Great month so far. Just figured I'd update a little on my progress. June has been my best month ever, with a couple little jaunts up to $200NL when I fell it, after a good session. Stats so far this month...
My only glitch to the month seems to be the Party $50NL tables. I cannot beat that site. I really need to learn what I'm doing wrong on some games. I'm not really worried too much since there is no Rakeback there or on Empire anyway, but they have great monthlies worth clearing and the tables are better than Crypto's rock garden. Nothing worse than losing BR when grinding a Bonus for 3K hands. I have slowed my aggression a bit at AP since the small stacks will get it in anyway post flop, so PFR% is dropping to about 2/3 of hands. With AP's 200BB BI's and default 40BB BI's, being aware of stack sizes is a huge ++ when playing certain positions and cards.
My BR was $4500++ when I decided to withdraw $1500 for my vacation next week. My June winnings will cover me for that, and with Rakeback I should still make my BR goals even if I come up short on hands. I have $3200+, so still rolled for $100 with room to spare.I am going to actually edit my goals in the other post to adjust for my trip the first two weeks of July. I have left the last two months without goals so I can adjust as I get closer. I have hit May's targets and am way ahead of June's, with 7 days remaining, GL me.
Lastly, Me, Euph, Spenda and Hypermegachi, (not in that order) have started making Videos to use as a session review / Beginner help project. We are just refining the process for putting them up on FTR and reviewing them, working on the quality and deciding what ones to post. I think my first one was a good example of basic, ABC $100NL play, but the sound is a little scratchy in parts, from my headset resting against my face. Something that can be a little annoying to watch, but I think the video has some interesting points to make. When it gets up, try to put up with the sound, It should have that good mix of helping the lower stake players and having the higher ones critique my game.
Yes, back to $100NL. I had run real bad at the beginning of the month for about a week and a half. Since then I have doubled my roll, even though it's not reflected in PT or the graph. A lot of hands from Boss media are screwing up the stats and numbers. PT is getting errors on almost all the hands from there and I think I will just stop using it anyway till they have a fix. I can monitor my hands and PTBB/100 manually until they find a better system. I only play there when it's early enough to find some good tables.
That whole upswing at 15K is when I started back at $100NL so that's a nice change. Running well without dropping 5 or 6 buy ins to start never hurts. It seems like the play has been softer than I remember it but that could be me just running good, playing better, them getting worse or a combination of any two. I have really been paying attention to the table selection, and particularly after I have sat for a bit. I get up from bad tables almost immediately if I can't see where my money is coming from, or like the players on my left or right. Some times it would just be a matter of switching the fish with the TAGG that could allow for a shitload of profit, but if they are sitting on opposite sides, b-bye.
IT has been said before by others but I will say it again, After Poker Tracker, Cardrunners will be the best investment you could make to your poker "career". Whether it's just playing once a week or wanting to become a fulltime pro, Get a membership before hitting the $50NL and $100NL tables. Never mind the magic $1K BR number to get to $50NL. Get to $1250 and get it. I think I would be playing $400NL by now if I had. Some may disagree, but only a few.
My first session back at $100NL in a while. I've been running about 6PTBB/100 at $50NL for the last two weeks of may after a huge cooler at the start of this month. I was running even for the month at Vegas 24/7 but was up on Boss and AP. So I took a shot. Figured $2400 was enough plus my Rakeback. I can beat $100NL anyway. Wow, what a scary start.
How's that for climbing from the basement. I posted one hand where I got a little anxious early with KK on an all under flop with 3 cold callers pre in a Re raised pot. Pushed the overs hoping a bad draw or TP would call, hindsight said "post it". You F'ed it up. Got it back on track. Almost a buy in on the day.
I posted this somewhere else but there is little traffic there. I would like to get some opinions on these goals.
QUOTE:
So it's May already, other than some furniture and clothing the move is complete. I need to set some goals to get back to it. I've been on extended break for a couple weeks with a spattering of sessions when time permitted. I need to set some hand targets and some BR guidlines for myself to keep me on the right track and have an actual road to travel.
