serious poker

[presto]

i have never really taken the poker seriously, with a bank, staking plan etc... and just had the occasional game every so often. So now's the time to get serious..... and heres the plan:

starting bank $1000

cash game - 5% ($50) buy in (max) - think thats a 25/50c game, or below.
Aim to double the buy in, then quit. or if lose 50% of buy in quit.
STT - 1% ($10) buy in (max).
MTT - 1/2% ($5) buy in (max).
freerolls - as many as i can fit in. play lose aggressive.

aim to play a cash game session everyday, possibly a STT everyday and rarely a MTT - perhaps once a week.

record details accurately in XL and probably use a piece of software such as poker office to help analyse performance.
i know a few things arn't ideal - such as mixing cash games and tournies. and the plan of quitting the cash games when doubled up / halved buy in isn't great either - but it's a start.

any advice / comments welcome.

[sparkyminer]

Are you confident in your ability as a poker player to profit or is this an exercise to test your ability?.
If that makes sense?:doh

[presto]

i suppose it's a bit of both. I like to play poker and enjoy the test - but like betting i don't want to do it for fun - i want to profit.

there also the incentive that 'poker is easier to profit from than betting'* - i say this as more people profit from poker than betting, and that the edge you 'can' get from playing bad players can be bigger than an edge you can get in betting.

so i reckon if i can start playing disciplined and organised poker, i will eventually profit when my game gets better with practice.

[mathare]

Good luck with this Presto.

I assume you're talking no-limit cash games here. In which case your buy-ins are probably about right.

STTs I think you can play off a higher buy-in with that sort of bankroll but that depends on whether you see that $1000 as a poker bankroll of a combined bankroll for cash games, STTs and MTTs. STTs are a good source of profit but not a great source of good poker. STT strategy won't serve you well in a cash game, for example, as I have found out recently.

Your exit strategy for cash games is probably reasonable. I would use the double/half thing as a guideline though. Don't quit a game that you're doing well in just because you doubled through - that may happen in one hand. If you're dominating the table then keep playing and maybe quit if you drop back down to double your buy-in. Try and limit your losses but not your wins. That said you could lose 50% of your buy-in on one bad beat even though you're the best player at the table so don't always quit when you reach the double/half figure - give yourself a chance in the game.

Record the start and end of each session as well in Excel. Are you better at certain time of the day or on a certain site? It'll also help you work out if multi-tabling is better for you or not.

Get Poker Office and use that too - it'll tell you a lot about your game.

I have recently found that focus/patience was my biggest poker problem. I am trying to build a bankroll from around a tenth of yours and I find myself struggling to focus when I can win only a few quid in a session when I am betting much bigger. But I need to put in the hours to improve my game. Anything you can do to help you remain focused on the game in hand will help your bottom line. And any tips you can give me on that front are very welcome.

[sparkyminer]

I have recently found that focus/patience was my biggest poker problem.

Ditto, I play really tight for ages and then get fed up, play stupidly and go to the pub.:D

[presto]

games won 28%
showdowns won 55%

flops seen - 44%
win / flops seen - 43%

ACTIONS
fold - 31%
check - 21%
call - 20%
bet - 14%
raise - 10%
re-raise - 1%

where fold:

pre flop - 46%
flop - 10%
turn - 4%
river - 2%
no fold 36%

B360 stats

[presto]

not a good start - was just going to have a warm up game before starting properly, - hand 3 put all in on the flop with top 2 pair (A,10) vs a set :rolleyes:

i will only start this when i get poker office.

[presto]

ok - still not started properly, - got a lot of stuff to do first, before i get poker office.

however i have had a few 'warm ups'

$5 STT - lost LOST $5 (post above)
$5 w2w STT - 1st = WON $15
$10 CASH 5/10c = WON $10

then i had a good night tonight, and played a good game for 1 hour:

$10 CASH 5/10c = WON $10
$20 CASH 10/20c = WON $18
$30 CASH 25/50c = WON $54

so in 6 sets of poker i am $102 up after around 2 hours play.

i thaught i played really well, however my stats (B365 - reset for this little run) are showing 49% flops seen, and too be honnest i would prefer (expected) that to be much lower, maybe 35-40% as cash games should IMO be played tighter than tourneys. I know it's hard to find faults when i beleive i am playing well, but the swings of playing that many hands in cash games could be a bit too risky.
perhaps it's because i am playing the real micro games though, i will mainly stick to the 25/50c games - a level i like, but as i say this is really just a warm up after a long time out.

