Good seassion

Today I played couple of hands. I am just 3 tabling for now, because I like to think a lot before my actions and my "ABC" poker isn´t good as I am beginner, so that is why I played just 130 hands in 45 minutes. However, I like my result, I played some good hands, outplayed some shortstackers, but one mistake I can see is, that my valuebetting is really bad.

I think, I am scared to valuebet because I have low bankroll (15 buy-ins right now), and I am scared to lose money even when I have big equity. My goal is to make it to 30-35 buy-ins and get a more confidence in valuebetting.

In general I am pretty happy that I play carefully and slowly building my BR up.

My graph for today:

25. january 2015, 3 dollar +

Finding mistakes

Today, after 2 bad seassions, I was reviewing what I am doing wrong. Like I said in previous post, I want to concern in just 1 concept at a time. I opened PokerTracker and while looking at stats, I am trying to figure out what is wrong. My attempt to steal was pretty high. It was somthing about 46%, so I decided, that I want to spend some time with this concept. I found awesome article on www.flopturnriver.com about blind stealing. In this article is everything about blindstealing even with math. So I grabed pen, paper and started to first calculate how and why is blind stealing actually profitably strategy.

So, first we need to figure out, how much our blinds are folding to raise. I make my own stats, so in this case, small blind (SB) have 15% VPIP and big blind (BB) have 25% VPIP.

Now we know, that SB will fold 85% and BB 75%.
Together it makes: 0.85 x 0.75 = 0.63 = 63%

In 63% we get 1,5 BB. In 37% we lost 3 BB (if our stealing raise is 3 BB).

That makes:
0.63 x 1,5 - 0,37 x 3 = -0,165

So we are in deficit -0,165 BB. But, if blinds are called us, we can still win flop. 1/3 time they will miss flop and we can c-bet it and grab the pot.

So if we win flop just 30% of the time:
(0.63 x 1,5) - (0.37 x 3 x 0,7) + (0.3 x 0.37 x 3.5) = 0,5635

0,7 and 0,3 here mean % of chance so 70% we lost flop and 30% we win
3.5 mean pot, if we get to flop, so 1,5 BB + 2BB call to our raise (3BB)

I recommend to everyone, calculate it himself and figure out why is stealing the blinds profitable. But that is not the whole point of stealing. You also will have position and if you will wide your range from CO, BTN you also will get new image, that you don´t play just nuts.

But, my problem was somewhere else. My attempt to steal was fairly high. But with some more reading and basic thinking, I figure out, that I often stealing blinds from bad players, that had high VPIP, even with wide range. That always ended with call and lost for me.

So, now I am watching who is behind me as a blind and it will dictate me my range. If player have high VPIP, I need stealing with hands, those I can play easy on flop such as suited conectors, overcards or even 1gap hands or so... but the other way, if player is real tight, his VPIP is something like 8-10, I can open my range and attack him every time I can.

The next mistake I was making, that I was trying to steal limped pot also with wide range. That was mistake because more people in the pot the tighter you need your range. There is right to squeeze with good hand, but thats another concept, I dont want to concern yet.

That was my chapter about blind stealing. After this study, I am playing a lot better from button, cutoff and I am understand why is blind stealing so important. Here is graph from last seassion, where I was practicing everything I learned about blind stealing:

Blind steal training, January

Thanks for reading !

Goals

In this post a want just talk about my goals. I don´t want to set impossible goals, but goals I can reach in 2015, which will give me even more confidence, if I reach them.

Play everyday
The more you play, better you get. I want to find time to play poker everyday, even if  it´s not always so simple. With study, you still need a lot of practice, so it´s really important to play frequently often.

Review your sessions, study your gaps
Pretty much, why I created this blog. I want to review my seassions, big pots, big hands, what I have done good and what I have not. Studying my stats using PokerTracker and try to improve them. Simply, if you want to be good at poker, you need start to do this.

Earn 30 buyins for 5NL
Not much to say, just get better at game, grind 2NL till I reach 150$. After this, I will take some shots at 5NL and see what will happen.

