My Microlife

I made it, I made my year end goal of being able to take shots at 50NL. I started the beginning of the year with barely 12 bi's for 10NL, and my start upon joining DC was $20 in my roll. I have studied hard though and rewarded myself along the way with coaching sessions from some great DC coaches. I was also rewarded with several sessions for my part in MT. Robusto.

Its been a tough climb from .01/.02 to .25/.5. I think the hardest part of my climb was petitioning fulltilt poker for software improvements that included a BIGGER more VISIBLE fold button since my software did not seem to come with one. I can not stress how much learning just to fold, has improved my over all game. Learning things like folding 2 pair on a T938A (3flush) type boards and not thinking or convincing myself that a 5NL player who is very passive might donk out pot on river with worse. Its taken a long time to get this to sink in, but when it finally did thing changed in a hurry. Also learning that its okay to Iso a fish IP with marginal holdings and sometimes even let the flop go X/X, or Iso from the SB and X/F sometimes rather trying to bomb, bomb, bomb vrs players who aren't folding A6 on K36JT, once you learn this and go BOMB BOMB BOMB with AK on K36JT and they flip over A6 or K8s, the poker world looks much brighter.

I think the biggest thing I have learned is everything depends on your opponent. You can bluff in the micros, you can get thin value, you can even bluff catch, but you must make sure each one of these against the right opponent. Do not try to bluff catch vrs an opponent who would never bluff in X spot. Do not go for thin value vrs a NIT, who would never have worse hands preflop. Do not bluff a calling station thinking, "he might fold it this time", he hasn't folded a hand since George senior was President and he isn't gonna start now. Also as many of these great DC video's have taught us "Value bet, Value bet, Value bet".

I would like to post some video series that have helped me get to this spot. To those of you that watch a lot of videos and feel you don't take away much from them. I watched some of these series until I could almost repeat them word for word. Example -The Coaching tree this series took me nearly 3 months to watch and learn everything the coaches were talking about. So take your time go over every second of these videos, and ask questions.

#1 - Babysteps

#2 - From the ground up

#3 - The coaching tree

#4 - Mathematics of no limit hold'em

These were fundamental in my learning and understanding of the game at the micro levels. Another huge piece that has helped me, is a DCer that goes by the screen name of Tonic1223 (thanks man)! Make friends here on DC, do sweat sessions, talk about hands together, learn from each other, and don't shun a fellow player cause they play 10NL and you are light years ahead of them cause you play 25NL! 

Thanks Deuces Cracked!

I'm happy to say that I have made it to 25NL, one level from my goal of 50NL by years end. Personally I am very proud of this. When I joined DC I had mere $20 to FT account. I had deposited $100 for the second time and played some SnG's up to $120ish dollars. I kind of hated SnG's due to the fact that once I bought in I was stuck for 45minutes (or 30 seconds all depends). Being that I have a family being stuck was not really an option, so I switched to cash games, nice idea I can come and go as I please.

What brought me here- Being that I only had about $120 I started at 5NL, where I got totally crushed day after day. at around $50 dollars I started search the 2P2 for some coaching information. I made a post in there asking for a site that could help me in cash games some one replied saying try Deuces cracked you can sign up for a 7 day trial download all the videos in 7 days and cancel, and you "must"  watch the video series "Baby steps". So I started downloading videos as fast as I could, and watching this "Baby steps" series. The rest is history, I never canceled been here for over a year. I have been in Two videos, involved in MT. Robusto, and made several friends along the way. 

The Cash games - After watching a ton of "Tubasteve" videos I took my remaining $20 and have proceeded to climb slowly toward my goal of 50NL. I by no means am a winning player. Most of my success has been "rakeback" LMAO does that count as success F$%& no! Honestly though in the last two weeks I have seen a major change in my game, I was stuck in donksville on a train down speewmonkey avenue. Then I found a video series by Wiltontilt featuring WhiteheatSYD and something changed.

