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Shelley7: Poker Diary – Building a Bankroll
Shelley7
Member Posts: 128
in Poker Chat
Hi All,
I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a diary for around 5 years, ever since I read TimmyRaRa’s DYM journey. I’ve reached a point where I want to start taking poker more seriously and want to become more organised in my approach. I certainly need the accountability! Looking at other players diaries has given me the inspiration to see what I can actually achieve.
I have a few deficiencies that I need to improve:
- Bankroll management and game selection.
- Reaction to losing session, both during and after.
- Trying to ‘outplay’ my opponents in MTT’s.
- Disrespect for money – could also be a plus if used correctly.
I don’t want to start this diary too negatively, I do feel I am strong in certain areas, and these I can still improve upon in my game.
- Game understanding – e.g. ICM, taking advantage of certain spots and players.
- Decision making – folding strong holdings, like KK pre-flop, folding AA in DYM’s when you don’t need to put chips in etc.
- Adaptability – I like to play all formats, whether that is MTT, SNG or Cash, and also like Omaha & Omaha Hi-Lo. I feel comfortable in the higher buy-in games and enjoy playing with the best of the site.
I have no real structure to my schedule and that is something I am keen to address, I will play tournaments when I feel like it and will occasionally grind DYM’s. I’ll play small £5 buy-ins then buy in for the £110 Sunday Major. Anyone who reads this, I’d appreciate some tips or advice regarding tournament selection and possible targets.
In terms of aims, I’m not really sure what to put down. I recently grinded $100 - $1000 on Pokerstars by playing Spin & Go’s. I did then punt this off by playing a few $100 and £500 spins.
That pretty much reflects my bankroll management style!
The key aim I think would be for some long term progress, where I play a high volume of games, but stick tightly to a bankroll and game type. It may sound strange, but I’d be happier winning in a linear fashion having stuck to these principles, rather than winning more and having a mountain and canyon graph.
Finally, I’d say that a key driver for me starting this diary is that I’m keen to move away from the UK in the next couple of years (potentially Gibraltar to start with so I can still use Sky!).
Depending on the location I pick, I’d like to be able to rely on poker for supplementary income. With my current track record, I could certainly not trust that, but I’m hopeful this will change. I have a good job, and I think that hurts my poker, as most months I will happily chuck in £250-500 a month, have a gamble and when I lose it I’ll be **** for a few days, but will then repeat next payday.
I’m sick of donating to certain players and want to break the cycle.
I started the bankroll building process in the middle of last week, I will post my results later on. I’m now on £300 and this is what I will use to play. As said any game suggestions, ideas are thoroughly encouraged. I will present my ideas with the next post, but I certainly would appreciate outside counsel.
Final thoughts
I did spot a post from Tikay (https://community.skypoker.com/discussion/comment/1004095#Comment_1004095) which mentioned one of my victories on here. He did speculate to whether I was male or female.
X-Factor reveal alert - I am a guy, I just have a bit of an abstract name! The poet that he mentioned – Percy Bysshe Shelley was indeed the inspiration behind it.
Tbh, I’m not sure why my parents thought that was a great person to name me after. Though I do prefer Shelley to Percy or Bysshe, so I guess I got off lightly. My brothers are called Josh and Sam, and I’m slightly frustrated that my parents didn’t go with Keats & Wordsworth for them to share out the mockery a little. One other funny aspect of this name is the comments I get in the chat on Skypoker. I have had guys call me babe and darling numerous times (hopefully thinking I’m female) and ask what I’m up to. I’m never sure how to respond, so if anyone can think of some great one liners then please do!
Thanks to all for reading and post soon.
Shelley
I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a diary for around 5 years, ever since I read TimmyRaRa’s DYM journey. I’ve reached a point where I want to start taking poker more seriously and want to become more organised in my approach. I certainly need the accountability! Looking at other players diaries has given me the inspiration to see what I can actually achieve.
I have a few deficiencies that I need to improve:
- Bankroll management and game selection.
- Reaction to losing session, both during and after.
- Trying to ‘outplay’ my opponents in MTT’s.
- Disrespect for money – could also be a plus if used correctly.
I don’t want to start this diary too negatively, I do feel I am strong in certain areas, and these I can still improve upon in my game.
- Game understanding – e.g. ICM, taking advantage of certain spots and players.
- Decision making – folding strong holdings, like KK pre-flop, folding AA in DYM’s when you don’t need to put chips in etc.
