Hey Everyone!
I know what you're thinking. This is another person who just created an account and is already making his first post in the Poker Goals forum talking about how he is going to move and crush the fish and build up a huge bankroll. He must be a complete fish then and will probably go busto in a month or two. Well I guess that could be me in a nutshell, but hopefully I don't end up like that.
I am a 23 year old college student in America (switched majors and had to change schools, so it's taking me longer to finish then I wanted) and I have been playing poker for about 4 years now. I started playing in a small home game with friends and while i studied basic strategy and pre flop charts, I never really got serious into the theory or anything. I would dabble on PokerStars or Full Tilt in the freerolls and try to get some sort of bankroll going, but that never really got off the ground at all. After having to switch schools and not being able to play in the home game anymore I started taking online poker more seriously, despite still not depositing any money for a bankroll. I would pick up a free offer for a site and then start trying to grind it up. I played a little bit of everything, trying to find what games I liked the most and what I was the best at. I never really got anywhere from bouncing around and could never get anything started. So lately I have been really trying to immerse myself in husng's both turbo and hyper turbo, and trying to get a good foundation so I can start grinding them and build up a bankroll. My ultimate goal is to build up a big enough roll that I can keep some of it online and grind mid stakes husng's, and pull the rest off to play live low stakes no limit cash games when I want to. I want to be able to sustain a income from both of these games.
I am going to deposit $100 onto Intertops and try to grind it up, starting with the $1.50s for hypers and $3.00s for turbos. I haven't decided yet if I want to just focus on the turbos or just the hypers. I might try to mix both in, unless you guys recommend not doing that. My BRM rules will be 50/42 for the hypers, and 35/30 for the turbos. Eventually once I build a big enough roll up I am going to move some of it over to Black Chip Poker and grind on there as well so that I can earn rake for the different video packs. As for studying for now, I will be going over many of the free videos here, as well as Mers's e-book, and the strategy forums. I am sure you will all have to correct me a lot, but that's the best to learn I think.
Hopefully I can keep bringing you guys good reports, and I look forward to all of the support and criticism from you guys in the future. Thanks!
Jake
What school did you go to and where are you going now?
Mixing is fine, just make sure you're adapting to each opponent and not tilting, and adapting is perfectly fine in my opinion.
If you're not on intertops yet, let me know, we can sign you up and you can get access to video packs for raking a certain amount during any single month.
Good luck moving forward.
I originally started at Saint Louis University. Amazing school and I absolutely love that area. But unfortunately as we all know, the economy fell apart and the airlines were hit hard by this. The prospects of me getting a job in the aviation field that would pay well enough were not looking very good, and since I am paying for school on my own I had to come back closer to home. I am now at Slippery Rock University in PA, and while I don't like it as much as SLU, it's a good school for what I am going for. I am actually signed up on Intertops now, you helped me get on there through 2+2. I haven't been able to see where I can earn videos for rake each month, maybe you could point me to where that is. I think playing both variations could be good for my game because it will help keep me from auto piloting and always having to adjust. Eventually I know once I get high enough it will be much more profitable to play the hypers exclusively, but I think for now I would be fine with both. Hope to bring you guys some good news and positive reports soon!
Jake
Oh ok, I realize who you are now!
The Intertops reward will match the PokerStars rewards on the "free video packs" tab of the husng.com/vip page. I'll have it added shortly.
That's pretty cool that you adjusted to a crappy situation. The way you say "since I'm paying for my school, I made a change" you may not have meant it that way, but it just reminds me of everyone not really caring if they aren't paying for it and that the average person is much more efficient with their decisions when they are footing the bill. Best of luck to you moving forward.
Well unfortunately I can't say I had an explosive start to this. I didn't crush the level and win a insane amount of buy-ins right away. And I didn't get as much volume in as I would have liked either. But I can honestly say that I felt fairly good about most of my play, and I know that I definitely made the right choices yesterday when it came to tilt control. I deposited on Tuesday night and played just a few games before heading to bed to get a feel for the level, all at the $1.50 hyper level. I was fairly confident that as long as I adjusted to my opponents, didn't get caught up in fancy plays too much, and didn't get run over by the cards then I would be ok and could start working my way up. After the first half of the day yesterday playing the same games that assumption couldn't have been anymore wrong. While I wasn't on any major downswing, it did feel like no matter how much I got it in good I was getting crushed by every hand. So I decided to take a break for awhile and get my mind off of poker, with the decision to go back at it last night if I felt better. I'm glad i made that decision because I was able to get my graph headed back in the right direction, and keep myself from going on major tilt. A little moral victory for me I suppose. Hopefully today I can get more volume in and get things headed upward. Hope to bring you guys more good news soon!
Thanks for the support!
Jake
Day 1.5 Graph:
Good luck Jake !
Go forth and CRUSH !
Don't have any big news for you guys quite yet. I haven't put a ton of volume in the past few days because I have been feeling pretty crappy and figured the rest was more important then getting the games in. I felt like when I was playing that I wasn't doing too bad, but I don't think I could have kept it up for more then a few hours without falling apart. I'm really trying to work on studying what adjustments I need to make to adapt to different opponents, and how to get the maximum amount of information from each hand I play. I really feel like these things will help adapt to each level the best and hopefully crush everyone that I face. Got a long shift today at work, but hopefully I can put a good amount of volume in tonight when I get back. Thanks again for all the support. It really does help!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Jake
Day 4 Graph:
Where do you work?
I think in the two posts in your thread you've put about 20% of my month's worth of volume from my thread in, lol.
No excuses for me, I run this site and have other stuff to do offline, but you're at school and have a job. You win.
I work at a sporting good's store close to my school. It's a minimum wage job, but it's definitely better for me compared to working at a fast food restaurant. I want to try to get another serving position though to replace this job, because the hourly is so much better with serving. As for playing I didn't get many games in Saturday night after work, but man I wish every night was like last night for playing. I was playing really well for the most part and the players were terrible too. Pretty much the best combo you can ask for in a session. I ended up breaking even for the last 7 games or so, but still managed to squeak a small profit out of the hypers. I also played two $3.116 turbos against the same opponent, and he basically handed me his buy-in. I don't have those included in my graph, but if I ever see him sat at another one I'm definitely sitting him before anyone else can. Otherwise just another normal session. Really trying to apply the things I'm getting from Mers's ebook and some of the free videos I have been watching. Hopefully it's translating into better play for me. Cheers to everyone, and good luck at all the tables!
Jake
Day 6 Graph:
Hey Guys!
I didn't realize how long it's been since I have posted a update on here about my progress. I guess that can happen pretty easily when you are busy with a ton of things outside of poker. I haven't really gotten the chance to put a ton of volume in over the past week or so. I have a ton of things going on outside of poker, and have really just been too tired to play long sessions in the evenings. I was at home for a few days last week visiting my parents since I wasn't able to celebrate father's with them, so that took some time away from grinding as well. The grind has been kind of rocky, and unfortunately I had to pull some of my roll off for an unexpected expense. I am still rolled to play the $1.50's though within my bankroll requirements, so I'm still going to be playing those and trying to grind my way back up. The good news about that is that I won't be focusing on my bankroll level at all for awhile since I am so far away from moving up, and that will allow me to not be results-oriented and focus on playing the best poker I always can. That's always a good thing for me, and something that I really need to work on. Otherwise I am getting back to studying hard and trying to improve my game as much as possible. As always thanks for the support, and best of luck to everyone!
Till next time!
Jake
Day 13 Graph:
I'm right there with you as far as non poker things (and poker work) taking up grinding time lately. Keep us posted and keep winning (nice recovery on the latest graph).