Xptboy's thread of wealth

[xptboy]

Hello all.

First a bit about me -
There are 3 things I need in my life
Health - which I get through a good diet and working out
Love - which I get through my girlfriend and my friends and parents
Wealth - which I get through my parents (I am lucky enough to be living wealthily)

I used to come here a while ago but I quit poker for a LOOONG time. Maybe around 5 months ago? Anyway, I quit for a variety of reasons (school, health, and poker really frustrating me...). I quit and took all my money back (700$, around 500 euros).

Anyways, recently poker has been looking more appealing to me as I have now sorted out all my real life problems out.

My longterm goal is to keep playing poker and have fun with it for as long as I live pretty much. If things go well, then hopefully I'll be able to actually win some money out of this game too!

I have decided that I'm going to start at rock bottom... Well not rock bottom... I was previously playing 25 NL. Now I'll start at 10NL and just try and get back into the flow of things.

I'll have a very aggressive bankroll strategy for the meantime in order to try and get to my goal which is to reach 50NL, this is it.
Deposit 100$ and play 10NL - done
move up to 25NL at 375$
move down to 5NL at 80$

basically tomorrow is going to decide whether I stay at 10 NL or move down to 5 NL. If I do move down I won't try to get back up until I have 150$ in my BR.

Once I have 375$, I'll move up to 25NL and then at 1000$ move up to 50NL. For now that is my main goal, to quickly get that 1000$ in my bankroll and be able to grind at more than 25NL.

I'm assuming this goal will take anywhere between 1-3 months.

Anyways, I've set up a schedule for alloting my poker time so as to maintain a balanced lifestyle.
- 3 hours of play/day max during the weekdays (including holiday season) (from 7 PM to 10 PM everyday are the only times I will play on weekdays)
- during the weekends I can play as much as I want
- Visit forums as often as I want

Things I will do on this blog
- Post my thoughts on some of my more interesting hands, these hands do not necessarily need to be played by me but they could just be interesting POINT.
- Post my random thoughts on poker and life, especially if they are somehow interconnected... which surprisingly enough happens quite a lot...
- Post my epiphanies on poker theory and strategy.
- Post my bankroll occasionally

[xptboy]

So today I did no playing poker yet.

All I have been doing is studying some poker vids which cover the fundamentals. Tomorrow I plan on finishing the video series and then playing a bit of poker at 10NL and seeing if I stay there. I also made some old notes before on my computer and I'm checking them out right now.

I am currently watching a bunch of CR videos which I think anyone who is struggling with the micro stakes could benefit from. These videos I am watching are done primarily by Verneer it's called "crushing the micro strakes". They are very helpful and I actually saw these a while ago but I want to make sure I remember most of the fundamentals from back then.

Other videos which I believe could end up being helpful are videos by Citizenwind, Zaitsev and Togl. Gotta finish the verneer videos first though.

Update tomorra!!

[OhBollocks]

Hello all.

First a bit about me -
There are 3 things I need in my life
Health - which I get through a good diet and working out
Love - which I get through my girlfriend and my friends and parents
Wealth - which I get through my parents (I am lucky enough to be living wealthily)

I used to come here a while ago but I quit poker for a LOOONG time. Maybe around 5 months ago? Anyway, I quit for a variety of reasons (school, health, and poker really frustrating me...). I quit and took all my money back (700$, around 500 euros).

Anyways, recently poker has been looking more appealing to me as I have now sorted out all my real life problems out.

My longterm goal is to keep playing poker and have fun with it for as long as I live pretty much. If things go well, then hopefully I'll be able to actually win some money out of this game too!

I have decided that I'm going to start at rock bottom... Well not rock bottom... I was previously playing 25 NL. Now I'll start at 10NL and just try and get back into the flow of things.

I'll have a very aggressive bankroll strategy for the meantime in order to try and get to my goal which is to reach 50NL, this is it.
Deposit 100$ and play 10NL - done
move up to 25NL at 375$
move down to 5NL at 80$

basically tomorrow is going to decide whether I stay at 10 NL or move down to 5 NL. If I do move down I won't try to get back up until I have 150$ in my BR.

Once I have 375$, I'll move up to 25NL and then at 1000$ move up to 50NL. For now that is my main goal, to quickly get that 1000$ in my bankroll and be able to grind at more than 25NL.

I'm assuming this goal will take anywhere between 1-3 months.