- Adaptability – I like to play all formats, whether that is MTT, SNG or Cash, and also like Omaha & Omaha Hi-Lo. I feel comfortable in the higher buy-in games and enjoy playing with the best of the site.
I have no real structure to my schedule and that is something I am keen to address, I will play tournaments when I feel like it and will occasionally grind DYM’s. I’ll play small £5 buy-ins then buy in for the £110 Sunday Major. Anyone who reads this, I’d appreciate some tips or advice regarding tournament selection and possible targets.
In terms of aims, I’m not really sure what to put down. I recently grinded $100 - $1000 on Pokerstars by playing Spin & Go’s. I did then punt this off by playing a few $100 and £500 spins.
That pretty much reflects my bankroll management style!
The key aim I think would be for some long term progress, where I play a high volume of games, but stick tightly to a bankroll and game type. It may sound strange, but I’d be happier winning in a linear fashion having stuck to these principles, rather than winning more and having a mountain and canyon graph.
Finally, I’d say that a key driver for me starting this diary is that I’m keen to move away from the UK in the next couple of years (potentially Gibraltar to start with so I can still use Sky!).
Depending on the location I pick, I’d like to be able to rely on poker for supplementary income. With my current track record, I could certainly not trust that, but I’m hopeful this will change. I have a good job, and I think that hurts my poker, as most months I will happily chuck in £250-500 a month, have a gamble and when I lose it I’ll be **** for a few days, but will then repeat next payday.
I’m sick of donating to certain players and want to break the cycle.
I started the bankroll building process in the middle of last week, I will post my results later on. I’m now on £300 and this is what I will use to play. As said any game suggestions, ideas are thoroughly encouraged. I will present my ideas with the next post, but I certainly would appreciate outside counsel.
Final thoughts
I did spot a post from Tikay (https://community.skypoker.com/discussion/comment/1004095#Comment_1004095) which mentioned one of my victories on here. He did speculate to whether I was male or female.
X-Factor reveal alert - I am a guy, I just have a bit of an abstract name! The poet that he mentioned – Percy Bysshe Shelley was indeed the inspiration behind it.
Tbh, I’m not sure why my parents thought that was a great person to name me after. Though I do prefer Shelley to Percy or Bysshe, so I guess I got off lightly. My brothers are called Josh and Sam, and I’m slightly frustrated that my parents didn’t go with Keats & Wordsworth for them to share out the mockery a little. One other funny aspect of this name is the comments I get in the chat on Skypoker. I have had guys call me babe and darling numerous times (hopefully thinking I’m female) and ask what I’m up to. I’m never sure how to respond, so if anyone can think of some great one liners then please do!
Thanks to all for reading and post soon.
Shelley
Comments
That's a fabulous post @Shelley7 , count me down as subscribed.
Now we have established your gender, do you look like this?
PS - Bysshe, that's amazing, what a moniker.
Might I recommend you pick a format to specialise in? When I first started playing I tried out cash games, spin and go's, SNGs, and MTTs. Though I had ups and downs across all formats, and limited success in some, overall I just lost money. I believe that's because each format requires a different strategy and approach. Personally, I found the mode-switching cognitively difficult. Pick a format to specialise in and try to master it before broadening your interests.
I can see from your Sharkscope that you've had some excellent MTT results but are not showing much overall profit. A little discipline and BRM will go a long way to improving that. Stick to buy-ins appropriate to your bankroll, stop buying into main events and try to satellite instead, etc.
Hi All,
Apologies, I meant to post a graph showing my current profit/loss – attached.
I have no idea how I am up, as usually I’ll chuck £250 in for 5-10 tournaments and expect to increase it. Not really a profitable business model!
I’ve found a better way to keep my results, I have created an excel table which I’ll use from now on. In terms of my play this week, I started at £100. I came second in the £1000 bounty hunter on Saturday night for £208. I also satellited into the £33 and £55 tournaments and missed the money in both.
