Remain a Student - Xavez Blog - BR Challenge

Gonna start with last week results:

17-23 January 16
Hands Played: 4,482
Profit: $24.65

Unlucky/Lucky Moment:

Hey xavez0,

Welcome to the 'Get Rich or Die Tryin' bankroll challenge. we will be looking forward to your first update which you should post by Monday of each week in Get Rich or Die Tryin' - The Bankroll Challenge - Reporting thread.

Lol at that hand. It must have felt like a dagger through your heart when the cards were turned over,,,,, and then a miraculous recovery. Gotta love positive variance. ♠_evil:

Have fun

Laz

Thanks Lazza61! Will post my update after im back home from work, fortunately its a green update!

---

As i said im reading one book after another and ATM i'm reading The Mental Game of Poker, finding it quite amazing, i really recommend.
Gonna post here some points of my game that i need to improve. Maybe it will help me remember and try to fix it:

- Calling river bets/raises knowing that i'm beat, mostly to see what my opponent has. I try to trick myself into thinking that seeing what my opponent has, will improve my game someway and is worth a few BB's Also because of the 5% that villain is bluffing us

- Overplaying hands when blinds call my steal attempt, sometimes i just cant let the hand go, and spew a lot of chips on those spots.

- Accept Variance! This is improving everyday and is somehow related to the first two, because when variance hits me in a bad way, im more inclined to make the 2 mistakes listed above.

Feel free to post opinions if anyone is interested

Week 1 Results:

24-30 January 16
Hands Played: 9,655 (Cash)
Profit: Cash NL2: $28.36 + MTT´s: $2,59 = $30,95
Starting BR: $76.45 (Actually from 30 Jan, had 2 more sessions after that)
Current BR: $80.09

PS: Since my Starting BR is from 30 Jan, the profit doesnt make a lot of sense related to the Starting/Current BR, but that will be fixed on next week's update. Also i buy $0.55 tournament tickets using starcoins, so theres no buyin to discount.

Hand of the week: Tilted, horrible play gets rewarded (Oh man i do feel for my opp on this one, really)

He xavez0,

also welcome from my side! Looking forward to more goodbeats - always a good vibe :-)

Had a terrible last week, was running really bad, flopping nothing, getting called and sucked you know the drill. Overall winning but its the first time since i started to feel confident about beating NL2, that i had such bad runs. So today i went for a session, new week, new hopes, and after 534 hands i was tilting and 2BI´s down.
Actually i started to few bad about Zoom tables, i feel like it has changed from just a few days ago. It´s just to tight, whenever i manage to get called when i actually hold something, my opponent either has the 1st best or suck me out on the turn/river. When i actually hold a monster, everyone runs away like theres no tomorrow.
So i went for regular tables after being absent for some time, and it felt much better. Very different story, after 861 hands i was $6,96 on the green! Managed to recover my loss and add some nice profit!

Changing subject, i realized im terribad at calling river all-ins! I mean, really, REALLY BAD! So as a friendly reminder, im leaving this graph, which shows my "profit" when calling all-ins on the river:

Could we please stop making those calls?

Week 2 Results:

31 Jan 16 - 06 Feb 16
Hands Played: 5.585 (Cash)
Profit: Cash NL2: $11,91 + MTT´s: $1,02 = $12,93
Starting BR: $76,45
Current BR: $93,02

Graph for the week:

Yesterday was a real rollercoaster ride. Had the most horrible day run-wise, and then tilt-wise. I was so happy that i broke thru the $100's, and went for a NL2 Zoom session, started ok, and ended up like 7,5BI's down, oh man, i really felt desperate. I was so near NL5.
I stopped playing, started watching some videos and waited for my mind to settle down. Then i came up with an idea: I had like $87, i would open 2 NL5 Zoom tables, and if i ever went below $80 i would stop, and stick to NL2 until above $100 again. I really wanted to make sure that this wasn't a tilted move, i really felt confident and ready so i went for it, if i went down the $80's, whatever! I started with $30!
Few hundreds hands in, i was down about $4, but still feeling ok about my game. I ended up playing about 800 hands, and finished about $15 up! Have to say i got really lucky in one hand by flopping nut straight on rainbow board against 2 opp, i slow played a little and they both rivered 2nd straight, got both (full) stacks haha!

But even without that hand, i think i played ok and would finish on the green anyway. So ill stick to NL5 using the same plan, if i get to $80, im back to NL2.

Heres yesterday's rollercoaster ride:

I have to work on my tilting problems, specially when i get sucked out a few times and start loosing on the session. Then i start to make some stupid moves like raising all-in with flush-draw on the turn when it doesnt look like i have much fold equity, i did it twice on yesterday's NL2 run, along with a few bad moves that costed me a lot of BI´s. Im just too result oriented and few like i have to win every session, when i absolutely know its impossible. Im finishing The Mental Game of Poker, and will of course keep studying it. Have been told that the Appendix is really good so im looking forward to the questionnaire.
Im soon to start my third shot (can say its actually the 2nd one) on NL5, and i just wish i can accept if i end it below my beloved $100. Hah

Didnt end up so well
I cant believe i could be possible winning with the runs im getting lately. I think i need to worry less about my bankroll and more about putting some volume.
Its even funny, after several suck outs i finally get a hand like nutty one, so i manage to put my opp all-in, im finally doubling up... Then we both show the same hand and pay some rake lmao. It happened several times the last days.
Anyway, as i said, gonna try to put some volume and see if the bad luck goes away!

