Have to say I am following this with intrest. From playing micro to suddenly binking a chunk, does this mean you should go for it and start playing the levels suited to a £2000+ BR
Hope your having fun )
It's all relative but winning and loosing can happen in equal measure, and I really don't think you should play so high.
Depends how you view your BR and how much of a long term aim you have.
I am sure you have enough of a BR to play 20-50NL and scoop some money of the top each month.
short term gains are fantastic but short term loses really do hurt, espcially when you hit some rocky ground.
FWIW I think you should concentrate on one level of cash/DYM whatever format and then move on.
In Response to Re: Donk spews bankroll after Roller bink. [EvilPingu's Diary] : ATM, I'm playing mainly £11, although if I see a good game at a higher level I'll play it as I'd be stupid not to tbh if I think there's value there (but if my results the last 2 days are anything to go by, I'm the only value @ these stakes) The regs are mostly the same people from £11-£22 as well, occasionally the odd higher reg drops down to £22 from the higher stakes, but I don't find they play too differently between £11 and £22, if at all tbh. Might have a couple of days off DYM's, and play cash instead, come back refreshed and hopefully run better. Will try playing just £11's and see if that makes any difference. Posted by EvilPingu
I don't blame you for thinking this way, and I used to, but I've been reading/listening to an audio book about the right mentality for poker and having a good mindset for poker. In reality, taking 1 day or 1 month off poker is never going to make the tiniest bit of difference to how you run. If you can keep your head and not tilt, then avoiding playing is really only gonna keep you feeling 'the downswing' for longer.
'Running bad' is something every single player experiences and obviously the more you play, the more it will happen, fact. It's like if you're on a cash table with a complete fish and he's given you a few bad beats and took a load of your money, as long as you aint tilting and you're sticking to your winning game, then there's no reason at all to leave that table because there is loads of value from a big fish with a big stack. Likewise, if you're playing well in your DYMs, if there is value in them, then there's value in them, regardless of how you're running.
I know it's too early for you to be able to work out a true hourly rate at your DYMs, but if you're making say 80p per £11 DYM, then that IS what you make per game, and this already takes into account running well and running badly.
@ Rancid - I had considered the same thing myself, whether to withdraw some, have a roll of like, £500 - £1000, play NL20 and build my roll up from there, also getting experience of going up through the levels. At NL50, there are a couple of players who I'd rather not have on my left if I can possibly help it. However, there's enough fish, and enough regs that I think I can beat that I don't see any reason not to play them games, as long term, I think I'd make more money @ NL50 than I would playing NL20, even though I'd have a higher win rate @ NL20.
Don't really have any long term aims in Poker, I usually just set myself goals on a monthly basis then totally forget about them ) Want to get into Priority Club this month though.
@ Lambert - Played a couple of DYM's this morning (lost both), just wasn't enjoying it tbh. I noticed I made some mistakes as well though, just because I was thinking "I'm going to get called and be behind, or my opponent is going to hit".
I'm really bad at looking through hand histories, etc - Tempted to buy one of these screen capturing programs (Full version of Fraps is £25) and fire up a bunch of tables so I can film myself playing, and watch it back to see if I'm doing anything wrong.
Biggest losing hand (should've probably folded to raise on the flop tbh)
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
pay-roll
Small blind
£0.25
£0.25
£71.96
EvilPingu
Big blind
£0.50
£0.75
£107.10
Your hole cards
10
9
DivsDreams
Fold
pay-roll
Call
£0.25
£1.00
£71.71
EvilPingu
Raise
£1.50
£2.50
£105.60
pay-roll
Call
£1.50
£4.00
£70.21
Flop
7
8
4
pay-roll
Check
EvilPingu
Bet
£2.50
£6.50
£103.10
pay-roll
Raise
£11.50
£18.00
£58.71
EvilPingu
Raise
£29.25
£47.25
£73.85
pay-roll
All-in
£58.71
£105.96
£0.00
EvilPingu
All-in
£73.85
£179.81
£0.00
EvilPingu
Unmatched bet
£35.39
£144.42
£35.39
pay-roll
Show
7
7
EvilPingu
Show
10
9
Turn
9
River
8
pay-roll
Win
Full House, 7s and 8s
£142.62
£142.62
And a huge pot with me being a luckbox after my attempt to isolate the all in player failed. Would've been nicer if Pay-roll didn't hit a straight, but meh.
You have a nice roll mate....use good/strict BRM and build it into something big!
