RED_RAIN
06-17-2005, 10:17 AM
Perhaps someone will find this interesting or give some insight into their play. This is a really long post but I wanted to get everything out so I don’t miss anything.
I have been playing roughly about a year and three months for real money online and probably about two months for real money in home games.
My home games consisted of college friends sitting down for $5 NL cash games of hold'em. We got to the point where sometimes we would be playing 5 days of the week. School is overrated. We also did $5 NL tournaments once in awhile. For those who don't know, this group of players also included the famous bicyclekick who I'm lucky to have as one of my best friends IRL. These games were a blast and I quickly became addicted to the game. We rarely split off to other games such as Omaha and a new variation of poker hold’em where we put in two jokers (this actually made for a very interesting game).
I quickly started playing online to indulge my new addiction. I started on JetSetPoker for play money. I was having a blast. Bicyclekick told me to put real money on but I was having fun still and felt I should hone my skills before investing my money. (Another big part was I didn’t have free money at this point to invest in poker). I played many of their free tournaments too and was able to win a bunch. I had amassed over 10 million play chips which for anyone who plays there knows is a lot. I think there was only one other person who had more. I was then 4 tabling the play tables. For those who wonder if play tables will help you or not to learn poker, after the fact, I don’t really think they teach you a ton about poker. They maybe help you see hands better and what people might bet or bluff at more, but the all-in goof offs can ruin any type of good learning game. I was also part of the first 1 million chip pot. I think the biggest help that play money can do is allow you to practice multi tabling. I was able to jump to many tables very fast since I had been doing this in NL style for about 6 months before I put real money in. JetSetPoker also had me as their first and only bounty head so far that I know of in a tournament. That was a lot of fun.
Then when I started online for real money I played $0.10/$0.25 PL Hold'em at JetSetPoker. After making a $250 I moved $100 to play $0.5/$1.00 limit Hold’em at EmpirePoker. I stayed here for well over the amount of time I needed to. (I had had some personal financial problems before putting money in online which made me financially risk adverse) I stayed for about 30k hands running at about 4.9 BB/100. During this time is when I found 2+2 and quickly probably made an azz out of myself. Even though I was being pushed by bicyclekick to move up in limits I felt that I was able to learn a ton of concepts with a very low risk of losing and was continuing to build my bankroll. I read about all the bad times at $1/$2 limit so I only stayed there for 10k hands for a rate of 3.3 BB/100. I then decided to quickly jump ship as I didn’t feel those games were that good and went to $2/$4. This was a gold mine. I stayed for 12k hands for 4.1 BB/100. I then went to where I thought I would stay a long time after being able to watch bicyclekick’s poker progress unfold. I played $3/$6 for about 40-50k hands I think. My computer crashed and I lost everything including all my PT stats. I ran about 2.5 BB/100. I took some shots at the end of this run at Empire $5/$10 but found them pretty bad and lost money.
I also played some $4/$8 at PlatinumPoker where I did pretty well but felt it was probably hit and miss and left up after I cleared the bonus. Interestingly enough there you play for frequent player points but if you get enough you can get a mini cooper. Not sure if anyone has gotten one yet.
I also then played some PacificPoker $5/$10 where I had so-so results. I felt the game was good but the swings compared to my usual $3/$6 hurt a bit.
Then I was in a poker slump. I felt that $3/$6 was a total grind. I didn’t think the $3/$6 was as good as the $2/$4 and even wondered if you could make as much. I stuck in the $3/$6 because I wanted to get better and move up in limits eventually. I went through a period where I wondered if I would ever get past the poker hump to $15/$30 which I kept hearing was great. I didn’t really want to make the leap from $3/$6 to $15/$30. After the fact I don’t think anyone is good enough to make this leap without a huge learning/bankroll curve. I got to the point where I thought maybe I’d be stuck at $3/$6 forever until I hit some massive heater to make the jump to $15/$30.
That’s when I found ParadisePoker. I started to play their $5/$10 game and found it to be incredible. I made a ton my first month on there and also bounced in when they had a $8/$16 game going. This helped my bankroll a lot and give me a glimmer that there was light to moving up. I completely left Empire to play these games. I also mixed backed in Pacific to play their $5/$10 tables. I took some shots at Paradise’s $10/$20, $15/30 and rarely even the $20/$40. I made a tiny bit on $10/$20, lost on $15/$30, and won a nice chunk on $20/$40. I also gave Empire a short run at $15/$30 and lost. I had now lost everywhere I try $15/$30. I believe it was more a bad run of cards in a smaller sample than the games being bad.
