from the ground up

MMMMMMMMMM yea april didnt end so well. i started off quickly getting $2000 in my bankroll so i took a shot at 100nl. that didnt go so badly. through the 5.5k hands there i swung between -2 bi to +3 bi. i never completely moved to 100nl though, usually played it with a mix of 50nl and towards the middle of the month i stopped playing it due to a loss of confidence in my game. i think i should be able to beat 100nl, it doesnt seem too different from 50nl, aside from a little bit more preflop aggressiveness (3betting and squeezeing). im not quite used to the money though.

again my volume was lacking. just not putting in enough hands during school, but ill be done with school on the 16th this month so ill be looking to put in at least 20 hours per week during the summer since im not doing anything else productive. i also need to start reviewing my sessions more. HEM's hand marking feature is great and i havent been using it as much as i should with trouble hands.

on a last note, what do you think about my stats? its a little bit tight for 6 max i know, im still trying to open up some (i played 15/13 or so at 25nl). am i folding to 3bets too often? i havent adjusted all that well to the increased 3betting at these 2 limits.





i reached my modest goal in april of taking 100nl shots. my goal this month will be to regain confidence in my game and try to become a reg there.

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early march entry bcuz im probably not going to play tomorrow.

started off this month at 25nl still and quickly got enough in my roll to have 20 buyins for nl50. i took a 4 buyin shot and havent looked back yet. this is awesome bcuz it took me 2-4 shots before i could stay at nl10 and 25. nl50 is noticeably tougher. theres a lotttttt more regs and everyone 3bets a lot. some of the regs there give me a lot of trouble.

ive gotten a bit spewy at times trying new plays and getting myself into different spots vs regs. ive improved my handreading a little bit. this is the first limit where i feel its important. at 25nl and below you dont really have to think about their ranges as much. hopefully things continue going ok and i can take a shot at 100nl in april.

got 24.3k hands in (72 hours), which isnt terrible considering i 4 table and also took a week off for exams.

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i spent the first few days in february trying fullring. i played 8-12 tables of 25nl and nut pedaled playing 12/10. it was very boring and with that many tables i get a tendency to go into robot mode.

so i went back to 6max and cut down to 4 tables (i was playing 6-8 before), and to all the fellow microstakers here, i really recommend cutting down on the number of tables to work on your game. at this level we're not worried about adding tables to increase our hourly or anything so theres no reason to play so many. i was stubborn before and felt i could play optimally with 6-8 but theres just so much more time to think hands through when youre only on 4.

while i didnt get very many hands in at all this month, i did address a couple of crucial postflop issues in my game and its helped a lot. what im most happy about is the increase in my W$WSF stat. its 41.8% now when it was always at 36-37% before.

monthly graph (first 4k hands or so were the hands at FR; all hands at 25nl):


my goals for march are to find more issues to fix about my game to become less weak-tight and hopefully be able to start taking 50nl shots.

thanks for reading and for the help in my threads everyone.

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ive slacked off so badly this month, just being back at school and having so many other distractions. 8.5k hands in half a month is really inexcusable -_-. need to rededicate myself bcuz Uptown has passed me up in volume, stakes, and skill.

edit: but its ok, vlseph hasnt cuz all he does is grind full tilt points all day.

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this month has been going pretty ok at nl10. im at 4.8bb/100 through 26k hands. could be better but cant complain, especially with how nl10 was going for me in november. i took 2 small underrolled shots at 25nl. once when i had 16 buyins and took a 1 buyin shot and another just recently when i had 17.5 buyins. the main difference ive noticed between 25nl and 10nl is 25 is nittier. i assume it gets that way as you move up. i got coolered out of both shots though and i think i really shouldnt take another one until i have several more buyins. i feel like i was playing ok there but my bankroll cant handle it as of yet. gotta maintain my discipline and continue building my bankroll at 10nl. i feel like i can beat 10nl now.

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november started pretty well with another nl10 shot going well...until a 14 buyin downswing. i took a few days off after this and went back to nl5 for a bit to rebuild some of my bankroll and confidence. around the 12k hand mark i went back to nl10 and cut down to 4 tables. im gonna stay at 4 tables for a while and really think about my play instead of roboting it out.

i didnt get in as many hands as i would've liked to this month cuz of schoolwork but i feel like i've improved a lot. im picking better spots to take down pots, getting better with my cbetting, and loosened up my range some. the first 2 weeks of december will be really busy with finals but starting mid-december i should be able to get a lot of hands in during winter break.

i guess a modest goal for the rest of the year would be to become comfortable at nl10 and hopefully be a real winner at it (right now im at 1.62bb/100 through 30.3k hands at this limit lol). i believe im on the right track though. then at the beginning of next year i hope i can start taking shots at nl25.

good luck guys and thanks to everyone whos responded to my threads in the low stakes forum, youve been a great help.

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so october ended ok. at the beginning of the month i was still grinding pennies, then took a shot at nl10 when i had 20 buyins. after 13k hands i ended up with +2 buyins and a loss of confidence, so i dropped down to NL5. the 5k hands ive played so far at nl5 have been very easy. as thestoryteller mentioned in one of my other blog posts, theres a world of difference between nl5 and nl10. im going to have to improve a lot postflop and get better at assigning ranges to ppl to succeed at nl10. im going to build my bankroll a bit more then take another shot.

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so i took about a week off since that downswing last week and played my first session today (lots of tests coming up to study for so i didnt play plus i wanted a few days to get my mindset straight).

and yea i really have no clue what im doing so wrong. lost 6 of my last 7 sessions, -7 buyins in my last 4 (about 5800 hands total). i doubt this is just a bad run of luck and i'd really like to not blame variance. im going to start posting a few hands from each session i play that im unsure about and hopefully learn from it. im afraid that im spewing in other spots that i dont even notice though. i think im playing pretty solid, tight ABC poker, playing about 11/10. if i drop down to $200 im gonna take a step back and try NL5 before continuing with NL10. i also think i played with a really, really clear head today compared to last week, but man i dunno.

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hello. i gave poker a shot around 3 years ago, just deposited $50 and played a bit, was down a few dollars and withdrew. about 2 1/2 months ago i decided to give it a more serious shot and deposited $100. i played around a bit with no clue what i was doing and had my bankroll dwindle down to $77. i thought i was on a straight path to busto, and it was at that point i started keeping track of and looking back at my hands and started reading a lot of LP and whatever else i could find, watching videos and reading guides.

i made myself stick with NL2 until i hit $200, which i was finally able to do last week after 2 months and 37k hands. ive been attempting NL10 for the past week with some mixed results. had a very nice run to start with, +10 buyins in the first few days. since then its been pretty swingy and i just lost 6 buyins in the last 24 hours. my confidence is shot right now and i really have no clue what to do or how to win. i think im gonna take a couple days off and review some hands more thoroughly. ive lost 5 out of my last 6 sessions. this is probably standard but its been my toughest stretch so far and my mindset is just really bad right now.

graph of my progress so far:

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