New Player, a little help?

[ovitoo]

For sure you don't have to deposit that much either. Your first deposit in awhile I would throw 50 max and just try to grind up. When you get your posts up to 25 there is some private tourney's with money added and mtt tickets.

And if you think you played a hand badly just post it in hand analysis. Especially if you really didnt know what to do.

And don't think about your br while you're playing lol. Good luck man. Keep updating.

 

[Poker Orifice]

Hello, I've been around the game of poker for some time now. I played when I was 16, currently 27, for a few years with some friends playing penny games at home. When I turned 21 I graduated to a 1-2 no limit game at Foxwoods Casino in CT, where I am currently a dealer at. During that time I played quite a bit online playing 1/2 on PokerStars and one a few thousand dollars on a 300 dollar investment, cashed out, went into the Army, and never played online again as the whole thing came crashing down the past few years. I had varying success while I was in the Army coming home, most of the time I would win small, or lose 300, and I had a few 1k wins from a 200 buy investment in a 1/2 game. Since I got out of the Army I am now dealing again for the second time and I've been getting the bug so I noticed Carbon Poker had Fun Steps to a dollar. I didn't want to invest online as I have always been skeptical of the variance online and figured if I could build a free bankroll I wouldnt care nearly as much as if it was my own invested money. I've had some decent success winning a few Step 3s and turning it into 10 dollars however I hit some cold streaks, mixed in with more poor play than good play. Basically what I'm getting at is, I SharkScoped myself, my ROI is around 17% and skill 61. I have poker tracked myself and I have 20k hands played(that I imported to poker tracker) and I was wondering if I am playing poorly more often than not, if maybe I should quit, or if maybe a few simple tweaks might make me more successful because I can't seem to build the bankroll and since having gone to 10 I am now down to pennies again. Thanks for the time in reading this.

Something doesn't quite add up for me here
Is it only me... or does anyone else feel a tad confused?

What I'm getting at is, in first part it sounds like you know how to play & are familiar with the game but then in last part you're giving stats. that would seem insignificant (ROI from Fun Rolls or steps & micro $10 roll & whatever they are).
PokerTracker for fun steps & a $10 bankroll? And that it would have any meaning? Especially to the extent of whether or not you'd consider continuing on with the game? < reading this part makes reading the first part seem a tad less believable (but anything is possible).

Then (correct me if I'm wrong here) because you haven't been able to maintain a $10 bankroll, you're thinking you should deposit $500 (but you mentioned that you're going to school now & can't really afford it?).. so then maybe you won't play at all because you're not winning off of your first $10 won from fun steps?
Sorry but I'm confused again How do these two even relate? And why pick the number $500? (with a 100% dep. bonus). Why not $25... or $50... or $100. Or.. if you think you're not sure if you can even win in micros.. why not play the FunSteps again where you have nothing to lose? Why pick $500?

I would assume that if you're a dealer you'd have a decent understanding about alot of this & maybe wouldn't be asking these questions (oh.. and also seeing as you won thousands playing 1/2 before in the past). But maybe I'm wrong for assuming this Maybe you deal blackjack tables or something else aside from poker? Maybe the 1,000's won a few yrs back was on a massive heater? And over a short period of time and you don't have alot of experience playing?
But maybe you do have alot of experience playing... but you haven't played for a few years so now you're concerned about losing a bankroll that used to be less than a 3bet preflop? I'm confused again.

What are you goals? What experience do you have? What is the plan to get there? If not sure, maybe ask these questions of yourself, & then maybe you'll also come up with some questions to ask others.

If you're content playing the lowest of buyins (not sure what game.. SNG? cash? MTT? a combination of all of these?)... then why not drop a c-note down & start playing? Should be enough to play $1 & $2 buyins to start out with.
PS 1,000 buyins suggested in this thread for MTT play is pretty ludicrous. I'd think even if you were only choosing to play in the Sunday Storm you'd need far less than this. Not sure where some peeps pull their answers from?

And lastly, Good luck in whatever you choose to do. Maybe see you in some Cardschat games somewhere down the road.

 

[FcukStryker]

Something doesn't quite add up for me here
Is it only me... or does anyone else feel a tad confused?

What I'm getting at is, in first part it sounds like you know how to play & are familiar with the game but then in last part you're giving stats. that would seem insignificant (ROI from Fun Rolls or steps & micro $10 roll & whatever they are).
PokerTracker for fun steps & a $10 bankroll? And that it would have any meaning? Especially to the extent of whether or not you'd consider continuing on with the game? < reading this part makes reading the first part seem a tad less believable (but anything is possible).

