One year ago today, I...

[pokerdirty]

One year ago...

I started a $50, .25-.50 blinds NL Home Game once a week with a few of my buddies.

I had not yet heard of 2p2, but my buddies had, and would eventually talk about it at the home game, which lead me here about 6 weeks later.

I had lost about $2000 playing online, in $100 increments, mostly at PR $2-$2, starting with $10 or $20 at the table, and trying to get lucky.

I played $10+1 multis, very unsuccessfully.

I had heard about pot/implied odds, didn't really put the concept into play.

Thought every time I lost with the better hand, Poker Room was setting me up.

***

One year later...

I have found the wonderfulness that is SNG & 2p2.

I have learned bankroll management, and play within my limits.

I have learned to value bet. I have learned to be aggressive on the bubble.

I have made back my losses, and probably then some.

I have stopped blaming Poker Room for losing, and I take it out on the donkey that called me with J2o instead [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Lurk the strat forums, post in OOT/Sports too much.

***

Goals for the next year...

Post more in Strat forums/less in OOT

Get rid of the Mac, and get a PC so I can finally get on Party, not to mention get Poker Tracker.

Learn to 4 table.

Pay more attention to what my opponents are doing, rather than just play my hands.

Keep better records.

Graduate from NYU!

[zipppy]

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- Got bored, started playing $27, then $60, turbos. Got hot, worked roll up to $2,000.


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- Learn to manage my bankroll.


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I'd say that's a good goal. At what point did you start playing 60s?

[kevstreet]

One year ago today, I...

1. Played on a new Dell PC (sans 2001fp)

2. Played without rakeback

3. Had less than $1K in my accounts on-line.

4. Limped from early position in level 1 with 55.

5. Never played in a tournament with a buy-in of over $500.

6. Never won a MTT

7. Played some $6 SnGs

8. Accidentally played an O8 game

9. Didn't know what ROI and ITM meant

10. Only played Party

Since then, I...

1. Play on a one year old Dell PC (sans 2001fp) - 4 tabling with sick overlap.

2. Played with rakeback and now back to playing without rakeback. I miss it!

3. Have a sufficient bankroll on-line. Made significant withdrawals this year as well.

4. Occasionally limp from early position in level 1 with 55.

5. Still have not played in a tourney with an entry fee of $500 HOWEVER I am enrolled in a $1,000 buy-in event at Paradise (via satellite)

6. Won 2 small buy in MTTs ($6 freeze-out with 1100 players and a $10 R&A only 100 entrants)

7. Never play $6 SnGs

8. Purposely play O8

9. Learned what ROI & ITM mean, plugged in the days results every evening and cursed every time my numbers dropped at all. Now I don't even bother filling out the spreadsheet. Not even sure what my ROI is anymore...

10. Play on Party, Titan, Absolute, Paradise and Eurobet (I'm now a bonus whore for cash and prizes, helps ease the pain of variance for me)

[microbet]

[ QUOTE ]
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Mine is short:

One year ago I was single tabling the $11s

Now I'm 8 tabling the $215s

It has been a good year.

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if only this was called "one year and 2 months ago" because then that would be the same for me. =( i miss my chicago computer.

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If only this thread waited 2 months to be born, then it would be the same for me. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[BAK]

Last year:

I had watched Fossilman win the WSOP in September and thought it looked like a lot of fun.

Bought a book (Lou Krieger’s Hold ‘Em Excellence and another book because it was only $5) and read it. Played on the play money tables at PokerRoom with a sticky on my monitor of the hand rankings. Read the Pokah forums.

Figured out how to get money from my credit card onto Party Poker and started playing NL. Lost that money. Got a Neteller account and reloaded. Lost that money.

One year ago:

Read SSHE over the Thanksgiving holiday. Started playing limit and was breaking even.

Discovered STT and MTTs and lost my money. Reloaded.

Started reading 2+2.

Won 2 small buy-in MTT’s on Prima in one week. Decided I was a tournament player. J Went to Vegas for my birthday in March. Came in 3rd in two live tournaments I played in Vegas. Won 4 tourneys in AC from March to May (including a chop in a Ladies event). Was sure I was a tournament player. :O Played in two events at the WSOP – the Ladies event which I did OK in (110 out of 601) and an open event, where I was pwned! Have barely made it to the money in a few of the online MTTS I have played lately. Had to reload several times. Decided I had been very lucky and have a lot to learn about being a winning MTT player.

Played some STTs and enjoyed them. Read the AM guide and took the general advice here to play $11’s instead of $6’s. Managed to make a little profit until I had a long string of OOTM loses. Decided I was no good at them and it wasn’t fun to lose.

Bounced around playing all kinds of things - $25 NL, Omaha 8, Stud, MTTs. Reloaded some more.

Now:

Have an extensive poker library, which I have read, but apparently have not absorbed.

I got tired of reloading online. Decided to give myself an actual BR rather than just assume I would reload when I went broke. Stopped playing MTTs except for an occasional $5 + .

