[Closed] finally taking it seriously.

okay. after already having played about 800 hands(due to my professor being sick: 4 hours of classes were cancelled), I lost about 2$.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of it has to do with bad luck, but sometimes, I feel like I should trust my feelings more: I still have a hard time laying down a real good hand: (i.e. top two pair) when there is a better hand possible, and the ply by other players makes clear that they have this hand. Often I end up callling there raise on the turn, and check calling them on the river just to end up seeing that my gut feeling was right again. I ran into a straight, or a flush.

I'm also going to print the SHC and put it beside me as I'm not entirely certain that I remember it completely. a few things, like J10o are a bit hazy.

I also found the new limit video for post-flop play very interesting. especially the stuff about playing weaker draws (which apparantly, I check to often whereas I should make more bets with them)

anyway. Since I have begun to drink, I'm going to stop playing poker for today, and hopefully continue tomorrow on a slightly more positive session.

alright... things haven't really gone my way his week.

I failed in playing 2000 hands and I lost money this week, on Wednesday, I caught a series of bad beats which put m on tilt. I stopped playing immediately, and will only return to the tables today.

But anyway, better to play less then I wanted then to play tilt.

I did however succeed in not playing drunk, in reading all the psychology articles, and I also succeeded in not playing anything besides 0.02-0.04 limit

(I was still having a playmoney account on pokerstars, and when I felt the need to do something stupid, I did it with playchips on that account.)

3/5 achieved.

So, for this week I will adapt my goals slightly: I still want to play 2000 hands, but I will no longer include winning money, in my goals, rather, I will include not making stupid plays which cost me money.

goals for this week:

1 play 2000 hands
2 not make any stupid mistakes which cost me money
3 stick to 0.02-0.04 limit
4 not playing drunk
5 try to reread all the limit articles and see all the limit videos available to bronze and basic players.

I hope the pokergods favor me more this week than they did last week.

Also, as a question to any readers, I play on titan, and I recently read about people having trouble using elephant there, is it usefull to install elephant at this stage, or should I wait for an improved version of elephant?

I found NL5 hell too TIGHT, but that can be cause its full ring. I played like hour 9-tables NL5 last week for entertainment and I almost always went broke with 2nd nuts against the best of that board

Had a little homegame yesterday, the emphasis was on drinking rather then playing good poker, but I won 20c in the end. (too bad it didn't cover the drinking expenses)

My online poker seems to be improving, I'm probably not going to make the 2000 hands I had put forward as a goal (schoolwork is starting to creep up on me) but I am playing solid poker, completely according to the SHC. This week has been a winning week so far (5.81BB/100 hands), so that's a lot better then last week.

I also think I'm ready to start playing two tables at the same time now.

Originally posted by Talic
I found NL5 hell too TIGHT, but that can be cause its full ring. I played like hour 9-tables NL5 last week for entertainment and I almost always went broke with 2nd nuts against the best of that board

He plays FL.

okay then. Weekly goals just don't seem to be a good idea. There's too little time to really work for them if something comes in between (like some stupid teammate not doing his part of the work in some group assignment for college)

On the bright side:I've identified a leak.

When I play top pair good kicker on the flop with a drawheavy board, everything works the way it should, when the turncard is one which could complete a draw, I bet, but when I'm raised I cal again, and end up check calling the river. I seem to be losing these pots quite often to people who indeed, completed there draws. So at 0.02-0.04 I'm going to stop thinking about people trying to bluff me out of there, and simply fold to there turnraise or at least check fold on the river. I just hope that this will turn out okay.

From now on I will be working with monthly goals which should leave more room for the unexpected.

I will continue to post at least one weekly update though.

Goals till the end of november

1 Try to work on no longer paying off these completed draws described above.

2 only play when I'm mentally fit, and refrain from starting to play when I know I can only play for 10 minutes or so. Anything under half an hour isn't enough to really get into it.

3 Try to slowly raise that bankroll.

4 Install and use poker elephant, in order to learn more about my game and the game of other regulars at my tables.

Edit

5 study limit play (watch at least three videos about fr play, reread all of the basic and bronze articles, once I get really comfortable playing SHC perhaps start studying on the more "advanced" charts available to bronze players.

When you suffer from a "series of bad beats" as a beginner, post some of them in the forum - maybe they arent bad beats at all but bad play

maybe can include study times in your november goals, or watching certain number of videos

Setting yourself a goal to play xxx number of hands in a week/month isnt always a good idea when you begin, trying to achieve it if you get pressed for time you can easily neglect the more important stuff such as studying articles and evaluating your play

Thx delete

I already figured out that wanting to play a certain amount of hands isn't the ay to go. (that's why I didn't include it in the november goals).

As for the study time, I try to spend about 1 hour on PS watching video's reading blogs and articles etc, but it might not be harmfull to include it in the goals.

I know, short term winnings don't mean much, but nevertheless, today I went on a pretty hot run, which erased all of my losses in 0.02-0.04 limit
(including those before I had gotten serious about it)

This makes me feel pretty good about myself, since I now have a positive result in about 4000 hands. I'm going to take a rest now, and return to the tables later today.

hot run continues, in November I've played 1500 hands at a 11.5bb/100hands rate, so my bankroll is fastly approaching that point where I will be going back to 0.05 0.10 tables.

this was the biggest grossing hand (in bb) I've played so far

Known players:
keine.