Anyways, I've set up a schedule for alloting my poker time so as to maintain a balanced lifestyle.
- 3 hours of play/day max during the weekdays (including holiday season) (from 7 PM to 10 PM everyday are the only times I will play on weekdays)
- during the weekends I can play as much as I want
- Visit forums as often as I want

Things I will do on this blog
- Post my thoughts on some of my more interesting hands, these hands do not necessarily need to be played by me but they could just be interesting POINT.
- Post my random thoughts on poker and life, especially if they are somehow interconnected... which surprisingly enough happens quite a lot...
- Post my epiphanies on poker theory and strategy.
- Post my bankroll occasionally

Agressive BRM is one thing but 10BI's for 10NL and 15BI for 25NL is just plain old dumb. 20BI for a level is about as thin as you ever want to play imo

GL with your op

[xptboy]

Alright, so just finished my first session and it feels great to be playing again!!

OhBollocks: I disagree, I am confident in my game and I can easily refill this 100$ if I lose it so I do not think that my BRM strategy is stupid. I realize a lot of people on these forums have very nitty BRM but I really don't see the point in having a nitty BRM especially at the micro stakes. After I get to 50NL I will employ a much more conservative BRM strategy but as of now I'll keep stay on my aggressive BRM plan.

Anyways, my session went pretty well. I felt very refreshed as if I had come from a long holiday and spent some time off. In my 3 hour session today I made 6.5 buy-ins.

I'll try to post a hand from my sessions as often as possible.

Hand 1: Villain is 30/27/2.3

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($5.45)
Button ($10)
SB ($13.60)
Hero (BB) ($38.75)
UTG ($10.15)
MP ($10.90)

Preflop: Hero is BB with ,
2 folds, CO calls $0.10, Button raises to $0.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.40, 1 fold

Villain steals blind over 60% of the time so I decided to defend with my 66, he is very aggressive preflop as well as postflop. I also hope that the pot will be multiway with the limper calling but this doesn't happen. Regardless, my hand still has some value at this point.

Flop: ($1.15) , , (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $0.80, Hero raises to $2.40, Button calls $1.60

On the Flop I check/raise because I know he will cbet and on this flop I don't see villain with anything. What I want to do is to win the pot with my c/r bluff because there are too many scare cards which could come on the turn, but he calls. When he calls, I now put him on some kind of decent hand but not a very strong hand. I can see him with A3 or another PP, so right now I see myself having the better hand half the time.

Turn: ($5.95) (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

Now on the turn, we both check. I check for pot control, I actually plan on calling if he bets and then folding to a river bet. However he checks behind. Now I'm sure he doesn't have a good overpair like AA-TT so I'm now 2/3 sure that i'm ahead of his range unless he's slowplaying which is extremely dumb.

River: ($5.95) (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $2, Hero calls $2

On the river, I debate whether I should bet or not. I put him on a PP from TT-44 or A3 and I know he'll call my bet unless it's very big. The only other hands he could have at this point are completely random hands which completely missed and that he may turn into a bluff. And seeing as he is an aggressive player, I want to make sure that I get the value, and I see the best way of doing this by checking him and letting him bet. When he bets 1/2 pot I'm certain that he's betting for value and I think I have a good chance of winning the hand.

Total pot: $9.95 | Rake: $0.45

Results in white below:
Button had A, 3 (full house, twos over threes).
Hero had 6, 6 (full house, twos over sixes).
Outcome: Hero won $9.50

Current BR: 165$, I'll move down to 5NL if I get down to 100$, I plan on moving up to 25NL at 375$

[OhBollocks]

As I said, agressive BRM is one thing but...

Anyways, GL man

[wesrman]

I agree with bullocks. Why reload if you dont have to???? And more important than that you learn how to beat one level by improving your game at the level below.

Just my opnion.

GL with this.

[xptboy]

Thanks for both your opinions on my aggro BRM. but...
1. the likelyhood that I will reload is teenyweeny
2. the reason why I am so aggro with my BRM is because I already played 25NL before and was a winning player at the stake, I just quit poker for 5 months. I did not redeposit my entire BR (750$) because I wanted to go through a "getting back into it phase of poker"
3. I am already sure of being good enough to crush the micro stakes, and honestly I can see myself at 100NL right now, only problem is that I want to take my time and keep learning whilst I get there. My main problem is not technical, I had tilt issues which have not come back to me yet thankfully, but back when I was playing 5 months ago I would typically win 50$ a day then lose 250$ in one session. Right now however i am in good health and I really think that being in good health can help against tilt, so I am going to keep being in good health and exercising and eating well.
4. I understand that for most people 10 and even 15 BI for a level, yes even 10NL or 25NL would not be anywhere near enough to cover them. But for me as I'm confident in my game, I've been there and I am not technically moving up, I won't be playing with scared money in 10NL or 25NL so I don't see the point of slowing my process down. I realize that I'll probably get where I want to get anyway (atm 50NL with 20BI) but following my method I see myself getting there A LOT faster with only a bit less risk.
5. I also understand the concept of "I will learn how to beat the level by improving my at the level below" but I already know how to beat the game at the "level below".