The changes- I have gone from my standard 6 tables to 2 tables. I watch every hand, take notes no matter how minor the play was. There is something there ya just have to see it. Now get this, I actually think through each hand and ask myself questions, Why is he betting min on the turn?, Can I get value here? I know that this concept of thinking while playing poker isn't new to any of you I'm sure. But honestly a little self reflection and I can say I made it from 2NL to 25NL without actually thinking. There were occasions where I accidentally put a hand together while at the table and was proud and even posted hey look at me. 

This past week - I signed up for coaching from "Ybother" (exciting!!!). This past week I am POSITIVE in the winnings column for the first time in a long time. My graph goes UP? odd! I will have no trouble (right speech) making 50NL by years end if (wrong speech) this keeps up. I know it will because -- its hard to explain the feeling I get, when I once was constantly getting it in behind, calling the river pot bet from the passive player with merely top pair, and folding to the pot bet from the LAG with top two on a turn flush card. Now I am more relaxed at the tables, I pause, listen to my self think, hear what the videos have taught me, and think back to the hands posted on the forums, and know (kind of) what I am supposed to do here. 

Status - Rolled for 25NL, Ready for it too! 9 months to go from $20-$500 not sure but I think that's pretty slow, being that I have rakeback + a few $50 bonus from FT.  When your monthly HEM shows you lost $200 and earned $205 from rakeback, you begin to see the light! 

I wish you all luck at the tables, unless your at my table then I hope you get a case of the "Run bads"!

PS - Its ICEhockeyplyr because the idiots on the west coast think ROLLERhockey is what you mean when you say "I play Hockey"

Starts off with a BANG! I literally increased my BR by 1/4 in the first session with my first successful shot at 10NL rush. I made 5 buyins that along with the previous 2 days gives me a good feeling going into this month. I ran 31.7 bb/100 over 1300+ hands, had a great hand making me 117 bbs, when a guy 6bet the flop AI with air into my set LMAO really? You would think air would fold the flop after a 5bet, however I did leave him room to wrongly think he had fold equity by 5 betting semi small. 

In the last 3 days I have nearly doubled my BR. I did catch myself wanting to make several bad calls preflop OOP with marginal holdings because I thought I was running good. Its really nice to have a (tiny) bit of knowledge, and be able to see these things creep up inside me and quickly shift away from them! 

Here's to hoping that it keeps rolling on like this!

Well 2 good days in a row, makes for a great end of the month. I finished today off with just over 1500 hands, +4 bi's and ran 25bb/100. Had several spots where I spewed off $ but its gonna happen when you just catching on. However, things are looking up. I hope this will continue in to next month and I can break into 25NL near the end of that month. With more focus on poker now I think I will make my goal for 25NL by years end (at least). 

Good luck at the tables guys/gals!

Well another blog post pher me! I played 3165 hands today and ran 18.71 bb/100 and made 6 buyins!

The evening started off with me down 22$ or about 4.5 buyins and I ran into a case of the "run like shits", you know where they catch their 2 outer on the river, like 4 hands back to back. I honestly let it get to me and donked off a buyin of that 22$'s. However I remembered something from a few videos on here about how the fish HAVE to catch these outs or we would have no one to play. This was almost soothing in an odd kind of way as I started to run extremely hot, holding up hand after hand and get players OOP betting into me or shipping when I had the nuts. I think being down 4.5 to start and finishing up 6 is a tremendous out come for me! I honestly can not wait till I have a BR large enough to get some coaching. 

This is a great turn of events as I can now take shots at 10NL, this opens up a ton of tables as I can now filter both 5NL and 10NL. I am excited to play tomorrow and honestly can't wait for it. I have noticed a lot of changes in my game over the past few days as compared to about a month/month and 1/2 ago when I was playing steady and took a break. I think my MT. robusto studies and the fact (THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT) i am actually reviewing EVERY (almost every) single hand played from yesterday before I start another session and sometimes even just doing the review and sleeping on it. 

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b305/icehockeyplyr/5-30-10graph.jpg

Well good luck at the table guys!

