Beginner to Pro? Attempting a cautious comeback

Recently I have made few changes in my game. Most of my time in PokerHeaven I was playing 4 tables tiled, so I could see all the action and follow my opponents. Last few weeks I tried tiling 6 tables. I do have a minimal overlay, but I still see most of the action and it does not seem to affect my winrate significantly. I also feel quite comfortable playing like that, so I will keep this 6-table layout for now.

I have also bought a laptop, so I can play poker at my girlfriend's place, but because I have only one screen ( I have 2 displays at home) and it is much smaller, I am starting to experiment with cascaded layout.

It is quite interesting... I am able to run more tables. Currently I can manage 10 tables for a short time and 8 tables quite comfortably for longer periods. I still have to figure out how much this hurts my winrate.

I noticed that biggest problem is actually setting tables up, not playing. When all 8 tables are set up and running, it's quite easy but getting there is a pain. Poker Heaven's software is not helping at all... The biggest problem is that sometimes it pushes forward a table with no action ♠_evil: If not for Windows 7 and it's convenient way of miniviewing all opened windows, I would constantly leave some tables timed out...

So, no update in almost 2 weeks. How You running atm ?

Another dissapointing month... It started very good, then came a small dip, then everything went nicely upwards untill... oh well, I guess I should be happy that it ended in green. See for yourself:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I am starting to notice that when I lose, I lose a lot... It must be some kind of tilt even though I really try not to be affected by losing big pots. I have to work out some kind of stop-loss system to prevent this...

Good thing is that I have achieved my goal in reaching 30 000 played hands and it resulted in record rakeback of €120

Bad thing is that I still did not post any hands for evaluation. Strange, but it seems to be a big problem for me

Lately I am starting to have problems with PokerHeaven, because I do not have enough tables to play on. One reason must be the summer, another could be BadBeat Jackpot which is close to € 100 000 mark now and is available only from NL100 tables and up. For last 2-3 days there are only 1-2 tables of NL25 open for most of the day...

There must be a lot of fish at NL100 tables now, but I am not sure if I should move up to NL100 with only €1200 bankroll...

Game plan for July:

Keep playing NL25 and improve winrate
Play at least 40 000 hands or 130 hours
Post at least 10 hands for evaluation
Spend at least 1 hour/day learning
Finish 5 quizzes at 100%

Since this is a beginning of a new year, I have decided to post this years posts in different color Unfortunately, my first post is about downswing It started at the end of last month (see graph) and seems to continue in new month too

I am trying to keep calm, stick to my A-game and rereading Poker Mindset Also finally forced myself to post some hands for evaluation (haven't posted any since April ♠_evil: ) just to be sure that downswing is caused mainly by bad luck, not bad plays...

After some consideration I have decided to move up to NL50 At the beginning I will mix both NL25 and NL50. I will probably play 3-4 tables of NL25 and 1-2 tables of NL50. If everything goes all right I will gradually move to NL50 only.

Half of the players in NL50 are the same old fishes and weak regulars from NL25, so I should be doing OK. ♠_evil:

My first few days at NL50 are going pretty well - I have played 2000 games and I am up 178 EUR If we keep in mind that most of the regulars there are the same ones I beat at NL25 and the rest are new fish then results are not surprising. Of course, I realise that I am running hot, because a winrate of 18BB/100h is hardly realistic in a long run.

With the new limit comes new records - yesterday I won 129 EUR, my best result for a single day.

By the looks of it, I will be playing more NL50 now than NL25, but I will have to mix both limits anyways, because there is not enough action in those limits - all the fish are sitting in NL100 and waiting for 120K BadBeat Jackpot. It is such a shame my bankroll is not big enough, I would play there as well, not because of jackpot, but because of all the fish.

