Another Good Day

Well today was a good day. I had to do a little work and had little sleep, so I took a nap and didn't get to play any until after 7:00PM, but managed to have a nice profitable day.

Anyways, on the felt I managed to get a little more than 1600 hands in. It is amazing how quickly the hands can add up when multitabling 6 max games. As for the results of today, I managed to profit $2.01 in the 1600 hands, bringing to me just shy of $18.00. I am done playing the cash game today, but am still playing in a freeroll tournament to try and win one of the round 2 tickets to the $2000 freerolls.

Originally I was going to wait until I got to $25 before I started playing some .05/.10, but since I am multitabling mostly, I have considered adding my first .05/.10 table when I reach $20, and if I have 4 tables going, playing three .02/.04 and one .05/.10 game until I happen to reach the $25 mark, and then add another to go 2 and 2 between the two games, and by $30, I think I was to be totally up to .05/.10.

It is amazing to think where I have come in the last 12 days since I started this challenge. It is getting close to $20 playing .02/.04. I can't wait to see what it will be like when I can actually start making some real money from higher limits, and with a real bankroll, there should be little problems with going bust.

Below is a look of what I have done so far in the .02/.04 game from Poker Tracker. Does anyone think that I need to loosen up a little, or is 27% high enough for a 6max game? Sorry it is so small, but if you click it, it will become a full size image.





Starting Balance: $15.97
Ending Balance: $17.98
Profit/Loss: $ 2.01

Eh?!?!

Today was a blah day. I was up and down all day, and just couldn't get anything together. I ended the day up $.51 over 2300+ hands.

After some quick math, it now looks like it could take up to 30,000 hands if my winrate gets to 2BB/100 hands to be able to get up to a level that I can mix in some .05/.10 into my play. I am waiting til I get to $25 before I start to do that. I am up to 16100+ hands though.

Starting Balance: $15.46
Ending Balance: $15.97
Profit/Loss: $ .51

Another Day Gone

I managed to play another winning day of $.02/.04 limit holdem :) It was a fun day. There was oOne thing that I noticed, that seemed slightly funny. There was one guy that seemed to be telling people how to play, what to watch for, how it is rigged, etc. I thought to myself that most of the people that are playing .02/.04 are either strictly having fun, have very little money, or are not good enough to play at a higher limit. If that is the case, let them play the way the do, and exploit their weaknesses. Let them learn for themselves how to play better, don't teach them while you are playing.

As for todays session, I almost got 1800 hands, and showed a profit of $4.03, a little more than 5.5 BB/100 hands.

Since the start of this challenge, I have played 13,859 hands, $16.95 profit, and 3.05 BB/100 hands. I think that I was on the low end of the number of hands needed to get to a level to move up. I had originally thought that it would take 15k-16k hands to get to $25 so that I could start to play some .05/.10 limit. Now, I am thinking that it will be closer to the 20k range. Either way, I will get there sooner or later. If I hadn't played those two tournaments, I would have had another $2.20 in my bankroll.

The more that I play, the more that I notice that if you have a sufficient bankroll, going bust would be tough. I know that I am no where near a reasonable bankroll for anything other that .02/.04 right now, but once you have a bankroll established, as long as you have the ego to be able to step down a limit, going bust is going to be very difficult. Going up in limits might be a little tougher, but actual busting would be tough.

I have still not started to do much review of my sessions, but know that I will have to start doing that more when I can manage to get up to the higher levels. I can get by now at the lowest limits, but as the play/players get better, I am going to have to do some things to improve to be able to keep going up.

Starting Bankroll: $11.43
Ending Bankroll: $15.46
Profit/Loss: $4.03

Long Day of Playing

Well, I had nothing to do today, so I made the most of it playing cards. It wasn't a great day, but a profitable one. I played a $1.10 tourney as well, so that takes a little out of the bankroll.

I managed to play 4161 hands of .02/.04, and showed a cash game profit of $1.89. It should have been better, but it happens. I don't know how many times I flopped 2 pair to lose the hand to a straight, flush, or something else. It was amazing. I would guess it happened about 50 times, but I could be a little off. Either way, it happened way more today that it has ever happened to me in a single session.

I am looking over a couple things in PokerTracker, and it is amazing to see that I made $1.89, but "paid" $4.52 in rake. For some people who don't pay attention to rake or think that it doesn't matter, especially in the lower limits, don't realize what they are paying in rake.

