and nothing has changed... before I was consistently getting my money in good 65% favourite + and losing. Sadly that has continued and my fragile confidence has been shattered into a million tiny pieces leaving me doubting whether I can actually do this successfully as a full time career. I know that in terms of expectation I am now running around $20k below expectation on these hands.
I know what some of you may be thinking - I am doing the classic poker player thing of remembering only the bad beats and forgetting all the times where they held up. Sadly I am a realist and am very aware of exactly what is going on and I have plain and simple been a victim of extremely awful luck.
To be honest I have dealt with this appallingly badly in its latter stages as my whole demeanour has been affected, I am moody, stressed, snappy and generally a pain in the arse to be around. I don't want to see or speak to anybody as to be entirely frank I am embarrassed by this current run.
That may seem like a stupid or immature reaction but it sums up how I feel at the moment. I have played nearly 3000 hands since my return and have lost $1500, this in itself is not a huge amount but durin that time on 5 occasions all the money has gone in on the flop or turn where I hold top set and am a minimum of a 60% favourite, I've won 1 of these. ONE, and that is me running extremely well on recent form. On the rare occasions I have got in behind I have failed on every occasion to hit as well.
I know omaha is a swingy game, I'm not stupid or unrealistic BUT I have expectations of at least achieving 50% of my expectation over long periods of running bad but I'm getting nearer 5% on all the big hands. It has been hard to cope with, although I think I've dropped around $12-14k during this period it is NOT to do with the money. In many ways the money is unimportant, I'm up over the last month despite this, I'm secure in how I play and KNOW it is a winning style over the long run. However every bit of joy has been sapped from my being and I am genuinely quite miserable at the moment.
I'm not someone who gets too badly affected by poker usually, I accept bad runs with good humour, I understand that I can't always win and I tend not to tilt too much. I've managed the last one of these well despite the run I;ve had. The others sadly have got to me to such an extent that I feel close to tears after yet another bad beat, I feel physically sick, I have lost interest in many of the more important things in my life and am generally feeling about as low as I ever have in my life.
It is hard to take a week off come back and have it continue. It is difficult to continuously lose where you should lose and also lose where you should win. I've started to wonder if I have been cursed or done something to offend a supreme being who I don't even believe in. The hardest thing is to gain no reward for solid disciplined play and in fact be punished financially for it.
I did something I very very rarely do and told someone at my table to f**k off yesterday. This was after the all too familiar top set by me was cracked by another donkey call. T75 rainbow flop and I got called after my all in pot raise by a hand which consisted of 46XX with a backdoor flush out and I proceeded to get heartily f**ked.
Not only was this a godawful call, seriously awful in every way as he was obviously behind literally every possible hand I could have but he proceeded to inform me that he was 38% for the hand and had odds to call. I would have gladly punched him in his stupid ignorant face. He had 8 definite outs and even if he hit I could redraw to my full house. I was comfortably over a 70% favourite in this hand. I usually take this stuff in my stride and ignore it but it's just unbelievable. People are so stupid at times and seemingly stupidity is the key to beating me. Just wait until I look like I must have a big hand and stick all your money in. I guarantee that you will beat me!
I'm not trying to say that I am a flawless player, I'm not saying that I have a right to win above anyone else. I play poker largely by mathematics and I am currently on a statistically unlikely run of bad fortune. Sadly I do not have the heart to ride this out as it must surely end at some point. I am not willing to finance my play at the stakes I wish to play at to an extent where I may start losing overall. And most importantly I'm not prepared to be the person I have been for the last two weeks, I'm meant to be relaxed, happy and gradually winning enough to live very comfortably on... and I'm not right now, far from it.
SOOOOO what am I going to do you may ask. Good question and sadly one which keeps flitting through my brain and is failing to be answered to a satisfactory level. Well here is what I have come up with as a plan. God knows whether I will stick to it but I believe I will.
I'm quitting omaha for the time being as it is making me miserable. I don't really want to do this as I think my long term win rate is far better in this than it is in holdem but just for now I cannot handle the game. Therefore I will be returning to the game I have consistently beaten for the last 3 years although playing 2-4 rather than 5-10 for the moment as I just couldn't cope with losing 3-4 buy ins at 5-10.
I currently have $3k in my poker account and will play 2-4 until I build up to $5k then I may allow myself to play some 5-10 but we shall see. Don't know how this will go, also don't know what the hell I'm going to do if I start this by going on a losing streak (god I hope not) however that has to be the plan for the time being.