Well... I guess this was coming... day before yesterday I was down 100 EUR and managed to get it back. Yesterday I was down 130 EUR and still ended up in green at the end of the day. But today I registered a record daily loss of 265 EUR I was outsucked in every possible way... I really, really hate losing like this ♠_evil: I don' t mind losing. I can handle when I am being outplayed. I can even handle total idiots calling with crappy hands and improving on river. But I can' t stand when those hands come one after another in one single day!!!! ♠_evil: ♠_evil: ♠_evil: It is devastating... In one day I lost all my month's winnings and I am down 20 EUR now. Have to start all over again...

Downswings like this make me think about not following my monthly game plan of 40K hands and go with my gut instinct - play when I feel good and don' t even start playing when I have a bad feeling... I had bad feeling before today' s play... but played because I need to play at least 1500 hands a day... and there is the result

There is another thing that's keep bugging me - I am not getting enough action. OK, it is fine when there is no game in early hours, but when there is only 2 tables open at 17:00, that is just not enough. I have to start thinking about moving to another poker room if this continues after summer... It is quite a shame, because I like 30% rakeback.

So I have to make a big decision: SHOULD I GO OR SHOULD I STAY?

I wish there would be someone to help me with a decision...

I decided not to give up so easily and continued playing NL50 Last 2 days have been like a rollercoaster - yesterday I was up 160 EUR at one moment, then slid down and ended day 80 EUR up. Today is the same thing - up 120, down to 40, up to 120. Now I am up 100 EUR and will probably stop playing, because I want to keep my winnings for today I need to recover from that downswing asap

In the meantime I registered my record pot of 134 EUR and record net win 59.92 EUR from one hand:

€0.25/€0.50 No Limit Holdem
BossMedia
10 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG (€29.25)
UTG+1 (€19.70)
UTG+2 (€10)
MP1 (€11.25)
MP2 (€49.85)
MP3 (€56.05)
CO (€62.60)
BTN (€9.75)
SB (€49.61)
SilverSag (BB) (€50)

Pre-Flop: (€0.75, 10 players) SilverSag is BB 9♣ A♣
1 fold, UTG+1 calls €0.50, 4 folds, CO calls €0.50, 1 fold, SB calls €0.50, SilverSag checks

Flop: 7♣ 8♣ 6♥ (€2.25, 4 players)
SB bets €1.50, SilverSag raises to €6.50, UTG+1 calls €6.50, 1 fold, SB goes all-in €49.11, SilverSag goes all-in €49.50, UTG+1 goes all-in €19.20

Turn: 4♠ (€134.56, 3 players, 3 all-in)

River: 2♣ (€134.56, 3 players, 3 all-in)

Final Pot: €134.56
SilverSag shows
9♣ A♣

SilverSag wins €116.42 (net +€59.92)

SB lost €51.36
UTG+1 lost €26.20
CO lost €0.50

Today I finally recovered the July 18 losses. Took me 4 days to even out the mess I made in few hundred hands... ♠_evil: Good thing is that it probably means that I can stay in NL50 for good. I would really like that.

I really like my numbers, records, graphs and statistics... ...so i can' t help noticing them all

Moving to new limit will bring all kinds of new records, achievements and milestones and today is the first, albeit very small one - I achieved a
record daily amount of PokerStrategy points - 284.89

It looks like the small benefit payment I was receiving will end in August. There is still no chance to get a proper, well paid job for me (not that want it actually) so it looks like poker will be my only source of income starting from next month... talk about pressure...

OK, I do live at my mother's place now, so I don' t have to pay rent as such and she makes some meals too, but still I do have some bills and monthly payments to make. It will be very, very tough to survive.

The biggest challenge will be balancing withdrawals and bankroll growth, because I do need some money for living, but I also need to get to NL100 and higher as soon as possible... decisions, decisions...

Just wanted to post one of my favourite hands from this month Villain was attacking my blinds relentlesly and c-beting almost 100%, so I decided to defend a bit more aggressively and got seriously lucky. I would really like to know what he had...

