Cool, cool. I know we've had our squabbly differences before SuperJ but you're my hero now.
200nlh is pretty much the biggest I've played in. I was 50 short for Sky's 300 live game tonight so thought I'd sit in a 100nlh game to try and win the difference. Was 10 off it and then got a bad un. Tilted. Lost it all. Destroyed my entire limit. Feel like crying. I'm sure you've had worse. Drunkeness is ok for MTTs, not so clever for cash.
I know who Vaswani is but not Trumper
I fully expect to lose big in my first 12 months. But the lessons learnt? The lessons learnt? I'll be back.
Drunkeness and poker is a bad combination especially if you have access to a credit card and take a bad beat, can be a very sobering morning.
As I said in another post losing $10,000 in the space of 4 hours was the worst experience I had. It took me months to grind it from next to nothing up to $17,000 then blew through more than half in hours. First four or five big pots I lost I was ahead in every single one till the river card. After that it was pure tilt and craziness.
Personally I don't have what it takes to make it online I lack the discipline and control. Sure I can run a couple of hundred pounds up to a few grand in a day or two but I'll blow through that in a week or so through bad money management.
Playing live I have no problems with tilt control and can play good solid poker for hours easy.
Played live a week or so ago in a 1-2 no limit game and was completely card dead for hours. Stole a couple of pots here or there but just kept myself around the $200 I initially bought in for. At the table there was a couple of guy my age (30 something) and a few young college kids that think they know everything. My table image to anyone that's been paying attention is that I'm very tight and don't gamble. Main reason is that I'm not getting cards but they don't know that. So I'm in the big blind and the young kid in first position raises $10, seven players call his raise and now its back to me to put in another $8 as I was already in the big blind for $2.
Look down at my cards and nothings changed 8-3 off suite but I fancy this pot. There's a little over $80 in the pot with all the callers so I move all in for another $170 on top. They all fold apart from the last kid that's thinking and saying out loud I can beat A-K. He folds 2-2 and asks to see my hand, one of his mates says it was aces or kings for sure and another agrees with him.
Flip over the 8-3 and take a nice sized pot with these young lads scratching there heads. Basically was just me putting my hands down my pants to see if they were still there.
Anyway enough boring stories, If you have the discipline Haruki you can make it if not enjoy the ride it will take you up high and down low.
Here's an article by Chris Ferguson on bank roll management. He has a great money mind and is probably the most disciplined pro out there. I read it a while back but don't have what it takes.
BTW If you've not already seen the movie Rounders watch it. Great poker movie.
Starting from Zero
Chris Ferguson
April 30th, 2007
I'm almost a year into an experiment on Full Tilt Poker. I'm attempting to turn $0 into a $10,000 bankroll. With no money to start with, I had no choice but to start out playing Freerolls. Starting out, I'd often manage to win a dollar or two, but I'd quickly get busted and have to start over again. It took some time but, after awhile, I was eventually able to graduate to games that required an actual buy-in.
Even today, people don't believe it's really me when I sit down at Full Tilt's small stakes games. They ask what I'm doing down here, and often tell me stories about how they turned $5 into $500 or $100 into $1,000. Usually, these stories end with the person telling me that they went broke. There's no surprise there. These folks tried to quickly build a bankroll by gambling. They'd play in a game that was beyond their bankroll and, if they happened to win, they'd move up to a higher limit and risk it all one more time. Inevitably, they'd lose a few big hands and go broke.
For me, this experiment isn't about the money. It's about showing how, with proper bankroll management, you can start from nothing and move up to the point where you're playing in some pretty big games. I know it's possible because I did it once before, turning $1 into $20,000.
To ensure that I keep my bankroll intact, I've adopted some key rules:
- I'll never buy into a cash game or a Sit & Go with more than 5 percent of my total bankroll (there is an exception for the lowest limits: I'm allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less).
- I won't buy into a multi-table tournament for more than 2 percent of my total bankroll and I'm allowed to buy into any multi-table tournament that costs $1.
- If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represents more than 10 percent of my total bankroll, I must leave the game when the blinds reach me.
I think a lot of players would do well to apply these rules. One great benefit from this approach to bankroll management is that it ensures you'll be playing in games you can afford. You'll never play for very long in a game that's over your head because, when you're losing, you'll have no choice but to drop down to a smaller game. You can continue to sharpen your game at that lower limit until your bankroll allows you to move up and take another shot. These rules also prevent you from being completely decimated by a bad run of cards.
Dropping down and playing lower limits is difficult for a lot of players. They view it as a failure and their egos get in the way. Many want to remain at the level they'd been playing and win back their losses. But this can lead to some pretty severe tilt - and that can go through a bankroll in a hurry. I know that dropping down was difficult for me in my run from $1 to $20,000. When I first played in the $25/$50 game, I lost. Sticking to my rules, I dropped down to the $10/$25 game. I had a losing streak there and had to go down to $5/$10. That was tough. After playing $25/$50, a $5/$10 game was boring to me.
But I had the discipline to stick to my rules, and that motivated me to play better at the lower levels. I really didn't want to lose any more because I knew the consequences: I'd have to play even lower and work even harder to get back to where I'd been, which could take as long as a month. If you ever find yourself bored or frustrated playing at the lower limits, you're obviously not playing well. Take a break from the game. Often, stepping away can give you a fresh perspective and heightened motivation to play well when you return.
There are a couple of more tips I'd like to share regarding bankroll management. First, you should never play in a game that is beyond your bankroll simply because the game seems to be soft that day. It's never soft enough to risk money that puts your bankroll in jeopardy. The other point is that you should avoid playing in games that are at the top of your bankroll limits, when a lower game offers more opportunity for profit.
I'm confident that by sticking to these sound bankroll management rules, I'll make it to my $10,000 goal. These rules are sure to help you as well, as you pursue your own poker ambitions.
