Thursday, August 30, 2007

The Now

At the start of August i switched too party as they had a relatively easy bonus too clear for uNL players. Its been great, its definitly the softest site i have played on. The only disappoint thing is their points system, it's toss. As move up through the limits staying at Party will be hard as i really could do with a site that has rakeback. Not sure how accurate the Poker track stat is for Rakeback but it says i have paid $104 in rake which is big amount for uNL like me. Through stars point system i can currently get $10 from them, which seems pretty low.

Still though, i've had the best ever so far so cant complain too much, graphs and what not to come in a few days. I have been playing mainly NL5 this month though.

I'd be well rolled for NL 25 now if i didnt keep withdrawing too buy sweets on ebay. :(

The Beginning Part II...

June was a brilliant month for me. Now that my roll was built up too a decent amount i was able to buy-in full and not worry about losing a stack or two. Also the time i was spending reading 2+2 and the spent going over Small Stake Holdem was paying off. I played NL 2 for the first half of the month, then moved up too NL 5.

I played a more agressive game(for me) at NL 2 and crushed it. I enjoyed a very good start too NL 5 aswell. Again i was very passive at NL 5 to begin with, i limped behind alot and didnt get very agressive post flop either. Moving up levels i didnt want too come out of the blocks firing as i wasnt sure how it played so i revert too the simple more ABC still poker that i was used too from NL 2.


Also clocked up 617 hands at NL 10 and won 3 buy-in. When June ended my roll was now at about $200 and felt i was ready NL 10. At this time i decided too switch sites an avail of a deposit bonus so i went to another Ipoker skin, green joker poker too start July, this is were it all went a bit tits up.

Deposited $200 and was on ready to crush it. I mixed games of NL 5 and NL 10. Unfortunatly i went on an absolutelty horrednus run though. Took just over a week and 2k hands to drop $110 dollars at uNL.

At this stage i was also playing $0.50/$1 7 card stud. Started amazinly, the first 700 i was up $70 so my total roll was only around the $150 mark and I was clearing a good few points for the bonus. It didnt last though, and i begin too lose it as quick as i won it. About the middle of June i was playing any NL and just 7 card and a bit of omaha. My bank slipped down too $60 and i comtemplated grinding agai but i just couldnt. I dropped the money so quickly i felt i could get it back as quickly so busto/rebusto came into play. Did brilliantly at first, got it up over $100 and felt i could start over at NL 5. Dropped at few buy-ins and the tilt annoyance came. Decided for busto/rebusto and failed. I just had $20 odd dollars left and felt no point grinding it or throwing it away so i re-deposited.

Only 10 days left in June so decided to play some NL 5 and NL 10 and ran super hot, making alot of the money i originally lost back.




And that ended th diastourus month that was July.

The beginning..

I currently play Full ring NL 5/Nl 10 on Party, played previously on Ipoker skins but have found Party alot softer. I must of played about 40k hands at the nano limits so far, which is quite embarrassing that i am still stuck here a good chunk of change away from NL 25. So, here's how i got here...

Started poker like must people, deposited $50 etc and donked it away pretty quickly. I knew very little about poker, but enjoyed playing it. I was a complete donk though, I knew nothing about position or what hands were actually worth playing or not. Obviously felt any Ace was the nuts, Kxo was even a good starting hand for me and felt every flop should be seen with it. I hadn't even heard of pot odds, outs, Fold equity or any of those terms either. I was basically your typical uNL player. I originally started playing on Paddy power poker on the Ipoker network, handy site for uNL players due to the $0.10 SNG's they had. That was my game of choice back then, i was muck at it though. I deposited $10 back into it, about the 5th time and decided this was my last time depositing. That last about two weeks until i was down to my last $1, woops.