€0.25/€0.50 No Limit Holdem
BossMedia
10 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG (€9.50)
UTG+1 (€9.25)
UTG+2 (€11.22)
MP1 (€54.63)
MP2 (€50.85)
MP3 (€42.32)
CO (€10.40)
BTN (€56.43)
SB (€6.25)
SilverSag (BB) (€79.05)

Pre-Flop: (€0.75, 10 players) SilverSag is BB 6♠ 6♦
7 folds, BTN raises to €1.50, 1 fold, SilverSag calls €1.50

Flop: K♠ 9♦ K♦ (€3.75, 2 players)
SilverSag checks, BTN bets €2.43, SilverSag raises to €4.86, BTN calls €4.86

Turn: 6♥ (€15.90, 2 players)
SilverSag bets €8, BTN calls €8

River: 6♣ (€31.90, 2 players)
SilverSag bets €22, BTN calls €22

Final Pot: €75.90
SilverSag shows
6♠ 6♦

SilverSag wins €69.97 (net +€33.11)

BTN lost €38.79

I think it's my 3rd one ( I have to check). Hand itself is nothing special, but you don't flop Royal Flush too often, so I will post it for your enjoyment anyways

€0.25/€0.50 No Limit Holdem
BossMedia
7 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
SilverSag (UTG) (€50.75)
UTG+1 (€22.10)
MP (€84.65)
CO (€9.25)
BTN (€34.92)
SB (€49.50)
BB (€48)

Pre-Flop: (€0.75, 7 players) SilverSag is UTG 10:diamond: J♦
SilverSag raises to €2, 5 folds, BB calls €2

Flop: A♦ Q♦ K♦ (€4.75, 2 players)
BB bets €2.50, SilverSag calls €2.50

Turn: 3♠ (€9.75, 2 players)
BB bets €3.50, SilverSag raises to €7, BB calls €7

River: 6♣ (€27.25, 2 players)
BB checks, SilverSag bets €17.43, BB folds

Final Pot: €44.68

SilverSag collects €22.10 (net -€6.83)
BB lost €15.50

Minus 200 EUR in 1000 games again! It's frigging unbelievable... I can play normally for 5 days, playing the the same way, doing same bets against more or less the same opponents. AND WIN.

Then... one day one complete moron comes along and takes away all your weeks winnings by... just calling with any two cards and improving by the river... over and over and over again... ♠_evil: ♠_evil: ♠_evil: ♠_evil:

I just don' t understand this... why can' t this even out somehow??? I lost something like 20(!) showdowns in a row today!!!!!

Today I have achieved PokerStrategy Platinum status! What a shame that it comes after yesterdays heavy loss and total monthly win of only 40 EUR so far...

This is just frigging sick! ♠_evil: ♠_evil: ♠_evil: Two days in the same poker room, same limit, playing the same way... well, as they say - picture tells a thousand words. Look for yourself:

DAY 1

DAY 2

OK, to be completely honest, DAY 2 was the perfect day, poker players dream - I started early and for better par of the session had 3 tables full of fish all by myself!!! That's right - 3 tables, me on each one and 27 fishes! Only in the last half hour one very good regular joined.

I could probably win more, but I decided to stop, because I wanted to keep my record daily win of 209 EUR and, most importantly, it was very important for me to recover previous days loss.

But still... how is it possible that results vary so much? It's just scary... I was not tilting, was not changing my game in any way... yet...

Is those graphs from NL50?

If so a 6 BI swing from 5-1000 hands is nothing unusual. In fact this is normal and the swings are only going to get bigger the higher limits you go to. Something to think about, it's not only if your bankroll can handle it but mentally as well. I read your blog and it's very interesting all the from NL2 at the start and the troubles you had at NL25. Try to maintain some perspective and think how you handled previous downswings. Maybe you need a bigger bankroll for NL50 (grind NL25) so you don't get affected by losing a few buyins.

to Mordath:

Yes, those are NL50 graphs now. I am playing almost only NL50 now, but so far its only about 12 000 hands.

