From 0 to 50NL

2010-03-31T02:38:00.000-04:00

Well its been a while since my last update, but that is because I havent had much to add. Unfortunately I did not reach my $500 goal by last week, so I am pushing that back to this week. So basically I plan on having $500 in my account on FTP by Sunday. I got up to $320 last Friday, then went on a sick downswing to $275 the next day. During that time period I had pocket aces cracked twice in like 20 hands playing 10nl, as well as failing to cash in all 15 tournaments. Luckily now I've gotten back up to $344 playing mostly $2 tournaments, and I hope to break the $400 mark in the next 2 days. That will give me another 2 days to make the last $100 to reach my goal.

New Weekly Goal

2010-03-21T20:16:00.000-04:00

So since my last update, I've brought my bankroll up to $259.44. While I am pretty happy with my success so far, I don't think this pace is going to work; $50 a week is not going to cut it. Therefore my goal for this week is going to be $500. It's definitely kind of extreme, but definitely doable since this should be a pretty easy week schoolwise. This will encourage me to put in more volume and work towards building my bankroll faster.

I'm registered for the Daily Dollar and a tournament to win a $26 dollar token. I'll also play a few $2 tournaments and maybe some 10nl before the nights over. Heres a hand I just played and got really lucky on. It helped me take 9th in a $2-180 man tourney, but I felt bad for this guy since he lost the rest of his stack with KK to Q-8o all in preflop:

Full Tilt Poker $2 + $0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t200/t400 Blinds + t50 - 7 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: t19070 M = 20.07
UTG+1: t2356 M = 2.48
MP: t56 M = 0.06
CO: t18016 M = 18.96
BTN: t19885 M = 20.93
SB: t10564 M = 11.12
Hero (BB): t8437 M = 8.88

Pre Flop: (t950) Hero is BB with 4 4
2 folds, MP calls t6 all in, CO calls t400, 1 fold, SB raises to t1200, Hero calls t800, CO calls t800

Flop: (t3956) 4 8 A (4 players - 1 is all in)
SB bets t9314 all in, Hero calls t7187 all in, CO folds

Turn: (t18330) 4 (3 players - 3 are all in)

River: (t18330) T (3 players - 3 are all in)

Final Pot: t18330
MP shows 2 6 (a pair of Fours)
SB shows A A (a full house, Aces full of Fours)
Hero shows 4 4 (four of a kind, Fours)
Hero wins t17956
Hero wins t374

The Theory of Poker: A Professional Poker Player Teaches You How To Think Like One

2010-03-17T15:41:00.000-04:00

Quick update: $226 bankroll
Playing mostly 5nl and $1 tourneys still, running really well in the cash games but basically break-even in the tournaments unfortunately. I'll probably move up when I start running better in the tournaments, but Im happy because I haven't ran into any real downswings. Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself lol. I'll update more later and hopefully put some more interesting hands up as well.

Back from a break..

2010-03-14T23:08:00.000-04:00

Well its been over a week since I posted since I have been in Florida for spring break. In regards to my last post, I did bring my bankroll on FTP to $202, so I have reached that milestone. Reaching this level is important because I now have an adequate bankroll to begin playing 10nl($0.05/0.10 blinds) and $2 tournaments. Hopefully I do as well in those games, although I'm sure the competition will be much tougher.

So I am now at 10% of my overall goal of $2000, which isnt bad although I think I will probably have to step it up if I want to make it. With just about 2 months left, it would be ideal to get to $500 within the next two weeks. This will require a lot of playing, but it would put me in a good position to move up in levels at a comfortable pace. I've really been enjoying playing tournaments instead of cash games lately, so that's probably what I'll stick with for a while.

2010-03-04T20:10:00.000-05:00

Well just busted out in 119th place for $11 after I got sucked out on. Ohs well, my new tournament strategy has been working out pretty well, so if I keep getting this deep in these tournaments I'll be pretty happy. Basically I've just been playing really aggressive and playing a lot of hands. This strategy means I'll may not cash in as many tournaments, but I will go deeper when i do and have bigger payouts. I'll be playing a few more tourneys tonight, so I'm looking to break $200 tonight.

2010-03-04T19:22:00.000-05:00

This was such a teaser hand. Woulda put me in the top 20 if I held:

Full Tilt Poker Daily Dollar Rebuy No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t800/t1600 Blinds + t200 - 9 players - View hand 569724
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: t17951 M = 4.27
SB: t95909 M = 22.84
Hero (BB): t130540 M = 31.08
UTG: t2300 M = 0.55
UTG+1: t8400 M = 2
UTG+2: t47074 M = 11.21
MP1: t11238 M = 2.68
MP2: t51493 M = 12.26
CO: t10386 M = 2.47

Pre Flop: (t4200) Hero is BB with 8 5
6 folds, BTN raises to t17751 all in, 1 fold, Hero calls t16151

Flop: (t38102) 7 4 6

Turn: (t38102) 8

River: (t38102) 5

Final Pot: t38102
BTN shows Q J (a straight, Eight high)
Hero shows 8 5 (a straight, Eight high)
Hero wins t19051
BTN wins t19051

Oh, well at least what can ya do...

