2005 Microquests Thread -- Post Your Progress, Setbacks

[detruncate]

[ QUOTE ]
Play both 3/6 and 2/4, breakdown your play, find out the differences in the limits, datamine...

[/ QUOTE ]

My minimum requirements for moving up are:

a) 1000 BB at my new limit and preferably a month or two of minimal living expenses -- I'm very conservative in this area out of necessity as well as temperment

b) A reasonable level of confidence that my game is ready

Of the two, (a) is far easier. 'Tis just a matter of putting in the time. My game has a ways to go, though I feel like I've been making reasonably good progress. I've put in fewer than 30,000 hands at 2/4, and would be surprised if I tried to move up again before I've doubled or tripled that.

And yes... I'll be datamining before I test the waters.

[toss]

The more you post, the faster you can post. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Emmitt2222]

Started late August with 25 at Pacific, moved from .05/.1 to .1/.2 to .25/.50 to .5/1. Took my roll over to Party, built it to 500 and then did some BH to get it to over 1k. I have just recently moved to 1/2 6max because I hear 1/2 full sucks and I have the bankroll I wanted, 500BB. 6max has proved unbelievably soft but crazy after 1.5k hands. My goals for the next year are to move from here to at least 3/6, possibly 5/10 full and 5/10 6max by the end of the year if I have the time. The only thing that could hold me back is that almost everyone I know including my mother thinks I have a gambling problem and wants me to quit. Just continueing to play may be a bigger challenge than moving up limits, but heres to hoping.

Shill, stopping playing poker altogether? did I read that right?

[solring]

Poker Related:
1) Complete the $0.50/$1 journey and graduate full-time to $1/$2, no later than 31 March 2005. (Should have been there by Dec 2004, but a 80BB slide in Nov put a damper on New Year's.)
2) Graduate to $2/$4 by Dec 2005. (Stretch goal: $3/$6)
3) Learn how to play NL ring games (starting at $0.01/$0.02).
4) Learn how to play games other than HE.
5) Learn short-handed play.
6) Play more live games (take advantage of the unexpected move to California, where poker is legal).

"Real" life:
1) Spend more time at the gym to which I'm paying ungodly amounts monthly.
2) Concentrate my online time to after the kids go to bed, even if that means I take a hit on my poker playing.
3) Spend more time actually working during business hours, rather than reading forums.

[flair1239]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm in.

Getting a new laptop next week so I can finally play at home. Have been bonus whoring the past month to recover my bankroll whic I blew by getting drunk an entering multiple $100 tournies. Went from 1100 to $150. Have whored my way back to $550, and after clearing my next bonus should have around $700. So my goals are as follows.

1. Play a minimum of 1200 hands a week of hold-em at the appropriate level.

2. Faithfully whore party, paradise, stars, and Interpoker bonuses to keep building my bankroll.

3. Limit myself to (2) tournies a week with entry fees not to exceed 3BB of the limit level that I am playing at.

4. Be playing 10/20 holdem by next January.

5. Continue to whone my O8 and 7-stud game at the penny level on stars and paradise.

6. Finally to not let Poker interfer with work and spending time with my daughter. In other words keeping it in focus as a hobby.

[/ QUOTE ]

Progress:

Got my new laptop on 1/11/05. I have 6,000 hands in since. My bankroll is now at $1200. This is higher than it has ever been.

I am going to make the Jump to 2/4. Reason being since I got "serious" last July, I have played about 30,000 hands and several tournaments. On PT (before I had to restore my HD), I was showing a 3.5 BB/100 WR at .5/1 and 1/2. Also because I know I have the discipline to back down a level if I have to. I mean at one point in December I was playing Stars .05/.10 because I did not have the bankroll for .25/.50.

I have been staying away from tournies, 3 this month so far, biggest entry fee was $3. I have been playing .01/.02 PLO8 and .05/.10 LO8 on Stars.

