The "Grim" tale of a low stakes player.

waller02

hi Ryan,
good luck mate
it might help if u set yourself a target,
say £1000 as an example.
i have,
 mine is £500,
if i can get there,i will then make my nxt target £1000.
 run well,

devon

waller02

Ok, due to my poor form and shrinking br I have decided to start yet another diary thread. I need to do this in order to try and stop the rot and also to make sure I manage my br more wisely than I have been for the past few months.

Around 6 mnths ago I had a reasonable br of £600 but due to running bad, playing worse and poor br management I have seen my roll dwindle down to £177.60p.

Now I could soley blame the awful run of cards I have been experiencing recently but that would be untrue as my game has not been improving the way I hoped it would, if anything I have become a worse player over these past 6 months. I think I became too confident, thinking I was better than I actually was and buying into tournaments that would put a big dent in my br.

So, I'm going back to basics and am going to strictly manage my br and with the help of this diary hopefully see my br increasing! I have recently started playing nl4 cash and if I want to play a main event then I will allow myself 1 attempt at a satellite, as for other mtt's I will stick to a max buy in of £5.50.

walesboy

good luck mate
i think the diary will help.
there were a couple of threads towards the end of last year about how much profit could be made in a month
i participated and it helped focus my concentration as no one likes to post a loss!

MAXALLY

VOTE FOR RIK!!!!!!!  ☺

I mean....GL Ryan. If you concentrate on the BRM, which I know you can do, I am sure a player with your talent will succeed. 

waller02

In Response to Re: yet another diary........:

hi Ryan, good luck mate it might help if u set yourself a target, say £1000 as an example. i have,  mine is £500, if i can get there,i will then make my nxt target £1000.  run well, devon
Posted by devonfish5

Yeah good idea. Well I guess my target should be to get back to the £600 I had 6 months ago.............here goes!

GaryQQQ

Good luck Ryan. I second Devon's suggestion that you should set a goal. Having a target to aim for gives you a sense of purpose and helps you focus.

Pavillion

Good Luck Ryan - I had similiar problems a while ago - playing way above my BR. I have a similiar thread going here to take £50 upwards. Gone from £50 to £100 in 3 weeks 90% 2 tabling NL4. Its a grind but its working - at moment anyway. No doubt see you at tables.

pomfrittes

  Good luck m8, we have all been there, (am there myself at the moment LOl), Built a nice roll then took some shots and bought in to bigger mtts , tilt kicks in and all of a sudden you have become the worst player ever.

  I am sure you will turn it around as you have a good solid game.

Spikelad

Good luck waller,by posting this it shows you are thinking properly regarding how to turn this round by looking at yourself and not using other factors as an excuse.

waller02

Just finished a 2hr session 4 tabling nl4. Was a mixed one really had jj losing to a8 and kk losing to a10 but overall quite happy as I ended up +£2.54. There are a couple of hands i'm not sure I played too well which I will post below, any comments appreciated good or bad. I won't be playing any more cash tonight as I will be playing a couple of mtt's (small ones!)

Cash: + £2.54
MTT: -

Start br: £177.60
Current br: £180.14

Here are the hands:

Played this pretty bad I guess, as you can see I just gave up on the turn, should i just fold on flop???

hardstyle1	Small blind		£0.02	£0.02	£5.78
ellis407	Big blind		£0.04	£0.06	£4.08
	Your hole cards	A K
raylpool	Raise		£0.20	£0.26	£3.46
waller02	Raise		£0.68	£0.94	£3.68
quotes007	Call		£0.68	£1.62	£0.74
hardstyle1	Fold
ellis407	Fold
raylpool	Call		£0.48	£2.10	£2.98
Flop
		4 9 10
raylpool	Bet		£0.40	£2.50	£2.58
waller02	Raise		£1.12	£3.62	£2.56
quotes007	All-in		£0.74	£4.36	£0.00
raylpool	Call		£0.72	£5.08	£1.86
Turn
		7
raylpool	Bet		£0.04	£5.12	£1.82
waller02	Call		£0.04	£5.16	£2.52
River
		6
raylpool	Bet		£0.16	£5.32	£1.66
waller02	Call		£0.16	£5.48	£2.36
quotes007	Show	5 4
raylpool	Show	10 Q
waller02	Muck	A K
raylpool	Win	Pair of 10s	£5.06

Is AQs good enough to call with at this level? should i be raising more pre? the villain was your standard nl4 player, previously called a shove with kj, proper station etc.....