After making a good chunk I went on to MysterPoker (I don’t give out the name of this smaller site). Here I played their $4/$8 which turned out to be the easiest and best game I have ever found then moved to their $10/$20. This was a one table site so I was still playing Pacific and some Paradise. When you look at Paradise’s numbers for table avgs they look like good games, but once you are in them, you realize they aren’t as good as they look. The next month I went on to lose a little less than half of what I made the first month on Paradise. I left Paradise after that.
On a side note, when I track my poker results, I track each day, each site separate with a notes field for things like deposits, withdraws, moving up in limits, notes for why I had such a big loss if important. I also track each 31 days playing on each site. I also keep a total net amount for that 31 day period and avg per day figure. I feel this helps me since I don’t always play everyday on every site and am then able to gauge better if the site is worth playing and how I’m doing progress wise.
After bicyclekick spilled the beans about InterPoker I jumped in too. After doing Empire $1/$2 6-max tables a lot to clear bonuses I felt this was an area of the game where I wanted to improve. I played InterPoker’s $5/$10 full at first then moved to $10/$20 6-max. I also played the Pacific $10/$20 6-max. I was having a lot of fun playing these SH tables. This skill I think is crucial for anyone interested in $10/$20 or higher where blind defense and stealing comes up a lot more. It also helps with reading hands.
I then joined BodogPoker where I play in their $15/$30 and more recent their new $20/$40 games, I’ll also jump in their $10/$20 if they don’t have many games running. I’ve enjoyed their site. Putting in $2000 at first took awhile to clear the bonus and at first I was worried because of the number of games they had to offer.
I also redeposited at JetSetPoker since this was also my favorite site because they had ton things that no other site would probably even think of. Free money for being loyal even while actively playing their site, free poker gear, free tournament money and a real listening ear to the players at their site. I remember one time when they had a software problem and I was playing NL and I had a set of Js on the flop and on the turn I had reraised all-in and got called when their server went down. I wrote an e-mail how mad I was and that I would have won the hand since I couldn’t get rivered. They wrote me an e-mail showing my hand and the two opponents and confirmed I couldn’t have lost. They gave me free money as we’re sorry which wasn’t as much as the pot but close. Most sites would just say, well this is normal, sorry. But service like this is why I kept coming back. This deposit also allowed me to work on something I had been trying to is limit heads up. I was playing mostly $5/$10 and $10/$20 heads up. This is also a good thing to learn IMO if it’s your cup of tea. It’s also something that I can see if you play really high you may want to know since the games can often be 3 or 4 handed. The largest stake I have ever played online is $50/$100 so far.
I think bonuses are a great thing and that anyone playing up to $5/$10 should take part in the most bonuses they can. After that I do bonuses if they collide with what I’m doing.
During this time I have played some live, maybe 15 trips or so. Mostly at Jackpot Junction where they play mostly $3/$6 and $4/$8 sometimes kill and then at Canterbury where I have played some $2/$4-$8/$16 but I mostly go for $15/$30 and rarely $30/$60. I don’t really enjoy limit live because it’s one table, swings take forever to get out of on he bad side, and I hate smoke. Live sessions also take up many hours. I tried some tournaments live ranging from $100-$300 buy-ins but no luck as this is an area where I have not tired to research or play much in.
I do love NL live especially NL HUs. I played pretty much anyone who wanted to at my college and most of the time it was bicyclekick where I would hand it to them.
So currently on my screen I have excel for financial tracking, textpad for my account names and passwords, pokertracker, gametime+, MysteryPoker, PacificPoker, InterPoker, BodogPoker, and JetSetPoker up. I usually find the top games at these various sites to make for a pretty good money making machine. I play mostly $15/$30 and $20/$40 full table fixed and then $10/$20 and $15/$30 for 6-max. I’ll also mix in some HUs if there aren’t many tables going. I play usually 4-6 tables on my Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop with my Logitech MX1000 mouse (if you don’t have this, GET IT!). I still am not playing on Party skins but someday will probably return to see how their games are but I am proof that you don't have to play Party.
In my entire time playing I have gone through one 200+ BB downswing. It ended at 350 BBs down. This affected my poker confidence but to a less degree because I played with such an inflated bankroll. I still think playing with a huge roll helps a lot for things like this. I also get to go to bed not worrying about how bad the day went if I have a big losing day. It was rough losing day after day when I was in this swing. It also let me find some mistakes I was making that I didn’t notice before because I was winning and didn’t see a big reason to change things.
