Let's build some bankroll - who's with me?

This is quite a coincidence, because I was going to start updating this thread again when I read your comment.
First of all, congratulations on your progress. You're doing well there!
Is anybody else still updating (semi-)regularly? None of the old crew it seems?

As far as my own play goes, I have spent quite a bit of time working on my play. I've read a few books, registered with DeucesCracked, and I think I've plugged a bunch of leaks.
I'm not exactly sure why I never realized it, but checking out my stats made it pretty obvious that I lost too much money in pots that don't go to showdown. I guess I was so focused on how much below EV I was running (in showdown pots) that I never considered improving my game with non-showdown pots.

I've now worked on this, and we'll see how it goes. Time will tell. But over the last 10,000 hands, my green line has been hugging the blue line in PokerEV (meaning I'm break-even in non-showdown pots) which is great news.

Progress Update

Day 209: 152% ($3,045)

I officially do not have a gambling problem since I can quit for four months.

Hmm. lolz. Is that the golden rule?

I actually write a comments after I play, not post it until the next night sometimes because I'm fearful I won't remember exactly what happened. So, you'll understand what I mean when I say "tomorrows another day...etc....then below is a post for the next night".

Well, I was pretty tired and playing hands I shouldn't have Monday night. The only problem is that I dug myself into a slightly deeper hole after losing a few hands which I was rivered out by the 2nd pair hitting the board. Sick. Surrounded by the same people at more than a few tables early on Tuesday night and morning, I didn't see a high pair or could catch trips for crap. Nothing. I would call it drawing dead, but I would catch quads for the second night in a row? (I'm not sure about this, all the days are running together, one into another) with no one in the hand who had anything decent. When I did catch a hand the other players had crap. Kids trying to min bet steal, bet with crap and catch on the river after calling re-raises. Pfff. WTF is what I say. How or why are the kiddies up this late? Not that it's going to get me too down or anything, but I now remember why I stopped playing rings because I thought they were unbeatable. Tomorrow's another day, but hopefully I won't play too much, or at all, because I could be working more important projects. I finished Monday night recovering a bit, but still ending in the negative.

Fitting in a thirty minute session in the evening and hitting quads only gained me a few $. I'm currently playing the $10 No Limits, so nothing big, but a gain is a gain imo. As for Tuesday night, I hit quads twice. I was hitting pairs for the forty-five minutes I played non-stop at one table. Ok, it wasn't non-stop, but it was oddly more frequent then the painful hands I was encountering last night. I started off by pushing a pre-raiser, in one of the first few hands, on the flop when hitting quad 2's against his AKoff (Paired his K on flop). The first quad I hit was with one player on the flop, the short stack, in the hand had nothing again. eeeer. I have a feeling I would be getting a lot more for my money if I would do a full ring instead of the 6-seaters. But when can ya do. It's where I feel comfortable and don't have the time or care to attempt anything else at the moment. Anywhoo, I opened up a third table and took a seat making it 4/6 seats filled. Two of the players seemed as if they were trying to push each other around until, I was dealt a few hands, then they seemed to cool off a bit. A few hands passed and the one player who seemed to start up again. I decided to make a 910off call when he raised 3xbb pre-flop. I re-raised on the flop with a possible straight in his hand, two pair in mine. The turn gave me a boat and river quadded. 910j1010 on board. He must have decided I was trying to bluff or possibly on the fact he thought I was betting with nothing, thinking he missed his draw. You've got me. The past two days I've must have quadded on the flop 3/4 times and been royally screwed because of the opponents hands. I wait until the river in a glimpse of hope someone had something to call even a small or decent size bet/re-riase with, but up to the last hand I mentioned, I didn't get their worth imo. I should really look into the ChuckT thread about correct betting amounts, etc...to gain max. $ on my play.... All-in-All, it's a surprise to be running this well again, so quickly. I'm calling it a night based on that, and the fact I'm pretty tired. Hopefully things will continue to run more smoothly than not. GL at the tables boys and girls.

Progress:

Day 16a: 336%
Day 17a: 320%
Day 18a: 340%

Thanks for keeping us up to date, wsorbust!

Looks like I forgot to mention it, but my own updates are going to be on a weekly basis, not a daily basis. I still want to focus mainly on my play, not on my graphs.