Then (correct me if I'm wrong here) because you haven't been able to maintain a $10 bankroll, you're thinking you should deposit $500 (but you mentioned that you're going to school now & can't really afford it?).. so then maybe you won't play at all because you're not winning off of your first $10 won from fun steps?
I am going to school and I cant afford continuing to play 1/2 NL live which is the game I was used to playing when I was in the Army and before I simply don't have a few thousand dollars to bankroll myself at that level. Even playing conservative at 20 max buy ins is still 6k.

Sorry but I'm confused again How do these two even relate? And why pick the number $500? (with a 100% dep. bonus). Why not $25... or $50... or $100. Or.. if you think you're not sure if you can even win in micros.. why not play the FunSteps again where you have nothing to lose? Why pick $500?

The 500 was an arbitrary number based on playing at a merge site and them matching a 150% bonus up to 750 dollars. There for, 500 getting me to the max bonus of 750 dollars. Number was simply to get the max bonus amount albeit still playing very small stakes. Since then I HAVE made a deposit for 250 dollars.
I would assume that if you're a dealer you'd have a decent understanding about alot of this & maybe wouldn't be asking these questions (oh.. and also seeing as you won thousands playing 1/2 before in the past). But maybe I'm wrong for assuming this Maybe you deal blackjack tables or something else aside from poker? Maybe the 1,000's won a few yrs back was on a massive heater? And over a short period of time and you don't have alot of experience playing?
But maybe you do have alot of experience playing... but you haven't played for a few years so now you're concerned about losing a bankroll that used to be less than a 3bet preflop? I'm confused again.
I am a poker dealer, I feel as if I have a good grasp of the game and against weaker players I feel as if I can exploit them and make decent plays to take pots away from them or just cause them to make bad decisions. Against stronger players Not so much. I played from the age 16-21 A LOT, and then when I went into the army I didn't play much at all. Only coming home as stated prior in the thread I believe. After 5 years I am starting again and it hasnt all just come back.
What are you goals? What experience do you have? What is the plan to get there? If not sure, maybe ask these questions of yourself, & then maybe you'll also come up with some questions to ask others.
At this point I am only a .2/.4 Micro Stakes player with 250 in my account. It has fluctuated over a week from 275 to 240. My first and only goal at this point is to get it to 500 dollars so I can move up to 50 Max buy ins at the next level which is .5/.10
If you're content playing the lowest of buyins (not sure what game.. SNG? cash? MTT? a combination of all of these?)... then why not drop a c-note down & start playing? Should be enough to play $1 & $2 buyins to start out with.
PS 1,000 buyins suggested in this thread for MTT play is pretty ludicrous. I'd think even if you were only choosing to play in the Sunday Storm you'd need far less than this. Not sure where some peeps pull their answers from?
I did end up depositing as mentioned before, I am actually using my FPP towards MTT's so that I don't really have to take those into considerations at this point towards bankroll management. Mostly I am just multi-tabling at the lowest level and playing 1,2, and 3 dollar buyins just to get the feel of how the games go once I move up a little bit. The highest buy in I did was a 5 dollar DoN and made the money but I did feel as if it got slightly harder.

And lastly, Good luck in whatever you choose to do. Maybe see you in some Cardschat games somewhere down the road.

Thank you and likewise.

 

[FcukStryker]

Also one question I did not address Poker Orifice: You asked about my winning thousands. I played online once at pokerstars when I turned 21 and went on a MASSIVE heater and I won a few thousand playing .50/1 and 1/2. After that I just cashed out and stopped playing online after I took a down swing. I still ended up winning quite a bit over the course of the summer.

 

[Reptar7]

if you are too scared to deposit some money, then poker is not the game for you my friend....stick to dealing

I think not depositing is the way to go now. If you are good enough, it shouldn't be that hard to run up a roll from zero. Depositing seems silly since it is a hassle and you don't know if you'll be able to get money off.

I started from zero like last year after Black Friday and ran it up from zero easy enough. Unfortunately I started on Cake where the min withdrawal is $500 so I had to do trading to get money off.

Anyways, keep plugging away at those funsteps and find any freerolls you can. Get into the CC freeroll club as soon as possible and maybe join Hero poker (on the merge network) they have lots of good freerolls including several daily $50 freerolls and two $100 daily freerolls.