Slow week and first negative results had to take the weekend out on a trip. I might try some sit n go's ive been thinking, lets see how it goes.

Week 3 Results:

07 - 13 Feb 16
Hands Played: 1.462 (Cash)
Profit: Cash NL2/NL5: -$9,03 + MTT´s: $0,47 = -$8,56
Starting BR: $76,45
Current BR: $84,46

Im not sure what's happening, at first i tended to believe i was running bad, but after so many hands having bad results im not so confident about my game anymore. It felt so smooth and logical at the beginning, the spots where i was loosing most money were clearly bad plays, and my graph was aways pointing up so all i could see was improvements after fixing those licks.
Yesterday i had another bad session and lost 2BI's+. Im afraid i studied too much topics not relevant for micros or maybe even just plain wrong strategies for micros, and got lost along the way. Not really sure what to do anymore. Im gonna make another NL2 session today and maybe experiment some SNG and MTT's, which were my original plan.
I really wish i could afford some coaching, i think that could really help me. But its just too expensive for my roll. If i continue to loose like this, i might look for a cheap option and go for it.
Deeply inside i wish im just running really bad, it really feels like it, and it will just go away!

Hey!

I read your blog and will drop my 2 cents

Your biggest enemy seems to be the tilt. You must really try to find what works for you. Maybe play a week or two without checking results, like at all.. at NL2. Plays like that J5 are simply unacceptable. Maybe try to play less when you feel you don't play your best game and never chase loses. Play fixed time limited sessions and check results only after.

As for your game. Make it as simple as possible. Bet big with good hands, rarely bluff if at all (still cbet). Don't think about balancing and don't over think villain ranges and actions. If you get raised on turn and river with your weak made hands just fold and never look back. Don't slowplay except stone cold nuts and even then only for one street. Play less OOP, like really small range. Vary your open raise sizes depending on your cards and opponents at super micros.

But please work on your discipline.
Hope this helps. GL!

Thanks a lot nvelev! Gonna follow your tips on todays session. Yesterday was the first time i finished a session without looking at results during the session lol. Gonna try to expand it to more than one session
Tilting really is a problem and im trying hard to work on it, and im getting better everyday, smashing the computer table less and less often each session lmao!
Do you think playing regular tables is a better idea? After playing Zoom for some time it just feels so slow, but i might try it again.

Your post does help a lot! Gonna check your blog.
Thanks again!

Nice blog, man! Positive and interesting. Keep going, wish you best of luck!

So yesterday i played some extremely ABC Poker at NL2 Zoom for about 500 Hands, and session was good! Avoided marginal spots at all costs, only a few Hero calls, most successful. Im starting to spot when villain's line makes no sense and have been catching some bluffs here and there when odds are ok pretty successfully.
Also played a few $1.10 MTT's to clear a challenge and unfortunately no ITM's, but were REALLY unlucky on one, i was doing good, and then lost all-in pre flop holding AK vs A4, then KK vs T7 (lol) and then AK vs A7 busted me out lmao. Would probably cash something if variance didnt hit me that way.

I believe i had a mindset change lately, im not worrying too much about my roll anymore, i mean, in a good way. Im much more worried about putting volume out and trying to get as much experience as possible. Also try different approaches and games and find out what works best for me. I realised i need to work a lot before worrying about moving up or getting my roll to $1.000. It's a nice goal and the challenge will keep me motivated, im still in, but now its more of a side project, if i happen to get there fast, even better!

Probably posting some results after today's session, not sure what ill be playing, even considering some spin-and-go's

Closing the week: Overall pretty slow week, especially cashgame-wise. I was about to try some spin and go's as i said last post, and when i got home, i got a challenge to play 8 or something spin-and-go's so i went for it. Ended pretty much breaking-even, but to my surprise my BR was $10 up, that was my reward for the challenge, so pretty sweet! Played a few NL2 Zoom, some 0.50 9man SNG, some 0.25 45man SNG, and some MTT's using tickets as usual. Ill post the results once im back home, also post on the reporting thread.

I was looking into making a deposit on a secondary poker room, both for trying somethings out without risking my main BR and for having a tracked room here at pokerstrategy. I was between Party Poker and Netbet as i had few choices for tracked accounts. I ended up depositing $50 at both lol. So my weekend had very little PS activity, i played lots of SNGs and MTT's at Netbet and Party Poker, pretty much breaking even, really unlucky with the MTT flips as usual. I expected the traffic to be much slower than on PS, but i was kinda surprised that its REALLY slower, like i cant even find a SNG table to play a good portion of the day, and it was weekend! Lets see how it goes today, maybe its better on weekdays? idk.. The MTT's has a much smaller and softer fields, i hope i can hit some good places in near future!

Also couldn't help but notice the superiority of PS's Client. It's better in every aspect, it just feels much, much better to play. The layout is just clean and doesnt look like a design mess like the others, especially Netbet's client. Tryed an ipoker mod but didnt work for Netbet, if anyone knows one that works im highly interested.

My BR Challenge btw, stays on PS, those are side projects.

Adding some stats when im back home.

Week 4 Results:

14 - 20 Feb 16
Hands Played: 2.708 (Cash)
Profit: Cash NL2: $0,35 + Some random MTT´s, SNG and Spins and +$10 reward for clearing a challenge.
Starting BR: $76,45
Current BR: $96,78

Hey dude!

Come back to challenge soon)) Good luck