Diary of a fledgling player

peter27

not many mmts available with that bankroll.

play the 7pm free roll and i'd use those points for the 5pm and 7pm bounty hunter sats, just dont rebuy and only take the add on if and when you run deep enough and the add-on will give you a realistic chance of making the top ten. there £20 gtd tournies in the day for 10 poker points but nthe structure is really fast and you wont be able to rebuy or addon enough for them to be a realistic option for you imo.

good luck with this challenge / diary, peter.

cheers,

TEDDY

peter27

Hi guys,

I am mainly an MTT player, but I do play STT's also. I'm currently in the process of developing my game and have recently hit quite a rough spell in terms of winnings. This has come at the worst time for me ... as I said, I'm developing and that means I'm not sure if I'm playing terribly OR I'm not sure if the evil variance is raising its ugly head.

Anyhow, in order to try get myself out of the struggling period - and in order to teach myself some better bankroll management (something I should do better) I have decided to create this diary.

This diary will essentially be a log of the games I play and my profit (or loss). To be honest, this is for my personal benefit, I'll be less tempted to take risks with my bankroll if I know other people are "following" my progress. However from time-to-time I may ask you guys questions about strategy or my play.

I have made a withdrawal from my account and will be starting off this diary with £10 and 1001 poker points.

This post will be updated after each day documenting the main profit and loss statistics. Subsequant posts will be specifically related to the tournaments I have played. Feel free to leave comments if you like :-)

Breakdown
Starting Balance: £10.00 & 1001 poker points
Current Balance: £90.75 & 3157 poker points
Profit: £80.75 (+ £20.87 withdrawn)

2014 Targets
1) Achieve a four-figure cash (£1000 or more)
2) Attend at least one SPT

peter27

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

not many mmts available with that bankroll. play the 7pm free roll and i'd use those points for the 5pm and 7pm bounty hunter sats, just dont rebuy and only take the add on if and when you run deep enough and the add-on will give you a realistic chance of making the top ten. there £20 gtd tournies in the day for 10 poker points but nthe structure is really fast and you wont be able to rebuy or addon enough for them to be a realistic option for you imo. good luck with this challenge / diary, peter. cheers, TEDDY
Posted by TeddyBloat

Spot on about the MTT's being too expensive - starting at £10, the majority of my games will be low stake DYM's initially. Freerolls are great, but I've never had the motivation to play in them to be honest - big fields, very little return usually. However, now that I have a small balance, it is a must!

Thanks for the suggestions and kind words :-)

IDONKCALLU

play the new £50 freerolls will be gd bonus to add to ya roll

TeddyBloat

i was grinding a very small roll recently.

the 7pm free roll was well structured in terms of blind levels and even an average cash of 30p a day 5 days a week boosted the roll nicely. the B/hunter sats for 50 and 75 poker points are also well structured and cost only time really, and one add-on. if you bink a seat then you are freerolling on any bounties you take.

if you are going to be eventually playing mtts i'd recommend getting some HU sngs under your belt. garyQQQ posts about this regularly. basically you are going to be put in loads of tough spots over and over so it's good practice generally for new players, also HU with tournament blind structures is a vastly different game from genral MTT play. if you do get to the last two and you've put a few hundred HUSNG's behind you and your oppenent has none then you'll have a decent shot of having an edge against even an experienced MTT player. and the pay jump between first and second is the biggest pay jump in the tournament. they are a good bankroll builder too.

cheers,

TEDDY

peter27

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

play the new £50 freerolls will be gd bonus to add to ya roll
Posted by IDONKCALLU

Good shout, cheers :-)