EDIT: I just read that part about you depositing $250.

 

[4thandinches]

It is a long, arduous road to try to turn freerolls into any useful bankroll. You will be wasting a lot of time, but at least you won't be regularly depositing money.
The best time to play internet poker is when you are doing something else at the same time, like watching TV, playing solitaire, perusing the internet, etc.
Otherwise, it becomes extremely boring just playing poker and waiting for a playable hand.

 

[ovitoo]

It is a long, arduous road to try to turn freerolls into any useful bankroll. You will be wasting a lot of time, but at least you won't be regularly depositing money.
The best time to play internet poker is when you are doing something else at the same time, like watching TV, playing solitaire, perusing the internet, etc.
Otherwise, it becomes extremely boring just playing poker and waiting for a playable hand.

Dont do this.

I used to. And then I watched replays where I was missing spots that I should've taken advantage of.

Just open more tables.

 

[FcukStryker]

So I am officially down 20% of my 250 Bankroll so far. I have ran into some extremely bad beats, mostly with sets, losing out to straights and flushes when I shove on flop and they suck out. I feel like I'm playing solid but on a bad down swing. I was however up 20 before my sick 70 dollar cooler. Pretty frustrated at this point.

 

[dj11]

So I am officially down 20% of my 250 Bankroll so far. I have ran into some extremely bad beats, mostly with sets, losing out to straights and flushes when I shove on flop and they suck out. I feel like I'm playing solid but on a bad down swing. I was however up 20 before my sick 70 dollar cooler. Pretty frustrated at this point.

Stop shoving!, play things smaller. Very late in the game you need to be shoving, but take that out of your regular repertoire.

 

[FcukStryker]

Stop shoving!, play things smaller. Very late in the game you need to be shoving, but take that out of your regular repertoire.

In said situations I had no choice. In position I would raise their flop bets, I would get 3 bet hard and I would 4 bet shove only to get called by bigger pairs and end up losing. I think call/call/call is the wrong way to play especially when the board is dangerous and in most of the cases it was with straight draws and flush draws. I have since got my BR back to 250 and took 3rd in a 500 person MTT for a dollar and won like 50 bucks. It's been an up and down grind but I was very timid at first, then I downloaded Poker Co Pilot and it told me I was being way too passive in every position. After losing about 100 of the 250 I have come all the way back to my original deposit by changing my aggression factor. In the future the sets will hold up and most of the time I do play small ball poker, but not in the case where I flop sets and I'm getting 4 bet after a raise with a set, I think that's a shove all day. Anyways, thanks for the insight.

 

[TakinOver]

There is plenty of free money on other forums. Build up a BR from some1 elses free cash. Why use yours? You can if you want but there are many bankroll builders giving money and if your persistent youll win some and just sit on it till you have enough to play what you want. Depositing is good though so you dont have a hassle when you withdraw. I have yet to withdraw but might deposit if I have trouble taking my money out. I heard there is a way and I better get started on it so I dont have trouble. Good luck bro, Im sure you will get it started again and if you lose it use the free money.

 

[Poker Orifice]

Stop shoving!, play things smaller. Very late in the game you need to be shoving, but take that out of your regular repertoire.

Please disregard this guy's comment. I mean how can he make a suggestion like this without knowing the particulars of the hands? Seems ludicrous to me.

If you feel you're playing well, just hang tough. It's 100% normal.

 

[Poker Orifice]

There is plenty of free money on other forums. Build up a BR from some1 elses free cash. Why use yours? .

Umm.. maybe because if he's an experienced player capable of winning, he won't have to fart around grinding the lowest of low super duper mini micro games. Instead could use that same time invested playing slightly higher buyins, therefore winning more in the longrun for the time he's investing.

For someone who knows how to play, I think it's 100% better option to deposit than to piddle around trying to grind up a bit of change in priv. freerolls. (could always add those in to what you're already playing... if timewise you feel they'd be worth it).

 

[FcukStryker]

After my first month or so, I think I am pretty bad at poker. I am continually picking bad spots and making poor moves. Not quite sure what to do to improve.

 

[blue_moon33]

If you play with fear you have already lost.

 

[dj11]

Stop shoving!, play things smaller. Very late in the game you need to be shoving, but take that out of your regular repertoire.

Please disregard this guy's comment. I mean how can he make a suggestion like this without knowing the particulars of the hands? Seems ludicrous to me.

If you feel you're playing well, just hang tough. It's 100% normal.

Take PO's advice, I don't have a clue.....