I can only apologise for not posting much recently, I do tend to do this, last time I went on a bad run my posting became less frequent as I go into my shell a bit and am less willing to share my mental state with people. I hope I've managed to give a very honest account of how I've been feeling and show that although life as a poker pro may be a fun and exciting career when it is going well it can be soul destroying if it goes really badly.
I shall try to get back to posting more regularly and may put in a progress counter to show how well or badly it is really going. Stupid thing is that I am actually relatively satisfied with where I am financially through the last 6 weeks - it's not brilliant earnings but it pays the bills. It's just how it has occurred and the heart wrenching downturn I have had.
Ah well, start over and refocus back on holdem
Steve
Showing posts with label omaha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label omaha. Show all posts
Saturday, 10 November 2007
Monday, 29 October 2007
Playing the 2nd Nuts in omaha
The second nut flush or straight has to be one of the hardest hands in PL omaha to play well as it is so difficult to find out cheaply whether you are ahead or not. Often (especially with the flush) people will strongly bet the blockers.
The best example of this is when you hit the K high flush and someone else at the table has the Ace but no flush. A strong player can bluff this situation extremely effectively leaving you with a decision for all your chips knowing that you may well be drawing dead. If you bet he pot with the K flush and then are raised how do you decide what to do? It's a huge decision as if they have what they are representing you lose your whole stack, however they may just have the Ace and be representing the nut flush.
So how do you know which it is? Simple answer is that you don't, you have an idea based on the situation and player but they may well play both hands in the same fashion giving you no information.
I never know how to play these as although you do have a fantastic hand if any strong resistance is shown it is quite likely to be beaten - I usually play these hands extremely passively as to be honest they scare me as I don't know how to play them. By doing this however you allow aggressive players to steal and draws to the boat to hit. Obviously the ideal is somewhere in the middle of these two approaches - lets call it cautious aggression. You will reraise but be ready to stop betting if they stay in the pot.
Situations like A high flush vs K high flush can be extremely expensive and a misread cost you your entire stack. The second nuts is the one hand in omaha which I feel I struggle with - I manage to play it profitably BUT I often feel that I have minimised my winning on many pots because I can't fully commit.
I'd be interested in any advice anyone has on hands like this as it's an area I can definitely improve upon.
Steve
The best example of this is when you hit the K high flush and someone else at the table has the Ace but no flush. A strong player can bluff this situation extremely effectively leaving you with a decision for all your chips knowing that you may well be drawing dead. If you bet he pot with the K flush and then are raised how do you decide what to do? It's a huge decision as if they have what they are representing you lose your whole stack, however they may just have the Ace and be representing the nut flush.
So how do you know which it is? Simple answer is that you don't, you have an idea based on the situation and player but they may well play both hands in the same fashion giving you no information.
I never know how to play these as although you do have a fantastic hand if any strong resistance is shown it is quite likely to be beaten - I usually play these hands extremely passively as to be honest they scare me as I don't know how to play them. By doing this however you allow aggressive players to steal and draws to the boat to hit. Obviously the ideal is somewhere in the middle of these two approaches - lets call it cautious aggression. You will reraise but be ready to stop betting if they stay in the pot.
Situations like A high flush vs K high flush can be extremely expensive and a misread cost you your entire stack. The second nuts is the one hand in omaha which I feel I struggle with - I manage to play it profitably BUT I often feel that I have minimised my winning on many pots because I can't fully commit.
I'd be interested in any advice anyone has on hands like this as it's an area I can definitely improve upon.
Steve
And the fine run continues
I've had another awesome day, where in every big pot where the money goes in on the flop or turn I get sucked out on. Luckily I'm managing to take this in my stride but I reckon I'm about 7-8k down on expectation across the last two days. It's quite a hole to deal with really.
However it may have bottomed out (hope so) and this hand is so weird to me, I like my play in it although I could certainly have bet the turn but I decided against it as I didn't think I'd get any action so I was willing to go for a delayed bet on the river should I still hold the nuts. Anyway take a look and if anyone can justify my opponents reshove over my raise considering pot size and my remaining stack I should be very interested to hear it. All I can conclude is that somehow I had cultivated a stealing image, I had raised a fair few but this was a 9 way pot on the flop surely the outright steal is not running through his head. Best I can offer is that he put me (optomistically) on a busted flush, even with this I'd only expect a call. Anyway take a look below.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1642924
Weird one really isn't it, I think the best explanation is that he's on tilt from another table or something.
