For the beginners out there...

Jason

I've been documenting my play in a blog daily and thought it might be interesting for some of the beginners out there to get a look into what it takes to build a bankroll in the micros to get to the mid levels.

If you're interested in following it, I just started it and it would be nice to have a few more readers. Basically it's to help me review my game every day but it could help people who are struggling in the micros.

Beating The Low Limits


Jason

Graham

Cool blog. My friend tried to do something similar before but lost interest. How long have you been playing for?

Jason

I've been playing for 7 or 8 years online. I actually forget when I started but in my early 20's and am now 30.

Like I mentioned in my blog, I haven't made a fortune and built up really slow. I played the micros for most of my poker life and in the past year got into the 1/2, 2/4 NL. Paid off some bills with my bank roll and wanted to start off again at the 50NL to get back up.

It is time consuming but you'd be surprised how much it cleans up your game by taking the time to analyze you're whole session. I tilted hard a night ago and I was completely over it just by seeing what I did wrong.

Thanks for leaving it up. I was actually banned at 2+2 for posting it in the beginners general chat. I thought it was helpfull and it's not an ad site.

Actually, if anybody knows of a blog similar but somebody who plays the 5/10 NL, I'd be interested in seeing it.

compuease

Jason wrote: »

Thanks for leaving it up. I was actually banned at 2+2 for posting it in the beginners general chat. I thought it was helpfull and it's not an ad site.

Hard to believe just posting your blog would get you banned. What was your name on 2+2?

Jason

compuease wrote: »

Hard to believe just posting your blog would get you banned. What was your name on 2+2?

It was billid, but I had just signed up this week. I have always lurked poker forums but never posted and I wanted to share the blog because I've never contributed anything before.

I think they took it as spam since it was my first post, like here. But I planned on continuing to contribute.

I think a mod took it as a bit of an offense that a newbie would walk along and just drop their website on their forums and walk away. I understood to a certain degree because I had just signed up. I'm kind of pissed cause my page sells nothing and has no ads. It's pure poker entertainment.

I even read their rules and stickies first to see if it was ok and there was nothing about it on that forum. There was something about it in the micros section which states you need permission to post blogs so I emailed them asking, same day banned and it said forever.

MarcoGD

Thanks. Keep them coming

Graham

compuease wrote: »

Hard to believe just posting your blog would get you banned. What was your name on 2+2?

It doesn't surprise me. Usually when someone's first post contains a link to their site its almost 99% of the time spam. Fortunately I checked his blog first and it looked to have some good content

qqmagnet

By micro's, do you mean rings with blinds under $1?

Jason

Yes. Although I've started at the top of the micros, I figure most players that are looking up to the 1/2 NL are from 25NL and 50NL and this would be most suited for those players or lower.

But after looking online the definition of micro, low, med and high stakes seems to shift a bit from site to site.

Thanks Graham. I've taken out the feel of forum strategy talk with all the abbreviations, odds and stats and am sticking with how I read a hand in my head as it's playing out. I'm glad to hear it's taking well. ...and that bad night I had the other day has to make a few people feel good about themselves, lol

DennisG

tits....or gtfo.

oh wait..wrong place..

blog..me likey. Will read it more for sure. Welcome to the forum!

jontm

I like the set up, clean and an easy read. Welcome here, looking forward to reading again. Like the the numbers being up front and center, always have deep respect for the players who put the bad out there just as openly as the bad.

LAST TYCOON

I'm new to the site, and online hold em
Love your insight, can definitely relate.
Keep it coming.
Time for Betfair Million

JimmyHo

jontm wrote: »

Like the the numbers being up front and center, always have deep respect for the players who put the bad out there just as openly as the good.

definitely agree with this observation; some of these graphs remind me of my weekend sessions.

Jason, I notice in all of your graphs you seem to go negative after a certain amount of playing time each night. Do you think maybe you are playing too long and starting to lose focus after a certain period?

Jason

I'll be honest with you, it was tough to sit down and say I was going to write that post, lol. I've posted this on my facebook for buddies of mine to follow that play micros and low limits, I was embarrassed to add it but you know what, that's poker and that's what happens. After I read it over I realzed it was probably the best advice on poker I've ever written, it also got me over the bad night quickly knowing where I went wrong.

I have to correct my above post about my twoplustwo name. billid is my old account that I haven't used since I opened it. I had made a new user name this week for this which got banned.

moose

Many forums have a policy of no links at all until a certain number of posts are reached.