I currently play NL50 6-max, albeit temporarily, and the general play at these stakes is so awful, it's quite amazing really. I think the most +EV way of beating these games is to play only premium hands. Nobody will notice anyway.
Personally, I need a little more action than that. I play somewhat tighter than I would at higher stakes, but right around 22/17 still can't be considered nitty.

Even at NL50 where there's a ton of calling stations, I have so far managed to keep my green line above the blue line. So I'm fairly positive that my game has changed for the better.

I posted a couple of times earlier, but totally abandoned this some time ago. Ill try to make an update tonight after i get back home.

By the way gl Chris with your comeback.

My initial deposit was on PartyPoker... $50, with an agreement with my other half that if I bust that out that was it... I've now got a bankroll of about $640 between all the different sites, although I've had some freeroll wins, freebies from sites, and so on thrown in there... so I've been given quite a lot at no risk (in particular Party has been kind to me with freebies, so thanks to them ). I cashed out the original $50, so compared to the original deposit amount I'm at 1378% right now... this is a couple of years in, having taken long breaks and so on...
I'm mainly playing Limit Omaha H/L (almost exclusively), currently mainly on Stars, mostly $0.5/$1.0, but have varied between $0.25/$0.50 (and occasionally below) and $1/2 (my current level). I'm trying to play a short session each evening, with results as follows:
X: $602 (1204%)
X+3: $620 (1240%)
X+5: $625 (1250%)
X+6: $637 (1274%)
X+7: $645 (1290%)
X+8: $677 (1354%)
X+9: $689 (1378%)

A lot of the first 1000% 'profit' has in reality been from bonuses and freebies and the like, but since cashing out I decided I didn't want to deposit again, so I've been careful not to risk busting out completely. The above stats only show since I've started trying to play more regularly again, and does exclude one or 2 noticeable losses in the couple of months prior to that, and they're mostly very short sessions. Yes, it's been running massively hot, since I'm at 36 BB/hr atm on limit in the above play (which is all of my play this month, a mere couple of hours), but hey, I'm not complaining.

I'm running so horribly I'm going to quit right now for the night. Chasers calling more than a dozen times, and catching etc...it's like kiddie hour. I am just being crapped on really badly and the cards and play finally got slightly worse, on my, PokerStars, and the opponents part, that it has caught up with me after the past couple days of coming out even. I'm not sure when I will play again, I think I need some time off. cyas.


Day 18a: 340%
Day 19a: 342%
Day 20a: 300%

After not updating for quite a few months i have decided to update now. I think i started on February 1st (too lazy to look for my previous post) at roughly 6300. I have had some success so far. Ill just make a quick summary of my overall progress. Hopefully I'll remember to update with more frequency

Day 10 105% 6,699.75
Day 20 125% 7,968.90
Day 30 136% 8,684.14
Day 40 167% 10,653.21
Day 50 180% 11,493.28
Day 60 182% 11,611.80
Day 70 202% 12,907.12
Day 80 253% 16,163.12
Day 90 248% 15,866.12

Day 91 247% 15,821.12
Day 92 273% 17,476.12
Day 93 273% 17,440.12
Day 94 287% 18,353.12
Day 95 301% 19,219.12
Day 96 322% 20,578.12
Day 97 307% 19,640.12
Day 98 328% 20,965.12

Fulltilt: Starting 50$ Curent 612$

PokerStars: Starting 10$ curent 43$

Carbon: Starting 0$ curent 2$

Bodog Starting 0$ curent 2$

Pokertime stating 10$ curent 6$

Progress Update

Week 30: 152% ($3,045)
Week 31: 134% ($2,682)

So, I've been playing some $0.50/$1.00 as well as $0.25/$0.50. Not a ton of hands, but quite a few actually.
My non-showdown hands have been breakeven throughout, however my showdown hands have made me a loss. My W$@Showdown was as low as 40% (and under) over large stretches which is highly unusual.

There is a small chance that I value-bet/call down too thin in some spots, but I don't think it would have such a pronounced effect. Either way, I will stay at 50NL and take a close look at these stats.

Well, last I posted, I had said I wouldn't play for a while. But, that was before I noticed I was getting crapped on and had not realized it was the weekend, so I kept going. But, the same 'ol continued, and I'm under belief that it is my table selection which is the problem. Everything was running well and smooth and I am at a point where something is a miss. I'm trying to figure out what exactly happened here. I know I'm tired, but I hardly believe that is the full problem. I used to be very select in sitting at a table, but loosened up, probably too much in retrospect. Until tomorrow...