These are mine 3 major goals I want to primmary reach in 2015, so wish me luck. If I inspired someone with this blog so far, I am really glad, so good luck at the tables my friends.

Introduction

About

Welcome everyone,

I created this blog 21/1/2015, as my personall challenge. First of all, I apologize for my english, but is just my secondary language. I will try to write here everything about my road to big poker bankroll. I expect, that this challenge will be just slowly progressing. Just in case, everything in this blog, will be focused on NLHE (No-Limit Texas Hold em Poker). If you like stuff like this, enjoy!

So, how do I get into poker ?
For the first time, when I was 16yo, I was playing poker in school with my schoolmates couple of times. Nothing that interrested me. Four years later, I watched commercial on Pokerstars and thats how I get into online poker.

So let´s get started ...

I downloaded Pokerstars software, register myself up and started playing for "play money". It was pretty fun to me, so I decided to spend some time with it. Couple of hours later, I was bored with play money so I deposited 12 dollars to play with real money. I opened one 2NL table and started play. It was awesome feel that I can win or even lose real money. But after like 70 hands, I lost like one buyin. When I saw those red numbers, I was thought, that poker doesnt fit me and I stoped playing. It looked like this:

2013, december, first shot

Even with that small sample size I know, I was playing bad. My bet sizing was horrible, I was minraising, limping, pushing with weak hands, don´t reading board textures, and not even playing with max buyin at a table. When I looking now back at these hands, I can see every mistake that was made, which is really good for me.

So after those 70 hands, I stoped playing poker for a year. I think, it was good, that I dont keeped playing and lost just couple of cents, not a full bankroll that I had. Lesson is, that you can´t play poker without any knowledge about it and if yes, don´t expect any money earning.

The Comeback

So, year 2014, december, the time I decided to play poker again. But now, I wanted to be smart and prepared. This time, I wanted to study game also. So I opened 2+2 and flopturnriver forums and started to study. I was reading every sticky post in the forums and absorbing basic poker informations. I learned basics of poker. What is position, blind stealing, expected value, pot odds, math, everything that helped my winrate to go up. I knew that I have just about 10 dollars on Pokerstars account, so I needed to be carefull.

I started playing again and I was pretty suprised. I lost some pots, but I won the big ones. I played KK and AA real good, and get a nice value bets of it. My betsizing was better, opening was tighter, I was better player in general, however, there was still plenty of mistakes such as low value betting, bluffing against fishes and much more. I won the deficit from previous year back plus something more. It was awesome feel, even when I played again just couple of hands (156).

2014, from red numbers - to green numbers

I was really excited, that everything I learned about fishes and bad players had succes in my practice. I get some confidence after this, and played even more. In the end of the day I won even more money, so I started learning about poker a lot more and deeper. After almost 500 hands my graph was looking like this:

End of 2014, couple of seassions, small profit

After this, I knew, that in year 2015, I want to build my bankroll to the max. Poker is enjoyment and relax for me, so I will be playing more and more often.

Nowdays

So here I am now. January 2015 and a low bankroll I can work with. My currency won is something about 17 dollars. I was trying some MTTs and SNGs, but I find poker tournamets pretty hard to play. There is much more variance, which I don´t like. Till now, I was make big steps forward. I learned advanced strategies and tactics that helped me a lot. I stoped doing big mistakes and losing big pots, know strenght of hands and ranges by position, learned about bankroll managment and much more. I played 4000 hands so far, which is pretty low number and I want to improve it.

I decided, that I will learn just one concept of poker at a time, but a lot deeper, which give me a advantage in a practicing.

Here is my graph of play 2NL full ring at pokerstars so far:

2015, start of the year

My current bamkroll is 26.65$, it´s doubled my deposit plus something more, which I am pretty glad with, as I playing poker for like a month.

So I am here and trying to track my results. In the next upcomming posts, I will review my progress.


Thanks for reading!