peterinc
09-26-2004, 11:36 PM
Two months ago a friend of mine staked me $10 on Poker Stars. He taught me a couple of the basics before this, but in about 2 days, through a couple bad beats and some really bad plays, I was down to $1.75. I was lamenting my horrible luck while I called a raise from UTG with A4 suited. The flop came up A23. The raiser bet out fairly low, and I called. The turn came a 5 and he put me all in. With my last $1.75 I called it, and he turns over AA. I came out of the table with about $4. After that, I set to work playing the best I possibly could to try and build it up to something. In another day through some grinding I got it built up to $18. I realized a few things and I was playing a much better game. I decided to enter a $5.50 18 person tournament with my winnings. Of course, I lost. I busted out right after I hit the final table, however, to my credit it was with AK vs. KK. I was pretty upset about that, as it put me back down to $12.50 or so. I promised myself I wouldn't waste my little bankroll on another tournament. But the next night I found myself with $20, and I entered another one. I did even worse this time, busting out in like 17th place. I was mad, but the next night I repeated it again. This time, however, I was up to $30 from my day at the penny tables. I entered 3 in a row and lost them all. But I learned something.
The next day I was completely dominating the penny tables. I made it up to $27 and entered another tournament. This time I won. I had finally figured out how to play tournaments. Something clicked. I was up to almost $60 now, and I was very proud of myself. For the next few days, I repeated this cycle. I got up to $150 with little trouble. I was feeling good. I still wasn't a great player, but I was doing well. My buddy who staked me came back from vacation. I was up to about $160, and I owed him $80 of that. I payed up, of course, but man, I did not expect to have to part with that much. He could not have planned a better time to go on vacation. You shoulda seen the grin on that kid's face when I told him how much I made while he was gone.
I rebounded from the "loss" very well. In the course of the next couple of days, I built my bankroll up to about $250 on my penny table/tourny circuit. Then I decided to try .10/.25 No Limit, and found it just as easy as the penny tables - with the exception of a few players. I managed to avoid these guys, though, and built my bankroll up to a healthy $700 combined with tourneys.
Then one night when I had a live $15 tourney scheduled at a friend's house I decided to play a $30+3 tourney. It took about 2 hours, and the players were really fierce, but I came out of it the winner. I had just won $216 for my victory and had put my bankroll at over $900.
I went to my friend's and busted out real quick on a stupid play. I then proceeded to blow $30 in a cash game on the side as well. With my last $10 I bought back into the cash game and came out with $36 at the end of the night. I had lost a few bucks, but more than that, I had lost my confidence.
The next week was pretty bad. I moved up to .25/50 with my new found huge roll. But, I quickly got Aces cracked by 92 offsuit, I had 3 perfect draws on me and I had KK vs. AA two times. I wasn't good enough yet to lay it down, and I lost a bundle. I got bad beats left and right, but I never went on tilt. My problem, I learned later, was that I just wasn't playing well enough. I slipped from over $900 to $600 in about a week, and man was I pissed. In the next week or so, I read every book in the library on poker(I work there, too, so I did it while I was working shh don't tell). I learned too much too fast and began to trick myself out of a lot of pots.
I couldn't really understand what was wrong, so I moved back down to .10/.25. I really concentrated on my game for the next few days, and found myself only making an average $5 an hour. That just irked me even more. I was making way more than that before. What was I missing? Tournaments. I realized that those were how I really built up my roll. I would make the money to play them with my ring games and then I would consistently win them. So I got back in the groove with those, and sure enough, I found myself back up at $800 again in no time.
Better still, I had learned a lot about ring games while I was trying so hard to beat them. They really began to click. About a week later I was getting good enough to make well over $5 an hour at .10/.25. When I was back up to $970, I joined just 1 .25/.50 table. I found a really sweet one and decided to try to conquer my fears.
I bought in for the full amount like I usually do. I played real tight for a while and won a few hands, when I picked up QQ in late position. UTG raised 2x the BB, just like he always did on A with a face card. I put him on AK, because I really doubted that he had a Q and really doubted that he would raise in that position with AJ. Everybody folded but me, and I reraised. He called. Flop came up 10 high, rainbow. Trash. He checked and I bet. He called. Turn came up another rag. He checked again. I bet out stronger this time, about $10. He came over the top of me. At this point I was pretty worried, but at the same time, this guy was really loose. I still didn't have much of a reason to think I was beat, so I called. River came up another blank and he puts me all in for our last $25. I was fully prepared to do this and called him. He turns over AK and I take down the pot. I was very happy with myself, although I may have played it like a bit of an idiot, I was over $1,000 now.