Anyways onto yesterday's session. It was yet another rather good session. I ended making another 65$ in 3 hours yet again.

I think that I now know what I'm capable of, I'm going to add some extra short term goals just for the heck of it.
Short Term goals
- to get 375$ and move up to 25NL
- to beat 10NL for 35ptBB/100
- to get to 375$ by the end of Sunday the 28th December

This last one will be harder than it looks because I won't be playing any poker today since I've got a long date planned with my gf today . The second goal will be hard to maintain simply because it will mean I have to keep playing my best poker until I get to 25NL. The second and third goals will be hard to get to so it will be nice to see how I go up against this challenge.

Session Review!!
Hand 1
Villain is a maniac. This fish gave me his entire stack twice yesterday. He was running at 66/20/3.2

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (4 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($10)
SB ($19.05)
Hero (BB) ($10.30)
UTG ($15.05)

Preflop: Hero is BB with ,
2 folds, SB raises to $0.30, Hero calls $0.20

This guy was stealing relentlessly (Att to steal = 75), I also knew that I was a lot better player than him postflop. I know a that calling with this hand is bad, however against this crazy maniac, I see it as profitable especially since I can own him postflop In Position. I also felt like putting up a stand since he had been stealing my blind for the past 20 hands so considerring all this, I called with K8o with the intention to make some moves on him.

Flop: ($0.60) , , (2 players)
SB bets $0.50, Hero raises to $2, SB calls $1.50

This is a very good flop for me, mainly because I somehow managed to hit Top Pair. Anyways, I was planning to raise him on almost any flop that came out and this is exactly what I did. Me and villain did have some past history though and I had been pushing him off of many of his hands so he obviously wasn't will to give up on this flop.

Turn: ($4.60) (2 players)
SB bets $1.50, Hero calls $1.50

He bets into me on the turn for a less than 1/2 pot bet. I know this guy is clueless and this turn card is horrible for my hand and is good for him because it is definitely within his range. I am not scared of the flush, however I now see several combinations of 2 pair or straights out. I do remember putting a note on him though, and it said that whenever he bets weak, he is weak, thus I called.

River: ($7.60) (2 players)
SB bets $2.70, Hero calls $2.70

On the river he bet smaller than 1/2 pot again and this call I made was actually pretty easy. I knew this guy was a maniac who enjoyed pushing people off of hands. I also knew that his small bets were weak, and I couldn't see a hand that he would bet 3 times with which would beat me unless he had the nuts (a straight or set). I called pretty easily and was relieved to see the read I had made was correct.

Total pot: $13 | Rake: $0.60

Results in white below:
SB had 6, 6 (one pair, sixes).
Hero had K, 8 (one pair, eights).
Outcome: Hero won $12.40

Here's a really weird and funny hand which had me bewilderred for a while...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($4.45)
Button ($13.30)
Hero (SB) ($11.55)
BB ($15.50)
UTG ($7.85)
MP ($10.10)

Preflop: Hero is SB with ,
1 fold, MP calls $0.10, CO raises to $0.40, Button calls $0.40, Hero raises to $1.80, 1 fold, MP calls $1.70, 2 folds

I see this as a great opprtunity to squeeze. MP is running at 63/18/1.5 and would qualify as a weak/loose player. CO isolates him and BU calls in position. I squeeze because I know I don't think anyone has a hand strong enough to call this squeeze. Anyway, to my great surprise MP calls but I am not worried by him as he is a fish.

Flop: ($4.50) , , (2 players)
Hero bets $2, MP calls $2

Errm... OK the rest of the hand is self-explanatory...

Turn: ($8.50) (2 players)
Hero bets $7.75 (All-In), MP calls $6.30 (All-In)

River: ($21.10) (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $21.10 | Rake: $1

Results in white below:
Hero had K, Q (high card, King).
MP mucked 8, K (high card, King).
Outcome: Hero won $20.10

Don't bother asking me how he could call with such a bad hand... Maybe he liked his chances at the K high flush?

Current BR: 220$

[xptboy]

A note on Studying vs Playing

For the past 3 days I have played a total of 3 hours. However for the past 5 days I have studied the game of poker for around 18 hours.

This means I have a study:Play ratio of 18:6 or 3:1 or 67:33. Most people I know who play poker have a studylay ratio have it more like 20:80 or 10:90 but I have on the other hand have been doing nothing but studying. I wonder why this is.