Right I'm going to put in a short session and see if I can resurrect my bankroll somewhat. I feel a lot more positive than I did earlier today and hopefully that will lead to my hands holding up a bit more
Steve
However it may have bottomed out (hope so) and this hand is so weird to me, I like my play in it although I could certainly have bet the turn but I decided against it as I didn't think I'd get any action so I was willing to go for a delayed bet on the river should I still hold the nuts. Anyway take a look and if anyone can justify my opponents reshove over my raise considering pot size and my remaining stack I should be very interested to hear it. All I can conclude is that somehow I had cultivated a stealing image, I had raised a fair few but this was a 9 way pot on the flop surely the outright steal is not running through his head. Best I can offer is that he put me (optomistically) on a busted flush, even with this I'd only expect a call. Anyway take a look below.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1642924
Weird one really isn't it, I think the best explanation is that he's on tilt from another table or something.
Right I'm going to put in a short session and see if I can resurrect my bankroll somewhat. I feel a lot more positive than I did earlier today and hopefully that will lead to my hands holding up a bit more
Steve
Sunday, 28 October 2007
Speed of descent
Playing poker for a living, it can be very easy to get distracted and play on autopilot for long periods during a day's play. Normally this is not a major issue and you get away with it, as dependent on your playing style, many hands/situations kind of play themselves and limited thought is required. In fact you can play whilst tired/distracted and make a tidy sum if the hands hit you right.
However playing on these occasions will come back to bite you on the arse and it is something which I try very hard to eliminate from my game. Sadly this has not been fully achieved by any means.
Sadly when your mentality is wrong or you are not paying full attention you are far more likely to be affected by bad beats and create worse situations for yourself on future hands. I am usually ok at avoiding this but on Friday I was playing 4 tables, talking to a friend on messenger and browsing the internet. Oh yeah watching TV as well. This is not to be recommended and it led to me through some bad play and some bad luck dropping $3000 in about 25 minutes.
During this period I got sucked out of one $2300 pot where I was a 64% favourite and had split chances too, because of how things were going and cos I was tired this bothered me far more than it would otherwise do. Usually I call the fortunate person some choice words by talking to my laptop where he must be able to hear me! But this time I proceeded to make lose calls pre and post flop hoping to get lucky in a big multiway pot. Didn't happen and I went to bed annoyed with myself.
The point I am driving at is this. Regardless of whether you pay poker for fun, or as a profession you need to focus on the games you are playing. If you want to do something else then do that instead. Take 5 to browse the net, have a break to watch some TV just don't try to multitask in a way which will ultimately have a negative impact on your play.
Now I just need to practise this myself. Typically when I play I am multi-tasking, I watch TV, listen to the radio, talk on messenger and browse the internet, sometimes all at once. These are bad habits and although I can cope with TV or radio (not on the laptop you see) the others do lead to me losing my focus and playing a less profitable game than I otherwise would.
Right Baseball and Poker this evening - come on the Rockies as I really could do with another few nights with games being played
Steve
However playing on these occasions will come back to bite you on the arse and it is something which I try very hard to eliminate from my game. Sadly this has not been fully achieved by any means.
Sadly when your mentality is wrong or you are not paying full attention you are far more likely to be affected by bad beats and create worse situations for yourself on future hands. I am usually ok at avoiding this but on Friday I was playing 4 tables, talking to a friend on messenger and browsing the internet. Oh yeah watching TV as well. This is not to be recommended and it led to me through some bad play and some bad luck dropping $3000 in about 25 minutes.
During this period I got sucked out of one $2300 pot where I was a 64% favourite and had split chances too, because of how things were going and cos I was tired this bothered me far more than it would otherwise do. Usually I call the fortunate person some choice words by talking to my laptop where he must be able to hear me! But this time I proceeded to make lose calls pre and post flop hoping to get lucky in a big multiway pot. Didn't happen and I went to bed annoyed with myself.
The point I am driving at is this. Regardless of whether you pay poker for fun, or as a profession you need to focus on the games you are playing. If you want to do something else then do that instead. Take 5 to browse the net, have a break to watch some TV just don't try to multitask in a way which will ultimately have a negative impact on your play.
Now I just need to practise this myself. Typically when I play I am multi-tasking, I watch TV, listen to the radio, talk on messenger and browse the internet, sometimes all at once. These are bad habits and although I can cope with TV or radio (not on the laptop you see) the others do lead to me losing my focus and playing a less profitable game than I otherwise would.
Right Baseball and Poker this evening - come on the Rockies as I really could do with another few nights with games being played
Steve
Friday, 26 October 2007
Work goes bye bye
I now never have to go back in to work again, have finished handing over my job and so I can now fully concentrate on poker. It's been slightly weird over the last 3 weeks as although I've not been working full time the two days a week I have been in have severely disrupted my schedule. It's hard work going from getting up at midday to having to get up before 9am and has meant that I've not been able to fully focus.