Not sure how much I am going to get done tomorrow, we will see, but I doubt it reaches the 4k hands that today got :)

Starting Balance: $10.64
Ending Balance: $11.43
Profit/Loss: $.79

A Day Off Yesterday, and A Crazy Day Today

I took yesterday off from poker and had some fun with some friends. Went back to the virtual felt today for some .02/.04 limit action. It started out as a horrible day as I was down almost $3 at one point.

As it was, I ended the day up a couple bucks. I got over 2000 hands in today, and up to 7500ish hands since last week, while still maintaining a 3+BB/100 hand winrate. Not much else today, kinda tired and heading to bed.

Starting Balance: $8.85
Ending Balance: $10.64
Profit/Loss: $1.79

So Much Better Than Yesterday

Today turned out to be a good day. I didn't start by digging myself a 10-20 BB hole to try and climb out of. I managed to start good, and stay good. It didn't hurt that there was a maniac at one of my tables that I had 22 hands at the table with and he raised/reraised 20 out of the 22 hands. He managed to end up down $2+ in 22 hands.

Today I managed to play a measly 822 hands, and posting a $2+ profit, to get back most of what I had lost yesterday. Glad to see that it was only a one day losing streak. I would hate to see a bigger losing streak this early since I am just beginning to get the bankroll started. I do think that I might have played a little too tight today. I only have a VPIP% of 21% playing on 6-max tables.

I am up to almost 6000 hands since starting on Wednesday, and have a bankroll of $8.85. That is pretty much on key to my 3-4BB/100 hand goal to get to $25 around hand 15-16000. If this keeps up, I should be able to get to 15k hands by Sunday or so, and possibly move up to .05/.10 limit. For the most part now I have been 3 and 4 tabling the tables now, and think that I might start to add one .05/.10 table in the mix once I get to about $20, and by $30 playing exclusive .05/.10.

It is amazing how much rake is taken out of these microstakes games. In the 6k hands I have played that show a profit of $9+, I have had $7+ taken out in rake. That is just amazing to think about when you are talking pennies at a time.

I have also been doing some thinking recently, and realize that I need to do more to help my game. One thing that I have not been doing that is at my disposal and can definitely help is reviewing sessions. I am going to start to reviewing sessions, and hopefully if there are any other micro limit holdem players that would like to exchange reviews, I would like to start doing that. Anything to start helping more now while "lessons" don't cost me as much as they will during higher levels.

I have also been doing some reading of Small Stakes Holdem since it is a limit based book. I am doing anything I can to help along they way, even though I have been playing cards for a few years now.

Starting Bankroll: $6.48
Ending Bankroll: $8.85
Profit/Loss: $2.37

What A downer

Today was my first downswing in BR size. I ended up not having to do any work today, so I got a lot of hands in, but wasn't productive. I know that I tilted a little. It seemed if I had AK, flop was 7 high, and if I had JJ, flop was AKQ and everyone had at least one of them.

As for the .02/.04 limit games, I played 2032 hands today, and was down $1.43. Definitely not a good day.

At 7:00, i decided I was going to play a tourney. I bought into the $1.00+$.10 that started at 7:00. 1700+ runners to start. I ended up busting in 351st place.

Starting Bankroll: $9.01
Ending Bankroll: $6.48
Profit/Loss: -$2.53

Today Was A Good Day

Well, today was a great day. I could have asked much more from what I was doing. It is amazing to notice how some people are either completely donking around at the .02/.04 limit level, or doing whatever they are doing. The one nice thing to notice about this is that they will give you plenty of chance to win a big pot. I ended up taking a pot that was 3 bet preflop between 3 player, and then capped on every street after I had flopped a set, so there was over 25 BB in the pot.

I was also doing some thinking between last night and today about when to move up. I was thinking when I had something along the lines of 200-300 BB for the next level I would move up. That would be somewhere around a $20-$30 bankroll for me to go up to the next level of $.05/.10 limit. I also was trying to do a little math to figure out when I would be able to get there, and if I could manage to win between 3 and 4 BB/100 hands, which is definitely doable at this level, I should get there after 15000ish hands. I think that a winrate of that or even possibly higher with some of the play at this level is definitely attainable.