 

[FcukStryker]

After my first month or so, I think I am pretty bad at poker. I am continually picking bad spots and making poor moves. Not quite sure what to do to improve.

So I was pretty frustrated in my first month, I was up and down with huge swings. I did have a great dollar tourny and took 3rd and won 100 in a MTT so I'm actually up again but I can't find myself consistently winning. It seems to be huge upswings and consistently going down, then huge upswing, the consistently down, etc etc. I don't think I'm a poor player but I hate playing nitty poker and never play OOP to a raise and I like trying to make 3 and 4 bet moves on players but it seems at Micro stakes levels that its just too hard to pull players off hands. For example, I dont have said hand from hand history, but I 3 bet a guy 3x his initial raise on the button, he called me with 67 os, flop came K J 6 rainbow, he then bet half the pot and it was enough for me to raise and make him make a decision to play for all their chips, and if they hit any part of the board they call. Could he have been putting me on air for 3bet in position? Possibly, but why not 4 bet me pre and find out where you are? You're going to call OOP and bet, shove when raised with bottom pair after a 3 bet on a somewhat web board. Just one example where if I were playing higher stakes I think that move on that board is profitable in the long term against people because they have to risk a lot more on hoping that I am on complete air when more often than not I wouldn't be.

 

[dj11]

So I was pretty frustrated in my first month, I was up and down with huge swings. I did have a great dollar tourny and took 3rd and won 100 in a MTT so I'm actually up again but I can't find myself consistently winning. It seems to be huge upswings and consistently going down, then huge upswing, the consistently down, etc etc. I don't think I'm a poor player but I hate playing nitty poker and never play OOP to a raise and I like trying to make 3 and 4 bet moves on players but it seems at Micro stakes levels that its just too hard to pull players off hands. For example, I dont have said hand from hand history, but I 3 bet a guy 3x his initial raise on the button, he called me with 67 os, flop came K J 6 rainbow, he then bet half the pot and it was enough for me to raise and make him make a decision to play for all their chips, and if they hit any part of the board they call. Could he have been putting me on air for 3bet in position? Possibly, but why not 4 bet me pre and find out where you are? You're going to call OOP and bet, shove when raised with bottom pair after a 3 bet on a somewhat web board. Just one example where if I were playing higher stakes I think that move on that board is profitable in the long term against people because they have to risk a lot more on hoping that I am on complete air when more often than not I wouldn't be.

If you are playing tourney's, you will never find yourself consistently winning. There are streaks where it doesn't matter what game you bring to the table, things will work out different that what you hope for. It is mandatory that you learn this. The thing is patience and lack of panic. Panic will make you try to make up for some nasty loss or another, and you will go into that next game with a 'panic necessity' frame of mind......

The trick is to lose the least in the bad times, and win the most in the good times.

 

[FcukStryker]

If you are playing tourney's, you will never find yourself consistently winning. There are streaks where it doesn't matter what game you bring to the table, things will work out different that what you hope for. It is mandatory that you learn this. The thing is patience and lack of panic. Panic will make you try to make up for some nasty loss or another, and you will go into that next game with a 'panic necessity' frame of mind......

The trick is to lose the least in the bad times, and win the most in the good times.

So do you suggest I never play tournys? I find myself placing ITM regularly in tournys. It's definitely profitable for me at this point. I'm playing mostly cash but I like playing tournaments, plus the ROI is pretty good if I go deep.

 

[dj11]

So do you suggest I never play tournys? I find myself placing ITM regularly in tournys. It's definitely profitable for me at this point. I'm playing mostly cash but I like playing tournaments, plus the ROI is pretty good if I go deep.

Sorry, I did not put that well.

I meant that you may not find yourself winning for weeks on end, or even cashing, and then you will have a little streak, or maybe a big streak, and you br goes up, on average over time. But 50 entries without a cash is not unusual.

As long as you understand that, all is well.

 

[Poker Orifice]

The trick is to lose the least in the bad times, and win the most in the good times.

How does one go about doing this ^
I mean if one is playing optimally in any & all situations... what are you suggesting they do? Ride the 'streaks'?

 

[dj11]

How does one go about doing this ^
I mean if one is playing optimally in any & all situations... what are you suggesting they do? Ride the 'streaks'?

I would discuss how I do this, but I get too much shit from so many of around here to bother with trying to discuss it.

And you know we don't always play optimally, and certainly not in every and all situations, so that might be a first clue of when to work on losing the least......