From Lazy Slacker to Major Chip Stacker.

Hi MrMardyBum,

welcome to our challenge - and me welcome to your blog :-
Looking forward to see you grow in stakes, level and BR!

Day One Update:

Cash Games: +$7.57 over 650 hands
Spin N Goes: +$0.00 over 20 games
Bonuses: +$4.20

Total: +$11.77

I'll add large updates on Mondays with graphs and stats etc, and a general round up up of the week.

Day Two Update:

Cash Games: +$20.82 over 1864 hands
Spin N Goes: +$0.00 over 20 games
MTT: -$3.57 over 6 games
Bonuses: +$4.40

Total: +$22.18

With my calculations using HEM I am +$21.65 but looking at my cashier I am +$22.18 I know it's not a lot of difference but over time that could end up being quite a difference. So I don't know what's happening there.
Overall though I am playing some pretty strong and solid poker over the last 2 days. And I can only hope I can continue playing the way I am. I've almost committed my starting range to memory as well from each position so things are going well there too!

Day Three Update:

Cash Games: +$26.05 over 3,214 hands
MTT's: -$3.47 Over 8 Games
Bonuses: +$7.40

Total: +$30.34

Again slight variance between HEM and actual total, but no idea how to rectify so....

How's The Challenge Going?

So far, it's going okay... I've had better starts to building a bankroll, but then I've been away from the table quite a while so I guess it's to be expected. Some sessions go really well and I make all the right moves but still some sessions I am making mistakes that are costing me. I am pretty proud of the fact that I've so far only lost two full stacks though and that I am now playing at NL10.

How's The Learning Going?

I've not done quite as much practical study as I would of liked and most of my learning has been defining my opening range and watching videos on 6-max. I'd really like to teach myself how to calculate equities during hands and also have a better handle on certain situations where I should be raising not calling etc. as my redline isn't what it used to be when I was playing before. I also feel I am getting exploited on the river a lot when people are putting in large overbets I either find it hard to give enough credit to fold or I give too much credit, I can't seem to find a happy medium.

What Are The Graphs Looking Like?

Cash Games:

MTTs:

Summary Of Results:

Cash Games: +$13.91 @ 8.02bb Over 4,433 hands
MTT's/Spin N Goes: +$29.55 Over 29 games
Bonuses: +$9.90
Starting Bankroll: $150.00
Current Bankroll: $200.36
Goal: $1,000.00
Progress: +$50.36

Nice looks like you got off to a steady start, good luck

Cash Games: +$42.33
MTT's: +$28.01
Bonuses: +$10.50

Total: +$80.84

All is going well after I had a bit of a rough patch in my cash games I literally dropped to minus and then flew back upto highest profit so far straight after so at least I didn't tilt it off after a few bad sessions, which is an improvement from previous time when I used to tilt pretty badly... I'm also feeling a lot more confident with what I am doing at the tables greatly helped by having my starting range defined and now going ahead and working on my post-flop game. I'm enjoying the videos by Lemon and Weasel at the moment and they are helping greatly.

My tracker is being a bit spazzy at them moment so my winnings aren't exact but I've taken what it says I have won and then added the extra to the bonus but I am sure it is not tracking correctly as I feel I've won less than it is telling me and claimed more bonuses but hey ho I lost track of the bonuses now so I cannot be sure.

Thanks for stopping by Coffee, I've read you blog briefly and am now actually off to check your progress again!

I am juat sat waiting for a meeting so thought I'd make a blog update as I haven't done many this week.

I had a good day yesterday (Sunday) at the MTT's going pretty deep in 4 and getting 2 places away from the elusive final table in one of those. Although in relation to my bankroll it was a nice little boost. I felt very frustrated that I missed the big money by just 2 places.

I have however decided that I'll be playing MTT's maonly on Sundays as I found the fields very soft and in many managed to end up with 10x starting chips before the first break. Plus it gave me a day off from the cash tables which I feel I needed this week.

Anyway, I will be doing my proper Monday update later with a few hands i could use some advice on, so I'll leave it there for now!

Good luck at the tables readers!

How's the challenge going?

Pretty well I have almost doubled my roll in less than two weeks, I still feel my cash game needs much more improvement but I already feel I've made some major headway.

How's the learning going?

Definitely slacked off a bit on learning for more time at the tables this week however I've done quite a bit of video watching and looked over a few strategy articles and created myself a learning path highlighting which strategy articles and videos go into each section.

What are the graphs looking like?

Cash Games:

MTT's:

Summary Of Results:

Cash Games: +$59.69 @ 7.43bb Over 11,248 hands
MTT's/Spin N Goes: +$88.15 Over 43 games
Bonuses: +$0.29
Starting Bankroll: $150.00
Current Bankroll: $298.13
Goal: $1,000.00
Progress: +$148.13

Week 1 To Week 2 Growth:

Cash Games: +$38.10 Over 8,314 hands @4.86bb
MTT's: +$91.60 Over 15 Games
Bonuses: +$0.29

I had a really good session yesterday! I managed to win 5BI Plus I found the $10 I was missing from my bonuses it was on a table that I had closed but Pokerstars still thought was open so it was almost a 6BI day!