Now to talk about why I don’t consider myself a true poker player. I still play with a very inflated bankroll. I have taken a pretty slow approach to moving up in limits. I just don’t care to risk much money when I play in games where I am pretty sure I can beat them for a good amount. I play at most probably 2 hours at a time but often just a hour. I might do two sessions per day playing sometimes three. I really don’t have the want or the ability to just sit and play 6 hours or more straight online. I’ve been told I would want to play more and longer when I got to $15/$30 where the money mean more, I have yet to feel this affect. Over the past few months I have been away from 2+2 to he point where it got where I didn’t even read any posts unless someone IM it to me. I didn’t really care I guess to do things to improve my game. I am very glad this isn’t my job because I could already feel how much I would hate knowing I had to play to pay the rent etc and the unwanted pressure that would come along. I also think that it puts you in a harder situation for working out, socializing, and the effect it can put on your friends who make a lot less than you. Read careful as I put puts you in a harder situation not meaning that everyone who plays for a living is fat and unsocial, but that they have a better chance. So all in all I don’t consider myself a true poker player because I don’t really have the ability to play all that long, I don’t really care about playing limits I probably should be, and a lot of the time I don’t really have the urge to research to get better. I find playing home games with great players for $20 buy-ins a lot more interesting to me than for higher limits. If someone told me I couldn’t play poker ever again today, I could care less. I guess I see myself as a recreational player that is good enough to make a good amount.
Recently I have had a new found interest again in poker (not a huge one, but at least a spark) and I have started to read and post more on 2+2 and read some books. I am going to actively try to improve my game. I have recently graduated college and start my full-time job June 27th. My next goals are probably to reach $50/$100 and St. Kitts tournament for JetSetPoker. I still have many other sites I want to try out as that has been something that has always been fun to me.
Many thanks goes out to too many 2+2ers to list but some notables are: bicyclekick, bernie, bisonbison, Clarkmeister, El Diablo, gonores, GuyOnTilt, Joe Tall, J_V, astroglide, Nate tha’ Great, Schneids, Tommy Angelo, and all the others I’ve loved reading their posts or helping me out.
Good luck to all those in their poker careers.
I have been playing roughly about a year and three months for real money online and probably about two months for real money in home games.
My home games consisted of college friends sitting down for $5 NL cash games of hold'em. We got to the point where sometimes we would be playing 5 days of the week. School is overrated. We also did $5 NL tournaments once in awhile. For those who don't know, this group of players also included the famous bicyclekick who I'm lucky to have as one of my best friends IRL. These games were a blast and I quickly became addicted to the game. We rarely split off to other games such as Omaha and a new variation of poker hold’em where we put in two jokers (this actually made for a very interesting game).
I quickly started playing online to indulge my new addiction. I started on JetSetPoker for play money. I was having a blast. Bicyclekick told me to put real money on but I was having fun still and felt I should hone my skills before investing my money. (Another big part was I didn’t have free money at this point to invest in poker). I played many of their free tournaments too and was able to win a bunch. I had amassed over 10 million play chips which for anyone who plays there knows is a lot. I think there was only one other person who had more. I was then 4 tabling the play tables. For those who wonder if play tables will help you or not to learn poker, after the fact, I don’t really think they teach you a ton about poker. They maybe help you see hands better and what people might bet or bluff at more, but the all-in goof offs can ruin any type of good learning game. I was also part of the first 1 million chip pot. I think the biggest help that play money can do is allow you to practice multi tabling. I was able to jump to many tables very fast since I had been doing this in NL style for about 6 months before I put real money in. JetSetPoker also had me as their first and only bounty head so far that I know of in a tournament. That was a lot of fun.
Then when I started online for real money I played $0.10/$0.25 PL Hold'em at JetSetPoker. After making a $250 I moved $100 to play $0.5/$1.00 limit Hold’em at EmpirePoker. I stayed here for well over the amount of time I needed to. (I had had some personal financial problems before putting money in online which made me financially risk adverse) I stayed for about 30k hands running at about 4.9 BB/100. During this time is when I found 2+2 and quickly probably made an azz out of myself. Even though I was being pushed by bicyclekick to move up in limits I felt that I was able to learn a ton of concepts with a very low risk of losing and was continuing to build my bankroll. I read about all the bad times at $1/$2 limit so I only stayed there for 10k hands for a rate of 3.3 BB/100. I then decided to quickly jump ship as I didn’t feel those games were that good and went to $2/$4. This was a gold mine. I stayed for 12k hands for 4.1 BB/100. I then went to where I thought I would stay a long time after being able to watch bicyclekick’s poker progress unfold. I played $3/$6 for about 40-50k hands I think. My computer crashed and I lost everything including all my PT stats. I ran about 2.5 BB/100. I took some shots at the end of this run at Empire $5/$10 but found them pretty bad and lost money.
