Well I've just tacked my first session @ 200nl but was interrupted by one of my friend bustling in! Anyhow, up 1.5BI in less then 300hands HAHA! I don't really intend on discussing 200nl just yet, I have 0 experience, I just want to recap my progression.

Prelude

My poker story starts off with an interest in tournaments. Back about 2 years ago, at the begginning of the poker boom in my area, I would attend near weekly live home games. This then lead me to play some online poker. I had no idea what the hell I was doing at the time but randomly push buttons. Concept such as BR management and variance were not part of my vocabulary! During that time, I turned $400 into 2k back to near 0$ playing almost all 200nl... Things got busy in life and I stopped playing cards until December/January 2008

25nl

I joined CR in october while I started playing some live cash games down in the states about 1 hour from home. I didn't take poker that seriously until January 2008, I had about a 400$ BR and was playing 25nl online. Concepts such as c-bet, 3bet, floats where all new too me and I was still far from a solid winner. I ran really hot for that first part of the month and went up too 1k pretty quickly. I thought I was an amazing player and all that until I lost all my profits once again. This made me realize that I might of been lucky! I was convienced I could beat this game and worked very hard on my game. I remember reading that you should have a VPIP of 20 but I was just unable to win with such stats. By the end of January I realised I could be more profitable playing 18/15 then anything above.

February was probably the first month that I had confidence in being a profitable poker player. @ that point I was beating 25nl and was still working on very basic concepts. In march I decided to kick off this blong and wrote some of the goals I wanted to acheive. I also reworked cbetting, I went from 81 to 65%... I think this really helped my game and I was then a 10ptbb winner @ 25nl.

Hands played: around 60k Buy-ins won: around 70 Time: around 3 months

50nl

I moved too 50nl mid march with 20-25 BIs... This was probably the most difficult move up for some odd reason. I went from a 10ptbb winner too a 3-4ptbb winner. Lifetime as I'm writing this, I think I'm about a 3.5ptbb winner @ 50nl. The biggest mistake I think I made during my run there was to play too many tables (9+). For maybe 80k hands I think my game stalled to a halt and that really affected my developement as a player. For that reason, I think that's why it took me so long to move up too 100nl. Funny enough, I've probably played the most hands lifetime @ this limit yet I have very little to say about my learning experience poker theory wise. The only skilled I think I've gained during that time was a better feel for variance + the ability to multitask better.

Hands played: around 150k Buy-ins won: around 85 Time: around 4 months

100nl

The move too 100nl was probably one of my best. I cut down on the number of tables I played and for the first time realized all that I missed while playing 9+ tables. For the first 2 weeks @ this limit I felt I learned just soo much it was incredible. I think the two most important aspect that I learn was adapting to 3 bet frequencies and exploiting regulars post-flop. I found that 3/4 betting was somewhat more relevant to game flow then hand ranges vs regular of course. I also discovered new lines to exploit some of the regulars tendencies while improving my play vs fish. definitely the quickest lvl up.

Hands played: around 60k Buy-ins won: around 50 Time: around 2 months

200nl

A new story is about to start! But I feel this will probably be the smoothest of lvl ups while probably being a fairly long one. For one part I think the move up too 400nl will be a tough one and I want to be properly rolled before attempting anything stoopid!

I've been running pretty well lately... definitely above expectation which is nice. I'm now up a decent amount this month and that does not compare too how much my game seem to have evolved. Anyhow, I've sadly cashed out 1.4k so moving up is a bit delayed. None the less I've just had one of the most awsome day in a little while up 8 BIs.

Graph for the result oriented freak that I am!

The last big hand of the day was somewhat interesting... I raised KJo in the CO and villain that had a 23% 3 bet over like 50-60 hands 3 bet me, I then 4 bet and he calls. I flop pretty much gin with top pair on a K9x so I plan on bet/calling. Anyhow, he raises my cbet, I snap call, he turns K7 and I hold! He added my last BI for the the day hihi!

I don't want to jinx myself nor rush things up but I'll be starting to look @ the 200nl games pretty soon. I'm debating if I should wait for 30 or 35 BIs... I'll probably settle for something in between in the end. I have roughly 27-28 BIs right now, if I run good I would probably move up over the weekend. If I run bad this week then I'll probably only end up moving up next month and wait for 35 BIs +. The problem his I'll have to cash out around 1.2k around the 21st of July. Looking back, it's been a great ride grinding 25nl all the way to where I'm @ right now.

