[sweep]

Not the way i wanted to start the year off for sure..Might change things up and hit the old brick & mortar room soon. My last live session I average almost $100/hr. My HM2 graph looks like a total abortion for this month

[Triple_D_Bet]

Not the way i wanted to start the year off for sure..Might change things up and hit the old brick & mortar room soon. My last live session I average almost $100/hr. My HM2 graph looks like a total abortion for this month

[Ballerholic]

lololololol

[Ballerholic]

Alright guys, so I've been studying a lot of poker over the past few days and watching a lot of videos etc. I really feel dominant in my game right now. I just played a session and made $77. So that puts the tally for the week at -$112. Not the end of the world, that's just under 4BI. The main issue I've had is not thinking about hands in enough detail especially when I multi-table. Anyway I've taken it slow playing 1 table at a time and obviously it's gone well. I did end up losing 2 BI's after the first time flopping a set with AK and then losing to my opponents A8 when an 8 hits the turn, same exact hand played out 20 minutes later but with K instead of A. Full House vs Top Set Top Kicker both times. WTF. Anyway, the bankroll is at $477 at the moment. I should be putting in a session later on tonight and then a decent sized session tomorrow as well. The aim for this month is to get the BR up to $1,500. Around the $800 mark I'll take a shot at 50nl. Right now my coach has moved up to 100 zoom and is crushing it. He streams on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hlmedia . 1 session at least a week and in no time I should be up there crushing 50nl zoom and 100nl zoom making a living playing some poker. Anyway, short term goal is to get my BR up to $5k and summer goal is to be able to sustain a living just by playing poker whether that be in a casino or online.

[slikec]

With AKo you cant get set(only with PPs) you had trips and they got FH(shit happens).

Well you have determination and finally you are not cashing out and you actually put some cash from work in poker. You also picked good coach that is actually not charging much if he really earns 10bb/100 at NL50 at zoom lol(that is sick winrate for normal cash games let alone zoom lol). So cant wait to read more

[Ballerholic]

Yea slik you're right. It was funny too because an hour after my session with my coach he says I just want you to play one table at a time and really focus on whether your bet makes a better hand fold or if you're bet allows a weaker hand to continue. So I did that and got outed on the turn twice to burn 2 BIs in under an hour. That's what set my mental game off and I started tilting like crazy. Not crazy tilt, but I ran set on flop into a Flush and I ran Nut Straight into a Flush when he got there, but the pot was too big at that point to even fold (not that I would). Anyway, I signed up to RunitOnce and started watching some hand reading videos, I then read some of The Grinder's Manual (Really recommend this) and watched some videos of my coach playing while also taking some time off from playing (about a day and a half). I'm going to read the Poker Blueprint which DaneBlazer sent me.

I think what I'll do is start posting some more hands here and really analyze them to see what you guys think and how you guys feel about the hand. Also slik and everybody else reading come post your results as well. Sweep is the only other guys here really posting about it.

Also I submitted my pro application a little under a month ago and SBR keeps telling me to contact them next week if nothing happens. WTF.

[sweep]

[ChuckyTheGoat]

BH, good stuff. Keep the updates comin. I'm pullin for u.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

I don't consider myself to be a better than avg player. I play almost exclusively tournaments, not many cash-games at all. Main comparison is to consider chip-stacks.

The better players will consider depth of chip-stacks when contemplating a speculative hand. Have to have $$ behind to get paid off on a big hand.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Poker is an interesting game to me. Every 2-card starting hand has +/- to consider. AK is an interesting one. It's the one non-pair hand that is considered to be a premium holding.

That said, what is NOT to like about AK. Well...plenty:
* Pre-flop, if u raise aggressively I think a lot of players will put u on AK. Compare that to AA, where u really want to extract value from opponent and keep him in the hand.
* On the flop, if u brick it, what are u left with? Just the "nut no-pair."
* What type of hand can u make? You could make the nut-straight, but only if QJT hit the board. And you're straight is "truncated", IE there's only one specific straight to make. Compare that to a hand like JT, which can make a lot of hands going up/down.
* So, you're trying to make TPTK. True, u can make that with AK. Like slik says above...you can make a GOOD hand, but it's hard to make a GREAT hand. If u make TPTK but get raised on, warning bells have to go off. Are u up against a set? Your hand might be too good to lay down, and now you're stuck.

[sweep]

Poker is an interesting game to me. Every 2-card starting hand has +/- to consider. AK is an interesting one. It's the one non-pair hand that is considered to be a premium holding.