1. I have a lot of free time right now: It is the winter holidays for me and thus I have got lots of free time in which I can study the game of poker. I could of course... play a lot more too instead. But I think this is pointless atm as I am playing mainly for fun and to see how far I can go before I either start taking this poker thing a lot more serious (as in consider going pro... not gonna happen for a LOOONG time btw) or simply continue playing this as a pasttime in which I might be able to make a few thousand dollars a year (which would still be very nice).

2. I feel like it is important that I understand and know the fundamentals of poker before going out in the field: This is a very big point which i think a lot of the newer players to poker (I still am one of them) do not understand. IMHO the quickest way to becoming better at poker is not to watch videos, or to read forums and books, or to spend hours playing trying to unmask the "correct formula". I think the quickest way to get better at poker is to do any of these activities but actually understand why the "pro" is advising you to do this stuff. If you don't understand why they tell you this, then you will receive several different pieces of advice and not know which is right for the right situation.

How many times have you heard the "pros" say "loosen up at a tight table, and tighten up at a loose table", now as a novice/beginner I could immediately go out and do this but I wouldn't be seeing any real benefits until I actually understand why this concept holds true. In the above example, this statement does not hold true everytime, in fact at the micros in 6-max I could make a case for the opposite being true simply because there are so many weak/loose fish at these levels. The ideology behind the statement "loosen up at a tight table and tighten up at a loose table" will only be true if none of your opponents are actually weak. If somebody is a loose/passive/weak fish then play as many hands as you can against him and you will likely outplay him postflop and win several hands. If somebody is a nit, then take several jabs at him and take those small pots, but as soon as he starts showing strength backdown, even if you hold TPTK.

To put it in more simple terms, I'll give an example... or rather a kind of metaphor of what i mean when I say "actually understand what the pros are telling you".
There is a blind man, now this blind man needs to travel accross a forest in order to get back home and see his family. But as he is blind he cannot. The blind man is actually a reference to a fish, he has no idea what to do or where to go.

Now let's say that all of a sudden, some person passes the blind man and whilst passing he helps this blind man by giving him directions. The blind man now has an idea of where to go. Now the blind man has some goals, he has started on his journey, this could be seen as a fish finally starting to get some help, however he still only knows which direction to go, he has no idea whether he should duck to avoid some tree branches or jump over a pond just like the fish has no idea what to do when he is 3bet and he holds 99.

Now let's say all of a sudden, that the blind man gets stuck and shouts for help. Low and behold, another person comes to his rescue, and this time the person actually navigates him through the forest and promises to come along with him until the blind man gets home. This could be seen as the stage where people actually come to forums and start reading the articles that people write. They will hear stuff like, fold ATo from UTG and they will do this but will not realize why, but still they are still making the correct decision but do not understand why. They are now finally a breakeven or marginal winning player because they are following advice... However I also think this is one of the most frustrating stages, because you know you are much better than many of the fish, yet you don't seem to be making much more money than them

Suddenly though, the blind man and his helper come to a gigantic cliff which they have to climb, the blind man is unable to climb it because he needs to be able to see where to step with his own eyes. The blind man prays and all of a sudden a fairy comes down and grants him the power to see. The blind man is no longer blind and he doesn't need the help of the other man anymore. He now goes off on his journey all by himself because he can now see where he is going. This is the stage where one actually understands why they are doing what they are doing. For a poker player, this is the stage where one will look at anybody's words critically and have their own opinions even if it differs from the perspective of the pros. It is the stage where one understands why someone says "loosen up OTB", he will now loosen up OTB but only when he thinks it is a good situation to do so, because there are exceptions to every rule (for example, you should tighten your openning range OTB if you have a bully on the left because he is more likely to defend lightly and will give you a harder time than the nit which is also one of the reasons why having a bully on your left is very bad.)

I myself have just gotten to this stage and now I look at all my decisions and ask myself, why did I do this. I think the best poker players out there, can be asked about any of their decisions they made in any single hand and they will have a concrete reason for why they made their decision in that particular hand. When you see a video and you see the pros doing what they do, don't just go out and copy it. Actually try and understand what they are doing and why they are doing it in this situation, and don't be afraid to criticize their plays, being a clone of every other player might make you a marginal winner... but the best players are the players who have their own minds and opinions. The best players are the ones who get creative and use unusual lines to completely confuse the villain.

Anyways... that was a lot longer than I expected it to be... Back to the "why I've been studying more than playing question"

3. I want to make sure I remember all the fundamentals. I don't want to go out there and play without remembering most of the fundamentals of why I do what I do.

