I was down, then up, I 'm up, now i'm down.

Felipe · #1 08-04-2005, 09:09 AM

I'm on this mission. $200 in 4-5 months playing microlimits. First day I sit down at Stars and start cleaning the table with ebody's money. I'm making like 10BB. Then i'm down 20BB (so -10BB of my initial deposit) Then I'm up +5BB of my initial deposit, then I'm back to -10BB of my deposit. This is all taking place over around 450 hands or so at .02/.04 limits on Stars. PT says I'm "moneybags", and I know that I can perform well. I'm mostly getting shook up by LAGS betting and raising and winning in the showdowns against me. I haven't had 'many' suckouts (runnerrunner straights, river sets). Is this variance 'normal'? Are there other threads like mine that I can learn from? Am I tilting? All i think about is "i can beat it. Just play tight and smart" I thought PT and GT+ were going to do wonders to my B.R., they seem to be more of a distraction (only started using PT about 2 months ago, and GT+ only sunday). What sorts of things can I do to minimise the fluctuations/variance? I'm stuck wondering if its me that sucks, or I should be patient and wait for my time, so I can make the bucks. I've read through all of SSH several times, and continue to apply the things in it. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, what did you do? What happened at the end?

Thanks a million.

sandsmarc · #2 08-04-2005, 09:21 AM

At these limits your results are meaningless. I don't even consider it poker. These limits are for total newbies to lean the mechanical nuances of the game. That shouldn't take more than a week or two. At least move up to .50/1.00 where it starts to resemble actual poker.

Felipe · #3 08-04-2005, 12:22 PM

I'd wanna crush these FIRST and see a good BB/100 hnds before moving up.

maybedinero · #4 08-04-2005, 12:58 PM

Felipe, IMO you've got the right attitude. Play at the limits that are suitable for your bankroll--don't even think about jumping to 0.5/1 from 0.02/0.04.
On the other hand, if you have more than $200 that you're able to play poker with without too much damage if you lose, I'd suggest moving up a bit, perhaps to 0.10/0.20.
Other than that, I'd advise playing a few more hands preflop (I'm expecting some disagreement here). If your VPIP is less than 25 you're probably not taking full advantage of the weak-tight fish and calling stations at your limits. Play plenty of drawing hands and small pairs for cheap flops, then ditch them if you miss.

maybedinero · #5 08-04-2005, 01:03 PM

Couple more things.

-> The one month I made a loss since I started online in February was June, which also happened to be the month I was using PokerEdge on Party Poker. Looking back, some of it had to do with variance, but I reckon more was overreliance on the information supplied by Poker Edge. The stats led me to make too many calls (against players with high 'aggression scores' and try too many bluffs (against players with low 'showdowns seen scores'). Beware! Take the stats on your opponents with a pinch of salt and play your normal game rather than make audacious moves in response to the stats. PT is a fantastic investment for self-analysis though--if I was on a site which works with PT (I've since moved from Party to GamesGrid) I'd certainly be using it still.

-> I take it from your post that you're playing Limit. Have you considered No Limit or Pot Limit? If not, why not?

johnc · #6 08-04-2005, 01:12 PM

Suggestion: Play your best game you can for at least 1000 hands. Don't be result orientated. BB/100 at small sample sizes can be very decieving!! You'll crushem one session for huge BB/100 then get crushed the next. The key factor to remember at these nano limits is that your opponents don't give a damn about the change on the table so they will play all kinds of crazy stuff and not care if they win or lose. The important lesson you'll get from this is variance and why it's so important to not lose focus on playing solid poker. After a 1000 hands, go back into PT and evaluate your play. Look hard for for leaks. Where are the places where you are losing bets? Come up with a game plan to plug those leaks, read sections in SSH that pertain to those leaks, post and take part in threads in the micros. Stick to your game plan for another 1000 hands and carefully analyze your results, review, read, post, repeat.

Hope this helps.

#7 08-04-2005, 04:42 PM

Even the greatest players have gone broke more than once. As long as you analyze your play and make sure you are making the proper decisions, you will improve and build a bankroll.

mosquito · #8 08-04-2005, 08:33 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I'm on this mission. $200 in 4-5 months playing microlimits. First day I sit down at Stars and start cleaning the table with ebody's money. I'm making like 10BB. Then i'm down 20BB (so -10BB of my initial deposit) Then I'm up +5BB of my initial deposit, then I'm back to -10BB of my deposit. This is all taking place over around 450 hands or so at .02/.04 limits on Stars. PT says I'm "moneybags", and I know that I can perform well. I'm mostly getting shook up by LAGS betting and raising and winning in the showdowns against me. I haven't had 'many' suckouts (runnerrunner straights, river sets). Is this variance 'normal'? Are there other threads like mine that I can learn from? Am I tilting? All i think about is "i can beat it. Just play tight and smart" I thought PT and GT+ were going to do wonders to my B.R., they seem to be more of a distraction (only started using PT about 2 months ago, and GT+ only sunday). What sorts of things can I do to minimise the fluctuations/variance? I'm stuck wondering if its me that sucks, or I should be patient and wait for my time, so I can make the bucks. I've read through all of SSH several times, and continue to apply the things in it. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, what did you do? What happened at the end?

Thanks a million.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ummm..... 450 hands is nothing. 20 BB is nothing.

Keep playing as you are, try to work on your game.

If you can't beat tha nano's, you have NO business
moving up or switching to NL.

Give it a few thousand hands, and see where you are
at. Get used to the variance.

Good luck.

#9 08-05-2005, 10:26 AM

I play NL micros on stars. I found once I got to .25/.50NL the game got better drastically. When I played limit my variance was huge however, I was a lot more loose back then. My advice would be to get to the .25/.50 as quickly as you feel comfortable with. And by all means set an amount that if you lose, walk away and take a break.

steamboatin · #10 08-07-2005, 04:51 PM

Variance is your friend. It would be nice if you could just log on, play and post a win every time but it doesn't work that way. The variance at microlimits is very high but it is an opportunity to learn how to save chps when you are behind and jam the pot when you are ahead.

Don't be in to big of a hurry to move up in limits. Moving up to soon is a mistake.