0,02/0,04 Fixed-Limit Hold'em (7 handed)
Hand recorder used for this poker hand: PokerStrategy Elephant 0.62 by www.pokerstrategy.com.

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A♠, Q♠. CO posts a blind of $0,02.
MP1 folds, Hero raises, MP3 folds, CO calls, BU folds, SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: (8,00 SB) 8♠, 7♠, Q♥ (4 players)
SB checks, BB bets, Hero raises, CO calls, SB calls, BB calls.

Turn: (8,00 BB) T♠ (4 players)
SB checks, BB bets, Hero raises, CO 3-bets, SB folds, BB calls, Hero caps, CO calls, BB calls.

River: (20,00 BB) 8♥ (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, CO raises, BB calls, Hero 3-bets, CO caps, BB calls, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 32,00 BB

Nice to see another FL player

If you want to become even better than this, you should post hands in the sample hand forums

yeah, I've been planning to, the next hand I'll come by in which I'm not certain what to do, I'm gonna post.

The upswing continued, and for the past 1800 hands, I've been winning a steady 17.3 bb/100 hands.

But, just as I hope I will take the credit for a downswing, I'm not going to credit this upswing entirely to good luck.

I've taken a look at my stats over these hands, and found that I played way tighter (really stuck to the shc rather then trying to play a hand every now and then when I got bored, 4 tabling seemed to be good in avoiding boredom) then the rest of my hands, and my af was 0.4 higher then before (1.4)

I hope that this week I will move up a limit to 0.05-0.1, it's still 2€ I have to win (2.5$) and then I will have 36.82€ again, which is exactly the amount ps gave me (I won't be up to 50$ yet, but I'm not going to worry about that, since that's the stock market's fault and not mine )

I don't really expect the level of my opponents to be higher at the 0.05-0.1 tables, but I could be mistaking.

It's been a good week let's hope the next one will be as good.

I don't really expect the level of my opponents to be higher at the 0.05-0.1 tables

You're right

GL in moving up

Nice to see another FL blog around.

The level of your opponents won't increase significantly till 0.5/1 FR, so GL beating those fishies. ♦

okay, after an extremely hot session (532 hands at 25.4bb/100) I already today succeeded in getting back to the old bankroll.

It's over with 0.02-0.04 and on to 0.05-0.1 This means that I'll be producing a lot more rake, and I'm going to try and become a silver member before the end of november

so my total stats for 0.02-0.04 are:

5662 hands
VPIP: 17.3%
AF 1.1 (the past 2400 hands this was closer to 1.5)
W$@sd 55.8%
6,6bb/100

0.05-0.1 here I come

0.05-0.10 is treating me very well, I've played 560 hands at 10.58bb/100 hands someday soon my luck is going to run out, but as long as it takes I'm gonna enjoy it ♦ ♦ ♦

I broke my record for biggest pot won in bb (and ofcourse in cash as well)

Known players:
keine.

0,05/0,1 Fixed-Limit Hold'em (9 handed)
Hand recorder used for this poker hand: PokerStrategy Elephant 0.62 by www.pokerstrategy.com.

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 8♥, 8♣
UTG1 folds, UTG2 calls, MP1 calls, MP2 folds, Hero calls, CO folds, BU calls, SB calls, BB checks.

Flop: (6,00 SB) K♠, 8♦, 6♥ (6 players)
SB checks, BB bets, UTG2 calls, MP1 raises, Hero calls, BU calls, SB calls, BB 3-bets, UTG2 calls, MP1 caps, Hero calls, BU calls, SB calls, BB calls, UTG2 calls.

Turn: (15,00 BB) 8♠ (6 players)
SB checks, BB bets, UTG2 calls, MP1 raises (All-In), Hero 3-bets, BU folds, SB calls, BB calls, UTG2 calls.

River: (29,00 BB) A♦ (4 players)
SB bets, BB calls, UTG2 calls, Hero raises, SB calls, BB calls, UTG2 folds.

Final Pot: 36,00 BB

Results follow (highlight to see):
Hero shows four of a kind, achten (8h 8c)
MP1 shows een full-house, zessen full of achten (6d 6c)
SB shows two pairs, azen and achten (As 2c)
BB shows two pairs, koningen and achten (Kd 4s)

Hero wins with four of a kind, achten (8h 8c)

The reason I called the flop rather then raise was that I was planning on raising on the turn.

W$@sd 55.8%
6,6bb/100

Nice job Lennert! GL at the next limits!!

Which site do you play at?

I play at titan.

I just finished the a late night session, and I strongly believe hat the entire tables were full off drunks and compulsive gamblers. Over the course of 150 hands I've won 4$ which equals about 55bb/100 hands

This one guy was playing 76/47/2.5. and I had position on him, he should have saved him the trouble of playing and should have simply transferred his money to me.

Anyways, I've come to a startling conclusion as I'm reviewing both my good and bad hands of this session: these massive winnings have put me on tilt...

not sure why that is, but I was clearly tilting, I started to realize this just before I stopped playing, but when I see how I played some hands, I should have been shot.

It might be because I adapted my play and varied from the SHC in order to beat that fish, (if you raise with 47% of hands, it seemed like it was a good idea to reraise him with a lot of hands out of my usual range) but I apparently didn't go back to my usual strategy one's he left the table.

note to self: when losing check for tilt, when winning check for tilt as well.