That said, what is NOT to like about AK. Well...plenty:
* Pre-flop, if u raise aggressively I think a lot of players will put u on AK. Compare that to AA, where u really want to extract value from opponent and keep him in the hand.
* On the flop, if u brick it, what are u left with? Just the "nut no-pair."
* What type of hand can u make? You could make the nut-straight, but only if QJT hit the board. And you're straight is "truncated", IE there's only one specific straight to make. Compare that to a hand like JT, which can make a lot of hands going up/down.
* So, you're trying to make TPTK. True, u can make that with AK. Like slik says above...you can make a GOOD hand, but it's hard to make a GREAT hand. If u make TPTK but get raised on, warning bells have to go off. Are u up against a set? Your hand might be too good to lay down, and now you're stuck.

AK is a drawing hand....I have no problem throwing this hand away in many scenarios. Rather have 88 or better most of the time

[poloman]

[sweep]

Cheers poloman...nice to see you break out of your shell here, 7 post per year is weak sauce brother

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Cheers poloman...nice to see you break out of your shell here, 7 post per year is weak sauce brother

Sweep, I would love to see you run over tables. Make sure u wear your SBR-gear at the FinalTable.

[daneblazer]

Poker is an interesting game to me. Every 2-card starting hand has +/- to consider. AK is an interesting one. It's the one non-pair hand that is considered to be a premium holding.

That said, what is NOT to like about AK. Well...plenty:
* Pre-flop, if u raise aggressively I think a lot of players will put u on AK. Compare that to AA, where u really want to extract value from opponent and keep him in the hand.
* On the flop, if u brick it, what are u left with? Just the "nut no-pair."
* What type of hand can u make? You could make the nut-straight, but only if QJT hit the board. And you're straight is "truncated", IE there's only one specific straight to make. Compare that to a hand like JT, which can make a lot of hands going up/down.
* So, you're trying to make TPTK. True, u can make that with AK. Like slik says above...you can make a GOOD hand, but it's hard to make a GREAT hand. If u make TPTK but get raised on, warning bells have to go off. Are u up against a set? Your hand might be too good to lay down, and now you're stuck.

AK has blockers to AA & KK and also out kicks every Ax Kx hand so it's a very power holding. It sees it's most value seeing all 5 cards on the board which is why it's a great hand to shove with in a tournament. Like many other holdings, it's easier to play when you can isolate someone and not have to play a multi-way pot. Playing AK in a 3 or 4 way pot can be difficult even if you hit an A or K on the board. You can definitely bluff catch with AK too in certain situations

[Ballerholic]

well guys down $211 today...so BR at $271. That means back to 10NL....awesome. FML. I've got a coaching lesson tomorrow so I'm going to have to take $50 for that. So BR is really at $217 right now. I know my BR is very small, but after losing as much as I have this past week I need a coaching session so bad right now. At least tomorrow is a new day...

[ChuckyTheGoat]

BH, poker is a game that makes me feel incredibly stupid at times.

You're giving it a shot. Props to u for that. I think the coaching lesson is a positive step. Means you're taking it seriously and working on your craft.

[sweep]

Yo Baller I saw on the 2+2 PokerStars thread that you got your account closed on Stars

Whats going on my man????

[Ballerholic]

Chuck- thanks Chuck, yea poker is a very crazy game only the nuttiest humans can survive. Honestly going on 10BI downswings are a norm in this game and you're supposed to just walk away with a smile and say well at least I played my best and that will make me money in the long run.

Sweep- Yea so basically I haven't played on PS in a while, and when I tried to start playing there again last week my account was frozen. Apparently somebody signed into my account from a foreign country which is concerning. At least I had no funds in there at the time. Anyway I need to send in ID and get it all figured out, but PS took a bit longer then they usually do to sort stuff out.

[sweep]

Chuck- thanks Chuck, yea poker is a very crazy game only the nuttiest humans can survive. Honestly going on 10BI downswings are a norm in this game and you're supposed to just walk away with a smile and say well at least I played my best and that will make me money in the long run.

Sweep- Yea so basically I haven't played on PS in a while, and when I tried to start playing there again last week my account was frozen. Apparently somebody signed into my account from a foreign country which is concerning. At least I had no funds in there at the time. Anyway I need to send in ID and get it all figured out, but PS took a bit longer then they usually do to sort stuff out.

This might be related to the hack of 2+2 forum.....about a month ago their interfaced was hacked and tons of personal info got leaked. 2+2 put out an urgent memo for everyone to change their passwords on all sites as a precaution.

here's a link to a thread I started about that breach:




2+2 Poker Forum hacked!

sweep

[Ballerholic]

And the downswing continues...