Then I moved up. .25/.50 tables were my new stomping ground. This time around, I was a consistent winner. I picked up $500 in the course of the next week, without any tourneys, and deposited it into Party Poker to pick up the deposit bonus. In another few days, I cashed out $700 from their site. In the last week, I made another $500 at Stars, even with a run of some terrible cards. I really figured out the game, and now I feel like I'm a pretty decent player.
Today I had a horrible run of cards, but I managed to lose very little compared to what I could have. I'm at $1,430 now, and I just realized that this is my 2 month anniversary of playing online. I've turned my $10 into about $2150.
I was wondering how this compares to everyone else. How much did you start with, and how much are you at now? How long did it take? Have you gotten to be a better player, or pretty much stayed the same?
The next day I was completely dominating the penny tables. I made it up to $27 and entered another tournament. This time I won. I had finally figured out how to play tournaments. Something clicked. I was up to almost $60 now, and I was very proud of myself. For the next few days, I repeated this cycle. I got up to $150 with little trouble. I was feeling good. I still wasn't a great player, but I was doing well. My buddy who staked me came back from vacation. I was up to about $160, and I owed him $80 of that. I payed up, of course, but man, I did not expect to have to part with that much. He could not have planned a better time to go on vacation. You shoulda seen the grin on that kid's face when I told him how much I made while he was gone.
I rebounded from the "loss" very well. In the course of the next couple of days, I built my bankroll up to about $250 on my penny table/tourny circuit. Then I decided to try .10/.25 No Limit, and found it just as easy as the penny tables - with the exception of a few players. I managed to avoid these guys, though, and built my bankroll up to a healthy $700 combined with tourneys.
Then one night when I had a live $15 tourney scheduled at a friend's house I decided to play a $30+3 tourney. It took about 2 hours, and the players were really fierce, but I came out of it the winner. I had just won $216 for my victory and had put my bankroll at over $900.
I went to my friend's and busted out real quick on a stupid play. I then proceeded to blow $30 in a cash game on the side as well. With my last $10 I bought back into the cash game and came out with $36 at the end of the night. I had lost a few bucks, but more than that, I had lost my confidence.
The next week was pretty bad. I moved up to .25/50 with my new found huge roll. But, I quickly got Aces cracked by 92 offsuit, I had 3 perfect draws on me and I had KK vs. AA two times. I wasn't good enough yet to lay it down, and I lost a bundle. I got bad beats left and right, but I never went on tilt. My problem, I learned later, was that I just wasn't playing well enough. I slipped from over $900 to $600 in about a week, and man was I pissed. In the next week or so, I read every book in the library on poker(I work there, too, so I did it while I was working shh don't tell). I learned too much too fast and began to trick myself out of a lot of pots.
I couldn't really understand what was wrong, so I moved back down to .10/.25. I really concentrated on my game for the next few days, and found myself only making an average $5 an hour. That just irked me even more. I was making way more than that before. What was I missing? Tournaments. I realized that those were how I really built up my roll. I would make the money to play them with my ring games and then I would consistently win them. So I got back in the groove with those, and sure enough, I found myself back up at $800 again in no time.
Better still, I had learned a lot about ring games while I was trying so hard to beat them. They really began to click. About a week later I was getting good enough to make well over $5 an hour at .10/.25. When I was back up to $970, I joined just 1 .25/.50 table. I found a really sweet one and decided to try to conquer my fears.
I bought in for the full amount like I usually do. I played real tight for a while and won a few hands, when I picked up QQ in late position. UTG raised 2x the BB, just like he always did on A with a face card. I put him on AK, because I really doubted that he had a Q and really doubted that he would raise in that position with AJ. Everybody folded but me, and I reraised. He called. Flop came up 10 high, rainbow. Trash. He checked and I bet. He called. Turn came up another rag. He checked again. I bet out stronger this time, about $10. He came over the top of me. At this point I was pretty worried, but at the same time, this guy was really loose. I still didn't have much of a reason to think I was beat, so I called. River came up another blank and he puts me all in for our last $25. I was fully prepared to do this and called him. He turns over AK and I take down the pot. I was very happy with myself, although I may have played it like a bit of an idiot, I was over $1,000 now.
Then I moved up. .25/.50 tables were my new stomping ground. This time around, I was a consistent winner. I picked up $500 in the course of the next week, without any tourneys, and deposited it into Party Poker to pick up the deposit bonus. In another few days, I cashed out $700 from their site. In the last week, I made another $500 at Stars, even with a run of some terrible cards. I really figured out the game, and now I feel like I'm a pretty decent player.
Today I had a horrible run of cards, but I managed to lose very little compared to what I could have. I'm at $1,430 now, and I just realized that this is my 2 month anniversary of playing online. I've turned my $10 into about $2150.
I was wondering how this compares to everyone else. How much did you start with, and how much are you at now? How long did it take? Have you gotten to be a better player, or pretty much stayed the same?