My Poker History
Right now I feel like I'm the stupidest human being in the world. I just had a really bad session at the ole' $3/$6. It was absolutely sick. There was a guy doing stuff like raising UTG with 38s. I kept going against him, having him destroyed, then losing to some runner runner job or having him hit 2 pair on the river or something. It was ridiculous. He literally did not fold a hand before the turn in 2 hours.
Then there's the guy who's currently sitting on my left, cold-calling everything and never folding. He just called a bet on the turn with 8To on an A259 board. I don't get it. He's been putting some sick beats on me. This one pretty much sums up my night.
$3/$6 Texas Hold'em
Table Table 96430 (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: jimmyd339 ( $176 )
Seat 3: Isis1127 ( $91.25 )
Seat 4: Jikki7 ( $176.50 )
Seat 5: Cass82 ( $252 )
Seat 6: Hero ( $102.50 )
Seat 2: SS8282 ( $120 )
Isis1127 posts small blind [$1].
Jikki7 posts big blind [$3].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ Ac Ah ]
Cass82 calls [$3].
Hero raises [$6].
jimmyd339 calls [$6].
SS8282 raises [$9].
Isis1127 folds.
Jikki7 raises [$9].
Cass82 folds.
Hero calls [$6].
jimmyd339 calls [$6].
SS8282 calls [$3].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6s, 7d, 2c ]
Jikki7 bets [$3].
Hero raises [$6].
jimmyd339 calls [$6].
SS8282 calls [$6].
Jikki7 calls [$3].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qd ]
Jikki7 checks.
Hero bets [$6].
jimmyd339 calls [$6].
SS8282 calls [$6].
Jikki7 folds.
** Dealing River ** [ 3s ]
Hero bets [$6].
jimmyd339 raises [$12].
SS8282 folds.
Hero calls [$6].
jimmyd339 shows [ 3h, 2s ] two pairs, threes and twos.
Hero doesn't show [ Ac, Ah ] a pair of aces.
jimmyd339 wins $115 from the main pot with two pairs, threes and twos.
Now imagine this happening 10 times, with some other smaller pots in between and there's my night. You know when you're going along value betting a pretty good hand and you get a "surprise raise" on the river because some random card helped someone? It's seems like that happened in every pot. I got absolutely wrecked; wrecked by extremely bad players.
I thought I was would use this as a chance to talk about some of my goals and accomplishments as a poker player to remind myself that things aren't so bad.
I, like everyone else, have been playinng poker informally (with family/friends around the kitchen table) for my whole life. I really took an interest in poker when I was a senior in college in 2003. My friends and I watched the World Poker Tour and played NL Hold'em every month or so. I wasn't very good, but I was eager to learn. A year later (in the beginning of calendar year '04), I started playing in the play money Limit Hold'em Games on Yahoo Games and I bought Phil Hellmuth's Book and I began to learn about the game a little more for when I played with my friends. I think you could safely describe my game as "weak-tight", which is what Phil H. teaches in his book. Mind you, this isn't a terrible way to play as a beginner. Most beginners lack the knowledge, feel and instinct required to guide them through more marginal situations. Avoiding these situations is much more comfortable at first.
I was content to play these play money games and play in the occasional home game we had running every month or two. This all changed in the summer of '04 when my brother told me about a new poker site that was coming out called "Full Tilt Poker." He told me that you could play for play money and even play in free tournaments where you could win actual money. It sounded great, so I decided to give it a shot. I played in the play money Sit-and-Goes (SNGs) and the freerolls, and worked my play money bankroll up to a whopping 200K. I never finished higher than about 25th/900 (4 paid) in any of those freerolls, but I was getting a hang of the game and doing pretty well.
In August '04, I decided that I would put a little money in and see how things went. I deposited $150 into my firepay account, moved $50 of that into my Full Tilt account and I was off. I played mostly $5 NL Hold'em SNGs and small Multi Table Tournaments (MTTs). I worked that up to about 3 or 4 hundred playing those tiny tourneys, then decided one night to play in a $2/$4 NL ring game with all of it at the table. To make a long story short, I ended up getting my entire bankroll in on a 267 flop with QQ vs. 89o and losing to a river straight. Without debating the correctness of his or my play, I was definitely at fault for not excercising any bankroll management. I decided at this point to be extremely careful with my bankroll from now on.