As for today, I managed to play a little over 1100 hands, all of .02/.04 6 Max limit poker. Again, I found myself spewing some bets, and going into a hole when I first started. I was down about 30BB in the first 100 hands and then had to make a comeback, which I did nicely. On a sidenote, I did happen to get pocket 7s 14 times today (way to many times) and did not flop or get a single set :(

Getting 1000 or so hands a day could get me to move up to the next level in about 2 weeks, which will be nice. Grinding is ok, not that great, but grinding pennies is not that fun :)

Tomorrow I will have to do a little work with a friend, so I don't know how much I will be playing, though I am sure that I will try to get some time played in the evening.

Starting Balance: $4.86
Ending Balance: $9.01
Profit/Loss: $4.15

What A Day!!!

Well I must say that today started out really badly. I lost 25 BB in a matter of 40 hands. I thought it was going to be a rough day, and a quick end/delay to this challenge. As it was, I ended up digging myself out of the hole, and make a nice little profit for the day.

I ended up playing 487 hands and ended up $1.59 on the day playing $.02/.04, just a hair of 8 BB/100 hands. I am starting to play more and more 6-max tables, and even selecting some that have 1 or 2 players so that I am playing heads up or 3 handed. There are some really bad players that I can take advantage of to be able to hopefully increase my bankroll a little quicker. Since I have started on Wednesday, I have played 1599 hands and have a 4.49BB/100 hand profit.

I played in a FL Freeroll, and finished in the 200 something range. I am posting early today because I plan on going out tonight, and don't think that I will be playing anymore tonight, or at least don't plan on it. Hopefully I will be able to get some serious time playing tomorrow.

EDIT: I have decided to go back to playing some more tonight. I will update my ending balance when I am done, along with anything special. I also managed to get a royal flush while I was playing.

I ended up playing almost 300 more hands, and got my balance up to

I think that I am going to use www.pokerhand.org to post hands that I want to share and hands for possible discussion.

Beginning Balance: $1.98
Ending Balance: $4.86
Profit/Loss: $2.88

Day 2

Well today was a profitable day. I played a couple freerolls, a 10 FPP $500 donkament, and of course some high stakes $.02/.04 limit holdem.

I played in another one of the Hawkings fixed limit freerolls. I ended up finishing about 225 or so in the freeroll, so I didn't get another weekly ticket. In the 10 FPP donkament, I managed to finish 178, for a $.50 cash. 3500+ runners.

As for the cash game, I had a couple tables that did really well, and some that weren't as good as the others. I ended up with a $.61 profit in the cash games, and there were a few hands that I wish ended up differently. I could have easily had a $1 profit if some hands played out differently. One that sticks out was my JJ vs AJ where the Ace came on the river. It was a multiway pot to the turn, capped preflop, so the pot was worthwhile.

Since yesterday when I placed in the tourney, I have played 1112 hands of $.02/.04, at both 6 max, and full ring tables. As I get further into this challenge, I will display some of my pokertracker stats.

I hope to eventually start putting some of my hands up for possible discussion and analysis.

Starting balance: $.87
Ending balance: $1.98
Profit/loss: $1.11

The Start - $0.00 to $5,000

I am on a mission to do something similar to what Chris Ferguson has done. Granted, I am not as experienced Chris, but I feel that I can accomplish this with some patience. I am hoping to amass a bankroll in the $5,000 range while starting from zero. I know that bankroll management will be my biggest challenge as I sometimes try to play in games that I don't have the bankroll for.

I started yesterday on June 18, 2008 with a balance of $0.00 in my Pokerstars account. I happened to have some previous FPP point available, and used them to play in one of the $500 10 FPP donkaments that they have 3 times daily. I was able cash for $.40 and am starting to play some $.02/.04 limit holdem. They have a minimum buyin of $.20 for that game, so I can start to grind away and make some money. I hope to make this bankroll/challenge complete by playing mostly limit games, and some MTT donkaments.

When I went to sleep last night, I had a balance of $.87 so, I finished the day with a $.47 profit. I am already starting to plug away today, so I will update later tonight with todays results.

I also forgot to mention that I got a Round 2 Freeroll ticket in one of the Hawking FL Freerolls last night. Ended up finishing 14th out of 9720, with the top 99 getting a Round 2 ticket.