[Closed] BrYANS RISE TO FAME

Hi All

Thanks again for your insightful comments Waiboy, but how do you know I am not already rugged and good looking? lol

For the first time in a while, I didn't play at all yesterday on my PS FT account. I was just too tired when I got in from work to even be bothered firing up 4 tables.

Decided instead to go on my other account where it's not so critical, and play Omaha for a short spell before retiring. Result was another profitable session. That's about 3 sessions of Omaha I have played lately on Pokerstars and come away winning. Maybe that's my groove, and I should forget all this NL Holdem nonsense and become an Omaha specialist. But then again maybe I am being a little hasty......

Am going for a few beers tonight for the first time in a few weeks as it turns out, so I may not get to play again today. If I get home from the pub with an irresistable urge to play poker, I will make sure it is for minimum stakes or play money on my other account.

I don't want my next blog update to be how I blew my whole BR in one session of madness.

I could just fancy a session now, but am going to work for a few hours this afternoon to get some beer money. I have been out walking a few miles in the countryside this morning, so a nicely balanced day of a few hours to myself this morning, followd by about three hours working, followed by several hours drinking. That balance sounds good to me.

All the best
Bryan

Hi All

Am just about to get ready to go out for those beers, mentioned in last post, and have only managed to sneak in a quick 20 minutes or so of play, but I 4 tabled BSS NL5 again and managed to make a profit, so can go out feling happy. I know it's only a dollar or two, but it still feels good.

BR = $114.10
FTP= 1480.99
TOTAL SP = 252
SP REQUIRED FOR ELEPHANT LICENCE = 748

All the best
Bryan

Hi All

Well I went for the beers last night, came home a bit drunk, played Omaha on Pokerstars and made a profit.

Today I recovered from my night out last night, wnet to work for a few hours, then came home and played NL5 BSS on my PS FT account, and despite being sober, lost about 4 dollars.

I don't think I particularly did anything wrong. I just didn't get the run of things. Either crap cards or good cards and crap flops etc, including one where I called with 55 for value, hit my set on a dangerous board that just got more dangerous with every card, and I of course lost the pot through being outdrawn, despite the fact I was betting enough not to give the odds to draw.

Oh well, its actually the first session for a while that I have actually lost money. The trouble is that I seem to lose more on the losing sessions than I win on the winning ones, so I don't really get anywhere very fast !

Change of luck, I may change my game and go back to playing a few sng sessions to thry and at least keep my sp's coming in to retain my silver status. I will try the std $2 sng's I think. I seemed to do ok at them before. I just want to build the BR a bit somehow.

BR = $109.99
FTP = 1490.47

All the best,
Bryan

Hi All

Well hooray, the BR has taken a nice swing in the right direction for once. My theory of changing the style to change my luck certainly worked a treat.

Went back to playing std $2 sng's which I had reasonable success with before, and managed to play 8 during the session (though only ever 4 at once). Out of 8 played, I was placed in 7 of them !!

I won once, had 2 x 2nd's and 4 x 3rds. Though I do admit to having sucked out on a few occasions, so what? It is part of the game, and I have certainly been on the receving end many times.

Total outlay on buy-ins was $18 and returns totaled $34.20, giving a healthy profit for the session of $16.20

BR = $126.19
FTP = 1504.53

All the best
Bryan

Hi All

The good fortune continues. I played shorter session today, earlier in the day, as tonight I am out for beers again, as Man utd are playing their big game against Barcelona. Not that I am particularly a Man u fan, but you have to do it don't you?

Played 4 sng's simultaneously to conclusion, then ended the session. Result was that I placed in two of them and bubbled the other two. In both cases I had the best hand going in, and was sucked out on. I suppose that is payback for my session last night, where I did a bit of sucking out myself at times.

Anyway, I won one again and came 3rd in the other, so session was profitable overall.

BR = $129.79

FTP = 1511.53

All the best
Bryan

Hi All

I am just going from strength to strength at the moment and enjoying it whilst it lasts.

Last night after the pub I played on my other account, a couple of sng's and came out in profit, despite being very drunk.

