of 2h 4tabling 50NL finished a bit short of a buyin down. Not really big hands played, just lost and allin with AA, so I've got to start rethinking how I play my big pairs. 2 limpers, I raise to 5, 2 callers. board 578r. I bet, he calls. I bet again, he raises allin.

[daven]

what's your name there?

davenigma
you?

[daven]

.
AK in blinds battle. I raise 3.5, he calls. flop A92 rainbow. I bet 5 he calls. turn another 9. I bet $12, he raises, I fold

KK in SB. 1 limper I raise to 5$. he calls (vpip 50+). flop 45J, 45 of spades. I bet 8, he raises 35. I fold

again KK, 2 limpers and I raise to 7.5$. 1 caller(also 50 vpip+). flop is 3,6,9r. I bet 12,5 he calls. so I shutdown.

changed your play... gumby-fish don't bluff as much as people think, and one pair is only one pair.

[badgers]

again KK, 2 limpers and I raise to 7.5$. 1 caller(also 50 vpip+). flop is 3,6,9r. I bet 12,5 he calls. so I shutdown.

Vs. a player with 50%VPIP shutting down here loses tonnes of value.

[BigPapi]

my FT-name: BigPapi_Ronnie

as to the hands... I didn't use to have much trouble with these hands, but for some reason I stopped believing their bets and that is costing me now. I really need get back to where I was a week ago and think more clearly during the hand.

I'll be playing another session shortly and I'm hoping to turn things around.

[BigPapi]

pretty good session just now. started bad when I hit trips on the flop and he hit trips on the river for a 140$ pot.

then I got rolling and improving to 3 buyins up (150$), mainly because of winning a 160$ 3-way pot with J9 from the blinds that made a straight on the turn against trips and 2p. Ended the session 2 buyins up after I lossed a few smaller pots, but all in all it was a pretty good session, where my control was better then the entire last week, where I got all in too fast.

Since I had only played 50NL for a month before moving up to 100NL I feel like maybe I need a bit more playing experience here, before trying again even though I had logged 10k hands for 8bb p/100 profit. I think it's best to play 50NL for the remain of Januari and then try again.

[BigPapi]

Another 2,5h session 4 tabling. not really a lot happened actually. Not 1 allin, not a lot of big pots even. finished break even so that about sums up the night for me

downloaded the autohotkeys program. got the FT custom lobby, buddy list and planner (which rebuys automatically when clicking on the chips)

also got a betpot script, but I thought it would let me adjust the amounts myself and I guess it doesn't, so gotta look again for something similar.

these little things make playing etc. a little bit easier and if I wouldn't be playing at my laptop it would allow me to play a few more tables.

Well on my way to qualify for silver iron man this month. Last month I "only" got bronze, but I started a week into december. My rakeback deal hasn't gone through yet unfortunately, so I sent another email to the site that I signed up through. Hopefully they fix it asap, because poker office shows I'm entitled to about 200$ which is pretty good money.

next session will be friday evening.

[BigPapi]

well, next session came earlier. just finished a 1,5h 4table session and got 3 buyins up. I really played well, assigning ranges, thinking about what range they're giving me (if they do) and acting accordingly. Picked up a couple medium sized pots thanks to this and I'm looking to improve my game even more to make it easier to move back up.

Also won a couple of allins against shorties, mainly with AK and won a full stack allin with trips.

[BigPapi]

another pretty good session ending up 2 buyins. Haven't got too many problems handling 50NL, but off course there is always room for improvement. KK got killed by top pair which made 2p on the river.

Also had 98 in SB. raised to 1.5 and got called. flop x98 2tone. another 9 on the turn which completed flush. we get it allin, he has A9. River was 8 which made my hand worthless and we split pot.

Then again can't complain too much, 6 buyins up already this week in about 3k hands. and well on my way of erasing my 650$ loss at 100NL.

will keep playing at 50NL untill I have at least 3k or end of the month, whichever comes later

[BigPapi]

The weekend wasn't so good. didn't play a whole lot, but managed to squander 3 buyins. couldn't hit anything in the 3 sessions, so considering that it's not even too bad.

The goal was to get silver iron man status this month. I'm almost playing every day and getting 100+, so I'm trying to get gold. Only need 4 days to complete the bronze and just missed 2 days this month. I'm also looking into getting a cable to be able to connect my laptop to my 40inch tv so I could play more tables perhaps? And off course a keyboard and mouse then...