So I put the other $100 from my Neteller account into my Full Tilt account and began playing $5 tourneys/SNGs again. I remember that there were times when I had my last $5 in a tournament, meaning that I basically couldn't play any more poker if I didn't cash in the tournament. Kind of funny at this point to think about these days.
By the beginning of '05 my bankroll was nearing the $1000 range, so I decided that I could move up to $10 buyins. I then discovered the game Stud8 (Stud with Hi/Lo split and 8-qualifier on the low) after reading about it in Doyle Brunson's Super Sytem. I put $50 of my bankroll onto PartyPoker and began to play $10 Stud8 SNGs. Man these things are soft. I was doing well at the $10 level and by the mid-spring I had a $2500 bankroll and was ready for $20 buyins. At some point over the last year I've built my bankroll by another $6000 to bring it to its present level. Also over this 1 1/2 years, I've bought about 15 poker books and read them all numerous times to try to help improve my game.
Along the way, I've probably had something like 20 cashes in the ($250-$600) range, and 4 or 5 cashes in the ($600-$1200) range. I have a tendancy to not make the top few places in larger tournaments, but I seem to be able to do it in smaller ones. It'll be nice when I can finally win a large tournament and collect a monster payout for that -- I'm way overdue.
I also decided about 6 months ago that I need to become relatively competent at cash game play. So I started playing $1/$2 Limit Hold'em and have worked my way up to $3/$6 based on when I feel that I'm comfortably beating the game. I have yet to consistently play in any NLH cash games.
It feels great to know that I've only deposited money into my poker bankroll 1 time, and that's all I ever plan to do. This is the main reason I play so conservatively with my bankroll -- because I basically can't afford to put any more money into it. At some point it would be nice to be able to make a decent amout of money playing poker, but for now it's basically just a hobby. I think I could make enough to support myself if I played full time, but it would probably be stupid to try until I'm playing at stakes that are at least in the ballpark of $100 buyin tourneys and $10/$20 Limit cash games. Maybe that will happen some day, maybe not. We'll just have to see. The way the cash games are treating me lately, probably not.
I'm gonna play a couple more tournaments now before bed -- a $10 on Stars and a $20 on Party. I'm sure they'll go poorly, but I'll post if anything cool happens.
Then there's the guy who's currently sitting on my left, cold-calling everything and never folding. He just called a bet on the turn with 8To on an A259 board. I don't get it. He's been putting some sick beats on me. This one pretty much sums up my night.
$3/$6 Texas Hold'em
Table Table 96430 (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: jimmyd339 ( $176 )
Seat 3: Isis1127 ( $91.25 )
Seat 4: Jikki7 ( $176.50 )
Seat 5: Cass82 ( $252 )
Seat 6: Hero ( $102.50 )
Seat 2: SS8282 ( $120 )
Isis1127 posts small blind [$1].
Jikki7 posts big blind [$3].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ Ac Ah ]
Cass82 calls [$3].
Hero raises [$6].
jimmyd339 calls [$6].
SS8282 raises [$9].
Isis1127 folds.
Jikki7 raises [$9].
Cass82 folds.
Hero calls [$6].
jimmyd339 calls [$6].
SS8282 calls [$3].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6s, 7d, 2c ]
Jikki7 bets [$3].
Hero raises [$6].
jimmyd339 calls [$6].
SS8282 calls [$6].
Jikki7 calls [$3].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qd ]
Jikki7 checks.
Hero bets [$6].
jimmyd339 calls [$6].
SS8282 calls [$6].
Jikki7 folds.
** Dealing River ** [ 3s ]
Hero bets [$6].
jimmyd339 raises [$12].
SS8282 folds.
Hero calls [$6].
jimmyd339 shows [ 3h, 2s ] two pairs, threes and twos.
Hero doesn't show [ Ac, Ah ] a pair of aces.
jimmyd339 wins $115 from the main pot with two pairs, threes and twos.
Now imagine this happening 10 times, with some other smaller pots in between and there's my night. You know when you're going along value betting a pretty good hand and you get a "surprise raise" on the river because some random card helped someone? It's seems like that happened in every pot. I got absolutely wrecked; wrecked by extremely bad players.