However that is now gone so we should start to see what sort of figures I can theoretically put up each month. November is going to be interesting! I'm not honestly sure what sort of money I expect to make, when I quit my focus was to try to get to about $20k a month on average. Now I've switched to omaha I really don't know what I expect to make, I still haven't moved into the biggest game which I will do soonish I think and that will obviously have an impact on my profits.
Although I've suffered some swings so far none have been severe and I've experienced a very solid upslope. Obviously I have no way of knowing whether my current win rate of somewhere around 20BB per 100 hands is my level or if I am just running hot. So really I'm reduced to guesswork when trying to workout my earning potential. I think I could make $30k plus a month if not more BUT I don't know this, my omaha career is still very much in its infancy and I really am just projecting figures which I'd like to be hitting. In three weeks I've made over $20k and that is with huge numbers of days off and distractions.
I'm tired and am rambling so I shall stop here, I'll try to post something a bit more coherent later
Steve
However that is now gone so we should start to see what sort of figures I can theoretically put up each month. November is going to be interesting! I'm not honestly sure what sort of money I expect to make, when I quit my focus was to try to get to about $20k a month on average. Now I've switched to omaha I really don't know what I expect to make, I still haven't moved into the biggest game which I will do soonish I think and that will obviously have an impact on my profits.
Although I've suffered some swings so far none have been severe and I've experienced a very solid upslope. Obviously I have no way of knowing whether my current win rate of somewhere around 20BB per 100 hands is my level or if I am just running hot. So really I'm reduced to guesswork when trying to workout my earning potential. I think I could make $30k plus a month if not more BUT I don't know this, my omaha career is still very much in its infancy and I really am just projecting figures which I'd like to be hitting. In three weeks I've made over $20k and that is with huge numbers of days off and distractions.
I'm tired and am rambling so I shall stop here, I'll try to post something a bit more coherent later
Steve
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Some Hand Histories
As I've not been posting as many hands as I probably should I thought I'd post a few interesting ones from the last few days and discuss them. I've also used a site to display them in a better format. Let me know if you prefer them like this or the hand history posted in full within the blog! Hand histories posted above analysis
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627592
Having been away for a couple of days I got back this afternoon and this was the first big hand of the day, quite weird as I make a fairly standard play as I flop 2 pair, straight and nut flush draw and decide to be aggressive and lead out, am called on the flop and then raised on the turn. No way I can drop to the big reraise as I have huge outs and am possibly still ahead so I went all in. This cost the guy $30 more to call in a $2300 pot and he (much to my delight) folded and then left. Really weird and he must have been bluffing with 0 outs, however how can you drop this, if I have gone a bit crazy and gone all in with nothing but a nut flush draw he could win by pairing - so bizzare and it wasn't like he got disconnected.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627614
Next up is a standard(ish) play against a mid stack, he raises pre and gets 2 callers so I raise pot with AAxx to hopefully get rid of the other 2, if they call this is not a good situation as I will probably have to lay the hand down if it's not a good flop. Desired result happens and by this stage I am not going to get shoved off this hand regardless of what flops. He shoves I call and win a big pot which without the preflop reraise I almost certainly fold on the flop! It is noticeable that in these situations when the opponent pushes rather than letting you bet it is very likely that the AA is ahead as otherwise they tend to make sure that you bet and get committed to the pot.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627623
Last one I'm posting for now is just to show the value of rundown hands, I call preflop with 789T single suited and get a fine flop giving me a wrap, rather than raising I decided to just call while it was cheap and flopped the 9 for a straight on the turn. The other fella has hit two pair and foolishly decides that I don't have the straight and calls my all in. These sort of hands can pay off extremely well against certain opponents as they fail to realise quite how vulnerable the two pair which they hold is.
That's it for now, do let me know if this is a better format for viewing as I will change things depending on comments if somone has improvements which could be made.