Persoanlly I would stick to 50nl (you seem to be doing well at it)which gives you around 40-45 bi's (dropping down if you get to 30 bi's) and try grinding out the £11 dyms with about 25% of volume on £22's. Just my opinion though but briefly worked for me in the past when i used to grind.
Also its good that you post your hands here cause it shows you want to learn and improve which is always a positive. Reviewing hands at the end of each session works wonders imo and seeing how you could have played certain hands better etc will improve your game a lot.
Spent 10 minutes replying to above posts, only for Sky Poker to log me out and delete everything...ffs. Will reply to them again tomorrow instead.
***********************************
Monday 2nd April
Had a go at qualifying for the £25k Super Roller, unfortunately, I ended up being card dead with the biggest station ever on my left who had built up a stack, so there wasn't that much I could do. Eventually found a spot with blinds @ 50/100, short stack on my right shoves 3rd hand in a row, I re-shove with A6s, knowing that I can't wait much longer, difficult to steal blinds with station on my left too so although it wasn't a great spot, I didn't think I'd get a better spot any time soon either. Snapped by station in the blinds with AK (Yes, he had a hand that shouldn't have been folded pre for once...) which held up for the side pot. Short stack had 77 and trebled up.
Played a bit of everything today, also having read Lambert's post decided to play DYM's again. After an hour or so of 12-tabling £5.50 DYM's, I made about £40, which I donated to the main event prize pool. Aren't I kind? More importantly, regained confidence in my game, then just played whatever was running, and ran better than I have been the last few days.
Another 1k or so C4P - Lost £50 today, but with the amount of C4P I expect to have by the end of the month, that 1k C4P I earned means I'll get that £50 back at the end of the month, hopefully. (sigh @ being break even at best after getting rakeback...)
£400 down in 3 days, and getting slightly sick of all the text on my spreadsheet being bright red with minuses in front atm... Plan for tomorrow is just to make a profit, no matter how big or small, so might drop down to £5.50 DYM's, play a couple of hundred of them, and grind out a profit tomorrow (touch wood).
*******************
3 x 50NL (+ Wrestlemania, wiiiiii), +£4.30 2 x 50NL, +£97.31 3 x 50NL (Happy Hour), -£40.87
£10k GTD BH (£33) - 274/374, got owned by a fish which left me with a shortish stack, before getting AJ AIPF vs. AQ and missing. £1,200 GTD Mini BH (£3.30) - 158/503, away player all in on the small blind, guy after the bounty raised, I shoved A10, knowing I'd get called by pretty much ATC, villain snaps with K6o, and hits. Sigh. 20:40 £200 Timed (£5.50) - Out £25k Roller Semi (£24) - 9/15.
In the early hours of the morning, 50NL tables are full and nobody wanted to start another table with me so decided to play some PLO cash. Saw a guy at the 10p/20p table complaining that everyone kept hitting their flushes all the time in the chat box (I'm thinking to myself...this is Omaha!). I snap joined the waiting list, but unfortunately, it was that person who vacated his seat first, much to my disappointment as I sensed some pretty good value there. Nonetheless, played for about half an hour, and finished about £13 up.
Afternoon session was almost non-existant, due to having to wait around for a shopping delivery, couldn't play DYM's at the time as a result, although I did get myself on a table during Happy Hour and won a buy-in.
1 x 20PLO, +£12.87 1 x 50NL, +£59.87 Master Cash 3, +£5.31 Master Cash 8, +£6.25 4NLO, +£0.08 (I was bored, lol)
£5.50 DYM - W4 L4, -£4.00 £11 DYM - W1 L1, -£2.00
Was going alright until evening happy hour... 4 x 50NL, -£103.60
So instead of making £80 today, I ended up with more red text all over my spreadsheet -_-
Final session was pretty ridonkulous tbh. Ended up a buy-in down without really winning or losing any big pots, which I'm going to blame on the Sky Poker School being about c-betting, not the fact that I have a VPIP of at least 9000%, as EVERYONE wanted to re-raise me when I c-bet on the flop with nothing. Nobody wanted to do that when I had a hand though I don't WANT to take down the blinds when I raise the button with aces, and I don't want a fold when I flop two pair, dammit! :P
Then had a really... peculiar hand (And this isn't a bad beat story, just a really interesting hand) where me and a villain got 100bb in with AJ vs 77. Villain was raising every button, I have AJ in the big blind so 3-bet, villain tanks and 4-bets. I 5-bet jam, thinking I get a lot of folds and pick up £16, and I'm not necessarily going to be behind against this villain if I get called. I did get called by 77. Think I flopped a jack and villain turned a 7, another jack on the river but didn't make any difference. Lost another £50 in that pot, but information well worth paying for IMO
Ran well playing cash earlier, ran horribly in everything else. Biggest cash pot I lost all day was £11.25, and that was a mistake by me anyway, deciding it was a good idea to represent a queen on a QQ6 board, only for my opponent to effectively shove the turn, so I bailed out of that one with Ace high, lol.