Does anyone know a Autohotkey program which lets you adjust betsizes with a mousewheel or keyboard? so when I press "z" I get sizes of 1 added for example. that would speed things up.

[BigPapi]

watched a video on grinderschool today from JonnyCosmo as he was playing a bit LAG and it seems to be a better way to play on the higher levels, so I decided I should give it a try. Normally I play about 17-12 or something. For this session I had the following goals;

- steal, steal, steal blinds
- only try things when in position. OOP play my normal game.
- 3bet more then I usually do. (I need to do this even more I think. Perhaps throw in some more 72o kind of hands??)

All in all it went pretty well I guess. In the video he was running pretty hot. I haven't been all weekend, but this was a new session, so I started fresh. Played pretty well, picking up lots of pots only find my KK being beat by AA after about 30 minutes. I got back up to even eventually before ending the session -10$. Unfortunately almost none of the players started playing back light at me, at least not much more then usually. I did pick up lots of blinds though, so that makes up for it probably.

In the end my session stats where 25-20 (does this actually qualify as LAG already?). I feel I raised a lot more, but I probably have to crank it up by another 5% before they think I'm playing shit hands...

If I decide to keep playing like this or not, at least it has given me a better insight in the range of players who play like this and I feel this will make me a better player in the longrun and I should experience other styles as well so I can adjust more easily at higher levels when asked for.

edit: oh yeah also my AF went up from 2.5 to 4 (my turn AF was lower though. might be a leak there)

[BigPapi]

played a bit different then yesterday. Playing a bit less hands OOP, but raising almost all (20/18). Over 911 hands I made 110$, so a bit over 2 buyins. It was pretty much a rollercoaster as I got up 1,5 buyins after being sucked out on a couple of hands and getting back to even. After that everything went my way, hit a couple of flushes etc. so the session ended well (except for last hand which I lost 20$ on...).

Anyway, by trying different things I'm understanding the game better and the effects certain actions have on people. Also I think my reads are getting better and better ,although I still need to work on acting on them sometimes

Also against some people it's just very hard to assess a range if they cold call KK pf and just keep calling all the way. My biggest losing hand was 99 (a full buyin). In this case I didn't act on my read after a queen was the only overcard and a second queen hit on the turn. I thought he didn't have it, but he showed Q5s in a raised pot. nh sir.

Still beating 50NL pretty well. At 5bb/100 hands this month, but I still have that 600$ loss on 100NL, so a small profit would be nice this month Only half way there, so I have full confidence that I will succeed.

[Warpe]

Does anyone know a Autohotkey program which lets you adjust betsizes with a mousewheel or keyboard? so when I press "z" I get sizes of 1 added for example. that would speed things up.

This thread doesn't get enough love. Here's what you're looking for.

http://www.overcards.com/wiki/moin.cgi/AutoHotKey

[BigPapi]

thanks Warpe, I'll install that right away when I get home.

[BigPapi]

Yesterday played a big session and shortly had biondino at my table finished the session up by 2,5buyin.

this morning I found some 75/15 guy playing really loose. but I managed to lose 2 buyins to him. QQ loses to AJs when straight up to T comes on board. Then I have A9s and the board is 6262 2 spades. we move allin he shows T9s, also spades. and the river is another 2, magic.

Lost another buyin on other table when I hit trip tens and he (other guy) made runner runner flush. So ended up 3,5 buyins down. beautifull

Can someone tell me if what I do is correct against these kind of guys (75/15). He had a tendency to min raise whenever he had a decent hand. So when he just called it could be really anything, I've lost to Q8o who hit a straight on the river etc.

Do I make it more a preflop game, trying to not let him see a flop? I usually open up and start playingh im agressively, but lately that has not been working too well. s it just bad luck or am I doing something fundamentally wrong?

anyway, another session scheduled for later today.

[XTR1000]

cut down on your bluffs and semi bluffs and therefore value bet him to death. Tighten extremely up when oop and punish him when ip. Adjust your ranges towards hígh card hands, since he will be playing a ton of dominated hands. Pay attention, how light he´s stacking off, I know a couple of 50/6 type guys who call too much, but are smart enough not to stack off without nuts.

When you´ve picked up a pattern, like he´s minraising a lock but calling any junk his time is running out and his stack will soon be your´s.