I have been shocked by the amount of hands that I can get in (140-160 per hour). I am playing 3-tables now. I will not be playing 4 on this CPU, because even with 3 tables I have overlap... but it does not seem to bother me.

Anyway I am willing to chance 2/4 on a minimal bankroll of 302BB, because I am anxious to move up and I think I am ready. If I am not I know I can pull the pin before serious damage is done to my bankroll.

[dgoldsmith]

<semi-hijack here>

Entity,

How does incorporating provide a tax benefit? I've got Walter Lewis' book and it was sort of useful but very repetitive.

Basically my understanding of the filing options is:

1) File as a recreational gambler. You need to add up ALL of your WINNING sessions and report this as misc. income on your 1040 form and then you can add up all of your LOSING sessions and report this amount on your Sch A under misc deductions -- your loses are limited to your winnings and this only helps you if you itemize your deductions.

2) File as a professional gambler. You use Sch C, get to report the lumped sum of your winnings AND losings (this is a GOOD thing), you can deduct other expenses (such as books, computers, travel, etc) BUT you have to pay self-employment taxes on any remaining profit.

The big question is what the dividing line is between recreational and professional. I've seen some references to you need to be gambling for 3 years and showing a profit before you can file professionally. I seen other references to the poker needing to be a "significant" portion of your income or the time you are spending on that activity to be significant but these are sort of vague definitions.

I started online this fall, and while my poker earnings/losses are not that significant this year, I would love to be able to file as a professional for 2004 in order to take advantage of the other deductions (mainly books). However, based on what I've read in Lewis' book and from searching other post here on 2+2, that seems somewhat risky/unfeasible for this year. Since the additional benefit this year would probably be small, rather than increase the risk of audit by tossing in the red flag "professional gambler", I'll probaly pass.

Obviously this year has just started, and who knows how it will end but I expect to play online 25+ days each month, work my way up from $1/2 hopefully to at least $3/6, bonus whore like crazy and net at least $20-25K -- I'd really like to be able to file professionally for 2005. I've been keeping a pretty detailed logbook since I started so I have the documentation to back up my winning and losing sessions.

Dave

[rmarotti]

[ QUOTE ]
3) Be able to hold my own in the 2+2 Tables

[/ QUOTE ]

This one's easy. Play tight for half an hour, then grab a post-it note and place it on your screen where your cards appear. Cap every street in the dark.

You will PWN all these "tight agressive" players

[Reqtech]

I suppose that I'll go ahead and add my goals. I'm a very casual player (<1000 hands a week) so bear that in mind [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

A little history, I started playing back in April with an initial $50 deposit at Paradise, played micro stakes no-limit poker (cuz that's what I saw on the travel channel [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] ) and then I accidentally found myself in a limit tourney. I did well, though didn't place in the cash. Two tourneys later I placed 4th out of 450 and got a nice sum. With that, I stopped playing no limit completely and started trying to be a good limit player. I purchased WWLE and read it a couple times.

From May until October, I was a breakeven player at Party. I stupidly moved up to 1/2 too soon, and even did the classic "i lost at a low limit, so let's move up to 2/4 to make up for it".

Before I knew it, I had gone from $300 in my bank roll to down to $50. Then I started coming here, bought SSH and PT in late November, and I'm on a very sweet swing on variance. For the past 5000 hands (when I started using PT and after I read SSH), I'm winning 10.5BB/100 at Party .50/1.

History being over with, on to my goals:

1) Average playing 1000 hands a week.

2) Start multi-tabling up to 4 tables. Currently playing 2 at a time.

3) Build up a 300BB bankroll to move to 2/4 (I plan on skipping 1/2)

4) Play winning poker at 2/4.

That's it. I'm rather casual, so if I'm winning at 2/4 by the end of the year, I'll be pretty happy with that.

[flair1239]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm in.