cheers
Steve
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627592
Having been away for a couple of days I got back this afternoon and this was the first big hand of the day, quite weird as I make a fairly standard play as I flop 2 pair, straight and nut flush draw and decide to be aggressive and lead out, am called on the flop and then raised on the turn. No way I can drop to the big reraise as I have huge outs and am possibly still ahead so I went all in. This cost the guy $30 more to call in a $2300 pot and he (much to my delight) folded and then left. Really weird and he must have been bluffing with 0 outs, however how can you drop this, if I have gone a bit crazy and gone all in with nothing but a nut flush draw he could win by pairing - so bizzare and it wasn't like he got disconnected.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627614
Next up is a standard(ish) play against a mid stack, he raises pre and gets 2 callers so I raise pot with AAxx to hopefully get rid of the other 2, if they call this is not a good situation as I will probably have to lay the hand down if it's not a good flop. Desired result happens and by this stage I am not going to get shoved off this hand regardless of what flops. He shoves I call and win a big pot which without the preflop reraise I almost certainly fold on the flop! It is noticeable that in these situations when the opponent pushes rather than letting you bet it is very likely that the AA is ahead as otherwise they tend to make sure that you bet and get committed to the pot.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627623
Last one I'm posting for now is just to show the value of rundown hands, I call preflop with 789T single suited and get a fine flop giving me a wrap, rather than raising I decided to just call while it was cheap and flopped the 9 for a straight on the turn. The other fella has hit two pair and foolishly decides that I don't have the straight and calls my all in. These sort of hands can pay off extremely well against certain opponents as they fail to realise quite how vulnerable the two pair which they hold is.
That's it for now, do let me know if this is a better format for viewing as I will change things depending on comments if somone has improvements which could be made.
cheers
Steve
Monday, 22 October 2007
Long Sucky Session and Late Night Trash TV
Still not got around to writing the second part of my previous article as I've not really been in the mood to blog. Don't really know why but I've felt fairly distracted so haven't yet taken the time to think through what I want to put.
I've had a really weird day where I don't think I've played at my best for a large part of it. Playing a little looser than I'd like and then I found myself stuck $3.2k which was not really what I'd envisaged when I got up this morning. Because of being stuck this much I've definitely over-played and probably put in 10+ hours today.
I always have this when I get stuck as I hate leaving the tables and certainly don't want to finish the day with that result. Anyway I did a pretty good job of getting unstuck and ended up about $650 down for the day which all in all is quite good. In many ways it is more satisfying getting unstuck than it is winning in the first place as it takes a great deal of resolve and tilt avoidance so I'm pleased with how I've handled that today.
It's now 2am and I've just got out of bed as I'm not having much success at dropping off, wouldn't normally matter but I've got to be up before 9am so it's by no means ideal. I feel a bit jaded because of the time I've put in today, not done anything else which is not part of how I'm meant to be conducting myself but I shan't be playing till Friday now so I can kind of justify it to myself.
I've got the TV on in the background and something called "street cred sudoku" has just come on. What on earth is the world coming to and how in god's name is something like that meant to be entertaining? I'm almost tempted to watch just to see how bad this is. I do wonder how shows like this come into fruition, perhaps the conversations go like this
"Oooh look there's a bandwagon, shall we leap on to it?"
"Hmmmm yes, seems like a good idea, maybe we can make a crap panel show out of it."
"But do you not suppose that people will pick up on the fact that the show has bugger all to do with Sudoku and is in fact a crass attempt to piggyback onto a strangely popular example of the modern zeitgeist"
"No, we'll put it on late and anyway people are stupid, ha ha ha ha ha"
I don't think that's too far wide of the mark and has got me wondering what other horrendous examples of modern culture I'll be exposed to through late night tv - have already encountered live roulette and I still don't understand the appeal of that one.
Right I need sleep and am probably waffling so best to finish here I think
Steve
I've had a really weird day where I don't think I've played at my best for a large part of it. Playing a little looser than I'd like and then I found myself stuck $3.2k which was not really what I'd envisaged when I got up this morning. Because of being stuck this much I've definitely over-played and probably put in 10+ hours today.
I always have this when I get stuck as I hate leaving the tables and certainly don't want to finish the day with that result. Anyway I did a pretty good job of getting unstuck and ended up about $650 down for the day which all in all is quite good. In many ways it is more satisfying getting unstuck than it is winning in the first place as it takes a great deal of resolve and tilt avoidance so I'm pleased with how I've handled that today.
It's now 2am and I've just got out of bed as I'm not having much success at dropping off, wouldn't normally matter but I've got to be up before 9am so it's by no means ideal. I feel a bit jaded because of the time I've put in today, not done anything else which is not part of how I'm meant to be conducting myself but I shan't be playing till Friday now so I can kind of justify it to myself.
I've got the TV on in the background and something called "street cred sudoku" has just come on. What on earth is the world coming to and how in god's name is something like that meant to be entertaining? I'm almost tempted to watch just to see how bad this is. I do wonder how shows like this come into fruition, perhaps the conversations go like this
"Oooh look there's a bandwagon, shall we leap on to it?"
"Hmmmm yes, seems like a good idea, maybe we can make a crap panel show out of it."
