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June 9, 2013
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I am writing this post during a week long break from poker where I plan to study, review many hand histories and generally cool off after a tough week.
I have been a member of TPE now for just over a month and I can't stress how much I have improved my game already. I want to take things to the next level and become a more active member of the community, hence this post. Like most newbies I imagine, this post is really more for myself to reflect on sessions and monitor my improvements as a player. By publishing my results, I hope to be more discliplined and hopefully learn from other TPE members who may be able to offer advice.
My Poker Journey
I have been playing poker casually for over two years but only since May have I been taking it seriously and trying to make some money off it to cover my uni bills and hopefully turn it into a secondary income in the future. Already in the last two months I have binked $7k for coming 3rd in a Stars rebuy tourney, aswell as other smaller cashes both live and online. It has been great to see positive results so soon, having dedicated lots of time to studying the game. Things seemed to be going great and I was enjoying what I thought was me finally becoming a winning player until this week, the inevitable happened- variance kicked in.
Having cashed out a lot of my winnings to cover a few holiday costs and set some money aside for the new semester in September, I left $500 in my account and planned to build up a bankroll without having to worry about playing beyond my means. I increased it to $1000 with a MTT cashes and some SNGs (mainly $2.50 180 mans) but in the space of 10 days I lost the lot. Whilst I understand the extent to which variance can hit a player bad, I don't want to reflect on bad beats or things just not going for me, even though it has cost me some nice cashes; the truth is I am not playing fantastic poker and this is what I need to concentrate on.
Major Leaks
Firstly, I HAVE to be more disciplined with BR management. Usually I am able to stick within my limits, however often after a few bad beats, I tilt badly and end up gambling up my BR on hyper turbos without even using optimal push fold strategy. This is pure gambling at best and HAS to stop. I have decided to hide them from my lobby by using the tournament filter so hopefully out of sight will truly be out of mind.
Secondly, I have taken too many shots at bigger tournaments by trying to qualify through hyper turbo satellites which I know are extremely high variance. I don't have a problem with these up to $5, however anymore and I seem to just lose too much money on them. Last sunday I ran up over $150 trying to qualify for the SM in 2x shootout hyper turbos and didn't even get a seat. I decided to switch to the turbo shootouts and managed to win a seat afte 3 SNGs because I was actually playing poker rather than flipping a coin. I need to stop this and focus on lower buy in tournaments and if I do decide to take shots I should focus on standard satellite strategy in the form of MTTs instead.
Thirdly, I try and play too many tables at once. I am still relatively new to the concept of reading hand ranges, adjusting to push fold and generally picking up on good steal spots in MTTs and by playing too many tables at once, even with HUD stats, I am only reducing my ability to practice this and therefore I am not learning.
The Challenge
I plan on taking one more day off to study and clear my mind before returning on Thursday in time for Micro Millions on Stars. I will reload my bankroll to $150 with the intention of never depositing again. I plan to only play $1-$1.50 45 and 90 man turbos as well many of the micro millions events and some small $1-$2 freezout tournaments. Once I get up to $300 I move up to $2.50 180 mans which I know I am able to beat having watched all the TPE videos and gained a lot of experience playing them already. From there I hope to keep building my bankroll back up to the $1k mark where I can start playing more MTTs, especially the Bigs on PokerStars.
After each session I will try and post results on this thread and if any interesting hands come up I will post them for advice. I really hope that by keeping this thread I will be able to eradicate the crazy gambler instinct in me and instil a level of discipline that will prevent me from ever running down my bankroll again.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing any advice you guys may have!
April 2, 2013
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Go over to TPE instructor, Andrew Brokos', web site thinkingpoker.net and listen to some podcast strategy stuff.
In a recent podcast he talks about sats and how they affect your BR. Lots of stuff relating to your situation. Great interview with Carlos a TPE brother who talks about his BR strategy and life.
June 9, 2013
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Cheers JohnnyBoy will definitely check this out. Sounds like it could be useful
March 21, 2013
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Regarding the tilt issues, I think that's the first thing you have to work on. Especially if your 'tilt' is 'burning money' make sure to fix that asap. I recommend reading Jared's book (forgot the name), “the poker mindset”by Ian Taylor and Tommy D'Angelo's excellent book and series “Eightfolded path to poker enlightment”…
Keep us updated and good luck!
June 9, 2013
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Thanks elorean, I am reading Jared's book at the moment though I think I will need to reread it to really digest and make some notes.
Excited to get back to the tables tomorrow
June 9, 2013
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Update:
Week ending 21/07
Starting Bankroll: $150
Profit: -$105
Positives
No tilting on hyper-turbos
Recognised a few big leaks (not paying attention to other stack sizes when open raising, leading to me folding to 3bet shoves, playing too long and chasing losses)
Min cash in Sunday Storm (tragic I know!)
Negatives
Ignored promise to play less tables
Ignored BR management to play $3.5 SNGs instead of $1.5
Took too many shots at MTTs because of Micro Millions going on atm
Playing too long
Overall it hasn't been a great start to my bankroll rebuilder challenge and I am disappointed in myself for ignoring some of the key issues I highlighted in my initial post, which again comes down to self-discipline. I think Micro Millions can be blamed slightly for me taking too many shots this weekend, as I didn't want to miss out on high value tournaments, but when you don't cash in all but one, followed by a few busted SNGs, such a small bankroll as mine is easily dented. I cannot excuse playing $3.5s though as that is a clear violation of BR management guidelines.