What are you saying? That swings will get bigger proportionally? Meaning that they will get bigger not only in EUR (which is obvious) but also in buy-ins!? That does not make much sense to me. Especcially when at least 70% of players (mostly regulars) are the same in NL25 and NL50. Could you please explain your line of thought?

About downswings... First, lets clear one thing - I have 30 BI bankroll and I am ready to move back to NL25 if things get really sour, so no problem there. I am also not affected by the size of bets and money involved. There are, however, 2 things that make my life more difficult:

1. I hate losing. For example, I have a problem making loose 3-bets and 4-bets because giving them up if villain resists means LOSING to me! Yes, I know it should be +EV in a long run, but I like to win every pot.

2. I hate losing without given any chance to play. I don' t mind losing big pots, don' t mind losing days now and then, but when I keep losing 20 showdowns in a row to complete morons, that's starts getting on my nerves big time. Playing poker should be fun, but I see no fun in being unfairly outplayed by fish.

And there is another thing... Losing 200 EUR would be peanuts for me 2 years ago, when I had a good job and my life was settled. That would be just a dip in my PT3 graph, a statistical occurrence.

Losing 200 EUR today means that I wont have enough money to repair my car. If I lose 200 EUR more, I will have to borrow money from my mom to buy food. OK, I am exaggerating, but you get the idea... In addition, every loss moves me further back from moving up to next limit.

I know, these are the things I need to work on, need getting used to but it is not very easy, thats it. Every time I have a downswing, I reread some chapters of "Poker Mindset". That book helps me a lot to get through the downswings.

Yes the swings will get bigger proportionally. As the player pool gets more skilled the higher limits you play the edges naturally gets smaller and the variance goes up. Logically this means that multiple buyin swings will occur more often and be more swingy/extreme. Does this make any sense?

An example would be: When the 3bet/4bet preflop light dynamic gets more common (i.e. higher limits) and you get allin preflop with more marginal hands of course this will result in higher variance. Now of course the difference between NL25 and NL50 is only 1 limit and shouldn't be that big, but for every limit the regs are at least slightly better and the fish fewer.

And don't we all like to win every pot? I think it's a nice attitude to have in trying to win every pot (looking for ways/spots) but recognising when you cannot.

This is my 4th Royal Flush and 2nd in last 4 days. Not bad, I would say. This time I got paid in full as well.

€0.25/€0.50 No Limit Holdem
BossMedia
2 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
SB (€61.20)
SilverSag (BB) (€52.60)

Pre-Flop: (€0.75, 2 players) SilverSag is BB A♣ Q♣
SB raises to €1.50, SilverSag raises to €4, SB raises to €11, SilverSag calls €11

Flop: 3♦ J♣ 10:club: (€26, 2 players)
SilverSag checks, SB checks

Turn: K♣ (€26, 2 players)
SilverSag checks, SB bets €12.50, SilverSag calls €12.50

River: 8♣ (€51, 2 players)
SilverSag goes all-in €29.10, SB calls €29.10

Final Pot: €109.20
SilverSag shows
A♣ Q♣

SilverSag wins €102.20 (net +€45.60)

SB lost €52.60

I think I will start to deviate from set daily amounts of games played and will try to go more with the "feel".

It seems that in quite a lot of days when I was winning significant amounts and kept playing against my best judgement, just because my target was 1500 games per day, I ended up losing or winning very little.

From now on I will not continue playing if my winnings will satisfy me and I have a "bad feeling" about continuing.

It seems that my brain subconsciously registers dangerous patterns and warns me beforehand but I keep ignoring it. I will try to listen to my intuition now, lets see where will it lead...

:heart:

On another note... I am starting my second try at tournaments. This time I am trying low buy-in (0.50$ - 1.50$) 90-man SnGs on PokerStars. Had some decent results as well and ended day with positive ROI. Lets see how it goes from there.