One Rung at a Time

I actually thought I was decent'ish at poker.

I was very wrong.

As a winning live player at 5/10, I figured I'd just dump a few "k" online and jump straight in at nl50. After running good for 40k hands (obviously not playing good!), I then went on a bit of a bad run. . . and combined with my terrible play (I realise this now), proceeded to drop close to 25 buy ins in a short space of time. While variance was involved, there's no way it accounted for my losses. I just sucked at online poker. Plain and simple. I'd lost my entire 2k deposit by poor bankroll management and terrible poker. I also played a few Sunday MIllion tournies. One time, right!? Errr. ok. Bad idea.

This hurt my ego a touch. I mean, there's days I leave the casino 4k up after a 6 hour session; and here I am, getting my ass handed to me playing "just 50c" blinds. But I'm a fighter, and there's no way I was going to accept this. . . which is how I found DeucesCracked.

That was 6 months ago.

I redeposited another $750 and took the ultimate step of dropping down stakes all the way to nl10 to work on, and redefine my game. This was great, and exactly what I needed. I've since taken a new outlook on poker and find myself really, really, studying the game. I stopped playing live poker for the time being, and I've shifted my focus to totally online. I cut my tables back from 6-8 to just 3-4 and I probably have a ratio of 1:1 of study and playing.

I'm now winning. And loving it.

While I recognise that this sample is REALLY small, I know I'm playing very well and honestly? I'm not even running particularly good. I find myself studying even MORE now than I was, and focusing really hard on applying what I've learned to my game.

Study is such an integral part of moving up. I can't stress how important it is. Sure, you can grind away and eventually get there through trial and error, but why? Cut your tables down, focus really hard every session and trust me, with the right application, everyone can be a winning player. I'm almost rolled for nl50 again, and feel that this time, I'm ready. And if I lose? I'll sure as hell drop down to nl25, work on my game some more, and keep taking my shots when I've rebuilt my BR until it eventually sticks. And it will.

I know everyone has heard all of this before, and it's nothing new, but it just feels good to write about how good I'm feeling about my poker at the moment. Even if my post slightly inspires one person to work harder on their game, it's worth it.

Good luck!

Well, this is the first time I've ever written a blog post so bare with me!

Seeing as though this is my virgin post, I guess I'll start with introducing myself and a little bit about me. . . 

I'm a 32 year old Australian male from Perth, Western Australia. I currently work as CNC Programmer. I'm the father to a beautiful 3 year old baby girl whom I see once a week. In my spare time, aside from poker, I'm a mad Manchester United fan and have been since the day I first saw them play. I was born in England, and with my whole family being United supporters, it was an easy and automatic decision! I also play video games a little bit, and at one stage in my life was a huge StarCraft (the original) player, who somehow managed to come 3rd in some bullshit competition held in Australia for a cheeky $500. I tried SC2, but man, I must be getting old or something, because I'm totally useless now. I was also heavily involved in a MMORPG called EverQuest, and was the guild-leader of the 3rd best guild in the world. My character was also the best equipped worldwide (it ought to be considering I spent 600 actual days - 14,400 hours - playing the bloody game). I sold my character for $2700 when I quit.

I've been playing poker for the past 10 years or so, but only just recently started seriously dipping into the world of online poker. (Well, I say only recently, but I'd been playing on and off for the past 3 years or so but was a pretty bad losing player and was basically the epitome of a TAGfish.) I'm primarily a live player who plays 2/5 and 5/10 stakes and I'm probably one of the biggest winners in the local casino game. Don't get me wrong - it's not because I'm a fantastic player or anything - it's just that the people I play against outright suck. I mean, they're WORSE than the worst nl2 players. And it's not even close. I mean, you always have AK, right? Hang on, the flop is K72r. Suddenly your hand changes, you now have AQ and their 33 is good! Shit, turn Q! Argh... you probably have AJ! Call! Yeah, it's that bad. I urge anyone that's ever in Perth, Australia, to pop in to the local casino. It literally is like printing money. I'll post one of the funnier hands I've had recently at the end of this blog.