I'm going to be a full time player starting January 1st, 2008, at the latest. I figure giving myself enough time to build a large enough roll to protect me from swings and also not feel rushed will keep me on target. I also am hoping that the poker landscape will have changed for the better by then and my game is solidified to the point that earning a decent BB/100 + Rakeback should allow me to continue to play poker for a lengthy period of time. If I can't make it within that length of time, I would have to seriously consider that being a "pro" is not for me, and just resign to the fact that it's only going to be a pastime.
As of this post I have a $1750 BR and am playing only $50NL. I figure I would need at the least a $10K BR on Jan.1/08 to comfortably start playing full time. I will do anything I need to do to reach this goal. If anything I say needs modifying or is unattainable please let me know and I will try to adjust my targets.
So here is what I think needs to be done to achieve this:These targets are not money oriented!!!
May 31: 25K hands @ $50NL @ 3 PTBB/100 = $750 + $1750BR= $2500BR @ $2500 I will move up to $100NLCorrected since many said I should not become a bankroll baby.
Oct 31: 35K hands @ $100NL @ 3 PTBB/100 = $1875 + $8650BR= $10525BR @ $10K I will take 5 buy in shots at $200NL
Nov 30: 25K hands @ $200NL @ 0 PTBB/100 = $10K BR
Dec 31: 25K hands @ $200NL @ 0 PTBB/100 = $10K BR
I'm leaving room for not only learning $200NL but if I stumble along the way, I have room to make up time. I also have not included any Rakeback or Bonus's in these calculations. I figure with these hand targets at these levels, it will give me another $500 / month @ $50NL and $1K / month @ $100NL to cushion a bad month.
I repeat These targets are not money oriented!!! I just feel that i need to beat the game for at least these BB/100 or I'm not able to move up confidently. I don't want to rely on Bonus and Rakeback to achieve these goals and may even withdraw some of them to upgrade my equipment.
Several things I will be working on each month will be posted here, as well as my PT stats at the end of each month. I will make new posts for my other monthly targets both inside and out of poker in this thread. If your still reading, thanks. Don't wish me luck, just give me your thoughts of this as an overall plan, and/or what you think needs adjusting.
I am at a loss for words. I'm not looking for sympathy, and not looking for Rah Rah posts. I'm just going to update my situation and move on. I have lost over $1600 since the 6th of April and have no abilities to play this game anymore.
I'm not sure what happened. It's not a swing, it's not variance and it's not bad luck. Something has gone horribly wrong with my poker playing. I've never been really good enough for the $100NL game. I could beat it, collect Rakeback and Nit my way around the tables but I never outplayed decent players. I grew the roll, never really dominating $50NL, but moved up anyway. I had taken a leave of absence to fix my house and play some poker, with the agreement that if I could earn enough to make a living, I could stay home and play. That's where it started. I had a deadline. April 15th I was to go back to work, or quit and play poker. I withdrew $1K for bills and things from my BR and had $3K to work up and maintain.
Was it the pressure? I didn't feel it. Was it the shrunken BR? Maybe. Was it stress? Very possible. The house hasn't sold, the wife and kid have moved, I'm stuck at the old house until it sells, and I'm back to working a job I hate because we need the money. I avoided playing this weekend for the first time since picking up the game. I didn't play Monday night, I have no Idea why. Losing really brings another emotion into the mix. One I can't handle. I hate it. I don't play for fun, I mean, I enjoy it, but I play to win. I can play my Playstation and have a home game or two for fun. I play online to win $$$ at something I really enjoy. If I could play Playstation, golf or hockey and make $$$ I'd do that. I think there is too much on my mind. Too much on my plate, and not enough in my roll. I'm moving back down. Maybe to $25NL. I'm going to play less hands in the next month, a lot less. I'm going to post more here, and try to get on track.
BR hits a high of $4079 on Apr 6 and I proceed to withdraw $1K for expenses, since I haven't worked in a month and a half. BR drops to $2K in one weekend. Any questions?
So it may happen for me. I don't know how well it may go, but I'm on a leave of absence from work until the 15th of April. I won't bore you with the bad beat details of my life, suffice to say, it'll all work out in a few weeks. I have a chance to prove I'm a full time poker player to my wife and stay home for good. I don't need to make $100K just yet, but if I can earn a decent amount in Bonuses, Rakeback and play at the $100NL tables full time with about a 7-8PTBB's for now I will be home free.
