I've resumed playing some poker. I'm hitting the local casino's 2/4
live LHE game.

Here's the deal. I've been trying for years to grind it up from the
lowest stakes up. Starting at 25NL, 10NL and at the end with 2NL. Idea
is simple, once you play and have enough BI's you move up. Good in
theory. However just doesn't work in practice for me.

The reason I've been stuck for years at the micros was ego
protection. I couldn't let go of the fact that I'll have to lose one
day, thus kept is low where I couldn't lose. However even the most
successful players have 7 figures losing months. In the end of
the day if you're right 55% of the time, you're a good player. Simple
truth is that you have to be prepared to lose. It's part of the game.

Confidence is the next step. I simply sit down every time expecting to
totally destroy the game. Play so well that no-one will know what hit
them. Scatter fear every time I raise.

Given all that I'm more than comfortable stepping up to mid-stakes
poker and gathering some cash for some high stakes action.

I've also experienced a couple of other epiphanies but at this point
I'm not a able to precisely verbalize them and pin point their
relation to the over all picture of improving your own game.

To be continued...

OK. I've played too much for stakes way below what I should be playing.

I'm taking an undefined break. kthnxbye!

Looking back on this month I'm left with quite a dissatisfaction. I've
played only 23k hands. I'll put some effort into putting more time and
getting more hands down.

I'm also dissatisfied with my NLHE results overall this month. Given
this fact I'm switching totally to PLO. For some reason my confidence is
through the roof with my PLO game. Swings are definitely big for the
2nd half of the month:



Despite the -$80 this is still +$90 for the month. Compared to the
same amount of hands played in NLHE and up only $19 for the month.



NLHE GRAPH - Some recent tilt apparently.

This is it.. bad month; might go back to 1c/2c I'm making more there.
And then taking shots at 100PLO to make it worth the time and effort.

Oh 1 more thing.. I'm gay.

Happy April 1st

Kind of a lazy 1st half of the month. I wanted to put out the results
before I format my PC. I don't intend on keeping the DBs.

So far I haven't done well at 10NL this month. On the other
hand.. only 5-6k hands. Here's a screenshot of things before they get
erased:
Cash RESULTS March. By POSITION from last 2 months. Overall DETAILS
from past 2 months. 2 month GRAPH.


On the flip-side I don't feel that I'm playing great omaha at all, but
if I have to be results oriented..





This sums it up so far. Got quite some work to do before the end of
the month... happy Pi day to all!

Hold'em:


I feel pretty good about my game. I've had quite some experience
before and now I feel that I'm sort of dominating on every table that
I sit on. 10bb/100 is sustainable for me at 10NL and everything
below.

I'm taking a more aggro approach with my bankroll.
The idea is, if I feel that I'm going to dominate in a game. Take a
shot at it.
This might involve me taking some 25NL shots pretty soon
now. Basically risk 1/2 or 1/3 of the roll. Sure there is variance and
one can get unlucky. But you won't get far either if you become a
grinding robot at your stakes. If you lose at some higher stakes,
at least you've got some experience now.
And hey, this is all from my initial 30EUR deposit (a bit less than
$40usd). Really nothing to lose here.


Omaha:


Ugh, here's where I suck. The reason I play omaha is to
diversify. Hold'em can get pretty damn boring. Thus I feel that this
game suits my character best as a way to diversify. I've spent almost
even hours playing both. The reason I've got less hands in Omaha is
because the game goes slower. More people see flops etc. And the
additional difficulty of me identifying what hand I've got and what
outs I've got
Will take me a while to fill in the gaps of mastery in omaha with some
experience.
At 5PLO I'm getting destroyed and running bad

Overall not bad for playing poker on the side. I'd be really satisfied
if I play 30k or more hands p/m however.

Some time has passed. Now I'm ready to take a fresh look on
poker. I've got $50-something bucks on stars. I'll see where it takes
me. I'm hitting 6-max 2NL.

For the past 1-2k hands I don't feel that I'm hugely crushing, I'm
just a marginal winner.

Alright. So here's the poker story since my last entry.

In short: I'm busto.

Longer version:
September through November 2008 I played a reasonable amount of hands
each month. Every month turning my small $200ish bankroll into about
$1k+. But you gotta pay the rent. You need money for food and
stuff. And the next month you're left with about $150-$200 yet
again. It turns out to be a never ending struggle. Since, I don't have
enough capital to re-invest the following month I can't get out of the
cycle.

In December I was just done. Burnt out. I just couldn't play any
more. It's like working in a coal mine and being stuck forever in it
without any real results for months.

The lesson here is this. You can make a living from poker from total
scratch (about $100 is all you need to get started), however it's a
miserable life. I've kept it up for about a year. But couldn't get out
the sh1t and move to SSNL.
My guess is that one needs some more capital to get started. Couple of
thousands. Also get a coach to point out some of the mistakes you're
doing. And start living like a normal human being. Not like me stuck
in a single room in the middle of nowhere (because Lelystad is cheaper
than Amsterdam ) spending all your life on-line just to scratch $1k
p/m.

Now I'm sitting here at my mothers place too broke for everything and
2k EUR cc debt wondering how I came up short.

It's time for me to get a job ... fukkkk.

P.S: Yup, the 100k bet doesn't look good right now. I need to win the
Sunday warm-up/million or something. Or can someone lend me $100k for
10sec so I can make a screen-shot with my account name having the money
and thus winning the bet

Time for the master plan

As I've mentioned in the previous entry I have this nasty bet that
I'll make 100k from scratch before June. As it is I'm in the middle
of nowhere.

I figure I need some sort of a plan for that. I've made a google
spreadsheet here:

http://tinyurl.com/100k-bet

Screenshot:


Nice to put things black on white. I'll try and keep things
updated for myself. Suggestions on how to tackle this are much appreciated!

On average I tend on not losing many bets because I focus on making
the right decision given all the information that I've got. This is my
aim for this challenge as well - give it the best effort and let the
chips fall where they may.

I've gotta say that this new LP site design is pretty slick. I even
like the blog layouts.

Too bad that my whole BR is less than the price of a year LP
subscribtion atm.

It gets even better... I've made a bet with a friend that I'll make
100k from poker before 13th of June 2009.

Attention please!