4. I don't want to go out and play with no idea of what to do in a given situation. I hate getting into tough spots where I don't know what to do. I want to know what to do in almost all spots.

Anyways, given that I have now accomplished my goals with the mass studying I think i'm going to put much less time into actually studying. I think I will still not play that much, but now that I'm done with my preliminary studying of the game I believe that I can now spend my free time doing more fun stuff such as chilling with friends or doing to the gym (which I still did for the past two days somehow lol). My study:Play ratio will probably change dramatically into something like 30:70 which around where I would want it to be generally.

Gl at the tables, wasn't planning on making this post this long but oh well... it could probably help a few people out.

[xptboy]

UPDATE:
OK, just had a very bad session. I was not concentrating on playing my A game at the start of the session, I was talking to friends on msn and to my gf on the phone which caused me to make some very silly mistakes. After losing 3 buy-ins I got tilted and lost around 7 buy-ins before recoverring 3 back. I'm now at 190$ total.

I don't think i'll be able to reach my goal to have 35+bb/100 because of this session, but I'm still going to try my best to come as close to possible as I can this number.

Anyways, it's only one session and it is expected to go through some minor downswings. Hopefully next session I'm going to hit back at full concentration.

Current BR: 195$

gotta go eat now, and then see my gf, session review coming up later tonight or tomorrow morning.

[xptboy]

Review of that horrible session yesterday

Alright so I went through a PT review finally and I've decided that I will never again talk on the phone/be on msn while I play poker. I'm sure that if it were not for these distractions I would've managed to play much more solid poker and I would not have made some ridiculous decisons at the table. Looking back at the hands in PT makes me think that I was a real idiot.

some of my dumb mistakes

Hand 1

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($10.80)
Button ($9.65)
SB ($9.15)
BB ($15.80)
Hero (UTG) ($14.95)
MP ($13.90)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with ,
Hero raises to $0.40, 4 folds, BB calls $0.30

Flop: ($0.85) , , (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($0.85) (2 players)
BB bets $1.20, Hero calls $1.20

River: ($3.25) (2 players)
BB bets $10.60, Hero raises to $13.35 (All-In), BB calls $2.75

Total pot: $29.95 | Rake: $1.45

Results in white below:
BB had Q, J (straight, Queen high).
Hero had A, 9 (two pair, nines and fours).
Outcome: BB won $28.65

Wow... How could I possibly call that river shove?

Hand 2

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($2.50)
MP ($24)
Hero (Button) ($10)
SB ($10)
BB ($16.65)

Preflop: Hero is Button with ,
UTG calls $0.10, MP calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.50, 2 folds, UTG calls $0.40, MP calls $0.40, Hero raises to $0.40, 4 folds, Gioforce1 calls $0.30 (All-In)

Flop: ($1.85) , , (4 players, 1 all-in)
UTG checks, MP bets $0.20, Hero raises to $1.80, 1 fold, MP calls $1.60, Gioforce1 checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($5.45) (3 players, 2 all-in)
MP bets $0.50, Hero calls $0.50, Gioforce1 bets $1.20 (All-In), Hero calls $1.20

River: ($8.85) (3 players, 3 all-in)
MP bets $0.70, Hero raises to $7.20 (All-In), MP calls $6.50, Gioforce1 bets $10.60 (All-In), Hero raises to $13.35 (All-In), Gioforce1 calls $2.75 (All-In)

Total pot: $42.75 | Rake: $1.45

Results in white below:
Hero had A, 9 (two pair, nines and fours).
MP had 5, K (one pair, fours).
Outcome: MP won $19.65

What am I thinking shoving the river?

Hand 3

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($11.10)
Hero (Button) ($10)
SB ($2.40)
BB ($10.20)
UTG ($14.45)

Preflop: Hero is Button with ,
1 fold, MP raises to $0.40, Hero raises to $1.40, 2 folds, MP calls $1

Flop: ($2.95) , , (2 players)
MP bets $1.50, Hero raises to $8.60 (All-In), MP calls $7.10

Turn: ($20.15) (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($20.15) (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $20.15 | Rake: $1

Results in white below:
Hero mucked A, 8 (one pair, Jacks).
MP had 10, A (flush, Ace high).
Outcome: MP won $19.15

Alright let's tilt our money off!!!

K I'm fed up of posting my retarded hands, but you get the point I played pretty horrible and won't let that happen anymore. Anyways, played a short morning session this morning and made 22$, so my current BR is 115$

I think one thing this blog really helps well with, is being able to be completely honest with myself and owning up to all my mistakes. Now I can't hide and say that I did not make some mistakes, instead I show myself out in the open to face these mistakes which I hope will definitely help in my progress as a poker player

[kmind]

You sure hands 1 and 2 are different?

