The problem with NL is that i feel really stuck, especially when playing NL10.Its probably because i dont spend enough time studying and i dont get too much volume.
Im pretty tired of playing ABC poker, i miss the excitment of FLSH. Im seriously contemplating .25/.5 FR => .5/1 FR => .25/.5 SH comeback . problem is i dont really feel like studying again, memorizing lines and watching videos, they're all so time consuming :(. Anyway, i think im gonna print out the bronze articles again, and read them thoroughly throughout this week. There's a take 2 promotion so im gonna play a bit for the bonus money.
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Hello everyone 
It's been a long time since i posted here, hopefully that will change this time around. Anyway, as far as my personal life goes everything's pretty good so far. I've got a lot of work but for now i think i can manage to squeeze in some poker in between. I'm gonna take baby steps and see how things go.
So after a long period of inactivity, i was appalled to find my FTP funds frozen 
I really wanted to get back into the mix and play some FL again, but i had no roll.
So i decided to make a deposit to stars and start from there. Problem is there's no simple way to deposit to stars, since israeli credit card companies don't allow money transfer to gambling sites. I looked for some sort of e-wallet but the only one stars allow israeli players to use is webmoney, and it's a serious hassle to deposit, not to mention dealing with a shady program and web money vendors which is just too much for me.
So i looked around in other PS affiliate sites to see if any had decent FL traffic and allowed using a more simple e-wallet. I looked a bit, and was pretty frustrated with the results. There seems to be no FL traffic outside of stars, and since Party and iPoker don't accept Israeli players, they're also not an option for me.
So i looked around a bit, and i found that betfair had nice little freerolls - MTTs with ~200 entrants (varies based on time of day) that pay top 54, winner takes about 1.25. After a few small cashes (0.02$ ♦) i shipped one!
Warning: the next paragraph contains really bad brm
my roll was a shiny 1.50$. After playing a few 0.1$ sngs and running bad,i was down to around 1$. So i signed up for a 0.5$ mtt, and finished 4th for 6$ ♦
So now with my newly acquired roll, im gonna take better care of it, and stick to 0.01$-0.05$ tourneys and freerolls, along with 0.1$ Sngs to practice ICM and tournament play in general. Hopefully i will continue to play and see how far along i can reach.
Im enjoying the challenge, i think it will help me appreciate every cent
Betfair's software is pretty good, it's even supported by PT3 so that's nice as well. The nano tourneys are very soft and there are a lot of X$ added tournaments, which make it pretty worthwhile to play. I hope to continue making good progress, and i will re-read the SNG articles, since i think that's probably the part where i make most of my mistakes, and generally just fell less confident about. I remember ICM more or less, but it's based on intuition more than math.
Things are looking good, and hopefully i will crush the nanos and reach the micros ♦
Throughout the week i played a couple of 0.1$ sngs, did pretty well, think i cashed 3/3 if i recall correctly. I played a bit on Thursday, but my friends called me for a live game. The live game went pretty well, i started off badly but improved. Played pretty good poker, got unlucky in some spots but turned in a profit of roughly 80$
So today i decided to get some volume, i 2 tabled the 0.1$ and ran pretty bad (0/7 itm), took a nap (i just love fridays) and decided to play again. This time the poker gods were kind enough to give me mojo, and i ended the session with my br at 7.90 give or take.
I was pretty bored and i figured i had time for a 5 cent tourney, i didnt notice that it was a rebuy ♦. Still, ran good and was pretty close to the money.
I made a horrible mistake because my head was not 100% in the tourney and busted right near the bubble. Im pretty annoyed with myself for letting stuff that was happening around me to pressure me into making mistakes. Even though i only invested 10 cents overall (BI + addon), its weird to see how it managed to affect my mood. I don't consider myself extremely competitive, but i guess poker brings that out in me
Also, i learnt how important it is to be focused. it's fine to do other things while playing, i normally watch videos and stuff while playing, but when you're preoccupied with the stuff that goes on around you and are not in the game, you make mistakes. This is especially true in tournaments when you cant just get up and leave in the middle. It's pretty obvious i guess, but still important to remember, especially in MTTs.