Getting a new laptop next week so I can finally play at home. Have been bonus whoring the past month to recover my bankroll whic I blew by getting drunk an entering multiple $100 tournies. Went from 1100 to $150. Have whored my way back to $550, and after clearing my next bonus should have around $700. So my goals are as follows.

1. Play a minimum of 1200 hands a week of hold-em at the appropriate level.

2. Faithfully whore party, paradise, stars, and Interpoker bonuses to keep building my bankroll.

3. Limit myself to (2) tournies a week with entry fees not to exceed 3BB of the limit level that I am playing at.

4. Be playing 10/20 holdem by next January.

5. Continue to whone my O8 and 7-stud game at the penny level on stars and paradise.

6. Finally to not let Poker interfer with work and spending time with my daughter. In other words keeping it in focus as a hobby.

[/ QUOTE ]

Progress:

Got my new laptop on 1/11/05. I have 6,000 hands in since. My bankroll is now at $1200. This is higher than it has ever been.

I am going to make the Jump to 2/4. Reason being since I got "serious" last July, I have played about 30,000 hands and several tournaments. On PT (before I had to restore my HD), I was showing a 3.5 BB/100 WR at .5/1 and 1/2. Also because I know I have the discipline to back down a level if I have to. I mean at one point in December I was playing Stars .05/.10 because I did not have the bankroll for .25/.50.

I have been staying away from tournies, 3 this month so far, biggest entry fee was $3. I have been playing .01/.02 PLO8 and .05/.10 LO8 on Stars.

I have been shocked by the amount of hands that I can get in (140-160 per hour). I am playing 3-tables now. I will not be playing 4 on this CPU, because even with 3 tables I have overlap... but it does not seem to bother me.

Anyway I am willing to chance 2/4 on a minimal bankroll of 302BB, because I am anxious to move up and I think I am ready. If I am not I know I can pull the pin before serious damage is done to my bankroll.

[/ QUOTE ]

3/07/05

Had a 15K run at 2/4 where I ran at .98bb/100. This stretch included 2 individule 100BB downswings. Also I was experimenting with 4-tables, which I don't think I will do again until I have a screen to accomodate. I found myself making to many plays without thinking and I could not really relax and enjoy myself. For some reason at this point 3-tables seems to be my comfort zone and I am OK with that for now.

Anyway finished one night with $2,100 in my bankroll and decided to take a shot at 3/6. Promptly lost 50BB, but felt I played OK. So I stuck with 3/6. After last night I have 11,000 hands in at 3/6 and am running at 2.7BB/100 for this stretch.

My BR is a little over $4,000 at this point. At 5,000 I am going to 5/10, hopefully by mid-April. At 5/10 I am going to start taking out some money (depending upon results), but even so if I keep getting my hands in with even a nominal WR, I should still be able to be playing 10/20 before the end of the year.

I am pleased that I am continuing to improve, have reread HEFAP a couple times is the last month. Makes a lot more sense to me than it used too.

Bonuses have played a part in all this, I think since the beginning of February I have gotten $200 from Paradise, $400 from Party, $150 from rake back. But I have also paid out $250 to my girlfriend in her quest to become a winninng player.

Anyway having a lot of fun. I try to average about 500 hands a day for the week. This has not really been a problem. Also a let myself play longer when I am winning, but when I am stuck I quit right on time (but not sooner). This has worked well for me.

[Entity]

Progress so far: bankroll surpassing skill, by far.

I'm up $2,261 in poker earnings over 39,108 mixed-play hands since the beginning of the year. My bankroll is currently prepared for the $5/10 6max game, but I'm holding off on that until I'm emotionally ready. Currently I'm making my home at the Stars 2/4 6 max game, mixing in some Party 2/4 and 3/6 as we go along. I've been doing an inordinate amount of bonus clearing so far this year, and my total earnings are enough to keep me very happy -- my bankroll should be exceeding $8k by the end of this week.

I'm going to have to start pushing harder if I want to reach $30k in earnings by the end of the year, but I think it's doable.

Rob