[xptboy]

You sure hands 1 and 2 are different?

lol I didn't realize they're the same :/, but I did make a lot of other extremely silly mistakes during this losing session.

ANYWAY

I had a 3.5 hour session today 6 tabling and logged in 1000 hands. At one point I was down over 3 buy-ins but the good thing is that I was rather satisfied with my play. Granted I wasn't playing my best game but I wasn't tilting and I didn't spew off my roll, in fact most of the losses came from bad beats or coolers. I came back and ended the session slightly over breakeven so my BR is now 220$... Not much difference, but I'm just happy that I'm not tilting anymore. I think i'll log in another session today but only 4 tabling since I really don't have anything else to do today as it's christmas and my family just stay home and we eat a lot...

Oh yea, I'm giving up on trying to maintain a BB/100 of 35+... That seems very unreachable for now... I'll just try play my best poker whenever possible and hopefully the BB/100 won't be too mean to me

[xptboy]

Bankroll up to 230...

Anyways, I've been going over the limits a bit recently in terms of balancing life and I can feel that it is having an effect on my poker game, so i'm going to set up some time constraints on the ammount of poker I can play per day.

- On holidays, I may only play 4 hours a day maximum.
- On weekend, I may only play 4 hours a day maximum.
- On school days, I may only play 2 hours a day maximum.

Other rules I will stick to
- only play 4-6 tables max
- make sure I can find somebody to exploit at the table
- don't play when tired, angry, pissed, drunk, high, or any of those other bad things

Alright that's it for now.

I hope I can stick to the above. I promise to be brutally honest in this blog, if I do not stick to those time constraints I will start by excluding myself from the poker site for 24 hours and if I keep doing so, then I will increase it to a week and take a nice week off.

[xptboy]

actually guys I'm gonna quit for good... The thing is, I know I have the skill and intelligence to be able to make it to at least the midstakes if I keep on grinding for the next year or two of my life, but that is not what I want out of life. I want to be able to have fun and do something fulfilling or something I could be proud of doing and I do not see poker as the answer to this and I certainly don't believe poker is something to dedicate my life to.

I came back as an experiment to see whether I would be able to enjoy poker and life at the same time but in the past week of having playing poker I can see the direction that this is taking me in. I am already eating much worse than normal and sleeping at irregular times. I realize it's the holidays but I was planning on getting even fitter during this period and during this last week of coming back to poker has simply made it impossible for me to reach my goals to get a healthy fit body.

I have just cashed out my bankroll and excluded myself from Pokerstars. I will not come to this thread to visit it again since I don't care about what the replies will say.

I do however thank anyone who actually read my blog for the short period that it was active. Also to all the players who take poker seriously, I wish you guys good luck at the tables and all the best.

Goodbye...

[badgers]

wow what happened in those 19 mins???

[kmind]

Goodbye man. Good luck with everything. I understand it all. Hope all goes well.

[xptboy]

OK ermm I'm already back...

Just deposited 100$ on FTP and applied for rakeback but I don't seem to be getting it for some reason... I am however clearing my bonus but still lol...

I didn't quit last time because of a bad session or anything... In fact i think my last session was a winning one, it's just that, during that period I was pretty much playing poker and nothing else. So now, i'm gonna set myself some time limits for when I can play and everything should be fine.

Anyways... I'm back at square 0 lol... started playing poker on tuesday btw...
i've played 12 hours and my BR is now 180$ (with some help from the bonus). It's funny because I had a 4 hour session yesterday where I ended up down 2 buy-ins but I was extremely happy with my play because I simply got coolerred and bad beat over and over again. Today I played a session and won 6 BI in 30 min before losing 4 of those buy-ins, and I am much more unsatisfied with my play today than yesterday. Guess I'm finally starting to not give a f*** about results....

I was thinking about starting a new blog at CR instead of here, but I decided that I preferred the community here. Maybe it's just because this is the first poker forum I came across but I just like the community here. So I'll try stick with poker this time for a long time at least. Another incentive of mine was that I'm finally done with college applications and I'd actually like to make some money on the side in college, but I'd have to be playing at least 50NL to make anything significant, so my goal is to reach 50NL as fast as possible and then make sure I'm a strong player and slowly move up the stakes from there. For now though, i'm still gonna use my aggressive BR management plan until 50NL (check first post)

Anyways...
I've noticed that there's a lot more action at the tables on FTP... Honestly lol... I dunno why, maybe it's because it's harder to multitable so there's less mass tabler nits or something, I like this because I myself play 4 tables at a time and this enables me to play slightly more hands than I usually would at PS.