So far this year I've lost -$393.55 with almost $300 of that coming in the last 2 weeks. Unfortunately I've either hit some serious run bad or else my mental game is messed up right now. My coach thinks I should be beating 30nl, but for some reason these past 2 weeks it seems as if every time I hit a hand the villain hits a better hand...IDK variance is killer in this game and I've never experienced run bad like this before. I can't even beat 2NL...Unfortunately I use a very aggressive BRM strategy so for the time being I am going to do a mini bankroll challenge starting at 4NL and trying to move up the limits. I'm also going to try and get that staking deal where I'll be playing 25NL. I've listened to a lot of mental game material the past few days and apparently poker players usually go broke and don't beat limits because of a short bankroll and aggressive strategy. So if I'm going to be playing full time come summer I'm going to need to do things the right way. I only need to be a winner at 25NL to be able to play full time over the summer. The strategy will be 25BIs per limit, so I can move up to 10nl at...

10NL-$250

16NL-$400

25NL-$625

50NL-$1,250

BR at the moment is at ~$30, but that is going to change since I'll be adding some more into it as I go along and start feeling a bit more confident. I'll be moving my funds over to PS during this challenge once my account gets unfrozen.

[sweep]

...............

[Ballerholic]

ok guys Patriots -2.5, Under 56.5 legooo

[daneblazer]

well guys down $211 today...so BR at $271. That means back to 10NL....awesome. FML. I've got a coaching lesson tomorrow so I'm going to have to take $50 for that. So BR is really at $217 right now. I know my BR is very small, but after losing as much as I have this past week I need a coaching session so bad right now. At least tomorrow is a new day...

You really don't need to be burning that percentage of your roll on coaching lessons unless you can reload. You probably need a few days off more than you need coaching

[Ballerholic]

Blazer- I definitely agree with you that at 30nl I should be able to beat it without coaching for sure. I mean I was beating it for 5bb/100 until I hit that downswing. Because I was beating it for a decent amount I decided to get coaching to help me move up quicker and beat it for even 10bb/100. Unfortunately I hit a bad downswing and felt hopeless to the point I couldn't even beat 10nl anymore which I had crushed over a large sample. It was definitely run bad and mental game issues and after speaking with some pro players it seems like I'm being a little girl about the situation.

[Ballerholic]

Update


+$20 over the past 2 days...pretty good for only playing 5NL. Anyway, as my BR is a little too small to be playing 30nl, I've talked to some potential backers and I should be rolled to play 25NL in the next few days. I'm not too sure of all the ins and outs, but from my understanding we split profits 50/50 daily and I don't pay for losing money? Anyway, it will probably only be a short term thing until I have a roll for the higher limits. Basically I've been reflecting over the past few days about my poker game and what from my perspective it takes to reach the higher limits as in 50nl-100nl. If I look at my database I will see that most of the money I have lost has been at fast poker variant games, while I've been pretty much B/E at regular 30nl tables. That is a huge code red warning!!! Let's think about that. In fast poker you are playing a ton of hands an hour so any leaks you have no matter how small are going to repeated over and over and cost you a lot of money. Also, you are playing against for the most part tight ranges, even the fish are playing much tighter ranges than normal. So all in all winrate should be lower at fast tables. Also, how do poker players make money? By playing with players who are worse than them, and there only needs to be one player worse than you. I've seen 100nl tables with players worse than me going on there stats. So it's pretty obvious...just play regular tables.

The plan

Play regular tables at Pokerstars, Natural8, iPoker. All of these sites give pretty decent RB as well. So I'll play these regular tables, with the occasional zoom table for fun. With this plan I fully expect to be shot taking 50nl by the start of next month. It's pretty simple plan, but for some reason I've been too addicted to the fast poker formats which are much higher in variance and much tougher. They are definitely beatable, but reg tables are beatable for some insane winrates from what I've experienced myself. So that's the goal basically. It's very important that I become a 50nl reg before the beginning of the summer. I need to be able to make a living playing poker and take care of myself. As long as I can make $10 an hour I will be happy with myself, but the goal is to hit $20 an hour. My extreme goal is to hit 100nl before the start of summer though. So hopefully that goes well.

Any tips or advice please share!

[slikec]

I would suggest dont rush, put in the hours and results will come.

[Ballerholic]

That's good advice slik. I agree with it and rushing was definitely my downfall. It just tilts me to know that I can beat 25NL games, but I'm back at 10nl at the moment. But to be fair I've only been playing poker really for 8 months.

So I was thinking about the whole coaching ordeal and whether my BR can support it or not. It is definitely a +ev move and one that is really helping my game even though it is not helping my BR so much. I was watching my coach on stream yesterday, and so far this month he's killing 100 zoom. So he's going to be playing 200 zoom in March. How crazy is that, the guy was playing 50 zoom in January. Anyway he was talking about coaching to the other viewers and said that he is not taking any more students and that if there were any openings that the price per hour would be drastically increased. So for me to be getting coaching at $50 an hour from a 100 zoom crusher is a pretty sick deal. He really cares about his students and is someone who I could "ride" to the top with. For that reason I don't really want to end the relationship. Anyway, I'll be playing 20nl soon enough and at that point it wont 't that big a hit to my BR.

