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Trials and tribulations - ‘Test of ones patience or endurance’, ‘difficult experiences’...
xfgwdtbosw
Member Posts: 45
in Poker Chat
Trials and tribulations - ‘Test of ones patience or endurance’, ‘difficult experiences’, ‘problems’, ‘troubles and events that cause suffering’.
In 2017, following a chance conversation, I suddenly decided to play Poker online.
I really was starting at the bottom. I had no real idea how to play and was totally clueless regarding position, bet sizing or any other strategy you can think of.
I put the app on my iPad, hand rankings on my phone, deposited £10 on Sky and I was ready to go.
More by luck than judgement I didn’t lose my deposit, studied whatever strategy I could find and, amazingly, started to increase my bankroll.
I’ve been playing NL £0.02/£0.04 Cash Games for over a year now. It’s been a steep learning curve but I know feel I’m maybe getting somewhere.
What I have noticed is that most of the articles and videos I see are by top poker players. I see graphs showing winnings in the £1000’s per month, I read about GTO, PioSOLVER, 3 bet advanced strategy, check raising %, etc, etc.
I can’t even begin to image playing NL £0.50/£1.00 so much of this theory, as good as it is, is mostly wasted on me.
Following a recent post of mine on the Forum it was suggested I might start a regular thread in ‘Poker Chat’ and give some details of my progress.
Im sure there will plenty of players in the same position as me so I thought I’d give it a go and do a monthly update.
It will hopefully be interesting to see stats on someone who certainly isn’t an expert, don’t profess to be one, and plays for fun at the lowest levels. I’m going to tell it like it is, win or lose. I’ll give winnings, no of hands and any other info I think is relevant.
Starting balance (a long time ago!) £10
Current balance (Aug 1) £205
After taking some advice from others this month I’m going to
- play some £0.05/£0.10 for the first time
- try more than 1 table at £0.02/£0.04
Wish me luck!
In 2017, following a chance conversation, I suddenly decided to play Poker online.
I really was starting at the bottom. I had no real idea how to play and was totally clueless regarding position, bet sizing or any other strategy you can think of.
I put the app on my iPad, hand rankings on my phone, deposited £10 on Sky and I was ready to go.
More by luck than judgement I didn’t lose my deposit, studied whatever strategy I could find and, amazingly, started to increase my bankroll.
I’ve been playing NL £0.02/£0.04 Cash Games for over a year now. It’s been a steep learning curve but I know feel I’m maybe getting somewhere.
What I have noticed is that most of the articles and videos I see are by top poker players. I see graphs showing winnings in the £1000’s per month, I read about GTO, PioSOLVER, 3 bet advanced strategy, check raising %, etc, etc.
I can’t even begin to image playing NL £0.50/£1.00 so much of this theory, as good as it is, is mostly wasted on me.
Following a recent post of mine on the Forum it was suggested I might start a regular thread in ‘Poker Chat’ and give some details of my progress.
Im sure there will plenty of players in the same position as me so I thought I’d give it a go and do a monthly update.
It will hopefully be interesting to see stats on someone who certainly isn’t an expert, don’t profess to be one, and plays for fun at the lowest levels. I’m going to tell it like it is, win or lose. I’ll give winnings, no of hands and any other info I think is relevant.
Starting balance (a long time ago!) £10
Current balance (Aug 1) £205
After taking some advice from others this month I’m going to
- play some £0.05/£0.10 for the first time
- try more than 1 table at £0.02/£0.04
Wish me luck!
Comments
2nd race, another 9/1. Wins , so £100.
3rd race, same, £100
4th race-you've guessed it, £1000
5th race-£10,000
6th race-£100,000. I more to be a millionaire!
7th race-last race of the day. Backs the 9/1 shot. Photo-finish, and the horse loses.
Man gets home, and his wife says, "How did you get on today?"
"Not too bad", says he, "only lost £1".
Not just an excuse to tell an old joke-provided you never need to deposit again, worst case scenario is you lose £10, and had loads of enjoyment. I would be tempted to withdraw £20 and buy something to put by your device you use to play poker to remind you you're a winning player
Good luck
I like Phils idea a lot.
