I'll use this as some kind of poker diary. Will help to keep track of my game. Maybe I'’ll add some ideas on my general play later on, to help improving, finding leaks etc.

I started the month with 50€ and added another 50€ because of the SCOOP 20% deposit bonus a few days later. I was pretty much broke due to my rollercoster poker results before. Didn’'t deposit anything later on and am planing on never depositing ever again. 🙂

So I went from about $140 to $2500 in a month (with quite some volume though) in my BR with addition $850 cashout.

First I grinded the $0.50 turbo SNGs (45, 90 and 360). I finished 1st quite a few times in the 360 (which has 3 min blind increase instead of the normal 5 min). Guess I got lucky there quite a few times. Anyways postflop aggression is the key.

About half of my tourneys are the 50ct microstakes (~500 tourneys played). My OPR in these is 99,91% which I am pretty proud of. I'd like these precentages in the higher orbits for the future. 😉

When my BR was about $250 I started adding in some $1.10 MTTs and $2.50 SNGs.

I love the $1r and $2r tourneys, especially 6-max with 15 min blindlevels. The fields are incredibly week. You can exploit almost every single player and won't have to get in any flip situations if your stack is comfortable enough.

The noteable winnings were:

– $1.10+R 6-max: 1/297 ($230 win)
– $2.50 180 turbo: 2/180 ($82)
– Big $11 (via $4 SAT): 44/9700 ($180)
– $2.20+R ($6 total BI): 2/2253 ($1,621)
– $2.20 6-max (15min blinds) 1/1913 ($632) *
– $5.50+R: 3/805 ($1224) (I made 6 rebuys for a total buyin of $40!)

* I exploited the $2.20 6-max really in a sick way. I checked the OPR stats for every player at my table and there were about 60% totally fish, and maybe 3% of the players had OPT ratings of 95% and more. I was almost never flatting and raising more than 30% (almost every K and A hand in unopened pots). I 3bet light almost once in an orbit. And Cbettet with what felt like 90% success. I had guys with 100% cbet fold over 120 hands. lol

I noticed I splash some money after almost every bigger winning. That's definitly a money leak. Most money goes away with rebuys and expensive SATs for bigger tourneys when I splash. Will be working on that in the future.

Now for July 2013.

This was the month that almost destroyed my faith in myself ever playing poker professionally.

Take a look at my bankroll:

Now, I couldn't believe the bad beats I experienced and the fact that I had dumped my complete BR AGAIN.

The noteable winnings were:

– none

Before my days at TPE I had had some success in tourneys but without a deep understanding of the game. I played the situation and sometimes I was really good in understanding gameflow and adjusting profitable, but I had no idea if a line was good in general. When variance hit me (just a quick example: my TT getting coolered by KK with myself having a stack of about 16 BB – I now was in doubt if getting it in pre was the right play [which of course it is]) I never knew if I made the wrong decision or if it was just variance. Watching TPE videos taught me all of that and more (like the concept of 3betting light, ranging opponents, correct stack play etc.). And when I read the BR management article I thought I had fixed one of my biggest leaks (I was playing an average 1/20 BI of my BR before).

Luckily I had set some money set aside the last two month, because I didn't make any cashouts in July! Another important lesson to learn for me: have always some money set aside!

Nevertheless at the end of the month I wasn't sure if I should ever continue to pursue my poker goal: living and at the same time building an ever growing BR from poker. There you have my all time goal.

After analyzing this devastating month I realized I hadn't learned my lesson yet.

My ABI was slightly lower than the month before, but I didn't adjust correctly when I kept losing more of my bankrole (mostly due to variance especially when down to 1 to 2% of the field). It is still tough for me to look at lower prize pool when you just began comfortable with looking at about $2k+ for first place. Also I did have more experience and knowledge about “the right play”, but I began to doubt again and most importantly didn't put in the time to watch TPE pro videos for a second time to readjust my game. Great mistake!

Recognizing my most grave leaks was one step toward an other attempt of pursuing my poker goals, but I wasn't yet sure how to start with the $5 in my account left.