Yo improving man, it seems you can beat NL50 pretty quick, go go go 
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Originally posted by bela2222
Yo improving man, it seems you can beat NL50 pretty quick, go go go
Thanks for cheering me up! 
Yes, so far it looks OK... just that now it will take much longer to get to NL100, because I will be forced to cash out quite a lot for living. I still need to figure out some kind of system, how much to cash out and how much to leave. 
Today I had a very tough day, spending most of the time fighting back into green from being 150 EUR down at one moment... It will take time to get used to these swings. 
My comeback was finished with this hand, where I registered my record pot of 163.08 EUR I wish I knew what he had, because his play looked a lot like set, but given his maniac stats, I decided to go broke. Lucky me.
€0.25/€0.50 No Limit Holdem
BossMedia
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
Stacks:
UTG (€53.60)
UTG+1 (€53.60)
SilverSag (MP1) (€84.79)
MP2 (€82.29)
MP3 (€48.75)
CO (€44.58)
BTN (€25.60)
SB (€52.41)
BB (€10)
Pre-Flop: (€0.75, 9 players) SilverSag is MP1 K♠ K♣
2 folds, SilverSag raises to €2.50, MP2 raises to €7, 5 folds, SilverSag raises to €18.62, MP2 calls €18.62
Flop: 9♠ 7♦ 10:diamond: (€44.99, 2 players)
SilverSag bets €19.37, MP2 raises to €43.24, SilverSag goes all-in €66.17, MP2 goes all-in €63.67
Turn: 9♦ (€237.44, 2 players, 2 all-in)
River: 9♥ (€237.44, 2 players, 2 all-in)
Final Pot: €237.44
SilverSag shows
K♠ K♣
SilverSag wins €163.08 (net +€58.92)
MP2 lost €132.53
Hehe i've just realised that you've been playing poker exactly one month longer than me ♦ Hopefully i can be an NL50 reg by the time i've had a year in poker, that would certainly make me happy ♦
About how much to withdraw, i'd say whilst you're still at low limits, try to withdraw as little as possible so you can grow your roll faster (Exponential growth of poker players bankrolls and all that). Then when you get to a limit where you can comfortably live a good life off, you can start withdrawing more as you're not desperate to move up the limits any more.
To Wriggers:
Yeah, I have noticed you around too! Your blog was one of the first ones I noticed when started going through forums. To be perfectly fair, I did spend first 2 months playing SSS, so maybe I am not really ahead of you.
I have an idea of posting a little overview, so it clearly seen how many games in each limit I have played and so on. I think it would be interesting for you and others, because everyone only sees those mad graphs of poker superheroes (like Nanonoko, isildur1 and such), but it very hard to find comparison of normal, everyday poker grinders like us. (OK, OK, I want to be like Isildur1 one day too, but in reality my graph doesnt look so great so far ) So, if I will find time, I will go through my databases and post results here.
The problem with cashing out for me is that even if I cash out EVERYTHING I have earned in this month, it will still not be enough for decent living (yes, even in Latvia and living with my mom ), so problem is there whichever way I look at it. The question is how much of everydays simple luxuries I am ready to give up in the name of poker progress.
July has been a very good month for me. Not only because of a very nice graph (see below), but because of plenty of other things too. Actually graph could have been A LOT better. I lost at least 70 EUR due to total stupidity and greed yesterday alone (notice those two deep dips in the graph? ). And there were other pots like that...
So what happened in July? Most importantly, I made my move to NL50 and it seems to be quite succesfull. This month graph consists of 20K hands of NL25 and 13K hands of NL50 and I am actually losing money on NL25 this month, so NL50 is going quite good. Lets hope it continues this way.
July has been a month of records too. I had 2 Royal Flushes, had record pots, record Strategy points (reached Platinum status), record rakeback 225 EUR and, most importantly, record monthly game win 495 EUR. All that obviously gives me record total monthly poker income of 720 EUR Still not enough, but we are slowly getting there.
I reached most of my monthly goals too, especcially for posting hands for review which proved very difficult all previous months.