Sunday I then satellited into the £110 and £55 tournaments (good start 4/4 for satellites). I was in the top 10 of the Major for a long time. I played well, I was bluffing when required, picking on certain players and keeping a good stack. I missed out on a few spots, maybe played a little tight and all of a sudden I was 30th out of 70 or so. One opponent to my right kept beating me in every hand we tangled in. I’d raise with QQ and he’d hit with K3 etc. Eventually I tried to beat him too much and lost with AJ to his 88. He flopped a set and I was far too over aggressive. Against most people I keep the pot half the size, but I lost sight of the main prize and just wanted to take his chips. Definitely need to stop doing that kinda thing…
In the £55 event I came three spots out of the money. Again, I was in the top 10 for a long portion of the game. I was maybe slightly too focused on the £110 and allowed my stack to decrease. I got it in with 10-10 vs A4 and lost to him hitting trip 4’s, with about 18 people left. I rallied from 5BB’s to be 5/8, with the top 6 being paid. My exit hand was a little brutal. Button limped, SB folded and I checked with 67. Flop was KJ6. I checked, button min bet and I called. Turn was a 6 giving me trips. I checked, button bet 2.5x and I jammed for £24k into a pot of 32k or so. He snap calls with 55 and hits the 5 on the river. Bit of a shame as winning that would have given me a healthy stack. Ended up with one bounty which was around £18 pounds from memory.
With tournaments, I do seem to have a knack of building a stack early. However, my play needs to improve in that final 25-35% of people left zone. Often I seem to finish just out of the money or just inside, which may mean I’m tightening up a little too much. Although when I do make the money and final tables I do usually make the top three. I feel like where I am good in the live arena I am weak online, and I’ve been struggling to improve it. Tips welcome!
Future plans / targets.
Buying into satellites cost around £50-55 over the weekend. I subsidised this by playing DYM’s and heads up, hence why my bankroll is at the £300 mark.
As mentioned before I’d like to plan out my activities and feed the results into this diary, to hold myself accountable. I’m keen for outside input, but one idea I had was to mix DYM’s (and Sit ‘n’ Go’s) with tournaments. I do ok at heads-up and am profitable, but continually playing against the likes of Rob_Hogger, Zahir benc, Nutter, Turboooo and others without really trying to improve that aspect of my game is probably a losing strategy long term. I want to focus predominantly on the two games I think I’m best at.
My proposal is; to play around 100 DYM’s in a week, to play a set list of tournaments and to track my results. Usually I satellite into the bigger events. However comments about the best use of my bankroll would be appreciated. Is it too expensive to play the £11 events, that kinda thing?
I will give it a day or so and see what advice comes my way before fully formulating my plan going forwards. Most people start these diaries with a very clear idea of what they want, what their target money wise is and how they will get there.
However I’ve been meandering for years and certainly think it is wise to seek the advice of other players on the forum. I have bent the ear of TimmyRara and MattBates on many occasions and I have used their advice to help me improve within their individual disciplines (tourneys for MattBates and TimmyRara for DYM’s).
This is very much my first deep dive into long term thinking though!
Thanks again for reading and I will post again soon. Any queries or questions please comment!
Shelley
Hi Nostri, thanks alot for the response, i've been reading through your diary today.
I have just mentioned this more in my next post. I completely agree, MTT's I enjoy the most, but I'd argue i'm best at DYM's (though i've only won 51% of 3000 odd, which is a loss). The issue is discipline. i'll win 3 £11's and then play a £33 as i'm up, that kinda thing.
BRM is my killer. I want to be able to rely on my poker results. I will go a week or so where i'm doing well, i'll have a bad day, i'll double the buy-in and before I know it i'm on the ApplePay page again!
For the forseeable future, i'll just be playing on Skypoker, so i'm thinking DYM's and MTT's. As said i'm very keen for feedback. What i've been doing is not working!
Starting a diary is by far the best way to remain disciplined with BRM as you will be less likely to punt off knowing you have to write about it on the forum.
A few things you posted really resonated, e.g. there were times when you had lost your first 5-6 events and usually would punt off your stack in your last event in annoyance, especially if it was small event. But knowing you had to publish your result, you played on, grafted and usually did well in the last events and saved the day or ended in profit. That's the attitude I want to get. Rather than just throwing more money into the account the next day!
If you're working with about £300 right now, I'd say stick to £5 and below. Mixing in some £11s mght be fine if you think you have enough of an edge but IMO your ABI should be nearer 5 than 11. That gives you access to a number of £500 and above Bounty Hunters, the Mini Mains, and some decent freezeouts through the week (the Mega Stack is on Fridays and Saturdays, I think, and I always try to play those) without endangering your bankroll should you have a bad week. It also lets you play satellites for Main Events and High Rollers, which gives you a shot at a score way above your buy-in level without increasing your risk. You can get your DYMs in too if that's what you want to do.