However at this stage i was reading the boards.ie poker forum and was picking up so decent info, but the forum was mainly higher stakes cash/donkament players. There wasn't a huge amount i was picking up that was beneficial too me. It took it me about two weeks too have the balls too post a hand for opinions as i knew the standard of it would leave me to some mild ribbing, thats when my game turned around completely. Here's the first ever poker hand i posted..19th April 07

- seat 1 with $1000.00
- Villian sitting in seat 2 with $1000.00
- seat 3 with $1000.00
- seat 4 with $1000.00
- seat 5 with $990.00 [Dealer]
- seat 6 with $970.00
- Hero sitting in seat 7 with $980.00
- seat 8 with $1000.00
- seat 9 with $1000.00
- seat 10 with $1030.00

seat 6 posted the small blind - $10.00
Hero posted the big blind - $20.00

** Dealing card to Hero: King of Hearts, 2 of Spades
seat 8 called - $20.00
seat 9 called - $20.00
seat 10 called - $20.00
seat 1 folded
Villian called - $20.00
seat 3 called - $20.00
seat 4 folded
seat 5 raised - $40.00
seat 6 folded
Hero called - $40.00
seat 7 called - $40.00
seat 9 called - $40.00
seat 10called - $40.00
Villian called - $40.00
seat 3 called - $40.00

** Dealing the flop: 10 of Spades, 3 of Hearts, King of Diamonds
Hero bet - $145.00
seat 7 folded
seat 9 called - $145.00
seeat 10 folded
Villian raised - $290.00
seat 3 folded
seat 5 called - $290.00
Hero called - $290.00
seat 9 called - $290.00

** Dealing the turn: King of Clubs
Hero checked
seat 9 checked
Villian bet - $362.50
seat 5 called - $362.50
Hero called - $362.50
seat 9 folded

** Dealing the river: 8 of Spades
Hero checked
Villian went all-in - $307.50
??


Some small stakes donkament, possibly a freeroll. Obviously the advice i got was fold pre-flop, fold flop, just basically throw it away. Now me a donk i was thinking too myself "wtf! I have a King so surely this is worth a call preflop, OMG top pair!!, ahhhh trips, I must win!!" I clearly knew i had alot too learn. I heard various people mention 2+2 poker forums but never really bothered looking at it as it was so big and confusing to navigate at first. However as soon as i posted that hand and got the feedback for it i knew i had too take the plunge and so i decided too sign up on that same. I also knew about a few poker books knocking around that where highly recommended. So i decided it was time too invest in a book. Went down to a local bookstore and purchased Small stakes Holdem By Ed Miller and David Slansky, being the clown that I am I actually didn't realise this wasnt a NL book. It didn't make a difference, i still consider it a must read for any micro stake NL player as it gives you solid ABC poker advice which is the best too have for uNL.

While read SSHE i browsed 2+2 daily, at first I didnt realise the MNL forum was just 6-max so i spent most of the time reading that and the beginner forum. I posted a few hands in the beginner forum but was told i'd get better responses in the FR forum which i acutally hadnt noticed before. The fact the FR forum isnt split was a bit daunting at the beginning, there was alot of NL 100 and 200 posts so it felt a bit werid posting with people who sat down at 1 table for the size of my whole roll(and then some). Again i mainly read the forums and didnt post a huge amount of hands myself, but finally got into it and cant see too stop posting on people HH's now!


While reading SSHE i put the thoughts into action and started playing $0.10 SNG's with by $1 roll. I donked that up too $5 and felt it was time to move to NL 2 cash tables and just buy SS it. Wasnt long before i was buying in for $2 and so on, i eventually finished the month with my roll up too $60. My stats for that time werent excactly the most impressive though, i was running at 24/6.8/0.6 which was extremely weak passive, but it worked for me at those levels and espcially when i was buying in short. I'd always limp in LP when i would now raise with a 100BB stack so that contributed too the very low PFR %. One my big weakness was dealing with tilt, i used too let the suckouts get too me far too much and consequently dropped a few buy-ins i shouldn't of as my May graph will tell you..



June was a much better month and you will see.