Years ago I used to play at Gala Notts every night, if I made a few quid I always bought something on the way home at the 24 hour Asda. It was always tat but I did it to do exactly what Phil says.
If anyone is in the market for Kylies greatest hits or a new Walkman then pm me
Have I made progress? *(take that to mean have i won any money) Yes.
Am I a better player? *(a much more important question) Maybe
I made 4 decisions at the start of the month, some following advice on the forum.
1 - Play 2 tables of 0.02/0.04 and start playing some 0.05/0.10.
I did this and, as a result, played more hands this month. I still do not enjoy playing 2 tables as much and I definitely made some stupid mistakes that I think I would have avoided on a single table.
2 - Pick my tables at 0.05/0.10.
I’m selective about which table to play. I try to avoid sitting down with 5 “good” players.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m good, but at present, I feel it’s going to be far more difficult to win against a table full of these players.
3 - Try to improve by watching any relevant videos, Youtube etc that I can find. I’ve done this (although I prefer playing than watching) and I believe it has improved my game (it probably couldn’t make it worse!). Remember that some are more relevant to higher stakes.
4 - Don’t focus on my bankroll, just try and play a good game. Bankroll will surely go up and down but just look at it at the end of the month.
This was difficult at times particularly when I had a bad day.
- 5 JUST ENJOY IT. I’m not doing this to make money, I just enjoy playing and trying to become a better player. If I have a hobby that costs me nothing, that’s fine by me!
So what happened this month.
I played 7193 hands in total. 6534 hands of 0.02/0.04 and 659 hands of 0.05/0.10.
This would be a small sample to many players but, realistically, I cannot see myself playing a lot more than this.
Starting bankroll £212.80
£ 0.02/0.04. Hands 6534. Winnings £36.70.
£ 0.04/0.10 Hands 659. Winnings £15.98.
Current bankroll £265.48
Highs and lows.
Aug 3
The month has just started and I’ve had a terrible day!
Some losses were simply my stupid play, others were just bad cards.
It’s interesting because this is my 1st bad downswing. I’ve read a lot about them!
Aug 4
Early 110 hand session of 2/4 and I’ve won 481bb!
Just shows what can happen after a bad day yesterday!
Aug 8
Just one of those days!
I’ve had AA in the Big Blind 3 times! and everyone has folded every time!
I’ve also went All In against short stacks 3 times. (I’m not saying this is necessarily good play, but I did it anyway) and lost them all.
AK v 53s lost
AK v A6 lost
AK v 43 lost
Aug 16 HOW TO WIN AT POKER
I’m dealt AA in the Big Blind. Player on the Button has just joined the game and raises All In with 100bb stack holding K4. I called. No skill involved!
Aug 24
I’m going to take a break from 2 tables for a while due to making some really stupid mistakes.
Aug 29
Had a great afternoon session winning over 4 buy ins.
Aug 30 CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN THIS?
Everyone limps to me, I raise 6bb and then get 3 callers! What’s my next move?
What have I learnt
- Playing £.05/.10 puts you up against many of the same players that you see on the .02/.04 tables so, in theory, the games will not be too different.
- It doesn’t pay to get too personal against one player! Just because you’ve lost 3 or 4 hands to a player doesn’t mean you can win it all back with the next hand.
- I play a lot better with no distractions. No TV, Facebook, football results etc.
- Not losing is as good as winning (does this make sense?). Fold those good hands when you just know your on a loser.
I guess I’ve had a good month.
I’m going to take on board what I’ve learnt this month and I’m going to play more 0.05/0.10 (if I like the tables) in September.
If I loose 4 or 5 buy ins I’ll go back to the 0.02/0.04.
Wish me luck!
p.s. I’ve played a few small stakes MTTs on another site (I discovered I had a small bankroll there!)
I CANNOT HANDLE THE VARIANCE!
I thought I’d played ok and nearly reached the bubble every time. Last night my AK lost to a 53 when a 5 hit the river. I can’t cope with it so when my small bankroll has gone it no more MTTs for me, at least until the next time!
^^^^^
Excellent reading Mike, thank you.
