Confessions of a Teenage Poker Noob

[TheMaverik91]

Confessions of a Teenage Poker Noob - Started: 01/04/10

Introduction
My name is Travis, I'm 18 years old, and I've decided to create this poker journal to help keep track of my play, as well as to be able to sit back and review myself from a third person perspective and see where I've got leaks, problem spots, and general hand issues. I was going to make this a private journal, but then I realized that with the great resources of FTR, it might be wise to make it public as to get feedback to point out things I did not notice, and give me general advice.

I began playing internet poker back in about August. I deposited 25$ to PokerStars, used my deposit code, and qualified for an extra 25$ if i could attain the proper VPp's. I played mostly Limit hold'em at about the .25/.50$ mark. First Mistake. I was doing fine, but as is the case with most fish, I lost it all. Didn't clear my bonus either. I stepped away from the poker scene, but was quickly sucked back in around October. I had been reading a ton of material, and was sure I had figured it out now. I found out I was playing too high on my bankroll, and even thou I was scared, I should be playing NL Hold'em. I deposited another 25$. I felt I knew how to properly play, and wanted to make a profit. Second and Third Mistake. I lasted enough to get up to 200/250 VPP for my bonus, but went broke. I walked away, there was no way in hell I was ever going to be good at internet poker. In late December, me and a few friends began to sit down and regularly play 2$ NL. I turned 2$ into 18$ in a few days. Why was I good at regular sit-down poker, but sucked online. My itch to play online grew again. I knew I missed something in my last two attempts. I went out at 11PM, December 30th, and bought a pre-paid card. I had to get back in the game. I knew I could do it. So it started...

New Rules

• I must be willing to lose my money. When I understand that, I can become a better player.
• Stop calling as many bluffs. 75% of the time, it's not a bluff (At least in my current Limit).
• Stick to proper Discipline. Bankroll Management is a must, not an option.
• Watch for TILT. If my AA just got beat versus 22, Fine. It's poker, it WILL happen.
• If my 22 beats an AA, watch the ego boost. Double check to see if I played the hand right or just got lucky.
• Stop getting stuck. If I loose 1$ at a table, deal with it. Trying to "earn" it back will only result in more lost.
• Keep the journal updated. It's a valuable source of information. People will give me comments. Some I may not like, but I need to take feelings aside and see if what is said is true. If I would be a pro, I wouldn't be playing microstakes.

Current Standings - 01/04/10

• Bankroll Start: $18.50
• Current Bankroll: $52.27
• Bonus Unlocked: Yes

Current Mood: Delighted. I managed to bust through 38 points to earn my bonus, and earned it with 27.27$ in the bank, which means I was almost ten dollars up on my initial deposit. I must have finally grasped some concepts. Too early to tell, don't need to get cocky.

I began on the 30th with just 1 table $2 NL. Continued with this until about the 2nd. Began doing 2 tables at once. Was very easy. Folded things I wasn't used to folding. Examples: 910 Same suit, A2 Same suit, 22 UTG. Watched the rivers play out after I folded these cards.... and remembered how I used to play these cards. I began to understand why I lost money.

On the 3rd, I decided to add a new table to my hand. I was doing great with 2 tables, but still had a lot of boring down time with all the folding. I added a 1.10$ Turbo Double or Nothing SNG to the mix. I won. Continued throughout the day, figuring out how I won. Dropped from the two ring tables to better watch and understand the DoN SNG.

January 4th, I only had 16 points to go. I knew ring tables were not going to get me the points in the time I needed (the bonus ends on the 12th). I was having decent success with DoN SNG's. I began to four table these. Played tight. After all, the turbo DoN SNG's are about lasting, not biggest chip stack. My theories worked, and I made ITM about 65-75%, with my wins covering my losses and still keeping me ahead. I tried two regular 1.20$ 9 Person SNG's. 2nd Place on one ($2.70) and 3rd on the other ($1.80). I then used 20 FPP to enter a tournament. I made 817/6155 to net me $0.25. I continued 4 Tabling, and finally unlocked my bonus. I like SNG's more than ring games. Might stick with them for now. ROI is 15.68 with ITM 62.79.

Current stats: 13.01 VPIP, 2.30 PFR, 48.74 AFq (2.76 AF).

My Vpip seems fine.... maybe a little high? I know I need to raise my PFR a bit higher, about to 8? and I don't know about my AFq.

Well, work is calling my name, I'll continue playing tonight after work.

[XTR1000]

• I must be willing to lose my money. When I understand that, I can become a better player.
• Stop calling as many bluffs. 75% of the time, it's not a bluff (At least in my current Limit).

This just caught my eye. Don´t be willing to lose your money, you absolutely don´t want to lose anything. You need however to learn to think in terms of expected value (EV) and to actually make decisions, where you are choosing between alternative options and maximize your expected value. Whenever it´s your turn, you always have the option to fold, which always has an expected value of zero, so in eevee-land you technically never need to lose any money. Accept that there´s a thing called variance which produces differences between EV money and real money at times.

The EV concept applied to calling possible bluffs (lets just assume opponent does bluff 25%):

EV of our call = (actual money in pot + opponents bet) * .25 - (amount we have to call) * .75

25% the time he is bluffing and you win the pot plus the bet you called, 75% you lose the mount you called when he wasn´t bluffing.

Now

EV >! 0

0 < (pot + bet) * .25 - (call) * .75
0 < .25*pot - .5*bet

bet < .5 pot

What Im trying to say is as long the bet you´re calling is smaller or equal to half the size of the pot it doesnt matter if the villian has it 3/4 the time, you´d still show a profit on average.


As you can see I am bored. Hope I could help and didn´t cause confusion.

[AdamThePirate]

I assume you are playing full-ring with stats like 13/2. Your VPIP is fine, but your PFR% is way too small.