"But do you not suppose that people will pick up on the fact that the show has bugger all to do with Sudoku and is in fact a crass attempt to piggyback onto a strangely popular example of the modern zeitgeist"
"No, we'll put it on late and anyway people are stupid, ha ha ha ha ha"
I don't think that's too far wide of the mark and has got me wondering what other horrendous examples of modern culture I'll be exposed to through late night tv - have already encountered live roulette and I still don't understand the appeal of that one.
Right I need sleep and am probably waffling so best to finish here I think
Steve
Friday, 19 October 2007
The evolution of a poker pro (part 1)
One of the things which I find myself thinking about is exactly how I got to the point I am now at, where I can make a comfortable living (so far) from playing poker professionally. So I am going to attempt, across maybe two posts, to analyse how I reached this point. The posts will be about different issues, one on the play and evolution from a poker perspective (where I started and how I moved up the ladder) and the other about family, upbringing and why my general personality and stuff suits my chosen profession.
This one is going to be focussed on the climb up the ladder from low-high stakes as it's something which my friend Euan is currently trying to do (see pittance game poker link), setting out from .02-.04 nl holdem and hopefully it will give an idea about timescale and how to build knowledge and bankroll to the stage where high stakes are possible.
So where did I start? I started at £10 buy in cash games on Sun Poker (cryptologic network) about three years ago so blinds of 0.05-0.10. I had grown up playing cards and watched stuff like Late Night Poker on Ch4 and quickly developed a reasonable feel for the games. My tactics in these early days was to try to double up and leave, nothing very subtle about how I did this either. I played a very patient game (nothing changed there) and waited till I connected hard with the flop or had a big starting hand like AA, KK. I then played these hands ectremely fast in an effort to get all my opponents money in. The thing about poker at lower stakes is that players don't want to believe you when you bet hard, often people slow play to the point of winning the absolute minimum whereas I took the opposite approach and this worked out quite well for me and I built a reaonable bankroll of maybe £200 quite quickly.
At this stage I decided to start playing for larger sums and moved into the £0.50- £1 game and because I was scared of losing I played as a short stacked played buying in for £25 and leaving once it doubled. I maintained a similar style to previously and had moderate success. I also started playing £10 sit & go tournaments (I'm really not a fan of these now) and mixed my game up between the two areas. Again I did ok, built a small bankroll then went down overall by about £200 so went back to cash games and concentrated on them.
I really didn't maintain an online bankroll or have any specific goals at this stage, I also had done absolutely no reading on the subject at all (not smart) and was playing mainly for fun. I was up and down playing like this but at it's peak I managed to get about £600 ahead which was a huge amount for me at that time.
It was around then where I went to Vegas for the first time. I'd always fancied a trip and was treating it as a one off where I was prepared to lose about £1k, not that I wanted to lose and I certainly didn't try to but it's best to set limits and expectations before going to play with experienced gamblers. Anyway we went off to vegas and I sat down at the table (mirage) shaking like a leaf to play $1-$2 NL holdem, I bought in for $100 as I didn't want to lose a full buy in and in about my third hand flopped a flush and more than doubled up to $240. I stayed for another hour or so and left feeling pretty damn pleased with myself.
During the entirety of my two week trip to Vegas I never got felted, left every table bar one with more than I started with and came home with about $1600 profit from the trip. Fantastic as this was it utterly screwed my online game as I went from £600 profit to £600 behind, hmm not ideal and time to focus as I knew that I could beat this game.
I continued shortstacking online and retrieved my money and then I had a month off between jobs moving from Lancaster - Aston and decided to properly concentrate on poker for this month. I got rather good at it quite quickly and made over £2k in that month.
It was after this month and the vegas trip that I started seriously thinking that I could do this for a living one day. I had earnt more than my monthly salary at the time and enjoyed it far more than working. However I'm realistic and put these thoughts to the back of my mind. I started reading up on poker (super system, pocket fives etc) and my game improved dramatically as I now had a far better understanding of every aspect of my own and other's games.
Over my first year in Birmingham I made about £10k from poker as a nice sideline to my job, started playing a full stack towards the end of the year as my game had developed enough to be comfortable with this. During this period I had many swings but it was an overall up curve although I did get quite stressed by losses and over-analyse my game and question my play. Sadly I am still prone to do this but I am much better at dealing with losses.
I set myself a target for this year of £20k ($40k) profit and anticipated adding onto this each year and then turning pro at 30 where I hopefully shoudl be earning £50k a year. That was the aim, realistic yet ambitious at the same time. I returned to Vegas and crushed the 1-2nl games to the tune of $2.8k in 6 days and I was a hugely improved player with a lot more confidence in my ability.
My attentions in the online poker world had now moved and I was playing at Party full time, abandoning the cryptologic network, there had been a few months where I played at both but overall I find Party really good, easy graphics and a larger spread of games and players. I was playing $1-$2nl holdem and buying in for $200.
