From counting pennies to money independence

_Anonymous_ · 2010-10-04T19:27:33Z

Hello everyone! I will start my blog from an introduction. My name is Andrius (in English that would be Andrew), I live in Lithuania, I'm 18 years-old (Well, not trully, my b-day is on 29th of February, so I get my real b-day only once in 4 years (if you don't believe me, check the callendar!)). I've known the rules of Texas Hold'Em since I was ~13 years-old, my brother played some online poker for playing money (he doesn't play anymore), but I haven't played it for myself. So, last year, my girlfriend started to play poker on Facebook (ZYNGA!!!) and I wanted to do something together when we were apart, so I just joined her at the table. Back then it was okay, I guess, though I played like an amature (and I was actualy). Later on, me and my friends started to play some live poker from real cash and it got me more into poker! So I played, played, played.. This summer I had a job and when I got my first salary, I decided to give a try at the real money online poker tables. I deposited it in PokerStars. At first ir was horible, I didn't know how to play properly to earn cash (btw my first deposit was 34.5$). As I reached 7$ I figured I don't want to lose everything and started reading Short Stack Strategy (SSS) provided by this site. It really worked, I managed to raise up my bankroll to 50$ and then it started - the up and down swings. For about 2 moths I raise my bankroll to 80$ then i go back to 4$ and it goes and goes.. So last week I figured I want to find out where I'm good at. Live I'm pretty good at SnG's, so I tried playing double-or-nothing. It went well for 2 times, and then I lost 2 and i fugured it's not for me. So there it was - my thing - HEADS-UP matches! I had 36$ in my bankroll and played 5,25$ buy-in tournaments (I know bad bankroll management here, but it works now (using SSS I used the normal bankroll management though)) and I started to win. So there it goes, now I'm playing HEADS-UP matches. My goal: The tittle of this blog is "From counting pennies to money independence" and it really represents my goal. I wish I can go downtown and spend all the money I want, not even thinking about it, eventhough I'm pretty tight with money. I would love to go to a caffee and buy myself and my mates a coffee (me and my hommies just LOVE coffee), that may sound very stupid, but Lithuania is suffering an economic crysis, so I don't get allot of pocket money from my parrents. I get 50LT a month and 20LT a week (for lunch at school), to make it $ it would be 50+20*4=130LT its 51$. The coffee here costs ~8LT (I mean the good coffee) and that makes ~16 coffees a month. And I'm not even talking about the movies or going to McDonalld's or any pizzeria to eat. So I would love to go and buy me and my palls a coffee everyday not even thinking that I'm short with money. As I said I play Heads-up so I started to make some stats of my play from 30th of September. 30th of September PLAYING: 5,25$ Buy-in Heads-up SnG's IF YOU WIN YOU GET: +4,75$ PLAYED: 20 WON: 12 PROFIT: 15$ TOTAL PLAYED HANDS: 854 1st of October PLAYING: 5,25$ Buy-in Heads-up SnG's IF YOU WIN YOU GET: +4,75$ PLAYED: 17 WON: 10 PROFIT: 10,75$ TOTAL PLAYED HANDS: 971 2nd of October PLAYING: 5,25$ Buy-in Heads-up SnG's IF YOU WIN YOU GET: +4,75$ PLAYED: 37 WON: 18 PROFIT: -14,25$ TOTAL PLAYED HANDS: 1610 ----- I've found out about Turbo Heads-up tournaments, I've never seen them before, I would have played them before 3rd of October PLAYING: 6,25$ Buy-in TURBO Heads-up SnG's IF YOU WIN YOU GET: +5,75$ PLAYED: 10 WON: 8 PROFIT: 33,50$ TOTAL PLAYED HANDS: 419 So, had a pretty good run that day, my bankroll hit 100$(first time it got there)!!! If you wondering why I stopped at such a great run, there's an explanation - I've made a rule, to not lose too much and not lose when I have made enough money for a day. I said to myself I will stop playing poker for a day when I get +6 matches or -3 matches. example: If you play 5 matches, win 3 of them, lose 2, then you are +1 match. So I've hit my +6 matches that day, so I figured I want to stop there. 4th of October PLAYING: 6,25$ Buy-in TURBO Heads-up SnG's IF YOU WIN YOU GET: +5,75$ PLAYED: 15 WON: 6 PROFIT: -21$ TOTAL PLAYED HANDS: Haven't counted them, since I played the first 4 matches at school So today was pretty bad for me, I broke up with my girlfriend, so I think I was in a bad mood, and I shouldn't have played at all. Well we learn from mistakes. By the way, from 2nd of October I played 1 match a day on Full Tilt Poker. I had 12$ there in my bankroll, but I really don't like FTP (maybe it's cause I'm used to Pokerstars), so I wanted to play my all-banroll-match there. I swore to myself that I will play very focused and won't make any stupid mistakes. So I did, I won the game. I had 22$ in my bankroll. Yesterday I played ano...