Just now, sober and recovered, played on my PS FT account, 4 tabling sng's again, and again had a winning session.

There's no stopping my rise to fame now, sng's are the way forward. I have them cracked. Send all your sng problems to me and I will tell you where you are going wrong. I am an expert. LOL

Seriously though, I know it won't always be like this, but am really enjoying my poker at the moment, and all I hope is that when things do go not so well, I don't slide back too far, and my BR continues to grow overall. I think I am right in saying that the BR at present is the highest I have ENDED a session on this account, since getting my free $50 (I believe it did very briefly hit around the $135 mark during an early sss session, before things went horribly wrong, and it plummeted back down, during the same wildly swinging session).

Am going to work shortly, but hope to play more later.

BR = $132.94

FTP = 1529.03

Gl All
Bryan

Hi All

That will teach me to get carried away on my last post. This session made a small overall loss, as I played 5 sng's but only cashed in 2 of them. A 2nd and a 3rd, resulting in a loss equivalent to just 1 buy-in, so not too bad I suppose.

Should be due a bit of rakeback tomorrow, so lets hope a return to profitable ways, along with the rakeback may take the BR to a new high.

BR = $130.69

FTP = 155.28

All the best

Bryan

Hi Everyone,

Bit of rakeback brought bal to just over $132. Just finished a very late session after work, so will keep this post brief and go to bed.

Played 4 sng's simultaneously. Knocked out of two (one on the bubble). Placed in the other two, getting a 3rd and a 2nd. That resulted in me exactly getting my money back, no profit no loss.

BAL = $132.61
FTP = 1576.28

All the best
Bryan

Hi All

Well, I didn't think it would be long before the shit happened, and it happened yesterday.

Played 2 sessions of 4 sng's and 5 sng's respectively, and only cashed once in each session. Bubbled several times, some bad beats, some where I had the worst of it too, to be honest. The usual stuff that poker is made of.

Why does it seem though, that I am destined to not move forward? Why does it seem like there is a force grearter than we know about, which has determined that I will never advance through the levels?

Whenever I have a bit of a good run, and get excited about the future, with almost alarmingly perfect timing, everything goes tits up again. Not only that, but why do the losses on a bad run seem to out weigh the profit on a good run? Why also does it take several days of grinding to acheive a small gain, yet about half an hour to wipe it all out ?

I could go on, but I won't. Well, alright then, just a little bit.

The likes of Phil Hellmuth, who, if he had a shit it would turn gold, speaks of the universe providing for him, and there certainly seem to be people for whom riches fall into their laps. Yet other people never seem to get anywhere no matter how hard they work. Is it destiny ?

These and other important life questions, like, when, with a tight image, and not having played a hand for some time, I shove all-in with AJs, why does an idiot call me with A6o and hit his 6 knocking me out on another bubble? Such are the mysteries of life and poker.

If I keep reading the articles, watching the coachings and playing my a game, does it really mean I stand a chance of "rising to fame" or is it already written that I will never get my BR high enough to play the next level?

For the time being, I will take heart from the many tales I have read on this very site, from people who have experienced what I am experiencing trying to get up the lowest rungs of the ladder, and have made it to the promised land of gold and platinum status, and I will soldier on.

BR = $119.56
FTP = 1609.53

All the best
Bryan

Hi All

Following yesterdays rant, I didn't get chance to play on my PS FT account, and went out for a few beers at night.

Coming home from the pub I of course felt the need to play some poker. So avoiding my PS BR I entered a PLO tourney on my Pstars account. I ended up 15th out of 198 entrants, and had I not spent a great amount of time card dead at the end of the tourney, I felt I could have won it. I was never out of the first 10 for most of the tourney playing only the strongest starting hands, but playing them aggressively. The latter part of the tourney was so frustrating, being dealt crap unco-ordinated hands time after time, when the tourney was there for the taking.

It was a $5 buy-in and 15th place/198 and several hours of play, earned me the princely return of $13.36. It's more than double my stake though, and the experience was good. I don't think I could have done anything much better, even completely sober.

