Online progress - 6 months in

[young nut]

I decided to make this post to get feedback on my progress and on my possible weaknesses. I am not sure how my progress compares to others, mainly because I have not seen many posts like this and I also don't have any IRL friends that play online. So please respond with any feedback or personal progress stories similar or different to mine.

I started playing poker back in February of this year. A couple of my buddies had a live game at their apartment a few nights a week, so I decided to try it out (I mean how hard could it be, it looks so easy on TV! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]) Needless to say, I went broke within 30 minutes and had to just sit and watch. So after that little epidsode, I decided to educate myself a lot more on the game, mainly hold em.

So I decided to download an internet poker client and play some freefoll poker to start learning some play. After about a week of that, a few of my online gaming buddies told me that they play for real money on the partypoker and stars, but I didn't want to buy in just yet. I didn't quite think I had enough skill to play for real. But over the course of the next few weeks, I played the NL freeroll MTT on stars just about every other night. I always finished quite well (in the top 10%) but chalked that up to horrible players who played wreckless. I eventually won one of the freerolls (5000 entrants strong) which made me feel very confident in my poker. So I had one the guys who played on partypoker buy me in for 50. He had someone else buy him in for 50 as well, just as long as he paid him back; so I made the same deal.

I started off kind of rocky, with the 50 dwindling down to around 15 or so. I mainly just played NL SNG's and hardly ever played any ring games. After a lot of losses, I decided to take a break and educate myself. I picked up HEFAP and TTOP and read them over the next few days. I found the books to be very helpful in my understanding of certain aspects of the game. So I hopped back on Party and started playing SNG's again.

I eventually worked my bankroll over 100 and paid my buddy back the 50 I owed him. I then kept playing SNG's religiously for the next month, working my bankroll to about 200. Once I reached 200 I decided to withdraw some of the money (I was low on cash that month) I never realized how much of a mistake that would be. I left myself with 60 in my account, and after 2 weeks of trying to work it back up quickly by playing 10/1 SNG's, I was broke.

I took a 2 week break figuring I would buy in a few months later when I had some extra cash. But I noticed that party had added 20 to my account for some random reason. So I sat down at a LIMIT ring table in the hopes I wouldn't lose that 20 in 5 minutes. well I tripled it up that night and gained a new interest in limit HE. I then found these forums and started absorbing all the info I could about limit as opposed to NL.

Over the past few months until now, I have been playing primarily limit ring games, and I managed to work my party bankroll to about 250. I also transferred 75 over to stars and am playing on that site as well. I have been reading other books in the meantime including Supersystem and NL Tex HE by McEvoy. Over the past month I have started to get back into large MTT's, and the results have been very positive. I have finished ITM about 50% of the time, and finished in the top 20 of a 10/1 1500 person tournie.

By no means do I feel totally confident in my play yet, but I do feel like I am improving each day. I sometimes question if I am improving far too slowly compared to most people, or if it may just seem that way. After reading some posts about progress, some people talk about how they worked a $50 buy in into over a grand in a few months. My bankroll is not growing as rapidly, but it seems steady nonetheless. I really haven't had too big a downswing in a single period (maybe $60-75 being my largest swing).

At this point in time, I feel my strongsuit is playing in $10/1 limit HE SNG's. I find them very beatable, and I finish in the money more often than not. I also play the .5/1 limit ring games, but I do get frustrated getting sucked out on a lot (Although I realize that it is good for them to be calling with a weaker hand). I still do play NLHE, but mainly in large MTT. I play on average about 3 hours a day, so about 21 hours a week (is that enough?)

So that is where I'm at right now. I feel that I am an overall winning player, although it may be just 1BB/hr and at the smallest stakes. So I'll stop rambling now and get back to the tables.

-later [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[Sarge85]

Best of Luck Young Nut.

I will only add one comment...

Always, always, play within your bankroll.

Sarge[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

[Baulucky]

4-tabling 0.5-1 for 8 hrs a day should easily make you $50-$80 a day. More if you are very good &/or lucky.

When you have $600, move to $1-$2, equally easy and you can make $100-$160 per day.

Etc, etc. till $3-$6. That's what I do these days. I started 4 months before you, and have been living off it since March. I lived off $1-$2 for all but the last 2 months. But I pay no taxes in my jungle...errr country...

If you throw bonuses into the equation, it's pretty good money if you don't burn out in the process...

[young nut]

I multi table every now and then, but I find that it is hard to get good reads on anyone because you are always jumping back and forth.

[Isura]

[ QUOTE ]
I multi table every now and then, but I find that it is hard to get good reads on anyone because you are always jumping back and forth.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was like that in the beginning too. But multi-tabling is really the only way to go at low limits when you get more experience. Less variance, more hands, more money. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]