Day 18a: 340%
Day 19a: 342%
Day 20a: 300%
Day 21a: 280%
Day 22a: 282%
Day 23a: 284%
Day 24a: 284%

Day X+13: $701 (1402%)
Day X+15: $704 (1408%)

X+13: Played for around an hour at $1/2, made virtually no profit, but then noticed some major holes in how I was playing - ending up losing too much on missed draws while not getting action on made hands, and once I adjusted my strategy to get the hands I hit paid off I returned to a small profit for the session. Negligible money-wise, but satisfying for improving my game and learning more about adjusting to other players at 6-max (n.b. I'm relatively green at 6-max hence only considering single-tabling).
X+15: A lunchtime game of Omaha - only playing $0.25/$0.50, so only a few dollars profit, but it's all going towards the bankroll targets and getting bonuses and so on, and a fun way to spend lunch.

(Updated) Day X+15: now $723 (1446%) a half hour more poker, $1/2 LO8 this time... still a very small number of hands compared to the likes of Chuck... but going well on the progress towards my bankroll targets... my immediate target is to get the $476 in Stars up above $800. 150 hands at $1/2 is way too small a sample to know how it'll really run, and I'm sure I'll drop below the current 15BB/hr, otherwise it would be clearly profitable enough at $1/2 without moving up a level for some useful earnings on the side of my real job... but for now, reality calls, and I have to do some washing up.

Ya I'll build a bankroll you can join all you have to do is give me all your money. Is that how it works haha

It takes money to make money, right?
You, first give us money, thus acquiring the necessary permits, etc...to build your roll. Any questions please contact Northern Telecom. Thank you.

Well, back on track, table and seat selection seemed to be the main culprit of the last down-streak. After yesterday's play, and taking a nice gain, and tonight's minimal gain after 15 minutes of play, I am calling it a night. cyas.


Progress:

Day 24a: 284%
Day 25a: 300%
Day 26a: 302%

Day X+16: $732 (1464%). Mainly Omaha High/Low. Again not a huge amount of play (approx 100 hands), but still, more progress towards my next target...

There's nothing big to speak of other than that I have sticked to extremely tight table selection, which is necessary especially for the weekend. Less than an hour of play the past few days led to minimal gains.

After a month of play, I'm happy to be up more than 100%. The goal for the next 30 days of play will be another 100.
Ciao


Progress:

Day 26a: 302%
Day 27a: 314%
Day 28a: 324%
Day 29a: 328%

Attached Images

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Progress Update

Week 30: 152% ($3,045)
Week 31: 134% ($2,682)
Week 32: 147% ($2,933)

I haven't played very much, mostly been at 50NL tabes actually. Hopefully, I'll soon kick it up a bit and play higher stakes again. For now, I'm just a little careful because I don't want to suffer a major drop again.

Well, I thought I would be writing about how nothing went well, but that changed a bit since last session. It's been a rough day for sure. Having the day off from work, I put in some time playing today, especially since I couldn't get anything going at all for the first hour or two, and haven't been ahead of the previous days mark since. The highlight of the evening, however, was being quadded by aces, but that was eclipsed, until I of course just quadded my 3's. Very little play yesterday and a small loss today, and I'm happy with ending the night now.

I did however venture into the tourney window on Stars and find a nice little $2 4-seater quadruple shoot-out. Having never played in one, I had thought you could go broke three times and still be in the tourney. But, not being sure, I played a good game and over-came the big stack heads up to advance to the next round, where I would be eliminated fairly easily by odd and aggressive play. Even though it basically suited my style of play, in that I can do very well at a short-handed table and heads-up, all I can say, is that will probably be the last quad shoot-out I'll ever play.

I'm playing the 6-seater 10NL micros right now, and by my calculations, at least for two more months. I look forward to inching my way up and eventually getting into the next micro limit, so that time spent playing will be truly worth it, and profits actually very decent. Overcoming my previous high from a day ago will have to be accomplished first...cyas.

Progress:

Day 29a: 328%
Day 30a: 334%
Day 31a: 332%

Well, there was a little play at the weekend which I didn't list... so the X+19 figure shows as higher than previously reported ones, but was actually a loss of $8.33, my first loss in a while, although at least it was at Full Ring Limit Omaha, rather than my current favourite of Short-Handed Limit Omaha High-Low, so not my 'A' game. I could blame bad cards and getting rivered, but I can't complain about the general run of luck I've had, overall, so I'll just leave it as (hopefully) an anomaly amongst otherwise good results. Pleased to follow it up the next day with a $15 profit in just 20 minutes at $0.5/1 playing short-handed Limit Omaha... the check-raise was my friend with an aggressive player who over-valued middling hands

Progress:
Day X+19: $738 (1476%)
Day X+20: $746 (1492%)

Guys, I have a somewhat interesting graph. Below is my PokerEV graph for 2008 which I just took a look at.

