In my last week of NL5, I've played just over 1000 hands
Before the start of the week, i was playing awfully, and had never really put time in to study the articles on this site properly, I just assumed I was good at poker cos I'd turned a decent profit in a few live games with friends.
I found this site, passed the quiz, got my capital delivered to FTP, and topped up with $35 of my own money to get a first deposit bonus.
The first few days went well, I was up $30 dollars in less than 3 days and under 1000 hands at NL5. Little did I realise I was playing bad poker, i was getting lucky, and was way above my all-in EV.
Soon though, my luck changed, I started leaking money at the tables, and began dropping like a stone, until luck was no longer a factor, and my results were what I deserved.
In my desperation, I stepped up to NL10 from NL5 and saw a brief resurgence in my poker 'effectiveness' (rather than skill or play), but that quickly dropped away again due to my inability to stop myself making plays that I knew were bad or desperate, but hoped would pay off.
After 5500 hands, I was down nearly $90 from my starting $85, but had managed to avoid going bust due to winning $20 in the first-deposit freeroll, and $20 from the FTP bonus everyone got a short while ago.
I was left with just over $40 in my account. BUT I had 3 NL2 rush tickets, which I promptly wasted, treating them as freeroll, instead of a chance to turn myself around and kick-start my bankroll.
This was a turning point for me.
It was after this that I sat down and thought to myself "what the hell are you doing? If you're not gonna take it seriously, and waste chances to make some money, why the hell are you still playing poker?"
I called it a day, not from poker, but from playing poker. I'd been tilting badly for days, playing desperate poker in a last ditch attempt to claw back dollars that I'd been pissing away.
I spent the next day chilling out, and planning in the back of my head how I should go about attempting to turn my poker career around.
I started delving into my HEM stats, and began to realise that I hadn't got worse at playing poker, I'd never been very good in the first place. I started looking at my stats and played with different filters, trying to figure out where I'd been going wrong.
For starters, the only reason I hadn't lost all my money was decent non-showdown winnings, but my showdown winnings were terribad. What the hell was I playing at? I was going to showdown with hands no better than a couple of top-trump cards. I would have wasted less money by using it to wipe my arse.
I knew things were bad, I knew things had to change, but I was clueless about changing them; it was then that I remembered PS's strategy guides. I'd always thought I knew more than anything the bronze or silver guides would tell me. I mean, I'd made $30 profit in 3 days and 1000 hands of NL5, I was just going through an unlucky downswing, I was the next big poker star, I was god's gift to poker... I was ignorant.
Then came the little voice in the back of my head, the one that we all hate, the one that makes us doubt ourself, the one that makes us insecure, the one that (this time) was right. For once I listened to that little voice in my head, telling me that I wasn't good enough, and that I should give up. But I reacted to it in the same way as always, by being determined to prove it wrong, but how could I prove it wrong, when I knew this time it was right?
I knew what I had to do, I would prove that bastard little self-doubting voice in the back of my head that it was wrong, by admitting it was right, and improving until I could go back, look it in it's beady little eyes and say "you were right for once, but you're not any more"
I began reading the No-limit BSS guides on this site. I forced myself to start from the very first basic articles, forcing myself to acknowledge that I had to forget everything I thought I knew about poker, and start to actually learn how to play poker.
I worked my way up through all the articles I could, putting them into practice one article at a time. I took everything I read and used it to start turning myself around at the poker tables. I was still playing NL5, which was currently out of BRM, but I felt more comfortable there than the lunatic asylum of NL2. I began to play less trash, I began thinking to myself twice before playing hands that would lead me into trouble, asking myself what I could realistically expect to catch with hands like them. I began trying to cut stupid plays out my game, saving myself from throwing away money and being the table fish. I began protecting my hands, and maximising value from hands that didn't need protection.
Every article I read, I added to my game, each day I read one more article, and each day I'd try to get myself into situations where that article was relevant, and I'd keep doing it until I felt comfortable with the concept.
I am now a third of the way through the silver level articles, and I am playing better poker. I'm not going to stand up and saying I am playing good poker, because I know I still have a hell of a lot to learn. But I am definitely playing better poker. I am at last making positive EV decisions with regards to going to showdown, rather than showing down with absolutely nothing. I am 3-betting when I know I should, even though I still have to force myself sometimes, but the more I do it, the more comfortable I become with it. I put less pressure on myself when playing OOP, I refuse to donk lead out any more, because I was just getting pushed out the pot by re-rasies. I am playing better pot-control hands.
And you know what? Every time I add a new aspect to my game, I see the evidence that I'm doing slightly better.
I know many of you will have heard the phrase "If you can't see who is the fish at the table, then it is you". And for over 5000 hands... it was me. But now that is changing, I can sit down at tables, and after 20+ hands, I can pick out the fish at the table. But still I come up against better players at this level, ones who beat me in most of the hands I get involved in... in the past this would have made me tilt, I'd be convinced he was getting lucky and that I could not possibly have played the hand badly. Now, however, I make a note of the hand, I look at it in HEM afterwards and try to figure out how I could have played it better. I also try to study the better player at the table to get wise to him, I'll try changing up my line, check-raising and many other things to put some variety into my game.
Bit by bit it is working, and I am working my way up from being a cash machine to being an okay player, and making a good return at NL5.
I have worked my way up from hitting a bankroll low at just under $40 to being dead on $100. I now have an overall profit at NL5, and now that I can follow proper BRM, I intend to stay at this level, increasing my poker IQ and bankroll until I am ready to take a serious step-up to NL10 through being prepared, rather than desperate this time.
My last week at NL5 has been a satisfying one, I have been able to see my hard work pay off, not just through showing a good profit from my 1000 hands this week, but by seeing that my all-in EV is following nearly the exact same line, rather than me just getting lucky. I check after every session I have to see my best hands and my worst hands, hands where I made my biggest win, and where I made my biggest loss. I look at all my all-ins for the session to see if the were positive or negative EV, and make a note of what the EV was like.
The graph below shows what has happened to my bankroll this week. I've also got a few crucial stats for you
bb/100 = 63.5 (quite like this one)
VPIP/PFR/3-bet = 32.1/23.6/8 (still a bit high for VPIP and PFR, but that is mainly because I was sat at a table where no one wanted to play a hand, so I opened up a second table where people wanted to play, and raised pretty much every hand for 100 hands on the first table, collecting blind after blind ♦)
And yes this is a very limited sample size, and I only added the 3-bet to my arsenal about 500 hands in, but it certainly is pleasant reading for me when I can see my game slowly improving
So that is my story so far, the roller-coaster ride that has been my poker career thus far. How I hit the the lows and how I plan to reach the highs. I will keep you updated with my progress, and let you know how I have handled adding new pieces of strategy to my play.
Welcome to Beginners Luck
Follow my progress in my blog 