I haven't spent any time on hands needed, or actual earning I will need since I don't know how my expenses will shape up. So i will need to do some crunching and see if I can find a target, that is agreeable for wife and me.
My BR is at $1300 now after taking out $350 for something I needed to get paid rather quickly. I absolutely hate withdrawing Money of of my poker BR but money has become a real problem for us. We spent about $8K on our house doing some reno's and repairs in order to sell it. We had exhausted our bank account and Visa to do this, then my Semi-new van blew the engine. It's $4K to fix it, we don't have it. So I withdrew $$$ to have it towed home. now it's in my driveway as decoration until the 15TH when we move back to the city. When the house sells we will have enough money to be comfortable again, since all this was just to earn more on our investment.
So I have some games to play. I have some repairs to finish on the house. I'm re-doing the kitchen floor right now. I still need to finish the drywall and paint in the main floor bathroom. I have just about finished replacing every light, plug, switch and thermostat in the house. I have completely remodeled the bathroom, with ceramic tile, new tub, sink toilet and all new plumbing. The whole house has been repainted and we had the water heater replaced. The only thing I didn't do myself was replace the water heater. I hope this place sells fast.
So here is my plan. two sessions, one during the day, one at night. 3 hours each, give or take, I'll see how they feel. I dropped back to $50NL for a bit to regain my cushion. I will take time everyday to get stuff done around here, which is actually the priority. I will also try to work on my game in some way. Either watching a vid or reading some of a book or two I'm working on. The only other withdraw I'm planning on is a new chair. Since it's poker related I have to use my poker roll. When I hit $3K i will buy one new monitor. That is all for now. I have a plan to put in a lot of hands. I don't know how much, since I don't have a feel for the hours yet. I will do some math and post a couple goals. Luck to me.
Alright, it's not right for me to be hogging all the great information for free out there. So I will help all the torrent and P2p NooB's out with this. None of this will be here for long, I will delete it in due time. Go to http://www.utorrent.com/download.php and download the program. Then sign up at http://www.thepokerbay.org/ . Then you have everything you need to get books, Poker episodes like High Stakes Poker and Videos. I have tried emailing the files and uploading them but it's just to tough to do with the sizes of some of the files. If you can't find it at PokerBay try here for torrents.
So here's what I'm looking at for the week. I have to finish NLHE T&P but I want to do it along with the bok club posts, so I may wait. I have over 30 Cardrunners videos downloaded, so hopefully I can get something from them along with 6 of Jeffs, Irish's and others.
I will tell you guys this, if you want to study the game, there is so much information out there, I can't get any work done. Here's a link to some information that I will run as a Bonus for the people who look at blogs. I will remove it in a day or two.
Hehe, I just downloaded "Ace on the river" in MP3. I think I may check this out tonight while playing. Anybody read it, heard it or know anything of it?
Hey, thanks FTR for giving me this opportunity to have a blog. Get's my Drive thread out of the now hugely popular Poker Etcetera Forum. I hope I can make this blog as visible as my Drive to $50NL thread with 3 Pages of help from fellow FTR'ers.
I would like to make this Blog a little different if possible. My next big goal is to make $100NL before I sell my house. It goes on the market on March 15th. I have alot of work to do before then and may spend more time learning about the game. I will be referencing everything I do to get better, here. I'm not going to post hands, bad beats or talk about my wins and losses. I'd like to talk about improving my game. What should I do, what should I read, where should I go? Where should I play, when, why?
I'm going to reference a lot of links to articles that I find. I'm going to ask questions about books that I read. I'd like people to point me in a new direction when they find something good or informative.
As for now, I'm currently downloading about 50 cardrunners video's, I'm halfway through NLHE T&P for the second time and I'm spending a lot of time on Vent with some pretty good players. I'm currently playing almost every night, and have over 75K hands this year. 15K of which are at my current limit of $50NL. I'm 4 tabling Absolute with a BR of only $1K because of a rough patch I have hit, losing almost $400 since last Friday. I hope to turn it around tonight.
GL, I hope I can bring something to the table for you guys that take the time to read these posts. Feel free to Aim me at trainerjyms13 or msn @ trainer_jyms@hotmail.com
