Day 1 - 8/25/2017
So as I mentioned before I work a normal 9-5 job. I work in the insurance industry as an Underwriter in a boring grey cubicle. So as you can imagine my mind wanders alot during the day, and these days im pretty much thinking about poker 24/7. Once this site became available and I started to study poker, I knew this is something I could be good at with work.. but I know it will take a lot of work to get good, and alot of patience.
I have watched so many videos here on Poker Strategy along with some other sites.. am practicing hand reading, and watching so many youtube videos and listening to countless podcasts... (Side note, if you have any podcasts you recommend, please let me know!
My goal with Poker is long term. I am 39 years old, and I want poker to end up being a second source of income. I make good money at my job, so I am not looking to be a professional, however living in NY, extra money would be nice.. However im not looking for extra money now. I am looking to build an honest bankroll starting now, that I can use when im in my 50s and hopefully by then make it a profession when im ready to retire. So I will not be touching my poker bankroll for at least 10-15 years. This month starts this journey, and its one im excited about, because I know if I put my heart and soul into it I can do it!
So normally my blog posts wont be to long (at least I dont think), but since this is still introductory I wanted to share some things.
As I mentioned above I was playing Daily Fantasy Sports, so this is how I started my bankroll. I have started my bankroll at around $400. Currently as of today it sits at $427.18
Going into today I have been on what I would consider my first real downswing as you can see from the chart below...
Today I focused on watching videos and podcasts about how to deal with downswings.. but what hit me the best was when I decided to watch a bunch of hands from my session yesterday and including hands I wasnt in to see how the players at NL10 were playing. I noticed something very interesting that I dont think I have noticed before.. these players love chasing draws. I figured I can use this to my advantage in my session tonight. It helped me remember how I made my profit go up in the first place. I saw that I was playing extremely Nitty, and that kind of play was hurting me. My mindset was "Oh he must have the nuts", and this was on so so many hands... So tonight I got back to my A game, and I felt great!
So in an effort to keep this blog interesting, I dont want to say everything in one post.. so I can unveil different things I do with each post. One thing I will say though is right now I am focusing on playing one table. I have tried to multi table with mixed results, but I feel that right now as I still learn the game, it would be better for me to play one table and work on all aspects of my game, from hand reading, to reading players, which takes concentration since there is no hud. I have to rely on what I see, and the notes I take.
Tonight I played for about 2 hours and played a total of 163 hands (I keep track of this myself on a spreadsheet since there is no tracker available for this site)
I am happy to say I had a positive night and finished up $5.94. While this may not seem alot, anything above $0 I am happy about considering how awful it was for me. Like I said before I got back to my A game, and focused in on playing smarter.
All in all I switched around and played a total of 5 differnt tables. The reason for this is Global Poker doesnt have a Zoom option, so when the 6 max tables fall down to 3 players, I get off the table. That being said the one table I was at the longest actually wasnt very fishy at all.. it was mostly regs. I decided to stay at this table just because I wanted to get a feel for a game where people played the game right, as opposed to the crazy things the fish do, or the super loose players. Overall I finished down .89 at that table, but it was a fun experience to practice my hand reading skills and practice good sound play.
So to close out my blog for the night as its getting late here.. Each blog I will post a hand from the night, most nights im sure it will be a losing hand. In the hand I will also include my thoughts during the hand. The remainder of the blog for tonight can be found in the spoiler below. Feel free to comment on the hand, and thanks for reading!
Spoiler
If you would like to watch the hand in real time, you can follow the link below, or you can just read it. I have to type out the hands since there is no tracker.
https://play.globalpoker.com/poker-client/poker/10/hand/599fac4de4b050b55566f5c7
Stack Sizes
UTG - $10.23
MP - $10
CU - $11.89
BU - $11.27
SB - $14.91
BB (HERO) - $10.36
HERO Dealt J♥: 6♥:
UTG - Fold
MP - Raise .20
CO - Fold
BU Call .20
SB Call .15
BB - Call .10
So the reason I called here is because it was a min raise, and I am ok with calling a min raise with suited cards, especially in the big blind
TOTAL POT (.80)
FLOP
8♥: J♠: 7♠:
SB Checks
BB (HERO) Bets .60
MP Folds
BU Calls .60
SB Folds
I was happy to see the Jack here, so even though I was out of position I decided I wanted to make a large bet here at 75%. I was of course hoping to get everyone to fold, but we have one player. Of course my concern is there are two spades on the flop, and like I have mentioned before, these people love chasing draws..
TOTAL POT ($2.00)
TURN: 8♥: J♠: 7♠: 5♠:
BB (HERO) - Check
BU - Check
So there it is, the 3rd spade!! Well of course I have to check here, because I am thinking that either my opponent has a higher Jack then me after he calls, or he hit a flush. Sure he could have any 8 as well. I dont have a great feel for this opponent yet because he is new to the table and I have no notes on him. When he checks back to me, I now feel good he doesnt have the flush. Yes I have seen people check the Turn when they hit a flush, but my gut told me on this one he checked because he didnt have it, and it really made me start to think that he has nothing.. but yes, I made an major error in thinking here, and you will see now on the River!
TOTAL POT ($2.00)
RIVER: 8♥: J♠: 7♠: 5♠: T♦:
BB (HERO) bets $1.50
BU Calls $1.50
Great he called! I hope he doesnt have two pair. I feel like thats all that will beat me now!
BU Shows - 9♥: 4♥:
Well $(&*#@, why did I not notice a possible straight! All he needed was a 9 for it, and he hit that on the river! I will have to admit, this is a weakness of mine, seeing straights. I know it must sound strange, but im working on my brain to notice the numbers out of sequence, and I never even thought of this board being one off from a straight! When I lost this pot I wasnt upset, I was just laughing that I didnt notice this. If I had noticed a possible straight I would have absolutely checked. My guess is he would have given a healthy bet and I would have folded knowing that these players rarely bluff on the river. One thing I was right about though, is he was chasing a draw, I just wasnt thinking he was chasing a straight draw.