Keep it coming, but most of all, keep enjoying the game. So many people lose sight of why we play. For the vast majority of us, it's just about having a fun, cheap, hobby. Why have a hobby we don't enjoy?
I been looking forward to this. I have seen you at the tables and not noticed you play anything unusual
With the limping and getting 100 callers you can play about with your raise sizes and go bigger for value if they are determined to limp call. Also make a note on hands if you get to showdown/player tendencies post flop. You can easily exploit their play but you just need to play around to work out what works best.
I have sent you a pm.
Thanks for the comment.
I’d love to play something unusual! The problem I have is that -
1. I’ve only been playing for a couple of years and am completely self taught. I get what info I can from the internet or make it up as I go along!
2. I do not know anyone personally who plays poker, online or live, so I’ve no one to bounce ideas off of.
When I come up with some unusual ideas hopefully you’ll notice at the tables!
Thanks for the info.
Regarding MTTs, I’ll do that and take it for want it is. I just find it frustrating that you can play for a couple of hours and suddenly your out.
Re single tables - I’ll probably stick to one going forward and play at higher stakes if or when I have the bankroll. I think I’d prefer that to multi tabling.
Limp/callers. Thanks for the advice. I do need to take more notice of other players tendencies which is something I’m working on. I do feel there are times at the micros that you are going to get calls whatever you do and I can see that I should certainly be exploiting that more.
have fun though. I've been at nl4 all the time I've been here and haven't deposited in years but haven't really thought of nl10. is it much different are you finding?
It’s pretty impressive that you’ve only deposited once! Hopefully I can do the same.
tbh I’ve not played many hands at NL10 yet. Depending on the time and day of the week there are perhaps a few less limpers and 1or 2 better players but many of the players are the same.
At the moment I believe if you win at NL4 (which you do) then you can certainly win at NL4.
It’s going ok. I had to adjust to higher level and I did some crazy things to start. It wasn’t the cards particularly, just didn’t have my head right. I’ve settled down now and it’s ok. Time will tell!
I never watched sky tv poker but I do watch some of the Twitch streamers. This is more relevant to MTTs but it’s very interesting to watch others play.
After playing NL4 on Sky Poker for far too long I eventually managed to increase my bankroll (more by luck than judgement?!) to a level where, at the beginning of September, I moved up to NL10.
I wasn’t going to move back to NL4 unless I felt I was absolutely useless or my bankroll disappeared too quickly!
At the start something I had read came to mind - ‘Even pros can lose 40% of sessions’. I know this wasn’t strictly relevant to me but thought it might help!
Initially I found it difficult to play at the higher level. I think I was more concerned about not losing rather than winning and that maybe everyone knew what they were doing.
I tried to think of the game in terms of Big Blinds rather than actual cash but it still took me 3 weeks to feel comfortable.
I was desperate not to move back down to NL4 but it was very close! Initially my bankroll dropped from just over £265 down to £201 and if it dropped below £200 I would have moved back down.
Im pleased to say that I managed to get it back up and right now, I don’t feel there’s any danger of returning to NL4.
I like to set targets and had set what I felt was a realistic and achievable one for September. I wanted to win at 4bb/100 which was much less than my winning rate at NL4. I thought lowering my expectations, particularly in the first month, was probably a good idea!
An important point for me was that I believed my game just wasn’t good enough for NL10 and if I was going to really succeed, and eventually move up again, a big improvement was needed.
As a result, alongside the playing, I’ve been studying strategy since the start of the month. I can honestly say I’ve learnt so much that, looking back, I can’t believe how I used to win at all!
Going forward my bigger target is to reach a bankroll of £400. This will give me 5 BI at NL20. Ill have a shot at NL20 and if I fail I’ll go straight back to NL10 cos I’ll still have 30 buy ins at NL10.
Here’s some highlights (and lowlights!) of the month. As you will see not everything went to plan in the early stages!
Sep 1
First day. I took it very easy and had small winning session. This is ok I thought, how wrong I was!
Sep 2
Had a couple of longer sessions and a lot of my play was simply ridiculous! I didn’t deserve to win! I didn’t play well at all which was, in part, because of higher stakes and I also lost a few hands initially which affected me.
This was the day that rammed home the fact that I needed to do some serious work on my game if I was to be successful!