If your PFR% is indeed 2%, then you really need to be raising it up, that limits your raising range to QQ+, and AKo+, which are fine hands to be opening up with, but so are others.

Study the following concepts: Position, Ranges, Pot Odds (and with it, bet sizing) and Implied Odds.

One of the most important concepts to deal with is range. Putting your opponents of a range of hands that they will play in a similar way, it is a great asset to be good at putting people on a range, and will give you a significant advantage in poker.

Good luck!

[spoonitnow]

Get into IRC and learn to play poker

[TheMaverik91]

XTR1000: I've always heard about estimated value, but never fully understood it. Your post kind of opened the door on it, so I'll definitly be reading more into it. And Maybe I should have been more clear on those two rules: Be afraid to loose money, but don't let that fear effect my play style. And I do call bluffs, I'm just stating that I need to call less often..... EV is definitly going to be something I'll be getting a hang of as a tool to help me better decide on calling a bet.

AdamThePirate: Those stats are from the 10 person DoN SNG's. I have about 50 tournaments from that.... compared to only like 2 Ring game sessions. And you are right, I was limiting myself to QQ+. Here recently (last five tournaments or so) I've been opening up my range a little loser. If I'm UTG, MP1, or MP2 My range is AA,AK,AQ, AJ. Debated on A10. However, MP3 and later, I open my ranges up more to KK, KQ, KJ, QQ, QJ, JJ. I was debating on adding Q10Same suite, and J10 Same Suite.
I've read about positioning, and how they should effect your bets, I'm just trying to incorporate it at a steady pace to see how things are going to work. Gives me a good understanding of it, and if I loose a pot, I can return and see why (was it just cards or did I mess up somewhere?) and if I win a pot, I can look back and ask: Did I play the hand to it's optimal value. Did I raise too high with nuts? Should I have slow played it a little more and gotten more value? Should it have been played a little faster because there was something I failed to see that could have flopped out and screwed me?

SpoonitNow: I'll see about jumping into IRC some time soon. Thanks.

Thank ya'll for your help so far, all suggestions have been noted. I see 100% where ya'll are coming with this information, so I'll try to incorperate it better into my play style. Thank you.

[TheMaverik91]

so yeah.... I think I'm going to continue playing DoN's how I played before the advice..... the advice is great for ring games.... but I just lost ten DoN's in a row trying to follow this advice. I think I'll continue playing DoN's as a waiting game and only QQ+. The advice is good for ring games thou.... has helped me out... but ouch those tournaments stung.....

[Fielmann]

The correct strategy in DoN tournaments is very different from other forms of poker. This is one of the main reasons I quit playing them - I felt I was effectively "un-learning" poker, i.e. my DoN thought patterns and habits interfered and distracted me whenever I wanted to play a cash-game or a regular tournament.
But if you feel serious and long-term about them, then why not. Just make sure you read and re-read (and re-re-read) the DoN guides by kevster and Nakamura. (Can be found under SNG tactic digest in the SNG forum.)

Some other very important things:

- 10 tournaments is way too little to draw any conclusions from. You'll need at least hundreds.
- Your starting-hand selection is off. You're over-valuing AJ and JT kind of crap. You're severely under-valuing high pairs (KK-TT).
- Fold more. Raise more. Call less.
- Posting hands is the best way to improve.

Good luck!

[TheMaverik91]

01/06/09
I've finally set up my multi table stack script, and it works amazing. Only having a slight problem when PT3 displays the hud. Turned off the hud for now, which is probably a good thing. I need to be able to read my opponents, not a HUD.

I played my usual DoN's. 4/6 Wins. Looking for something a little better.... starting to see that DoN's inspire bad poker habits, and want something that relies a little more on my skill. Might go back to them in the future. Saw a 2.20$ 5K$ Guarantee Tournament. Normally I wouldn't buy in, but I figured it was a good chance to see how people play in those big tournaments, and what I'll be up against. I eventually got blinded out, but made some interesting discoveries as to how many donks there are in big MTT tournaments. I then entered a $0.25 45-Man SnG. Placed 2nd, netting me a total of $2.41.

While playing the tournament, I decided to play two full ring games at the same time. I sat down with $2 and left with $2.60 on one, and $3.50ish on the other. Now, I want to know something. If I say that I was up 30BB on the $2.60, is that correct? I see a lot of people that say they are "up 5BB" and I'm thinking "That's 0.10$.... doesn't seem like much.... granted it does add up.... maybe I'm thinking the wrong amount." So could someone clear that up for me, thanks.
Only one interesting hand happened in the tournament, want to know if I played it right, or if I should have played it different. Guy to my left was a ultimate donk, called with trash all night. He was just having fun and BS'ing as he said in the chat. Cool dude, but put me in a tight spot when I saw his trash take out people all night.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 0.25 Tournament, 100/200 Blinds (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP2 (t12590)
CO (t1515)
Button (t2770)
SB (t6900)
BB (t1980)
UTG (t5086)
UTG+1 (t4319)
Hero (MP1) (t4380)

Hero's M: 14.60
Preflop: Hero is MP1 with ,
2 folds, Hero calls t200, MP2 bets t726, 2 folds, SB calls t626, BB raises to t1980 (All-In), Hero calls t1780, MP2 raises to t12590 (All-In), 1 fold, Hero calls t2400 (All-In)

Flop: (t11466) , , (3 players, 3 all-in)

Turn: (t11466) (3 players, 3 all-in)

River: (t11466) (3 players, 3 all-in)

Total pot: t11466

Results:
BB had J, A (one pair, Jacks).
Hero had Q, A (flush, Ace high).
MP2 had 4, 8 (one pair, fours).
Outcome: Hero won t11466