JimmyHo

I like to try and do something similar as I have been contemplating playing more online in the future (up to $0.50/$1.00); based on the number of hands you are playing each night, you must be getting some decent rake back? I like to try and go through some your hands noted to see if I would have played them any differently.

If anyone has some advice on which site to go with if I plan to make a $500US deposit and play mainly $50NL - $100NL (likely only two tables at a time). I would like to try and max out on bonus and rakeback for sure.

NoVeLTeK

500$ to play 100nl is not even close to enough. But I would reccomend FTP. You prolly need at least 2k$ min...

actyper

IF $500 was all he ever had to play poker with then I agree, but in the case that you can just redeposit if you blow it, might as well play 100NL. Give Betfair a shot.

JimmyHo

actyper wrote: »

IF $500 was all he ever had to play poker with then I agree, but in the case that you can just redeposit if you blow it, might as well play 100NL. Give Betfair a shot.

yes, this would be my first deposit. Don't like to put too much online in one account for the time being. Never dealt with rakeback before so do I need to arrange this through a separate site or can I use Betfair and FTP for the rakeback?

actyper

You need to go through a rakeback provider, like Rakeback for FTP.

Jason

pokerJAH wrote: »

definitely agree with this observation; some of these graphs remind me of my weekend sessions.

Jason, I notice in all of your graphs you seem to go negative after a certain amount of playing time each night. Do you think maybe you are playing too long and starting to lose focus after a certain period?

I'm working on figuring this out and I might be on to something. I've never analyzed my hands like this before and it seems like I'm trying to stay active in the game too often. I'm getting called down way too much by fish with bottom pair while I'm holding AK, AQ etc. I know they don't have a strong hand but they don't know that. I've always advocated, you can't fold a fish and I've learned my lesson seeing my graphs, I actually talked about this after last nights session, you'll notice my graphs flat line after a win instead of dwindling. Last night I held back a bit, when in a hand with two or more players I would just check it to them instead of betting in and being called down, then if they checked it too I would throw out a bet on the turn or river if they continue to check. You see, at these limits, the fish don't care if you have not played a hand for 30 minutes straight, they'll call down the tightest player at the table with middle pair, so I've given up on the aggressive play with no hand to show for. Did a reversal and let them be the aggressor and it worked out well.

As for the length of play, I prefer to play about 2 hours max but I'm just getting back in and am going a little overboard with it. After looking back at them they seem to always dip through the middle of my session then pop back up at the end of the night. Except for that really bad one, lol. I used to put in 6-7 hours/night mon-fri after work every day. I would be cooking while playing, lol. So these sessions are pretty short to me. I have the patience of a turtle.

I might be able to play again today to see if I can repeat last nights play but I'm heading to Barrie tonight then have to be in London tomorrow for a wedding.

Thanks for all the replies.

Jason

pokerJAH wrote: »

I like to try and do something similar as I have been contemplating playing more online in the future (up to $0.50/$1.00); based on the number of hands you are playing each night, you must be getting some decent rake back? I like to try and go through some your hands noted to see if I would have played them any differently.

If anyone has some advice on which site to go with if I plan to make a $500US deposit and play mainly $50NL - $100NL (likely only two tables at a time). I would like to try and max out on bonus and rakeback for sure.

I'm getting about 30% rakeback. I think I had $15 in my rakeback before I started this and am sitting at over $50 now, if that helps you get an idea for how much rakeback. In the end my rakeback works out to an average nights win over a period of a week playing every night. I'm not going to cash any rakeback or extras to see what my bankroll does without it.

As for bankroll. I prefer to have in that online account what I need to play with. It's a psychological thing for me during losses. I could easily deposit $500 at a time but if I'm on a bad day like that $400 loss and depositing more, I think it would just hurt me more mentally that I'm busting out the credit card again. When I deposit a bankroll into an account I separate myself from that money like it's gone. It's no longer of any value and now just a tool to make money. Oh, and don't play on tables with less than 20 buy ins for that limit. I almost dropped down a limit after that huge loss.

jontm

Don't think Graham will mind this link...add your blog to Poker Weblogs, find all the poker blogs in the poker world - What's your tell? for some good worldwide traffic also, add a link to Poker Forum Canada - Canadian Poker Sites Online if you dig us and these discusions. Put Canadian Poker Players out there!

Jason

jontm wrote: »

Don't think Graham will mind this link...add your blog to Poker Weblogs, find all the poker blogs in the poker world - What's your tell? for some good worldwide traffic also, add a link to Poker Forum Canada - Canadian Poker Sites Online if you dig us and these discusions. Put Canadian Poker Players out there!