Bad days are going to happen. So are bad weeks and bad months. I had a £700 downswing over 2 months last year that was brutal. It doesn't really matter in the long run; if you have a positive ROI you will make it back soon enough, plus more, and eventually grow to a point where you can afford higher buy-ins. I'd imagine your ROI would be quite impressive if you weren't punting off a significant amount of money on high buy-ins.
I'll leave the specific play-style advice to more competent people, but trying to stick to the above has helped me massively when it comes to growing a consistent bankroll and a positive ROI without constantly redepositing and punting it off at higher buy-ins.
Ha, love the new avatar.
Dealing with the losing is my main issue. It feels like a pride thing, it's not that i'm upset about the money, it's just that i'm losing. I have issues quitting if i'm down, need to reign in the impulsiveness!
I'm trying to get in shape for a holiday i'm meant to be going on in May (not looking great now). That means getting into the gym at 6:45am, and after going to bed at 2, I might give the poker a miss tonight depending on my energy levels. I'm keen to start though and I appreciate the response, it means a lot.
In terms of aims / results, at these stakes, what is a good target to hit?
Best of luck with this, it looks like being a good read
It looks more like an ECG printout than a Sharkscope graph, luckily the patient is alive and well.
Good luck!
I have about a 20-25% ROI at exactly these stakes, but relatively low volume, resulting in gains that aren't especially useful for anybody in the developed world. That same ROI with much higher volume would be quite a healthy income. Others on the site who are much better players have much higher ROIs, in the 60%+ region, which is obviously a much higher gain even at lower volume.
For you, I would be looking to get my discipline into shape and maintain a profit line that goes upwards rather than in a manner similar to an ECG, as @Enut amusingly pointed out. Perhaps see where you're at after a month or so of disciplined BRM and see what kind of ROI you have in that period and make adjustments from there.
With good volume you can see decent returns
Full update tomorrow, but feeling happy, lost my first 7/8 games, with some bad luck and bad play but persevered. Played some higher sit 'n' go's as a friend of mine was in them, which didn't work out. Great start to being more disciplined...
Think the diary helped already, Waller02's advice about not punting it off and giving every tournament a chance really helped, plus the accountability factor of the forum stuck in my mind.
Bankroll Start - £300
Bankroll Current £ 431
Positive - Only had two hours sleep yesterday, was really struggling at around 10pm to stay awake and focused. Just willed myself into the cash and then dominated the final table, leading the whole time, and playing great heads up.
Negative - Bankroll management was **** again and game selection. Tiredness certainly played a part, but no excuse. Can't always win a tourney to make up for bad decisions.
Thanks again to all posters, will update tomorrow with some more details. I've reset my stats, so I was starting the challenge from £0 in all formats rather than the £900/1000 I was up.
Shelley
Quick tournament recap - in the £5.50 freezeout I came 5th for £24.30. Little bit card dead and got it in bad with AQ vs AK and the better hand won.
In the £11 bounty hunter, I managed to take it down for £181, which is a pleasing start to the challenge. As you can see, I ended up investing nearly 17% of my bankroll on the first day which is completely unsustainable and what i'm trying to change.
In the £11 pounds BH, I was struggling into the money, then my patience was rewarded with a couple of nice hands, and some opponents overvaluing their holdings (someone jammed k7 on a KQJ10 board).
Once the final table started, I had around 65k, with the average being 25k. I took out the second stack with 10's and then had 130k (out of 180k) when just 4 of us were left. 3 handed lasted a while before my preferred heads-up opponent knocked out the more tricky player who had been playing back a bit.
Heads up was very controlled, I had 130k still and kept beating my opponents in pots. I kept playing them down to 20k losing an all in which I was ahead, then playing them down to 20k and losing, which happened three times (A10 vs KJ, A8 vs Q9 & 77 vs K4), but eventually I flopped a set with 55 vs A7 and finished it off. They did not 3-bet me once (except all ins), and I was bale to use the stack to take down most pots.
Not a huge win obviously, but after the awful start it felt like the accountability factor played a part. Usually i'd have stopped playing and would have given up as I was shattered, but kept going.
Had quite a few helpful posts on here and messages (thanks!) which i'm going to look to action today and formulate a plan. Also looking forward to reading through posts from other members as I think there is plenty to learn from this forum and other players' experience.
Depending on the Coronavirus and my works policy, I might be working from home soon, which would give me a lot more free time. I'm a project manager, but not many building projects will continue with this pandemic, which means I should have some time for playing and studying. I have a lot of resources (books, upswing lab etc.) and I just have not used them in the last few months which is a total waste.
Cheers,
Shelley