Stats and graph over about 37k hands...

Just a quick post with my stats at 2NL so far. I started several weeks ago getting used to Poker Tracker 3 since I only really used the HUD when I had the trial. PT3 is a must have if you actually want to make money playing online poker. Even with only one table it is a major asset. More than 4 tabling even 2NL would take a tremendous amount of concentration and notetaking with no HUD and is pointless when using the HUD you can easily double the tables you play with a HUD and would be much easier to concentrate.

The last 10k hands or so I think I have my game closer to where I want it, although, as you can see, I am still pretty much break even player over 37k hands. I beleive I have plugged several major leaks along the way, add that to running below EV for a large portion of the time and I guess BE is a good result. 37k hands isnt really much either and if I can avoid running awful I think I can be taking shots at 5NL rather soon. Knock on wood...

A few things I will work on are opening up my 3bet%. Not by much, mainly just 3betting a little lighter vs certain villains. Say 3bet bluffing vs villains with high FoldTo3bet% over a decent sample size. Another thing I will try to play more hands in the Hi Jack position and less in the SB, table dynamics provided. I beleive playing too loose in the SB is a leak I have to fix and by shifting %age to LP might be the ticket. Will share the results..

Goals n stuff..

Well obviously my goal is to become a winning player at the highest stakes i can reach. Getting there is going to be a difficult task. Each month I will have a set amount of goals, nothing to do with results, more like volume goals for the month, hand analysis on a couple forums, Ironman staus, etc. I will also attempt to have similar weekly goals, as well as yearly goals..

My bankroll management system will more than likely change as I move up in limits. Generally, through 10NL, I want to have about 20 buy ins to be playing each limit, while taking shots at the next limit.

At 2NL I currently only have 12 or so BIs but being the lowest limits I cannot drop down. I will start by grinding 2NL between 6-9 tables until I reach 22.5 BIs ($45.) Then I will substitute one table of 5NL on each session until I drop below 22.5 BIs and will substitute one more table per 1.5 BIs earned at 5NL (shot tables as I will call them.) I will try to use this method until I reach 20 BIs for 5NL ($100) then I will attempt the same with 10NL until I have 20 BIs there. Once at 10NL I will revise this plan most likely by upping the BI requirements. This is mainly because I have little exp with anything higher than 10NL.

I am going to attempt to use a mental stop-loss in this BRM system. Until I am comfartably rolled for 2NL (20 BIs) it will be a relatvely low thresh hold. Something around 2-3 BIs, until I have a roll I dont like to play after I lose a significant portion of my BR. 3 BIs is about %25 of my BR and I feel I would tilt too often and not be playing my best. I admi this is something I have had trouble with in the past, chasing losses. Sometimes I worked but when it didnt it was a really bad feeling. Of course this is all just the framework, Im sure I will come up with something better later.

At each table if I double up I will leave the table before the next blinds. There are a few exceptions, like if I have 2 or 3 fish to my right with full stacks, or even 1 deepstacked, table dynamics have to be very good for me to stay after doubling up, something I struggle with.

Table selection will be mainly no more than 2 short stacks (40bbs) and none can be on my direct left or right. I will choose table with a high average pot and the highest players per flop, 30%+ is good. After 2 orbits I will look over the table and decide if I want to stay. If there are loose players (~30% VPIP) to the left of me (closest 2 or 3 seats) I will leave. If there are no players with a VPIP of over 25% to my direct right I will leave the table. I will be playing 9 tables to start and maybe moving to more when I have a larger BR.

Well thats it for now, quite long. Next I will have some basic goals, maybe a graph and some stats. Peace.

Can you say... blog?

Ok well this is going to be blog I will try to update weekly. It will be a place for me to type out my goals, thoughts, rants, etc. as I take on the task of grinding the lowest stakes of online poker. I have no idea whether anyone will read this or not, but if you do feel free to leave a comment.


A Little About Myself

I am currently 22 years old, and have been playing poker recreationally for about 5 years. It started with homegames with several friends, nothing too serious just something to do and have a few drinks. Really none of us knew what we were doing, out of the 10 or so people that would play.

I have never played online until I seen some ads either online or on the television for PartyPoker. I installed it and messed around with play money for a while. The game interested me from the start and I started looking online for strategies and other info on the game. I ran across a few forums in which I liked from the start and started reading as many posts as I could. Most of the things I read I had no idea what I was reading yet I kept reading. I tried to use some of the concepts I read while playing playmoney but still had no idea what I was doing.

I started getting better and spent many hours reading, I moved to full tilt after hearing that there was free entry into tournaments that paid out in real money. I played these nightly for a while but never made anything significant. I continued to play with playchips and started doing good. I made my way up to 100k and before I knew it I was at 20m or so. I felt like a pro and decided I should deposit some real money, well, $50 was real to a young kid making min. wage at a fast food joint.

I put the money on and within seconds I had $50 on my online poker account. It was time to make thousands... That was the idea at least. I jumped into a 10NL table (the lowest stakes on FTP at the time) and started playing. I started doing good, made several buy-ins and felt great. Then all hell broke loose, before I knew it I was down to $25 in a day. I got my ass handed to me and I knew it, so I went back to studying as much as possible.

Eventually I found my way to $1 and $2 sit and go tables and found they were similar to my regular homegames. I read as much as I could about them and started playing a few of those every day for quite a long time and over several months made it to about $80 or so. Then I had to move and lost access to the internet for about a year so I ended up cashing out most of my money.

I have just recently been playing and made my way from about $10 to about $25 playing micro single table tournaments. I have now taken an interest in cash games and have finally invested in PokerTracker 3. I plan on seriously attempting to put in as much volume as possible starting at 2NL and working my way up.

I am by no means a good player, there are many leaks in my game that I try to work on constantly. I will post goals and starting bankroll in the next post, as well as the bankroll management plan I will attempt to stick too, at least until I reach 10NL or 25NL.