_Anonymous_

10.10.2010, 13:34 0

Originally posted by beckijay1991
Can't believe you blatantly ignore BRM? Mother Variance will eat you alive. Quit while ahead, move down to a proper limit. I'm amazed it hasn't already ended in disaster for you, but sooner or later it will.

Thanks for the heads-up! ♦ No really, I know I'm using bad BRM, but as far as it's going good and I feel confident, I'm playing like this. I planning to move up in stakes, as soon as I have 20-30 buy-ins (read in HU SnG strategy, that it's quite a good confort level), so next time I will climb up (22$ + 1$) I will have ~450$ in my BR. Thanks for your critics, but as far as I don't fall bellow 100$, I will stick to this buy-in.

konkey

Joined: 29.12.2009

Posts: 233

10.10.2010, 16:55 0

GL with your goal.
What HUD do you use?
Did you think of playing MT HU SnGs? If you have big edge, your avg winnings will be bigger on these.

_Anonymous_

10.10.2010, 18:48 0

Originally posted by konkey
GL with your goal.
What HUD do you use?
Did you think of playing MT HU SnGs? If you have big edge, your avg winnings will be bigger on these.

Currently I'm using Poker-Edge 5 (free trail for 5 days :f_frown: ). No, I never thought about that, cause I like this because it's like double or nothing. Either you win, or lose, but it's less difficult here

_Anonymous_

10.10.2010, 22:47 0

Alright, so I'm still winning in this stakes, so I think there's no point going down. I have ~20 buy-ins now! So here's today's stats:

10th of October:
BUY-IN: 11,50$
IF YOU WIN YOU GET: 10,50$
PLAYED: 27
WON: 16
PROFIT: 41,5$
HANDS PLAYED: 908
---
WIN PERCENTAGE: 59,25%

MY BANKROLL:
PokerStars: 206,66$

Well I'm pretty happy with the results, just a week ago I had 100,66$ in PokerStars, now there's 203,66$, so in just a week I managed to double up my bankroll! ♠_cool: Also I had sold 23$ to another person, so it's a little more than x2 BR! So that's it for today, I'm going to bed. The next week awaits, hopefuly it will be as profitable as this one, though I have a TON of tests coming this week (I was teribly sick, missed school for 2 weeks (not this one though)), so I will have to study and play poker a little less! Goodnight! ♠_grin:

blackops888

Joined: 25.04.2010

Posts: 502

11.10.2010, 17:24 0

Originally posted by Efukas

Originally posted by konkey
GL with your goal.
What HUD do you use?
Did you think of playing MT HU SnGs? If you have big edge, your avg winnings will be bigger on these.

Currently I'm using Poker-Edge 5 (free trail for 5 days ). No, I never thought about that, cause I like this because it's like double or nothing. Either you win, or lose, but it's less difficult here

Is Poker Edge allowed in the room you play at?

I used this trial for 5 days and REALLY got an edge on poker stars. I was about to license it, but soon discovered it was forbidden. Had to let it go ♠_mad:

It's all about the long run...