Game plan for August :
Play a minimum of 30 000 hands or 110 hours, try reaching 40K and 160 hrs
Play mostly NL50 and try to stay there. Add NL25 only if there is not enough action in NL50
Study every day at least 1 hour
Post at least 15 hands for review
Do 10 quizzes
Play some 90-man SnG's
I have made a decision to move to different poker room. I will stay in Boss Media, but I will change to different skin. I am doing that for first deposit bonus, because at the moment every extra euro is very important for me.
It is a shame, because I will lose my PokerStrategy status, but hopefully PokerHeaven will offer me some reload or return bonus and then I will be back. Well, I will be back anyways, because I need strategy videos and articles, but they don't need to know that.
Thanks for the blog, very good and honest. I have read it today from beginning.
You underlined my own leaks.
Originally posted by Harnas31
Thanks for the blog, very good and honest. I have read it today from beginning.
You underlined my own leaks.
Thanks for the good comment! My biggest leak is greed. When I see fish and big pot I always forget that they could actually have something good. This hand illustrates it clearly... Villain is a strangely aggressive fish 34/5/13.0 and I thought that he has caught K on the river and now goes mental... apparently I was bigger fish...
Stacks:
UTG (€50.25)
UTG+1 (€51.17)
MP1 (€52.83)
MP2 (€29.50)
MP3 (€49.25)
CO (€44.50)
SilverSag (BTN) (€99.32)
SB (€69.27)
BB (€11.90)
Pre-Flop: (€0.75, 9 players) SilverSag is BTN 6♦ 7♦
6 folds, SilverSag raises to €1.43, SB calls €1.43, 1 fold
Flop: 2♥ 7♠ 4♣ (€3.61, 2 players)
SB checks, SilverSag bets €1.68, SB calls €1.68
Turn: 7♣ (€6.97, 2 players)
SB checks, SilverSag checks
River: K♠ (€6.97, 2 players)
SB bets €3.36, SilverSag raises to €16.80, SB raises to €30.24, SilverSag goes all-in €96.21, SB goes all-in €66.16
Final Pot: €216.38
SilverSag shows
6♦ 7♦
SB shows
2♦ 2♣
SB wins €136.04 (net +€36.28)
SilverSag lost €116.12
This is the short summary of my poker career so far. I have never seen anyone done this before, but I always wanted to see something like this, so I would have some kind of reference. If nobody is doing it, I will start first and maybe more will follow. So, here we go:
I started playing with SSS
1600 hands NL2 on PartyPoker – was testing the waters, didn't have a clue
2700 hands NL4 on CakePoker – testing how the rakeback works (yeah right, at NL4)
7500 hands NL2 at Everest Poker – first serious attempt with 50$ starting capital. Built BR enough for NL5
500 hands NL5 at Everest Poker – there was not enough action, so I moved to NL10 with 130$ in my bankroll
20 000 hands NL10 at Everest Poker – switching to BSS without any clue, because they raised the buy-in limit and I still had bonus to clear
Playing BSS (since August 21, 2010)
30 000 hands NL10 at Everest Poker – built enough bankroll for NL25
23 000 hands NL25 at Everest Poker – after very good start, suffered severed beating, lost bankroll and returned to NL10
20 000 hands NL10 at Everest Poker – until bonus ended
80 000 hands NL10 at iPoker – slowly building bankroll (very tough competition)
24 000 hands NL10 at Boss Media – BR big enough to move up
15 000 hands NL20 at Boss Media – BR big enough to move up
80 000 hands NL25 at Boss Media – still playing a little due to insufficient action at NL50
15 000 hands NL50 at Boss Media – still playing
So grand total to get to NL50 is something like this:
NL2 – 1600
NL4 – 2700
NL5 – 500
NL10 – 175 000
NL20 – 15 000
NL25 – 80 000+
NL50 - 15 000 + ( can anyone guess how long it will take to NL100?)
I returned to Poker Heaven to check last months rakeback figures and discovered that I have 50€ in my account even though I cashed out everything day earlier!
After some checking I figured out that I have won them in PokerStrategy Rake Races! That was very nice surprise. It means that now I am generating enough rake to start winning some of those! That could actually make me return to PokerHeaven when I reach NL100, because it will make up the difference in rakeback.