So far im making some nice progress, hopefully by next week i will have 10$~. Im pretty sure im going to play the 5 cent rebuy again tomorrow (unless another live game comes up :f_cool:). Decent prize pool considering the stakes and a lot of dead money from ppl who buy in and leave. Hopefully i will make up for my mistake with a deep run.
current BR: 16.93$. thanks to 7.5$ from betfair new players freeroll, also got a 5$ tourney ticket, but busted short of the money. The level of play in 5$ is delicious, if only i had money..
Current BR: ~26.5$
After some massive grinding at the 0.1 sng, im playing MSS on NL4 @ betfair. Betfair's traffic and the amount of NL4 tables arent the greatest for massive MSS grind, but i dont really have a choice since continuing with the 0.1 tourneys would have made me crazy (progress made is way too slow). Im hoping MSS will enable me to clear my bonus @ betfair and will allow me to move to BSS eventually. I won't be continuing with sngs for a while since the 1$ sngs have 20% rake.
So my plan for now is to build up my roll with MSS up till 80ish$, then play with a full stack up to about 150$. After gaining 150$ i will play the 3+0.3 Sngs, and start playing some MTTs as well. I will probably continue to play CG, hopefully gaining a roll for NL10.
So far here's my first MSS graph
Im off for a week at the black forest. I plan on playing some live poker at the casino there. Wish me luck
The vacation at the black forest was really nice, i wanted to play a 50 euro tourney at baden baden, but they only had 100 euro ones
So far midstacking has been pretty decent, BR at 35.6$, overall winning 5.7 BB/100 over 3.5k hands.
Im generally happy with my game, I have some vacation so i think ill invest some of the time studying and watching MSS videos. God knows i have a lot to improve.
Im also roughly 16 points away from clearing a 50$ bonus, i have till november 22, so it might take me a while but it's surely doable, especially on high traffic days. Just won the biggest pot in my MSS career:
Ongame Network $0.02/$0.04 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 1477558
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter
Hero (BTN): $1.66
SB: $1.88
BB: $7.82
UTG: $3.84
CO: $4.47
Pre Flop: ($0.06) Hero is BTN with Q 
Q 
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.12, SB raises to $0.28, BB calls $0.24, Hero raises to $1.66 all in, SB calls $1.38, BB raises to $3.04, SB calls $0.22 all in
Flop: ($5.42) 3 5 Q 
(3 players - 2 are all in)
Turn: ($5.42) 3 (3 players - 2 are all in)
River: ($5.42) A (3 players - 2 are all in)
Final Pot: $5.42
Hero shows Q Q (FULL_HOUSE QUEEN, THREE)
SB shows K A (TWO_PAIR ACE, THREE)
BB shows A K 
(TWO_PAIR ACE, THREE)
Hero wins $4.65
SB wins $0.21
BB wins $0.21
(Rake: $0.35)
Rake is so sick on micros...
Running good is pretty sweet
Yesterday i was up 4 BI and today 5. Br 49$ish
Im starting to use HUD stats, even though the players at NL4 switch around a lot so i dont really have a good sample size. Im gonna try and adapt my preflop game mostly, looking for spots for stealing, squeezing and 3 betting in position possibly wider than SHC permits. NL4 is actually relatively tight to my surprise, and they dont really play back at you. 3bets tend to get a lot of respect and ppl dont really bluff 4bet, which makes folding very easy.
Playing NL4 at betfair isnt the best place for MSS since the traffic isnt too high making it hard to multitable at certain points. On peek times it usually fine, but playing at different times sucks. So i found a solution to that problem: FLSH! i found out that BF has 0.05/0.1 tables that are pretty active! i have nearly 500 BB so i have the roll for it. I just need to get my FL groove back on. BF though caps the betting at 6 bets and not 4, so it's weird adjusting to that. Anyway, i played a bit in the past 2 days, and it made me realize that at NL4 they respect my raises
I have some goals for the near future:
- See why i dont get any SP from playing at betfair
- watch all bronze MSS content
- Continue to post hands in all variants
- Add another table or 2 when playing MSS
- Reread FL articles and watch whatever SH videos are available for bronze
- Get some FLSH volume, till i feel comfortable 4 tabling.