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

i was grinding a very small roll recently. the 7pm free roll was well structured in terms of blind levels and even an average cash of 30p a day 5 days a week boosted the roll nicely. the B/hunter sats for 50 and 75 poker points are also well structured and cost only time really, and one add-on. if you bink a seat then you are freerolling on any bounties you take. if you are going to be eventually playing mtts i'd recommend getting some HU sngs under your belt. garyQQQ posts about this regularly. basically you are going to be put in loads of tough spots over and over so it's good practice generally for new players, also HU with tournament blind structures is a vastly different game from genral MTT play. if you do get to the last two and you've put a few hundred HUSNG's behind you and your oppenent has none then you'll have a decent shot of having an edge against even an experienced MTT player. and the pay jump between first and second is the biggest pay jump in the tournament. they are a good bankroll builder too. cheers, TEDDY
Posted by TeddyBloat

Yeah, I've read lots of garyQQQ's posts - his challenge was one of my inspirations for this diary TBH. Actually, I am a fairly experienced MTT player, but yes, I'm always wanting to improve so I may have a go at some HU games. Thanks!

peter27

Day 1*

Played 9 x 25p Turbo DYM's with the following results:

1st x 1
2nd x 2
3rd x 3
4th x 1
5th x 1
6th x 1

That's 6 cashes and 3 non-cashes. The rake is killing me on these low stake tournaments though (25p + 5p) so after these games my balance was £10.30.

Then played the 1AM £20 Gtd Turbo FR. Was in 2nd place at the add-on stage, was disiplined and didn't take one (they were 50p). I ended up finishing 13th out of the 250 entrants to make 29p profit.

Will update the first post now.

* Day 1 was Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning (UK Time) - for this diary I'm counting the day to end when I go to bed, not midnight.

LARSON7

Hey Peter Good luck!

7 o clock freerolls, get 3/4 times your starting stack for a quid, few times a week and that ll be a nice wee boost to your roll.

peter27

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

Hey Peter Good luck! 7 o clock freerolls, get 3/4 times your starting stack for a quid, few times a week and that ll be a nice wee boost to your roll.
Posted by LARSON7

7PM is an awkward time for me, but I'll play in that tournament as often as I can for sure.

Got to say I'm surprised by the interest in this diary - I didn't think anyone would care to be honest haha :-)

jdsallstar

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

Day 1 * Played 9 x 25p Turbo DYM's with the following results: 1st x 1 2nd x 2 3rd x 3 4th x 1 5th x 1 6th x 1 That's 6 cashes and 3 non-cashes. The rake is killing me on these low stake tournaments though (25p + 5p) so after these games my balance was £10.30. Then played the 1AM £20 Gtd Turbo FR . Was in 2nd place at the add-on stage, was disiplined and didn't take one (they were 50p). I ended up finishing 13th out of the 250 entrants to make 29p profit. Will update the first post now. * Day 1 was Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning (UK Time) - for this diary I'm counting the day to end when I go to bed, not midnight.
Posted by peter27

9 30p dyms cost £2.70. 30p profit over £2.70 works out at over 10% roi which is what your looking for! I know with a lower rake it would have been a lot more but building from a low bank roll you'll have to build very slow. Don't know how you plan to move up levels in your dym's in relation to your bankroll or how you feel about the chance of losing the £10 but I'd be jumping up to the 50p dym's now (if not then definitely when your bank rolls at £15). The slower blinds and higher starting stack I think helps with any edge you have in these. That's just my opinion though, only move up levels when you think it's right.

I started with a bankroll of £2.25 at the start of the year and began playing these 30p turbo's too and now my bankrolls around the 1k mark now solely playing these dyms (I suck at mtts and cash lol) so you can definitely achieve decent results in these! You may be planning to get away from dyms asap but If you ever have any questions or whatever regarding this format of the game feel free to drop me a pm and I'll do my best to help (although there are others on the site who are much better qualified than myself you might want to approach first).