Sorry I haven't posted much on my blog! LMAO as if anyone actually reads "My" blog (not yet anyway). So at the beginning of the year I was pushing for 25NL, not a far fetched goal for someone playing at 2NL IMHO. In the past 5 months I have been focusing much more on poker, actually make that 3, the last 2 months have been fairly jam packed with real life crap, and things that have pulled my focus off poker. Kids, with school winding down. Pets with hospital appointments, buying a new vehicle, extra hours at work, and all the other life type crap.

On a high note, I have managed to take my BR from 20$ (yes that's 20.00) to $200 and have taken 3 shots at 10NL, my last shot I ran KK into AA 3 times on 3 different tables almost back to back to back. In which I conclude, Fulltilt poker hates me! Honestly its all good I know from my time spent here at DC that I will earn it all back and more if I just stay focused.

Another thing that has really helped me, is MT. Robusto. I was. prior to MT Robusto, filling and logging videos from DC in the same way. Mt. Robusto only confirmed that doing your poker "homework" on a "DAILY" basis is actually one of many steps needed to progress as a poker player. I thank the DC higher up's for including the rest of us in this. Oh, wait what am I thinking, they have to include us or it would probably take a millennium to complete.

Anyone thanks for your time, GL at the tables, and here's to life - getting the F$%^ outta the way!

SO far this month

I think I am playing well, but I also think I need to stop playing Fulltilts new Suck out poker. My graph looks like a heartbeat monitor attached to some guy on speed, Ritalin, speed, Ritalin. Think Im going back to regular 6 max at least there the suck outs take longer to come around LOL

BTW am I taking those stats correctly I should be making $ right and not losing?

I didn’t get much time in during February. I did very little poker related anything really. I tried out Fulltilt’s rush poker, but I tried it with a "Fun video game’ out look that cost me dearly. Not so much in bankroll (a little but not much), it cost me more in my focus, as I consider “Rushpoker” more of a break from my 6max grind. The begining of March I found that my 6 max tables seemed to be plagued with a lot of tight, very tight Regs. It then dawned on me… sometime fish are known to swim to different parts of the pond! So at the begining of March, I started with fresh and much more focus driven out look toward “Rushpoker”. I also got some great news, I finally got approved for Rakeback at Fulltilt (Cheers). Now with rakeback, a membership here, and focus, I think making my goal of 25NL is going to be easy. I also need to keep up on this blog as its nice to go back and look at it to see where my mind set was or is from time to time and how I change.

Good luck to everyone here.

I feel good about how January went. I ended up making around 20 BI’s for the month at 5NL. I will start February off with some shots at 10NL but sticking with 5NL till I feel confident at 10NL

HEM facts for January

+ $92.44
13.95bb/100
$(EV adjusted) $103) 17 VPIP 12 PFR over 16k hands

Seems like I am much tighter than suspected, but not to bad IMHO. Graph for January

I’m sure this will continue, however I slid a little bit on my Poker homework this month. I didn’t get nearly enough video review using “Onenote”. I can listen to video’s at work all day but I don’t consider a video reviewed till I am taking notes on it and reading all the points made in the forums about selected spots.

So far in this month I have doubled my 5NL bankroll. I’m very impressed with my own play. I have even been able to have losing days and still be very happy with the way I played, which I feel is huge in its self. Just the fact that I can lose $ and still be completely happy, seemed odd at first. However upon review of my HEM database for the day I realized I played above standards for me, and that was truly eye opening. This one single day of review set in motion the past 4-5 day where I was making 4-5 BI’s per day followed by today where I made 8 BI’s over 3k hands and ran 29.02 bb/100, for the month I’m only 14.5 bb/100.

I have been testing the 10NL water, but It seems plagued with shortstackers. This has me baffled because they aren’t play 50bb stacks they are playing 25bb. It makes no sense to me to play with 2.50$ and blinds of .05$ and .10$ when they can move down a level and lose less to the blinds?? So I did a little google search and found a shortstacker video listed here, this is exactly what I pictured was behind the keyboard, only my mind had him wearing a bicycle helmet!!