I should also point out that ever since I started I have multi-tabled, I started with one and then within a few days moved to 2 and so on up to 4 tables which I believe to be the optimum for me. I have 10 tabled before and it hurts my head!
I had a reasonable start to the year and was hitting my £2k a month targets but after the vegas trip I decided I wanted to play higher, I'd been at my limits for ages and it was time to move up, so I started playing 2-4 then 3-6 although on party there are rarely enough tables running full ring at these stakes. I did this for about a month and then decided to have a shot at 5-10. I did this with money already made and was fully prepared to lose my buy in and go back to 2-4. This is how I tend to move up, because I don't keep a big bankroll online (I cash winnings) I take shots rather than having a bankroll target. This is optimum for me but will nto be for everybody.
First time I sat at the table I was prepared to lose 200-300 before I quit, basically I was playing scared money and obviously lost that and dropped back down. However I kept trying over a couple of weeks until I started winning. I made about $8k in June and then July was the defining month for me as I made $17k all at 5-10. I'd got over being scared, was willing to drop back down when needed and wanted to play with the big boys.
Quit my job in July as I now knew that I could do this professionally, I'd won consistently for 2 years and felt that my knowledge and earning potential were great enough for me to do this. Also if I stayed at work I'd be moving into a management position in the next year and I really have very limited enthusiasm for that so it was an easy choice.
I had a few ropey months before quitting, winning but not the amounts I wanted but this was largely due to nerves and feeling that I have to win rather than having it as a sideline. Because I wasn;t running great I decided about a month ago to try omaha - read up on it, bought a book or two (see how I've learned) and jumped straight into 1-2pl omaha. Quickly realised that a lot of players give up a lot of edge in this game and started playing 2-4 and shortstacking 5-10 and 10-20. Hugely successful as a shortstack in 10-20 and I am still doing this now, however my game has very quickly developed to the stage where I am doing pretty well at 5-10 ($14k in the last 4 days) and omaha has become my game of choice and I really don't see this changing.
What I hope this article shows is the importance of laying the foundations for your play, I improved hugely when I started reading on the subject, I read every article ever on pocket fives, I read all the discussion topics and quickly got to the stage where there wan;t anything new to me. This added to my confidence and I backed myself to move up. Without the experience playing over the last three years my progression at omaha wouldn't have happened so rapidly, nothing matters as much as table experience, you learn so much about readin opponent and possibly most importantly what you are comfortable with in terms of stakes and playing style.
I'd appreciate any comments on this or questions which anyone may have, I shall write part two in the next day or two which will go into all the other aspects which affect poker.
Steve
This one is going to be focussed on the climb up the ladder from low-high stakes as it's something which my friend Euan is currently trying to do (see pittance game poker link), setting out from .02-.04 nl holdem and hopefully it will give an idea about timescale and how to build knowledge and bankroll to the stage where high stakes are possible.
So where did I start? I started at £10 buy in cash games on Sun Poker (cryptologic network) about three years ago so blinds of 0.05-0.10. I had grown up playing cards and watched stuff like Late Night Poker on Ch4 and quickly developed a reasonable feel for the games. My tactics in these early days was to try to double up and leave, nothing very subtle about how I did this either. I played a very patient game (nothing changed there) and waited till I connected hard with the flop or had a big starting hand like AA, KK. I then played these hands ectremely fast in an effort to get all my opponents money in. The thing about poker at lower stakes is that players don't want to believe you when you bet hard, often people slow play to the point of winning the absolute minimum whereas I took the opposite approach and this worked out quite well for me and I built a reaonable bankroll of maybe £200 quite quickly.
At this stage I decided to start playing for larger sums and moved into the £0.50- £1 game and because I was scared of losing I played as a short stacked played buying in for £25 and leaving once it doubled. I maintained a similar style to previously and had moderate success. I also started playing £10 sit & go tournaments (I'm really not a fan of these now) and mixed my game up between the two areas. Again I did ok, built a small bankroll then went down overall by about £200 so went back to cash games and concentrated on them.
I really didn't maintain an online bankroll or have any specific goals at this stage, I also had done absolutely no reading on the subject at all (not smart) and was playing mainly for fun. I was up and down playing like this but at it's peak I managed to get about £600 ahead which was a huge amount for me at that time.