I like this community and it's kinda sad to see that my PS points are still at zero this month... 
I really really hate the stage I am currently in... 
Its not a downswing, it is a fecking rollercoaster! I can't seem to win even 2 days in a row! ♠_evil: ♠_evil: ♠_evil:
Down 180, up 160, down 370, up 240, down 200 today again... 
Maybe its variance... but maybe I have finally hit the "wall" - reached the stage, where I cannot just randomly push Bet and Fold buttons anymore and have to really start thinking what am I doing... We will see... so far I am about 200 EUR down for the month... ♠_evil:
key word here is ABOUT, because my PokerTracker 3 has started playing tricks on me and there now is 46 EUR discrepancy between PT numbers and actual amount on my poker account! Thats 1 EUR per 450 hands gone missing somewhere...
That finally pissed me off and I bought Holdem Manager. You would think that will cheer me up, dont you? Well, think again! ♠_evil: I am struggling with switching databases from PT to HEM for 4th hour in a row...
I really hope they will let me in for Beta testing of new Holdem Manager 2. It looks awesome!
After long hours of exporting and importing hand histories, adjusting HUD, getting used to layout, etc., today I finally got Holdem Manager working properly.
I am very happy that I did that, because after checking my NL50 graph I realised that my suspicions are right - I am running a whopping 500 EUR under EV!!! That did wonders for my self confidence, because at one moment I started to worry about being outplayed and outclassed...
The funny part is that Holdem Manager got a new client (me) because of this clients sheer stupidity! I noticed discrepancies between PokerTracker3 showings and my actual account. Complained in PT forums, contacted Boss Media support... just to realise that I did erase some of the hands histories from EUR and pound limits to keep database neat and tidy! And totally forgot about that!
OK, now back to grinding. Need to give that Variance lady some serious kicking! ♠_evil: ♠_evil: ♠_evil:
Well... the graph says it all... 700 EUR under EV and that doesnt show the awful luck I was having with my sets running into higher sets... 
So... in order to save my bankroll, dignity, nerves and self confidence I am forced to make the only sensible decision in this situation - I have to move back to NL25.
I will stay there until the end of the month. Damage to my bankroll is not very significant if we take the rakeback into account, but damage to my self confidence is too big. I am not capable of playing normally - every time I see KK, I start thinking - "oh shit, someone has AA". This is not the way to play.
I am supposed to be having fun, but I am not...
Obviously, I am not in the best of the moods today, but still... I just want to voice some thoughts...
It feels so unfair... You spend hours and hours, learning, reading books and articles, watching videos, studying your games and statistics, yet
...it takes just a couple of lucky morons, who push 32o against my KK or call down preflop raise and 3 streets with 22 just to bust my megadraw with 16+ outs to ruin all my efforts... 
And I am not asking to be lucky. Just to be fair. Is it really so much? Even a little unfair would do... but running 15 BI under EV in 25K hands is a bit too much, don' t you think?
I wonder... where would all those Phil Iveys and Isildurs1 would be, if they would encounter such a bad luck in the beginning of their carreers? Or did they also encountered set vs. better set situations 4 times a day (like I did today) and still emerged victorious in the end of the day? I guess I will never know...
I guess I will have to live with the fact that every success in my poker life will come the hard way and I will have to move back every time I try new limit... ♠_evil:
I actually feel like stopping this blog, at least for a while... but I guess I have to keep writing otherwise all you see here are " 0$ to $$$$$$ in oh so few days" type of blogs... sick of reading them, actually. Makes you think that winning poker is piss-easy and everyone can do it. It's not true...
Well... I guess my next reports will be from NL25 tables... again... ♠_evil:
I will review my bankroll at the end of the month and then, hopefully, will be able to give NL50 another shot.
Well... what can I say? A picture says more than thousand words, they say... ♠_evil:
August was the worst month in my poker carreer if we only talk about actual gameplay. I broke even only because of the rakeback and bonuses.