Daily Dollar Update

2010-03-04T18:47:00.001-05:00

Well I haven't been able to update much lately, had a pretty busy week, but I just wanted to post a quick update that I am currently in 27th place in the Daily Double Tournament.

Starting no. of players: 4,906
Current no. of players: 555
Current chip count: $110,000
Chip leader: $242,000
Average chip stack: $50,000
First Place = $3,100

Wish me luck!

2010-03-01T00:37:00.002-05:00

Well, I wasn't able to play much this weekend, as I had a lot of homework and studying to do for this upcoming week. I was able to move up my bankroll a bit in the past two days though, mostly through $1 sit-n-go tournaments and unlocking my bonus. So at this point my bankroll stands at $176.96 on Full Tilt and I plan to be at $200 in the next couple of days. Ideally I would like to be at $300 before I leave for spring break next weekend.

After this weekend I'll be able to move up to 10nl(0.05/0.10 blinds) and $2-3 tournaments. I also have Ironman medals and Full Tilt Academy points I can exchange for 2 $26 tournament tokens. So just for fun I'll purchase those and play a couple of $26 tournaments. If I win, I can get nice couple hundred dollar score, and if not, ohs well, I didnt have to use any money to play.

Here's my PokerTracker graph for the past week. It only includes cash games though, the tournament stats are different. The only thing I'm not too happy about is the 5BB/100 winrate. I think I should be able to be winning more around 8BB/100 at these levels, but atleast its a positive winrate!

Also, PokerStars account = $6.22 after a couple of 10 cent tourneys. Its going slow but hopefully I can have a decent bankroll on stars soon.

Day 6/7 - A review of the week

2010-02-26T19:38:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't feel like posting yesterday, but I played my first session at 5nl and ended up $12, bring my account to $112. Today I got my weekly rakeback which came out to $38.22 which has brought my bankroll up to $150.22. To those who don't know, the websites take out a portion of your winnings, called rake, which is how they profit off of the games. You can make a special deal with the sites, called rakeback, to get 27% of that money back every week. So that is always a nice extra boost at the end of the week.

This first week has gone much better than expected, as I thought it may take a while to move out of 2nl being it's such a small amount of money. But now I have more than enough for 5nl and should have enough money to move up to 10nl by the end of next week, as long as I dont hit a downswing. Once I figure out how, I'll post my PokerTracker graph on here too. Hopefully I can play some tournaments this weekend, as they always seem to be extra soft on the weekend. Well that's all for now, be back tomorrow!

Chips And Games 8 Player Folding Octagon Poker Table Top

Day 5

2010-02-25T00:27:00.001-05:00

Current bankroll: $100.64. +$5 of the bonus unlocked, the rest from cashing in the Daily Dollar. So I broke the $100 mark 2 days before my goal, now I get to move up in stakes. Woohoo!! And thats all, I'm going to bed now.

Day 4

2010-02-24T01:51:00.000-05:00

Hey ya'll, just finished up todays session, which turned out to be a pretty good one. I didn't play any cash games on Full Tilt, but enrolled in a few 18 and 45-man $1 tournaments. I failed to cash in the first couple ones I played, but was able to finally take down first place in a 45-man and third place in an 18-man tourney. Overall these two wins, plus one or two min-cashes gave me a $13.01 profit for the day and brought my roll up to $93.03.

Then, for the first time this week, I fired up Pokerstars and grew my bankroll by 2.5 times. First I finished 9th in a $0.10 360-man tourney, then took down first place in a $0.25 45-man tourney. At the end of the night the money in my account grew from $2 to $4.76. While it doesn't seem like much, this was a huge step in building my bankroll on stars. It would have only taken a couple of unlucky hands to make me busto, but now with almost $5 I have quite a bit more breathing room. I'll probably keep playing these tourneys on stars until I get up to at least $30 before I start playing cash games.

Well thats all for tonight, so goodnight!

The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition

Day 3

2010-02-23T01:08:00.000-05:00

Just finished up my latest session, I won $6.16 playing cash games and cashed in the Daily Dollar tournament for $3.50, bringing my total bankroll up to $80.82. Should've probably gone deeper in the DD, but lost with a flush to a full house in the middle stages which really crippled me. I'll probably keep playing the DD most nights since I can enter with 200 FTP, which is a pretty good deal since 1st place > $1500. No interesting hand to post tonight really, plus I'm pretty tired so I'll keep it short. Oh and I almost forgot, I got a $50 bonus from Full Tilt which I'll be unlocking in $5 increments as I play more hands. I'm thinking that I should be able to get past $100 by Friday, which means I can move up to 5NL(.02/.05 blinds) this weekend. Well that's all for now, Ill be back at it tomorrow.