It was around then where I went to Vegas for the first time. I'd always fancied a trip and was treating it as a one off where I was prepared to lose about £1k, not that I wanted to lose and I certainly didn't try to but it's best to set limits and expectations before going to play with experienced gamblers. Anyway we went off to vegas and I sat down at the table (mirage) shaking like a leaf to play $1-$2 NL holdem, I bought in for $100 as I didn't want to lose a full buy in and in about my third hand flopped a flush and more than doubled up to $240. I stayed for another hour or so and left feeling pretty damn pleased with myself.
During the entirety of my two week trip to Vegas I never got felted, left every table bar one with more than I started with and came home with about $1600 profit from the trip. Fantastic as this was it utterly screwed my online game as I went from £600 profit to £600 behind, hmm not ideal and time to focus as I knew that I could beat this game.
I continued shortstacking online and retrieved my money and then I had a month off between jobs moving from Lancaster - Aston and decided to properly concentrate on poker for this month. I got rather good at it quite quickly and made over £2k in that month.
It was after this month and the vegas trip that I started seriously thinking that I could do this for a living one day. I had earnt more than my monthly salary at the time and enjoyed it far more than working. However I'm realistic and put these thoughts to the back of my mind. I started reading up on poker (super system, pocket fives etc) and my game improved dramatically as I now had a far better understanding of every aspect of my own and other's games.
Over my first year in Birmingham I made about £10k from poker as a nice sideline to my job, started playing a full stack towards the end of the year as my game had developed enough to be comfortable with this. During this period I had many swings but it was an overall up curve although I did get quite stressed by losses and over-analyse my game and question my play. Sadly I am still prone to do this but I am much better at dealing with losses.
I set myself a target for this year of £20k ($40k) profit and anticipated adding onto this each year and then turning pro at 30 where I hopefully shoudl be earning £50k a year. That was the aim, realistic yet ambitious at the same time. I returned to Vegas and crushed the 1-2nl games to the tune of $2.8k in 6 days and I was a hugely improved player with a lot more confidence in my ability.
My attentions in the online poker world had now moved and I was playing at Party full time, abandoning the cryptologic network, there had been a few months where I played at both but overall I find Party really good, easy graphics and a larger spread of games and players. I was playing $1-$2nl holdem and buying in for $200.
I should also point out that ever since I started I have multi-tabled, I started with one and then within a few days moved to 2 and so on up to 4 tables which I believe to be the optimum for me. I have 10 tabled before and it hurts my head!
I had a reasonable start to the year and was hitting my £2k a month targets but after the vegas trip I decided I wanted to play higher, I'd been at my limits for ages and it was time to move up, so I started playing 2-4 then 3-6 although on party there are rarely enough tables running full ring at these stakes. I did this for about a month and then decided to have a shot at 5-10. I did this with money already made and was fully prepared to lose my buy in and go back to 2-4. This is how I tend to move up, because I don't keep a big bankroll online (I cash winnings) I take shots rather than having a bankroll target. This is optimum for me but will nto be for everybody.
First time I sat at the table I was prepared to lose 200-300 before I quit, basically I was playing scared money and obviously lost that and dropped back down. However I kept trying over a couple of weeks until I started winning. I made about $8k in June and then July was the defining month for me as I made $17k all at 5-10. I'd got over being scared, was willing to drop back down when needed and wanted to play with the big boys.
Quit my job in July as I now knew that I could do this professionally, I'd won consistently for 2 years and felt that my knowledge and earning potential were great enough for me to do this. Also if I stayed at work I'd be moving into a management position in the next year and I really have very limited enthusiasm for that so it was an easy choice.
I had a few ropey months before quitting, winning but not the amounts I wanted but this was largely due to nerves and feeling that I have to win rather than having it as a sideline. Because I wasn;t running great I decided about a month ago to try omaha - read up on it, bought a book or two (see how I've learned) and jumped straight into 1-2pl omaha. Quickly realised that a lot of players give up a lot of edge in this game and started playing 2-4 and shortstacking 5-10 and 10-20. Hugely successful as a shortstack in 10-20 and I am still doing this now, however my game has very quickly developed to the stage where I am doing pretty well at 5-10 ($14k in the last 4 days) and omaha has become my game of choice and I really don't see this changing.
What I hope this article shows is the importance of laying the foundations for your play, I improved hugely when I started reading on the subject, I read every article ever on pocket fives, I read all the discussion topics and quickly got to the stage where there wan;t anything new to me. This added to my confidence and I backed myself to move up. Without the experience playing over the last three years my progression at omaha wouldn't have happened so rapidly, nothing matters as much as table experience, you learn so much about readin opponent and possibly most importantly what you are comfortable with in terms of stakes and playing style.
I'd appreciate any comments on this or questions which anyone may have, I shall write part two in the next day or two which will go into all the other aspects which affect poker.
Steve
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