Microlimits Progress Quest: Post plans/updates/setbacks here.

[detruncate]

This month has been about developing the right mental approach. Luckily enough, I think I'm finally starting to take some steps in the right direction. I say 'luckily' because things could easily have taken an unfortunate turn.

The psychological aspects of the game are much more difficult to get a handle on than the technical bits... and I haven't exactly been ripping it up in that area either. It's easy to post a hand and ask people if you should have done something differently, but it doesn't work quite so well when the mistakes are more esoteric. Experience seems to be the only remedy.

The long run is longer than you think. How often have you heard this said? Well, hearing and believing are very different things. I've now played in excess of 75,000 hands, and each time I think I'm coming to terms with the numbers involved something dramatically unexpected happens. At some point, you have to let go of the short term and settle into the glacial pace of the low limit grind. I'm more or less where I need to be, and more importantly, exactly where I should be. Now it's simply a matter of playing the hand I've been dealt.

Spent a little time at 2/4, and was fairly comfortable. Plan to play a lot more this month.

Also made my first cashout. I'm now officially playing with other people's money.

The trees were just growing leaves when I started this project, and those leaves are now dropping off. Crazy.

I often wonder where I'll be when they come back again.

Lots of new faces in the micro forum. It's good to see, even if it sometimes makes me feel like a lifer. Best wishes to all as you pursue your own microquests.

[detruncate]

Time passes. My hand count grows. I'm finally starting to develop a feel for the game. I don't mean the technical aspects... I'm certainly making baby steps in that direction, but most of my progress has to do with coming to terms with what it means to be a poker player. The details too often lost in the onward and upward.

T'was the month of bonus whoring. Putting up reasonable numbers despite playing too few hands. Building a slightly softer cushion into my roll. And the pieces are finally in place for a move to 2/4. Whether I'm able to make it work before I have to move back down or make a withdrawal is a question for another day.

Until then, it's eyes straight ahead and one foot in front of the other.

[JerseyTom]

OK, after (mostly) lurking for so long, I'll add mine:

Operation "Just Win, Baby"

- Play poker at various sites and just win, learning as I go and moving up levels only if I feel comfortable enough with my play at my current level and have more than enough bankroll for the next (350 BB or more; I don't ever want to have to reload)...
- Cash out a chunk for wedding rings (getting hitched in a few months; one-time purchase, hopefully...) and then occasionally for other toys.

While I'm prety sure I'm not a bad player, I don't know that I'm particularly good either. That said, here are some numbers from my play at Pacific (the only site at which I've played ring games for real money):


Limit: 0.10/0.20, Mar 09, 2004 - Mar 17, 2004

Hours: 22.4
Hands: 868
Winnings: +121.6 BB
5.43 BB/hour
14.00 BB/100


Limit: 0.25/0.50, Mar 17, 2004 - May 13, 2004

Hours: 74.6
Hands: 2886
Winnings: +343.0 BB
4.59 BB/hour
11.88 BB/100


Limit: 0.50/1.00, May 13, 2004 - present

Hours: 74.3
Hands: 3430
Winnings: +374.7 BB
5.04 BB/hour
10.92 BB/100



Thoughts on these numbers:

- VERY small sample size overall; don't get carried away
- Hard to analyze the quality of my play since Pacific is not compatible with PokerTracker (all stats above were compiled by hand)
- Pacific is notorious for having really bad players (that said, I can't recommend it highly enough if you're looking for another site to mess around on... if you can deal with slow software, no multi-tabling and no text hand histories... IMO, the games are just too good to pass up)


Next steps:

- now that I have PokerTracker, start playing at some sites that support it
- use a couple of bonuses to stake myself a BR for 0.50/1.00 at Party and see how that goes...
- probably throw $200 into Paradise as well to take advantage of a first-time bonus. Play there (I turned a free $2 into about $75 playing their NL ring games...), see how it goes...


More later...

[buffett]

Wow, what a helpful thread this has been. Excellent!

Operation: Down Payment for a House

Limit: 0.50/1.00, Oct 01, 2004 - Oct 17, 2004
Hands: 5,000
Winnings: +155 BB
3.10 BB/100

Limit: 1/2, Oct 18, 2004 - Jan 25, 2005
Hands: 28,000
Winnings: +151 BB
0.54 BB/100

January 15, 2005 is the date I stopped being a crappy player, based on 2+2 web and book readings.
Limit: 2/4, Jan 26, 2005 - present
Hands: 6,000
Winnings: +289 BB
4.81 BB/100

Big Downswings
One 180BB, one 182BB, and one 100BB.

All stats are full-ring. Does anyone recommend me to move up to 3/6? The main reasons I haven't so far are:
1) not enough experience at 2/4
2) great win rate at 2/4, might not win as much at 3/6
3) 2/4 winrate possibly inflated from good run

Status: So far I'm up $7,600 ($2,400 from play (not all of which is accounted for in the numbers above) and $5,200 from bonii), so I have my work cut out for me to get to my down payment (in the neighborhood of $50K), but I'm getting a little bit better every day. Woo hoo!