Trademark Poker 500 Dice Style 11.5-Gram Poker Chip Set

Day 2

2010-02-22T02:05:00.001-05:00

So, I just finished up my second day of this challenge up +$6.42, bringing my total on FTP up to $71.86. The session started off a little rough when I lost with pocket aces to pocket queens all in preflop and he spiked a queen on the turn. A couple hand later I lost with my pocket queens to pocket kings on a K Q 5 board. Luckily I was able to turn it around although it took awhile. This was my favorite hand of the day:

Full Tilt Poker $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 551910
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $3.43
BTN: $1.95
SB: $3.83
BB: $1.16
UTG: $2.46
MP: $2.81

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is CO with A A
2 folds, Hero raises to $2.02, 1 fold, SB calls $2.01, 1 fold

Flop: ($4.06) 9 6 J (2 players)
SB bets $1.81 all in, Hero calls $1.41 all in

Turn: ($6.88) 3 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($6.88) Q (2 players - 2 are all in)

I got the idea to do this from a thread on twoplustwo (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54/poker-beats-brags-variance/confession-i-used-nlo8-angle-shooter-865/) where whenever the guy had pocket aces he would raise to an amount that would only use one chip, confusing his opponents into thinking they were calling a min raise. I his case, he be playing with 50 cent blinds and raise to $50.50. I did the same thing, just raising to 2.02 instead. I've tried this a few times, but I was pretty excited b/c it's the first time it actually worked!

I've been tempted to play some $1 sit-n-go tournaments, so I may do that tomorrow instead of playing cash games, just to switch up a bit. And I'll end my post with a super sick bluff by Phil Ivey against Paul Jackson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--Qap3VT_ZY

Doyle Brunson's Super System: A Course in Power Poker, 3rd Edition

Day 1

2010-02-20T17:34:00.000-05:00

Well, I just finished my first 2NL session since staring this challenge and I'm up $15.44 so my bankroll is now at $65.44. Nothing too exciting, although this hand was pretty interesting. It made me lol:

Full Tilt Poker $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 548830
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $2.00
UTG: $3.23
CO: $5.33
BTN: $6.33
SB: $9.37

CO posts a big blind ($0.02)

Pre Flop: ($0.06) Hero is BB with A 3
UTG calls $0.02, CO checks, 1 fold, SB calls $0.01, Hero checks

Flop: ($0.09) 5 A K (4 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG bets $3.21 all in, CO folds, SB folds, Hero calls $1.98 all in

Turn: ($4.05) K (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($4.05) 3 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $4.05
Hero shows A 3 (two pair, Aces and Kings)
UTG shows Q 2 (a pair of Kings)
Hero wins $3.78
(Rake: $0.27)

Normally I would've snap folded this, but this guy had a habit of just shoving all in any time he was checked to, so I figured there was a good chance I was ahead. I did this to him just a couple hands later too lol.

I also played in a 2500FTP (points you earn for playing at the site) were the top 50 got a ticket into a $216 FTOPs tournament. Unfortunately I finished in 85th out of 814 when my AK lost to AA on an A high flop. It would've been a nice boost to my bankroll, but oh well, I didn't lose anything for playing it at least. I think I'll be trying to use these free satellites to try and make a little extra, but we'll see how it goes.

Poker Winners Are Different

And so it begins...

2010-02-19T21:06:00.002-05:00

Hi all,

So you guys are probably all reading this and are wondering what I'm talking about. Well, as many of you know I have been playing a bit of online poker at Pokerstars and more recently Full Tilt Poker for the past few months. Nothing too serious, but I've been doing fairly well and have been able to make some money. Unfortunately, since I am currently unemployed I have been having to tap into by online bankroll more than I would like to pay for stuff like groceries and what ever other stuff I seem to waste all my money on.

I have recently withdrawn all but $50 dollars on Full Tilt and just $2 on Pokerstars, so as a challenge to myself and obviously as a way to make money, I will be trying to turn that money into $2000 by the end of the semester. I chose $2000 because that will be enough to get be to 50NL ($50 buy-ins) were I can make consistent money. This won't be easy, but I've seen a few people pull even crazier stuff than this, like turning $5 into $1000 in a week, so I believe I can do it (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54/poker-beats-brags-variance/week-long-prop-bet-676/). The plan is to play mostly 2NL ($2 buy-ins) cash games until I can get up to $100 on FTP with possibly a few cheap tournaments. Since I only have $2 on Stars I'll be playing only the $0.10 tournaments until I can get at least $30, then I can move to cash games.

My reason for making this blog is to help me stay focused on my goal and stay within my limits since I will probably be tempted to play higher stakes than I should at this point. I will hopefully be posting updates every night, detailing my sessions and the state of my bankroll. The last thing I wanted to mention is that there a couple of sites out there that can give you a better idea of what I'm doing. They are:

twoplustwo.com
deucescracked.com

Both of these sites have helped me to progress as a poker player and I will continue to use them during this blog. I will probably play a short session tonight, so if i do I'll post results. Thanks everyone for reading, and if anyone has any questions please ask!

Oh, and in before "You know online poker is rigged, don't you?" and "It's impossible to win in the long run." lol

Why Work When You Can Play Poker T-Shirt, Texas Holdem T-Shirt, XX-Large