Bankroll 8/21/09: 1.5 grand

I want to start updating this weekly - but everytime I finish a session I have to get ready for work so I'm not able to post many hands/strats. I just wanted to give a bankroll update and I'll try to add some hands later tonight or sometime this weekend.

I've played less than 10k hands at 50nl and I'm running at 3.91BB/100 so far and can hopefully keep motivated to keep playing. I've been having trouble getting motivated to play this month as I've been reminded by my cousin/new roommate daily that I've been making hundreds - he wonders why I don't want to play... (more on that later)

Also I just ordered my first purchase with poker winnings. I got a new snowboard for this season and I'm totally pumped about riding it.

So I suppose this post is just a brag.

Keep up the grind.

See you at the tables...

-Luckbox

First 1k

I'm writing this today feeling like a champ. After 2 years of grinding the micro's and putting in countless hours trying to fix leaks that every poker player has - and plenty of rake-back, I finally reached the 1k mark. It feels great.


I guess one of the biggest things that has helped me get here was putting people on ranges and playing against those instead of putting them on exact hands - at least until you get good enough at handreading. I've been coaching my buddy and watching/playing 5nl/10nl trying to find out why it took me so long to beat (I still haven't actually beat them - just been staked and beat the rake).

I'll make a strat post in the next few days but I just wanted to post this because I've been quite happy. I've played a few sessions and this is what the bankroll is at tonight.

Why am I doing this?

History

It has taken me almost two years and hundreds of thousands of hands to get to this point in my poker career. I haven't put in as much effort in learning and developing my game as I should have (probably the reason it has taken me so long to get here). I remember sitting in my room the freshman year of college - 9 tabling .01/.02 cent with a 40$ roll thinking I was becoming a better player.

DON'T DO THIS

When you start out. Play 1-2 tables - put twice as much effort into learning as you do into playing: If you play for 30 minutes, watch 60 minutes of video or post/review hands in a forum. Do not just play hands to play hands - you are throwing money away. The rake will eat you at the super micro's.

I'm honestly not sure how I didn't go busto when I first started. My cousin shipped me 5$ and taught me the basics of playing online. I went on a small heater playing the micro's (thankfully) and this kept me afloat for months playing .01/.02 on pokerstars. I eventually moved up to .02/.05 somehow and didn't go busto.

I had been playing for two years with little to no success at all and my cousin, who runs in godmode playing nl100 and nl200 decided to give me a small stake so that I could eventually play on my own roll. He had staked me once previously and ended up getting his money back and I grinded a small roll from rakeback. Two months ago he staked me 500$ to play 25nl. We would go over hands and mikogo a couple times a week - I felt like I was starting to get somewhere. The first few weeks of the stake I was running awful - I was 10 BI's below equity over a very small sample size. I was told to stick with it and continue to work on my game daily and I would overcome this. After about 15 videos and plenty of hand reviews/strat posts on 2+2, and plenty of rakeback, I've grinded the roll up to 800$ - and that is where I'm starting this blog.

Why am I doing this?

I am doing this because it shouldn't have taken me two years to get this far in my poker career. It has taken me this long for a few reasons:

1. I didn't put the effort in I should have when I started, I just played.
2. There are plenty of videos for higher stakes on deucescracked but not many for the micro stakes. Things that work at higher limits don't work as well at the micro stakes. The fish are bad at both levels, but the table dynamics are completely different. I want this to be relevant to microstakes players.
   
3. I want to help you become the best poker player you can be - as quickly as possible. I will be the first to admit that I don't know it all - there are thousands of players who know more about poker than I do, but I really want to help save you the time and effort that I wasted at the beginning of my career. And get you to start thinking like a poker player.
   

Feel free to post any questions or suggestions you have about how I'm playing, how your playing or anything you'd like me to go over.

Good luck at the tables.