I also played some $4/$8 at PlatinumPoker where I did pretty well but felt it was probably hit and miss and left up after I cleared the bonus. Interestingly enough there you play for frequent player points but if you get enough you can get a mini cooper. Not sure if anyone has gotten one yet.
I also then played some PacificPoker $5/$10 where I had so-so results. I felt the game was good but the swings compared to my usual $3/$6 hurt a bit.
Then I was in a poker slump. I felt that $3/$6 was a total grind. I didn’t think the $3/$6 was as good as the $2/$4 and even wondered if you could make as much. I stuck in the $3/$6 because I wanted to get better and move up in limits eventually. I went through a period where I wondered if I would ever get past the poker hump to $15/$30 which I kept hearing was great. I didn’t really want to make the leap from $3/$6 to $15/$30. After the fact I don’t think anyone is good enough to make this leap without a huge learning/bankroll curve. I got to the point where I thought maybe I’d be stuck at $3/$6 forever until I hit some massive heater to make the jump to $15/$30.
That’s when I found ParadisePoker. I started to play their $5/$10 game and found it to be incredible. I made a ton my first month on there and also bounced in when they had a $8/$16 game going. This helped my bankroll a lot and give me a glimmer that there was light to moving up. I completely left Empire to play these games. I also mixed backed in Pacific to play their $5/$10 tables. I took some shots at Paradise’s $10/$20, $15/30 and rarely even the $20/$40. I made a tiny bit on $10/$20, lost on $15/$30, and won a nice chunk on $20/$40. I also gave Empire a short run at $15/$30 and lost. I had now lost everywhere I try $15/$30. I believe it was more a bad run of cards in a smaller sample than the games being bad.
After making a good chunk I went on to MysterPoker (I don’t give out the name of this smaller site). Here I played their $4/$8 which turned out to be the easiest and best game I have ever found then moved to their $10/$20. This was a one table site so I was still playing Pacific and some Paradise. When you look at Paradise’s numbers for table avgs they look like good games, but once you are in them, you realize they aren’t as good as they look. The next month I went on to lose a little less than half of what I made the first month on Paradise. I left Paradise after that.
On a side note, when I track my poker results, I track each day, each site separate with a notes field for things like deposits, withdraws, moving up in limits, notes for why I had such a big loss if important. I also track each 31 days playing on each site. I also keep a total net amount for that 31 day period and avg per day figure. I feel this helps me since I don’t always play everyday on every site and am then able to gauge better if the site is worth playing and how I’m doing progress wise.
After bicyclekick spilled the beans about InterPoker I jumped in too. After doing Empire $1/$2 6-max tables a lot to clear bonuses I felt this was an area of the game where I wanted to improve. I played InterPoker’s $5/$10 full at first then moved to $10/$20 6-max. I also played the Pacific $10/$20 6-max. I was having a lot of fun playing these SH tables. This skill I think is crucial for anyone interested in $10/$20 or higher where blind defense and stealing comes up a lot more. It also helps with reading hands.
I then joined BodogPoker where I play in their $15/$30 and more recent their new $20/$40 games, I’ll also jump in their $10/$20 if they don’t have many games running. I’ve enjoyed their site. Putting in $2000 at first took awhile to clear the bonus and at first I was worried because of the number of games they had to offer.
I also redeposited at JetSetPoker since this was also my favorite site because they had ton things that no other site would probably even think of. Free money for being loyal even while actively playing their site, free poker gear, free tournament money and a real listening ear to the players at their site. I remember one time when they had a software problem and I was playing NL and I had a set of Js on the flop and on the turn I had reraised all-in and got called when their server went down. I wrote an e-mail how mad I was and that I would have won the hand since I couldn’t get rivered. They wrote me an e-mail showing my hand and the two opponents and confirmed I couldn’t have lost. They gave me free money as we’re sorry which wasn’t as much as the pot but close. Most sites would just say, well this is normal, sorry. But service like this is why I kept coming back. This deposit also allowed me to work on something I had been trying to is limit heads up. I was playing mostly $5/$10 and $10/$20 heads up. This is also a good thing to learn IMO if it’s your cup of tea. It’s also something that I can see if you play really high you may want to know since the games can often be 3 or 4 handed. The largest stake I have ever played online is $50/$100 so far.