- Clear the first 5$ of my signup bonus
Hello everyone
October was pretty awesome, a lot of vacation and good volume. Also running good.
As far as my goals from the previous post:
See why i dont get any SP from playing at betfair
Still unresolved, im linked to PS but for some reason not receiving any SP yet.
watch all bronze MSS content
I watched all of gerv's videos (which are very good and a must watch for any beginner) and the MSS beginner series (like 4 or 5 vids) and i believe those are all that are out for now.
Continue to post hands in all variants
check.
Add another table or 2 when playing MSS
when i have the option i try and 8table. mostly there arent enough tables to do that.
Reread FL articles and watch whatever SH videos are available for bronze
Get some FLSH volume, till i feel comfortable 4 tabling.
Haven't played anything besides NL, mostly since i can only play at peek times and FLSH doesnt really do it for me anymore :\
Clear the first 5$ of my signup bonus
check. I doubt ill be able to clear another 5, but at least i got something out of that.
So far things are ok, i feel im playing decent and its pretty much a matter of time before i beat NL4. Unfortunately, it will be a long time, but im patient
November was pretty good. I got to play my first PS.com 100$ freeroll. Shipped 3rd for like 10$. The competition there is mega soft and it can potentially be pretty profitable, 20$ for 1st. So after that cash and some profit in CG my roll is at 88$.
Today i played 1 table of NL10 along 5 tables of NL4. Soon ill integrate more NL10 tables till eventually moving completely to NL10. As far as BRM goes, PS suggest a 40 BI rule. I think i can follow a bit more aggressive BRM since i feel im experienced enough to move back if i lose too much. Hopefully everything will be ok and ill be crushing NL10 in a couple of weeks :).
I also finally managed to get my BF account tracked by PS, so i hope to make silver soon and enjoy some good content.
Goals for near future:
- 100$ BR
- Move to NL10
- Make silver PS status
- Start reviewing my game more - not just posting hands. So if any readers are interested in sweating im more than up for it
Hello
I was debating if it was worth trying to get my blog back on track, and decided i should just go for it. It really is fun to read back and remember when i played poker "full time" and all my attempts of trying to keep playing poker despite having a full time job.
Im pretty much at the same mindset i was - have fun and move along the limits. Hopefully ill be able to make enough progress.
So what have i been up to?
Not much honestly, i played a bit (couple of k hands) trying my luck with BSS @ NL4 @ Betfair. Overall it seems to be going ok. Havent made a killing yet but i feel im getting the groove of things. Due to the fact that my fulltilt funds might just be out there waiting for me soon, i've come up with this plan:
Consolidate FTP funds (200ish$) and Betfair funds (106$) and finally move to stars, and clear the bonus like a boss. Since FTP only returns in november, i plan on transferring my money from Betfair to stars in the near future, and hopefully my money from FTP will arrive within 90days making it possible for me to extend my bonus. Since star's bonus can be cleared in 6 months, i think i should be able to do it. Im gonna keep playing BSS NL5 and then NL10 for now, maybe some tourneys to spice things up once in a while. I've gotten an iphone so now i can also play when commuting ♠_cool:. So now im waiting for betfair to transfer my money to webmoney, and tonight im leaving for scuba diving course for a week. I hope to have the money in stars by the time i get back.
More to come, i hope
Big stacking has proven to be pretty tough. Im down ~4BI, but in good spirits. I fell im improving (even got a NH at a hand evaluation lol) and learning a lot. This weekend i hope to get a lot of studying done in the morning and afternoon and play a lot. Im happy that im still playing and keeping up with my 1 hour a day, 5 days a week goal.
Also im anxiously awaiting my FTP roll to be back, so i can move it to stars and clear FDB like a boss 8)