It shows:
a) that I have played very few hands
b) that I run a disgusting 23 buy-ins below expectation
c) that up until recently I lost a ton of money in no-showdown pots*
*I would have only broken even, had I had average luck



Now, the sick part about this is that the first half of this graph contains a lot of higher stakes where 1 buy-in translates to something between $200 and $600.
I suppose, the long run is a lot longer than 130,000 hands...

X+20 (part 2) Played a couple of freerolls for giggles in the evening. A Full Tilt one (NL Holdem) to see if I can get a couple of dollars to work into a bankroll on the site, and was doing well until I had a couple of big coin flips which, of course, I lost. And a Poker Stars one for a ticket to a Stage 2 freeroll - 6800+ entrants. Came 60th for one of the Stage 2 tickets... Compared to real-money play a complete waste of time, but will have to see if I can get anything in the Stage 2... but obviously no change on the bankroll from that yet, just pleased at placing that high out of that many, especially given after 99th place, nobody gave a toss, so it was just a raise-fest, and I had to get to bed.

I know with playing micro stakes, which is where I am at, it is almost impossible to come out at least even as far as Money won without showdown, due to the type of play needed to succeed at the level. I'm really wondering, at what level does $ won without showdown actually become profitable? Anyone?

I played a bit of NL25 last week, which is the lowest level I've ever played, and I believe you're absolutely right. Due to the nature of the game, you can't break even in no-showdown pots. However, you will more than make up for it with your showdown hands because people call you down with all kinds of crap.

Having also played a ton of NL50, I can safely say that it's possible to roughly break even in no-showdown pots. Even though the tables are filled with fish, you can get them to fold hands. Surprisingly, c-bets tend to work extremely well, so well in fact that it's probably profitable to c-bet 100% of the time.
Also, people at this level are not used to getting 3-bet by anything that is not QQ+ (and in rare cases AK). So you can make a lot of money by 3-betting a lot. If you do get called, a c-bet will usually take care of the rest.
None of this works at NL25 because 3-bets get no respect whatsoever. You'll just get called down most of the time. And I would assume that it's even worse at smaller stakes.

I think it is from NL100 onwards that your no-showdown pots can show a profit if you're very aggressive postflop.

Ah, I see. Thanks Chris.

Yesterday's play started off the same as usual. Coming into an early deficit, then having to find my way back to even, then gaining an inch, quiting while ahead and being thankful.

Tonight I played for maybe 45 minutes after first observing tables and finding nothing of any interest. A half hour later I found three that were ok to take a seat. The stacks were too large at most tables, and usually buying in for less than half the max, I'm looking for tables with other players with short stacks, knowing they're more likely to give away their money. I think buying in for the max at these limits is useless because half, or more, of the players at the table usually don't buy in for max. If they do, they're looking to push the table around and other big stacks will sit in...etc. It doesn't seem to accommodate my style and the risk isn't worth the it imo.

Progress:

Day 31a: 332%
Day 32a: 334%
Day 33a: 340%

Definitely 50NL making a profit in pots that don't go to showdown is pretty easy. Like Chris said, c-bets work a lot of the time and 2nd barrels work quite a bit too. 100NL I would say is where it becomes pretty crucial to be making quite a bit of your money without going to showdown. I don't have a huge sample, not much of a sample at all actually.. I played 331 hands at 100NL earlier this month and I actually lost $40 at showdown (due to one bad beat at the end, I was BE for the session before it) but I won about $100 without going to showdown and ended the session up $60.

So at 25NL and below I wouldn't worry about how much you win or lose without going to showdown, since all you have to do to win at those levels is wait for a big hand and value bet it.