By the way, I'm up $7,600, but I only have a $3,000 "bankroll". At the end of each month I withdraw anything over $3k and put it in my ING savings account. (March's withdrawal should be in the neighborhood of $2,600.)

-web

[SomethingClever]

Wow, I just read through this entire thread for the first time. I hadn't seen it before, since I only started playing limit and browsing this forum a short while ago.

Bison and Dids: I was surprised to learn that your "operations" had started so recently. I think I've learned more from both of your posts than anyone else, so I figured you'd been micro gods for years. Impressive stuff.

Shoot, now I need to reveal my master plan.

Operation: TV and Motorcycle

My goal is to buy a big-ass TV and motorcycle with money earned entirely from poker. I figure I'll need $600-1,000 for the TV, and another $1,200 for the bike. So we'll say $2,200 total.

History: I started playing NL $25 on Party last year, and built $25 into $285 playing like a maniac. Then, of course, I lost it all.

In March, after reading TOP, I played a bit on my brother's account, and, when I had earned $50, I had him transfer it to me. I built that into $510, then dropped back down to $320 and cashed out, sick of no-limit.

In the middle of that, I played around 6,000 hands of $0.01/$0.02 NL on Stars and made $85.

Now I've finally realized that limit is the way to go, and I bought back into Party/Empire with $300 of the $320 I cashed out earlier. This is also when I decided to set a concrete goal.

Results so far (estimates, because PokerTracker is at home)

Current limit: .5/1
Hands: 4,000
Earnings: +200BB
Rate: 5BB/100

I will begin playing one table of 1/2 and one table of .5/1 as soon as I reach 300BB for 1/2 (I cleared a $72 re-buy bonus recently, so I'm close).

[lu_hawk]

I've never bought a motorcycle before but $1,200 seems a little unreasonable. Are you just talking about the downpayment?

[SomethingClever]

[ QUOTE ]
I've never bought a motorcycle before but $1,200 seems a little unreasonable. Are you just talking about the downpayment?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nah, I'm going to get a used bike. I bought a 1981 Yamaha Maxim for $800 in 2001. I had to sell it when I moved; now I want something similar.

[EdSchurr]

Time to start making use of the 2+2 forums.

Operation Graduate Degree from Poker Also verbose...

I'd like to be able to pay for school with poker winnings, and to avoid taking a job next summer. After the spring semester ended, I had almost $0, and had to get a job as a janitor. Then I moved "up" into phone technical support. Please, poker, save me from this hell! If I save the rest I make this summer for school, and then my trust fund kicks in, I should be able to avoid working during school this year. That means a lot of time to play poker.

My conservative long term poker goals are thus to be able to make $1000CAD per month eventually. I figure $2USD/$4USD limit with multitabling can achieve that, or better. So really, I just want to move out of micro limits!

I got a friend to transfer me $2 on Poker Stars last fall. I turned that into $50 in total. But from him buying money from me, and me playing no limit (yikes) with him, my bank roll was at $15.

My job pays $1000CAD per month, and my rent cost is low, so I put $200CAD into poker. After CAD->USD fees, and buying Poker Tracker, I have $100USD online. I'm playing .25/.5, slightly under funded.

The quest has yet to begin, because I have 5 weeks of work left. I will be reading WLLHE and TOP again and again in the meantime I hope.

For those interested, I'm only starting this year to transfer to another school, for the first year of a bachelors and THEN a graduate degree in linguistics. <font color="green">$$$</font>

[detruncate]

The exchange rate is fun, isn't it? Every time I watch the financial report I look for that little red arrow with tail wagging excitement. $100 for the .25/.5 game should be fine. Especially if you don't mind dropping a few more bucks in a some point if things start out badly. WLLHE is a good place to begin, but his book was written for a significantly different game texture than you'll find at most micro tables, so hang around the forum to help you adjust. Post hands that you're unsure about (and even some that you are sure about), and comment on other people's hands, even if you're not convinced that your line is the best one. Most of all, don't get caught up in how well you're doing compared to where you think you should be. When that sort of mindset creeps in, any downturn or setback is magnified into a crisis... which turns into a self-perpetuating downward spiral of badness. Baby steps, non? Good luck.

[EdSchurr]

The thing that helps me over the exchange rate is thinking about how nice it will be to play $2/$4 one day and cashing out USD-&gt;CAD. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Regarding the psychology of it all, I think I'm at least a little bit prepared from all the forum lurking I've done. Also, I don't think I can make $2/$4 and a poker career by next summer, but because my dad subsidizes my education I could get by on a mere $250CAD cashout per month. $2/$4 is long, long term. By reading peoples posts I'm getting an idea of how much I'm going to have to put into the game to get where I want--a lot!

[ QUOTE ]
even if you're not convinced that your line is the best one.

[/ QUOTE ]

Btw, are you a chess player?