Having said that, both times I stacked off today, I was behind and binked (KK < AK AIPF, and A4 vs 22 on a 235 flop, turned a house) so lucky to win as much as I did.
3 x 50NL, 15:44 - 16:56, +£167.59
£11 DYM - W0 L2. -£22.00
£5.50 Timed (30 mins) - 4th, £15.97 (+£10.47)
3 x £5.50 Timed (30 mins) - Out without cashing.
£5.30 Super Roller Sat - Out, AA busted. Wouldn't have bothered if I realised the structure was a total crapshoot before I entered, but meh.
£24 Super Roller Semi - Out 11/26, 99 < A9 AIPF.
£22 Doublestack - 218/333, other than one hand where I had 66, flopped quads and got a double up, just the most frustrating tournament ever.
£3.30 Mini Doublestack - Out in 1st level, Ac8h v T8 on board which ran out 8c 7c 3h Tc. Tried to rep the flush, which didn't work as my opponent couldn't fold top 2 pair, missed on the river.
Just wondering how long you have played poker and at what stakes do you feel the most comfortable ?
I myself have only played poker for the grand sum of 5 days lol but have watched sky poker for a long time and now i have finally opened a account am really enjoying it.
I started playing at 50nl and 100nl but have dropped down a bit until i get the hang of multitabling although we may still bump into each other from time to time on the medium stakes mastercash while i try to improve my game by getting advice etc from the guys in the studio.
Anyways best of luck to you at the tables mate and keep up the good work
I was exactly the same as you, watched Sky Poker for several years before actually signing up to the site, signed up on my 18th birthday (about 5 months ago).
With regards to stakes, I'm currently playing mostly 50NL (been on your table a couple of times), although if there's good games running at 100NL, I'll happily play there too.
50NL is a difficult place to start, to say the least, especially if you're multi-tabling, so moving down is probably a good idea for the time being, build up the tables then move up the levels. However, I believe that in the same way as you don't want to play with scared money, the money still has to matter to you enough to take the game seriously. As you've started @ 50NL and 100NL, I assume you've deposited a fairly substantial amount on the site to be rolled properly for those levels, so starting at 4NL which is what I'd suggest to most players starting out may not work for you if £4 doesn't mean anything to you.
Gl @ the lower levels and hope to see you moving back up the levels soon.
Comments
From playing micro to suddenly binking a chunk, does this mean you should go for it and start playing the levels suited to a £2000+ BR
Hope your having fun )
It's all relative but winning and loosing can happen in equal measure, and I really don't think you should play so high.
Depends how you view your BR and how much of a long term aim you have.
I am sure you have enough of a BR to play 20-50NL and scoop some money of the top each month.
short term gains are fantastic but short term loses really do hurt, espcially when you hit some rocky ground.
FWIW I think you should concentrate on one level of cash/DYM whatever format and then move on.
Hope it works out for you Pingu
good luck
'Running bad' is something every single player experiences and obviously the more you play, the more it will happen, fact. It's like if you're on a cash table with a complete fish and he's given you a few bad beats and took a load of your money, as long as you aint tilting and you're sticking to your winning game, then there's no reason at all to leave that table because there is loads of value from a big fish with a big stack. Likewise, if you're playing well in your DYMs, if there is value in them, then there's value in them, regardless of how you're running.
I know it's too early for you to be able to work out a true hourly rate at your DYMs, but if you're making say 80p per £11 DYM, then that IS what you make per game, and this already takes into account running well and running badly.
Biggest winning hand -
Hand 2 - pay-roll raises flop = monster
Hand 3 - Nice turn and keep doubling pay-roll up for me
I see you on the higher tables when they are televised. Bad bankroll management
***********************************
Monday 2nd April
Had a go at qualifying for the £25k Super Roller, unfortunately, I ended up being card dead with the biggest station ever on my left who had built up a stack, so there wasn't that much I could do. Eventually found a spot with blinds @ 50/100, short stack on my right shoves 3rd hand in a row, I re-shove with A6s, knowing that I can't wait much longer, difficult to steal blinds with station on my left too so although it wasn't a great spot, I didn't think I'd get a better spot any time soon either. Snapped by station in the blinds with AK (Yes, he had a hand that shouldn't have been folded pre for once...) which held up for the side pot. Short stack had 77 and trebled up.
