The PP 1/2 blood, sweat and tears thread

[tardigrade]

Congratulations, man... I hope to join you someday. I've been playing 1/2 on and off for a while now, both on the 6max and full table, and have been having temporary success, fortunately. I'd hate to start moving up a little and then go on a bad run like you did.

I agree with you on table selection, by the way. I've been ultra-picky about 1/2 tables, and have only joined games with at least $20 avg pot. I'm not one of these guys that's looking for tough games to challenge his skills. The softer the better. The only reason I want to do any moving up is to increase my hourly rate, and if I can't do that, I'd rather just buy another monitor and try to 8-table .5/1.

[dfscott]

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Now don't go forgetting the Micros when you're off and running wild at 2/4...


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Don't worry. I plan to move to the SS forum the same way I move to the higher limits -- very gradually. As bison and many others have said, this still feels like "home" to me so it'll be tough to leave and go off to "college" with the big boys. I'll definitely commute for while before moving on-campus. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[sprmario]

Nice thread. I'm at a $601 BR right now and will be playing a mix of .5/1 and 1/2 until I break $700 which will be when I'm up to 4 full 1/2. Here's my current schedule for moving up:

Bankroll Range Tables
$300 to 400 : 4 tables of .5/1
$400 to 500 : 3 tables of .5/1, 1 table of 1/2
$500 to 600 : 2 tables of .5/1, 2 tables of 1/2
$600 to 700 : 1 table of .5/1, 3 tables of 1/2
$800 to 950 : 4 tables if 1/2
$950 to 1100: 3 tables of 1/2, 1 table of 2/4
$1100 to 1250: 2 tables of 1/2, 2 tables of 2/4
$1250 to 1400: 1 tables of 1/2, 3 tables of 2/4
$1400 to 1550: 4 tables of 2/4

My sessions usually last about 60 to 75 min and then I take 30 to 60 min breaks. I don't like to play more than 90 min in a stretch without walking around, getting a drink, or doing some exercise.

I personally have not worried about table selection (I play on party). I might start doing that though. I have noticed that in most 1/2 tables you'll have 4 or 5 decent players and 3 or 4 total fish. I had a really bad night 2 nights ago w/ one fish really sucking out on me badly 4 separate times on 2, 2, 3 and 4 outers on the turn or the river.

Once I get up to 1250 or so I'll work out the schedule for the move to 3/6 but I'm thinking intervals of $200 which will put me 4 tabling 36 once I get to $2000 or so in the bankroll.

[PotatoStew]

Hey dfscott, glad to hear things are turning around... they've turned around for me also, but in the opposite direction: last night I had an 80BB downswing in about 2.5 hours. (By the way, I think I saw you at one of my three tables when I started last night. You should have warned me to quit early! [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] ) I haven't put the hands into PT yet, but it's bound to take a huge chunk out of my 10BB/100 win rate at 1/2.

I felt like the tables were fine. I think the problem was partially a bad run of cards, combined with my good starting hands not holding up past the flop (lots of people hitting straights and flushes against me). I also need to adjust how I play overcards and top pair, and get better at getting away from marginal situations (although it seemed like whenever I did dump things last night, they would have ended up winning -- very discouraging).

Well, hopefully this is just temporary, and not indicitave of any super-serious problems with my game. I'll have to watch for that, and maybe go to two tables instead of three to concentrate a bit more. Good luck to you -- hope your success continues!

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Now don't go forgetting the Micros when you're off and running wild at 2/4...


[/ QUOTE ]

Don't worry. I plan to move to the SS forum the same way I move to the higher limits -- very gradually. As bison and many others have said, this still feels like "home" to me so it'll be tough to leave and go off to "college" with the big boys. I'll definitely commute for while before moving on-campus. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

How quickly things can change...

Last Saturday, things were rocking along for me. I had been playing 2/4 full-time for about a week ago and had built a $1600 BR. My stats at that time were:

Hands: 25,600
VP$IP: 19.57
PFR%: 7.00
Post-flop Agr: 1.70
BB/100: 5.55

Life was good.

Then on Sunday, the wheels came off. Monday, the engine fell out. Tuesday, it burst into flames. And last night, the whole thing exploded. Here are the stats for that 4-day period:

Hands: 1,435
VP$IP: 16.52
PFR%: 6.06
Post-flop Agr: 1.68
BB/100: (-10.89)

Other than the BB/100 figure and the fact that I tightened up due to not having a lot of good starting hands, I wasn't aware of a change in my play style (and I posted several hands for confirmation). However, I lost over $500, or about 30% of my total BR. As my BR dropped, I moved down in limits, going from 3 2/4 tables, to 2 2/4 tables and 1 1/2 table, finally to 1 2/4 table and 2 1/2 tables. The net result is that I lost around 150BB.

Now I'm sitting at just under $1100 and trying to determine my next move. I thought about moving back down to 1/2 full-time, but I think I might be even more conservative and move to .50/1. Until I have a winning session, I'm not going to feel comfortable playing, and I want to prevent any further damage to my (irreplaceable) BR.

In addition, I don't have that many hands at .5/1 (3000) or 1/2 (5000), so I think building up some more experience at both of those levels would be a good thing. I was also a little shell-shocked by magnitude of the losses, since I moved all the way from playing .25/.50 to 2/4 in just over a month, so I hadn't really adjusted to the increased size of the swings.

I'm revising my goals as follows:

Step 1 - Take a break. No poker over the Labor Day weekend at all (an easy commitment since I'm going out of town). I still might do some poker reading, though. Since I just finshed SSH for the 2nd time, I might pick something a little more introspective such as PoP or Zen.

Step 2 - 3-table .5/1 until I either a) increase my BR to $1200 (approx. +100BB @ .5/1) or b) drop below $800. If it's b), the rest of this plan is trashed and I have to re-assess.

Step 3 - Start 3-tabling PP 1/2. If I drop back to $1000, go back to Step 2. When I hit $1400 (+100BB @ 1/2), I'll start slowly adding in 2/4 tables, one for each $200 earned.

Step 4 - At $1800, return to 3-tabling 2/4 full-time.

In any case, I'm back to the micro forums for a while, so you should definitely see more of me. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]