_Anonymous_

12.10.2010, 09:24 0

Originally posted by blackops888
Is Poker Edge allowed in the room you play at?

I used this trial for 5 days and REALLY got an edge on poker stars. I was about to license it, but soon discovered it was forbidden. Had to let it go ♠_mad:

Yeah, I play in PokerStars, it works there. Yeah it gives an edge among other players, you can look at the statistics and figure out whether to call, or not.

_Anonymous_

12.10.2010, 09:34 0

So, hey everyone, sorry for double post here. So yesterday (11th of October), I didn't have free time (went out with my friends), so I only played 3 matches (2 of them in school), managed to win them all! So I've got 31,50$ profit! But I've sold 21$ to my friend (makin' money, hustlin'). So my bankroll for yesterday was somehow: 214,16$

Now I'm also at school, and have some free classes so I played 1 match and won it!

So today I'm gonna play in PokerStrategy 25k Freeroll, so I guess see you guys there, I'm gonna play with my screenname efaas

_Anonymous_

12.10.2010, 22:24 0

Okay, so I got busted early in the 25k freeroll. Had J 10 suited, the board was J 5 4 9 10, so I had 2 top pair, but the other guy had a set of fours (4 4), so I lost mostly all of my chips, and later on pushed all-in with a pocket pair which didn't hold up.

Played some Heads-up matches, though not very much, cause I had a ton of homework and tomorow I'm having 2 tests ♠_frown:

12th of October:
BUY-IN: 11,50$
IF YOU WIN YOU GET: 10,50$
PLAYED: 12
WON: 8
PROFIT: 38$
---
WIN PERCENTAGE: 67%

Alright, so wish me good luck tomorow and see yall soon! :f_grin:

MY BANKROLL:
PokerStars: 252, 16$

_Anonymous_

13.10.2010, 17:14 0

What tests you had?♦ how it went? ♦

_Anonymous_

13.10.2010, 17:52 0

Originally posted by utenosmelynas
What tests you had?♦ how it went? ♦

Maths and English.
Well math went pretty well, I've completed 7 out of 8 tasks, hopefully I solved them right.
English has never been a problem to me. It's one of the subjects I'm talented at :f_cool:. I'm planning go study in England after I graduate this year, so I think English test went pretty good as well :f_grin:

Now I'm doing my homework (got a ton of it!!!), later I will study for another English test :f_biggrin:.

Played 1 match so far, managed to run over my oponent. Today another friend bought some cash (9$) from me. As soon as I started making good profit out of HU SnG, my friends wanted to try this too, so I got my 2 best friends in the same thing as me :f_biggrin:. I really hope they will do well, I will instruct them. Mmm, so I've got an invitation to a LIVE poker SnG tournaments with re-buys at a hotel (from time to time, my friend hosts them), there will be ~20 players and will try to make some money and have a good time there. I will do 2 re-buys if needed (almost everyone does a rebuy, so it's hard to overcome all of them). SO alright I'm waiting for Saturday and in a meantime, studying for my tests and making some cash out of heads-up.

_Anonymous_

16.10.2010, 07:59 0

Hey guys! So I haven't been updating this blog for a while, because I couldn't play alot poker lately. Lots of homework and studies for various tests. When I had a moment off studies, I played and it was horrible, I suffered a big downswing, in two days from 250$ to 160$ at one point. But I managed to recover. Well, I will try to update you soon, with some stats, cause now I don't have any of those days I suffered.

MY BANKROLL:
PokerStars: 220,41$

There was an announcement that from November 4th to November 14th there will be Baltic WCOOP and I figured I wanna take part in it, about that sometime later, cause I don't know much about it either.

So, see ya guys soon. :f_grin:

_Anonymous_

16.10.2010, 10:42 0

You cant rly take part at the baltic wcoop cuz of ur BR, respect brm

also the wcoop needs to be filled with fishes, so stay out of it

_Anonymous_

16.10.2010, 16:39 0

I will consider to play or not to if I have a bigger BR, so that depends. I don't know for sure right now

[Closed] From counting pennies to money independence