Thanks, did both. The poker weblogs I'm still trying to figure out. Added mine but not sure how it knows when I do updates. I'm also not in the list for recently added. hmmm

jontm

IS it working for you now? I don't know how it works with the updates as I use their software. I will ask them though. Vince-pw and Arminus or Jeronimo are very helpfull, they run it and are cool. NEtherlands based so the back and forth takes a day as they sleep when we are awake and vise versa.

Jason

Yeah, it works now. I read up and it takes about an hour for updates to show up on their site.

MidnightMike

Jason,

just wanted to say i read your last blog entry from today and i have to say this is the style i myself use. It works like a charm. You better prepare yourself for some big swings though. Once you get tagged as an action player you tend to see more beats. If your able to reload and stay at it though, you can get back any losses in record time. Keep up the blogs.

If you want a loose game, i suggest checking out Betfair .50/1 or 1/2 cash tables. I have been playing the site trying to get my ticket for the wsope and keep getting sucked out on by those scandy bastards chasing runner runners and flippin hitting. So as an experiment i took $20 to a .5/1 cash table full ring and within an hour and a half i left with $190.

All the best.
NegMike on betfair.

Jason

Thanks for the advice. I've always known it was profitable but could never figure out how to play this style on the few occasions I tried it. I think I basically played like an idiot instead of smart and then would tilt after being mad at myself for all the mistakes I was making.

I'm not sure if I will continue 100% with it but it definitely fixed a huge hole in my game which was allowing others to run right over me if they felt like it. Wouldn't matter if it was a creative winning player or a bluftastic donk, both of these types pick out the nits within minutes and both are there to play poker rather than sit back. Now I'll be more comfortable to play back into some people preflop if I think they have weak holdings and in situations in position, not so eager to jump on the fold button to a cbet on the flop and see how things go on the turn. Not every time but if the board and the player are right, I am at least now capable of doing this... I tend to see a lot of the nits give up on the turn where I can take it down.

I've always known that most the time people aren't hitting the flop and I am probably folding the best hand but I wasn't capable of breaking from my shell and playing according to my read rather than my strategy.

I've also been messing around with 3 betting the turn in position every once in a while when I'm on a strong draw vs a super tight opponent, not that I'll do it every time but if even once in a session per table the opportunity comes up and I'm not already on a losing streak I'll toss it out, maybe even show the bluff... this I find creates a lot of action. I'm just not so sure yet if I should be showing these bluffs every once in a while or not.

MidnightMike

I avoid showing any bluffs and any cards when a hand is folded to me. When your going balls to the wall on a hand and someone pays you off on a showdown it gives you the same result as showing the bluff. It cuts down on the number of times players see what you went in with and keeps them off balance a bit. I feel if you get called on the river and have to showdown along with showing the odd bluff, your giving out to much info. Thats just my thoughts on the matter though, curious as always what others might think about this. I also find it very helpful to always think about what site your playing on and where the major number of the players are based. Betfair for example is mainly UK, German or Scandies ( Scandanavians, northern europeans) they are between 5-6 hours ahead of us, so if you start a session at about 7pm EST, your gonna be able to find a lot of players at the end of their sessions who hopefully have also had a few drinks through the night already. I dont know if it helps me or hurts me, but i dont use any software when i play. I'll play from table texture and therefore no one gets any respect unless I see that they deserve it.
Happy Hunting.

Jason

generally I do avoid showing. I think I find myself showing one near the start of a session say from the blind where a decent player is trying to put a squeeze on a few limpers with a pot bet and I'll 3 bet him, fold him then just toss out the random hand I'm holding to let him know that sitting to my right isn't going to be a cake walk... also gets my premium hands some action when I 3 bet preflop.

it all depends on the situation. if the table is starting to tighten up, even though it's packed with fish, I find calling down a fish to the turn, and if there is a scare card out there, 3 betting him with a draw and showing stirs the pot a bit. Gets them talking, calling you a donk and shit and people single you out, tighten up, take em down. That's of course situational and not something I strive to do on every table every time I sit down, just an example.

I play UB. It's packed with fish. All the cardrunner, twoplustwo etc. players avoid it because of the scandal... it's great. Every time I go to twoplustwo and see more members berating members for playing at UB I smile. I always have a nice selection of tables to choose from which will have only one other winning player (I say other like I'm including myself, lol @ my stats so far)

Now they have the 72 side bet and antes along with the BB JP which the fish just love. If you do a search for the softest tables online with live software, UB always tops everybody.