- rant -

Sick variance! I started the month feeling pretty confident about my game and went up 6 BIs pretty quickly! For some reason Thursday went down the sh*tter and I endend the day down a staggering 10 BIs. I played pretty awful and lost quite a bit of confidence in my abilities. Especially since it took only 50 minutes for me to loose almost 6 BIs. Meh, crap happens! Friday and Saturday combined I'm now up 8 BIs and up 4 BIs for the month! This game is really sick @ times! Funny really!

Rollercoaster!

Well here we go in July. Lately I've been pretty motivated about playing cards. My end of June was pretty awsome and I'm pretty confident about my game. I've been running good and I think I've made some good adjustment. The other thing also is that I'm feeling I'm learning soo much lately. Too cap it all PokerStars is having a promotion during the first week of July to dbl our VPP. This is great since I'm on the quest to gain Supernova status.

Anyhow, as planned I've made myself a schedule that would lead me to play 149hrs. To be honest I'd be very happy to play anywhere around 120 hours of poker. This past month I believe I've played around 90hrs. So on this first day I'm already up 2 BIs in about 25 minutes of play hey hey.

So here is what I hope my month will look like. I'll definitely won't be playing 5hrs everyday but I hope that I'll avg that.

I guess this method is for the result oriented freak but in the end if it helps me motivate myself to play more hands it will definitely be worth it!

Thierry

(look @ bottom for coaching)

I can't get myself to play hands! Geez I'm lay-z! I really thought I could play 125k hands in one month but I guess I just can't right now. Definitely not a true grinder yet... maybe this upcoming month but I doubt it. I'm just so easily influenced in doing something else it's freaking incredible.

As soon as there something better I could do I don't stop myself. I guess I should set-up some sort of minimum schedule or something. Right now a friend calls me up, I really can't say no since I don't have any "real" obligations. I finish downloading a movie, I'll stop working and go watch it. I'm hungry I eat! I'm tired I sleep. I want to do other things I do it! ZERO discipline for sure!

I guess keeping track of what I do and set-up a certain system would probably be best for me. I have not worked since January and I miss that sort of "I did something usefull today" feeling. As of late my life style is hurrendous (or however this is spelled)! Next month I'll try and set-up some sort of schedule to follow and guide me through my grinding. I'm also debating if I should get myself a job but I probably won't in the end since I'm too lay-z!

I'm also considering coaching microstakes (NL25 mainly) for two reasons... I could motivate myself to play by talking to people that are eiger to learn and enjoy the game. Also teaching requires you to understand it better! I've been reflecting on common lines lately and this is something that I think could be very beneficial to starting/inexperienced players.

So about coaching... If I do this it would be FREE! I've played alot of hands @ NL25 and feel confident in helping anyone that struggles playing it. I think I would look for 1 or maybe 2 students and could afford giving 5-6hrs of my week to coaching. I would expect these students to be properly rolled for NL25, play more than 10k hands monthly and are dedicated to the game. I think this is reasonable to ask. If you're reading this and want more info or maybe interested, pm me or hit me on aim=qqch13.

Today was a lot of fun, I went bungee jumping @ The Great Canadian Bungee Jump, apparently the highest one in Canada. You can check it out @ http://www.bungee.ca/!

We were seven of us jumping 200 feet into pure emptyness! It was quite a rush and something I'd love to do again. The price is somewhat steep @ $75 (tax incl.) which will probably keep me away until another great occasion!

On the poker side I've been doing pretty poorly lately. I don't think I'll even manage to play 75k hands this month unless I go crazy for the upcoming week. Also I'm really working on playing a laggier game which is great for improvement but awful if you want to put in alot of hands. So we will see how that goes. I've been breakeven during the past two weeks now which is kind of a bummer. I thought for sure that I would be supernova by mid-July but by the looks of things it seems like it will be closer to early August. I'll try and aim for end of July and hopefully this will motivate me to play more hands.

Quoting a guy @ GCBJ... "There's nothing better than a BJ"

Tee

This past week I've rethought my game quite a bit and I'm seeing good results atm! That's where the problem begins... Basically I'm scared to see bad results @ this new limit. I've only played 14k hands thus far so I haven't really proved that I can beat it. @ NL50 I was really confident since I had beat that limit over a very decent sample (110k+ hands) so I had become less result oriented. Now that everything is uncertain once again, I find myself scared of finding out I may not be good enough.