X+21 : $684 (1368%) - well, that was a disaster of a session, dropping the entirety of the freebie at PokerRoom. And while I made virtually nothing better than a middling flush most of the session, I can also reasonably say I was run over by some of the other players at the short-handed Omaha table. Looks like High/Low is a much better game for me, and anything else still tends towards an expensive learning experience. Annoyingly I nearly quit a few dollars up. The final loss was attempting to spin up the remaining $15 on a Pot Limit Omaha table. I did get the money in pre-flop with the better hand heads-up, but got outdrawn, so that was that, really.
Back to Stars and Party, and focussing on Omaha High/Low again. Easy to fixate on it, when it's the 2nd biggest losing session I've had, but on the other hand it was money I wasn't likely to be able to cash any time soon, coming from a freebie, and I'm still up over the last couple of months.
I think I might have hit tilt... I'll blame that on losing one of my cats after he was attacked by foxes... not that excuses help the bankroll any.

X+23: $681 (1362%) - Placed in a Stage 2 Stars freeroll (PLO) for a tiny $0.80... had been playing great until I was trying to help put kids to bed and deal with the littlest one who'd been grisly all day. Then decided to try the min stakes PLO8 on Noble Poker, dropping $5. Not sure how much was me overvaluing hands, and how much was bad luck, although I'm still sure I'm not profitable at PLO or PLO8 yet... so back to Limit Omaha High/Low.
X+24: $685 (1370%) - a basic short-handed Omaha H/L $0.5/1 session on Party. Easily spotted the fish who'd raise with trips into a made straight and low without any low either, and while I missed with all my A2 hands, I came away ahead, so I'm reasonably happy... it's currently seeming like I'm doing fine on the sites I can cash the money at (Stars, Party), but having a hard time winning at the sites I'd have a harder time cashing the money (Room, Noble)... which I guess is good, because effectively more of the nominal total bankroll is readily cashable.

After a small gain in the afternoon session on Friday and hitting my previous high, I looked to make more $. The next session of play, two out of the three tables I had gained and the other had a minimal loss. Then, the poker gods cut off my internet connection as a fast moving thunderstorm came through moments after I had hit the river and people were showing/mucking their cards. I took down a nice pot as I was disconnected and decided it was a sign and I better not continue and upset the gods. I didn't play on Sat. or Sun. cyas.


Progress:

Day 32a: 334%
Day 33a: 340%
Day 34a: 348%

My strategy was pure and simple. I found 3 short-handed tables with short stacks and sat in the seat right of the player who was overly aggressive, attempting to steal most pots. About 10 minutes in, I gambled a bit with 1 hand by hitting all-in, probably when I shouldn't have, but coming out ahead. The cards wouldn't stop coming, I tripled my original stack, and closed out the other tables where I was slightly behind and and decided to call it a night. I must have saw AA twice, AK twice in a row, QQ, and KK (flopping a K and a pair of 2's) all within 15 minutes of sitting down, it was unbelievable. The only problem was, most of them, no one had any hands to call me with, and I was paid off on weaker starting hands. I tried slow-playing until the river, pushing all-in pre...bah. I did however tag a player with AQ with my AK. Then on the hand after, with AK, re-tagging the player who was semi-bluffing through. Good night folks.

Day 33a: 340%
Day 34a: 348%
Day 35a: 354%

Attached Images

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I've played 3 sessions today (Tuesday). Much of them were a blur. Nothing big to speak of until the last session where I caught set after set and gained a bit more than the usual for a day's work. To make the month more of a success, I was looking to make substantial gains 1 or 2 of the remaining days. Hopefully this is signs of good things to come.

Well I had off Wednesday from work and played a bit. I was slightly ahead until the 3rd session where I fell behind, and then came even, only to have someone call my large stack and flopped straight, all-in on the turn, and catch their flush. Call me with one card to go with the bottom end of the s-draw and a f-draw? It's not like I gave it to him on the flop. If anything, calling with crap there was the biggest surprise. F'n A. That's all I've got to say. I haven't seen that kind of beat in a while. I came in behind for the evening because I busted out at a few tables and made substantial gains at a few, and was at about even when my larger stack got flushed out. So...I can't say it was tilt or bad play.

I played 3 short sessions Thursday and solid play paid off. I'm finding it helpful that I have about half the field tagged with notes and know some of the steady, solid, competitors, who I can sit down next to and know what they're basically going to do. I basically work-around the known steady player and try to make gains on the small stack kiddies. Most of the time it works well. Today it did, resulting in a nice rebound from my previous downfall in BR. Good Morning, Goodnight, and Good Afternoon fellow felt addicts. CIAO

Progress:

Day 35a: 354%
Day 36a: 374%
Day 37a: 350%
Day 38a: 378%