Rags to Riches

Here's a graph:


And my stats:


Does anyone have any input on what I should change by looking at my stats? It looks pretty nitty but I have been opening up my range quite a bit when I'm in good position. My experience with post-flop play is getting better and I'm getting the confidence to open up my range in good positions. Pretty obv stuff but it's clicking.

I think I will play about 1k more hands to hit 10k total and move up officially after that. The reason why my volume is so low is because Bodog only lets you open 4 tables at once. The pro about that is that I can concentrate on those four quite well and play better.

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The reason why I deposited money into Bodog was because I used their sports betting features (for MMA mainly); my rationale was that having all of my gambling needs met from one source would be convenient. Playing a few hours of poker has given me a few conclusions on my decision so far as a microstakes player:

PROS

- The competition so far is really, really soft. I played microstakes at PS and FT and it wasn't difficult either but this is another realm of easy. It is not uncommon to find tables with 40-50% flops seen. I can only hope that it remains easy as I move up.

- Stable software. It hasn't crashed on me yet and the importing/HUD works fine with PT3 so far.

- Instant bank deposit method. Instead of using CC's, you can just draw money from your bank account. I don't like using my CC's (I have debt and I don't want to add to it) so this was a pro to me. For people who don't care, this is probably irrelevant.

CONS

- Maximum of four tables. This is KILLING me right now because the volume I'm putting is really small in comparison to graphs I see from other microstakes players. Due to this limitation, I might cash out after having of a roll to play 10NL.

- The Bodog client doesn't generate text files for hand histories so if you don't have PT importing, the only way to see the hand is to search it in their client. I haven't figured out a way to convert it to a readable format after copying and pasting. I'm sure there is a way but I haven't found out yet.


I'm pretty close to being rolled for 10NL and I'll be moving up if things continue to go this way. I still have a few leaks in 5NL that is hindering me from

playing optimally but I feel confident in patching them up after I encounter those situations. I've been playing pretty straight forward poker but I have been

using a few "fancy" moves to experiment with. Luckily for me, my experiments have been successful so far which is a far better reward than being up or down money-

wise.


Another thing I'd like to mention is how great PT3 is. I know that many player say it's pointless in microstakes but I find it useful to keep track of nits and

donks. It has come to the point where I can predict what some of these people will do to a tee; it almost feels like cheating! After I run out the 60 day trial, I

will give HEM a shot and definitely end up buying whichever one I favor.

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My my, how life has changed in such a short amount of time. It is so easy to be depressed and demoralized, thinking the world is going to end due to the circumstances in your life. I have no become a millionaire or a rocket scientist but I can't help but feel that I'm in a great place right now. I also know that happiness is temporary as life has its own low and high swings. It's a matter of dealing with it with the right attitude and I'm hoping that I have the maturity to deal with the variance as it comes and goes.

Enough of the MySpace talk and onto poker! Now that I have a part-time job with very little expenses (still at home), depositing money is not much of an issue and I find that it's doing wonders for my BR psychology. Granted this is mostly due to playing at the microstakes (5NL) but it's still good to know that losing my BR is not a big deal...if I lose it to bad variance that is. Tilting it away would still be very painful due to my competitive nature.

As for actual play, I have been practicing my ABC's by re-reading some articles that I glanced over three year ago. I'm debating whether to commit to FR or 6max but at the present moment, I'm leaning towards FR because I think it fits my personality more. I'm also running the trial version of PT3 and am probably going to buy it when it runs out because it's such great software.

I'm very glad that this community is still thriving as it's filled to the brim with very helpful people. I know that if I make a post that some good soul will reply with decent advice pretty quickly and this I take not for granted! I hope to contribute just as much if and when I get better. The tone of this post is actually sickening me a bit because it's so optimistic and full of cliches. I guess I'm still a cynic at heart

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Oh wow, it has almost been one year since I posted on this blog and played poker online. If any of you have been following my previous posts, I had one year to do whatever I wanted. I ended up working for a non-profit charity as an outreach coordinator for one year (I got paid since I'm staff). Great learning experience and most of all, I matured from it.

Since my contract with the organization has expired, I thought about poker again for income and decided to take a crack at it in the summer. I'll be starting at the penny tables again to get reacquainted with the basics and as time goes on, move onto uncharted territory (25NL+).

What's funny is that I forgot the name of this site and was trying to remember it for the past few days. I ended up chatting with an old friend who introduced me to LP in the first place and told me the link. I'm back!

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If any of you bothered to read two posts ago, you'd know that I've been forced to stay out of school for a year. My greatest fear was my parents reaction but wow, what a crazy turn of events. I finally got the balls to tell them straight up and they seemed pretty calm about, even supportive. Not to say that my parents are Nazi's but they usually give a huge angry lecture after every stupid move I make. +1 for a life heater right there.

Poker? Wow, my shot at 25NL was pretty fail and what is worse is that I lost to bad players. Most of them were station donks and I suppose I tried to get fancy too often. Microstakes is microstakes and I simply don't have the hand reading ability to play LAG at these levels. I don't mind dropping back to 10NL, a little humbling is good for everyone once in awhile.