clarky70	Small blind		£0.02	£0.02	£0.80
x	Big blind		£0.04	£0.06	£2.35
	Your hole cards	A Q
waller02	Raise		£0.16	£0.22	£6.58
FATPAULY1	Fold
webbyboi	Fold
clarky70	Call		£0.14	£0.36	£0.66
x	All-in		£2.35	£2.71	£0.00
waller02	Call		£2.23	£4.94	£4.35
clarky70	All-in		£0.66	£5.60	£0.00
clarky70	Show	2 2
x	Show	J J
waller02	Show	A Q
Flop
		8 3 5
Turn
		5
River
		7
x	Win	Two Pairs, Jacks and 5s	£5.18

Dudeskin8

Good luck mate, only advice I would give is either drop the level of buy in for tourney's or cut them out all together as £5.50 gives you 32 BI's which is insanely small for MTT's, for me ONLY play £2.20 and not a regular thing either unless you're very good at them.

DOHHHHHHH

Yea you should crush this waller.

AK hand, flop raise is terrible, y r u bluffing?

Strategy is all about value.

If you're not betting or raising for value, 9 times outta ten, don't bother. 

It's easy, you should p it!

waller02

grrrrrr, played another couple hours of nl4 plus 2 mtts. cash went awful, played a £2.20 deepy and never got goin and a 600gtd bh in which i went deep but didnt cash and took a couple of heads. The hand below sums up my cash session!

Cash: - £9.58
MTT: - £3

Start br: £180.14
Current br: £167.56

wenelinho	Small blind		£0.02	£0.02	£7.96
waller02	Big blind		£0.04	£0.06	£4.96
	Your hole cards	Q Q
Mobietoo	Call		£0.04	£0.10	£3.59
alexbet86	Fold
AJT91	Call		£0.04	£0.14	£2.81
wenelinho	Fold
waller02	Raise		£0.12	£0.26	£4.84
Mobietoo	Call		£0.12	£0.38	£3.47
AJT91	Call		£0.12	£0.50	£2.69
Flop
		2 J 7
waller02	Bet		£0.38	£0.88	£4.46
Mobietoo	Raise		£0.76	£1.64	£2.71
AJT91	Fold
waller02	Raise		£1.90	£3.54	£2.56
Mobietoo	All-in		£2.71	£6.25	£0.00
waller02	Call		£1.19	£7.44	£1.37
waller02	Show	Q Q
Mobietoo	Show	8 10
Turn
		A
River
		7
Mobietoo	Win	Flush to the Jack	£6.88

MP33

GL Waller - Stick with it and you,ll get there - The diary should deffo help

Dazler

yea good luck waller always helps our game if we have a target or challenge to meet rather than just playing blindly and hoping we make a profit. And having online support for your efforts gives you a nudge in the right direction. GL m8

waller02

right i'm gonna stop playing right now!!! I'm drunk lol and the poker isn't mixing!!!

played some cash, a few 3.30 dyms plus stupidly an 11 quid mtt!!! will i never learn!

current br: £157.83

from now on i'm just gonna play nl4 cash.........and never play under the influence!!!!!

DISCIPLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EvilPingu

GL Waller Diaries definitely help with BRM, as you feel like a right idiot when you have to post "I spent 50% of my BR on 1 tournament and went out in the first level". I know from experience

RE: NL4 hand where you had QQ, 4 posts above this one - Your raise size is all wrong here. People NEVER fold at NL4, so take them to valuetown. My standard raise at NL4 is 16-20p minimum, then usually +4-8p per limper, depending on position and whether I want my hand vs 1 opponent, or several opponents. Sometimes it'll be limped to me in the big blind, I'll wake up with KK and just raise to like, 52p. If everyone folds, fine, if I get called, brilliant, value town them for their entire stack on pretty much any board without an ace. The only thing I don't want is big pairs vs 5 opponents after raising to 16p and every limper calls, flop comes 3 under cards then for someone to hit a random 2 pair which I'm never going to be able to put the opponent on in a million years, and go broke. In the hand above, I'm probably raising to between 24-32p pre-flop. It'll get called by worse. Believe me.

One thing to remember with bet sizing is that a lot of players at this level don't look at the size of the bet in relation to the pot, they probably look at the absolute value of your bet. "He's bet £1, that's a big bet, he must have the nuts, I fold", as opposed to "It's only 50p and I have a pair, I'll call". Also useful to remember when betting multiple streets for value, as if you pot bet the flop, then pot again on the turn, your turn bet is actually 3x bigger than your flop bet if you're against 1 opponent, and if they're looking at the absolute value of your bet when deciding whether or not to call with middle pair no kicker, they'll notice that.