Started playing STTs seriously. Was up then down playing the $11s so I went to the $6s to get back to even. Am now up playing the $11s but my ROI is about 3% and my ITM is only 33%.

I am reading 2+2 and am starting to understand what I should be doing. I need to start getting more of a thrill from making the correct play. Now I am getting a lot of enjoyment from my successful bluffs and suck outs, in addition to my correct plays that work out for me. Unfortunately, I think I actually enjoy being berated as a fish – although since Party has blocked the railbird chat, I don’t get it as much as I used to. I do get the most enjoyment in being berated when I have actually played correctly – that is the best of both worlds!!

I tell myself I am not a donk, but in reality, I am afraid that I am. I have never given anyone my screen name because I hate to think what kinds of notes people might have on me.

Going forward:

I want to stop being a donk.

I want to develop some second level thinking as I play. (I have so far to go, second level is as far as I am aiming for at this time.)

I want to think about the odds more often and in more depth, rather than as an occasional justification for making a call I want to make anyway.

I want to figure out a way to become a good poker player.

I want to become good enough and confident enough to actually contribute in these forums.

[Ixnert]

A year ago, I...

-- ...was beating my workmates pretty reliably for what felt like decent amounts of money in games after work. Thought I was pretty damn good.

-- ...really sucked.

-- ...had never played online.

-- ...thought any two broadway were really pretty.

-- ...was separated from my wife.

-- ...got very depressed when I lost large amounts gambling (used to have a blackjack leak).

In the last year, I...

-- ...made my first deposit at Party. Lost it. Made my second deposit. Lost it. Took a break for a while, made one last (and this one I really resolved it would be the last) deposit.

-- ...almost simultaneously found 2+2. Read without really understanding much of anything for a while, but even that level helped enough for the 11s.

-- ...reconciled with my wife, who (though this was the least of my worries) didn't really mind my new poker habit nearly as much as I thought she would.

-- ...eventually moved up to the 22s, where I'm solidly +ROI, and the 33s, where I'm borderline, then back to the 22s.

-- ...made about an extra month's salary from my 9-to-5 from my poker exploits, not so much as to be life-changing, but certainly enough to be able to do some nice things with it.

-- ...suck a bit less, and now recognize that I suck, though I can confidently say I suck less than the people at the tables I play.

-- ...am a lot tighter than I was a year ago, but still find myself seduced by pretty-looking hands at the worst possible times now and then.

-- ...am much more accepting of the swings of variance (especially since I have confidence that in the long run, they'll tend to work out my way), but still don't handle downswings as well as I'd like.

-- ...still leak, but at MTTs rather than blackjack, which feels like progress.

A year from now, I...

-- ...hope to have moved back up again to the 30s or 50s, maybe higher if things work out, but happy to only move as high as I can ultra-comfortably do (I have ~120 BIs on-line at the moment).

-- ...hope to have made enough to pay off some (all, in my wilder dreams) of the credit card debt I built up in college and haven't had much luck making a dent in since.

-- ...hope to suck even less.

-- ...hope to turn my MTT leak into an inflow. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Mr_Oog]

One year ago I:

-Was bonus whoring micro limit ring games to build a bankroll.

-Had a long term goal to be able to win $500 a month.

-Hadn't played a SNG or MTT


Now I-
-Regularly play the 55's and some MTT's with a solid ROI.

-Taken a few stabs at the 109's with success but realize the money still means too much to me.

-First realized that $500 a month is way too low for a long term goal

-Later realized that monetary monthly goals are silly and changed my goals to developing the ability and comfort level to play the 215's well.


Goals for the future:

-Rebuild my roll after depletion due to RL expenses.

-Learn to better handle the money at risk in a 109. (Obviously after rebuilding the roll.)

-Play more poker while still maintaining my relationships.

-Play with my 3 month old daughter more. (Can never be too much.)

-Mike

One year ago:

Never played poker

This year:

Using bots and gifted Vietnamese child labor to 800-table the 109s.

[IHateKeithSmart]

Great thread and replies. Unfortunately my story is not as inspiring as most . . .

One year ago today . . .

-I 1 tabled the $55s, drunk %20 of the time, for a %6 ROI.

-Gave a run at about 1K $11s 4-tabling. About %10 ROI.

-Played the .50/1 or Micro Omaha H/L tables

-Beat my $2/$5 blind NL home game for a decent amount.

Today . . .

-I 2-table the $55s, drunk %50-60 of the time, for a %4 ROI.

-Play too many MTTs for a healthy -%40 ROI.

-4-6 table Omaha 8 to produce an MTT bankroll, from 1/2 to 5/10, depending on where I can get a seat.

-Am almost done with my Masters degree. Once I'm done (Spring 2006), I plan on taking poker a little more seriously. This plan will probably go to hell though.

-Beat my $2/$5 blind NL home game for a decenter amount.

[skipperbob]

Wanna ride w/us to *STTF-HUC-II* [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]