[BigPapi]

thanks, I think I've been playing back a bit too much, which is exactely what he wants... because most of these guys are no idiots, although I assume at first they are based on they're stats.

[BigPapi]

it's absolutely ridiculous how bad this month is going... it's really starting to piss me off to be honest. No matter how far I'm ahead when we go allin they seem to manage a win/split pot. My KK only gets allins from AA even though I'm 3betting light.

Meh, just had to vent some... hopefully these 3 weeks of beats have come to an end. Tomorrow I'm going to think about some things I'm going to change and figure if I need a new gameplan

[BigPapi]

ok, so I'm back at my "normal" low stakes game... image is not yet important enough at 50NL I think is what I discovered last week when I loosened up, because wel the idiots will always pay off and the nits won't, so better not to get into a lot of marginal spots with J9s for example. I mean how loose I play didn't matter so I went back to my basic strategy with position and 3betting, but I've definitely become better knowing what certain stats on my hud mean and how these guys play.

[biondino]

Was good to play with you - I think I got one decent bluff off against you, but tried not to tangle the rest of the time - FTRers to my left aren't what I'm looking for when table selecting!

I often wonder what the other players feel when they see two people chatting who obviously know each other. I guess if collusion was going on the cheats would keep their chat well away from the chatbox?

[BigPapi]

yeah it was fun to play with you. You got a nice hand in the one I posted in your topic. I'm curious to see the bluff if you still have it in pt

I could show you some hands I played against you when I get home. Probably best through pm. at least at first.

Yeah I see people talking sometimes, but usually they don't know eachother before they sit down. As to collusion I don't think those people would be chatting it up in the box

[BigPapi]

The weekend is over again and got in some nice amount of hands. Friday was a break even session, nothing much happened.

Saturday, first hand was 56s in SB. I complete and the flop brings 2 of my suit. I bet pot and get 2 callers. turn is 3rd of my suit. I bet again, get called en raised. so I move allin, oth call. other guys show 2p and nut flush for a 150 pot. after that 2 guys told me they had a card of my suit too, so the odds were small, but anyway beat another guy later in the same way so :P finished the session up 70.

Sunday, first hand AA. flop comes TTKr. I bet, he calles. turn I bet again, committing and he raises. Kinda know he must have a ten, but I had like 40 hands on this guy running 55/15, so I think maybe he has a K or something like that, so I convince myself to call obviously and he has T9s. (My aces have run bad or I played them bad perhaps this month, only 20$profit for 15k hands.) Rest of the session works out well, ending 60$ up.

Returned to my "normal" game last week and since then the profit has started to come back... So for 50NL I feel I should just keep playing this way and re-evaluate when I move up. I did learn a lot this month, changing to other preflop games and it has given me a better view of how certain people play, so I can use my hudstats better.

Only 4 days left in januari, I need 2 more days of 100 points to get gold iron man at FT. So that should be easy. Then we'll evaluate the entire month, but I'm sure this will be my first month where I end in the red (not at 50NL, but thanks to my trip to 100)

[BigPapi]

Golden Iron Man completed! I only played 5k hands more I think then usually in a month, but I played every day (except 3 days) for 1,5-2h instead of some big 6h sessions in the weekend.

Last week everything is going fine again. Probably running a bit hot now with 300$ profit in 5 days. But as noted before I have something to make up for Next month I'll be playing 50NL, just to get my bankroll up to the point I can safely move up to 100NL (I think this is not the 2500 I had before, but probably more like the 3k). It could be I make it in 2 weeks, it could take all month, hell it could be may before I get there. I just now as long as I'll put in the amount of hands everything will work out find eventually.

Also I think it might be good to play 1 table of 100NL and 2 50NL instead of 4 50NL tables when I reach 2500. just to get used to them

[BigPapi]

ok, so my internet connection was gone for almost a week due to the phone company working on the lines (disadvantage of living in a newly build city area). Now everything is back on track and i've got 2 sessions of 1,5h the last 2 days. total of 200$ made, so no complaining there. unfortunately i had aces allin preflop twice and lost to TT and JJ (trips and straight) so it could have been 100 more, but not complaining. so back to dominating 50NL and my roll is well back on way towards 100NL again...

