starting online play (newbie)

[pdxpuck]

It is time to stop lurking and post a message...

I picked up an extra $100 at my regular home game recently and decided I would use it to bankroll some online poker. Before I start, I am curious about othe player's record keeping. I see many references to keeping notes of sessions, but what do you record? What kind of details are worth tracking, and when you go back to your notes which pieces are you getting the most out of? Are there any templates or examples out there?

Considering the modest bankroll, any suggestions on which site to play? Any tips on maximizing the current bonuses? I would expect to play the micro limits (.5/$1 or less) to start with and go from there.

If there is a FAQ covering some of this, please point me to it. I have yet toi find anything of the sort. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

/pdxpuck

[AncientPC]

I'd suggest buying Poker Tracker, even if it costs half your bankroll. At least try it for the free demo (limited to 1,000 hands).

[Scotch78]

##### yourself out for the first few months. This is my favorite site to find out about deposit bonuses. That should help with the bankroll. Stay away from Pokerstars. I love the site, but it's got the toughest ring games IMO. Party, Paradise, and most of the smaller sites should be pretty soft. As to notes . . . look for patterns (always slowplays sets), mistakes (bluffs too much), looseness (showed K8 UTG), aggressiveness (raised multi-way flop with MP), trickiness (slowplaying, check-raising, semi-bluffing), etc. Don't forget--the absence/opposite of any of these things can be just as revealing. Then think about how to counter each thing you note about a player. I believe there's a section at the back of TOP about this.

Scott

PS As to maximizing bonuses, start with sites that release a bonus faster instead of looking for the biggest bonuses. Also, some of the sites offer small monthly bonuses that could be perfect for someone starting out.

[sin808]

you really can't do without poker tracker if you want to track stats (yours and others). Other than some good books it's been one of the most valuable tools I've purchased.

Congrats on the $100. Everyone else is dead on with regards to this. Poker Tracker is by far the best software for record keeping. Concerning sites to play at, party poker and empire poker are the best with regards to number of players and fishiness of them. The only draw back is they don't have the micro limit games. The lowest limit hold em they have is .5/1.00 .

On empire and party, there is some built in stats as well - flops seen %, win % if seen the flop, overall winning %, etc. My advice, make sure you see the flop some ammount less than 25% of the time - around 22% is ideal. And FOLD if you are beat. This is what seperates the winners from the losers. One of the biggest advantages a Low Limit player has in online games compared to the B&M players is that you can play multiple tables. If you play right, you can do quite well. The emotional/psycological edge gained through playing multiple tables at Low Limit is huge(increased limits it's not quite as good, in fact probably hurts you in some ways). Good luck and my best regards,

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[theghost]

Get a Neteller account. Takes about a week to deposit to neteller from your bank, so do it now. Some sites pay the fees for you to do an instacash transfer - Ultimate Bet being one - so you can play right away.

Agreed that you should get poker tracker - it's free for the 1st 1000 hands, then you can but it with winnings straight out of Neteller.

UB is compatible w/ PT, but getting hand histories from them is annoying. Hand histories from party/crypto sites can be put directly onto your machine - very nice.

I wouldn't recommend playing at party or crypto until you've got a healthier bankroll ($200-300 for .50/1). Pacific has microlimits, but isn't compatible with pokertracker. UB has .01/.02; .05/.10; .25/.50 so you could start there (at least I think they have .05/.10....) I like UB for the micros because the games are still reasonably tight, good for practice. You should change sites once you move out of the micros (for the same reason - too tight).

Paradise has micros too - never played there myself.

More info on various newbie questions here.

Good luck!

[fnord_too]

I would hold off on buying poker tracker (but not getting the demo) until it did not affect my bankroll so much. (Also, if you don't have a lot of hours logged, you will be learning and improving your game a lot in the beginning anyway).

Certainly, if you don't already have one, pick up a good book on your game of choice (I'm assuming it's hold'em since this is the hold'em section.)

I know royal vegas gives you $10 free for signing up and 40% (up to $40?) on your first deposit (i.e. if you put the full $100 there you would have $150 in your BR), and I think they release the bonus immediately, and only restrict cash outs of the bonus until you have played enough hands. I don't know what their micro limit HE games are like, but they have some really soft no ante stud games.

I don't think that party offers less than .5/1.0 games, which is a bit high for your bankroll. UB has some .10/.20 games I think, but I have never played in them.

As to what to record, I'd record game (type/structure/limit), net result, time played, and hands played.

[pdxpuck]

Thanks for the responses! I will dig around a bit more on the bonuses, and what the microlimits are at some of the sites. I have been rereading through the first Sklansky (HE) book before diving into the HEFAP, but from some other posts it sounds like the SSHE text would be worthwhile as well.

thanks again!

[Blarg]

One thing you should definitely do, without fail, is never miss a hand history. Whether you buy Pokertracker right away or not.

I saved up weeks worth of hand histories before I bought Pokertracker. You can request them 100 at a time from Party and Empire. Just save them somewhere and import them in to Pokertracker later. The information in those hand histories on your play and on the play of others is invaluable, and it will be a real loss if you don't start storing it up right away just because you haven't bought Pokertracker yet. You don't want to give up that kind of an asset.

When you get Pokertracker, import the old in batches, and auto-import the new.

[Queen Of Hearts]

I think this was a great question with great replies. I am also a newbie, found the info everyone provided very helpful. I am not quite ready to go to the "real money" tables yet as fear that they play as bad as the "play money" tables.

My husband has been playing poker for over 28 years, and his log that he keeps is simple. He records the date, start time, game played, level played, buy-in amount, rebuys, end time, <font color="purple"> </font> end amount and then he is able to see what his profit/loss is per hour; per session, and to date.

I have am going to tell him about the tracker everyone has mentioned in hopes to better his record keeping.

Thanks again!

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