Anyway GL with your challenge!

peter27

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player : 9 30p dyms cost £2.70. 30p profit over £2.70 works out at over 10% roi which is what your looking for! I know with a lower rake it would have been a lot more but building from a low bank roll you'll have to build very slow. Don't know how you plan to move up levels in your dym's in relation to your bankroll or how you feel about the chance of losing the £10 but I'd be jumping up to the 50p dym's now (if not then definitely when your bank rolls at £15). The slower blinds and higher starting stack I think helps with any edge you have in these. That's just my opinion though, only move up levels when you think it's right. I started with a bankroll of £2.25 at the start of the year and began playing these 30p turbo's too and now my bankrolls around the 1k mark now solely playing these dyms (I suck at mtts and cash lol) so you can definitely achieve decent results in these! You may be planning to get away from dyms asap but If you ever have any questions or whatever regarding this format of the game feel free to drop me a pm and I'll do my best to help (although there are others on the site who are much better qualified than myself you might want to approach first). Anyway GL with your challenge!
Posted by jdsallstar

Well, part of this diary is to teach myself BRM, so I'm going to be disiplined and not move up to the 50p DYM's until I reach £15. Had a decent day today so far, more details later ;-)

Thanks for the offer jdsallstar!! :-)

GaryQQQ

I recommend playing in the 7-00pm freeroll as often as you can for now. Being totally free it's unmissable while your balance is still low. When I started all the freerolls cost 25 points to enter (apart from the two weekend Omaha Freerolls which cost 10 points each).

There are two reasons why I started risking money in HU matches rather than DYMs while my balance was still super-low;

1. The rake is only 5% at all buy-ins and all speeds. That's much easier to beat than the 20% charged in micro DYMs.

2. In a HU match it's very easy to game select because you only need to look at one opponent. In a DYM you have to weigh-up five. While I was playing freerolls exclusively at the start I was also railing all the micro HU STTs that ran at the time, making thorough notes on all the regular players and choosing which ones I would (and wouldn't) take-on when I had enough money to do so.

The only thing is this; when you only have a £10 bankroll it's not a good time to start learning HU STTs from scratch. It will be much easier to build your roll if you already have some HU experience.

Good luck! I'll be following with interest.

FlyingDagg

Good luck Peter. This will be interesting to follow as you are starting from the very bottom. Hope it goes well.

peter27

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

I recommend playing in the 7-00pm freeroll as often as you can for now. Being totally free it's unmissable while your balance is still low. When I started all the freerolls cost 25 points to enter (apart from the two weekend Omaha Freerolls which cost 10 points each). There are two reasons why I started risking money in HU matches rather than DYMs while my balance was still super-low; 1. The rake is only 5% at all buy-ins and all speeds. That's much easier to beat than the 20% charged in micro DYMs. 2. In a HU match it's very easy to game select because you only need to look at one opponent. In a DYM you have to weigh-up five. While I was playing freerolls exclusively at the start I was also railing all the micro HU STTs that ran at the time, making thorough notes on all the regular players and choosing which ones I would (and wouldn't) take-on when I had enough money to do so. The only thing is this; when you only have a £10 bankroll it's not a good time to start learning HU STTs from scratch. It will be much easier to build your roll if you already have some HU experience. Good luck! I'll be following with interest.
Posted by GaryQQQ

I have played some heads up games in the past, and didn't do too badly to be honest. However I will be holding off on heads up play until my bankroll is a little bigger. Even then, it is not something I'm overly interested in, but the mood might lead me onto the HU tables at some point. Thanks Gary!! :-)

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

Good luck Peter. This will be interesting to follow as you are starting from the very bottom. Hope it goes well.
Posted by FlyingDagg

Thanks FlyingDagg - I should clarify that I have actually been playing poker for three years or so on another well-known site. However I didn't really play with any decent strategy - I've only started developing my play properly in the last few months on Sky Poker :-)

peter27

Day 2

Ending early today as I'm up for 02:45 for the first practice session of the Japanese GP! Despite the early end, I had an incredible day today!

Played 7 x 25p Turbo DYM's today, and amazingly I cashed in all of them!!