[BigPapi]

so it's been a while since the last update. I just returned from a week of snowboarding in Austria which was great. Have made iron man on FT for 3 months now, but my bonus is almost cleared (less then 40$ left) so I might have to switch sites next week if there's a good bonus/rakeback deal somewhere... i've seen some 200% bonus + 27% rakeback but mostly from lesser known sites like T6 poker and something similar, so I don't know if I want to play at those sites really, but it's worth considering. I also might just go back to Everest where I started. Crappy bonus etc, but crappy french players too

the 50NL at FT is still good to me as I'm beating it nicely. My roll is actually up to the point where I could try 100NL again, but as I stated before I want to get to 3k first now. So I have some time left before I move up.

As to my game, my postflop game has improved a good amount from trying a couple of things lately, like calling c-bets and taking it away on the turn. C-betting any A or K flop after my pf raise etc. Generally just being more agressive on later streets. I think I could improve a lot when the agression is not coming from me, but from my opponent, so I'll be looking to get that down as well.

So that's it for now and hopefully some more good updates soon

[BigPapi]

I should go on vacation more often if it means I get to go on a hot streak when I get back last week I played about 12 hours of 4-6 tabling 50NL and made 680$. Now I only need 60$ to reach the mark I set for 100NL.

I've tried some 100NL at Everest yesterday, making a full buyin on 2 shortstacks. The level of play seems low, so since my bonus at FT has expired now I think it's best to first play some 100NL at Everest again as sort of a half step up and getting comfortable, before playing FT 100NL again.

Also tried to install Bodog, who have a nice bonus, but failed to install the software from that site :S

I'm thinking about taking a week off work during the summer and play lots (off course with a bonus then too) to see if I like playing around 30hours a week or something like that and see how all of that goes...

[BigPapi]

Ok, we're still going gooood last week was another 300 and I'm now playing 50NL FT 6-tables till I get my 50FTP daily (for ironman). Then if I feel like it I'll play at EVerest 100NL 2 or 3 tables depending on the opponents I find. So even though I played 1 week less so far due to vacation, this is my most profitable month and my first 1k-profit month as well, although we still have a couple of days to go.

So everything feels great and I hope to continue this as long as possible!

[BigPapi]

I spoke too soon :P last week was awful, i've lost 400$ today, 300 at 100NL. AK vs AA preflop, a fd that didn't hit and AQ vs. KK, 3bet pot and Q-high flop. I gotta stop moving allin with TPTK against full stacks. I didn't use to that, but when I moved up I guess I didn't want them to push me around or something, but somehow they always seem to have the goods. So tomorrow just 2 tabling 100NL I guess, since we're down to 2700 again and just play a bit tighter

[BigPapi]

wow, what an unbelievable weekend. i've managed to lose all allins and a total of 650$ or something like that... some examples of just today:

trip 7's against trip Q's
trips Q's on flop QK7 against AA. turn & river TJ
AK vs 77 on A52 flop. turn is 7
AK vs AQ with Q on flop.
trip 5's against flush on turn, allin on flop
ATs with TT5 flop. allin on river, he had 55

i don't remember all of them, this just on top of my head. these things always happen when I move up, so I'm almost again certain I need to move down again to 50NL even though I guess all of these allins are pretty standard and it's not a thing of being outleveled or something, just a bad run of cards...

[grnydrowave2]

even though I guess all of these allins are pretty standard

Playing for stacks with AK preflop, TPTK on the flop, or a whiffed AK is not standard.

At a glance, this thread doesn't appear to be getting a whole lot of feedback. Perhaps if you posted some hands from time to time, the nice folks here could help you out.

[BigPapi]

will do. just to explain a bit:

AK vs 77 was a 3bet pot. when the A hit, can't do much more the move allin. when he calls with 77... i'm pretty happy about that.

the AK vs AQ was at 100NL, opp had only 50. he raised, I 3bet to get it in against shortstack, he went allin for like 30-35 more. i can't fold AK as his range is much wider the AA-KK.

I guess most flips just went the other way. opponents hit their flush, i didn't. whenever i was ahead, they got back somehow.Perhaps I got it in a bit easy in some hands, but I was ahead or flipping in most (except trip'7's and AT-hand)and lost all. I remember another where I flopped top 2 pair with fd on board. we get it in and he shows KT and he hits runner runner flush.

I didn't play much different from my usual play (which is a winning style so far), so I guess it's just variance catching up to my 2 week hot streak