Played a bit of everything today, also having read Lambert's post decided to play DYM's again. After an hour or so of 12-tabling £5.50 DYM's, I made about £40, which I donated to the main event prize pool. Aren't I kind? More importantly, regained confidence in my game, then just played whatever was running, and ran better than I have been the last few days.
Another 1k or so C4P - Lost £50 today, but with the amount of C4P I expect to have by the end of the month, that 1k C4P I earned means I'll get that £50 back at the end of the month, hopefully. (sigh @ being break even at best after getting rakeback...)
£400 down in 3 days, and getting slightly sick of all the text on my spreadsheet being bright red with minuses in front atm... Plan for tomorrow is just to make a profit, no matter how big or small, so might drop down to £5.50 DYM's, play a couple of hundred of them, and grind out a profit tomorrow (touch wood).
*******************
3 x 50NL (+ Wrestlemania, wiiiiii), +£4.30
2 x 50NL, +£97.31
3 x 50NL (Happy Hour), -£40.87
£5.50 DYM - W21 L11, +£34.00
£11 DYM - W7 L6, -£3.00
£16.50 DYM - W3 L5, -£45.00
£22 DYM - W1 L2, -£26.00
£33 DYM - W2 L2, -£12.00
£10k GTD BH (£33) - 274/374, got owned by a fish which left me with a shortish stack, before getting AJ AIPF vs. AQ and missing.
£1,200 GTD Mini BH (£3.30) - 158/503, away player all in on the small blind, guy after the bounty raised, I shoved A10, knowing I'd get called by pretty much ATC, villain snaps with K6o, and hits. Sigh.
20:40 £200 Timed (£5.50) - Out
£25k Roller Semi (£24) - 9/15.
----
Bankroll: £2,138.58 (Including £54.54 C4P Due)
Today: -£57.06
C4P: 2,234
----
In the early hours of the morning, 50NL tables are full and nobody wanted to start another table with me
Afternoon session was almost non-existant, due to having to wait around for a shopping delivery, couldn't play DYM's at the time as a result, although I did get myself on a table during Happy Hour and won a buy-in.
1 x 20PLO, +£12.87
1 x 50NL, +£59.87
Master Cash 3, +£5.31
Master Cash 8, +£6.25
4NLO, +£0.08 (I was bored, lol)
£5.50 DYM - W4 L4, -£4.00
£11 DYM - W1 L1, -£2.00
Was going alright until evening happy hour...
4 x 50NL, -£103.60
So instead of making £80 today, I ended up with more red text all over my spreadsheet -_-
Final session was pretty ridonkulous tbh. Ended up a buy-in down without really winning or losing any big pots, which I'm going to blame on the Sky Poker School being about c-betting, not the fact that I have a VPIP of at least 9000%, as EVERYONE wanted to re-raise me when I c-bet on the flop with nothing. Nobody wanted to do that when I had a hand though
Then had a really... peculiar hand (And this isn't a bad beat story, just a really interesting hand) where me and a villain got 100bb in with AJ vs 77. Villain was raising every button, I have AJ in the big blind so 3-bet, villain tanks and 4-bets. I 5-bet jam, thinking I get a lot of folds and pick up £16, and I'm not necessarily going to be behind against this villain if I get called. I did get called by 77. Think I flopped a jack and villain turned a 7, another jack on the river but didn't make any difference. Lost another £50 in that pot, but information well worth paying for IMO
**********
Bankroll: £2,113.36 (Including £54.54 C4P Due)
Today: -£26.22
C4P: 2,469
**********
Really enjoy reading this diary
Just wondering how long you have played poker and at what stakes do you feel the most comfortable ?
I myself have only played poker for the grand sum of 5 days lol but have watched sky poker for a long time and now i have finally opened a account am really enjoying it.
I started playing at 50nl and 100nl but have dropped down a bit until i get the hang of multitabling although we may still bump into each other from time to time on the medium stakes mastercash while i try to improve my game by getting advice etc from the guys in the studio.
Anyways best of luck to you at the tables mate and keep up the good work
Daz.