Also, the clickback at these levels is an attempted trap more often than not, and a sign that you can just ship if you think you have them beat, and they'll call 99.9% of the time. "OMG I've flopped a flush, min re-raise trap trap trap, he won't think I have a flush!" when infact, a min re-raise is turning their hand face-up to most players, especially one who has notes on opponents. Coming back to what I said about they look at the absolute value of a bet, they see what they're doing as "He's bet 40p so he won't fold for another 40p", so they think they're trapping and extracting value, but really, a player who is thinking about their opponent's play will see right through this, value shove better hands and fold worse. It's a pretty common value line from villains @ NL4.

Another one of these players' "value" lines is the min bet flop/turn, pot river, which is always nice when give you the right price to draw to a backdoor nut flush and you hit Got some abuse for this one a bit earlier, lol

I recommend reading DOHHHHHHH's guide to beating micro stakes cash in the Poker School - even if you already know everything in there, it'll help to just re-read it, especially if you haven't played NL4 for a while.

Hope this helps

waller02

ty for your post pingu, everything you say makes perfect sense and I will try to take it on board. I agree I should be raising more pre with premium hands as more often then not when I have just raised 4x I have had more callers then I would like, this has resulted in me getting outdrawn a lot more often than if there was just 1 or 2 callers. I guess this is where I need to adjust from mtt mode to nl4 mode!

I am about to re read dohhhhhhh's guide as well.

I also learnt the hard way last night not to play drunk if I want my br to increase!!! Common sense went out the window and I stupidly bought into an 11 quid mtt drunkenly thinking I would take it down!! lol Having said that I only managed to blow a tenner so it could have been worse I guess!

waller02

another 2 hr session on 4 tables, plus I played a primo sat (unsuccessfully)

the cash session was ok ish......built up some decent stacks then lost a couple of big pots to come away pretty much break even

Cash: - £0.02
Mtt: - £2.64

Start br: £157.83
Current br: £155.17

Will play some more cash later but thinking about having a couple of dyms and maybe a small tourney.
So far this diary is just highlighting my decreasing br lol hope things turn around soon!

waller02

Ok, that's me done for the night. Had a great cash session apart from one hand (see below), played 2 £3.30 dyms (won 1 lost 1) and finished 17th in a £2.30 BH but only for small profit.

I'm really starting to enjoy playing cash now, which I suppose I would say after a good session but it is something I wish I had started playing months ago.

Cash: + £11
Mtt: + £0.43
DYM (£3.30): W1 L1

Start br: £155.17
Current br: £166.00

Here is the costly hand. Played ok? Bet sizing correct?

fred984	Small blind		£0.02	£0.02	£3.88
scarletto	Big blind		£0.04	£0.06	£2.36
	Your hole cards	4 4
waller02	Call		£0.04	£0.10	£4.84
any_fish	Call		£0.04	£0.14	£5.24
kgb2t	Call		£0.04	£0.18	£1.70
DARNIK2005	Fold
fred984	Raise		£0.18	£0.36	£3.70
scarletto	Call		£0.16	£0.52	£2.20
waller02	Call		£0.16	£0.68	£4.68
any_fish	Call		£0.16	£0.84	£5.08
kgb2t	Call		£0.16	£1.00	£1.54
Flop
		4 A 7
fred984	Check
scarletto	Bet		£0.04	£1.04	£2.16
waller02	Raise		£0.58	£1.62	£4.10
any_fish	Fold
kgb2t	Call		£0.58	£2.20	£0.96
fred984	Fold
scarletto	Call		£0.54	£2.74	£1.62
Turn
		5
scarletto	Check
waller02	Bet		£2.06	£4.80	£2.04
kgb2t	All-in		£0.96	£5.76	£0.00
scarletto	All-in		£1.62	£7.38	£0.00
waller02	Unmatched bet		£0.44	£6.94	£2.48
scarletto	Show	A 6
waller02	Show	4 4
kgb2t	Show	A 2
River
		3
scarletto	Win	Straight to the 7	£6.41		£6.41

devonfish5

don,t see any prob there mate,
ul river.
the way i see it,
if that,s how they win by hitting river,
good luck 2 them.
hope 2 be playing against them asap...lol

best wishes.
devon

waller02

Just finished another session, 3 tables went really well with 1 table goin awful. I am posting 2 hands below, the first hand is the the one I would like some thoughts on, should I have bet flop? should I have just given up or was it worth a call on the turn? the villain had previously been overbetting sometimes with nothing and sometimes with 2nd pair......impossible to put him on any specific cards!! The second hand played itself but against the same villain to rub it in! Needless to say I didn't bother reloading, he would prob just have took another 4 quid off me lol