I just recently returned from a poker trip to Macau, and honestly, I had a great time! I'm strongly considering moving over there and grinding out the games vs. the nits (my god the locals are nitty). I have a couple of mates that live there and do pretty well for themselves, so it's a strong consideration for me. The only thing holding me back is my daughter. I don't know if I could cope not seeing here for sustained periods of time. I ran pretty good during the Macau Poker Cup series that was taking place while I was there, cashing in 4/8 events. Unfortunately, no big cashes. I ran bad at key moments, but was really happy with my tournament play, so no complaints. I even got to meet a few poker celebrities while I was over there. Johnny Chan was playing at a table a few over from me at The Wynn pretty much every day and getting owned by some young aggressive 19 year old kid who inherited $30m USD from his deceased father. I mean, it was just carnage every day for him. I got to see Tom Dwan and John Juanda at StarWorld playing against the Chinese whales. Dwan had (literally) quarter of the table in plaques of chips. .  must be nice.

Anyway. . .

. . the purpose of this blog is to chronicalise my exploits as I work my way through the stakes. I'll be posting a graph of my HEM at the first of every month and blogging about any interesting Aha! moments I come across as I begin my education. I deposited more than enough to be bankrolled for nl25, and I'm going to take it from there. I tried playing nl10, but honestly, I couldn't be bothered with some of the idiotic play I kept running in to. I believe if you have the budget to play higher, you probably should. Granted, your winrate will suffer, but I think playing against better players is much better for your poker education. I've absolutely no interest in grinding (I only play 4 tables and cannot see myself ever increasing), and my primary goal is to break free of the micros and into small stakes ASAP. I've recently hired a coach (read: yesterday), and will be working with him pretty much from the ground up on my thought processes and major leaks. I'm pretty excited about that. I'm a new member of DeucesCracked, and right now I'm working on the math side of my game, as I've always just kinda knew what was "about right" while only scratching the surface of what I should know. I just started watching WiltOnTilt's series, Mathematics of NL Hold em, and reading Owen Gaines' book, Poker Math That Matters; which I highly recommend for people who aren't overly interested in some of the deep, (and somewhat unnecessary), intracacies of the math side of things. WoT's series is a great series and I believe it's proving, so far, that it's absolutely crucial that every DC member watches it at least once. You owe it to yourself as a poker player. At some point in time I will make a playlist, of sorts, that I will post in the microstakes forums for beginners who are at the same stage as I am. I don't believe there is a current up to date one, and I think it would be a great help to other newbies such as myself. If there is one already, please, someone point me in the direction! I've been just looking at the video's series by series and writing down a list that I think are most relevant to me at this stage of my poker education.

I'll finish up with a funny hand I played recently at the casino.

Full Ring $2/5. Effective stacks 106bb.

SB:  ($530)

Hero (BB): ($600) Hero is Big Blind with 6 7

Preflop: ($15)

fold, fold, fold, fold, MP calls $5, fold, fold, SB calls $5, Hero checks.

Flop: ($15) 4   5 T (3 players)

SB bets $15, Hero raises to $50, MP calls $50, SB raises to $150, Hero raises All in $600, MP folds, SB calls $530.

Turn: ($1125) T (2 players)

River: ($1125) T(2 players)

This was super early in the session on a Saturday night, and I chose to gamble my stack here as it's super important I have a decent stack for when the drunken fish start coming in, getting it in bad, sucking out on people, and building a huge effective stack with me. $$$$$$$$$$ Besides, I got an OESFD. Pretty happy about that.

Obviously, I bricked off, which was kinda disappointing, HOWEVER!!!!

I roll my hand in sympathy (I run bad, right?!), and SB rolls his. . . 2   3 !!!

I scoop a 220ish BB pot with. . . 7 high!

And the best thing about it all? MP folded 9To! Which, to be honest, I was super impressed with. . . it's tough to get people at my casino to fold top pair no kicker, no matter how much you shovel in there.

That's all I have to write about at the moment (I'm supposed to be working), but I'll be updating semi-regularly on my progress.

Cheers.

FourKing.