[Ballerholic]

Alright boys it is offical! I am part of Bankroll Boosters stable! At the moment I have $500 in my account and will be playing 25nl. I will be playing on Natural8 poker which is an asian site. My username on this site is Chinese Fisherman lol. I might even stream some of the play on Twitch Poker. Anyway the contract is a 50/50 split including RB. If I can show I'm a winning player at these stakes then they will move me up to 50nl in a short period. I'm excited for this, let's crush!

[slikec]

Youll play without HUD? Or is now available? Well 1 great month at any limit you can play gigher limit next month anyway if you do move up with 30BI or even less.

[sweep]

Good luck Baller...keep us all posted

[BeerDog99]

Alright boys it is offical! I am part of Bankroll Boosters stable! At the moment I have $500 in my account and will be playing 25nl. I will be playing on Natural8 poker which is an asian site. My username on this site is Chinese Fisherman lol. I might even stream some of the play on Twitch Poker. Anyway the contract is a 50/50 split including RB. If I can show I'm a winning player at these stakes then they will move me up to 50nl in a short period. I'm excited for this, let's crush!

Good luck Baller!!

[Ballerholic]

slik- yea I'm playing on natural8 poker without a hud as they don't allow those. In a way it is a good thing because I think I am better than most players at 25NL without a HUD, but the downside is that it is hard to prey on fish as you don't know their biggest leaks or if they are a fish right away. But HUDs usually allow a less predatory environment so usually Non-HUD sites are fishier. But yea hopefully this month goes well, as I said my backers have no issue shooting me up to 50NL as long as I prove I'm definitely a winner at 25NL. What site do you play on?

Sweep/Beer- Thanks guys! How are your grinds going?


Well guys yesterday was my first real day playing on this new network while being staked and I ended up +3BIs. Unfortunately that is split 50/50 as well as the RB that goes with it. Natural8 gives 35%, but only to the losing player(s) in the pot. So in a pot the losing player gets 35% of the total rake of the pot between all players. Which is nice in a way if you are losing, but for a winning player it's not that great, good for the environment though! BTW I definitely recommend this site to anyone who isn't playing on it, as long as you are capable of playing without a HUD. There were some pretty light stackoffs for sure. Also I've talked to some of the people in my stable and there are great reviews. Apparently one guys went on a 30BI downswing and the stable is still sticking with him and even paying for him to get coaching. That's insane. Obviously I will try to leave the stable as soon as possible and start using my own BR. I can leave as long as I am not in Markup. I would only stay if 1) I didn't have the funds to play the limit I am currently playing with the stable, or 2) if they move you up limits quickly without using proper BRM. So I think I'll play as much as I can these upcoming weeks until I hit the BR I want for myself, and then I'll tell them that I want to be moved up to 50nl or else I'll be leaving. That way I can play 50nl on their BR and play some of my own on the side...

[sweep]

slik- yea I'm playing on natural8 poker without a hud as they don't allow those. In a way it is a good thing because I think I am better than most players at 25NL without a HUD, but the downside is that it is hard to prey on fish as you don't know their biggest leaks or if they are a fish right away. But HUDs usually allow a less predatory environment so usually Non-HUD sites are fishier. But yea hopefully this month goes well, as I said my backers have no issue shooting me up to 50NL as long as I prove I'm definitely a winner at 25NL. What site do you play on?

Sweep/Beer- Thanks guys! How are your grinds going?


Well guys yesterday was my first real day playing on this new network while being staked and I ended up +3BIs. Unfortunately that is split 50/50 as well as the RB that goes with it. Natural8 gives 35%, but only to the losing player(s) in the pot. So in a pot the losing player gets 35% of the total rake of the pot between all players. Which is nice in a way if you are losing, but for a winning player it's not that great, good for the environment though! BTW I definitely recommend this site to anyone who isn't playing on it, as long as you are capable of playing without a HUD. There were some pretty light stackoffs for sure. Also I've talked to some of the people in my stable and there are great reviews. Apparently one guys went on a 30BI downswing and the stable is still sticking with him and even paying for him to get coaching. That's insane. Obviously I will try to leave the stable as soon as possible and start using my own BR. I can leave as long as I am not in Markup. I would only stay if 1) I didn't have the funds to play the limit I am currently playing with the stable, or 2) if they move you up limits quickly without using proper BRM. So I think I'll play as much as I can these upcoming weeks until I hit the BR I want for myself, and then I'll tell them that I want to be moved up to 50nl or else I'll be leaving. That way I can play 50nl on their BR and play some of my own on the side...

Still getting murdered....horrible start to the year. Only coin flipper that cant hit 50%

[Ballerholic]

damn sweep, I went thru a downswing myself earlier. Sometimes you just have to grind out the variance. GL