Its easy for me now, in the cold light of day, to say I shouldn't have allowed myself to slip so far waiting for good hands, but in PLO playing at this level, bluffing with air is rarely successful. In the end, I shoved my hand containing QQ which had improved on the flop to QQQ with lots of outs to improve, but ran into AAA. Neither hand improved and I was out.

A profit is a profit and I enjoy a bit of Omaha.

All the best
Bryan

Hey Bryan

Regarding your "rant" - just standard tilt dude. One thing you will have to get under control is there is natural variance in poker. That variance is then exacerbated by how close to or far from optimally you play.

When learning it is easy to get frustrated because you don't necessarily have complete confidence in your game and the maths behind it.

If you always get your money in good, play hands with higher equity than your opponents, ultimately you will be successful.

To get anywhere you must understand these fundamental points.

Also remember 7 SnGs is just a drop in the ocean. It takes many hundreds to really start to get anywhere, many thousands before you will get anywhere near making it!

Welcome to the eternal struggle to get on top of the tilt monkey fella!

Hi Guys

Thanks for stopping by Waiboy, its always good to hear your words of wisdom.

You have taken the wind out of my sails now though, as I came here to have another rant, but since reading your post first, I am now in a more reasonable frame of mind. lol

I just had a quick session of PLO on my pstars account, and blew my whole stack by doing just what you said. ie getting my money in good. I had action when building the pot with a draw to lots of outs, so got it all in when I hit the nut straight 9-K on the turn. I was looking forward to getting paid off, when the river came a 5, pairing a 5 on the board, and giving my opponent the pot with a full house. Well I laughed.....

In 20 mins I wiped out the profit it took me over 3 hours to accrue in the MTT I played last night, but I'm not bitter.

In an hours time I am going to play some live poker at a social club. I haven't played at this venue before, so will be interesting to see how it goes. Apparently they pay a fiver a man in the main event (it's officially a free-to-play pub league) to make it interesting, then I believe as players get knocked out, they set up sng's on the side. I will update on here how it went.

See you all
Bryan

Hi All

Back from the live tourney mentioned in my last post. Bursting to tell you all I came 3rd out of 52 entrants. We all stumped up £5 buy-in, and my return was £50

A friend of mine who told me about the tourney was the eventual winner too.

Also, before I went I had a little session of PLO on Pstars and made a small profit, then just now, on getting home, I played a little session of BSS just to get a few much needed SP's, and again made a small profit.

So today I could do no wrong.(well at least not after blowing my stack on plo earlier, see last post)

FT BR = $121.20
FTP = 1612.74

All the best,
Bryan

Hi guys

A little concerned that my SP's have been slipping a bit lately, as it seems a bit harder to earn them on sng's, as I was able to play more tables grinding sss basic.

However, I want to persevere with the sng's, with maybe a bit of BSS now and again to keep my hand in.

My sp's for last 4 weeks figure has dropped below 100 for the first time since I made silver. I hope they give me a little leeway before demoting me, as I am sure I can get it up again soon, now I am getting into the swing of playing them.

Today, I had two sessions. Session one did not go well at all in terms of results. I played 4 sng's and didn't place in one of them. I then had a break to have dinner and gather my thoughts. BR had dropped quite a bit, down to $112.

Session two, which I have not long finished, I was back on top form. I played 7 sng's, placed in 5 of them, including 3 wins, one 2nd and one 3rd.

This was a great session and bounced my BR up and beyond the previous level recorded in my last post here.

BR = $132.45
FTP = 1631.99

All the best
Bryan

Hey champ, I wouldn't worry too much about the strat points - basically playing well and beating tournaments is more important. The faster you build your roll, the quicker you move up the limits, and the easier it is to make and maintain a good status on PS. Doesn't matter if you slip to bronze for a couple of weeks so long as you're playing well.