1st x 2
2nd x 2
3rd x 3

Also played in two £20 Gtd Turbo FR events, and cashed in both of them also!

- 12th place out of 243 netted me 32p
- 5th place out of 301 netted me £1.30

That's three freerolls (since I started this diary) and three cashes - quite pleased with how things are going so far!!

Balance is now £13.61, just about to update the first post :-)

TeddyBloat

30% in two days. Great work. Whats the plan on broll management. You got a target in mind for playing mtts?

Cheers, 

TEDDY

LARSON7

Really nice start, well done. Looking forward to hearing how you do with this.

peter27

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

30% in two days. Great work. Whats the plan on broll management. You got a target in mind for playing mtts? Cheers,  TEDDY
Posted by TeddyBloat

Thanks! I haven't really set any plan as such - and I will be asking for advice on this further down the line. When I hit £15, I will be moving up to 50p DYM's though :-)

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

Really nice start, well done. Looking forward to hearing how you do with this.
Posted by LARSON7

Cheers Larson!

peter27

Day 3

Didn't play that much today, but it was still profitable!

Played one 25p Turbo DYM and finished 4th.
Played in The Social Freeroll and didn't cash.
Played in one £20 Gtd Turbo FR finished 64th out of 308. No cash again.

Didn't look good at this point but then entered the £500 Free Cash FR, finished 103rd out of 1884, grabbing £1.75!

Now reached the £15 mark, time to move up to 50p DYM's tomorrow! Will update the first post now!

peter27

Day 4

A lot of poker today, and little to show for it - sadly!

Played 1 x 30p Turbo DYM and didn't cash ..
Played 2 x 50p DYM's cashed in one, didn't in the other ..
Played 12 x 50p Turbo DYM's with the following results:

1st x 2
2nd x 4
3rd x 1
4th x 3
5th x 1
6th x 1

That means I cashed in 7, and didn't in 5.

I also played in a £20 Gtd Turbo FR and the International FR, but didn't cash in either. Got knocked out in the final 10 minutes of the International FR!

Ended the day on £14.36 - my first losing day. Thankfully, it's only a small loss! While I'm above the £12 mark, I think it's still okay to be playing 50p DYM's with good BRM - thoughts?

jdsallstar

I think your fine peter - just set yourself a limit for when you drop back down in case you go on a run of bad results. i.e. if bank roll slips to £10 go back to 30p's or whatever you feel is right.

peter27

Day 5

Played quite a lot again today, and made a small profit - although I was very tired so did make some dumb errors. I should note that I usually only play one table at once, on occasion I do go on two tables - but I usually seem to lose doing that, maybe I don't have the concentration for that just yet!

Played 1 x 50p Heads-Up (Hyper) - decided to try a heads-up game due to lower rake (only 5p) - but I lost, so i didn't try that again haha.
Played 1 x 50p Six-Max (Speed) - again, trying something different from my usual DYM games, finished 2nd and won the same amount that I would have in a DYM anyway ..
Played £500 Free Cash FR - Didn't cash!
Played 14 x 50p Turbo DYM's with the following results:

1st x 3
2nd x 4
3rd x 3
4th x 2
5th x 1
6th x 1

That means cashing in 10, and not cashing in 4. The rakes are killing me though so little profit.

Ended the day on £15.31 - small profit, but still profit! I think 4 days of profit and 1 losing day is good! Not sure what is normal though actually??

Will update the first post now!

hhyftrftdr

I would kill for 4 days of profit and 1 losing day at the moment, sigh.