I need to remember to bet mainly for value, bluffing really isn't that important at these limits since people will call with random trash... Just need to take these fish to value town.

Hope u guys r happy im back :/

[xptboy]

Some things to note after losing 4 buy-ins by being an idiot (I cashed out on FTP because I wasn't getting rakeback, moved to everest and lost 4 BI here because the software is just horrible, I played 4 tables and was just timing out over and over, I immediately cashed out because I hated the site, prolly gonna end up creating a new acc at stars or something...):

- SSNL players generally don't know how to put people on ranges... If they do, then don't bother trying to win too much money off of them, there's far too many fish to waste time clashing with the regs, for this reason, I have no reason to balance my range or think about metagame
- try to exploit the fishies...
- Don't loosen up too much, stay tight, try and keep a VPIP of under 20, most of my money will be won with the big cards (pairs and broadway cards), suited connectors and all that rubbish will be slightly +EV but only slightly at these stakes...
- Don't bother 3betting light to balance my range.
- Don't 4bet without AA/KK unless 100% sure that the other guy has worse...
- Don't bother opening a hand like A8s from MP... these will only get me into marginal spots and I have no need to get into these kinds of spots atm, instead I should try focus on extracting the most value with strong hands
- Discipline is the most important thing in poker
- Don't suffer from FPS (fancy play syndrome)
- If I'm not sure of my equity in a hand, then I should go over it until I finally do know my equity in that hand
- against unknowns... play with caution
- make notes on other players, even if I'm not involved in the pot, watch the other player's tendencies

[xptboy]

OK.... So this is the situation, Everest still has not given me back my money on neteller, so instead I decided to redeposit money on FTP (even though the rake at 10NL there is absolutely horrible, and i'm not getting rakeback... but im still completing the bonus). Anyways I actually got two accounts on FTP, one with rakeback and one without, but the one with rakeback i've excluded myself from playing on for the next 5 months... SO I'm gonna have to wait until I'm in college before I decide to transfer my money there and get rake... (hope this wasn't too confusing lol)

In the mean time, I can focus on getting better at poker and trying to get to 50NL... Anyways, since Everest was being so damn slow with paying me back I decided to give myself 200$ on my non RB FTP acc. and when I get my Neteller money back i'll add it to that account, that basically means I started with 300$... I'll go a bit slower with moving up to 25NL now, I'll wait until I have 500$ instead (doesn't mean I won't be playing at deep tables of 10NL)

Had a pretty good session today morning. I was planning on playing another session tonight but my gf came over and only just left and now I'm too tired to play, so instead I'm gonna review my PT3 stats so far (only 1500 hands so far on my new acc on FTP) and I'm gonna watch a video.

[xptboy]

Had the worst tilt session today since I came back to poker...

It started off with my KK against AA, then AA get sucked out on by KK, then sets under set, then I have TT, flop comes T92 all diamonds, we get it in on flop and he already got the nut flush and I don't suck out.

After this, I start doing retarded shit and spewing (by this point already down 3.5 BI). I move up to 25PL because I know the game there are fishy but I still end up doing stupid shit and after around 4 hours of trying to get my money back I end up down 90$, which brings my BR from 350$ to 250$...

Because of all this retarded shit i've done today, I decided to exclude myself from poker until wednesday. I promised myself that if I broke any of my own rules, then I would ban myself from poker for 3 days and this is what i'm doing.

Rules I broke this session
- No session will take more than 2 hours
- I will stick to my BR plan
- Play no more than 4 tables

I think that this session has made me realize that my aggro BR plan is rather ridiculous... Sure I may be good enough to play at 25NL or 50NL but that doesn't mean that I have the BR to do so. From now on i'll slow down with my BR management. Not moving up to 25NL until I have 600$ in the bank. This will probably take me until the end of February to do...

Rules of my game. I set these rules up for myself so that I would be able to
- balance my life
- make sure I did not play too much poker
- reduce the ammount of emotional stress I go through
Maybe I will change these in the future, but for now I think that the rules I have set up are rather good

- No session lasts longer than 2 hours. I have an alarm clock which sets off after 2 hours, as soon as it rings, I should quit posting my blinds and leave the table.
- Only 1 session on weekdays (unless holiday)
- Only 2 sessions max on holidays and weekends
- I may not start a session in the morning unless I have showerred and eaten breakfast
- No moving up limits in the middle of a session
- 4 tables maximum
- If I break ANY of these rules in ANY single session, I must self-exclude myself from poker for the next 3 days

Even with these rules, I should still get in plenty of time to play poker and should be getting +14hr/week unless I end up breaking these rules and force myself to self-exclude myself... Hence it is better idea that i stick to these rules so I will actually be able to play more poker.