I started the weak in a patient, positive mood and grinded my way up to $190 but soon fell into the mindset of building my bankroll as quick as possible. I need to recognise that the grind is slow and not always going to be plainsailing with positive results, hence the need for proper BR management. Furthermore, I noticed that especially on Sunday, I fell into tilt by trying to recuperate my losses for the day. This is a big leak and it is something that cost me an extra 50 bucks for not quitting at the right time.
In general I am playing too long, with too many tables at a time. If i am going to rebuild my roll I need to limit myself to two tables, in order to maximise concentration levels. Also I am going to give myself a limit of 5 buy ins lost to minimise the maximum potential loss in any one session.
With my remaining roll I am going to completely ignore all MTT's, except freerolls, and focus on $1 6 man SNGs to grind my way back up to $100-150. Then I will start again but still only playing $1.5 18 and 25 mans, as I promised I would before, and hopefully build the roll further. I will take no shots at MTTs until I can discipline myself to observe proper BR management and tilt control. The only exception I will make is for the Micro Millions main event $22 $1m gtd as it is too good to miss and I don't mind redepositing for it.
I belive I am alright player with good results in general but this is by far the biggest leak in my game right now and I will never succeed at poker unless I control and eliminate it.
I am acutally going away for a few days and have a busy week following that so aside from the Micro main event I won't be playing at all for a while. In my free time I intend to finish Jared's book, watch as many vids as possible on TPE and try and review as many HHs as possible to try and identify more leaks. Hopefully when I return I will feel fresh and motivated to continue
As always I'm grateful and welcome any advice/criticism from TPE members
July 7, 2012
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Hi,
firstly its a great step to write down and review your leaks, addmitting them is the first step to fixing them!
Right, I'm probably the worst person on here for BR advice, so I'll not give it, but I will offer a few suggestions overall that might help your rebuild efforts.
Firstly, building a BR on Pokerstars.com is going to be brutal. There are a lot of 1/2 decent players on there trying to do the same thing and field sizes are BIG. My suggestions here then are:-
– look at playing on some of the lesser sites, smaller field sizes and generally less well clued up players (apart from the regs, but no so many of them). Ok, the prizes are smaller overall but much more attainable. Plus FT'ing more often builds confidence. Good ones to look at are WillaimHills, 888, PKR, Pokerstars.fr, bwin, Party
– if you insist on staying on PStars, look into 1table sngs. My favourites are the 50fifty 10seat turbos, and 6man Reg turbos, I have a post on here somewhere about the 50fifties.
For MTTs, try a few sessions where you only play 3 or 4 tables. DONT use a HUD (you can still collect the histories of course), instead use the time inbetween your hands to observe the other players, make notes on them, look up there results ect This helps you get a 'feel' for table dynamics and styles of play.
Regrdless of what you are playing, try to focus on playing and NOT on results or your 'goals' for results. If you are playing well but not 'expecting' results (by this I mean you have not set your expectations to get a result, rather your mindset is to play well) then results will come. When I play with the expectation of winning I rarely do, but when my mindset is to play well and 'what will be will be' the results come.
June 9, 2013
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Hi Turbulence thanks, that's some really sound advice.
I really do enjoy Stars and I think they're are some great tourney's on that site but I think you are right about switching sites for a while at least until I get a bit of a roll back. My only issue with that is there just isn't as many tables on other sites so it's hard to get in the volume, though I am probably going to cut down to just 3 tabling now anyway.
It's interesting you saying don't use a HUD. I am generally quite good at making notes on people and focusing on specific players, is there any reason other than that why you would recommend not using a HUD?
I think I have a little bit left in my 888 and PKR account so lets see if I can't have a bit of a run on there…
June 9, 2013
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UPDATE
Haven't posted on here much as have been playing quite a lot of live poker recently and crushing some local games.
I have only played a few sundays since I started this thread and I have managed to have a few nice wins on iPoker. The fields are a lot smaller and they don't seem to be as tough as Stars.
I had a nice cash in the Sunday Million (satellited in) this Sunday which was good for the BR but I have had to cash out a bit and leave a smaller BR because I need the money and I have my finals starting soon so I don't expect to get as much volume in aside from sunday sessions.
Cheers for the heads up to switch sites, it definitely helped get some confidence back and get a few nice cashes under my belt!
June 9, 2013
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Update:
Have just finished my degree and have resubscribed to TPE and am hoping to reignite this challenge.
I am going to watch some of the 45 man series' and try and get back into the swing of things. I have deposited $100 into my Stars account and am going to try and build a roll playing the $0.50 45 mans and see where it gets me. Will update on my progress once I've played some hands!
June 11, 2010
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I am excited to see how you progress. I am basically doing the same thing (starting with a fixed roll and working my way up). If you are looking for someone to talk to about hands or have a sounding board let me know, I am always up for analyzing hands and studying the game.
LPG
June 9, 2013
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Hi lespaulgman, that sounds great I'd definitely like to talk through some hands. I'm really struggling to get into the study mood right now as i'm just getting back into it and I've just been playing for the fun of it rather than to actually take it seriously so my BR management hasn't been great as per. Need to set myself some goals and get a schedule together while working part time for the summer. What games are you playing to grind up your roll?
December 18, 2015
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Great reads in this section of the forums on bankroll management. This is extremely similar to how bankroll/risk management and the whole psychological side is like on the market trading world. It’s all about controlling the psychological, patience, bankroll/risk management, keeping things objective and methodical and having that discipline.
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