Gl with all this sir! Takes buckets of discipline and patience to build a roll up from almost nothing, so I tip my hat in your direction.

peter27

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

I think your fine peter - just set yourself a limit for when you drop back down in case you go on a run of bad results. i.e. if bank roll slips to £10 go back to 30p's or whatever you feel is right.
Posted by jdsallstar

I think if I go below £12.50 then I'll go back to 30p's - but I'm looking forward, not back - £20 here I come! :-)

peter27

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

I would kill for 4 days of profit and 1 losing day at the moment, sigh. Gl with all this sir! Takes buckets of discipline and patience to build a roll up from almost nothing, so I tip my hat in your direction.
Posted by hhyftrftdr

That means a lot from a regular Sky Poker player - thank you! :-)

Lambert180

Well done so far.

The only thing I'd say is that you decided to give HU a go and, probably unknowingly, jumped into the most high variance and hardest form of HU to beat (Hypers). Hypers are very very swingy because of how shallow the stacks are, and it's definitely not a good idea to start with them if you're new to HU in general. I'd recommend you have a couple of goes of either HU Speeds or HU Turbos... they give you a lot more room for play. Just try to remember, when you have less than 10xBB and you're on the button/small blind (first to act) you either want to be shoving or folding, no other option.

Slipwater

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

Just try to remember, when you have less than 10xBB and you're on the button/small blind (first to act) you either want to be shoving or folding, no other option.
Posted by Lambert180

You may want to speak to TripleAAA about this first though, Peter, you know, for a second opinion...

Good luck!

peter27

Day 6

A lot of play today brought me a small-ish profit, so I'm happy!

Played 1 x 50p DYM - finished 2nd :-)
Played 6 x 50p Turbo DYM's with the following results:

1st x 1
2nd x 2
3rd x 1
4th x 2
5th x 0
6th x 0

Played 14 x 30p Turbo DYM's with the following results:

1st x 2
2nd x 5
3rd x 1
4th x 4
5th x 2
6th x 0

Saw the most amazing thing today in one of the 30p Turbo DYM's. 3 hands into the game, the game was over! A played called Sparked knocked out three players in three hands (one per hand) - never seen that before! He flopped two pair on each hand haha (sadly I finished 4th in that one after thinking to myself "he can't have it again"). I got talking to him later in a different tournament and he also said that he had a straight flush and a royal flush on other tables today - talk about running well!!

Anyway, finished the day on £15.91 - want to break the £16 barrier tomorrow :-)

Will update the first post right now!

peter27

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

Well done so far. The only thing I'd say is that you decided to give HU a go and, probably unknowingly, jumped into the most high variance and hardest form of HU to beat (Hypers). Hypers are very very swingy because of how shallow the stacks are, and it's definitely not a good idea to start with them if you're new to HU in general. I'd recommend you have a couple of goes of either HU Speeds or HU Turbos... they give you a lot more room for play. Just try to remember, when you have less than 10xBB and you're on the button/small blind (first to act) you either want to be shoving or folding, no other option.
Posted by Lambert180

Taken on board :-) Thanks Lambert!

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player : You may want to speak to TripleAAA about this first though, Peter, you know, for a second opinion... Good luck!
Posted by Slipwater

Haha! You know, I am actually a big believer in getting second opinions in poker, poker playing methods are all opinion at the end of the day ;-) Surely it would be silly not to?

peter27

In Response to Re: Diary of a fledgling player:

Well done so far. The only thing I'd say is that you decided to give HU a go and, probably unknowingly, jumped into the most high variance and hardest form of HU to beat (Hypers). Hypers are very very swingy because of how shallow the stacks are, and it's definitely not a good idea to start with them if you're new to HU in general.
Posted by Lambert180

Been thinking about what you said here, I guess I probably did know it is high variance - but you say that like it is a bad thing. Variance can work both ways, so is it necessarily a problem?

peter27

REALLY wanted to play the turbo open tonight, so I entered a satellite for £2.40 and got a seat (as the chip leader BTW - brag!).

Anyway, I told myself that the £2.40 will not be part of this diary, so I'll be re-depositing that amount later! Well, actually the minimum deposit is £5 - so I'll deposit £5 and withdraw £2.60 to leave £2.40 haha