My new BR plan
- Move up to 25NL at 600$

errm after this we'll see when I can move up to 50NL . Hopefully I'll be at 25NL by the end of Jan/beginning of Feb.

Anyways, in the mean time, I guess I can seriously study some poker atm.

(I actually feel a lot better after writing this post wtf?)

[xptboy]

lol I dunno how but I found 100$ on my Neteller account just sitting there doing nothing...

SO, I decided to put it on Everest and play some tables!!!!! This automatically brought my BR up to 350$.

Anyways, had a very good day at Everest and I'm finally used to the bloody software. BR now up to 400$, will move up at 600$ as planned. I'm prolly gonna play on Everest for a bit more though as there's just so many damn fish there...

That's not really why I posted here though. The reason why I posted is cuz... TODAY, I had my first ever sweat session!!!!!!!!!

Last week I found out that someone in my school played poker and we actually started talking and I've always wanted a sweat session. So today, I asked him to get teamviewer and I finally had my first sweat session!! (he was sweating me btw)

Anyways, I can't believe how much more focussed I was because of the sweat session, I mean, even though he only sweated me for 50 minutes, during that 50 min I was winning at 100ptbb/100 (yeah amazing I know). I made some really good laydowns and really didn't make any mistakes imo, I'd definitely recommend sweat sessions as a way to improve your game.

Honestly, I was playing my A game during the sweat session, so now I'm gonna try play all the time thinking good thoughts and reinforcing my actions everytime.

I'm supposed to sweat him soon (except for now he's only playing shortstacked Full ring, but he's planning on moving to big stack soon after he's got his BR up) and once he starts playing as a big stack, we're prolly gonna end up sweating eachother like once a week or something to monitor our progress n shit.

If anyone else who plays the micros is interested in just talking poker or sweating eachother, I'm definitely up for it. My timezone is GMT+1 btw.

[xptboy]

back to life sucking.... It sucks when you play for two hours and you play really perfect poker but still end up only winning 5$ (which is afterall 8ptbb/100... BUT STILL come on...)

It sucks when your Aces get cracked 3x in a row and it sucks when some donkey hits his set on the river when all the money goes on the turn and you've got an overpair.

I think Everest poker hates me. Honestly, wtf?!?! My session starts great and I'm up 30$, it looks like it's gonna only get better when I get Aces but NOOOOOO.

Now I'm not tilted, I'm just cursing my friggin bad luck, I'm pretty sure that if this shit happenned at 100NL where the players were actually good I'd be on a huge downswing.

This has been going on for like one or two weeks now, and it just doesn't look like it's gonna bloody stop. I should get this EV graph thing... I bet I'm running like 10 BI less than I'm supposed to or something.

[xptboy]

I cashed out on Everest. I just can't play on it.
1. The software is OK at best
2. My Aces are my second biggest losing hand... followed by TT and AKo, I mean the fish are friggen retarded -.-
3. Nobody ever respects any of my bets or raises, fish are such calling stations then when they happen to hit a hand I normally have a good hand too...
4. The fish bet pot everytime they hit anything. They don't know how to size their bets, it's just like bet pot bet pot bet pot fold... sufbsdufbsdfsdufbsdfbsd
Basically, fuck my experience with Everest. and yes for now I'm tilted.

Back to FTP, since I cashed out at Everest by cheque I'll just be playing on FTP with my original roll of 250$.

[xptboy]

Alright, since I've come back to FTP, things have been going very good. Won 100$ at 10NL in the last 2 days. BR went up to 360$ before today.

Today I took a shot at 25NL because the tables were looking specially juicy tonight.

At the start of the session I was losing. I actually lost 70$, then all of a sudden I just told myself that I needed to play optimally. I needed to quit treating 25NL like it was completely different from 10NL. Over the next 4 hour I accumulated all money back and finished the session up 120$. So overall a very satisfactory week.
Most of my money actually came from this one fish who just kept on reloading... I'm pretty sure I ended up taking his entire bankroll (I won 110$ off of him alone).

Ended up with a 180$ stack lol.
Screenshot - 17_01_2009 , 1_00_23

BR now up to 480$, gonna keep playing 10NL until I get 600$ unless I keep seeing some juicy tables.

[xptboy]

just checked my first thread evar out on this forum.... I guess it kinda made me lol right now... http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ghlight=xptboy