I thought I was would use this as a chance to talk about some of my goals and accomplishments as a poker player to remind myself that things aren't so bad.
I, like everyone else, have been playinng poker informally (with family/friends around the kitchen table) for my whole life. I really took an interest in poker when I was a senior in college in 2003. My friends and I watched the World Poker Tour and played NL Hold'em every month or so. I wasn't very good, but I was eager to learn. A year later (in the beginning of calendar year '04), I started playing in the play money Limit Hold'em Games on Yahoo Games and I bought Phil Hellmuth's Book and I began to learn about the game a little more for when I played with my friends. I think you could safely describe my game as "weak-tight", which is what Phil H. teaches in his book. Mind you, this isn't a terrible way to play as a beginner. Most beginners lack the knowledge, feel and instinct required to guide them through more marginal situations. Avoiding these situations is much more comfortable at first.
I was content to play these play money games and play in the occasional home game we had running every month or two. This all changed in the summer of '04 when my brother told me about a new poker site that was coming out called "Full Tilt Poker." He told me that you could play for play money and even play in free tournaments where you could win actual money. It sounded great, so I decided to give it a shot. I played in the play money Sit-and-Goes (SNGs) and the freerolls, and worked my play money bankroll up to a whopping 200K. I never finished higher than about 25th/900 (4 paid) in any of those freerolls, but I was getting a hang of the game and doing pretty well.
In August '04, I decided that I would put a little money in and see how things went. I deposited $150 into my firepay account, moved $50 of that into my Full Tilt account and I was off. I played mostly $5 NL Hold'em SNGs and small Multi Table Tournaments (MTTs). I worked that up to about 3 or 4 hundred playing those tiny tourneys, then decided one night to play in a $2/$4 NL ring game with all of it at the table. To make a long story short, I ended up getting my entire bankroll in on a 267 flop with QQ vs. 89o and losing to a river straight. Without debating the correctness of his or my play, I was definitely at fault for not excercising any bankroll management. I decided at this point to be extremely careful with my bankroll from now on.
So I put the other $100 from my Neteller account into my Full Tilt account and began playing $5 tourneys/SNGs again. I remember that there were times when I had my last $5 in a tournament, meaning that I basically couldn't play any more poker if I didn't cash in the tournament. Kind of funny at this point to think about these days.
By the beginning of '05 my bankroll was nearing the $1000 range, so I decided that I could move up to $10 buyins. I then discovered the game Stud8 (Stud with Hi/Lo split and 8-qualifier on the low) after reading about it in Doyle Brunson's Super Sytem. I put $50 of my bankroll onto PartyPoker and began to play $10 Stud8 SNGs. Man these things are soft. I was doing well at the $10 level and by the mid-spring I had a $2500 bankroll and was ready for $20 buyins. At some point over the last year I've built my bankroll by another $6000 to bring it to its present level. Also over this 1 1/2 years, I've bought about 15 poker books and read them all numerous times to try to help improve my game.
Along the way, I've probably had something like 20 cashes in the ($250-$600) range, and 4 or 5 cashes in the ($600-$1200) range. I have a tendancy to not make the top few places in larger tournaments, but I seem to be able to do it in smaller ones. It'll be nice when I can finally win a large tournament and collect a monster payout for that -- I'm way overdue.
I also decided about 6 months ago that I need to become relatively competent at cash game play. So I started playing $1/$2 Limit Hold'em and have worked my way up to $3/$6 based on when I feel that I'm comfortably beating the game. I have yet to consistently play in any NLH cash games.
It feels great to know that I've only deposited money into my poker bankroll 1 time, and that's all I ever plan to do. This is the main reason I play so conservatively with my bankroll -- because I basically can't afford to put any more money into it. At some point it would be nice to be able to make a decent amout of money playing poker, but for now it's basically just a hobby. I think I could make enough to support myself if I played full time, but it would probably be stupid to try until I'm playing at stakes that are at least in the ballpark of $100 buyin tourneys and $10/$20 Limit cash games. Maybe that will happen some day, maybe not. We'll just have to see. The way the cash games are treating me lately, probably not.
I'm gonna play a couple more tournaments now before bed -- a $10 on Stars and a $20 on Party. I'm sure they'll go poorly, but I'll post if anything cool happens.
posted by the_real_zano at 10:35 PM
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