I even lost a $50 dollar pot which was totally horrid...

Poker Stars $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 3037659
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $16.87 - VPIP: 20, PFR: 11, 3B: 5, AF: 0.0, Hands: 56
Hero (SB): $24.78 - VPIP: 23, PFR: 16, 3B: 5, AF: 2.0, Hands: 23193
BB: $10.00 - VPIP: 0, PFR: 0, 3B: 0, AF: 0.0, Hands: 1
UTG: $22.29 - VPIP: 27, PFR: 22, 3B: 14, AF: 4.0, Hands: 141
MP: $26.24 - VPIP: 47, PFR: 27, 3B: 0, AF: 0.2, Hands: 15
CO: $11.90 - VPIP: 28, PFR: 22, 3B: 13, AF: 0.0, Hands: 18

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is SB with A K
1 fold, MP raises to $0.20, CO raises to $0.75, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.70, 1 fold, MP calls $0.55

Flop: ($2.35) 5 8 A (3 players)
Hero checks, MP checks, CO bets $1.68, Hero raises to $3.36, MP calls $3.36, CO folds

Turn: ($10.75) A (2 players)
Hero bets $5.14, MP calls $5.14

River: ($21.03) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $15.53, MP calls $15.53

Final Pot: $52.09

LAGGY looking player who I put on a weaker ace and never stopped to re-evaluate... Whoops.

Best win of the day looked like this:

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 3037660
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $11.99
SB: $10.05
BB: $10.30
UTG: $12.63
Hero (MP): $54.16
CO: $10.97

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is MP with K K
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.30, CO raises to $0.90, 1 fold, SB calls $0.85, 1 fold, Hero raises to $2.40, CO calls $1.50, SB calls $1.50

Flop: ($7.30) A K J (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3.50, CO raises to $8.57 all in, SB calls $7.65 all in, Hero calls $5.07

Turn: ($32.09) 6 (3 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($32.09) 4 (3 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $32.09

Cash Games: +$107.99 over 14,249 hands @ 9.26bb
MTT's: +$88.15 Over 43 Games
Bonuses: +$11.24

Total: +$207.38

Anyway really enjoyed this session other than the obvious massive loss, but guess you can't get your reads right all the time!

So as I said before I've been working on my range.... Seems Leakbuster approves!

I totally forgot there is NL16 on Stars! Will be moving up today!!!

Wish me Luck!

GL!
Apparently the stats are approved :-)

Regarding your question in the reporting thread - I'll compile an update with your week-to-week numbers, but feel free to post your totals here in the blog so you keep the overview.
Also for the reporting week - if it is sometimes 6 or 8 days does not really matter too much as in the end you are the person who you are doing the challenge for. There is no cheating and no hard rules, its all for your profit and for mutual motivation with other challengers!

Hi, you should 3bet more than 4.85%, it should be around 7-8%.

Hey Sven,

Yeah still working on the odd tweaks as Ginger pointed out my 3-bet is still on the low end but at least my work is paying off and slowly coming into line!

@Ginger,

I know it's still slightly low, and I am working on making it higher, but at the micros I find you can catch out a lot of bad regs by calling with some AK hands and Some higher PP where they scared of the 3-bet they will quite happy 2-barrel with air and then call a small river bet. So it's just one of my slower stats to improve. However, thanks for the input it's nice to have

Week Three - Monday Update

How's the challenge Going?

No real improvements this week, in fact it's very stagnant in terms of bankroll movement. I'm still playing strong but have definitely made some silly errors this week that have cost me!

How's the learning Going?

Only a couple of videos of this week unfortunately as I am lacking a bit of time due to my cancer treatments really taking a toll on me and my overwhelming need to sleep god knows how many hours in a day! At least I managed to squeeze some in though!

The Graphs?

Cash Games:

MTT's:

Summary Of Results:

Cash Games: +$69.50 @5.82bb Over 15,913 hands
MTT's/Spin N Goes: +$72.48 Over 61 games
Bonuses: +$4.56
Starting Bankroll: $150.00
Current Bankroll: $296.54
Goal: $1,000.00
Progress: +$146.54

Week 2 To Week 3 Growth:

Cash Games: +$14.52 Over 4,445 hands @3.09bb
MTT's: -$15.67 Over 18 Games
Bonuses: +$4.35

Anyway, still issues with my tracker not collecting all my results properly as my bonuses are defo higher but either way at least the bankroll is moving and it's due to poker!

Not sure how many hands I will get in this week as I have to put in so much time at the hospital it's getting harder to schedule sessions of poker but I will persevere and get as much as I can played!