Everything is not that bad actually, because my NL50 graph is around even after 28K hands, just that 500 EUR win was last month and 500 EUR loss happened in this one. All in all staying even in a new limit is not a particularly bad result. Especcially if we are running 700 EUR UNDER expected all-in EV. ♠_evil:
My game plan for September will be quite different and it is influenced by 2 factors:
1. My current account is not linked to PokerStrategy and I have lost my Platinum status. PS gave me another 50$ to play on Poker770, so I will be playing NL5 there in my free time just to get back to at least Silver status, so I can post hands for evaluation.
2. I have lost my benefit payment, so from this month poker is my ONLY source of income and I can consider myself a full-time pro. Since my 1500 EUR bankroll is everything I have now, I have to be very conservative and really have to start thinking about making money and keeping it.
Game plan for September :
Play only when feeling great, confident and when there are few or no regulars and shortstacks
Play NL25 and try to go for 1 BI win every day. Establish 2 BI stop-loss limit. Move to NL50 only when monthly winnings have reached certain level
play NL5 on Poker770 to get PS status to Silver
post at least 10 hands for review if possible (status?)
watch one poker video a day (there is plenty at Bronze level I havent seen yet)
I want to write down some of my thoughts about bankroll management:
At the moment I have 30 BI for NL50, but I decided NOT to move to that limit yet, because I really cannot afford another losing month at the moment. I decided to keep playing NL25, try to increase my winrate and only when my monthly winnings have reached a certain level move to NL50.
In other words, even if my BR is 1500 EUR now, I will have to cash out at least 300 EUR to cover my living expenses and pay bills, so realistically I only have 1200 EUR or even less. Thats why I will try NL50 only when I have reached 2000 EUR.
30 BI is fine when you have another source of income, but when you have to live from poker you have to think differently and I am only starting to learn that.
Another area where I want to implement some changes is the amount of games I play every day.
I used to set a target of approximately 1000 games per day. I play 2-6 tables, so it's about 4-5 hours of poker. There were 2 main reasons for that:
1. The more you play, the more you win. If you are a winning player, that is. 
2. Rakeback. It was supposed to guarantee a positive outcome even if I manage to end up losing at the end of the month.
Reality was a bit different, though and it was to do with changing conditions at Boss Media tables and my mental state.
At Boss Media tables ar every profitable in first hours of the action. Around 11 AM there are 1-2, maybe 3 tables of each limit open, there are plenty of fish, very few regulars and hardly any shorties. If there are shortstacks, then they are just very bad players. This stage lasts for a few hours until all pro shortstackers wake up. Then it goes really tough - there are at least 5 shortstacks at each table (even 8 at one table is not that uncommon) and rest are regulars as well. In the late evening hours and at night games slowly die and there are plenty of fish again.
I was not paying much attention to these changes and patiently grinded through to get my 1000 games. Very often I was up 3-5, even 6 BIs in first hour and then slowly lost it all by the time I played my 1000 games.
So now I have decided to change that and stop playing when I feel I have enough for that day.
Yes, you might say it is against "the book". No monetary targets and so on, right? But if we think about it... there is no reason for me to play my target 1000 hands and get 10 EUR of rakeback if I lose 100 EUR in the process, right? And there is nothing wrong with increasing my winrate, right? And careful table selection is very important as well, right?
Keeping all this in mind, I have decided NOT to stick to certain amount of games played anymore. I will play in the best hours (early afternoon and late night) and I will quit when I feel that my edge is not that big anymore.
p.s. So far it has worked quite well and I have a record winning streak of 17 days /touch wood/
Originally posted by SilverSag
Keeping all this in mind, I have decided NOT to stick to certain amount of games played anymore. I will play in the best hours (early afternoon and late night) and I will quit when I feel that my edge is not that big anymore.p.s. So far it has worked quite well and I have a record winning streak of 17 days
This is a very good decision for You. Table/timeselecting is crucial if You plan to just grind a nice profit. And since "playing" poker is Your only "job" at the moment, it is the only reasonable decision. Maximize Your winnings by making them constant. That what I would do, If I didn't have a dayjob, hobbies, wife, kids, friends etx ♦
Good luck for september and hope to see a +EV AI in the next chart!