Sep 3
Much better. I just tried to play my own game and , where possible, avoid the better players at the table because they had destroyed me the day before.
Sep 4
I spend some time in Mayo on the West coast of Ireland. It’s a lovely place but the bad news is that the internet is often not good enough to load Sky so I have to play on 2 other sites which seem to load ok.
I much prefer Sky Poker but at times, in Mayo, I have no choice.
It’s amazing how different the games are on different sites but it’s all good experience.
The good news is that I managed to show a small profit on both!
Sep 10 I’ve been studying a lot of strategy and I do think I’m improving but this was one of those days. Simply everything went against me! At least I’ve got to a position where I realise it’s just bad beats and i’ve become very good at handling it (I need to be!)
Sep 11 I knew I could do it! Just had a much better day and won 3 BI. OK, maybe I was lucky but it’s my first decent winning day.
It’s taken 10 days but I’m starting to feel much more comfortable and this is starting to show in my results.
Sep 12 A crazy day against some crazy players. I was a buy in up after 20 mins then lost 2 buy ins. I quit for a while then had a short midday session to get back where I started within 10mins.
A lot of my errors come late in a session or when I’ve been winning well. I’m going to keep the sessions short for a while until I can overcome these problems.
Sep 14 I had a late short session. 28 hands 50bb profit! Nice. I think everyone at the table bar me must have been drinking?
Sep 15 It’s taken till today to show a profit this month. I feel I’m just coming to terms with the higher stakes now!
I’ve also identified a big problem of mine. I’ll let you know what it is when I fix it!
Sep 16 I’m starting to believe I can actually be a winner at this level. I’ve made some big adjustments to my game and really feel it’s slowly coming together.
Sep 17 I had a number of coolers (that’s a new poker term I've learnt!) but that’s the way it goes. It just doesn’t bother me anymore, which is a big improvement in my game.
Sep 18th I’m going along nicely today then lose all my gains in a couple of hands against an aggressive player.
I was told the variance will be higher at NL10 but I need to get better against this type of player. There’s plenty of them at this level.
Sep 19
Im still studying the game and really feel I’m getting somewhere now.
I’ve had winning sessions today which doesn’t necessarily mean a lot but I am much happier with my play.
Sep 24 I had a short winning session today
One very important thing to improve my poker? PATIENCE!
Sep 30 Had a great last few days of the month. They were not all winning sessions but, overall, I’ve definitely settled in at the higher level.
What have i learnt this month.
- That it’s difficult initially to play your own game at the higher level. I know it’s all in the head but it took me a while to adjust. I read that some players can move up and down several times so I feel I’ve done ok.
You can see this in my results. I had a big dip initially but the second half of the month was a lot better.
- You can come up against some more aggressive players and you need to adjust for this.
- There can be less lImping, except at weekends!
- There are more good players and so mistakes can be expensive!
- You need to be on top of your game and concentrate more to succeed, e.g. don’t watch football, read your emails etc or your results will suffer.
Is this a good idea?
I’m sure you’ve all thought of it but I’ve been noting players that I play against who also play at a higher level (NL20, NL30).
I figure if I can show a profit against these players at NL10, then, if and when I move up again, I should still be ok against them.
So here’s the finances this month. I haven’t included the results from other sites even though I showed a small profit on them.
6179 hands of NL10
Starting bankroll 265.48
Current bankroll 308.96
Win rate 4.28 bb/100 YES!!
Highs...
The last week of the month was great. I know it’s only a small sample but nevertheless I was very happy with the way it went.
and Lows...
I was in a hand holding top pair on the turn. At this very time our cat came in the house with a live mouse and the 2 dogs thought they would also like to get involved. They were all chasing it around the house so I bet the river (completely missing the possible straight on the board) then jumped up to separate them.
It goes without saying I lost the hand. It was one of my biggest losses of the month on a single hand.
What was I saying about the need to concentrate more!
Target for October?
Simple. I want to increase my bankroll and I’d like to think I can improve on my September win rate.
I’m looking forward to the month now. The start of September was fairly traumatic at times but that’s all in the past now.
Wish me luck!
^^^^
Ha, great photo, that.