TJ

Hi All

Thanks to TIM64 for stopping by. I appreciate the advice Tim. I think I probably focus a bit on the SP's as a way of spurring me on to find the time to play. You are right of course that good play is most important, and I am trying to focus all the time on making the right decisions. That's why I don't normally play more than 4 tables at a time sng's. That way I can tile them, and see all tables at all times.

Am just about to play a session now before work. Will play 4 tables but not reload, so 4 sng's then stop.

With BR at the highest point appx at the moment, that's when I usually hit a bad run and it goes down again, and frustrates me. Hopefully, for once, I will hit a good set of results with my BR high, and take it to a new level.

As long as I am making some progress, however slow, I am ok, it's when I seem to get knowhere or go backwards that I get pissed off.

Oh well, here goes, update later.

All the best
Bryan

Hi All

Here is the promised update to my last post. I played the session. Am I happy or sad? I am exstatic (have I spelt that right?).

My BR has hit a new high having played 4, won 1, and 2nd in another and was bad beated out of a third one by an all-in maniac.

The maniac was going all-in on almost every other hand, and at times literally every hand. He eliminated one or two people who, aware of his obvious tactic, had called him with genuine hands and been sucked out on. He lost one or two but had the chips to survive them.

One particular pearl of his was going all-in with J4o, getting called by AQ and hitting his 4 and eliminating AQ man.

I picked up KK, prayed for him to shove all-in, and he obliged. I snap-called and he showed 10 5o and eliminated me by hitting both his 5 and his 10.

I think I was fairly restrained in only calling him a moron before leaving the table.

I am of course aware that it is idiots like that I will ultimately make my fortune from now that I am in a happy philosophical frame of mind after the event, and with a higher BR. Nothing can upset me today. lol

I hope to play another session tonight, where I hope to take my BR to even greater heights.

BR = $137.85
FTP = 1638.99

Gl All
Bryan

Hi all

What did I say in my last post? I was exstatic? Every single time my BR hits a new high it is immediately followed by a crock of shit !!

I just played another session of 4 as when I went to work it was dead, so am going out later instead (I taxi and am self employed, so work when I want to).

Cashed in one out of the four, following suck out after suck out after suck out. Have you all seen the tuff fish vids on you tube ? well that's me now. Jesus christ I'm fucking mad !! 56 against my QQ he flops a strt and knocks me out, all-in with 99 get called by 77 he hits a 7 on the river.

I know, I know, I know this shit happens, but does it have to heppen every time I take one step forward. Can't I at least take two fucking steps forward before it happens ?

At this rate of ascent up the BR ladder I will be playing high stakes games in my nursing home !!

BR back where it started now. All the good work of the first session today undone by lucky suckout bastards. lol (exasperated laughter) !!

I am taking a deep breath now. I am calm. I can rise above this. I am playing good poker. Bad beats will not affect me now, and my BR will rise. Deep breaths, in and out. in... I will succeed... out.

Yes, I am calm again.

BR = $132.45
FTP = 1645.99

Gl All
Bryan

Hi All

Played a last late session for the day (although its technically the next day now).

Played 6 sng's, knocked out of 3 early, then placed 2nd in the other three, giving me an overall profit for the session.

No more moaning about bad players/bad beats, I am going to focus on my targets. Next obvious aim is to break the $140 barrier with this BR, then on to $150+

It is a long way at this rate to the next level though. There are no regular games after $2 until $5 really, as eg the $3 are turbos or satellites etc. Then same again until $10.

BR = $135.15
FTP = 1656.49

All the best
Bryan

Hi All

BR hits a new high !!

Played a session of 4 sng's earlier won one, 2nd in another, 3rd in another, bringing the BR to its highest point since getting the $50 starting capital from PS.

Am starting another session after posting this, where I hope to get towards $150+

I am learning to do what I keep getting advised to do by experienced people on this site. That is to just keep playing the best game I can and not worry about individual session results. Easier said when I have just had a good one, I know. However, the fact that I was moaning like hell the other day, yet here I am looking at the highest BR figure I have had so far, just a day or two later, shows I should just plug away at it and let the results come naturally.

BR = $144.15
FTP = 1663.49

All the best
Bryan