So, I have one year to do whatever I want...work? Travel? Volunteer? I want to do something good, maybe lend a hand in third world countries. No, I'm not being self righteous or anything, I've already been to Africa before to do this sort of stuff but short term. Another alternative is to work on my poker game but I'm not going to delude myself by thinking I can make it as a professional player. Some people have different strengths and weaknesses, I'm satisfied as being purely amateur for the rest of my life. I'm sure if I dedicated a buttload of time to it, I could become successful but I have other things in mind at the moment.

Anyways, I'm out and as always, thanks LP.

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Hello faithful readers, lets start with the shots at 25NL so far...

It has been going okay, I have plenty of leaks I have to fix. I've been going back down to 10NL after I'm feeling a little spewy to gain confidence and de-tilt. The biggest problem I have so far is with the short stacks. I give them absolutely no respect and try to "outplay" them by 3betting and whatnot. Simply put, I should be trying to nail them with solid hands and destroying them with my superior kickers. Against normal stacks, I've been trying to adopt a LAG style of play. This is -EV to me at this point because I simply don't have the skill to play it proficiently but because of a few heaters, I've been able to be up.

In order to counter this behaviour, I've been playing a little tighter to be prepare for some variance. Weirdly enough, I find that there are more spewtards at 25NL than 10NL. I'm playing on Titan (which I'm assuming is soft compared to PS/FT) and there seem to be more nits at 10NL. I would like to give credit to Ryan Fee's Guide To 6max, which I've been studying for a bit. Double/Triple barreling (guide shows you how and when) might be too fancy for 25NL but I've gotten away with some decent pots using it. Trying to balance being fearless and not spewy, finding it difficult to do so.

Here are some stats so you guys can berate/advise:

10NL
VPIP: 25.1
PFR: 20.3
AGG: 5.37
3BET: 7

25NL
VPIP: 27.3
PFR: 22.5
AGG: 5.95
3BET: 6.5

Now for my live tournament...

My friend is going away to HK for awhile so we've decided to organize one last tournament. There's going to about 30 people with a buy in of 25$ each. I'm not bragging but I think I'm a favorite to win, considering most of my friends (and friends friends) are fish. I've been playing some donkaments on PS recently to sharpen my game but I'll have to admit, still pretty bad. Hopefully the tournament turns out nicely and win some money :D

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I've always been a skeptic of work out gimmicks and programs I've seen on TV. Machines that can trim your stomach line with vibration, yeah right. The P90X advertisement has been no stranger to my television set but there was never any interest in it.

One day I was discussing work outs with a friend that was prepping for the army. I mentioned my lackluster style of exercise which included bench presses, basic curls and some cardio. Better than nothing of course but not disciplined at all. I wasn't making any huge gains and I suppose the best it did was keep maintenance. My friend berated me for my piss poor devotion and told me to try out the P90X system.

I lol'd pretty hard until he said he was using it. This guy used to be pretty skinny but now he was cut like a diamond. He was evidence so I figured I'd try it out. He warned me about how intense it could get but shrugged it off, thinking he was exaggerating a bit at this point.

Got the DVD's and manual, it was pretty easy to set up and go. Equipment was very basic, the only thing I had to buy was a chin up bar which was only 20$. Started the first DVD and wow, what a nightmare. This was the most intense work out I've ever done and I hurled right after. The next morning, my body was like a board, I couldn't move any joints or I'd be reeling in pain. Ahh, the delicious pain of muscle soreness...

I'm on week three and the results have been fantastic. Body fat percentage has dropped down two percent to ten. My arms are already bigger and my chest is more defined. Pretty awesome stuff. Poker players are prone to get lazy from all that sitting down so if you want something that will really give you a nice work out, try P90X.

(I am not affiliated with Beachbody or P90X in any way, just trying to give you guys a heads up on this awesome program.)

www.beachbody.com

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OMG, school just barred me from the 2008 Winter/Fall semester because of low marks from last year! What a freaking cooler, my parents are going to murder me. Double cooler because I'm Asian FUUUUUUUUCK!

So I have one year to work and do whatever, I'm guessing it's going to be poker. By this rate, I'll be done undergrad when I'm 24/25, fucking disgusting. If I go for my masters, 29 is when I start work? WHAT THE HELL.

Anyone been in my shoes? Any advice besides /wrists? HALP.

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10NL, what a beast. My skill level is so low that 10NL seems like this horrible mountain I can't climb.

I approached poker like I would any game, trying to give myself an advantage at the start through this website and other resources. Unfortunately, it hasn't been working out. Am I destined to be a bad poker player? Maybe, but I haven't reached breaking point yet. I WILL SUCCEED DAMNIT, DID I GIVE UP WHEN I LOST 6 CAL-0 MATCHES IN A ROW?! DID I GIVE UP WHEN MY ARENA TEAM HIT ROCK BOTTOM IN WoW?! DID I SURRENDER WHEN I RAN OUT OF VESPENE GAS?! NO. I DID NOT.

I persevered and dominated. WTF is 10NL?! WTF IS IT. LOW LIMIT SCUM BAGS, I WILL DOMINATE YOU. Give me time and I will damnit, I will. I will reach 100NL before this year is over, even though school will own me. Bring it on poker, bring it FUCKING ON!

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are so enjoyable. You guys warned me, I hope I can pull myself out of this mess.

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