I had a pretty rocky start, I went up 3 to down 5 and I'm now up 4BIs. I'd attribute the main reason to this emotionally challenging start to major changes in my game. I know most people advocate not too make hasty changes in you're game right when you move up but I just could not resist. Cutting down just 3 tables literally forced me to play about 6 or 7% more hands pf. I end up in spots that I'm not very comfortable so I spew spew spew lol! Anyhow, I'm adjusting and gaining more confidence as I go... Hopefully I'll find motivation this week to play more hands. I've now played 40k hands this month, I hope to play at least another 40-45k hands minimum.

I really did no expect too loose that much confidence when I moved up but meh! I really feel like I'm progressing and the bottom line is as long as there is improvement I should be happy!

I really would like to discuss some changes and observation that I think is profitable for NL100 but feel somewhat unconfortable to display stats-discuss strategy on this open Blog. Maybe I'm just a paranoid monkey! If anyone is up to discussion you can hit me up on aim = qqch13

Tee

NL100 is my new regular limit now!

I moved up during this week and well, I had huge problem adapting to the new limit. The main reason was that I decided to cut down tables, basically go from 9@NL50 to 6@NL100. It felt so weird playing 6 tables... I had forgotten how much more you can observe and analyze when playing fewer tables. Tbh, I always felt my game could improve almost as well playing 9 tables but now I do see how playing fewer tables can be extremely beneficial for you're game.

One of the first thing I've realized is that I'm able to play a looser game. During my first session @ NL100 I had gone from a 18/15 @ 50NL too a 24/20 @ 100NL... Basically playing the lower 6% of hands got me in some spots where I was just not used to be in. Anyhow, I've readjusted my play to around 21/18 for now. Basically for the end of the month I'll try different adjustment that I can make.

I really hope to play 125k hands this month but I just don't think I'll be able. After this weekend, I'm about 16k hands behind what I had plan. I'm however not giving up! Despite having my required 35BIs for playing 9 tables of NL100, I think I'll simply play 6 to try and improve my game.

Given that this is my moving up too NL100 official post... some thoughts on the limit.

- Maybe it's just me but everyone is stacking off extremely lite in 3 bet pots OMG!

- What's up with everyone 4 betting!

- The waiting list on Stars are ridiculously long sometimes BEURK!

- Nice to see some regs from previous limit!

- Pots are now meaningful yippie!

Seat 2: starstodd18 ($99.50)
Seat 3: sethsethseth ($198.35) -
Seat 4: charloque ($159.30) -
Seat 5: superzain ($65.40) -
Seat 6: qqch13 ($194.90)

PRE-FLOP:
charloque posts small blind $0.50
superzain posts BIG blind $1
Dealt To: qqch13

RAISE qqch13 ($4)
FOLD starstodd18
CALL sethsethseth ($4)
FOLD charloque
FOLD superzain

FLOP:
Pot: $9.5

BET qqch13 ($7)
RAISE sethsethseth ($21)
RAISE qqch13 ($49)
RAISE sethsethseth ($194.35)
CALL qqch13 ($141.90)

TURN:
Pot: $422.75

RIVER:
Pot: $422.75

SHOWDOWN:
qqch13:

MUCK sethsethseth

qqch13 collected $389.3 from main pot

June Week 1!

Here are the results of week one in my quest to play 125k hands this month. So far I've played 40h30 minutes precisely, this means a total of 31 946 hands. Basically I'm averaging just below 4k hands a day. To be honest I haven't played nearly as much as I wanted this weekend. While friday I've played 7128 hands, over the last 2 days I've only played 4795 hands. Results wise it's not too bad, I made just over 1.3k which is nice. I do hope that the upcoming weeks I'll be able to make a little more now that I've moved up too NL100.

Overall the longest session that I played was just a little over 4k hands. I'd say that I'm averaging about 2k per session which is roughly 2h30 of play. Right now I still have difficulty to stay focus, basically I become pretty emotionally affected by results which then really deteriorate my play. Anyhow, I do feel that I've really improved my control nonetheless compared to just a week ago when 4k hands session was just not doable. When I look back to the time I was grinding NL25, about 3 months ago, I think I can be pretty happy with my improvements overall. There is still place for improvement of course but I think it is important to appreciate @ times all that you've done and be somewhat happy with yourself.

My goal for week 2 are fairly simple...

- Play 28k hands (less then last week since I won't be able to play too many hands over the upcoming weekend probably)

- Do not play more then 6 tables of NL100 b4 having 35-36 BIs

- Move down to NL50 if BR reaches 25BIs of NL100 (really should not be a problem since I'll get a bonus of 6,5BIs of NL100 in about 2-3 days)

And of course a graph is always fun! (I'm so result oriented lol!)

I had a long break even strech due too spewee plays combined with ugly looking cards!