[Merlin]

Good Luck..Prest...poker has never interested me......probably coz I used to watch all them cowboy films and dont trust anyone....or maybe scared I will get shot in the back when I am leaving....:laugh

I can understand the draw though.....no pun.....Used to be a card school on a Sunday morning ,in my local, donkeys years ago.....seen over 2 K in the kitty (cash).....and that was in the early 70s...:yikes:

[Profit Seeker]

The only thing I'd say is seperate your tourney and cash bank, maybe 50-50. I've mixed my one bank with cash and tourney play and it puts me in even bigger doubts when on a bad run so not good for the confidence etc.

Play 3% of your bank for STTs (the nearest is probly $20), 1% MTTs and increase when doubling up, which would take a damn good while unless you get lucky in MTT.

With the cash game bank play $0.1/0.25 til you double up, very safe risk there.

[Profit Seeker]

Hey neg repper, you better go tell the cardplayer forum the same thing, it's only relayed advice from there :laugh:laugh Lovin it, keep em comin boys, I aim to hit the record red blobs :REDanceda

[Merlin]

Here you go....

[Profit Seeker]

Cheers bud, possie rep on its way to u :thumbs

[mathare]

Where have you been PS and what have you been up to? Why have you come back now to share poker wisdom? I'm not being rude but what have you done to back up this advice and show it is worth following?

[Win2Win]

Since night racing stopped, I've played 4 $50 tables, with a 2nd, 3rd, and 2x 4th place finishes....just need a toliet installed next to the PC, so I don't see 'KK' automatically folded while running back from a pee :yikes:

[Profit Seeker]

Where have you been PS and what have you been up to? Why have you come back now to share poker wisdom? I'm not being rude but what have you done to back up this advice and show it is worth following?

If I thought u were actually interested I might say...but I've not been upto much anyhoo.

The staking stuff above is merely advice I am following myself from the cardplayer forum to be honest, and it's working out fine. I have consistently built my bank from zero deposits a couple of yrs ago, though since I mouthed off in your blog I've hit the worst run of me life :laugh but it'll pass :rolleyes:

[bigcumba]

I aim to hit the record red blobs :REDanceda

You're not in the same league as the worst offenders we've banned... sort of like comparing a pus filled zit to bubonic plague.

[Profit Seeker]

:yikes: Utterly uncalled for, I'm deeply offended donchya know, u were my idol once Big C :cryer

[bigcumba]

I'm just annoyed that you left us for so long and we missed you so much.

[mathare]

The staking stuff above is merely advice I am following myself from the cardplayer forum to be honest, and it's working out fine.But you say above that you've mixed cash and tourney play in one bank so it doesn't sound like you're following the advice very well.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure Presto knows what he is doing and can track things for cash and tourneys separately without having to actually split his bankroll.

[Profit Seeker]

It's either split bank or halve risk in combined bank taint it guv. Ur right, not rocket science really

[mathare]

It's either split bank or halve risk in combined bank taint it guv.Or leverage your $1000 bankroll and play both cash and tourneys as if each had a bankroll of that size, knowing that you're not very likely to run terribly in both at the same time, and if you do then you step down the levels accordingly. The chances of you blowing a $500 cash bankroll and a $500 tourney bankroll are low I'd say (assuming you play at a sensible level for the bankroll) so why waste part of your bankroll having it sat there doing nothing? Put it to use and combine the two and play off a higher level for both, assuming you're skilled enough to play at that level of course. With a $500 bankroll you can play $20 STTs but with a $1000 bankroll you could sit down at $50 STTs if you think you can beat them.

The key point in any of this though is not to play above your level. If you can crush $20 STTs and make a nice profit don't feel you have to step it up a gear. Try a few bigger tourneys by all means but you have a cash cow there and there is no reason not to keep milking it.

[Profit Seeker]

I think Presto's skilled enough to play at that slightly higher risk, one being a gambler and two they look like good stats, winning 28% of games. Mine aren't that good and I'm doing fine. The type of player I don't like coming up against heads up.

[presto]

i was thinking of splitting the bank, however i want to really concentrate on the cash games as i feel grinding out small wins are long term much more secure way of profiting than tourneys, so that is why i put both banks as one - so that my max buy in would be 5% as opposed to 10% to play a level i am comfortable with.
i would play higher level games - though i prefer to be the 'biggest fish in the pond', so that is why i don't really play the bigger games.

[presto]

spent 40 mins playing:

10/20c CASH game - LOST $8

never really got going, cards were pretty poor and i didn't play many hands, only won a few small pots, and a couple of outdraws on the 'bigger' pots put me down.

[tacker]

You have the right idea.Just hope that you stick to it.Try to pay for your tourneys from cash game profit,that way your on a freeroll