I think bonuses are a great thing and that anyone playing up to $5/$10 should take part in the most bonuses they can. After that I do bonuses if they collide with what I’m doing.
During this time I have played some live, maybe 15 trips or so. Mostly at Jackpot Junction where they play mostly $3/$6 and $4/$8 sometimes kill and then at Canterbury where I have played some $2/$4-$8/$16 but I mostly go for $15/$30 and rarely $30/$60. I don’t really enjoy limit live because it’s one table, swings take forever to get out of on he bad side, and I hate smoke. Live sessions also take up many hours. I tried some tournaments live ranging from $100-$300 buy-ins but no luck as this is an area where I have not tired to research or play much in.
I do love NL live especially NL HUs. I played pretty much anyone who wanted to at my college and most of the time it was bicyclekick where I would hand it to them.
So currently on my screen I have excel for financial tracking, textpad for my account names and passwords, pokertracker, gametime+, MysteryPoker, PacificPoker, InterPoker, BodogPoker, and JetSetPoker up. I usually find the top games at these various sites to make for a pretty good money making machine. I play mostly $15/$30 and $20/$40 full table fixed and then $10/$20 and $15/$30 for 6-max. I’ll also mix in some HUs if there aren’t many tables going. I play usually 4-6 tables on my Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop with my Logitech MX1000 mouse (if you don’t have this, GET IT!). I still am not playing on Party skins but someday will probably return to see how their games are but I am proof that you don't have to play Party.
In my entire time playing I have gone through one 200+ BB downswing. It ended at 350 BBs down. This affected my poker confidence but to a less degree because I played with such an inflated bankroll. I still think playing with a huge roll helps a lot for things like this. I also get to go to bed not worrying about how bad the day went if I have a big losing day. It was rough losing day after day when I was in this swing. It also let me find some mistakes I was making that I didn’t notice before because I was winning and didn’t see a big reason to change things.
Now to talk about why I don’t consider myself a true poker player. I still play with a very inflated bankroll. I have taken a pretty slow approach to moving up in limits. I just don’t care to risk much money when I play in games where I am pretty sure I can beat them for a good amount. I play at most probably 2 hours at a time but often just a hour. I might do two sessions per day playing sometimes three. I really don’t have the want or the ability to just sit and play 6 hours or more straight online. I’ve been told I would want to play more and longer when I got to $15/$30 where the money mean more, I have yet to feel this affect. Over the past few months I have been away from 2+2 to he point where it got where I didn’t even read any posts unless someone IM it to me. I didn’t really care I guess to do things to improve my game. I am very glad this isn’t my job because I could already feel how much I would hate knowing I had to play to pay the rent etc and the unwanted pressure that would come along. I also think that it puts you in a harder situation for working out, socializing, and the effect it can put on your friends who make a lot less than you. Read careful as I put puts you in a harder situation not meaning that everyone who plays for a living is fat and unsocial, but that they have a better chance. So all in all I don’t consider myself a true poker player because I don’t really have the ability to play all that long, I don’t really care about playing limits I probably should be, and a lot of the time I don’t really have the urge to research to get better. I find playing home games with great players for $20 buy-ins a lot more interesting to me than for higher limits. If someone told me I couldn’t play poker ever again today, I could care less. I guess I see myself as a recreational player that is good enough to make a good amount.
Recently I have had a new found interest again in poker (not a huge one, but at least a spark) and I have started to read and post more on 2+2 and read some books. I am going to actively try to improve my game. I have recently graduated college and start my full-time job June 27th. My next goals are probably to reach $50/$100 and St. Kitts tournament for JetSetPoker. I still have many other sites I want to try out as that has been something that has always been fun to me.
Many thanks goes out to too many 2+2ers to list but some notables are: bicyclekick, bernie, bisonbison, Clarkmeister, El Diablo, gonores, GuyOnTilt, Joe Tall, J_V, astroglide, Nate tha’ Great, Schneids, Tommy Angelo, and all the others I’ve loved reading their posts or helping me out.
Good luck to all those in their poker careers.