Cash: +£3.17

Start br: £166.00
Current br: £169.17

Here are the hands

dan313	Small blind		£0.02	£0.02	£2.77
BIGMICK1	Big blind		£0.04	£0.06	£1.56
	Your hole cards	Q A
waller02	Raise		£0.20	£0.26	£2.89
abbott09	Call		£0.20	£0.46	£2.06
Justbella	Call		£0.20	£0.66	£2.04
monk2	Fold
dan313	Call		£0.18	£0.84	£2.59
BIGMICK1	Fold
Flop
		8 J 2
dan313	Check
waller02	Check
abbott09	Check
Justbella	Check
Turn
		10
dan313	Bet		£0.84	£1.68	£1.75
waller02	Call		£0.84	£2.52	£2.05
abbott09	Fold
Justbella	Fold
River
		J
dan313	All-in		£1.75	£4.27	£0.00
waller02	Fold
dan313	Muck
dan313	Win		£2.33		£2.33
dan313	Return		£1.75

This hand was nasty!!

BIGMICK1	Small blind		£0.02	£0.02	£1.17
waller02	Big blind		£0.04	£0.06	£3.10
	Your hole cards	J K
jimmcm147	Call		£0.04	£0.10	£2.66
php	Call		£0.04	£0.14	£0.97
monk2	Fold
dan313	Raise		£0.08	£0.22	£5.18
BIGMICK1	Fold
waller02	Call		£0.04	£0.26	£3.06
jimmcm147	Call		£0.04	£0.30	£2.62
php	Call		£0.04	£0.34	£0.93
Flop
		6 J K
waller02	Check
jimmcm147	Check
php	Check
dan313	Bet		£0.17	£0.51	£5.01
waller02	Raise		£0.68	£1.19	£2.38
jimmcm147	Fold
php	Fold
dan313	All-in		£5.01	£6.20	£0.00
waller02	All-in		£2.38	£8.58	£0.00
dan313	Unmatched bet		£2.12	£6.46	£2.12
waller02	Show	J K
dan313	Show	A A
Turn
		6
River
		4
dan313	Win	Two Pairs, Aces and 6s	£5.97		£8.09

Poker_Fail

Diaries are for girls


GL though

waller02

In Response to Re: yet another diary........:

Diaries are for girls GL though
Posted by Poker_Fail

lol thanks (i think)

waller02

Bad session, kept getting bad spots and losing. AJ v 55 on a j5x flop, then j on turn impossible to fold! then ak v qq all in pre....

No more cash tonight, gonna play the dtd now as I haven't played it for a while.

Cash: - £3.21

Start br: £169.17

Current br: £165.96

waller02

dtd done....1 min cash and 2 no shows..

Mtt: -£2.47

Start br: £165.96
Currnt br: £163.49

waller02

Another losing session on the cash tables, ak losing aj and then losing a full buy in with top set v a flopped flush, made a slight recovery to end up £3.69 down.

Played a £2.30 BH and finished in 3rd for little profit and also played an open sat and am through to the semi.

Cash: -£3.69
Mtt: +£4.75

Start br: £163.49
Current br: £164.55

waller02

Another losing session, could have been a lot worse but pulled a bit back at the end. Nearly every big hand was getting outdrawn......kk v q2, 32p raise, and 2 streets of 3/4 pot bets, the idiot was calling with the 2 on the board! what is the river a 2!!!!! then they bet 4p!!!!! comical! Not playing anymore tonight as I was starting to tilt slightly.

Cash: -£3.43

Starting br: £164.55
Current br: £161.12

That is 3 losing sessions in a row now.....must do better!

waller02

Had an ok cash session tonight and just finished 10th in a £2.30 bh, slightly dissapointed with the bh as I was in good shape then made a big error!

Cash: +£8.40
Mtt: +£5.49

Start br: £161.12
Current br: £175.46

Playing in TPT's private mtt tomorrow night, it's a £5.50 buy in so brm not quite being obeyed but should be a laugh.

waller02

Cash session went ok but lost £5.50 for busting out early in the TPT game, made a little bit back by min cashing in a £2.30 bh, overall not a bad evening.

Cash: +£4.58
Mtt: -£3.09

Start br: £175.46
Current br: £176.95

The diary is helping as my rolls rapid decline has come to halt and is slowly starting to go in the right direction....the big test comes over the weekend as I can't resist having a game whilst drunk!!! Watch this space!!!! lol

Dazler

diarys are always good cos we dont wanna show how cr ap we are at poker if we blow the lot lol