Hi All

I’ve been at TPE for 3 months ish. I started with Andrew Brokos videos intro videos as a start and thought that was really good, and would lap this up if they were all like that. Unfortunately some others I’ve struggled with but decided I’d just watch him for the moment and that will keep the value going for a long time so perhaps haven’t watched as many as I should, sure there are other good people that I haven’t discovered yet. 

I’ve started playing poker 2003 I think, long time ago but certainly had times when I’ve played quite a bit then left it for a considerable time. When I started I read quite a few books and played 6max cash and managed to make bankrolls last a long time but overall lifetime negative in the end.

After a long period of not having much time for it I started playing again and get more into tournaments I liked that they had a definite end time I think that was leak of mine playing badly trying to make a profit/not a big loss for a session and enjoyed the excitement of the big prize. Read a few more books etc tried a few things SNGs, big tournaments etc.

So the current attempt around the time joining TPE, my thoughts were: that playing huge field tournaments I couldn’t really know if I was doing well as I could play at my current rate for years and not make money and i wouldn’t know if I was playing well or not due to variance. That actually looking at my ROI from some SNGs was fairly good, just my hourly was just not worth the effort. I heard (though your podcasts) about Holdem Resources Calculator and Snapshove running my plays through the calculator my shove/re-shove ranges seemed pretty good.

So I decided I’d play some $5-22 tournaments with smaller fields average about 300 people and get better at multi-tabling to improve the variance and see how it went. So far its gone bad; not so much a downswing as a straight plunge off a cliff of 80 buy ins so far with almost no respite. I certainly don’t think I’m a poker genius otherwise I’d be posting videos instead but find it difficult to believe I’m that bad especially given I’m playing in low buy-ins. I ran all 62 pre-flop all-in moves from last session through HRC and I think 12 were bad and quite a few of those were very mildly bad which makes me feel like I’m just having some bad luck. Post-flop play a bit harder to be objective about. 

Still I think its possible that I don’t analyse my own thought process enough even if I am unlucky I can improve. I think one of the things I find difficult with poker is that there can be different playing styles/opinions so knowing when their just doing it a different way from me that’s equally valid or where I’m just wrong is difficult. This is why I’m on here, thought I’d slow down and see if I could get any new ways of thinking. I should be prepared for people to tell me I’m way-off. 

I do love poker and love it more when I’m thinking deeper about it so its no bad thing. However it’s probably going to be too expensive a hobby if things don’t improve. I dream when it might be a good second income and a back up if I want to go travelling again another time but no evidence of that so far. 

If your still reading congratulations! I’m trying to say that I’d like to reach out to people here as it seems a supportive community compared to other forums, people being cruel just not my thing. However its not perhaps the most active so thought I’d try and help out. If you’d like to hear more of my ramblings please say, if you see something wrong in my thinking please say, but say why, and perhaps I’ll listen to your ramblings too if you want to get in touch. Its fun to get the things out as don’t talk to people in real life about it.